Keen on Yoga Podcast

Adam completed the advanced A series with Sharath in Mysore in 2012, the same year he was authorised, and yet he believes that the practice is meant to be individualised for each student.  F Support Us  Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time. Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/ 

Kranti (Renato Libanati) - Love of Ashtanga (Krantivira.com |@kranti.yoga.movement) Certified Ashtanga Teacher since 2012 | India 1991 – Osho | Meditation at age 14 | Finding Ashtanga | Mysore in 2005 | Richard Freeman, Maty Ezraty | Changes in Mysore | Managing injuries | Keeping motivated | Guilt in practice | Teaching in Japan v Europe | The future | Teaching relationship (more info below) ******************************************** Support Us Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/ ********************************************* Kranti was born in Italy, under the sign of Cancer in 1970, in Chinese astrology’s Year of the Dog. Since childhood, he’s had an instinct for expansion and growth. His interest in the human mind and self-inquiry ignited at age 14, after reading his first book on meditation written by Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh).   Eventually, Kranti developed an interest in Yoga. In 1991, he travelled through India, and a few years later, he started a daily practice.   In Milan in 1996, he took a one-year teacher training with Carlo Patrian, one of the yoga pioneers in Italy. A few years later, while in Berlin, he was introduced to the Ashtanga method and fell in love with the practice. Since then, although Kranti’s yoga experience was complimented with the Iyangar method, Ashtanga became his daily practice and passion.   Kranti moved to Copenhagen a few years later, teaching Ashtanga and Hatha Vinyasa. He taught different yoga enthusiasts, dancers, actors, and athletes; one of his regular students was the Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary Donaldson.   In Paris in 2002, Kranti attended a workshop with Richard Freeman. He was deeply inspired by Richard’s versatile and open approach to yoga and yoga philosophy, and the following year he traveled to Boulder, Colorado, for Richard’s one-month intensive teacher training. This experience further deepened his understanding of the Ashtanga method, meditation, and philosophy.   In 2004, he attended a course in Yoga Therapy at the Yoga Biomedical Trust of London, England. He worked with students with heart disease and was moved by the powerful healing aspect of yoga as a complementary alternative therapy.     Since 2005, Kranti has routinely studied in Mysore, India, under the guidance of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath Jois. He received Authorization Level 1 to teach Ashtanga Yoga from Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in 2008, and on July 5th, 2010, Kranti received Level 2 Authorization.   In 2012, Kranti was Certified by the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Institute (KPJAYI) – the only official institute in the world able to certify students to teach the traditional Ashtanga Yoga method by the Jois family.   Kranti & Gabriele Severini, who teaches in Rome, are the only two certified teachers from Italy. As of 2012, only 38 certified teachers were recognised globally by KPJAYI.   Kranti is also a registered teacher with the Yoga Alliance (RYT and E-RYT 500 hours), and he completed the Yin Yoga Teacher Training with Sarah Powers.   Through his teachings, Kranti will help you tap into your own true, unique potential. “In addition to Yoga studies, Kranti has trained and self-studied ‘Life Coaching,’ NLP, Body Language and psychology, incorporating aspects of these fields in his daily teaching and private lessons.”  

 Zoë Slatoff - The Practice of Sanskrit  (www.ashtangayogasanskrit.com | @yogasankrit ) Introduction to yoga | One month of led Intermediate with Pattabhi Jois in NY | Qutting school for Mysore at 21 years old | Falling in love with Sanskrit | Interest in he texts | Integrated study with practice | Giving up neuroscience | Inspiration | Sanskrit for yoga students book | Sanskrit classes online | The stilling of thoughts | Deeper understanding of Sanskrit Online classes: https://ochsonline.org/learning-pathways-sanskrit/ Zoe’s Book https://www.amazon.com/Yogavataranam-Translation-Integrating-Traditional-University/dp/086547754X/ About Zoe Slatoff-Ponte Zoë teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy in the Yoga Studies M.A. program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as well as online courses for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She has a PhD in Religion and Philosophy from Lancaster University and an MA in Asian Languages and Culture from Columbia University.  Zoë is the author of Yogāvatāraṇam, a Sanskrit textbook for yoga students, which uses extracts from classical yoga texts to integrate traditional and academic methods of learning the language. Zoë is also the Sanskrit editor for Pushpam, and has done Sanskrit editing for Nāmarūpa and Robert Svoboda's book Vāstu. Zoë also taught for many years at her yoga shala in NYC, Ashtanga Yoga Upper West Side. She discovered yoga at the age of 15 and has been devoted to a daily practice ever since. She first traveled to Mysore in 2000 to study with Pattabhi Jois and Sharath and has returned almost annually. She is honored to have received Guruji's blessing to teach in 2002, and level 2 Authorization in 2009. Her PhD centers around a translation of the Aparokṣānubhūti, an Advaita Vedānta text attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, which is particularly relevant to yoga practitioners. It explains how we get caught up in illusions about our bodies and the world and how we could instead use practice to help us discover and be more connected to our essential nature.  

In this solo episode, Adam shares his thoughts on physical assists in teaching yoga.  Once thought of as the only way to teach this method, things are gradually shifting. Support Us Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Donate: https://keenonyoga.com/donate/ Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time.   Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/   Keen On Yoga Podcast Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keen-on-yoga-podcast/id1509303411 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5iM9lcw52JskHUZ2eFvVxN Full Guest List: https://keenonyoga.com/podcast-guests/  

Nicki Doane (www.nickidoane.com | @mayayogastudio ) Nicki lives in Maui and she recorded this episode from her studio sharing her story of yoga as well as the devastation caused by the fires in the last few days.  Links to donate and help the people of Maui are below. Maui Strong Fund Maui Rapid Response - the hub for verified donation links What’s happening on Maui | Mind Blown from Yoga | Yoga via The Grateful Dead | Yoga feeling familiar | Tim Miller | Mysore in 1991 | Thoughts on Pattabhi Jois | Yoga was fun, but it gets deeper | Not being ready for The Yoga Sutras | Teaching style | Ashtanga on Maui | Fires on Maui Nicki Doane is an internationally recognized yoga teacher, known for her ability to make the practice of yoga accessible to every body. She began her study of yoga at the age of 18 while attending the University of Massachusetts. From her first class, she knew she had found something special and deeply familiar. While she began to practice yoga on a purely physical plane and because it felt good, it became apparent some years later that there was more to Yoga than she originally thought. In 1991, Nicki traveled to Mysore, India to study with Sri K Pattabhi Jois, the master of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. She fell in love with the practice and continued her studies with Pattabhi Jois until his death in 2009. What she experienced on that first trip was a radical realization that yoga is much more than a physical practice. The yoga affected her deeply on an emotional and spiritual level. After that she was hooked! As she delved deeper into the Ashtanga practice she became curious about her teacher’s teacher and his lineage. She learned that Tirumalai Krishnamacharya had been Pattabhi Jois’ teacher and also the teacher of BKS Iyengar. This led her to study Iyengar Yoga with Mr. Iyengar, his children and with many of his senior teachers as well including Gabriella Giubilaro and Patricia Walden, at his institute in Pune, India. Nicki has always believed that her practice continued to grow and evolve due to her study and practice of both of these systems of Yoga. Nicki continues to study to study yoga with senior teachers and believes that a great teacher must always remain a dedicated student. Nicki’s teaching has grown out of her practice and her deep faith in yoga and she chooses to honor her students as individuals first and foremost. Nicki’s style combines asana, pranayama, philosophy, and poetry and her classes are strong and accessible to everyone. Nicki uses humor in her teaching to set her students at ease and she is considered to be very relatable and down to earth. She is known as a Teacher’s teacher and loves igniting the spark of yoga in her students. Nicki lives on the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii, where she owns and directs the Maya Yoga Studio on the North Shore of Maui. She has been featured in numerous articles and has graced the cover of Yoga Journal magazine. She is featured in 2 Ashtanga Yoga videos available through Gaiam and in 9 videos entitled Maya Yoga Vinyasa on her youtube channel. She is currently finishing a book on Yoga for beginners. Nicki teaches workshops and teacher training courses at her studio on Maui and travels all over the world conducting workshops, teacher trainings, and retreats.

Jahnavi Jethmalani - Authentic Yoga & The Modern Human @jahnavi.jethmalani Adam met Jahnavi at Purple Valley Yoga in Goa in April and they started a dialogue, this is a follow-up conversation to that original one.  Adam will be back at Purple Valley Goa teaching with Edwin Bryant in October 2024. How do we balance yoga transmission for modern life? | Yoga is suited to the context of the West | When yoga goes too far from its roots makes it uncomfortable for Indians | How to move toward a more authentic expression | Is yoga union? | Going beyond the physical asana | Grounding the practice in yoga philosophy | Overtake of the sutras | Can you do yoga sadhana without looking at the original texts? | What is the sadhana grounded in? | How to a space of sincerity and authenticity | Physical movement and mind mastery | What do you use your mind for? | The trap of authoritarianism in the yoga world The problem comes when you are taking the culture as an identity to what you are doing. If I practice yoga then I also have to wear the clothes and the beads and the whole set up as a costume. Yoga is not anything you do externally. Support Us Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Donate: https://keenonyoga.com/donate/ Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time.   Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/

Clayton Horton – Living the Yamas & Niyamas  (www.greenpathyoga.org |  @shivaburns) Asian philosophy | Hippy San Francisco | Hatha yoga | Baptiste yoga | Iyengar yoga | Brian Kest | Tantra, meditation | Teaching in Asia | Body types | Individualised teaching | Living the yamas and niyamas | Changes in teaching | Meditation | Diet | Pattabhi Jois | Current practices Clayton Horton is the Director of Greenpath Yoga. He has been a student of yoga for over 30 years and began teaching in 1996. Clayton is an experienced and internationally known KPJAYI Certified Ashtanga yoga teacher born in Oklahoma, USA. He discovered yoga at age 21 whilst living in San Francisco, California, when his mother took him to a pranayama class. After several years of practice and a long trip to India, he began teaching in 1996. To Clayton, yoga is a healing path back to the Self, allowing us to experience true peace and happiness. Being kind and living in balance with nature continue to guide his life. Clayton studied with masters Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and the Greensufi for 14 years, both of whom gave him great inspiration to practise daily and develop a yogic lifestyle. Clayton received formal authorisation to teach Ashtanga Yoga from the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute of Mysore, South India in 2003 and he received Level Two Authorisation in 2010. While attending a course for teachers in Mysore during the summer of 2016, Sharath Jois awarded Clayton with the blessing of ‘Certification’ – the highest level of accreditation for teachers at the institute. Clayton’s teaching style is traditional, yet light-hearted and relaxed. He believes that by practising and living yoga, we can transform ourselves and the world around us. According to Clayton, Ashtanga Yoga is a complete and well-balanced system in which an experienced and skilled teacher can help any student ‘find their place’ within its structure regardless of individual challenges, aptitude, and constitution. From 2001-2006, Clayton operated Greenpath Yoga Studio in San Francisco, California, USA. The studio was one of America’s first Green and Environmental–Friendly yoga studios. It was an inspiration with its progressive yoga programs, philosophies, events, and authenticity. The studio helped to inspire awareness of Earth Friendly yoga practices, philosophies, and products. Currently, Clayton teaches Daily Ashtanga classes at Pure Yoga in Hong Kong. He teaches workshops, retreats, and courses and presents at yoga conferences internationally. His favourite hobbies are surfing, swimming, singing, and playing guitar. He is committed to making the world a better place by living with eco-awareness, teaching yoga and meditation, serving others with charity work (karma yoga), and offering music & Kirtan chanting (bhakti yoga).

Judith Hanson Lasater – Founder of Yoga Journal  (www.judithhansonlasater.com | @Judithlasater ) Starting out in yoga in 1971| Passing the bucket of water | Teaching comes through us, not from us | The necessity of our own practice | BKS Iyengar | Yoga was a spiritual practice in the 70s | Confusing the asana with the yoga | Yoga as action then reflection | Yoga is what you do when you leave the class | Everyone is already whole | Words really matter in yoga | Opening the practice up to all people | Practice should be required before teaching | Setting up Yoga Journal | Demystifying yoga | All bodies are yoga bodies *********************************************************** This episode is sponsored by Momence, the booking system we use and highly recommend. Momence facilitates online, in-person and hybrid classes and events, and there are packages to fit self-employed teachers to multi-site studios. With live support by chat, phone and email Momence is easy to use for yourself and your customers.  2 MONTHS FREE TRAIL: https://www.keenonyoga.com/momence/ or book a demo and quote “Keen on Yoga” Support Us Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Donate: https://keenonyoga.com/donate/ Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time. Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/  Keen On Yoga Podcast Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keen-on-yoga-podcast/id1509303411 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5iM9lcw52JskHUZ2eFvVxN Full Guest List: https://keenonyoga.com/podcast-guests/  ********************************************************** Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, PT is a noted yoga instructor, physical therapist, and leader in the yoga community. She has been teaching since 1971, and was a founder of the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute as well as Yoga Journal, where she wrote the “asana” column for 13 years. Lasater holds a degree in physical therapy and a doctorate in East-West psychology. She is the author of ten books, including Restore and Rebalance;  Yogabody: Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana; Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life; Yoga Myths; and most recently, Teaching Yoga with Intention. Find out more about her live events and digital courses at judithhansonlasater.com.                  

Sarah Powers - Lit From Within (www.sarahpowersinsightyoga.com | @sarahpowersinsightyoga) Yin Yoga with Ashtanga background | Restorative yoga teacher | Adapting Ashtanga | Teaching at Maty & Chucks | Yoga, food & digestion | Yoga Works first days | Paul Grilley | What is Yin yoga? | Yin & meditation | Accessing chi | Pranic cultivation | Mind training | Viniyoga | What does energy feel like? | Yoga breathing | Insight Yoga Institute (more info below) _____________________________________________________ This episode is sponsored by Momence, the booking system we use and highly recommend. Momence facilitates online, in-person and hybrid classes and events, it’s ideal for multi-site studios and self-employed teachers. With live support by chat, phone and email Momence is easy to use for yourself and your customers.  2 MONTHS FREE TRAIL: https://www.keenonyoga.com/momence/ or book a demo and quote “Keen on Yoga”  __________________________________________________________ Support Us Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Donate: https://keenonyoga.com/donate/ Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time. Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/   ____________________________________________________________ Sarah Powers is the co-founder of the Insight Yoga Institute as well as the author of Insight Yoga and Lit from Within, which interweaves Yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, and Transpersonal psychology into an integrated practice to enliven the body, heart, and mind. Sarah began teaching Yoga in the mid-’80s. Today, her yoga style blends a Yin sequence of long-held floor poses to enhance the meridian and organ systems. She often engages in inquiry practice, with an alignment-based slow flow, or yang movement practice.  Sarah has completed all levels of the Internal Family Systems Therapy training and has been a student of spiritual psychology for over 35 years. She also draws from her in-depth training and long retreats in the Vipashyana, Tantric and Dzogchen practices of Buddhism. Sarah and Ty Powers created the Insight Yoga Institute (IYI) in 2010. Having both interwoven Yoga, Buddhism and Psychological approaches for three decades in their retreats and trainings, they decided to create a more formal umbrella to draw people together in a like-minded community. Of particular interest to Sarah and Ty is that participants learn how to commit to an integrated daily home practice for the body, heart and mind through yogic, Buddhist and psychological teachings and methods. IYI retreats bring together the dynamic and receptive aspects of yoga, the three schools of Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana) and the skilful methods of psycho-dynamic personal and relational work and are held in social silence. The teachers on retreat are not silent but will be leading classes and seeing people individually.  The program can be enjoyed as independent retreats or as a path to Yoga Alliance 500+ hour certification. If you would like to apply for the 500+ hour Yoga Alliance certified program please refer to Program Overview.  

Stefanie Syman author of The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America The stages of evolution | In 1898 it was crazy and scandalous for whites | Theos Bernard | Vivekananda | Indra Devi makes it more normal | Staying away from metaphysics | Making yoga palatable for the West | Differences in UK | Yoga in the 60s | Psychedelics | The Beatles | Gurus & ashrams | 1970s | Therapeutic yoga | Marshmallow yoga | Transition to Ashtanga & Bikram | Asana as a Trojan horse | What is next for yoga? (more about Stefanie below) Support Us  Subscribe, like, comment and share with your friends Donate: https://keenonyoga.com/donate/ Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/infoRf Become a Patron:  https://keenonyoga.com/membership/  Exclusive content, yoga & lifestyle tips, live Zoom meet-ups & more.  €10 per month, cancel at any time. Connect With Keen On Yoga Instagram Keen on Yoga: https://www.instagram.com/keen_on_yoga/ Instagram Adam Keen: https://www.instagram.com/adam_keen_ashtanga/ Website: https://keenonyoga.com/ Stefanie is an author and company builder. She’s practised (mostly) Ashtanga Yoga for 25+ years. She is the author of The Subtle Body, The Story of Yoga in America Yoga's history in America is longer and richer than even its most devoted practitioners realize. It was present in Emerson's New England, and by the turn of the twentieth century, it was fashionable among the leisure class. And yet when Americans first learned about yoga, what they learned was that it was a dangerous, alien practice that would corrupt body and soul. A century later, you can find yoga in gyms, malls, and even hospitals, and the arrival of a yoga studio in a neighbourhood is a signal of cosmopolitanism. How did it happen? It did so, Stefanie Syman explains, through a succession of charismatic yoga teachers, who risked charges of charlatanism as they promoted yoga in America, and through generations of yoga students, who were deemed unbalanced or even insane for their efforts. "The Subtle Body," tells the stories of these people, including Henry David Thoreau, Pierre A. Bernard, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Christopher Isherwood, Sally Kempton, and Indra Devi. From New England, the book moves to New York City and its new suburbs between the wars, to colonial India, to postwar Los Angeles, to Haight-Ashbury in its heyday, and back to New York City post-9/11. In vivid chapters, it takes in celebrities from Gloria Swanson and George Harrison to Christy Turlington and Madonna. And it offers a fresh view of American society, showing how a seemingly arcane and foreign practice is as deeply rooted here as baseball or ballet. This epic account of yoga's rise is absorbing and often inspiring - a major contribution to our understanding of our society.