pranava yoga | YOGI TIMES

“Take a deep breath in and bend your left knee towards the rice paddies. Take a deep breath out and lift your arm to the banana leaves at the back of the room.”

Hearing these kind of instructions during a yoga class lets you truly experience the vibe of outdoor yoga. Looking through the fresh green rice fields and palm trees while you are standing in your reversed warrior gives you the natural power to hold the pose a few breaths longer.

If you want to experience a true Balinese yoga, Pranava Yoga is the place to be. When you are driving on the busy Jl Pantai Betawa in Canggu, it’s difficult to imagine that a quiet and peaceful shala is situated just 2 minutes by foot behind the main road. When you enter, the staff welcomes you so gently and friendly that you feel like you are in a familiar place.

In addition, the Matra Balinese family live together in this area and you may be able to catch a glimpse of their traditional offerings, praying, and ceremonies. The owners, Vicki and Yuni, started Pranava Yoga in April 2016 for their guests and the local community.

Compared to some other trendy and more Western yoga studios in Canggu, classes here are on the lower price. The owners try to motivate the people from the village to join, even if they can’t afford a class. They believe that yoga can change lives by improving health and the way people think. They even started their own teacher training. The price is 4,000,000 RP for a 50- hour Hatha Course (including food), which makes this training really accessible for locals from all over the island.

Besides Ashtanga there are lots of other interesting classes on the schedule like Gentle Vinyasa, Vinyasa Power Flow, Hatha Flow, Hatha Chakra Healing, Anti-Gravity and Restorative & Yoga Nidra.

There are ten different teachers and most of them are Indonesian, with many years of teaching experience. One of the western teachers, Jacqueline, taught an Ashtanga based class. She was really helpful, paid attention to all her students with different levels, and added a nice sense of humor to the class. She feels blessed to teach here because teaching at other studios sometimes comes down to guiding a physical exercise, whereas here she really has the feeling of being part of a transformation in the community.