Yogaland Podcast

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 yourself, as you are.Self-awareness -- taking a look inward and acknowledging your areas of strength and your areas of challenge.Self-regulation -- understanding the science behind the different stress responses and learning what you need to do in your practice to have a balanced response to stress and adversity.Self-direction -- harness your creative energy, kick imposter syndrome to the curb, and embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.If you'd like to learn more about the program, go to learn.jasonyoga.com/reset and jump on the waitlist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

29 Nov 202345min

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 asana, pranayama, and meditation as part of your support system. Lisa also opens up about her own personal immune health challenges since she was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. This conversation was a beautiful reminder of the many ways that yoga can help us to heal when we start from a place of care and attention.About Lisa:Lisa Walford holds a Level III (formerly Intermediate Senior II) Iyengar teaching certificate and has been teaching yoga in Los Angeles since 1982. She continues her studies annually with the Iyengars, in Pune, India, and teaches worldwide. Lisa is the curriculum director for the Teacher Training Program at The Center for Yoga in Los Angeles. Previously, she co-created the Teacher Training Program at YogaWorks. She is on the advisory board of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and the Yoga Studies program at Loyola Marymount University. For shownotes for this episode, got to yogalandpodcast.com/episode314Thank you, as always for listening and sharing. If you'd like get regular updates from us, join our mailing list at jasonyoga.com/newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Okt 20231h

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 for these poses on our website! Find them on the shownotes page here: yogalandpodcast.com/episode313Jason has also created a tutorial on his Youtube channel so that you can see the variations he refers to in the episode. Check it out here: youtube.com/@JasonCrandellYoga Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

6 Okt 202346min

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 this episode including:How yoga came into her life and helped her begin to heal from lossThe thing that surprised her most when she left investment banking to become a yoga teacherHow the pandemic helped her reassess her teaching schedule and pursue other avenues to share yogaHow intuition and persistence have led to the biggest leaps in her careerThe necessity of being willing to fail as she pursued opportunities in her teaching careerHow she pitched Melissa Williams Health and what she will be sharing there.You can now take classes with Neeti Narula on Melissa Wood Health ! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Sep 20231h 1min

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, mobility. They're also aesthetically beautiful and novel -- unless you're a gymast or a pro skateboarder, you won't likely encounter shapes like these in your daily life. So, they're fun! And fun is truly valuable in life and in yoga. A little bit about what we mean by "best" -- these are families of arm balances that are accessible and emphasize stability and strength. They are poses that can be broken down into steps so that you feel your confidence grow as you progress. As with anything in life, we want to offer ourselves or our students just enough challenge, but not too much. That's what these families of poses do.To get some sequences where you can work on the arm balances mentioned in this episode, go to the shownotes page here: yogalandpodcast.com/podcast/episode311Also: We're closing early bird registration for Jason's 200-Hour Online Teacher Training this Saturday! You can learn more and enroll at learn.jasonyoga.com/200 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 Sep 202349min

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 are a fantastic antidote. But which backbends are most beneficial for beginners and why? Jason shares his thoughts on this episode. We talk about:Prone backbends like Locust Pose, Medium-Sized Cobra, and SphinxKneeling backbends like Cobra and New School AnjaneyasanaReclined backbends like Bridge Pose and Lying over a blockLearn the best approaches and modifications for these poses. And find lots of sequences to help you practice them by going to the shownotes page here: jasonyoga.com/podcast/episode310 *******************************************************************************************TWO ANNOUNCEMENTSEarly bird registration for Jason's 200-Hour YTT is open! Go join today and save $300! jasonyoga.com/200If you're thinking about training but want to learn more, Jason is leading a free webinar that will walk you through his 200-hour online YTT. You can register here: jasonyoga.com/webinar******************************************************************************************* Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Sep 202350min

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 reminisce about all the ways that learning this discipline deepens your understanding of yourself and changes hows you move through the world.PS: Early bird registration for Jason's 200-Hour Online YTT is open! Get all the details here: jasonyoga.com/200 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

6 Sep 202340min

Today's conversation is with Alison Zak, who recently published her first book, "Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World." Zak's unique nature memoir artfully weaves together her personal stories, ecological context, and yoga asana. Her book is a moving and urgent call for us to remember our connection to the natural world. As Zak says, "We're more alike than different from even the animals that might seem quite different from ourselves, like a scorpion or a fish."Wild Asana is the next selection for the Yogaland Book Club, which I host on my Substack. You can sign up for the book club: yogaland.substack.com and Alison will join us on October 24th. Other announcements: Jason and I are hosting a webinar this Thursday, August 31st on the topic of Yoga Teacher Training as Self-Transformation. You can register for this free live webinar here: jasonyoga.com/webinarHe'll leave some time at the end for questions and a brief overview of his upcoming online 200-hour teacher training program.You can access all of this info and more on the shownotes page: yogalandpodcast.com/episode308If you enjoy the podcast, don't forget to Subscribe and share it with friends, colleagues, your cat, your cat's colleagues. Just checking to see if you're still reading. Sharing really does help get the word out, so, my sincerest thanks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

29 Aug 202345min