Are you looking to find balance in your life? Look no further! Starting a yoga practice can be the perfect way to bring harmony to your mind, body, and soul.
At Santa Cruz Yoga, we offer a variety of classes suitable for all levels, from beginners to experienced practitioners. Our skilled instructors will guide you through each session, ensuring a safe and fulfilling practice.
Yoga has been proven to improve flexibility, strength, and overall well-being. It can help reduce stress, increase mindfulness, and promote relaxation. By starting a yoga practice with us, you are investing in your health and happiness.
Join our community today and start your journey to a healthier, more balanced life. Embrace the benefits of yoga and discover a new sense of peace and vitality. Santa Cruz Yoga is here to support you every step of the way.
Namaste.
EVENTS/workshops
Candlelight Women’s Circle
The Candlelight Women's Circle Gathering is a time for women to come together to share their power, love, courage, vulnerability, understanding, support, and wisdom. It is an opportunity to experience authentic sisterhood, where you feel loved, accepted, and celebrated as yourself. Come as you are, nurture yourself, slow down, and tune in to your needs and desires.
Each circle has a different thought-provoking theme that promotes and affirms women's connectedness.
The theme for this month is ‘Creating Spaciousness’
Please bring:
A snack/food to share
An item for the altar (you will get to take it back at the close of circle)
A flower for a collective bouquet
A journal and pen
Schedule:
Social gathering time: 6:30 - 7:00 PM
Circle: 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Social time: 8:30 - 9:00 PM
Saturday, April 20th, 6:30 - 9:00 PM $35
SAMIRA
A Shamanic Sound Ceremony. Join Mira Malcolm and special guests, Dallas McKenzie and Cyrenity for a unique sound healing experience and deep prayers
Friday, April 26, 7:00 - 9:00 PM $30
Instruments such as didgeridoo, crystal and Tibetan bowls, hand pan, and vocals will be played with the intention of shedding the old and bringing in the new in alignment with the lunar rhythms. We will travel through different states of consciousness, from high angelic realms to deep into the dark shadows of your soul, and gently come back to a grounded state of presence. The experience can take you into another world, stirring up thoughts and feelings to be released and inspiring deep relaxation.
We choose to hold these events every full moon to strengthen our prayers and maintain a cycle of continuous gathering, as many have done for thousands of years.
Please bring a yoga mat, blankets, and a pillow.
Come with an intention and your prayers.
Please arrive on time. DOORS CLOSE AT 7:15 PM AND WILL BE LOCKED AFTER THAT
Friday, April 26, 7:00 - 9:00 PM $30
KIRTAN
The Art of Collective Singing
Chanting kirtan is a devotional practice that helps to uplift the mind, open the heart and bring inner peace. It is the fastest, easiest and most joyful way to achieve peace of mind. The mantras are mystical universal sounds that resonate with our chakras and remove negative energies.
Come chant musical mantra with us and create peaceful and joyful vibrations. Mantra chanting and singing is good for your body, mind and spirit. It is scientifically proven to move a person from the active over thinking brain where beta waves rule to the calm, peaceful and meditative experience of alpha-theta. As we raise our own vibration, we can simultaneously send good vibrations into the world. With kirtan, prayers are not wishes, they are actions. Come chant with us and make your world a better place. It’s easy, anyone can do it.
Saturday, April 27th, 7:30 PM $25
SAMIRA
A Shamanic Sound CeremonySamira has been holding full moon ceremonies for over 14 moon cycles now and have decided that we have developed a very unique experience that is of the purest and highest intention to open peoples hearts and awaken there primal nature. It is our intention for the healing of our liniages and ask our anscestors and guids to support our healing. Mira wont be making it to this full moons ceremony but to replsce her for the evening we have our special guest this month Cyrena Giordano.
Cyrena’s been offering music and soundscapes up and down the west coast for the last 8+ years. Drawing from skills in sound healing, live-looping, and her profession as a singer-songwriter; alongside her deep connection to the earth, sky, all the elementals, the tender hearts of humanity and her extensive experience in advocating for and educating on consent culture, she strives to create a calming space through the nest her soundscapes for humans to feel connected to themselves, each other, the earth and spirit.
Friday, March 22nd ~ 7:00 - 9:00 PM ~ $30
Ceremony of the Heart
Sasha Rose began writing songs at the age of three, and began performing under the name Sasha Butterfly at age 15. She performs acoustic shows on guitar, piano, African djembe, and fuses some simple looping and electronic elements. She has released two solo acoustic albums as Sasha Butterfly, Grace in 2001, and Creation song in 2004. Over and extensive touring career as an acoustic artist, Sasha has gained devoted fans throughout the mainland US, Hawaii, Europe, Australia and Canada. She has been featured at many festivals including Harmony Festival, Symbiosis, Faerieworlds, Beloved Festival, Emerge-n-see festival, Enchanted Forest, all 15 years at Earthdance's N.California Hub Event and many others. Sasha now performs electronic and acoustic shows under her given name Sasha Rose and brings aspects of her acoustic roots into all her current projects, and is currently working on her long awaited acoustic follow-up to Creation Song, as well as combining electronic and acoustic elements with her project Liberation Movement.
Saturday, March 16th ~ 6:00 - 9:30 PM ~ $40
Candlelight Women’s Circle
The Candlelight Women's Circle Gathering is a time for women to come together to share their power, love, courage, vulnerability, understanding, support, and wisdom. It is an opportunity to experience authentic sisterhood, where you feel loved, accepted, and celebrated as yourself. Come as you are, nurture yourself, slow down, and tune in to your needs and desires.
Each circle has a different thought-provoking theme that promotes and affirms women's connectedness.
The theme for 3/9/2024 is Embodying Empowered Vulnerability
Please bring:
An item for the altar (you will take it with you at the close of the circle)
A flower for the collective bouquet
A journal and pen
Saturday, March 9th ~ 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM ~ $35
BUTI & BREATH
This experience will take you on a journey deep into the subconscious. We will move and breathe out any lingering stagnancy and old energy weighing us down so we can fully embrace a new and more authentic version of ourselves. Sonia Bachir and Rachelle Campbell will guide you through Buti yoga, the kava ceremony, Entheobreath, and sound healing. Our time will be both transformative and fun! The combination of these incredible healing modalities will leave you with a feeling of complete bliss and a deeper connection with yourself.
Kava & Entheobreath:
We'll gather together around the Tanoa bowl and share in a traditional kava ceremony. You'll learn about all of the incredible aspects of kava and what it can do for you and your life. We'll honor how it's been shared for thousands of years and the beautiful culture from which it comes. In this experience you will connect deeper with who you are and with your community. This ceremony also allows us to ground into the space, set intentions, and open our hearts to fully receive and engage in the Entheobreath experience. Rachelle will guide you with the support of Sonia and the curated music into a theta state through conscious, connected breath. You will receive hands-on healing through body mapping and offering seeds of affirmations into the subconscious. You will also explore toning and compressions to offer depth to the journey and allow stored trauma and stuck emotions to release. This breathwork can leave you with a deep sense of freedom, bliss, and connection that you will carry with you into the coming days and weeks.
Buti Yoga:
The practice of Buti is a multifaceted modality of Vinyasa flow, full-body toning, deep core conditioning, and somatic dance. Through this movement methodology, you will release stuck energy, connect to a deeper awareness of personal truth, and experience infinite possibilities of stepping into your power. To integrate Buti with Entheobreath, this dynamic flow will be warm, nurturing, and intentional.
Buti Yoga is a unique evolution and expression of yoga, sacredness that you cultivate in the ever-flowing expression of who you are.
Sunday, March 10th ~ 2:00 - 5:00 PM ~ $88
Meet our Teachers
Strong Vinyasa Flow with Puja Chance
Wednesdays, 5:30 - 7 PM
After a back surgery for a herniated disc at 19, and an ACL and medial meniscus reconstructive surgery a year later, I understood clearly that in order to live a healthy life style I need to practice being more fully in my body and build supportive strength through small and large muscle groups to support the soft connective tissues in my body. From my college course I found a donation-based class that led me eventually to my Bikram practice. I became a certified Bikram Yoga Instructor in 2007 and am ever grateful to the beginnings of my path in yoga. In 2011 becoming curious to what else is offered in this wide world of YOGA I completed my Level 1 Baron Baptiste Training and began to dive deep into the world of Vinyasa Flow. I received my 500 hr RYA teaching credential with Janet Stone Yoga. I also have studied extensively with Mark Stephens and Erika Abrahamian. I have had the pleasure of training with Kino MacGregor and Lino Miele in the Ashtanga method. With my background as a certified Massage Therapist since 2006 and pre-nursing student, I bring together my studies in anatomy and alignment, with the connection between breath and mind, to subtly stretch beyond and open the heart.
Vinyasa with Jessica Weitzenhoffer
Tuesday & Thursday 5:30 - 7 PM
Jessica is a yoga teacher, soon-to-be psychotherapist, and forever student living in Santa Cruz, CA, which has been her home for 14 years. Jessica first discovered yoga in her hometown, Santa Monica, when she was 12. In High School, she attended Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga studio weekly after school. In 2014, she completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training with Joan Hyman of YogaWorks Los Angeles, where her love affair with yoga and the calling to share it with others deepened. Over the years she’s studied with Maty Ezraty, Annie Carpenter, Janet Stone, Shiva Rae, Tias Little, Jason Crandell, and Patrick Beach, and traveled to the motherland India to dig her feet into yoga’s geographical source. Jessica completed her 300-hour & Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training with Mount Madonna Center, where she lived and volunteered in the Ayurveda and Yoga Teacher Training departments for three years, immersing herself in the teachings of Baba Hari Dass and Classical Aṣhțāṅga Yoga. Jessica is also a trained and certified Animal Flow teacher.
Jessica, RYT 500, brings her embodied wisdom and somatic precision into her classes, weaving down-to-earth insights and breath into a purposeful and powerful vinyasa flow grounded in ritual, self-inquiry, functional movement, and individualized alignment. Her classes are intentional and fun, intelligent and creative, challenging and accessible, sweaty and heartfelt, paying homage to traditional hatha vinyasa with a practical and functional approach to asana built for today’s bodies and minds. With a wholehearted commitment to honoring the teachings of yoga, Jessica’s classes are enriched by yoga philosophy, yoga mythology, Ayurveda, psychology, and the wisdom of daily life. Because we are designed to move, Jessica encourages personal exploration and freedom of movement, embracing methods that stoke the fire that burns deep within us to stand with power, clarity, and courage in an ever-changing world.
In Jessica's free time, she loves to take her kitty on walks through the redwood forest, go on adventures with her beloved, gather in community, immerse herself in live music, and dance all night under the stars.
Flow with Ease led by Ana Graziosi
Saturdays 8:30 - 9:45 AM
Wednesdays 12:00 - 1:15 PM
Hi, my name is Ana. I have been lucky to have yoga in my life since I was 16 years old, thanks to my father, who introduced me to it. That was 21 one years ago, since then I have done 600 hours of teacher trainings and a 100 hour meditation training at Sivananda, while teaching on and off at a variety of places domestic and international.
I enjoy teaching yoga because I like sharing peace with others while creating more peace within my body. I like to teach yoga that helps people in whatever they are working through. Yoga helps find more space and well-being in the body and mind. More peace and tranquility while feeling better after moving in and appreciating our bodies and the magic of breath when it comes to healing.
Candlelight Yin with Daya Chambers
Sundays 6:30- 7:45 PM
Wednesdays 7:15 - 8:30 PM
Yin yoga is a passive style of yoga that involves holding poses for more extended periods of time, typically 3-5 minutes or more. This style of yoga targets the connective tissues, such as ligaments, tendons, and fascia, rather than the muscles. Holding poses for longer lets the connective tissues gently stretch, improving flexibility and increasing joint mobility.
Yin yoga is a great way to unwind and relax after a long day. It can also be helpful for people who are looking to improve their range of motion or who have tightness or stiffness in their body. Additionally, yin yoga's meditative and introspective nature can help calm the mind and reduce stress.
One of the key principles of yin yoga is finding your edge - the point where you feel a stretch but not pain. By finding this edge and holding the pose, you can gradually increase your flexibility over time. Listening to your body and not pushing yourself too far is essential, as this can lead to injury. Overall, yin yoga is a gentle and relaxing practice that can benefit both the body and mind.
Marcia Charland
Yoga has enhanced my well-being over many years as a student. As a teacher, I am delighted and inspired to share the benefits of yoga with everybody!
In Gentle Yoga, I offer you options, modifications, and ways to breathe that allow the postures to have beneficial effects.
After studying Yoga with numerous teachers, I completed both my 200-Hour and +300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification with Mark Stephens and continue to study with him.
It is deeply meaningful to me when students say, “That was just what I needed".” Discover for yourself ways Yoga will enhance your aliveness and awareness. Come practice Gentle Yoga with me every Tuesday and Thursday. Open to All Levels.
Tuesday & Thursday
3:30-4:45 PM
GENTLE YOGA
Michelle McNamara
Michelle has over a decade of experience teaching vinyasa flow infused with yin, meditation, pranayama, a bit of humor, and A LOT of gratitude.
Her classes offer freedom of exploration balanced with strong alignment, functional movement, attention to breath, and connection of body and mind.
Michelle draws her knowledge and inspiration from studying yogic texts, over 500 hours of training with a variety of teachers, as well as moments in daily life that serve as reminders to slow down and be present.
Friday 12:00 - 1:15 PM
Vinyasa Flow
Sunday 11:00 - 12:30
ALL LEVELS Vinyasa Flow
Shannon Cummings
Shannon began her yoga practice with Jeff Tiebout at the Blue Ridge School of Massage and Yoga in Blacksburg, Virginia 2006. She has studied under Manju Jois and attended intensives with David Swenson, Kino McGregor, Tim Feldmann, and Paul Grilley. She is currently a student of Aharona Shackman under the "old school" tradition of Ashtanga. Yoga teaches her persistence, patience, and empathy. Teaching it compounds these lessons. She teaches to practice and practices to teach.
When not practicing yoga, Shannon enjoys spending time with her Boston Terriers and reading Tarot. Her unique Tarot style can be explored in her OMSTARS's course "Journey into Tarot."
Saturday 4:00 - 5:30 PM
Restorative Yoga
Corinne Leblanc
Corinne is a yoga teacher and student, a mother, a musician, a surfer, and a lover of life. She has studied extensively with Mark Stephens
and Janet Stone and has been greatly influenced by the work of Sally Kempton, Hareesh Wallis, and Jack Kornfield, among others, in the non-dual tantric lineages. She sees yoga as a journey to come home to our still point, that loving space within us where we can meet ourselves outside of
labels, limited beliefs, or inherited patterns, as a practice to remind ourselves that we are whole as we are. She takes us on that journey by bringing loving attention to our body, mind, heart, and
breath in meditation, movement, chanting, and breathwork.
