Check out the complete Season 1 episode guide:
Episode 01: Ashley' road to finding yoga:
dealing with grief & self sabotage
There is no better way to start our little podcast than introducing ourselves - in this episode you'll get to know Ashley - your resident Canadian -who brings all the humour while *trying her best* to keep in line with yogic traditions. We discuss what brought her to yoga: she has fought through her own life struggles, trying to figure out life after spending years on her degree (and still not knowing what to do with it!), battling grief from the loss of several family members at a young age, becoming lost and out of touch with herself, until thankfully coming to the realisation that change was needed. Spoiler - she found yoga.
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Episode 02: Melinda's journey from the lonely world of modelling to yoga
Next let's meet Melinda: the Hungarian who travelled the world as a young model, working while living out of a suitcase. The modelling world can be a lonely one, especially when you're at an age where you are still trying to figure out who you are. She eventually moved to London and stumbled upon a new passion that she turned into her new and exciting career path. The fashion industry can be cruel but it taught Melinda how to accept herself and definitely helped her to grow a thick skin. Listen to find out the whole story in her words...
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Episode 03: The reality of starting out as a new yoga teacher
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to become a yoga teacher? Regardless of whether it is your plan from a young age or a career change - the first year is never easy (disclaimer - it's never 'easy' & we're still figuring it out). There's a lot to do: apply for jobs (for which you mostly don't hear back from), 'perform' at auditions/interviews (to hopefully get on cover lists and maybe eventually get your own class), all while trying to find your own voice/identity and confidence as a yoga teacher with hardly any experience - it's a big task for anyone. We reminisce about our beginnings - what it was like for us coming out of our first 200hr teacher training course as new bright eyed keen yoga teachers ready to share what we learned with the rest of the world (or who would listen, anyways..)
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Episode 04: How we put our yoga practice to the ultimate test: entering the pandemic
We all experience moments in our lives when we are starkly confronted with the reality that change is needed. We kinda had an idea that change was needed beforehand BUT, the Covid pandemic sharply put things into perspective - and we probably weren’t alone in that. Whether you felt that you were in perfect balance before 2020 or completely burnt out, lockdowns were a profound experience for everyone, and for many, it was a realisation that you were doing too much.
As a self employed yoga teacher the pandemic was unbelievably scary - all at once we experienced losing our income and realised we were fully reliant on studios for our employment despite being ‘self employed’. The pandemic showed us our value and that we can take care of ourselves, because we ultimately had no other choice. It wasn’t easy, but we are grateful for what we learnt. Listen to our episode about our experience during Covid and how we had to swim with the changing current of our new lives going forward.
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Episode 05: The new era of teaching: things will never be the same OR easy
In this episode we share what our experiences were like as we came back to teaching in person classes after lockdowns ended. The landscape had changed dramatically, and what had built up before would likely never return. We had to learn a new skill set of how to teach hybrid in person/online classes, while simultaneously having our pay per class lowered. Sadly the studios were struggling financially and many had to close their doors because people didn't return like we were hoping. We also saw that there was a huge influx of new yoga teachers (people who wanted a career change during the pandemic) now on the scene, and an out-flux of experienced yoga teachers leaving the city/changing careers/going back to school because of the new obstacles we were facing…lower pay, higher bills, more demands, less studio classes available and a million yoga teachers competing for them.
We were grateful to come back to teaching in person and be able to interact with people again, but our yoga teaching careers as we knew them were now changed forever.
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Episode 06: Cultivating community & building on the more important aspects of yoga - with Darvina Plante
We had the privilege of inviting our very first guest onto our podcast this week. We asked brilliantly talented Darvina Plante to join us in discussing why she started practicing yoga, what brought her to deciding to become a yoga teacher and why she loves The Rocket. She shared why community, diversity and accessibility are fundamental to her teaching, and we couldn’t agree more. We spoke about why we believe Rocket is accessible, (and what Rocket is for those of you who haven't’ tried it!) and what it was like to lead a teacher training program with David Kyle. Darvina shared how she finds being a full time yoga teacher in London, and what else she works on to maintain a sustainable career. Have a listen now and connect with Darvina on Instagram @darvinaplanteyoga or her website: https://www.darvinaplante.com/
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Episode 07: Beyond the ASANA - Yoga in our daily routines
Yoga isn’t just physical movement - once you start practicing you realise that your yoga practice is actually related to most everything you do - yoga in action/self observation. It is how you live your daily life, how you interact with others and how you treat yourself. Yoga reaches beyond your mat and becomes ingrained into every aspect of your life. In this episode we are talking about how we *think* we are perceived as teachers, our thoughts on veganism, yogic ‘diet’, drinking alcohol, and being mindful in our day to day lives. As teachers and practitioners, we believe it is important to live according to our beliefs and teachings: watching our thoughts and reactions, becoming aware of our insecurities, our deep-rooted anger, road rage, and trauma - it's all part of our practice. We talk about how we work on these subjects and offer our views on how you can too - as it's hard work that we each have to do on our own, no one else is gonna do it!
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Episode 08: Yoga is for everyone. But which yoga class?
Have you ever been recommended to go to yoga?
Does your back hurt? Try yoga.
Are you pregnant? Try yoga.
→ But no one ever specifies what yoga class to try, so how would you know?
We find that yoga is recommended on so many occasions (which is wonderful), but it scares people away when they attempt a power yoga class with severe back pain or try to join a 90mins Rocket class in their first trimester with no previous experience in yoga. Yoga is absolutely for everybody, but it matters what class you attend. We see it way too often that people are put off from the practice after trying something that wasn’t suitable to their needs. Yoga can be practiced safely during pregnancy, with an injury, at any age and stage of life, including kids from a young age who are wonderfully open to new ideas - yoga can equip them with the tools they need to manage their emotional wellbeing. We would have loved knowing about yoga much earlier! We discuss our thoughts on this subject, and offer our insights on how we address it in class.
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Episode 09: Yoga styles and lineages - How to find the right class for you
When we started taking yoga classes over a decade ago it was confusing enough, nowadays even more so - it seems everyone wants to put their own spin on yoga and create their brand & sequence, how do you know where to start or what to expect? What is Ashtanga and what are its roots? Are all vinyasa classes ashtanga based? What is Iyengar Yoga? Yoga websites try their best to explain what you can expect in a class, but IMHO they are still hard to decipher and we think you just gotta try a few types and find what’s best for you, because they are all so different, and every teacher is unique. This episode is for everyone to listen to and learn more about yoga and its roots, not just for those trying to navigate where to start. As always we share our own experiences in trying types of yoga, the good and the, unexpected. We landed on our own types of practice eventually and that’s what we teach because it works for us. We also cover the use of props in class and when or if you should use them.
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Episode 10: Everything you want to know about yoga myths -With the osteopath yogi, Elodie Frati
We're signing off Season 1 of Conversations With Yogis with a bang! This time we are talking to Elodie Frati, a yoga teacher, osteopath, teacher trainer, and one of the top go-to anatomy teachers in the London yoga community. Elodie shared with us why she started yoga in the first place - to build strength as a dancer - her love of practicing led her to become a teacher. Her experience as a teacher kept her exploring human anatomy, leading her to a deep dive into that subject and subsequent training as an Osteopath. We asked Elodie some important questions that seem to come up time and time again: Is yoga enough on its own as a form of movement? Should we be lifting weights or doing cardio alongside it? What are bandhas? And when should/should you actually use them during your practice? We also chatted about some yoga myths & familiar/sometimes weird cues you hear in classes and what her take was on them - are they anatomically correct or are they nonsense? The one that just doesn't seem to go away is 'detoxifying in twists' (nope it's not a thing). Have a listen to our last episode of this season, we know you'll find some gems of knowledge here to bring into your practice and into your teachings. Find Elodie @elodie_movingdynamics on Instagram and her webpage https://linktr.ee/Eddiefrats
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