By Veronica King, Teaching Yoga and navigating a labral hip tear. Monday night, advanced yoga class. Parsvakonasana, a warm-up pose early in class, and as I anchored my legs and rotated my body upwards, I felt a rip inside my groin. I nearly screamed, tears streaming down my face through the rest of the class, wondering if this was the last yoga class I might ever do, knowing something BAD had just happened. It turns out that labral hip tears are common amongst dancers, yogis, … [Read more...]
Interview with Carlos, Part 3
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...]
Taking your yoga classes online: the challenge and the reward
by Erica Viedma, Mindful Movement “What can we do when fear comes up for us or for our students during the practice?”. Geeta Iyengar replied, “When fear arises, you must lift your chest. You must lift your heart.”A Posture of Courage by Christina Sell The third week of our national lockdown and many yoga teachers around New Zealand, (and the world), have started teaching online. Some teachers are on Facebook Live or pre-recorded classes. I even attended a yoga class based in New York … [Read more...]
How Teaching Yoga on a Remote Island Helped Me Cope with Grief
by Julie Stansfield, Ebb and Flow Yoga As I travel along the road that connects the south with the north of the island to teach my weekly yoga class in Port Fitzroy, I reflect on how my life has changed since I first moved to Great Barrier Island thirteen years ago. I certainly wouldn’t have thought I’d be travelling fifty minutes to share my love of yoga with a group of enthusiastic women. Driving on a winding, gravel road which takes me from my home on the western side of the island, I … [Read more...]
The Humbling Experience of Ditching Music While Teaching Yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant Facilitating retreat is always a powerful experience, not just for the retreatees, but also for myself and the other facilitators. I know that I'm going to get triggered, that my ideas and beliefs will be challenged, and my unconsciousness revealed. This is the process of retreat, and it is immensely rewarding. In the middle of the fire though, it's damned hard work. Case in point: The Heart of Joy, Bali. I’m co-facilitating with Ben Ralston. It's only the second retreat … [Read more...]
The Inside Story on Nadi Yoga’s 200Hr Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training
By Kara-Leah Grant When you're contemplating which Yoga Teacher Training is right for you, one of the best resources can be speaking to someone who has already done that training. Of course, it can be hard to track down former trainees, so we've done that hard work for you. We spoke to Helen Thomas, a Napier-based yoga teacher who did her teacher training with Nadi Yoga nearly two years ago. Helen had been practicing yoga for over ten years before finally making the decision to train as a … [Read more...]
Home Yoga Practice: What Counts if You Are a Yoga Teacher?
by Kara-Leah Grant A few months ago I wrote an article stating that if you teach yoga, you must have a daily self-practice. That article was widely shared, and read. And it triggered some strong reactions. There were comments, and emails where people shared with me the reasons why they couldn't practice yoga every day. Some of these teachers were only teaching one class a week, on top of working 50+ hour jobs, and they were often teaching disadvantaged groups. They felt like what they were … [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...]
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...]
How to Avoid Putting Someone off Yoga for Life in Your Yoga Class
by Kara-Leah Grant Yoga might be one of the faster growing pursuits in the West, but there's still plenty of people showing up to class, having one - or multiple - bad experiences and being put off for life. And unfortunately, that initial interaction with a studio and/or teacher can set the tone for the way someone will forevermore think about yoga and 'yoga people'. Yes, there can be difficult first-timers and it takes two people to co-create a situation. But in the yoga room, the onus … [Read more...]