Prana Vinyasa Evolution

Prana Vinyasa Flow is an effective transformational 40 Namaskar-64 Sequence system that offers a progression of full-spectrum vinyasa for beginners to experienced practitioners from the dynamic and positively challenging to rejuvenating.

The wave of a class is created through cycles of effective and creative sequences (vinyasas) linked together through the breath from the opening movement meditation through namaskars, core cultivation, an exploration of energetic alignment in the mandala of asanas, mudra, pranayama and meditation creating whole body transformation of strength and fluidity, circulation and centering.

Integrating the roots of yoga, tantra, ayurveda and bhakti with evolutionary vinyasa, Prana Vinyasa is a synthesis Movement Alchemy system for living the flow of yoga.

Soma Prana Vinyasa is a regenerative practice that is one-half meditative prana vinyasa namaskars and deep lunar mudrasanas (long holds) and one-half inner arts of meditation, mantra, mudra, self-massage and deep shavasana. Soma is connected to the inner water, ojas (essence, vitality and amrita as the sublime nectar of healing) - the energy that can green a desert, and restore love.

Soma Prana Vinyasa courses are distilled from 24 years of evolution of vinyasa and offer lunar vinyasa as a balancing, healing approach to transforming stress and tensions, cultivating ojas and circulating nectar.

Elements of a Soma Prana Vinyasa™ practice include:

• Lunar Prana Vinyasa Namaskars for cultivating movement meditation, fluidity, rejuvenation
• lunar mudrasanas - long holds in forward bends, inversions, restorative and supine asanas
• meditation - mantra, mudra, and contemplation
• opening and closing chants for regeneration
• sahaja prana flow - healing flow of spontaneous movement
• pranayama - lunar breath flows and other prana kriyas
• wisdom sutras from the tantras and universal wisdom to bring into class
• prana nadi self-massage - with massage tools, sacred touch and optional essential oils or ayurvedic oils
• life-practices for cultivating ojas through ayruveda

Prana Danda Yoga is an empowering and fluid way to center the mind and awaken the energetic spine (inner danda) by engaging with a specially designed 5 foot staff (outer danda). In yogic tradition the danda is perceived as a reflection of the central energy channel, a symbol of present-moment rootedness and serves as the pivotal axis which grounds one’s practice in guardianship; the penetrating quality of alertness that neutralizes all distraction. The danda supports and guides a series of asanas and spiral movements comprised of a specially designed Prana Vira Flow sequence (vinyāsa) that can be done with or without the danda. I

Integrating the danda with a Prana Vira Flow® vinyasa sequence:

• attracts mind/energy to the embodied center which creates deeper, energetic alignment, and primal connection
• heightens one’s presence with an archetype of power, stability and wisdom
• refines coordination by acting as a “rhythmic conductor” entraining and unifying coherent systems of the body
• acts a horizontal and vertical alignment tool supporting the body in asana and meditation
• induces a feeling of interconnectedness, peace and well being

Experience a dynamic preparation to the ancient Indian martial art form kalaripayattu in the tradition of CVN Kalari. Develop the fluid spiral strength to prepare for kalarippayatu practice through with kalari vinyasa forms for awakening our instinctual body. This dynamic form is a strong practice open to all levels but “intermediate-advanced” for the level of stamina, root power and presence required.

Yoga trance dance is a universal tribal gathering into the roots of trance as a rhythmically induced state of natural flow that is innate within all beings. The activation of free-form movement is one of the oldest ecstatic pathways of collective meditation. This dynamic and rejuvenating exploration accompanied by global tribal rhythms from the roots and contemporary pulse will release tension, generate energy and new neural pathways, entrain your breath, heart and brainwave rhythms and get in synch with other movers and shakers.

Since 2004 founding of the Yogini Conference and many pilgrimages to Goddess sites around the world, Shakti Prana Vinyasa has evolved healing practices for women. We offer lineage practices for women out into the world including gatherings, online practices, and home practices with other female teachers such as Lama Tsultrim Allione, Sally Kempton.

* shakti prana vinyasa

* online women’s practices: sacred belly project, navaratri, and more

* Home Practice DVD: Yogini

Prana Vinyasa is an elemental practice system for living flow connecting you to the healing force of nature and the power to heal, balance, transform and renew. A Prana Vinyasa class offers a practical and effective diversity.

Prana Vinyasa transforms a class into sadhana or ritual meditation and then full relaxation.

Prana vinaysa practice connects you with the elements within your own body and the flow of nature. Each practice is based upon a “pathway of prana vinyasa” - a progression of namaskars (elemental salutations), sequences, and peak asanas connected to the power of each element.

Elemental Alchemy

Earth - Deep Hips - Standing Roots

Water - Fluid Spine & Connective Power

Fire - Sacred Strength & Creative core

Breath/Air - Breath of the Heart and the Power of Backbends

Space - Embodying peace and Standing in sacred space

The Pathways of Prana Vinyasa Series is dedicated to providing a full-spectrum mandala of solar-lunar practice for activating, balancing and nourishing the flow of yoga in daily life - the living of energetic vinyasa. From her home studio above Solstice Canyon in Malibu, Santorini, and Costa Rica, the "pathways of prana vinyasa" is a practice guide to each the 10 Namaskars and 10 Solar-Lunar Sequences that correspond to each of the teacher certification modules: Foundation, Elemental, Chakra, Rasa.

The state of namaskar is “to bow, to realize the essence” whether it is the energy of the sun as in sun salutations (surya namaskar) or the moon as in moon salutations (chandra namaskar). We explore over 40 “Prana Vinyasa Namaskars” along with Classical Sun Salutations as the consummate vinyasa to enter the flow. Each Prana Vinyasa Namaskar has its own energy and effect. From a base of 4 classical namaskars, 36 different namaskars are explored through six levels of practice that have developed over the past 20 years of teaching. These are focused on different purposes for circulation, rejuvenation, multi-directional or circular movement, beginning with the foundation, honoring the elements, embodying the chakras, rasa and the heart of bhakti as the Deva-Devi as the divine archetypes and finally for sahara - releasing into breath-guided movement. Once beginners have integrated the foundation, students experience the wonderful effect of the opening of new pathways within their being.

Prana Vinyasa Wave Sequencing is a method developed by Shiva over 25 years of teaching as an integrative, progressive, full-spectrum way of creating a progressive flowof a yoga class utilizing the natural structure of vinyasa as wave cycles as well as Krishnamacharya’s teaching of vinyasa krama or stages of evolution. Prana Vinyasa Wave Sequencing works with the “sutra of the class by offering students movement patterns from the very first om through the namaskars and related vinyasas to the peak asanas to the inner arts of regeneration integrated at the end of class. The journey is a spectrum from the micro-vinyasa of spanda, breath, and the pulsation within an asana to the macro-vinyasa of a Prana Vinyasa sequence. The awareness of moving from macrocosm to microcosm and from microcosm to macrocosm is central in embodying flow and vinyasa.

The art of prana vinyasa rekindles the power of movement meditation - for people of all backgrounds and reviving the power of whole-body prostration, or pranams within yoga and vinyasa. it is one of the most universal and effective ways to shift from a fragmented mind to receptive mind. we integrate pranams (“nam” bowing to “pra” the life-force) as a way to begin practice particularly on retreat or special days during the month and season. In prana vinyasa yoga, we cultivate the natural states of meditation to bring flow, deeper connection and creative power to the movement of our life.

Meditation is described as the unbroken flow of consciousness that can be experienced throughout the day from one’s natural breath flow to a circle of possibilities that gives us range to enter into meditation anywhere, anytime and as the basis of living flow. Movement meditation is a way of entering into a flow of consciousness often obstructed from everyday tensions. for many people who describe seated meditation as a form of torture physically or internally, movement meditation is a surprisingly natural and immediate way into an “unbroken, natural state of flow” or meditation.

Prana Vinyasa integrates the power and benefits of meditation of self-realization, nourishing the brain, tonifying our nervous system, releasing stress and tensions, boosting our immune system, enhancing creativity, and deepening our authentic connectedness to life.

We transform a “class” into a movement meditation or meditation mandala as a vehicle to access the deeper states of consciousness that aid in our healing and reconnection to the divine. In the flow of the prana vinyasa practice, we teach alignment sequenced in intelligent movement patterns that repeat and pulse as a means entrain the mind and heart, awakening inner embodied awareness.

There are rhythms within rhythms within rhythms. And these drumbeats echo all around
us and within us. We are not outsiders to the process; we are part of it,
throbbing to the pulse of the universe.

- Deepak Chopra

Prana Vinyasa is a living system that teaches how to change with the flow of our life energy. Vinyasa in essence is every cycle of life, from the micro-pulse of the quantum and cellular pulse that emerges and dissolves in seconds, to the vinyasa of our inhale of receiving new life and our exhale of letting go, to the awakening of every morning to when we retire, and all of the mini- cycles that pervade the vinyasa of the day, week, and lunar/solar cycles. Ultimately our life from our conception to when our body dissolves is one vinyasa. Paying attention to the beginning of a cycle, the way it is sustained and builds, and the completion of a vinyasa is the open secret to living flow.

This living in deep attunement to the natural rhythms of the planet is living vinyasa in flow with the pulse of life a gateway through which we can live in harmony with the solar and lunar rhythms that dominate our biological and spiritual experience in order to find optimal flow in our lives.

In the typical working world of 9-to-5 and a life that’s becoming ever more mechanized and urban, we need to find a new way of being. For many people in the West, our natural rhythms have changed to one of 24-7 constant stimulation and high levels of stress, both of which have contributed to the rise in heart disease - the number-one killer in the U.S. even though it hardly existed more than a century ago.

There is great need for a new way to deal with the fragmenting effects of life in the twenty-first century. A “new” way of being integrating to the ways of our ancestors - who synched with nature as the flow of their lives. Prana Vinyasa practice system helps us remember what our bodies already know to be true to our own rhythm which is essential for finding peace and wholeness in our bodies. Everything in nature, and everything in our being, goes through a process of expansion and contraction. And it is the heartbeat, expanding and contracting, that keeps us alive.

The word yoga means to “yoke,” or, in other words, to “unify.” Thus, in the yoga of the heart that I teach in this book, we seek to reintegrate ourselves with the natural flow of our bodies, guided by the warm, central wisdom of our Heart Fires.

This heart-disease fact was from the Franklin Institute: http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/history/history.html.