Ariele Foster is a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of Yoga Anatomy Academy, a no-nonsense, evidence-based resource for learning yoga anatomy and movement science. She runs an integrative physical therapy clinic in Washington DC (and via telehealth). In addition to teaching online courses and an anatomy mentorship through Yoga Anatomy Academy, she has also taught online courses for and written for Yoga Journal on hip stability and fascia release. Ariele began teaching yoga in 2001 and her grandmother was also a yoga teacher.

Mary Reddinger is joining us on the show today to share how she built her full-time private yoga practice just recently! Mary and her family moved in the middle of the pandemic, and with her husband in school, her yoga teaching is their sole source of income. Mary worked incredibly hard to build a private practice and she did it quite quickly! She has a full roster of dedicated students who are engaged in their practice and appreciate her work immensely.

Over the last few years more and more yoga teachers have worked to create their own teaching offerings outside of a studio setting, and I think this is a great thing! While I absolutely value the community space a yoga studio can create, I also think creating learning opportunities for students (especially new students) outside of a typical yoga studio can be wonderful. And it can be great for us as teachers to begin to build our own teaching opportunities and small businesses. 

A longtime member of my community, Dara Madigan, created and ran her first Beginner’s Series on her own this fall, and it was such a smashing success I asked her to come on the podcast and share all the details with y’all so you could model your own Beginner's Series after hers! And I’m intentionally releasing this in October, because I think mid-January next year would be a great time to run in, which means you need to start planning it now!

I’ve been collecting your questions over the last few weeks, and I’m so happy to share this Q+A episode with you today! (It’s an off the cuff, casual vibe. I think you’ll like it!)

In this episode I’ll answer questions like:

• How do you work with plantar fasciitis?
• How do we work with our students’ injuries when we think some movement might be helpful, but a doctor has told our student to stay away from movement?
• What happens to our classes and our students when we take an extended period of time off?
• How did you plan for and manage your maternity leave?
• What is the best way to recover from a hamstring injury?
• How are you balancing your teaching/work schedule with being a new parent?
• How do you make time for/organize continued education and study in relation to your teaching?

Hello! After a long maternity leave I’m back in front of the podcasting mic and so excited to be here. This episode is quite a departure from our usual conversations about the craft of teaching yoga. Since I’ve been out for so long I wanted to connect with all of you in a more intimate way, so this episode is more personal than usual! 

I’m going to share the Ten Things Saving My Life Right Now to give a little inside peek into my season of life, my plans for teaching and how I’m calling in support. 

In this episode you’ll hear:

• all the places I’m getting support as I make this big transition
• what I replaced social media scrolling with
• all about the best food delivery service I’ve ever used!
• the online communities where I love to hang out
• my favorite places for online asana classes
• how I slowly started teaching again this summer
• where I keep all my to do’s organized
• a breakdown of my entire fall weekly schedule!

Avita Bansee (she/they)  is here today to talk to us about what Anti Capitalist, Anti Racist Yoga looks like. Avita is a graduate of Yogaworks 200 hour RYTT and their life experiences and continuous study of yoga philosophy, anatomy, pranayama and biomechanics inform their teaching and self-practice.

Much of a yoga practice can, from the outside, look like very little is happening. In a meditation practice it might look like we are just sitting there, but as we all know, that “just sitting there” can be a wild experience and a potent place to make friends with ourselves. 

Pausing in an asana practice to rest in Child’s Pose can look like a lull in the action, even though we know the space between is sometimes the most powerful. 

Resting in a restorative yoga pose can look like an extra cozy nap... And while it can be that, Octavia Raheem (she/her) is here today to tell us why deep rest can serve as a tool for courage and resilience!

The bottom line is that the teachings of yoga point towards care of the collective as a path to enlightenment. The liberation of all beings (including ourselves) is where my personal study has led me over and over again. In our world today, that often looks like what we call social justice.

Jivana Heyman, is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an international non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings.