Yoga Off The Mat - The Movement For Modern Life Podcast

Meet David Kam. A Movement Artist, dancer, ex-architect and yoga teacher. Who is a Champion of Changing the way we look at yoga and the way we practice. In this conversation you’ll meet a yoga teacher who truly is changing the way we see the world.

In the yoga world, we can be fairly rigid, stuck even, to the practices we know and love but if he were to nudge you sideways, would you fall? That’s what he found from the experienced yogis he was teaching. And he learnt how to teach in a new way by looking at and listening to the needs of this group of yogis.

As yogis, we can often talk about connection, but when we’re in a room of yogis, sometimes there is no lonelier place. I found that David’s classes broke the ice and changed my way of practicing, pushed me far out of my comfort zone. Going into areas of discomfort in order to grow, to challenge yourself, is the essence of David’s movement teachings.

He teaches us how to be responsive to what is really happening, within ourselves and in relation to our surroundings. Which is music to home yogis ears! We are used to having to sidestep the dog, there really is no ‘sacred space’ at home, so when we embrace this and learn that this is part of our practice, the removal of boundaries and safe spaces, this can be so liberating.

Find out how you can learn to be more creative, brave and truly move out of your comfort zone, with David’s insights into movement.

David’s classes can be found at : https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-teacher/davidkam

Meet Jyoti Manuel. She’s one incredible game-changer when it comes to living yoga on and off the mat. Her life work is teaching yoga to children and those with special needs who so benefit from practices of yoga and mindfulness.

Jyoti is one of the most senior teachers in the UK, having practiced and taught yoga for four decades. She set up Special Yoga London in 1992 to teach children and children with special needs in London. There Jyoti became recognised as the foremost children’s yoga teacher. Now she heads up Special yoga Global which specialises in International yoga teacher training  for children and people with special needs.

Jyoti truly is a remarkable woman, and someone who I met many years ago and has inspired me to run my business with integrity and patience. Her thoughts on her dharma are simple ‘When it’s your soul’s calling, it lights you up to do the work’. A wonderful reminder to all of us who are wondering if we are on the right path to do this very simple test – are you lit up by your work?

Jyoti has thrown the rule book out when it comes to her teachings. No class plans. Just listening. And this podcast is all about listening to another, what it truly means to listen to another and how absolutely revolutionary the simple act of listening can be.

Check out her classes on https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-teacher/jomanuel1and see her amazing skills for yourself. See her beautiful and truly transformational work at https://specialyoga.org.uk. A real champion of change, living her yoga practice and her teachings in her daily life. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed chatting to Jyoti!

Vidya’s mission in her newest project is to reverse desertification in southern Spain. Southern Spain is at massive risk of becoming a desert, which means that the land will be irreversibly unusable. Vidya Heisel is founder of Frog Lotus Yoga International, and is one of the most senior and respected teachers of yoga in the world. She founded Suryalila Retreat Centre with grand ambitions and created the largest yoga practice space in Europe.

She talks to Kat about how she is educating the local farming community to change their intensive farming practices to use less water, help prevent droughts and reverse what seems as the inexorable march of desert through the whole of Southern Europe. This talk is a must-listen to if you’re interested in the world around you, and wonder how olive groves and beautiful fields of sunflowers hide the dark fact that the way that they are farmed is increasing risk of drought, use of poisonous chemicals and turning the land into unusable desert and the inspiring story of how Vidya is living her yoga off the mat and in real life in her care for her environment.

The story Vidya tells is one of her resourcefulness in simply educating herself around the issues to manage her own land, and passion to educate and inspire people about different ways of managing the land, and the impact intensive farming has on the planet.

During the show Kat questions the threat of desertification worldwide and actually, worldwide just under 40% of the world’s land surface is threatened with desertification!!! Vidya’s mission to reverse desertification has never been more needed.

The practice of mindfulness around the preciousness of our resources is key to Vidya’s message, her work truly is yoga in action.

Vidya’s classes can be found at https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-teacher/vidyaheisel. Find out more about Danyadara https://danyadara.com  and suryalila at https://suryalila.com

It’s our first podcast and Kat Farrants, Founder of Movement for Modern Life meets Champion of Change, Teen yoga ambassador, Robin Watkins-Davis.

‘My dream for yoga in schools is for every young person to have access to yoga… it seems so unfair, such a health inequality…as it gives you such power and control over your life… it’s like giving one person thousands of pounds and that person nothing. It gives you such a head start in life’.

Robin shares her incredible insights into and how yoga is the superpower that she wants to share with young people and shares her incredible insights into how yoga transformed her anxiety as a teenager. As well as arming young people with ‘superpowers’ Robin’s passions are in taking yoga off the mat in her art and environmentalism.

Robin Watkins-Davis is the youngest person in the UK to qualify as a yoga teacher in the UK. Still only 20 years old, and having been practicing since she was 13 and qualified at the age of 16. Robin is a teen yoga ambassador and teacher on Movement for Modern Life. Robin’s videos can be found  at https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-teacher/robinwatkins-davis