Prana House Yoga brings clarity to your New Year

As New Year's Day, a time of creation and of resolutions grows closer, Prana House Yoga on the Main Line wants to help you have a calmer and healthier 2015.

Prana House Yoga (PHY) is an Ashtanga-influenced yoga studio that recently opened in November. PHY offers authentic yoga (Ashtanga, Yin, Vinyasa), Thai Yoga Massage, Reiki and Life Coaching. Their mission is to be a community place for health, healing and evolution. The owners Nadia Stadnycki and Derek Hopkins both have had their lives transformed by yoga.

"It was our passion for yoga and our desire to build community that led us to open our studio," Stadnycki said. Both of them have taught at Dhyana Yoga in the past.

Stadnycki came to yoga for the physical benefits and progressed to study meditation, energy healing, naturopathy and anatomy. She has been involved in small business and non-profit development for 10 years.

Hopkins came to yoga from injury in football and martial arts. A Division 1 Football recruit and professional Mixed Martial Artist, he started yoga as a last resort after severe injury. He found that dedicated practice healed him and enabled him to avoid surgery. He then became a teacher himself. His students include Olympic athletes, UPENN athletic teams, those recovering from injury and brand new beginners.

"Practicing yoga gives you so much without taking anything from you," said Hopkins. "Yoga gave me my life back after several injuries had me almost immobile. It took time, but once I was healed, I kept practicing and found that I had become stronger, healthier and calmer than ever before. That's the experience we want to share with the Main Line community."

Prana House Yoga has many upcoming classes and workshops to help you start the New Year out right:

December 27 – Get Clear in the New Year workshop with Nadia Stadnycki
This workshop will equip you with tools and techniques that will help you stay organized and focused on your resolutions for 2015. This collaborative, which is not a traditional yoga class, will include tea, vision boarding and restorative yoga. 1:00pm – 3:30pm. Registration required.

"My goal is to help my clients realize a clearer vision of what they want to create in the coming year," Stadnycki said. "We tend to take our resolutions in big chunks, which expend a lot of energy and are hard to sustain. I help them instead create a plan of action."

January 3 – World's Largest Simultaneous Group Workout

PHY will be part of breaking a Guinness World Record in the World's Largest Simultaneous Group Workout (www.worldslargestchallengeparty.com). Community members are invited to take a free class on Jan 3 from 12pm – 1pm. For each participant, ViSalus will donate 30 meal replacements to underserved kids in need. Registration at www.pranahouseyoga.com/schedule.

January 4 – Free Class

Thanks to official PHY partner, the Lululemon Athletica store in Suburban Square, you can take class for free every Sunday night from 6:30pm – 7:30pm from Jan 4 – Mar 29.

January  – Little Yogis Launch

The PHY Kids Program for 4-7 and 8-14-year-olds will launch in January, providing an opportunity for parents to enrich their children's lives with the benefits of yoga: stress prevention, mind/body health and tools to help them cultivate peace and focus.

"Kids deal with a lot of stress, sensory overload, and so many distractions today, probably more than ever before. This is not a traditional yoga class, but we will teach yoga principles through games and other fun activities," Stadnycki explained. "Our goal is get them in shape and to reinforce how to stay calm and release stress. We also try to give parents the language and tools to help their kids."

For more information about upcoming classes and workshops call 215-429-0432 or e-mail outreach@pranahouseyoga.com.