Lilias Folan, known as the "First Lady of Yoga" since her groundbreaking 1972 Yoga series Lilias! Yoga and You, has been regarded as one of America's most knowledgeable and beloved Master Yoga teachers. Through her television shows, books, audio tapes, videos, dvds, workshops and seminars Lilias has spent nearly forty years inspiring students and teachers throughout the USA with the benefits of yoga for the body, mind and spirit. Steeped in many different yoga traditions, in recent years Lilias relies strongly on her own personal experience and intuition to influence her teaching.
Lilias first became involved with yoga at the age of 30 when her doctor suggested trying the system of simple stretching and breathing techniques to help relieve a variety of ailments including back pain, sleeping problems and a general case of the "blahs." Yoga gave Lilias, then a housewife and mother, a renewed vitality and energy. With this increased zest for life, she continued her yoga practice in New York City where she studied and taught with some of the finest teachers from Europe, India and America.
With skill and knowledge, Lilias began teaching classes in her Ohio community sharing what she had learned. Four years later, her television series Lilias! Yoga and You, which was produced by PBS affiliate WCET in Cincinnati Ohio, aired nationally on PBS stations, and viewers across the country watched and practiced with her. Lilias' audience grew to include everyone from housewives to athletes, executives, children and seniors as well as Olympians, artists, poets, members of Congress and even a former president of the United States. She taught internationally in Australia, Russia, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and for the British Wheel of Yoga.
The PBS series led to other ventures including three best-selling books on yoga, several audio programs and numerous award-winning videos. Now, Lilias Folan is regarded as the "master of her craft," bringing yoga to the public with her easy, comfortable approach. Nearly forty years after discovering her love of yoga, Lilias continues to inspire audiences around the world with workshops and seminars spiced with her knowledge, vibrancy and enthusiasm.
In her third book, Lilias! Yoga Gets Better With Age (Rodale Press), Lilias turns her attention to a demographic that has not yet been addressed--her own! At 70 plus, she is living proof that yoga is a continually changing, growing, deepening practice, that can be learned with ease at mid-life and beyond.
Lilias Folan is a Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher with E500 + T500 hours. Yoga Alliance credits are available for Lilias' programs.
Lilias' position as a major influence in the field of health and fitness has gained her international renown. In fact, the Soviet Ministry of Health extended an invitation to Lilias, one out of ten honored guests asked to speak, teach and participate in the first Soviet/American Yoga Teachers Conference, held in Moscow in 1991.