What happens when prAna partners with Wanderlust, the yoga, music & nature festival? We send two lucky yogis on a cross country adventure they were sure to remember. Lia Pardy and her partner Brian Davis were the winners of the all-access trip to Squaw Valley after entering the giveaway along with thousands of other entrants. Lia and Brian are both yoga instructors in Asheville, North Carolina and first time attendees of Wanderlust. We asked them about their experience and here is what they had to say…

Our first time in Squaw Valley and at Wanderlust, what an amazing and beautiful environment for a yoga festival. The beautiful open air setting surrounded by mountains lent itself well to the practice of yoga, Thai massage and Acro yoga. Yogis from all corners of the globe (and so many different accents); a tribe of yogis coming together.

Shiva Rae‘s free spirit and love of life is contagious. I felt a freedom of movement as Shiva encouraged us to “air ourselves out” and explore space around us (not just on our mats).

Acro-yoga with Jason and Jenny was so much fun as well as an exercise in trust and surrendering to the connection with other yogis. It felt safe and easy with great instructions and roving teacher/assistants. With the support of partners and spotters, I did things I never thought possible; I was flying!

A tram ride at 7:30am up the mountain to a spectacular view of the valley and an energetic class with Vinnie Marino, classic rock (including some tracks from Woodstock), Vinnie’s sly humor, and the sun shining on your face made me happy to be alive and practicing yoga once again.

Thai Massage sequence, with Jason and Jenny; Through simple and clear instruction and an effortless ability to fill the teaching and practice with Buddhist principles of metta/loving kindness, Jenny and Jason closed out this amazing weekend in the most beautiful, perfect and peaceful way.

All this and amazing music and festival food (loved vegi friendly Krishna Kitchen and the Greek’s falafel), kept us nourished.

So grateful to prAna for giving me and my partner the opportunity to be a part of Wanderlust and be with some of my favorite yoga teachers and fellow yogis.

We look forward to attending again next year.

~Lia Pardy and Brian Davis

Be sure to come visit the prAna crew next week at Wanderlust in beautiful Squaw Valley!

Wanderlust is a one-of-a-kind festival bringing together the world’s best yoga teachers and best performers in rock & roll, all in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty. It is a place to relax, unwind, bend, dance, revel, and contemplate. It’s a community of like-minded people who share a common set of interests and values. It’s a chance to escape the mundane and dwell in the extraordinary. It’s healthy hedonism and spiritual exploration. Most of all, it’s a long weekend of satisfying, stick-to-your-ribs fun.

Want to see more pictures from last year to get you motivated for a road trip? Click HERE

Musical lineup includes…

Moby (DJ Set)	Bassnectar	Brazilian Girls
Pretty Lights	Yard Dogs Road Show	Rupa & The April Fishes
Hamsa Lila	Beats Antique	MC Yogi
Ana Sia	Orgone	Dave Stringer
John Shannon	Steve Gold	Donna De Lory
Todd Boston	Princess Superstar	DJ Dragonfly
Shaman’s Dream	Rara Avis	Suzanne Sterling
The Mayapuris	Desert Dwellers

That’s right we said it! We know you need a vacation and here’s your chance to hop on a plane with your best friend headed for sunny California!

Now all you have to do is enter at http://www.wanderlustfestival.com/prana

Wanderlust is proud to team up with PrAna to create a truly memorable experience. PrAna is sponsoring the beautiful wellness village with bodywork, massage, energy-work and more in stunning bamboo structures created by Balifornia near the meditation dome. Want to know how you can get there?!

Starting today, we are offering you the chance to win, an entire weekend unwinding, reveling, relaxing and celebrating in the mountains. A lucky contestant will win round trip airfare for two people, 3 nights’ double occupancy lodging, and two Seeker passes (that’s 3 days of all access yoga and music!). So be sure to enter and share it with all your friends and family… because Wanderlust is an amazing event and being there with your best friend will be epic!

In case you didn’t know, prAna is an active apparel brand that offers a harmonious blend of functional design and progressive styling. Our name, borrowed from the ancient Sanskrit word, helps lift our aspirations and guide our vision for mindful living while living on the edge.

Prizes: One (1) Grand Prize: Two (2) “Seeker” tickets to the Wanderlust Festival. Grand prize also includes a two (2) night stay in one (1) standard double occupancy room on 7/30/10-7/31/10 (checkout 8/1/10), and Round-Trip coach airfare to Reno, Sacramento or SF from the winner’s nearest major airport. Winner responsible for transportation from Reno (1 hr), Sacramento (2 hrs) or SF (3 hrs) to festival. One (1) runner up will win one (1) $250 gift certificate for prAna gear.

Wanderlust takes place July 29 to August 1, 2010 at Squaw Valley USA in North Lake Tahoe, CA. Good luck!

Enter HERE! or Enter HERE! or Enter HERE! or Enter HERE! or Enter HERE! or Enter HERE! or Enter HERE!

We asked which companies & organizations you admired and you gave us an eclectic list. Here is another profile of the organizations and the causes that are important to you. Facebook Fan Lois Raine Trexler from Tallahassee, Florida had the following to say “Marley Coffee- for making a sustainable coffee community for farmers in Jamaica…. and Aveda for making beauty products that are earth friendly and teaming up with non profits throughout the world! These org.s have a special place in my heart!”

Bob Marley had always said he would return to farming one day, but his destiny was filled with the passion for music, and he never had the chance. With Marley Coffee, Bob’s son, Rohan and friend Shane Whittle fulfill this dream and offers his family’s treasures to the world. Marley Coffee is an international gourmet coffee company with offices in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Jamaica. The Marley Coffee 52 Acre Private Estate sits atop the Blue Mountains in Chepstowe, Portland Jamaica, long revered as the region with the world’s most desirable coffee beans.

Rohan remembers his grandmother drying their wild coffee berries in the sun, hulling and roasting them for her own cup of coffee each morning. Marley Coffee is determined to deliver that same intoxicating aroma and rich, smooth flavor into every cup that bears the Marley name. Marley Coffee is patiently awaiting their Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (CIB) license approvals to be able to share their private reserve beans with the world. Marley Coffee intends to adhere to the quality and control procedures that Jamaica’s CIB holds so proudly. “Blue Mountain coffee holds its own legacy and Marley Coffee is grateful to be a part of this legacy with Jamaica,” said Whittle.

Marley Coffee offers an assortment of shade-grown coffee blends from the finest coffee producing regions in the world, including Central and South America, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. They also offer an organic single origin java from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Marley Coffee is determined to deliver intoxicating aroma and rich, smooth flavor into every cup that bears the Marley name. All of the coffees are certified organic by the USDA, and the Pacific Agricultural Certification Society of Canada (PACS), and comply by the company’s ITAL standards.

For more info visit Marley Coffee

We’re diggin’ on these guys.  Check ‘em out…

Here We Go Magic
“Fangela” (mp3)

(Western Vinyl)

>Preview the track HERE

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There was an incredible Anusara event that concluded this weekend in Los Angeles. Our very own Dave Kennedy was on hand and kind enough to give an update and drop off some images…

Here is a insightful and personal look at the events from Laura Blakeman aka Shakti Sunfire …

I’m at my Aunt and Uncle’s in Los Angeles, two days have passed since the Anusara weekend workshop that capped John’s Advanced Intensive in Hollywood. I’m enjoying what seems to be my first opportunity for R&R in weeks – perhaps months.

Which is all well and good, don’t get me wrong. The frenzy of my lifestyle, the admittedly reckless pursuit of my dreams and my art is a conscious choice I’ve agreed to and the rewards (and difficulties) for such behavior abound. John Friend said ‘every time you explore your art you get a revelation – a window into your true nature, your talent. To make art all we’re really trying to do is align with Nature, then the magic happens.‘

These last few weeks between Anusara events have been particularly difficult for me. Overwhelmed by my sudden and complete dedication to learn from John, compounded by firehoop orders, summer booking negotiations, hoop workshop plans, choreography opportunities, training schedules, Tantra studies, social events and performances, I was beginning to think I bit off more than I could chew. In retrospect is wasn’t my full and fast-paced schedule that had me in tears more than once, but my fumbling along in a body/mind that had been rewired in the week prior.

‘The more you love the more you’re going to cry,’ he said.

Well, that’s true. The opening and unfolding of my heart at this moment is active – and palpable. Layer by layer peeling back to reveal a greater source of light and with it a raw vulnerability that leaves me breathless. Simultaneously weakened in its magnitude and full of robust, unwavering joy. To be able to *feel life* so profoundly is a gift that’s called ‘meaningfulness.’

That’s it really. I have people in my life that I love with such force it could only be called ferocity, opportunities that resonate and reflect my inner being, chosen responsibilities that make my heart beat faster in recognition that the edge is just one step to either side. I’m scared, I’m thrilled, I’m excited, I’m alive.

And of course, I’m human just like everyone else and in creeps doubts and darkness, challenging my chosen course, poking at my vulnerabilities. It’s taken everything I’ve had to not succumb to what overwhelms me, and yet, at times that’s exactly what I’ve needed to do. John said; ‘you have to always be student to the Grand Artist, don’t think that you’re in control.’ Trust.

Friday night the Mystic Mirrors and members of the Anusara community gathered at an art space in LA this side of hip. In between aerial performance sets, John’s poetry, Tiffany, Will and Justin’s dance, hoop sets with Anah Hoopalicious, Nayeli and Erin, fire spinning, light shows and schmoozing yogi-like, I took inventory of this new territory in reverence for its next-level undercurrent. As we pass from one threshold to another – one diksha to another, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused…lost in the mire that is the mud to your lotus flower. The key John taught, is to trust in the Absolute and to pray. Not for challenges to be removed but to cultivate the strength to pass to the next level effectively, safely and skillfully. To grow and move on, is the best way we can say thanks – to honor the past and ride the Tiger into innovation, onto the next level of our Life’s Art.

Ask for Grace, and dance.

* All photography taken by Mario Covic

Guest Blogger Elizabeth B. Reese, Ph.D.

“Look here! Look within! Not outside, for the source of all peace is within yourself.” B.K.S Iyengar

“¡Mira aquí! Mira hacia adentro! No hacia afuera ya que la fuente de toda paz está dentro tuyo.” B.K.S Iyengar

Yogiños: Yoga for Youth™ is an OHMazing™ trilingual yoga for kids curriculum facilitated in English, Spanish, andSanskrit that uses music, games, stories and sensory integrated activities to align minds, hearts and bodies both on and off the yoga mat. Weaving the 8 Limbs of yoga into classes, we teach respect for self, others, and the environment to youth 18 months and older.

One of the paths that drew me to bring yoga to youth is a journey I walk with my oldest daughter, Jordan. After years of troubling—and quite honestly embarrassing— uncontrollable and age inappropriate tantrums and outbursts both at home and in public, I learned that she experiences sensory integration disorder.

Sitting on the same continuum as autism, Jordan can find herself in a central nervous system overload if over-stimulated with bright lights, loud sounds, and crowds. The dendrites, like connective threads, in her brain literally misfire. Those of us with sensory integration disorder find it affects us each differently; through her experiences I found that I am extremely sensitive to fluorescent lights and conflicting sounds.

Jordan simultaneously has demonstrated OHMazing™ abilities to see beauty in life’s smallest details, perform in front of large crowds, and develop several soul-mate types of friendships.

The diagnosis at age five was a tremendous relief to us both; together we discovered she was not just misbehaving! Experts said she would never out-grow it but rather need to learn to grow into this. From here I began research into tools and techniques she could learn to help herself and also be responsible for managing her dendrites.

At ten years old Jordan is a leader and teacher to both herself and others about how to reflect and respond to her body, heart, and mind. I am so proud of her!

One of the favorite tools I taught to Jordan and now teach to (more…)

It’s always good to see prAna gear on hard jammin bands. Yes that is our hat on Umphrey’s McGee’s Jake Cinninger who according to reports hasn’t taken his hat off for the entire tour (guess it will need a good wash when they get back to the Windy City)!

Consisting of Brendan Bayliss, Jake Cinninger, Joel Cummins, Andy Farag, Kris Myers and Ryan Stasik, Umphrey’s McGee enters its second decade together with their hardest, darkest, and most artistically cohesive album to date, Mantis. A long-time-coming labor of love as well as an inspiring affirmation of musical brotherhood, Mantis is the first Umphrey’s album to consist entirely of material never previously performed on the road, where the band rules the improv-rock circuit and plays more than 100 shows each year. Founded in 1997 in the shadows of the Golden Dome of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, Umphrey’s McGee soon made Chicago home base, and set their sights on becoming one of the premier live acts in today’s touring circuit. Over the course of the last ten years, the band has headlined festivals such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and continues to sell out shows in the nation’s premier venues coast to coast. They have toured Europe multiple times and performed at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival in 2006. As their sound evolves with every passing show, the live concerts sold on their expansive music archive site UMLive.net continue to be in high demand by their hungry fan base. The second decade of Umphrey’s McGee is fueled with Mantis in the tank, and the band shows no signs of letting up.