We know yoga nidra to be one of the most nourishing and restorative yoga practices. Practiced regularly it keeps us well, supporting us through times of suffering and difficulty, and helping people to heal at every dimension of being.

For the past twenty-four years we have been sharing yoga nidra very widely, and have been blessed by many opportunities to offer the practice in hospitals and schools, on yoga retreats, and in camps, on the road and at home, all over Europe and beyond: from the Atlantic coast of Ireland to the heart of Moscow. We are humbled by the fact that, since the lingua franca of world yoga happens right now to be English (with a smattering of Sanskrit), we have been able to share the practice of yoga nidra in our mother tongue.

But recently, as we train more teachers and travel more widely, we have been able to share the practice in Russian, Italian and Greek with the help of interpreters. Some of these bi-lingual recordings (in Italian and Russian) are now available as free downloads on the yoga nidra network site (http://www.yoganidranetwork.org/downloads), and there are also offerings from recently trained teachers delivering yoga nidra in Dutch and Swedish. These are live recordings, with the occasional sneeze or snuffle, so the sound quality is not great, but we felt moved to share these practices, because they are the start of a huge and exciting project:

Our intention is to offer from this site free downloads of yoga nidra in every European language and dialect by the end of 2013. Recordings of practices delivered in Danish, French, Spanish and German are already in process, and we already have kind volunteers ready to record practices in Greek, Norwegian, Italian and Irish. If you are interested to help create a free download of yoga nidra in your own mother tongue, then we would like to hear from you!

Please drop us a mail at yoganidra@icloud.com with YN LANGUAGES in the subject line and we will be in touch! Together, we feel sure that this vision can become a reality.

With great respect and love
Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

This is the Convent of the Poor Clares at Woodchester. It is a beautiful, peaceful, spiritual place: a Cotswold home for prayer and worship for the past two hundred and sixty years (the nuns left only last year).

We know in our hearts that this old convent would be the perfect space to welcome you all: to join us for retreats and trainings, for inter-faith celebrations and camps, for intensive studies and personal retreats, for workshops and classes, and for quiet times of healing rest. We see it as a gracious open house for interfaith relations, for yoga and for devotional music and song.

You can make a virtual visit to the place yourself www.inst.knightfrank.com/view/theconvent
The password is ‘woodchester’

We have seen clearly how this wonderful place could be a bright beacon for conscious living, a practical, healing example of harmonious relations between those of many faiths, living and working, praying, meditating, singing and practicing together, and sharing their skills and knowledge widely. The convent was built for a spiritual community and we feel that its future is to house an openhearted, welcoming community of residents and visitors committed to the evolution of human consciousness through joyful interfaith connection and through trainings and practice, for example through many forms of spiritual practice, including yoga, especially yoga nidra, meditation and other healing arts.

The price for purchase has been reduced from £2.25 million to £1.7 million. This includes 26 acres of land, with a spring and with farm buildings also. We have been devising a business plan for the use of the Convent, and feel very clearly that it is crying out to be used still as a home for a spiritual community. We have been in discussion with the owners, the Catholic Diocese of Clifton, about leasing the property and the land but this is not an option. Purchase is the only way forward.

So please, if this vision resonates with you, then we are urgently asking for your help.

Many people have come forward to offer hands and hearts to help grow a community that could host all the activities we can envision. But hearts and hands alone will not raise the funds to purchase the property. If you, or anyone known to you would love to invest in the purchase of this astonishing place of beauty and spirit, please do let us know. We invite you to contact as us soon as you are able. The very kind guardian angel (in human form) who loves the spirit of the Convent and its lands has recently informed us that another prospective purchaser is very close indeed to having sufficient funds to purchase the Convent as a housing project.

But we feel that such a powerful, consecrated and prayerful place is vitally needed in these challenging times, and we know that the work we do and the work of all those colleagues of ours who are sharing yoga, light and hope should find a home here in the Convent.

Please now help us to make this vision a reality. Hold the spirit of the place in your heart, and help us to keep it safe as a home for all the good work that could be done there, and for all the people whose lives could be lit up by a visit to this place. Do send this link to anyone you know who may be able to help. We trust the right people will be there to help secure the future of the convent as a spiritual community.

Please, if you are able, do email us at yoganidra@me.com to tell us about the investors you know who can help us purchase the property to secure its future use as a centre of healing and spiritual work. We encourage you to contact us as soon as possible, before the place is bought for other purposes, and before yet another consecrated place of light and prayer is converted into apartments.

With great respect and love, we send warm wishes for your well-being and we invite you to support us in this endeavour,

Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli
yoganidra@me.com

An inspiring visitor is coming to Stroud – please see the post below.

Ancient, profound and meditative, chants from the Vedas evoke a profound sense of stillness within us. It is especially powerful to chant from these scriptures with authentic passionate guidance for accurate pronunciation and with a full connection to lineage that takes us to the roots of Indian philosophy .

Following a profound and much appreciated opening taster workshop in Vedic Chanting in October, Lucy Crisfield is returning to Stroud to offer a course in the art of Vedic Chanting. Our next meeting is 1400-1800, 11 November 2011, and we warmly invited anyone who resonantes with the sound of Sanskrit chanting to join us.  No experience is necessary, just bring an open heart and a receptive mind.

Bursary places are available to those on low incomes who would like to attend. For full details of the course and to reserve your place please contact Lucy directly lucycrisfield@gmail.com

For a flyer please download  Vedic Chant course Stroud

We are truly honoured to be able to host the inspirational Mother Maya (Maya Tiwari) in Stroud as part of her  Living Ahimsa World Tour. She will be with us here in the Sitaram Yoga Stroud  for a Satsang on Friday evening 11 November 1900-2100, and also will be running a full day workshop on Healing the Ancestors Saturday 13 November 0930-1630.

For details of Mother Maya’s work please visit

www.mothermaya.com

or www.facebook.com/MayaTiwari or www.MyPeaceVow.com

For online bookings for the Stroud Sitaram Yoga Studio event please visit www.yogaseva.org and for enquiries, including to negotiate concessionary rates, please email Alexander Honeymann: alexanderhoneymann@gmail.com or call/txt Alexander on  0747420964. Please be aware that there is limited parking for only 12 cars in our drive, so we advise local Stroudies to walk, cycle or lift share!

Menstrual yoga: yoga for women

Growing from twelve years focused and healing work in the application of yoga for women’s health during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal recovery, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli’s yoga therapy practice, teaching and training focus has broadened over the past years to encompass the full context of women’s health, with an especial emphasis on healthy menstruation and fertility.

To this end she continues to offer the Well Woman yoga therapy training module for Yogacampus, together with Ruth Gilmore; and to facilitate the annual women’s yoga retreat, the celebratory Shakti Rising, scheduled for 2011 again at Hawkwood College in Gloucestershire.  At the new Sitaram yoga studio in Stroud, there is a weekly Friday evening Women’s Yoga and Supper Club, intended to promote positive experience of all aspects of women’s health.  Individual consultations in yoga therapy for healthy menstruation and fertility are on offer in Stroud , Bristol and London.

Further afield, Uma is delighted to be taking this work in women’s yoga to the Burren Yoga centre in the West of Ireland, where she is hosting a women’s yoga week-long retreat in September 2011, and a weekend of women’s yoga in October.  For more details of all these programmes, please visit the Women’s Eventspages on this site.

Santosa yoga camps, two gatherings this year

Following four years of  fabulous summer yoga camps at the Healing Field in Somerset, this year, we are also offering a Spring camp in the Cotswolds

Our focus this year is Eco Yoga, and our intention is to unite, in the true spirit of yoga, our reverence for spirit and our reverence for the earth.  For full details of the two camp dates, and locations, please visit the Santosa pages on this site.

Women’s Yoga and Tantra Retreat for Healing, Empowerment and Positive Connections
At Hawkwood College, Stroud, Gloucestershire
4.30pm Friday 12 – 4pm Sunday 14 February 2009

So many wonderful yoga sessions to choose! Here, hot from the oven, is the provisional programme for Shakti Rising Women’s yoga retreat in February (pdf).

It includes Dawn Light Meditations in the Woodland Meditation Space, Hatha yoga sessions to enliven and energise at every stage of women’s lives, Yoga Dance sessions in the main hall at Hawkwood, Woodland walks in beautiful Cotswold Hills, uplifting music and song, and more!

All served up with warm Cotswold hospitality and gorgeous meals in sparkling company. Take a look at the timetable, and treat yourself (and your sister, mother, best friend, daughter, favourite students!) to a place.

We are looking forward to seeing you there.

If you would like to chat about the event, please call Uma on 07595 322 779.