OFFERING YOGA, TAI CHI, BARRE, REIKI, MEDITATION and more
Gateway Yoga with Sylvia is truly unique. Sylvia teaches KRIPALU-STYLE MINDFULNESS YOGA with a language of loving-kindness and compassion towards oneself. Whether one is a beginner, intermediate, or more advanced student, Sylvia will work to individualize and enrich each student's yoga practice.
There are many styles or traditions of yoga being offered in Fort Myers and surrounding areas. All teach the same basic yoga postures. After many years of practicing yoga and being exposed to several different traditions, when Sylvia decided to become a yoga instructor, she wanted to become a yoga teacher who could bring the gift of inner-peace, awareness and growth to her students - the gift she received from her practice of yoga. It was Kripalu-style yoga that spoke to her heart. It was Kripalu-style yoga that helped her achieve calmness and inner peace during many of life's challenges - both on the mat and off the mat. "Kripalu yoga is an integrated system of self-transformation that empowers you to realize your full potential. ...revitalize the body through postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques...enter meditative states that awaken compassion and clear the mind...live with greater skillfulness and joy, and transform your sense of what it means to be alive."
Work brought Sylvia's husband to Fort Myers in January of 2005. Sylvia, who was a full-time science teacher at that time, immediately embarked on an aggressive path of yoga teacher training. She knew that when she moved to Fort Myers in 2006 that she would give up her position as a science teacher and become a yoga teacher. Since that time, Sylvia has developed a full-time Kripalu-style mindfulness yoga teaching practice in the Fort Myers area with a concentration on mindfulness and stress reduction. Although south-west Florida is a mecca for seniors, Sylvia soon realized that this was an underserved population. Thus she was determined to make yoga for seniors a priority in her studies and in her classes. Her chair yoga classes are primarily yoga for seniors classes. Because her other classes are multi-level and because of Sylvia's ability to work with seniors like herself, yoga for seniors is easily incorporated in all her classes. The senior yoga participants provide both inspiration and challenge to the younger students. Students from many surrounding areas attend her classes.