Featured Member: Prema Shala
Featured member, Prema Shala, is a new practice room, healing arts studio, and mindful goods shop on Main Street in Littleton, offering yoga, meditation, community gatherings, and one-on-one healing sessions in a warm and intimate space. Founded by longtime teacher Christina Alexa, the studio takes its name from two Sanskrit words: Prema, meaning the purest, unconditional form of love, and Shala, meaning sacred house.
A Lifetime of Practice
Christina Alexa has lived inside the practice of yoga for most of her life. She first came to the mat as a child, learning from her grandmother on the living room floor, and became a serious practitioner as a teenager. She began teaching in 1998 and has spent the decades since building communities where people reclaim their footing and remember what they already know.
She is the founder and director of the Abhyasa Yoga Institute, a registered yoga school with the National Yoga Alliance, through which she has trained and mentored teachers for years. An E-RYT 500 and Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider, she has studied with respected teachers including Yogi Amrit Desai, Sri Dharma Mittra, and Rolf Gates. Beyond yoga, she is a Reiki Master and Teacher Trainer, an intuitive healer, and a Keeper of the Sweat Lodge, and she recently retired from a career as a director of finance to open a storefront on Main Street, a longtime dream.
A Space Born of Love
Prema Shala carries a deeply personal meaning. Christina opened the studio in dedication to her late son, Joseph, describing him as her greatest teacher and the healer of her heart. That foundation shapes the studio’s quiet undercurrent of resilience and its openness to people moving through their own difficult chapters, whether grief, loss, or the larger transitions of identity, career, and change.
As Christina explains, yoga offers real help through those seasons. Becoming present in a safe and shared space allows feelings to arise and move rather than stay stuck, calming the nervous system, restoring energy and clarity, and easing the sense of separation that so often comes with loss. Prema Shala is meant to be a place of respite, open even to a neighbor who simply wants to step in from a busy day, sit quietly, and read or meditate.
Classes, Healing, and Community
The studio offers a growing schedule of yoga classes for all levels, including Tapovan Flow and Yoga Nidra, and a gentle Morning Joe Yoga Flow that continues an online practice begun during the pandemic. The first class is free, with drop-ins and multi-class passes available. Weekly Satsang, Sanskrit for truth in community, invites people to gather in a circle for tea, breath, reflection, and honest sharing, with nothing to prepare and nothing to perform.
In the healing room, Christina offers Shakti Point Balancing, an intuitive subtle-body session that brings awareness and alignment to the body’s energy centers. She also leads Mantra Medicine, a sacred chanting practice, and holds monthly Sacred Living Sweat Lodges and fire ceremonies rooted in Indigenous tradition. The retail space rounds out the experience with a thoughtfully curated collection of malas, crystals, candles, books, journals, singing bowls, Jade yoga supplies, locally made goods, and authentic Indigenous artwork, each item chosen with intention.
Teacher Training and Retreats
For those called to go deeper, Christina will lead a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training through the Abhyasa Yoga Institute at Prema Shala, beginning in January 2027. The ten-month program pairs one in-person weekend each month with online study and offers optional Reiki certification. She is also co-founder, with artist Kate Lemay, of Enjoy the Journey Retreats, a national wellness program working toward forty-nine retreats in forty-nine states by 2030.
Come As You Are
Prema Shala is a sanctuary for seekers and a home for practice, welcoming anyone drawn in by the warmth in the window. Whether you arrive for a class, a healing session, a quiet moment, or a browse through the shop, there is room for you exactly as you are.
Prema Shala is located at 111 Main Street in Littleton. Visit premashala.studio to explore classes, healing arts, teacher training, and more, or call 603-707-1612.
