Daily Yoga Classes - YogaVidya Program
Overview
The YogaVidya program is primarily composed of weekday classes, with periodic weekend workshops and immersions offered to deepen your practice. Each class is taught by an experienced instructor, who presents physical asanas, pranayama and philosophy in every session. This integrated approach to yoga instruction provides a unique balance which our students are finding extremely beneficial.
Our YogaVidya classes are taught in a setting that enhances one’s experience of deep connectedness to Self. The building is a beautiful, green environment, filled with love and spiritual energy, and the space is adorned by sacred art. Our spacious classrooms have skylights and natural sunlight, and the building itself is home to a kundalini meditation center and holistic healing practices.
Teachers
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As a yoga teacher I am most interested in unhooking yoga from its contemporary framework of attainment and struggle towards a future result, in a remarrying of yoga to its tantric origins, as each person’s means to directly participate in the strength and nurturing of life. My yoga studies began in ISHTA (Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra, & Ayurveda) at Be Yoga/Yoga Works under Alan Finger, however my main study has been with Mark Whitwell, student of Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar. I attempt to honor this lineage, teaching yoga as Hatha, the magic of opposites merging: inhale with exhale, above with below, inner with outer, female with male, to remind us of who we are- that we contain everything. For the past year and a half I have been traveling and teaching with Mark throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. My background is a BA in psychology from Amherst College, a short-lived dance career in NYC, and random interests in feminist theory, midwifery, and Afro-Caribbean religion.
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Kaya is the most highly trained Svaroopa® Yoga teacher and yoga therapists in Northern California and has been teaching since 2001. In addition, she is trained as an Ayurvedic practitioner and continues to delve into deep studies of Vedanta philosophy. Her thousands of hours of study combine with an ability to teach spontaneously according to the individual students present. She loves supporting experienced students and yoga teachers with classical teachings of yoga along with profound opening of the body and mind.
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Meryn has completed over 200 hours teacher training, Embodyment® Yoga Therapy Training, Meditation Teacher Training and is working toward her 650-hour certification as a Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher. She began practicing yoga as a child with her mother and practiced several styles over 3 decades before finding Svaroopa® Yoga in 2007. She enjoys introducing students to the poses and to the expanding awareness provided by spinal release. Meryn is available for Embodyment Therapy and private yoga sessions.
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Peter has been studying and practicing physical arts most of his life. He began Aikido and Taekwondo at 13 and continued throughout his teens. At 15 he taught himself Yoga from an old book he found in a magic shop. After high school he moved to the San Francisco bay area and began practicing yoga in studios, as well as Kung Fu and Tai Chi. In 2008, after completing a degree in religious studies from UC Berkeley, he went through teacher training at Yoga Mandala in Berkeley and also began studies in Asian bodywork. Peter is non-dogmatic and playful as a teacher, and his classes emphasize exploration of inner space and the awakening and development of the energetic body.
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Sarah has completed over 200 hours of teacher training, Embodyment® Yoga Therapy Training and training for gentle yogis. She began Svaroopa®
Yoga a decade ago, alongside several family members. She has a dedicated & deep personal practice that inspires her gentle and meticulous teaching style. Sarah also does embodyment yoga therapy- a hands on healing modality that helps facilitate the release of deep spinal muscles. It can supplement and greatly benefit your yoga practice as well as healing deep layers of tensions in the body. 510-981-1264.
Daily Classes
All daily yoga classes are donation-based, on a sliding scale.
Suggested donation:
1 hour class: $10-12
1.5 - 2 hours: $12-20
5 and 10 Class Passes Available
Tuesday
- 7:15pm - 8:30pm1 | 2
Level 1: For beginning students with little or no experience.
Level 2: For students with an understanding of the basics of yoga who would like to challenge their ability.
Level 3: For advanced students looking for a more intensive yoga practice.
Yoga Styles
AYURVEDIC YOGA
Ayurvedic Yoga is a merging of two ancient wisdom traditions whose goal is to bring optimal balance to the uniqueness of the individual, through harmonizing the five elements (earth, water, fire air and space), breath and consciousness. Understanding how to work with the five elements is fundamental to tailoring the practice of yoga to vata, pitta, and kapha - the three manifestations of elemental forces in the physical body, according to Ayurveda.
BREATH BASICS
Yoga is not the attainment of postures! Learn the technology of Krishnamacharya infused with Tantrik wisdom to practice yoga as Hatha, strength that is soft, which is available to everyone as a personal engagement of the immutable link between body, breath, and mind. With attention to individual needs, we will investigate the proper use of the breath and how to use the quality of breath as feedback to inform the alignment of basic asana (postures) and pranayama (stationary breathing) to create a healing process of integration.
HATHA FLOW
The goal of Yoga, if there is one, is simply to relax into things as they are. If our awareness is completely absorbed in what we are doing at any moment, whether practicing an asana(pose), meditating, walking or cooking, we are doing Yoga. With a focus on mindfulness, influenced by Vipassana meditation, we traverse through a wide range of dynamics. We begin with a slow and steady warm up of meditation, mantra, breathing and stretching. The class builds to a more challenging, flowing series of standing and seated poses, and finishes with a long inversion or restorative pose.
HATHA VINYASA
A powerful and dynamic Yoga class focusing primarily on Vinyasa asana practice, with long holds and more advanced postures preparing us for comprehensive Pranayama and Meditation techniques. Hatha Vinyasa Yoga will include the intelligence of posture sequencing for specific energetic and health effects. This class explores flowing movements and alignments in classical postures which are presented systematically to safely open the body; ideal for building strength, flexibility and mental focus. Pranayama (breath work), Mantra (sound), and Meditation are included. At least one year of yoga practice is recommended.
HATHA YOGA
In this class, Vinyasa and Shadow yoga are combined to create a practice imbued with strength, flexibility, and mindful awareness. Through working with the breath in the postures, we learn to develop the ability to sensitize ourselves to our internal experience, which brings about the transformative power of yoga asana. The fundamentals of alignment will be taught in order to offer a sound basis for advanced practices.
KRIPALU YOGA
This practice offers a unique way to integrate body, mind, and spirit through opening to the wisdom of your body. Kripalu Yoga stretches and tones muscles, improves circulation, and strengthens your immune system. At the same time, Kripalu Yoga develops compassionate self-awareness, connecting you to your Self and inviting deep stillness. Kripalu is unique among American Yogas in its inclusion of time for self-directed posture-flow in its classes. The posture-flow affirms the teacher within and acknowledges the healing that comes from following our own inner guidance.
SAMAVESHA YOGA
Join us for this wonderful opportunity to dive into the teachings of the ancient Tantric masters of both Shaivite and Buddhist Tantra, blended with a contemplative yoga session combining asana, karana, pranayama, mantra and meditation. This two hour class weaves together the original practices of yoga to create the conditions for the practitioner to experience “total immersion” or “Samavesha” into the divine.
TSA LUNG TRUL KHOR
Tsa lung trul khor is the distinctive physical yoga of the Bön tradition of Tibet through which we gain a deeper understanding of the energetic dimensions of our being: the subtle channels, the vital breath which flows through them, and the subtler aspects of mind. The experience of our true nature as spacious luminosity rests on the open-ness of our physical bodies, the free flow of energy through the appropriate inner pathways, and the clear awareness of our minds. This in turn rests on the balance of the five elements within us—space, air, fire, water, earth—and the alignment of the three dimensions of body, energy and mind.
VINYASA
Strength is receiving. Using the principles of Krishnamacharya with emphasis on the breath and spinal health, these classes will work with the ancient systems of asana, bandha, pranayama, and meditation as the practical means towards directly embracing our unique and personal integration- structurally, functionally, psychologically, and socially. Breath-based and heart-centered, we will follow intelligent sequencing to support the flow from posture to posture, dancing in whole body prayer to life.
YIN FLOW
In this fluid and therapeutic class we will be holding postures for several minutes and stretching the connective tissue surrounding our joints. The Yin approach to Yoga works to promote flexibility in areas we often perceive as non-malleable, i.e., hips, pelvis and lower spine. In our bodies, major roadblocks of Prana (life force energy) can happen in the joints. The focus of Yin Flow is to open the flow of stagnant and stuck life force energy, to increase the distribution of Prana flow and to lubricate the entire body with attention, creating balance in the meridian system and in the organ systems of our body. This is a Vinyasa class that will move slower, with more attention to longer fluid holds, moving meditations, lunar flows and Pranayama.
YIN YOGA
Yin yoga is practiced by holding poses deeply to encourage healthy joints and connective tissue. This can be rewarding for those with stiffness and chronic pain and is a complement to the yang practice that focuses on muscular strength and flexibility. Finding balance between one’s yin and yang is important to maintain whole body health. The profound stillness of yin lends well to incorporating sound healing into the practice. We will explore many modalities of sound healing in and out of the postures, including seed syllables, Vedic chants, vocal meditation, sacred chants and mantra. Sound healing opens us up to accept all our emotions as a gift and a way to learn more about and love our truly radiant selves.
YIN/YANG YOGA
These classes are devoted to our individual and collective awakening. Through the practice of asana, pranayama and meditation we ignite our inner fire and light. Yin/Yang yoga offers us a practice to develop our receptive and active natures in a complementary way. The yin style of long-held passive poses opens the various channels so energy can move more easily through the body. The yang style then builds strength, stamina and vitality as we flow through vinyasa. Asana practice prepares us for pranayama and meditation. Through committed practice we have the chance to reveal ourselves layer by layer, uncovering our hearts and finding the compassion that links us all together as one world. Each class will offer a theme explaining aspects of yoga, pranayama or meditation.