Yoga Teacher Trainings

200 hours - Tantric Hatha Vinyasa Yoga & Ayurveda

Bringing it all together beautifully!

Zuna Yoga® is built upon the oldest living tradition of Eastern Philosophy: the Tantric tradition of Sri Vidya, or the ‘knowledge of that which is most beautiful’. Using yogic tools like asana, bandha, mudra, pranayama, mantra, meditation and other components, the Zuna Yoga® system aims to lead practitioners to the attainment of what they refer to as the true “promise of yoga”. And that is living a free and empowered life, connecting with and realising your true purpose, so you can be successful and live your life to the fullest.

A Tantric Hatha Yoga Tradition, the tools and practices taught by Zuna Yoga® are meant to expedite our personal development and allow the new found awareness and connection to the true Self to be integrated into daily life.

The most comprehensive and detailed training I’ve experienced, a few bullet points of what was covered would not do it justice.

Beyond asana practice, we focused on the energetic impact of each asana and a method of sequencing that takes this effect into consideration. A method of sequencing which not only beautifully combines asanas, bandha and breath, but is followed by traditional meditations that directly work on the energy.

My personal highlight was understanding the Ayurvedic doshas, how they relate to the Chakras and which tools we can use to achieve balance. In balance, we find stillness. We find the connection to our True Self and we may find answers to the most important questions in life:

Why am I here?

300 hours - Kundalini Yoga

Energy is everything!

I guess you could say that my first training was heavily focused on opening the body and understanding the various asanas from an alignment perspective. This second training was all about the energy. A 300 hours deep dive into Kundalini Kriyas and Meditation from Premvarsha Ji. Coupled with great anatomy classes from Anant Ji, this second training was a great complement to the first.

In detail, we covered:

2 physical practices per day: Hatha Yoga and Kundalini Kriya
Daily Meditation, including: Walking Meditation, Osho Chakra Breathing Meditation, 7 Chakra Meditation, Beej Mantra Meditation, Circle Meditation, No Dimension, Whirling, Gibberish
Individual Kriyas & Meditation sequences for each of the 7 Chakras
Bandhas: Moon bandha, Uddiyan bandha, Jalandhar bandha and Maha bandha/mudra
Philosophy of Kundalini yoga and where it comes from
Anatomy (skeletal, muscular, respiratory, digestive, circulatory, nervous, etc.), Chakras and the Nadis
Kundalini Teaching Methodology & Sequencing

200 hours - Hatha Yoga

Alignment is everything!

As you can read in this blog post, the fact that I ended up in an Iyengar style TTC for my first training, was the result of me going with the flow. With hindsight, I am grateful to have received such a solid foundation for my yoga education. Even though I now teach Hatha Vinyasa yoga, being able to give my students precise cues throughout my classes is invaluable.

In this way, I am also very happy to teach beginners, as especially for them, having detailed instructions for each asana is so important to gain confidence in the practice.

So what did I experience during my first 200 hours with Yoga Padma in Rishikesh?

3 x daily asana practice: 1.5 hours of Iyengar in the morning, 1 hour Hatha in the afternoon, followed by 1.5 hours Ashtanga practice - 6 days a week for 4 weeks, opening up the body big time.
Pranayama: Chandrabhedan, Suryabhedan, Anulom-Vilom (Alternate Nostril Breathing), Bhastrika, Ujjayi (Ocean Breath), Sheetali, Sheetkari, Bhramari (Bee Sound) and Kapalbhati (Breath of Fire)
Sacred Mantra Chanting: Ganesha Mantra, Guru Mantra, Invocation to Patanjali, Gayatri Mantra, Mahamrityunjay Mantra, Shanti Mantras, Ashtanga Mantras
Yogic Cleansing with Jalaneti and Rubber-neti
Anatomy basics
Yoga Philosophy, covering the Yoga Sutras (one of my favourite parts of the TTC!)
Teaching Methodology & Sequencing