Meta Chaya Hirschl Teaching Credentials

Education

BS, Purdue University, 1978

MBA, Graduated with Distinction, New York University, 1985

Yoga Training

• Registered Yoga Teacher, e500 hr (the highest level attainable from the Yoga Alliance)
• Trained as both a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, 2001
• Own and operate YogaNow in downtown Albuquerque, NM since March 2001.
• Developed and conduct YogaNow Teacher Training Apprentice Program, training yoga teachers each year, both at the first level, 200 hr and the advanced level, 500 hr.
• Author and Publisher of Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers
• Produced No Excuse Yoga DVD, 15 minutes of yoga you can do at home

Specialized training in dealing with Yoga and Asthma, Yoga for Teens, Yoga for Adults and Depression. Teaches public classes for all levels.

Samples of experience teaching teens:

• Teach yoga to Highland High School students after school once a week, spring 2010, beginning october 2010.
• Developed training and rollout to offer yoga in Albuquerque Public High Schools fall 2010 through SSHS (Safe Schools Healthy Students) initiative with Brooke Tafoya of APS
• Taught teen dancers for Keshet Dance Company in multiple years; This program is a two semester weekly class that includes ages from 12-18 and a wide variety of abilities.
• Taught students of the emotionally challenged program, ages 17-22, part of a specialized APS program.
• Annually teach Bosque Middle and High School students as part of a spring break program.

These are workshops to teach yoga in the world and in our lives and have been taught this year:

Yoga in Everyday Life

Integrating yoga and daily actions makes sense because the principles of yoga poses, such as balance and stability, also apply to everyday circumstances. And yoga principles of inner awakening and awareness can be with us everywhere. Yoga can help us while driving, talking on the phone, while shopping. Yoga can help us build community, build trust and confidence and even improve sex. This workshop will use Meta’s new book Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers to explore specific practices to incorporate yoga into our lives and create health and happiness, from the inside out.

Asthma and Yoga: A Holistic View to put You in Charge

Asthma and stress-related illnesses are complicated involving all aspects of living and so the approach requires a generous view. The yoga approach begins with intention, defining the aspiration, the vision. Then a holistic view is taken incorporating all appropriate modalities called modes. The modes have been developed from years of personal experience, intensive study and incorporation of traditional and nontraditional healing practices. Learn a yogic approach to asthma that encompasses all aspects of this complicated and potentially life threatening disease. Create inner power for health and happiness.

Root Chakra with poses, meditations, and energetics

Our root support, Muladhara chakra, governs our ability to feel supported in our life. It covers such ground as familial, financial, nutritional and physical roots. In discovering our own healthy roots, we are better able to sprout forth from a firm foundation toward greater light, just as lotus grows up from the mud. In our root support workshop, we will explore asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, visualization, meditation, chanting and a creative project specific to Muladhara chakra to better understand how it might influence our present life and how we might practice setting a firm foundation.

Krama to Inversions and Arm Balances

Of all the asanas, arm balances and inversions are probably some of the most challenging in terms of fear, trust and ability. An awful lot goes into building toward such postures, such as strength, flexibility, acceptance and inquisitiveness. In this workshop, we will look at some of the inherent limitations to manifesting these types of asana, the steps (or krama) toward finding them, and some of the mind limitations that tend to get in the way of exploring them. All practitioners welcome to this supportive exploration of some potentially high flying postures.

Second Chakra with poses, meditations, and energetics

Swadhisthana chakra, the seat of the self, is where the flow of water begins to influence the flow of energy, intention, attitudes, and creativity. It also governs the idea of sensuality and relationship. When we find that we have a creative approach to all of these realms, we find ourselves much less limited in the way we approach life as a whole. In this workshop, we will explore methods such as asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, chanting, visualization, meditation and a creative project to better know the swirling waters of the second chakra. In building on our first exploration of Muladhara chakra, we may discover ways to grow the lotus stalk evermore upward toward the light.

Teach yoga to High School Students as part of the Safe Schools, Health Students federal initiative. As part of that initiative designed a program for preparing teachers for a rollout of six and then all high schools in Albuquerque. The training takes place over two days and includes ten yoga teachers.

Presentations to libraries, book stores, yoga studios on the work of Vital Yoga, these are a few venues:

Cherry Hills Library, Page One Books, Borders Cottonwood, Bookworks, Borders West Lafayette, Downtown Library

Teach Yoga off the Mat to various groups:

• Health providers in retirement community
• Social workers who deal with child abuse and survivors
• Homeless men
• Business people including lawyers and bankers

Book Awards Received

• Gold Medal, Living Now Book Award http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1357 “Every day should be treated as Earth Day, and these books will help people to find a balance with the natural world around them,” said Awards Director Jim Barnes. “Today’s fast-changing world, with all its technological and ecological issues, renews in us the sense of urgency we felt 40 years ago, and good books are necessary to inform and inspire us to keep ourselves and the Earth healthy – today, and for future generations.”

The Living Now Book Awards celebrate the innovation and creativity of newly published books that enhance the quality of our lives, from cooking and entertaining to fitness and travel. The awards are open to all books written in English and intended for the North American market. Winning a Living Now Book Award will bring recipients the credibility and publicity they need to further their book marketing and sales success.

• Winner in the Health/Wellness Category of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The Next Generation Indie Book Awards (the “Indie Book Awards”) is the most rewarding and exciting book awards program for independent publishers and authors worldwide.

The Indie Book Awards was established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in 60 different categories, for the year, and is presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (www.IBPPG.com) in cooperation with Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency.

Studio Award Received

• Best Place to Work Up a Sweat, Downtown Business Award