Community Yoga Initiative

This offering is a gentle, slow-paced postural yoga practice designed to invite deep relaxation, release, and mindful awareness. Poses are held for longer periods of time - often around three minutes - allowing the body to soften gradually and the nervous system to settle. Most yin yoga postures are practiced seated or lying down, with a primary focus on the lower half of the body - areas that commonly hold tension, including the lumbar spine, pelvis, hips, hamstrings, and thighs, . Occasional upper-body postures - such as adapted shoulder openers - may be included to support balance and ease throughout the whole somatic system.

The sustained, passive nature of yin yoga allows gentle traction to reach deep layers of connective tissue, including fascia, tendons, and ligaments. By relaxing the muscles, we create space to access the tissues surrounding the joints without strain, supporting hydration, resilience, and long-term joint health. This practice offers an opportunity to slow down, listen inward, and experience renewal from the inside out - leaving you feeling spacious, grounded, and deeply supported.

Everyone is Welcome Here
All bodies, backgrounds, and experience levels are welcome. No prior experience is necessary. There is never a cost.

What to Bring
Because muscles are relaxed in yin yoga, it’s important to use supports like blocks, bolsters, blankets, and straps to protect joints, ligaments, and tendons from overstretching. The supports allow the body to surrender to gravity without causing any injury or pain. Please consider bringing any practice supports you enjoy - mat, blocks, straps, bolsters, or blankets. Community practice supports are available, and you’re encouraged to use them freely. Bringing water to hydrate after practice is also a good idea. We practice indoors, in a large room. We recommend wearing comfortable layered clothing to help regulate preferred body temperature.

This Practice is Not Sold
This practice is not sold. It’s shared. Our offerings exist through voluntary giving - as a living expression of the community we are. What we receive is made possible by the many who have given before us, and what we offer allows the practice to remain unowned and open.

Giving is part of yoga practice - not as a duty, but as a remembering. When we give, the grip of “me and mine” loosens. The patterns of separation and self-importance are disrupted. We step out of self-absorption - the root of suffering - and feel into the truth of interconnectedness. Every act of giving dissolves a boundary. The giver and the receiver are not two. This is how the practice continues - through open hands and open hearts.

A Note on the Gifts of Yin Yoga
Injury, inactivity, and aging tends to bind connective tissue together, creating adhesions that restrict movement between the surfaces of muscles and bones. These adhesions block the flow of nutrients and energy through the body, causing pain and limiting mobility. Tenderly holding poses applies mild stress that breaks up adhesions. This can result in measurable increases in physical flexibility without compromising stability.

Long holds also increase circulation and lubrication at the joints. Deep connective tissue is softly squeezed, twisted, and compressed, becoming hydrated and more pliable. With age, the body becomes drier and less elastic. Stressing the connective tissues at the joints increases the production of hyaluronic acid and synovial fluid that nourishes the body.

Tenderly softening the body in yin yoga soothes the nervous system, especially when combined with slow, deep belly breathing.

Practicing presence and being with “what is” develops patience, clarity, and the capacity to be with a wide range of experience. All types of asana practice can heighten our moment-to-moment awareness. However, resolving to remain still in yin yoga practice provides an opportunity to stay with experience and surrender any need to manipulate and control. This can create conditions for clear perception, about ourselves and the nature of reality – yinsight!

This offering honors the genius of Primary Series Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - its intelligent sequencing, rhythmic vinyasa, and breath-centered movement - without outdated rigidity, hierarchy, and performance-based expectations. Ujjayi breath anchors movement, and mindful postural adaptions are encouraged to support energetic awareness, balance, and integration.

Poses are not earned. Bodies are not corrected into ideals. Perfectionism is recognized as a creativity-killer, not a virtue. The practice is approached as an evolving experience - one that emphasizes curiosity, self-inquiry, and love over striving and comparison.

Everyone is Welcome Here
All bodies, backgrounds, and experience levels are welcome. No prior experience is necessary. There is never a cost.

What to Bring
Please consider wearing comfortable, layered clothing and bringing any practice supports you enjoy - mat, blocks, straps, bolsters, or blankets. Community practice supports are available, and you’re encouraged to use them freely. Bringing water to hydrate after practice is also a good idea.

The Evolution of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga emerged in the early 20th century through Tirumalai Krishnamacharya’s practice and sharing of yoga, building on what he learned from Rama Mohan Brahmachari. One of Krishnamacharya’s students, Krishna Pattabhi Jois, began sharing a set sequence of postures taught in led, breath-synchronized group classes. He used the term Ashtanga Yoga to describe this method of postural practice.

As the practice spread globally through the work of Jois’ early students - including David Swenson and Richard Freeman - it became a foundation for many modern movement traditions. Vinyasa flow, power yoga, and countless contemporary yoga styles trace their roots back to this evolving system.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga has never been static. Like all living practices, it has changed through culture, people, and time. What is often presented as fixed or ancient is, in reality, a modern lineage shaped by interpretation, adaptation, and experimentation. Today’s Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga exists not as a singular authority, but as a spectrum of practices - each reflecting the values, creativity, and love of the folks practicing and sharing it.

This Practice is Not Sold
This practice is not sold. It’s shared. Our offerings exist through voluntary giving - as a living expression of the community we are. What we receive is made possible by the many who have given before us, and what we offer allows the practice to remain unowned and open.

Giving is part of yoga practice - not as a duty, but as a remembering. When we give, the grip of “me and mine” loosens. The patterns of separation and self-importance are disrupted. We step out of self-absorption - the root of suffering - and feel into the truth of interconnectedness. Every act of giving dissolves a boundary. The giver and the receiver are not two. This is how the practice continues - through open hands and open hearts.

Meditation can be beneficial at any time of day, but there’s something beautiful about beginning the day mindfully with meditation. We do not advocate any particular method of meditation and our regular meditators practice a variety of meditation methods, including single-pointed concentration, open awareness meditation, and loving-kindness practice.

If you're new to meditation, focusing on your breath can be a beautiful starting point for your practice. In breath-focused meditation, you're invited to breathe naturally, bringing awareness to your breath as it flows in and out of your body - noticing the flow of the breath through your nose, heart, and belly. Thoughts and emotions will arise, and when they do, you're invited to acknowledge them with honesty and love, and then gently bring your awareness back to your breath, noticing again the flow of breath through your body.

Loose comfortable clothing is recommended so your body is not overly constricted and can more easily relax.

Options to Sit, Stand, or Lay Down
You are welcome to sit on the floor, against a wall or in a chair. You may also stand or lay down - any position that is comfortable for you where you feel aware and at ease.

Everyone is Welcome Here
All bodies, backgrounds, and experience levels are welcome. No prior experience is necessary. There is never a cost.

This Practice is Not Sold
This practice is not sold. It’s shared. Our offerings exist through voluntary giving - as a living expression of the community we are. What we receive is made possible by the many who have given before us, and what we offer allows the practice to remain unowned and open.

Giving is part of yoga practice - not as a duty, but as a remembering. When we give, the grip of “me and mine” loosens. The patterns of separation and self-importance are disrupted. We step out of self-absorption - the root of suffering - and feel into the truth of interconnectedness. Every act of giving dissolves a boundary. The giver and the receiver are not two. This is how the practice continues - through open hands and open hearts.