Students become teachers at The Homestead’s yoga course

By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor

Bending over backward, forward or sideways for her students is a natural state of being for UNION/YOGA Owner-Director Sandra Carden, who will bring her enthusiasm and 12 years of teacher training experience to The Homestead starting Jan. 31, for a 28-day, 200-hour beginning yoga-teacher certification program.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer Sandra space and resources to host her amazing teacher training program,” said The Homestead Spa and Fitness Manager Tara Ziegler, who shared that the resort will offer multiple levels of accommodations and dining for those students who decide to stay overnight instead of commute. “Northern Michigan is so fortunate to have such an outstanding master teacher right here in Leelanau County,” Ziegler enthused. “She is an empowering, inspirational teacher, and her students grow to become phenomenal teachers themselves.”

According to Ziegler, UNION/YOGA (which makes its current home at the Leelanau Center for Contemplative Arts in Lake Leelanau) is licensed by the State of Michigan and has the distinction of being the only school north of Grand Rapids accredited by the Yoga Alliance (a national organization that sets professional standards for teacher certification) to offer both the 200-hour Classic and 500-hour Master levels of teacher certification. Approximately 100 students, ranging in age from 18 to 70, have been certified to teach yoga through Carden’s school.

Nearly anyone interested in becoming certified may participate in the upcoming training at The Homestead; the only prerequisite for the 200-level program is two years of prior yoga experience. The 7 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. daily studies (there are no days off during the 28-day program) will include anatomy, physiology, yoga’s medical and scientific benefits, yoga lifestyle and ethics, Sanskrit, teaching and methodology, and practical business skills such as marketing and advertising. Time will be set aside each day for hands-on public teaching experience and yoga practice, the latter to learn yoga poses (asanas) and techniques. Students receive one hour for lunch and those wanting total yoga immersion can partake of vegetarian-style, East Indian-Asian cuisine. Class participants can enjoy a 50-percent discount on services at the resort’s Spa Amira, open 10-6 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays or by appointment during the week.

Certification or self-study by immersion

While two-thirds of students take the intensive training to become teachers, Carden said one third are there for self-study, to immerse themselves in yoga and deepen their understanding of its philosophy, history or health benefits.

“It’s not about the postures,” Carden explained. “During yoga self-study, some students find that their appetites, friends or goals in life are changing. It sparks their curiosity when they find it’s affecting their whole life; they want to learn how to harness that energy by exploring how it’s ‘beneficial for me.’ For some, it’s more than physical exercise. Some people honestly come into it for more enlightenment.”

She compares the 200-level course to undergraduate study, in which students learn where their interests, talents and gifts are. During the 500-level course (“grad school”), they specialize in yoga therapeutics, aerobic practice, children, nursing homes, or one of the many other avenues and venues for teaching yoga.

Reversing roles

Carden said her philosophy of teaching is: “Every student is your teacher. It’s most important, as a teacher, to have your own practice and teach your own, authentic style.”

Attributes she feels are important for teachers include compassion and selflessness.

“It’s not about you as the teacher,” she explained. “It’s about your students. Teachers need to disappear, to let students come through, and to learn boundaries … it’s important to teach and adjust (students’ postures) without pushing. It’s about meeting them where they are now. Some don’t want a lot — no touch or correction — but (they) like the energy of the room. You need to be able to intuit.”

Carden, who is teacher certified at the 500 Level and has taught yoga since 1973, described her eclectic teaching style as safe, non-dogmatic, precise and spiritual.

“Every time I (teach), I feel like it’s the best class, that I’m more adept and more experienced, that I’ve mastered something new,” she said.

Her website (www.unionyoga.com) states that each of her teachers has contributed to her evolving understanding of the tradition and power of yoga to heal, restore and maintain life’s vitality, and to bring peace and joy to daily life. Her greatest influences have been B.K.S. Iyengar, Roger Eischens and Rama Berch. She also credits Joel Kramer, Judith Lasater, Jean Couch, Beryl Bender Berch, Sara Powers, Leslie Kaminoff, Paul Grilley and Georg Feuerstein with guiding her way.

In addition to public and private classes, Carden offers corporate seminars, retreats, yoga vacations, yoga therapy and speaking engagements. She designed and illustrated “Ageless Exercise” by Joan Laird (Angelwood Press, 1994) and was a contributing author to “Yoga in America,” published by Deborah Bernstein and Bob Weisenberg (Lulu Press, 2009). She has produced two instructional yoga tapes and an award-winning yoga program for public television. She authored and illustrated the UNION/YOGA Teacher Training manuals.

How to enroll

Union/Yoga’s 200-Level Teacher Training will be hosted by The Homestead’s New Leaf Fitness Center located in the resort’s village. Class begins Jan. 31 and concludes on Feb. 28. Another 200 Level class is planned for April 25-May 22. Included in the cost of tuition are a number of lodging and dining options to address the needs of area visitors and local residents. To register, or for more information, call Union Yoga at (231) 256-2100 or visit www.unionyoga.com.