Last March, 200 acres of pristine forest adjacent to Gray Bear Lodge, the holistic retreat center in Tennessee where we've held past retreats, were slated to be cleared cut.

This pristine area is home to dogwood, hickory, red oak, and maple trees, beautiful streams, majestic waterfalls, tall pines, wild turkey nesting grounds, inspiring cliff faces, and fields of wildflowers. Gray Bear's goal is to purchase the land and preserve its silent sanctuaries--the bamboo meditation gardens, the hiking trails, and the abundant wildlife. Preserving this adjacent forest will help ensure a place to listen to the exotic woodpecker calls, to take in glorious sunrises and sunsets, and to watch starry night skies.

Pose with a Purpose

We hope you'll strike a tree pose and help us sponsor Grey Bear's Earth Day Fundraiser. Our goal is to raise $1008 through April 30, 2018 to preserve 1 acre of forest. 

Donation Levels

• Donate $25 (Tree Warrior) and a picture of yourself in a tree pose (or hugging a tree), and Gray Bear will add you to their digital forest mosaic
• Donate $108 (Tree Protector) received by April 30, 2018, and a picture of yourself in a tree pose (or hugging a tree), and you will also be entered to win a R&R weekend at Gray Bear!

Your payment can be made in several ways.

• Cash or check— (payable to Friends of Gray Bear) and drop off at Yoga Among Friends
• Paypal— you can use the app on your phone and send payment to paygb@graybear.org or click here.
• Apple Pay—use your Apple device and the messages app to send a message to paygb@icloud.com Please note you need to have Apple Pay set-up on your Apple device.
• Venmo—you can use the app on your phone and send payment to paygb@graybear.org. Learn more about Venmo.

Don't forget to send us your tree pose submission. Include your first and last name, email, and if desired, indicate "in memory of"
or we can take your photo for you when you drop off your payment.

If we can collectively raise the $1008 by April 30, our studio be entered to win a R&R weekend!

In 1988, I was deep in my pain of not knowing. I found myself on my knees and suffering with confusion as I cried out for help. It is in those profound moments of surrender that the true self is revealed. On the floor in a puddle of tears, I heard the words ”yoga retreat”.  What? What the heck is a yoga retreat??  Late in the 80s, yoga was not the fitness industry that is is today. Somehow, I thought I was being called to an ashram. I asked my wonderful former husband at the time, who kindly answered with a touch of sarcasm, "if you can find a yoga retreat, go on a yoga retreat”.

The beauty of my story unfolded when the very next day, I picked up a local LA newspaper, opened it and right in the center of the paper in bold black and white lettering “Yoga Retreat”!! My intellect could not make sense of this amazing connection but my inner intelligence was speaking through my soul. At the time, I would never have imagined I would be become a yoga teacher for I was clearly on my destined path of acting, and my ego was only concerned with attaining fame and fortune! Besides in the 1980s there was no career path for being a yogi!

However, the story unfolded with even greater mystery. I immediately called the yoga center which today is the world renown, The White Lotus Foundation, in Santa Barbara, CA. I called Ganga and said I was coming. I was told the price and choked. It was beyond my meager funds as a broke actress with limited paychecks. In my fake bravo voice, I agreed to mail my deposit and became committed to finding a way to get there! My intention was set and yet I had no idea how I was going to raise what at the time was a huge amount of money that I didn’t have!  

A few nights prior to the start of the retreat I was still short of funds. I will never forget the moment my life changed when my phone rang. It was Ganga, and immediately I knew he wanted the rest of the money. My hiding self felt shame and regret since I knew I would have to tell him my situation, but then something of a miracle happened.

He started by sharing that this was the first yoga retreat they had ever decided to do since they usually only had teacher trainings. It was also the first time they had ever advertised. They had put ads all up the west coast from San Diego to Washington State. Only I and one other man from Seattle had signed up. Ganga then shared that since I was so enthusicatic with my desire to come, and since there were not enough for a true retreat to happen, he would just teach us privately, give me my own yurt, have a vegetarian chef prepare meals, and he would lower the price by half!  I was silent, confused, overwhelmed and deeply grateful. As I hung up the phone, my emotional tears spoke a deep thank you to the universe. In that moment, I felt heard and seen. Yes, there is a source greater than me. 

That retreat changed my life. I never wanted to be a yoga teacher. When Ganga and Tracey Rich asked me to return for teacher training, I was insulted and resisted what they must have seen in that lost woman. However, two weeks back in LA, the voice spoke again in the back of my car. DO IT!

I wanted to learn more and decided to take up the offer, but my ego was not actually going to teach! The story unfolded in such a profound way. My inner GPS guided me into places and roles that my little mind could never have imagined. I entered the world of teaching kicking and screaming until I finally dropped the resistance and said YES. 

Life will often give us such road blocks, pot holes and dangerous conditions of weather. When we let go of the steering wheel and listen to the true guidance which is quietly waiting for us to say, “I don’t know how to do this anymore,” it will surprise us with the miracle to a new path. It is not understood by my intellect, but in that moment on the floor, my new life was beginning.

Today, these many years later, I still go to my knees in practice and ask. My fears and doubts will still resist the changes in living on a path that requires deep listening. In a practice that demands commitment, I stay present as I invoke a strength that allows me to move forward through my heart. I just remember my first moment of hearing those sweet words and how life presented itself.

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

FREE Yoga Retreat Information Session

SATURDAY MARCH 10, 4–5pm

Join Laura Jane Mellencamp-Murphy for a FREE sneak peek about her upcoming summer yoga retreat in Amorgos, Greece. Laura will share details of retreat and optional site seeing excursions while answering any questions that you may have.

Laura Jane will be hosting a like minded community on her retreat, Going Into the Light: Cultivate an Inner Sense of Well-Being through Yoga, in Amorgos, Greece, July 7-13, 2018. 

Interested, but can't make the meeting...  No worries! Contact Laura to get your questions answered. 

Be sure to register and benefit from the $300 savings. Early bird pricing ends on March 15, so don’t miss out on the offer! 

I often feel that sometimes in life we are gifted with divine intelligence, and the real effort of living is listening to that small quiet inner voice. Our intellect will shout louder and drown out those moments with the habit of its usual refrain of “I can’t”. It is only through the heart that we take those grand steps into our true self and move forward.  I heard a deep siren call to service. Some people hear go to Central America, and some people the far lands of Africa. For me I heard ”go to the Heartland”.

In the early morning of January 17, 1994, Los Angeles was in the midst of its worst earthquake in decades. I found myself under my dining room table as the car alarms were sounding, the glass crashing around me and the earth rocking. In those moments of complete surrender, I made a pledge to find a more stable home.

It took a year of seeking and making effort to let go of what was familiar. I had finished my masters and had become a marriage and family therapist; and yet, I was witnessing a change in the mental health field as pharma was quickly becoming the new wonder of modern medical relief.

As a yoga teacher, I was combining the work of yoga with my counseling skills, encouraging the mind to focus on the breath, and actually feel the discomfort as the body begins to release the pain and trauma of holding on too tight. Having gone through my own journey of addictive behavior to mask my fears,  I was excited about the possibility of bringing these amazing tools of yoga to a new area.

Exactly one year after the earthquake, I drove my little Saturn car to Chicago. Having lived in NYC and LA, I decided to live in suburbs of Naperville!

I will tell you most people thought I was crazy, that I must be running from the law. Who would ever leave sunny warm LA for the freezing cold winters of Dupage county? Without family or a job, what was I thinking to begin this new journey?

Looking back, I had passion, energy and faith. Slowly, I started to meet the most lovely and kind people, who even today I call my friends. I taught in various health clubs, rented rooms and traveled anywhere to share the teachings of yoga. I spoke at various corporations; I went to breakfast business meetings. I was fearless and at the same time terrified. I was teaching to a group of students that were becoming my friends. A yoga community was beginning to form, and I felt that if I ever opened a center it would be called, Yoga Among Friends.  

Yoga is a lifestyle. It is a more than exercise, body image, or competition. Yoga is a way to connect heart to heart—to share a common good for the bigger picture of living with compassion and kindness. When one opens the door to our center, my only desire is bring forth the feeling of “belonging" that will welcome you into our space. A space of safety and nourishment and love. We are not corporate, and as I say, we are not "fluff and buff." We do not complete with any other fitness center nor hot yoga studio.

Yoga Among Friends is a healing yoga community; and yet on the mat, you will get a practice that meets you where you are. Every teacher offers amazing wisdom and depth of integrity. We are friends, which in the teachings of the sutras is called a Sanga. 

Life presents opportunity when we ask for help; and back in that moment under my table, I was asking! Back then everyday I didn’t know how to “do Life”.  So I just asked for help in a way of listening, and my inner voice spoke when I let go of that distracted voice of doubt.

This summer I am once again answering that inner voice. I am going back to Greece for a retreat and tour. I lived on a Greek Island in my early 30s, and it was where I found my heart and started my journey into yoga healing. Now I am being called to return. 

I feel this inner connection to the light of Greece—the people, the spirit, the passion, and of course, the most incredible blue color of sky and water. Not to mention the food! It is a place where my soul heard its YES. In a world where fear and doubt take us away from shared communities, I know the power of retreats to reconnect with old friends and make lasting new friends. And I am inviting you to join me, my friends.

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

Slow Flow Vinyasa 1-2

Thursdays | 6–7:15pm | $18/class or use your class pass
Led by Megan Llambias

During this breath-centered practice, you will experience an intermediate Vinyasa flow practice, but as a calming, slow flow that includes twists and forward folds. We begin exactly how we are: whether we are low energy, stressed, happy, in pain or feeling great after a busy day's work.  

As you move through this breath-centered practice, you will learn to heighten your awareness to the subtle sensations that arise as you dive deeper into the your own individual expression of yoga. Although you will experience flow, what lies beneath the surface is the attitude of relaxed awareness. You will learn to be mindful of each pose and the space in between.

Throughout the class, you will engage in a creative sequence combining conscious awareness of the breath and synchronized movement. Restorative yoga postures and a lying meditation are integrated at the end of the class to come to a deep place of relaxation as we finish the practice.  

Come as you are and leave feeling better! Relaxed and at ease. Your tension soothed;  mind chatter quieted. And ready for a deeper, more replenishing night's sleep. 

For Megan, yoga is about healing. It’s about coming into a safe place to explore your body, breath and most importantly your mind. It’s an opportunity slow down and listen. 

Megan is passionate about people and yoga. To see people’s faces when they walk in... and then when they walk out, for her is the epitome of joy. To witness transformation is an epic gift. Join her on Thursdays! ❤️✨🙏

Yoga Commitment

Marina Lisjonok

Tuesdays & Thursdays | 6–7:30am | $18/class or use your class pass
Led by Marina Lisjonok

Asana • Pranayama • Meditation

This inspiring daily class is a complete practice of classical Hatha Yoga with the elements of vinyasa. This means classes will consist of warm-ups (including Sun Salutations), followed by the classical static postures with variations for all levels. Each class will end with pranayama and short meditation. This will help you to awaken and energize your body, obtain a yogic mind, and connect to your spirit to fully show up and attend to your daily activities and responsibilities.

Develop a regular practice and take control of your life. Commit to meet your higher self each morning, and your decisions and your life become original… Start each day with a powerful practice and every challenge becomes opportunity. 

One never plans to go into something with a stop date, but its hard to fathom that we are still thriving, and our community keeps growing. As anyone knows running a business can never be sustained unless there is a team and a strong intention. The truth is everyone is invaluable to its success. So I must give a huge, grateful shout out to the amazing and dedicated teachers that have been the foundation of YAF.

Michael Taylor has been the most incredible gift, not only for all his students, but also for keeping the center vibrant with his passionate integrity for teaching yoga. He continued to study and learn over these 20 years, and his teaching have touched hundreds of souls and helped make our center the valuable place of healing it is today. His humor and huge heart have been a blessing in my life and for all who know him.  

Joyce Owens has also been teaching at YAF since our opening. She has never missed a class unless she was out of town on a family trip. In snow, rain, heat waves and cold freezing weather, Joyce was always there for her students. She has touched so many lives at YAF. Her gifts of music and being a healing source of love is why our center is so special. Not to mention that Joyce is enjoying a full life as a yogi in her 70”s! She's a true inspiration for everyone that assumes age stops our ability to be vibrant and healthy in mind, body and spirit!

I also want to thank Ellen Duff, who continues to be the light at YAF. Her devotion to living in her heart has touched so many. We are very grateful she has returned from Florida and is back at YAF.

I don’t think I would have had the courage to open back in 1998 if these special friends had not been in my life to support this group endeavor. 

Now my deepest appreciation goes out to Karen Weber, Pam Keillor, Candy Stevens, Marina Lisjonok, DL Heraty, Meredith Harbor, Patty Bilbro, Julie Pate, Julie Stewart, Therese Carlson, Krista Fox, Lisa Sparagna, Donna Prenta, Megan Llambias, Kay Gilmore and all the many teachers that have shared their amazing wisdom and heartfelt teachings over these past twenty years. Please know that I am forever blessed and full of gratitude for the family we have created and for the students that have shared in our story.

We are planning a big event to celebrate come April. To honor our community, we will be offering gifted classes throughout the month!

Further, if this isn't enough. come July I am holding an amazing  retreat and excursion trip in Greece! Registration is open with an early bird savings being offered through February 15. The trip is limited to 14 so don't wait to sign up. Check the website for details and let's enjoy the beauty of living in the light!

This year my wish is that we may continue to love and nourish the deepest place in each of ourselves, and that may YAF continues to be our home for continuous growth! Happy 2018!!

Many blessings,

Laura Jane

In 1995, Joyce walked into my first class in the Midwest having never studied yoga. In that auspicious moment, a friendship was born.  Some people walk into our lives for a moment and others for a lifetime. Joyce is my lifetime friend, colleague, and I am honored to say, my student.  

When we opened YAF in 1998, Joyce was right there with me as one of our best teachers and today, she is by far the pillar of integrity at YAF. Her wisdom and heart are what nourish everyone that walks into the center.

When I started yoga at  age 55, I wondered if I would be able to do yoga at all. When I became certified as a yoga teacher at age 58, I wondered how long I would be able to teach. When I was still teaching yoga at age 65, I wondered when I was going to have to quit. I was always looking for an age that would tell me to stop. Now, I no longer look for that end because yoga has gently held my hand through the aging process—and it still does. In keeping with the yoga/teacher tradition and, now in my 70's, I want to pass this gift of yoga on to other people so they can live in peace, harmony, safety, health and happiness.

—Joyce Owens

Starting January 5, Joyce will begin teaching Yoga for Healthy Aging. Healthy aging is about every aspect of the human systems, and wellness is a state of mind. The tools of yoga adapt to change with the ability to stay balanced.  

Joyce has made yoga her lifestyle, and her loyalty and commitment is a testament to her practice.  She has been able to teach what she loves, and we are so grateful for her willingness now to begin this new class.  Thank you JOYCE!

Starting December 7, Thursday evenings at 6:00pm will offer a new Vinyasa Flow class, taught by Megan Llambias. 

Megan recently returned to our area after many years abroad, teaching and raising her three kids around the world. YAF is her home and welcoming her back has been a great opportunity to share her brilliant teachings.

Some of you may recognize her, she has been substitute teaching on Sunday mornings to glowing reviews while Marina was away. Now we are so pleased she has agreed to stay on and cultivate a new class. Marina returns to teach Hatha Vinyasa starting Sunday, November 26.

Please come and experience this wonderful teacher as she takes you through a vinyasa flow sequence for all levels. I have known Megan since 2004 when she started coming into YAF as a student. Today, I am honored that she is sharing her gifts with us and continuing the mission of YAF to inspire heartfelt community.  Thank you, MEGAN!

As we fast approach the holiday season and the longest nights, we must be reminded that this is also the season of holding the vigil for the light. 

I light my candle to meditate in the early morning dark, and in the evening I put my lights on outside to create a luminous glow around my home. I return to the fireplace as a place of reflection and honor the longer nights as a time to come inside. Coming into my inner home and keeping my inner light nourished in the fast paced world of holiday distractions.

As we come into this season, we tend to get overwhelmed with family activities and busy schedules that challenge the balance of our health—not just physical health but emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing. In these challenging times of confusion and emotional exhaustion, we must have a way to connect to that which inspires, uplifts and feeds our souls with hope and love.

I find without a practice, my mind is colluding with all the negative thoughts that spin constantly around me. I must delink from the habit of over thinking, and go into my breath.

The feeling of my aliveness is filled by a radiant sensation of warmth, an inner expansion of being more than my limited physical form. I link to the light, the North Star, the sun, the moon, my candle, my spacious sound of OM and feel the connection that we are all in this together.

Together human hearts can expand in the pure consciousness of love. My intellect never gets how, but through my practice, I can feel that true sense of being enough and full. Full of WONDER as we approach the Season of Giving. 

Take time today, to breath into the light, and from your heart exhale the joy of contentment. And remember to say to yourself, "Thank you", as you go out into your day sharing an inner smile of knowing.

Making the effort to be present is the greatest gift you can give and the quality of your attention is living mindfully in your heart! You are the light!

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

Yoga Among Friends is looking for 8 volunteers interested in a free yoga therapy session on Saturday or Sunday, November 11 and 12, 2:30-4pm each day. You will be working with a group of 4 interns supervised by a registered yoga therapist. 

Email Julie Pate at info@yogaamongfriends.com if you are interested.

"It is the experience of what resides deeply in your heart that gives rise to an illuminated mind, a mind filled with wisdom and knowledge, with understanding and compassion. You can think all you want, and get no where. It is the heart that illumines the mind, not the other way around.”

–- Chetananada

I have often said that our minds are too hot and our hearts too cold, and that we must warm the heart, feel the glow of the inner light as pure conscious awareness for the mind to be illuminated in a balanced state of yoga. 

With yoga, we are able to step out of the reactive habit of worry, doubt, and/or fear and take action from a decerning place of clarity that arises from a balanced state of mind, and arising from this state is an illuminated heart; the pure essence of one’s true nature or greater Self.

In these turbulent times of unrest and agitation of the small mind, we need the tools of yoga and the mindful focus meditation to be able to live in compassion and understanding that is not intellect but intelligence. This knowing arises when we are firmly established in our witness or in our source, our soul.

Yoga is a pathway into this higher consciousness and to be able to live in a balance state where we feel stable and confident to live to our highest potential. In our busy, crazy over-extended world, these ancient practices are needed more than ever.

I never wanted to be a yoga teacher when I embarked on my first yoga training in 1989. I just wanted to learn more about this ancient science that was offering me a gateway into my inner life. Today, I have surrendered into my passion of teaching and have found endless joy in sharing my heart with my students.

After many years of going deeper into the therapeutic yoga system, I have decided to offer a teacher’s training for those students that long to go into the philosophy and the physiology of yoga in a stuctured 200 hour teacher training program. Julie Pate and I are offering this course to bring our community together and nourish those that want and desire to understand these tools for enhancing the wellbeing of one’s life.

Yoga is a lifestyle of enhanced wellbeing that starts with learning the function of the asana and breath versus just the form. We'll go deeper into self study as it links to our inner desires to live authentically and in JOY.

Julie and I will be hosting a gathering this Saturday, October 14 from 3:30-4:30pm to further explain our program and answer questions that might be presented in thinking about going forward. You can also read more about the program here.

Furthermore, I am thrilled this month to host Shelly Craigo from the Himalayan Institute as we embark on a special practice of Rudra Yaga, turning darkness into light through our personal practice. Shelly is traveling to communities across the country to spread this message on how to participate on a personal and collective level, and we are fortunate to have her here at Yoga Among Friends to share this timeless practice with us.

Enjoy each day with love and light,

Laura Jane

200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training
Information Meeting

SATURDAY OCTOBER 14, 3:30–4:30pm

Join Laura Jane Mellencamp-Murphy and Julie Pate to learn about a very unique program that will deepen your knowledge of yoga holistically and act as a gateway to open your heart to transformation. Perfect for everyone including nurses, psychologists, physical therapists, and others in health professions. 200 Hour Yoga teacher training starts January 2018 and will meet one weekend a month.

Interested, but can't make the meeting...  No worries! We'll be holding another meeting in November. Click the RSVP button below for details.

In the midst of all the chaos of mother nature’s erratic behavior of the elements: fires in the west, water in the south, and winds blasting their powerful energy throughout the land. Hurricanes and tornadoes are reminders that form is only impermanent.

I have long surrendered into the practice of letting go; and yet, I am firmly committed to making intention. Outcome is not mine, yet I am fully aware that I must honor a daily practice to bring me into a steady mindful state. In this state of yoga, I can move into a direction of my highest good. I do know that I must seek the light.

Every winter, for the last twenty years, I have created an opportunity to retreat to a deeper place of nourishment. To unplug and go into a quiet still place of mind so that I can listen to the wonders that life is always presenting in the direction of my heart.

I am inviting you join me this February in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Yoga Among Friends' annual retreat is a time to share in the study of yoga. Whether you have never practiced yoga or you are a yoga teacher, I will meet you where you are; and together, we'll take the journey in the adventures of going into the authentic nature of the soul’s desire to live fully. 

Exhaustion, fear and uncertainty are by products of our busy world. To come on retreat is to spend time learning how to practice asana and pranayama so that the effects can bring about a joyous state of wellbeing.

Hosting these retreats, offer me a time and place to share the philosophies of the yoga sutras, to teach the many tools of meditation and to share our stories. We have ample private time to enjoy all that Cabo and the surrounding area has to offer; and yet, the greatest gift of these weeks has always been the lasting friendships that have formed and continue to grow. 

Community is key to the humanity of heart. This week is an opportunity to gather together and say hello to your true self and let the beauty of Prana Del Mar take away the stresses of daily living so you can return renewed, energized and open to living life in LOVE.

Enjoy each day with love and light,

Laura Jane

2018 Yoga Retreat in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Saturday, February 17 – Saturday, February 24, 2018

Prana del Mar Retreat and Wellness Center

Be sure to register now and benefit from the $100 savings. Early bird pricing ends on October 1, so don’t miss out on the offer! We look forward to seeing you there.

Rebuilding the Kager house after Hurricane Katrina in the 9th Ward, New Orleans 2008

As I am writing this newsletter, I am being pulled into the horrific sadness that is unfolding with Hurricane Harvey. I am brought back ten years remembering all our heroic efforts to help with Katrina evacuees on that fateful Labor Day weekend. YAF created a non profit called Global Hope. Over the course of several years, we made numerous trips down to New Orleans to help rebuild the ninth ward.

Today, I know we are in for a long and stressful recovery and once again reminded that humanity goes beyond our front doorstep. We live in this world, and we are all in this together. I have a running image in my mind of all the homeLESS refugees of Syria and all the war weary lands of chaos and upheaval. I see the television cameras today showing all the cots waiting to be occupied as families are airlifted to some dryer land. My heart is breaking witnessing how delicate life is as the great Mother Nature starts to shake and vibrate with changes in our ecological systems and infrastructures.

Our human systems are struggling to find ways to balance all the daily shifts of living as we try and make sense of the constant chaotic political voices of hate. I have witnessed in the last year such a shift in our abilities to be present. Everyday another news flash inspiring only the fear, doubt and worry. To be able to live in what the yogi calls “Sukkha" or sweetness is getting more difficult to feel. We are forgetting that the heart must be nourished with the true gift of the intelligence—love.

When we are tired and the energy of life get too much, please know the healing of yoga allows us to come together and feel connected to something greater — a community that welcomes everyone. 

Before all this past weeks' traumatic news, I returned to the daily reminder that as everything changes, nothing changes in the spirit of love. I came back to my home at YAF renewed and energized after having spent the summer chasing the sun and being embraced in AWE.

Machu Picchu

First, an incredible service trip to Machu Picchu where I was able to stand and absorb the profound beauty of the Sacred. Untouched by the world of progress is a reminder of how the mountains, rivers, trees, and the air is sustained and nourished by the True Mother. The journey was a blessing for my soul, and nothing is better than sharing the experience with a teenage daughter struggling to embrace these troubled times of discord and confusion of the heart.

Total Eclipse 2017

We were also able to participate in another true wonder a few weeks later when we shared the moment of totality! Yes, a ten hour car drive back home would not tarnish or destroy the magic of that experience together. Somehow, this sweet summer was all about the SUN! How delicate the earth we all share; how powerless we are to the extremes of the Great MAHA.

Now as the season starts to change, I am filled with the passion of this aliveness and I am excited about sharing all the special events that are happening in these coming weeks. Please join me and the community as we celebrate the inner glow of shining one’s own light! At YAF, we are keeping the LIGHT on and the HEART open. 

Yoga Therapy Summit 

YAF is cohosting at the end of September, the first yoga therapy event ever in the Chicago area, the Yoga Therapy SummitI Yes, we're bringing together all my dear teachers who share in the lineage of Krisnamachurya.

I cannot express how this weekend will be such a learning opportunity for all students of yoga. From beginners to those that have years of teachings, this weekend will bring forth amazing yoga teachings for deeper mind and consciousness.

Yoga Therapy is finally getting its place in the holistic model of wellness! So please encourage your family and friends that are suffering from various degrees of anxiety or depression..or those in the healing professions to partake in the three day intensive opportunity! Please click for more information and to sign up for the weekend. 

Richard Miller is coming to YAF

On Thursday evening, September 28, the night before the Summit opens, Richard Miller, the founder of the Integrative Restorative Institute (IRI) and my teacher, will be sharing a evening of meditation. A benefit potluck dinner will follow when we will be able to ask questions and just share a community of friends!

Richard is the master of teaching yoga nidra which he has been able to bring into VA hospitals around the country to help with all forms of trauma after experiencing war. All donations will go to his various organizations which he helps through his non profit work.

Please try and make this special evening together as we launch the Summit. All are invited and look forward to being able to introduce you to these deeper practices—again, no prior knowledge of yoga is needed to be able to come and share!!  Learn more and kindly RSVP.

Yoga is for all who want to learn to help heal the old patterns that no longer serve.
 

A bit from Megan...

My teaching is a Hatha Vinyassa flow class based in harmonizing the polarities that occur in human experience. Going the through the body and using our breath to initiate movement we induce harmony. I encourage my students to dive into their inner experience and awaken to the present moment. For me, “yoga is a physical technique which helps to tone the body and calm the mind, allowing us to deal with the pressures of daily life. As we become calmer, healthier and more peaceful we are able to be more creative, productive and more joyful. “ In my classes I love to combine creative sequencing and add a dose of inspiration to help you dive deeper and more fully into life, thriving in your body and your soul. My hope is to encourage people beyond the their mats and take their yoga practice into the world around them.

What you can expect from my Hatha Vinyasa class

You will experience an intermediate Interdisciplinary Vinyassa flow class. You will learn to heighten your awareness to the subtle sensations that arise as you dive deeper into the your own individual expression of yoga. Although you will experience a vigorous flow, what lies beneath the surface is the attitude of relaxed awareness. You will learn to be mindful of each pose and the space in between. In my classes you will experience a creative sequence combining conscious awareness of the breath and synchronized movement. I integrate restorative yoga postures into the end of the class to also come to a deep place of relaxation as we finish the practice.

Megan Llambias' background

Yoga has been a part of my life for the last 15 years.  My first teacher training was a 200 hr. program with Don & Amba Stapleton of Nosara Yoga Institute in 2004. Then I studied with Cheri Clampett, Therapeutic Yoga program in California. My mentor is Yoga Therapist Laura Jane Murphy-Mellencamp who has guided me personally for the last 12 years.  My career teaching began in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, then I taught in Buenos Aires Argentina, while completing a masters in Coaching, and for the last 8 years I have been raising a family based in Santa Barbara, California.  I am happy to be back in the Mid-West where I was born, and to begin teaching again.

Megan will get your heart pumping while putting your mind at ease and have your spirit glowing. Come join her for Sunday morning Hatha Vinyasa from 9-10:15am for Levels 1 & 2!

I am so excited to be sharing my passion for yoga! I began practicing yoga on a regular basis in 2003, right after finishing my Pilates certification through Romana’s Pilates. The two forms of movement are very complimentary to each other, and I learned more about the body and breath through the practice of both disciplines. I have practiced the breathing and therapeutic techniques of Yoga Therapy with Laura Jane over the last 7 years, and have completed the Fox Valley Yoga Teacher Training program with Karen Weber Manz, with whom I have practiced Saturday morning yoga for over ten years. I feel fortunate to be able to share with students that which has been taught to me by wonderful loving teachers.

I will teaching an all levels Vinyasa Flow class on Wednesdays from 11-12:pm starting Sept 6 – after Labor Day. Hope to see you!

Laura gives a light-hearted, engaging interview with Tanja Pazou about yoga and living consciously and mindfully through the heart.  Watch the 3 part video.

Note: The music stops and the interview starts 1:00 minute into the first video, which is listed at the bottom of the 3 videos on Pazou's website. 

Tanja Pazou has an extensive background in performance art and education, as well as production. She graduated with honors in Munich Germany and she furthered her education in London and Los Angeles. She has a segment on her website, "On the Couch with Pazou".

I was so excited to return to the West Coast as a speaker and presented my story of creating an intention and living a commitment to teaching and working in the holistic healing world of yoga therapy.

I have always called myself a Yoga Therapist and always preferred the heart-to-heart connection of meeting students one-on-one to refine the chatter of misdirected thoughts that no longer serve the well being of the soul.

Having left LA in the 90s, I decided to create a life in the Midwest as a yoga teacher.

People were quite surprised that I would leave sunny and beautiful southern California for what I now call the “Land of Ugly” (from Nov. to April).

Yes, I too question how and why I ended up in Downers Grove, but I headed my inner voice and moved into the great unknown.

Today I am so proud of our profession.

I presented at the Symposium On Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR) on how I have witnessed the shift in mental health to return to the somatic tools of experiencing the physical breath to relieve the anxiety in the system, to restore energy in the mind that is exhausted, and to remove the fear of depression with actual yoga practices. 

I also spoke on the valuable way the medical model is now referring their clients and the ways yoga is moving into holistic health as tools for both physical and mental heath.

Yoga Therapists are finding greater opportunities to work along side mainstream health care providers to provide life changing solutions and bill health insurance for their services.

This fall I am helping to produce, The Yoga Therapy Summit, where for the first time, many of the most respected teachers in the Krisnamacharya lineage are coming together to present in one place. 

The event is open to all students, teachers, therapists and any health providers that might want to learn more about how yoga works for life changing health and healing on all layers of the mind, body, and soul. 

The event is being held here in Oak Brook, IL. 

Please consider attending as this is a fantastic opportunity to learn from some of the best in the field of yoga.

 Click for more information on the summit and to register.

Yoga is finally coming back to its true purpose of being a pathway to healing.

It coaxes the body to be as strong and flexible as possible as it removes the tension and pain in the joints and spine as well as alleviates the stresses of the mind. 

I knew in the early 80’s when I started this journey that there was a greater purpose in healing and I am grateful I listened to that inner voice that just said, "DO IT!" 

For me, that meant coming to the Midwest and today, YAF is a center of healing compassion for all that want to claim a better life of feeling the glow of one’s own aliveness!

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

Laura Jane

It's hard to believe that spring has once again come around to greet us. “God’s Fool” is sometimes the message I get when I remember opening Yoga Among Friends on April Fool’s Day in 1998.  I somehow question how our little community has continued thriving and enjoying 19 years of being a steady home of yoga for so many wonderful souls.

The community at YAF is why we are still here in a landscape that keeps changing. With so many alternative places to practice and families moving away. Yet, we are a constant comfort for so many that walk through our door with a sigh and a smile, thanking us for being “authentic” and “real”.  I guess our lack of corporate funding gives us a pleasant throwback to what it feels like to be original.

When our doors opened in 1998, there were no yoga centers anywhere in the suburbs. No one understood that we would be here for “drop-in” classes when there is no guarantee that anyone would actually show up. As a yoga teacher, I always shared that our commitment is to the teachings, not how many students show up to join in. A concept that the standard business model would not encourage! Yes, I always say I am not a business but a service! And teaching yoga is not a career path but a deeper calling of the soul.

Somehow in the last twenty years we have survived the hot yoga centers, the fitness spin centers and the lack of a sign that allows anyone to really know we still exist. We have continued to shine because of you, the students, and of course the amazing teachers that have given their love and energy to inspire and motivate the lifestyle of living with compassion and kindness and what it means to be a friend. To share in conversation, to hug and to be able to listen when silence is needed as a space of comfort.

In 2018, we will celebrating 20 years. In celebration of this milestone, we are putting together a book on the importance of community and how the teachings of yoga inspire to cultivate compassionate kindness in a busy, distracted world. That true commitment is living mindfully with open hearts.  We would love to hear from our students as we collaborate on the joint endeavor in celebrating you and YAF.

We are blessed as move into this new season and hope that you continue to practice with us both on and off the mat. Tell your friends about our sweet home; and if so inspired, please email us with a story or testimonial about how YAF (or about your teacher or a friendship that developed) over the years. Share a story that might have happened on one of our many retreats or venues.

Thank you from all of us as we celebrate this turn around the sun and enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

Life is filled with paradox today as I struggle to be a director of a yoga center, a teacher, a spiritual aspirant of the teachings of love while struggling to balance my personal relationships and roles as a wife and a mother.

Modern life today can be ruthless in the tensions it asks us to reconcile in our hearts and in our living. In the last year, I have seen the opposites of bias opinion play out in all sorts of angry confused moods. Friends are losing the ability to communicate by not listening. Listening is a most valuable tool of being human.

In the integration of such tensions, taking time to listen deep in our bodies is the great elixir. Our bodies understand such tensions, if only we don’t live too fast. Slowing down is the key. We need to give our minds a rest, to take time with ourselves to meet the beloved in our hearts. "Slow down" is the great cry coming from our souls.

It takes courage to change the habit of distraction and turn off the Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. The paradox here is not necessarily doing less, but rather it is the place where our doing comes from.

Are we the disciples of fear or of wholeness and love? Finding time for our souls is so precious. If I lose the sense of this inner being in myself, I cannot be the teacher of love in my work or my life. I cannot make a wise choice of the deeper intelligence.

This month delink from the noise in your mind and link into self nourishing by committing to being courageous in silence. Ask yourself, "is this the wisest choice of the highest good or my need to defend an ideology of fear?" Slow down, go inward and remember life is a blessing and love is the highest call.

However, when the intellect gets in the way, I spent too much time distracted and confused. I fall into a bias opinion that has been learned and accepted as my identity. So I must turn inward and de-link from that thought of fear and breathe life into my heart. I feel the pulse of my humanity. One beat at a time. I am more than that thought; I am more than that learned habit. I am the witness of the thought. I am pure essence of conscious awareness. I am love.
Stilling my mind is a challenge when my emotions start to stir in agitation. I turn off the news, unplug from the internet, and sit in the dark. And at times, I cry, moan, and shake. I let go into a vibration that has no meaning other than expansion and light. I let go and fall in love with life again. My aliveness is enough-just be present to my essence, my radiant heart of light.

When I was three years old, I fell in love with a song on the radio that whenever I heard it I had to smile. I hear it every holiday season, and its become my song: The Little Drummer Boy. As I listen it today, something still resonates as truth.

"I am a poor boy too
Pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gifts to bring
Pa rum pum pum pum...

Shall I play for you
Pa rum pum pum pum
On my drum..."

Today, the inner gift--I'll play my heart for you. Beat, beat, beat of my drum--is my heart beating for you.

I am not religious. I am only a yogi dedicated to each heart that beats. Every soul matters. Take off your labels, your identity of personality, and take away your doubts of being enough.

I don't teach exercise; I do not care if you can touch your toes. I care that you connect to community and that you are seen without your label. I am not perfect. I get tired and confused and overwhelmed with this world of doing and of running a business that is only a service for the soul to get nourished.

So I am renewing my commitment to sharing these tools of yoga. With a new, signed lease on our space, I plan to keep our doors open, and we will embrace the courage to walk into ourselves together. 

May this new year, 2017, bring us closer to that space of love. May we accept our differences. The place we meet is a place of acceptance where all beings everywhere can awaken their heart and quiet their mind's agitation. We are all on this earth together!  

with love,
Laura Jane