Category Archives: teacher training

Can Yoga Save Corporate Executives From A Heart Attack?

Posted on November 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

From PR Newswire

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Nov. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — According to NAMASTA, the North American Studio Alliance providing support to professionals wanting to pursue careers in yoga, there are an estimated 70,000 yoga teachers in North America, a number that has grown drastically in the past several years due partly to the weak economy and job market. In fact, according to a 2008 study by Yoga Journal, Americans spend a staggering $5.7 billion annually on yoga classes and products, and this number appears to be growing, making yoga franchises one of the most viable industries for corporate executives and entrepreneurs looking for a new career path.

“We’ve seen a growing number of executives that are tired of the daily grind and are seeking a new career that provides financial stability and mental quiescence while allowing more quality time with friends and family,” says Joseph Alexander, Vice-President of Communications for Dahn Yoga & Health Centers, Inc. one of the nation’s leading yoga franchises. “Opening a yoga franchise allows more day-to-day flexibility while providing positive reinforcement to the franchisee’s physical and mental health.”

Dionne Henderson, Chief Operating Officer and Owner of 1st Capital Finance, Inc., a financial consulting firm helping businesses acquire financial capital, implement cost savings, and leverage goodwill, provides a few questions to think about for those who are considering a franchise.

Six Questions to Ask Yourself When Considering A Yoga Franchise

1. Are you financially qualified? Entrepreneurs must meet capital needs of the business including liquid cash and/or collateral requirements that will allow them to invest in the franchise.

2. Do you know your net worth? Most franchises have a corresponding net worth requirement. Potential owners must have concrete documentation to validate their current financial status.

3. Do you know your personal and professional motivation? Opening a franchise requires passion and direction. Defining the motivation to run your business is necessary because temporary drivers will not sustain owners or be sufficient to overcome long-term cycles.

4. Are you committed to developing long-term strategy to insure the lowest operating cost and greatest profitability for the business? Implementing a cost savings strategy to reduce indirect operating expenses will facilitate a faster return on your initial franchise investment and enable you to accelerate the repayment of initial capital expenditures. Whether you’re taking over an existing franchise or starting anew, consulting firms like Alliance Cost Containment ( www.alliancecost.com ) can use their significant purchasing power coupled with unique expense category expertise to negotiate deep savings while freeing up cash flow that franchisees can use to reinvest in the growth of their business.

5. Do you have a support system, both personally and professionally, to help offset the risks inherent to being a new franchise owner? Temporary conditions and unexpected circumstances are inherent when opening a new company. Successful entrepreneurs have flexibility and clearly defined resources to manage the dynamic nature of start-up.

6. Do you need a transition plan to maintain your current lifestyle as you make necessary adjustments for your new opportunity? Corporations provide workers a surefire income stream and the people, processes and technology involved in the end product are relatively stationary. Potential franchise owners should look for what mix of stability and flexibility they require and receive when partnering with a franchise operation.

About Dahn Yoga

Offered at more than 1000 locations throughout the world, Dahn Yoga is an integrated mind-body training method that combines deep stretching exercises, meditative breathing techniques and energy awareness training. Its objective is to help practitioners achieve their highest level of personal potential. Created by Ilchi Lee in 1980, Dahn Yoga has something for everyone. Through diligent practice, Dahn Yoga practitioners can create a healthy body, clear mind, dignified character and bright spiritual nature that is not learned but realized. Most importantly, Dahn Yoga teaches that peace can be found internally through the body and brain, and then will be naturally expressed externally for the benefit of all. For more information, please visit www.dahnyoga.com .

About 1st Capital Finance, Inc.

1st Capital Finance, Inc. is a financial consulting firm founded on a philosophy which asks business owners to view their organizations in a holistic manner, based on what constitutes the MIND l BODY l SPIRIT of a COMPANY, the positive benefits of which are reaped by the corresponding systems within the owners themselves. The Corporate Body receives cash flow injections by funding business loans from 5K-500M (USD). They oblige the Organizational Mind to institute a cost savings strategy to reduce operating expenses so as to maximize the profits of the Organization and find opportunities to accelerate payment of this loan. The Entrepreneurial Spirit is captured by goodwill donations in honor of each client for each closed loan. For more information, please visit www.1stcapitalfinance.com .

SOURCE Alliance Cost Containment

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Posted in business, personal yoga practice, teacher training

Donna Karan Begins Yoga, Meditation Program at UCLA Hospital

Posted on November 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Sara Fay From Patch.com

The fashion designer’s Urban Zen Foundation will provide training for hospital staff and patients in yoga, meditation, nutrition and other holistic therapies.

Patients and staff at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center will be the first on the west coast to receive training in a blend of Eastern and Western therapies designed by yoga instructors and fashion designer Donna Karan.

Urban Zen Foundation, started by Karan, is taking up residency at UCLA to ease the minds and bodies of cancer patients and their caretakers. It is the first hospital on the west coast to adopt the program, which involves training in yoga, Reiki, meditation, aromatherapy and other practices. Karan was at UCLA Thursday to visit with patients and staff.

“People think yoga is kind of putting your legs around your head,” Karan said. “Yoga is being. Yoga is being present in your mind and body. Through meditation, yoga and all the practices, it really puts the patient, the loved one, the doctor and the nurse at ease because, as we all know, being in a hospital is not exactly a place that you sign up to on vacation.”

Thirty doctors, nurses, social workers and other hospital staff at UCLA participated in the first round of training. More than 200 hospital employees have expressed interest in the next round of training, said yoga instructor Colleen Saidman.

Involving patients and their caretakers was one of the program’s main goals, Karan said.

“It could not be just people coming in and…doing good,” Karan said. “What we wanted to do was take care of the whole aspect of the hospital.”

If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of anybody, we can’t do anything, and as I keep on saying, we are in a world of chaos right now,” Karan said.

Karan, who said she has practiced yoga since she was 18, was inspired to start advocating for meditation and yoga in hospitals while her husband was suffering from lung cancer. She and yoga instructors Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman visited with cancer patients

“We’re distilling some very important methodologies in which to really take care of the symptoms of panic and we’ve been doing this research now, really, all our lives, but now we get to work hand in hand with the hospitals, to really bring it to where it’s most needed,” Yee said.

Ernesto Vargas, a liver transplant patient, said he now experiences less back pain and better sleep after learning from Urban Zen.

“When you’ve been in bed for a week or more, your spinal cord …hurts,” Vargas said, who attended the event surrounded by his family. “My back feels better. I can even move it by myself. I’ve experienced more of that and the way I breathed changed everything.”

Karan and Dr. David Feinberg, president of UCLA Health System, hope having Urban Zen at UCLA will persuade other hospitals to adopt the program. Karan hopes it will be a trendsetter.

“I hate to say this, like, you’re wearing something — ‘oh, where did you get that? I want it!’” Karan said.

UCLA has several other programs that integrate Eastern practices into Western medicine, including the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, and the Mindful Awareness Research Center.

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Posted in Health, teacher training

6 Reasons to Teach Yoga Part-time

Posted on November 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

From MindBodyGreen.com

Recently, I wrote an article called “14 Tips for Starting Your own Yoga Business.” In it, I outlined some of the things to consider when you start off as a “yogi-preneur.” While it didn’t necessarily speak to the set up of the business as full time or part time, the implication was that it’d be full time.

The idea of teaching yoga full time, when you’re working in the corporate world, can be so attractive and tempting. You’re dealing with the corporate grind, loving yoga as a student, you’ve gone to a yoga teacher training and you want to take the leap. You may look at the teachers that are teaching full time and think, “I want that life!” I had that feeling when I was working in the corporate world and I was trying to figure out how to transition to a full time teaching job. I looked at all the teachers I met with admiration and envy. I also had no idea what was involved in teaching full time and I made a lot of assumptions about their lifestyle. This can be an easy trap to fall into and can lead you astray when it comes to making a decision that is that is both true to your heart and your practical side as well.

So, one idea is that you start out teaching part time. You keep your regular job and add a class or two to your weekly schedule. How will you fit this in, you wonder? You’d be amazed how you make the time for something you love. And, once you start doing it and loving it, the other things in your life will shift to accommodate your new passion.

What are some good reasons to teach yoga part time?

1. Financial: When you’re teaching yoga part time, you usually (might not) have to depend on the income. This can free you up to teach where you want, when you want, without any sense of having to fill your schedule with the first opportunities that arise.  You also will have more stability in your financial life so you can continue to meet your obligations.

2. A chance to gain experience: Teaching yoga part time can give you the time to gain some experience before (and if) you choose to teach full time. When you’re just starting out, you may feel like while you learned the mechanics of teaching in training, you are still trying to manage the classroom and all that goes along with that. While you teach part time, you can still attend trainings, read, meet with other teachers and luxuriate in the joys of learning something new.

3. Less impact from fluctuations in your teaching schedule: As a yoga teacher, sometimes things shift in your schedule when you least expect it. This may not be a reflection on you, but may be for reasons completely out of your control. If you teach in a studio, there may be changes in the schedule that affect your classes. If you’re teaching in a school, the classes may end when the school year ends. If you’re teaching private students, sessions can be canceled for illness or travel. This is why it’s critical to have a pipeline of opportunities and always be networking so you can try to fill in openings as they arise. When you’re teaching part time, you’ve got a little insulation from these variations.

4. Health Insurance: One of the practical considerations when teaching full time is health insurance. As a teacher, you will most likely not receive health insurance from any of the employers you work with so if you’re not on someone else’s policy, you’ll need to get it for yourself (if you indeed want health insurance). Teaching part time will allow you to maintain your coverage.

5. A chance to “try-on” teaching to see if it’s a lifestyle for you: Making the shift from working full time in a corporate-type job to working independently as a yoga teacher can be big change. Finding teaching gigs, figuring out how best to spend your non-teaching time, managing the administrative aspects, including taxes, marketing, scheduling, correspondence and program development may not be your strong suits. In your part time role, you can start to manage these things a little bit and see how you do.

6. A way to feed your dharma while you’re in the corporate world: If you feel that teaching yoga is your true calling, then you’ll be doing yourself a huge disservice by denying yourself a chance to try it out. Also, if you’re frustrated in your regular job, one of the best ways to shift from that negativity is to do something you love. Feeding your true passion will allow you to head into your regular job feeling like you’re investing in yourself too; not just giving away all your energy to something you don’t love.

When you realize you want to start teaching, you usually want to start teaching right away.  But recognize that just as you’ll have your whole life to practice yoga, you’ll have your life to cultivate your skills as a teacher too. It may not be a straight line for you from working corporate to teaching yoga but whatever path you take will be filled with lessons and wisdom you can bring to your teaching.

Published 11.16.11 at 03:00 PM

About Karen Fabian
Karen Fabian is a Certified Baptiste Power Yoga Teacher and an ERYT 200 HR with Yoga Alliance. She is the founder of Bare Bones Yoga, her yoga company based in Boston. Karen has her Master’s in Health Care Administration, her undergraduate degree in Rehabilitation Counseling and has a 25-year corporate background in a variety of healthcare and software company settings. She teaches both adults and children and is the creator of Women’s Wellness Groups, her approach to providing yoga, meditation and wellness information to women. Her instructional DVD, “Bare Bones Yoga: Keeping Yoga Simple” is available on Amazon. She writes a weekly wellness column for charlestownpatch.com and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and on her website.

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Posted in teacher training

Further Plans for the Future of Compass Yoga

Posted on May 25, 2011 | 5 Comments

In the past week, I have started to put together a business plan that will facilitate my goal of working on Compass yoga full-time. The admission of this goal has been a long time coming; for years I have tried to figure out what a lifelong career working for someone would look like for me. That picture never fully, or even partially, materialized. I would sit in my meditation practice, go to my yoga mat, and talk to my friends and family in the hopes that some clear picture would reveal itself in my mind’s eye. It was only recently that the answer bubbled up to the surface: my way forward lies in another direction and that direction must be of my own making.

On Sunday, May 15th I had an odd experience in Whole Foods in which I could feel my grandmother very nearby. Later on that day, I went home and began writing down how my own yoga-based business would take shape. I’ve had bits and pieces of this idea floating around in my mind for several years but all the pieces felt very disconnected from one another. On May 15th, some kind of magic found its way in and all of my seemingly disconnected pieces gelled together. I heard a divisive “shoomp” as I typed up my plan. I would ask a question and an answer would quickly rise up to meet it. My friend, Rob, summed up the result this way: “Christa, this isn’t a business plan. This is the work of a life.” I feel that way, too.

I’ve begun to circulate the plan to a very few trusted mentors and friends like Rob, people whom I continually ask for advice and guidance on just about every area of my life. As always they have responded with honesty, grace, support, objectivity, and an astounding amount of creativity. Most of them, while students of yoga or some appreciation for its power, lie outside of the traditional yoga community. They have varied professional and personal backgrounds, savvy business minds, and a lot of heart. I am a lucky lady to know them.

Because so many of you have shown your unwavering support of my ideas through attending yoga classes I teach, comments, tweets, facebook messages, emails, voicemails, and texts , I wanted to share some of the details with you as they’re taking shape:

1.) Compass Yoga will incorporate as a nonprofit. This has been a decision that has required a lot of soul searching, fact checking, numerous hours of consultation, and more pro-con lists / decision trees than I can count.

2.) There will be a physical place that houses Compass Yoga. I have tried this changeable location model and while in many cases this has worked out, for this more refined business vision a permanent physical space is needed.

3.) Compass Yoga will continue to focus on working with underserved populations, and will actually deepen that commitment further with a variety of new programs.

4.) Partnerships will be a key component of the business structure.

5.) Compass Yoga turn a good deal of its energy toward growing the depth and breadth of the yoga field for all practitioners and teachers.

6.) In order to bring this vision to life in as full a way as possible, I will be undergoing a good deal of additional yoga teacher training in the next year. I am grateful for my location in New York City where many of the top teachers in my chosen specialty reside and teach, and I am equally grateful for my current day job that provides me with the personal funding and flexible schedule to make my extensive yoga teacher training possible.

More details are developing every day as this picture becomes clearer and clearer. The way forward is unfolding…

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Posted in business, Nonprofit, teacher training, yoga class

My Last Day of Yoga Teacher Training

Posted on May 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. I’ve felt that many times. My hope for all of us is that ‘the miles we go before we sleep’ will be filled with all the feelings that come from deep caring – delight, sadness, joy, wisdom – and that in all the endings of our life, we will be able to see the new beginnings.” ~ Fred Rogers

My birthday falls under Pisces, the final sign of the zodiac. Pisces enjoy endings, resolutions, and projects completed. Today marked the final day of our 200 hour teaching training at Sonic Yoga, a happy-sad day as my friend, Vivian, called it so eloquently and accurately. We look forward to the time that will now be open again on our calendars, and at the same time have tears in our eyes that exactly the way we have all been together for the last 3 months will never be again.

As a closing ritual, we all lit candles, and one by one, stared into each others eyes with the silent gesture of Namaste, “the light that is in me honors the light that is in you.” We so rarely have these moments with others in our daily lives. We don’t acknowledge one another in that profound way nearly enough, and in our world today we so desperately need that mutual honor, respect, and support.

I found all of those things in abundance in Sonic’s teacher training. 23 women gathered together for 3 months, with incredible teachers, to pay tribute to one another’s light. We laughed, cried, worked, and played together. It is a rare and precious gift to join a community so filled with joy, one that recognizes the beauty baked in to each of its souls in a unique and stunning way.

I tried hard to think of a way to say thank you enough, to the students and to our teachers. For someone who nearly always knows exactly what to say and when to say it, I found that the silent gaze into the eyes of each person conveyed more authentic gratitude and love than any phrase I could have uttered. The best way to honor the gift of this training is to pay it forward with wild abandon.

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The People’s Republic of Vinyasa

Posted on April 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

When I signed up for my yoga teacher training at Sonic, one of the requirements they told us about was a trance dance. I had no idea what this was. Johanna, one of my teachers, told us “you will love it.” I wasn’t sure about it – the description reminded me of a rave minus any of the substances normally associated with that kind of party. But hey, this training is all about getting out of our comfort zone and being open to new experiences so I decided to go along quietly.

Today I had the extreme pleasure of getting to practice and trance dance with Shiva Rea, the guru whom many of my teachers have practiced with for many years. Everyone within the sound of her voice feels her glow. Her only instruction for the trance dance was to “let it all go.” There’s no right way or wrong way to dance – we just had to let the music move through us spontaneously. No plans, no regrets, no patterns. “All our lives we struggle and struggle and struggle, when all we really need to do is let go,” Shiva said. And let go we did. All of us.

Being in the presence of over 100 people moving to their own rhythm, I got swept away in their current. In the process of being swept away, I was able to release and just be, in a way that I never have before. There we all were, twisting, turning, chanting, breathing. All on our own and all together, all at once. It felt like for a moment we weren’t on the lower east side of Manhattan. We had entered another realm where the energy we created could actually be held in the palms of our hands. That energy was a living, breathing entity that belonged to all of us. We were individuals, and yet we were all clearly citizens of the People’s Republic of Vinyasa. Born and raised.

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Posted in teacher training