Prema is co founder and lead teacher of So’Ham Retreat Center.

Prema is a 500 hr RYT, Yoga Alliance approved teacher & yoga teacher trainer. She’s been practicing and teaching for over 20 years.
All of her classes are gentle alignment-based hatha yoga classes with some dynamic movement and breath-work making her classes very calming and therapeutic. Her classes are for beginners to intermediate.

She studied many years with well-respected and international yoga teachers such as Darren Rhodes, Bruce Bowditch and Christina Sells.
She has deep knowledge of the body and movement from studying massage, lymphatic system and shiatsu, meditation and pranayama/breathwork that she integrates with yoga to support calming the nervous system.

Prema keeps her classes basic, clear and simple for students to be safe and to experience connection to their heart and body, and to calm the mind.
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Check out Prema’s Youtube to learn more about her classes!
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Prema began her yoga studies when she first traveled to Ganeshpuri India at the age of 17 and met her meditation teacher, she had the experience of love for no reason at all – unconditional love. After her first Hatha Yoga lesson she fell deeply in love with the physical and meditative aspects of yoga, and thus began her life’s journey of practicing and studying yoga, meditation and wellness.

Through a consistent practice of Hatha yoga she was relieved of her chronic pain from a fractured neck and scoliosis, giving her the desire and commitment to teach others to experience more freedom and less pain in their body.

She studied and lived in India for many years, practicing countless hours of yoga and meditation under the guidance of a meditation master and senior hatha yoga teachers.

After studying in India, she moved to New York City at the age of 20 and dived into the wellness world. She’s educated, certified and licensed in a number of holistic health care modalities. She personally studied with Ohashi, a shiatsu master, at the Ohashi Institute in New York. She is certified in Shiatsu, massage, holistic skincare and wellness, cranial sacral and anti-inflammatory lymphatic drainage.

Prema was trained in New York City by Susan Ciminelli, a world renowned holistic health, beauty and wellness guru to the stars. Using her holistic talents and experience she helped bring into existence one of New York’s top holistic wellness centers from 2001 – 2011, Sphatika International, where she developed holistic wellness protocols, individual yoga and detox programs for clients from New York to Los Angeles, many of which were celebrities.

In 2022 she suffered the sudden death of her 21 year old son, to accidental fentanyl poisoning, the tragedy shocked her body, nervous system and shattered her heart, leaving her numb, frozen and heart broken.

Her long time yoga path of 35 years, caught her shattered pieces and held her with the compassionate loving kindness of a dear old friend, accessing her inner resources from the seeds planted from her longtime practice. She practices and teaches yoga in honor of her beloved son, Lance. She is very grateful to experience and share yoga as a healing modality for grief.

Prema is deeply grateful to her long time meditation teacher and mentor for her loving guidance and wisdom on her life long journey through the heart.

Prema is grateful for the support of her husband, four adult children and two bonus children. She is grateful for the beautiful, peaceful, abundant nature and land that supports and surrounds So’Ham Retreat.

Nalini began her yoga journey at the age of 16, when she traveled to India for the first time.
She was taken by the beauty, flavors, music and healing practices of meditation and eventually hatha yoga. She discovered that meditation is an active force that revealed inner worlds and wisdom. She also learned Indian/Ayurvedic cooking.

She likes to call herself an inner explorer. This set the foundation of her life long meditation and yoga practice, revealing to her life’s precious moments in every breath.  She shares that the nectar of her meditation practice has carried her through life’s challenges.

Nalini is an experienced and accomplished yoga instructor for students and other teachers, with her 500 hr Yoga Alliance certification, teaching internationally over 2000 yoga classes.

In 2023 Nalini suffered the loss of her nephew; her perspective on life was transformed and once again redirected to the preciousness of every breath and every moment. She now teaches from the point of view how alive we are, to respect ourselves and each other with love and respect because this moment is all we have. “Lance has taught me to let go and live more fully in the moment, and that every breath is a gift. I honor him in my teaching.”

For her Yoga is not All about getting into a posture, or how we look in a yoga outfit. For her yoga is all about the state of mind. She teaches her students to first move from their energy, and then to move their body, creating a more supple mind. Nalini teaches thinking is energy, so postures are second, and energy is first!

Today Nalini resides in the peaceful White Mountains of Arizona with her husband, son and Akita. She designs and makes her own yoga clothes, and at the request of her yoga students she created poppiwear.com

She travels internationally to teach yoga and meditation.