NEPA Yoga Fest

🌞 Sunday Morning Opening Meditation with Mara Morell
Begin your Sunday at the NEPA Yoga Festival with a gentle, grounding meditation led by the heartful guidance of Mara Morell. This morning session is designed to help you arrive fully in the moment, connect with your breath, and open your heart to the experiences ahead.
Through breath awareness, intention setting, and subtle inner stillness, Mara will guide you into a space of clarity and peace — creating the perfect energetic foundation for your final day at the festival.
🧘‍♀️ In this session, you’ll experience:

• Centering breathwork and guided mindfulness
• A heart-opening meditation to connect with self and community
• A calm, supportive space to awaken your spirit with intention

All levels are welcome — no prior meditation experience needed. Just bring your presence, your breath, and a willingness to start the day from a place of stillness.

Seven Sacred Flames Sound Activation
Join Kirk Jones to learn about the 7 Sacred Flames and enjoy a sound journey to a temple of healing and rejuvenation. The 7 rays are gifts to humanity to build a life of joy, ease, and benevolent evolution.  Attune to these frequencies of Divine Light and learn how to apply their gifts. Then journey with us through sound to a 5D temple to balance and harmonize this magic!

Dreams are one of the most common ways our intuition, subconscious mind, and even loved ones in spirit communicate with us. In this lecture, Medium Tara Grossi explains the difference between ordinary dreams, symbolic dreams, and true visitation dreams. Learn why messages often come through while we sleep, why dreams may feel vivid but unclear, and how signs, guidance, and intuitive insight can appear in dream form. Tara will share real-life experiences, common patterns seen in visitation dreams, and ways to become more aware of the messages we receive during sleep. The class will conclude with a short guided visualization to help open awareness dream communications. 

Japa Mantra MeditationLearning the Sacred Practice of Mala Beads
This class offers a grounded and accessible introduction to Japa Mantra Meditation, an ancient devotional practice rooted in the yogic tradition and referenced in texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
The word japa means “to repeat softly,” and mantra means “instrument of the mind.” Together, Japa is the rhythmic repetition of a sacred sound, word, or phrase to steady the mind and awaken deeper awareness.
In this workshop-style class, students will learn:
• The history and spiritual significance of Japa meditation
• The structure and symbolism of the 108-bead mala
• How to hold and move through the beads properly
• The purpose of the guru bead
• Breath coordination with mantra repetition
• How to choose or connect with a mantra
Traditionally, a mala contains 108 beads, representing spiritual wholeness and the cyclical nature of existence. Each bead becomes an anchor for attention. With every repetition of the mantra, the practitioner gently moves to the next bead, creating a tactile rhythm that keeps the mind from wandering.
This practice activates the parasympathetic nervous system through repetition and breath regulation, while also cultivating focus, devotion, and inner stillness. The vibration of mantra is said to refine consciousness and purify mental fluctuations.
Students may work with a universal mantra such as “Om,” “So Hum,” or a loving-kindness phrase, depending on the intention of the practice.
Expect:
• Gentle guidance into seated meditation
• Instruction on mala use and etiquette
• Group mantra repetition
• Silent personal japa
• Reflection and integration
This practice can be devotional or secular. It can be done for five minutes or an hour. What matters most is sincerity and consistency.
Japa is meditation with movement.
With rhythm.
With intention.
One bead.
One breath.
One mantra at a time.

This meditation is rooted in the ancient Buddhist practice of Loving-Kindness, known in Pali as Metta Bhavana, meaning “the cultivation of boundless goodwill.” For centuries, practitioners have used this simple yet profound method to soften the heart, dissolve resentment, and awaken compassion as a lived experience rather than an idea.
At its core, this meditation uses five intentional phrases that are repeated gently, like planting seeds in the soil of the mind. The practice traditionally moves in widening circles:

1. Ourselves
2. Someone we love or feel gratitude toward
3. Someone neutral
4. Someone difficult
5. All beings everywhere

We begin with ourselves because compassion cannot authentically extend outward if it does not first take root within. From there, the heart expands gradually, including those who are easy to love and eventually those who challenge us. The practice culminates in extending loving-kindness to all beings without exception, dissolving the illusion of separation.
The classic phrases often sound like:
• May I be safe.
• May I be healthy.
• May I be peaceful.
• May I live with ease.
• May I be free.
These phrases are then adapted as the focus shifts:
“May you be safe…”
“May you be peaceful…”
“May all beings be free…”
The wording is flexible. What matters most is the sincerity behind it. The phrases can be tailored to reflect what feels authentic and aligned, as long as they arise from a genuine place of care and goodwill.
This practice can be:
• A focused five-minute daily reset
• A full hour of deep heart cultivation
• Practiced in one complete arc
• Or explored one category at a time depending on what the heart needs
It is traditionally practiced seated in meditation, but it can also be done lying down, walking slowly, or even integrated into yoga asana or daily life. The beauty of Metta is its accessibility.
For seasoned meditators, it refines and deepens compassion.
For beginners, it offers structure and simplicity.
Over time, loving-kindness meditation has been shown to gently shift inner dialogue, reduce reactivity, and increase feelings of connection and well-being. Spiritually, it is said to purify the heart. Practically, it changes how we show up in the world.
This is not about forcing positive emotion. It is about cultivating the intention of goodwill, even if the feeling follows later.
One phrase.
One breath.
One widening circle at a time.