Kira Rafuse E-RYT 500, YACEP, CAP is a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (500 RYT), a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP), and a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner (CAP). She has been practicing and teaching Yoga for 17 years. Kira’s yoga classes incorporate Prāṇāyāma, Meditation, Chanting, and an Āsana flow that embraces the breath as a guide. She teaches Yoga as a way of life that can be practiced moment to moment, giving students the tools for day-to-day living to bring peace and embodied self-love.
The principals of Āyurveda are woven into her Yoga classes. Understanding the basics of Āyurveda helps students learn how to bring balance to their daily routine and move through the seasons.
Kira’s classes embrace Yoga’s roots in India and blends in Yogic philosophy. She also incorporates Nāda Yoga, the study of sound, into her Yoga classes and teaches courses on Sanskrit as a way for students to deepen their connection to the roots of Yoga.
Kira completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Course at the Sivananda Kutir Ashram in the Himalayas of northern India in 2004. While in India, she spent six months volunteering at an Ashram in Southern India, where she developed a love for Sanskrit and Āyurveda, a sister science of Yoga.
Kira attended the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque NM (‘06-07), where she studied under Dr. Vasant Lad and is now a Certified Āyurvedic Practitioner (CAP). During her studies with Dr. Lad, Kira was also immersed in the ancient language of Sanskrit and began her journey as a serious student of Sanskrit.
Kira continued her studies with an Āyurvedic internship under Dr. Sarita Shrestha at the Devi Ma rural hospital in Nepal where she focused on pregnancy and postpartum. Kira later completed an 85-hour Prenatal Yoga Training and is now a Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher, RPYT. Kira has a passion for pregnancy and postpartum.
Kira is a certified Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP). Many of her courses are eligible for Continuing Education credits through the Yoga Alliance.
She recently completed a 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training (‘21) with Sarahjoy Marsh and is now a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (500 RYT). Kira is continuing her studies with Sarahjoy and will be studying to be a Yoga Therapist in the upcoming year of 2022-23. Kira is originally from New Mexico and has lived in Anchorage Alaska for the last 8 years. She loves to be in nature, knit, play music, chant Sanskrit, meditate, and works on a mindfulness practice daily alongside her Yoga practice. Her family includes her husband and two children, girls 6 & 12, who she greatly enjoys spending time with.
