by Kelly Fisher, Urban Yoga After almost a decade of teaching yoga as my full time career, I have had the privilege of watching some of the students who have come to my classes eventually become teachers themselves. I have had the honour of fielding their questions and helping them through those uncertain first months and years of teaching. Plus, as a huge geek when it comes to neuropsychology, yoga anatomy, yoga physiology and yoga alignment, I often help new teachers from other lineages … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Chasing Pain and the Gifts of Living with an Auto-Immune Disease
by guest author Emma Fernbloom, former owner of The Dunedin Yoga Studio It wasn’t that long ago I was standing in front of a room full of people and assuring them that if they practice yoga regularly, not only would all of their health problems disappear but they would be successfully avoiding old age, loss of vitality and disease. I was glowing with my own certainty that I had found the keys to a healthy fulfilled life. I was strong, flexible and graceful. I was meditating every day and … [Read more...]
How I Learnt to Build Core Strength and Heal My Injuries with Yoga
By Jonathan FitzGordon, The CoreWalking Program Way back in 1998, following the last of three knee surgeries, and after a year and a half of physical therapy, I was finally back on my yoga mat, when a teacher asked me a life changing question. "What are you doing to avoid a fourth surgery?" "Nothing," was my sheepish response. Yoga had saved my life but it also broke my body. My childhood had been active though no one taught me how to do anything so I was particularly horrible at baseball, the … [Read more...]
How to Make your Kundalini Awakening a Positive Event
By guest author Tara Springett, Buddhist Therapist and Teacher My own Kundalini awakened at the age of twenty four during three courses of bioenergetic therapy, in which we held painful body postures while screaming our heart out. It was a rough approach and it achieved what it set out to achieve: it ruptured my repressive ‘body armour’ and allowed the life-force and Kundalini to flow more freely. Fifteen years later I tried to purposefully increase the amount of my Kundalini through methods … [Read more...]
All the Curvy Ladies do Practice Yoga
By guest author Anna Guest-Jelley, Curvy Yoga When I first started practicing yoga, I never, ever, ever saw another bigger-bodied person like me. Never. Most days, I thought I was the only one. But I secretly dreamed of finding others -- people who also longed for a yoga practice where no one said Lay your belly on your thighs Because, hello, if I move a centimeter, I'm already there. Wave your hands in the air Now, I know I'm mixing song references here, but I hope you'll forgive me. Because … [Read more...]
Your most valuable tool as a Yoga Teacher (it’s not what you think)
by guest author Louise Thompson, Positive Balance Do you know what your most valuable tool is as a yoga teacher? What sets you apart? What makes you unique and special? What keeps students coming back to class again and again? What makes your classes work? What makes your classes inspiring and challenging? Is it your awesome back bend ability? Your demonstration of a perfect pigeon pose? Your hard-out arm balance? Your unique sequence of poses and your hard earned teaching … [Read more...]
Getting on the man mat for Forty Days of Yoga
By guest author John Falepau, Yogi John My yoga journey has very much been a progression of listening, learning, watching, inquiring, listening more, learning more, experiencing and assimilating the effects from yoga into my life and being. A lot of what seemed daunting at first - asanas that felt uncomfortable, Kirtan (pronounced keer-tahn, with a slight rolling of the rrrrs), words that I couldn’t pronounce or remember - I am now mastering. I feel the expansion of my ribcage as I inhale … [Read more...]
Five things a yoga instructor should never say in class
by Vanessa Roberts I love me some yoga, and have loved it (albeit sometimes a little inconsistently) for a good solid ten years. While I always seem to learn something new – a new posture, technique or way to relax into my poses – I have also been privy to some cringe-inducing, nose-scrunching phrases muttered by an instructor (or five) of mine. Though most of them can be shrugged off with a simple “ew”, others have left me questioning my instructor's reasons and shaking my head in … [Read more...]
E=MC2 for Yogic Inspiration
by guest author KateMcLeay, Flow Yoga What has the most influential scientist of the 20th century got to do with yoga? Albert Einstein, the German physicist who revolutionized scientific thought, developed the Theory of Relativity and opened the gateway for the creation of the atomic bomb, remains prolifically quoted and what he says totally speaks to my yogic psyche. When I think of Albert Einstein I think of crazy hair, a towering intellect and wise words. Many of those wise words sound … [Read more...]
The meanings we give to work
By guest author Brook McCarthy, 30 Steps I was your typical baby hippie. I grew my armpit hair, ate lentils, chanted Hari Krisna, and choose my university subjects by how I perceive they’d help with the old “meaning of life” conundrum. My late teens and early 20s were spent meditating, chanting, teaching yoga and travelling. I became a tour leader because I didn’t like having to return home in between travels to make more money to travel again. For two years, I took small groups … [Read more...]