About Us
Our Intention
To gracefully & powerfully serve and support every individual's transformation that comes into this sacred space by teaching, mentoring, communicating, sharing, and honoring the tradition of Yoga to the best of our knowledge based on the writings of Sage Patanjali who wrote about the science of Yoga.
Since 2003 Bird Rock Yoga has created a beautiful, calming, distinctive environment with the intention of involving and empowering every student in their own transformation!
BRY primarily offers classes in the Vinyasa, or flowing style of Hatha yoga, which synchronizes movement with breath. Please refer to the class descriptions to find the class that is right for you.
In addition to our regular scheduled classes we also offer Teacher Training Programs and workshops as opportunities to deepen your personal practice. All of us at Bird Rock Yoga look forward to being a part of your journey.
check out our reviews on yelp!
Our Instructors
Heather
After five and a half years of government work, Heather decided that it was time to throw in the towel (and move to the mat) to do something more rewarding. She decided to move back to Californiato share her love of yoga with others, which is why she is now a proud member of the Bird Rock Yoga family!Heather found yoga when she first moved to California 9 years ago. Surprised at how much of a workout and a challenge yoga could be, she became instantly hooked. She began practicing Bikram yoga, and after moving to Hawaii, a need to find a traditional, yet dynamic style led her to Ashtanga. She decided she wanted to share yoga with more than just her friends and enrolled in a teacher training program in Costa Ricawith Caroline Klebl, who studied directly under Sri Pattabhi Jois.
Laura
Laura Sparaco has been a student of yoga since 1995. Certified through Yoga Alliance, she began teaching in 2000 and has had the opportunity to study with many highly regarded yoga teachers including Tim Miller (Ashtanga Yoga) and Ana Forrest (Forrest Yoga). Laura’s love and passion for yoga shines through her teaching. Her presence in the classroom is energetic, yet gentle, and she encourages embracing the present moment through breath while safely and playfully exploring the asanas. She emphasizes that what is learned on the mat can be incorporated into everyday life.
Laura is also a Certified Massage Therapist and has been practicing massage since 2006. She received her training at the International Professional School of Bodywork, specializing in several different styles of bodywork, including Thai Massage. Through her extensive experience and training in bodywork & yoga, she hopes to help others deepen their connection between the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Laura believes that it is in this deep connection where healing is truly facilitated and our most authentic selves can emerge. Please visit her website at www.laurayoga.com.
Luke
My initial interaction with yoga was in the fall of 2004 when a friend suggested taking a surfer's flow class at the original Bird Rock Yoga studio. As a high school resource specialist, my job has always added degrees of stress to my life, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to give it a try and justified trying with the thought that it would help my surfing at the least. I felt a glow from that first class which rivaled the peak moments ive experienced in the ocean, and I immediately realized that there was much more going on and available through what yoga created in that mind/body connection through the breath. From there I adapted a regular practice into my life in order to go "within" and stop going "without". Enhancing my surfing and physical health is and was only the tip of the iceberg of what Yoga has done for me. Yoga has allowed me to recongnize, listen and live in my own truth and has helped me grow spiritually, mentally and emotionally. It has helped me to let go of stresses and difficulties that life constantly presents and instead recognize and appreciate all of the beautiful and positive things that are present in every experience. It has helped to cultivate the positive light within me and in teaching has allowed me the opportunity to spread that light to others. I have practiced in studios all over San Diego and feel blessed to be a teacher at Bird Rock yoga! It is an honor to be in a position to guide students through vinyasa flow, and my intention to help my students to be present through the breath on thier path to finding their own balance, stillness, truth and peace through their own yoga practice.
Kirsten
An accident about 8 years ago left me with 4 crushed discs. Surgery and years of therapy did nothing to alleviate the pain or bring full movement back to my limbs so I decided to give yoga a shot. I didn't know when I started this journey how much I would grow and how my life would change. Physically, I enjoy the improvement in my strength and flexibility. Mentally, it helps me develop a better ability to focus and find calmness that I integrate into other aspects of my life. Yoga is now my faithful companion, transforming my body and spirit. It is an honor to serve yogis with the intention of learning how to meet life challenges by relaxing more and using yoga as a means to explore yourself more deeply so you can see the beauty and strength within. My classes are light hearted and upbeat but supportive too. Presently my journey is being enriched by joining the amazing BirdRock Yoga team. Live life Big and Bright, without limitations
Julie
"....and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
-Anais Nin
I was drawn to the vinyasa flow for the variety and creativity that is inherent to the practice, allowing for self expression. But I soon found my mind wandering while taking virabhadrasana 1 or moving between virabhadrasana 2 and utthita parsvakonasana. When confronted with a challenging pose or sequence, I began to avoid it, blaming the teacher for creating the sequence, my run the day before for creating tight hips, and on and on. Then it happened, I knew I could either stay in this dance with my ego or choose to take notice. When we take notice of our poses and our personal challenges we are able to approach each with a compassionate gaze, open heart, and a strong peace. This does not mean that I still don't have my struggles, but I can approach them now with less avoidance and blame and more compassion. I have become a witness.
This process and journey is a lot like life-it's not always easy and it takes work, but that's the beauty of yoga. You can always step on your mat and become a witness; as your mat opens its arms and says "Welcome home.....I've missed you."
I'm so grateful to be part of the the Bird Rock Yoga community as both a teacher and a student. When I moved to San Diego two years ago, I was looking for a yoga studio and came across Bird Rock Yoga. I instantly fell in love with its hominess-one part Bohemian and one part laid back CA style. I had found my community. I laid down my mat and found my home.
Zoe
Zoe feels yoga in her heart. She was introduced to the practice at the age of fifteen, and as she grew into herself, yoga remained a constant inspiration for inner change and awareness cultivation. Throughout college, she found that yoga became her sanctuary, with each class deepening her own understanding of her light and her path in life. After graduating college with a BA in a field with which she had become dispassionate, Zoe knew intuitively that her life path must be one of healing. Upon becoming certified and registered with Yoga Alliance, she began giving donation-based classes on San Diego’s beautiful beaches for any and everyone. She continues her outdoor practice whenever possible, because feeling connected and grounded into the Earth is a large part of her personal yoga practice. Zoe infuses her classes with her spirit and love, encouraging her students to feel invigorated and peaceful. She emphasizes the importance of deep rhythmic breath, and asks her students to carry the lessons from their yoga mats into the rest of their lives. Zoe is also a passionate musician, and sometimes will share her musical talents with her students, softly serenading them in savasana. She feels so grateful to be able to share her love for and knowledge of yoga with other yogis and yoginis following their path, and is excited to see how her healing path unfolds.
Christine
Christine has over 12 years of yoga experience as both a student and a teacher. What began as a curiosity by attending a class with a friend, has led to a journey that has invited a new sense of openness, awareness and personal reflection in her life. After a number of years of focusing on her personal practice, the opportunity to train as a yoga teacher literally fell into her lap at her studio. Realizing that the universe has a way of presenting you with opportunities at the right time in life, Christine decided to enroll in a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program with Finding Inner Peace. She felt she was ready to embark on a journey to give back what yoga has been able to do for her, as well as to deepen her own practice. After completing the Finding Inner Peace program in October 2007 she have been teaching ever since! She has studied under a numerous teachers in Boston, New York and California. All have had their own style and energy and offered something for her to draw from as she created her own teacher personality. Her specialty and focus is primarily a Vinyasa Flow or Ashtanga style class where students can expect to learn gratitude for their bodies and individual abilities. Christine is grateful to share the ability for deeper awareness, compassion and acceptance in her classes.
Ben
Ben Lucas started his spiritual journey with Yoga in 2001. It all started in College, while studying acting in his voice and movement classes. He was introduced to Vinyasa Flow and everything seemed to grow from there. Being able to mesh such a physical workout with your own mental health/fortitude, as well as your spirituality has been the catalyst to his Yogic Journey. Living so close to the Ocean has strengthened his spirit, in that surfing and Yoga go hand in hand on such a deeper level than just the physical. The mind/body/soul connection with a Higher Being have been a critical stepping stone in his growth as a Yogi. After taking a bit of a "Fatherly Sabbatical," Ben is excited to leap back into the Bird Rock Community with a reinvigorated Spirit. Check all of your stresses and worries at the door and find yourself living and breathing in the moment on your mat. With an eclectic mix of music and calming strength, it is his hope and drive that you will find your Flow on your own, with a little help from a friend.
Kristi
Yoga has deeply nourished and transformed Kristi’s life and she believes it can do the same for you. She is dedicated to the practice and teaching of yoga, on and off the mat in her daily life, and it bring her great joy to support those who are seeking a more harmonious, balanced, and fulfilling life journey. Through personal sharing and philosophical insights, combined with precise technical guidance and warm sense of humor, Kristi provides student’s with the opportunity for transformation and self empowerment. Kristi teaches a blend of Hatha Yoga, integrating Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kripalu and Kundalini into her practice. Her classes embody these principals and are then incorporated into a Vinyasa flow which is tailored towards her students needs. She believes in the invigorating power that yoga offers the mind, body and spirit.Her understanding of the deep healing powers provided by a yoga practice was further experienced when a car accident left her with fractured vertebras. She drew upon her knowledge of yoga to help relieve and heal the intense pain caused by her injuries. Kristi became a student of yoga seven years ago and completed her 200 hour Yoga Alliance certification through the Nosara Yoga Institute located in Nosara, Costa Rica. Her practice is inspired by the teachings of her instructors which include but are not limited to: Tim Miller, Shiva Rea, Don and Amba Stapleton, Stephen Cope, Jon Friend, Dharma Mittra and Ana Forrest. Kristi finds her journey as a student of yoga and life to be never ending and she is delighted to say that may of her own students have acted as some of her greatest teachers. She is currently completing her Masters in Psychology and is continuing her education in areas involving Ayurvedic medicine, massage therapy, and nutrition.
Cynthia
Yoga found me! Yoga found me about 4 years ago, and I have been hooked ever since! Yoga helped me switch my outlook, to more of an “in” look and Whaaaalaaa. Yoga has changed my life! I have learned through my yoga practice that all I ever need is within me. I truly believe I could travel the world and all I have to do is find a yoga studio and at that moment I will have had found home! I started teaching 2 years ago because I wanted to give back what yoga has given to me! My intention as a teacher is to guide my friends through their practice to find a quiet stillness, that allows peace and happiness on their mat and off their mat! Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu!