April 18–19, 2026, Merigar West
On a beautiful spring day, with the wind sweeping away all the clouds and clearing the sky to a brilliant blue, the Gönpa welcomes us with its usual generosity.
There are about twenty of us, plus the two instructors, at Merigar for a weekend of Rhythmic Breathing Pranayama. Dina Priymak and Michele Corrado will guide us through two intense days, reviewing the preliminaries of Yantra Yoga – along with warm-up movements – and introducing some basic rhythmic breathing sequences (4:4:4; 4:6:6), eventually progressing to the 6:6:6 sequence, all under the instructors’ meticulous supervision.
The group is diverse, consisting mainly of those who have taken the online Yantra Yoga course taught by Dina and Michele over several months (from September to April) once a week; but there are also people who have practised the Eight Movements in past years and who, a bit rusty, have returned to “brush up” and try their hand at learning rhythmic breathing. It takes only a few exercises to feel how much this breathing naturally helps to control the breath, making it fluid and continuous without causing stress, but, on the contrary, releasing tension and leading the mind into a calm state.
The practice alternates with clear and precise explanations; everyone is free to express doubts and concerns, to which the instructors always respond very effectively. The Yantra movements are offered both on the floor, in the original version, and on a chair, in the adapted version; the presence of two instructors makes everything flow more smoothly, as Dina and Michele take turns illustrating all the various phases in both ways, with all the necessary precautions taken to ensure the practice is always beneficial for both body and mind.
The organization of the weekend, including the communal lunch in Merigar, further enriched an atmosphere that was already cheerful and serene – for which we must thank the participants but, above all, the instructors, who were collaborative, generous, and able to express every thought or correction with clarity and firmness, always accompanied by a certain delicacy, encouraging the practitioner by persuading them that improvement, at any age, is always possible.
“I don’t feel tired at all. – on the contrary… and above all, I’m in a wonderful mood,” Valeria wrote to the instructors after the weekend; “wonderful weekend,” wrote Marta, as did many others.
We look forward, then, to meeting Dina and Michele in person again for more beautiful practice sessions!
Sabina Ragaini
