Phil Migliarese with Shrii K Pattabi Jois
Phil Migliarese is the director of the Ashtanga yoga Shala of Philadelphia and Owner of Balance Studios.
Phil Migliarese has been practicing yoga since 1984. As a child, he learned tradition hatha yoga and Iyengar Yoga, and was introduced to Ashtanga yoga shortly before a major car accident in 1993. Phil was authorized to teach the first and second series sequences of Ashtanga yoga by Shrii K Pattabi Jois.
THE ACCIDENT
In 1993, three days after his seventeenth birthday, Phil was involved in a life changing event:
A drunken driver ran a red light and plowed into the passenger’s side of a friend‘s 1968 Mustang. Phil was the passenger wearing only a lap belt. (many older cars only had lap belts.) He suffered many broken bones, including, all of his ribs on his right side, his pubic bones, hips, and shoulders. With these types of injuries casting and pinning were not an option. The only way to recover was months of rest in a supine position. Phil lay on his back for almost six months before he was able walked again, and it was a few weeks after that that he was able to do any sort of exercise.
During his bed rest, the only type of yoga that he was able to practice was the yoga of positive thinking along with sets of breathing exercises called ujjaii pranayama to help with the recovery of his broken ribs.
After healing, he excitedly began Asana (Posture) practice. His first exercise was a “Half Sun Salutation”, this is a sun salutation without having to move on the ground. He performed this exercise until he was able to do a regular Sun salutation. He then moved onto standing postures, after a year of only doing Sun Salutations. One by one, he became more comfortable, physically and mentally, with the organized series of postures. Now, in 2003, he has moved through the First and Second series of Ashtanga under the watchful eyes of Shrii K Pattabi Jois, in Mysore India and Eddie Stern, in New York city, and is humbly working through the third series, advanced series A.
He continues to practice for a number of reasons; First and most important it keeps him pain free, the accident left him with daily residual pains; Second it keeps his body fit, and lastly for its mental benefits, such as concentration, contemplation, and awareness.
Philip has has been showcased on Fox News, Cn8, ESPN, CBS, NBC and 96.5 the point, preaching the benefits of yoga.
His goal as a teacher is to create a community of dedicated practitioners and to uphold the highest standards of yoga while promoting a sense of playfulness and non-competitiveness.
