Yoga for Headache Relief
Each of us has manuals, notes, texts, and study guides from our yoga teacher trainings, but we need comprehensive medical studies for every ailment. Many yoga instructors still do trial and error methods.
Teaching Kids’ Yoga Classes – Ultimate Guide
By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, YACEP With the right mindset and a bit of preparation, teaching kids’ Yoga classes can be a wonderful, meaningful experience. Not only do you get to share your love of Yoga with eager young pupils, but you’ll also have more fun than you’ve ever had in the classroom. To [...]
Teaching Yoga: Sharing your Story
Regardless of the goal, desire or dream, the belief in a better future is a common theme that runs through all of these aspirations. If you are teaching Yoga classes, the aspiration of your students to be able to flow seamlessly through a series of challenging postures, or to hold Upward Facing Bow comfortably for five full breaths, is grounded in the basic desire to increase his or her overall level of strength and flexibility.
The Cube of Yoga Instruction
There is much more to yoga instruction than we can fit into four neat categories. On the other hand, breaking the work down into four parts can be a digestible model for teachers to more insightfully reflect upon, and from that grow in, what we offer. Perhaps we realize that our students would benefit from more of our own demonstration, or that we’re keen observers – but could use work on how we craft our verbal instruction. Feedback from students and fellow instructors can aid in that growth process.
Nurturing Harmony in a Yoga Class: Individual Considerations
By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed How do we go about nurturing harmony in our Yoga classes? According to BKS Iyengar, who was one of the most well loved and highly respected Yoga teachers of our time, “Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.” He goes on to state that, “ [...]
Teaching Balancing Holiday Yoga Classes: Ananda Balasana
By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. How can you teaching balancing holiday Yoga classes? Once again, the holiday season is upon us. Many homes are now displaying brightly colored Christmas lights and glowing Menorahs in honor of the holiday season. At this time of the year, many Yoga practitioners find themselves challenged to maintain their practice, as [...]
Teaching Yoga Classes and Effective Themes
By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Choosing effective themes for teaching Yoga classes is one of the subtle nuances of teaching that will help to keep your classes fresh and engaging. Sequencing a series of physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation techniques that nurtures your students’ well being, in a balanced and effective manner, is similar to [...]
Venturing “Off the Beaten Path” In Yoga
For instructors, we can “take the road less traveled by” through challenging ourselves to grow in the same ways – taking classes, visiting studios, consulting sources that ourselves and others might not yet have discovered are indeed valuable. Our teaching styles can also be beneficially unconventional. If we find ourselves always guiding certain advanced students in our classes (because we might – understandably – want to push them even further to their potentials), we can shift our focus to see what other perhaps more novice students can offer. We can also take (healthy and measured, albeit) risks with alternative approaches to guiding students through postures or imparting yoga philosophy, amongst other elements that we offer in our classes. Whatever the case may be, whomever you might be as a practitioner or instructor, venturing away from the conventional can indeed “make all the difference”.
Staying with Yoga Instruction
I also gained a few private students when students whom I tutor in my university’s academic support center discovered I teach yoga, and expressed interests in having me teach them. Though busy and incompatible schedules could make those commitments short-lived, the bits of experiences (and extra cash) were valuable enough to make my efforts more than worth it. For anyone who might have to suspend formal teaching temporarily because of other work and financial obligations, I believe that similar connections are possible.
Exploring Yogic Movement and Stillness
Kinetic energy is energy in motion, stillness converted to movement through transference. It's the dropped ball, the released arrow and the fire's heat. Action then returns to a still point when the ball rests on the ground, the bowstring sits slack and the wood cools into charcoal. In stillness, there is potential; in motion, there is transformation of position or form. These energy principles also exist in yoga, representing the physics of nature and reflecting our inner selves.