by Kelly Fisher “Should I tell the students it is my first class teaching?” I get this question often and there are good reasons to tell them and good reasons not to tell them. My personal bias is for transparency and honesty. Being vulnerable and open enables people to do the same. As yoga teachers we're holding space for our students' personal inquiry and experience. While we can't know what goes on inside of our students' hearts and minds or control it, we can facilitate the kind of raw … [Read more...]
Search Results for: yoga business
Are there Ethical Issues to Consider Before Teaching Family Members?
by Kelly Fisher, Urban Yoga Kelly is our resident yoga teacher mentor, answering questions from readers about how to teach and what to do when issues come up. You can email Kelly your question here. The Yoga Teacher’s Question: "I've got my RYT 200 and have been teaching once a week for about a year. I've got a family member who could benefit from some yoga. She is not able to attend classes because of physical limitations resulting from surgery and ongoing health conditions so I think … [Read more...]
What do I do when a Student Complains about Wrist Pain and Wants to Leave Class?
by Kelly Fisher, Urban Yoga Kelly is our resident yoga teacher mentor, answering questions from readers about how to teach and what to do when issues come up. You can email Kelly your question here. The Yoga Teacher's Question: “There it was yesterday: my first and rather frustrating setback in my teaching experience. I have a student who suffers from a lot of wrist pain. She comes along to my 45 minute class that is short, sharp and energetic. Because I know she requires special … [Read more...]
The Terror of Single Parenthood
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Three years ago this New Year's Eve I took my year old baby boy and left my mentally unstable and addicted partner. I had zero dollars in my bank account, and an ambivalent attitude towards motherhood - something I had chosen under duress because of the pathetic belief it would make my partner happy. Stupidity to the nth degree. It did not make him happy. Instead, a child was brought into an already unstable and messed up relationship. And … [Read more...]
Be Radical: Jettison the More is Better Mindset
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Today, I sat down with a spreadsheet and whipped up a calendar for my month. I blocked out the hours when Samuel is in childcare and I wrote down all the weekly and monthly tasks I need to do to keep my business running. It was a sobering exercise. Even allowing for extra childcare hours by paying a family friend to hang out with Samuel two afternoons a week, I am trying to do more than I have hours available for. Even adding in evenings three times a … [Read more...]
How to Change the World No Matter Where You Are or What You Do
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat This month marked nine years since I returned from overseas, after having two psychotic episodes and ending up in Vancouver's Lion's Gate Hospital's Acute Psyche Ward. I was a mess. Eight years prior to that, I'd left New Zealand after completing a journalism certificate, heading overseas to seek fame and fortunate. I'd been runner up to Dux at high school, invited into two Honours subjects at University and voted Most Likely to be Prime Minister of … [Read more...]
The meanings we give to work
By guest author Brook McCarthy, 30 Steps I was your typical baby hippie. I grew my armpit hair, ate lentils, chanted Hari Krisna, and choose my university subjects by how I perceive they’d help with the old “meaning of life” conundrum. My late teens and early 20s were spent meditating, chanting, teaching yoga and travelling. I became a tour leader because I didn’t like having to return home in between travels to make more money to travel again. For two years, I took small groups … [Read more...]
How identifying with NOT being something also causes great misery
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It's 7am and I've been up for half an hour. Child-free time and totally blissful. Made even more so because since I returned from my book tour I've had no childcare at all. When my lovely Porse childcare woman told me she was stopping work to have a second child, I could feel part of me wanting to panic. "No, you can't! I need childcare. I'm a single mum with a start-up business who's just written a book! What am I going to do?" After all, I … [Read more...]
How avoiding feelings avoids the present moment and avoids life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat This morning, the wonderful woman who looks after Samuel four days a week while I work told me she's finishing up with PORSE (home-based early childhood education) on April 6. This is a big deal. I live in a small town with no kindergaten or other early childhood education facility. There is no other childcare available (right now). I'm also a single parent working from home and those childcare hours are my livelihood - not just for my business but … [Read more...]
Thoughts on living in an awakening world
An Interview with Prajnaparamita, an awakened Master Prajnaparamita is leading a retreat at Kawaipurapura on Feburary 16 and 17. Find out more here. 1. There seems to be a big shift in the way businesses are being run and in the way people are reconsidering their lives. What do you see happening? Globally, structures are breaking down on all levels. They can no longer hold themselves. The banks, politics and many corporations, the way they were used to operating is no longer … [Read more...]