Teaching Yoga for Couples at a Spiritual Retreat near Philadelphia and Tantra in Pennsylvania
What Happens in Yoga Couples Classes
A lot of people ask how we decided to teach couples yoga. Actually it was because of my sweetie… my best friend, partner and hottie hellenic hubby.
I have been practicing yoga for over 15 years. When we first started to live together I used to practice to yoga DVDs in the living room. Occasionally he would practice with me but then he said once, ” I really want to do the poses where we are touching each other and helping each other get in the poses.”
So I started to research more couples and partner yoga poses. Most of the partner poses that were out there were fairly acrobatic, very challenging and demanding physically and there didn’t seem to be many poses that were geared towards people that were nonathletic and that didn’t want a Cirque Du Soleil audition.
I wanted to find a mix of poses that were silly, giggly, challenging, strengthening, bonding and once in a while a little scary (adrenaline can add really add some spice and passion to a relationship that is in a long rut) and where you could get that sense that you were beyond gravity in some of the poses. I bought tapes, DVDs, book, went to other partner yoga trainings and classes. I practiced the poses with other yoga teachers.
Almost every Friday night we teach couples yoga in Philadelphia.. in Manayunk, a hip, happening part of town and we teach them quarterly at Temenos in West Chester as a couples spiritual retreat as well.
Although it is work for us to promote the classes, set up, clean up, prepare and organize the classes, we mostly do it because the two of us get so much out of it. It has sort of become our date night although we are sharing it with other couples, most of which we have met for the first time.
At the beginning of class there is usually a mix of giddiness, anxiety, nervousness and excitement. I work with a lot of yoga newbies and people that do not have a regular exercise practice.
I never know what poses I am going to teach since I have to gage the ability of the group before I teach a pose. I’m not going to teach a bunch of crazy balancing poses to someone that just had hip replacement. I don’t want to teach a lot of weight-bearing poses, where one partner has to put all their weight on the other’s body if there is a big weight difference or especially if the woman is a lot heavier than the man.
If the couples are pretty athletic then I want to make sure the moves are fresh and challenging enough to keep it spicy so I’ll avoid the easier poses. If the group is really wound up and edgy, I’ll teach a fair amount of yin or restorative poses so they start to become more tranquil.
Teaching Couples Yoga
I also like to position students in class so that two dudes are not looking right at each other, I think men don’t want to appear vulnerable in front of other men so if they are not looking right at each other then it makes for less performance anxiety for the couples at a spiritual workshops or spiritual retreat.
I set out to create a representations of the top spiritual sites for yoga, spirituality, meditation, holistic health and wellness. Over these subjects overlap and so many of the yoga sites I reviewed had all kinds of great content about health and wellness. Many of the sites were promoting teachers, products or places that I had a personal connection or experience with. I included many yoga teachers, studios or retreat centers that I had been to.
Top Spiritual Websites
Some of them of them were aspirational. I have never been to Rancho La Puerta in Mexico right near San Diego but since I used to work at SpaFinder and my parents have been there a few times, I feel pretty well acquainted with what they have to offer and the value they provide. When I used to work at SpaFinder, almost every single day I would come across a destination spa somewhere in the world that I just absolutely “had to go to”. I looked at so many pics and videos of the most luxurious properties and was just drooling all the time over these incredible sanctuaries of luxury and beauty.
Of course, I had to include places like Kripalu in Western MA in the Berkshires since that is where me and my hunky, Hellenic hubby saw our friendship blossom into romance and we met at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY in the Hudson Valley just outside of New York City almost 4 years ago. Even if these places didn’t play such a pivotal role in my own personal life history, I think they would have been included anyway since they both offer so many outstanding spiritual and personal growth seminars and workshops in idyllic locations.
Spiritual Sites for Mind-Body-Spirit, Yoga and Holistic Health
This top 100 spiritual sites listto be a great gateway into the holistic world of wellness and well-being, with lots of juicy yoga-centric links since I’m a yoga teacher. We, Yogis need special clothes, training, props, mats, music and equipment so I included some of my favorite sites to buy all things yogic-ally.
If you have been involved with the yoga community for a while you will recognize some of the sites on here and likely find a myriad of awesome resources. I encourage suggestions for other top spiritual websites that can be included in next year’s list. Some of the sites are just loaded with all kinds of free tips, articles, downloads and videos. Like yogadownload.com where you can get your down-dog on at home (or out and about on your mobile phone). I had to include Yogajournal.com but recommended the little know community section which is like YogaJournal’s own little Facebook where you can post pics, videos, blogs and comment on other members content.
While we all value directness and constructive criticism, please be professional and refrain from disparaging comments… no trashing anyone on this list or that will disqualify you from being considered for next year.
Ideally, you would nominate another company but I do accept self-nominations. I reached out to the webmasters
of most of the sites and if something is in quotes, then it is in their words and not mine. So this is my list of the top Spirit Mind Body Websites. I also include resources for yoga DVDs, books, clothing, retreats.
At the start of this year, I figured I would revisit how to polish up various facets of my life. With the new year, all kinds of thoughts of rejuvenation and renewal and improvement come into our heads. I’ve been pretty frustrated with diet stuff. I feel like I have a fairly clean diet but I think one I can do is to cook with very high quality oils. I was under the disillusion that vegetable oil, soybean oil and some kinds of olive oil are the healthy fats. Most of these oils are highly refined so you are losing out any potential health benefits and you are better off using grass-fed organic butter than any of those oils. Organic coconut oil and cold-pressed Olive Oil will be my new cooking and salad dressing oil. This is a great tip I got from Mike Geary’s Health Newsletter
I started to look at Amazing Self’s ( excuse the cheesy name….. there are some worthwhile tips in there) about health, wellness, skin, personal finance, relationships and mind-set. It’s a long book, over 100 pages but the writing is a breezy read. I think there are almost too many great tips in here so you start to feel a bit overwhelmed. I wish it was broken out in 8 seperate books so that you can really take it all in and start to make some changes.
For the diet tips, they are pretty adamant about not having caffeine. I know there is a lot of controversy with caffeine and gaining weight. I think we can all agree that those froo froo drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup and whipped cream will not be kind to your butt or your gutt. There is a big emphasis on eating unprocessed, non-farm raised, organic 1 ingredient food…. eating clean as I like to call it. They actually are pretty anti-vegan and very pro-meat so you won’t have to make any major lifestyle changes for all of us carnivores out there.
I think soda is one of the major downfalls of the American Diet. Cutting out all kinds of soda seems to be one of the first lessons for any wellness or gut-busting plan.
She is also a big proponent of eating fruit, which also has been a somewhat controversial food group in the health and wellness circle since there are sugars in fruit.
Tracy also talks about getting great skin… after all, what one thing makes you more attractive and youthful looking and she recommends to exfoliate like crazy but with only medical grade crystals. I went ahead onto EBay like she suggested and got 2 lb bag of this for $10 ( but the shipping was $12…. YIKES) …I wonder who long that will last me if I exfoliate every day. I love beauty experiments since I used to work in the medical aesthetics industry so this tip will be fun to explore.
Hot Yoga Benefits for Weight Loss
They are also big proponents of using heat when you exercise, meaning you exercise in a hot room or just hang out in a sauna. One of my 5 year goals is to have an infra-red sauna in my house and I know that nothing tones my body and gives me that cut look like a hot yoga class.
Almost every Friday night we teach couples yoga in Philadelphia.. in Manayunk, a hip, happening part of town and we teach them quarterly at Temenos in West Chester as a couples spiritual retreat as well.
