DC Yoga Podcast Episode 41- Nancy Talley "You need to go to Yoga!"

- Working and teaching in Occoquan VA- "mouth of the river."

- History of Soaring Spirit Yoga

- Falling into owning a yoga studio

- The nuts and bolts of running a yoga studio

- Working in the fashion industry...and then leaving the fashion industry

- Finding Kundalini yoga in California

- Yoga classes out West- pranayama, meditation, mantra. Not just Asana

- Moving from 90 min classes to 75 min classes to 60 min classes over time

- Yoga clearing the mind to help deal with a job you don't like but also helping to realize the job isnt worth the dealing.

- How gifts can fulfill and also drain

- Running a yoga studio during the explosion of yoga in the late 2000s

- Offering yoga to a community that practices for stress reduction not physical fitness

- Learning how to teach to the room

- The Quarantine

- Transitioning to Zoom classes...and seeing enrollment go up

- Virtual Yoga Teacher Training

- Developing studio culture without dictating content

- Self Practice and Self regulation

- The importance of Japppa

- The importance of adductor muscles

- Riding motorcycles

Bio:

Nancy began her yogic journey in 1997 while working in the Los Angeles fashion industry. To relieve stress and insomnia she explored Kundalini and Restorative classes but soon found Vinyasa to be her calling. She attended the White Lotus Foundation to study under Ganga White and Tracey Rich for her 200 hour RYT in Santa Barbara, CA. Nancy received her 500 hour RYT through Beloved Yoga in Reston, VA in 2012. Nancy has also studied Yin Yoga and has completed the Self-Awakening Yoga Therapeutics Teacher Training under Don and Amba Stapleton.

Nancy reminds her students to work with compassion towards themselves and to stop and enjoy the journey rather than focus on the final pose they are trying to achieve. She purchased Soaring Spirit Yoga Studio in 2010 and hopes to continue to serve the growing yoga community in Prince William County and surrounding areas.

On the web:

soaringspirityoga.com

www.facebook.com/soaringspirityogastudio

@soaring_spirit_yoga

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 40- "Even if the body doesn't move like we want, there's an elegance there and maybe something better."

- The cycle of being a AAA type person

- Karate and Yoga to help deal with the sleeplessness accompanying the Type A

- The obvious logic of movement to Karate but not always of asana practice at first glance

- Discovering yoga at the Fairfax rec center and then in Reston at Health Advantage

- Learning the logic of asana with Betsy Downing

- And how that is different from learning from a book

- Burning out at work

- Accidents and realizations (and broken noses)

- Purchasing Health Advantage

- Figuring out how to teach yoga full time

- Running a yoga studio in the early 2000s

- The popularization of yoga and the yoga boom of the late 2000s

- When yoga students became customers

- The rise of Yoga Teacher Trainings

- The rise of Yoga Alliance

- Developing standards for yoga teachers

- The Great Recession and the contraction of the yoga business

- The Beginning of the End with Coronavirus

- The beginnings of Anusara yoga

- Becoming an Anusara teacher and then being asked to not be one

- Loops and spirals

- The end of Anusara yoga

- Becoming the Health Advantage Yoga Center

- The importance of a daily, personal yoga practice

Bio:

Susan is the director of The Health Advantage Yoga Center. She has been a yoga practitioner since 1989 and began teaching in 1997. Susan has studied with many world-class teachers, focusing on alignment-based styles. She received a BS degree in computer science and linguistics from the College of William and Mary and she particularly enjoys applying the logic she learned while programming to the progressive teaching of yoga poses. Susan's approach is warm and clear with an appreciation of individual differences.

On the web:

http://www.healthadvantageyoga.com/

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 39b- "Spiritual growth is expansion of consciousness not a contraction out of fear."

-Writing books about yoga

- Recent research into history of yoga philosophy

- Karma and reincarnation

- Cross pollinatization of ideas between cultures of the Indian sub continent

- Tracing the path and change of yoga as concentration and yoga as union

- Hatha as a simplified democratized response to the Tantric tradition

- Separating Hatha yoga from religious iconography

- Religions laying claim to yoga

- The Varna or Caste system in India

- Brahmin in action during the day and Tantric in thought by night

- The influence of Patanjali and the yoga sutras (The sage has not always been popular, especially in India)

- Patanjali's resurgence the result of Krishnamacharya and his students, Pattabhi Jois and Iyengar

- Vedanta's influence on the 19th century Transcendentalists and their influence on the Indian independence movement

- The evolution of the concept of Dharma

- Internal and external yoga- responsibility to ourselves and responsibility to our community

- John Friend and Anusara

- Developing "systems" of yoga

- Teaching therapeutic yoga around the world

- The Vagus nerve and the Central Nervous System

Bio:

Doug Keller’s background reflects a lifelong commitment to studying, imbibing and sharing the vast field of knowledge and practice known as yoga. After receiving honors and graduate degrees in philosophy from the top Jesuit universities in the United States, Georgetown and Fordham Universities, and teaching philosophy at a college level for several years, he then pursued his ‘post-graduate’ education in the practical experience of yoga at the Siddha Meditation Ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth in India, for seven years. He spent a total of 14 years doing service, practicing, training in and teaching yoga in Siddha Meditation Ashrams worldwide. He received intensive training in the Iyengar system in New York City, mainly with senior certified Iyengar teacher Kevin Gardiner. He also practiced Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in India, and became one of the first certified Anusara Yoga teachers, producing three highly respected books on asana, pranayama and yoga philosophy.

His further expansion in learning is reflected in his latest and most in-depth work, ‘Yoga as Therapy,’ which is truly one of the most comprehensive, innovative and useful treatments of the structural aspect of yoga therapy available. And for three years he was a regular columnist for Yoga+ Magazine (formerly Yoga International, published by the Himalayan Institute), writing the ‘Asana Solutions’ column that addresses specific therapeutic problems. He is at the highest level of certification with Yoga Alliance, ERYT500, and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

For more about Doug:

http://www.doyoga.com/about-us.htm

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 39a- Participating in the World instead of Renouncing it

- Studying Philosophy at Georgetown and Fordham

- Meditation as the introduction to yoga

- Learning from Swami Muktananda

- The connection between flexible hamstrings and spirituality

- Unlocking prana through asana

- Living in an Ashram in India for 7 years...starting in the kitchen

- Ego stretching and getting out of the intellectual mind

- Relationship between temperament and environment

- The balance between Grace and Effort

- The surprise of and attachment to profound experiences

- Being deconstructed physiologially

- Leaving academia for a life of Experience

- Self awareness to realize what you need to let go of

- Tracing thoughts back to the wellspring

- Finding the knots within

- Working to make the ego transparent instead of discarding it entirely

- Tantric yoga and gurus vs. Hatha yoga without

- Recognizing truth you already know instead of adopting another's truth

- Meister Eckhart

- And finally...teaching asana.

Bio:

Doug Keller’s background reflects a lifelong commitment to studying, imbibing and sharing the vast field of knowledge and practice known as yoga. After receiving honors and graduate degrees in philosophy from the top Jesuit universities in the United States, Georgetown and Fordham Universities, and teaching philosophy at a college level for several years, he then pursued his ‘post-graduate’ education in the practical experience of yoga at the Siddha Meditation Ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth in India, for seven years. He spent a total of 14 years doing service, practicing, training in and teaching yoga in Siddha Meditation Ashrams worldwide. He received intensive training in the Iyengar system in New York City, mainly with senior certified Iyengar teacher Kevin Gardiner. He also practiced Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in India, and became one of the first certified Anusara Yoga teachers, producing three highly respected books on asana, pranayama and yoga philosophy.

His further expansion in learning is reflected in his latest and most in-depth work, ‘Yoga as Therapy,’ which is truly one of the most comprehensive, innovative and useful treatments of the structural aspect of yoga therapy available. And for three years he was a regular columnist for Yoga+ Magazine (formerly Yoga International, published by the Himalayan Institute), writing the ‘Asana Solutions’ column that addresses specific therapeutic problems. He is at the highest level of certification with Yoga Alliance, ERYT500, and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

For more about Doug:

http://www.doyoga.com/about-us.htm

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 38 - Catching up

- Welcome back

- Effects of Quarantine

- Yoga Alliance Webinar on Yoga and Anxiety

- Surviving the Quarantine

- Stress showing up on the mat

- The reorganizing of every aspect of life

- Recognizing emotions and thoughts associated with each day being the same and yet different

- Re-establishing a Pranayama practice

- Discipline in a time of chaos

- Creating boundaries for your mind

- Teaching yoga virtually

- Demonstrating and teaching virtually over Facebook versus teaching over Zoom

- Authenticity in a virtual class

- The value of a virtual class and the necessity of a studio class

- How did studios and gyms approach the Quarantine?

- What's next?

Yoga and Stress workshop:

https://www.yogaalliance.org/Get_Involved/COVID-19_Resources/Archived_COVID-19_Workshops_and_Events/CE_Workshop_Scientific_Research_on_Yoga_and_Stress_Part_1

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 37b- John Schumacher "Deep relaxation without force."

- "I do yoga and people have come to call it Iyengar Yoga."

- Bringing Iyengar yoga to the DMV area

- Opening Unity Woods in 1979 on 40 acres in MD

- Letting the Universe decide

- The parallels between music and yoga

- Opening Unity Woods Bethesda in 1985- the first yoga studio in the area

- Apprenticeship instead of Yoga Teacher Training

- The traits of a good yoga teacher: strong and disciplined personal practice

- Becoming a nationally recognized yoga teacher

- Leading annual retreats to Jamaica...for the last 37 years

- The daily morning practice

- Urban legends

- What is fitness? The purpose of an Asana practice

- The explosion of yoga industry in the US

- Pranayama

- Pratyahara

- Meditation

- Sitting instead of meditating

- Quiet in a full sense

- Changing people's consciousness instead of changing the world

- The 8 limbs of Patanjali's yoga

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 37a- John Schumacher "The body as a vehicle to awaken our true nature."

- Looking for health in the early 1970s

- Swami Vishnudevananda

- An hour a day asana for health straight from the book

- Working as a musician

- Yoga Institute of Washington

- Teaching for $8 a class

- Yoga classes at the DC Rec department in the 1970s

- Learning yoga from your elders

- Hustling as a yoga teacher

- Finding Light on Yoga

- Beat, Kick, and Slap Iyengar

- Learning with Victor Van Kooten

- Traveling to Pune to study yoga with BKS Iyengar

- Sheep Skin, Tiger Skin, Deer Skin yoga mats and purple speedos

- Three weeks with Iyengar (with mixed feelings)

- and then back for more :-)

- The Iyengar "system" of postures

- Pranayama

- What was a BKS Iyengar class like?

- Weaving philosophy into asana class

- Rooting asana classes in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

- How Iyengar developed the poses in his system

- Yoga as an adaptable practice

Bio:

John Schumacher has practiced yoga for 50 years. He is the founder and Director of Unity Woods Yoga Center, serving the DMV area since 1979. For 33 years, he studied in India with B.K.S. Iyengar, who personally certified him as an Advanced Iyengar Yoga Teacher. Only 14 teachers in the US hold certificates at this level.

John’s clear, precise style and his engaging sense of humor have made him one of America’s leading yoga teachers. In 2015, Yoga Journal awarded him its prestigious Good Karma Award for spending “40-plus years sharing [his] practice to help authenticate yoga in America today”.

John has written for a variety of publications, has appeared in numerous local and national media, and speaks about the practice and benefits of yoga across the country. He conducts workshops for students and teachers throughout the world.

Website:

schumacheryoga.com

unitywoods.com

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 36- Siohban Troy-Carranza

- Tranquil Space

- Yoga in the church (with mosquitos!)

- Kim Wilson

- Teacher Training

- The Art of Sequencing

- Yoga for Tots and Tykes

- The Art of Touch

- Seeing bodies

- Always remembering your first down dog

- Owning a studio versus not owning a studio

- Managing Teachers

- Vinyasa Yoga

- Practicing yoga/doing anything other than working and raising your kids/motherhood

- YogaWorks

Bio:

Since May 2002, I have been teaching vinyasa yoga in Washington, DC. After falling in love with the practice and wanting to learn more, I completed my 200-hr teacher training with Kimberly Wilson at Tranquil Space. I get to teach students of many levels and backgrounds to move their body and explore how the practice of yoga can positively influence their lives both on and off the mat. I teach group classes, privates, workshops and I am a teacher trainer at Tranquil Space which became part of the YogaWorks Family in August of 2017. I am a Continuing Education Provider with Yoga Alliance. In 2014, I completed my 500-hr training and have over 9,000 hours of teaching. I teach five classes per week at YogaWorks in Dupont Circle.

Website:

https://www.2yogajoy.com/

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 35- Willow Street Yoga Director Joe Miller "yoga is how to die well"."

- Anusara

- Iyengar

- Kung Fu

- Kripalu

- Amrit Desai

- Depression and Demons

- Rags to Riches

- Potatoes and Pot

- Self-esteem

- Masculinity

- Anger

- New Mexico

- John Friend

- The teaching voice

- Yoga sutras

- The Trantric Tradition

- Regardless of if you come to a yoga class for peace or for a tight ass, you get more than you bargained for.

- Bhagavad Gita

Bio:

Joe Miller, E-RYT500, draws upon his 20 years of yogic exploration and study of anatomy to recognize and celebrate our endless potential to align with the intelligence of the body. With humor and lots of individualized attention, Joe uses his deep understanding of Hatha Yoga, Tantric Philosophy, and Ayurveda to give students practical tools to experience fully this gift of life. Joe co-leads Willow Street's Teacher Training program, and continues to deepen his own practice by studying with his principal teachers and his amazing family.

Website:

https://www.willowstreetyoga.com/

DC Yoga Podcast Episode 34- Annie and Amir "Paying fierce attention to whatever arises in the moment."

- Yoga Studios as community centers

- Asana to help alleviate back pain and correct body imbalances

- Alignment based yoga classes

- Economics of Yoga Studios

- Psychoemotional benefits of yoga

- Learning to weave philosophy into asana practice

- Yoga in the DMV in the mid to late 1990s (the outfits definitely were not as nice)

- Offering a real life alternative to instagram

- Specificity when cuing poses

- The value in naming or not naming poses

- The Heart of the Bhagavad Gita

- Dharma talks

- Teaching with authenticity

- Creating the schedule for a yoga studio

- How being a yoga studio owner has changed over the years

- Competition with small box gyms

Bios:

Amir stands at the helm as the most senior and followed teacher at, as well as the owner of, the nationally renowned Sun & Moon Yoga Studios in Northern Virginia. In his packed weekly public classes and private one-on-one yoga therapy sessions, he works attentively with students who want an enhanced quality of life through a plainspoken and sensible approach to health and well-being. His innovative techniques blending traditional Indian and Thai yoga influences with restorative postures, therapeutic applications, and somatic movement help students move gently forward on a path of healing, and encourages taking the mindfulness of yoga practice into everyday life. He holds Yoga Alliance’s highest certification level and is also a practitioner of Thai Yoga Therapy.

During her former career as a high school English teacher, Annie began practicing yoga in the 1990s in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in a casual apartment setting with a small group of neighbors and one devoted teacher.

After her twin daughters were born in 1999, Annie moved to Arlington, VA, and completed teacher training in 2002 at Sun & Moon Yoga, with the intention of bringing yoga philosophy back into the high school classroom.

Along the way, Annie has taught yoga, meditation, and yoga philosophy to thousands of yoga students in public classes at Sun & Moon, in corporate settings, in private one-on-one sessions, as part of basic and advanced teacher trainings, and on retreats. Annie’s regular weekly classes at Sun & Moon are organized by a quarterly theme, and each week presents a short philosophical talk on the theme, followed by a well-rounded physical practice of postures and breathing tied to the theme. Relaxations are long and luxurious. Discussion and questions are welcome. Laughter happens.

Web:

www.sunandmoonstudio.com