Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
Hello and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast!
Our new second 6-part series of interviews is now out, where we again talk to yoga teachers both established and emerging.
We find out what got each of them into yoga, why they became teachers and got started, the styles of practice that interest them, who are their inspirations were and plans are for the future.
Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
YTTY10: Helena Wise - Bluecoast Yoga
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Hello and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast
Today my guest is Helena Wise, founder of Bluecoast Yoga, based in the small town of Bicheno on the east coast of Tasmania.
Helena has been teaching yoga for 20 years in Bicheno and also Swansea and Coles Bay. She also provides private classes as part of the local tourism industry and has in the past supported local physios.
Bluecoast also offers a monthly sound and movement session and Helena has been known to include sound bowls to enhance relaxation.
Bringing yoga to a small community can certainly have its benefits, listen to find out!
You can find out more about Helena at: Bluecoast Yoga
If you’d like to express an interest in being a guest in our next series, we can be contacted on: infoytty@gmail.com
Further related content and bonus material will be posted on our Facebook page:
Hello and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast. Today, my guest is Helena Wise from Blue Coast Yoga, based on the east coast of Tasmania. Helena's been teaching for yoga for 20 years in the small communities of Beachino, Swansea, as well as Coles Bay. She provides private classes as part of the local tourism industry, and she also supports physio. Living in a small community can certainly have its benefits, and we'll hear more about that in today's chat. Blue Coast also offers a monthly sound and movement session, and Helene has been known to include sound bubbles in her relaxation sessions. Today I welcome her online from a home in Tasmania. Hi Helena and welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Hi Paul, I'm really excited to be here. Something new for me, and yeah, it's it'll be great.
SPEAKER_00We start at the start and we ask Helena today on how she got herself into yoga in the first place.
SPEAKER_01We were living in Hawaii. So we were living on the big island, and that was 2003, 4, and 5. And that's when I really started yoga. We were living in this really lovely home, and upstairs the landlords lived, and they were really into Iyenga yoga. So that's where my foundation is. And she invited me to a class, and I went, and then I went, Oh, this is what I like, I love this. So I kept going, and that's how I started um my yoga journey, really. And then um I used to call a really good friend. Her name is Allison. We chat, you know, she was living back here in Bichonome where we chat. And one time it was um maybe this is embarrassing. One time she I just said to her really suddenly, oh, when I come back home, I'm gonna teach yoga. Anyway, she said, Oh yeah, great, great. And then ages later, we chatted again, and um, it was just after Christmas, and she said, Guess what I got for Christmas? And I said, I'm not sure. And she goes, A yoga mat. So when you get back here, go have a yoga mat. And I have to be honest, that was the incentive. That was really how I came to be a yoga teacher. Um, because I had said that flippantly, and she took it legitimately, got this beautiful yoga mat that actually a really good friend of the family. Um, they are Indian, they lived in India and they're over here for a holiday, and boy, she brought her the most amazing mat over. It was incredible. So I thought, well, now I can't say, Oh, I'm not going to. And um, and that's how it all happened. I came home and then I started delving into it, practicing, and then of course I had to practice doing it. Two people. So um, two of my girlfriends, Allison and another friend, Thurma, we would squeeze into Allison's kitchen, sometimes the lounge, and that was it, and that's how it started with those few words.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't need to be much, does it? And it doesn't, and and sometimes the universe just decides to hold you to account.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm always grateful. I'm always grateful for her to have done that, and um I think I'm grateful in the way that I know that from me it was quite flippant. I mean, I thought about the idea was there, but I wasn't necessarily really going to do it. Or how can I from where I live? You can't do that sort of thing where I live. I'm too far from the city, and we had two young kids. But I think what was really lovely for me was that she believed me, and consequently, I I had to do it, you know, because I can't say something. Once you give voice to something, I think that's a big step. You can honor it a lot more. Of course, you cannot, but I think once you give a voice to that idea, it's out loud and you said it to somebody. I think it it it it becomes a foundation of something. It can become a foundation of something, and something from that can grow. It's like it's it's the first real step.
SPEAKER_00And how long ago is that my ask?
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, that would have been uh uh that would have been probably 2004. We were we had three years living in Hawaii, my husband was working there. That opportunity that we took to go to Hawaii grew another opportunity because when you live, as you know, in a really small community, everything's limited. I did a 40-hour workshop in yoga with um Adil Polkevala, I think that's how you might say his last name. So he's sort of directly, well, he was, I I believe, under BKSI Yenga. And um, I did a 40-hour learning workshop with him. It was incredible actually. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00When you when you came back then to Bichanu, then was your exposure to yoga predominantly Yenga yoga? And so that's what you taught, or did you have ideas of Hutta Yoga or uh other styles?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I was I was Ayanga based, absolutely. Um I can never say that I teach Ayanga, but you know, to be certified Iyanga is a pretty is pretty intense. Um so even my style now is Ayanga based. But I guess that's like in yoga as well. Um and when you're in a small community and no one's uh teaching yoga, and uh possibly not many people have been to yoga, but at that time it opened up a place for me to come into step into this uh space and be who be who I was. Um yeah, does that make sense for you? Certainly does. Yeah, I didn't follow rules because I didn't need to. The guidelines that I had were the ones that I had made for myself, which is you know, keeping myself really honest, true, and you know, honest and true, and very, very careful. Careful to to to be only as much as what I am and what I knew because at that stage, Paul, I had done a 40-hour workshop, that is it. I had been to yoga very, very regularly while we were away, that's it, and then I came back here. So you don't learn a lot about anatomy. I think it's lucky that I love anatomy, that's my thing. I love anatomy. Um, it interests me. Um so I I was starting, I was starting at the very, very beginning. Myself was at the beginning, and then you then commit to um helping other people, inviting other people into that space with the um with the commitment of honoring them and that you can do what you're saying that you can do. So I was really, really careful to be. I mean, this is really a wonderful time for me to be reflecting, and I haven't haven't done this, but I'm I think I was really careful to be no more than what I really was, and that's important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so what what caught your eye about your Yenga yoga initially that you stayed with it?
SPEAKER_01Oh this would um reveal a trait of my personality. I think I like that it's a bit rigid. Oh my gosh. I'm not rigid anymore, though. I'm getting too old to be rigid. Um, I well look, that's what I knew. That was all I knew when I started. I did do some other classes in Hawaii as well, but I think I um I like, I guess it comes back to the anatomy. I must be honest, boy, I struggled, and every class I went to, I fell asleep in Javastana every time, always fell asleep, and um I think it's the anatomy side. I also like I like the strength you hold, you know, you get stronger.
SPEAKER_00I like that, and that's all I knew, and I guess I um when we came back here, apart from you know, you so did that then grow by referral or did it word of mouth, or how big can that be?
SPEAKER_01And Beach No, you you mentioned well I I took a leap straight in and um began to hire our community hall, and which is where I still take my classes. Should I tell you about my first class? It's really funny. The first class. No, I had uh so many people, of course, are all curious and oh my god, you know, you have an idea, a concept of what yoga is, and so when you get this opportunity, so I had so many people there, and I um so funny. And I think it was an hour and a half class, which is generally what I do. I like that length. I feel like I need that length to fit everything in, and that means you know, plenty arm and a really good shalas in it. And do you know there were so many people, and I was slow and uh and uh not really watchful of the time. I went half an hour over. It was half an hour over. Oh my gosh, and I still remember that and going, oh dear, because you can't skip shivasana, you can't just pop in a one-minute one, not that I'm doing 15 minutes or 10, yeah, but and then the bus just kept going, and there were so many people for me to go to and touch, and and uh anyway, and I had ideas how Shivasana should be or couldn't be, and and then I remember it was over, and I looked down on at my iPad to see the time, which I had been aware of, and there it was, half an hour late. Um anyway, it was funny.
SPEAKER_00Your set times, you have your timetable. I I saw the website Blue Coast Yoga, and you have your course through the week and and expanded, so you have another teacher now.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Fefa. Fefa's a beautiful friend, a really beautiful friend, much much younger than me. And um, we met through her coming to my classes, and um she's recently maybe probably 12 months now, she has become a fully qualified sound facilitator, and she is absolutely incredible. She's incredible because she loves it. That's what she wants to do. Pefer is actually from Uruguay, she lives here permanently, and um this she's an architect, but this is what she wants to do is she wants to be a sound facilitator forever and full-time. So you've got someone who just loves what she what she does and believes in it, and and she's amazing. So once a month um we come together and we offer a two-hour session. We uh we call it sound and movement, and um Fefa will play her array of singing bowls through most of that class. It's usually a restorative style yoga. We hold it, say, from 6 to 8 p.m. Um, and we start off with cacao, ceremonial cacao, and then we just yeah, leave the class for two hours. So in my own personal classes, I have a couple of bowls and I play them on occasions, um mostly as a treat. So when I pull them out, you know, people's eyes sort of bogged on and go, yeah, just got her singing bowls out tonight. Um, yeah. So that's Feffra and I, so we come together. Um we also um sometimes we upsell it. And it seems like the people that come to this sound bath, we have a limit of 10 people. Um, we also gift one person um as well, uh a mat each time, and the people that we seem to get are people who probably aren't going to either one of us. I of course some of my people come to the session, but not a lot, and um I think the sound really complements the movement. Well, it does when, for instance, because we offer restorative yoga and that sound really complements what I'm giving. So because I'm yoga, I'm probably based a little bit more in uh Ianga and I like anatomy, I like alignment, but I'm not OCD, I'm not strict, and I'm I'm understanding different structures that people have, different way their skeletal system is put together. Yeah, um that so I used to talk a lot, and then I think I try not to talk too much, and when I think I am, I will always say, Am I talking too much? Would you like me not to talk so much? Because I think if you're talking a lot, then their mind is listening to you, but should their mind not be inside of themselves? So I think um it's good to give that instruction, but maybe acknowledge when it is too much or could be too much, and then you should ask. And you can always ask at the end of the class so that you're mindful next time. And it's easier for me because the people who come to my classes, I know them all, they're all friends, some are friends outside of class, and some are friends simply because they come to class.
SPEAKER_00Really rely on the rely on the cues.
SPEAKER_01There's so much to say. Yeah, so you I am mindful of that. I am mindful of trying, and there are times when you need to be quiet, in restorative, particularly. There are times when you need to be quiet, Helen.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00That's lovely. Um it's very it's very interesting. So the I I'm I'm interested in exploring small town dynamic, and I'm very impressed that you've been able to establish a yoga school within a small community because I grew up in the small community myself and we didn't have any yoga back then. Um I'm going back before the the turn of the millennium, mind you, but um I'd even think now they'd struggle because the communities are struggling to stay afloat in a sense. Um over the years at Beachineau, Swansea, for just examples, are townships that have retained their populations or grown at all?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Bichano has really grown. Um its core population probably has almost almost doubled since we have been here. It's on this trajectory at the moment um of a lot of people coming in. And it's great, you know, younger people, professionals, they're invested in the community. Um, I quite enjoy that uh that that growth, though we still need to be careful. Um Bisheno was very, very recently voted best town in Australia. So for the first five seconds, like, yay, how amazing is that?
SPEAKER_00I can imagine the uh criteria for yoga teacher, yeah, tick, but that's a thought.
unknownTick tick.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, small community. Um, you just have to not give up. You make that commitment. This is for me, this is how I feel. You know, sometimes it's really quiet, sometimes there are only a few that come to class, sometimes classes are fantastic. There's always a few months of the year, the classes. This is talking about numbers, the classes are fantastic, but you always have a core group of people who come, and you can't not keep going because these people you're helping them.
SPEAKER_00I think you've had a net improvement on the township because there's some yoga in the in their heads and in their practice.
SPEAKER_01I'm this is weird saying this, so I'm saying it gently, but I have been told there is there is a change. People tell you um and uh recently um uh we had you know international women's fair and we had this thing nominate somebody and someone I know did nominate me. I'm not I feel weird telling you this. When I read when I read what she wrote, I actually feel emotional now, when I read what she wrote, I was I I I didn't know all that. I didn't know all of everything she was saying. Was it really like that? Because um, these people come to one person. There isn't a choice. Well, there is a little choice at the moment. Okay, another young lady is coming to I know she's offering a class. This has just started, but I've been here 20 years and I don't falter. I go to class all of the time. You have to be consistent. Um, I don't like going away on holidays, but we do. Um, and I've been so fortunate. This is beautiful Lady Linia. Um, she's moved into town, and last year we went away to Central and South America for seven each weeks. And she took other my classes. So it was so good. And the answer is that uh um the classes continue, so you have consistency, and then people get someone else that's important. I think they get a challenge. I think what someone else is at. So I'm lucky in a small community when uh start up something, a new business, like I did in the report logo. Yes, it's tough because of numbers. Because you know, you haven't got thousands of people to reach out. Out too. You don't need thousands anyway. But in a small community, it's easier maybe to advertise. Yeah, there's word of mouth, and then there's your local paper, there's local boards that you can pop something up. I think in that way it's a bit easier to generate interest.
SPEAKER_00Being busy. You've lost yourself in the in what you're doing and and doing it honestly, and that resonates stronger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. When you are a teacher, and I'm sure you know this, people come to you for all sorts of things, and they're very um you you become a person where they can come to a bit earlier in class, or someone will stay behind and chat, and you learn so much, you hear a lot. Yeah. And also in a small community, Paul, everyone knows each other, and so it's a whole different class. It's really warm, it can be a bit giggly sometimes. Some classes are completely silent, it's only me talking. But some classes there's a bit of giggling going on, and I don't mind. I mean, that's a release as well, and also can uh just allow people to chill out a little bit. But I think the classes that I have been to when I've been away, um, and I'm coming in as a foreigner, it's just different because people don't know each other, there's no connection.
SPEAKER_00That's right. I think you've got quite a unique dynamic and a quick unique interaction by virtue of the small town mindset. Um in the cities, you can you'll get students come from different places, they'll be like they'll be local enough, no one wants to drive too far for a yoga class, but um they all live lives separately and they're used to that. And so you get a more of a faceless in and out. I don't think you grow the same depth of relationship with as many people as you would have where you are.
SPEAKER_01And I think we need each other equally. I need them to come so that I can teach and do what makes me feel good, and it's not about me. The class is never about me, it's not my class, I'm giving it. But I need them, and they need me, and so it's like a big circle, and we're all together, and that becomes more important because we are a community. It's it's really because it's a small community, it's sharing, I think. So I'm really lucky, aren't I? Definitely that I live here, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Well I live in this community, you are, but it's also the person you are too, so you've cultivated this over time and you've you've grown with each other in that sense, which I think's been amazing. And the sharing is just such a country thing to do. I remember growing up that way too, you know.
SPEAKER_01And the whole different class is really warm, it can be a bit giggly sometimes. Some classes are completely silent, it's only me talking. But some classes there's a bit of giggling going on. I don't mind. I mean, that's a release as well, and also can uh just allow people to chill out a little bit. But I think the classes that I have been to when I've been away, um, and I'm coming in as a foreigner, it's just different because people don't know each other, there's no connection.
SPEAKER_00That's right. I think you've got quite a unique dynamic and a quick unique interaction by virtue of the small town mindset. Um in the cities, you can know I think that's one of your superpowers. Being busy, being busy, but not being too um too aware of yourself, if that makes sense. So you've lost yourself in the in what you're doing and and doing it honestly, and that resonates stronger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. When you are a teacher, and I'm sure you know this, people come to you for all sorts of things, and they're very um you you become a person where they can come to a bit earlier in class, or someone will stay behind and chat, and you learn so much, you hear a lot, and um you become like a book that did you encounter or were you aware of, or you ignored it?
SPEAKER_00But were you was there any initial small town prejudice against doing a yoga class, or was it something that's readily embraced by the locals? Maybe didn't notice it.
SPEAKER_01Um it was embraced, um, but there was also people, yeah, there's also people who don't have an understanding or accurate knowledge of what yoga is, and they think it's religion based. So there was a little bit of feedback, but um, that was more which I quite enjoyed face to face. Someone might say, once I became confident and I might be talking to someone, it's an older person perhaps or not, and they'll they'll say something and I would say, Why don't you come to your yoga? It'd be good for you. And they'll go, Oh no, I I still get that. I can't do yoga, I'm not flexible. I can't touch my toes.
SPEAKER_00The favourite one, I'm not flexible in it. Or just sit in the chair and you get the same experience.
SPEAKER_01Well, you don't, yeah, you don't have to touch your toes. Well, you you could bend your knees, or we could find plugs, like we're not touching our toes tonight. But some people are caught up thinking that it is based somewhere in religion. But the longer you're in a small place like this, and then you've got um that internal network, people change.
SPEAKER_00Who's inspired Helena in her yoga journey?
SPEAKER_01I I thought whether you had asked me that before when we chatted previous to right now, and I have thought about it a little bit. And maybe this is not uh well, this is what I think, this is true to me. The inspiration that I have or I get is from, and this is all I think of, is from those who come. They inspire me. They come, like I don't know, they come to me, and they I don't know how you say something like this. They know that I'm going to look after them, I'm going to give them what they're looking for. They know what they're going to get, and it's what they've come for. So my inspiration is watching these guys, you know. I've had people who've been with me for 20 years. People have been with me for two years. What you see from the outside, looking at them, the changes, the changes of the way they hold their shape in different poses, but then you start to see other changes. So the inspiration for me is coming from everyone else.
SPEAKER_00A beautiful collaboration. And I I I said symbiosis, symbiosis before, but it it's such a you're so connected and interwoven with your community and your students that you're you're just really leveraged off each other over the years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you know, Paul, when I'm sitting here now thinking about it, because I don't sit and do that sort of reflection. I reflect on other things, but you know, okay, I feel really, really lucky. I'm really lucky. I've been able to sustain this. Other people do it, of course, other people have studios for 20 years, 30 years. But I feel I feel, I feel very, very grateful. I can't do this and be here doing this if I don't have support from those people coming. I need that. It's wonderful, I'm very lucky. That's how I feel.
SPEAKER_00I asked Ben what comes next, but for Helena, I think it's more of the same. It's um continuing the sort of services and the classes you're providing. You've brought sound in recently, and it's something that's complementing Bluecoast Yoga. But Bluecoast Yoga is really what what you've got? Are you looking to develop it at all?
SPEAKER_01Not really.
SPEAKER_00Um people who live in the areas will continue to practice with you, and I'm sure anyone watching this that ends up in Tasmania for a time should swing by Beachano and say hello to Helena and try out some Blue Coast yoga and yoga done with love, yoga done authentically. I think that's uh it's been really lovely.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank you, Paul. Um Paul, thank you so much for contacting me. I really appreciate it. Um this is exciting, it's something new, and um you've really given me the time and the space to think a little bit more about myself and what I'm doing. And I've really enjoyed it. I've I've learned some things, lots of things, lots of really good things. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00That's been an absolute.
SPEAKER_01I wish you all the best.
SPEAKER_00Thank you very much. I think it's Paul.
SPEAKER_01If you're down in Swannsea, go.
SPEAKER_00I'll be coming over by a one class only ticket and I'll be in there. Helene, it's been a pleasure to have you on our podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Pleasure to be here. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00We thank you for the opportunity to bring you Helena's amazing and unique yoga journey. And we wish her the very best in continuing to bring yoga to East Coast townships of Beachino and Swansea in Tasmania. Next week, we'll bring you that chat with Sarah Manning, who has a major yoga presence across Southeast Asia, both in training yoga teachers and helping countless yogis to find their own sense of empowerment. We look forward to seeing you then. Helena was so forthcoming and transparent in sharing her yoga journey. And before we leave you today, here's a little more on how her yoga has helped her overcome some physical challenges.
SPEAKER_01I am so lucky because of the because of the amount of yoga I have done, you know, I have a few things, I have a crazy body, I have an extra vertebrae, I have scoliosis, but you would never ever guess. And I know because a very, very smart physio therapist and a very smart osteopath both have told me individually, thank God you did yoga. Because if you didn't, you wouldn't be like you are now. There's no way you would be in such an upright position and can do what you can do. Um, so I'm at the other end of or the other side of all of this. I'm really grateful that I've been able to continue with movement. Movement in your body is important, and I think for me, what I think is one of the best things of yoga, apart from the mental side, of course, but on the physical side is in yoga, you move with attention, you and you move your body in so such different ways and positions that isn't out of not the ordinary, but it's not it's different all of the time. And I think that is what's really special. One of the really special things about yoga is that you put your body in different positions, not the crazy one, not pretzels, but that's important and for me. I've been very, very lucky.