May 9, 2016
My featured guest this week on Catch Your Spirit is Akasha Ellis who will join us and share his knowlege and teachings about pranayama (breathing) and meditation. He will enlighten us on how these tools are highly effective to awaken and empower the Spirit. Akasha began his yoga studies as a boy and his first initiation was watching Star Wars and dreaming of being a Jedi knight or one of the many westerns portraying a hero rescuing someone from the bad guys. He practiced martial arts with the intention of being a warrior preparing himself to battle the dark forces. It was many years later that he realized the battle was within. Yogi Bhajan was his first living Yoda and his answer to his dreams. Yogi Bhajan’s radiance and compassion fueled Akasha’s desire to be true to his heart. He was taught to be grateful and to understand that the divine lives in all of us and that we must become our teacher. These wonderful tools of insight have given him the courage to surrender when his life is too constricted and the compassion to embrace his fears when his doubts and insecurities hinder his path. Akasha humbly bows to Yogi Bhajan in gratitude. Later as a student in college Akasha was blessed to have the opportunity to study with Dr. Vasant Lad whose love for Ayurveda, Ganesh and life bubbled over into all aspects of his teachings. He showed him another aspect of health that brought balance and ease into his life through diet, yoga and mediation. In his early 20’s he ventured to India to start a business and family. When he moved to Bangalore, Inida he discovered Ashtanga Yoga and started studying under Viswanatha (Sri Pattabhi Jois’s nephew) and he began to witness how yoga connected his breath and body, truly allowing him to be present. Akasha is co-owner of Birmingham Yoga and director of Birmingham yoga teacher training. www.birminghamyoga.com