Tag archives: yoga

Past the Poses: Studio Sessions
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 21, 2026

Yoga studios abound all through town and the Santa Barbara environs. But not all of them offer events and classes that aren’t about asanas. Yoga Soup’s been one of the big players ever since Founder Eddie Ellner opened the space as a hybrid yoga studio, bookstore, and community gathering space 25 years ago. Indeed, the […]

Music and Meditation x 2 and More Spirituality Matters
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 28, 2026

The Music & Meditation Santa Barbara series co-founded by pianist Antonio Artese winds up its quite successful first full season next month when flutist Jill Felber joins the pianist in a one-hour offering that brings together the timeless beauty of live music with the calming practice of guided meditation. Each concert is designed as a […]

Singing for Community… and Social Change
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 24, 2026

Three of Santa Barbara’s song leaders come together again on Friday, March 20, for a special Spring Equinox community singing event in the Funk Zone. Amisha Sera Luna, who regularly leads community singing circles both indoors (every 1st and 3rd Sunday) and periodically at local parks, will be joined by Alison Zuber and Heather Stevenson, […]

A Volf with Sheep’s Grace at All Saints and More Spirituality Matters
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 10, 2026

Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, comes west for a special Sunday event at All Saints-by-the-Sea on March 14. The event, part of All Saints’ “A Living Room for the Community” series, consists of three lectures […]

The Hendricks Harken Back to 1990 to Mark a Milestone and Other Spirituality Matters
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 25, 2025

Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, the self-help/personal growth/relationship transformation and body-mind workshop leaders, authors of more than 35 books (including the best-seller Conscious Loving), and all-around paradigm-shifting pioneers in the conscious loving and body intelligence fields, based their publishing endeavors and other operations in Montecito for years before relocating to the mountains of Ojai almost two […]

Music and Meditation at the Music Academy
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 28, 2025

Carpinteria-based Jessica Kolbe, a Qigong/Tai Chi teacher and meditation guide, teams up with Santa Barbara pianist Antonio Artese for the debut of a series of intimate events where guided meditation meets live classical music. This journey of silence, breath, and sound, invites participants to quiet the mind to let the music in more deeply, and […]

Taran-osaurus Teaches Techniques Through Stories
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 9, 2025

Third-generation Montecito resident Taran Collis, a certified Yoga Therapist and Ayurveda Wellness Counselor, spent almost two decades teaching yoga and wellness to adults at La Casa de Maria and the Montecito YMCA before the debris flows from the Thomas Fire and later the pandemic interfered.  What also changed things was having a son. Within a […]

Tending to Dreams
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 12, 2025

There’s never been a better time to take up the practice of Dream Tending, both online and in person, locally and on retreat.  The concept behind Dream Tending is that our dreams carry an inner knowing, an innate sensibility and an element of potency that affords each of us the capacity to explore the depths […]

Community Song Circles
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 29, 2025

For years, Heather Stevenson’s relationship with singing in public was performing as a singer-songwriter at local festivals, nightspots, and other gatherings. But in 2018, she was an early visitor to a community song circle led by Glen Phillips; native Santa Barbaran, co-founder of platinum-selling Toad the Wet Sprocket, and a critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter.  The community singing […]

Empathy from the Inside Out
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 15, 2025

Mindful Heart Programs’ Founder Dr. Radhule Weininger is teaming up with Santa Barbara Empathy Circles for a one-day retreat at Santa Barbara Middle School’s aptly named Lotus Theater on Saturday, July 12. Combining meditation with empathy circles, the event serves as an opportunity to put into almost immediate practice the compassion that is at the […]

Summer at Sunburst
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 8, 2025

Daily commuters between Lompoc and Santa Barbara may not feel this way, but the drive along the coast on the CA101 west of Goleta, and then through the rural areas heading toward Lompoc, can be meditative on its own. Even better, Sunburst Sanctuary shows up several miles outside of Lompoc, and tensions seem to fade […]

The Gifts of Gab and Godmothers
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 3, 2025

Godmothers’ lineup of fascinating authors in conversation exceeds even what might have been expected before the September 2024 opening of the high-profile Montecito-adjacent bookstore. Recent guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle, Amanda Knox, and Maria Shriver, to name just a few.  Those events almost invariably sell out well in advance. But Godmothers – in […]

Singing, Dancing, Laughing or Journaling Through the Chaos
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 22, 2025

Meditation is marvelous and yoga is yummy, but a new method of coping and connecting can be welcome during particularly challenging times.  “Singing the Bones” features a musical collaboration with the audience that weaves together diasporic traditions through story and song from the three song leaders. Lydia Violet Harutoonian, a Persian American Bay Area violinist […]

Nineteen Years in the Soup with Eddie Ellner
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 18, 2025

Eddie Ellner didn’t realize he was building what would become a local institution when – 20 years ago – he had the idea to create his own yoga studio just off State Street and a few blocks from the beach. But he knew that yoga would be the foundation.  He’d discovered the practice years before […]

Sounding Off: Baths Abound
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 18, 2025

Dive into a unique Reiki-infused sound bath with guided hypnosis in Yoga Soup’s ongoing Sunday Soundscape series every third Sunday of the month (February 16; $35). The 75-minute journey with Danielle Elese focuses on harmonizing our internal waters, the element that comprises most of our bodies. Sound has a profound impact on water, affecting its […]

Adrienne Smith’s Daylight Rave
By Jeff Wing   |   April 25, 2024

SUNSENDER. There, I said it. Remember the word. It is the fruit of one woman’s search for everyday magic.  Merrily Merrily Merrily Merrily. Life is But a Dream. Adrienne Smith and three other women climbed into a fiberglass rowboat under the Golden Gate Bridge, shoved off, and rowed to Honolulu; a largish city in the […]

Holiday Wrap Up: Wrapping Up the Home
By Zach Rosen   |   December 20, 2022

With the holidays upon us, here are a few places for putting those finishing touches on the home, last-minute local gifts, or just spots to go get some fresh air and holiday cheer. During the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to let things slip through the cracks and this week is […]

Yoga Après Polo with Megan Llambias
By Michelle Ebbin   |   July 19, 2022

For over 100 years the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club (SBPRC), situated beautifully in the Carpinteria foothills between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific Ocean, has drawn polo players and spectators from all over the world. This year the buzz about Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and world-renowned Argentine polo champion, Nacho […]

Santa Barbara Yoga Fest Feeds your Soul… and the Hungry
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 14, 2020

Enjoy a full day of yoga with a wide swath of Santa Barbara County yoga teachers from Carpinteria to Santa Maria – including many of your favorites and lots of chances to practice with someone new – in a special participatory benefit to raise money for the Santa Barbara County Foodbank, whose goal is “moving […]

Meetups in Cyberspace
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 7, 2020

Elissa Amina’s Sufi Yoga classes are continuing through May as an opportunity to explore breathwork, yoga, and meditation while invoking the divine qualities to open the heart to expansive states, and bring healing on a cellular level. Amina teaches a combination of yogas including Kundalini, Yin, Naam and Hatha, plus Pure Heart, Pure Body, and […]