After being away from the Bay Area for a long time, I dropped in to a Vinyasa class at Darshana Yoga. As I was signing up for the class, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the studio's owner (Catherine De Los Santos), who was helping me, noted that I had taken classes from her before ... and that was two summers ago! This perfectly captures the essence of Darshana Yoga, where you feel acknowledged as a member of an intimate community, no matter how long you have stayed away.

The class I took was taught by Marta, who I had just met, and I immediately responded to her energy -- strong, positive and humorous. Weeks later I still recall a meditation trick she shared with the class, which has helped tremendously, and more importantly, she has this uncanny way of encouraging students to push beyond their limits without making it seem pushy, forced or scary. That means a lot to me, as I tend to be weak in certain areas and like to move cautiously forward -- but she got this little scaredy-cat to do some things I had previously refused to try, as she made it feel quite safe.

The only complaint I have is that I wish Marta taught more classes!