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Prema Posner's Story
Prema Posner's Story
PREMA means “Love.”
It’s the name my teacher, Baba Hari Dass, gave me at Mount Madonna - a lifelong reminder that my truest path is to embody and share love.
But becoming “Prema” wasn’t easy or linear. I believe authenticity, wisdom, and compassion are gifts we gather from living through both joy and sorrow - from rising, falling, and gently rising again.
โMy Story
Every journey has a beginning, a breaking point, and a quiet moment of becoming.
The qualities I value most - authenticity, compassion, and deep wisdom - were not handed to me overnight. They arose from living fully in the complexity of both joy and sorrow, and from finding light in the ashes of what was lost.
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When I look back, I see life as a great epic unfolding - each chapter building upon the last, shaping me into someone more whole, resilient, and real.
We all have a story of becoming. By sharing mine, I hope to inspire your own courage to honor where you’ve been, soften into where you are, and trust in what is still possible for you.
Chapter 1: Searching for Belonging
Growing up in Manhattan, I often felt like an outsider - yearning for comfort and connection. A family friend would whisk me away to an Upstate ashram, where the sound of chanting left an imprint on my young heart. I didn’t know it then, but mantra and meditation would become my future refuge.
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I attended the Lycée Français de New York, where I became fluent in French. I took classes at the School of Visual Arts and spent my summers at Rhode Island School of Design and Bennington College. A lover of the arts, I was accepted into a program at Juilliard’s British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, and then went on to attend a theater conservatory in London.
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Through art, theater, and world travel, I chased adventure but often felt unanchored. My early career in New York PR brought success, but not the fulfillment I craved. When heartbreak and 9/11 upended my world, a deeper longing opened—a yearning to find purpose and true love, beyond any role or relationship.
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Chapter 2: Awakening and Choosing Love
I moved to Los Angeles and stepped into a new chapter as the Director of Marketing for a nonprofit that connected artists with children in hospitals and began my own regular yoga practice. Inspired by the healing mission of our work, I pursued a Kid’s Yoga Teacher Training, then went on to complete my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
Even outside the office, I was drawn to share yoga and breathwork with children and their parents in hospital settings - work that finally felt meaningful. And yet, beneath it all, there was a quiet ache in my heart, as if something essential was still missing.
Everything shifted during a wedding in India, a celebration infused with beauty, devotion, and magic. Part of the festivities included an afternoon volunteering at a nearby orphanage. In that moment, surrounded by so much love and resilience, my heart simply knew: this was what I had been seeking. My spirit said “yes.”
Within weeks, I made a bold choice: I resigned from my job, packed my bags, and bought a one-way ticket to India—answering an inner call I could no longer ignore.
Chapter 3: Pilgrimage, Healing, and Rebirth
In 2009, guided by a hunger for deeper transformation, I completed an advanced 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training on the holy banks of the Ganges River in Rishikesh, India. That experience ignited a quest for healing that would become the true heart of my work.
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Trusting my intuition and a calling to serve, I continued my journey, collaborating with orphanages and indigenous artisans across India, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, and Guatemala. Along the way, I immersed myself in traditional teachings with master healers, shamans, and spiritual elders, gathering a tapestry of practices and wisdom from around the world.
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One of my most cherished chapters unfolded on a remote island in Thailand, where I lived for a year in a humble bungalow without water or electricity. Life became wonderfully simple. I taught yoga every day, barefoot and present, savoring the richness of each moment. It was here I discovered profound happiness and healing, rooted not in material wealth, but in culture, simplicity, devotion, and service.
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Trading the pursuit of “more” for connection, meaning, and presence turned out to be the very best investment I could have made in my own joy. Gradually, life’s deep wounds softened. I found true purpose, discovered happiness in the smallest places, and began to see love everywhere.
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After more than a decade of teaching, traveling, and holding space for others, I reached another threshold, a Great Big Unknown that felt more daunting than any journey before. These moments of uncertainty and unknowing now form the core of my work: creating sacred, supportive spaces for women navigating their own seasons of change, inviting them to trust, soften, and listen for the wisdom within.
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Chapter 4: Loss, Surrender, and Devotion
2021 was a year of deep uncertainty, upheaval, and collective grief for so many of us. For me, it was also the year I experienced the unimaginable - the sudden, tragic loss of my beloved father, right before my eyes. I thought I understood pain, but as my therapist gently reflected, this was “trauma with a capital T.”
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Tragedy is humbling in ways we can never anticipate. Grief isn’t linear, nor is healing ever guaranteed. It is a messy, mysterious path, a sacred lesson in learning to keep our hearts open, to live a life devoted to love in the midst of loss.
This is it. Life is fragile, and our time here impossibly brief. When you’re brought to your knees by loss, when mortality becomes unavoidably real, where do you turn for solace and steadiness?
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For me, refuge has always been found in the ancient practices of yoga, mantra, and meditation. These are the threads that have kept me connected to wholeness, even if only for a moment. When panic and confusion rise, when I feel unmoored by grief, grounding in my body and breath brings me back to myself.
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These sacred practices return me again and again to Atman - my true, unchanging nature. My heart is forever grateful for these rivers of wisdom, and I am deeply honored to carry and share them with you.
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Thank you, Life, for all you have placed before me.
Thank you, Yoga, my companion through it all.
And thank you, kindred spirit, for witnessing my story.
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With love,
Prema Posner
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Global Training Credentials
2008
200 HR Yoga Teacher Training with Kelly Wood, Karuna Yoga, LA.
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Kids Yoga Teacher Training with Kelly Wood, Karuna Yoga, LA.
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2013
Munay Ki Rites
Training with shamans of
Munay-Ki.org
in Pisac, Peru.
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2009
300 HR Advanced Yoga Teacher Training at Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, India.
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Reiki Level 1, India.
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โReiki Level 2 & Reiki Master, Thailand.
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2014
300 HR Yoga of Energetics Advanced Yoga Teacher Training with Cat Kabira in Ubud, Bali.
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โCraniosacral Therapy Level 1 & 2 with Cat Kabira in Ubud, Bali.
2010
200 HR SmartFLOW Teacher Training with Annie Carpenter, Exhale Yoga, LA.
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โ85 HR Prenatal and Postnatal 'Mommy & Me' Teacher Training with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Golden Bridge Yoga, LA.
2015
Mysticism Training (Moon & Sun Course) at Las Piramides del Ka on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.โ
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2011-2012
Yoga of Service & Community, year-long residency with Baba Hari Dass at Mount Madonna in Santa Cruz, CA. I was given the name “Prema” by Baba Hari Dass
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2016
Yoga of Sound and Chocolate training at Sounds of Light School on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
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Why I Serve (and Who I Serve Now)
โThrough each chapter, I’ve discovered that what most women ache for is simply this:
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To belong—exactly as they are
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To feel safe in their own bodies and stories
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To be guided home, gently, to the love inside themโ
These are the gifts I now share:
A space to show up messy or radiant, grieving or grateful, weary or bursting with hope.
A path that honors every lesson and blessing in your own epic journey.
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About Prema
Prema Posner is a devoted yoga and meditation teacher with over 1,500 hours of advanced training and more than 15 years guiding students around the world. Her journey began on the banks of the Ganges in India, where a pilgrimage catalyzed not just her love for yoga, but her calling to support others in healing from the heart outward.
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From India, Bali, Thailand, Peru, and Guatemala to every screen and sacred circle she enters, Prema has gathered a tapestry of wisdom - studying with master teachers, healers, and shamans, and weaving their teachings into every offering.
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Today, Prema leads as a Mentor and Teacher for the Chopra 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, and serves diverse communities through Om Practice - teaching for the Veterans Association, AARP, and more. Her classes are known for blending classical tradition with gentle, intuitive accessibility, always centered in presence, compassion, and self-acceptance.
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Prema’s teaching isn’t just about yoga, it’s about building a life. She welcomes each student as they are, using trauma-informed mindfulness, meditation, ritual, and deep listening to support transformation at every stage of life. Her style is warm, nurturing, and deeply rooted in the belief that self-love and inner wisdom are the foundation of any true change.
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As an intuitive artist and certified tarot guide, Prema weaves other sacred tools into her practice—offering her students multiple pathways for self-discovery and healing.
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Above all, Prema is passionate about holding space for women (especially in midlife and beyond) to soften, return to their bodies, and trust anew in their innate worth and capacity for joy. She is deeply honored to walk beside all who are ready to come home to themselves.
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Student Testimonials
"I've been practicing Yoga for about 30 years. Unlike my earlier teacher, Prema is young and vital, but like her she is gentle, accomplished, spiritual and wise.
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Her classes are challenging and complex, bringing one on a journey both physical and spiritual. Her instruction is very clear and logical, while never losing the higher aspect of the process.
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She is a truly inspired teacher and embodiment of why I study Yoga."
~ Sheri Weiner, Student
"Prema Posner was a very thoughtful and down to earth teacher. As a newcomer to yoga, she was able to explain the postures in ways that I was able to digest. After several weeks with her, I saw a lot of improvement and increased confidence in my yoga practice. I continue to do yoga every day, and I'm grateful that Prema was there to give me the knowledge and confidence to begin my yoga journey."
- Kyle Crum, Student at the Sanctuary in Koh Phangan, Thailand
“Thank you for the immersion into tapas - for putting fire into our bodies and souls, for inspiring our dreams and our passions. Inspirational as always.”
โJoanne Harrison, Online Student