Manaprana: Making Enlightenment Playful
A wellness system to encourage you to take positive action in your life.
Most people think of yoga as stretching on a mat. But it's really a system to reach enlightenment. Patanjali wrote sutras that have been expanded over the years into the formal tradition of Yoga. They teach that anyone can achieve enlightenment through practice. Yet practice is difficult and hard, a lifelong mission.
I learned this after leaving a corporate job in gaming to pursue Yoga. My teacher training revealed much more to me than my first focus, health and flexibility. Through the system of yoga you gain a foundation in yourself (yamas) a way to act to others (niyamas), physical poses (asanas), breath control (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana). Each builds on the other, like branches of a tree (Ashtanga).
Meditation stands out as the ultimate tool. Traditions like Yoga and Buddhism agree: enlightenment is possible for everyone. I've experienced it personally—in retreats, in fleeting moments and for multiple hours. It's not a permanent switch but a state you can visit often through practice.
That's why we created Manaprana: a wellness system that plays like a tarot card game. It makes yoga's wisdom playful and sticky. Like tarot, it draws on universal truths. But instead of predicting the future, it combines 108 concepts—like "gratitude" or "breathwork"—to create personal practices.
The Idea Behind Manaprana
Yoga teaches you to feel practices rather than overthink them. The wise guru encourages acceptance and practice rather than written doctrine. Manaprana captures this with cards that stand alone or combine into "power pairs" or "weekly triplets." Drawing a combo sparks meaning relevant to your life now, in the present moment.
Testing the system on around 60 participants shows most people (around 8 in 10) find their draws personally resonant. We're all on similar paths to growth, but we learn best when lessons hit at the right time.
How It Works
As a game designer, I know people learn best through playful fun. This state often comes as a flow state — where challenge meets skill, and time fades away. Manaprana's workshops create that for each concept. You might journal on gratitude or breathe mindfully. Over time, discomfort gives way to enjoyment and insight. The practice itself can flow gracefully.
The deck is built from 108 cards. Each card is a concept and is related to other cards through powerful systems Yin/Yang, Chakras and Essence. The initial set are the 3 most powerful essences, but there is room to expand these over time. Drawing different combo's of cards support a year's worth of practice. It's especially useful for teens discovering identity or adults reassessing life. Cards are clear and beautiful, designed with artist Tommy Morrison. We will build an app if we get positive feedback that will help with workshops, journaling and community sharing.
Cultivating Concepts
While many concepts are taken directly from the teachings of yoga. Some are modern, accessible practices that have taken root in modern life. Spirituality can seem distant and inaccessible. We have day jobs, we need to pay bills and many find meditation difficult and boring. So the concepts are low stress, easy to perform and every workshop should take less than an hour. Yoga teaches that repetition and consistency have more impact than mastering complex techniques. Overtime it's hoped that many more workshops will exist, so revisiting old concepts feels fresh.
Each of the concepts is grouped within an essence. The first 3 essences are mind, body and soul. These create a balance within the deck. Concepts fit within essence’s but are also part of strong themes such as health or ethics. Themes make the different colours on the cards and drawing cards of the same colour combine well together.
The work is still on you to practice and make changes. This I term cultivation as much like a garden, you must continue to work to get the fruit at the end.
Finding the Fun
It's so easy as you grow up to become serious. We forget that life is simple and magical. Often spiritual teachings take on a serious tone, is enlightenment a serious business? The joy of life is simple. It's never the same as we're all changing. So playing the game of manaprana is just as light. We focussed on having three modes
A one pop! - (1 card) Daily focus.
A combo - (2 cards) Combining and Playing
A Weekly Practice - (3 cards) setting an intention and practicing your reading.
The 3 modes all fit around you! You can use every draw to stimulate your week, perhaps help you plan something a little different. We think those small steps will add up over time.
Who’s the Blog is for?
While the cards themselves contain powerful concepts. The blog is going to contain the stories of how I realised these concepts we're powerful. I have been blessed in life to meet interesting and knowledgable people. I am naturally good at being curious and making friends. I then have a good memory of a persons skills and talents and I quickly make links in my head. This helped me a lot as a consultant, but through my spiritual journey I also connected a lot of dots as I listened to teachings and scriptures.
So the blog really serves the purpose of:
Telling a story about a single concept.
Connecting real people to each concept.
Highlighting real life activities everyone can try or do!
A diary of the progress.
This will become clearer as our journey to build manaprana continues and I am going to commit to at least one blog post per week.
Why It Matters
We hope you also enjoy growing and learning about yourself. We found that lots of people find the "taking action" bit the hardest. Often we only really change through disaster or challenge. It's much more conducive if we encourage change when we becoming inquisitve.
Manaprana feeds this inquisitiveness. It distils yoga into actionable concepts with workshops to experience them. Each draw adapts to your current stage, pushing through aversion to deeper understanding. The system offers infinite variations as you evolve.
In the end, it's about integrating these practices daily—for peace, happiness, and helping others. Play with it, contribute your insights, and let it guide your growth.