Bruce Masters is a Sivananda style Hatha yoga teacher and owner of Anantam Yoga Studio in Humerail, Port Elizabeth.

Yoga stole me away from Tai Chi, not that it was for any lack in Tai Chi, but yoga had the help of a girl with whom I was in love. And then I fell in love with yoga.

I had dabbled in meditation a few years before, so I was always looking for methods to sense the more subtle (and alive) truth and reality. The yoga bug bit, and soon I was attending a weekly class with Helen Penfold, a Divine Science minister with plenty Yogini samskaras. As with most students my yoga attendance varied with the amount of distractions in my life. Later I practised with Louise Punt-Fouche, an all encompassing teacher who embraced many aspects and styles of yoga.

I found my yoga home with Hilton Shorrock in 2005. It was an instant realization that this was the place, the teacher and style that suited my predilection the best, and so, when Hilton offered a twelve month teachers training course, I had no hesitation to begin a more intense yoga journey. After the course I began teaching classes and beginner courses for Hilton. After battling with melanoma cancer, Hilton asked if I would buy the yoga business from him as he felt he couldn’t put enough energy into the studio. I’ve been running Anantam Yoga (originally Sivananda Yoga School) since December 2007. Hilton left his body in September 2008.

Teaching yoga is a privilege and a continuing learning experience. My favourite experience of teaching is Pranayama, witnessing eyes lighting up with inner awareness and equanimity, and when a student approaches me after class and asks what’s the next step in the yoga journey. I’m always willing to share yoga, and give talks when invited, but what is really exciting at Anantam Yoga is to be able to share yoga with the inmates of St Alban’s Prison. They are hungry for flexibility and inner peace. We are in the process of setting up a NPO under the name of ‘Jiva Yoga Prison Project’

In my mind yoga is a science, a tool to focus our consciousness, not only on the good, but also that which challenges us into a new way of living. Yoga is about becoming more aware, mindful of every aspect of being, and living harmoniously with all beings.

*For more information please see:www.anatamyoga.co.za