By guest author Adhyatama of Kalpa Taru, Wellington Some of you may know I have been teaching Yoga up at Rimutaka prison for the last year and Waikeria and Springhill for the four years before that. I drive up to Rimutaka every Tuesday and spend a couple of hours in a Unit with serious violent offenders teaching asana (postures), breathing techniques to calm and relax them and Yoga Nidra. All I can say is that I just love it, and I love them! That may sound weird but honestly what magic … [Read more...]
How to help kids stay longer in yoga poses
by guest author Gopala Amir Yaffe, Rainbow Kids Yoga The benefits of the Yoga Poses increase as you stay longer in them. But staying for a long time in the poses is not easy for kids simply because, for them, it is totally boring… unless you do some of the following: Counting You can count to 10 when you bake a Yoga Pizza (Seated Forward Bend with legs apart), when you go under a yoga tunnel with your imaginary car while in the Yoga Bridge Pose, count down to launching a Yoga Spaceship … [Read more...]
Mind the Gap and It Will Set You Free. Promise
by Gabrielle Harris When I was about nine, Dad bought a strange woman to our house. She was dressed in white and had an exotic name. Our sleep-out was turned into a shrine. Suddenly suburban life was looking up. The lady was handed some cash and I had to give her something of value to myself. I gave her my teddy. I didn’t want to give her my teddy as I was attached to it. It’s good to have attachments when you are nine; it gives you something to work on in later years. Little did I know … [Read more...]
How to help kids do yoga better
by guest author Gopala Amir Yaffe, Rainbow Kids Yoga When you teach yoga to anybody, remember this: Open your eyes, your ears, your mind and your heart, and really look. Look at who is standing in front of you and start from where they are. If you start from where they are, there are no limits to what you can achieve together. If you start from where you expected and planned for them to be, or from where someone told you they are, or from where the book says…man, you’re in trouble! … [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...]
How Yoda helped me not to worry
by columnist Gabrielle Harris Why worry There should be laughter after pain There should be sunshine after rain These things have always been the same So why worry now Why worry now Mark Knopfler Why worry? For about 20 years I suffered from low level anxiety to panic attacks that were bought on by being away from home. I since learnt the root cause of these but that is not what really saved me, YODA saved me. Stress, panic and anxiety are rife in our society. We worry … [Read more...]
Are you a real yogi if you’re not consciously consuming?
by Lucinda Staniland You've just finished your Thursday night yoga class. You’re feeling blissed out and relaxed after a good long savasanna, and now you’re heading homewards. On your way you stop in at the supermarket to grab a few crucial things. Wandering through the brightly lit aisles you have some decisions to make: do you buy the dishwashing liquid that contains surfactants, stability and dispensing aids, fragrances and colors, mildness additives, preservatives and antibacterial agents, … [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...]
10 reasons why I’m excited to choose corporate work over teaching yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Oh yes loyal Lunchboxers, after weighing up what I need in my life right now, I've decided to forgo trying to earn a living wage as a yoga teacher and website publisher, and instead head back into the workplace. I've been sprucing up my CV, writing cover letters, and getting in touch with recruitment agencies. It feels GREAT! Normally the story we hear is about people getting disillusioned with working for a living, with being in the corporate … [Read more...]
Taking yoga off the mat
by guest author Lucinda Staniland A friend asked me the other day: “How did you get involved in all of this?” "All of this” being an all-encompassing voluntary role with the youth climate action movement, plus involvement with other social and environmental justice groups including - but not limited to - Gecko and 350 Aotearoa. I told her, feeling like a complete cliché, that I'd done this yoga-based course called Embodying Your Purpose. It's part of an initiative called Off The Mat, Into The … [Read more...]