“Welcome. As we begin, please close your eyes and consider this: From where do you draw stability in your life? Is it your faith or religion? Possessions? Relationships? Career? Experiences? Traditions? Where do you find stability when you’re on the mat? Is it possible that the stability that you find on the mat is connected [...]
Tag Archives: Yoga Teacher Training
Five Myths (Some) Men Believe About Yoga
Tresca Weinstein, guest blogger The first time Sam Chase went to a yoga class, he hated it. Growing up as a bookworm who suffered from asthma, he thought of his body as little more than a vehicle for his brain. In his twenties, he decided he finally wanted to get fit—and his first goal was [...]
Warrior One
Rebekah L Fraser, guest blogger “Your psoas might be singing,” says Devarshi Steven Hartman, the Kripalu Yoga teacher trainer extraordinaire. He stands on a platform in the middle of the room, leading a posture clinic. We, his students, have put our yoga mats around the platform, like rays of the sun, facing him. We stand [...]
Falling in Love with My Ankles
Rebekah L Fraser, guest blogger I have fallen in love with my ankles. This is weird, because I’ve never really noticed them before, except for that time I rolled my left foot so far over that I broke the fifth metatarsal and pulled all the ligaments in my ankle, like tree roots from the ground. [...]
Posted on January 28th, 2013 by Jonathan Ambar in Yoga
Powers and Purpose
There comes a time in every yoga teacher’s life when he looks down at the mat before him and asks, “Is this all there is?” His passion for yoga and teaching is still strong, yet he may also feel stuck, even a bit stale. He needs something new, something to reinvigorate his love of teaching. [...]
As the Yogi Turns: Yoga Teacher Training and the Art of Self-Awareness
By Rebekah L. Fraser, guest blogger The author is a freelance writer and video producer who is currently participating in Kripalu’s 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. This is the first of a series of blog posts she will write for the Kripalu blog, Thrive. After an hour of shifting and fidgeting in the darkness, I’m finally starting to [...]
When Yoga Meets Positive Psychology
Susanlee Mascaro, guest blogger As yoga teachers, we learn the postures with an eye for fine-tuned alignment. We are passionate about absorbing all the many facets of yoga: pranayama, meditation, yama and niyama, yoga nidra. The space we teach in becomes sacred space, and we treat it with a quiet reverence. We each bring our [...]
Posted on January 8th, 2013 by Thrive in Outside Our Walls
Making an Impact: Kripalu Helps One Young Yoga Teacher Find Her Calling
Ashley Winseck, guest blogger When Nyacko Perry first heard about the Kripalu Semester Intensive program during a presentation at her college in 2008, she didn’t quite understand what Kripalu was all about. But she was incredibly interested in finding out. “I didn’t know what it was, because it was such a new program, but I [...]
Posted on December 5th, 2012 by Cristie Newhart in Yoga
40 Years of Kripalu in the West: Coming Home
In this monthly series running through 2012, community members recall milestone moments to commemorate and reflect on Kripalu Yoga.
In 1972, a small residential yoga retreat called Kripalu Center was founded in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania, by Amrit Desai and several of his students from the Philadelphia area. Desai had emigrated to the United States from India, where he was a close disciple of the yoga master Swami Kripalu. Over the next 40 years, Desai’s students integrated Swami Kripalu’s core teachings with psychology, science, and Western approaches to healing and self-development, creating groundbreaking programs and approaches to well-being. Today, Kripalu’s curriculum, professional training, and yoga research continue to be informed by the lineage of Kripalu Yoga. To commemorate the 40-year milestone, we asked several teachers and community members to reflect on what Kripalu Yoga means to them.
Being a Kripalu Yoga Teacher: 40 Years of Kripalu Yoga in the West
Before I ever stepped foot on the Kripalu grounds, my brother, who had just spent a week there, called me and said, “Al, if you go to Kripalu, you won’t come back.” About six months later, I packed my bags and headed to the Berkshires to take the leap from yoga practitioner to yoga teacher, and to put my brother’s hypothesis to the test. I had no idea just how right it would prove to be. I was about to meet my longtime teacher, whose teachings would rock my practice, alter my life views, and completely unravel my understanding of myself. I was about to meet my future husband, who would join me on this ecstatic and terrifying journey of life. I was about to embark on a whole new career, weaving together several life passions. Eight years later, Kripalu is still at the hub of my life. When I park my car and walk across the breathtaking grounds, I sometimes find myself saying a silent thank you to this crucible that has helped me create a life that I love, one that I never could have imagined when I first heard my brother’s words. —Allison Gemmel LaFramboise, Kripalu Yoga teacher and faculty member
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