Learning outcomes include

1. Understand the definition and origins of mudras in yoga practice and the science behind how mudras work.
2. Identify different types of mudras and their corresponding meanings and benefits, learn the effects of mudras on the physical, mental, and emotional body
3. Practice a mudra sequence
4. Develop the ability to incorporate mudras into yoga sequences and classes

About the teacher: Rachel Zinman

Rachel Zinman has been practising since 1983, teaching since 1992 and teaching teachers since 2000. She’s studied with some of the most influential teachers in the west including Alan Finger and Mark Whitwell as well as immersing herself in the study of Vedanta.

Understanding the wellbeing of the spine on both its physical and energetic levels will not only enhance your teaching knowledge, it will support your students’ awareness as you guide them in their practice. An integrated spine that is balanced in support of ‘sthira’ (strength) and sukha (openness) will bring further insight and longevity to one’s yoga journey. Supporting the spine and acknowledging it as our central structural underpin and energetic axis (sushumna) is the basic concept that relates to the common phrase of ‘find tadasana in every asana’.

This CPD short course contains articles, videos and quotes. I invite you to immerse yourself in the subject, consuming the content thoroughly. Apply a reflective mode, where you might read an article prior to, or immediately after practice. I also invite you to keep a reflective journal to note your experiences as you engage progress through the course to support your learning experience.

About the Teacher

Tamblyn Lord is a senior level instructor, teacher trainer, yoga mentor and meditation guide. For over 20 years he has been exploring the balance of all that yoga has to offer and serving others to help share his joy and curiosity for the body, mind, breath relationship. His teaching technique is strongly influenced around spinal integrity, breath integration and mindfulness.

Read more about Tamblyn here.

We’ll examine the reptilian (base chakra), mammalian (sacral chakra) and primate (navel chakra) brain circuitry, followed by considering how future chakra activation may result in expanding our sense-of-self to include love for all humanity (heart chakra); recognizing all matter as the crystallized body of the Divine (throat chakra); experiencing the cosmic intelligence behind all creation (third-eye cakra); and finally, realizing ourselves as infinite consciousness (crown chakra). 

About the Teacher

Gregor Maehle began his yogic practices 45 years ago. In the mid-1980s he commenced annual travels to India, where he studied with various yogic and tantric masters, traditional Indian sadhus and ascetics. He spent fourteen months in Mysore, and in 1997 was authorised to teach Ashtanga Yoga by K. Pattabhi Jois. Since then, he has branched out into researching the anatomical alignment of postures and the higher limbs of yoga.

In India Gregor also received eight months of mostly one-on-one instruction in scripture and the higher limbs of Yoga through B.N.S. Iyengar, a student of T. Krishnamacharya, and he studied Sanskrit under Professor Narayanachar and Dr Chandrasekhar. Gregor’s internationally acclaimed textbook series consisting of Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy, Ashtanga Yoga: The Intermediate Series, Pranayama: The Breath of Yoga, Yoga Meditation: Through Mantra, Chakras and Kundalini to Spiritual Freedom, Samadhi The Great Freedom, How to Find Your Life’s Divine Purpose, Chakras, Drugs & Evolution and Mudras: Seals of Yoga – have sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into eight foreign languages. Additional volumes currently prepared are Tantric Meditation and Bhakti: Yoga of Love.

Gregor has been invited to many countries to teach and has contributed to and been interviewed by numerous yoga magazines. On Gregor’s blog page chintamaniyoga.com/blog/ you will find over 300 articles, videos and podcasts on all aspects of yoga, which Gregor has authored together with his wife Monica.

Today, Gregor teaches an anatomically sophisticated interpretation of traditional vinyasa yoga, integrated into the practice of the higher limbs in the spirit of Patanjali and T. Krishnamacharya. His zany sense of humour, his manifold personal experiences, and his vast and deep knowledge of scripture, Indian philosophies and yogic techniques combine to make his teachings applicable, relevant and easily accessible to all his students.

Read more about Gregor Maehle here.

This course is designed so that any yoga teacher can feel confident welcoming students who have just had a baby into their general class.

Many new mums/parents find themselves eager to get back onto their mats. Hence it is important that as yoga teachers, we have the knowledge to keep them safe and to help them get the most from their practice in the precious time they have without baby.

This short course is by no means a replacement for a Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training but will equip you with a broad understanding of the postpartum body and what contraindications may exist, as well as what practices may help recovery post birth.

This course begins with two video lectures covering Key Postpartum Milestones and Guidelines for Safe Postnatal Practice to lay the foundations of understanding (ie the ‘dos’ & ‘don’ts). A video sequence in raising abdominal awareness provides a specific modified practice one might incorporate into a general class. Two further videos encompass Yoga Therapy so that you will know how to approach common issues for postnatal students such as SIJ, SPD, Carpal Tunnel & Diastasis Recti.

Handouts to each of these sessions are provided so that you will have a quick reference to guide and support you as a teacher, with references to further reading should you seek it.

There is quiz at the end of this course that will help you absorb all you have learnt in this area.

About the Teachers

Nadine O’Mara is the Director and Lead Teacher Trainer of Bliss Baby Yoga, a Level 3 Yoga
Teacher specialising in Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga, birth doula and childbirth educator.

Ana Davis is the Founder and Lead Teacher Trainer of Bliss Baby Yoga, author of “Moving
with the Moon: Nurturing Yoga, Movement and Meditation for Every Phase of your
Menstrual Cycle and Beyond” and Level 3 Yoga Teacher specialising in Pre & Postnatal,
Fertility and Women’s Yoga.

Read more about Bliss Baby Yoga here.

‘Vinyasa Krama’ is Sanskrit for “Change that takes place in small steps towards a certain goal”. This method of sequencing is drawn from the Desikachar method, or ‘viniyoga’ which also means the same thing. If you are not used to this style of working, it can be challenging to shift your thinking. Try to maintain an open mind and give it a try! This method of sequencing is very effective in dealing with individual peculiarities in students, or working with injury. By using this method the practices created are unique and specific to the person or group, have a clear goal, and an effective outcome.

About the Teacher

Flo Fenton is a registered senior teacher with Yoga Australia, a teacher trainer for 12 years, and a registered Yoga Therapist. Her style is both meditative and enlivening, balancing the active and the passive sides of our nature. As we focus within, developing the capacity to witness ourselves, the sessions themselves become a form of Yoga Therapy, which flows out into our lives beyond the class-room.

Have you found different teachers teach different alignment cues?  

Have some of your students struggled to find steadiness in these poses?  

In this course, we will explore how to teach the main standing asana based on functional anatomy and feet placement. Once we have a solid foundation, we can cultivate a feeling of stability, strength and ease in any asana. We are all so different and one alignment cue does not suit all bodies.

This course will help you explore potential variations for feet placement in Tadasana, Virabhadrasana I & II, Trikonasana and Parsvottanasana.  

A house is built from the foundation up and so too, is a well build asana. The importance of how to use the feet and where to put the feet can sometimes be lost to the more obvious and attractive position of the spine, arms or the hips. But if the feet are set appropriately, the rest of the body follows suit to find integrity and balance in the whole body. This course explains the importance of the appropriate distance of the feet in standing poses, the importance of grounding through the three points on each foot and how a stable foundation can effect the breath too.

Once we have a solid foundation, we can cultivate a feeling of stability, strength and ease in any asana. Each asana we perform can create a particular “bhavana”, or inner quality which emanates from within and can shift not just the physical body, but the student’s mood, mind and expression. When feeling unsteady on the feet, it causes unease in the whole body. Conversely, when feeling steady on the feet, we cultivate a quality of strength, clarity, power and peace.

This course contains 7 videos which will explore potential variations of feet placement in Tadasana, Virabhadrasana I & II, Trikonasana, Parivritti Trikonasana and Parsvottanasana.

This is an experiential course, so you will need a mat and comfortable clothes for you to follow along and try out some of the tips and tricks in these standing asana.

About the Teacher

Ginny Clarke is a registered senior yoga teacher with Yoga Australia, a yoga therapist and is the co-owner of Living Peace Yoga, Lake Macquarie, Australia.

She has been leading Yoga Teacher Trainings since 2016 and is dedicated to mentoring other yoga teachers to find their highest potential. She has been teaching yoga since 2002 and her passion is to help people know their body and mind intimately through the vast array of techniques and wisdom which yoga offers.

Her aim is to help students find balance, clarity, vitality and wellbeing in body, breath, prana and mind, so that they have an opportunity to connect back to the soul.

In Ayurvedic medicine physical disharmony in digestion is the primary cause of disease. In fact, we aim to harmonise digestion first for absolutely any health condition. The gut microbiome is perhaps the most important to all other biomes in the body. However, in Ayurveda, there are many deeper layers to digestion functioning well.

With meditation, yoga asanas, pranayama, sattvic food (nutritional psychiatry) and self enquiry we begin to once again digest the present moment and heal the physical digestive tract. Amazingly, these days we have all of this Ancient wisdom completely backed up by research!

About the Teacher

Celia Roberts is a Senior yoga teacher and therapist with Yoga Australia and Meditation Australia, and among other qualifications, she has a Bio-Medical Science degree.

Experiencing the benefits of Yoga and Lifestyle Medicine both personally and professionally, Celia Roberts has seen many yoga teacher training students transformed in their own practice and commitment to health and well-being.  As such, Celia has dedicated herself over the past two decades to enhancing compassionate education and innovation within the health and wellness industry.

Throughout her journey as a yoga teacher and therapist, Celia Roberts has travelled and taught world-wide, been a regular presenter on ABC Radio, liaised with government, councils and higher educational institutions to promote the work of yoga teachers across our Nation.  Celia is an engaging public speaker and well received conference presenter and has achieved great results in the business sector for over two decades with a strong focus on Corporate Yoga and Mindfulness education.