SPRING NEWSLETTER UPCOMING SYNERGY YOGA RETREATS,  TEACHER TRAININGS & NEWS FOR 2023   A Few Testimonials from the November Retreat Testimonial for the 2022 Synergy Yoga Retreat Good morning Peri and Charles,I bask in the love light and healing of our retreat 2022. Most of all a calming centeredness from the beautiful and powerful meditations, pranayama and asana. The weekend was such a blessing and joy to be with our yoga community in person after such a long pause. Always beginning and ending the day with meditation is soul filling. I feel the need for meditation even more in these times and practicing with others magnified our prayers and consciousness at profound levels. Co-teaching our first Gentle Synergy class was like breathing again as a teacher to speak your dialogue, give hands on adjustments and press outs. Teaching is much fuller in terms of what we can give our participants when we have opportunity to apply all of your Synergy tools. The giving and receiving is on a much deeper level in person. I loved our cozy time in your special and sacred studio and at the spacious OZ Farm as well. From our very first yoga class, I felt the benefits of the flow throughout my physical body. For the first time in awhile all my muscles, joints and circulation were deeply activated and refreshed. A full workout which I love. Your posture clinic was incredible. Just by watching you work with participants in class, each of us could take the directions for moving more deeply into postures and apply them. All of us, with just the right words and direction, furthered our knowledge of our yoga practice in the different asanas. Where we may have been “stuck” we became “unstuck,” So much was packed into this weekend retreat. The classes taught by Charles and the other teachers gave strength to our minds and bodies. All of the meditations, led by Peri were soul lifting. There was instant focus on the divine energy with Peri’s guidance and voice. For myself, the guided meditations were deeply felt and filled with amazing light and divine energy. Thank you Peri for such a gift. You create a space for each of us to “move mountains of energy.” I loved that you often completed yoga class during our final savasana moving us perfectly into meditation. Thank you all.Group activities were healing and in a short time we shared much with each other. The forgiveness, healing and prana processes and practice removed personal obstacles and cleared personal habits and patterns to make way for new positive manifestation in our lives. So much positivity and light. I loved all of the affirmations and they too brought me to a deeper listening and reflection on the energy and light we all carry.Thank you Peri and Charles for your tireless effort, preparation and dedication to manifesting and holding this retreat. It was wonderful to meet three new yoga warriors and practice with such focused yogis. I am ever so grateful for all that you do, the encouragement and personal attention and caring that you give to each of us. We are so blessed to have you in our community and lives.Namaste and LoveSara Bogard, Synergy Yoga Teacher Dear Charles and PeriI am grateful for the opportunity to participate in your November 2022 weekend retreat! I was a bit reluctant since I haven’t done yoga since the Covid closures and felt my injured left knee/leg would prohibit me from the sitting meditations and asanas.  To my delight I was able to bask in the healing love, light and wisdom of your offerings easilyEvery moment of the retreat was beneficial to my body, mind and spirit; from acknowledging miracles and forgiveness in our lives, chants, deep mediations, gentle yoga flows, astral gem presentation, sharing and connecting, to delicious food, etc.  The Synergy Yoga teachers who contributed to the training are all radiant examples of truly benevolent beings.   The serene and beautiful mountain sanctuary and the rustic farm venues were the perfect settings for this nourishing retreat. I left on Sunday feeling connected and inspired to re-engage in yoga and meditation and will fondly recall moments from the weekendA heartfelt thank you!Love and NamsteLisa R The best retreat yet! (After many years of Retreats with you!) Amazing how the work unfolds to higher and higher realms of energy and healing. Thank you. I feel transformed! I attended Synergy Yoga retreat November 4-6, 2022. I highly recommend the experience to anyone looking to expand their practice both physically and maybe even more so spiritually. Peri and Charles are exceptional teachers, and have a gift for making you feel comfortable no matter where you might be on your yoga/life journey.Sincerely Steve D. Carmichael, Ca.Dear Charles and Peri,Thank you for the awesome retreat! Peri, Thank you so much for being in this world, and being such a comprehensive teacher. I am learning to be peaceful inside. Going to your yoga retreat was a fantastic experience overall and I got a lot out of it. Your hilltop yoga yurt is a fantastic place to do yoga, and it was good to reunite with Charles after 20 years. Point Arena is a beautiful place and I would very much like to return for another yoga retreat and to enjoy the rugged coastline and wild ocean. I have done yoga almost every day since I saw you, sometimes twice! It gives meaning to my life.A day that I do yoga, even if I don’t accomplish anything else, I consider a successful day.The gentle posture flow video you filmed 20 years ago with your students at Swami’s in the yoga studio perched on the dramatic cliffs of Encinitas has everything in it for body, mind and spirit. The treatment of the spiritual aspect of yoga in the video is delightfully circumspect and sufficiently vague as to create a meaningful experience of mysticism for every yogi, regardless of personal beliefs. I have had very many extremely powerful moments doing your yoga video over the years. I connect with my inner power, my true spiritual self. The experience of mysticism is palpable and “real” in the sense that everybody can feel it, regardless of personal belief. The posture flow and your words in the video create a perfect opening for the powerful mysticism within me to take charge. This is where the bliss comes from, why I say that doing ‘Peri yoga’ grabs you by the scruff of the neck and thrusts you into happiness. I needed your direction and have already made a midcourse correction towards a much more gentle practice.It was a rich experience in one of the most beautiful settings I have ever been in.I can’t believe I met you 20 years ago surfing in Baja Charles and we haven’t seen each other since, but I’ve been doing Peri’s tape this whole time and it was incredible to finally meet my teacher and be with you both.I certainly look forward to another retreat experienceBless you both,V.C. New Mexico. Dear Peri and Charles,Thank you so much for the 3 days of yoga and meditation with a circle of friends. In 3 days, I felt like I returned from an extended vacation. After the retreat I had more energy to give and was even able to accomplish things on my list that have been sitting there for a year! Being with you in the unique and radiant Synergy Yoga space provides the opportunity for a true authentic yoga and meditation experience. Spirit and nature dancing together. I also appreciate the opportunity to participate with my sister and other loving people willing to spend time visualizing their happy place, gazing into the soul, pulling in the spirit and BEing together. In this electronic and fast-paced life, so often we are surfing the surface and this allowed me to GO deep. Mentally, physically, emotionally, spirituallyAum sweet Aum. How divine!NamastePam MasonThank you Peri and Charles for this transformative time of the retreat that you so painstakingly manifested, with Divine innervation, that I feel so blessed to have been a part.Words come so short in expressing the greatness of my gratitude. It is like a finely tuned symphony, your inspired processes, that guide and direct us toward our own process of healing, leaving me with lighter, freer insides.I know I am not fully aware of all that took place, is taking place, but I am elevated and transformed!Journaling and introspecting will help me in my enfolding. May God and Guru bless you both and your sacred land and space.Jai GuruJai SynergyJai all of us!Love Ronna FrostI recently attended a three day retreat located in Point Arena with Synergy Yoga. I have attended several retreats with Synergy Yoga.  I love the bond and friendships I have built with the other yogis who have also attended several retreats.  I am lucky that one of them is my sister. All of the teachers are amazing and very helpful. The Processes and yoga are transformational. Peri led us in Yogananda’s affirmations:”I am Healthy and happy NOW!” Meeting the new yogis was amazing as well.I would highly recommend anyone to attend a yoga retreat especially with Peri and Charles in Synergy Yoga.  Thank you again to Charles and Peri and all of the lovely teachers. Peri you have changed my life for the better. I loved the fresh apples too. Namaste. Donna Cox“I recommend this process to everyone. Those whom are new to Yoga/Meditation will find compassionate teachers who genuinely care about their student’s self-realization journey. Seasoned Yogi’s will find both the familiar, and the unexpected. In a good way, of course! The gentle adjustments, spiritual guidance, meditations and feedback have resonated with me internally, and have opened my heart and mind toward compassion and better understanding others, as well as gaining a closer relationship with God.  Yes, there is a monetary cost to attend these retreats, and that expenditure is one of the better investments out there, in my humble opinion. I can’t imagine an organized spiritual process with purer intentions than the one run by Peri and Charles. They give. That’s what they do.Ian R, Ukiah, CA  Did you know?… Mahatma Gandhi asked Paramahansa Yogananda to teach him the Sacred Kriya Yoga Meditation Pranayama (breath) Technique. He was initiated by Yogananda at his home in Wardha, India, in 1935 when Yogananda returned for a year long visit to India. Gandhi had visited Yogananda’s Ranchi School, (now Ashram) years before, in 1925, and at that time had written a gracious tribute to Yogananda’s work.In the Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda has written one of the best accounts of Gandhi’s life -and his Non Violent Movement of Satyagraha – see Chapter 44.Quote from The Autobiography of a Yogi:Gandhi said of prayer. “It is a reminder to ourselves that we are helpless without God’s support. No effort is complete without prayer, without a definite recognition that the best human endeavor is of no effect if it has not God’s blessing behind it. Prayer is a call to humility. It is a call to self purification, to inward search.” Bishu Ghosh, son of Bishnu, Yogananda’s Brother, with Peri at Yoga College of India, Calcutta, 1994.Check out the free Synergy Yoga Basic 5 Postures (quick flow) video on utube.Even this quick flow daily is a great help to your physical, emotional and spiritual well being.”Peri and Charles, I just love this quick flow! So many of us miss you in Encinitas, but my friends and I meet 3 x a week and do your utube video. It is wonderful to see Charles and the other yogis as well, and it really feels like we are with you in class!” Jackie J. UPCOMING EVENTSLearn to be a Yoga Teacher, the most rewarding profession. Helping to transform lives for others and yourself!This year we are offering ongoing Teacher Trainings, 3 Day Retreats and One Day Meditation and Yoga Workshops for those new to Yoga.Synergy Yoga Teacher Training- Level 17 Saturdays 9am – 6pm, plus Home Study Practicum.Beginning April 29 – June 10 completing with our 3 day Retreat on 16th, 17th and 18th June.Synergy Yoga One Day RetreatSaturday May 20, 2023Synergy Yoga 3 Day RetreatFriday – Sunday June 16th, 17th,18th, 2023 Call or email Charles for more information: Yoga@synergy-yoga.com – 707 350 0394(More events to be announced in next newsletter)Below see pictures of Classes, Posture Clinics, Meditations, Study times and Beach and Forest Processes in Trainings and Retreats for over the years.Synergy Yoga Retreat Pictures November 2022MEDITATIONCHANTING (& Charles blowing the Conch before Final Feast)HATHA YOGA PRACTICEPOSTURE CLINICS, ZEN SILENT WALKING MEDITATION, LECTURES &BEACH PROCESSESAMAZING & ENLIGHTENING LECTURES with exceptional beings:Ernst Wilhelm www.vedic-astrology.netPrescott, ArizonaMarkus Beer – Synergy Yoga Teacher, Anatomy Lecturer and Osteopath, GermanyNick Hodgson www.astrogems.comEncinitas California Order our Yoga Products – (A few examples of products below) See more on website or email Charles: Yoga@synergy-Yoga.comSynergy Yoga Digital DVDOriginal FlowSynergy Yoga Digital DVDGentle FlowSynergy Yoga Pregnancy Yoga Flow for Pre & Post Natal practice. Book: Hands-On Adjustments for Yoga TeachersWe are sending you LOVE & OMMMS, on this auspicious First Day of Spring, Eve of New Moon, Vernal Equinox. A perfect day to meditate and practice yoga!From us all at Synergy Yoga, Namaste. Peri & Charles, Ronna, Pam, Sara B, Sara J and teachers worldwide.

Greetings Dear Friends and Yogis! Blessed first day of Spring, on the Vernal Equinox and on the Eve of the New Moon, an auspicious and special time!We trust your 2023 is going well, despite the challenges we each have been given, to overcome. As Paramahansa Yogananda said: “An easy life is not a victorious life”!We are the blessed ones who have been drawn to practice yoga. A practical as well as spiritual tool to manage life on earth! Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga – for Body, Mind and Spirit. Meditation is the key.Plus it is great good karma to introduce and encourage all you meet to practice Yoga. For them and for you.The best ways are to encourage them to go to a spiritual yoga class, to practice Meditation, and the best introductory book to Yoga, is Paramahansa Yogananda’s Classic book, worldwide bestseller for over 75 years, “Autobiography of a Yogi” read in almost all Universities in the world and translated into almost every language in the world. Written by the Great World Teacher, Yogi, True Guru, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.Charles is a wonderful exponent of yoga and spreading the message of Paramahansa Yogananda and his Self Realization Fellowship. Many of you know Charles for his friendly, sunny, and optimistic disposition. He is known for encouraging people to practice yoga, and do the trainings and retreats. He has enrolled thousands!! He travels with stacks of the book, Autobiography of a Yogi, in his car and he gives them out constantly. He asks people if they’re interested in a spiritual book and what yoga really means. Most people are hungry for that, and are very interested in learning. It’s rewarding to introduce people to a true Guru, which is rare in this world, as the word Guru in the mainstream is often used in a very misleading way. He’s given out hundreds of these books, many to friends, but also many in very surprising places- a few examples: at Starbucks, on a remote hike, in the doctor’s waiting room and office, in traffic jams, while waiting for Caltrans to remove a tree off the road to the guy in the car behind him, and recently at the gas station! Many students have expressed gratitude to Charles for persisting and encouraging them to do the trainings. They say if it wasn’t for his persistence, they would never have had such a wonderful opportunity to bring Yoga into their lives.We hope to see you at some point this year in one of our Trainings, Retreats, Classes or Workshops and we love hearing from you. Thank you all for your loving comments and emails!You are always in our consciousness and prayers in our daily Worldwide Prayer Circle that we participate in with Self Realization Fellowship. Prayer makes a difference, and this world certainly needs prayers and positive thoughts! Our thoughts are very powerful and effective. Let us keep it up, and remind each other—Our true nature is JOY! Our November Retreat was wonderful. Here are some testimonials and photos below.