Stephen McManus

From birth, Stephen McManus was exposed to meditation, yoga, and Eastern philosophy — his mom even had a guru she visited at an ashram every summer — but he resisted the practices. In college, Stephen found himself suffering from anxiety, depression, and a lack of purpose. At the time, he was gay but not yet out, and he was turning to alcohol and drugs to cope with his feelings of unhappiness. “I went to a therapist hoping he would give me a magical pill that would make everything better, and he suggested that I try meditating,” he remembers. Stephen took his advice and it helped, but it wasn’t until he moved to New York after college and began studying Buddhism that he really deepened his practice. Now the executive director at Three Jewels — which offers yoga, meditation, and philosophy classes rooted in Tibetan Buddhism — he completed a 200-hour meditation teacher training at Three Jewels and a 200-hour yoga teacher training privately with master yogini Coco Korniczky. Stephen’s teaching approach is simple, fun, and accessible for anyone.