Brandon Eggleston is a faculty member at the University of Southern Indiana, USA, who researches yoga practice. He's coming to New Zealand in December to conduct interviews with yoga practitioners to find out why they practice yoga. The research will be done in partnership with a colleague of his who is currently working on her PhD at the University of Auckland. The interviews, which will take between 15 and 20 minutes and can be done by phone, will be conducted between December 26th … [Read more...]
Confessions of a shiny new yoga teacher
by Seka Ojdrovic-Phillips, I never planned on this happening but, in the immortal lyrics of John Lennon: Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Now I find myself standing in front of a class full of eager yogis and yoginis, all eying me in expectation. Though I’ve memorised my teaching sequence, filled my water bottle and set my (meticulously planned) iPod soundtrack, I feel under-prepared and, well, kind of terrified. No where in my brain does it register that most … [Read more...]
How a Non-certified Yoga Teacher With No Guru Ended Up Teaching (And Should She Be?)
by Kara-Leah, This is a question I have contemplated many times since teaching was first thrust upon me. And it's also one this website has explored extensively in recent weeks. After reading all of the responses from other teachers, I began to wonder... how on earth can I call myself a yoga teacher? I have no qualifications. I've never attended a teacher training of any real length. I've never studied under a guru, nor a teacher for any length of time. I'm a long way from mastering … [Read more...]
An interview with Donna Farhi
I first discovered Donna Farhi in my local library in Queenstown. Her book Yoga Mind, Body and Spirit: A Return to Wholeness was liberating, informative and challenging. She taught not asana by asana, this body part in that body place, but through universal principles that underlay every asana. It was a watershed moment in my Yoga journey as my home practice had begun to diverge from anything resembling a standard hatha class. With Donna's book within easy reach, I felt able to honour the … [Read more...]
How do I go about becoming a yoga teacher? Part IV
This is the fourth article in a series which has examined what it takes to become a yoga teacher. And who wouldn't want to be a yoga teacher? You get to do yoga all day long, swanning around the world attending workshops and teacher trainings is part of your job, and you're blissed out all the time. Plus you've got hordes of adoring students hanging on your every word. What a great career yoga teaching must be! Sign me up now! But it's not quite like that... and as Mike Berghan … [Read more...]
How do I go about becoming a yoga teacher? Part III
I'm still getting a fantastic response from yoga teachers on what it takes to be a yoga teacher. This week we have an in-depth exploration from Satyanada representative Swami Karma Karuna. Satyananda teachers are amongst the most immersed in the world of yoga. Their training is both deep and wide, taking many years to complete, but perhaps most important of all, Satyananda teachers all have a relationship with a guru, creating a direct line to true knowledge. … [Read more...]
An interview with Swami Muktimurti about the power of sound to transform
There is a rich Satyananda Yoga tradition in New Zealand, which means we are fortunate to often play host to traveling Satyananda Swamis from around the world. Next month (March 2010), Anahata Retreat just outside of Nelson is hosting Swami Muktimurti from Mangrove Mountain near Mountain. An expert in Mantra and ancient Sanskrit, she is hosting a nine day/ten night retreat focused on Nada Yoga, or the yoga of sound. Swami Muktimurti is well known for her singing. She has pursued a deep … [Read more...]
Broken Warriors – reaching out to prisoners with yoga
by guest author Adhyatma, Yoga Education in Prisons Trust I first came across the idea of teaching Yoga to prison inmates when I was staying in an ashram in the northern parts of Bihar, India. I had traveled there without much prior knowledge of why I was really going there, what I was in for, or how it had even happened so easily, and so quickly in my life. But it had! I had been attending some Yoga classes in Mt Eden, Auckland for a couple of years with a Satyananda yoga teacher before I … [Read more...]
How yogis can have a critical impact on the world
By Kara-Leah Grant, author Forty Days of Yoga Global Mala is happening this Sunday, September 20th, in Wellington - but it's also happening right across the globe this weekend. Started by Shiva Rea, this is part of the yoga community's contribution towards creating world peace. Ultimately peace is something we cultivate within, and then we witness it's material manifestation without. It is not something we can "fight for", nor something we can impose or control. It is only by being … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Teaching Yoga
by Guest Author Swami Nishchalananda, who established Mandala Yoga Ashram in 1986. As students and practitioners of Yoga we are all well aware of the benefits Yoga can have on all levels of our being. Teaching Yoga can be a way of passing on to others what we have received. Teaching Yoga gives us an opportunity to serve others, enabling us to really be of help to others in improving the quality of their lives. Remember that service (Sanskrit, seva) is an essential aspect of Yoga … [Read more...]