Nancy Rakela, OMD, LAc, is a certified Ananda Yoga teacher. She has been practicing yoga and meditation for over 20 years and began teaching yoga in 1996. Ananda Yoga is a very gentle style of yoga for all levels. Ananda Yoga has a spiritual dimension that is lacking in most of the yoga classes taught today.

What's Special About Ananda Yoga?
AnandaYoga was developed by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), Ananda's founder and author of Ananda Yoga for Higher Awareness. It is based on the training he received from Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Here are some basics of the system:

Proper Alignment and Safe Technique and adapting the postures to the individual student's abilities and needs are important both for preventing injury and for experiencing the inner dimension of hatha yoga.

Choice of Postures: Although we do include some challenging poses, Ananda Yoga is generally less strenuous than many schools of hatha yoga. We've found that extreme exertion does not lead to hatha yoga's deepest benefits.

Sequence: The order of postures in an Ananda Yoga routine is designed to help you feel and direct the life force, and to prepare the body to sit for meditation.

Transitions into and out of a posture are every bit as important as the way you do the posture itself. We emphasize moving consciously, slowly, and gracefully.

Pauses between poses are as important as the poses themselves: a time to allow your body to integrate the effects of the preceding pose.

Affirmations: Most of the basic postures are paired with special repeated affirmations designed to help you tune into the specific energy flows, and thus the psychological benefits, that each posture promotes.

Energy - Control / Pranayama: In addition to specific breathing techniques for energy control, you will explore something unique among hatha yoga schools: the marvelous "Energization Exercises" developed by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Meditation is essential to experiencing the spiritual dimension of yoga. You will learn how to incorporate effective, classical meditation techniques into your hatha yoga practice.

Ananda Postures Class
with Nancy Rakela, OMD, LAc

Studio Twelve located at 1450 Fourth Street, Berkeley (Between Jones and Page St)
Tuesdays 9:00-10:30am;
Drop-in $15 or $48 for 4 classes

Nancy Rakela, OMD, LAc, is a certified Ananda Yoga teacher. She has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1995. she is also a doctor of oriental medicine and licensed acupuncturist in practice for over 20 years specializing in fertility treatment.

Ananda Yoga & Meditation Center of Berkeley
http://www.anandaberkeley.org/