Basic

If you are new to yoga this is where you start.
These classes are for students who are new to yoga or students who haven’t practiced in a while. This is the class where we learn to establish a safe and solid foundation for our practice. Basic level classes focus on building strength, flexibility and teaching students how to incorporate the breath into their practice.
We remind our teachers to give students a balance of personal attention and space, and modifications when necessary, which allow students to develop their own relationship to the practice.

All classes consist of flowing asana sequences as well as meditation, yoga breathing (pranayama) and guided relaxation.

Basic/Open

If you are new to yoga or haven’t practiced in a while, this is where you start. If you’re more experienced, your teacher will offer options for a deeper expression of each pose.

This is the class where we learn to establish a solid foundation for our practice. Basic/Open level classes focus on slightly longer holds, incorporating bandhas, building strength, flexibility, breath awareness, Meditation, Mantra and Pranayama.

Our teachers to give students a balance of personal attention and space, and modifications when necessary, which allow students to develop their own relationship to the practice.

All classes consist of flowing asana sequences as well as meditation, yoga breathing (pranayama) and guided relaxation.

Gentle Yoga

This ain’t you’re grandmother’s chair yoga class!
Come experience the softer side of yoga.
In this Gentle yoga class you will explore: Gentle asana without some of the traditional poses in regular classes such as….downward facing dog and chaturanga’s (sometimes referred to as “yoga push up”.
We practice guided systematic relaxation to calm the nervous system; Pranayama (yogic breathing) in order to prepare the mind for concentration; Selected Kriya practices to further the goal of meditation; and sit for a timed mantra based meditation.

*Please note ….We do chant the Sri Sutka in the beginning of these Gentle classes. This is a very powerful, very ancient mantra from the Rg. Veda given to us by our teacher Pandit Rajmani Tigunait PhD., Head of The Himalayan Institute, which is reverence to the Goddess Lakshmi. You don’t have chant or even know the mantra to get the benefits! You’re Welcome!

Gentle and Restorative

Join us for this gentle asana class that includes seated active poses that gently stretch and open the body followed by 3 fully supported Restorative poses, guided meditation and guided relaxation. Some classes will also include Reiki depending on class size.

Intermediate

For students who have a regular and consistent yoga practice
Classes consist of vigorous asana sequences and are only recommended for students who have a consistent practice of 2 to 3 times per week. Intermediate classes require a fundamental understanding of the alignment of certain poses, and a certain amount of strength and flexibility that you have already cultivated in your consistent practice

Asana sequences will incorporate the full expression of each pose with longer holds, inversions, bandhas, kryias, mantras, yoga philosophy, pranayama and longer meditations.

Open

These classes are for students who are ready to transition into a more Intermediate practice.
Classes consist of more challenging asana sequences with longer holds and offer the option for the full expression of each pose. Our inversion practice will include Sirsasana and introduces arm balances. We also incorporate bandhas, mantras, yoga philosophy, deeper pranayamas, and longer meditations.

First time students should take a basic class.

Open/Intermediate

These classes are for students who have been in Basic for a while and are ready to transition into a more Intermediate practice.

Classes consist of more challenging asana sequences with longer holds and offer the option for the full expression of each pose. Our inversion practice will include Sirsasana and introduces arm balances. We also incorporate bandhas, mantras, yoga philosophy, deeper pranayamas, and longer meditations.

First time students should take a basic class.

Restorative Yoga (Relax and Renew)

Everyone Welcome

Relax and Renew taught in the tradition of Judith Lasater, PhD.
We practice restorative yoga poses (in a quiet room) slowly and with breath awareness using the support of bolsters and blankets, allowing the body to feel at ease and completely release. This class is for students who want to practice at slower pace and move inwards to promote healing. It is recommended for students with injuries, stress, fatigue or for anyone who really wants or needs to relax. When we practice yoga this way we become more flexible in the body and mind, without effort.

Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra

Everyone Welcome!

We practice very light asana slowly and with breath awareness. This class is for students who want to practice at a slightly slower pace and move inwards to promote healing. When we practice yoga this way we become more flexible in the body and mind, without effort.

Light Asana is followed by supported Restorative Poses to prepare for Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra (योग निद्रा) or yogic sleep) is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, like the “going-to-sleep” stage. It is a state in which the body is completely relaxed, and the practitioner becomes systematically and increasingly aware of the inner world by following a set of verbal instructions. This state of consciousness (yoga nidra) is different from meditation in which concentration on a single focus is required. In yoga nidra the practitioner remains in a state of light pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses) with four of his or her senses internalized, that is, withdrawn, and only the hearing still connects to the instructions. The yogic goal of both paths, deep relaxation (yoga nidra) and meditation are the same, a state called samadhi.

Yoga Nidra is among the deepest possible states of relaxation while still maintaining full consciousness. In lucid dreaming, one is only, or mainly, cognizant of the dream environment, and has little or no awareness of one’s actual environment. The practice of yoga nidra relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating and abdominal pain respond well. It has been used to help soldiers from war cope with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).