Yogaland Podcast

Jason joins me on this episode, where we delve into the practice of letting go. We talk about the many instances where the concept of letting go appears in yoga philosophy, why it's beneficial, and what is required before we endeavor to let go. We also share our personal journeys toward cultivating emotional maturity, surrender, and resilience in the face of life's challenges.Highlights:02:37 The Art of Letting Go03:08 Core Strength and Yoga Philosophy10:48 The Concept of Surrender in Yoga16:13 Practical Applications of Letting Go22:42 The Importance of Inner Safety25:31 Exploring the Sensation of Safety in Yoga26:05 Meditation and Inner Resilience26:50 Community and Mindfulness28:20 The Mental Game in Yoga Poses31:43 Present Moment Awareness34:59 Letting Go of Future Worries37:44 Personal Stories of Letting Go43:24 Challenges of Aging and Physical Limitations

On this solo podcast, Jason shares a roadmap for making a sustainable living as a yoga teacher. He breaks down the importance of yoga teacher training in your career development, the importance of learning to teach higher ticket offerings, and the best ways to develop and maintain a consistent student base.Highlights:Internal success and contentmentThe role of yoga teacher trainingThe 4 aspects of making a livingYoga Teacher MindsetUnderstanding the Yoga EconomyDeveloping and Maintaining StudentsEmbracing Change & AdaptationTrain with Jason's Yoga Alliance accredited trainings! Enroll in his 300-Hour YTT: jasonyoga.com/300Hone your sequencing with Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing: jasonyoga.com/sequencingThe last yoga anatomy course you will need to take! Essential Yoga Anatomy: jasonyoga.com/anatomy

Jason joins me on this episode to talk about the challenges of making a living as a yoga teacher and how he has managed those challenges over the past 30 years. There have been many twists and turns and even some failures. We give you a peek behind the curtain of his career, honing in on 6 pivotal moments and what Jason learned from them.Related to this episode! Next week Jason is hosting a webinar where he shares his roadmap how to make it as a yoga teacher. You can sign up for this free webinar at www.jasonyoga.com/webinar

Giana Gambino and Bradshaw Wish of CAYA Yoga School join me this week to talk all things yoga retreats! These two have come together to create a dream-team when it comes to retreats -- they offer several domestic and international retreats per year (look for their 2025 retreat in Italy) and they've honed their process. They generously share all of their secrets in this conversation. We cover:How they split the workload (and the payout)Planning itineraries vs. farming them outTheir marketing/sales calendarWhat goes into pricing (and what you might be forgetting)The food! (the thing participants often complain about the most)Funny retreat snafus and how they handled themWhy you should never put a charcuterie board out if Bradshaw is on retreat with youYou can get to know Giana and Bradshaw better on their podcast A Funny Thing About YogaI'll put links to their retreats and yoga school on the shownotes page here: yogalandpodcast.com/episode332

Learn how to improve your Camel Pose (Ustrasana) and help your students go deeper. This episode breaks down how to make the lower back, knees, and neck more comfortable in this posture. It also outlines the best cues to help everyone feel stronger, more flexible, and more comfortable in this backbend.

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.

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 social emotional skills of the people there. On this episode, Erin talks about how her yoga skills are transferable to the dog therapy work she does: Her years of teaching yoga make it easy for her to communicate clearly and effectively with the dog/human "teams" she trains. Her trauma-informed yoga certification means she understands the importance of giving kids choice and agency when they're working with the dogs. Erin finds that splitting her time between Canine Inspired Change and working as a yoga teacher afford her balance and stability that she might not have if she chose one over the other. Most importantly, as the folks she works with gain a variety of skills -- from more confidence to self-compassion to self-regulation -- she gets to witness the healing power of dogs firsthand.

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 fun with her magnetic and charismatic presence in our talk. In our conversation she shares:How she became a self-proclaimed "accidental activist"Ideas for creating a more equitable classHow thinness is not equivalent to fitnessWeight-training, Pilates, and yoga as complements to each other, especially during menopauseHow being in diverse spaces helps us see more beautyBeing true to ourselves and our conditioning when it comes to body positivityTo learn more about Dianne, go to our shownotes page: https://yogalandpodcast.com/episode330

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 found at yogalandpodcast.com/episode329