7-Day Pranayama/Meditation Program

As we know, pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation are two of the key ingredients of an integrated yoga routine. Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, has given us these 8 "tools", called the eight limbs of yoga (Ashtanga Yoga) to achieve stillness of the mind – yamas, niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi. Many of the yoga practitioners tend to limit their practice to only the 3rd limb, asana, the physical postures. Even though the practice of asana will make the body more flexible and stronger, by practicing only asanas we are limiting ourselves to a small subset of the benefits that yoga can provide. If we want to achieve the full complement of benefits of yoga, we need to avail of all the "tools" that are given to us.

In an effort to encourage the students to include pranayama and meditation as part of their daily yoga routine, I will be offering a 7-day session as follows:

When: May 23-29, 2010

Time: 6:15 – 7:30 AM

Location: my home-based yoga studio

Schedule: light stretching and Sun Salutation (15 minutes), Pranayama (25 min), Relaxation (5 min), Yoga philosophy (10 min), meditation (20 min).

Commitment: For the program to be successful I strongly urge you to make a firm commitment to follow this schedule and attend every day

Fee: $30

During these sessions, we will cover the techniques and benefits of many different types of pranayama that are given in the yoga literature. For meditation, we will go through a few guided meditation routines. .

Strongly recommended

In addition to committing to the routine as outlined above, I also recommend that you commit to the following for the duration of the program (not mandatory but strongly recommended):

• ‘sattvic’, light, nutritious, VEGETARIAN food
• No alcohol, drugs, tobacco or any other item of similar nature
• A personal commitment to continue the practice after the program is over

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to attend.