Mary Beth Ray

With breath, with practice, with inquiry, and with others who truly get it, we'll move through it and map exactly where this transition is touching your life using the ancient pañcamaya model. May 16th! Join me.

Here's the link to sign up: https://www.mygreenyogi.com/all-events-k9t8told/riding-the-wave-yoga-for-the-stages-of-menopause

Redux - as a one-day event.
See link in comments~

Through the lens of yoga therapy and the ancient pañcamaya model — which recognizes five interconnected dimensions of the human system — we'll spend an afternoon mapping this transition honestly, moving through it somatically, and exploring the question that menopause quietly asks of everyone who enters it: Who are you becoming?

This workshop is for you if:

You are in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause

You are a yoga practitioner whose practice feels like it no longer fits

You are a yoga teacher who wants to better understand and serve students in this transition

You are simply ready to stop managing this experience and start inhabiting it

This is not a promise to eliminate symptoms. It is a space to understand what is happening, move with it skillfully, and emerge with tools, clarity, and community.

This workshop welcomes all people navigating the menopausal transition, regardless of how they identify.

Through practice, reflection, and discussion you will be equipped with tools to support strength, adaptability, and a sustainable yoga practice for the long term.



berkeley

This is an invitation to yoga practitioners and teachers in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.
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Menopause is a transition that unfolds over time.
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For many of us, it begins quietly in our late 30s or early 40s—long before we would use the word “menopause” to describe ourselves. (It’s telling, though, that if you get pregnant after age 35, they used to call it a “geriatric” pregnancy, now at least they’ve softened the stigma to “advanced maternal age” (AMA).)
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Clinically, menopause is defined as the 366th day after your last menstrual period. But the years—before and after—surrounding that day? That’s where the real story lives.
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And here’s the part we really don’t talk about enough:
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This change affects 100% of people with ovaries, regardless of whether we’ve had children.
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Yet most of us were never taught what to expect.
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And here's something to consider: Most 200-hour teacher training programs spend significant time on prenatal modifications—and very little, if anything, on what happens at the other end of the reproductive lifespan.
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Yet every single one of us will age.
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Many practitioners quietly step away from yoga during perimenopause because the practice that once supported them no longer fits their nervous system, sleep patterns, joints, or bones.
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They assume they’ve failed—or that yoga no longer works.
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But yoga is not just a set of poses. It is a system of principles applied to the human condition.
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And aging is the human condition.
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-->>See link in comment, or use the QR code, for more details about this workshop.

My goal as a yoga teacher is to help you learn the tools of yoga so you can cultivate strength in body, mind, and spirit.

With the strength you build in all three dimensions, my hope is that yoga helps you see, think, and act more clearly—in whatever situation you may be facing today. Yoga is a state of being present. It's not easy. It takes continuous practice and there are many tools and principles to help guide us along the way.

Ahimsa is the very first step on the eight-limbed path to a state of yoga. Ahimsa is often translated as non-harming—non-violence, or simply kindness. Kindness toward yourself, your community, and humanity as a whole. Simple, human kindness.

It takes great strength to be kind, especially when we are angry, afraid, grieving, or hurting in any way. When facing brutality, violence, or gaslighting, it takes even more strength to choose kindness.

“Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” is a Sanskrit mantra meaning:

“May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute to that happiness and freedom for all.”
It is a universal prayer for peace and well-being, reminding us of our shared humanity and deep interconnectedness.

It is my sincere wish that one day we may all see, think, and act clearly - to know better and be better human beings.

In the meantime, we use our practice to help us take whatever step is right for each of us each day. And take a sigh break from time to time.

To be guided by kindness does not mean passivity. These practices are for strength, to help us cultivate resilience, and in our own way, contribute to the resistance against the abhorrent actions we are witnessing by those who do not have these principles in their heart.

May peace be with all of us who are choosing to fight for kindness in the world.

Stay strong.

Some New Year news....

[Vital Bones] Some New Year news Hello everyone, Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! We’ll start back up with 2026 live classes next Wednesday January 7th. In the meantime, as this year draws to a close, I f...

Come join me .berkeley
🧘✨🙏

Time to sign up! Starts this Monday the 19th!

This new 6-week workshop class series you learn how to use the tools of yoga to build better balance and get better sleep.

You will learn a short practice to fit into your day that will:
~calm your nervous system
~reduce stiffness
~increase flexibility
~ground your body-mind-spirit

See link in comments to get the details and to sign up!

Yes recordings available to those who register.

Yoga for Better Balance and Sleep starts Monday May 19th! Six-Week Series. Sign up today! Link in Comments.

Join me this August at the beautiful Ratna Ling Retreat Center near the Sonoma Coast in California to restore balance with steadiness & ease.

In this weekend retreat, you will slow down and experience spaciousness in your body, mind, and breath to just be. The yoga practices are infused with peace and calmness to cultivate deeper stability, awareness, and insight into the interconnected dimensions of your whole self. With time to connect with each other and to spend time on your own, this breath-centered getaway offers an opportunity to let go of patterns of tension and stress, allowing a feeling of lightness, steadiness, and ease to settle in and restore balance.

Details at link in comments.

Just discovered that this tutorial I recorded for Square One Yoga back during the pandemic was posted to YouTube in 2023. Doing a headstand isn't for everyone (in the tutorial I list reasons why some people should not do this pose), but if this is something you are practicing, I thought you might like to hear my take on this "pose of patience" - let me know your thoughts and experience:

Headstand Tutorial with Mary Beth Ray Headstand is the “king of all poses” and it’s the pose of patience. In this tutorial we will learn how to build a strong foundation, integrity in the shoulde...