About
Thirty million Americans and countless millions worldwide have taken up a practice that is transforming their lives. Follow filmmaker Suzanne Bryant as she meets with the most prominent Yoga Gurus and teachers in the west and travels to India to explore the power of this ancient practice. Along the way she discovers what YOGA IS.
This is the story of a woman who thought she had it all ...until she lost her beloved mother to cancer. Trying to process and understand her profound grief, Suzanne embarked on a journey and turned to a deeper practice of yoga.
Suzanne's journey led her to India on a spiritual quest to learn more about this powerful ancient practice. She studied yoga and Ayurveda in Kerala, Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhis Jois and his daughter Saraswati, met with Guru Neem Karoli Baba’s son in Vrindavan to learn about Bhakti yoga and came face to face with a near death experience herself. While in India, something had shifted within her, the light had returned.
Inspired by her experience in India, she returned back to the U.S. to explore what yoga means to the West and how it can transform lives. Suzanne met with the most prominent western Yoga Gurus and teachers as well as celebrity yoga devotees Russell Simmons, Christy Turlington, musician Michael Franti and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman in search for the answers that unite us all. Answers to questions such as Love, Truth, Happiness, Purpose, The Now, our Dark and Light , Empowerment, Karma, Enlightenment, Transformation and so much more. What she found was something wonderful: a path that can enable anyone to transform suffering and experience daily peace and happiness.
Bio
Suzanne Bryant is a former journalist from NYC. She attended NYU for journalism and worked for Producer George Crile at 60 Minutes II. While living in NYC she took up a daily yoga practice to deal with her anxiety a bi product or so she thought of living amongst metropolis.This daily practice of yoga would be the beginning of a journey. Although she had been practicing yoga, taking her first class in 1991, it was her daily experience of yoga in 1998 that would be the beginning of a transformation.
After noticing the powerful effects of calming her mind, clarity about her life began to reveal itself. She enrolled in a 500 hour teacher training with Alan Finger of Ishta Yoga in NYC in 2000 while still working in journalism. A phone call would change her life. She learned of her mother's breast cancer diagnosis. She left NY to come back to San Francisco to be with her mother, believing she would return at some point. The illness became terminal and the one thing Suzanne found strength to deal with the reality of her dying mother was yoga.
Yoga had been a blessing in her life in NYC, but now she had to find a way of staying present and being supportive in a reality she did not want to be facing. Yoga became like a best friend, that no mater what she faced in the day, would make her feel stronger and peaceful after the practice. It was like magic.
After her mothers passing she decided to explore more deeply this mysterious ancient practice of yoga. She embarked on a journey looking for answers. This journey led her to India the birthplace of yoga where she studied Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhis Jois and his daughter Saraswati, Bhakti Yoga and the teachings of Guru Neem Karoli Baba with scholar Syham Das in Vrindavan, India as well as Yoga and Ayurveda in the South of India, Kerala with Shiva Rea.
After a near death experience in India, she was further determined explore this practice and set out to interview many of the most prominent yoga Teachers in the west as well as some high profile celebrities Russell Simmons and Christy Turlington Burns, musician Michael Franti and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman in search of what YOGA IS.
Suzanne is forever grateful for the profound transformation she has experienced in how yoga has revealed her truth and given her a sense of purpose and immense happiness. She shares what she has learned by teaching yoga, making conscious films and also went back to school for a Masters in Spiritual Psychology and Nutrition. She has a private wellness practice with clients in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles working in many modalities to transform lives and help people connect to their health and happiness. With her passion and knowledge of yoga Suzanne also teaches yoga privately and to groups and is excited to launch yoga and wellness retreats worldwide, helping one soul at a time to tranforrm the world into a more happy place. www.suzannebryant.com