What to look for in a yoga teacher, By Cara Butler In this final instalment of conversations with my teacher, Carlos Pomeda, I asked what advice he would give someone seeking a ‘Teacher’ or ‘Guru’ in these modern yoga times. Witnessing so many schools and lineages of yoga facing serious allegations and having terrible abuse exposed, I believe that discernment of your teacher is something to take very seriously! With SO many yoga trainings on offer, with huge variance in … [Read more...]
The Ethics of Teaching Newly Learned Material in Your Yoga Class
by Kara-Leah Grant Once, I taught a weekend workshop to an eager group of students, including the studio owner and some teachers from the studio. My style of yoga and teaching was fairly different to the usual style on offer at this particular studio. My offering was lapped up and everyone enjoyed the workshop, excited to have a new way to approach yoga. So far so good right? This is exactly the kind of response one wants from teaching a workshop. A day or two after the weekend, one of the … [Read more...]
On the Dilution of the Genuine Transmission of Yoga Part 2
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I've been contemplating the many reactions I received to this article over the past week or so, On the Dilution of the Transmission of Yoga. One person unsubscribed from the website (or at least - one person told me they had because of this article, more people may have!) saying that I had made some good points but she found the article judgemental and unyogic. Other people rejoiced that someone was speaking such things out loud. It does feel … [Read more...]
How To Overcome Your Fears During Yoga Teacher Training
by Kelly Fisher, Urban Yoga Kelly works as a mentor for students wanting to move toward teacher training, currently training as teachers, or fresh out of training. In these articles, she shares some of the questions she's asked. You can ask her your questions by sending her an email. Question: I am in teacher training and I feel as if my teachers aren't giving the structure or guidance I was expecting to find my "voice". They kind of just throw us in it and then critique us … [Read more...]
How yoga helped me….find my beautiful truth
Submitted by Tracy Pepper of Mount Maunganui My yoga teacher training programme required that I spend 25 days on an ashram practicing, and this had a profound effect on me. We happened to start these 25 days with hip opening. As we went through the various types of postures - which are grouped into these emotional releasing areas, it brought up a lot of "stuff". Stuff I thought I dealt with through years and years of therapy. Stuff I didn't want to deal with again. Stuff that made me … [Read more...]
Thinking of Quitting Your Job to Teach Yoga? 10 Questions to Ask First
by guest author Louise Thompson, Positive Balance Are you working in corporate but dreaming of jacking it all in to be a yoga teacher? Do you fantasize of days wafting about from class to class, no rush, and no hurry? It seems like nirvana as you struggle to focus on yet another board presentation. But, (as you can see from Kara-Leah’s excitement over her new job), is it? Is teaching yoga all leisurely days and packed classes and a blissed out existence? Having escaped corporate life … [Read more...]
Dumped by my Guru
by columnist Gabrielle Harris, The Suburban Yogini My freefall descent happened 6 months ago. It wasn’t gentle zen-like parachute descent, but the type of ungraceful fall where not only was I kicking and screaming, but all the office workers in the building I was sailing by were laughing and poking faces at me. My lesson on non-attachment had publicly arrived. It happened on my level 3 teacher training. I had travelled to Australia to be with the teacher I was attached to. He made me … [Read more...]
How to get the most out of any yoga teacher training – ask questions!
by Elissa Jordan Adventures in Teaching Revised 2021 by editor Veronica King I’ve had the same conversation a countless number of times since I started training to be a yoga teacher - a conversation about continuity in access to a skilled senior teacher. Traditionally yoga was taught over many years from a guru to a student. This student would often live in their guru’s home and what was given to them for a practice was never once questioned. Times have changed and in this busy world people … [Read more...]
Forrest for the trees – no bullshit, just yoga
by guest author Seka Ojdrovic-Phillips The planted seed of a fruitful vine is a memorable moment. For me, it was hungrily reading through old issues of Yoga Journal on the second floor of the Wellington library. After starting to feel yoga as a lifestyle decision, not just an exercise regime, I wanted to learn everything I could. My body still bore the inflexibility and weakness of someone brand new to the practice, but my soul had expanded immediately. In the haze of too much … [Read more...]
How to find the purpose in your teaching
by regular columnist Elissa Jordan, Adventures in Teaching Once upon a time there was a young yoga teacher who spent her days cleaning the windowsill in her acharya’s home, up on a ladder, terrified of heights, scrubbing away. The other students of this one acharya were packed off to teaching assignments, but our young yoga teacher was made to wait. As days became weeks and weeks became months, our young yoga teacher waited patiently, perched upon her ladder, for her big day to … [Read more...]