Paul Grilley (born November 11, 1958) is an American teacher of

modern yoga Modern yoga is a wide range of yoga practices with differing purposes, encompassing in its various forms yoga philosophy derived from the Vedas, physical postures derived from Hatha yoga, devotional and tantra-based practices, and Hindu nation- ...

known for helping, along with

Sarah Powers Sarah Powers (born c. 1963) is a yoga teacher. She co-founded the Insight Yoga Institute and created Insight Yoga, a combination of yoga, transpersonal psychology and Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, described in her 2008 book of the same name. She w ...

, to develop the slow-paced style,

Yin Yoga Yin Yoga is slow-paced style of yoga as exercise, incorporating principles of traditional Chinese medicine, with asanas (postures) that are held for longer periods of time than in other styles. Advanced practitioners may stay in one asana for fi ...

. He and his wife Suzee Grilley train teachers in Yin Yoga.

Education

Paul Grilley grew up in

Martin City, Montana Martin City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Flathead County, Montana, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 500, up from 331 in 2000. Martin City owes its existence to the early 1950s c ...

and is a graduate of Columbia Falls High School in

Columbia Falls, Montana Columbia Falls is a city along the Flathead River in Flathead County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,308 at the 2020 census. Columbia Falls has been ranked as one of the best and safest places to live in Montana. History The ...

. He began to practise yoga in 1979, starting to study

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

that same year. In 1982 he went on to study anatomy and

kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human healt ...

at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. He gained his master's degree at

St John's College, Santa Fe St. John's College is a private liberal arts college with dual campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. John's is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States as the successor institution of King W ...

in 2000. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by the California Institute for Human Science for his work on the relevance of fascia, the sheets of connective tissue that hold the body together, to the practice of yoga asanas.

Career

Grilley studied the slow-paced, less aggressive form of

called

under its creator,

Paulie Zink Paulie Zink is an American martial arts champion, Taoist yoga teacher and well known practitioner of Monkey Kung Fu. He founded Yin yoga which is also known as Yin and Yang Yoga.Zink, Paulie and Maria March 2012"Yin yoga" Yoga Magazine. Retri ...

, and later assisted with its development. He taught yoga to

, who devised the name "Yin Yoga" and went on to develop her own variant of it, Insight Yoga. Grilley had until then described the form as "Taoist Yoga". He teaches Yin Yoga and trains yoga teachers with his wife Suzee Grilley. Their Yin Yoga curriculum covers the human anatomy of bones and muscles as well as seven asanas that they describe as

archetypal The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that o ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He serves as a master teacher at Pranamaya. From his knowledge of anatomy, Grilley states that it is not possible for everyone to do all asanas, because of variations in the shapes of specific bones; for example, some people have a much longer neck on the

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...

(thigh bone) than others, giving them, he argues, greater freedom of movement in the

hip joint In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region is ...

. Grilley has stated that Yin Yoga is not a franchise or hybrid like Aqua Yoga or Disco Yoga, and the use of the term is not restricted by copyright or trademark; instead, it is an additional way of practising. He has been interviewed and featured in magazines including ''

Yoga Journal ''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events ...

'' and ''Elephant Journal'', and in chapters of books such as Victoria Bailey's 2012 ''Sharing Sadhana'': Bailey describes him as both spiritual, as seen in his DVD on ''Chakra Theory and Meditation'', and knowledgeable about the anatomical basis of yoga. The Reagan Family at Rancho Del Cielo

Personal life

In 1984, Grilley married Patti Davis, daughter of US president Ronald Reagan. They divorced in 1990. He then married Suzee Grilley (b. 1959); she is a Registered Yoga Teacher who has also taught

Capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th cent ...

and

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

. They live in

Ashland, Oregon Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 ...

Education

Career

Personal life

Works

References

External links