I recently spent a weekend at Kripalu, learning from Dana Falsetti.
Dana is world-renowned as a higher thought and body freedom advocate, as well as the leader of a program called Empowered Life. In the weeks and months that have passed since I practiced with Dana, I’ve noticed significant shifts in my life.
Empowered Life changed the perception of my consciousness, elevated my purpose and bettered my teaching for my students.
Before I get into the good stuff, let me tell you this: if you EVER have the chance to visit Kripalu, GO. Itâs a college campus style yoga and wellness facility, set on miles and miles of land in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts.
It’s exactly what we all need: quiet, kind, and conscious. No one cares where your yoga leggings are from. And most importantly, everyone can all learn a little from Swami Kripaluâs embodied wisdom.
If you donât know who Dana Falsetti is, go research her before you read on. If you do, find her in a city near you and listen closely to her. The Empowered Life program was centered on self-awareness, inclusion, accessibility, and the concept of “self-love” that everyoneâs crazy for right now. Dana teaches that we can find self-awareness and cultivate compassion once we understand that the narrative we tell ourselves due to cognitive preconceptions (childhood, media, culture, gender) about our own lives, or the lives of others, can be remolded.
Basically, we aren’t stuck.
While I cannot accurately recreate the magic or the teachings I experienced (hence why I am telling you to find Dana and learn directly from her ASAP), I can share some of my favorite takeaways. Here they are!
âPracticing Ahimsa is not defining actions, but asking questionsâ – Dana
Living a life of non-violence, or Ahimsa, begins when we question the intent of our doing. We all have shames, we all have fears. shames are rooted in the past, fears are rooted in the future. awareness is the present. if we can become aware of our intent and remove patterns of violence toward ourselves, we can overcome shames and fears with a compassion and a softening. Some questions we journaled on were:
Do your thoughts impact your actions?
Would you change your thoughts if you knew they had an affected action?Â
âIt takes integrity and humility to know the truth is bigger than youâ – Dana
Satya, or truthfulness isnât just not telling lies; it comes back to our self-awareness. Are the âtruthsâ we think are ours based off our own biases? Is truth any less valid or important if we donât speak it? If we do speak it whatâs the intent, validation?
As someone who likes to proclaim my self-decided âtruthsâ this one had me buzzing for days.
âIf you root your worth in something as transient as your body, when it changes, the ground shakesâ – Dana
Yâall.
My jaw was on the floor and my body was SHAKING when Dana explained that you donât necessarily have to love your body every day to practice body positivity. You just have to meet yourself where youâre at, and when you do, the compassion will come around and around, eventually bleeding into all of our actions, interactions, and choices.
There I was, thinking that “body positivity” and self-love equated to staring at myself in the mirror every day, pretending to love what I saw. This was huge.
Asana
The last part of my highlight reel Iâll share is the physical asana. Dana is a proponent of accessible, inclusive, and modified yoga for marginalized bodies. She gave us physical movement tools needed for the creation of a new sort of yoga practice – a physical movement modality centered on allowing every single human body to feel visible in a yoga studio. The modifications Dana offered for sun salutations were eye-opening; the whole sequence became instantaneously safer, more effective, and ACCESSIBLE.
I could truly talk about my weekend with Dana for days, and Iâve surely already integrated so much of what I learned into teaching and my personal life. Her workshop left me craving new senses, chasing my purpose, and freeing my thoughts, all while stirring up some really big, important questions. As with any awakening, there were uncomfortable and strange moments, mixed with breaths of LIFE that felt crystal clear and bold.
After some discussion and expression of everything going on inside my body and mind, a close friend sent me a quote from Nayyirah Waheed that said something along the lines of âthat feeling that youâre unable to explain, thatâs your heart growing.”
And yes, my heart has grown.
Jordan Marcianoâs yoga journey began around 2009, when after many years in the spotlight as a competitive figure skater, she turned inward for a more personal, spiritual practice. After barging into Hokis one summer evening and meeting Melissa, she completed her 200 hour RYT training at Hokis and it fast became home. Her approach to yoga is simple â enjoy it â donât be afraid to play, explore, or let yourself fall. As long as your mind, body and breath are connected, you are forever making space for more light. She believes in holding an open, warm space so her students, new and advanced, are comfortable being present wherever they are in their practice. A born and raised New Jersey native, Jordan currently lives in Bergen County.Â
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