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A research on presence
Embodied Prana comes to life as an existential investigation aiming to research and provide tools, practices and services to explore the quest for self-knowledge and integration of body, mind, soul and the natural world. A platform for transformative education through individual and collective body centred inquiry and practice.
An invitation to experience ourselves beyond the confines of our physical existence, yet making it felt through the body. Discovering our own unique way of connecting with our true expression and the natural world.
This research comes as a result of many years of deep dive into somatic, therapeutic and contemplative practices with a strong purpose to bridge three dimensional reality with the invisible realms, the known & the mystical unknown world, opening up a world of magic and wonder.
THE BACKBONE OF THE INVESTIGATION
The Elements
We are Nature and Nature expresses itself within us through elemental forces that are the building blocks of manifested reality. These fundamental forces are all present in everything we know, every manifestation of life. Our beings are composed of all elements in different proportions that are very unique to each and every single one of us.
The elemental forces are the backbone of this research as they represent the building blocks of all creation. Knowledge of the elements helps us understand not only the laws of Nature but also the workings of our inner nature, our subtle bodies and our minds.
To understand the elements is to connect to our essence, touching the elemental qualities within so we can fully connect to our inner and outer reality. But beyond understanding them with our intellect, we are looking at experiencing them through the body, as our most valuable tool towards remembrance and expansion.
THE PATHWAY TO THE EXPERIENCE
The Practices
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
Ether
Nature and the elemental forces are the real teachers and the practices are the paths to experiencing our organic essence. Our practices are like gravity, drawing us closer to our center. They are the wings of our soul, necessary for our flight to freedom.
Through Movement, Touch, Breath and Sound, we aim to investigate and develop practices, individually and collectively, that are designed to expand ourselves beyond the limits of our skin, allowing us to step into an experience of life as sacred. These are the pillars sustaining the journey towards embodiment of our elemental nature.
Each of these pillars is complimentary, calling on the integration between mind, body and spirit to help us achieve a sense of unity and wholeness, leading to enhanced self-awareness and practical wisdom that will allow us to bring our full selves into the world…together!
Hey I’m Janaina Mendes
Founder of Embodied Prana
Movement and Nature are my first languages and dance is the poetry of these languages.
Woman, animal, wild tree, former whale, nomad and citizen of the world, endlessly researching life and questioning the cultural threads that bind us.
I’m a curious dancer, bodywork therapist, movement researcher, yoga educator, water therapist, artist, sound explorer. Researcher of the intricate connection of body, mind, spirit and Nature. Caregiver of the wild and fertile places within through movement, therapy and ritual. Constantly nourishing sensitive presence, connection and empathy.
Founder of the project “Embodied Prana” where I share internationally my existential research through my main areas of study and practice, based on the elemental forces that make up the animated world.
I believe that art, therapy, spirituality, ecology and philosophy are inseparable and have intrinsic connection, being the body and sound/voice big portals for expansion, transformation, revelations and revolutions.
Work with me
EARTH
Nourishing, grounding, stabilising, structuring
The element most present in our bodily structures such as bones and muscles. The structure that sustains our manifested physicality. Practices here address this body vehicle, from gross to subtle.
Bodywork: Thai Massage, Chi Nei Tsang (Abdominal Massage)
WATER
CONNECTING, FLOWING, CLEANSING, ADAPTING, SOFTENING
Represents the foundational aspects of life, nourishment and balance within body and mind. Aquatic practices teach us the art of continuous flow in a timeless space, aligning ourselves to the natural rhythms of the universe to cultivate a balanced, adaptable and authentic way of being.
Water therapy, Water Dance
FIRE
Transforming, brightening, intensifying, ephemeral
A dynamic and transformative force present in the transformational processes that shape our experiences, both physically and spiritually. Symbolises the interplay of energies between the realms of reality. Our connection with spirit and consciousness.
Tantric Hatha Yoga
AIR
Moving, expanding, freeing, unpredictable
A force that governs movement and expansion. Just as the wind can be gentle or forceful, so can be our internal and/or external movements. One of the ways in which life expresses itself is through movement. Air teaches us about the infinite possibilities of moving in multiple directions towards the expansion of ourselves and our perceptions, symbolising the quality of freedom.
Dance: Contact Improvisation, Ecoperformance
ETHER
Immeasurable, omnipresent, subtle, expanding, formless
Represents the space from which all elements exist as vibrational frequencies. Sound (as vibration), as science now asserts and many ancient philosophies have before, is the framework of manifested reality, the source of all life. Primordial energy vibrating at different frequencies. Ether is the space that holds all these vibrations that create and shape our perception of the manifested reality.
Sound Healing, Voicing Beings, Tok Sen
Client love
Janaína is a very special professional! Professional of rare sensitivity and refined technique. Look for her!
FABIANA COZZA, BRAZIL
The Aquatic Massage with Janaína was one of the most transformative things in my life. I wanted to study what she does in the water. I have never experienced anything like this in the world and I have studied many styles of bodywork around the world. Feels like I unwind a knot in my ribs (and mind) which I’ve been working on for a while. Really excellent work!
STEWART, USA
I can’t express how grateful I am for meeting Jana. Her Embodying Tantric Hatha Yoga course blew my mind countless times. I felt like Jana would be putting together a jigsaw puzzle for me – plenty of things and concepts started making way deeper sense, and I learned a lot about myself through the practices. It was a transformational experience, and I could not recommend this course more! Jana is a beautiful soul – learning by her side is a pure pleasure.
ANNA LISICKA, POLAND
Jana is a generous being of intuitive intelligence, enormous grace and power. She has true passion and enthusiasm. Thanks to her teachings I was able to understand what I considered abstract. She is a very close person, humble, cheerful and always grateful to her masters. She is an authentic teacher who transmits the teachings she receives with integrity and in an intuitive way. I remember my first Hatha Yoga class with Jana very well. I had the wonderful feeling of coming home, her guidance immediately made me feel the power of her teachings. Her tone of voice welcomes you like a warm hug.
ALESSIA LAUDONI, ITALY
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