In both yoga and Ayurveda, you are encouraged to move smoothly and calmly between transitions. Smooth transitions are key to prana (life energy) management and balance as you pass through the daily, seasonal, and life cycles.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to manage prana and smooth out transitions in yoga and Ayurveda:
— Set daily intention: Where do you want to place your life energy today? Keep it simple. Self-care suggestions: hydrate, meditation, exercise/yoga, meal times, community activities, art/creativity, and nature time.
— Stay focused: Stop multi-taking; instead, focus on doing one thing at a time. You may be amazed by how much more energy you have at the end of the day when you stop multi-tasking!
— Slow down in all that you do! Moving too quickly dries up your Ojas (vigor) and promotes, what we call in Ayurveda, untimely age. Untimely age is when the biological age is far more ahead of the chronological age. Slow and steady wins the race.
— Silence: In quiet space, cultivate deeper listening to the rhythm your body craves free of outside influence. Deep listening invites prana to come back to your center and stabilizes your sense of self.
— Self-Awareness: Each year, try to understand yourself more to help reduce lifestyle factors that impact prana regulation and wellness. For example: What type of yoga practices or exercise nourish you? How long do you need to practice to feel alert and awake? What foods are easier for you to digest? How does regular meditation practice affect the rest of your day? What stresses you out and can you work toward reducing the stressor(s)?
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Join Baxter Bell and Melina Meza for a new experience at the Feathered Pipe Ranch, one of daily adventures, exploring creativity and sharing yoga practice for vibrant living. This week long retreat will invite you to rediscover what it takes to feel adventuresome, how to kindle your creative mind and spirit and how to fall in love with yoga for the first time or all over again, June 22 – 29, 2024, “Journey To Joy: Adventure, Creativity, And Yoga Retreat”
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About Melina Meza:
Melina Meza, eRYT500, BS Nutrition, Ayurvedic Health Educator, Certified Yoga for Aging Teacher, is an avid hiker, tennis player, biker and nature photographer and has discovered many magical places around the Feathered Pipe Ranch since her first visit in 2013. She has shared her knowledge of Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, and whole foods nutrition with yogis around the world for over 20 years, She is attuned to the five elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether, which she weaves into her rich Ayurvedic teachings. Melina pioneered Seasonal Vinyasa, an innovative multi-disciplined approach to well-being, and is the author of the Art of Sequencing books and the creator of the Yoga for the Seasons: Fall Vinyasa DVD. Since 1997, Melina has been teaching yoga at 8 Limbs Yoga Centers in Seattle, Washington, where she also is Director of their 200- and 500-Hour Teachers’ Training Program.
Currently residing in Oakland California, Melina facilitates many yoga and Ayurveda workshops and leads retreats each year. Her continual growth as a teacher and practitioner has been influenced by studying with numerous instructors, including Dr. Robert Svoboda, Scott Blossom, Jin Sung, Sarah Powers, Gary Kraftsow, Kathleen Hunt, and Baxter Bell, MD. Retreats and sabbaticals are also vital to Melina’s personal practice and bring her deeper reflection and inspiration.
Melina holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Bastyr University, where she deepened her interest in the world of whole foods nutrition, and is a certified Ayurvedic Health Educator from the California College of Ayurveda. While attending Bastyr, she found what her body, mind, and spirit had been waiting for — yoga. From her very first class in 1993, she has never stopped exploring the physical, mental, and spiritual practices passed down from the ancient sages. Yoga has been the “launching pad” — as her teacher Gary Kraftsow describes it — that has rocketed her into a life journey of cultivating the disciplines necessary to gain insight and wisdom integral to being healthy, compassionate, and radiant, while sharing those gifts with others.
Check out Melina’s unique offerings on the Yoga Anytime, YogaUonline, or at Gaiamtv and practice from the comfort of your own home.
Learn more about Melina: melinameza.com