Today on the podcast I am introducing you to someone very special to me: one of my most important teachers, Sara Avant Stover. I started studying with Sara privately in the fall of 2012 and what I learned from her radically altered my life path. I went on several deep, immersive retreats with her, the last one in 2016.  Since the last time we saw each other Sara has suffered several very intense heartbreaks and gone deeper into her practice than ever before. Surviving these challenging times...

I believe the invitation of life is to become ourselves, live fully and freely, and then, if you are a student of yoga, to extend that full, free, safe living out to all beings everywhere. But how often do we get to see someone really do that?   Today I have a treat for you: a person who is doing just that. Becoming. My friend Miles Borrero (he/him) has survived fronting a Latin rock band, riding horses competitively, acting on various stages across the US, and nannying a six-year-old. He...

In case you don’t know, Jivana is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings and supporting yoga teachers. He’s the author of the books: Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body; Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion; and a new book, The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body. His books, classes, and trainings offer support to yoga teachers...

The brain and the nervous system play a HUGE role in how we integrate sensory information, experience pain and create movement patterns but this topic is not often covered in foundational yoga teacher trainings. That is why I’m so excited to introduce you to Missy Bunch (she/her), a multi-certified movement therapist who has been educating and coaching for over 14 years. As a young professional dancer, she battled many injuries over her career and one day she found someone who studied...

Today I will answer a bunch of questions that you all have sent in about teaching private lessons! In this episode you’ll hear: suggestions for helping a student establish a neutral pelvis in daily life advice and guidance for hands-on work in private lessons tips for finding private clients outside of the studio tips for when you need to make some money fast support in lightening up a teaching schedule how (and why!) to raise your rates help for a  private student who...

Well, this is an unusual episode!! Since I released a podcast episode last year about my group class planning process I’ve been getting more and more questions about my unique teaching style.  It’s been described as Buddha Dharma Meets Corrective Exercise With A Little Vinyasa In The Middle For Some Fun. It’s a specific style that has been cultivated over almost 20 years of very full time teaching, and I especially love the way it lands online and in an audio format.  So this episode is a...

I’m sure you’ve noticed that many stock images and illustrations of yoga practitioners show a very narrow representation of bodies and abilities. Harmony Willow Hansen is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and yoga practitioner who creates beautiful images that represent the true diversity in the student body of yoga practitioners worldwide. She created a beautiful book called You Are Strong And Worthy that showcases these images. Willow also has lots of resources available for yoga...

Teaching teachers how to teach yoga is a massive responsibility. (How many times am I going to write the word “teach” in this intro???)  Many people who listen to this podcast either already are, or are hoping to be a teacher of teachers. I get asked all the time for advice on creating and leading a teacher training. I have created a very successful speciality training, The Science of the Private Lesson, and a big part of my business is mentoring yoga teachers. I have supported teachers in...

In today's episode, we have a very special guest, Anjali Rao (she/her). Anjali is a yoga teacher, writer, and podcast host who offers profound insights into the often obscured stories and histories of yoga. An Indian American immigrant and cancer survivor, Anjali beautifully integrates yoga philosophy and history with storytelling, imagery, and poetry.  Anjali and I had a thought-provoking conversation about the sociopolitical context of yoga and its historical beginnings. We delve into...

I have wanted to have a teacher on the podcast to talk to us about The Yoga Sutras for years, and I finally found the teacher we needed! Vikram Jeet Singh is here today to share an exploration of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that is both accessible and deep. Vikram is a certified yoga teacher with over twelve years and 11,000 plus hours of teaching experience. Besides asana, Vikram also teaches courses and workshops on classical yogic texts such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita and the...

Back in February of 2018 I shared an intimate view of a full week in my teaching and work life. I shared my daily habits and routines, the things I was working on in my group classes, and how I met each of my private clients. (Listen to that episode here!) Well, the world at large, and my little world too, has changed drastically since then, so I wanted to share an updated version!  In this episode you’ll hear: how I’m managing parenthood while keeping my business afloat what has...

Today I’m here to share a vulnerable update of my life lately, and some tools I’m using to teach great yoga classes even though I’m in a very challenging season. I’ll be honest, there almost wasn’t a podcast episode this month. This has been one of the hardest summers of my life and I’ve been feeling totally under water. I realized the middle of the month had already passed and I had no interviews scheduled and no ideas for a podcast episode.  But then I remembered... I’ve been teaching...

Are there poses you used to love and teach, but have recently stopped teaching for some reason?? It turns out we all have a long list of poses that we find ourselves leaving out of our classes for a multitude of reasons. We recently had a super interesting conversation inside The Mentor Sessions Sangha all about this! And on the podcast today I’m sharing an edited sneak peak of that discussion to get your creative juices flowing! In this episode we discussed: our priorities and choices in...

I feel a little shy sharing this intimate view of my morning practice, but when I asked y’all if this topic was of interest I heard a resounding YES. As yoga teachers I think it is important that we make time to engage with our practice and take good care of ourselves so we can be of service to our students and communities.  But like, WHEN ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MAKE TIME FOR THAT?  Life is so full for many of us. We have work and caretaking responsibilities that fill every waking hour (and...

In January I started sharing my group class planning process in short videos on Instagram and y’all had questions! The more I shared, the more questions I got! So today we’ve got a solo episode on the podcast where I am answering all your questions about my group class planning process. In this episode you’ll hear: how I try to bring recognizable sun salutation templates AND sequences that vary into each class why a thread of physical and emotional consistency woven throughout class...

Many yoga teachers in our community either already specialize in teaching seniors, or would like to. Yoga can be a wonderful practice for older people and it is important that yoga teachers consider what is most helpful when working with this population.  We are so lucky today to have Yoga for Seniors expert, Chintamani Kansas, walking us through this conversation. Chintamani has been teaching Yoga for over 20 years and has studied Meditation, Embodied Anatomy, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy, Thai...

Many of the yoga teachers I’ve worked with feel more comfortable and confident teaching asana than they do teaching the other seven limbs of yoga. This was true of me as a new teacher also! Questions about how to skillfully interweave dharma and asana come up frequently with the teachers in our community.  I’m so happy to share with you this Live Mentoring Session with longtime listener of the show and wonderful yoga teacher Meredith Witte, of The Playground App. Meredith brought excellent,...

The thinking behind this episode has been a long time in the making. I haven't talked about this much publicly, but If you've done 1x1 mentoring with me, if you’ve taken my group classes, if you're in The Mentor Session Sangha, or if you’ve taken a teacher training with me, then you’ve heard me talk about it.... ...and today I’m publicly making The Case for Teaching Leveled Classes.  I haven't talked about it publicly because it's nuanced and complex and challenging to present in a...

Our students' movement patterns directly impact their pelvic health, and their pelvic floor impacts their movement patterns! With those two aspects of our students’ health so intertwined, it’s really important that yoga teachers understand the nuances of that relationship. We are so lucky to have longtime yoga teacher, teacher’s mentor, and yoga for pelvic health expert Shannon Crow on the show with us today!

Ariele Foster is a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of Yoga Anatomy Academy, a no-nonsense, evidence-based resource for learning yoga anatomy and movement science. She runs an integrative physical therapy clinic in Washington DC (and via telehealth). In addition to teaching online courses and an anatomy mentorship through Yoga Anatomy Academy, she has also taught online courses for and written for Yoga Journal on hip stability and fascia release. Ariele began teaching yoga in 2001...

Mary Reddinger is joining us on the show today to share how she built her full-time private yoga practice just recently! Mary and her family moved in the middle of the pandemic, and with her husband in school, her yoga teaching is their sole source of income. Mary worked incredibly hard to build a private practice and she did it quite quickly! She has a full roster of dedicated students who are engaged in their practice and appreciate her work immensely.

Over the last few years more and more yoga teachers have worked to create their own teaching offerings outside of a studio setting, and I think this is a great thing! While I absolutely value the community space a yoga studio can create, I also think creating learning opportunities for students (especially new students) outside of a typical yoga studio can be wonderful. And it can be great for us as teachers to begin to build our own teaching opportunities and small businesses.  A longtime...

I’ve been collecting your questions over the last few weeks, and I’m so happy to share this Q+A episode with you today! (It’s an off the cuff, casual vibe. I think you’ll like it!) In this episode I’ll answer questions like: How do you work with plantar fasciitis? How do we work with our students’ injuries when we think some movement might be helpful, but a doctor has told our student to stay away from movement? What happens to our classes and our students when we take an extended period...

Hello! After a long maternity leave I’m back in front of the podcasting mic and so excited to be here. This episode is quite a departure from our usual conversations about the craft of teaching yoga. Since I’ve been out for so long I wanted to connect with all of you in a more intimate way, so this episode is more personal than usual!  I’m going to share the Ten Things Saving My Life Right Now to give a little inside peek into my season of life, my plans for teaching and how I’m calling in...