Honoring Swami Kripalu on his 110th Birthday: Cultivating and Nurturing the Witness as a Householder

by Lee Furey, Board President

This holiday period truly feels like a season of marvels. Let me just share with you a few of the sparkly details from the past year.

What does the Pranakriya community mean to me? It means that I know that I can use authentic yoga culture as a vessel for shaping change.

Recently, I was teaching a private lesson to a seven-year-old girl and we were talking about energy and how our energy affects others.  Her response to the conversation was, “sometimes my energy is so big I can’t hold it.”  WOW!  What awareness and insight at such a young age.  I knew right then what my role was in working with this child.  How do I teach her to strengthen her container to hold this energy when it’s needed and how do I teach her to let it go (as needed) without feeling a loss?   Pranakriya Yoga has taught all of us to lean in, raise our awareness through breath and physical awareness, to strengthen our containers, and to dissolve our sense of self.

by Emma Rabbitt

Gender Benders began as a workshop at Gathered & Grounded, a yoga studio specifically for kids and teens in Decatur, Georgia. A fellow queer teacher invited me to co-lead the 3 hour experience. It included art therapy, guided meditation, asana, and sensory exploration. We only had two participants, but what grew out of that workshop is a class that just hit it’s three year mark, with 90% of the original group intact.

There was a shift within. I leaned into the discomfort and intensity. I really was feeling grateful to spend this special time with my family and saw it as a gift. I was not alone in this. Instead of viewing my kids as something to be fixed or a problem that I created I had to see it through a new lens.

Based on the teachings of Yoganand Michael Carroll