“I first met Lillah Schwartz in my thirties and quickly understood that she approached yoga the way masters approach a lifelong discipline—with total devotion to human health and human well-being. Over time it became clear that Lillah was more than a teacher. She was a catalyst. Asheville’s yoga community rests in no small part on the foundation she built. She is the firestarter who inspired generations of teachers to step into their own work with the same clarity and conviction she brought to hers. If someone asks me whether Lillah Schwartz can change your life, I can answer without hesitation: she has changed my understanding and my life hundreds of times.
~ James Nave, Poet, Storyteller, Writing Coach. Founder of The Imaginative Storm project
Hi, I’m LILLAH SCHWARTZ
C-IAYT, Adaptive Yoga and Back Care Specialist
Equipped with a purposeful combination of experience and empathy, Lillah Schwartz, guides yoga students and teachers to discover the physical benefits, deep healing, heart resonance, and spiritual awakening that yoga offers.
Based on her personal experience with injury and an extensive background in anatomy and physiology, Lillah has for more than 40 years shared the science and spirit of yoga wisdom with thousands of students and teachers, helping them connect with their healing potential to overcome pain and enjoy a more vibrant and authentic life.
An IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist, Lillah is recognized as a leader in yoga for back care. Author of the successful 2016 book, Healing Our Backs with Yoga, she has also produced several wellness courses for YogaU Online and her own online trainings, available now in her membership portal. From 1998 to 2015 she has offered her widely respected teacher-training programs at the 200 & 500-hour levels, including adaptive yoga and therapeutics. She also created popular DVD’s for back and neck pain relief that enjoyed national distribution though libraries and Netflix streaming.
Lillah pioneered the Iyengar method in North Carolina from 1981–2009. She has recently become a Certified Oxygen Advantage Trainer, and completed her second book, Consciously Exhale: the Power of Breath.
Using a range of teaching styles, platforms, and materials, Lillah continues to share the benefits of her years of ongoing learning and lived experience with countless appreciative yoga practitioners.
An introduction from lillah
Tools and information for back pain relief, a pain free yoga practice, healthy aging and ways to improve your teaching skills.
ONE WOMAN’S BACK STORY
“I’m a 64-year-old woman who has had problems with pain in my lower back for 10+ years, with it progressing to a debilitating existence.
The doctors had diagnosed it as bulging discs at L-4, L-5, and a nerve problem at S-1, whatever all that means. It had gotten to the point that I had no life, and was looking for someone to give me surgical relief. I had had several appointments with orthopedic and neurological surgeons, including a visit to Duke Spinal, and was just looking for the right surgeon.
By random chance, I met a previous client of Lillah’s at a dinner party. After his description of what he had gone through, and the results that he had achieved, I was anxious to call and set up an appointment, which I did the next morning.
The first day that I met Lillah, I walked into her studio, like a crippled up 94-year-old. I brought with me x-rays and my latest MRI report. After listening to my issues, and observing the pain I was feeling, she told me that she didn’t know if she would be able to help me or not, but that she was willing to try.
Within a couple of months both myself, and my husband could see significant physical changes, as well as a personality shift to normal without constant pain. She taught me how to create space between my spinal discs through yoga poses.
When I first went to her, sitting was painful, and getting up from a chair sometimes required help. She taught me how to relieve my pain and realign my discs by putting myself in traction with straps, something the doctors, and their injections were not able to do.
After working with her for a year, I am now in yoga classes 3 times a week. Some of the poses are still too aggressive for me, but the constant pain is gone, and I now better understand how to handle the temporary pain. I still have aches and pains, but with Lillah’s help, I have learned how to deal with them.
I thank Lillah everyday for giving me my life back, and I have no current plans for surgery in the foreseeable future.”
~ June Reeves
LILLAH’S JOURNEY
Yoga is a lineage whose wisdom reaches back thousands of years. Lillah has a special place on her website, but most of all in her heart, for all of the teachers who have helped mold her character and abilities. Her main teachers are listed here in chronological order.
Pir Vilayat Inayat Kahn
Pir Vilayat’s father was Hazarat Inayat Kahn, founder of the Sufi Order of the West, a mystical school following the Chisti lineage of spiritual teachings from India. Pir Vilayat initiated Lillah into the Sufi Order in 1978 in Asheville, NC. For seven years, Lillah was involved with in-depth daily spiritual practices and regular three-day silent guided spiritual retreats. The practices included the repetition of wazifas, or sacred words invoking the Divine qualities appropriate for each person’s spiritual evolution.
"From my Sufi experience I learned to recognize God in many forms."
BKS Iyengar
“BKS Iyengar compelled me to practice, investigate and observe the results of each action, developing in me subtle insights and connections of body to mind, mind to soul. From him I learned how freedom requires discipline.”
Lillah discovered the Iyengar method of yoga in 1979 and held an Iyengar Teaching Certificate for 23 years from 1986-2009. She continues to pursue a deeper understanding of BKS Iyengar’s wisdom and methods to this day.
Felicity Green
“Felicity taught me how to break poses down to their most fundamental components to discover and relieve joint limitations and restore them to healthy function.”
Previously an occupational therapist, Felicity discovered yoga and became a Senior Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor. The physical limitations she overcame through the Iyengar method led her to a more effective healing yoga path.
Eric Small
“Eric has helped sensitize me to the deeper subtleties and functions of the organs in relation to asana and pranayama practice. I am forever grateful for his mentorship.”
Lillah’s studies with Eric span ten years, and she has been endorsed by him to teach his Adaptive Yoga for Multiple Sclerosis program for the National MS Society. She has offered classes weekly in Asheville, and trainings around the U.S. for yoga teachers to help this population.
Aadil Palkhivala
“A master of sequencing in asana, Aadil has modeled for me the deep heart of compassion and integrity that is the basis of all yoga.”
Aadil is well known in yoga circles as the founder of Purna Yoga, which is the integration of the Hatha Yoga practices of BKS Iyengar, Shri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, and nutrition as a complete approach to yoga as a journey of transformation.
Shri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga
“My understanding of the path of Integral Yoga refers to the non-physical energy of the practice. Recognizing ourselves as an extension of the Divine, those energetic qualities of heart, mind, and devotion lead us toward transformation and the elevation of our human incarnation to its fullest potential.”
Having been introduced to the teachings of Shri Aurobindo and the Mother by Aadil, Lillah found herself full circle, in a spiritual path of Light that began with the Sufi Order of the West.
Life Long Learning - 2019 Forward
Lillah expanded her studies to include the new physics of consciousness, which reflects the ancient wisdom found in the practice of yoga. Influential teachers include Greg Braden - the God Code, Dr. Joe Dispenza- Power of the Mind, Bruce Lipton - Epigenetics.
Her four years of extensive breath studies began with James Nester's book, Breath. Studies that culminated in an Oxygen Advantage Instructor Certification with international breath coach and author, Patrick McKeown. Lillah also became a Certified Yoga for Bone Density Educator with Dr Loren Fishman, physiatrist, researcher, and yoga aficionado.
Current 2024 - 2026. Lillah Participated in a two year in-depth training in the Energy Codes and The Art of Awakening with Dr. Sue Morter. The training was a blend of Bio-energetics of consciousness and energy medicine. A healing path that connected sensation to perception and spiritual truth. Skills Lillah's students will appreciate receiving.