Inhale, exhale. The study of Prana Flow yoga begins with shared breathing, in and out.
Carson Efird, a UCLA alumna who received her master’s degree from the world arts and cultures/dance department in 2013, is now the program director for the UCLA Prana Flow Yoga Summer Institute teacher training course. An energetic form of Vinyasa yoga, Prana Flow was created by UCLA alumna Shiva Rea, and together, Efird and Rea created and instruct the teacher training course returning this summer for its second year. On Friday, Efird will host a free one-hour Prana Flow yoga class and info session for the summer institute in Kaufman Hall.
Daily Bruin’s Natalie Green spoke with Efird on the success of last year’s program and her hopes in making yoga a larger part of UCLA’s on-campus happenings.
Daily Bruin: Can you tell me about your background at UCLA within the yoga community and what motivated you to organize the summer institute course?
Carson Efird: While I was here, I was the yoga teacher for beginning and intermediate Prana Flow yoga in the department, classes a lot of students –undergraduate and graduate – took for credit. The Prana Flow Summer Institute was a natural extension from teaching in the classroom setting for three years to then providing the next step needed for students who wanted to expand their practice beyond the boundaries of two times or three times a week for a quarter.
DB: What was the structure of the program like last summer and why did you decide to bring it back this summer?
CE: It was our first year, so we had a small, intimate group of seven students who did the program. We spent most of our hours together in Kaufman Hall, where they got the lowdown on the methodology, philosophy, practicum, anatomy and all of the proponents that are part of the training. Then, because it was such a small group, we were able to take a lot of field trips to take classes with Shiva, our other teacher in the program and the founder of Prana Flow yoga, in Venice and to different yoga communities in Los Angeles. We were able to go to the beach and to the mountains and go on hikes. Students could really understand that yoga can enhance your daily living practices and that it just doesn’t have to happen in the studio, but it’s actually a life practice that you engage with everywhere.
DB: Based on last summer, are there any things you are looking forward to for this summer in particular? Or any additions or changes you are planning on making?
CE: Since we’ve done it once, it’s a matter of refining and making the program even more smooth, efficient and effortless. We’re hoping for not a much larger group because … it’s important when you’re teaching yoga for a lot of individual attention. In terms of our traveling and our field trips, (we’d like) to go take classes at other studios, do service projects and experience outings, adding things like surfing lessons or kayaking lessons … so that as students teach, they have these specific experiences to draw back on in their own bodies.
DB: What motivates you and your students to teach yoga?
CE: Really becoming a yoga teacher or becoming a yoga teacher trainer is just another way of rededicating yourself to the past of being a yoga student. I feel like at every training that I go to, and I’ve taught this training close to 10 times by now, that every time it’s slightly different depending on the students that are there and their particular interests.
DB: What do you hope to accomplish with your preview class for the summer institute on Friday?
CE: Offering free yoga sessions … gives (prospective students) the opportunity to experience the (uniqueness) of Prana Flow yoga. It’s also an opportunity for them to get to meet me because it’s essential that you have a certain amount of resonance with the teacher and how they teach. … I think it’s a great way for all the yoga enthusiasts around campus to get together and meet one another – and practice and breathe together – so that there’s a momentum of the yoga practice on campus, so that hopefully one day there will be larger yoga happenings on campus.
– Natalie Green