ABOUT US

The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute was founded in 1975 in Winter Park,Colorado, and is one of the most prestigious and comprehensive yoga schools in the United States. Directed by Beryl Bender, internationally renowned yoga teacher and author, the school has been offering both weeklong and weekend retreats in classical yoga and meditation, as well as 200 and 500 hour teacher training certification courses for almost 50 years.

The Hard & The Soft 200 and 500 hour Yoga & Meditation Teacher Training programs – both in person and online – were ongoing from 1980 through 2022. Over that time, the courses evolved into one of the top teacher training programs in the country. Hundreds of our graduates can be found all over the world, literally, serving their communities and teaching in universities, yoga centers, corporations, rehab facilities, prisons, churches, senior centers, schools, and hospitals. Currently, our school’s attention is focused exclusively on national and international yoga retreats and immersion weeks and weekends in meditation and practice, and we are not currently running teacher training programs.

The school derived it’s name from the Zen proverb which says “Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong,” and was founded by Beryl in 1975 in Winter Park, Colorado. All are welcome.