The Mentor Sessions

Anna Guest-Jelley is the founder of Curvy Yoga, an online yoga studio and teacher training center that helps people of all sizes find true acceptance and freedom, both on and off the mat. Anna is the author of Curvy Yoga: Love Yourself & Your Body a Little More Each Day and the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body. Today's episode we discuss how teaching yoga changed her relationship with her body in a different way and so much more.

If you don’t already know my good friend Diana Zotos I am so excited for you to meet her! Diana is a physical therapist and yoga teacher. In 2006 Diana began her 7 year career at Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC, spending those years treating anyone from inpatient joint replacement patients to professional marathon runners. In today’s episode we decided to focus on the basics of women’s pelvic floor health and how that relates to yoga practice and yoga teaching.

I’ve got another solo episode for you today and we are going to talk about what I call, The Myth of the Ideal Private Yoga Client... I’ll tell you all about this phenomenon, where it came from, the good intentions of the online marketing coaches who teach it, and the negative affect I see it having on the yoga world.

It’s just you and I again on the podcast today! We are going to dive deeper into a topic I have mentioned several times on this podcast: The Support/Challenge Matrix of Private Yoga Lessons. I hear all the time from teachers who are overwhelmed with all the possibility that comes with teaching private yoga. There are so many things to think about! I want to help you drop into your intuition in a grounded way so I created a framework to use as you assess your students and figure out what they need.

I am so excited about today’s topic! We are going to talk about confidence and what you can do to become a more confident yoga teacher. I wanted to talk about this because several months ago I asked my community what they were struggling with and overwhelmingly people answered that lacking confidence was their biggest struggle as a teacher.

On today’s newest podcast episode it is just you and I! I am excited to connect with you 1x1 and answer a question I get asked all the time! “What is the best way to teach someone who is skeptical or unsure about yoga?” I get asked this question frequently because this is something I have done quite a bit of!

Today you’re going to hear a live, unedited 1x1 mentoring session! I have been planning to do an episode like this since I started producing this show and this is the first opportunity I ‘ve had to finally record one! I’m so excited to invite onto the show today Sarah Kowalski, a yoga teacher from Philadelphia.

This is a favorite, and quite personal episode for me. Today we are talking about integrating spiritual teachings into asana classes. This is a personal favorite because this is one of the parts of my teaching that has changed most dramatically since I began teaching in 2005.

On today’s episode I have the honor of interviewing my main teacher from my very first teacher training back in 2005, Jennifer Brilliant! Since 1989 Jennifer has taught all levels of group and private yoga classes and lead countless special workshops. Jennifer was the Director of OM Yoga Center’s Teacher Training programs and under her eye, dozens of graduates became OM-certified yoga teachers, including me!

Today you get to meet my friend Ariana Rabinovitch. She is the host of he Yoga & Beyond Podcast, co-authored the Exposing Yoga Myths book series and founded the Yoga Research and Beyond membership site. This membership site offers yoga teachers easy access to published research on yoga and movement. They explain the research in plain English and show us how to  translate that research into our teaching practice. It’s an amazing resource for teachers and I can’t wait for you to hear all about it!

I am so excited to share this powerful conversation with you. While many yoga studios proclaim that “Everyone is Welcome!” in their classes, in today’s episode we ask, “ Are we actually teaching our classes in a way that supports that message?”.  My friend Amber Karnes is whip smart, a powerful advocate and a seasoned yoga teacher. We didn’t hold back on any difficult or taboo topics in this episode on Creating Truly Inclusive Yoga Spaces.

This is a very special, unusual episode! While most of the episodes you’ll find here at The Mentor Sessions are either interviews with friends and teachers of mine, or short teachings that I offer myself, today we’re doing something different. I’m going to take you on a trip with me for an intimate, inside view of my life and teaching for an entire week!

Today I am going to answer one of the questions other teachers ask me most frequently: How do you encourage your students to commit to a home yoga practice? I have tried almost every option out there, and I’ve landed on a way that I think works best. It must be working because every single one of my private clients has a home yoga practice they do most days AND (huge bonus) it requires ZERO extra work on my part!

Today, I bring you the wisdom of the founder of my own teaching lineage (OM Yoga) , Cyndi Lee! Cyndi is the first female Western yoga teacher to fully integrate yoga asana and Tibetan Buddhism in her practice and teaching. In 1998, she founded OM Yoga Center in NYC, and that is where I took my first YTT in 2005. In this interview we talk about what makes a good teacher, how to continue to evolve as teachers and what we can learn from the Buddhist principle of Threefold Logic.

I am so excited to introduce you to my friend Brea Johnson from Heart + Bones Yoga. Brea has been a yoga teacher for over 15 years and is also a certified Restorative Exercise teacher. Brea feels that integrating functional movement is essential for a life long yoga practice for both you and your students and in this episode we’ll give you lots of ways to make your movement practice sustainable for the long term.