PRANA Yoga + Wellbeing

PRANA Yoga + Wellbeing PRANA Yoga + Wellbeing has been offering yoga since 2002. We believe that yoga is for everybody, and are proud to serve All are welcome!!

Castro Valley Yoga has been offering yoga since 2002. We endeavor to reach all segments of our community, including absolute beginners, continuing and returning practitioners, seniors, kids, teens, people with limitations or health conditions, and experienced practitioners. We believe that yoga is for everyone, and we are proud to serve a diverse population of students. Our goal is to support your goal by providing a variety of classes taught by skilled instructors who provide guidance specific to each student’s unique needs and objectives. We encourage you to try classes taught by different instructors and in different styles of yoga to grow in your practice. Please contact us to ask questions and to find out what yoga can do for you.

Create Your Vision for 2026The New Year is fast approaching, and so we’re gearing up for our eighth annual Create Your V...
12/22/2025

Create Your Vision for 2026

The New Year is fast approaching, and so we’re gearing up for our eighth annual Create Your Vision for the New Year Workshop!

Join April Oquenda to honor 2025 and mindfully prepare for 2026. This 2-hour interactive workshop weaves together reflective journaling, meditation, breathing techniques, gentle yoga, and designing an intentional vision for the year ahead.

Thursday, January 1st
1:00 - 3:00pm
$50 | Register online via Mindbody App or visit our website to see the class schedule.

12/22/2025

We made it to the last week of our ten-week series, ending strong with the practice of Ishvara Pranidhana, or surrender.

In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the last three practices of Niyama work together for Kriya Yoga, or purposeful work to help calm the mind.

Tapas (the heat of self-discipline)
Svadhyaya (self-study)
Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender)

By doing all three of these practices, yoga teaches us the path to find inner peace and to liberate ourselves from the constant fluctuations of the mind.

However, this work of surrender comes last for a reason—it’s only after working hard on the other nine ethical practices that we can relinquish control and surrender the rest. In other words, we have to do our part first, put our yoga into action, and then trust that we’ve done all we can before surrendering.

So this week, try weaving together what you’ve already been practicing related to Tapas and Svadhyaya, then see what it’s like to surrender the rest. Notice how this impacts your mind, your sense of peace, your inner being.

This year, give the gift of yoga!Start your loved ones out in the new year with a month of unlimited yoga at PRANA.Gift...
12/20/2025

This year, give the gift of yoga!

Start your loved ones out in the new year with a month of unlimited yoga at PRANA.

Gift certificates are available in person at the studio, by email, or through your account in MINDBODY.

PRANA Yoga + Wellbeing is being considered for “Best Yoga” in Castro Valley Eden Area 2025, and we need your help to win...
12/19/2025

PRANA Yoga + Wellbeing is being considered for “Best Yoga” in Castro Valley Eden Area 2025, and we need your help to win the title !!
 
Please consider voting for us today for the “Best Yoga” in our community. Link is in our bio.

We’re so thankful for your vote and support, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
 
Be sure sure to check out our upcoming special offerings and class schedule online.
 
With Love,
-PRANA Team

Winter Solstice is this weekend !! Join April Oquenda + Beth Hughes for a very special afternoon of Meditation, Yin Yoga...
12/19/2025

Winter Solstice is this weekend !!

Join April Oquenda + Beth Hughes for a very special afternoon of Meditation, Yin Yoga, and Sound Bath as we prepare for the season of Winter.

Sunday, December 21
2:00 - 5:00pm
$75

Register online ! Visit pranayogawellbeing.com

12/16/2025

Down to just two weeks left in our ten-week series on the ethical practices of yoga! This week, we focus on Svadhyaya, or self-study.

Our time on the mat has helped prepare us for this. For many, sitting still long enough to enter meaningful reflection is too much a challenge... our mind enters into its default mode of pinging around, we get distracted, and we lose our focus. Or, we’ve grown so accustomed to “doing” all the time that we’ve hindered our ability to sit still. This is one reason why time on the mat is so crucial to our growth—it teaches us how to sit still, be with ourselves, and focus our attention.

And why is this work of going inward for self reflection so important? Well... how else can we evaluate our progress? How else can we assess our strengths (and then work to magnify those) while also assessing our areas for growth (and determine ways to remedy those parts of our character)? This is the work of Svadhyaya.

So this week, try arriving to the studio a few minutes earlier than usual, so you have time to sit still on your mat before class begins. Use the tools you’ve learned related to the breath to help stay focused—full attention to the inhale, full attention to the exhale. Then, during savasana, see if you can stay present with the breath again, allowing your attention to go inward and conduct that self evaluation. It’s not easy, but the ritual of yoga has equipped us with resilience and strength, that we might do this essential work of growing all the time and living our lives with presence and mindfulness.

Week Eight of our ten-week series is the practice of Tapas, or the heat of self-discipline.Tapas is about cultivating th...
12/12/2025

Week Eight of our ten-week series is the practice of Tapas, or the heat of self-discipline.

Tapas is about cultivating the willpower to make the changes needed to become the person you want to be, to create the life you want to live.

In the practice of yoga, the heat generated through pranayama (conscious breathing practices), through asana (the postures), even through the heat in the room, can help remove avidya (ignorance or misapprehension), and so using Tapas can bring more clarity, more clear apprehension.

For this week, see if you can welcome the heat, and even add in some Santosha (contentment) to help sit with the feelings of discomfort that often arise from heat. Then, see if by welcoming the heat, the Tapas, you can direct the clarity and the self-discipline you cultivated toward a more mindful way of living.

We’re now in week four of our 10-week Yama Niyama Series, focusing on the practice of Brahmacharya, or non-excess.This w...
11/11/2025

We’re now in week four of our 10-week Yama Niyama Series, focusing on the practice of Brahmacharya, or non-excess.

This week, we examine where in our lives we have the tendency to spend our resources frivolously or mindlessly.

Disclaimer: like all the other practices, the meaning of Brahmacharya is much more complex than non-excess. And a deeper dive into this Yama is certainly worthwhile. For our purposes, we’re keeping our focus on the aspect of non-excess.

Remember—the five practices of the first limb of Yoga (Yama) are about restraint, and Brahmacharya is all about restraint, but not in a way that’s limiting. Instead, try to think of this practice as one of mindful expenditure and direction of energy. Brahmacharya is ultimately about discernment.

Because we can be creatures of habit, yoga teaches us to look at our thoughts, our actions, and our words with more questioning. When we apply mindfulness, we’re using the teachings of yoga to make better decisions in our lives and with the benefit of others in mind, too.

So this week, try to slow down and watch where programming might come in... when you might be tempted toward a Pleasure/Repeat or Displeasure/Avoid pattern, and see if you can pause, take a few deep breaths, and see what you’re really after. If you decide to go forward, at least you’re doing so with more conscientiousness than having made the choice from sheer habit.

We’re now in week three of our 10-week Yama Niyama Series, focusing on the practice of Asteya, or non-stealing. But Aste...
11/05/2025

We’re now in week three of our 10-week Yama Niyama Series, focusing on the practice of Asteya, or non-stealing. But Asteya is so much more than not taking what isn’t ours.

This week, we look at the root cause of what makes us seek what isn’t ours to have, what makes us perceive a lack in our lives, what inclines us toward the mindset of scarcity.

And here’s where we can make our way to the mat for practice. Yoga teaches us to be attentive to where we’re giving our attention. Each time we can redirect our attention back to the breath, back to the body, back to the present moment, we train ourselves to be more discerning about where we give our attention.

When we take this disciplining-of-the-mind toward the work of Asteya, we notice when our thoughts direct toward scarcity and then consciously choose to redirect those thoughts to seeing the abundance that is already present in our lives. This is the work of gratitude. By shifting our attention toward appreciation for what we already have, we make ourselves present for gratitude, for marveling at the beautiful aspects of the world rather than focusing on what we lack.

This is the work of Asteya: cultivating gratitude by being present in our lives.

Join Twila for yin yoga to support the Veterans Yoga Project on Saturday, 11/8 from 11:00 - 12:00pm. Donate what you can...
11/04/2025

Join Twila for yin yoga to support the Veterans Yoga Project on Saturday, 11/8 from 11:00 - 12:00pm. Donate what you can!

Yin offers practitioners a chance to slow down and be present with the breath and the body. Thus, it is a perfect complement to the more active classes on the schedule. Yin focuses on stretching the connective tissues (ligaments, tendons, and fascia) to create greater range of motion in the joints and spine. Yin poses are almost entirely passive and can be well supported with the use of props when appropriate. Because connective tissues require more time to lengthen than muscles do, most of the poses are held for several minutes to allow the pose to pe*****te.

We’re in Week Two of our 10-week Yama Niyama series, where each week leading to the year’s end, we study and practice on...
10/29/2025

We’re in Week Two of our 10-week Yama Niyama series, where each week leading to the year’s end, we study and practice one of the ten ethical principles of yoga.

For nine years, we’ve done this work together, reading along week by week in Deborah Adele’s book, The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice.

For this week, we focus on on Satya, or truthfulness.

Satya is more than just non-lying. Satya is about living authentically, as the true expression of ourselves. Think about the greeting “Namaste.” We say this to honor the light that is within each of us.

This light is the truth of who we are. Yet, our ego constantly tempts us to believe otherwise, as when we get caught up in personality and identity. We also might get caught up in pressures from the world around us, tempting us to suppress parts of ourselves to make others more comfortable.

So this week, as we make our way to the mat, see if there’s room to devote some extra time to stillness, to recognizing that spark within, and to allowing it to express fully. Then, see there’s room to extend that recognition of the spark as you interact with others, attempting to see their truth, their light.

Satya isn’t an easy practice; it requires great courage to live authentically, from that truth of light. This week’s invitation is to use our time on the mat to go inward, to explore the inner landscape, that we might attune to the truth of who we are.

Have you visited our new studio on Redwood Road yet? Our first week was so sweet — we loved celebrating with our communi...
10/28/2025

Have you visited our new studio on Redwood Road yet? Our first week was so sweet — we loved celebrating with our community and welcoming so many new faces into the space!

If you haven’t had a chance to practice yet, check out our daily schedule in the Highlights or visit pranayogawellbeing.com to sign up for a class.

We can’t wait to see you here !

Address

20948 Redwood Road
Castro Valley, CA
94546

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