Your Edmonton Yoga Teacher Training Team is Coming from Far and Wide This Fall!
With Yogalife's most recent teacher training group freshly wrapped up we are more excited and inspired than ever to continue curating the best experiences possible.
Our next 200 hour Foundational Teacher Training is kicking off in September; get to know the faculty joining us from around the world behind your next step.
Sarah Zandbeek, Main Facilitator Edmonton, Alberta
Biography and Intention:
Maybe this sounds odd, but my hope is that people leave the program not ready to teach, but ready to Seek. I want people to graduate with an unrelenting curiosity for Life that is met with a deep contentment for the momentary reality. To not need more than what is available to them now, yet not to become comfortable in one way for too long, as this is the cause of stagnation, which is the cause of mostly all dis-ease.
I have learnt that my resistances (mind/body/emotional) come from my opinions of something being right or wrong, which means I have an absolute certainty about something that I have either learned or was programmed to believe as such. These resistances or opinions we hold of how things are “suppose” to be, limit us and create an unimaginable amount of tension in the mind, in the body, and in the heart.
So, yoga to me is about freedom and steadiness; it’s about finding the path that allows your self to widen or expand offering you a greater capacity to receive and meet life with.
Rumi says, “There are a 1000 ways to kneel and kiss the ground; there are a 1000 ways to go Home again.”
Yoga training is the start or continuation of finding your way home, back to your true Self.
In this training we utilize Traditional Hatha techniques: kriya, asana, pranayama, meditation, and yoga philosophy, anatomical and Anusara alignment, Traditional Chinese Medicine meridians, Ayurveda, group discussion and journaling as the tools to dive into Who we are. We will look at the main purpose of yoga asana and how to create sophisticated sequencing to harmonize the body and prevent illness. This is a foundational training, so you will learn all you need to know about how to observe bodies, hold space, and set clear intentions.
Our line up of guest teachers this year is out of this world.
Check it out…
Fall 2016 Guest Teachers list:
Stephen Thomas Zurich, Switzerland
Teaching: Technique and alignment, pranayama, mantra, kriya, and mudra
Stephen Thomas has been a dedicated student of yoga since 1998. He has practiced, taught and lived in Asia and Europe for the past decade studying various traditions, which he incorporates into a unique yoga practice influenced and made possible by the grace and support of his central teachers.
Stephen’s background includes studies in Buddhism, Ayruveda and traditional Hatha yoga in India. In Asia, he continues an in-depth study of traditional Pranayama and Kriya through his master, O.P.Tiwari, which he combines with his love for the Asana practices that stem from his experience with Krishnamacharya’s work and influence on the Ashtanga Vinyasa and Iyengar systems of yoga. He also brings in elements of the Chinese and Tibetan systems where appropriate.
Stephen is an avid reader and student Eastern philosophies and a lifelong lover of the arts and music. His ability to re-frame various viewpoints and to simplify things without sacrificing depth and integrity has helped him develop a unique, non-dogmatic but deeply rooted teaching style. His works spans Meditation, Pranayama, Asana and the commitment to seeing the practice off the mat. He uses these methods as tools for health and wellbeing and to support the spiritual pursuit of living life courageously and compassionately from one’s heart.
Stephen teaches classes from his base studio in Zurich, Switzerland as well as spending a part of each year traveling as a guest instructor and teaching retreats throughout the world. He also dedicates energy each year to directing Teacher Intensive Trainings and ongoing education and works one-on-one with many students and teachers in his community.
Sean Haleen San Francisco, California Teaching: Technique and alignment and Yoga therapeutics
Sean Haleen is a celebrated yoga teacher with two decades of consistent yoga practice and nearly a decade of full time teaching experience. His extensive background as a former Anusara teacher and devoted Iyengar student has equipped him to share his love for alignment with the yoga community worldwide. He's taught in over fifteen 200HR and 500HR teacher trainings specializing in therapeutic yoga and bio-mechanics.
Sean's love for teaching extends to different populations where he's taught queer youth groups, in recovery centers, high schools, and more. He is never shy to speak in gratitude about his main teachers whom he studies with regularly including Jack Kornfield, Brian Hogencamp, and Desiree Rumbaugh.
Neil Dalal Edmonton, Alberta Teaching: Philosophy
Neil Dalal is Associate Professor of South Asian Philosophy and Religious Thought at the University of Alberta. He holds an MA in East/West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a Ph.D. in Asian Cultures and Languages from the University of Texas at Austin where he specialized in Indian philosophy, the history of Indian religions, and Sanskrit. He has spent over four years in India studying Advaita Vedānta, the philosophy of non-duality, with traditional scholars and monks.
Neil’s primary research explores the meditative and contemplative practices in classical Yoga philosophies to understand how they employ textual knowledge, memory, and visualization to grasp pure consciousness. He regularly teaches courses on Yoga philosophy, asceticism, Hinduism, and India’s philosophical wisdom texts such as the Upaniṣads and Bhagavadgītā.
Neil is the co-editor of Asian Perspectives on Animal Ethics (Routledge Press), co-director of the documentary film Gurukulam (Matson Films), and currently writing a book analyzing the intersection of texts, contemplative practices, and religious experience in Advaita Vedānta.
https://uofa.ualberta.ca/integrative-health-institute/scholars/neil-dalal#sthash.I2XN7CKt.dpuf
Ian Hayward Edmonton, Alberta Teaching: Ayurveda
Ian's first introduction to Vedic knowledge was in 1984 on there commendation of a close friend. At that time he had duodenal ulcers from an unhealthy and stressful lifestyle and the Western health system could only offer medication with undesirable side effects, so he was open to alternatives.
Ian was initially instructed in the practice of Vedic mantra meditation and over the next ten years he attended countless Meditation Retreats and Vedic Science Courses at home and abroad. Eventually, in the summer of 1993, he emerged from the Maharishi Vedic University in Valkenburg, Holland (Deepak Chopra’s training was in the same lineage) fully trained as a Panchakarma therapist offering an extensive range of bodyworks and elimination therapies and as an Ayurvedic Wellness Consultant offering pulse diagnosis and lifestyle solutions.
After graduation in 1995 Ian spent the next two years in clinical practice applying these techniques under the supervision of medical doctors in London, England. He mainly treated very sick people and although he saw amazing results, he realized his passion was to prevent rather than cure illness; he also wanted to provide the Ayurvedic therapies in a more relaxing environment. So for the next three years, with the financial support of some client/investors, he developed the first residential Ayurvedic Centre in the UK, based in a Meditation Academy within a large stately home in a beautiful rural setting.
During this time, with the encouragement and guidance of his teachers, Ian adapted the presentation of Vedic knowledge to suit people living in a modern Western society and named this European Ayurveda. This made Vedic knowledge more accessible and self empowering with an emphasis on practical application in everyday life.
Brea Johnson Edmonton, Alberta Teaching: Integrative anatomy
Brea Johnson has been a yoga teacher and movement educator for well over a decade. With a love for learning and studying the human body she continues her on-going education in yoga, anatomy and biomechanics and is also a certified Restorative Exercise Specialist™ with biomechanic scientist, Katy Bowman. As a teacher and mentor, Brea leads numerous workshops, teacher trainings and retreats along with a private practice helping clients move and feel better. She is known for her warm and engaging teaching style providing a safe foundation of healthy movement while remaining focused in the heart of the yogic teachings. As the popularity of yoga increases along with yoga-related injuries, this approach has made her a much sought-after teacher in the wellness and yoga community.
Also joining us will be a few of our in studio teachers: Melissa Perret for Ashtanga and Adjustments, Emily McNichol for prenatal yoga, and Cole Williston.