Teaching Hatha Yoga - Essentials For Beginners

By Paul Jerard

The beginning of September is a busy time for Yoga teachers and Yoga studios in North America. This is the time of year when children go back to school and parents make decisions about activities for the next nine months. Whether there are more resolutions, made during September or January, is a subject for debate.

Bearing this in mind, many Yoga studios design advertisements, flyers, brochures, mailers, and web sites for prospective students' needs. In this time of plenty, after the "long lonely summer," some Yoga teachers scramble to accommodate every perceived student need.

Some studios tie up crucial funds in Yoga mats and equipment. While it is true that you should have props available, there is no logic in buying Yoga mats for more money than your students will pay at the local retail store. Letting Yoga supplies sit in a closet, unused for five years, is a waste of space, time, and funds.

About new Yoga classes: Do design classes and workshops to meet needs that are in demand within your local community. If you live in a predominantly retired community, there may not be a large demand for Power Yoga, Kids Yoga, and Prenatal Yoga. On the other hand, if you live in the heart of a college neighborhood, there may be a limited demand for Senior Yoga classes.

This may sound like common sense, but sometimes we lack the information needed to understand the niche markets within our specific communities. If you receive numerous requests for a specific type of Yoga, you should have a workshop, which meets one to three times, to see if there is a real demand for it.

We often confuse ourselves by thinking our studios should be structured like a general store. There is nothing wrong with having a variety of Yoga styles to choose from, but there is no need for every program, if some classes do not attract students.

In some cases, the classes are in direct competition with each other. For example: If you have beginners, gentle, restorative, and rehabilitative on the list, you must give an in-depth explanation as to how they are different from each other. How will they help a student who knows nothing about Yoga?

It is important to listen to the opinion of someone who knows nothing about Yoga. We often forget how we originally perceived Yoga. It must be remembered that the term "beginner," is a reflection of a lack of knowledge. Therefore, we must design our brochures and classes for beginners.

© Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA.

http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com

He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/member-offer.html

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The Benefits of Yoga

By Conrad Raw

Yoga is a discipline for self-development that is more than 5000 years old. There are many types of Yoga, but most include physical postures, breathing control and meditation. Stress reduction techniques include mental imagery, stretching, controlled breathing and physical movement in the form of postures. The goal of any Yoga discipline is to improve flexibility and obtain peacefulness in the body and the mind. This will have the over all effect of leaving you with the ability to deal with everyday stress in a more productive way.

Understand that Yoga is not a cure-all. It can help with certain medical problems such as depression and combined with a healthful diet, aerobic exercises and medication, has benefits in a reduction in some cardiovascular disease and blood pressure levels. Yoga is an important part of the Hindu religion and is a way of life for them, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you would need to change your life style in order to reap the benefits of Yoga.

One of the most popular Yoga discipline in the U.S. is Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is designed to increase flexibility and to calm the mind. It focuses on poses or postures along with controlled breathing. In a Hatha Yoga class, you will probably learn a number of poses that induce stretching and twisting. Some poses are meant for calming the mind as well as increasing flexibility like the Viparita Karani pose or the legs up the wall pose. The Cat Cow stretch will have you on all fours on the floor with your wrists underneath your shoulders with the knees underneath the hips. This pose will increase spinal flexibility and strengthen the stomach muscles.

Hatha Yoga is called the Yoga of postures and includes relaxation exercises designed to open the nadis or energy channels which will allow the energy to flow freely through the body. Other poses are designed to relax internal organs, which can prevent diseases such as hypertension or high blood pressure and diabetes. Hatha Yoga requires concentration on postures, called asanas and pranayama or controlling the breath.

In Hatha Yoga, mastering a comfortable pose where you will be able to keep that pose for a certain length of time is important in the practice of real meditation. The more poses you can master, the better you are able to develop inner meditation techniques. Also mastering the breath is important because controlled breathing will eventually allow the balancing of the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Conrad Raw is an expert in practical techniques for personal and spiritual development. He is the author of "Forbidden Secrets Of Personal And Energetic Development." He travels the world to learn and teach and is the founder of Greater Human Potential, a website devoted to bringing you easy to learn techniques to increase your human evolution. Visit his website for a free newsletter filled with tons of great tips and advice.

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