Legendary yoga master, Tao Porchon Lynch started me on the path of yoga 26 years ago.

She was 75 at the time.

I was a broken down, burnt out aerobic instructor who needed rehabilitation.

Yoga was not my first choice but a fellow aerobic instructor told me that yoga would help me relearn my body from the ground up. She was right, and the love affair with yoga began.

 

How fortunate that my first teacher was the perfect fit for me, someone who would not only teach me yoga but become an inspiration for my life: a role model of fearlessness, grace, poise and humility.

 

Tao took her training from Iyengar and Indra Devi. She developed her own interpretation from those teachings and created her own. She has interesting ways of entering postures that provide a stunning result. “Tao’s tips”, as I like to call them. She is very particular about the hands and feet and insists that this detail be in order. I have learned the most difficult asanas from her, yet she treats all asana with equanimity. They are neither “hard” nor “easy”.

 

Being half-East Indian and half-French, Tao is very connected to her East Indian heritage. She shares sun salutations from the different regions of India. Her stories of India and her experiences there provide the rich cornerstone of the Tao experience.

 

Tao turned 100 in 2018. She never speaks of age or being old. Each day is new and filled with possibility for her. She is famous for saying “When I wake up in the morning, I say, this is going to be the best day of my life.”

 

I can only hope that I can age as agelessly as she. With all the emphasis on looking young today, Tao defies all norms and lives beautifully, naturally. She is my greatest inspiration. 

​