Bonnie McElfresh

Bonnie began practicing yoga in the spring of 2002 when she was introduced to a Bikram studio in Santa Cruz, California. Eventually she moved to Portland, Oregon where she began practicing with a teacher who introduced her to a more heart themed, spiritual style of Hatha yoga. In 2007 she moved to Tokyo, Japan where she continued to practice yoga surrounded by the teachings of a Buddhist and Shinto society. In early 2009 she returned to Portland and resumed her practice with Annie Adamson at Yoga Union, where she completed her teacher training.

Bonnie teaches an Anusara-influenced, Vinyasa style of yoga. She incorporates the breath, encouraging students to take in Prana, or energy from the air, and use it to sooth the mind while simultaneously opening the body in order to make room for the heart. Her classes aim to open her students to grace by guiding them to ground down through the earth, followed by an organic extension up toward the sky. Bonnie teaches students in a way that opens the heart, allowing them to give and receive from a place of love, letting each student discover and bathe in his or her own divine truth.