My friend Susanna Barkataki has written a book called Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice and it is excellent. It is inspiring, galvanizing, a rallying cry. In this episode we talk all about what it really means to embrace yoga’s roots and how to integrate our values into our teaching and respect the tradition and culture that yoga comes from.

If you’re a yoga teacher who’s had to teach while working with an injury, this podcast episode is for you! Or if you see the same injuries over and over again in your students, there are tons of nuggets of wisdom here for you too.  Monica Bright is a master yoga teacher in the areas of anatomy, self massage, injuries and recovery strategies.

I think many of us would agree that a strict, dogmatic focus on alignment in asana doesn’t really serve our students, but the question you may be asking next is... what do I teach then? If I’m not telling students the right or wrong way to move their body, what am I teaching them?

I am so excited to announce that my virtual yoga studio Stillness + Movement is officially open! This episode will take a deep dive into how I ended up creating a virtual yoga studio (it was kind of accidental!), what is so different about the way we teach, and how I recommend teachers listening set up something similar much more cheaply than the custom registration platform I had built! 

The Where Do We Go From Here? series here on The Mentor Sessions has been such a great excuse to get some of my favorite yoga teacher colleagues on Zoom to process together, and out loud, where you can all listen in!! 

This is the fourth episode in the Where Do We Go From Here? series here on the podcast and in this episode my guests and I acknowledge some of the particular challenges American yoga teachers are facing in the midst of COVID-19 and our country’s semi-shutdown.

It is now September of this unprecedented year, and there is so much that is unknown about our future and our world. When I asked my friends Jules Mitchell and Arundhati Baitmangalkar to join me for this conversation about what happens next, particularly in the yoga world

So much has changed in our world in the last several months, and the questions I keep asking myself are:

If everything is going to change, what matters most?

If we are never going back to the old way of doing things, what do I want to create in the new world?

So much has changed in our world in the last several months, and the yoga world has been forced to pull in and take a pause. While many brick and mortar studios are closing and there are other related sad endings, I think we are also in a time ripe for positive and much needed change.

I’m really grateful to bring you this interview with Jivana Heyman, the founder, and director of Accessible Yoga because his voice and leadership is SO needed right now. Jivana has specialized in teaching yoga to people with disabilities with an emphasis on community building and social engagement.

These are intense, unprecedented times. I know so much about your day to day life has changed in the last few weeks. As yoga teachers, our work has become quite challenging. But if you (and your students) have a computer and an internet connection, it is possible to stay connected with your students, continue to teach and continue to make money if your family depends on your yoga teaching income like mine does.

Teaching yoga classes in workplaces can be a great way to bring yoga to a population who otherwise might not have access to it, AND an awesome way to create well-paying teaching opportunities for ourselves. 

Today you’re going to hear a live, unedited 1x1 mentoring session! 

Back pain is complex and many students end up in yoga classes because they heard it would be good for their "bad back" so I’m super excited to share the wisdom of my friend Jesal Parikh with you today.

What do you think of when you hear the word “marketing”? Does it make you think of sleazy sales tactics? Or does it remind you of all the things you think you are supposed to be doing, like social media and email lists, and make you feel immediately overwhelmed??

Did you know that arthritis is not one single disease, but a category of over 100 medical conditions that is actually the leading cause of disability in the US?? Before talking to Dr. Steffany Moonaz (and reading her book) I didn’t either!

The term self care is ubiquitous in our world today and since yoga practice is an important part of self care for some people the topic comes up for us yoga teachers quite often! Also, it can be difficult to practice good self care as a yoga teacher running all over town trying to make ends meet, so I am really excited to introduce you to my friend Gracy today! 

Teaching yoga one-on-one requires a totally different skill set than teaching group classes and these unique skills are left out of most teacher trainings so if you have lots of questions about teaching 1x1 lessons that makes sense.

I’m honored to call Cecily Milne a friend. She is thoughtful, smart and an amazing force for change in the yoga world.  As the creator of Yoga Detour, she is seen as a yoga “integrator”, helping people bridge the gap between the yoga they already love and the other things, like strength and mobility, they're becoming increasingly curious about.

A large group of yoga teachers at YogaWorks in New York City is working together to create a labor union that would be the first of its kind. (!) This is what they have to say about it, 

“We are Yoga and Mindful Fitness Educators. We’re coming together to have a voice in our industry, raise industry standards and create a more equitable and sustainable profession for all. Our goal is for employees, students, and businesses to thrive.”