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Photo credit: Jen Armstrong

Last but certainly not least. I end the year with this frank and tender interview with author Nadia Gilani, we discuss the tensions within the 'Yoga Industrial Complex' body image, disordered eating as part of the yoga practice and more. Her brilliant Book 'The Yoga Manifesto: How Yoga Saved Me And Why it  Needs to Save Itself' has been on my bedside table since it came out earlier this year.

Nadia first discovered yoga after her mum took her to a class in the 1990s (and she really didn’t want to go!) She has been practicing ever since. Nadia has extensive experience working with people with different bodies and from all walks of life and is deeply committed to making yoga inclusive. Her approach to teaching is contemporary and explorative while maintaining a deep respect for the ancient practice.

Catch her in Norfolk in 2023 at The Space, Burston as part of her epic tour. Many more dates and venues around the UK included!

Nadia’s website

Instagram

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After stumbling into yoga after burning out working in the music industry. London-based teacher Dina never expected to be teaching full time, let alone running her own home studio - Golden Door - and hosting successful international yoga retreats.

This January will be her 14th year of running her signature retreat in Goa, A New Years Revolution on the Beach which will now be at the revamped and amazing Bamboo Yoga in Patnem. Highly recommended!

Dina also offers CPD and training for yoga teachers both online and in person, she specialises in Yoga Nidra, Mindfulness and Restorative Yoga

She’s a font of knowledge and in this interview shares her years of experience and wisdom.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Links

Dina’s Website

Judith Lasater

Sarah Powers - Yin Yoga

Godfrey Devereux

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Norman began practicing yoga in the early 1990s and he has been teaching since 2001. His practice and teaching embrace both Ashtanga yoga and Yin yoga as well as mindfulness meditation.

Through significant periods of training with teachers such as Alaric Newcombe, Judith Hanson Lasater, Richard Freeman and Sarah Powers, he has gained the Yoga Alliance 500-hour accreditation. He believes that yoga is accessible to all of us and through regular practice we can experience profound changes in our mind and body.

His own experience has taught him that yoga is an enjoyable way to release and make available energetic potential to enhance our lives. Yoga can help us to become more flexible, physically stronger and improve our stamina, focus, and awareness.

Norman teaches Ashtanga and Yin yoga classes and workshops throughout London, as well as leading retreats. His Yin yoga training courses are respected and popular. He has run yoga teacher mentoring groups for more than ten years.

Norman’s website

Brightening our Inner Skies -Yin and Yoga - Norman’s book

Caroline Williams - Move

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Ella Tighe is a Bradford-based Dance artist and yoga teacher. She started practicing Ashtanga Yoga with Ervin Menyhart 10 years ago and since then yoga has sat beside and around her dance practice. She became an apprentice to her teacher Ervin and undertook a 200-hour teacher training through a traditional Ashtanga apprenticeship route. She took further trainings in Mandala Vinyasa and Rocket with The Yoga People and Tripsichore with Edward Clark. Over the years She has invested in her yoga practice, working with some of the most highly esteemed teachers such as Mark Kan, Eileen Gauthier and Ambra Vallo. Most importantly she has always dedicated herself to a rigorous self-practice in both Mysore style Ashtanga and Vinyasa. 

She has taught dance and yoga in a range of different contexts varying from London yoga studios, to Bachelor dance programs, in primary & secondary schools and has worked with a range of people with different bodies, abilities and needs.

Ella’s Website

Book Norwich Workshops with Ella

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Claire Missingham is a leading teacher who has over 22 years of experience. Claire loves telling stories, igniting a passion for spiritual (non-dogmatic) practice, loves people getting to know people and is a champion for lifting as you climb.

Having been diagnosed with auto-immune disease Coeliac over 18 years ago, she has used her deep knowledge of nutrition to keep herself not just well, but Radiantly Alive. She loves nothing more than to pass on her knowledge and passion for adaptogens, herbs and nutrition as a path to health and vitality. In a now saturated yoga world, Claire’s clarity of teaching and inspirational curriculum stands out because she can explain the nuances of teaching yoga with excellence, humour and purity. What you see is what you get, whether it’s in a pair of pyjamas, jeans or yoga clothing, it’s all the same authentic person, getting up early to do the inner work, and just passing it on to you… Ram Ram.

Claire’s website

September 17th @ SameStar Yoga - Special 1 day workshop

October 8th Confluence of Three - Teacher’s refinement Mentoring Course

October 15th Om Yoga Show

November 19th. Katy Appleton & Claire Missingham present The Heart of Yoga Conference (panel discussion moderated by Abby Hoffmann)

Mollie McClelland Morris is a Senior Yoga teacher and trainer. Originally from Pittsburgh, USA she now lives in the UK with her husband and two children. Mollie was a dancer for many years and yoga kept coming into her life. It was a practice that brought balance to her body and mind. After years of practising with injuries, she discovered The Franklin Method which changed her perspective completely.

Her curiosity about the body and human nature drives her practice and her wonder at these bodies we all have drives her teaching.

Mollie’s Website

What goes in your Movement Diet?

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David Keil was introduced to yoga in 1989 by his Tai Chi Chuan teacher. Both the Tai Chi and Yoga practice at the ripe age of 17 began his research into his own mind-body connections. His search continued through massage therapy where he discovered many insights and affirmations of what he had been exploring and finding on his own through his practices. One of the most important elements was the specific understanding of the musculoskeletal system and how fascinating, beautiful, and amazing the body is on the scientific level and how that directly played into and off of his own understanding of the human body. He was given names and explanations for some of the things he had been experiencing and feeling.

As an instructor of Kinesiology (the study of movement and musculoskeletal anatomy) at Miami's Educating Hands School of Massage from 1999-2003, David developed a fun, informal and informative style of teaching. By repeatedly teaching incoming students who had no prior understanding of anatomy, David was confronted with the problem of making such a complex and beautiful system accessible and understandable to the average person.

David’s Website

Tom Myers Anatomy Trains

David’s Schedule includes UK dates

Stillpoint Yoga London

Cathy Underwood is an award-winning yoga teacher with over 30 years of teaching experience. She specialises in yoga provision for clinical populations, supporting individuals and groups, living with complex mental health conditions, addiction disorders, learning disabilities and special educational needs.

Cathy’s methodology blends somatic practices with Mindfulness and evidence-based neuroscience to regulate neurological and physical imbalances that can impact a person’s health and well-being.

Cathy's Website

The Minded Institute

Special Yoga

The Tree House School

The London Children’s Practice

Hayley Winter, the founder of the Institute of Yoga Sports Science®, BWY Dip, E-RYT 500, YACEP, lives in Brooklyn, New York. For the past 30 years, Hayley has been a yoga educator, a Yoga Sports Scientist, an elite movement consultant, and an early pioneer of online yoga education. For the past decade, Hayley and her team have been teaching yoga online and working with yoga teachers who want to specialise in delivering the benefits of yoga to athletes. 

Her evidence-based approach to applying yoga to athletes has bridged the gap between yoga and sport. The foundation of her yoga teaching is underpinned by biomechanical principles aimed at empowering yoga professionals to adapt and apply yoga to any setting.

In 2020, Hayley and her team responded to the needs of the global yoga teaching community helping them pivot online. For a year they mentored thousands of yoga teachers, providing support, and helping them grow to keep their teaching momentum going through Lockdown.

Link to the 20-Hour Course 'How to Teach Yoga Online'. 

https://instituteofyogasportscience.mykajabi.com/how-to-teach-yoga-online-course

If interested in learning more about Yoga Momentum, email: support@yogasportscience.com

Yoga Sports Science Website

https://www.yogasportscience.com/

You can find out more about Davy and Janaki, Brighton Yoga Festival & how to join the Yoga Teacher’s Union below.

Inspirational Yogis Davy and Janaki’s website

Brighton Foundation & Festival - Happening 23rd July 2022

Yoga teachers union - There is power in a Union!