Retreats, Workshops and small LIVE Zoom group classes customized for attendees. Softer, safer yoga. Meditation, Breath and Restorative Yoga
Beginners Yoga, Semi-Active Hatha Yoga, Healing & Restorative Yoga, Plus Size - Large Body Yoga, Yoga for Trauma, Injuries & Chronic Conditions, Adaptive & Gentle Yoga, Specialized Workshops, Private Sessions, Chair Yoga.
08/06/2025
MIMSY - Meditation in Movement Soft Yoga - is a soft practice that allows us to take a break from the chaotic world around us, and return to our Center.
It is primarily a floor practice that begins lying down on soft padding and props to support your back. MIMSY is yoga for your back, joints, organs, muscles, fascia, and most especially, your mind.
Lanita has been teaching MIMSY since 1996. It was the only way she could practice yoga asana when yoga found her. Since then, thousands of students have been able to enjoy and sustain a yoga practice through her gentle teachings.
Classes with Lanita on Zoom:
MIMSY: Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 10:30 AM. Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Slower Restorative Yoga, Breath & Meditation - Mondays at 7:30 PM -
(Pacific Time Zone)
When Redona attended her first Feathered Pipe Retreat, she had just turned 59. She was a close friend from San Diego who had moved to Alaska, whom I had not seen for over twenty-five years. She had followed my posts about The Feathered Pipe Ranch but never thought she could afford to attend.
Redona has dedicated her life to helping others, working as a schoolteacher, raising her daughter as a single mother, and caring for her aging mother. When the FP Foundation announced it was awarding $100,000 in partial scholarships for its 50th anniversary year, I reached out to Redona to apply, and she did! Thanks to the foundation scholarship, she was able not only to attend but also to reconnect with her deep bond to Mother Earth, which has always been an essential part of her.
The sacred FP land and our gentle, joyful movement practices helped Redona remember who she was. Even though she was now much larger than she had been in her earlier days, her body still remembered its graceful movements.
Although she hadn't hiked much in years, she courageously joined our walking group to the summit. She didn't try to keep pace with everyone else; instead, she would pause to rest and breathe, reminding everyone to do the same so they could see, hear, and fully experience the magic of the forest around them. In response to her body’s need to slow down, she gently taught others who did not think they needed it also to slow down, look around, and listen.
As Redona’s body and soul reconnected with Mother Earth, she would break into song several times during an outdoor session, honoring the earth. Her beautiful voice could be heard throughout the land, and even when it occasionally cracked (simply from lack of use), she would continue, unashamed of its occasional imperfections. This inspired us all to be brave and to share our hearts with everyone.
Redona embodies Mother Earth. Her reconnection to it at the Pipe was like watching the sum emerge from behind heavy clouds.
08/04/2025
Lanita’s Translation:
The practice of yoga will help bring balance into your chaotic life.
How we practice our physical yoga asanas reflects how we move in our everyday lives.
The longer we hold a yoga pose, the more we feel and the more our body and mind reveal.
It is not yoga asana without the focus on the breath. Breath is the key.
Breath and asana combined create calmness while also creating strength and tenacity. Tenacity is more than endurance; it is endurance combined with the unwavering certainty that what we seek will come to fruition.
Tenacity is the quality exhibited by someone who refuses to give up — who persists until they achieve their goal.
The consistent practice of yoga will significantly help balance both your body and life, while also aiding you in achieving your dreams and goals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lanita Varshell
Founder of A Gentle Way Yoga & Joyful Movement Center www.agentleway.com
08/02/2025
It's time to let go of believing that you have to be something you are not right now.
It's time to make peace with your body and your mind.
Join our comforting, nurturing live Zoom classes:
JOYFUL GENTLE MOVEMENT with Diane Ambrosini:
Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays 8:30 AM
CLASSES WITH LANITA:
Tuesday, Fridays and Sundays at 10:30 AM, Thursdays at 7:30 PM
MIMSY - MEDITATION IN MOVEMENT SOFT YOGA
Mondays at 7:30 PM - Prop Supported Restorative Yoga, Breath & Meditation
(Pacific Time Zone)
We waste so many years of our lives thinking it is other people and life situations that hold us back from experiencing happiness and peace, but yoga teaches us that it is almost always our own resistance. For years students have told me that they hear these helpful words of mine during their worst times, during surgeries, and even in their dreams: "Where can you let go?" ~ Lanita
08/01/2025
Choosing Joy
Pause,
Be here. �
Breathe.
Feel me,
See me.�
Feel my energy in the wind.
See my magic
in the shimmering leaves.
Notice the reflections, the shadows,
The light and the dark.
Let my beauty & mystery enchant you. Accept my gift of love
Shining in the eyes of the doe.
Share my love.
Enjoy this precious moment.
Allow it to enlighten you.
Be the light.
Allow this moment.
Allow this moment to uplift you.
Find your hope.
Join me, here, now.
Feel our connection, beloved.
Choose to be one with me.
Choose Peace.
Choose Joy!
A Poem given to Redona Grazio
from the Feathered Pipe Ranch
June - 2025. Photo taken by Redona at the Ranch. June 2025
Still looking for a great summer retreat? It's not to late to visit the Feathered Pipe Ranch this summer or plan your vacation with A Gentle Way Yoga for next year.
This is a destination you will not only never regret spending your time and money on, but like so many of us, once you plant your feet on this magical land you will want to return over and over again. www.featheredpipe.com www.agentleway.com
Schedule a chat with Lanita about the Feathered Pipe Ranch. You can pre-register for 2026 without putting any money down. agentlewayyoga@gmail.com
07/31/2025
If you, like me, were raised a Christian, how different would your life be now if you had not been taught that you were a
sinner,
But, a beautiful, spiritual being using this amazing but imperfect body?
If you need help getting past some of those past beliefs that still hold your body and mind back, we are here for you.
A Gentle Way Yoga & Joyful Movement
Daily, live Zoom classes with Lanita Varshell & Diane Ambrosini.
Senior Yoga Teachers and Yoga Therapists.
In-person San Diego County classes.
Private sessions available in person and on Zoom.
Yearly Retreats at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana.
We are here to support you through this incredible journey of life!
07/29/2025
Happiness has been a life long practice for me. It is something I still dedicate time to practicing everyday. I have spent so much of my life in survival or physical pain, that many times it was hard to find even a glimmer of happiness. But the practices, and people of yoga have helped me so vey much along the way. ~ Lanita www.agentleway.com
07/25/2025
Our Zoom classes are not just asana.
We are yoga sisters and brothers, coming together to support each other. In doing so, we support ourselves. We gently release tension from our bodies and prejudices from our minds. They are more than classes - it's a Sangha - yoga fellowship and community. Use code SAVE to get $8 off your first drop-in class.
07/18/2025
07/16/2025
We Need Each Other
There’s something rare about spaces where people are simply together, not to network, not to prove anything, not to impress, but to share presence. To breathe in the same air, to listen, to move, to sit in silence or laughter without the need for constant explanation. Spaces where we are not reduced to what we do for a living, the roles we play, or the personas we cultivate.
I’ve come to believe that these spaces are necessary. They help us remember who we are beyond the noise of daily life. And when we find them, they have a way of deepening connections—sometimes with old friends, sometimes with strangers who unexpectedly become important to us.
There is still time to visit Feathered Pipe Ranch this summer, or pre-register NOW for 2026 with A Gentle Way, or Anne Jablonski. www.featheredpipe.com
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We do not believe that one style of yoga, or one way of teaching a pose (asana) fits all. We are known for customizing our classes for the students who walk into our Center each day, not just teaching yoga asanas or routines.
We focus on safe, slower traditional asanas, and specialize in softer, healing, stress reducing and therapeutic classes that help balance the central nervous system.
Our founder Lanita Varshell began teaching yoga full-time in 1996. She began teaching in Diet Centers, Gyms, and Karate Studios, bringing students into yoga who never dreamed they could practice yoga or become healthy again.
Even fit, experienced yoga students loved her gentle, joyful approach to exercise, and soon she had developed a faithful clientele of over 100 students just in the East County San Diego area. "A Gentle Way Yoga Center" first opened its doors in 2000, adding more classes and different teachers and styles so that students could have a well rounded yoga practice. Since then we have offered a sanctuary for people from all walks of life to practice safe, personalized yoga.
Our active yoga classes will increase your flexibility, improve your muscle strength, and teach you to connect with your body and breath. Our gentle classes will calm your mind, melt away stress, and release areas in the body that hold tightness and tension.
Yoga breathing techniques and philosophy will open you to a world of inner and outer and health in a way that you have never experienced your life, your body, and the world before.
A quiet, clean sanctuary where you escape for an hour or two from your everyday stresses of life. We are a place where "the fit keeping fit to learn to balance their life and advance their practice safely. We are a haven for students who do not "fit into" traditional exercise or other yoga classes.
Yoga can be used as a tool to create balance in your life, and promote a deep sense of inner peace. Each of our instructors is trained to make yoga work for your specific body. We believe that anyone can (and should) do yoga - regardless of age, size, gender, or physical limitation. Yoga is experiential, and offers a unique journey for each individual.
Begin yours today! We look forward to getting to know you.
