| Welcome |
|
Purna Yoga teaches the mind, the body and the emotions how to be at home with the spirit. |
| Quick Links |
|
 |
|
|
| Dear Students and Friends,
The only time you are doing yoga is when you are in contact with your Spirit in your Heart Center. The rest, however, outwardly glamourous or altruistic, is the life of ego. See you in class!
With our love,
Mirra and Aadil |
| Asana |
|
When you think of all that is accomplished when you are doing inversions, it seems like a miracle! You may already know that you become more peaceful, centered, still, and relaxed. But did you know why that happens, and what else occurs to contribute to the benefits? During inversions, the pelvic bones widen, the sacral bone descends and spinal tension releases, the cranial bones mobilize, and the two hemispheres of the brain widen, thus relaxing the entire nervous system and increasing cerebro spinal fluid. The heart descends toward the throat, creating space between the heart and the lungs, diaphragm and stomach. The energy of the pelvis (the place of ego) moves toward the Heart Center (the place of the Divine). You become more aware of your Heart Center, and the Pillar of Light is more distinct as the "thinking" brain relaxes. The body receives light from above helping the feet, legs, and lower body to connect with the Divine. Inversions take miracles out of the extraordinary, and bring them into everyday life!
|
| Meditation |
|
| Snacking on Light
Every moment, though we may regularly eat healthy food and drink filtered water, we are probably not  nourishing our bodies with the most important energy of all, and that is Light. Without Light, we are not really living. The Purna Yoga Meditation Snacks offer ways to nourish your physical form (which includes your mind) with the Light that is your soul, all day long. In meditation, you learn to see the body as the soul sees the body, as just an outfit that the soul wears on the earthly realm. These meditations invite Light (soul) into your body (outfit), and help you to see, heal, and release your shadows, those parts of you that are not the true you. These meditations gently bring you into the now, that timeless state where you no longer live influenced by past karma or the need to control the future. |
| Nutrition and Lifestyle |
|
|
Oxygen, Hydration, and Alkalinity
Since no disease can exist in an environment that is oxygenated, hydrated, and alkaline, it is vital to eat foods that promote these elements in the body. For example, deep green leafy vegetables or Sunrider's Evergreen bring oxygen into the body. To keep the body hydrated, as I have mentioned before, add a carrier to your water, such as Fortune Delight or lemon juice, so that the water can penetrate the cell walls. Hydration keeps the mind sharp. To encourage alkalinity in the body, eat plenty of citrus fruits, which, though acidic outside the body, leaves an alkaline ash in the body after being metabolized. It is not what food is on the outside that matters, but what it does on the inside. |
| Discernment |
|
| An Excerpt from Fire of Love
How do we distinguish between discernment and judgment? Mother Teresa once told a friend of mine,  "When you judge people, you have no time to love them." Discerning between appropriate and inappropriate actions is very different from forming judgments about the person who is performing the action. Discernment and judgment are radically different. Discernment is necessary for growth; judgment stops growth. Discernment is objective, rising from observation, while judgment is subjective, descending from one's belief. Discernment is motivated by a desire to grow, to evolve, while judgment is motivated by a desire to stay the same. To give a mundane example of the difference: Suppose, despite my hard work in asana, I have stiff hamstrings, and they don't appear to yield. I conclude that I am a stiff person. This is a judgment, a judgment that finalizes the stiffness I feel. Now, even if I fight against my hamstrings every day for years, they will not open. In my yoga classes, I see this all the time - people trying to fight stiff muscles when they are actually fighting stiff minds locked in judgment. Discernment in this situation would step outside the confines of judgment to realize: "Rather than fight my hamstrings in yoga class, let me be discerning as to the cause. I sit on chairs for long periods of time. No wonder my hamstrings are stiff. In addition to my yoga practice, I must get up, walk around, and do a few stretches during the day." Discernment, like all that helps us grow toward joy, requires ongoing awareness. -by Aadil Palkhivala
| |
|
|
|
