Bryan Kest (born 1964) is an American
yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...
teacher. Recognized as the creator of one form of
Power Yoga
Power Yoga is one of several forms of energetic form of yoga evolved in India. These include forms derived from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and body weight exercises. It was practiced in India in mysore city. Patabhi Jois brought power yoga to the west ...
, he is the founder of Santa Monica Power Yoga, based in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
, California. Kest has led yoga classes, retreats and workshops worldwide. He is credited with pioneering the practice of donation-based yoga in the United States.
Kest was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1964. He began practicing yoga in 1979, at the insistence of his father, a physician. While still a teenager, Kest studied in Hawaii with David Williams, who brought
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga from India to the United States.
In 1983, Kest traveled to Mysore, India, to study with
K. Pattabhi Jois, the founder of
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. Kest remained in Mysore for a year before he returned to the United States, moving to Los Angeles, California, where he studied holistic health and nutrition at Ryokan College. Additionally, Kest was a yoga therapist at Esteem, a Santa Monica treatment center for people with eating disorders.
Kest began teaching in Los Angeles in 1985, and founded Santa Monica Power Yoga in 1995.
Kest incorporates
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
into his teaching and his teacher training, and has studied
Vipassanā
''Samatha'' ( Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' ( Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of t ...
meditation with
S.N. Goenka. Kest's philosophy regarding donation-based classes is based partially on the principles of Vipassana meditation.
References
External links
Power Yoga Web Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kest, Bryan
1964 births
Living people
People from Detroit
Modern yoga pioneers
American yoga teachers