Working in Yoga

By Rebecca SebastianSociety & Culture Business Alternative Health Health & Fitness Personal Journals Careers

Working in Yoga episodes

September 27, 2022 Coming to Yoga To Heal w/ Sonya Chapnick
I love asking people what their superhero origin stories are for yoga. How did you come to yoga? What made you stay and make it your career?
I often hear similar stories from my guests. We came to yoga for fitness, fighting the urge to take the spiritual path provided, until we realized how much we needed it.
OR we came to yoga for healing help, as we were trying to navigate a tricky scenario, situation, or particular challenge.
I, personally, came to yoga for the second reason. I came to heal. I did spend some time trying to do the contortionist postures that many people did in the late 90s and early 00s, and I look back at those days fondly. Because I never came for the fitness part of yoga, it’s physical benefits took me by surprise.
This week on the podcast is Sonya Chapnick, a yoga therapist on the West Coast who came to yoga to help her heal, deal with stress, and face a challenging diagnosis. She shares how she slid into yoga, what inspiried her to take her practice into a profession, and how she ultimately took our professional career path to be a yoga therapist.
Sonya is currently working with the yoga therapy school The Optimal State to offer yoga nidra programming for the students and talks about the full spectrum of what yoga offers us with such ease and grace. She has translated her passion for sharing gentle space into programming for seniors, diabetes patients, and more.
It was just a joy to chat with Sonya, and to hear her story about coming into both yoga practice and in being a yoga therapist. I think the more we are able to share our stories together, the easier it will be for us to come together as a yoga professional community, sharing industry space and working together to co-create the professional future we have are proud to be a part of.
Please make sure you subscribe wherever you are getting your podcasts!
RESOURCES:
More info on yoga therapy: www.iayt.org
Sonya’s website: www.yogagently.com
Optimal State Program: www.optimalnidra.com
Working In Yoga Website: www.workingingyoga.com
Working In Yoga Support & Bonus Comentary: https://sunlight-streams.heymarvelous.com/product/46341
34 min
September 19, 2022 Leading Your Yoga Business With Your Heart. A Masterclass with Sigrid Strebe
In yoga business, it often feels hard to reconcile what it is to run a business and what it is to be a true yoga practitioner. Sometimes those two worlds feel like they will never meet, never come together in a way that feels both like a thriving business and an aligned yoga practice.
This makes us either give up the idea of being a professional, much like the folks who claim we should never be in yoga for money…OR we feel like we have to separate our business selves from our yoga selves.
I cannot express how many times I have heard “it was just business” on the other side of a sentence explaining something that made people feel small, belittled, or unsupported in the yoga space.
But our guest this week has built a bridge between these two worlds.
Sigrid Strebe is here to talk with us about the connection of our hearts and our yoga businesses. We talk about service, free classes, and creating a community worth waking up for.
Make sure you check out her website www.sigridstrebe.com and find out all of her details.
We are excited to have conversations within the yoga community about our real-life experiences and challenges. If you are up for joining our digital community, make sure you stay tuned for the launch of our Working In Yoga community platform, coming in 2023.
RESOURCES:
Sigrid’s website: www.sigridstrebe.com
Sigrid’s IG: @ sigridstrebe
Our website: www.workinginyoga.com
Nichala Joy Devi’s website: https://abundantwellbeing.com/
41 min
September 08, 2022 SEVA and Your Yoga Business.
Pooja’s Website: https://www.poojavirani.com/
Jacoby’s Website: https://jacobyballard.net/
Melissa’s Website: https://www.findyourbreath.net/
54 min
June 28, 2022 THE POOJA CHRONICLES Part 2. The Yoga Alliance. Screwed With, Screwed Without.
https://candid.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_utilization_theory
39 min
June 20, 2022 Alexandra Salas and Digital Learning Best Practices
This week I have the absolute pleasure of talking with Alexandra Salas about her area of expertise, online learning.
We, as yoga professionals, switched to digital learning March 16, 2020, and have never looked back. But now…where do we go from here?
This is a problem I am interested in solving, and I was thrilled to have Alexandra guide us through what online learning looks like in the higher-education arena.
Here is what we know: higher education has been working on mastering online learning as an effective teaching platform for decades. And there was a lot of resistance at first.
Is learning as effective in a digital classroom vs. an in-person classroom?
Can we teach in the same ways?
And Alexandra answers the very interesting question of what about hybrid?
Our industry switch into teaching in the digital space during early COVID was unprecedented. We switched faster and more efficiently than almost anyone else. We supported the rise of athleisurewear in 2021, and we are still teaching online even as places and studios open up.
So what is our future teaching in the online space?
What do we need to improve? What are we doing well?
Listen to my chat with professional educator and yoga teacher Alexandra Salas and find out.
37 min
May 30, 2022 THE POOJA CHRONICLES Part 1. Yoga, MLM Strategy, and Anna Delvey if she were a business coach.
We have lots of notes for this one:
Why We Are Obsessed with Scammers
Why ARE We Obsessed? Huff Post
Elena Brower
Seeing Like A School by Angela Jamison
Biggest & “Best” Yoga Franchises
49 min
May 02, 2022 Having our feet in two worlds. Specialities, Niches, and The General Love of Yoga.
Welcome to Working In Yoga!
This week I am posting a conversation with my friend Sarah Jane Smith, that we had back in January about what it means to specialize (or niche) as a yoga professional, and why.
Sarah is like so many of us, I think. She has her feet in two different worlds. In one world she teaches general yoga classes at her home studio, and in the other she specializes in sharing and holding space with the Childless Not By Choice community.
Sometimes it is difficult for us as yoga professionals with more than one passion, to choose where to spend our time, energy, and and resources. Do we do what we have always done? Do we branch out into something new, or more specific?
Sarah talks all about this, and I am thrilled to go along for the ride with her wisdom and insights.
Grab info about all things Sarah here:
Her studio: https://www.thenestyogasaltspring.com/seasonal-retreats.html
Her CNBC community work: https://www.embodiedpossibility.com/
And go follow her on IG @embodiedpossibility and get all of her delightful content on social.
26 min
April 18, 2022 Laree Schouweiler, social change, and the hard convos yoga folks need to have
This week I get the absolute pleasure of posting a conversation I had with the amazing Laree Schouweiler. Laree and I get into the deep conversations I love having right away. We talk about our journeys in the yoga industry, how we’ve learned and grown as participants and teachers, and how the deeper philosophy we have learned about yoga has influenced our lives.
Laree does something really cool I want to tell you about. She runs a social-justice-focused yoga festival in Decorah, Iowa called The Driftless Yoga Festival. She is ready to have brave & sometimes difficult conversations, and she is ready to center folks of marginalized communities in our yoga industry.
Also, you’ll want to listen to absolutely everything she has to say.
Find info on all things Laree at https://www.driftlessyogafestival.com
35 min
March 28, 2022 Ericka Thomas and Trauma-Informed Movement
This week I am releasing a discussion I had in January with Ericka Thomas, a podcast host and teacher of trauma-informed practices to movement professionals.
And we talk all things trauma. There are a lot of folks who come into yoga and movement spaces looking to reconnect with their bodies. And Ericka and I talk about this, what it means to be “trauma-informed” and Ericka shares with us some tips for all us yoga and movement teachers out there who are trying to hold safe space for our students.
Find all things about Ericka on her website http://savagegracecoaching.com and follow her on Instagram @savagegracecoaching.
43 min
January 06, 2022 The one with real talk about what is interesting in the yoga industry right now...and what isn't.
Welcome to Season 2 of Working In Yoga.
Each year in the beginning I set intentions for what I am thinking about for the year. What I want to explore, discuss, contribute, and unpack.
So here it is, where I am going in 2022. If you want to follow along, hit subscribe and let's hang.
16 min

About Working in Yoga

From the publisher's feed

Join yoga studio owner, yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and yoga non-profit founder Rebecca Sebastian for a water cooler discussion of what it is to work in the yoga world.