About Us
“I love this practice. Through yoga, I have found more strength and ease in body, and more authenticity in my life. Mindfulness reminds me of the extraordinary capacity of the mind to grow and change. I’ll always be a student, inspired, and eager to learn.”
THE VISION
Kula Yoga’s vision is to bring the ancient wisdom of yoga
to modern yogis of all ages and abilities.
THE STORY
The wanderings of my twenties found me, much to my surprise, traveling overland from Europe to India. I lived for a year in temples, huts and on beaches, washed my clothes in the rivers and absorbed teachings on yoga and meditation. It wasn’t until I returned to the USA that I began a physical yoga practice at a community college, and at the SFIntegral Yoga Institute in exchange for pulling weeds.
I put the practice aside for years, short on time and money, while I raised a family but knew I would come back. Running and swimming kept me fit enough until a running injury required I stop. I made my way to Kaya Yoga in Davis, California and it’s been a mad love affair ever since. I enrolled in Kaya Yoga’s 200 hour Certified Yoga Teacher Training in 2011 to deepen my practice. I loved the immersion into philosophy, anatomy, alignment, pranayama and meditation and relished every moment. I didn’t expect to teach, but found myself intensely drawn to the challenge of bringing the teachings of yoga to others.
With three children of my own and work as an early childhood and subject teacher at the local Waldorf School teaching yoga to children was a natural next step. It was clear to me how the teachings of mindfulness and movement together can benefit young bodies and minds and be a lifelong gift learned early.
My family and I spent 5 years in the Wellington area of New Zealand, where Kula Yoga was born. I had the extraordinary pleasure of teaching children, teens and adults, including leading the very special Mum & Daughter Yoga Retreat. I’m so grateful to have been a part of the Wellington yoga community where I found like minds, inspiring souls and huge hearts.
We returned to Davis, California, teaching and practicing again at Kaya Yoga. Currently I am studying body psychotherapy towards a Masters in Counseling Psychology, specializing in Somatics at the California Institute of Integral Studies and working towards licensure as a Licensed Practicing Clinical Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist in California.
“I love this practice. Through yoga, I have found more strength and ease in body, and more authenticity in my life. Mindfulness reminds me of the extraordinary capacity of the mind to grow and change. I’ll always be a student, inspired, and eager to learn.”
Jeanne Balding
Jeanne Balding – Founder and Yoga Instructor
Qualifications
-over 1000 hours of teaching kids, teens, and adults!
-Kaya Yoga 200 hour Teacher Training
-MiniYogis Foundational 10 hour Yoga for Kids
-Joe Barnett’s 50-hour Yin Level 1
-Joe Barnett’s 40-hour Chakras and Assisted Yin Level 2
-90Monkeys’ 27-hour Hands-on Assisting Module with Amy Ippoletti
-workshops with Maty Ezraty, Tiffany Cruikshank, Noah Maze, Rocky Heron, and online training with Doug Keller, Judith Lasater, Leslie Howard, Donna Farhi and more.
Favorite Yoga Pose of the moment – Parvritta Parsvokonasana (Revolved Side Angle Pose)
Favorite Children’s Book – Miss Rumphius
Current Inspirations – any poetry by Mary Oliver, Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron, Mindsight by Daniel Siegel
Clare Weinstock
Clare co-led the craft workshop with Chloe at the Mum & Daughter Yoga Retreat as well as natural spa day.
Clare is a lover of music with a particular passion for travel and dance. She likes the movement of yoga and Acro-yoga. You might have seen her flying on the Kula Kids Yoga posters. If she were a movie, she’d be Coraline. Some of her favorite musicians are Lana del Rey, the Beatles, and Rabbit Wilde.
Chloe Weinstock
Chloe co-led the Tween/Teen craft workshop while mums do yoga and co-lead the natural spa day at the Mum and Daughter retreat.
She is a burgeoning marine scientist and an enthusiastic and playful yogi, with a love for waterfalls, cooking, hula hooping, watercolors, and all things octopus. She has been studying bioluminescence in California since graduating from uni, and spent some months in New Zealand, where she was constantly finding shells and stones and other ocean treasures in her pockets.
She has a smiley face tattoo on the tip of her toe that smiles at her in downward dog. It reminds her of her favorite yoga quote, “If you can’t even half-smile when you’re doing something challenging, it means you are pushing too hard” by her second favourite yoga teacher, Kathryn Budig.
She is so excited to be a part of Kula Yoga because her Mom is her number one favourite yoga teacher, and she feels lucky to share this with you all(:
