Beryl Bender is a philosopher, an animal and environmental activist, and the author of four books on yoga, including Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga. She began the study of the Eastern wisdom traditions and classical yoga, in 1971. In 1974, she traveled to India for six months with her teacher Munishree Chitrabhana, a Jain monk, to study Jainism and meditation.

Beryl has been teaching yoga and meditation for more than 50 years and leading workshops all over North and Central America and Europe since the publication of her first book in 1995. From 1984 thru 2022, she was the director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga & Meditation teacher training courses, which offered certification to hundreds of students from all over the world.  

She teaches online courses in Yoga Sutra study, Upanishad study, and Vipassana meditation in the Theravada tradition and leads yoga retreats to Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Greece, and the Caribbean. She is director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, and cofounder and Board Director Emeritus of Give Back Yoga Foundation.

What People are Saying About Beryl Bender

"Beryl is my kind of woman, a pragmatic practitioner of yoga...someone who takes you on a spiritual and physical journey with the proper mix of realism, compassion, joy, and laughter. She is the perfect guide to help us all appreciate the rewards of yoga."
—Katie Couric