Laura Cornell:  Creative and Compassionate Yoga
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Laura's Roots

About
Kripalu Yoga
About the Name
Yogeshwari
Dedication
Prayer

Biography

A certified professional-level Kripalu Yoga teacher and mentor, Laura has been teaching Yoga since 1995. She has led Yoga workshops at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, at Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California, and at the Michigan Women's Music Festival. She is on the faculty of the Yoga Certificate program at The California Institute of Integral Studies, where she teaches "Yoga for Women's Health" and "The Ecology of Yoga."

Laura graduated with a degree in physics from Swarthmore College and an MA in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she is completing a doctoral degree. Her articles on Yoga have appeared in The International Journal of Yoga Therapy and The Kripalu Yoga Teachers' Association Bulletin.

Laura draws from training in several body-centered modalities including Kripalu Yoga, Integrative Yoga Therapy, Vinyasa Yoga, Integral Yoga, Circlework, and Hanna Somatics. Her personal spiritual path is deeply rooted in both Eastern and Western traditions and she has been graced by the presence of many important spiritual teachers in her life. She has been active in Quaker (Friends) Meetings since 1986.

In addition to her work as a Yoga teacher, Laura has over 15 years' experience working in public and private schools. She is founder and director of Peaceful Schools Project, providing conflict resolution program implementation and training for teachers.

About Kripalu Yoga

In a Kripalu Yoga class you will find a sanctuary that invites you to reconnect with body, breath, and soul. Class time includes breathing practices, warm-ups, classic Yoga postures, posture-flow, relaxation, and meditation. Kripalu is a Yoga of the heart, helping to develop compassionate self-awareness. Students become more flexible and strong, peaceful and energized.

Kripalu grew from the Tantric lineage in India. It is named after Swami Kripalvananda, whose name means the bliss of compassion. Kripalu Yoga awakens the prana (life force) in the body and sensitizes the student to that prana.

Kripalu's main teaching center is located in Lenox, Massachusetts. It is the largest Yoga retreat in the United States, housing over 300 guests. Kripalu is the birthplace of many important innovations, including Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, Integrative Yoga Therapy, the Moon Salutation, Kripalu Danskinetics, Kripalu bodywork, and The Wave Integrational Breathwork, .

Kripalu is unique among American Yogas in its inclusion of time for self-directed posture-flow in its classes. The posture-flow affirms the teacher within and acknowledges the healing that comes from following our own inner guidance.

Kripalu Yoga takes into account all aspects of the body: physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual; its mission is to create a more conscious and compassionate world. May all be healed and blessed by this Yoga and by all Yogas.

 

About the Name Yogeshwari (Yo-geh´-shwah-ree)

Laura was given the name "Yogeshwari" in 2001 by a spiritual teacher. She began to use the name in association with her Yogic work in March of 2003.

"Yogeshwari" is one of the ancient names of the Divine Mother. With this name we honor the living presence of the Divine Feminine in the world as a guiding force for healing, reconciliation of all people, and a renewed human relationship with the earth.

The arts of Yogeshwari are all the healing arts of Yoga: physical postures, breathwork, ecstatic dance, music, sacred poetry, story telling, communion with Nature, and meditation.

Yogeshwari may be visualized as a tree: With Her roots deep in the earth and a strong trunk, She flowers in the world and provides shelter, community, and food for many.

Yogeshwari may be visualized as a lion-rider: Fearlessly battling injustice, She protects children, the elderly, and infirm, and speaks on behalf of the Earth.

Yogeshwari may be visualized as a serpent: Reawakening in this age, She reconnects us with Earth and sky, with intuition, and with the healing power of the life-force.

 

Dedication Prayer

May our Yoga bear great fruit.
May it bring us health, happiness, and freedom.
May we be gentle, compassionate, and truthful.
May we live at peace with all beings and with the earth.
May we realize our sisterhood and brotherhood with animals, plants, rocks, water, and air.

May all beings and the body of the earth be happy.
May all beings and the body of the earth be peaceful.
May all beings and the body of the earth be free.

-- Yogeshwari Laura Cornell

 

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Yogeshwari Arts
4 Captain Dr. #314
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 597-0781