by Kara-Leah Grant Prior to this video interview, all I knew about Chaitanya Deva was that he and his wife Bex owned Studio Evolve in Nelson, and that they ran Evolve Festival. And that they were preparing to launch their first teacher trainings this April. Then Chai sent me an email giving some background information for this interview. Not only had he spent time with B. Prior, a 'world teacher utterly devoted to awakening', done the India thing, had his time as a punk rocker and a … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Ashtanga yoga
The Best Up-and-Coming Yoga Teachers • New Zealand & Australia
by Kara-Leah Grant & Lucinda Staniland Phew! What a job! We had 243 nominations for 93 teachers for New Zealand & Australia's Best Up-and-Coming Yoga Teachers. Based on the written testimonials from students, and some research of our own, we whittled the 93 down to 22 teachers. Those last 22 teachers we asked three questions: What does teaching yoga mean to you? How do you live your yoga? What's your home yoga practice like? These are the results, in alphabetical … [Read more...]
Shiva Rea on the Evolution of Prana Vinyasa Yoga {video interview}
by Kara-Leah Grant She's sometimes referred to as "the Madonna of Yoga" - at least, that's what Vanity Fair called Shiva Rea when she did a desert photo shoot for them in 2007. But magazines love catchy monikers and as someone who grew up idolising Madonna and has studied with Shiva... the two women are nothing alike. "I'm not sure what exactly what they were referring to, whether it was my boldness, but I'm not into being a yoga celebrity at all. At all! Humility for me is a really important … [Read more...]
Golden Flow Yoga 200HR Teacher Training Launching in October, 2016
by Kara-Leah Grant It's one of the most luscious areas of New Zealand, and now you have even more reason to go and spend some time unwinding and tuning in to the beautiful vibrations. Golden Flow Yoga is launching the first yoga teacher training course available in Golden Bay, near Nelson at the top of the South Island. Facilitated by Aeven Kelly, the 200HR Yoga Alliance certified course starts in October 2016. I had a chat to Aeven over email to find out more about this teacher training … [Read more...]
The Truth on Drinking Coffee and Teaching or Practicing Yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant Since stopping regular coffee drinking back in 2013, I have become fastidious about never drinking coffee before practicing or teaching yoga. Since I practice every day, and teach often, there are very rare windows when caffeine is an option for me. At a recent summer festival, I realised how deeply this belief I have about the importance of not having caffeine in the system when practicing and teaching was ingrained. A couple of hours before I was teaching a class, I … [Read more...]
My Private Yoga Session with Vincent Bolletta
by Kara-Leah Grant Ever since I interviewed Vincent Bolletta last year I've wanted to do a private yoga session with him. I knew from that interview that this was a man who knew his yoga inside out, on the energetic and physical level. Over the last few years, I've worked with a couple of teachers, both teaching in the Ashtanga lineage, Peter Sanson and Paul Scrivener. The problem is, I'm not an Ashtangi yogi and while I deeply respect the intelligence of the Ashtanga sequence, it's not … [Read more...]
Further Yoga Lessons in Bone Compression and Anatomical Limitations
by Kara-Leah Grant This week in my Ashtanga practice I've been exploring and playing with two joints in particular - my ankle joints and wrist joints. Thanks to a Yin Yoga workshop, I've identified that I have a limited range of movement in both of these joints - less than the normal range. The only posture that my limited ankle mobility appears to impact in the Primary Series (I'm up to Bhujapidasana (Shoulder-Pressing Pose)) is Utkatasana (Chair Pose). Prior to the realisation about my … [Read more...]
I’m Afraid my Students are Going to Get Bored with my Yoga Sequences
by Kara-Leah Grant This came up in conversation this week - a new teacher expressing a fear that her yoga sequences weren't interesting enough and that she was going to be boring her students. She wanted to know how to make her sequences more interesting. However, there is a fallacy of logic here. The teacher has a fear arising - that of boring her students. Her approach to working with that fear is to ensure that the external circumstance triggering the fear is removed - bored … [Read more...]
The Real Stories Behind The Top 4 Yoga Myths
By Lucinda Staniland The internet is full to bursting with articles debunking the ‘Top Yoga Myths’. They tell us that contrary to poplar belief, Yoga is not a religion, that it’s not just for skinny, rich, flexible young women, and that it really is good exercise, as well as a holistic spiritual experience. Opinion is divided in these articles as to whether yoga really does or doesn’t give you great abs and fantastic orgasms. But, in general all these articles paint the same picture. Don’t … [Read more...]
How Yoga Helped Me Emerge From the Darkness of Depression
By Astrid Vause I have been practicing yoga for a while now, in fact I am a yoga teacher, but it wasn't until I got sick that I fell deeply in love with this beautiful practice and it's healing powers. It was a warm sunny and vibrant day in my new home in Los Angeles and my children were building towers with wooden blocks and laughing as they toppled over. I sat on the floor with my knees tucked up to my chest and watched the crashing blocks, wincing as they hit the ground. I felt like … [Read more...]