Introduction

Sarah Grau is a certified yoga instructor with extensive training and experience. She is also a certified occupational therapist who understands any physical limitations you may bring to her classes. She offers both group and individual sessions and has given corporate sponsored classes for companies interested in improving employee wellness.

As you know, millions of people, worldwide, have benefited from Yoga. Hundreds of web sites are devoted to the subject and scores of books have been written about the topic. This web site does not propose to be a definitive resource about Yoga. Rather, it has been created primarily as a resource for Sarah's local clients whereby she can distribute supplementary information for classes and publish updated schedules. The site also provides handy links to web pages which do offer definitive instruction and explanation. Those links are scattered among these pages as needed rather than collected together. Followed links will open in a new window or a new tab if you are using a tabbed browser.

Sarah's Biography

Sarah Grau, OTR/L, 500 RYT, CYT is an occupational therapist, a Yoga Alliance registered 500 hour certified yoga instructor, and a certified yoga therapist. She completed her yoga teacher training through TRY4Life Yoga in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sarah has been practicing yoga for over ten years and has taught over one thousand hours of yoga, including corporate classes and classes for special needs children.

Prior to becoming a Yoga Teacher, Sarah enjoyed a career as an Occupational Therapist at St. John WestShore Hospital in Westlake, Ohio, where she worked for seven years. Although no longer practicing occupational therapy, she incorporates various aspects of her clinical expertise into her yoga, including her knowledge of anatomy, range of motion, balance, proper alignment and a variety of health conditions. Sarah’s classes are principally structured in the tradition of Hatha yoga, which integrates the physical, spiritual and philosophical teachings of yoga.

Sarah earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from The Ohio State University and is a Level II Reiki Practitioner (see National Institues of Health for additional information about Reiki). Her first job following college was as a seventh grade English teacher. Some of those skills carry over into her Yoga teaching. She currently resides in Avon Lake, Ohio with her husband, son, and Westhighland Terrier, Ruby.

Eastern Spiritual Techniques

Those of us in the West sometimes find the application of Eastern techniques strange and frightening. In the section about yoga we will try to explain its principles. First, however, realize that yoga is not a religion. Yoga goes beyond religion and is complimentary to all religions. People of all cultures have long sought peace and harmony of spirit, mind and body. When evangelists and missionaries to the East, especially India, encountered those cultures they must have been surprised to find highly developed and powerful techniques for achieving those goals. It is no surprise that some of them, in turn, incorporated practices such as meditation into their own daily prayer. Organized religions such as the Roman Catholic Church sometimes object to incorporating eastern techniques. All foreign or new ideas are initially resisted by all cultures. We are especially reminded of how long it took to officially recognize Gallileo and his ideas. Additional comments are available in the Q & A pages.

What is SAHASRARA?

Sahasrara (sa-HA-srar-a) is the Sanskrit name for the seventh chakra, also known as the crown chakra. Sahasrara, meaning thousand, is the "Lotus of the Thousand Petals" which is located at the top of the head (crown) or approximately four finger-widths above the top of the head.

Sahasrara chakra symbolizes detachment from illusion; an essential element in obtaining awareness and consciousness of the truth that one, relating to pure consciousness, it is from this chakra that all the other chakras emanate. When a yogi is able to raise his or her energy of consciousness up to this point, the state of Samadhi, or union with God, is experienced. For additional information on Sahasrara see the Chakras and Chants page of this website.

Sarah’s Story

Sarah first started yoga over 10 years ago hoping it would help her manage some severe depression she experienced on and off for years. As Sarah deepened her yoga practice and learned more about the chakra system she realized that her depression was primarily an ajna and sahasrara chakra issue (sixth and seventh chakras respectively). One day while writing in her journal, Sarah had a knowing to look out her window at a bowl of water she had placed outside for the sun to warm. The sun hit the water at an angle that made an interesting image…. Sarah decided to draw the image in her journal. That night while reading The Book of Chakras by Ambika Wauters, she was amazed when she read the section on the crown chakra. On that page was one of the symbols that represent the crown chakra and it looked just like the picture Sarah had drawn in her journal earlier that day! In excitement, she showed her husband the picture, and he quickly pointed out to her that Sahasrara was comprised of all the letters of Sarah’s name. Thus, Sahasrara Yoga came to be...

Over the years, Sarah’s dedication to her yoga practice evolved leading her career change from Occupational Therapist to 500 hour Yoga Teacher and Yoga Therapist. She continues to manage her depression through her yoga and her spiritual practices, and she helps many others in her group classes, private yoga and yoga therapy sessions. Her classes are Hatha yoga based, but she is interested in many different types of yoga, including Kundalini which is her primary home practice.