SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
Q & A with Yoga Sukhavati Graduate Kelly Voegelin
Posted on June 15th, 2015
Kelly Voegelin shares how she found yoga and how her training with Yoga Sukavati continues to inspire her practice and her teaching. 
When did you start practicing yoga? How did you find yoga?
I found yoga in 2006 while living abroad in Buenos Aires. I was in search of something that would better my life on a physical & emotional level. I was very fortunate to begin with private Iyengar lessons.
How has the practice changed your life?
I am able to connect with my own needs, energies and emotions in a way that feels nourishing & genuine. Yoga allows me to do that on a physical & mental level.
What were you doing before you took your training?
I was working at Christie’s Auction House as an art handler.
Why did you decide to take a 200-hr teacher training?
I was ready to commit to my practice in the fullest way possible and ready to change my life.
What stands out the most about your experience from your teacher training?
How grateful I feel about having done it. It truly changed my attitude and approach toward how I live.
How has the Yoga Sukhavati training transformed your life? What are you doing now?
Sukhavati provided many ways to approach ones practice and teaching…As a life practice. How my yoga practice is informed by Ayurveda & Chinese medicine never ceases to inspire me. I can design my practice or what I plan to teach around so many things: the moon or my own monthly cycle, the seasons or weather or external changes, certain organs or the meridian lines connected to balancing them, intentions and meditations and mudras…
I am now teaching group classes, private lessons and after school art a few days a week to young children.
How was it to work with Leigh?
Leigh is an extremely knowledgeable and reliable teacher. She inspires me to continue my curiosities and exploration of asana and the yoga sukhavati curriculum as a whole. Her classes are fun, informative and infused with information.
What advice would you give to someone who was on the fence about doing a 200-hour teacher training?
Do it. You’ll never regret it. It’s an act of self care and life change. And you’ll meet wonderful, supportive friends and teachers along the way.
What stood out to you about the Yoga Sukhavati 300-hour Advanced training?
Practicing with seasonal change and the organs we need to nourish during those shifts has really resonated with me.
What do you like most about teaching yoga?
I’m able to offer a practice of self care and sustainability to those who show up to it. It not only gives me pleasure to serve my community but I always feel so happy at the beginning and end of each class.
You can find Kelly teaching at Greenhouse Holistic in Williamsburg, Loom Yoga Center in Bushwick and Usha Veda in Greenpoint. Visit her website for more!
Freeing your voice as a yoga teacher
Posted on June 5th, 2015
One of the most unrecognized areas in many yoga teacher trainings is the development of the voice of the teacher. Many people are drawn to become a yoga teacher for the physical practice, internal spaciousness and peacefulness it awakens inside. However, as they begin to teach, they quickly realize that most of their communication with their students comes through their voice. Many people are not used to talking in front of a group of people. They don’t have the vocal support to sustain their voice for a 90 minute class. Many yoga teachers often loose their voice because of the strain of teaching two or three 90 minute classes a day several times a week. Unfortunately one of their weakest skills, their voice, is one of their most important tools as a yoga teacher. In response to this need, I have created a module in our Yoga Sukhavati Advanced Teacher Training entirely dedicated to freeing the voice of a yoga teacher-The Art of Sound.
The Art of Sound immersion will help you free your natural voice. Awaken your voice so that it becomes a powerful vehicle for communication for you and your students. Explore your voice through exercises designed to open, support, and strengthen your voice. Dive deeply into your divine self through the ancient devotional vocal practices of kirtan, mantra and the beauty of the sanskrit language. Bask in the sonic healing vibrations of gong baths and awaken pranic pathways, energy channels and organs, through using your voice in asana.
Join us for the Art of Sound immersion starting with a delicious evening of Kirtan Fri. June 12!
love & light!
Leigh
Spring Yang Pose
Posted on June 2nd, 2015
Spring Yang Pose: Eka pada Galvanasana (flying pigeon)
Leigh Evans
As a yogi, I am a deep explorer of ways to open the inner landscape of the body and mind. I love creating practices to target the areas where prana or chi is congested in the body. I know that these tight, stagnant places are actually a gold mine for awakening. They are energy pathways or meridians that are blocked. Like a river that is thwarted by a fallen tree branch, once the meridians are opened, the energy that is stuck will freely move and create a free flowing river of energy.
Transition from Spring into Summer by intensifying your yoga practice with Spring yang asanas to cleanse the liver and gall bladder organs and meridians. Release congestion and awaken chi/prana. According to Chinese Medicine, Spring is the season of the wood element, the desire for expansion and growth reflected in the small tender seeds growing into towering trees. Movement from all living things surges to the surface to greet the face of spring. The energy of the liver echoes the ascending, flowing, spreading nature of Spring and the wood element. The rising energy of Spring increases the liver’s ascending energy and increases the flushing of accumulated toxins. Therefore in Spring, we bump into any congestion, stagnation or deficiency in the liver and gall bladder organ and meridians.
Eka pada galvanasana is one of my favorite hip opening asanas. As a person with liver congestion, I have benefited greatly from practicing it. Eka pada galvanasana is a beautiful and challenging asana which deeply opens the gall bladder meridian, running through shoulders, side body and outer hips. It simultaneously awakens energy in the liver meridian in the inner legs.
Prepare the hips for Eka pada galvanasana with supine ankle to knee and pigeon pose.
Have fun!