For the time being, we’re safer at home so Sunnylands Center & Gardens is closed to the public until further notice. Please see Sunnylands’ note to guests regarding COVID-19 here.

Yet, you might enjoy the virtual offerings from our Yoga on the Great Lawn instructors online. Please check each instructor’s link below for information on the days and times of their sessions.

Shay Moraga’s classes can be found here:
www.namastewithshay.com

Jenn Smith’s classes can be found here:
www.yogablissps.com

Kristin Olson’s classes can be found here:
urbanyoga.org

Stay healthy. We look forward to the day when we can once again gather on the Great Lawn.

About Shay Moraga:

Shay’s training in vinyasa, power, gentle and restorative yoga, combined with yoga for cancer experience, have given her the tools to support her yoga community in achieving something she knows matters to them. She is able to give a gentle yet challenging class. She finds it both satisfying and meaningful to have students say: “I really feel capable and comfortable coming to your class.”

Shay loves sharing the mind-body connection with her yoga community. “To me,” Shay says, “yoga is not just about the poses, it is what happens from the moment you step on a yoga mat and start to breathe possibility of practice. Yoga starts within.” When she started practicing yoga she was able to do almost any pose there was. That all changed in the winter of 2016 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her year-long battle, she never gave up. She would show up at her studio or practice at home only, at times, to find her breath in the moment. “I thought, how am I ever going to be able to be an instructor again and practice the way I used to? I thought to myself many times I will be too inflexible, stressed, traumatized, and unfit to do this or ever lead again … .” But, here’s what she found: She could still show up, she could still breathe, she could still practice in modified ways until her strength returned. She did not have to do every pose correctly. She did not have to be super fit to lead or practice yoga. She found yoga to now become a mental and spiritual practice, not just a physical one.

About Jenn Smith:

Jenn has dedicated her yoga teaching career to promoting health and self-acceptance for all shapes, sizes and abilities. She is a highly experienced and educated teacher and her yoga training and teaching background is a blend of styles learned from Anusara yoga, Iyengar, and active hatha yoga. She defines yoga as a union of body, mind, and heart.

Jenn’s style of teaching is an alignment-based yoga that helps people find their way safely into yoga poses. She infuses a lot of humor and laughter into her teachings, so people find fun and transformation.

About Kristin Olson:

Yoga has been Kristin’s passion for 40 years. In 1976, she started her yoga journey in Tecate, Mexico, studying with Indra Devi, and teaching at Rancho La Puerta. In 2000, Kristin began working as a provider for Desert AIDS Project, offering HIV/AIDS yoga with the support of the Ryan White Act. That same year, she started up a teen yoga program for physical education credit at Palm Springs High School. The teen program continues to this day, all underwritten by her Urban Yoga Center.

On September 6, 2001, Urban Yoga Center opened its doors.  Five days later, in the face of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Kristin showed up at the makeshift UYC that evening and found six students waiting. None knew how to process the situation, what to do, where to go, so they had headed for a safe haven, a place of friendship and “family, their yoga CommUnity.”  Since that day on 9/11, Urban Yoga Palm Springs has become a sacred center for “CommUnity,” connection, creativity, ceremony, practice, kirtan, workshops, and a celebration of yoga of all varieties. In 2013, the Sunnylands yoga program was born and the class, originally led by Kristin, has grown at times to a 200-person session.

Kristin continues to travel and work in India, Mexico, France, Spain, and other locations throughout the world. She teaches classes at Urban Yoga and at private entrepreneurial gatherings and parties. She has taught athletes, movie stars, and rock ‘n rollers—all with her dynamic energy.