Reflections from a Pranayama and Meditation Training

At the beginning of March, I returned to my yoga certification alma mater, Kripalu Center for Yoga and health in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains, for a 9-day training in pranayama and meditation.

Sounds all fluffy and relaxing, doesn’t it? Hmmm, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong, Kripalu is a wonderfully peaceful environment and while I came away renewed, it was because I got to enjoy the fluffy, pampery kind of get-away that you might associate with a visit to Kripalu!

The Kripalu style of instructing yoga teachers is to have the teacher-student experience techniques that they will later teach to their own students.

There are great benefits to this style.

It means there is no set script for me to memorize.
It means I get to take in the practice in the most organic, authentic and humble way by ‘doing’ and living the techniques myself first.
For this most recent training, it meant a three day silent retreat; sans laptop, cellphone or TV.
It also meant diving deeply into myself, coming face-to-face with my truth and being with it, without judgement, no matter how much I loved (or didn’t love) what I saw.

It is truly a transformational process.

I’ve noticed that my stress level has dropped considerably and I smile, inside and out, a little more. I expect that seeing my first crocus this Spring will have me brimming with tears of gratitude. My newly revived practices of breathwork and meditation have been marinating and simmering since my return, and the impact continues to emerge.

Senses are heightened using pranayama and meditation. My first bite of food after breaking the 3-day silence was an almost mind-blowing experience. Vegetable frittata. Omigosh! And listening to Deva Premal in the Kripalu store that day knocked me out… in a good way. Tears of rapture. Simply amazing.

I am still learning and experimenting with my own breath and meditation practice and invite you to come along for the ride as I weave them into my yoga classes in the coming months. Together we can experiment with using these practices to raise the body’s energy but at the same time, keeping ourselves grounded and stabilized.

Meditation leads to an organic interest in what it means to be alive. It is a challenging practice, but it helps the body come back to homeostasis –the tendency of an organism or cell to regulate its internal conditions, usually by a system of feedback controls, in order to stabilize health and function, regardless of outside changing conditions– and can enhance the ability to empathize. Mmmmmm, a most delightful nosh for both body and spirit.