"Pat's Yoga and Pilates classses have changed my life. I look forward to coming to these classes every week. Pat makes everything fun. Yoga and Pilates works!" --Lillie, Fort Washington, MD

Namaste is the traditional everyday greeting from India, which has several interpretations, including “The divine in me bows to the divine in you.” The literal meaning of namaste is “honor/obeisance (namas) to you (te).

The gesture of putting the fingertips together and joining the hands at the heart is called anjali mudra or the “prayer pose.” “Anjali” means “offering.” Mudras are called “energy seals” because they seal the energy of the universe in the body, leading to a higher state of consciousness. By joining the right and left hands together, we join the right and left sides of the brain and body, yoking them gently at the heart in a symbolic “shrine” or “steeple.”

The hand gesture (anjali mudra) and the greeting (namaste) underscore the yogic philosophy of seeing the divine in everyone, which is the philosophy of the Namaste Yoga Studio, and as such, it’s logo. We use the namaste greeting, bowing to one another with our hands in anjali mudra, to begin our yoga practice. And, at the completion of our practice, it is uttered as a devotional offering to a higher power.