Jase Te Patu, winner of the 2018 Mind Body award, with Persephone Singfield by Persephone Singfield, Courage My Love Hey New Zealand – it's time to nominate your favourite yoga teacher for ExerciseNZ's Mind Body Award! True Dedication You may not realise it but hundreds of hours go into making an amazing yoga teacher. It takes true dedication and your teacher will have studied and practiced to get to a point where he or she can hold the space for your transformation within … [Read more...]
Finding Hope in Chronic Pain: Why I’m Rethinking Biomechanics & Alignment
Image by Justin Martin from Pixabay by Lucinda Staniland I used to think that alignment and biomechanics were the answer to the riddle that is chronic pain. If only I could work hard enough to correct my hyperlordosis, strengthen my weak glutes, and reverse my scoliosis then my pain would ease - right? At least, that’s what I was told. Now, I’m not so sure. In fact, I’ve found that I’ve been able to reduce my chronic pain significantly without changing my biomechanics or alignment at … [Read more...]
The Powerful Benefits of Yoga for Teenagers
by Charlotta Martinus, TeenYoga “All of my friends smoke a spliff every day and/or take medication, either to help them sleep, or to combat anxiety or depression or for ADHD. Those drugs get shared around and sold, especially during exams.”Niall, age 17 In an uncertain world, young people are turning to coping strategies that are available to them. The medications that are designed to support those with anxiety and depression are not licensed for use among those under 18 years old and even … [Read more...]
Top 10 Best Yoga Articles of 2018
LoveLake Festival – rocking the best hugs ever. Demonstrated here by Jase Te Patu and Luke Tomlinson. Photo by Cameron Sims of Plant Culture. by Lucinda Staniland, In the last days of my 2018 work year, I couldn't shake a nagging feeling that I'd forgotten to do something important... After much racking of my brain and searching of my to-do lists, I decided that I'd just have to leave it and moved on to packing my bags and preparing for a family holiday. And finally, just when I … [Read more...]
Yoga Therapy in New Zealand: A Panel Discussion
Photo Credit: Bhavani Davies, Sanctuary Hill One of the many conversations we explored at the inaugural Hauora Yoga Conference was about yoga therapy in New Zealand. This conversation took the form of a panel discussion with with a range of esteemed local and international yoga experts: Donna Farhi, Katie Lane, Jac Wilson, Leanne Davis and Felicity Molloy, and hosted by the wonderful J. Brown. In addition to being an outstanding MC, J. also recorded the entire discussion and … [Read more...]
A Review of the Hauora Yoga Conference 2018
by Lucinda Staniland, On a rainy Saturday morning in Auckland, I found myself in a packed auditorium, with around 85 yoga teachers and students, and several hundred fitness professionals, listening to renowned international yoga teacher Donna Farhi give a keynote presentation on interoception and kinesthesia. As Donna lead us through ten slow diaphragmatic breaths, the whole audience dropped into deep, yet focused, stillness. There were so many magical moments like this at the Hauora Yoga … [Read more...]
Scott Lyons on What it Really Means to be in Flow
by Lucinda Staniland, Flow. We've all heard about the concept of a 'flow state' - but what is it really? What does it feel like in an embodied sense? And what stops us from experiencing it? Dr. Scott Lyons has an intimate relationship with flow. He's a Clinical Psychologist, a Mind-Body Medicine practitioner, the co-founder of Embodied Flow™ yoga with Tara Judelle, and a voracious learner who has explored many healing modalities. (Seriously, check out his bio - it's off the hook). He … [Read more...]
Hamish Kenworthy on Why He Doesn’t Regret a Single Moment of Opening Up
by Lucinda Staniland, The first time Hamish Kenworthy came onto my radar was in 2016 when The Yoga Lunchbox conducted a search for The Best Up and Coming Yoga Teachers in Australia and New Zealand. We were flooded with hundreds of recommendations from yoga students, but some of the most touching, enthusiastic and sincere testimonials were for one Hamish Kenworthy of Apollo Power Yoga in Christchurch. Hamish's students all described his extraordinary energy, his jokes and sense of humour, his … [Read more...]
Being an Awakened Heart Warrior: An Interview with Kara-Leah
by Lucinda Staniland, Last week, Kara-Leah sat down with Erika Bélanger of the On and Off Your Mat podcast to dive deep into conversations about yoga, leading retreats and what it really means to be an Awakened Heart Warrior. Over the years, Kara-Leah has spent hundreds of hours interviewing interesting yogis, but this is the first time I've heard her being interviewed herself! Tune in to hear Kara-Leah answer the following questions: How does having a daily home practice has impacted … [Read more...]
Denise Payne on Why She Doesn’t Want Liberation in This Lifetime
by Lucinda Staniland, Denise Payne is a big-hearted yoga teacher with more than three decades of experience on the mat. Most recently, she spent the last eight years in Bali, where she taught at Ubud's favourite yoga studio, The Yoga Barn and also at Bali's most notorious prison, Kerobokan, where she started a yoga program with Myuran Sukumaran, one of the Bali Nine. In today's yoga landscape, Denise has what I consider to be an unusually deep grounding in Yoga, including twenty years spent … [Read more...]