INTRODUCING YOU - LILY OLSBERG
The woman behind the words.
Introducing… Lily Olsberg
Lily here, author and do-er behind The Fig Yoga! I have my 800hr YTT from Byron Yoga Centre, which I completed over one year, part time, in Melbourne (2019). I now work full time as Match Making Manager (I help people get jobs!) for another start up community - of marketeers this time - called The Copy Club. I teach zoom classes and IRL yoga from time to time, and hope to pick it up again at a studio soon, when I move to NYC later this year.
At the start of my journey, I used yoga as a form of exercise. Well, actually, my mother took me to a hot yoga class under the pretence of it being “a good workout for your body”. In reality she wanted me to experience the work it would do on my mind (helloooo teenage anx). So I guess I was in it for mind, body and soul from the get go. I just didn’t know it yet.
A marketeer by trade (events, digital, partnerships - my first job was at Bumble!), I never thought I wanted to be a yoga teacher. My goal was to work in ‘Wellness Events’, whatever that meant. But when I scored my LITERAL dream job as an events assistant for one of THE biggest wellness events companies and it sucked the life out of me, I realised maybe I had gotten it all wrong.
I came to discover that life was instead pulsing through my veins every time I imagined myself standing on the podium of my favourite yoga studio. In fact, I wasn’t happy just cleaning mats and checking people in for their classes, I wanted to be up there teaching them what I knew about the most rewarding practice of my life. And here we are..
Lily shares…
My favourite yoga practice
To teach: Yin Yoga. I love the meditative state I can create with my words and postures, for the people in the room. The unfurling of my students’ minds as their breathing slows, the evident relaxing of their softening bodies as the class goes on. It feels like I am giving a gift, every single time.
To practice: a slower Vinyasa Flow (with some long yin holds at the end). I like to feel my body move, aligned with the guidance of my breath - and my breathing pattern is pretty slow. Acknowledging the power of my body as I glide through Surya Namaskar or hold steady and strong in a Warrior II can’t be beat. I do need a mix of challenge and unwinding. Jess’s slow flow classes are the perfect combo of this.
My favourite recommended yoga product
At the end of our 800hr training, my teacher Alli Black gifted us all a beautiful lightweight scarf that I use as an eye pillow during savasana or mediation. The material is soft on my skin and reminds me of her. An scarf - with sentiment - should do the trick.
My favourite low cost self care practice
Journaling. When I get my words down on paper, the answers to all the questions I’m seeking or problems I’m having seem to emerge from the page. Over time, they write themselves.
If I’m having an especially anxious day, I will pick up a pen and write down all the thoughts that pop up in my head, one by one. A worry, then an item from my to do list, then a distant childhood memory, then the fact that I’ve just looked at the plant in the corner of my room. This stream of consciousness writing exercise helps to declutter my brain and make space for me to contemplate what is truly going on beneath.
Music I like to teach to
I tend to avoid music that is too “popular”, or tunes that might resonate too deeply with my students. I am keen for them to be in the room, in their bodies, rather than thinking back to a sentimental moment they were reminded of by a track in my playlist.
I loved teaching to The Hum at Humming Puppy, but you can find my current yin playlists and flowing class tracks here.
A tip that helped me feel comfortable teaching in front of others
“Teach to the room in front of you”. Use the bodies of your students to cue your class. There’s no point telling everyone to pigeon toe their feet in Prasarita Padottanasana (wide legged forward fold) if everyone is already doing it, or reminding your students to straighten their leg in Birds of Paradise if not one of them is even standing up!
You can learn so much about how to teach a brilliant class, just by observing the bodies on the mats. What do they need you to help them with? What are their bodies, minds, breath asking for? Take careful notice of how your words, how your sequences are landing with your students in real time and make amendments accordingly.
Cue what you can see is needed in that present moment, rather than a long list of teaching cues you think they need to hear, and you’ll feel more comfortable as their bodies fall into place.
Where to find Lily…
Here! Writing blogs for yoga teachers - aspiring, in training and certified.
In your inbox fortnightly, with an email newsletter full of yoga tips, self care tricks and usually an update on her internal monologue (that you didn’t ask for).
Requests for zoom classes or even just a cry for help - yoga teachers, I’m here for ALL of your questions - can be made via email. I’d love to hear from you.
