By Cara Butler, An interview with Karla Brodie Karla is a teacher worth getting to know. Talking with Karla gives you the sense that she deeply considers her thoughts, her words, her decisions and actions. An example of how to really 'live' yoga in the everyday world. This capacity she demonstrates is undoubtedly born out of the deeply internal experience she has explored, and also taught, for over 20 years. I begin with the final question I asked, as I found her answer particularly … [Read more...]
The Teacher’s Contract
by Donna Farhi, Beyond Methods: Yoga as Self-Inquiry Relationships with yoga students can take many forms: from a clear cut and dried professional boundary between teacher and student that has never extended beyond the perimeters of time spent together in a class, intensive, retreat or teacher training; to the less distinct delineation that happens when a student also happens to be a personal friend; to that of a peer exchange that takes place at a collegial level in which there may be a … [Read more...]
A Review of Pathways To A Centered Body by Donna Farhi and Leila Stuart
by Neal Ghoshal, Sacred Moves In a nutshell: an exceptionally clear and extremely practical guide to core integration, stability and support I first came across Donna Farhi’s books back in 2004 and was immediately hooked by her accessible, relevant and inspiring writing and teachings. Since then Donna has become my primary Yoga teacher and I have regularly attended her workshops and teacher trainings, eventually moving on to assisting her on events and intensives. I met and studied with … [Read more...]
Donna Farhi on Why Success in Yoga is About Opening Our Hearts, Not Our Hips
By Donna Farhi First published in the March/April 1997 Yoga Journal USA, reprinted here by permission of Donna Farhi. It’s late afternoon and one of my long-time students has come to visit. After a few minutes of chitchat, Sarah relates how inadequate she felt at the Yoga workshop she attended over the weekend. Just about everyone could do the advanced postures except her, and she left feeling that her practice was inferior. I asked Sarah what her life was like when she began practicing Yoga … [Read more...]
9 Questions To Ask Before You Host a Travelling Yoga Teacher
by Kara-Leah Grant Hosting a travelling yoga teacher can be a successful and profitable venture for a yoga studio - if done right! It can use up "dead time" in the studio. It opens up an additional income stream. It can bring in students that don't usually come to the studio, some of whom may come back. It can increase the exposure and awareness of the host studio in the marketplace. It can educate and inspire the studio's student base. And it can be the beginning of an … [Read more...]
Donna Farhi on How to Release the Psoas & Resolve Back Pain
by Donna Farhi, co-author of Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain, and Moving with Ease. A recent collation of several back pain studies in America revealed that 8 out of every 10 Americans will have back problems at some point during their lifetimes, yet only one in ten people find out the primary cause of their pain. A further 54 percent of Americans who experience low back pain spend the majority of their workday sitting, a position that … [Read more...]
How to Maximize Your Potential as a Yoga Teacher
by Neal Ghoshal When I started teaching Yoga thirteen years ago I thought I'd be showing anybody who turned up to class a few Yoga postures and hopefully they'd enjoy themselves. Yet Yoga seems to have its own plans and it's own drive. Teaching Yoga has lead me on unexpected journeys and to unforeseen places. And it appears to be the same with many who come to Yoga - at first, we do not realise the power and the beauty of the practice to transform our lives. A few years down the line we … [Read more...]
Donna Farhi on Why Your Yoga Teacher is Not Your Friend
Editor's Note: Since this article was published, several accounts of sexual harassment and assault have been made public by Mark Whitwell's female students. We do not in any way condone Mark's behaviour. You can read more about the accounts here. Donna Farhi, author and yoga teacher, as interviewed by Kara-Leah Grant Donna Farhi is a world renowned yoga teacher who has been practicing yoga for thirty nine years, and teaching it since 1982. She lives here in New Zealand but teaches intensives … [Read more...]
The Definition of a Yoga Teacher: Nothing More than a Friend, Nothing Less than a Friend
Editor's Note: Since this article was published, several accounts of sexual harassment and assault have been made public by Mark Whitwell's female students. We do not in any way condone Mark's behaviour. You can read more about the accounts here. by Kara-Leah Grant I was fortunate enough to attend one of Mark Whitwell’s classes at Wanderlust Great Lake Taupo 2015. Mark is teacher of considerable standing who spent many years with Desikachar and studied directly with Krishnamacharya, the teacher … [Read more...]
The Eight Essentials of Restorative Yoga
by guest author Neal Ghoshal, Sacred Moves A few years ago I enrolled on my second Yoga Teacher Training course for a year at the Yoga Academy Auckland - I was on a mission to learn more about this practice and to equip myself with as much knowledge as I could. If I was going to teach Yoga, then I wanted to be good at it. About half way through the year, course tutor Jude Hynes gave us a new practice, brought out some Yoga bolsters from the cupboard and introduced us to the wonderful world of … [Read more...]