These words stenciled on the back steps of the Curative Yoga studio in Pasadena: Increase energy, Improve concentration and Inner Peace foretell a likely future for yogis who enter this vortex of involution.
Inside, the Vastu (Vedic feng shui) is working overtime in 4,000 square feet of devotion, conspicuously optimized for bliss. There is nothing is here by mistake. Nothing superfluous and no detail overlooked.
Down a long hallway, two big yoga studios on each side have small Sufi ‘winged heart’ symbols stenciled in gold on the floor creating a grid that allows for the perfect spacing of rows for mats in a capacity class. Photographs of Mahavatar Babaji, Paramahansa Yogananda and Sufi Mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan adorn the walls.
Further down the long hall, a well-curated boutique offers goods to support the yogic journey.
The philosophically Curative Yoga is an East/West fusion created by founder Naader Shagagi, who is a student of the great Yoga Master Paramahansa Yogananda as well as Sufi Mystic Pir Inayat Khan. The studio brings a culmination of intensive study and experience offered through his Yoga of Mystics®.
The website says it best, “Combined, these philosophies inform a practice that is fulfilling on every level. In addition to being physically challenging and deeply healing, emotional health becomes balanced and clarity emerges from the deeper spiritual realm.” Naader Shagagi skillfully guides students in the discovery of The Self, the blissful home within us all.
Founder
Naader Shagagi came to Los Angeles in 1985. He was trained in Raja Yoga at the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles and in Hatha Yoga at The Yoga College of India, Beverly Hills. He’s been practicing Yoga and Meditation since 1983, leading to teaching these modalities to over 20,000 people and training over 1,000 teachers through his teacher training program. He founded Curative Yoga in 1996. Along with Carolina Cotman, Vice President of Curative, the studio is thriving in a decidedly competitive market.
Curative Yoga
Everybody is trying to cure something and, in this studio, you can cover a lot of ground: physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Naader blends Hatha Yoga, Raja (Ashtanga) Yoga, and ancient mysticism (Esoteric School of Sufi Mystics). They serve all levels and abilities in a nurturing environment.
The signature Curative Yoga™ series is an “invigorating and challenging system of Hatha Yoga choreographed and practiced by Naader himself to cure physical, mental and emotional bodies.”
This system of postures teach you how to accelerate involuntary functions. It can help optimize functioning of the systems in the body such as the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, capillaries, lymphatic glands, veins, and the cerebral-spinal axis (brain and spine) without exhausting or overworking them.
Infrastructure
There are a lot of classes to choose from at the studio. CurativeXpress™ is an exhilarating 60 minute favorite. A broad range of other classes include Restorative, Prenatal Yoga, Curative Flow™, Gentle Yoga, Gentle Yoga, Children’s Yoga, Healing Yin, Yin n’ Yang Blend and others. Private classes, retreats, workshops, teacher training, retreats, spiritual counseling, and holistic therapies and supplements — all culminate in health, vitality, healing and realization of self.
In addition to their Pasadena community, Curative Yoga has a sister studio in Bigfork, Montana (curativeyogabigfork.com) and a retreat center also in Montana (samaafoundation.org).
There are no shortage of yoga studios throughout the Los Angeles area. Curative Yoga offers a community that combines a series of practices, a philosophy, and a direct focus on health.
Health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health – Arthur Schopenhaue
Award-winning journalist, documentary director and long-term LA Yoga contributor Sam Slovick is the director, writer and producer of the Radicalized documentary, currently working on the Kirtan Road Dogs documentary.