ONE TRIBE YOGA

Hey everyone! It’s been a little bit since we all got together and I wanted to share some of the experiences we had at Center for Yoga when Kerri and I went last last month and took tons of classes from Jonny and the team there!

Mainly you are all doing an awesome job of keeping One Tribe unique and most of these are little things to keep aware of while putting together your classes and conducting them in the space!

I have been taking all of your classes for a while now and I am still extremely pleased with having you all here as teachers! I can feel your love for the practice and foro the students in the way that you talk to us/them during class. Students always have amazing things to say and it makes my heart swell each time I’m fortunate enough to catch those in person every now and again!. THANK YOU.

We are making our brand very well known and for the most part, appreciated. Like any product or service, we can’t serve everybody and I’ll never expect to hear 100% positive things about our classes at One Tribe.

The 7 Doorways

Our style of teaching is meant to ‘open these doors’ for the students who come in. The doorwyas are a way to get them deeper into themselves so that they can find liberation. The best way of doing this is always going to be direct experience, which is why we teach without modeling and try to get our of their way as often as possible. Here are the doorways, in a very specific order:

Sacred Space
Ignite the Spirit / Pranyama
Light the Fire
Stoke the Fire
Use the Fire
Surrender
Gratitude / Metta

Guidelines to making connection

In order for these doorways to open, we must pay attention to how we’re delivering the class. Using the 7 guidelines we can ensure that we are putting our best effort into setting the space for them to have this direct experience. When you guys are doing feedback, it’s important to keep these guidelines in mind so that we can ensure that we are putting our best efforts into create a space where these doorways can fly open for them!

Setting Internal/External Environment
Moments of Silence
Connecting breath to body
Clear & Simple Directions
Take students to an edge
Soften around the edge
Stories & Benefits

arc of a yoga class

The illustration below represents an arc that several aspects of a Hot Vinyasa class over the course of 60 minutes.

Sequencing: The arc creates an outline for the students movement through the class through SUN A, SUN B, SUN C, STOKE THE FIRE (LOGS), USE THE FIRE & YIN

Music: The arc also illustrates how the music is delivered. From a slower sensual pace to a more energetic, full body pace, and then back down to a slower, more surrendering style of music

Volume: This arc also gives you an template for sound in the room both in the music levels as well as your vocal levels. depending on where you are in class, the music and the voltage in your voice should be congruent with this arc.

Temperature: Teachers will be asked to help manage the heat as well in the room to have an arc with everything else! By SUN B you’ll turn on the infrared heaters and allow the heaters to work in conjunction with the dynamic and strong sequencing of the class. when the students start their Yin postures, the teacher turns off the infrared heaters and turns on the fans if needed.

ways we can grow as teachers and continue to keep one tribe yoga a unique offering in the valley

These are some areas that we can all learn and grow from. Many of share some of these and some of them are unique to certain teachers, but as a group feedback session can help all those involved, I thought it would be best to lay them all out here for us all to consider and work on if we find ourselves doing some of these things. Me included : )

This is a culmination of the last few months of taking notes of your classes and how we can keep working to connect the students to their journey.

Using ‘Me, Mine, or I’ as a yoga teacher

There aren’t any many reasons that a yoga teacher needs to call attention to themselves. It’s the very reason why wee don’t model the poses. Once we get the students thinking about us, it can quickly lead to comparison, or even putting the teacher on a higher level than the student, or even worse, create some level of dominance. When we can convert me, mine or I into you, your and our, we help strengthen the inward journey for the student. Where they are connecting their breath, to their body.

Lighting

Ideally, we don’t need to use A/B lights in a class. the wall and geo lights provide enough safe light for the yogis to get their practice on, and keeps the vibe calm in the studio. Keep the lights dim for the start of class and slowly increase them as the energy/fire builds. By Sun C Wall lights should be MAX and geo lights HALF MAX. During logs use your judgement on how bright they should be. Upon closing to svasana please turn them completely off, unless you plan to walk around and do adjustments during that time. Otherwise, let them rest in darkness without distractions. When it’s time to bring them back, please start increasing the lighting. Once you have completed your class continue to increase the wall lights until they almost at max, but slowly.. . so as you open the door, it’s not too striking on their nervous system.

One Tribe Hot Vinyasa

These are some areas that we can all learn and grow from. Many of share some of these and some of them are unique to certain teachers, but as a group feedback session can help all those involved, I thought it would be best to lay them all out here for us all to consider and work on if we find ourselves doing some of these things. Me included : )

This is a culmination of the last few months of taking notes of your classes and how we can keep working to connect the students to their journey.

Sun C

Thinking in terms of 80 percent familiarity and 20 percent novel, or new:

Create your sequence started with fluid movements leading up to more complex transitions and postures. This allows for ease of teaching to get them going, as well as breathing, without over complicating the process here.

A good rule of thumb here, is about 14-20 postures for the entire sequence, with a distinct breath getting them into each pose.

when teaching it, try to break the sequence up into 3-4 chunks to give them a chance to process it, as we build the entire sequence before turning them loose and turning on the music. A good rule of thumb here is to get them through the entire sequence on both sides, so that any important info on the transitions and postures is delivered clearly, without the distraction of music playing too soon.

Lighting

Ideally, we don’t need to use A/B lights in a class. the wall and geo lights provide enough safe light for the yogis to get their practice on, and keeps the vibe calm in the studio. Keep the lights dim for the start of class and slowly increase them as the energy/fire builds. By Sun C Wall lights should be MAX and geo lights HALF MAX. During logs use your judgement on how bright they should be. Upon closing to svasana please turn them completely off, unless you plan to walk around and do adjustments during that time. Otherwise, let them rest in darkness without distractions. When it’s time to bring them back, please start increasing the lighting. Once you have completed your class continue to increase the wall lights until they almost at max, but slowly.. . so as you open the door, it’s not too striking on their nervous system.