Betty Eiler Iyengar Yoga

Copyright © 2015 • Betty Eiler • All photographs by Jim Jacobs

• Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor with 31 years of teaching experience

• Former owner and director of Yoga Fitness, now located in Campbell

• Featured on the cover of and a contributor to Suza Francina's yoga books: The New Yoga for Healthy Aging and The New Yoga for People Over 50

• Experienced in working with people of all ages, sizes, shapes, colors, cultures, experiences, skills and capabilities.

• Teaches classes and presents yoga workshops throughout the US and Mexico.

• Studied with B.K.S. Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar in Pune, India.

• Ramanand Patel has been her primary teacher for nearly 30 years.

“A tree does not know that it gives shade and that the shade is good. Like a tree, go on.” – B.K.S. Iyengar

While in her late forties, Betty discovered yoga. It happened when she was feeling strung out and stressed. She was working as a full time executive, maintaining a home, and raising her four children (her favorite job). Almost in desperation she went to the local Community College to sign up for Aerobics but the class was full. The College also offered a class for stretching, strengthening and stress relief titled “Yoga”. Unaware of what Yoga was, she registered and from that class forward, she knew she had come home.

That was the mid eighty’s when yoga was barely known in the United States. Betty persevered on her own finding almost no yoga classes. When she learned the YMCA offered one, she signed up even though the class was full and without a teacher. The Y almost cancelled the class but instead, Betty volunteered to teach it. This was the beginning of her teaching career.

Betty enjoyed teaching but felt inadequate since her students were of varying abilities. She heard about the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and when she called to sign up, they said there was an excellent teacher near her and recommended she study with him. This she did and he, Ramanand Patel, became her Primary teacher. Simultaneous with his teaching, she went through the Teacher Training program at the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute and became a certified teacher.