I Have a Crush on Bernie Clark

The kind of crush where you buy one book and somehow end up with five signed copies on your shelf. The kind where you fly to Vancouver because, if you're going to study Yin Yoga, you might as well learn from someone who's spent decades exploring, questioning, and sharing the practice.

So yes. I have a crush on Bernie Clark.

But it's not really about the books. It's about the curiosity underneath them.

Go to the Source

People ask me where to start with Yin Yoga all the time, and my answer is always the same: go to the source. Or get as close to it as you can. Unfortunately and fortunately, we are living in a world full of Instagram teachers who teach teachers what they learned from other teachers. And so the game of telephone continues.

That's not a knock on how you got here — online course, weekend training, years of study, doesn't matter. There's no one right path in.

What matters is knowing where the ideas actually came from. Why they exist. Who shaped them. What was actually meant, before it got passed down five times and turned into something else. That's how it goes with ideas — a nuance drops out here, a caveat gets left off there, and eventually the message that survives isn't really the one that started.

The Curiosity Behind the Work

Here's what I find most inspiring about Bernie: he didn't set out to become an author or a recognized voice in the Yin world. He just followed his own curiosity and it happened to lead there.

He was working a corporate job, dealing with the usual stress, when someone introduced him to meditation. That was 1977. He spent the next two decades studying Zen on his own before yoga even entered the picture — and once it did, he ended up training with people like Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers, two of the most influential names in Yin.

I once asked him if he ever pictured himself becoming one of the leading voices in Yin Yoga. He basically said no — that's not how he sees himself. He describes himself as just a curious person who likes sharing what he finds, and who stays genuinely open to being wrong about it later.

That's rare, and I think it's a big part of why his work lands the way it does. He's never selling "here's the one right way to do this." It's closer to: go explore it, question it, pay attention, and figure out what actually works for you.

The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga

All of that curiosity eventually turned into the body of work he shares now, and my favorite proof of it is buried in The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga — nine different photos of Caterpillar pose. Nine! What a gem for new and OG teachers alike. Attend his training, and you’ll get 10 more.

As a newer teacher, that genuinely rearranged my brain. Up until then I'd assumed there was one correct way to do a pose and eight wrong ones. Bernie's book quietly argued the opposite: anatomy varies, bodies vary, and there's no such thing as universal alignment.

Almost a third of that book is asana work, but it's not really a pose catalog — it's teaching you the reasoning behind each one. Target areas, contraindications, alternatives, counterposes, how long to hold and why. It's built for teachers who need to understand the "why," not just the shape, because once you're teaching, you're not just practicing this stuff anymore. You're passing it on to someone else.

That book has become one of the most-used references in my own teaching, and it's standard reading for my Yin trainees.

If You Want to Go Deeper

The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga is the obvious starting point, but if it hooks you, here's where to go next:

• Your Body, Your Yoga — functional anatomy, and just how different every body actually is.

• Your Spine, Your Yoga — a closer look at spinal anatomy and how those differences shape movement.

• From the Gita to the Grail — mythology and philosophy, and the stories underneath most spiritual traditions.

• YinSights — a looser collection of his reflections on Yin, meditation, and practice.

He's also just put out something new: Prana: One Breath, Many Worlds. At the time of this blog, this book has just arrived in the mail, pending me in my reading chair underlining and dog-earing my favorite parts.

The Real Lesson

If I'm honest with myself, the crush was never really about anatomy knowledge, or the number of books, or the fact that he patiently signed all five of mine without judgment. It's that Bernie's whole approach is a reminder of what staying curious actually looks like, years into a career.

Yin was never supposed to be about collecting poses or forcing your body into some ideal shape. It's about understanding the principles, respecting that everyone's different, and taking responsibility for your own practice instead of outsourcing it to someone else's rulebook.

The best teachers I know aren't the ones who've stopped learning. They're the ones still willing to be students.

So if you're new to Yin, start close to the source, stay curious about it, and don't be surprised if you end up with a little crush of your own.

More ways to connect in person

Evening Yin - Sundays at 4p. Idyllwild Yoga Festival - September 26

Who Am I?

I'm a lifelong overachiever, avid hiker, entrepreneur, and devoted dog-mom who spent almost 20 years in the corporate world before realizing planned rest was just what my calendar needed. A classic overthinker (and unapologetic Gemini), I found my way to Yin Yoga through a love of growth and challenging myself—and it changed how I move through life.

I now teach Yin for people who are always doing, always giving, and rarely stopping to check in with themselves. My approach is grounded and no-fluff, rooted in extensive study of Yin Yoga and Functional Anatomy (including training with Bernie Clark), with a focus on nervous system regulation and honoring each body's unique design.

I also lead workshops in anatomy and nervous system regulation, and run Yin Yoga Teacher Trainings throughout the year. Be a part of my community by joining one of my classes, workshops, or training.