Lunchtime Yoga in the Park: Willard Park Yoga Collective

Join the Willard Park Yoga Collective every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday at Willard Park in Berkeley! Friday online!

Integrated Hatha Flow classes are based on classical Hatha, mixed with the specializations of each teacher. We flow thoughtfully through poses taking time to notice the nuances, and match movement with breath. Chrissy, Carmen, and Jess integrate somatic modalities and the eight limbs into the yoga practice to increase body and breath awareness, and regulate the nervous system. Finding all of this in the present moment, we aim to foster agency, gratitude, peace, and joy. Teaching outside further deepens the practice by connecting to Nature and the elements.
All levels are welcome and will be accommodated, judgement free.
"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness"
Thich Nhat Hanh
*We work on a donation-basis, making yoga more accessible to all. Come as you are, pay what you can.
Your teachers:
Mondays 12:30pm Jess
Tuesdays 12:30pm Carmen
Wednesdays 12:30pm Chrissy
Thursdays 12:30pm Carmen
Fridays 5:30pm Chrissy (Online in the late fall-winter. Got to event for link)
Sundays 10:00am Chrissy
Meet Chrissy:
Chrissy is a 500HR-RYT, Yoga Therapist, and Thai Yoga Massage Therapist. She came to teaching yoga with a 25+ year personal practice in vinyasa and kundalini, and training in modern dance, music, and theater. She also holds certification in ECE(12unit) and Social/Emotional Learning Facilitation. Her classes are integrated Hatha flow, influenced deeply by yoga philosophy and functional strength. With an emphasis on breath and accessing the present moment, she delights in walking the line between play and prayer.
Chrissy strives to honor the origins of yoga while making it accessible to every body. She acknowledges her position as white, able-bodied, and cisgendered, aiming to be inclusive and trauma informed. Her classes are donation based with no one turned away for lack of funds. Private clients are sliding scale. In lieu of a studio, Chrissy teaches on line and outside in parks on the sovereign land of the Lisjan Ohlone.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings be happy, healthy, and free. May we contribute to that.
https://chrissyyoga.com/
Meet Jess:
Jess is an artist and an athlete. At the beginning of her ceramics trajectory, working as a studio tech at a college clay studio, she realized she needed to be strong to load kilns and make large batches of clay. The physicality of her art became a driving reason to care for her body and its functional strength and mobility. Strength, agility, balance, flexibility and injury prevention (and recovery) were all things she found her personal yoga practice improved. In 2015 she became a certified 200 HR-RYT through Core Power and in 2021 she received a second 200 HR-RYT from Purusha Yoga. Jess guides a vinyasa flow based practice, with an emphasis on linking breath to movement and being in the present during practice. Jess teaches yoga in Willard Park and on the SF Bay on stand up paddle boards. She owns her own stand up paddleboard company, 510-Waterline, in Richmond, CA. https://www.510waterline.com/. And she currently makes pots at her home studio in Berkeley, CA. teaches adult ceramic classes, workshops and has exhibited her work internationally. What she says in her artist statement about her pots also applies to her yoga practice “Strength lies in the fluidity of opposites – of line and mass, contraction and relaxation, tension and softness, push and pull. Ultimately, I want my pots to be graceful, elegant, and straightforward. It’s all about strength and beauty.” https://www.jesspots.com/
Meet Carmen:
Yoga teacher and integrative somatic therapist Carmen Casado has long believed in the body's innate wisdom and capacity for resilience. She brings over two decades of yoga, dance, and mindfulness practices to her teaching, and is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and ongoing student of Peter Levine. She weaves this body of work into her classes, both covertly and overtly, often teaching about our neurobiology as relates to the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. Her mission as a yoga teacher is to create a safe and supportive environment for her students to explore the eight limbs, while cultivating resiliency and a deeper connection to self. Carmen also co-facilitates wellness retreats, and works individually with clients offering integrative somatic therapy sessions. She is a registered E-RYT 500, SEP, and former practicing attorney in NY and CA.
https://carmencasado.com/