Kelly McGonigal’s new book,  Yoga for Pain Relief
was just released.  You can find it on Amazon.

Kelly is a good friend, and Stanford psychology instructor and prominent yoga teacher, in Palo Alto, California.  In this book, she shows readers how the wisdom of yoga and the latest skills drawn from mind-body research can end the physical and emotional suffering of chronic pain. Yoga for Pain Relief is packed with gentle postures and practical  strategies for ending pain.

This complete mind-body tool kit for healing also includes deep
relaxation practices drawn from the yogic tradition and psychological
techniques for helping you make peace with your body and dissolve
pain. As the ancient practice of yoga releases the hold that chronic
pain has over your life, you will begin to feel more like yourself
again.

About Kelly:

Listen to her YogaPeeps.com interview here.

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., is an award-winning instructor at Stanford
University in Palo Alto, CA, where she teaches yoga, psychology, and
healthy back classes. She is a leader in the field of mind-body
science and she provides teacher trainings and continuing education
for yoga, fitness, and health care professionals. McGonigal is
editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and a
frequent writer for publications such as Yoga Journal and IDEA Fitness
Journal.

Visit Kelly Online:

www.kellymcgonigal.com
And on twitter: http://twitter.com/kellymcgonigal

“This book is devoted to teaching you yoga practices that will help
you unlearn habits of suffering and create new healing habits of mind
and body. Yoga emphasizes the innate capacity each person has to
experience health and joy. Yoga practices are the tools to awaken this
capacity and heal your pain.” —Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., from Yoga For
Pain Relief

I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to you for supporting Yoga Peeps with your love, energy and donations.  Your listening and feedback means the world to me.  You are all up to wonderful things simply by practicing yoga, and I am honored to be a part of your journey.

I am reaching out to you, because my goal is to continue my work with Yoga Peeps. Presently, I am caring for my 2 year old son, Luca, as a stay at home mom.  Many of you have heard him in the background of the interviews.  I began this Yoga Peeps podcast just before becoming pregnant with him.  Sadly, there is a chance that the interviews you download from Yoga Peeps will end, as I have been unable to financially support myself from this work.

I invite you to consider how much Yoga Peeps has enhanced your yoga journey.  Are you, like me, incredibly inspired and educated through the stories you hear?  Has your life, like mine, been positively changed as a result of these podcasts?  Are you a better instructor or practitioner as a result of these interviews?

If so, my request, is that you make a donation to show your support.  Consider giving $5 a month, $25 annually, or simply paying $1 for every interview you have listened to.  The truth is, without your financial contributions, I simply can not continue to offer these interviews.

It takes me 10-15 hours from the first email inviting someone to an interview, to the final interview editing and online for you to listen to.

Know that your donation will allow me to balance both nurturing my son, while continuing to produce meaningful work that is life changing, both for myself and potentially, for you.

Please go to YogaPeeps.com and make your donation today.  Just click on the “Make a Donation” button on the right hand side of the page– it’s very easy.  Share the over 70 Yoga peeps interviews with your friends, and our circumstances will be quickly transformed.

Deepest gratitude for listening, for your financial contribution, and for supporting the yoga community.  May your gift  to us, be returned to you infinitely.

Namaste.

Dear Lara,

I was thinking it might be interesting to have an interview with a yoga studio owner in Mexico now with the Swine flu having closed down the studios in Mexico City, here in Puerto Vallarta we remain open. All social clubs, cinemas have been closed and the kids are all home from school. The folks NEED the yoga and have begged me to stay open. We have a small community and have posted a sign on the door asking people to practice at home if they have any symptoms of a cold. Otherwise, we are all happy to be practicing peace together and finding some calm in the storm.

Anna Laurita
davannayoga owner
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

www.davannayoga.com

I got this letter from Anna last week, during the flu outbreak in Mexico.  Thank you Anna for sharing your yoga with the Peeps!

Why do you practice yoga?

I practice yoga so as to be a better service to my family and my community.

How did you begin practicing yoga? What advice do you have for beginners?

I began practicing yoga in Kathmandu Nepal while on a trekking trip. I awoke early and went to a teacher nearby and had a private class. I was hooked but then had three children in 4 years so my yoga practice varied between pranayama, pre-natal yoga and regular yoga classes with consciousness. Finally after all children were on there way, I went deeper into my practice and found various teachers I enjoyed.

Advice for beginners: 1) find a teacher you connect with and trust; 2) choose a great feeling space and comfortable beginner’s class OR hire a private teacher.  Ask all the questions you want after the practice. Come with questions! ; 3) Study essential books on yoga.  ; 4) Let yourself relax and enjoy!

Who are your most influential teachers?

My teachers are a combination of maybe lesser known teachers and some very famous teachers: MorningStar Borzoni (Merida, Mexico – now in SF, CA) for her sense of humor and teaching us to take our yoga and lives lightly.  A lovely French woman in Brazil named Nicole who taught me essential Pranayama and after my third child returned my body to a beautiful shape with almost exclusively pranayama.  And of course my most well known teacher Master Duncan Wong who helped me through the ranks of certification.  I work with him at his teachers trainings and have assisted at international conferences. He is strong yet compassionate and will break postures down for students to help them deepen their practice with confidence. His assists are like none other.  Baptiste Marceau’s pranayama practices are amazing (he lives in Mex. City – Marcel Marceau’s son!)   I also study sequences and philosophies of Jivamukti’s founders Sharon and David (who are two of Duncan’s teachers along with Pattabhi Jois).  I also study Buddhist philosophy and find inspiration in Buddha’s teachings.

What is the best thing about teaching? The most challenging?

The best thing about teaching is helping people to become strong and healthy in mind and body. To hear from someone “I feel GOOD!”. Then to see a student go on to be a teacher because they were so inspired. Finally having a reason to continue studying is a GREAT thing about teaching. I am usually teaching the majority of classes in the yoga shala. I have to vary the practices, vary the teachings. Nothing can be the same or boring. The students rely on me to make the yoga practice special. Therefore I HAVE to study, study, study and practice, practice, practice.

The most challenging is perhaps having a small studio and teaching all classes at All Levels. I teach on an Individual Asana Basis adjusting the asanas for individual students. People come in at all different levels. My challenge is to create a class that is beneficial to all. I may have one student in an Eka Pada Bakasana while the others are in Bakasana Prep. postures.   Also finding good teachers in a small town can be a challenge. I am blessed to have “Resident teachers” fly in for the season (I have two visiting from China – students also of Duncan Wong) and have one amazing teacher who helps me year around (She is a Sivananda student who studied in India).  I also constantly challenge myself to keep the teachings authentic.

Do you have any advice for beginner teachers?

Mentor a teacher you love. Start in a small studio with fewer students. Or volunteer at a community center. Be grateful to your students. Smile a lot. Thank the students always at the beginning and at the end. Greet the students as they come in the door and as they exit. Keep studying and continue your private practice.

Tell us about your practice now, (when, how long) , and what are some of the challenges in your practice?

I practice usually 1 hour per day 3-4 times per week always in the morning. Sometimes very early (before 6).  I study atleast as many hours and practice meditation in addition. I teach 17-20 classes per week.

What pose do you struggle with?  Gomukhasana – left arm up hand bind.

How do you keep asana fresh? I go to free podcasts and listen to other teachers when I feel stale. I also read the Bhagavad Gita or other essential books like the Yoga Sutras and create a theme from a section of one of those texts to base a practice on. I also go to international conferences and practice with international teachers there as well as those that come through Mexico (there are many as this is a good retreat part of the world and sometimes they let local teachers come for the day although it can be expensive).

What insights into your practice have you gained from when you began? To go slower, be quieter, and that bandha, bandha, bandha will save the world! Also that meditation is very important.

What is your meditation practice, is a movement practice outside, or is a still indoor sort of practice ?  Both actually. I love to walk and have a silent meditation while walking. I love to cook also and find meditation in that. I enjoy seated guided meditation as well as very quiet sitting meditation. I ADORE teaching children the benefits of sitting quietly and meditating even if for 2-3 minutes. They open their eyes with such a smile.

What books do you love? Like Water for Chocolate; The Life of Pi; Bhagavad Gita; Light on Life; Light on Yoga; Yoga Nidra; The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching; Jivamukti Yoga Practice for Liberation, Body and Soul; Yoga and Vegetarianism; The World Peace Diet; The Autobiography of a Yogi;Gosh…I could go on forever!

What music do you love? Jazz, East Indian music, yoga music in general I find relaxing…for my Yogic Arts classes I love Brazilian music and African rhythm music. I also enjoy some electronica music.

How do you share yoga in non-asana ways? I am a vegetarian and I share yoga by speaking proudly about vegetarianism and how it relates to yoga (yamas/ niyamas). I also share yoga (and metta) by volunteering in my community. I help new mom’s with lactation – they call me when they have issues and I go to them for free to help; I give a free weekly yoga class to the children at the Colegio Americano and it is open to all children of Vallarta – it is an after school Yoga Club.    I began a program in my yoga shala of donating your old yoga mat to the animal shelters around town to help animals live a more comfortable life while awaiting adoption and to use in the spay and neuter clinics around town (there are many clinics as there are many stray animals on the streets of Mexico).

Which of the Yamas are you most involved with these days? The Niyamas?

I spout on about ahimsa and Vegetarianism. I can also relate vegetarianism to all of the yama’s.
Certainly with the Niyamas I am closely involved these days as the Swine Flu sweeps through Mexico.  I am cleaning mats daily (Saucha); I am content that my children are home with me during this time (santosha) also I am content that we have no cases of swine flu in PV; Tapas (heat ) well I live here as I LOVE a hot yoga class… the heat in vallarta is daily. Svadhyaya is ongoing as I live in a small town and have to study a lot as I can’t just go to other classes all the time. There aren’t many to choose from here. We are all surrendering to god in this flu!

(yamas:ahimsa (nonharming), satya(truth), asteya(nonstealing),brahmacharya(purity), aparigraha(nongreed)
niyamas: saucha(cleanliness), samtosha(contentment), tapas(heat), svadhyaya(study of scriptures&self), isvara pranidhana(surrender to god)

If you had a huge audience, what would you teach or share with them? It depends on the audience of course; I love to share with them the freedom of a dancing style of Yogic Arts(tm) I also love to share with them the happiness of breathing…really breathing in your Vinyasa Flow class. I would help them open their hips and give them all some thai massage throughout.

What are you working on now?  Preparing for tomorrow’s Children’s yoga class where we will have a Zen Buddhist children’s meditation at the end of the practice (tomorrow is Buddha day!);  Preparing my 1st Anniversary party where we will give away t-shirts; celebrate with 108 Sun Salutations; and I will cook delicious vegetarian food for them! Also  I am working on a variety of Vinyasa Flow sequences that I can video for those students that travel in the Summer. Finally  A childrens book about my cat that sits in my yoga classes – she was surely a yogini in a past life.

Who would you love to hear interviewed on YogaPeeps.com? Duncan Wong

Hala Khouri, M.A., has been teaching the movement arts for sixteen years. Her roots are in Ashtanga, Iyengar and Anusara yoga, dance, Capoeira, CORE energetics, and the juicy mystery of Life itself.

Hala earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Religion from Columbia University and has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

She is one of the creators of Off the Mat, Into the World, a yoga and activism initiative that aims to get yogis to take their practice outside of the yoga studio and to touch the lives of others. Visit: www.offthematintotheworld.org

Hala has taught yoga and the movement arts to a wide variety of people ranging from schizophrenics and at-risk youth to mommies and rock stars.  She currently teaches at Exhale, in Venice California.  Visit her online at: www.halakhouri.com

For more read an article about her in Yogi Times

Kathryn Nicolai,

“The person I was ten years ago would never have done yoga. I was obese, unhappy, and very unhealthy. The only physical activity I experienced involved moving from the couch to the fridge and back again. Although I was a vegetarian my version of a meat-free diet was chocolate cake and french fries. Over the next few years I bounced from one addiction to another. I went from overeating and never exercising to frantically counting calories, skipping meals altogether, and working out for hours everyday. One night after my 3rd kickboxing class in as many hours my shin splints and bleeding feet finally forced me to give up. I knew my body wouldn’t let me get back on the stair climber but not wanting to stop working out I wandered into a yoga class.

That first class sold me; not because I was finding some peace but because I had found a new addiction and a new way to compete with myself. I found out that I was very flexible and although I wasn’t very strong I could see that changing quickly. Rather than practice yoga in a balanced sensible way, I attacked yoga, determined that I could beat it and maybe be crowned Queen Yogini.

Overtime the practice and the words of my teachers started to soak in; I stopped competing and slowly started to accept the nature of my own body. Yoga stopped being about battling with myself and became about nurturing myself.

Along the way I found myself wanting to be more involved in yoga. I started teaching at Samadhi Yoga Center in Flushing in 2001 and went on to train with Jonny Kest at the Center for Yoga in West Bloomfield in 2003. I gained invaluable experience teaching at both of the studios mentioned above as well as at Prana Yoga Center in Grand Blanc, and Continuity Yoga in Ypsilanti. Another big piece of my education came when I sat 10 days of Vipassana Meditation in 2005. The concepts of Vipassana, namely accepting reality as it is and recognizing the impermanent nature of all things, greatly influence the way I practice and teach yoga.

While I was doing my teacher training, my mom was working on her Masters in Counseling and at one point we realized that we’d been assigned the same books. The more we talked shop the more we realized that we were doing very similar work in different venues. We wondered, “What if we combine our work in one facility?” The idea for Ethos was born. We wanted to offer a place where people could go to let go of stress and find a healthier, more balanced mind and body.

Nearly seven years and thousands of practices after that first class, I have balance in my life and I’m eager to share what I’ve learned. For me, peace of mind and equanimity are not products of squeezing yourself into crazy postures but of the knowledge that comes from understanding just how your body and mind work. I have been an overeater and a non-eater, afraid of exercise and obsessed with it, finally I have reached a point of balance and peace and I invite you to do the same”.

Kathryn Nicolai, co-owner, CYT
kathryn@ethosyoga.net
www.ethosyoga.net
(248) 328-YOGA

ethos yoga
113 South Saginaw Street
in historic downtown
Holly, Michigan

From www.pranaflownz.com, Kara Leah writes,

“I’m someone who’s life has been profoundly changed in every way because of yoga.

I remember walking into my first class when I was 20 years old – it was held on Auckland’s North Shore and was an Iyengar class. I’d had a spinal fusion four years prior and I was the stiffest person in the class by far. When we went into a standing forward bend, I was hunched over like an old woman, struggling to reach my knees. Yes – my knees!

I knew then that yoga was something I was meant to do, but it was another three or four years before I found my way to another class, this time in Whistler, Canada. Again, I pre-paid for a ten week course, this time an astanga-based class. I remember in our first or second class the teacher brought us into Virabhadrasana I and it touched something deep inside of me I wasn’t ready to face. I stopped right in the middle of the posture, and ran from the class, never going back to complete that course.

It took severe pain and some disheartening news about the state of my spine (degenerative disc disease!) from a doctor to send me back to yoga. When I re-started, I had intense sciatic pain down my right leg, half of my right foot was numb and I was walking with a limp.

Today, eight years later, I am pain free. I can finally sit in Dandasana with my legs flat on the ground and I have full sensation back in my right foot.

But yoga has touched me in many ways other than physical – it has taught me how to live life, and how to open my heart again. It has taught me to accept myself, and to accept others. Best of all, it has reminded me of the joy that is to be found in all moments of life. All we need to is stop, take a breath and then laugh at the absurdity of this human life.

As Twee Merrigan says, “How can I hate traffic when I AM traffic?”

So now, living in Wellington after many years overseas in Canada, I am combining my love of writing with my passion for yoga. My intention with this site, and with my life, is to share my passion for yoga with as many people as possible. Let’s get the whole world doing yoga – whatever type or style of yoga that might be.

Yoga to me means to connect, to unite. It means expanding and opening. So anything that we do that connects us to each other, that unites us as one, that expands and opens us outward… this is yoga”.

Kara-Leah teaches at at Configure Express Kilbirnie, and at Kelburn Rec Centre at Victoria University, in Wellington, New Zealand.

Visit her at her site and blog: www.pranaflownz.com

Chandra has spent most of her life in service to humanity, disseminating the ancient knowledge of how to achieve radiant health and spiritual development through the science of Yoga. She is the founder and director of the North Carolina School of Yoga, and the Senior teacher and Disciple of Sri Dharma Mittra. Chandra was born in Miami, and raised in New York, where she met her Guru and Teacher, Sri Dharma Mittra. After intense study, immersion and practice of the eight limbs of Yoga, she was accepted and initiated by Sri Dharma as Chandra Om (meaning ‘Moon’, ‘Luminous’, ‘Bright and Shining’), and remains with him to this day. Chandra was initiated into the family as a religious student who devotes herself to her teacher and the practice of spiritual disciplines—one who renounces the world in order to achieve liberation.

Visit her online at:www.ncschoolofyoga.com

In 1981, Rodney began to study yoga full time at the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute and at The Yoga Room in Berkeley.  In 1987, after becoming a certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, he opened the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, CA, with Richard Rosen and Claire Finn.

Presently, in addition to teaching at Yoga Shanti, Rodney leads teacher trainings, workshops, and retreats nationally and internationally with Colleen.  In Spring 2007, Rodney and Colleen were co-chairs and panelists for the Urban Zen Initiative, a forum dedicated to integrating eastern healing arts into the western medical paradigm.  They are now helping to run the Health and Wellness branch of Urban Zen, a world-wide initiative of Donna Karan’s.   Rodney has also been featured in over 30 video titles and numerous audio recordings with Gaiam.  He has written two books, Yoga: the Poetry of the Body and Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee, both in collaboration with Nina Zolotow.

Colleen is  graduate of Jivamukti’s Teacher Training program in 1998, she has been teaching ever since. Colleen has been featured in both The New York Times and New York Magazine and in November 2003, was on the cover of Yoga Journal. A consummate student, Colleen has traveled throughout Europe and Asia studying alternative medicine and spiritual healing. Colleen holds a certification in Shiatsu and lived in Calcutta, India working with Mother Theresa at the Home of the Destitute and Dying.

Colleen owes tremendous gratitude for her studies of bhakti and vinyasa to David Life and Sharon Gannon. She also offers thanks to the many other teachers with whom she has studied, as well as to Rodney Yee, who remains her principal teacher. Five years ago, Colleen opened Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor, New York.

Rodney and Colleen are raising and being raised by four awesome children, Evan, Adesha, Rachel, and Johanna.

Visit them online at:
www.gaiamyogaclub.com
www.yogashanti.com
www.yeeyoga.com
www.urbanzen.org

Seane Corn’s classes combine a vigorous, fluid vinyasa or “flow” style with emphasis on intention and prayer — a mix she says encourages an inner journey toward self-awareness, acceptance and empowerment.

Seane has been featured in magazines including Glamour, Self and Allure and has become one of the most sought-after yoga teachers in America. Her clients have included Sting, Heather Graham, Ashley Judd, Drew Barrymore, David Duchovny, Elizabeth Berkley, Sally Field and Dr. Caroline Myss.

Seane was first introduced to yoga during the late ’80s, as a teenager waiting tables at David Life’s Life Cafe in New York City. She became close with David and with her fellow waitress Sharon Gannon, who together with Life later opened the Jivamukti Yoga Centers.

In 1992, Seane moved to Los Angeles and began studying at Yoga Works in Santa Monica, where she learned from some of the most renowned teachers in the country including Patricia Walden, Rodney Yee, Richard Freeman, Eddie Modestini, Tim Miller, Maty Ezraty, Chuck Miller, Lisa Walford, Erich Schiffman, John Friend and Shandor Remete. She also trained in India under Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and studied with the spiritual teacher Ammachi Barbara Soloman and Mona Miller.
Seane teaches at Exhale in Venice, Calif., and travels extensively teaching workshops, conferences and retreats internationally. She is a devoted supporter of programs for at-risk girls and women and has joined with her friend Ashley Judd in supporting fundraising and awareness-campaigns for the educational nonprofit YouthAIDS.  She is also co-creator of www.offthematintotheworld.org

Visit: www.seanecorn.com