Yoga-Sūtras Institute

What: Yoga instruction, meditation classes, more

Where: 128 W. Bell St.

Grand opening: March 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Email: info@yogasutras.net

On the web: www.yogasutras.net

Salvatore Zambito, a Sequim resident and longtime practitioner, teacher and even author of yoga, is opening a new yoga studio in Sequim with his wife Rebecca.

Located at 128 W. Bell St., the Yoga-Sūtras Institute will celebrate their grand opening on March 21 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The studio will feature traditional physical yoga instruction, as well as specific meditation classes taught by Salvatore and ARNP (advanced registered nurse practitioner) services from Rebecca.

Salvatore Zambito will also be offering structural bodywork services through the studio.

Describing himself as an initiate of the Himalayan yoga tradition, Zambito said that his studio will be bringing much more to yoga than just the physical stretches and posing most people envision.

“The physical side of yoga, asana, is only part of the whole picture,” Zambito said. “The original idea behind asana is to organize and prepare your body for meditation.”

The whole idea of yoga, Zambito said, is to reach a specific state of consciousness to allow for mediation and reflection — an idea that comes from the root word of yoga, “yuj,” which he says variously means control, unite or “samādhi” — which itself combines the other two definitions and adds a spiritual component.

“Every once in awhile,” he added, “you can reach a point where you don’t even feel your body as a distinct object any more. If you get there once in a month, you’re doing pretty good.”

Zambito said that he has been interested in yoga since he was seven years old, and began practicing it in 1967. It wasn’t long until he was pushed towards teaching, despite not feeling at the time like he was someone who could.

After a trip to a spiritual retreat in Canada, however, Zambito began the process of learning how to teach yoga in 1968.

“It wasn’t handled the same way back then,” he said, “but that’s been part of my journey: seeing what’s changed and changing along with it.”

Zambito said that he’s started several studios over the years, but never as his main source of income; Yoga-Sūtras will be a new experience for him in that way.

He’s also taught yoga at several universities, including Boise State University, the College of the Redwoods in California and a stint at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland among others.

Zambito came to Sequim in 2011 after moving to Poulsbo in the early 1990s, a move that in turn came after spending several years touring the West Coast visiting students and helping them and those around them with their spiritual needs.

In 1991, Zambito met Rebecca; they were married soon after and moved to Poulsbo.

Zambito said that she’s helped him on his spiritual and teaching journey ever since. Now they’re running the Yoga-Sūtras Institute together, and he said he’s looking forward to seeing where it goes.