about svarūpa

Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been a ded­i­cat­ed stu­dent of yoga since 1999. Since leav­ing his home in West­ern Cana­da, he has prac­ticed, taught and lived in Asia and Europe, study­ing tra­di­tion­al prac­tices and exper­i­ment­ing with mod­ern syn­the­sis, which he incor­po­rates into a clear but non-dog­mat­ic yoga practice. 

His back­ground includes stud­ies in Hatha Yoga, Clas­si­cal Yoga and Bud­dhism. He con­tin­ues an in-depth study of tra­di­tion­al Pranaya­ma and Phi­los­o­phy through his cen­tral teacher, O.P.Tiwari based in Lon­avla India. This foun­da­tion­al work in Pranaya­ma and Med­i­ta­tion is com­bined with his deep love for the Asana prac­tices that stems from his direct expe­ri­ence and exper­i­men­ta­tion with the clas­si­cal Vinyasa sys­tems and align­ment and ther­a­peu­tic approach of the Iyen­gar sys­tem. His work con­tin­ues to evolve towards what seems to work for stu­dents and what can cre­ate clar­i­ty and transformation.

Stephen’s appre­ci­a­tion for nature, phi­los­o­phy, art and music is woven in a sim­ple, direct way to the practices.

His abil­i­ty to re-frame var­i­ous viewpoints/practices and to sim­pli­fy things with­out sac­ri­fic­ing depth and integri­ty has helped him devel­op a unique teach­ing approach. His works spans Med­i­ta­tion, Pranaya­ma, Asana and the com­mit­ment to see­ing the prac­tice off the mat. He uses these meth­ods as tools for health and well­be­ing and to sup­port the spir­i­tu­al pur­suit of liv­ing life coura­geous­ly and com­pas­sion­ate­ly from one’s own dharma.

Brigi Thomas-Moog

Bri­gi is a ded­i­cat­ed stu­dent of Yoga since 2008. Her back­ground in west­ern sci­ence, com­bined with the pro­found stud­ies in Ayurve­da with her main teacher Pan­dit Dr. David Fraw­ley allows her to merge the wis­dom and approach to Health from both those per­spec­tives. She also stud­ies Pranaya­ma, Asana and the Sublte Body with her hus­band Stephen Thomas.

Her Hatha Yoga class­es are strong yet slow paced, focused on align­ment and Iyen­gar inspired. She uses an intel­li­gent sequenc­ing which allows the option to go past the phys­i­cal lay­er — touch­ing on what else there is to explore. She teach­es from her heart and shares from her own expe­ri­ence of being on this path of Yoga.

In the Ayurvedic Con­sul­ta­tions she offers clients to look through a holis­tic lens which intends to tar­get and ini­ti­ate lon­glast­ing changes in spir­i­tu­al and phys­i­cal prac­tice. Empha­sis is giv­en to dai­ly life rou­tine and habits in order to estab­lish new pat­terns, re-bal­ance and re-align har­mo­ny in body, mind and beyond.