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Ainsley Rudra Priya Jaya Waken

RYT 200; Member

Ainsley Rudra Priya Jaya Waken believes that yoga should be available and accessible to everyone, regardless of physical ability, financial ability, or mental strength. Yoga means union. Rudra Priya is able to help their students experience that. Through the use of breathwork, physical poses, and meditation, students will join the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of themselves on their mat. They love teaching because they see it as a way to share with others all of the tools and gifts that they have been given.

Rudra Priya Jaya is a certified yoga instructor who has been practicing yoga since the 1990s. Rudra Priya’s practice became daily when they fell ill in 2011 and though their chronic illness progressed, yoga brought a sense of calm to the body and mind. It was at this time that they found their Guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, their Teacher, Swami Jaya Devi Bhagavati, and the Kashi Community.

Rudra Priya completed Kashi Atlanta's 200-Hour Classical Yoga Teacher Training in 2017 and immediately founded a yoga program at the Georgia Department of Justice in conjunction with Kashi Atlanta. Together, Rudra Priya and Kashi Atlanta have ensured that incarcerated youth at several metro facilities have access to yoga several times per month.

In addition, they teach yoga, pranayama, and meditation for Chronic Pain. As someone who experiences pain personally, this teaching is especially close to their heart. Empowering those who are in pain to lift themselves out of their bodies through breathwork; enabling them to reach through their pain within their bodies; and teaching them to move past their pain with their minds is a gift they are forever thankful for.