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By Bhavan Kumar If you teach hatha yoga to younger adults, their minds focus on the muscles during asana practice. If you are a hatha yoga instructor who teaches asana to older adults, the mental emphasis of the average student is on the bones and joints. Although a yoga teacher asks students to be present for class, there is some outside thinking going on in the minds of our best students.

By Sanjeev Patel If you already have a yoga teacher certification, you probably think you know what new students are looking for in your classes. Most instructors have been teaching so long that they forget what it felt like to be a beginner. A new student has his or her senses wide open when visiting your studio. The finger prints on your mirror, the smell of your studio, and your appearance, are all new to first time students. How can you know what students really want, when each one has different expectations? First of all, you can't make everyone happy, but you can make most of them happy by making the best possible impression and looking at your class with a fresh pair 0f eyes, like you once had, long before you decided to become a yoga instructor.

By Jenny Park After finishing your yoga teacher training, everybody comes out of the woodwork to ask you about pain relief. Sometimes, visiting the doctor, getting a prescription, or an over the counter pain killer is the best solution, but Yogic practices offer us many more solutions to pains and aches that have plagued humans since the beginning.

By Faye Martins If you have decided to become a yoga instructor for students who have had a previous stroke, there is much you should know about asana modifications and how to properly use props. Specialized yoga teacher training and therapy are needed in order to give students the best attention and care. A stroke can have devastating effects on the body. Victims can lose the ability to walk or even stand unassisted. Depending on which part of the brain the stroke affects, speech, balance, visual perception and memory can also be altered. Recent studies on the effects of yoga on stroke patients have shown positive results. Yoga helps patients regain balance and agility, and yoga can help patients release the negative emotions associated with this life-altering event.

By Kathryn Boland Are you in challenging yoga teaching environments? It's clear that yoga instructors have a lot to offer with their skills and knowledge in guiding various individuals to greater holistic wellness - Opportunities for doing so range from nursing homes to health clubs to schools. Many resourceful and creative yoga instructors have taken advantage of such diverse opportunities, often apart from the specialized yoga studio atmosphere. It's also clear that yogic philosophy often differs from Western's cultures perspectives on wellness, including the best ways to both work towards and maintain it.

By Kathryn Boland Challenges, Success, and Fun How can you create classes that are a fruitful yoga experience for your students? In Dance Studio Life Magazine's November 2014 issue, master modern dance teacher Bill Evans states that he seeks to offer his students three elements in every dance class - challenges, success, and fun. Challenges offer growth; without pushing the boundaries of our comfort zones, people can't expand their skills and achievements. Success, in some measure, keeps us coming back for more. Without feeling some sense of accomplishment, after a certain amount of time and trial-and-error, we (some might argue, wisely) often move on to other pursuits. Success also brings the confidence we need to be at our bests. Fun engages students, and also puts them in a positive, confident frame of mind.

By Kathryn Boland You're Not Me - Avoiding Students Comparisons to Instructors Have you noticed students making comparisons to instructors in yoga practice - in less obvious signs (such as glances and facial expressions) or more directly (such as clear verbal statements)? Do you wonder how best to balance modeling mindful, strong and anatomically informed practice and avoiding the creation of these student comparisons?

By Faye Martins What is all the fuss about slow flow yoga? If you want to get in shape by trying a low-impact exercise, then slow-flow vinyasa yoga is the pace for you. Stretch your way to good health with slow movement that gradually warms up muscles, joints and connective tissue. Vinyasa is popular because people want a movement-based form of Yoga, but most vinyasa classes are fast-paced and risky movements may not be in your best interest.

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 The healing and therapeutic nature of yoga is well-known as people across the world with a variety of injuries have found relief from pain and inflammation through carefully selected poses designed to strengthen and tone the targeted problem areas. A person with an injury even has the option now of visiting a certified yoga therapist or incorporating asanas into physical therapy sessions.

By Kimaya Singh Could anyone firm up with yoga? People start practicing yoga for a variety of reasons. If your primary goal is to achieve a firmer, leaner physique, it can certainly help. Of course, practicing yoga alone isn't enough. Certain poses are more conducive to building strong, toned, lean muscles than others, too, so you'll want to learn the best ones and make them a regular part of your routine. Can yoga be used to get the lean body of your dreams? When combined with the right diet and exercise regimen, it can help you achieve incredible results.

By Kathryn Boland Are you in challenging yoga teaching environments? It's clear that yoga instructors have a lot to offer with their skills and knowledge in guiding various individuals to greater holistic wellness - Opportunities for doing so range from nursing homes to health clubs to schools. Many resourceful and creative yoga instructors have taken advantage of such diverse opportunities, often apart from the specialized yoga studio atmosphere. It's also clear that yogic philosophy often differs from Western's cultures perspectives on wellness, including the best ways to both work towards and maintain it.

By Kathryn Boland Challenges, Success, and Fun How can you create classes that are a fruitful yoga experience for your students? In Dance Studio Life Magazine's November 2014 issue, master modern dance teacher Bill Evans states that he seeks to offer his students three elements in every dance class - challenges, success, and fun. Challenges offer growth; without pushing the boundaries of our comfort zones, people can't expand their skills and achievements. Success, in some measure, keeps us coming back for more. Without feeling some sense of accomplishment, after a certain amount of time and trial-and-error, we (some might argue, wisely) often move on to other pursuits. Success also brings the confidence we need to be at our bests. Fun engages students, and also puts them in a positive, confident frame of mind.

By Bhavan Kumar, CYT 500 Being a yoga teacher is very rewarding. It's a job where you get to help people physically and mentally, you can be active and moving throughout the day, and you have flexibility and choice in your work schedule. However, like any job, there are going to be days when it's hard to get out of bed and enthusiastically greet the day. This doesn't mean your teaching style and approach has to suffer. By practicing what you teach to your yoga students, you can enthusiastically engage your students even if you are having a rough day. These tips can help you bring your best self to all your classes, whether the day seems bright and sunny or bleary and gray.

Best place to learn and practice yoga in Guwahati, Assam. Our yoga instructor is very dedicated towards teaching the right poses and always keeps the sessions full of fun and energy.

By Azahar Aguilar Unrealistic yoga claims. As teachers, you've all been there before. Either to overhear others or to hear the words come out of your own mouth, "Yoga is like a natural sleeping pill, an anti-anxiety medication, a weight-loss goldmine, prevents heart attacks, and will make you live past 100 years-old with the face of a 20 year-old. It's true! My sister's best friend's brother's neighbor is 101 and swears by it."

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 Perhaps you love taking yoga and have felt a calling to teach it. Your best course of action, then, begins with a period of reflection on the subject. If you decide to pursue this plan, you'll need to enroll in an excellent yoga teacher training program.

By Kimaya Singh Many people choose yoga because it offers a gentle, relaxing way to maintain good health without the high intensity or jarring nature of other workouts. Practicing yoga can ensure strong, lean muscles, proper posture and alignment, and better circulation. Although traditional yoga gets newly oxygenated blood pumping into the heart, it doesn't typically raise the heart rate to levels that will make it stronger. Power yoga, however, provides the best of both worlds: You get the benefits of all the traditional yoga postures while also getting a higher intensity workout.

By Faye Martins Yoga is an activity that doesn't discriminate against the young, old, injured, or disabled. Everyone can find a way to succeed while practicing yoga. While there are always necessary precautions to avoid injury, there are no "right" or "wrong" ways to perform yoga poses. As each person finds what feels best for them, they will begin to realize yoga's wonderful benefits. Sometimes when we practice yoga, we must look at the bigger picture to find an overall sense of peace and wellness, increased strength and flexibility, and reduced stress. How we get to those end results isn't as important as actually getting there.

By Shahid Mishra Parenting is at once the most rewarding and the most taxing job a human being can undertake. Babies do not come with a manual and there are no clear-cut steps to take in order to sculpt and create the perfect childhood. Parents always want what's best for their children; which adds to the task, making it seem like an insurmountable obstacle. Parenting is made easier and more natural through the practice of daily Yoga meditation.

By Faye Martins One of the greatest things about yoga is that anyone can do it. Whether you are young or old, healthy or sick or agile or stiff, yoga will provide benefits to your body. The same does not hold true for teaching yoga. Just because you know the poses does not mean you are ready to teach a yoga class. Yoga instructors must think carefully about the students in the class, the type of environment they wish to create and how to best explain the postures and philosophies of yoga to their students. It might seem like a beginner's class would be easy to teach, but in reality beginners can be one of the hardest groups of students to manage because they haven't become comfortable with the poses yet. Teaching beginners requires planning as well as a healthy amount of sensitivity toward the students.