Invercargill Yoga Teacher: Linda Ryder of the Yoga Centre

Invercargill Yoga Teacher Linda Ryder from the Yoga Centre

I am so excited to introduce our first South Island yogi on The Yoga Lunchbox. I had the pleasure of meeting Linda, and her fellow Invercargill yogi Hilary at a workshop I did in Queenstown recently.

Linda and Hilary were both working at the YMCA about ten years ago when, as Linda tells it, ‘Hilary had the brilliant idea of opening a yoga studio’.

So the Invercargill Yoga Centre was born.

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The women teach up to twelve classes a week between them, sometimes more when they have the SIT (Southern Institute of Technology) students, along with the High Schools.

Plus Hilary and Linda both run family businesses with their husbands, and have nine children between them. It’s a busy life down in the deep south!

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?

Hatha Yoga, I have explored the many teachings of the great Yogi’s and draw my own conclusions that feels authentic for me. I teach at the Yoga Centre in Invercargill, which along with a partner was set up in 1999.

2. How did you come to yoga?

Richard Hittleman‘s book and TV programme opened my eyes to this whole new world.

3. When did the yoga bug really get you?

When I began the Teacher Training with Yoga Aotearoa IYTA (NZ.) Inc , the depth of exploration seemed eternal. I knew I was hooked – I wanted to know more.

4. How has yoga transformed your life?

I have always known I was a spirit having a worldly experience and seemed to see things through different eyes.Yoga made sense of it all and I felt the transformation.

5. What is your home practice like?

Although I don’t get to practice Asana for hours everyday I do live Yoga everyday, I read and breathe yoga, meditate and reflect on what’s happening around me. After a busy day teaching, my body tells me what I need to do next.

6. When people ask you, “What is Yoga?”, what do you say?

Yoga is a way of living holistically,taking care of this body – the temple of the Soul.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?

Friends who join me leave smiling and any feedback is positive. If they come back I know they feel the lightness too.

8. What do you love most about teaching yoga?

The people who come into my life from all walks of life, like the air traffic controller who wants to be more flexible,the lady’s with problems dealing with menopause. As well as the beautiful young woman with ME, who has felt more alive after a Yoga Class.

This makes my heart sing and soul dance.

9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?

When we flow with prana, we flow with the river of life, riding the waves and not pounding through them.

10. What role do you see yoga playing in our world?

Yoga teaches us to embrace all aspects of ourselves, being truthful about our feelings, how we treat each other and the planet.

11. Anything else you’d like to say?

I am always overwhelmed at how quickly the inquiring mind embraces shift and change through Yoga. Its like an intelligence that already exists within us, is trying to get out if only we stopped to listen long enough.

12. And finally, how do people find you?

Come and join us sometime at the Yoga Centre, 181a Dee Street, Invercargill – we’d love to meet you!