Yogaland Podcast

Practicing--and teaching--Down Dog the same way every time leads to diminishing returns and stale cues. This episode breaks down 5 ways to improve Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) to focus on opening your shoulders, opening your hips, stretching your hamstrings, stretching your calves and more. Perfect for yoga students and yoga teachers alike. Support this show http://supporter.acast.co...

I love hearing how longtime yoga teachers make this career work. This week's guest, Erin Jorich, has figured out how to use her skillset as a yoga teacher and combine it with her love for dogs. Along with her dog, Wallace, Erin works part-time for Canine Inspired Change , an organization that brings dogs into schools, juvenile detention centers, and other settings to improve the well being and soc...

Dianne Bondy's web site declares in bold letters, "Yoga is for Every Body. No exceptions. You can do yoga." And she has devoted her teaching career to making sure this is the case. Over the past few decades, she has been proactive in creating yoga spaces that are empowering, inclusive, and equitable for all. I know Dianne from her playful and educational social media presence -- I had even more fu...

Susanna Harwood Rubin is back! Susanna was my guest on episode 165, and we continue our intimate conversation here. Our conversation runs the gamut (but somehow all ties together), ranging from her recent trip to her spiritual home in India, to living fully and joyfully with metastatic breast cancer, to her passion for teaching her own form of "embodied writing." Shownotes for this episode can be...

Adam and Holly Husler are an impressive yoga duo: Holly has gone from performing in a girl-band to singing healing mantras and becoming one of the UK’s leading crystal bowl sound healing trainers. Adam has taught classes, workshops and trainings in over 60 studios in over 20 countries, with a robust home schedule in London's leading studios. Together they are parents to a young son and co-hosts of...

"I needed my yoga to find me, to comfort me -- not be another box to check off." An open and inquisitive conversation about navigating the challenges, grief, and joys of perimenopause and menopause -- and how to craft a yoga practice that meets you in the moment. For shownotes, go to yogalandpodcast.com/episode327 Thank you for listening and for sharing the podcast with friends and students! Suppo...

This week Jason and I talk about why a home practice is essential if you want to integrate yoga in your day to day life. We also offer our thoughts on what constitutes home practice so that you give yourself a break and focus on what's important -- getting on your mat! Our hope is that home practice can be the thing in your life that consistently feels like a respite, a refuge, a haven. We hope yo...

Take a deep breath and get ready to take notes for this one: Jason hones in on 5 of the most common mistakes yoga teachers make. They're so common, in fact, that there are a few Jason still has to be mindful of from time to time. This episode is packed with simple, straightforward ideas to help you teach more skillfully and with more confidence. ⭐️ Join us in at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Ma...

You might look at yoga teacher Brett Larkin, with her 500K YouTube followers and think it all came easily and naturally to her. Not so — over the course of a decade, Brett slowly but surely kept publishing videos while working full-time as a game developer job and mothering her two small boys. On this episode, Brett shares the details of how she overcame imposter syndrome with the help of her onli...

Are you still vying for a decent time slot to teach at your local studio? According to Office Yoga founder Maryam Sharifzadeh, your efforts would be far better spent finding a few corporate teaching gigs. Consider this statistic from Sharifzadeh: In the US there is one yoga studio for every 10,000 businesses. That's a lot more premium time slots, with better pay and, in all likelihood, s...

Jason joins me this week to answer questions that have been asked during the group live calls of his online course about preventing yoga injuries. He talks through: Knee pain in Upward Bow (Wheel Pose) and Bow Pose (Dhanurasana) What causes sore hamstring attachments and whether or not to bend the knees to make this pain go away Sacroiliac pain that occurs in twists Several different options for c...

More than a decade ago, Sarah Gardner was a yoga teacher with a dream: She wanted to bring a thousand yogis together at Gillette Stadium in Boston to raise money for Boston Children's Hospital. Years before, Sarah's son had spent seven life-saving weeks in the NICU at Boston Children's. After experiencing the love, care, and devotion that the doctors and nurses gave to her family, Sarah knew she w...

In the modern era of practicing yoga, we've come to terms with the reality that alignment alone is not the sole consideration when it comes to preventing yoga injuries. Today's episode draws from Jason's recent webinar, The Yoga Injury Matrix, and focuses on eight best practices for minimizing yoga injuries. The talk dives into the following ideas: Mindful, skillful alignment Pace, duration, and i...

It was such a delight to have Jivana Heyman back on the show to talk about his latest book, The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga . (You can listen to our first chat at yogalandpodcast.com/episode176 ). The episode explores: What it means to be more collaborative in your teaching, how being more collaborative could help break down traditional hierarchical power dynamics that have led to teacher-s...

Welcome back to a new season of Yogaland! Jason is my inaugural guest this season and our conversation focuses on the hips: What are the five compartments of the hip? Why is it important to strengthen them? How do you strengthen them in yoga? Jason lays it all out for you step-by-step. Take a listen and take notes! Also: Jason will be leading his Preventing Injuries online course very soon! Join t...

This time of year is often so fraught with busyness, overwhelm, expectations, even loneliness that we forget the goal: To feel present, joyful, connected. Here are my thoughts on how to gather up all of the skills that you cultivate on your mat (and cushion) and utilize them to navigate the challenges of this time of year. Check out the shownotes fo rmore helpful episodes: yogalandpodcast.com/epis...

So thrilled to have Daya Grant join me again on the podcast this week! You may remember Daya from episode 258 (This is Your Brain on Yoga). In her role as a mental performance coach, Daya utilizes tools from her background as a neuroscientist, athlete, and yogi. On this episode, Daya shares some of the fascinating research that shares in her online course, Mind-Flow Masterclass. She shares: Which...

You know what feels really terrible? Teaching yoga when you don't feel inspired. And yet, realistically, we all encounter dry spells in our own practice. This week's conversation with Jason will give you ideas for reigniting your inner spark and feeling inspired to practice again. If you'd like even more inspiration, join us in January for our newest online course, Mind-Body Reset! Get all the det...

We're back! This week we're talking through four life skills for every yoga teacher to master. These four skills are attributes that we work on in our own work and personal lives through our practice. They are also the four pillars around which our upcoming January program -- Mind-Body Reset -- is built. The four skills are: Self-compassion -- the skill of being an ally to yourself and accepting y...

Fall doesn't just mean pumpkin spice lattes. It means that you will likely start to hear a cacophony of sniffles and coughs when you're ordering said pumpkin spice latte -- or wherever you go. It's a great time to thinking about your yoga practice as a tool for building your resilience. Iyengar Yoga teacher Lisa Walford joins me this week to talk about her approach to immune health and how to use...

Inversions can be fun, empowering, and strength-building -- if they are introduced thoughtfully and systematically. On this episode, Jason walks through how to introduce four key inversions to beginners: Handstand, Forearm Balance, Headstand, and Shoulderstand. He shares the building blocks that will create a blueprint for each pose, keeping them safe and beneficial. We have companion sequences fo...

Carving out a place for yourself as a yoga teacher is no easy task. It was such a treat to have multi-hyphenate Neeti Narula on the show to hear how she has done it. Neeti is an NYC-based yoga and meditation teacher, as well as a mother of two, a contributor at Yoga Journal and now, a freshly minted contributor on the lifestyle platform, Melissa Wood Health. Neeti shares so many helpful gems on th...

This week we continue on with our series for beginners (and those teaching beginners): Our focus is the best arm balances for beginners. Arm balances are typically poses that beginners really enjoy playing around with, because they offer shapes that we don't typically do in other disciplines (unless you're a gymnast or a pro skateboarder). Arm balances can build stability, balance, strength, mobil...

Modern life is not great for your back -- sitting in chairs tightens the hip flexors, which can lead to a chain reaction that stresses the low back. When we type at a computer, we typically roll the shoulders forward or hunch the upper back. And looking at our phones constantly can lead to the dreaded and painful "tech neck." -- chair sitting, typing, and looking at our phones. Simple backbends ar...

Jason joins me on this week's episode to talk about how yoga teacher training goes beyond skill acquisition and can become a catalyst for self-transformation. We just hosted a webinar on the topic last week and we enjoyed it so much we thought we'd re-record the episode especially for the podcast. This is a fun episode if you're considering YTT or if you've already done a YTT and you'd like to rem...