...As we begin the New Year, it's time once again to follow in Nostradamus's footsteps and play the game we've been playing for centuries: predicting what the future will hold. This year I'm taking a stab at yoga predictions-forecasting what's going to happen in this field for 2008 and beyond.

My predictions don't come from staring into a crystal ball or reading organic tea leaves. I came to these conclusions after reading and researching industry data, interviewing industry experts-including Ila Sarley, president of Kripalu Center, and John Kepner, executive director of the International Association of Yoga Therapists-and observing from my viewpoint as both a yoga teacher and a consultant in the wellness industry.

As you read my forecasts, see if they ring true for you. If yes, consider if and how you are positioning your business in response to what the future may bring.

1. Yoga's cup will overflow as growth continues. More teachers becoming certified and more venues offering yoga equals more competition between teachers and studios. In response to yoga's increasing availability and the wide variety of yoga options, consolidation and specialization will occur, with big players getting big...more

Starting Yoga Classes

...The beginning

Today the popularity of the Indian Religious practice of yoga has become a well-known thing. It started in Asia and has now become something that has reached the United Stated and Europe. The British Wheel of Yoga is an example of a solid foundation that has become the governing force for yoga and has been around for at least forty years. As of right now, this organization has over eleven other venues that are in addition to the yoga instruction.

On of the driving forces to the British Wheel of Yoga is the instruction of yoga. It provides a broad field that will allow the user of any place to learn the poses and the religion behind it. This organization has been routine in th...more

Teaching Hatha Yoga - Difficult Students and Fitness Centers

...fitness class.

Fitness centers are doing the best they can to serve their clients, on tight budgets. This particular fitness center wants to make sure there is a class for its members, because the Step Aerobics instructor is out. This is obvious, but, this person decides to attack what you do - just to lash out at somebody.

What you did is the best thing by avoiding an argument. Showing loving kindness was wise for many reasons. Management will usually back the members, no matter how obnoxious they are.

Many Yoga instructors currently teach Yoga in, or have taught Yoga at, fitness centers, in the past. When a racquetball court is in full swing, a fitness center is not always an ideal place to teach meditation.

My advice: Design a prepared handout, which highlights the researched benefits of power Yoga. Some fitness center clientele don't understand what Yoga is or what it can d...more

Bikram Yoga

...ically they hold postures that exercise the system. It is formulated by different teachers, giving importance to different aspects of hatha Yoga.

Bikram Choudhry, the founder of Bikram Yoga, was born in Kolkatta in 1946. He became a disciple of Bishnu Gosh, the brother of Paramahamsa Yogananda, at the age of four. His mastery of the hatha Yoga technique was so good that he continuously won the Indian Yoga championship, and retired undefeated at a very young age. Bikram started many training centers for yoga, on the direction of his master Bishnu Gosh. L...more

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