Yoga For Beginners Guide

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 Adults from all walks of life and varying physical abilities are discovering the many benefits of practicing yoga and they're not alone. Children as young as three can do simple yoga exercises; in addition to helping a child improve balance, coordination, and body strength, yoga exercises are something that parents and children can do together. In addition to a calming, pleasant exercise, yoga provides opportunities for parents to provide instruction and build trust and communication bonds with their children. And yoga is not just appropriate for small child/parent groups within the home. Larger groups of children respond well to yoga in both classroom and studio settings.

By Bhavan Kumar If you are a yoga teacher, then it is essential to keep students interested in enrolling in classes several times a week. Students who feel bored by their instructor or the classroom environment may decide to take classes from a different teacher, leading to a loss of income for a yoga business.

By Faye Martins If you are a parent who enjoys participating in yoga exercise at home or in a class, then make sure to get your children involved in yoga. Not only can your children benefit from yoga movements that will increase their muscle strength and flexibility, but also, your children can learn more about their own anatomy.

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 Faye Martins Bringing awareness to the breath is a fundamental part of any yoga practice, but it is also important for our lives off of our mats. As adults, we feel the physiological and emotional benefits of breath awareness, but children can also benefit from conscious breathing.

By Kathryn Boland Language in yoga instruction is extremely important. Being invited to something - to a party, to a meaningful life passage event, even to do something that just plain feels good - carries its own special joy. It's even difficult; at least for me personally, to put into just the right words that special feeling of allowance and/or inclusion. Invitation can also be part of when one seeks to direct another in more formalized, structured activity (that which we might not commonly associate with such simple joy). As yoga instructors, we can both direct and ease our students through using "invitatory" language. Furthermore, it opens up opportunities for students to make their practices truly their own - versus our ideas of what we think those practices should be.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Have you learned about effective themes for summer Yoga classes? In many Yoga teacher training programs, you will learn about organizing your classes around specific themes. This concept encapsulates the idea of constructing a sequence, or krama, or Yoga postures, pranayama techniques and meditation instructions around a specific theme or goal. This theme may be the successful practice of a pinnacle posture, such as Crow Pose or Handstand. Or the chosen theme may be centered on a process, such as physical detoxification or calming an overactive mind.

By Kathryn Boland Have you experienced trials with the business of modern Western yoga? Have you seen yoga instructors facing such trials? Did you support them? Were you supported? In most locations, more yoga instructors are being trained in, and interested in, teaching than there are available teaching opportunities. The result is a market oversaturated with teachers.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Throughout the ages, there have been innumerable stories of individuals who faced their fears and surmounted unbelievable odds, in order to achieve their ultimate goals. These goals are far ranging. Some examples of courageous individuals who achieved their goals with courage and persistence are the first blind man to climb Mt. Everest and a veteran who is a certified Bikram Yoga instructor, even though he is a double amputee. In fact, Iyengar, who is credited with being one of the very first teachers to bring the practice to the west, healed himself of a disabling physical condition, through the rigorous and dedicated practice of Yoga postures.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Why is compassion such an important aspect of teaching? During the course of your Yoga teaching training program, you are probably immersed in a great deal of information about correct alignment principals during the practice of the postures, the intricacies of human anatomy and learning the classical Sanskrit names of the asanas. What you may not be so closely connected to is the profound importance of compassion and teaching the finer aspects of how to incorporate the teachings of Yoga into your students' daily lives "off the mat."

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: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Do you want more tips about how to teach Yoga by example? Like most dedicated teachers, you continually strive to make progress in your practice. Most likely, this drive to succeed comes into play in your life, both on and off the mat. As a professional Yoga instructor, you may find that many of your students will emulate your way of approaching the practice in the way that they, themselves, approach their own practice. In addition, many of your students will also model your psychological approach to difficult poses and other personal challenges that arise during class, in their daily interactions off the mat.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. We often her that Yoga benefits cancer patients, but how does this happen? For those of us who are regular Yoga practitioners, and who are facing a cancer diagnosis, maintaining a daily or weekly Yoga practice can help to engender a sense of normalcy and promote self-care during a very difficult time period in your life. This is particularly true if you are accustomed to practicing several times a week, in order to generate energy, balance and well-being. However, if you are undergoing treatment for cancer, you may find it difficult to do the same kind of Yoga practice that you are used to doing for months, or even years to come.

By Faye Martins Should yoga teachers physically assist their students to help them get into the correct poses, or should teachers rely solely upon verbal instructions? The question is a good one, and sometimes a controversial one, since not all students feel comfortable with being touched by the yoga instructor. Other students, meanwhile, feel that they cannot get the most out of a yoga class without being touched. Take a look at these four tips for using physical assists during a yoga class.

By Faye Martins The practice of yoga is meant to calm both the body and the mind. With slow movements and a focus on breath, we learn to quiet the mind and focus on the present moment. Most often, we need to be calm enough to handle the stresses of daily life, regret over past actions, and worries about the future. It is easier than it sounds to think only of the present moment. Our minds wander quickly, and thoughts tend to "snowball" toward worst case scenarios. When our minds are in an anxious state and we forget about the present, we may notice our breath quickens and our heart beats faster. Whatever we are doing in the present is quickly forgotten.

By Faye Martins What can Yoga do for chronic lower back pain? Residents of the developed world are doing plenty of things our ancestors of only a few thousand years ago never would have dreamed of doing. Among other things, the modern world has us sitting far more than our body was designed for. We sit at desks, on couches, we sit to drive, and we sit to eat. All this sitting has created a number of health problems unique to modern society. People of the modern developed world are fatter than ever before, engage in less physical activity than ever before and, as a result of all this sitting, lack of exercise and extra weight, they have weaker backs that are much more prone to lower back pain.

By Faye Martins Yoga teacher ethics are an extremely complex issue. What if you met your soul mate in your classroom? If you are faithfully married, then the moral guidelines are simple, but what about single teachers who meet single students? If a student is married, that is also a simple matter of avoiding a real bad situation. However, is it right for a single teacher to date a single student?

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 Managers of fitness centers, wellness boutiques, and studios may, or may not, also be yoga teachers. Some managers are strictly business oriented and only focus on staying in business. Let's be honest - some teachers cannot manage a business. The nature of business is not for everyone. Managing a group of instructors gives one a unique position. You have to make sure the classes run smoothly, your numbers are good, and everybody is happy.

By Faye Martins Headaches occur for a number of reasons, from stress and hunger, to a lack of sleep and dehydration. Even poor posture, allergies and eye strain can cause tension headaches in millions of people every day. In various yoga forums, new members often complain about headaches after their first yoga session. Does this complaint warrant further investigation into yoga as a potential cause of headaches?

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 If there is one lesson that I can pass onto you in this lifetime, it is to question everything. Please do not take anyone's word as gospel - including mine. Find your answers through research. Lately, there has been a lot of misinformation about Yoga and many related issues. Some people would have you think that all of the teaching opportunities are only in the studios. When you consider that Yoga sessions are taught in health clubs, church basements, kids day care centers, salons, and hundreds of other locations, where people of all ages meet, it is safe to say the 90% of the teaching opportunities are outside the studios.