Yoga Training for First Responders with Olivia Mead
Yogaland Podcast
Andrea Ferretti
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2020
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Soon after deciding to teach yoga to first responders, yoga teacher Olivia Mead decided to go through fire and police academy. She wanted to develop authentic yoga classes that would resonate with -- not alienate -- first responders. She also wanted to develop yoga classes that would give first responders tools to use on the job. She wanted her classes to be directly relevant and applicable, not esoteric. Her devotion to understanding her student-base has been a great success. Mead now heads up Yoga for First Responders, a non-profit that provides on-site yoga classes and teacher training programs. In this interview, she shares her approach, how she structures classes, the language she uses and some of the success stories from her students who are on the front-lines of public safety everyday.
Show notes: http://www.jasonyoga.com/podcast/episode182
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, I'm Andrea Ferretti and this is episode 182 of Yogoland. |
| 0:09.1 | Today my guest is Olivia Mead, who is the head of Yoga for First Responders. |
| 0:15.0 | Yoga for First Responders is a nonprofit organization that provides yoga training, |
| 0:19.1 | that as she puts it, is job-specific and culturally informed. So we unpack what that means on this |
| 0:27.2 | episode and I just found her whole approach, Olivia's whole approach to be |
| 0:30.6 | really fascinating and really smart. |
| 0:34.0 | Before she started teaching first responders, she went through Police Academy and Fire Academy |
| 0:39.0 | so that she could |
| 0:45.0 | use the correct language and she could present yoga in such a way |
| 0:50.0 | that it would resonate quickly with first responders and give them ways to associate |
| 0:55.4 | yoga in an immediate way to how they can use it on the job. |
| 0:59.0 | So that's her whole goal with teaching first responders is to give them very practical |
| 1:04.4 | yoga tools that they can use in their day-to-day lives. |
| 1:08.6 | So she talks about breathing. |
| 1:11.4 | She talks about body mechanics instead of calling it |
| 1:14.0 | Austina, which I think is so smart. |
| 1:16.0 | And she talks about neuro reset with them, which is really like meditation, |
| 1:21.0 | concentration, you know, single pointed focus. |
| 1:24.3 | So I love talking to her. |
| 1:26.4 | She has a very short teacher training program. |
| 1:29.8 | If you are already 200 hours certified, you can go and do her additional program and become |
| 1:35.6 | trained to understand how to work with first responders and she's also |
... |
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