Carla Araos Yoga
The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment. —Pema Chodron
English yoga classes in Zurich
QUALICERT
HEALTH INSURANCE CERTIFIED TEACHER
KRANKENKASSEN ANERKANNT
Ljus studio (Zurich Wipkingen)
Nordstrasse 195, 8037 Zürich
The studio is located behind the main entrance, down the stairs.
MONDAYS
18:30-20:00
Ashtanga Yoga – level 1
TUESDAY
10:30-11:30
Private 1:1
WEDNESDAY
17:30-18:30
Prenatal Yoga
18:45-20:15
Ashtanga Yoga – level 2
FRIDAYS
10:30-11:30
Private 1:1
12:15-13:15
Ashtanga Lunch Flow
14:00-16:00
Private 1:1 or Private Birth Preparation
SATURDAYS
9:15–10:15
Prenatal Yoga
10:30–12:00
Ashtanga Inspired Morning Flow
SUNDAYS (Please check on the schedule)
Workshops and Specialclasses
schedule
October 2025 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
||
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
||
workshops, courses & specials
Birth Preparation – 4-week course
When: Thurdays from 11th September 2025
Time: 18:15 – 19:30
Where: Ljus Studio, Nordstrasse 195, 8037 Zürich
Price: 250 CHF
This weekly 4-part course is designed for expectant mothers from 30-32 weeks of pregnancy onwards. Held in a closed group, it offers an intimate and supportive environment, ideal for deeper learning, sharing, and connection.
You will receive practical guidance on:
-Birthing positions and movement
-Breathing and relaxation techniques
-Mental and emotional preparation for labour
-Comprehensive and practical ways in which your birthing companion can support you, before and during birth, both physically and emotionally
These practices are designed to help you release tension, regulate your nervous system, and approach birth with greater ease and trust. You will learn to observe your reactions to intensity and respond consciously, drawing on your inner strength, wisdom, and the powerful instinct to give birth.
More information here.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Autumn Flow & Restorative Yoga
When:
Sunday 26th October 2025
Time: 17:00 – 19:00
Where: Ljus Studio, Nordstrasse 195, 8037 Zürich
Level: Open Level
Price: 79 CHF (with pass 2 credits, 70CHF)
As autumn deepens and the trees let go of their leaves, nature reminds us of the quiet wisdom in release; not as loss, but as preparation for rest and renewal.
This 2-hour practice begins with a gentle, breath-centred flow of grounding postures and smooth transitions. Moving with mindful awareness supports vitality, digestion, and inner steadiness as we attune to the season’s slower rhythm.
The second half invites deep rest through restorative yoga. Supported by props, we soften into postures that ease the nervous system, quiet the mind, and replenish the body. Restorative yoga gives us space to pause and balance the natural fatigue that can arise in autumn.
We will close the evening with a tender surprise, a moment of sound and stillness to softly seal the practice. Nothing is required from you, simply to receive. Afterwards, we’ll share tea and seasonal snacks together. A time to nourish, connect, and carry the calm of autumn into your evening.
More information here.
Contact me if you have any questions.
The Upside Down: Inversions Workshop
When:
Sunday 16th November 2025
Time: 09:15 – 12:15
Where: Ljus Studio, Nordstrasse 195, 8037 Zürich
Level: Open Level
Price: 90 CHF
Inversions are playful, energising, and surprisingly accessible. In this workshop, you’ll learn step by step how to prepare your body, build strength, and safely explore postures like Salamba Sarvangasana (shoulder stand), Sirsasana (headstand), Pincha Mayurasana variations and more.
We’ll break down the principles that make inversions possible, helping you move past fear and discover their many benefits.
Recommended for yoga students with basic experience who are curious to deepen their practice and enjoy the joy of turning upside down.
More information here.
Contact me if you have any questions.
retreats
Ashtanga Yoga Winter Retreat
When: Friday 30th January to Sunday 1st February 2026
Where: Locanda del Viandante
Strèda di Scamoi 17, 6763 Faido, Switzerland.
Osco, Leventina Valley in Ticino, Switzerland
Level: Open level
More information and booking here
Our mornings and early evenings will be dedicated to asana, pranayama, chanting, and meditation. In between, you’ll have space for walks, rest, journaling, or simply enjoying the stillness.
Winter invites us to look inwards. With fewer distractions, it becomes easier to listen to ourselves and observe where our energy flows, noticing how to use it wisely with great care and diligence. This quiet season calls for reflection, nourishment, and depth. Slowing down, breathing deeply, and savouring each part of practice. In doing so, we nurture and deepen our connection with ourselves, our practice, and nature`s rhythms.
Cold, hazy days are not only perfect for introspection, but also for deep rest and restoration. Together, we will embrace winter’s rhythm; balancing Ashtanga’s steady discipline with softer practices that replenish, heal, and support us as we face the darker days.
For more information about the retreat, including the schedule, pricing, accommodation, and how to book, please visit this link.
Spring Blossom Retreat
When: Friday 24th April to Sunday 26th April 2026
Where: Berghotel Sterna
Sterna 12, 7404 Feldis/Veulden
Graubünden
Level: Open level
More information and booking here
Spring is the season of soft beginnings, a time when what has rested quietly beneath the surface starts to rise again with a quiet spark of curiosity.
This retreat invites you to reconnect with that natural rhythm of awakening. You will be encouraged to slow down, breathe deeply, and let your body respond to the blossoming all around you. Surrounded by the mountains of Graubünden, we’ll move through grounding asana practices, guided meditation, mantra, and restorative sessions, allowing the outer season to inspire an inner one.
Spring is not only about beginnings; we will also focus on practices of gratitude. Just as the buds unfurl, they remind us of the winter that kept them safe, treasures preserved under the snow, now awakened by the earth’s gentle warmth. These lessons of nature also apply to our lives, as we grow after winter’s harder times.
There will be time to move, rest, reflect, and be: held by nature, nourished by the mountain air, and supported by the warmth of a like-minded group.
Spring doesn’t shout. It whispers. This retreat is an invitation to listen.
For more information about the retreat, including the schedule, pricing, accommodation, and how to book, please visit this link.
pricing & booking
All my classes are certified by the health insurance. If you have questions about this please contact me.
QUALICERT / HEALTH INSURANCE CERTIFIED TEACHER / KRANKENKASSEN ANERKANNT
If you have financial issues, no job and you need more than ever to practice yoga, don’t hesitate to contact me.
group classes
Yoga Prenatal 60 Minutes / CHF 38,-
Yoga 75-90 Minutes / CHF 40,-
Cancellations must be done on Eversports within the cancellation time frame indicated on your booking.
group class packages
5 x Classes Prenatal / CHF 185,-
(2 month validity; valid for classes at Ljus Studio)
10 x Classes Abo / CHF 350,-
(4 month validity; valid for all classes at Ljus Studio)
yoga gift cards
Would you like to gift your loved ones something really special?
You can find beautiful printable vouchers and you can choose the amount you wish to gift and also write a personal message!
The perfect gift for any time of the year!
private classes in studio
60 Minutes / CHF 150,-
(add’l person + CHF 50,-)
90 Minutes / CHF 220,-
(add’l person + CHF 60,-)
Cancellations made within 24h of the beginning of the class are non-refundable.
Package deal
5x 60 Minutes Pass / CHF 725,- (2 month validity)
10×60 Minutes Pass / CHF 1400,- (3 month validity)
Private classes at the student`s home or online are available on request.
birth preparation
2 hour private class / CHF 300,- in-studio per couple (the mum-to-be plus the person that intends to be there during labor)
Closed group sessions | Approx. 5 hours total
/ CHF 250,- in-studio only women
We will explore birthing positions, movements, breathing, and other preparation techniques. These tools will help you to release tension and create physical and mental space, so the arrival of your little one is the result of your amazing capacity to create life, your determination, and an open mindset. You will learn to trust and accept the process, while seeing your power as a woman.This course will share practical information about practices and techniques you can use during labour. It is recommended for mothers-to-be who are 32 weeks pregnant and onwards.
gallery
from the blog
Why do I teach Prenatal Yoga?
When it hurts, practice.
Looking inward by looking outward
contact
Please feel free to contact me for additional information or for inquiries regarding private or corporate classes.
classes
Come to move, to be still, to be curious, to observe, to tune in. Come to be.
ashtanga
This class follows the Ashtanga Vinyasa method, guiding you through part of the Primary Series (Yoga Chikitsa), which is known for its therapeutic benefits.
We will practice the standing, seated, and closing postures, with a focus on integrating breath, posture, and gaze to cultivate steadiness, calmness, and awareness of both body and mind. You will also learn how to practice with the traditional Sanskrit count.
The practice becomes a meditation in motion, which can be internalised and applied to our daily lives.
Most importantly, we will use the practice to cultivate love, kindness, and acceptance, recognising that yoga is a reflection of life, where there is no separation, only union.
ashtanga inspired morning flow
Taking elements form the Ashtanga Vinyasa method, using the breath, the gaze, and both the outward and internal postures of the body, we will move energetically through this practice where the breath, and transitions between poses are the primary focus. This practice will improve your mental focus and encourages you to stay in the moment and will allow you to gain total body awareness and correct imbalances by yourself while developing the muscles and core strength to support a healthy posture.
You will leave the studio ready for a brand-new day and a beautiful weekend ahead.
prenatal
The practice is carefully tailored for your time as a mother-to-be. The intention is to support your pregnancy, preparing you for giving birth, to accept the natural changes, to trust, be confident and have resilience. In this class, we will be focusing on conscious breathing, stretching, strengthening the back and legs, releasing tension and relaxing. Prenatal yoga gives expecting mothers different tools which they can access when they need them the most.
rest (restore & relax)
This Class is an invitation for you to rest, nourish and replenish yourself.
Come and enjoy long practice in “being”, without expectations nor pressure, so you can fully relax. The class will consist in a restorative asana practice and deep relaxation (Yoga Nidra), all supporting our main intention, to rest.
Yoga Nidra (Deep Relaxation)
You will e guided into conscious rest. It will calm your nervous system, help to relax body and mind helping you to reduce stress levels. Yoga Nidra offers an opportunity to work on releasing long-held emotions and patterns.
meditation
Meditation practices are techniques that help us to let go of our distractions and our worries. We become present, being one with our breathing and our bodies, observing what is manifesting within us.
The practice encourages and develops concentration, clarity, calmness and mindfulness. By engaging with a particular meditation practice, we become intimate with the patterns and habits of our mind and we can learn how to cultivate wholesome qualities. With regularity and patience, these qualities deepen into profoundly peaceful and energised states of mind.
corporate and private classes
Classes are customised to suit the participants needs and will include a sequence of postures, breathing techniques and relaxation. This can vary from slow and meditative practices to help restore and relax, or energising and active ones to invigorate and revitalise. Regular yoga will minimise health problems associated with daily life stress and postural misalignments.
about
I attended my first yoga class in 2002, with my beloved teacher, Muna Halasa in my hometown Santiago, Chile. Since then, the practice has accompanied me.
Yoga brought healing, strength, focus and creativity to me, which was so helpful, as at the time, I was a busy architecture student.
Later, I left my home country and got to practice surrounded by different cultures and teachers, enriching my practice and igniting my interest in philosophy, anatomy and meditation.
Nowadays my main practice is Ashtanga yoga, Vipassana and yoga Nidra, and this is the source of inspiration for my teaching. I also have years of experience in ballet and dance, which is one of my passions. Breath, focus, move, folding and unfolding the mind and body diligently.
The practice, for me, invites us to be present, focus, consciously breathing. It leads us to be and stay humble and compassionate, learning every day to live fully, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the experiences become.
It is important for me as a practitioner and teacher to keep the practice safe, finding healthy alignment in synchronicity with breathing, finding the strength from a place within us rather than from using force. I also like to include mantras into the classes, as I believe it helps to hold the space for the practice.
I teach from my heart and own experience.
Classes are in English or Spanish.
Trainings:
- 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training at the Samahita Retreat in Thailand.
- The Rainbow Kids Yoga Training with Cayetana Rodenas in Berlin, Germany.
- Pre- and Postnatal with Francoise Freedman in Birthlight London, England.
- Yoga Therapy training with Dough Keller in Airyoga Zürich, Switzerland.
- Yoga and Thai massage training in Zurich, Switzerland.
- 40-hour Advanced Intensive Training with Michael Hamilton in Airyoga Zürich.
- 200-hour Advanced training with Michael Hamilton in Airyoga Zürich.
- Transcendental Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, The Sanskrit Counting Method with John Scott in Santiago, Chile.
- The Hero’s Journey with Michael Hamilton, Sabine Glück and Sascha Delberg in Airyoga Zürich.
- 50-hour Sama Ashtanga Yoga Intensive with Chuck Miller, Ashtanga Yoga Paris.
I attend workshops myself regularly with the intention of learning different approaches and to enhance the practice and teaching. As each body and practice is unique, I would like to keep my practice and help my students to keep theirs for a long time.