FARMINGTON - An introduction to a vigorous but cleansing style of yoga, Vinyasa, will begin Monday at the Farmington Community Center.

Teacher Jessica Kaniuka, 34, of Farmington will lead a four-week session for adults in the style that combines breath and movement, she said Wednesday.

"It's good exercise. It's a little more vigorous but people can do it," she said of the introductory session planned to help beginners build stamina.

Sessions are from 8:30-9:45 three mornings each week. Participants can attend once, twice or all three sessions, she said. Prices vary accordingly.

Returning to their family ties in Farmington in February, Kaniuka and her husband, Pierce, a drug and alcohol counselor, found benefits from following yoga, she said.

Stress reduction, better sleep as well as help with high blood pressure, losing weight and joint issues are some of reasons to follow any style of yoga, she said.

"But the real reason is to quiet the mind. It gives you a sense of peace. After working the body, you're better able to meditate and calm the entire system down," she added.

Stress, realized from teaching kindergartners and caring for her dying grandmother, Edrie Sutcliffe of Farmington in 2006, led Kaniuka to yoga. On her drive to work, she passed a place offering yoga instruction. Once she tried it, she said, she had an immediate affinity that led her to study in Vermont and become a certified yoga instructor.

Yoga helped her meet the difficulties of caring for her grandmother, she said.

Attaining enlightenment, a goal of the different styles of yoga, through physical movement fit into Kaniuka's pursuit of freedom from the body or attaining lightness, relief and a clear psyche, she said.

After losing her mother, Gloria Danforth, to breast cancer, she became focused on what people do with the challenges they encounter, she said.

The different styles of yoga evolved from the reading of yogi scripture, she said. Different interpretations led to the different styles.

Kaniuka's classes, a physical style from India, focus on aligning breath and body with an on-going study of anatomy, she added.

A Mt. Blue High School graduate in 1992, Kaniuka received a degree in the Waldorf teaching program from Antioch New England Graduate School and taught in New Hampshire, she said.

For more information, contact Kaniuka at 778-9506 or the Recreation Department at 778-3464.