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Good Life Project

Elena Brower: On Yoga, Love, Addiction and Grace

Good Life Project

Jonathan Fields / Acast

Education, How To, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness

4.63.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2016

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s guest, Elena Brower, dedicated her life to the practice and teaching of yoga nearly 20 years ago. She rose to acclaim, becoming known first as a wonderful teacher on the New York yoga scene, and then a teacher of teachers on a larger stage.

But she also had a secret. Actually, not so much a secret as an addiction. And there came a time where she felt she not only had to get sober, but also share the journey in a very public way. With her students, her community of teachers, and her son.

It became one of the most empowering journeys of her life. This is just one of the many paths our conversation takes in today's episode.

We explore Elena's early years, her career in textile design and what led her to leave it behind and make yoga her "thing." We talk about the path to becoming a teacher, then eventually developing an authentic voice, a treasured lens and emerging as a teacher of teachers. We explore the power of awareness and mindful attention.

We also dive into what it's like to run your own studio, to travel the world, speaking and teaching. And, we talk about how becoming a mom has changed her and her world in a profound way.

The emergence of digital practice and online yoga classes and education, something Elena has embraced, finds it way into the conversation as well. And we explore Elena’s latest ventures, Teach.Yoga, a global hub of content and inspiration created by yoga teachers, for yoga teachers and her beautiful self-practice guide, The Art of Attention.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Fancy a fever tree in a glass with ice and rum.

0:06.0

You thought I was going to say gin, didn't you?

0:09.0

But I'm talking about fever tree ginger beer,

0:12.0

made from three gingers for that perfect blend of freshness, sweetness and spiciness,

0:18.0

delicious with rum or on its own.

0:21.0

Fever tree ginger beer mix with the best.

0:27.0

Mmm, that spices things up.

0:35.0

You know, I have friends who are just so gorgeous and elegant

0:38.0

and they really are the same person inside and outside

0:41.0

and I thought I want that.

0:44.0

I want to know what that feels like.

0:46.0

I want to behave in the same way that I behave with my students with my parents.

0:50.0

I'm with my man and I didn't know how to do that.

0:57.0

I had a lot of fun sitting down with today's guest, Elena Brower,

1:00.0

who's a wonderful yoga teacher and meditation teacher, writer, speaker

1:04.0

and a real teacher of teachers, somebody who works with so many teachers

1:07.0

to help them go deeper into their own practice

1:10.0

and really understand and own and refine and share their true voices

1:15.0

so that they can turn around and create a larger ripple in a greater number of people's lives.

1:20.0

This conversation goes deep into her own journey.

1:23.0

We were actually teaching yoga in New York City in very different places

1:27.0

we each owned our own studios at a similar point in time.

...

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