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
Q & A with Margherita Tisato
Posted on April 23rd, 2015
We chatted with Yoga Sukhavati graduate Margherita Tisato about yoga, teaching, and how the Yoga Sukhavati 300 YTT transformed her life and practice.
When did you start practicing yoga? How did you find yoga?
I started practicing yoga officially back in 2000, in Milan Italy, where I’m from. I say “officially” because I was studying dance at the time and my dance teacher was a yogini and incorporated a lot of breath work, seasonal practice and energy work in her teaching. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been practicing yoga for all my life!
How has the practice changed your life?
Once I started practicing consciously, meaning once I started to differentiate my dance-art practice from my yoga practice, the more subtle benefits really started to kick in: non-competitiveness, acceptance, surrender, compassion, self-care...
What were you doing before you took your training?
Before my first training I was working as a dancer and a make-up artist: the dancer part I loved but didn’t pay. The make-up artist paid well, but was extremely taxing because of schedule and politics involved. The more I practice yoga (especially incorporating the Yamas and Niyamas, or code of conducts), and the idea of yogic ethics, the more the entertainment industry became hard to digest.
Why did you decide to take a 200-hr teacher training?
It took me a few years of dedicated practice before I decided I was ready to take a training. Even though I had been teaching dance for years at the time, the idea of leading others in such a transformative practice with all its many layers and facets was still daunting. To this date, I find teaching yoga much more intense than teaching dance or Butoh, due to the therapeutic value that these practices have.
What stands out the most about your experience from your teacher training?
My training was deeply experiential and unsettling in some ways. Lea Kraemer, my first teacher is a true seeker and opened the doors for me to explore without fear of judgment.
How has the Yoga Sukhavati training transformed your life? What are you doing now?
I became more aware of my responsibilities towards myself. More aware of the importance of finding a voice that comes from direct experience, while honoring and respecting traditions. I found the drive toward constant learning and acceptance toward constant transformation. There is no one way of doing anything, nor one fixed thing we can “sit” on and lay back, if we really walk this path. I learned to be fearless in my teaching because I learned how to teach from the heart.
How was it to work with Leigh?
Inspiring. Humbling. Fun!
What advice would you give to someone who was on the fence about doing a 200-hour teacher training?
Be open to the experience. The mind guides us most of our lives. We can learn and memorize so much and so many books in a lifetime, but this learning will not replace the embodied experience. Frightening as it is, the sacred space Leigh creates will hold you safely to allow you to surrender to the experience.
What stood out to you about the Yoga Sukhavati 300-hour Advanced training?
The most challenging and rewarding part of this training was the high value given to self-care and truthfulness. In a very innovative yet classical way, Yoga Sukhavati brings to light the true voice of each of its trainees in a unique and powerful way. And self-discovery is never easy!
What do you like most about teaching yoga?
I believe teaching is my mission. I don’t necessarily “like” teaching yoga. I find it challenging and inspiring, and rewarding and terrifying all at the same time, everyday. But it’s what I do, and where I feel at my fullest, most of the time.
You can find Marghertia at Loom Yoga Center in Bushwick.