Weekly Yoga in Berkeley
Mondays 12:00-1:30 pm ~ IN-PERSON in Studio A at The Yoga Room in South Berkeley
$17 single class | $80/5-Class Pass | $150/15-Class Pass
This beginning to intermediate level class is both gentle and strengthening. We work to create a stable foundation to support the reach of our spine and limbs, inviting more internal space for our organs to receive nourishment. We practice aligning our bodies with gravity, releasing our weight to discover lightness and full-body breathing. Props are used to meet each individual where they are. You will leave class feeling both relaxed and awake, with a new sense of balance within.
Covid Caution: This in-person class will be limited to 10 people. Masks are mandatory when entering and optional once situated on your mat. The large air purifier and ceiling fan will be running at all times and the windows will be open for air flow.
Email me for more information ~ joyfulmovementqigong@gmail.com
Autobiography of a Yogi (Me)
Yoga has been one of my life companions. I remember the day we first met. It was 1997. I was 17 years old and on my regular weekend bike ride from my parents home in Playa Del Rey to Venice Beach to lose and find myself among the crowds of tourists, free spirits, muscle men, surfers, and artists. I was in search of something fresh to awaken myself to me. I had stopped in a coffee shop to use the restroom when I saw a flier on the community board. “Sivananda Yoga Urban Ashram - First class free.” At that time, I didn’t know what yoga was, but right then and there I knew it was for me. A few days later, I participated in my first class and at the end, lying in savasana, all my bodily cells were tingling with YES.
I dove in deep right away, attending several asana classes weekly, as well as hanging out at the ashram to learn about and practice meditation, vegetarian cooking, devotional chanting, yogic philosophy, and pranayama. I even spent three months over two summers living and working at the Sivananda Retreat Ashrams in Grass Valley and upstate New York.
Even though my relationship with yoga began with such intensity, Life led me down many avenues over the next 21 years, and while my love of Movement and Spirituality stayed consistent, my yoga practice would ebb and flow.
It wasn’t until I was 38 years old, after I had earned a double bachelor’s degree in Dance and Religion, gotten married, became a First Grade school teacher, gave birth to my son, and dove deep into the study of Qigong, that the urge to practice yoga re-emerged with a similar intensity that it first arrived.
I remember the day. I was doing hands-on qigong healing with a beloved yogi friend. She had recently been in a terrible accident where she was hit by a car when she was crossing the street. While working with her, my hands had the great honor of feeling her Being work miracles to restore her tissues. Life was reorganizing itself. The chaos that had been inflicted upon her body was loosening and healing all on its own beneath my hands. It was clear to me that the Exquisite Intelligence of her Being was informed and empowered by her many years of yoga practice. This experience made a profound impression on me.
A few weeks later, I was on the phone with Gay White, the director of The Yoga Room in Berkeley, discussing the possibility of joining the Advanced Studies Program. My life companion called Yoga was back!
Yoga has been one of my life companions. I remember the day we first met. It was 1997. I was 17 years old and on my regular weekend bike ride from my parents home in Playa Del Rey to Venice Beach to lose and find myself among the crowds of tourists, free spirits, muscle men, surfers, and artists. I was in search of something fresh to awaken myself to me. I had stopped in a coffee shop to use the restroom when I saw a flier on the community board. “Sivananda Yoga Urban Ashram - First class free.” At that time, I didn’t know what yoga was, but right then and there I knew it was for me. A few days later, I participated in my first class and at the end, lying in savasana, all my bodily cells were tingling with YES.
I dove in deep right away, attending several asana classes weekly, as well as hanging out at the ashram to learn about and practice meditation, vegetarian cooking, devotional chanting, yogic philosophy, and pranayama. I even spent three months over two summers living and working at the Sivananda Retreat Ashrams in Grass Valley and upstate New York.
Even though my relationship with yoga began with such intensity, Life led me down many avenues over the next 21 years, and while my love of Movement and Spirituality stayed consistent, my yoga practice would ebb and flow.
It wasn’t until I was 38 years old, after I had earned a double bachelor’s degree in Dance and Religion, gotten married, became a First Grade school teacher, gave birth to my son, and dove deep into the study of Qigong, that the urge to practice yoga re-emerged with a similar intensity that it first arrived.
I remember the day. I was doing hands-on qigong healing with a beloved yogi friend. She had recently been in a terrible accident where she was hit by a car when she was crossing the street. While working with her, my hands had the great honor of feeling her Being work miracles to restore her tissues. Life was reorganizing itself. The chaos that had been inflicted upon her body was loosening and healing all on its own beneath my hands. It was clear to me that the Exquisite Intelligence of her Being was informed and empowered by her many years of yoga practice. This experience made a profound impression on me.
A few weeks later, I was on the phone with Gay White, the director of The Yoga Room in Berkeley, discussing the possibility of joining the Advanced Studies Program. My life companion called Yoga was back!