Mark Stephens Yoga

It's National Yoga Month and the Autumn Equinox is nearing. To help celebrate and in the spirit of balance and equanimity, I'm offering a free webinar on September 18th in partnership with beYogi on "Teaching Inclusive Yoga Classes."

Register below 👇

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3417236690484/WN_vEPD5pSaSLmsugDWiZfy8w #/registration

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9-MONTH IN-PERSON TEACHER TRAINING STARTS OCT. 5, 2024
200-HOUR YOGA TEACHER TRAINING & IN-DEPTH YOGA STUDIES

Join a small, supportive group to deepen your practice and develop the skills needed for a lifetime of teaching yoga. With personalized guidance from me, you’ll explore yoga philosophy, teaching methods, and techniques for all aspects of postural, breathing, and meditation practices.

Choose between two formats: a 24-Day Intensive (Summer) or 9-Month Weekends (starting October 5). Upon completion, you’ll earn a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Certification with Yoga Alliance.

This training is for anyone serious about deepening their yoga practice or teaching, who are committed to learning, self-discovery, and embracing new ideas about yoga and life.

Register today at https://www.markstephensyoga.com/training/200-hour

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We, as yoga teachers, are forever students, continuously deepening our own practice and knowledge. It’s through our love for learning that we earn the privilege to guide others on their journey, helping them discover the limitless potential within themselves.

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Yogis, National Yoga Month is almost here, and we're gearing up for something special with beYogi! Get ready to celebrate with weekly webinars, free resources, and exciting giveaways– with one from us– all month long. Sign up now to enter the giveaways and stay updated on each week's events. No purchases necessary to get involved!

As a partner of beYogi, I will be teaching a free webinar on the 18th.

Hope to see you there!



Here's beYogi's National Yoga Month landing page: https://beyogi.com/national-yoga-month/?utm_source=Affiliate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=national_yoga_month_202

And here's the Zoom Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1617236709735/WN_vEPD5pSaSLmsugDWiZfy8w

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The tone, texture, and tempo of the breath blend with myriad sensations arising
in the bodymind to suggest how and where one might best go with focused awareness and action.

There is no universally correct method or technique, no set of rules, no single goal, and no absolute authority beyond what comes to the practitioner through the heart and soul of simply being in it, listening inside, and opening to the possibilities of amazing qualities of being fully, consciously alive. It’s a personal practice, even if one comes to it and finds in it a more abiding sense of social connection or spiritual being.

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With September, we come to a transition month. While Spring is bursting forth in the southern hemisphere, here in the north the days are getting shorter, kids are back in school, and soon Autumn will be upon us. 🍁

Seasonal transitions are an auspicious time for self-reflection on the patterns and rhythms of our lives and can mark renewed intentions or new beginnings. They can bring us more into matters of the heart, of more consciously breathing through our heart to be more awake and clear in it all.

Photo by

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Introducing my Yoga Sequencing Deck—a powerful tool I've designed to help you master the art of adjustments and alignments. Drawing from my best-selling Yoga Adjustments, this deck includes 105 full-color cards with instructional photos, all color-coded by posture type. The accompanying booklet offers clear, practical guidance for safe and effective hands-on teaching. Whether you're a new teacher, an experienced instructor, or a dedicated home practitioner, this compact and travel-friendly deck is the perfect companion on your yoga journey.

Get yours today!
https://www.markstephensyoga.com/marks-books/yoga-sequencing-deck

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There are also seemingly infinite styles and approaches to yoga, even different ideas about what yoga is, offering a rich array of practices that any of the seven billion of us sharing this planet might at any given time find most in keeping with whatever brings us to explore this ancient ritual for living in the most healthy and awakened way.

It’s a fascinating, challenging, often mysterious path that ultimately reveals the deepest beauty inherent in each of us as we gradually come to discover the balances that most complement and support our diverse values and intentions in life. If along the path one becomes a teacher—a guide on the yoga path—then the practice itself blossoms even more as practicing and guiding each bring light to the other.

Whats your favorite style/approach to yoga?

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FREE YOGA ANATOMY INFO SESSION AUGUST 25

We are anything but static beings. We walk, stand, run, dance, and move in many other ways. And as noted earlier, we move into asanas. To truly understand the dynamics of movement and how we can most safely and effectively move in and out of asanas, we must understand the anatomy of the human body not just in static forms, but through the prism of kinesiology, which give us insight into how we can best create stability and ease (sthira sukham) in the practice.

In my upcoming Yoga Anatomy Online Course, we'll do just that – we'll explore the structure and function of the human body through the kinesiology of movement – including biomechanical forces – to more clearly inform how to guide students in and out of asanas in ways that are safe, effective and transformational.

In this course we'll reawaken what you already know about anatomy and physiology and expand your knowledge and skills so that you are able to guide the practice from your own knowledge and understanding of how the body is structured and functions (instead of simply repeating what you've been told).

If you'd like to join me and global community of passionate yoga teachers on a journey into the bones, joints, muscles, fascia and nerves that enable us to flow through the practice of yoga, I invite you to join us starting on September 6, 2024.

https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/anatomy-info-session

Namaste,
Mark

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Asana, pranayama, and meditation are perfect tools for cultivating this self-discovery, self-realization, and self actualization.

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Ready to deepen your practice? Join me for my 20-Hour Online Yoga Anatomy Course, launching September 6!

Teaching yoga invites us to guide our students in their postural practices in the most informed ways, with insights and techniques that help ensure that their practices are safe, sustainable, and transformational. Our ability to do so is greatly enhanced by a deeper and practical understanding of the body – its basic structures and their functions, how it all optimally works, the very real differences across humanity, and how as teachers we can translate anatomy into refined guidance for the benefit of our beautifully diverse students.

LEARN REAL-WORLD YOGA ANATOMY THAT EMPOWERS YOU TO GUIDE YOUR STUDENTS WITH DEEP & PRACTICAL INSIGHT INTO THEIR PHYSICAL CONDITIONS.

•15 hours of convenient & flexible online learning
•5 hours of direct independent study
•3 Interactive 2-Hour Live Group Sessions with Mark via Zoom
•Printable Anatomy Workbook with anatomical images (PDF download)
•6 months to complete & access the course
•A total of 20 YTT Hours OR 20 Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Hours
•A Certificate of Completion

Register today!
https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/yoga-anatomy-online-course

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How do you balance guiding students while allowing them the space to find their own path?

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Although our lives are conditioned by our genetics and accumulated life experience (samskaras), we can cultivate balance through the actions (kriyas) we take in our daily lives, starting with sleep hygiene practices.

There are three primary types of yoga practice in part II of YOGA FOR BETTER SLEEP.

• Postural Sequences
Postural practices involve bringing the body into various positions that release tension and allow the body to optimally function. Postures can be selected to target specific areas of tension, reducing embodied stress in ways that translate to greater emotional balance and peace of mind.

• Pranayama
Pranayama consists of several specific, conscious breathing techniques that have different effects on internal energy, awareness, and mood. They are relatively calming or stimulating.

• Meditation
Several meditation techniques—breath-focused, yoga nidra (the yoga form of progressive relaxation), counting, and chakra-based—expand mindfulness in ways that root out deeply held tension and empower us to embody healthier mental and behavioral patterns.​​​​

Yoga For Better Sleep Audio Book now available! https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Better-Sleep-Ancient-Science/dp/B0CWVW186Q/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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Last call for the early bird discount at Teaching Yoga Academy! The special pricing ends August 8. Sign up before it's too late❗

Whether you are a new or an experienced teacher, or even a teacher trainer, The Teaching Yoga Academy will help you develop the knowledge and skills you need to:
* Teach in the most inspiring and uplifting ways.
* Guide your students with the most informed and effective methods and techniques.
* Provide your unique students with individualized guidance for their conditions and intentions.
* Explain alignment and intentional actions in the asanas from a clearer foundation in practical yoga anatomy.
* Make all the postures, breathing practices, and meditation techniques more accessible, sustainable, and transformational.
* Design and teach class sequences – from the vast menu of asanas, pranayama, and meditation – that are creative, safe and sustainable.
* Give guidance that addresses individual needs in a way that makes also sense for an entire class.
* Work with special conditions and injuries.
* Seamlessly integrate breathing and meditation into classes and workshops.
* Bring uplifting themes and narrative overlays to your classes, including by spicing up what you say with kernels of wisdom from yoga vast literary resources.

Register Here: https://www.markstephensyoga.com/academy

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Typically airbrushed and enhanced in other ways, poses are anything but real. When we appreciate a student through the wisdom of our heart, then we more naturally see the intrinsic beauty already manifest in their practice. From this starting point we come to more naturally sit in the seat of the teacher, giving our students the space to blossom in the fullness of their yoga—even when we apply what insight we might have into the basic architecture, gesture, and mood of each asana as it is uniquely and beautifully expressed in each individual student.

What are your favorite yoga asanas? 🙆

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Yoga For Better Sleep Audio Book Version Available now! (Narrated by me)

Here are some tips to supplement your yoga practice for better sleep. 💤🌙

1. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns. Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning.

2. Exercise is great, but not too late in the day. Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days but not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.

3. Coffee, colas, certain teas, and chocolate contain the stimulant caffeine. and its effects can take as long as eight hours to wear off fully. Therefore, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night. Ni****ne is also a stimulant, often causing smokers to sleep only very lightly. In addition, smokers often wake up too early in the morning because of ni****ne withdrawal.

4. Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed. Having a “nightcap” or alcoholic beverage before sleep may help you relax, but heavy use robs you of deep sleep and REM sleep.

5. A light snack is okay, but a large meal can cause indigestion that interferes with sleep
6. Avoid medicines that delay or disrupt sleep. Some commonly prescribed heart, blood pressure, or asthma medications, as well as some over-the-counter and herbal remedies for coughs, colds, or allergies, can disrupt sleep patterns.

7. Don’t take naps after 3 p.m. Naps can help make up for lost sleep, but late afternoon naps can make it harder to fall asleep at night

8. Don’t overschedule your day so that no time is left for unwinding.
A relaxing activity, such as reading or listening to music, should be part of your bedtime ritual

If you enjoyed this check out the audio book version of Yoga For Better Sleep! 🎧

Link in Bio

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Steady, Comfortable, Present

While sthira sukham asanam (stability, ease, presence of mind) was coined by Patanjali for meditation practice, we apply it here as a guiding principle of all contemporary yoga practices, offering various means of self-observation (including through interoception), teacher observation of students, and various teaching techniques that can reveal, highlight, cultivate, and otherwise open one to it.

As a guiding principle, it can make all postural yoga practices safer, more sustainable, and thereby more deeply transformational. In applying it, we will also play with new formulations, such as sthira sukham pranayama, offering it a primary sensibility in practicing pranayama.

If you enjoyed this, check out my full book, "Teaching Yoga."

Link in bio!

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Teaching Yoga Academy officially launches today!

This month's Academy content marks both a start and a restart as I welcome back Asana Academy members from 2020 forward and welcome everyone else who is new here to the debut of the Teaching Yoga Academy.

Unless one's intention is simply physical fitness, it makes little sense to teach yoga's postural practices without considering the whole of yoga as a practice for making every aspect of our lives better. In practicing and teaching yoga, we're taking in the whole of who we are, of who are students are, and exploring in ways that affect how we feel, how we think, how we are in our social relationships and far more - and certainly asanas are precious and vital tools which which to explore, transform, and refine it all.

There's far more: how we breathe and how with pranayama we can profoundly affect our energetic being; how we think and how with meditation and other contemplative practices we can offer yet more tools for improving our lives and the lives of others. How we teach these practices - every aspect of our teaching - comes into play. And here in the Teaching Yoga Academy, it's now that whole of it all that is the field in which we play together and learn together.

I invite you to practice beginner's mind and enjoy absorbing all you can. Also, stay tuned during the next few weeks for additional content, including live video of me teaching. -

If you haven't signed up, don't miss out the early bird discount! ($24/month instead of $29/month)
https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/the-teaching-yoga-academy-pricing-previous

Namaste,

Mark

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How do you integrate mindfulness and meditation into your yoga classes?

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I'm thrilled to announce my return to , where I'll be teaching an All-Levels class on Saturdays from 10:00 to 11:30 am, starting August 3rd!

After creating Santa Cruz Yoga in 2010 and for the past 10 years training thousands of teachers around the world, I'm excited to come back to that beautiful space and vibrant yoga community. Since 2016, Santa Cruz Yoga has thrived under the steady and inspired ownership of Leila Nafissi. It's an honor to join her diverse group of teachers and contribute to the dynamic energy she cultivates there.

As a Santa Cruz native, I've always felt a strong connection to our community. I look forward to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
I'll continue teaching on Mondays & Wednesdays at 5:45pm in downtown Santa Cruz, and in September will resume free outdoor classes at the Redwood Shala in support of local non-profits of your choice.

Join me at Santa Cruz Yoga for a balanced, rejuvenating and inspiring practice! I look forward to seeing you on the mat.

Namaste,
Mark

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To get a direct feel for what the Teaching Yoga Academy can give you, join me in one or both Live Info Sessions on Sunday, July 28, at 10:00am and 5:00pm PT.

That's also the day the Teaching Yoga Academy opens for new registrations. I'm offering a special discounted price and early bird bonuses for those who sign up between July 28 and July 31.

This exclusive offer includes additional resources and personalized mentoring sessions to jumpstart your journey with us:

Special Discounted Membership Price: $24/month or $189 annually – a $99 discount on the monthly price (regular price is $29/month or $249 annually).

Register today! https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/tya-info-session-registration

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For many this is and always will be a spiritual path that is about “being in” (a oneness perspective) or “connecting to” (a dualist perspective) a sense of the infinite or consciousness beyond the bodymind.

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The Basic Yoga Sleep Sequence:

Cross-Legged Sitting Pose
Simple Cross-Legged Forward Fold
Peaceful Resting Pose
Child's Pose

Discover simple yoga poses, meditations, and breathwork to help you sleep better, longer.

Get your physical copy of"Yoga For Better Sleep" today at https://www.markstephensyoga.com/marks-books/yoga-better-sleep

Narrated by me, the audiobook version will be available August 6th across all online retailers.

Link in bio
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New to teaching yoga? Here are 5 tips to help you get started! 🙆‍♂

Want more advice? Subscribe to my newsletter through the link in my bio!

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But the only way they work is to keep doing them!

What aspect of yoga practice is your favorite?

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5 Tips To Take it Easy 🌿✨

Want more health and wellness advice? Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive tips!

https://www.markstephensyoga.com

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It's not too late to join us for the Live Online Yoga Sequencing Course.

The course opens on May 23, and our first live session is May 26. All live sessions will be recorded and available to watch later if you can't attend a live session.

I hope you'll join us! For more information or to watch a replay of one of my recent info sessions, click here: It's not too late to join us for the Live Online Yoga Sequencing Course.

The course opens on May 23, and our first live session is May 26. All live sessions will be recorded and available to watch later if you can't attend a live session.

I hope you'll join us! Learn more here: https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/yoga-sequencing-landing-1