Blog

When people ask me what style of yoga I teach or where I learned yoga, I proudly identify as a “Kripalu Yoga Teacher.” When I completed my RYT-500 yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Massachusetts, I earned this designation. More than just factually correct, I feel connected to the Kripalu lineage and I teach most of my classes as Kripalu Yoga.

I have decided to write a series of blog posts about how I teach yoga. I plan to write these blog posts for both yoga students and teachers. This series is for the people who stick around after my classes to ask questions and the folks who sign up for my newsletter. It's also for teachers curious about the details of how a fellow yoga teacher goes about his work.

Once again I accepted the challenge this month and so far it is going well. This time around feels easier because it mostly has involved re-committing in some areas where I had started to allow some single-use plastic into our house. For instance, I'm back to more consistently peeling carrots and making my own hummus rather than buying bags of baby carrots and plastic containers of hummus.

When people go to a yoga class, they typically expect the instructor to teach them yoga. While this may seem utterly obvious, this is, in some respects, an unreasonable expectation. Yoga teachers can't really teach people yoga. We can offer postures, breathwork, meditation, relaxation, and advice about how to practice, but each yoga student must find their own way. Each of us must, in a sense, teach ourselves yoga.

The death of a spouse or life partner can be one of the most distressing events that a person can experience. Of the people who experience spousal loss, just 5-7% of them are 49 or younger. Next month, starting July 10, will be the first meeting of a Yoga + Support Group for Young Widows that I am facilitating with Talia Singer, MSW, LICSW, a clinical therapist.

The MN Yoga Conference is this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. The conference brings together yogis of all levels from across Minnesota and surrounding states. It targets all levels of students, including beginners, advanced students, and yoga teachers. I'll be leading a session on Sunday called "Reclaim Your Attention."

I love teaching yoga at the Minnesota Arboretum, and last night was no exception. I had a fantastic time leading Yin Yoga and Sound Healing in the Sculpture Gardens. This was the first outdoor event of the summer Yoga in the Gardens schedule. The weather was unseasonably warm and just right for yoga.

I have been thinking a lot about attention recently. "Reclaim Your Attention" is the title of my article in the current issue of MN Yoga + Life Magazine and the workshop I will be offering at the MN Yoga Conference next month. With both of those, I focus on using techniques such as yoga, meditation, breathwork, and chanting to improve attention. Here I'd like to mention one way I have been using software to help pay attention.