VEDA ALIVE Online School of Yoga & Ayurveda
Feel more alive, vital, and whole. Discover your innate healing intelligence & transform through the timeless teachings & somatic practices of Yoga & Ayurveda.
It's time.
Learn the Hart Approach to Yoga® and dive into your unique form of Transcendence Embodied through this inside-out, somatic approach to yoga practice.
- Release tension along your spine
- Establish deep rest and calm
- Repattern your nervous system
- Explore refined activity from a place of ease, clarity, and synthesis
- Learn functional ways of moving and being in your body, taking your practices into life
It's time for you to receive the healing and transformation support that you've been looking for. Through courses, programs, and retreats, Meredith offers support, guidance, and education so that you can live from your truest Self - and feel and know a deep sense of embodied ease, grace, and peace.
Steeped in the Vedas, Meredith offers The Hart Approach to Yoga® and Holistic Healing where she covers a deep yet wide range of Yoga Therapy, Ayurveda, and Somatic Education. Her sharp intuitive sense and creative intelligence points her towards what is needed for each of her students and clients. She's been at this for over two decades! She is deeply grateful to all of her teachers and she leans heavily into the teachings and practices that make it truly accessible to reliably heal and transform on all levels.
Below you will see her current offerings and more information about her approach. Enjoy and be in touch soon.
"Yoga classes with Meredith are transformative. With gentle precision, she guides us in and out of poses, taking care to ensure that everyone is safe, supported, and getting the most out of the session. No matter how I feel going in — stressed, stiff, shut down — I come out feeling opened up, integrated, and balanced, body and mind."
"I began attending Meredith's classes and workshops in person in 2019 and found them deeply restorative in body and mind. Then, as the Covid pandemic arrived, I was deeply grateful that Meredith continued to offer her workshops via zoom. I benefit enormously from her dedication to teaching this practice which continues to bring me physical ease and mental calm."
"Meredith breaks the pose down into its pieces sequentially so that I know where I am headed. Her cues reinforce what I learned from the demo, but they add hints to the more subtle dimensions of the asana and how to continue the asana's dynamism even if it is seemingly silent on the outside."
"I am never confused about the mechanics of an asana and manage to find my way to inner clarity about the effects through my direct experience."
"Over time, I have felt my bones settling into more comfortable and less protective positions, I have much greater flexibility, and am ready to take more risks knowing that the smallest movement is not going to break me."
"Meredith is my most trusted and go-to person for all physical and metaphysical questions, needs and support. She is one of those truly rare and special people who possesses incredible depth AND breadth within her fields of practice."
"Meredith trained me to practice at home so that I can do it whenever I need, to be more at peace. The most important fact for me is that the weekly class is a kind of 90-minute meditation. It's a practice that really gives me the opportunity to let go and to be with my body from moment to moment. Learning to relax and becoming still. This is the real Yoga, not the kind of gymnastic that it became here in the west."
Core Essentials of Therapeutic Yoga Program
Learn and practice in a whole new way - and discover how good it feels when you release tension in the core of your body, along your spine. You'll explore through your own direct experience how unwinding the tight muscles and decompressing the spine is essential for moving in an integrated and functional way.
In the Core Essentials group work, each class builds on the previous class giving you the foundational practices of yoga poses (asanas) and breathwork (pranayama) that target the tightest muscles along your spine. You'll find that when the core of your body opens and releases, the rest of your body can move and function more optimally. With more space on the inside, your mind can follow your body's lead and find more quietude from the hectic pace of our modern-day living.
Offered as a Year-long program or as three components that build, beginning each January. This course is closed for the remainder of the year. Component 3 will begin in mid-August. If you've worked with Meredith before or you've worked with one of her colleagues and you'd like to join, please contact her directly.
DISCOVER HOW TO RELEASE & RESTORE
Advanced Therapeutic Yoga
Dive deep into the healing practices of Yoga Therapeutics while in community. Learn new ways of working with the Core Essentials poses and practices that take your openings into deeper integration.These classes build on your foundation of releasing tension along the spine but bring in more focus on functional movement repatterning and clinical somatics so that you can integrate and bring your openings into your daily life.
By invitation only, for those students who:
- have regular home practices
- have worked with Meredith 1:1
- have completed all 3 components of the Core Essentials in Yoga Therapeutics program
Practice Sessions are held on:
Tuesdays 3pm-4:45pm Pacific
Thursdays 9am-10:45am Pacific
Saturdays 3pm-4:45pm Pacific
Please note that these group practices are far deeper than the average therapeutics yoga practice and require you to be steady with your home practice. They are sessions for those who are familiar with the specific alignments and propping of this practice; they are not meant for a newcomer.
If you find yourself here and you haven't yet studied with me, or it's been a while, do click on the link above and schedule a Discovery Session to learn more about this beautiful and powerful healing work and the introductory programs I offer.
GET IN TOUCH
Gentle Classical Yoga for Women
Support a life of ease with a gentle classical yoga and pranayama practice that focuses on both activity and rest, paving the way for your meditation.
To experience the Self, the transcendental state of pure consciousness while embodied, is the path of Yoga.
Yoga has always been somatic - and the field of somatics has been around for decades. Thankfully, the word has been spreading like wildfire the past few years - likely because our world and culture craves returning to the simple yet profound intelligence that is within - to return to the direct experience of our bodies, our soma.
Enjoy the effortless weaving of a deeply somatic-based classical yoga practice with the discovery of the timeless and very relatable themes of the Yogic literature and the feminine. This slow, receptive, gentle, and kind approach includes poses (asana), sacred hand positions (mudra), and breathwork (pranayama).
Both activity and rest invite the harmonizing of all systems and aspects of the body and mind, fostering a synthesis and coordination that paves the way for the practitioner to experience Wholeness within, which is the ultimate goal of all Yoga.
Join Meredith and learn her unique, gentle, somatic, and therapeutic approach to Classical Yoga practice.
Held online every Wednesday from 8:30 am to 9:45 pm Pacific Time.
To join, contact Meredith directly.
LEARN MORE
Private Individualized Healing & Learning Programs
Get the 1:1 support you need for deep change and healing.
Perhaps you know that you are looking for deep change and healing and you aren't ready for the community or group programs just yet. Not to mention you really need dialed-in support for your healing. You can't seem to find healing physically and you experience stress, overwhelm, and lack of empowerment on a daily basis. You've tried everything and you don't know what to do or who to turn to next. Yet, you do know that you want to get your foundation set up and receive more personalized support, you're just not quite sure where to start.
Working individually with Meredith through one-on-one online sessions is the best place to start. She's been at this for over two decades and will create, teach, and counsel you your unique individualized Vedic healing home practice that incorporates yoga therapy, breathwork, food, and sound practices. Maybe you are here just for the yoga therapy. Or a deep reset wellness retreat (a rejuvenation-based Panchakarma). Or maybe you feel really called towards mantra therapy. Or maybe you want to dial in on your relationship with food. Whatever you need support in, she's with you all the way.
You'll easily find your way to freedom and healing with her support. Sign up for a free connection call with Meredith and discover what the possibilities are.
SET UP A DISCOVERY CALL
Trainings
Learn to Teach Yoga | Earn Your Degree & Become a 200 Hour Level RYT
As the Director of the Maharishi International University Yoga Specialization program, Meredith invites you to add a 1000 hour certificate program to your undergraduate or graduate degree. You'll be trained in the profound philosophy of the Veda and in Maharishi's teachings as well as in the fundamentals of Gentle Classical, a synthesis of somatic-based yoga and Classical Yoga, which is a featured practice in the Hart Approach to Yoga®. Join the next cohort in Fall 2025.
Continuing Your Education with an RYT300 in the Hart Approach to Yoga®
Deeper dives for all levels - for those who would like to teach and for those who are already teaching and would like to develop. Look ahead and make plans for your future in offering transformation and healing through the practices of somatic-based Gentle Classical Yoga. The next cohort for these advanced trainings begins in Fall 2025. More information to come.
Healing Mudras
Learn the energetics of how mudras (sacred hand positions) can cultivate healing. This course is designed for everyone - for those who would like to dive in deeply into this Vedic technology and for yoga teachers who are looking to continue their education and bring it into their yoga classes.
Details to come - this online course will go live online in summer 2025.
The Power of Chetanasana
Take your yoga teaching to a whole new level by weaving in more stillness and deep rest. Learn the background, history, and benefits of Chetanasana and expand your offerings and expertise. This is open to everyone, with an emphasis on facilitating Yoga Nidra or Yogic Sleep.
Details to come - this online course will go live in the early fall 2025.
Classical Salutations
Learn the Classical Surya (Sun) and Chandra (Moon) Namaskar practices with their corresponding directions, asanas, and mantras. Each Namaskar aligns the practitioner on an energetic and cosmic level with the Sun or the Moon, bringing deep benefit and harmony.
Details to come - this online course will go live in the late fall 2025.
Become a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher
Dive Deep & Continue Your Education
This foundational course in becoming a Trauma-informed yoga teacher is a key component of Hart Approach to Yoga® Therapeutics. It offers you deeper study and training in Yoga, taking your teaching to a newer and deeper level. It's what makes the Hart Approach to Yoga® special. Open to all, and offers Continuing Education credits with Yoga Alliance.
Take your practice, teaching, and practitioner skills to a whole new level - through deep Spiritual inquiry, Self-Care, Deeper Practices, and reflection.
Expand into your light by gently and lovingly uncovering the so-called "Shadows" that hold you back. You've paved the way with your asana, pranayama, meditation, and dinacharya practice and now it's time to work with your mind. The Vedas offer us so much in this regard. You'll learn that to find relief from pain and suffering, a softening must take place. In this approach, we lean into the support of external props and into the precise alignments to then discover we have the support within our very physical structure, in our bones and organs.
We do the same thing when we work with our minds. To find relief from mental suffering, we soften into the support of compassionate self-inquiry. It's time to work with our minds and bridge the gap.
Join Meredith on this journey of self-discovery, where she'll weave in Yoga and Holistic Healing (Yoga Therapy, Ayurveda, and Somatic Education) with self-inquiry all designed to take you deep into yourself.
Shed the light and love on the shadowed obstacles and places inside yourself. Heal from the inside out, so you can hold space for and help others on their journeys of self-discovery.
Coming in Fall of 2026. Contact Meredith directly to learn more
About Meredith Hart, MSc
Dear Students, It's always a bit tricky writing these types of things. Hence the letter format. Many of you ask me about my previous trainings and experience, along with what this approach is about and where it comes from...
I first became obsessed with taking yoga in high school. I remember a tiny little studio in the small downtown city of Burlington, Vermont that offered yoga classes. At that time and age, I didn't own a car and the classes were difficult to attend due to my ever-changing teenage schedule. So I was really floored when I saw that a yoga class was offered for gym credit at my high school. I was 16. I took what I learned and applied it to the VHS tapes of Patricia Walden and Rodney Yee that I'd play while babysitting each week and would often turn to my mother's paperback version of Richard Hittleman's Yoga - 28 Day Exercise Plan for play and exploration in my free time. As a modern dancer with a strong attention on Spirituality and natural medicine (I was also really into herbal medicine and often prepared hopefully-remedial tea blends for my friends), the holistic practices of yoga really felt like they fit like a glove.
To make a long story short, I found myself and my way through several training programs and degrees in dance, transpersonal psychology, somatics, yoga, holistic health (ayurveda and herbal medicine), and massage therapy/bodywork. It's been a long journey of 26+ years now of my studies and practice in Vedic healing and I'm still at it! All of these years I never wavered... and always knew that the Veda (so much to say about this beautiful word, but now is not the time) was my Home. Some of you may even know that I'm working towards a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science with specific focus on one of my favorite yogic texts of Kashmir Shaivism - The Shiva Sutras. Life is really full and beautiful.
Speaking of which - somehow I was born into a beautiful family and found a wonderful husband who has shared with me his amazing kiddos...
Anyway....I participated in so many - too many trainings and degrees to list here, but I feel it is important to share with you the prominent approaches that really had their way with me. They are:
Yoga/Movement Sciences/Somatics
Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy
Prajna Yoga Therapy®
Sivananda Yoga®
Body-Mind Centering®
Hanna Clinical Somatic Education®
Alexander Technique® Approach to Modern Dance
Somatic Psychology
Holistic Health
Shaka Vansiya Ayurveda®
Wise Earth Ayurveda®
Maharishi Ayurveda®
Massage Therapy/Bodywork
National and California Licensed Massage Therapist
Ayurvedic Panchakarma Therapies: Dr. Lad/Dr. Allison Morse, Dr. John Douillard, Rose Carol, and Kerala Ayurveda Academy
Upledger® & Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
Consciousness & Evolution
BA Transpersonal Psychology
Siddha Yoga® (teachings of Baba Muktananda, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Swami Kripananda, and Swami Nirmalananda of Svaroopa® Yoga)
Maharishi Vedic Science® (teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)
Diamond Approach® (teachings of A. H. Almaas & Karen Johnson)
These past handful of years, I've been experiencing a synergy within. While I hold continued and deep faith, respect, and honor to each lineage and their teachings and practices, I have found in my personal practice that these primary modalities and approaches have been naturally merging and unfolding, becoming something new.
Each lineage is very empowering and still a huge part of my personal journey - I still train with most of them - but at this point, it's hard for me to continue to keep them all separate and compartmentalized in my personal practice and in my teaching. When this decompartmentalization began a handful of years ago, I created my own trademark, in order to differentiate and respect the purity of the teachings from where I have come and also recognize that I'm naturally integrating and simply cannot be in any one lineage anymore. It's just not possible. Hence, the Hart Approach to Yoga® was born.
My goal is NOT to be a master teacher or to carry on or create a lineage. I am not a lineage holder. I want to be VERY clear about this. This is why I have chosen names like "Yoga Therapeutics" and "Gentle Classical" for my offerings.
My goal is to simply serve each of my students so that they can discover their own innate healing intelligence, to heal on their own, and then hopefully in turn, one day, pass what they know onto others. This is a very feminine, internal, inclusive, and soft yet strong approach. It is not divided or a specific laid down path. I envision a world that has been healed from the inside out - a world that recognizes the innate healing intelligence within. This is what drives my personal practice, work, studies, and life.
All to often, we need the support of the masters, so I happily will refer there as needed/guided for both myself and others.
This means that when you work with me, there will be times where I refer you to the above lineages because you may need deeper work with those particular master teachers and teachings. What you do with that referral is your own choice. I will always refer out like this as I respect my teachers and also do not want to take on the karmas of my students. To work at the deep evolutionary and consciousness-based level is a "master's" duty - not mine.
I'm here to simply get you started in developing a deeper relationship with yourself and your innate healing intelligence and to provide mentorship and suggest directions along the way.
This also means that I am offering trainings and retreats now to get you started or to support you along your journey.
You can train with me to become a foundational level Yoga Teacher Training at Maharishi International University which brings in my somatic-based approach to the Classical Yoga Asana Set. Students can continue to study with me directly and participate in a 300 hour teacher training and a continuing education program in becoming a Trauma-Informed Yoga teacher. I will also be adding to the offerings in my department at MIU, a training in a masters level degree program in my approach to Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy, which is a part of the Hart Approach to Yoga®. Stay tuned and contact me directly if you are interested in learning more.
In-person retreats are in the making. The plan is to offer them on annual basis where you will learn the latest unfoldings of this work and synergized approach. Stay tuned as we are researching when, where, and how.
With a deep bow (pranām) to my teachers - in the past, present, and future....and with a deep bow (pranām) to my students - in the past, present, and future...
as we are all one.... and are here to serve each other along the way.... and I would not be where I am without you all...
I thank you all for being with me on my journey.
Much love,
Meredith