Sage Rountree's Blog, page 18

Early Bird Rate: Fundamentals of Teaching Mindfulness Workshop

You have two weeks to save $50 with the early bird rate on this upcoming continuing education workshop!

February 17–18, 2024Carrboro Yoga Company, Carrboro, NCwith Sage Rountree, 18 CEUs availableRegister now and save

Learn to lead students toward better connection, whether they are moving or being still. The fundamentals of mindfulness are simple, but that doesn’t mean they are easy for students to follow or for teachers to lead. Let’s work on this together!

In this workshop, geared to meditation and movement teachers from any background, you’ll learn how to present the basic principles of mindfulness in ways that will resonate best with the students you teach.

This workshop includes a preassignment to complete before we meet, so please budget at least five hours to prepare your homework in the weeks before the workshop.

Our in-person sessions will:

+ Cover the basics of leading present-moment awareness, conscious breathing, mantra, and simple chanting
+ Build your confidence guiding students within
+ Help you find a good balance between clear cuing and judicious use of silence
+ Give you a warm, supportive environment in which to practice your new teaching skills

After we meet in person, you’ll design and submit class outlines for Sage’s review and have some back-and-forth mentorship; budget four hours for this work.

We meet Saturday, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2–5 p.m., and again Sunday, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. (There is no Sunday afternoon session, freeing you to travel.) 

This workshop is open to teachers from any movement modality—including none. Talk therapists, somatic therapists, and schoolteachers: you are very welcome!

If you are tracking CEUs for Yoga Alliance, you can claim 18 after completing the postassignment.

Our gratitude and reparatory discounts take 25 percent off the full price for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and Non-White. Write us for details: info@carrboroyoga.com.

This workshop has a minimum of six students and a maximum of 16, so please sign up today to ensure your spot!

$399/$349 early bird (register by January 27)

Get the early bird discount

The post Early Bird Rate: Fundamentals of Teaching Mindfulness Workshop appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Five Steps to Teaching a Great Yoga Workshop

Do you have big ideas to teach a yoga workshop in 2024? It’s a great way to help your yoga students—and your career.

Here are the five steps to teaching a yoga workshop.

Step 1. Design the Workshop

The first step is to find an idea that clearly solves a problem that students have.

You’re the best teacher for the students you once were. That’s because you’ve had to find ways to get around the very obstacles that are currently standing in their way.

Think about a problem you’ve overcome with yoga. This could be anything at all! It could be:

learning to relaxcoping with specific stressors (racing, caregiving, taking exams)building strength in your feetdeveloping better focus and presencefinding tools to calm down when you’re anxiously awake in the night

Then consider who else suffers from this problem, and how you can relieve their suffering using the tools you’ve learned.

Step 2. Place the Workshop

Finding the right venue for your workshop is key to its success. Perhaps that is your local studio.

But not everything belongs at a yoga studio. If you’re offering a workshop on yoga for gardeners, for example, you could lead it at your local garden center—or outside at a community garden. A workshop on yoga for schoolteachers would be great in a classroom or the school gym. A workshop on yoga for parents could take place at a park with a playground. Be creative and think outside the studio.

[image error] [image error] Step 3. Promote the Workshop

You can’t help the students who don’t know about your offering! Think through where your students spend their time, both in person and online, and promote your workshop there.

Don’t discount word of mouth. Ask the students who are registered to tell their friends—and better yet, to sign up a friend to come with them.

Step 4. Teach the Workshop

Teaching the workshop should be the easy part: you have a room full of eager students, and you know how to help them solve their shared problem, because it was once your problem. But the more time you invest in planning, the better the payoff for your students.

Spend time honing your message. Plan ways to expand and contract your offering to stay on track. Your students will benefit most when you’ve thought through every moment of the workshop, from a clear opening to a take-home message.

Step 5. Refine the Workshop

Rinse, repeat, replicate, and refine.

Right after the workshop, make some notes for yourself about what worked. Ask your students for feedback, both in real time and again a week or two later. Listen carefully to their comments. Then go back to step 1 and do it all again! Maybe there was some interesting question raised in your workshop that deserves a workshop of its own. Maybe the workshop could be tweaked for a slightly different audience, or a different time of year.

When you follow these five steps, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you plan a workshop. And you’ll be helping your students by relieving their suffering, removing obstacles and problems they have. What better calling is there?

If you want my mentorship as you go through these steps, you can find it in the Workshop Workshop, my online workbook course that walks you through how to plan and teach a yoga workshop of your own! Read all about it here.

Create a great workshop

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Develop Killer Workshops with My Formula

Yoga teachers: got plans to offer a workshop in 2024?

Tomorrow, I’m starting a series on my teacher’s newsletter that walks you through every step of the process for creating a workshop to help your students—and your career.

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You’ll hear about what I’ve learned in two decades of offering yoga workshops, as well as what I look for when I book workshops as a yoga studio owner. And it’s all available ONLY to my newsletter subscribers!

Sign up for the yoga teachers’ list (and any others that interest you) right here—the series begins January 1!

#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_form { }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_column_with_background { padding: 10px; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_form_column:not(:first-child) { margin-left: 20px; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_paragraph { line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_segment_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_text_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_textarea_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_select_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_radio_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_checkbox_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_list_label, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_date_label { display: block; font-weight: normal; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_text, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_textarea, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_select, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_date_month, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_date_day, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_date_year, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_date { display: block; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_text, #mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_textarea { width: 200px; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_checkbox { }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_submit { }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_divider { }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_message { }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_form_loading { width: 30px; text-align: center; line-height: normal; }#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_form_loading > span { width: 5px; height: 5px; background-color: #5b5b5b; }#mailpoet_form_14{border-radius: 0px;text-align: left;}#mailpoet_form_14 form.mailpoet_form {padding: 20px;}#mailpoet_form_14{width: 100%;}#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_message {margin: 0; padding: 0 20px;}#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_paragraph.last {margin-bottom: 0} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mailpoet_form_14 {background-image: none;}} @media (min-width: 500px) {#mailpoet_form_14 .last .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mailpoet_form_14 .mailpoet_form_column:last-child .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} Please leave this field emptySelect list(s): Yoga Teachers Who Want to Help Students Better (+ Greatest Hits Lesson Plan Guide) Athletes and Tired People Who Want to Recover Well (+ Recover Like a Pro Guide) Folks Who Want to Create an At-Home Retreat (+ Reclaim Your Time Guide) Regular People Who Want News from Sage (+ Free Premium Video)First nameLast nameYour Best Email Address *

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

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Recover Like a Pro

With New Year’s Eve on the horizon, we’re about to hear a lot about how to recover from a hangover. But that’s for amateurs! The pros know how to value the fundamentals to maximize performance and recover better every single day.

I want to help you recover like a pro so you can perform at your best—whether that’s in a sport, in your yoga practice, or showing up for the people and the things you love.

So I made you a free guide, keyed to the forthcoming second edition of my book The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery.

It details the three best things you can do for your day-to-day recovery—they are all free!—and the one you should probably not do, despite its popularity.

Paying attention to your recovery will pay enormous dividends in your 2024. You’ll do better in your workouts and competitions, sure, but more importantly, you’ll feel present and grounded so you can—not to put too fine a point on it—make the world a better place.

Ready to feel great about doing less? Pop your email in the form and I’ll send it right over!

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Learn how the pros emphasize the fundamentals to maximize performance. This free guide contains the three very low-cost things you should focus on to do your best—and the one thing you should skip, despite its popularity.

Pop your email in the box and I'll send it right over!

First nameLast nameYour best email address *

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Last-Minute Gift Ideas

Looking for a last-minute gift idea for a friend? Consider my businesses and my books!

If you’re local to central North Carolina, a gift card in any amount will help your recipient feel balanced, relaxed, and connected. And you can schedule them right now to deliver on a future date!

Carrboro Yoga Gift CardHillsborough Spa Gift Card

Or maybe one of these books is just the ticket!

For Athletes Interested in Yoga Everyday Yoga Lifelong Yoga For Athletes NOT Interested in Yoga (I Think They Exist!) The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery Racing Wisely For Yoga Teachers Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses Everyday Yoga For Those Contemplating Yoga Teacher Training, or Looking to Level Up in Their Yoga Career The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook

Most of these are also available in ebook format—delivered instantly, no shipping!—and several are available as audiobooks read by me.

All my best wishes for a happy holiday and a fun, balanced 2024!

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A New Approach to Balance Poses, Part 2

In my last post, I shared a video demo of how to get into some classic standing balance poses through shoulder and hip rotations.

Here’s a follow-up that you could use to move into kneeling balance poses.

Some of these shapes are pretty spicy! But you can sweeten them by:

Cushioning your knees with a blanketUsing a block under your hands to change the angles hereSliding a block between your legs if you sit back to cow-face pose

If you try this in your class, please let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear what you change to suit your own students best.

Want to be led through the sequence in a follow-along video? It appears in Core Strength for Real People! And when you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you a code for a free rental so you can practice with me.

The post A New Approach to Balance Poses, Part 2 appeared first on Sage Rountree.

New! Core Strength for Real People: Bare Minimum

There is a fresh video available today in my Core Strength for Real People series. This one delivers maximal satisfaction and time management when you tack it on at the end of a workout.

I like to think of it as the bare minimum I can do and tell myself, “I challenged my core today!” You’ll also get some bonus hip stretches along the way, making this perfect to do at the end of your training session.

Here’s a preview:

You can rent or buy the full video or subscribe to the whole series at Core Strength for Real People.

Check it out

And when you sign up for any of my newsletters, I’ll share a code for a rental of your choice from the series!

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Resources

Here, you’ll find bonus materials to go along with several of my books.

Looking for something you don’t see? Send me a message!

The Art of Yoga Sequencing Bonus Materials [image error] [image error] The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook Bonus Materials [image error] [image error] Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses Bonus Materials The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery Bonus Materials [image error] [image error] Racing Wisely Bonus Materials

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A New Approach to Balance Poses

I love balance poses. They can work for everyone, and with a little self-awareness, we can all find the right edge in these shapes, no matter our age or experience.

Here’s a way I’ve been working into some classic standing balance poses, by traveling through shoulder and hip rotations.

The warmup is built right in to this sequence!

To make things sweeter:

work in a smaller range of motionfor the hip rotations, keep your foot near the ground and your hand on a wall or a chair back (or countertop)

To make things spicier, do any or all of these:

more repetitionsstand on an elevated surface: set one or two blocks beneath your standing legstand on an unstable surface, like a yoga bolster, folded blanket, or BOSU

If you try this in your class, please let me know how it goes. And I’d love to hear how you season it to suit your own students best.

Want to be led through the sequence in a follow-along video? It appears in Core Strength for Real People! And when you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you a code for a free rental so you can practice with me.

The post A New Approach to Balance Poses appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Rolling Out a New Website

If you feel like this site looks different, you’re right!

I’ve been working on an update and playing around with the design. The thing is: I’m doing this on my own, and I know just enough to get myself into all kinds of trouble!

If you find broken links or dead ends, I’d be so grateful for your help. You can send me a screenshot and/or a description of what you noticed to info@sagerountree.com. I’ll do my best to fix it!

And if there’s something you’d like to see here, especially resources for yoga teachers, please let me know!

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