Meet Todd Norian

We were lucky to catch up with Todd Norian recently and have shared our conversation below.

Todd, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I first began my yoga journey 46 years ago, attending a workshop at a yoga ashram for 10 days and staying 13 years! It was quite the transformation of a lifetime. Every cell of my being resonated with the teachings and lifestyle. I didn’t even know I had that in me. Something blossomed within. I was awakened to something beyond my wildest imagination. I continue to live with the same amount of enthusiasm today that I did back then. But it has deepened and matured.

I was asked to teach yoga to the resident population at the ashram which I resisted. I was shy and full of feelings of unworthiness. My supervisor, however, ordered me to teach because he knew what a good practitioner I was. I loved yoga. My first class was in front of 80 residents, all with years more experience than me. I was so nervous I broke down in tears in front of the microphone. Somehow I pulled it together and finished the class but no one, not even one person stopped by to thank me. There was one yogi in the back of the room who waited for me to leave. He approached me, seeing how nervous I had been, and gave me the best compliment ever. He said, “Thank you teaching this class. You did a great job and I loved it.”

That’s all I needed to hear! Just one person being kind and letting me know that I made a difference for them. That instilled a confidence that I developed throughout my career such that now, being a founder of my own yoga method, teacher trainer, and internationally renown yogi, I have all of the confidence I need. I’m still kind of a shy person. I’m an extroverted introvert. But I’m able to embrace being humble as one of my strengths that allows me to share the very best part of me when I teach.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Todd Norian, E-RYT 500, YACEP, internationally acclaimed yoga teacher, author of Tantra Yoga: Journey to Unbreakable Wholeness, a Memoir, musician, and founder of Ashaya Yoga, has practiced and taught yoga for over 45 years. Designated a Kripalu Legacy Faculty, Todd became a Kripalu Resident in 1983, was a co-founder of the Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training who trained more than 1000 teachers. In 2012, Todd founded Ashaya Yoga® (Abode of the Heart), an alignment-based, transformational system of yoga embodying Tantric philosophy, the Five Elements, Shadow and Light work, and the integration of body, mind, and heart. Todd brings a vast knowledge of therapeutic alignment, Tantra philosophy, warmth, and an unapologetic sense of humor to his classes and trainings. Trained in classical piano and jazz, Todd created several music albums for yoga and meditation, including Bija, Deep Peace, Ocean of the Heart, Tejase, and Invocation.

What’ most exciting about my career is that I love doing what I’m doing. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. What I teach adn offer to others is also how I nourish myself. I keep up a consistent and intense yoga practice twice a day, with breathing exercises and meditations. This helps me clear my head and open my heart to the miracle of life every day. The type of yoga I teach is alignment-based and healing. I’ve helped thousands of people heal lower back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, knee pain, and almost every part of the body heal. It’s what I do. The service I offer others fills me up and gives me a deep purpose in life. Service to others is key. I’m grateful every day of my life. I still go through doubt, unworthiness, negativity, and the whole realm of emotions, light and shadow. But I’m able to move through them without getting stuck. This leads me to the recognition that everything in life is for my awakening. With that attitude it keeps me on the path of radical affirmation. I affirm that life is good and that it tends to work out. But it takes curiosity, compassion, and courage to face your fears and move forward anyway. This is the life of a householder yogi! In the world, of the world, and in the spirit.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Try to maintain curiosity, compassion, and courage in all that you do. Curiosity opens your heart. It’s void of judgment. You remain open to see things as they are. Compassion is needed to embrace your own and other’s struggles. Compassion contains empathy which is needed to stay connected to yourself and others and be relatable. Courage is the emotion of the spiritual warrior, to face danger, uncertainty, and pain without being stopped or deflected from a chosen course of action. Stand strong in yourself, yet be open to shift and change as life changes. Stay liquid!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking for yoga studio owners or entrepreneurs who wish to partner with me and host me for a workshop. I’ll go almost anywhere in the US and Canada, and maybe beyond, if there’s a group of students who wish to learn, grow, and transform their hearts. I also love being interviewed on podcasts that have to do with yoga, healthy living, body mind connection, tantra, how to be happy in a precarious world, and navigating through change, including divorce.

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