I’m starting to feel grateful that I live with chronic muscle pain.
Saying this has taken years. It’s not because I’m a masochist! I feel grateful because the pain has caused me to search really deep inside. Thus, I have done many practices that helped to transform me into a more compassionate person.
One of those practices is Supported Fish (Salambha Matsyasana). I have probably done it in yoga classes only twice. However, I often don’t learn things when I do them in class. I need a lot of repetition.
I got plenty of repetition when I went through excruciating back pain in 2023. Physical therapy couldn’t help me. That’s when I signed up for a long series of Overlap Healing yoga therapy. I had 35 sessions over 3 months.
My therapist had me do Supported Fish often during that time. I really came to love and enjoy the feeling of my body spread across two Svaroopa® blanket rolls.
I continued doing the pose at home daily. After a while, I felt a powerful shift in my heart. It felt as if someone reached in, took my old heart out and put a new one in. This was a much gentler and more compassionate heart!
I no longer do Supported Fish pose daily. However, I monitor myself to recognize when my heart is feeling a bit rough, not as compassionate as I would like. Then I self-prescribe myself for a week or more of Supported Fish poses. What bliss!
Your caring makes the Ashram what it is. There are two kinds of Ashrams. One shelters and nurtures committed seekers within the tradition. The other spreads the teachings far and wide.
It is because of your interest that we do what we do at Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram. Seventeen years old today, with thousands of articles written and free programs offered. Along with retreats to support your inner deepening, we’ve offered hundreds of professional trainings to empower yogis to share the power and beauty of this tradition.
Donors provide our primary financial support, proving they care enough to make sure we will be here next year. Yet they empower me and our swamis to serve everyone who comes. I am grateful for the opportunity to share what I received from my oh-so-generous Guru.
Some Ashrams are a place to retreat from the world. Some are right in the middle of the world. I placed us on Main Street USA for two reasons. One is to make it easy for our residents and guests to access supplies and services. The other is to put yoga and meditation in public view. Yes, I do want to change the world! And I know that yoga and meditation will bring out the best in you.
Our Ashram is fully grown. I say this because I was 17 when I graduated from high school and stepped into the world. In the same way, I see the teachers I have trained serving others, thousands of students. And our swamis offering classes and courses, not only On-Site and Online, but traveling to teach in distant locations almost every month of the year.
Our Ashram is a vibrant center of Consciousness, vibrating with both internal and external energies. Based in the river of Grace, we draw from the timeless teachings of yoga while juggling the myriad opportunities to support others. It’s a little bit like a circus. There’s always something happening!
Yes, Shiva is dancing the world into existence, right here in Downingtown.
Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna
After years of reduced mobility and difficulty standing upright due to tension, I decided to amp up my Svaroopa® yoga practices.
For extra support, I added online classes to my home practice. Walking improved a little, yet nothing seemed to reach completely into the tension in my jammed right hip.
Then last year, my online classes began to include the new YogaBody poses. I became more grounded and present in my body. Clearly, I needed the support from these deeper YogaBody poses and the Ashram swamis as well as local teachers trained to offer the new poses.
I was well prepared for immersive YogaBody teacher training last spring. Being able to learn in person with other teachers and our Teacher Trainers made a difference. I got the precise alignments and encouragement I needed. Away from home responsibilities and settled into being a student, I had a genuine breakthrough.
My “aha” moment happened in Parshva Setu Asana (Angled Bridge Pose). Not your average bridge pose! It was a more challenging pose, but the changes were instant and obvious. Afterward, resting in Shavasana with my legs outstretched, the hip tensions were gone as my right leg extended long and soft into the floor.
The magic of this deeper pose had released some formerly ingrained pattern. As our training material explains, it allowed me to engage my “biggest and strongest muscles to move and release the tightest areas” in my body. Now, as I continue to practice this pose, I experience a new ease in standing and walking.
Corresponding emotional and mental patterns were unraveling as well. At home, family complications and old memories had been rising. Going back to the YogaBody poses and sitting with japa afterwards led to a huge shift inside. My breath opened up. I was able to let go. I have more clarity now and can move forward without hanging onto the past.
So much Grace flows through our lineage and these teachings. I feel so much gratitude for it all. These poses carried me through several travels since the training.
I feel empowered by the greater capacity for self-care that I have developed as a result. I look forward to continuing online classes in addition to the Ashram’s yoga therapy sessions.
The current discounts for online Ashram yoga therapy are also a great incentive for this radical self-care!
Traveling can cause my hip to tighten up again. Yet the YogaBody poses restore my yoga miracle. So I will continue online Ashram weekly classes with our swamis as well as online private yoga therapy.
Have you lost some of your flexibility and strength, mental clarity, vitality and happiness? Most people lose more every year due to stress, illness, a chronic condition, an accident or simply getting older.
Yoga therapy sessions help you to regain it all, as a recent client describes:
After the 3rd session I began to feel a return of my self-confidence. I was getting my mojo back. As my body began to soften, I could feel the changes happening in my mind. I was feeling stronger and empowered both physically and mentally.
Each session includes therapeutic yoga poses. They are specifically tailored to begin the decompression of your spine at your tailbone. Your session continues the release up your spine through your sacrum, waist, ribcage and neck.
This release improves your whole body, from toes to head. You become more flexible and stronger at the same time.
Benefits go beyond physical. Your mind gets a rest from habitual worries, running memories of the past and planning for the future. Releasing tension along your spine quiets, soothes and settles your mind. After your session you have more clarity. You can focus and make effective decisions.
Your session frees up your own energy. The energy that was sustaining tightness — the muscular contractions — becomes available to you. Prana, your own life force, is amped up. You have more vitality and energy to accomplish what you want in the world.
With tensions released, there’s an upwelling of happiness from within. This happiness is independent of anything happening on the outside.
Joy, creativity and enthusiasm arise from deep within and overflow into your life. This upwelling is your own mystical power. You feel more like you.
Mojo is your personal power, confidence and enthusiasm — the spark that makes you more alive! Get your mojo back!
Therapeutic yoga sessions are available online and in person. Sign up today.
Driving along, I realized that an oblivious driver was pulling out into my path.
To avoid the collision, I stomped on the brake and wrenched the steering wheel sideways. The fright and violent movements put my SI joints into spasm. My sacrum caught fire.
A month later the pain had not abated, even with my regular home yoga practice. Exhausted by relentless pain, I said to my sister, “I just want to go back to normal, or is this my new normal?” What a depressing prospect!
So I decided to get help from the experts. Five Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy sessions online with Swami Shrutananda brought temporary relief. Still, the activities of daily life continued to fire up the pain. Shrutananda observed that I was doing everything with my back muscles. I needed to strengthen my abdominals and legs to give my back a rest.
Evidently, my regular practice was no longer enough to combat the effects of time and gravity. At age 72, I had become weaker with every passing year, but without noticing.
Over the next three months, Shrutananda patiently guided me through a delicate balancing act. We worked simultaneously on strength building and pain management. This took us into April, and in May I put it to the test.
After my back seized up in December, I was dubious about attempting anything strenuous. But my siblings and I had arranged our May hill-climbing vacation a year in advance. Shrutananda’s advice was to spend at least as much time doing yoga as I spent hiking.
So I brought my yoga props along and continued with the therapeutic poses Shrutananda had taught me. On non-walking days I did lots of strength poses.
During one uphill walk, I realized I was flagging, leaning heavily on my walking poles. I told myself, “You’ve been working on strengthening your legs and abs. Use those muscles!” I straightened up and engaged my abs and hamstrings.
I picked up the poles and carried them. Instantly I felt better, more energized. I used this reminder multiple times during the trip.
Now back home, I continue with my twice-daily practice incorporating the therapeutic poses. The sacrum pain has dissolved and I have a spring in my step. Better yet, my new practices are also improving my mind and mood. Someone recently told me I was glowing.
This is my new normal! It’s even much better than the old version before the driving incident. I am deeply grateful for the gift of Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy.
One therapy session is worth six yoga classes. Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy is that powerful! You get more healing in less time because each session is customized.
In a group class, your teacher creates a lesson plan that is meant for all students. It works and it is effective. But a private session is tailored just for you.
Your therapist checks in with you at the beginning of the session. Based on your current condition, she creates your plan. Even if she had an idea of what to do with you before you arrived, it all depends on how you are in the moment. This customized approach meets you exactly where you are at and helps move you to the next level in your healing.
In Svaroopa® Yoga we say, “Support equals release.” It’s so true. When your body is supported in the poses exactly as needed, your tensions melt away.
You settle and soften into the process when you feel supported, not only physically but mentally, emotionally and more. You allow yourself to accept the support. This is very powerful and moves you easily and deeply in your healing.
Along with this customized support, you have your therapist’s full attention. In a class situation, your teacher is taking care of the whole class. But in your yoga therapy session, you are the sole focus.
Having your therapist’s full attention is powerful. This works for both On-Site and Online sessions. Your therapist has years of training not only in what to do, but how to be present with you.
Ultimately, it is your own presence in your body that heals. When your attention is “out there” somewhere, focused on other people, things to do, worries and fears, your body suffers. Any tight or painful area of your body is an area that has been missing your presence. You need to get back into your body!
Your session helps to move your own awareness into those shutdown areas. You learn how to re-inhabit those places. Your therapist’s embodied presence helps you to get embodied. Then, your own awareness makes every pose deeper.
If you are able to come in person for a session, you get the benefit of Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy’s hands-on approach. The adjustments your therapist can give you are like magic! They are so delicious. And they amplify the benefits you get in each pose.
You get a taste of this in a group class. You’re lying in Half Frog, and your teacher comes over and does her magic. Your body opens up in a whole new way. You didn’t even realize it was possible. You feel the difference.
But you only get that adjustment on one side of the pose in a class. In a yoga therapy session, though, you get it in every pose and on both sides.
This hands-on approach accelerates your body’s healing in a way you couldn’t even have imagined. You have to experience it for yourself.
Each yoga therapy session is worth six classes. So if you are in need of healing, speed your process along and sign up for some yoga therapy.
Vicky has been taking Svaroopa®yoga classes for nearly 20 years.
Even though she doesn’t teach, she has taken Foundations and Embodyment® Yoga Therapy training. This spring, she took a bigger leap. At Lokananda, she took Embodyment® Plus; she took the Magic of Ujjayi course online.
Preparation for Embodyment® Plus required her to give a large number of Embodyment® sessions. We happily embarked on an Overlap Healing Series with one another. I also gave Vicky some yoga therapy sessions, targeting specific physical issues.
She says, “I always stand up straighter, feel lighter, and more easily experience joy after a class or a session. This happens every time. That’s why Svaroopa® Yoga is so attractive to me.”
Now Vicky finds that this experience is ongoing, especially after Overlap Healing and yoga therapy as well as Embodyment® Plus training and the Magic of Ujjayi course. She says, “My experiences last longer and are more sustained. It’s pretty profound. Things are going deeper.”
She has noticed subtle, yet profound, changes in her body mechanics as well. In college, she sustained a bad ankle sprain. Although she had a cast, she had no therapy for her injury. That, in combination with some mild scoliosis, has caused 45 years of lower leg, ankle and foot pain. One leg is slightly misaligned and shorter than the other.
In her “do more yoga” mode this spring and summer, things changed. “As my sacrum would relax, my leg would literally unwind. It didn’t feel ‘screwed in’ any more. I felt muscles in my glutes, thigh, hip, calf and foot that wanted to unwind and be on point — just like a ballerina. That release in my spine was releasing the tension in my leg and unwinding all the way down to my foot.”
Because of travels, she has not been doing as much yoga practice or therapy recently. Yet she is still noticing the benefits. “I can tap into it more easily. It’s just waiting to be acknowledged again. I pick up more readily.”
“And, my feet are not hurting. At the end of the day, my feet would be yelling at me. Now they are not.”
Vicky also has a much better understanding of how all the practices work together. “I used to think that Embodyment® or asana or Ujjayi were just replacements for one another. But they’re not. You get so many more benefits when you work with all three together. They don’t merely complement one another. They build upon each other.”
As a student. Vicky has always asked lots of questions. She wants to know how to get precise alignments and how things work. “In the past, when the releases have happened,” she recalls, “I’ve felt the benefits, and I’ve wanted to know why. But now, I don’t have to. I know my body is doing what it needs to do. That’s the biggest take away for me.”
Take a breath. And another one, slower. Now, one more…
This simple stress reduction technique comes from yoga. Along with the “Relaxation Response,” these methodologies were mainstreamed in the 1950’s to 1970’s.
Yoga poses were first taught in America by Swami Vivekananda in the 1890’s. While his focus was meditation and yoga philosophy, he taught poses in some of his week-long retreats. Most of the participants were wealthy women who had servants who could take care of their household while they were gone.
In the 1930’s, the cosmetics mogul Elizabeth Arden opened a women’s spa in Maine. Along with beauty techniques, the guests learned yoga poses from teachers that Arden brought from India. They took yoga home with them, along with their new creams and cosmetics.
Theos Bernard made his first trip to India in 1936. On his return, he taught yoga to New York socialites. Many years later, I met one of Theos’ students. In her 70s by then, she shared a 16mm movie of her doing extreme yoga poses from her studies with him. It was impressive, but not user-friendly.
Indra Devi began teaching yoga in Los Angeles in 1948, where she relocated from India. She repackaged yoga as a relaxing health and beauty routine, which attracted Hollywood elite. She had been a famous actress in India, so she understood that world very well.
By the time I got interested, Richard Hittleman was teaching on television, with women demonstrating the poses as he gave instruction. He included tidbits of yoga philosophy in his shows. His books included meditation. His shows were on daytime TV in the USA, so the viewers were mainly women.
Lilias Folan’s TV classes began in 1970, again showing on daytime TV. She demonstrated the poses herself while teaching, making them seem very accessible. Every women’s magazine featured yoga poses — for decades.
My first in-person yoga class was in 1975, with a teacher trained by Indra Devi. She taught at my local Parks & Recreation Department as well as in her own home. By then, every California suburb had a yoga teacher offering classes in her home. Soon I was one of them.
While meditation was an undercurrent in all these classes, it got lost as yoga moved into the athletic clubs in the 1990’s. It began to attract more men, though it is still over 70% women in America. Athletic and aerobic yoga styles grew exponentially, overshadowing the slower and meditative approach originated by the ancient sages.
From 1997-2002, I helped with the founding of Yoga Alliance, setting Teacher Training standards that included the historic roots and philosophy.
The therapeutic approach was pioneered by Michael Lee with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. Within Svaroopa® yoga, I introduced yoga therapeutics in 2000, with a growing concentration of classes in this area since then.
In 2014, the United Nations established International Day of Yoga by a rare unanimous vote. The resolution notes “the importance of individuals and populations making healthier choices and following lifestyle patterns that foster good health.”
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, spoke to the cosmic perspective of the ancient sages. “Yoga is an invaluable gift from our ancient tradition. Yoga embodies unity of mind and body, thought and action… Yoga is not just about exercise; it is a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature.”
We are the beneficiaries of many generations of Western yoga teachers, making this time-honored tradition accessible today. The rich diversity of yoga styles means you can find your niche, whether it is therapeutics or a gymnastic approach. At Downingtown Yoga, we focus on therapeutics as well as the meditative practices.
Please join us for this 12th International Day of Yoga. We will honor the occasion at our Sunday meditation program:
Swami Sunday (On-Site or Online) Led by Gurudevi Nirmalananda June 21 from 10:00 – 11:30 am
And you can do more yoga on Yoga Day by coming to our afternoon class:
Yoga & Meditation Class (Online) With Swami Prajñananda June 21 from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (Eastern Time)
I feel fortunate to have watched yoga’s seeds bloom in America. Many of the events and teachers I have described are significant parts of my life story, for which I am very grateful.
Yoga keeps me healthy and happy, even as I complete my 80th year of life. Beyond mere happiness, I delight in yoga’s deep roots and spiritual heritage, which can be accessed by turning inward. One way to begin is by taking a slow deep breath…
My growing up years were filled with significant abuse and trauma. This set me up to lack conflict resolution skills. I completely mistrusted authority figures. Later, I struggled in relationships because I inherently found it difficult to trust anyone.
In my twenties, I began a decades-long process of working with various talk therapists. I was always seeking “the one” who could give me answers. I sought relief from the darkness that filled my mind and heart. Stronger and stronger doses of antidepressants became the crutch that kept me functional.
And I was highly functional. I held down jobs, excelling in performance, though I changed them frequently. Without conflict resolution skills and trust in authority, my employment in any organization was one to three years.
Fast forward to September 2025. Chelsea (Rajñi) King, who teaches Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation, posted an invitation on Facebook for her three-class introductory series. As soon as I read her post, I signed up. With Rajni’s gentle teaching style and encouragement, I began meditating for 20 minutes each morning.
Later in the course, she introduced us to the Ashram website. I thought I had struck gold! I took one of Gurudevi’s free online meditation classes.
Later I joined her daily online Meditation Club. By then, I was meditating an hour each morning as well as slowly increasing my at-home yoga.
It was clear to me that meditation was rewiring my brain. My emotions and reactions to things were changing.
I questioned whether I still needed antidepressants. Working with my doctor, I set up a plan to slowly decrease the amounts over a four-month period, beginning December 1, 2025. It took only three months! Simultaneously, I had already begun taking various Ashram offerings.
In mid-January, I attended Swami Sunday in person for the first time. By then, I was down to 50% of my dose without any negative side effects. At the end of January, Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreat powerfully boosted my engagement in our Ashram’s full-spectrum yogic practices.
Several Enlightenment Studies series, the Guided Meditation course, a weekly Svaroopa® yoga class and Embodyment® Yoga Therapy sessions produced significant changes. I also attended Gurudevi’s satsangs regularly and took advantage of the Shishya Vichara Club. My intention was to stack everything that I had control over — in my favor.
For more than fifty years, I had believed that antidepressants were keeping my brain in “safe” mode. Although seeing my dosage decrease was scary, I was supported in my process by Grace.
Flowing from Svaroopa® practices, Grace opened me to feeling joy, love and compassion when interacting with fellow yogis. This kept me steady in my resolution to end my drug dependency. By the end of February, I had accomplished that.
Gurudevi ceaselessly invites us to “Do more yoga.” I did it and it works!
With great joy and clarity, I exclaimed, “Svaroopa® Yoga can heal the world!”
I was introducing myself at the beginning of the Embodyment® PLUS training. My enthusiasm and confidence surprised me a bit. But I know this to be true. Svaroopa® Yoga has limitless healing power.
Grace is the “not-so-secret ingredient” that makes Svaroopa® Yoga so magical. Grace is God’s power of revelation. Grace opens us up to experience our own Divine Essence. And the experience of our own Divine Essence can heal anything and everything. That’s how the accessible poses of this yoga can be so powerful.
Yes, the angles target your spine. Yes, the propping supports you allowing muscular tension to soften. And Grace superpowers the whole process. Limitless healing ensues. It’s always amazing but never surprising. It’s reliable.
In my introduction, I followed up my bold statement with a comment: “If they let us heal them.”
Yes, it is up to you. You are in charge. How much will you allow Svaroopa® Yoga to transform your body, mind and heart? How much can you melt into Grace?
If you want more healing, take a yoga class with our teachers. Beneath the umbrella of the Ashram, Gurudevi’s Grace flows more strongly. Through Ashram yoga classes, Online as well as On-Site, you’ll get more of the not-so-secret ingredient, Grace.
If you want even more change, take a private yoga therapy session. One of our Swamis will personally assist you. More Grace. More Healing.
Svaroopa® Yoga can heal you. How much will you allow? Take the next simple step with a yoga class or yoga therapy session.
