Jan 15, 2020 Mary Bartel sits on a purple mat, legs crossed, hands together at the center of her chest. Ten students - in their 50s, 60s and 70s - do the same on their own mats, all different colors. The hardwood floor creaks as they adjust their bodies.

Now, the practice of yoga, which is the first sutra in the yoga sutras, Bartel says slowly, in a soft voice. So as we settle in and close the eyes, if thats comfortable, with a soft gaze looking out at a single point.

Mary Bartel while teaching a class. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

Breathe in. Breathe out. Sunshine washes the face of Bartels brown cat, who looks out the window from her blanket on a massage table. Lit candles around the room create a warm feeling, both from the glow and from the welcoming smell.

That sutra reminds us that its in the present moment. Now, the practice of yoga, which means every moment.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Bartels studio Inner Quest Yoga & Wellness Center is on a busy intersection on Broadway in Saranac Lake. The traffic is constant, but the students tune it out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Every moment. You can practice yoga.

Bartel, 61, grew up in North Massapequa, Long Island, and she knew early on that city life wasnt for her.

From a very young girl, when I saw the Adirondacks coming from Long Island, I knew, she said. I went home after summer vacation with my girlfriend and I said to my parents, Im not going to make my living on Long Island. Im moving to the mountains.'"

Mary Bartel while teaching a class. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

Bartel moved to Saranac Lake in 1977 to attend North Country Community College, graduated with an associates degree in business administration and worked for the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee during the 1980 Winter Olympics before moving to Denver the same year. While in Colorado, she worked for the Xerox Corp. and earned a bachelors degree in technical management at Regis University. She moved back to Saranac Lake in 1988 and got a job at the Lake Placid Horse Show Association, where she became the executive director in 1991.

I left there in 2000 and had all kinds of physical issues that were arising from sitting at a desk and stress-related stuff that kind of got me into yoga, she said.

Students practice yoga during one of Bartel's classes. From left, Susan Moody, Karen Boldis and Rick Retrosi. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

Bartel began her yoga journey by buying a video. I would need to do it first thing in the morning just to get myself mobile and moving, she said. After six months of yoga, she was feeling better.

I was starting to unravel all kinds of physical pain from chronic neck and back problems. And I knew there was something to it.

Whats that saying? You can take the girl out of the city, but you cant take the city out of the girl. Bartel admits to having a type A personality, so slowing down with yoga wasnt natural. But she worked hard at it, taking the time she needed to get healthy.

What I really found was it is just the time that you take for yourself and the relaxation, she said. That was profound for me because Im a go, go, go person. It just evolved.

Bartel bought more and more yoga videos, enough to create her own library.

And about a year-and-a-half later, I was telling my husband, I think I want to go learn how to teach yoga. I want to learn more about this. And he was like, Go for it.

Bartel began teaching classes in 2000 and opened Inner Quest Yoga at her current location in 2005 living quarters on the lower level, and studio on the main floor. Now shes a certified yoga therapist, instructor and continuing education provider and specializes in a variety of disciplines, including Structural Yoga Therapy, mindfulness meditation, mindfulness-based relapse prevention, sonic healing, Reiki and iRest yoga nidra meditation.

And she remains in Saranac Lake, the health capital of the Adirondacks, where she feels like shes on vacation every day shes not working.

You can engage more in nature and find the nature that you are by living and breathing here in the Adirondacks, Bartel said. Its uplifting to my soul for sure.... You know, getting out in the woods, whether it be for a half hour or for half a day, whatever it is, or being on the water, floating on the water, just washes the cares of the outer world away.

Students practice yoga during one of Bartel's classes. From left, Mary Jean Burke, Tom Boothe and Ed Roesner. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

People who are on their own yoga journeys know what yoga is all about, but there are many people unfamiliar with the practice. They see images in the media of people in comfortable clothing, stretching on mats in pretzel-like poses. They hear about the many styles of yoga: Hot Yoga, Yin Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Structural Yoga, Kripalu Yoga - the list goes on.

It can be confusing, overwhelming.

I dont think a lot of people know what yoga is because youll hear, Oh I cant do yoga because Im not flexible. And yoga is not the postures, Bartel said. The posturing we do in classes is a technique of yoga. So yoga really is a mind state. Yoga is meditation.

In Bartels yoga classes, she leads her students through postures, breath work and meditation to reach a natural state of calm and peace, a communion within. The mind is in a state of consciousness free from all kinds of thought, unaware of external forces. As the name of Bartels business implies, people take an inner quest to get to that mind state.

So things are happening, and youre able to hold your own sense of self and peace and calm no matter what is arising, she said.

Bartel learned the classical tradition of yoga and studied the yoga sutras of Patanjali, an ancient Indian sage in Hinduism. The 196 sutras (aphorisms) are short threads of information that help people explore yoga. They are divided into four chapters: samadhi (about enlightenment), sadhana (about the practice), vibhuti (about the results) and kaivalya (about liberation).

Everything you perceive in your life is a movement in awareness, Bartel said. And the more you practice yoga and you practice meditation and you come to see and be very intimate with all of these perceptions ... the more you can ultimately come to recognize that a lot of times theres no need to respond or react to whats going on. You become more of a witness or observer and maybe less emotional.

In the state of yoga, a person becomes completely absorbed in the body, mind and spirit.

Ultimately through the practices, Bartel said, people learn to let go more, and they get into the flow and pure bliss of being where they are through effortless effort not doing or striving to be just be the best in the moment without judgment.

From left, Susan Moody and Karen Boldis. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

Asked what Bartels life would be like today if she never found yoga, she said, Id probably be a mess.

When she began yoga, she never thought shed be able to live without pain. She had problems as a child, with structural anomalies of scoliosis. She has whats called a military neck, an abnormal curve of the cervical spine.Without yoga, Bartel said she probably would have been guided toward surgery, which shes not convinced is the best solution for her. Yet her problems werent just physical.

A lot of it was rooted in the stress. You know, I just tend to be a person that naturally is nervous and easily anxious. And so I really found that I needed the relaxation and the meditation. Those pieces really allowed me to profoundly adjust my life in many ways, eliminating things I was doing that were not appropriate for my body.

Before yoga, she couldnt relax. Now she can sit down in the middle of the day and meditate for 20 to 30 minutes or longer. Some may call that a success story. Bartel calls it an evolution. The difference before and after yoga is night and day, she said.

Its been so profound to experience why I wasnt happy, why I wasnt feeling the joy in my life, and what makes me happy really is not anything that comes from outside, she said.

Mary Bartel while teaching a class. December 2019. Photo: Andy Flynn

In the digital age, everyone is bombarded with technology. They cant seem to get away from outside forces, the din of society the screens, the sounds, the images, the videos, the texts, the emails, the Tweets.

I think that the technology is taking people more and more away from themselves. I mean theres constant distraction, Bartel said. And its becoming so addictive that people cant even put their phones down and just be still and not outwardly looking at something, listening to something, seeing if they have a message.

Perhaps Americans need yoga more than ever. And Bartel is one of many instructors ready to share their knowledge, helping others transform themselves through yoga. While she continues teaching a few classes a week, she is focusing more on therapy, working one-on-one with people, helping them find an inner balance.

Its an intimate balance, and everybodys different, she said. So thats why adapting the practices to the individual is really key.

Bartel is like a guide on the journey to bliss. Along the way, shell ask a lot of questions. Are you doing what you love to do in life? Do you like your job? Do you love all the people you surround yourself with? Bartels business tag line is aligning with what is most essential. And that requires even more questions. What do I want? What do I need? What do I need to do? What do I not need to do? What do I need to let go of?

So many people are worried about things that happened in the past or the future that theyre not living right now, she said. And that was the beginning, the first sutra is and now, the practice of yoga.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

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North Country at Work: finding inner peace with yoga therapist Mary Bartel - North Country Public Radio