om actions
most news sites alive. Contagious content,
then, is the perfect driver to get people
looking at your schedule and coming to you
classes. Pictures are a good social driver
and an opportunity for you to share some
love in our seemingly increasingly scary
social world. Within one newsfeed, people
will see dozens of posts, so use the platform
to spread joy. Make friends with paint or
photoshop applications and send pictures
of beauty. Always give full credit for anyone
else’s work, with a link, and be aware of any
photo licensing issues. Counteract negativity
and inspire by sharing your knowledge of
yoga and observations on practice. Students,
particularly those at the beginning of their
journey who are so keen to learn and are
discovering so much, will be experiencing
an expansion of their thinking. Choose
your words carefully, and be aware of your
intention. Facebook is not a shop window.
Telling students to share things on their
profile is too much of an intrusion, and a
lazy marketing strategy. There is very little
evidence in terms of pick up of sales in this
method, unless you are offering a significant
incentive in some way.
Tw itte r
Another important medium
for any business and any
professional. First off, if you’re not on it,
get on it. It is my primary news source for
basically everything, and you can connect
with and follow many great yogis and
teachers instantaneously. Here are some tips
on twittering etiquette: Find and follow:
find people, organisations and groups you
find interesting. Many studios and great
teachers are already doing some brilliant
things on Twitter. You may be delighted
and surprised to see what they are doing.
Tweet: try and avoid being a lurker.
Contribute to your new online community by
actually writing and sending tweets. Practice
spontaneity and let your words flow. Write
it, send it, let it go. Don’t spend too long
writing or thinking about what you are going
to write. It is 140 characters, or preferably
less. Shorter tweets get shared more. Tweet
several times a day, if possible, or at least
once a day. Follow back: if you want. Within
Twitteratti circles there is a theory that you
should have a lot more followers than those
you are following, but when you are starting
(and even later on) this is not practical.
Get connected
Interact with other social
platforms, and plan your student’s
journey from their Facebook page, where
you are lucky enough to be invited, to other
social sites, and then on to your site to book
their class. Other platforms, like Pinterest and
Instagram, are where people are spending
an increasing amount of their time, and from
where they are planning their schedules,
along with others online. Communities of
like-minded people are already congregating
and connecting online, so go meet them
there. The opportunity is immense. I think the
link between yoga’s increasing popularity and
our increasingly ever-connected online world
is in no way coincidental. Our days spent
connected instantly to events all over the
world online is an enormous privilege, but we
are in unchartered waters as we know little
of the long-term emotional impacts of this
level of somewhat shallow engagement, and
how this online presence interacts with other
modern societal norms such as the reduced
amount of physical contact we experience
in our lives. Many of us spend hundreds of
hours per week in poor positions, crouched
over machines that emit light that impacts
our sleeping and stress levels. When not at
computers, we second screen it with those
devices that used to be called our phones,
crouching again.Don’t forget yoga
Physically, yoga can perform a
vital health function in this sense
to improve posture and open people’s chests
and as they open their hearts. Yoga can
enable us to build the resilience, strength
and flexibility necessary to thrive for all of
our ever-lengthening lives. Social media
affords a unique opportunity to make yoga
more widely accessible than ever before
and should be utilised to do so. Use it as
a listening tool as well – learn from your
students and bring their thoughts to the
classroom. Be brave and have fun. And
remember the words of WB Yeats when
you’re wondering about all those millions (or
billions) of anonymous social media users
out there in the big wide world. These words
remain a challenge to us to connect with
those people we share our time and journey
with on this planet. “There are no strangers
here; only friends you haven’t yet met.”Lara Whyte is a journalist and yoga teacher
based in east London. She tweets @LaraWhyte
Find her classes at:
classpass.com/happy-flow-yoga-london“Online behaviour can
impact and influence offline
behaviour like never before.”Gary Carter's
YOGA & ANATOMY
Series for Teachers
GLASGOW -
October 2015
A 9 weekend post graduate training
in Structural, Fascial, Functional and
Experiential Anatomy for YogaIn this Post Graduate Training for teachers,
Gary Carter shows how a thorough knowledge
of Structure, balance and anatomy can help
teachers to make intelligent choices about
the way they teach their pupils. Bringing
understandings of Fascia’s role on movement,
force transmission how restrictions affect
movement patterns and reaffirming the Elasticity
of Structure taught over the past two decades.
This course of experiential Fascial structure
and anatomy will run for nine weekends
(approx. 1 per month), exploring the anatomy
of movement in relation to asana practice,
movement analysis and 3-D work involving the
use of props, illustrations and hands-on work
in class to help demonstrate the principles that
underlie the practice. It will encourage teachers
to “see” their students more clearly, thus helping
with rehabilitative issues, to help develop
deeper skills/understanding of personal practice,
helping students and clients to gain freedom in
their own practices. The course aims to help
teachers take a flexible, intelligent approach to
yoga with individual students.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN? • THE FASCIAL
BODY • THE ELASTIC BODY • SENSE OF
SELF • THE FEET AND UP! • THE PELVIS AND
UP! • WHAT IS THE CORE? • BALANCE
OF WEIGHT • INWARDS & UPWARDS- BREATH PRANAYAMA & BANDHAS •
SPRING LOADED & LIGHT • ANATOMY OF
CONNECTION
NEW OPTIONAL 2 DAY DISSECTION
STUDY WITH JULIAN BAKER AND GARY
CARTER
NEW GUEST TEACHERS BRINGING THEIR
STUDIES TO THE COURSE
NOW BOOKING:
GLASGOW - starting October 2015
For more information call 07719 415874
Email [email protected]
or go to http://www.naturalbodies.co.uk
NOW BOOKING
EARLY BIRD
DISCOUNT AVAILABLE