Category: Sage Advice
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Retreats, Workshops, Intentions, and Goals
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My teaching schedule for this fall includes both several workshops and a very special retreat, too. What’s the difference between a retreat and a workshop? I’m glad you asked! (Let’s pretend you asked.)
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Satisfaction Equals Perception Minus Expectations
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One of our teachers at Carolina Yoga Company also teaches business classes at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. There, she told me, she tells her students that customer satisfaction follows this formula: Satisfaction = Perception − Expectations. Satisfaction is a result of what the consumer perceived they received minus what they expected…
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Update or Create Your Yoga Résumé
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Do you have a yoga résumé? If so, have you brushed it up lately? If not, you’ll find a template to download and use at yogateacherhandbook.com, the page here keyed to my latest book. All the prompts are right in that document, so you can pop in your personal details and stand head-and-shoulders above other…
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Guide: The Fastest, Cheapest, and Best Way to Improve Your Teaching
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Feedback helps us grow as teachers. But as yoga teachers, we don’t often get much feedback. Our students vote with their feet—they return or don’t. We may not receive evaluation from our employers or clients, and when we do, it might be focused on metrics other than the quality of our teaching. The good news…
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Sage Advice: Medical Emergencies in Class
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The first article I ever wrote for Yoga Journal gives advice to yoga teachers about how to deal with medical emergencies in class. Despite every studio’s and teacher’s efforts to create a safe environment, such medical emergencies do happen in yoga classes, as a result of either an acute injury or an underlying condition. Knowing…
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Listen: “Meet the Moment,” Wanderlust Speakeasy
In 2015, I gave a talk at Wanderlust Snowshoe in the Speakeasy—the festival’s version of a TED Talk. I was so nervous! While I’m no stranger to public speaking, this was next-level stress. Instead of the yoga or meditation teaching I’m used to doing, I was talking philosophically about lessons I’ve learned in life. The talk was…
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Sage Advice: What Changed?
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Like many yoga teachers, often I find students asking me questions after class about ways to relieve a pain that’s newly emerged. In general, I shy away from answering such questions—I’m not that kind of doctor, but if you need a literary text critically analyzed, let me know—and I encourage my teacher trainees to acknowledge…
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Sage Advice: Mudras for Attention
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Sharon in Paris wrote: I am writing to ask you a very interesting question that a student posed to me this morning. I recently taught an apana mudra (index finger tucked, middle and ring touching thumb, pinky out) to facilitate deep breathing. I’m also a runner and one of my runner students asked me if…
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Sage Advice: Yoga During T2
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Eleanore asked an interesting question: Is there a good pose to do during T2 [the second transition, from bike to run, in a triathlon]? Something to help facilitate the transition from bike to run? Not for a sprint tri, but more for longer distance races where an extra two minutes spent in transition might be regained…
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North Carolina Literary Festival
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If you’re in central North Carolina this weekend, join me at the North Carolina Literary Festival at N.C. State University, where I’ll speak at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday, April 6). While the title of my talk is “Intention and Goals: Tools for Your Personal Best,” I’m looking forward to talking about whatever will be most…
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Excerpt from Racing Wisely: Wise Mental Skills
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Please enjoy this excerpt from Racing Wisely, online at Competitor Running today. Yoga students will recognize the approach outlined here, as will experienced endurance athletes. I hope it’ll inspire you to pay attention to your form and breath, to sharpen your focus, and, frankly, to buy the book, which you can be reading in its…
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Download Now: Racing Wisely
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It’s here! At least, the e-book is: you can achieve instant gratification toward long-term satisfaction in your sport by downloading the e-book edition of Racing Wisely. It’s just like the print copy will be, without taking up space or trees. For Kindle, visit Amazon. You can also read online using Kindle. For all other versions (Apple iBook,…