Ghylian Bell

 

Ghylian Bell has been the founder and director of The Urban Yoga Foundation (UYF) since 2007. She began practicing yoga and mindfulness in 1994 to help bring balance and peace in her life. Ghylian studied the Hatha Ashtanga Tradition with Eddie Stern at Yoga Shala. At that time, as a stressed out single mother of one, she began to teach herself and use these mindful based teachings to pass on to her daughter creating a bond that would last for years. Ghylian’s training as a teacher began with Jodie Komitor and the Next Generation Yoga for Kids certification program. Soon she completed Alan Finger’s ISHTA certification program, The Integrative Science Of Hatha Tantra and Ayurveda. Ghylian is also certified in whole food nutrition. Her passion for teaching comes from sharing yoga and mindfulness skills that provide urban students of color with the tools and discipline that would support the realization of their dreams and improve the quality of their lives.

 

After years of teaching and training at her practice, it soon became clear for Ghylian that there was a direct relationship between the minority number of yoga teachers of color and the minority number of students of color learning and practicing yoga. Ghylian then founded Urban Yoga Foundation with a vision to shift this ratio by making yoga and mindfulness programs that specifically target the needs of underserved, students of color and create a platform for teachers of color to teach in their own community that needs to see their people teaching, learning and practicing yoga. So that they may reclaim self -love and healing practices founded in a mindful culture.

 

Urban Yoga Foundation is a Harlem-based wellness center located in the center of Central Harlem, with studio and outreach programs available for schools, organizations and corporations. UYF has yoga classes, mindful meditation, conducts workshops and trainings for yoga teachers, therapists, nurses and all who intend to teach in marginalized urban areas. UYF is a non-for profit organization and all funds raised keeps mindful based learning in public schools for underserved communities.