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Live ZOOM Class Schedule


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Tuesday, June 24, 2025

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Would you like some help making your physical and emotional health a priority?

Are you ready to find JOY through movement, and experience DEEP PEACE through slow, restorative movement, deep rest, and conscious breathing? Are you searching for an accessible, inclusive, fun, supportive community?

We are here to support you!

We are yoga teachers, therapists, and fitness experts who love to work with individual students and small groups to help customize a joyful, effective life practice for you.

Yoga is not just about asana. It’s about helping you with your thinking, habits, goals, and dreams.

We specialize in helping those who are new to yoga, those who are aging, those with larger or inflexible bodies, trauma survivors, and those with chronic or life-threatening diseases.

Senior Teachers Lanita Varshell and Diane Ambrosini mentor yoga students and teachers who need to learn how to slow down or need help building a new business.

We have over 30 years of experience starting, building, and successfully owning and managing small yoga studios.


Photo: Instructors: Lanita, Diane, Kathy, Sean

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Actress Amy Johnson and A Gentle Way Owner Lanita Varshell

About Our Founder


Lanita Varshell - E-RYT500, YACEP, C-IAYT - is a Certified Yoga Instructor, Trainer, Therapist, Writer, and Motivational Speaker with leading-edge yoga experience since 1996.
She has pioneered healing, life-changing yoga philosophy, and soft, gentle, joyful movement to people of all sizes, ages, and abilities.
Lanita is known for her expertise in working with people new to yoga, large bodies, trauma survivors, and those with hidden or life-threatening diseases.
Her specialties are helping people create a balanced, peaceful life despite what is happening in their lives and bodies.
Whether you find it hard to sit still or have a bigger, slower, or older body, Lanita can guide you toward health, hope, and joy.
(Photo: Right: Lanita Varshell - Founder of A Gentle Way. Left: Amy S. Johnson - Actress & Certified AGW Yoga Teacher)
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Yoga and life coaching for bigger, fat, plus size, slower, aging bodies. Yoga for beginners and seniors
Private Mentoring

Teacher Training and Private Coaching for Students, Teachers, and Yoga Studio Owners.

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Lanita Varshell, A Gentle Way Yoga, yoga classes, workshops, San Diego yoga events
Feathered Pipe Retreat

June 2026
Reserve your space now!
No deposit required.

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Chair Yoga

Monthly - FREE In-Person Classes
Weekly: Zoom Chair & Wall Class

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Testimonials


"Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude to A Gentle Way for providing me with a place for such gentle healing. I came from L.A. to visit your Studio, entering with a tremendous amount of pain, both physically and emotionally. After 35 classes with the gentlest and most nurturing teachers, I am leaving on a path of healing, hope, and profound amazement that life indeed unfolds and provides exactly what we need. Thank you all so much! "

-Susan ~ Actress

"You opened a door for me that I didn’t even know was out there. Who would have ever dreamed that I would get on my mat everyday, and become a teacher, let alone even practice yoga? Anyone who gets to study with you and Diane is so very blessed! My life is so rich now - thanks to yoga. "

-Deborah ~ Student & Teacher

"What you do is so yoga, yet so different than the way I have been taught to teach it. You start the class in a very relaxed way, almost playfully, releasing tension out of our body, and then we just seem to go deeper and deeper, with poses held longer and longer. It feels as though it is music, and you are this powerful conductor. We get swept away by the inner music, the slow healing rhythm we are discovering in our very own body. "

-Judy ~ Yoga Teacher

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Frequently asked questions

Yes! We have many students like you who just wanted a safe place to learn yoga. After just a few months of working with Lanita & Diane you will be able to practice in many others studios, knowing how to customize the poses for your body, if needed. Yet, we have others who have stayed with us for 10, 20+ years just because they like our slower, safer approach to hatha yoga.

Yes! Both Lanita and Diane do Zoom and in-person San Diego private sessions as their schedule allows.

Yes! We turn away sincere yoga seekers.  Since this is our livelihood, we want to ensure we are helping out the right students, not those just looking for bargains. If you need a reduced rate, please do not hesitate to email Lanita directly with your circumstances and what you can pay for a class or workshop.

No, our sweet studio (A Gentle Way Yoga in La Mesa) closed its' doors in 2020 (after 20+ years!) due to Covid-19, but we now teach weekly live on-line ZOOM classes, monthly workshops and teacher trainings in San Diego, and yearly retreats.