It's easier to sit for meditation, chant, or step onto our mat when life is smooth. The breath feels steady, the mind is lighter, everything flows. But life isn't always like that. Sometimes grief hits us, our plans collapse, leaving us feeling unsure of how...
Last week, I visited the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec with a friend. Her art is powerful, raw, and luminous all at once. One part of the show was a video that touched me so profoundly. Niki...
As we progress in life, we all experience different seasons, some requiring action, and others contemplation. In one of those long seasons over the last few years, I’ve found myself in a slower, more tranquil space, where the drive to push is easing, making room...
As we progress in life, we all experience different seasons, some requiring action, and others contemplation. In one of those long seasons over the last few years, I've found myself in a slower, more tranquil space, where the drive to push is easing, making room...
Like mist rising off the water, judgment dissolves when we meet it with presence, not force. Just breath. Just noticing. Just letting go. These days, my sādhana is simple and yet not easy. I watch my judgments rise and do my best not to feed them....
This is where the real yoga begins—not on the mat, but at the feet of silence.. My first introduction to yoga was in Montreal, sometime in the late 1970s, when I walked into the Sivananda Centre and was met with something that felt ancient, solemn, and...
There is a quiet moment, right between our inhale and exhale, where we are asked to trust not only in the breath but in life itself. That slight pause can feel like the scariest place to be. We hear it all the time in yoga: surrender,...
These days feel heavy for so many of us. There's a sense that things are shifting in ways we can't quite put our finger on, a quiet unravelling beneath the surface. Whether it's something personal we're facing, the sadness of what's happening in the world,...
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on what it truly means to be a modern yogini. For me, it's not the kind of yoga we scroll past online, the curated asana photos or aesthetic lifestyles. It's the kind of yoga that meets us at home, on the...
Students of yoga often react when I tell them that yoga is about controlling the mind. It challenges their understanding. The mind cannot be controlled. But the mind is at the heart of the yogic path. Interestingly, neuroscience is also beginning to echo what yogis have...
It happened slowly, so quietly, I almost didn’t notice. No fireworks, no dramatic turning point. Just a gentle shift. I was sitting in a little restaurant in a very vegetarian area of India, sharing a meal with a friend. At one point, she said, “I...
Sometimes, healing arrives like thunder—loud, wild, and unstoppable. And sometimes, it comes so quietly that we almost miss it. This is a story about one of those quiet moments that changed the way I understand release and taught me to listen not only to what’s...
Learning to let go requires quiet strength, softness, and great courage. It is one of the most tender and powerful aspects of being human. It sounds simple, even graceful—but when we’re deeply attached to someone we love, a version of ourselves, or a dream we...
Dear friends, When I was in my mid-thirties, I was diagnosed with a cyst on my ovary. That experience sent me on a healing journey that changed my life. Along the way, I discovered something surprising....
I taught at the Bali Spirit festival this year and had some truly interesting conversations with younger people—eye-opening, actually. They spoke of non-lineage yoga, non-binary yoga, queer tantra… a whole new language and approach to the practice....
We just experienced The Great Conjunction constellation and Winter Solstice - which represent a reset, a transition to a new era, and a time to shift our way of viewing the world. The new year of 2021 - is a renewed opportunity to align ourselves with...
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Happy International Yoga Day! We are celebrating the day by diving deeper into the essence of Yoga Yajnavalkya. Yājñavalkya is an essential treaty of Yoga that is not widely known amongst yogis in the West. Though many historians believe that its origin can be traced...
On June 01, I am turning 60. Most of us don't like to talk about ageing. I found it very interesting as we are all ageing. We cannot avoid it, and why not ageing with Grace? Why not make it the best time of our lives? Ageism is everywhere...
Within the midst of the slowdown, I find myself having time and space daily to listen, observe, reflect, try to learn and understand what we as a global community are currently experiencing. One of the things that I have observed during our Covid-19 “retreat” was an...
We are being asked as a collective community to pause. Time has altered, routines have changed. Our constant need to be somewhere out there is now limited to the boundaries of our house. In this time where we mostly withdraw from the external ventures, we are...
WHAT IS THE CORONAVIRUS REALLY TEACHING US? Many of you may be feeling overwhelmed due to the rapid unfolding of the past few weeks. We've gone from perceived-to-be social freedom to restriction and lockdown and the ripple effect continues to expand across all areas of life. Retreat...
Music can elevate our vibration very quickly and transport us beyond time and space. At our new sister-school Nalanda in Ubud, Bali, we want to bring more and more spiritual events and spiritual music. Some of the best teachers are coming to us this year. One of...
Adam S.Callejon is a musician, yogi and poet, who studied Classical Singing of North India (Dhrupad style) with Yvan Trunzler (Dagar Vani) and plays the Esraj (a string instrument close to the sitar and sarangi). His practice and learning of Indian music are currently guided...
Those of us who have the privilege to live on the famous island of Bali for an extended time understand that for the Balinese harmony reigns supreme. The three pillars of the Balinese philosophy called Tri Hita Karana influence the daily life of the Balinese...
My students often confide in me how challenging it is for you to master your mind. One of the yogic practices recommended for controlling your mind is Japa Mala: mental repetition of a mantra while using a Mala. A great number of people nowadays wear mala around...
Tim Almond is a Yoga Pranala graduate from Perth, Australia, with an amazing life story. “ I am from Australia. I was in the military for 13 years with the Royal Australian Navy Clearance Diving Teams. I then left the military to start a personal training...
Audrey Forbes, a Yoga Pranala graduate from the United States, has shared her success story with us. From being passionate about Yoga, she pursued her dream to become a Yoga teacher. Audrey, born and raised in New York, moved to the Seattle area right out...
Yoga means many things to different people. Especially for me, it represents the ongoing journey of discovery of the Self. I started my daily yoga practice many years ago. I soon discovered the benefits of a daily practice, the harmony and balance of a yogic lifestyle. I...
Yoga offers many techniques to direct our focus to the vibration of peace that resides within each of us. An excellent practice for this is Ajapa Japa, a sadhana that dates from the Upanishads but was brought to the modern world by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. ...
My first yoga classes fresh out of high school were in the Sivananda style. Sivananda Yoga is a classical and holistic approach to Hatha Yoga that has not been modified or watered down and is still taught the same way as Swami Sivananda taught in...
An interesting fact from ancient Hindu texts that you probably are not aware of is that Patanjali used to teach from behind a screen. We discover this in a story from the Puranas, which tells us that Patanjali would place a large screen between himself...
I have recently been practicing an amazing and very effective technique of yoga for the brain. Practicing this technique increases oxygen and blood flow to the brain. This causes an increase in brain function. It is a very old technique that is still nowadays practiced in some...
Hasta mudras mean hand gestures adopted during asana, pranayama and meditation that directs flow of energy into our body. According to the Tantras these mudra yoga techniques stimulate different areas of the brain. “(Sanskrit: , lit. “seal”) is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and...
I come across articles from time-to-time on social media describing the reasons why people stop practicing yoga, or simply criticizing some different aspects of yoga. It seems to me that many yoga practitioners do not have the correct understanding of what yoga truly means. Yoga...
Your outer world of form and experience is a reflection of your inner world of thoughts and feelings. As above, so below. As within, so without. That is the Law. The greater your awareness of the Presence of God within you, the more that Presence fills...
I have been living in Asia for almost twenty years and every time I go back to the west, as a yoga therapist, I am concerned by the number of people who have health problems due to weight issues. I once read that in the...
Yoga therapy aims at cleansing and purifying the body and mind but more importantly at connecting us with our higher self. Yoga therapy teaches us to regard the experience of illness as a challenge not to be feared and as an important teacher for the...
The body is our greatest teacher and sometimes pain is necessary to put us on the right track. We need to listen to our body by paying attention to the areas that are sore or stiff, without judgment. The practice below is designed to relieve you...
The city of Rishikesh has always sparked my imagination ever since I started practicing yoga. So finally, this year while in India I decided to make a detour and spend a couple of weeks in this holy city which is located on the banks of...
New students to yoga are often surprised or even alarmed when strong emotions arise either during, or after, a yoga class. However, as we become more experienced we start to understand that this is the gift that yoga offers us. Yoga is often presented as a...