By Karla Brodie, reposted with permission from yogateachertraining.nz A great passion of mine is the evocative use of language to inform Yoga movement and rest practices. A teacher’s use of words has the power to evoke embodied experiences that can be transformational for students. My early years of yoga practice were visually orientated: Yoga practice was about what my alignment looked like and about rearranging muscles and bones to (con)form shapes (asana). Most yoga books described … [Read more...]
Can Yoga Teacher Scandals and Transgressions be an Opportunity for Growth?
by Kara-Leah Grant The guru model is dead in modern Western Yoga. And the list of scandals involving gurus, or teachers, or swamis just seems to be growing longer. Where the hell are all the enlightened and perfect teachers? They don't exist. Our teachers - known and unknown, big and small, experienced and fresh, revered and loved, skilled and talented, wise and powerful - they are also human. Which means that our teachers, like us, have unconscious shit that can get in the way of their … [Read more...]
After Las Vegas: Yoga Won’t Save The World, But it Can Be a Shelter in Stormy Times
By Christina Sell, Live the Light of Yoga This article was originally published on Christina's blog Live the Light of Yoga and is reprinted here with Christina's permission. Last night I dreamt of Las Vegas. In my dream, among other common dream-time images was something new— toxic rain. Down from the sky rained a green, thick, and rotten goo that covered everyone and stifled their ability to breathe, to see, and to speak. As the rain continued, the situation became increasingly dire and I … [Read more...]
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Yoga
by Lucinda Staniland Most of us come to yoga with a whole lot of misconceptions about what yoga is. I was no different. Here are some of the mistakes that I made, and lessons that I learnt, as a new yoga student. 1. Asana does not equal yoga. When I started doing yoga I was awed by the strength and grace of the physical practice I saw my fellow students doing. I couldn't wait for the day when I too would move with such beauty. I fell in love with asana. But asana (physical postures) is not … [Read more...]
The True Meaning of Yoga and Why It’s Not About Asana
by Kara-Leah Grant Let's get technical, technical, I wanna get technical... Let me hear your ego rock... OK fellow yoga students. Here's the deal. The word 'Yoga' gets bandied about all over the place, but it's rarely defined. We assume that we all know what we're talking about, but often we're talking about different things. First up, physical postures are not Yoga. They are called 'asana'. When you go to what is commonly called 'a yoga class', you are likely attending an asana class. You … [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...]
Discard Your ‘Intentions’, just do Your Yoga and Pass the Ketchup
By David Cary I came to yoga in the early 2000s quite by accident. At the time I was struggling with ‘a big move’. Yoga was calming, and of course being in a room graced by a sprinkling of beautiful people did help. I finished one term, and, not knowing, moved to the next level class. Was that a mistake! Suddenly it was filled with lentil eaters, ujai breathers, spiritual people and other misfits from the fringes of society. And it was hard. That was the end. A year or so later, I found … [Read more...]
Is Yoga Really as Dangerous as Downhill Skiing? High ACC Levies Hit NZ Yoga Teachers
By Laura Brookes If ACC’s got it right, all New Zealand yoga teachers should be on immediate hazard alert. They currently face the same risk of injury in their workplace as downhill ski instructors. Yoga instructors are charged $1.37 for every $100 earned in ACC levies, a higher rate than prostitutes ($0.40), firefighters ($0.92) and professional netball players ($1.31). ACC groups yoga instruction into the classification unit for Sports and physical recreation instruction, meaning they … [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 Conundrum of the Inflexible Yoga Teacher
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat One Sunday recently I retired to the beach for 90 minutes to work my way through a set yoga sequence a friend had posted on their Facebook page. It was total luxury. My son was with his uncle, I had no-where to be and nothing to do, but soak up the sun, the salty breeze, and washing sound of the waves while immersing myself in a yoga sequence. I hated it. Oh, not the scene, or the setting, or the child-free time but the sequence. From the … [Read more...]