Introduction to Meditation & Mindfulness
Facilitated by Yogiraj Utkarsh
Saturday, July 11 through Saturday, September 19 from 10:30am–12:00pm
10-Week Course with Certification: $350
Single Session Drop In: $45
Join Yogiraj Utkarsh Sanjanwala (Stanford instructor & lineage-trained teacher) for a 10-week Introduction to Meditation & Mindfulness Program starting July 13 at Yoga Nest Venice.
A Yogiraj—meaning “master among yogis”—represents a level of training that is rare even within traditional yoga lineages. This is a unique opportunity to experience those teachings in an accessible, grounded and modern format.
Learn practical tools to reduce stress, improve focus, and build a lasting daily practice and connect with your true self! Includes certification.
10-Week Meditation & Self-Mastery Journey
Week 1 – Presence & Mindful Living
Discover the foundations of mindfulness and learn how to bring greater awareness into everyday life. Through simple yet powerful practices, you'll explore how to become more present, reduce mental overwhelm, and cultivate a deeper sense of peace and clarity amidst the demands of modern living.
Week 2 – Dynamic Meditation & Energy Activation
Experience meditation in motion. This session introduces dynamic practices that combine movement, breath, sound, and awareness to release physical tension, awaken vitality, and prepare the body and mind for deeper meditative states.
Week 3 – Breath, Energy & Emotional Wellbeing
Learn how the breath influences your energy, emotions, and overall wellbeing. Through yogic breathing techniques and meditation practices, you'll discover tools for emotional regulation, stress reduction, and restoring inner balance.
Week 4 – Understanding the Mind
Explore the nature of the mind and gain insight into the patterns that shape your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Learn practical meditation techniques to cultivate focus, mental clarity, and greater freedom from habitual thinking.
Week 5 – Heart-Centered Living
Move beyond the thinking mind and reconnect with the wisdom of the heart. Through guided practices and reflection, you'll cultivate compassion, gratitude, connection, and a deeper sense of meaning in your relationships and daily life.
Week 6 – Body–Mind–Spirit Integration
Discover how the physical body, energy system, mind, emotions, and deeper aspects of consciousness are interconnected. Learn integrative practices that create greater harmony, alignment, and wholeness across all dimensions of your being.
Week 7 – Living Meditation
Meditation does not begin and end on a cushion. This week focuses on bringing awareness into daily activities, conversations, work, and relationships so that meditation becomes a living experience rather than simply a practice.
Week 8 – Walking Meditation & Mindful Movement
Explore meditation through movement and discover how every step can become an opportunity for presence and awareness. Learn walking meditation and mindful movement techniques that can be easily integrated into everyday life.
No Class – September 5 (Labor Day Weekend)
Week 9 – Unlocking Your Highest Potential
Drawing from traditional yogic wisdom and contemporary understanding of human potential, this session explores practices that help awaken greater creativity, resilience, intuition, purpose, and personal growth.
Week 10 – Embodying Transformation
Bring together everything learned throughout the course and develop a sustainable personal practice for the future. This final session focuses on integration, self-mastery, and living with greater awareness, purpose, and authenticity in everyday life.
About Yogiraj Utkarsh
Yogiraj Utkarsh Sanjawala is a dedicated leader in the global wellness, yoga and mindfulness space. He has been actively working on impactful programs as the CEO of the World Yoga Federation and Meditation Alliance International, aiming to bring Yoga, meditation and wellness initiatives to communities worldwide, in impactful scenarios such as Stanford University, Special Education scenarios, Los Angeles Yoga Expo and beyond.
A direct disciple of Swami Vidyanand, Utkarsh teachings are deeply rooted in ancient wisdom, enriched by insights from masters and monks of various traditions. As a Master of Yoga & Meditation, he has dedicated his life to sharing this knowledge with individuals and groups across the globe, including corporate leaders, celebrities, the Indian Armed Forces, and the New Zealand Police. Since leaving the corporate world in 2008 to fully embrace yoga as both a discipline and a way of life, he has been instrumental in training and guiding students, studios, and advanced practitioners, making yoga not just a practice but a transformative journey.
With Utkarsh, you will experience yoga as more than a practice; it becomes a way of life.