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Yoga for the mind and spirit in Wilmette
Ramaa Krishnan leads a meditation session at Full Bloomed Lotus in downtown Wilmette. | Jackie Pilossoph~for Sun-Times Media
Full Bloomed Lotus
1217 Washington Ave., Wilmette
847-853-0600
www.fullbloomedlotus.com
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Updated: March 8, 2013 6:16AM
WILMETTE — Most yoga studios offer various types of yoga classes, everything from Hatha to Vinyasa to Bikram, where physical poses are meant to release stress and provide a physical workout.
Full Bloomed Lotus, a yoga studio in downtown Wilmette offers a different kind of yoga, a practice that focuses on meditation, self-inquiry and the emotional, spiritual aspects of yoga to heal the mind and body.
“Yoga is a generic word that means to unite, to come together, to combine intellectual and emotional parts,” said founder and owner, Ramaa Krishnan, a Reiki Master and a healer who has been studying meditation and Eastern systems of philosophy and spirituality since 1982. “The word yoga doesn’t only mean physical. There is no end to the definition.”
Full Bloomed Lotus, which is in its seventh year, offers drop-in meditation sessions, meditation courses, youth meditation and yoga classes with healing meditation.
“The different workshops and classes I offer are to put people back in touch with that wisdom that’s already there within themselves, so that we can say, ‘Why am I doing this?’” said Krishnan. “We have forgotten that we have the right to say no to our thoughts and choices and what everyone else wants us to do.”
Krishnan said her clients are typically women over 40, as they are the ones who are most in touch with their emotional side.
“We worry about things we need not worry about, and as we learn to meditate and do the self inquiry, we start coming to a place of stillness in ourselves,” she said. “We have more clarity in our thinking, and we align ourselves with our inner wisdom that helps us live a truly authentic life.”
Mary Dormin, of Evanston, has been coming to Full Bloomed Lotus for six years, and said the meditation sessions give her inner peace.
“It turns off the clatter,” she said. “It’s peaceful, secure, open minded and tranquil, and when I leave here, that feeling maintains itself.”
“This is a wonderful place to get away from our world that is full of technology and bombarded by noise,” said Kathy McCabe, of Wilmette. “It helps you center yourself and hear yourself.”
Full Bloomed Lotus also has a healing center that offers Reiki, a Japanese healing practice that incorporates the Eastern Chakra system, along with healing energies of crystals, symbols and aromas.
Krishnan said clients usually seek Reiki healing for depression, acid reflux, migraines, hypertension, anxiety and back problems.
“Eventually, all physical problems are the ultimate expression of emotional wounds and disconnect that we’re not conscious of,” she said. “We’re healing deep emotional wounds, and we can release the things that haven’t been healed, and that facilitates physical healing.”
Reiki sessions are $80 per hour, and drop-in mediation is $15 for 45 minutes.
“Inside each of us there is a lot of wisdom, and we are connected to our divine roots, but because of life experiences, we lose connection and we get lost in the human challenges and struggles,” said Krishnan, “The goal of meditation is to be able to enjoy living a life moment to moment despite the challenges we face every day.”
“Ramaa takes pains within you and makes them not painful,” said Pat Brummet of Wilmette, “She teaches you to love yourself. She listens to people’s concerns and addresses the meditation to that. She brings people peace.”
