I'll be your mirror

I co-facilitate a 200 hour hour yoga teacher training at Yogawood. We're at the point in the course where trainees are teaching segments of group classes. After the class, we sit down and dissect what worked really well, what can be improved, and how to implement growth. It is a beautiful practice, one where we see one another, honor the strength and courage it takes to put yourself out there, and celebrate the practice.

I love it.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I realized how to implement a mentorship that had been hovering around in my imagination. I realized it's a Mirrorship.

“We can’t find the truth only listening to our own voice’s echo. We can find ourselves only in someone’s mirror.” —Shams Tabrizi

You are your own best mentor. Let me be a mirror.

If you’re a 200 hour Yoga Alliance certified teacher, teaching public classes, let’s work together. We’ll establish a 3-month window in which we’ll complete our work. During that time, I’ll review* 5 of your public classes and give you specific feedback on what worked as well as what can be improved upon. We’ll get clear on your goals as a yoga teacher and how to reach them. We’ll circle in on your strengths and how they help you effectively share this ancient and wise practice. Your voice will get stronger and more clear. Your ability to communicate about what you do (also known as advertising) will become conscious and more authentic to who you are and how you operate. You’ll conclude the program with a greater awareness of yogic ethics as well as 15+ hours of on-going education to meet annual Yoga Alliance requirements.

We’ll work one-on-one to bring great awareness, care, and precision to your practice of teaching.

You can begin this program at any time. We’ll agree on a mutually convenient schedule.

To begin the program, complete this application. Purchase here. 

Within an agreed-upon 3 month period, the mentorship includes:

• Review of 5 open classes (recorded and discussed over GoogleChat or possibly in person if in the Philadelphia-area and able to schedule)
• Working together to goal set around teaching development
• Creating a solid plan to meet goals, which may include reading, journaling, or other concrete ways to grow teaching skills
• Strengthening teaching voice through specific feedback on word choice, effective direction, volume, and cadence to wisely guide students
• Assessing your strengths as a teacher and amplifying them
• Gaining clarity on how we communicate about teaching; including reviewing bio, social media outreach, website, and/or email lists
• Think through teaching ethics such as how and when to adjust and assist, boundaries, authentic marketing, and more
• Creating on-going experiences to learn
• Aligning with the work that inspires
• Gain 15+ hours of Yoga Alliance Continuing Education credits with a YACEP E-RYT Continuing Education provider

Location:

If you’re in the Philadelphia-area and we can smoothly coordinate schedules, we’ll meet primarily in person! If you’re outside of this area we’ll coordinate GoogleChat sessions to work together.

*If you live outside of the Philadelphia-area you’ll record your classes and email me audio or video files to review. Our meetings will occur over GoogleChat.

A little postscript! When this program came to me in a flash I also saw that the image was a tarot card with a mirror-- an ancient way of finding our own reflection and in it, clarity. It was such a pleasure to collaborate with Maggie Martin for the design! I commissioned the work, she gave me clear timelines, options, and edits to bring this idea into reality. I love giving the work visual clarity and am so grateful to work with artists towards those ends!

Story Telling for Yoga Teachers!

I LOVE STORY TELLING.

I lulled myself to sleep as a child by telling myself chapter after chapter of self-created epic tales. As a teenager, I went with my high school to a story telling festival in Johnson City, TN. We sat on hay bales and heard tall tales. I found out my grandmother had gone to college in the same town where I was currently flirting with a boy who had recently left stints with both Shakers and Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.

I love stories.

Yoga classes become alive for me when I feel mythology, archetype, and story in my body. I've loved yoga classes where teachers taught me through movement as well inspiration. This is one of my favorite aspects of teaching. A yoga class can be exercise-- there's nothing wrong with that. It can also be an event, a happening, an atmosphere co-created.

Last year, I took a workshop on story telling to test run some of my own ideas on the art form. Feeling solid in my approach, I offered a workshop at Yogawood on the topic. It was really fun! The topic lends itself well to an online approach so I have now adapted this to an online course! It's on sale until Christmas Day. I've created supplemental material available on my podcast!

You can take this course whenever. The content will meet you independently! You can find the support material clearly linked. Buy here!

Artist Katie Chappell had begun creating some images for me for another project. They became perfect fodder and accompaniment for this online course! Enjoy the whimsy and imaginative illustrations while you clear your creative voice.

This course is specifically designed for yoga teachers but accessible for anyone who wants to limber up their own imagination, access their own inspiration, and get more comfortable creating. 

This course is a great gift for the yoga teacher in your life! Please spread the word, get out there and inspire!

Want to take class with me? Download my podcast!

I'm a big believer in trusting your own inspiration. It often takes you down unexpected paths.

When I developed my online course I tested it with some trusted friends. One piece of feedback I received was to create supplementary material like examples of myself doing what I'm teaching in the course. I tried to figure out how I could do that best. Would I film myself and upload it on YouTube? There's definitely a lot of yoga teaching on YouTube, which can be great. Filming, getting a good, quiet location, appropriate lighting, and quality is an undertaking. I knew that I wanted to create and refine as I go. Filming seemed like a bigger task than I was up to for now.

I love podcasts and love learning through audio. I already had the equipment needed to create audio content. I began researching how to create a podcast... and it's an undertaking. But one that felt more accessible than creating content that's both audio and visual. Podcasts also seemed to open up more interesting pathways.

After massive research, I have now created a podcast on iTunes! Podcasts need a web home to create an RSS so after more research and friend feedback, I've created my podcast home on SquareSpace. I am feeling SO tech-savvy for once! I'm SEO-optimizing, creating RSS feeds, and all sorts of other stuff that I only vaguely understand!

The plan is to post a podcast of a class monthly. I may also post little teaching samples mainly geared towards other yoga teachers who are taking my online courses and looking for supplemental material. I'm toying with broadening this-- interviews and conversation may come.

I think the classes will really serve those of you who don't live near a yoga studio or when you're traveling and busy. I hope they help you keep your practice near and dear. These podcast classes are not designed for new students learning yoga. Those of you: please come to class! I'll teach you! The podcasts are for people with yoga experience who want to practice. I hope it serves.

Do you have other ideas of other ways you'd like me to use the podcast? Requests for the classes? People you want me to talk with? Email me! I'm about the collaborative life!

In the meantime, please subscribe to my podcast on iTunes and if you're so inclined, please give it a good rating and review on iTunes so it becomes more easily searchable to other listeners! Thank you and Jai!

Refresh

I've been so grateful to work with some awesome folks to make my services visible! Lauren Lopez crafted my first logo and website a few years ago. She's amazing. She and I have worked together in many capacities and I highly recommend her!

The logo she created and that I've used is:

As a lot of time has passed and my work vision is shifting and clarifying, it was time for an update! I really didn't know what I was after... I had a feeling but not a concept. A friend suggested I try 99designs so I could get an array of ideas to chose from. I started a contest on the website. At first, I got a LOT of lotus flowers and gentle women sitting cross-legged.

Nope.

As I responded, the designs changed. I logged in one evening and caught my breath. A designer had submitted a venn diagram, the right sphere lifting slightly like it was launching out to space. In the overlap space there was a silhouette.

THAT.

That concept. I teach venn diagrams ALL THE TIME. What does this yogic myth teach us about our own lives? What does Fado music teach us about bhakti? What is the space between? How do we see ourselves when we're thrown into shadow, against light?

The design felt like it actually communicated my work.

And it didn't feel like anything else-- meaning, it didn't feel trendy, or like a fad, or predictable. It actually felt connected to what I do.

I started working with the designer on refining. I began googling cameos and getting excited about their history, about the subjects sitting against light for their profile to emerge. Seeing oneself in the contrast. I offered suggestions and the profile shifted slightly. We added gradiant color. The type was edited.

Slowly, it came to life.

I eagerly awarded this design and the designer the contest award. And here it is. My new logo!

Once the logo was in place my new website came together effortlessly. I've tried to take on more of this upkeep myself so I did my website design on wix! It's been really fun to figure out how to effectively organize the information. I'll be able to maintain this myself easily.

As I've pulled all of this together I feel fresh life being breathed into my work. I have a lot of ideas about what's to come: more writing, more online classes, a podcast, more teaching, and collaboration. I'm glad to have a home to share what I'm up to!

In the spirit of breathing life into life, I'm offering my first online course at a discount. I built this course over the span of many months, tested it with trusted sources, commissioned fantastic art work from Katie Chappell and am so glad to share it with you! This is a $60 class that I'm offering at a discount until Christmas! Please purchase NOW at the $40 rate and tell me where the inspiration takes you!

To creating!