About us
We aspire to create a skilled and vibrant yoga community to support our students’ personal development, so they can realize their life’s purpose and live from a place of joy and well-being.
What makes Yoga for Life special?
We are a small, local business and have been in Portland since 2010
We have been offering 200-hour and 500-hour Yoga Alliance registered Teacher Training since 2011
Our co-founder is a Yoga Teacher who was born and brought up in Kolkata, India in a yogic and spiritual family. There are a surprisingly small number of yoga studios in the western hemisphere that are owned by Indian yogis, even though yoga originated there
The majority of our yoga teachers have over 500+ hours of yoga education, and training in other healing modalities, such as Licensed Massage Therapy, Reiki, Family Constellation Therapy, etc.
We have been offering International Yoga Retreats since 2015
Who is Yoga for Life?
Our mission:
To welcome all practitioners, regardless of your fitness level
To teach ancient yoga techniques to modern, western practitioners
To inspire and challenge your mind, body, and spirit
To be kind, well-educated, and talented teachers
We value:
Curious learners who want more from their yoga practice
A non-judgmental community
Yoga as a life practice, not just fitness classes
Our Story
Raj Patra and Kelly Suttell, co-founders of Yoga for Life, started their yoga journey with each other in 2005. Raj grew up in Kolkata, India amidst a highly educated and spiritual family and was embedded in the practices of yoga since he was seven yeas old; he left India and yoga to come to the US to study Physics. Kelly was an internationally traveling, marathon running, pilot, with a degree in Business, who kept getting herniated inter-vertebral discs, and was asked to start doing yoga. These two lives, almost world apart, came together in Seattle, after which, at some point, Kelly asked Raj, “Do you want to come to a yoga class with me?” One class turned into many, which turned into few yoga teacher trainings, and into teaching many classes together. Eventually, a random Craigslist ad for a yoga studio sale in Portland, and a confetti of divine interventions later, Yoga for Life was born on May 01, 2010.
Raj and Kelly’s yoga journey evolved significantly after their path crossed with Guruji Andrey Lappa, a Ukranian Yoga Master, who had spent majority of his life in India and Nepal, and dedicated his effort to create and teach Universal Yoga - diverse lineages of yoga under the umbrella of Buddhism and Hinduism (Tantra) united into a comprehensive system with scientific precision and unlimited potential of spirituality.
Today, Yoga for Life is a beacon of the potential of Yoga in the west: ancient teachings of physical and personal practices delivered to modern western practitioners with integrity and respect to the lineage, building a vibrant yoga community to support students’ personal development, so they can realize their life’s purpose and live from a place of joy and well-being. We have been offering classes safely online to our community since March 2020.
