New Student Special

30 days for thirty dollars with Tim, Laura, Charles and Sacha. That means you can have 3 classes a day some days! What a deal!

	Time	Class	Level	Instructor
Sunday	9:30am - 11:15	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	11:30am - 1:00	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	4:00pm - 4:40	Itsy Bitsy Yoga **	Series	Sharon Jackson
Monday	9:15am - 11:00	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Laura Camp
	5:45pm - 7:15	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	7:30pm - 9:05	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Laura Camp
Tuesday	5:45pm - 7:15	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	7:30pm - 9:00	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
Wednesday	9:15am - 10:45	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	11:15am - 12:45	Mom & Baby Yoga *	Open	Cynthea Denise
	5:45pm - 7:15	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	7:30pm - 9:05	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Laura Camp
Thursday	5:45pm - 7:15	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
	7:30pm - 9:00	Ashtanga-IMY	Open	Tim Thompson
Friday	9:15am - 10:30	Vinyasa	Open	Sacha Prescott
	11:00am - 12:00	ItsyBitsy Babies	Open	Sharon Jackson
	5:45pm - 7:15	Vinyasa	Open	Charles Holman
Saturday	9:00am - 10:40	Ashtanga	Open	Laura Camp
	11:00am - 12:35	Ashtanga - IMY	Open	Laura Camp
	4:00pm - 5:30	Vinyasa	B	Charles Holman
* Postnatal: 8 week series begins 8/13/08. Register with Cynthea at lunayogini@yahoo.com. No drop ins. ** Itsy Bitsy Yoga For Tykes: 4-week series starts 6/15/08 - no class 7/6/08. Register with Sharon at yoga4baby@yahoo.com

Ashtanga-IMY Isometric Monkey Yoga is fun, accessible, and challenging. The synthesis of Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga, dance, and martial arts principles, IMY is a non-impact, aerobically efficient alternative to weight lifting and passive stretching. Isometric exercises and resistance stretching place the emphasis on muscle growth, separation, and definition. Monkeying around in the asanas slides the muscle sheaths independently, melts fascial binding, engages new muscle fibers, and increases proprioceptor nerve growth, making the body long, strong, supple, flexible and agile. You will laugh, sweat, and be sore the next day. Good sore. Effort and intelligence evolve the monkey, transforming pain into pleasure and restrictions into abilities. The first monkey rule is to do what you like and don’t do what you don’t like. All of our teachers will help any willing student to modify the asanas to make the positions and sequences easier and simpler, or more challenging and complex.

Iyengar yoga is based on the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar. This system emphasizes precise alignment and use of props such as blocks and straps and blankets to enable each student to benefit from the therapeutic effects of every asana with respect to physical limitations and abilities.

Vinyasa style classes are inspired by the Ashtanga tradition, but do not stick to the ordered series. The postures are strung together with sun salutation and breath in almost dance-like sequences. Class concludes with forward bends and backbends. Advanced classes include inverted postures.

Mother-Baby Postnatal Yoga is an 8-week class which starts on September 10. The first 5 weeks of this class we will practice asanas that strengthen and tone the belly as well as open the shoulders. We will also practice and become familiar with ways to practice deep relaxation with the baby close at hand. The final 3 weeks of class I will teach infant massage. Pre-registration is required for this class. Please phone Cynthea with your questions at (510)986-9370

Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Babies (almost crawling - 24 months) 6-week series. A suppprtive, fun-loving and active yoga practice for busy tots. Continue bonding with your child as you help them feel comfortable in their moving body, develop self-confidence, and encourage their creative spirit. Experience the shared joy and delight when tots move into Yoga poses on their own! Cost: $80

What is yoga? YOGA is derived from the Sanskrit root “yug” which means to unite, yoke, join, and combine. Yoga thus means to create, to make something new from existing elements, to connect our intelligence with our chosen subject free from distractions. It is the unification of our body, mind, breath, and spirit. Hatha yoga is the physical path to integration. “Ha” means sun and “tha,” moon. Together, this translates as appropriate force or determined effort, making our bodies hot like the sun and our minds cool like the moon, balancing our active and reflective energies. Hatha yoga is regenerative exercise, not contortionism. It is the art and science of loving, healing effort sustained over a lifetime.

This practice removes the obstacles that prevent humans from moving their bodies and minds freely. (Wrap your mind around the idea of wrapping your arms around your leg and back, simultaneously – and enjoyably!). Properly practiced, yoga tones the muscular, digestive, nervous, and endocrine systems, balances our hormones, aligns the skeleton, removes toxins, drains the lymph, repairs our tissues and organs and provides us with more energy. The “yoga buzz” is a natural high that heals our appetites and increases our self-confidence, clarity, and love for the natural world.

ASANA is posture, to sit with, to embody. Positions are often named after animals, scholars, sages, warriors, and archetypes.

To MONKEY is to express your creativity, to move during the asana, to use a tool such as a block or a strap or to make a variation or substitution while fulfilling the intent of the original asana. “Monkey see, monkey do” is the most direct form of learning available to all simians, with or without the aid of sophisticated larynxes.

PRANAYAMA is the rhythmic control of breath. PRANA is the energy within all living beings. AYAMA is lengthening. Pranayama breathing techniques promote the full flow of our most basic fuel. The conscious elimination of carbon dioxide and consistent intake of oxygen repairs and revitalizes each cell in the body.

SHALA is school.