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One of the great pleasures of yoga is the relaxation session or shavasana traditionally offered at the end of a class. When taught skillfully, shavasana invokes the flow of energetic 'nectar' down the spine to permeate the entire body with blissful energy.

Now, with Drops Of Nectar, yoga practitioners can experience this rejuvenating dimension of yoga at home and at their convenience. Taught by acclaimed instructor Shiva Rea, this immersive two-CD program guides listeners through: 

Yoga Nidra, a relaxation method that works with 36 areas of the  body Tension release through the five koshas (layers) of the body
 
A special meditation for healing areas of pain and blockage 

Lunar Shavasana – an effective means to rest the sense organs and induce deep and restful sleep 

'Awakening the Lotus' chakra-based meditation, and more

As a complement to one’s existing yoga practice, or used on its own, Drops Of Nectar will serve as valuable resource for anyone seeking to explore the healing traditions of yoga. Includes music by Ben Leinbach, Jai Uttal and Manose.

Media Type: two CD set

Artist Bio:

Shiva is an avid Ashtanga practioner who respects the core technique of the Krishnamacharya lineage (asana, bandha, pranayama, meditation) while being true to other streams of influence that have deepened her experience of yoga from dance and bodywork to rockclimbing and her extensive travels in India, East and West Africa, Nepal, Bali and the Carribean.  She teaches flow (vinyasa) based yoga integrating alignment and intuition, strength and fluidity, meditation and wisdom in action.   Shiva is a long-standing teacher at Yoga Works in Santa Monica where some of the world’s best teachers have fertilized her understanding of yoga including Shandor Remete, Richard Freeman, Erich Schiffman, Lisa Walford, Rodney Yee, John Friend, Donna Farhi, Rod Stryker, Patrica Walden, Tim Miller, and the extrarodinary Kirtan of Jai Uttal and Krishna Das.    Her classes at Yoga Works are special mandalas to experience the whole range of energy cultivated in yoga from the sweaty purification of vinyasa and the tapas of standing and balance poses to the multi-dimensional opening of backbends and the release work of deep twists and hip openers and the stillness of inversions and meditation. She works with world music in her classes and chanting as a means to help people syncopate with their natural rhythm and feel more at home in our skin.  She is also on the faculty of UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Program where she received her Master’s in Dance Movement Therapy while studying world dance, cultural anthropology, comparitive religions and somatics.  Review: Drops Of Nectar Blending Precision & Poetry Well-known Southern California instructor and former YJ columnist Shiva Rea's latest effort, Drops Of Nectar, is a two-CD set that includes asana, pranayama, and meditation instruction, all with the aim of enhancing "our receptive, rhythmic, cooling, and rejuvenative capacity" (as Rea writes in the liner notes).  Disc 1, with six tracks, opens with a short music-backed invocation.  Tracks 2 and 3 cover Chandra Namaskar (Moon Salutation), which celebrates the "lunar nature of the Goddess."  Rea's version of Moon Salutation differs only slightly from its better-known sun-honoring complement, mostly in its breathing rhythms.  Track 2 details the sequence itself; track 3 provides only the mantras associated with each position in the sequence, with one run-through in English and a second in Sanskrit. (These mantras are helpfully printed, in both English and Sanskrit, in an accompanying booklet.)  Track 4 teaches Nadi ShodhanaPranayama (purification of the channels) and a seated breathing and visualization exercise called Prana Mudra. On track 5 is a guided "So Hum" mantra meditation, preceded by a visualization of light, which is said to balance and integrate the energetic polarities (for instance, active-receptive, sun-moon) of the body.  There are four rounds of this meditation, and the syllables of the mantra are assigned different meanings in each; for example, "so" represents Shiva, which here means "pure consciousness"; "huh" means shakti, or "creative energy."  The last track on the disc, "Lunar Shavasana I," completes the practice with a full-body relaxation. Disc 2 is shorter, with five tracks, and it again opens with a brief music-backed invocation.  Track 2, titled "The Secret Ball Society," instructs the listener how to use a tennis ball to massage and release tension in the muscles of the buttocks and shoulder blades by lying on the ball.  Track 3 covers the popular technique of Yoga Nidra, or "Yoga Sleep" (based on the teaching of Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga).  This involves three related practices for the physical, energetic, and mental bodies: the initial cultivaton of a sankalpa, or positive life "intention"; the rotation of the consciousness through the mandala ("wheel") of the body from the feet to the head; and various visualizations of light and significant shapes.  Tracks 4 and 5 contain relaxations that essentially boil down to musical compositions. Rea is an exceptional teacher, blending precision and poetry in her intstructions, and she has a beautifully soothing voice.  Many of her images--of chakras and nadis (energy channels), even of the sun and moon--are based on traditional teachings, adding a sense of authenticity to her work.  Another nice traditional touch is the mantra-supported performance of the Moon salutation sequence.  In sum, this is a useful and comprehensive instructional package. - Yoga Journal, December 03

Product SKU: ST-6842-DROPSOF