Yoga Inspiration

My husband, Tim Feldman, and I share some very exciting news for the yoga community and your weekend plans if you're in the Miami area. This Saturday, December 4th, will be the official grand opening of our brand new space — The Miami Yoga Garage.

We have events planned all day, and everyone is welcome to attend — online and in person. Even if you've never taken a yoga class before, this is your moment to get acquainted. Meet with me and other yoga teachers and take free classes. The event lasts all day, so come and go as you please, and there's plenty of time to take a nap between events:

• 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. Free yoga classes, including a primary session with Kino
• 11:40 a.m. Inauguration Ceremony (please bring 1 piece of fruit if you plan on attending)
• 1:30 p.m. Workshops, including a handstand workshop and crystal workshop
• 4:30 p.m. Raffle
• 5:00 p.m. Live Music
• 6:00 p.m. Collapse viewing party
• 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Live Music

Come and celebrate the makeover we gave this building and the work our team put into this space. We knew right when we walked in what The Miami Yoga Garage could be, and it's finally time to celebrate the 18-month long effort.

We started this project over two years ago, but it's been a dream of Tim's for a long time. Tim is inspired by art first and foremost, and he started his career as a dance teacher before ever stepping on the path of yoga. Art taught him about his own spirit, and it's exciting to bring these two parts of his life together. That's why this new space will incorporate art, artifacts, poetry, live music, and more with our yoga classes and workshops.

These new creative spaces will inspire spirituality in all of our practices because we all need a little extra boost after these past two years. No one could have prepared any of us for how COVID-19 changed our industry and so many others. It's changed the way we teach yoga, but it also created so many new obstacles that we had no precedent for. Tim and I share the biggest challenges we faced navigating the permit systems amid the pandemic, on top of all of the supply chain issues and online transitions.

Not every yoga studio has the luxury of successfully moving online, and fewer still have the resources to get online and reach their students in a post-pandemic world. We are blessed to have made The Miami Yoga Garage possible, and we want to thank everyone who sacrificed their time, money, blood, sweat, and tears to get this place open and ready for new yoga students across the globe.

We have new creative spaces for people to come and practice with us, both online and in person. If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com and don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

I've always been vocal about my goals of making Ashtanga yoga more accessible, but I go even deeper at this Q&A with Yoga Alliance. I answer questions from yogis from all over who want to find out more about the Ashtanga lineage and what classes are like on OmStars and at the Miami Life Center.

The practice of Ashtanga is hard, gritty, and anything but easy. So my focus is on inspiring students to keep getting on the mat every day, even when they feel physically (and sometimes emotionally) drained.

I put the spiritual practice of Ashtanga front and center. The traditions and lineage are integral to your practice. By inspiring students to develop their spiritual practice, I hope to empower them to take on more responsibilities.

Currently, there is a lot of talk about what yoga teachers can do to make yoga more accessible, but that responsibility is shared with the student, too. It becomes our collective responsibility, especially now after the sexual misconduct in the Ashtanga yoga community, to rethink the power dynamics between student and teacher.

What does this new yoga practice look like? And how will the guru evolve to meet students at equal footing? Because a student holds as much power on the yoga mat as a teacher, we now have the opportunity to share what we know and strengthen one another on our yoga journeys.

This is how I approach my practice and the way I teach yoga. I answer a few questions about my teaching career, but I don't really think of myself as a yoga teacher. I am always, first and foremost, a yoga student. I love learning about this practice, its traditions, our lineage, and then sharing what I've learned with others who are just as passionate about their journey.

My recommendation to you and everyone out there listening who is eager to try Ashtanga yoga is - Spend as much time as a yoga student as possible. Immerse yourself in the experience and gobble up as much knowledge as you can. Yoga students hold the power of the practice because they are the ones who show up to class to put in the work. Without students, there is no yoga teacher, there is no guru, and there is no practice. The student's journey is where the magic of yoga happens, and I hope to share some of what I know and shine a light ahead of you to help you on your journey.

Follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga and tune in on December 7 for an Extended Q&A with Yoga Alliance, where I'll discuss accessible Ashtanga yoga even further.

If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com and don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

I'm excited to introduce you to my guest because he is one of my biggest yoga inspirations. Jivana Heyman, author of Accessible Yoga and his latest Yoga Revolution, encourages yogis to bring their practice out into the world. Compassion is empathy combined with action, and Jivana is one of the yoga teachers who inspired me to follow this path.

He started by teaching accessible yoga classes for the LGBTQ community and those fighting HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. His personal mission is to teach everyone that they can do yoga. For Jivana, the heart of the practice is universal and something we can all tap into.

Jivana discusses this theme in his new book, Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage and Compassion. We dissect how yoga students can combine their practice with activism, even in subtle ways. Because yoga is not just an internal practice, there is another level of engagement that happens when we bring our practice off the mat and into the world.

The question then becomes, what is your purpose? What is your role as a yoga student and as a yoga teacher? A buzzword in yoga right now is "post-lineage," but it still touches on the significant cultural changes we are smack-dab in the middle of right now. The modern yoga community could replace the guru in a post-lineage world, but we need to support one another.

Jivana shares how "post-lineage yoga" speaks to the peer-to-peer sharing between yoga teachers. We can be inspired by the spark we ignite when we take one another's classes and discuss the cultural changes that impact how we practice yoga.

Yoga can be many things. It's a powerful tool that can heal the body and calm the mind. Yoga helps us process grief, overcome obstacles, and meet our true, universal selves. But yoga only works if it is accessible, so tune in now to hear how Jivana and I wish to inspire you to share your practice and carry it with you.

Take advantage of Jivana's books and other resources we discuss:

• Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body by Jivana Heyman
• Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage and Compassion by Jivana Heyman
• Post-Lineage Yoga: From Guru to #MeToo by Theodora Wildcroft

If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Keep up with me on Instagram at @kinoyoga and visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com. Get in touch with me at [email protected]. Share your yoga story, and you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

In this episode of Yoga Inspiration, I want to answer one of the most common questions and biggest worries yoga students have at all levels of practice: "How can I stay consistent in my practice?"

The truth is, the yoga practice will end up changing your whole lifestyle. Not overnight, but the practice will slowly become a part of your daily ritual, just like brushing your teeth. Yoga requires six days of asana practice and seven days of meditative practice. That is intimidating, to say the least.

So how do we do it? How can we stay committed to our practice?

The most important element to your yoga practice is consistency. Hitting your mat every day, practicing meditation every day — even if it's just for five minutes before bed — and carrying the spiritual knowledge you gain on the mat into your daily life is key. Finding the inspiration to get there, however, gets more difficult the more you practice.

When the honeymoon period of your yoga practice ends, the new challenge becomes how to trick the ego into continuing the practice. This is after you've seen brand new yoga students achieving asanas it took you a decade (or more) to practice. But while your conscious mind is looking for the next thing, it's up to you to maintain your practice.

Patanjali famously tells us that we can practice for an entire lifetime and maybe learn something, one thing maybe. But the point isn't necessarily the knowledge at the end of the universe. Instead, a consistent yoga routine will establish your practice on a firm ground that will make it impossible to break your consistency. To Patanjali, when we establish firm ground on the yoga mat, we will no longer be weathered by the storms of life. As a result, we can remain consistent in our practice and our lives.

Are you consistent in your practice? What obstacles sometimes challenge your consistency? When you feel the fire to practice dimming, it's time to look within and ask yourself where these feelings are coming from.

Yoga practice is not intended to be a lesson in perfection. You don't have to finish a vigorous series to have a good practice, but you do have to practice. So what's stopping you from practicing today?

Join us on December 4th for the grand opening of The Yoga Garage. Keep up with the events on Instagram @miamiyogagarage.

If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Keep up with me on Instagram at @kinoyoga and visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com. Get in touch with me at [email protected]. Share your yoga story, and you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

You probably recognize Lotta Sebzda from Instagram. Her posts and poses inspire yogis to continue their practice every day , but there's more to this yogi than you see on social media. Lotta has been practicing yoga for over two decades, and she's seen so many changes reverberate through our community.

Over her 23 years of practice — 15 of which she has spent teaching — she's seen how social media and the internet make yoga more accessible. Both she and I remember what it was like seeing the third series for the first time and waiting patiently for our turn to learn the poses, but today yogis can find everything they need with a click of a finger.

Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter make Ashtanga yoga more accessible, but it's still important to seek out a yoga teacher you trust.

Lotta's biggest piece of advice for new students and those interested in the Ashtanga practice is to find a teacher who has been practicing Ashtanga for a long, long time. A teacher who knows the history of the path will bring you a more fulfilling practice by teaching you more than the asanas.

As long as you're curious, Lotta says, you'll find the way. It is the student's curiosity that leads to this deep relationship we have with our yoga teachers, and it's what inspires many of us to keep teaching and keep practicing. If you are a yoga teacher, Lotta says to have faith in your students. They are on the mat, ready to learn, and this cycle of inspiring, learning, and teaching will continue to empower others with the confidence to step onto this path with us.

If you don't think Ashtanga yoga is for you, please tune in now. Lotta offers advice for yogis young and old on continuing to practice through injuries and old age.

Yoga students always tell her that they "can't wait to be like her when they're old," and she finds inspiration in this. Anything that encourages you to continue to practice and to share this practice with others needs to be nurtured. As long as you practice where you are and continue to practice for as long as you want, your practice will grow with you.

If you're inspired by our conversation, join us on Instagram @omstarsofficial for the 21 Day Ashtanga Yoga Challenge. Not a member yet? Get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with Lotta on Instagram@lottasebzdayoga and follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Also, visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com for more yoga inspiration.

If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

It's been a pretty intense week, and I want to catch everyone up with the changes that are happening. Change is never easy, and I am now facing a lot of the grief and sadness that comes about when things are ending.

We founded the Miami Life Center 15 years ago, and so many family members, friends, yoga students, and visitors put so much work into developing this space and this community. The reality of it all ending and everything changing hit me like a brick wall last week as we started to move things out of our South Beach location. The closing of our old location made me realize so many things, and I've become more aware of the instability around me.

Now, just because someone practices yoga and meditation doesn't mean they don't have negative thoughts. Everyone has bad days, and ugly feelings of doubt and regret can creep into anyone's head. Yoga is a tool that can help you work through these feelings when they arise, but it doesn't stop them from bubbling to the surface.

What I've learned about myself through this experience is that those old habits and old patterns of thinking are so familiar and so comforting that it can be easy to walk down that path again. You aren't a failure just because you spiral into a negative headspace. Light and darkness are in a constant dance, and you can't have a good day without an obstacle (or two) to balance it out.

This balancing act between happiness and struggle is how we learn, and everything on this path is designed to make us stronger. It is not a sign of weakness to feel self-doubt, but a sign that you are headed in the right direction. As you hear my story, I invite you to observe the thoughts in your own mind and acknowledge the tint of your inner dialogue: is it positive, negative, or neutral? You can't ignore the good, but you can't magnify the bad, and I share some easy ways you can avoid bargaining with that nagging voice in your head.

If you would like to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Show.

Keep up with my yoga journey on Instagram at @kinoyoga and @omstarsofficial, and follow my blog at Kinoyoga.com.

If you would like to attend my yoga classes, sign up on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST for a free 30-day membership.

Yoga is more than a physical practice. The asanas can be made accessible for everyone, and yoga practitioners are responsible for creating a community that welcomes everyone to the yoga mat. But is yoga for everyone?

The spiritual readiness of the student is very important when it comes to taking the first steps on this journey, and not everyone is willing to wake up early every morning to practice. Before you start your journey, you need to ask yourself - is yoga right for me?

This isn't a workout routine, although it can help you lose weight and live healthy. Yoga practice also isn't a trend. It's a spiritual faith that has been practiced for many centuries and passed on from generation to generation. Practicing yoga means joining the chain of thousands of practitioners who came before you. To step onto this path is not to step lightly.

Physical adjustments can be made for the asanas, but the spiritual and mental adjustments that need to be made for your spiritual growth must come from within. Are you ready to face the spiritual journey each day?

Some people aren't there yet, and maybe they won't be in this lifetime. But yoga is for the student who is willing to show up every day and put in the work. You're the only one who can bring yourself to the mat every day, and you're also the only one who can carry the practice with you in your daily life.

Patanjali's teachings say that we must practice yoga without a break, but that doesn't necessarily mean being on the mat every hour of every day. The yoga sutras should inspire every part of your life, from the way you speak to others and the way you speak to yourself, to how you participate in society.

I sense a big shift coming to the yoga community and the way we interact with our practice and travel this spiritual path. As the generation of teachers begins to change, I invite you to think on the spiritual roots of the yoga practice and how you have grown on this journey.

If you would like to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Show.

Keep up with my yoga journey on Instagram at @kinoyoga and @omstarsofficial, and follow my blog at Kinoyoga.com.

If you would like to attend my yoga classes, sign up on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST for a free 30-day membership.

Take a moment to appreciate your yoga practice. No matter where you are on your journey, take a moment now to appreciate how far you've come. The practice of yoga itself has come even farther, originating back thousands of years in a soulful intention of re-connecting with the universe and ourselves.

Take this moment now to remember a yoga class you took or a teacher you studied with which inspired a sense of belonging and community. Yoga is a community, one we share with practitioners from centuries ago who have protected and cataloged this yoga, so that we may continue on its journey today.

I invited Susanna Barkataki here with me to discuss the beginnings of yoga and how modern yogis can cultivate a sense of cultural appreciation for the practice, rather than appropriation.

Susanna was born into a family where yoga was practiced at home, but it was never something she could share with the outside world. Yoga is supposed to create a sense of community, but for her, it was becoming a space of loneliness. It wasn't until later that she learned she had to carry her yoga practice with her off the mat and into the real world to successfully make her identity whole again.

Mainstream yoga is a new trend in the West, breeding clothing lines and classes with cute farm animals. The yoga practice of the West sort of brushes over the faith and the history that is at play on the mat, and it becomes the responsibility of us, as practitioners, to learn more and create more space for other members of the yoga community.

We discuss Susanna's book and how we can learn to recognize the roles we play in different situations. Where you have power and privilege will paint your experiences, and it's important to ask yourself "Where do I experience privilege?" both on and off the yoga mat.

This exercise is not meant to generate shame but to develop a sense of awareness so you can use your perspective to create change. Susanna gives us the tools to generate this awareness by teaching us to recognize the values that come from yoga in everyday life. We're in the world, we're embodied, and your yoga practice should touch all parts of your life.

To learn more about Susanna, visit Embrace Yoga's Roots. If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Keep up with me on Instagram at @kinoyoga and visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com.

If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Now that I'm back home, I'm checking in with my listeners. I really appreciate you tuning in every week, and I am happy to inspire you to get on the mat. You inspire me to keep practicing, too, and it's been so refreshing being a student again and practicing at Miami Yoga Garage.

But with the latest Facebook and Instagram crash, I want to check-in and ask - what happened to you the day social media went down?

Many of you have told me how refreshing it was to get away from your phones and let go of the expectation of being available at all times. It was definitely an opportunity to live in the moment and re-evaluate the ways we interact online, but how many of us fell back into the pattern of checking Facebook again as soon as it came back?

Social media reveals the patterns that are at work in our subconscious mind, and these patterns are born from our environment and influence the way we think and how we interact with the world. Unfortunately, when the social media algorithm is based on engagement, it seems that only the most negative stories reach the tops of our feeds.

What kind of reaction does this create within us? Where you give your attention is so important, so be mindful of what kind of content is dominating your attention. Not everything works in our best interest on social media, and it's up to us to learn how to use this tool with the right intention.

Because it is an amazing tool that connects us with so many people around the globe, and when used correctly, social media can create a currency of meaning that inspires compassion and understanding. I share ways you can retool what shows up on your feed to better understand the algorithm and adjust your content accordingly.

When you take a moment to consciously engage with social media, it can start to change the way you think about the world.

Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com and connect with me online @kinoyoga or [email protected] to share your thoughts on social media. Tell me a time when social media boosted your inspiration to practice or about the day you saw a post that soured your mood. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Sign up for yoga classes online at Omstars.com and follow for news and updates @omstarsofficial. Use code: PODCAST to get a free 30-day membership.

When it comes to yoga, fitness, and anatomy, Leslie Kaminoff has seen it all. Just don't call him an expert. Because as any yoga student knows, the more you learn in this practice, the more you realize you just don't know.

Leslie started his yoga career down the street from Jane Fonda's first fitness studios in L.A. He was working at the Sports Medicine Institute when one of the studio instructors started teaching therapeutic yoga to physical therapists at the Institute. Leslie shares what it was like to have a front-row seat for this intersection of yoga and fitness in the West.

He was in the right place at the right time and found himself on that first committee of the Yoga Alliance. Leslie helped set the standards that many yoga studios and health clubs use today to hire teachers and trainers. At the time, standardization was needed because the popular demand for yoga greatly outweighed the supply of experienced teachers. Today, our modern climate inspires us to ask: are hours really the way to gauge whether someone is qualified to teach yoga?

Leslie breaks down the Yoga Alliance origin story, how these hourly standardizations came to be, and provides a new perspective for us to see where and how these Westernized expectations surrounding yoga came about. He also speaks to the effect of yoga on physical therapy and how the yoga community responded to injuries, asanas, and the path to healing.

Teaching a therapeutic style of yoga that doesn't adhere to the sometimes strict rules of the asana practice took a bit of practice itself. Leslie had to learn a new way to speak to students that encouraged them to inquire about the sensation of the practice rather than setting some expectation of the sensation.

Of course, the nature of the asanas is to provide a framework for the student to see how and where their body fits into the pose. How else do you learn something new about yourself if you don't try a new physical position or style of breathing? However, the poses often look different for each person and learning how to teach individual students rather than the perfect asana sequence was key to Leslie's experience of becoming the therapeutic yoga teacher he is today.

I am so excited to have Leslie come and teach at the Miami Life Center. Having him teach an in-person class means so much to me. We have lost so much during this pandemic, but seeing a classroom full of yoga students in person is something I miss the most. If you would like to take a class with Leslie, keep an eye out for his schedule on his website at YogaAnatomy.org.

If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial.

Keep up with me on Instagram at @kinoyoga and visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com.

If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.