88: How Not To Teach Yoga with Tori Lunden

Do you know Tori Lunden (she/her)? She is known as Bad At Yoga on social media and if you haven't come across her work yet I'm SO excited I get to introduce you to her today. If you do know Tori's work, you won't be surprised at all to know that I jumped at the chance to connect with her, (and we had a blast!) because there are many similarities in our work!  After two and half decades of spiritual searching, Tori's outlook on life can be summed up simply as, "Just be kind and maybe try therapy." A teacher since 2008, Tori's approach to yoga is a balance of pragmatism and irreverence.  Tori has a degree in Social Work through the University of Calgary. Though no longer practicing social work in a formal setting, she remains committed to social justice and building healthier communities. Her current yoga teaching practice is guided by the three pillars of her social work practice; person centered, anti oppressive, and strengths based. Tori self published her first book, "How not to Teach Yoga: Lessons on Boundaries, Accountability, and Vulnerability - Learnt the Hard Way" in February of 2021 and I got to talk to her all about the hard lessons she's learned as a yoga teacher, and some wisdom and advice she has for the rest of us.  In this episode you'll hear: why more information isn't helpful if we haven't done the work of learning how to apply it  what Tori suggests we do to integrate the yoga teachings into the way we show up as teachers the reasons there is so much doubt along a yoga teaching path and how we can work with that why manipulation, spiritual bypassing and authoritarian teaching styles are common and how we can work with them when they show up in our own lives the difference between "big hands teaching" and "small hands teaching" what it takes to cultivate professional self trust as a yoga teacher Learn More From Tori: At her  website buy her book Follow her on Instagram This episode is sponsored by OfferingTree!   Sign up at www.offeringtree.com/mentor to get 50% off your first three months (or 15% off any annual plan).  With OfferingTree, yoga teachers put their schedule on a personally branded website where students can book classes and even pay or donate online.  All of this can be set up in 30 minutes or less. This is a great product that I highly recommend!