by Lucinda Staniland I have a confession to make. Even though I practice yoga every day and work for a yoga website, I haven’t regularly attended yoga classes in years. My home yoga practice is consistent and serious, I'm constantly consulting my bookcase of yoga books, and I attend the occasional one-on-one session with a teacher. But yoga classes? That thing where you join a group of people to be led through asana and perhaps some pranayama and meditation? The answer used to be, … [Read more...]
Oh there's good yoga classes and there's bad yoga classes and there's everything in between. Here writers share their experiences of going to class - yes, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Getting Touchy Feely with Maty Ezraty in the Yoga Room
by Michelle Jayne, Yoga Facilitator, Therapist, Coach One of my favorite teachers, Seane Corn, credits Maty Ezraty as one of the single most important influences in her life. Maty encouraged Seane to become a teacher even when she didn’t want to. Maty is also well known as the force behind the popular YogaWorks brand, which she opened in 1987 with Chuck Miller in Santa Monica. In 1990 Maty created the world renowned YogaWorks Teacher Training Program and teachers like Kathryn Budig, Shiva Rea … [Read more...]
How YouTube Yoga Classes Turned Me into a Yogi – Almost!
by Annie Vitale I wouldn’t call myself a “yogi”. I’m not sure I’m at that point yet. I still struggle to touch my toes some days. I haven’t even set foot in a yoga studio. The thought of sweating profusely in a 90° room in front of other people does not appeal to me. And it embarrasses me to say that I have to psyche myself up to shop at Lululemon. The place just intimidates me...don’t ask me why. The cost alone of a typical yoga practice can soar to an ungodly amount. $90 a month … [Read more...]
How to Plan Your Perfect Wanderlust Experience
by Kara-Leah Grant Registration opened last week for the one-day Wanderlust events in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne in March 2014. I wanted to get in fast to make sure I didn't miss out on registering for the classes I wanted to attend. But it took me a week to get my head around the timetable and make my choices. There are so many great yoga teachers and classes on offer at Wanderlust, often running concurrently, plus while I might have wanted to do five 90-minute yoga classes back to … [Read more...]
My Worst Yoga Class Ever
By guest author Zahir Gilani I have been doing Hot Yoga for six years. I have been nomadic in my practice and have tried many different studios and instructors. Some classes have been great, and some instructors have been amazing. I have left classes feeling tranquil, and have even carried on the rest of my day in an ineffable euphoric state. But even if I do not achieve an inner peace while there, at the very least I’ll know I have got a good workout in and had a chance to … [Read more...]
Why Older Yoga Teachers are Often the Best Yoga Teachers
By Susan Grbic, Growing Younger So many younger people are taking to yoga these days as opposed to thirty years ago when I was cutting my teeth as a student and yoga was still considered way too esoteric for your average citizen. And what an assortment of choices on the yoga menu today! Back in the day you were either an Iyengar student (and this was truly cutting edge) or doing what my teacher somewhat disdainfully and condescendingly called 'fruit salad' yoga (or old lady’s yoga). Nowadays … [Read more...]
Mixed Studio Signals: The Journey from Yoga Classes to a Home Practice
By Jessica Powers There was this gem that I used to pass on my walk into work, written in chalk on the a-board out from a local yoga studio that always flustered and upset me: Healthy Yogi = Happy Yogi Um, excuse me, isn’t my yogic happiness supposed to stem from overcoming my identification with my body? Happiness regardless of whether I'm healthy or not? Aren’t I working to identify and then release my I-amness, my ahamkara? Haven't you people read your Patanajali? Right, okay. You … [Read more...]
What’s it like to attend Lightning in a Bottle Festival?
by guest author Jonnie Halstead, Picnic Events Lightning In A Bottle is not a festival... It's another freak’n planet! A fourth dimension where only the weird and wonderful flourish. This is not for the faint of heart. There’s the odd eye-opener mixed with a lot of near nudity. But the beauty is not just beheld by the lithe young bodies in the audience - the production and theming is without a doubt the best I’ve seen in a fifteen year career in events. So where else would the yogic … [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...]
What’s it really like to attend a Wanderlust Festival?
by guest author Jonnie Halstead, Picnic Events I am transformed. The yogi that writes to you know is different from the man who landed at LAX on the third of July. That was before I ventured on to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado for the Wanderlust festival, before I had explored new depths in my yoga practice and before I had benefited from some of the most prolific modern yoga teachers, inspiring mindful living leaders and notorieties of the conscious consumer movement. That was also … [Read more...]