Saying ‘Namaste’ to D.C.: SLO yoga instructors visit the White House

On the South Lawn of the White House one year ago, Michelle Obama greeted San Luis Obispo yoga teacher Tawny Sterios with a bow and common yoga greeting: “Namaste.”

Today, Tawny and her husband, Peter Sterios, a highly regarded yoga teacher, are hoping the Obamas will kick off their shoes and even join in on the yoga play the couple will lead for the second time at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

The event, now in its 134th year, consists of the traditional egg roll game and story time. But under the Obama administration, the event also includes a theme park’s worth of fun fitness activities in line with Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative.

More than 30,000 children and parents selected by an online lottery will rotate through the grounds in two-hour shifts of 5,000 each. The theme is “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!”

Last year, amid basketball, tennis, dancing and more, the Sterioses joined 11 yoga teachers from around the nation to present the playful side of yoga: squatting and jumping like frogs, breathing like lions and balancing on one leg with arms spread like airplane wings. They ended each 20-minute session with a relaxation exercise and chanting of the Sanskrit syllable “Om.”

“It’s really beautiful,” Tawny Sterios said. “Many kids had no idea what yoga was.” Unlike adults, children like to talk and chat during yoga — and show off their moves. But like adults, they can benefit from the practice of focused breathing, stretching and balancing.

“It’s amazing how an 8-year-old can get so stiff,” Peter Sterios observed.

The couple shared their experiences in a recent interview, shoeless and seated on pillows at m.BODY yoga, the studio they own in San Luis Obispo.

“It’s exhausting teaching yoga for 12 hours,” Peter Sterios said, “but at the end we were in a pleasant but spent space. ... Here we are at the White House! There’s hope for this country if the first family has an organic garden, with yoga and an emphasis on fitness at its premier event.”

The teachers paid their own way to the egg roll, as did all the attendees — many of whom only arrived through the generosity of church fundraisers and donations from friends, Peter Sterios said.

The Sterioses consider the repeat invitation a huge honor. They were first selected to attend at the recommendation of a Los Angeles talent agency. The White House wanted teachers who were experienced but “not famous,” Peter Sterios said.

But how well-known Peter Sterios is could be up for debate. He’s the founder and a part-owner of Manduka, an eco-friendly yoga mat and accessories company that sells more than 75,000 mats a year in 63 countries. His yoga video has been named one of the top 15 of all time by Yoga Journal magazine, for which he and his wife have both modeled and where Peter Sterios worked as an editor for three years.

But when they are on their mats, the business of yoga melts away.

Each came to yoga as a way to heal injuries from competitive sports, but they continue to practice because of the emotional balance it brings.

“Yoga has that magical quality. You start noticing other things about your life changing,” Peter Sterios said.

“I am a happier being,” Tawny Sterios added.

That sense of balance is also what the Sterioses admire about the tone of the Easter Egg Roll.

It’s a “completely apolitical day, with the focus on health only,” Peter Sterios said. After the event one year ago, “the buzz lasted for months, and it made me think, this is how Americans should relate.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2012 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Saying ‘Namaste’ to D.C.: SLO yoga instructors visit the White House."