Private yoga sessions are unique in that you can use your time, knowledge and focus all on one person. You don’t have to keep the rest of a class running while you help one person with their alignment or their pain.

Next week, we’ll look at how to get private yoga bookings from your group classes, in a way that’s not susceptible to imposter syndrome and totally beneficial to both you and the potential client, so tune in next week for that.

But anyway, back to the koshas. This is where we’re going in today’s episode:

• A quick refresher of the five koshas
• Using the Koshas as a framework for your Private Sessions
• Using the kosha system to really help your private yoga clients

See the shownotes here

When working one-on-one, the kosha system gives you a framework to tailor your sessions to the student’s needs holistically, and this is something that you can work through methodically, making sure that your private yoga clients are always getting a hugely beneficial and well-rounded session. While we definitely don’t want people to be struggling to pay for sessions with us, it is nice to have a valid reason to keep clients coming back to you, and working with all the layers of the koshas can certainly be that very valid reason.

If you’d love to learn more about the overlaps between fascia and energetic anatomy, this training is for you

If you’d love to learn more about Yoga Nidra (or even just see what it’s like to practice two gorgeous Yoga Nidra’s a day), then this training is for you

Both of these gems are part of our fabulous 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, take a look at that here!

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🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Last week’s episode was all about understanding the koshas, and today, we’re taking that up a level, looking at layering your yoga asana classes with this understanding of the koshas.

This is where we’re going;

- A review of what the koshas are

- How to work with each kosha in your yoga asana classes

Make sure you bookmark this episode, as it’ll serve as a guide for anytime you’re low on inspiration, or looking for a way to work with someone who’s struggling a bit with asana, this is where working with the kosha model is so empowering and so full of potential, because you’ve got four other routes to be able to work with this person, and to help them. You could work with their breath and / or their energy. You could use a ‘top-down’ approach, working with the mental body, with intention, or mindfulness techniques. You could guide them to connect with their inner wisdom, and you could guide them to connect with a sense of their inner peace. SO much potential, SO much inspiration.

Enjoy, yoga teachers!

See the shownotes here

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🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

Understanding the koshas can be totally transformative to your yoga teaching.

If you've been put off the koshas before, concerned that they don't really make sense, or they don't really offer anything concrete to actually work with... this episode is for you!

Expect to understand a) what the koshas are and b) how they can help you, as a person and as a yoga teacher.

Enjoy!

Oh and by the way, if you liked this, you'll LOVE our Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yin Yoga training, in March 2025

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

This powerful practice is taken from our recent Yoga Nidra & Yoga Wisdom training, and is inspired by the incomparable Tracee Stanley.

Grab anything you need to get comfortable, and grab your journal and a pen too as there's optional journal prompts at the end.

And above all, enjoy!

See the shownotes here

Join our next Yoga Nidra & Yoga Wisdom training here!

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

"Any intervention on the fascia is also an intervention on the autonomic nervous system"
- Staubesand in 2003

This podcast episode is inspired by a yoga research session held this week on The Base, which looked at studies investigating the nature of the relationships between fascia and how the nervous system reads stress and pain, which was really interesting from a whole-person holistic perspective; in that someone’s pain or chronic stress can potentially be altered through working with the fascia - I mean wowza!

See the shownotes here

In this episode, we cover:
- A brief history of fascia
- What fascia actually is, even though it’s proving pretty difficult to define!
- How the nervous system and the fascia interact with each other and live alongside each other, and affect each other
- How this helps you, as a yoga teacher, teach yoga

If you want to watch the Yoga Research session on The Base, you can catch it here - use code COMMUNITY for 25% off your first three months.

This episode is a sliver taken from our super exciting 300-hour yoga teacher training module: Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga is designed to deeply explore two important but often unexplored areas of yoga; the fascia and energetic anatomy, and the unique relationship these two share.

Both fascial anatomy and energetic anatomy have a huge impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. This training will break down what fascia is, how it impacts our physical and mental health, and how to use this knowledge to create a rewarding and therapeutic practice for ourselves and our yogis, before exploring yoga’s subtle energy; prana, nadis, chakras and prana vayus and the role of prana in understanding holistic health. We’ll then go on to understand the relationship between movement, myofascial release, energetic anatomy and how we feel.

Expect to graduate with a whole host of options now at your disposal to layer on to your classes, feeling inspired and ready to teach what you’ve learned, and to integrate learnings in to your own practice for your own wellbeing.

We'd love you to join us 🙏

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

This episode looks at some of the ways that stress can impact the brain. In the interests of full disclosure - this episode might seem a bit doom and gloom, as it focuses on the impacts on the brain of stress. However, if you join the free workshop: Understand WHY yoga works: Yoga's role in stress reduction - that’ll be the light at the end of the gloomy tunnel!

In this episode, we cover:

• A brief recap of what stress is
• Then we’ll look at three main areas 1) the pre-frontal cortex 2) the amygdala and 3) the telomeres

All of this information is taken from, and inspired by our Yoga and the Neurobiology of Stress module coming up in June 2025 - so if you’ve had your eye on that training, or you wish you could have a sneaky peek in to our 300 hour training - well there you go!

See the shownotes here

The pre-frontal cortex

The pre-frontal cortex is a major brain structure that affects thought, insight and emotion. When it’s in full working order it helps to assess situations and suggest useful ways to plan and respond to these situations. However being in a stressed state can take the pre-frontal cortex offline, and even reduce the size of it.

Amygdala

You might have heard the of the amygdala as the brain’s smoke detector and that’s exactly right. When a smoke detector detects smoke, it sets off an alarm. When the amygdala detects danger; i.e. a stressor, it sets of the internal danger alarms; the Sympathetic Nervous System and the HPA axis.

In anxious states, and this is super important - the amygdala becomes enlarged and hypersensitive.

Telomeres

Our genetic information is stored in chromosomes, which duplicate again and again and again. At the end of the chromosomes are telomeres, which are there to protect the information. The thing is that stress can cause the telomeres to shorten, which then means that the information in the chromosome might be copied incorrectly, and the impact of this on a person’s health could be huge.

So I did say that it might be a bit doom and gloom, so please yoga teacher, come join me for the light at the end of the tunnel - I promise it’s just absolutely inspiring HOW MUCH yoga helps mitigate the impact of stress.

See you there!

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

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Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

As yoga teachers, we know that stress is an epidemic; it affects almost everyone we meet, and it has a profound impact on their lives.

We so often talk about the sympathetic nervous system; the fight or flight response and how that impacts physical and mental health, but we don’t often talk about the HPA axis, and its profound impact on health…

It got me thinking - why is that?

After some informal research, I realised that this is because yoga teachers don’t really understand what the HPA axis is, or why it’s important to understand as a yoga teacher.

So - this episode is all about why it’s important to understand the HPA axis as a yoga teacher.

We’re starting with an overview of what the HPA axis is; and don’t forget I’ll go into more detail on our free workshop, we’ll look at what cortisol is and take a quick look at the impact of cortisol on the body, and finally, we’ll investigate why yoga is such a powerhouse in managing the impact of stress on mind and body.

Coming up: super duper free workshop:

Un-stress: The yoga tonic

This workshop is part of my mission to educate yoga teachers to understand WHY yoga works. Why yoga is helping people manage their autoimmune disorders. Why, people say, I always sleep so well after yoga! Why the Washington Post said yoga may help protect against cognitive decline. I think as yoga teachers, we know it works. We know why we practice yoga, and why we teach it.

And - wonderfully - the evidence base is starting to catch up, and I’m really really exciting to share this with you.

There will be some science, but my style of teaching is to make sure I’m only teaching what I really truly believe is useful, I break it down into manageable chunks, and I repeat it so you can be sure it goes in.

So, whether you’re deeply in love with internal human anatomy or it quite frankly scares you, I promise, this workshop is for you!

I can’t wait to see you there.

Big love,
Holly

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

--

Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge

Our 300 hour training is underpinned by three golden rules:

1. Everything you learn will be inherently useful, immediately usable, or both
2. All bold claims will be backed by research
3. The entire training will stay true to the roots of yoga

Enjoy!

Take a look: Yoga Hero's 300 hour yoga teacher training

--
🤝 The Base
A community for yoga teachers Take a look

📚 Training for yoga teachers
300 hour yoga teacher training, starts March 2025
Restorative Yoga & Polyvagal Theory Nov 24
Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga Mar 25

--

Follow @foryogateachers

Struggle with low confidence and self-doubt? Try the free Shatter Imposter Syndrome challenge