Namaste
This winter, I'll be sharing the yoga at Bocas Yoga in Bocas del Toro Panama. Visit www.bocasyoga.com to learn about the studio and tourism info. Come on down for a low cost vacation! I'll be sharing yoga and offering healing session at Bocas Yoga for the months of January and February 2009.

I'll be back in Portland, ME resuming my private practice there after March 8th.

I will have limited use of computer and phone, but feel free to schedule your private sessions and workshops in your community ahead of time. Just give me a few days or so to respond. I'll be on Panama time.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gift Certificates are available in any amount
for private sessions with Prana
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yoga for the Season

Kapalabhati Breathing - rapid exhalations with passive inhalations, raises the energy and warms the body during those cold and/or low energy winter days.

Lion's Breath is another warming pranayama that can also release irritability and anger.

Sun Salutations are wonderful for warming the body when done gradually, progressing from more basic modified poses to the more advanced versions.

Twists blended into a daily (or regular) practice can provide detoxification of the muscles and organs. Detox is very important this time of year when we are living indoors much of the time.

Namaste. Jai Ma!

Prana

News

Prana will be available for private sessions in Northampton, MA Friday Dec. 13th and Saturday Dec. 14th in the afternoons. Please schedule your sessions early by e mailing info@pranaheals.com or calling (207)632-6698. For descriptions of services visit www.pranaheals.com

Prana will be living in Bocas del Toro, Panama January and February 2009. She will be sharing yoga and private healing sessions at Bocas Yoga. Visit www.bocasyoga.com for info on classes and tourism.

For more from Prana on Yoga and Health join www.facebook.com and become a member of Yoga in our Daily Lives and Holistic Breast Cancer Support groups.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month...

Purchase Self Love: Gentle and Restorative Yoga Audio Pod Casts with Photos of Poses for yourself, family members or friends.

10% of profits go to local organizations that provide holistic breast cancer support.

Even if you don't think you will use the pod casts, they make an excellent gift for friends or family members needing a gentle and relaxing practice.

They are easy to use and to send as a gift. Just download them onto your PC, lap top or i Pod.

Only $4.95 per flow! Half the price of one yoga class!

Visit www.pranaheals.com and click on the ad on the home page to make your purchase today.

Ever grateful for your support

Prana's
Tour Schedule

Yoga Therapy Workshop
and Demonstration
Nikken Holistic Health Series
Wednesday October 8th
11:30am - 12:30,
followed by potluck lunch
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Free
To register, email
Colleen Myers at ourwellnesshome@yahoo.com

Gentle and Restorative Mini Yoga Retreat
Saturday October 18th
9am - Noon
$40
Inspirit Common,
Hadley, MA
To register, visit www.inspiritcommon.com or
call (413) 585-1169

Yoga for Strengthening
Your Center
10th Annual Belly and Womb Conference
Saturday November 15th
To register visit www.alisastarkweather.com

Yoga Poses for Autumn Transition

Autumn can be a busy time, like spring. It is time when we tend to gather energy to restart and continue many of the projects we left off to enjoy summer. Grounding poses are very important, so we stay on track with our intentions and visions.

Include a strong meditation practice in your new autumn routine. Start with 5 minutes in the morning at the same time everyday and build up from there. My main meditation teacher suggests 30 minutes first thing in the morning and 30 minutes before you go to bed. Starting and ending your day connecting with Self and the divine.

Forward bends are great for bringing the awareness inward when we get drawn out in our busyness.

Embryo brings one into oneself, nourishes and restores.

Attend my Gentle and Restorative Yoga Retreat at Inspirit Common on Oct 18th to deepen a nourishing yoga practice. To register visit www.inspiritcommon.com .

Supported Childs Pose is another restorative pose that allows one to rest, restore and receive.

Downward Facing Triple Diamond gives you an opportunity to connect with the earth and receive it’s nourishment and healing.

Order my Gentle and Restorative Audio Podcasts with photos of poses at to support your daily practice. They are easy to download onto your computer or Ipod for your home practice.

I look forward to receiving your comments and stories about your summer and how you are bringing the yoga into your daily life.

May your autumn be productive, easeful and full of love and light.

Namaste. Jai Ma!

Prana

Self Love...

Audio Podcasts and Photos of Poses

Maintain your summer yoga practice by downloading these onto your iPod or laptop at www.pranaheals.com

FREE Intro and Guided Visualization (10 min.)

Gentle Asana Flow (50 min.)

Restorative Asana Flow (60 min.)

$4.95 each

Yoga and Desire

“I create miracles in my wonderful world. I am open to the wonders of the Universe.” - author unknown

With the way the economy is affecting all our lives today, I thought it was time to write about the topic of desire and how it relates to yoga. I feel the Universe has been preparing me for this time. I am now seeing the beginning of what can be a very challenging time for many in our culture. With the dramatic increase in the cost of fuel and food, with out an equal increase in wages, many are finding the need to make major changes in their lives. For some, there may be a feeling of desperation and a need for desperate acts, like crime. As a culture, we are faced daily on television and in our daily lives with “desire”. When we see others with fancy cars, houses, clothes and the ability to spend freely, feelings may rise to “want what they have.” This is not news to many of you and you may already be managing these feelings on your own, in your own way.

Some say it is karma that influences who gets what. That we come in to this life to clear old patterns, and this can directly influence the wealth you come in with or acquire in your lifetime. That there are lessons that come with managing and having money or wealth in whatever form that takes.

Others believe in the Law of Attraction, which became popular in our culture with the release of the movie The Secret. Teachers of the “law of attraction” say that our language, our thoughts and the way we interact with others has a great influence on our ability to attract wealth, health and healthy relationships.

As I have played with my own desires for having enough (a relative term), I am often brought back to the yogic concepts of gratitude and desire.

I find that when I recognize and genuinely express gratitude for all I have, I realize how much I actually do have and become content.

I also find, over and over again, that when I completely release my desire for something, whether it be money, a job, or a relationship, that it immediately comes to me.

Yoga masters say that desire leads to misery. That if we are always in a wanting state, that we will never be happy. The mind wants and when it gets, it wants something else. You may have noticed this in your own life. As soon as you get that new car, home or wardrobe, it soon becomes boring and just another bill to pay.

In my life, I like to combine all of these practices, the Law of Attraction, gratitude and releasing desire. In fact, many teachers of the law of attraction include expressing gratitude and releasing desire as part of their formula for attracting abundance into your life.

On my own spiritual journey, I have struggled with my Leo tendency to want nice things and to manage the envy and judgments that come along with having nice things. From this process of self discovery and study of the law of attraction, I have decided that it is o.k. to accumulate wealth, as long as it occurs with a balance of sharing and humility. According to Catherine Ponder, one of the first teachers to publish these ideas in her book now called Dare to Prosper, says that the Universe has unlimited abundance and there is no limit to what one can attract.

Along with many teachings, including the practice of forgiveness, living in integrity and so on, Ponder also proclaims that in order to attract, it is essential to donate 10% of your earnings to a teacher, counselor or organization whose work inspires you. Ponder calls this “tithing” and there is a metaphysical significance to 10%. This money can also go to a cause that you believe in; however, Ponder suggests that we put all this “energy” into one cause that is the most important to us, rather than spreading contributions to many and diluting its effect. I have practiced tithing and the results are immediate. So much positive energy flowing back and forth! Give it a try and see.

Some may be asking, “how do I do that in this economy?” It is possible. Start small and build up. Once you start the flow, and practice all the other principles, abundance will begin to flow into your life and your ability to tithe will become easier and easier. If you don’t feel tithing money is possible in this moment, then donate your time instead. Your time is a valuable form of abundance that creates a karmic vacuum of positive energy in your direction.

And back to gratitude and releasing desire…more traditional yoga concepts. There are going to be times when your resources appear scarce. This may be how you are feeling as you figure out how to pay for the recent fuel and food costs increases. This is the time to drop into gratitude, to release desire, to create a “free economy”, tithing one another by sharing meals, rides, equipment and providing assistance to those in need. This is where the beauty lies. This is where the lessons lie. See the silver lining in this challenged economy.

Enjoy getting to know your neighbors and sharing what you have with friends and family. It is time for this culture to become a global culture, equalizing wealth throughout the world and learning to share again.

Sharing ultimately means communicating. In yoga, opening the heart and throat charkas for clear and loving communication is a start. In addition, enrolling in Nonviolent or Conscious Communication classes will also provide tools when you get stuck. Many of these courses are free and affordable to get started and then free groups form to continue to practice. Many of my friends have taken these trainings and our communication includes a high level of openness, honesty, understanding, love and forgiveness. I am increasingly grateful to have attracted these people into my life.

So give it a try and let me know how it goes. I will list some helpful resources below to help you get started. I am also available for yoga lifestyle counseling and personal coaching to help you to internalize these concepts in your being and daily life.

Dare to Prosper, by Catherine Ponder (this book is also available in CD format)

The Secret DVD, CD or book (basic intro to the Laws of Attraction)

Abraham Hicks channeling Law of Attraction books, DVD and CDs available online

Nonviolent Communication classes (search on line for classes near you)

Conscious Communication classes, Conscious Communication Institute, Greenfield, MA www.ccitraining.org

LaShelle Charde offers a “Connection Gem of the Week“. To sign up visit her website at www.wiseheartpdx.org

Yoga For Abundance

Poses that open the route chakra, the groin area and hips assist in allowing abundance to flow into our lives. These poses help to release old beliefs we hold around scarcity and not having enough. When we open our hips and groin, we open to trust, to releasing the past and to allowing abundance to flow into our lives.

My favorite pose to release the past is pigeon (kapotasana). When we rise and lift our hearts in pigeon we are not only releasing the past by creating a deep hip opening, but also opening the heart to living a life filled with compassion and love. Sometimes, I like to also lift an arm, gazing skyward…reaching for divine wisdom for living a life in my Truth, full of abundance and bliss.

Other favorites that deeply open the hips and groin area are deep squats and happy baby pose (ananda balasana).

Goddess pose allows us to open the route chakra, while feeling our own strength and ability to manifest with an open heart.

Summer Yoga

Summer can be a very busy time, especially in the Northeast, as we cram all we can into 3 - 4 months of warm weather. We can come to our yoga practice to recharge and renew. Meditation, restorative and gentle yoga can be very helpful this time of year to bring us back to Self…to our own personal rhythm.

Try my Gentle and Restorative audio pod casts for your home practice. Take them on vacation to maintain your yoga practice while you are traveling. Go to www.pranaheals.com to download these audio pod casts and photos of the poses.

Alternate Nostril Breathing and Three Part Breathing are also very calming pranyama for the hectic times.

The warm weather is also a time to deepen your asana practice. The body opens much easier in the heat. This is a good time to open all those tight spots…hips, hamstrings, shoulders. It is also a good time of year to deepen your back bends. Feel the love and joy come over you as you open your solar plexus and heart centers.

Enjoy your summer with ease and abundance. Notice all you have and all that comes to you that doesn’t cost money as you practice gratitude, releasing desire and the principles of attraction.

Namaste. Jai Ma!

Prana

Opening to a New Teacher

It has been heart warming to receive an occasional e mail from my Northampton students. Many are expressing the challenge of losing a teacher that really works for them. It is flattering and I can very much relate to that feeling of transition. I am here for you and will be back to western, MA every few months to reconnect with you in a private session or workshop. However, it is that daily practice that may still be missing for you. I have a few suggestions and my own personal stories to tell around meeting this need.

Whenever my favorite local teacher had a personal transition and moved away, I was often devastated and felt “lost”. I believe it was my main teacher Gita, who resides in N. CA, who guided me that this is an opportunity to drop into my own personal practice until a new teacher shows herself/himself. I did this AND would also studio and teacher hop, often frustrated with the lack of spiritual content and need for yoga to be “athletic”. Sometimes teacher’s voices would get on my nerves, the music wasn’t right or the way the class was arranged felt awkward. My guess is you are all nodding “yes“ in agreement, as I write about my own personal experience of finding a new teacher.

In transitioning to Portland, my main intention has been to create community. My first attempt was to go to a local yoga studio that specializes in a style that could work for me. Ganesh (the hindu god with the elephant head who places and removes obstacles) put obstacles in my way from the get go. Many studios here operate on membership and since we were dropping in, we were not welcomed with open arms. The teacher was very uncomfortable with us dropping in and her first words to me before and after the class where not ones that invited us back, but instead turned us away…all about “rules“ and procedure. Big signs that this was not the right place for me.

Next, I tried a Kripalu class at the Greater Portland YMCA, where my husband is a member. The cost for being a guest was only $7! I was so surprised and felt it was a “gift“. I walked into the class and everyone was positioned in a semi circle facing the teacher, which I loved right off. We started the class by “centering”. That works for me. Then we did a series of sounding as we warmed up in yoga postures. It was a SO fun! We did what is termed the “Portland Y cheer“, which is basically a big “WAAAAAH!”. We wailed until we had no more “waaahing” to do. I cough every time, as my heart chakra opens up to release the victim inside that needs to yell and scream out the injustices of cancer. In most classes, we also stick out our tongues and shake our heads with a big sound. We sigh after every pose and also have a big long laughing session as we move in Bear Swing. Those who are reading, who have studied with me, know I love releasing through sound.

The daring teacher Danika, is also a natural comedian and cracks, sometimes, “inappropriate” jokes throughout the class. In the first class or so, I judged her for that, but after experiencing over and over again how well she maintains the integrity of the yoga, I got it. She is being human and expressing real human thoughts and emotions we all have. We pray and sing kirtan in every class and when she and I talk, she always responds from a yogic place. She lives the yoga as she plays in human form. She is a sweet heart, full of love and light and is truly enlightened.

This class, for me, is about not taking myself and the yoga so seriously. It is perfect for me right now. It is not only rehabilitating my left side in a gentle and therapeutic way, but also bringing me to a new level in my teaching…continuing to drop the ego of being the perfect yogini/Teacher…whatever that is…and having a great time doing yoga and experiencing life. After all the drama of breast cancer and the 5 year preventative journey ahead, I need to live my life in a light hearted way.

Expecting things to be a certain way is really about our old beliefs systems. Instead, we can create a new reality, in the moment, that encompasses all of it…childhood influences, societal influences and spiritual and personal growth. It’s about forgiving oneself for being human. It’s o.k. to have a skewed childhood that leaks no matter how hard we try to hide it or change it. When living on the earth plane, we need to manage and live within societal influences, as we choose to evolve and live in the light, shedding our old beliefs that no longer serve Self.

We all have our own yoga needs as we move down our own unique yogic path. I invite you to not only explore your own yoga practice, but to be open to the signs that guide you to your unique next teacher. As I did, watch your judgments. Check in with where they come from. Notice what feels good and right in your body, not in your mind and what you think you need.

It is also totally fine to maintain a long distance relationship with your teacher, as I do with Gita and my guru in Boulder, Baba G. It can be very healing to travel to them for a retreat or to practice with them when they come into town.

Reopening my Private Practice

I am using this transition as an opportunity to recreate myself and heal with ease. I am choosing not to jump into a regular teaching schedule here in Portland. I may do some subbing to help out for summer vacations and feel into the studios here. I am being clearly guided by Self to open up my private practice now. I have begun seeing clients in my new home studio. I also continue to give private sessions when I am back in western, MA.

Stay tuned for my upcoming trips for private sessions, workshops and CD release gatherings. Remember that I am always available for phone sessions as well.

Due to the recent turn of events in my healing process (“radical” mastectomy), the CD release has been delayed. My demo CD has been sent to Sounds True. Wish me luck that the CD is produced in an affordable way that reaches many. If Sounds True does not choose to produce it, then it will be available via pod cast this summer.

Your advance contributions to the project are still welcome in exchange for the final product. 10% of the profits will be donated to local nonprofit organizations that provide holistic breast cancer support.

I look forward to continuing our connection over the miles. I completely support you in finding a new local teacher and deepening your home practice in order to serve your daily yoga needs.
Keep the e mails coming. Feel free to use this blog as a forum.

I absolutely love receiving your notes and continuing our yoga connection through writing, energy, phone sessions and future in person private sessions and workshops. You are in my thoughts and prayers. Know and trust that I am still with you on the Universal plane.

Namaste. Jai Ma!

Prana
www.pranaheals.com

In the Stillness

It is Her nature to dance with great joy, and therefore there is always a gentle motion, a slight sway in your being, even when you are absolutely still. - Swami Chidvilasananda

This has been a particularly quiet winter for me… Traveling back and forth from CO to MA is no longer part of my reality. After 5 years, I have manifested “normalcy” again. The breast cancer heaing process has kept me close to home. Arriving in the place of Self as Teacher, I am needing to stay quiet and listen to my inner wisdom for the subtle, and not always so subtle, messages my body is sending me to continue my healing process.

I am faced with endless amounts of quiet, empty time, that I am SO tempted to fill. My first response was to call on friends to stop by and entertain me with conversation. That has been nice. When I am not socializing, I discover all those undone projects…filing, arranging plants to create a jungle in my home, reconnecting with old friends via phone and email, practicing the piano, deepening my meditation practice, and FINALLY, deepening my self care. Interesting how that came last…

During this empty time, I am discovering how much I want to fill my time and also how much I have forgotten my Self. How much of Self I have left behind as I fill my time with activities that some how validate my existence…friends, more work and income, developing my abilities to serve others. But what about using this time to fill, what for so many years has been emptied for service, money and self validation.

I am now finding time, for the activities that serve me and my healing…filling me…filling Self, as Goddess/God had always intended. Treating my body as a temple…honoring her, worshiping her, decorating her, gifting her… healing her.

I invite you to take advantage of the quiet, still time to create spaciousness in your life. Allow time for the parts of Self to unfold. Notice what Self is asking for.

Is it self care that you have been neglecting?… Physical therapy exercises? A daily yoga practice? Meditation? Healing baths vs. quick showers? Are you getting enough sleep? Taking

the time to prepare healthy meals?

Or is it a creative project that feeds your soul?…Have you been desiring to take up painting or playing a musical instrument? Knitting? Sewing? Creating herbal products for yourself and your family?

As you spend time in stillness in your home, you may discover new simple ways to arrange your home so that it serves you?… Plants? An altar? Add a humidifier or an air purifier, or both?
Is there a book you’ve been wanting to read, that you know will deepen your well being?
What else shows itself to you during this still time?

If you are someone who continues to be busy during the winter, then how can you create more stillness in your life? Is it necessary for you to work so many hours? Can you take some space and figure out how to streamline your schedule? Are you using your time in a way that best serves Self? Are you living for others needs and not your own? God/Goddess wants us to be happy and healthy, not depleted and overworked. When we get into that state, we really aren’t serving anyone in a quality way. However, when we are living our bliss, healthy and easeful, our gifts unfold naturally and effortlessly and abundance flows into our lives. We attract in this healthy state of being…rested and fulfilled.

It can be scary to have empty time. Why is it scarey for you? I invite you to find the courage to sit in stillness and wait for something to show itself to you that nurtures Self. If you are at all like me, someone who has been on the move my whole life, the stillness can be unsettling. Try playing soothing music, do restorative yoga and meditation. You are still…doing, which your mind likes, but you are allowing spaciousness in your body, mind and spirit for something new to come in…new wisdom and awareness.

Moving beyond the giving of Self to others or busying oneself to fill empty time, can be a process, with layers of transformation. Life coaching, Yoga Lifestyle Counseling and Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy are ways to peel back the layers and focus your life in a way that serves Self. When you are ready, I am available to assist you on your journey to Self. For more info on these offerings visit http://www.pranaheals.com/.

Enjoy the winter with ease, light and love…radiating the yoga from your being.

Namaste. Jai Ma!Prana

As She gently moves in and around you, She sings to Herself. So listen to the sound She makes. Whatever you hear, every sound manifests from her. As you become absorbed in the inner sound of the Shakti, you glide into meditation. Your breath is Her whisper. Your breath is Her song. Your breath is Her dance. To please Shakti, to awaken Her within us, and to keep Her glory manifest in our being, we chant Her own song to Her - the sound of Om.

- Swami Chidvilasananda