FROM A YOUNG AGE, Tracey Rich had always been drawn to look into the nature of things, a curiosity she says inevitably led her to hatha yoga. "It was like coming home to an old friend," recalls the Nashville, Tennessee-born Rich. At 23, she moved to Hawaii, where she studied with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. And after years of examining the theoretical differences between romantic and true love, Rich discovered the latter with Ganga White, the founder of the White Lotus Foundation. Nine months later in 1983, the White Lotus Retreat Center was born. "It's been our baby," she says of the collaborative effort that has blossomed into an internationally recognized yoga center that offers a non-dogmatic approach.

Overlooking the ocean and the city of Santa Barbara, the Center emphasizes awareness, alignment, breath, kinesiology, and "the play of polarities in a continuum where asana and pranayama become a moving meditation." Says Rich: "We believe in finding a way to fit the practice to the person, not the person to the practice. We are interested in exploring freedom in both practice and living." Visit www.whitelotus.org for more information about classes and trainings.— Nora Isaacs