Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is a non-profit centre for yoga education in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, on a campus of more than 100 acres above Stockbridge, close to Lake Mahkeenac. It is named after Swami Kripalu, an Indian yoga master whose name means compassion and whose core teaching, to watch oneself without judging, still shapes the way yoga is taught there. The community began in Pennsylvania in the early 1970s as a residential yoga fellowship, moved in 1983 into a former Jesuit seminary at Stockbridge, and later re-formed as a secular educational charity. It now calls itself the largest retreat centre in North America.

Most guests come for a residential programme lasting from a weekend to a week. Many are led by visiting presenters; others are house retreats taught by Kripalu's own faculty, such as silent weekends, seasonal Ayurveda stays and outdoor programmes built around hiking, archery and walks in the woods. A self-guided Retreat & Renewal stay, overnight or as a day pass, comes with meals and a daily timetable of yoga, meditation and short workshops. Four schools offer professional training: yoga teaching, Ayurveda, yoga therapy and leading mindful time outdoors. At home, people can join the Kripalu Online Studio, which streams more than twenty live classes a week and keeps a large library of recordings, or watch some campus programmes live.