A Yoga Teacher is Eternally a Student - Kino MacGregor (Video)

Here's a great little video from Kino MacGregor about how yoga teachers are eternally students (or should be). If you're a yoga teacher - remember to refill your inspiration cup regularly or you will burn out quickly.

On another note - her outfit is super cute.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Webinar Series with Alanna Kaivalya

Alanna Kaivalya has announced a potential Webinar Series to help you engage in and energize your practice and your teaching. Depending on the response to this first course, She'll be scheduling more over the next week... Myths of the Asanas (explained!) and Crash Course on Yoga Sutras. All of these courses qualify for Continuing Education Credits with Yoga Alliance and are suitable for both yoga practitioners and teachers.

At only $15 it would be silly not to sign up for the first class! Don't get caught up in the idea that sequencing is only for teachers. Understanding how to sequence a class will help you create a functional and playful home practice for yourself as well.

The Art of Intelligent Sequencing

Thursday, Feb. 21 from 2 - 4 pm EST

Total Cost only $15 

This 2 hour webinar will cover Intelligent Sequencing Techniques helping you to learn how to stay true to the original intentions of the vinyasa system while creating a framework that will allow you to create engaging, creative and safe classes for your students.

With the information in this webinar, you will learn:
 * Creative ways to sequence
 * How to plan for peak poses within a class
 * What pitfalls of sequencing to avoid
 * How to safely sequence a class for all levels of practitioners
 * Ways to teach your students even the most challenging poses
 * Clever techniques to keep your classes fresh and fun!

 During the webinar, you will be able to ask questions and interact with Alanna, just as you would in a live workshop. This webinar will count for 2 hours of Continuing Education Credit with Yoga Alliance.

Click Here to Register Now!

Learning to Live: Stephanie Snyder

From wonderful yoga teacher Stephanie Snyder comes this inspiring TEDx Talk about darkness, passion, yoga, and self-study.

From the video description:
"What you hide from the world owns everything you do. Your most successful existence will come from making friends with your broken places and being of service. Know yourself and you will know what your life's work is meant to be."

 

Readers Via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Functional Gifts for YTT Grads

Every season a pile of new yoga teachers is unleashed into the wild. Whenever I graduated everyone wanted to send me some sort of graduation gift. At the time all I really knew to ask for was yoga clothes because I didn't know what would be truly useful. Now it's been a few years and I know my way around a little better.

Here's My Top 10 Gifts to make a new teacher's life easier:

• Business Cards/Holders - Creative high quality business cards are more memorable.
• Parking Money - A parking meter cashkey would've saved me a lot of trouble when I first started teaching downtown.
• Hot tea - Sipping hot tea while teaching or just after class is great for overworked throats.
• Yoga Anatomy book - never stop studying.
• Yoga classes - to prevent burnout and stay inspired. Self-care is important.

• Square - to accept credit/debit for private sessions
• Blessed to Serve - I declared this book required reading for aspiring teachers.
• Yoga Teacher Bag - a good sized dedicated bag for classes keeps everything in one spot and makes it easy to carry all over town.
• Yoga clothes - Layers for cold classrooms, and nice new clothes for interviews/auditions.
• Binder - for organizing class plans/articles/notes/waivers/contracts...

Divine Feminine Yoga Telesummit

The Divine Feminine Yoga Telesummit: Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World
The event is happening live September 4th - September 11th

Attending is FREE!
Learn More or Register Now: Click Here

In this inspirational and practical event, you will: 

• Improve your physical, mental, and emotional health by honoring your deep feminine nature 
• Invoke Goddess Kali to awaken the most intense form of bliss 
• Heal your money wounds with Goddess Lakshmi 
• Navigate the modern world with the wisdom of Goddess Durga 
• Understand how women lost our core power, and how to recover it 
• Embrace your gifts as healer, yogini, and priestess 
• Understand the secrets of the yoga sutras as a contemporary woman 
• Apply the power of yoga to heal trauma in women
• Learn why being vulnerable is the highest form of leadership
• Break through self-doubt and make a HUGE contribution to healing the world

Learn from an extraordinary lineup of top teachers, including: 
Judith Lasater
Sally Kempton
Sianna Sherman
Amy Weintraub
Nischala Joy Devi

And best of all, participation is EASY and FREE.
You can listen live on the web, call in on your phone, or Skype from wherever you are.

This news provided via the Open to Grace Newsletter

Photos from http://pinterest.com/cosmiclila/yoga/

Rasa-Lila Fest Yoga Teacher Search

YogaStage is sponsoring a Yoga Teacher Search for Rasa-Lila Fest in Orlando, FL this October. They secured one teaching spot on the main stage for the person who wins this teacher search.

The grand prize winner will win a teaching slot on the main stage at the October 6th, 2012 Rasa-Lila Fest in Orlando event. The grand prize winner will also receive two nights hotel stay.
The five finalists with the most votes (and approved by Rasa-Lila Fest, LLC staff) will each receive a 1 year Premium membership to YogaStage valued at $119.00 each.

How To Enter:
You need an active YogaStage account to enter the contest
Get an account for 3 months FREE by using the promo code FREETHREE

After you create your profile, submit your YPK* to enter the contest.
Submissions are being accepted through Mar 31, 2012.
Voting will begin via Facebook beginning April 1, 2011.

More Info:
Yoga Teachers will judge and vote on entries via Facebook based on who they would like to see gracing the stage of Rasa-Lila Fest. Of the top five finalists with the most LIKE votes, Rasa-Lila Fest team will choose a grand prize winner based on yoga teaching skill, personality and suitability for Rasa-Lila Fest.
A runner-up will be selected in case the Winner cannot attend the event.

Voting begins 04/01/2012 at 9:00am and ends at 11:59:59 pm ET on 08/01/2012.
Limit one entry per yoga instructor for the entire Contest Period.
*YPK - Yoga Press Kit created on YogaStage.

Yoga Teacher - What I Do

This whole thing has really taken off. There's apparently a lot of crazy ideas running around about what it is yoga teachers do. I'm sure there's more of these I haven't seen yet. Send them my direction if you find more.

Source: http://fuckyeahyoga.tumblr.com/post/17625105696/yoga-instructors

In case you've forgotten what that mega-important lower center pic above is referring to: Watch the video again.

Source: http://i.imgur.com/G6zfK.jpg

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/02/what-yoga-teachers-do----the-meme/

Blessed to Serve - Book Review

It seems a little odd to me that I'm posting this review after having already listed this book in my gift guide. However, I felt from my first glance that it was worth suggesting. My intuition was consistently proven correct throughout my reading of Blessed to Serve.

Karen Lo compiled this fantastic set of interviews with nine "torch-bearers of modern yoga" in an approachable pieces kind of way. I found that if I only had 5 minutes to read I could still find a good stopping point somewhere instead of being lost every time I returned to the book. It's mostly a fixed set of questions but flows organically like the conversation that it is... and like a good vinyasa class. Taking in the words of this book is like getting to pick the brains of some of the best teachers in the US. I especially enjoyed hearing little details and personal stories about where they came from and how they felt at meaningful crossroads in their careers.

Teachers featured in Blessed to Serve:
Duncan Wong, Sianna Sherman, Jason Crandell, Rusty Wells, Stephanie Snyder, Darren Main, Kathryn Budig, Geoffrey Roniger, and Jason Nemer.

Let's declare this book required reading for aspiring teachers. 
It's lighthearted while covering deeply important questions such as when you're ready to teach, how to handle the first hard year, teacher-student relationships, and even humility. Steeping in some of the wisdom contained in this book, I think, will make stronger happier teachers.

I don't want to say this book is just for yoga teachers - far from it. Any yogi would be served by the knowledge collected here. Whether to understand their teachers better, or to inspire their own path in the practice.

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/01/karen-lo-january-yoga-instructor-feature/

This is not a sponsored post. I was not paid or even asked to review this book.

The Kaivalya Yoga Method

I received a newsletter last week from Alanna Kaivalya announcing the birth of Kaivalya Yoga. It's not very often you get to witness the beginning of a yoga method.

Alanna is one of my favorite teachers. Perhaps you've read her book, or heard her music. She does not come from Anusara, but from the school of Jivamukti. I've taken a few of her classes and they are always divine.  She occasionally returns home to Denver, CO and teaches at the yoga studio where I got my certification. This is where I was lucky enough to experience her teaching even though she now lives in New York.

For more information about this new method, and to learn how to Apply for the first ever Kaivalya Yoga Method Teacher Training - Visit the Website!

About her decision she says:
"After more than 10 years of study and teaching, after leading, writing and contributing to teacher trainings across the globe since 2004, it is finally time (as Frank Sinatra would sing) to do it my way."

From the KYM Website:
The Kaivalya Yoga Method focuses on the whole person and seeks to unite all aspects of one’s being through specific yogic techniques including skilled hands-on adjustments, intelligently sequenced vinyasa, sanskrit chanting and mantra, meditation and a continuous focus on the highest aim of yoga – freedom and happiness.
This Method is a technique for creating the condition for the state of yoga to arise naturally, as it is already inbuilt and yogic practices lay the groundwork for this realization of yoga to occur. As the name indicates, The Kaivalya Yoga Method is a means for liberating oneself from any ideas of disintegration or disunity. In short, it is a method for realizing happiness, but in a modern-day context. Without dogma. Without hierarchy. With generosity, authenticity and elegant simplicity.

Congratulations to Alanna for taking the leap!

And don't forget to enter the Giveaway for a Compassion Bracelet from Energy Muse!

Meghan Currie Inspires - (Video)

I came across this fabulous video of a timelapse practice by Meghan Currie (Wandering Yogini and yoga teacher). You should totally check out her happy artsy website complete with blog.

This video features a lovely inspiring practice that made me want to get up and do yoga immediately. Some of it looks a little funny because of the fast timelapse nature of the video, but overall it looks like a graceful dance. I have to note that not only does she pull out some really nice tricks, but she does it all without a mat.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

May You Never Have This Teacher

Readers via Email - Click Here to see the Video.

Noah Maze Collection - (Videos)

My apologies to the readers that don't watch the videos... but here's a whole set of videos I stumbled across sometime last week. They're all Noah Maze a couple years ago at an Intensive. In the videos he does various little yoga tricks and fancy moves (some of which I cannot imagine how to do). I've only gotten to attend one weekend of classes with him, but he is a great teacher and practitioner. From what I can tell - Noah Maze is a god. Just look at that magnificent bastard.

If that doesn't inspire you to Join the 30 Day Challenge to build a home practice, I don't know what will.

Readers via Email - Click Here to see the four videos.

Do You Teach Hot Yoga?

In moving, my husband and I keep meeting people that are so excited to hear that I teach yoga. What is the first question they all ask? Do you teach HOT YOGA!? Um... no.

I don't have anything against hot yoga - I've done it... it's fine. I was supposed to teach it once, but that didn't happen. It's still such a weird question to me. Is that the most popular yoga in Boise? Is it just the only style they have heard of? I don't know, but whenever we mention that my favorite style is Anusara we get blank glazed stares. There are Anusara-Inspired teachers in the area - I'm a little weirded out to keep meeting people that have never heard of it.

I'm so used to my little world where its All Anusara - All the Time... it's like I've forgotten that it's not as widespread and well known as I feel like it is. Hrmph. Guess I'll just have to get out there and tell them about it.

Rodney Yee on the Heart Chakra - (Video)

For those of you that are not such yoga geeks as I - Rodney Yee mainly teaches Iyengar Yoga, but tends to follow his own practice these days. The very first yoga DVD I ever bought was a Rodney Yee DVD, and while I may have wandered into other things I very much respect his knowledge as a teacher. He certainly knows his subtle body anatomy better than I do. I need to study up more on these things.

Rodney Yee "The Heart Chakra" from Omega Institute on Vimeo.

Big Beautiful Hair

I know that as a yogi I'm not supposed to want things... yearn for something... or be kinda envious. I know this. Regardless of this fact - I also know that I have spent the last week wishing I had Seane Corn's Hair. Her hair is awesome. If you've been around the yoga scene very long you've almost certainly heard of Seane Corn. She's a top notch vinyasa yoga teacher, and she's often known as "the one with the hair".

Seane Corn has splendid full-bodied curls. If you do a few internet searches for long curly hair - you'll find her photos everywhere. I've seen her in person, and her hair was just as amazing as it is in pictures. I've been needing a haircut because my hair is mostly one length and curls don't look great like that... not at this length. I've been cutting my own hair since I was 17, but I don't trust myself to add serious layers to my hair - which I know is what I really need to take this limp mess and make it spring back to life.

The whole thing is pretty scary. The last time I actually went to a salon and asked for layers I was in the 9th grade (like 15 years ago) and left with a terror inducing botch job on my head that took AGES to fix. Never again I said. Never again. Now I've grown up and know that I need layers if I'm going to keep growing out my hair - I just don't trust anyone to do it.

I'm not sure if there's a yoga for that.

The GURU Principle

GU = Darkness, RU = Light

Therefore your Guru leads you "Out of the Darkness & Into the Light"

Just a little food for thought.

Noah Maze Workshop Challenge

I spent all weekend in Boise, ID attending a 3-day workshop with Noah Maze. He's a super amazing Anusara yoga instructor if you didn't know that. You can find his classes on Yogaglo (at the top of the page) if you wanna check it out.

We worked hard and I learned that 3 minutes is kind of a long time for me to be in Downward Dog. I practice long holds on my asanas, but Noah literally made me whimper once (in utkatasana). Just once... I'm tough. I was truly challenged in every session and I actually DID finally do a drop back in the middle of the room by myself. It wasn't 100% successful, but I did finally punch fear in the face and make it happen... and even though it wasn't perfect, the world didn't end. Yay!

I learned some new poses and just generally had a great time. I just hope Noah didn't mind my incessant note-taking. It was awesome and I am happy. I'll shut up and leave it at that. You may recall that when I went to a workshop in Portland a couple months ago - that I did not have a good experience with the locals. They were really awful. The Boise Kula, however, was soooo welcoming and nice. They were really lovely people and I didn't meet a single asshole. Much thanks and gratitude to the Boise Kula and to Noah Maze for this grand weekend of reflection and hard work.

Elena Brower Wanderlust 2010 (Video)

OMG more video! I know... it's like a theme... and I keep meaning to stop putting up video after video, but they just keep coming out and being so splendid.

I felt so overly compelled to share this video of Elena Brower speaking about the Freedom of Discipleship at Wanderlust 2010... that I knew if I didn't share this (preferably right away) that I would just explode. To me, this talk resonates on such a personal level it's like Elena's heart is speaking directly to mine. As she speaks on becoming soft - she is soft and it just comes out so heartfelt and honest. I love it and if you don't watch this video then you are crazy.



Readers via email - Click Here for the video.

Celebrate Local Teachers

"I believe that we can once again celebrate local yoga teachers for the great work they do each day to help their communities get healthier and more vibrant through yoga. I mean let’s face it, not too many other jobs require you to be newly inspired on a daily basis in quite the same way. Not too many jobs can make an impact on people’s every day lives. It is the local teachers who are the glue that keeps the community thriving. It is the local teachers who spark the fire consistently in yogis of all levels to live more meaningful lives." - Amy Ippoliti

Quote via Amy's Elephant Journal article Public Yoga, Local Teachers: Reviving the Lost Art Form of the Public Class.

Kathryn Budig Beat Me

I've had a post on Vashistasana B planned for like, a while... and I guess I sat on it for too long because Kathryn Budig totally beat me to it.  It's one of my top favorite poses, and I think everyone should learn it. She did a fantastic job of it and all while wearing the LOVE tank I included on my Yogi Gift Guide, so please please please go learn this pose From Her Post over on Nectar at Yoga Journal.

Call it a Christmas present for yourself - learning something new. If you think it's beyond you - work on the prep poses (and your confidence) and by next Christmas you'll be able to fly with us.

P.S. For those of you that had the pleasure of knowing the Late Great Corwin - today would have been his 6th birthday. Take some time today to eat some butter, yell at people you don't like, and be generally adorable in his memory.

top photo source: totally snagged it from the YJ Blog Post.