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i am laura harrison... yogini, poet, vegan/raw foods chef, artist, free-spirit, random-act-of-kindness doer, nature-lover, intuitive interior design artist, environmentalist, and muse for personal transformation and positivity. i know that sounds like a lot, but i have been very lucky in my life to meet and learn from many radiant beings. i have come through many experiences, and through my experience, i have learned how to become mySelf, over and over again. i have learned to find happiness in dire situations. i am far from perfect, i am a work in progress, but what i know about mySelf that seems to remain throughout the transformations is that i exist to bring out the best in others around me. i strive every single day to listen to my heart and to be the very best me i can be. and for my efforts i feel blessed and rewarded with an extraordinarily amazing life. please read on some of the ways in which i may be of service to your life's journey. you may wish to request something different of me, please don't be shy. i am always willing to help in anyway i can, and if i cannot, i will still guide you towards someone or something that may. i seek to inspire and empower people to take full responsibility for their own lives, their health and happiness. i don't just teach stretching, i teach yoga, which is a holistic lifestyle of actively seeking freedom and deepest truth, which leads to inner peace, health and complete freedom. i also seek to inspire and empower people to live the fullest expression of their individual truth, living vividly, i call it. its about being your true, best, brightest self, free from the prison of self-consciousness. i am powerful life coach, inspirational speaker, yoga educator, (raw) vegan chef, yoga-meditation-ecstatic dance teacher, founder of the natural yoga method, teaching a living yoga practice and promoting personal responsibility, which leads to fulfilment and success in all ways in life. my teachings help free people of self-consciousness in order to help them to bloom into their life's purpose and deepest joy- living lives of mindfulness, fulfilment and blissful interconnection. offerings (but, not limited to): learning yoga + meditation practice (to any depth and at any stage- entry to advanced level living practice) learning to cook/prepare nourishing foods that can not only sustains for regenerates the whole being organizing your home and helping you to manage your time in a way that leaves you room for peace and creative expression re-arrange and re-paint, redecorate in a way that encourages the flow of energy to create a healing and inspiring home-space that feels good to come home to lifestyle guidance, spiritual counseling, holistic personal training.. creating a health- and happiness-based lifestyle yogic-inspired guidance and support during powerful transitions in life medical focus: customized lifestyle guidance and yoga program to your needs.. special programs for those healing from eating disorders, fibromyalgia, PTSD, depression, anxiety and more... i empower you to take full responsibility for your own health and happiness.. to live YOUR own life of freedom, bliss, and vibrant health.. and only when you take that responsibility into your hands, it becomes reality. this is how it works, and i am here to help. see also *health and *home pages on this site for more services and workshops. workshops offered *Foundations of the Natural Yoga Method (5 hours): Learn about the energetic and physical/visual alignment of the yoga poses and introduce the Natural Yoga Method's principles. learn about presence, witnessing, attachment/detachment, surrender, acceptance and the power of the breath.. *Exploring Energy Through Yoga Practice: (4 hours) We explore energy, chakras, viewing everything as energy/vibration, and how to discern energy, and take care of balancing your own.. getting stuck and unstuck, staying open, and where you end and others begin. learn about the metaphor of all action and physicality and the way it reflects spirit/energy and how to get more connected with the boundless Self and less with the limited ego-self. *Living Vividly and Discovering Life Purpose (one 3-4 hour session or an expanded weekend format): learning to love yourself for the sake of living a better life and giving better to the Whole.. Explore your Self as an individual, discovering and discerning your unique energy, creativity, and life purpose.. we cover staying open, shredding self-consciousness, the balance between individual and universal principles, where your energy ends and others begin, shining your unique passion and light without letting the energy of others change that adversely, finding pieces of your Self in others and in the world, witnessing your life- passive and active balance. Human Nature: our body is of the earth, of nature, and subject to rhythms and flucuations like the earth and her seasons and flows. Learn to integrate Nature into your daily life and to accept the fluid balance that is the spirit's interface with the physical body.. with YOUR physical body, which is unique. Connecting with Nature brings us a surprising amount of wholeness, vitality and inspiration. Stress-Free Lifestyle: stress doesn't disappear, and we cannot change what is outside of us. However, we can change how we react to stress and can begin rewiring our brain to not panic and to calmly flow with reality as it comes and flows for greater health, peace and fulfilment, not to mention, happiness. Healthy Cooking Sessions: learn whole food vegan cooking that your friends and family will love and admire. set up a session for you and your friends in a host kitchen, or set up a session at your restaurant where your chefs learn what's what in animal-free haute cuisine. gluten-free, vegan, and raw courses available. even if you don't plan to be vegan, having a repetoire of vegan meals can greatly improve your health!! Mind-Body Health and Balance (3 sessions or segments): session one talk about the connection between mind and body and how it impacts your life.. session two discus what we can do to nurture the body simply and affordably. session three talk about the energy, how to discern it and work with it, and how again, everything impacts your whole health and happiness. family and kids yoga: don't be so serious! learn to practice playfully to encourage patience, listening skills, creativity, cooperation, physical fitness, bonding, and fun! (can be done at birthday parties!) Foundations of the Natural Yoga Method (weekend intensive immersion): Continued education for yoga teachers and passionate students of yoga to enhance their view and gain inspirations from learning about the Natural Yoga Method perspective. Includes a small manual... this immersion focuses on introducing the unique concepts of the Natural Yoga Method, intuitive energetic alignment, the metaphoric connection of the physical with the subtle, the connection with Nature, self-consciousness as disorder and techniques to liberate oneself and one's students from it... The Natural Yoga Method is a living yoga style, that encourages harmonious connection to nature, recognizing everything as conscious energy, freeing one's Self from the prison of self-consciousness, following one's intuition/inner sense of rightness completely, and living one's intrinsic and unique beauty fully, including finding life-purpose. During the 2 hour asana practice each day, we experience and elaborate on the techniques offered to achieve the above aims, then come into relaxation and meditation, and pause for lunch (pack a lunch for each day), and then continue on discussion for another couple hours. All techniques will be offered in both theory and experience. five hours each day. that includes 30 minutes for lunch. Develop tools for: ~Liberating oneself and students from self-consciousness ~Encouraging healthy connection to body and nature ~Introduce energy and how to understand and balance energy in daily life for harmony and happiness ~Trusting your Self/your heart again, and empowering your students to do the same ~freeing your authentic Self and expression, and feeling true to your intuition/heart/inner sense of rightness through all the stages on your path ~Imbue perspectives of how healthy oneness and individuality contributes to the harmony of the Universal Principle ~Connect with intuition and learn to work with it to find a sense of connection to the Universal Principle and sense of purposefulness in each moment, life is as a conversation with the loving Universal Consciousness ~Play with the idea of life-purpose, and a new view on the meaning of Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu * indicates a requirement of the Natural Yoga Method Teacher Training/Intentional Living Program.. see enlightenAmsterdam.com/yoga.html for more on that program.. Gratitude I bow deeply to the teachers who have taught me, inspired me, and fearlessly walked the path and shown the way through living example. I dedicate all my efforts as a giving to the peace, nourishment and enhancement of all life, in the tradition of all beings who have walked the Path. Jivamukti Yoga - David Life + Sharon Gannon created Jivamukti Yoga. They are so fearlessly determined to embody the practice, especially ahimsa, in all they do and are. They inspired me to fearlessly offer veganism as a tenet as I have always wanted to, and to aspire to purchase and preserve forest land at every opportunity. I consider them my gurus, my main teachers, as their teachings and way of life reveals to me my deepest Self. They embody a perfect balance of new and old and show me that I can be brave to do the same in my own way. Sivananda Yoga Vedanta - I began officially with the Yoga-Vedanta teachings of Swami Sivananda as brought to the West by his student, Swami Vishnu-devananda. This was my initiation into Yoga-sadhana. Shiva Rea - creator of Prana Flow Yoga; yogini, activist, adventurer. Radiant, inspiring, humble, beautiful being, and poet of the movement, Shiva truly embodies the flow of the Source. Thich Nhat Hahn - Thay, my Buddhist teacher, speaks with the clear, universal, + deeply loving words of the Buddha. His clarity and peace have given me so much peace, insight and understanding in life. Coleman Barks - without Coleman Barks' ecstatic and lucid translations of Rumi, I would not be able to bathe in the love of the One that is Rumi's poetry. Through Coleman's work, Rumi's words dance in English, describing the indescribable impossibly well. Rumi's words via Mr. Barks are an incredibly inspiring source of connection to my own deepest experience. Other major influences come from life itself~ Nature, Being Present, and just the synchronistic benevolence of the unfolding of the universe. My Guru is the formless loving-truth everywhere, in everything, smiling and shining in every moment.