Win a free place on Thirty Days of Yoga with Marianne Elliott

Marianne Elliot | Photo by Stefanie Renee

I love Marianne. She’s one of my favourite yogis. A writer, activist, and teacher extra-ordinaire, Marianne does some incredible things for other people – like raising $20,000 in just a few months for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

And that’s why I jumped at the chance to help her promote her most excellent Thirty Days of Yoga online course.

I remember sitting at Deluxe in Wellington one afternoon with fellow yoga teacher Kelly Fisher and marveling over the enormous amount of work Marianne was putting into this course. She was personally designing and recording individual practices for each of her participants and then sending these videos out, plus providing support throughout the month.

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Kelly and I just shook our heads in disbelief – recording individual practices for all the people who sign up for her course? Incredible.

But that’s Marianne. Incredible.

So here she is, giving you the lowdown on the next Thirty Days of Yoga Course. Plus see the end of the article for information on how you can win a free place on the course.

Do you struggle to get along to yoga classes regularly? Or do you enjoy your weekly yoga classes but yearn to establish a regular practice of yoga at home? Have you tried to get into a regular home yoga practice but failed over and over again? Maybe you’ve started to think that you’ll never be one of those people who can find the motivation to practice yoga by yourself?

You are not alone. 30 Days of Yoga was created for you.

Maybe you’ve heard all about the benefits of yoga, but you’re afraid to go along to a class because you are really inflexible, or uncoordinated, or just a little more lusciously proportioned than the svelte hipsters who seem to fill the classes in the trendy neighbourhood yoga studio?

You are not alone. 30 Days of Yoga was created for you.

Or maybe you just can’t get to a yoga class because you are live two hours drive from the nearest city. Maybe you have two pre-schoolers at home and getting out of the house to a yoga class is out of the question.

You are not alone. 30 Days of Yoga was created for you.

Do you ever think that you could do with a little bit more kindness in your life? Ever feel like the mean girls at high-school have hijacked your brain and are now tormenting you from the inside out? Have you ever berated yourself for not doing enough exercise, or not being a more ‘mindful’ mother, lover or friend?

You are not alone. 30 Days of Yoga was created for you.

Whether you’ve never practiced yoga before and want to get started, or have attended classes regularly for years, 30 Days of Yoga is an online program designed to support you to begin a regular practice of yoga in the comfort of your own home.

The course has been developed by Marianne Elliott, a yoga teacher based in Wellington who spent many years living in places like Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip where she couldn’t get along to yoga classes. Marianne has lovingly crafted this course to meet the needs of people who are not getting what they need from yoga classes (often because they simply can’t get along to class) or mass-produced DVDs.

The course includes:

• A yoga practice which Marianne will help you select based on your answers to a questionnaire about your current needs. The practice comes in various formats (including video, audio and a written version). You download the practice to play on your computer or iPod and can keep it once the course is finished;
• For beginners, your yoga practice will be broken down into four short sections so that in week one you’ll only be starting with a ten minute practice. By the end of the 30 days you’ll have a full practice that you can continue to practice alone.
• Live weekly group calls where Marianne will answer any questions you have about your yoga practice or about yoga generally.
• Regular posts/emails from Marianne throughout the 30 days addressing the main challenges people face in establishing a regular home yoga practice, with practical tips and gentle encouragement to help you overcome them.
• Access to a totally new members site including a discussion forum where you can meet and connect with other participants and encourage each other.
• Additional special practices each week which you can add to, or use as a replacement for your ‘regular’ yoga practice;
• The option of being allocated an online 30 days of yoga buddy for encouragement and accountability, Marianne has seen that this can really help people with their commitment to the practice;
• Use of a special Twitter hashtag for daily encouragement from Marianne and other participants and to share your progress.
• An e-book containing all the written materials from the course (different versions for Beginner and standard versions of the course).

Marianne’s approach is grounded in a radical form of self-kindness because she believes that we all respond better to kindness than criticism and because kindness works. It’s a powerful and transformative force.

Marianne says:

The approach works because I’m teaching what I know best. I’m the expert on struggling to get into a steady home practice of yoga because I’ve struggled myself. I’ve tried bribing myself into it, nagging myself into it, forcing myself into it. None of them worked. What works – for me and for hundreds of others – is the simple, transformative, compassionate approach that I set out in this course.

If you are a beginner then you’ll be pleased to know that the January course of 30 days of yoga is going to include a brand-new beginners version. You don’t need to have any experience of yoga at all, nor do you need fancy yoga pants. That’s the beauty of yoga at home, you can do it in your underwear if you like!

Marianne has been a friend of The Yoga Lunchbox since its very inception and as a sign of her support to this site and the community growing around it, she has offered to give one free place on the course (which usually costs US$100) to a Yoga Lunchbox reader.

To win that free place, just send a message telling why this course would be so good for you right now. Entries close December 16th, 2010.

The 30 days will begin on 4 January 2011 (the first new moon of the new year).

Read more here:

• Thirty Days of Yoga