I'm looking forward to joining up with my colleague Larissa Carlson at Kripalu Center in a few months, teaching Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation, part of Kripalu's professional level 500-hour yoga teacher training.

The program is already full with a wait list, so we're looking forward to ten days with 60 yogis and yoginis breathing deep, paying really close attention to what happens in moment-to-moment awareness and learning how to guide others into non-ordinary states of consciousness that arise from these practices.

After many years of yoga practice I found myself more drawn to 'just sitting, ' particularly in the Theravaden Buddhist tradition.  I've found, though, there are times when the pranayama techniques have been amazingly helpful in my practice and I'm rediscovering how powerful they are for cultivating concentration, working with pain and preparing the body and mind for intensive meditation practice.

Larissa just wrote a great article on "Reinvigorating a Pranayama Home Practice" you might enjoy.  If you have the opportunity to study with Larissa, do it.  She's incredibly knowledgable and compassionate.