breath, energy, life, spirit = self-discovery through yoga was my original tag line for this blog, but it’s changed, as noted above.
Prana Journal has existed since April 2004, but I have been around a lot longer, more than 60 years. But this blog really represents the culmination of a life-long search: Prana Journal is a running account of my learning process using yoga, mediation and related disciplines as tools for personal fulfillment. I don’t write as an expert, but rather as an engaged student who gains better understanding by describing what he has learned and sharing it with others.
Prana is a Sanskrit word that has multiple meanings. It literally means “to breathe forth.” It can also mean “breath of life, breath, respiration, vitality, vigor, energy, power and spirit,” (a nod to Richard Rosen’s excellent book, The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pranayama. It is the all-pervading vital energy or life force of the universe, equivalent to the concept of chi in Chinese.
One of my entry points to this exploration was the Art of Living Foundation and its spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and that is probably why most visitors come to this site. The kriya practice was my access point to yoga. I’ve been less active with the local AoL groups in the DC area in recent years.
I practice in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and I try to comment on the yoga scene in the area, though not as much as I’d like. I have set up an incomplete directory of yoga studios.
A Personal Story
But the most important aspect of a yoga practice is the dynamic flow as it affects spirit, mind and body. It’s a personal story. It starts with a simple question:
- Can yoga change your life?
- A confession
- Transform
- The meaning of namaste -
- What my body has taught me:
- at 16 months
- Others to come as I locate the appropriate entries.
I am also part of a broader social, cultural trend in which yoga has converged with the American mainstream. I will be commenting on how yoga is perceived both inside and outside the mind-body community.


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