How to Find A Yoga Teacher

Dear Friend,

If your looking for a yoga teacher in or out of Erie do a bit of reflection. What do you want from your practice and from your teacher? What are your goals and intentions? Looking for relief from back pain, headaches or any other afflictions? Want stress relief? Is your first priority strength and flexibility? Find a teacher who can meet these needs. Ask teachers about their qualifications? Are they certified? Can they prove it? How long ago was it? Which school certified them? How long has this school been training teachers and what kind of reputation do they have? Do they have a web site? Is the teacher listed as a certified teacher on their web site? What kind of continuing-ed are they doing? When was the last workshop they attended? A teacher might say I teach Iyengar or Ashtanga. Are they trained or certified? The training might be minimal and from a sub school. To be certified in Ashtanga you have to go to India and be approved by the master himself. No one in Erie is certified to teach Iyengar or Ashtanga including me. I have several hundred hours of training in both combined.

I have over 800 hours of certified training from the Integral Yoga Institute. They have been training teachers for over 30 years. Be wary of certifications that come from new fitness driven forms of yoga like Yoga Fit which only offers physical and not spiritual yoga or a place that has only one teacher as the trainer. Spiritual yoga offers the complete experience which has more benefits than just yoga for the body. Spiritual yoga addresses the mind, body and spirit. Look for a teacher that is supported by an internationally recognized organization. Be very wary of anyone who claims to be self-taught. They have not had any feedback from their peers or mentors. So look for certification and Yoga Alliance registration. They have 200 and 500 hour level registrations. I am over 800 now. You really have to prove your hours in all of the important areas of training to be registered. Unfortunately, it is pretty easy to get your teacher training approved and there are many weak ones nationwide. So check out the legitimacy of the training program. I am registered as an E-RYT 500 level teacher which means I have over 6,000 hours of experience teaching yoga plus over 500 hours of training. I am the only teacher in Erie with this accreditation. How long has the teacher taught yoga and how often? And how much experience do they have with adapting yoga to students with health conditions? And are they asked to give presentations to teachers and have they led a teacher training program? Are they a teacher of teachers?

A good teacher will leave you feeling calm, accepted, supported, inspired and more in touch with yourself. A good teacher will show different ways to practice and not claim to know the only way. A good teacher will have studied the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Advaita Vedanta and the Yoga Sutras for many years. Some web sites for finding a teacher outside of Erie are http://www.yogafinder.com/ or http://www.yogadirectory.com/ and www.yogaalliance.org.

Visit my website http://www.plashayoga.com/ and go to the About page for my background and to the Resource page for more web sites. Know that my aspiration is to be the most helpful yoga teacher I can be and that for me there is no end to my learning process.

May your lives go well!
Michael Rhadeya Plasha E-RYT 500
Plasha Yoga is Erie's Yoga studio offering the highest level of training and experience available locally. Feel the difference experience make!

Current News

NEWS AND NOTES

Plasha Yoga Studio was voted the Best Yoga Studio in Erie 2007-2008 and again in 2008-2009 by the Erie Choice Awards! 2007 was the first time voting was open to the public for the yoga studio category so it was truly an Erie choice. I thank you for your support, in some cases for over ten years!

I completed Ayurveda and Yoga teacher training with Dr. David Frawley, internationally recognized as the foremost western scholar of Ayurveda in Nov. 2007. We studied a 400 page manual and read six books! This is equivalent to a previous 300 hour long distance program. Many teacher trainings for teaching beginner hatha yoga are only 200 hours which typically produces posture teachers and not yoga teachers. Frawley says limiting one's yoga practice to only asana creates more attachments to the body that we are trying to transcend! I agree! My intention for taking this training is to serve you even better and to help support you in going deeper in your practices. I am only one of 24 in the world to have taken this training.

I have been hired by Gannon University as an Adjunct Instructor of Classical Yoga to teach the two credit Introduction to Classical Yoga in the Sport and Exercise Program in the College of Science, Engineering and Health Science. I have also been hired by Flow Yoga Center in Washington, DC to assist them in their teacher training. In addition, I continue my relationship as a teacher trainer with the Samyama TT also in DC.

Karma Yoga is the Yoga of Selfless Service. Plasha Yoga has given countless free classes in yoga for over 25 years in many community settings as a way to introduce yoga to the masses including folks who might not be able to afford it. This service started in my living room in 1982!

I have recently published an article in Integral Yoga magazine titled When Hatha Meets Raja. You can read an excerpt at http://www.iymagazine.org/. Other authors include nationally known teachers such as Stephen Cope, Pema Chodron, Dr. David Frawley, Nischala Joy Devi and Rama Jyoti Vernon.

My wife, Allison and I led a weekend workshop in Yogaville, Virginia Feb. 9-11, 2007 titled Celebrate Your Soul Mate: A Valentine's Day Celebration. It was a wonderful time and included a couple who have been married 52 years and are best friends with poet Coleman Barks!

Our next one there was July 27-29, 2007 and titled The Supreme Adventure: Realizing Your Full Potential. We returned for a similar program June 20-22, 2008. Go to www.plashayoga.com/workshops.html for details. I also gave a workshop at Schoolhouse Yoga in Pittsburgh April 28, 2007 titled Practicing Asana as a Context for Healing the Mental/Emotional Body. Their web site is http://www.schoolhouseyoga.com/.

I led another workshop at Schoolhouse Yoga in Pittsburgh on November 3, 2007. The title is: The Supreme Adventure: Hatha Yoga as a Spiritual Practice.
Since we tend to know ourselves as physical bodies, many students of yoga practice for physical reasons. But the masters of Yoga designed the science of Hatha Yoga within the context of Raja Yoga- the eight limbed methodology of reuniting with the Self and feeling our oneness with everything and everyone. Learn key practices from Raja during a two hour intermediate level vinyasa class. Experience many asanas for the mind and spirit as well as the body!

I was interviewed for the cable show Amazing Grace on the benefits of yoga to people over 50. The scheduled air dates were March 5 and 7, 2007 at 10:30 am, 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm on city cable channel 2 or county channel 19.

Yoga for Pregnancy began again in February. For more details, go to www.plashayoga.com/workshops.html. I am the only person in Erie with prenatal yoga certification. This was a 10 day training and earned 130 Yoga Alliance hours. Some prenatal yoga trainings are only one day! Yoga students be aware of flimsy certifications. Always ask teachers details about their certifications and trainings and read the blog on Finding a Great Yoga Teacher. I am also available for private lessons.

Yoga Day USA 2007 was a big success raising money for the Erie Peace and Justice Center whose philosophy is a wonderful example of ahimsa, the great vow in yoga of non-violence. May their work go well. Yoga Day USA 2008 introduced yoga to many new people and I was featured on the WSEE progam Insider Erie with Kelly Gaughn as a way to promote it. Erie Yoga teachers chose Plasha Yoga studio to host the 2009 Yoga Day celebration.

If you would like to receive regular updates and join my growing e mail list, just write me at rhadeya@plashayoga.com

Many blessings,
Michael Plasha E-RYT 500

Plasha Yoga Studio is Erie's Yoga studio that honors the classical tradition of Yoga with the highest level of training and experience available locally. Feel the difference experience makes!

Top 10 reasons to try Yoga for Life or to continue your practice! The health and fitness benefits of yoga have long been reported by practitioners and are now being confirmed by scientific research. Give yoga a try and discover what it can do for your body, your mind, and your soul. This list was provided by the Yoga Alliance, a national organization that recommends minimum standards of training for teachers. Look for RYT 200 or 500 teachers or ideally E-RYT 500, the most experienced and trained teachers.

1. YOGA FOR… STRESS RELIEF: Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.
2. YOGA FOR… PAIN RELIEF: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.
3. YOGA FOR… BETTER BREATHING: Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.
4. YOGA FOR… FLEXIBILITY: Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
5. YOGA FOR… INCREASED STRENGTH: Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.
6. YOGA FOR… WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.
7. YOGA FOR… IMPROVED CIRCULATION: Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.
8. YOGA FOR… CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING: Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardio-vascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.
9. YOGA FOR… FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.
10. YOGA FOR… INNER PEACE: The meditative aspects of yoga help manyto reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be akeyreason that yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.
For more information on the benefits cited here, and on studies about the health benefits of yoga, visit www.plashayoga.com and to find Yoga Alliance registered teachers go to www.yogaalliance.org.

May your practice go well!
Michael Plasha E-RYT 500

What is Advanced Yoga?

Dear One,
Advanced Yoga in America is usually understood as the ability to practice very physically challenging asanas (postures)like the scorpion or headstand. But this understanding reduces yoga to only the physical body. The word yoga comes from the root word yug which meant to yoke an ox to a cart which symbolizes a person's capacity to reunite their essential union or Oneness of themselves with the Self. The feeling tone of yoga is a calm mind open to divine guidance and an unconditional loving heart. If you can do that all day, you are doing advanced yoga! It starts with the breath. As the breath goes so goes the mind. Slow, smooth deep breathing tends to calm the mind. I have taught advanced yoga to paraplegics so if you are thinking, I can't do yoga because I am inflexible or too old, your mind has already defeated you! Does flexibility start in the mind or the body? If you said mind than you are ready to begin the practice and experience of yoga. Please go to www.plashayoga.com to learn about the next FREE introductory class.

May your journey go well!
Michael Plasha E-RYT 500