Thanksgiving Benefit Yoga Class

Online & In-person

$15-$108 (class card use ok)

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

Join us for a Thanksgiving Morning Yoga Class! As we move through our yoga practice, we will focus on gratitude and the profound effects that cultivating gratitude can have in our lives.

All proceeds from this class will support to sustain and grow our IYISF Community Outreach Program, which offers free or low-cost yoga and meditation held in culturally accessible locations to support domestic workers, day laborers, mothers-to-be, young adults with disabilities, and seniors in achieving better health through movement and mindfulness.

The program began to develop in 2022 with a free, six-week yoga series in Spanish for domestic workers, led by Integral Yoga teacher Andreína Maldonado. It was sponsored by IYISF, the San Francisco Day Labor Program, the Women’s Collective, and Dance Mission Theater.

In 2023, the program blossomed with support from grants and private donors. In 2024, it expanded to include Accessible Yoga classes for young adults with disabilities, in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

Now in 2025, the program continues to grow thanks to fundraising and grants from Livongo Health, Working Theory Foundation, Give Back Yoga Foundation, and Lululemon’s Here to Be Foundation, ​a​nd with community partners such as the Alliance for Social and Economic Justice Center, Community Well, Casa Doulas Center, San Francisco Women’s Building, and Access SFUSD. By 2026, it aims to offer postnatal yoga and chair yoga classes for seniors—all in Spanish.

By addressing barriers such as language, culture, cost, and transportation, the IYISF Community Outreach Program fosters inclusive, healing-centered spaces for underserved communities.

Donate or invite others to donate.

This donation-based program will not be recorded.


Andreína Maldonaldo (She/her) is a Venezuelan interdisciplinary performing artist and registered Integral Yoga practitioner based in Yelamu, Ohlone Territory, colonially known as San Francisco, California. She currently teaches beginner level Hatha yoga in Spanish, and in English by request. She guides her students through the powerful practice of Integral yoga by centering mindfulness, joy, and self-care. Join Andreina in this fun and intentional class that will leave you feeling renewed, empowered, and more connected to self and others.


Join Swami Ramananda for Thanksgiving Puja, Sharing & Potluck
Thu. NOV 27 @ 11:15 am – 12:15 pm PST
ONLINE & IN-PERSON

2025-11-19T10:36:22-08:00October 1st, 2025|Tags: , , |

Moving Energy: Hatha, Yoga Nidra & Sound Bath

In-person

$35 In advance, use promo code ENERGY | $40 Day of

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Please review our In-person Safety Guidelines.

Enjoy a transformative 2-hour workshop, where you’ll delve into the art of dissolving blockages in the flow of energy, rebooting your nervous system and harnessing your innate self-healing abilities.

Our bodies are densely packed fields of energy, influenced by the ebb and flow of life’s daily challenges, regardless of their magnitude. These challenges can disrupt the natural flow of energy, both physical and energetic, triggering a complex physiological response to stress that often leads to congestion and blockages. Yet, within us lies the capacity to restore equilibrium.

Through the profound ancient practices of Pranayama, Asana, and Yoga Nidra accompanied by live, healing instrumental sounds, we create an optimal environment to nurture our innate state of equanimity, promote energy flow, self-healing, and expand consciousness. Yoga Nidra, rooted in ancient wisdom, facilitates the body’s innate ability to rejuvenate, repair, and restore itself on both cellular and energetic levels. This practice also serves as a conduit for connecting with our personal intentions or Sankalpa (in Sanskrit). Immersing ourselves in soothing sounds interrupts the stress cycle in a gentle, non-invasive manner, while recalibrating our vibrational frequency.

Medical studies continue to reveal to us the benefits of these complementary practices. Benefits include: reducing heart rate, blood pressure, symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, PTS, PMS, chronic pain and symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes, and can greatly improve quality of sleep.

Let your experience be your guide to receiving the profound effects on the path towards optimal health.

No experience necessary.

During the session, we’ll be sitting, moving and then lying on our backs for approximately 40-50 minutes. For those who may have difficulty getting to the floor, folding chairs will be provided.


Heather Sevika Ford, C-IAYT became a certified Yoga teacher in 2008 and earned her accreditation as a Yoga Therapist in 2017. Deeply rooted in in classical-lineage-based yoga, accessibility and stress management, her background, experience and training enables her to work effectively and safely with diverse clients with unique goals and conditions. With a collaborative approach, she guides individuals toward experiencing the essence of Yoga; a contemplative, mindful practice intended to eliminate obstacles and foster inner peace. Working collaboratively she supports and empowers students to explore and embrace the transformative power of Yoga. By cultivating a renewed connection between the mind and body one can attain skills that extend beyond a given session transforming our relationship with the internal and external.

Sessions include mindful movement and postures to enhance strength and flexibility, along with subtle practices such as Yoga Nidra, Pranayama, and meditation. Additionally, Heather often integrates Reiki, sound healing, and aromatherapy to facilitate resetting the nervous system. She has worked with individuals experiencing addiction recovery, chronic pain, PTSD, stress, anxiety, depression, arthritis, stroke, cancer, pre and post-operative care, limited physical mobility, nerve damage, obesity, post-polio syndrome, knee and hip replacements.

Heather teaches privately and leads workshops at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco, Stanford University and Alta Mira Recovery Center. Learn more at sevikayoga.com

Vagus Nerve Activation

Online & in-person

$25 Early bird, use promo code NERVE, exp. 6/8/24 | $30 regular

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Please review our In-person Safety Guidelines.

Join Integral Yoga Therapist Diana Meltsner for a practice of Yoga Asana, Pranayama and vibration of our voices to activate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system.
A balanced nervous system is one of the physiological benefits of Yoga practice through Integral Yoga sequencing.

Learn various practices to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), which can slow our heart and breathing rates, lower blood pressure and promote better digestion. Our body enters a state of relaxation, which cultivates recovery. The more time we spend in a PSNS state, the healthier we can become. In time we’ll see benefits, including dismantling stress, trauma and other patterns of tension in the body and the breath. Regulating the nervous system gives us a tool to bring healing on all the different levels of who we are.

We offer teachers 2 hours CEUs for Yoga Alliance upon request.


Diana Meltsner, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, YACEP, has been teaching a variety of classes and workshops since 2001 and since 2017 offers yoga therapy sessions privately and at Integral Yoga Therapy Clinic in San Francisco. She has worked in the clinical setting for Kaiser Permanente since 2005 as a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and health educator and is teaching mindfulness and meditation to the medical staff. Her focus is on the healing aspects of yoga on the mind as well as the body by applying the teachings of Yoga, practices of breath-control, mindfulness and meditation. Diana helps her clients to find healing and the ability to move through life with increased ease, stress resilience, and intuition. Diana Meltsner works as a programs manager and serves on the board of directors at Integral Yoga Institute, an urban ashram in San Francisco. She is a yoga teacher trainer for the 200-hour and Meditation Teacher trainings. www.dianameltsner.com

Moving Through Gratitude

by Sivadas Stephen McFarland

“If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that’s enough.” The religious philosopher Meister Eckhart said these words that have continually inspired me to draw my thoughts towards thanks and gratitude. Donna Stoneham said, “Worrying is like praying for the things you don’t want.” I like to think that she is encouraging us to let go of worry and to look towards all we do have. 

Gratitude has probably been the most consistent and important aspect of my practice. I write down 3 things that I am grateful for every night before bed. No book to write in? Just think of three things! Heck, think of 10 things! Gratitude for what we receive, whether tangible or intangible, can help us feel more at ease, helps us delight in the simple and the grandiose, can drastically shift our mental state, can expand our capacity to appreciate, increases our mental durability, and has been scientifically proven to boost our immune system by reducing stress. 

Try it now. Close your eyes, take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale through the mouth. What are you grateful for? Breathing perhaps? If you can take a few moments now, then please do, and make a list of what you have to be grateful for. Get a pen and a piece of paper and just start writing. Notice how writing one thing leads you to the next. Robert Quillen said, “If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.” 

Do you set an alarm in the morning so that you can wake up? Try setting a gratitude alarm. Set your device to go off every hour and when you hear that sound, pause and think of something you have to be thankful for or joyful about. 

If you join me in a Hatha Yoga class on November 26th at 9:00am to practice together we will have multiple opportunities to reflect on just how easy it can be to switch your thoughts over to what you have to be grateful for and how doing so can change your life. Today as I write this I am grateful for windows so that I can see outside, blue skies, neighborhood noise in the streets, and sweaters that keep me warm! 

Happy THANKSGIVING!


Stephen McFarland, RYT-500 is one of Integral Yoga’s best-loved teachers. He grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his wonderful family and holds a BA in Theater from Marywood University. Stephen lived in New York City for many years as a working actor, director, choreographer, dance teacher, theater administrator, waiter and yoga instructor. Since moving to San Francisco in 2012 he has continued to work as an actor, theater administrator, floral designer and yoga instructor. He often staffs the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco leading the anatomy and physiology portion of the training, mentors trainees, and leads a variety of Yoga workshops. He has taught at Integral Yoga in NYC and SF, Planet Granite, the JCC, Zomoti Yoga, Fitness SF and The Mindful Body. He continues to pursue his paths in theater, floral design and teaching yoga.

2020-11-13T05:38:17-08:00November 13th, 2020|Tags: |
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