I loved speaking to Stephanie Cunningham about yoga from a teacher's perspective. Teaching myself since 2004, I have taught to many different populations. We spoke openly about how yoga can be perceived through social media and how it can deter many people. What a refreshing conversation, to see Stephanie's outlook and how she began teaching to seniors and now is passionate to share her podcast "Changing the Face of Yoga" In her podcast she interviews a variety of yoga teachers that teach special populations. Tweets: "Yoga's just me now, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have yoga" "There's so much more to yoga then Instagram snaps" "My philosophy...you meet them where they are and you try to take them on a little journey" "That's the passion to get everyone to understand how great yoga is" More about Stephanie: I decided to teach yoga to seniors when I helped my Mom with her lower back pain due to arthritis. My mom is a little firecracker who is always in motion and we all have to move fast when she starts walking to keep up with her. However, I noticed that she was walking very slowly and looked uncomfortable. We did some gentle yoga stretches and stretched the lower back muscles. Slowly the back pain faded and she started moving normally again - and once again we are all trying to keep up with her. It was very satisfying to be able to help someone move without discomfort. My qualifications include: 250 hours - Byron Yoga, 500 level - Yoga Coach, and for my training in senior yoga - Completed workshop, special project, online courses and was a conference presenter to become a Certified Senior Yoga Teacher. My training was at Duke Integrative Medical Centre in the US. I have a strong personal desire to support all people who wish to maintain their quality of life. For that reason, I especially enjoyed my time at Duke Medical Centre where medical experts discussed common conditions, diseases, and medications associated with aging. Armed with medical information provided by medical experts, I learned to develop yoga poses that stabilize and augment the physical, emotional and spiritual life of my students. I then developed a training for yoga teachers and yoga therapists that want to teach seniors. This training can be as simple as 12 videos online for an overview of how to develop safe but challenging senior yoga class which deals mostly with the physical challenges senior students may present. There are more advanced online modules to help with the emotional issues of aging as well as establishing a niche business in teaching senior yoga. I have just started a podcast: Changing the Face of Yoga where I talk to a variety of yoga teachers and yoga therapists that have developed special programs to help special populations that may be uncomfortable in general yoga classes info@yogalightness.com.au www.yogalightness.com.au FB: yogalightnessoz for teaching senior yoga FB: Changing the Face of yoga for the podcast
