Please introduce yourself.
I have studied and practiced Yoga for 20 years, and am a certified Vinyasa Flow and Kundalini Yoga Teacher.
I completed the Yoga West year-long teacher training in June of 2008 and then went on to complete Yoga Works’ 200-hour teacher training with Annie Carpenter and Kia Miller in the Summer of 2009. For 8 years, I’ve has studied Kundalini Yoga and “Life” from my teacher, Guruprem.
Part of my work is focused in the relatively new field of Yoga and Recovery, which utilizes yoga and meditation to help people to move beyond addiction and build fulfilling lives.
How would you describe your style of teaching? What is one thing you bring to your class that is uniquely you?
My classes are a mixture of vigorous Vinyasa Flow and powerful Kundalini Kriyas. My teaching style includes: Movement, Breath, Music, Sweat, Meditation and a lot of fun.
I work with the magical gifts of Yoga and Meditation to help people recover from addictions and to build fulfilling lives.
Why did you start practicing yoga?
Yoga and Meditation are a big part of the reason I have been able to overcome great hurdles and rise out of the dis-ease of addiction. I have found that there is a place beyond addiction even for serious addicts and alcoholics. It is possible to heal fully and transcend it altogether, but it requires patience, diligence, an openness of mind and a willingness to shoot for it even when most people in the field do not believe it is possible.
I believe that to live happy, joyous and free is your birthright. AND I know just how challenging it can be to claim that. If you have ever felt stuck, maybe even for long periods of time, do not despair. There is a way through all blocks.
How is yoga meaningful to you nowadays?
Yoga is one of the greatest gifts to humanity. It is the owner’s manual for the human body, mind and spirit. The day-to-day Yoga classes (Asana practice), though challenging, are so much fun and provide an outstanding workout. The Meditations calm the mind and deepen one’s awareness. It is so important to develop the capacity to sit still in comfort. All kinds of magical things can take place for the person who develops this skill.
Yoga keeps healthy people healthy and moves dis-eased people toward ease. I have found that through practice, I have been able to overcome addiction to live a purpose-filled, awesome life. Yoga and Meditation is the pathway to fulfillment as a human being.
What is the Tadasana Festival?
Tadasana represents a powerful snapshot of a moment in time. Earth Day 2012 weekend in Southern California. It’s a cross section of the yoga that’s being taught across the country. We’ve tried to be inclusive of bringing together a wide variety of teachers from different backgrounds who’ve learned a lot about how to pass on these wonderful gifts to others.
Tadasana is a moment of coming together around the practice of yoga, the enjoyment of music and good food, the appreciation of the Earth and the ocean. It’s really about taking a quick snapshot of what was happening in yoga in 2012.
As the co-founder of the Tadasana Festival, what motivated you to create it and how did you come up with the idea?
My first motivation was the grand desire to bring people together in gatherings that are meaningful. Yoga and music bring great meaning to my life and provide me the most profound enjoyment and learnings. The idea of sharing this with people on a mass sale is a big part of the appeal of why I wanted to organize Tadasana.
And in the process of creating a gathering, making that an opportunity to come together and unite cultures, bring together many forms of yoga and world music from all over the place including India, Africa, South America, North America and Europe. With Tadasana we are really bringing live music performances into yoga classes.
Los Angeles is one the largest yoga markets in the world with extraordinary teachers and many practitioners, yet there’s no unifying event! We wanted to create that.
What is one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in making Tadasana a reality? How did you overcome it?
Personally, the sacrifice required to create this movement consumes your life for a while. Relationships suffer; other things that are important have to be put to the side for the time being so the event can take off. That’s just the sacrifice. I thank God for the wife that I have that she is supportive of me. Having time for and being present in anything else is sacrificed.
Another challenge is managing costs- it’s expensive to do business in Santa Monica!
Finally being able to work within the guidelines of the city has posed unique challenges. For example, if you want to have food vendors at your event, you have to have a specific kind of dishwashing sink, a specific container to put waste and follow specific regulations to make that happen. Another thing is the city doesn’t allow evening performances, so we have to close by sundown. All of these points and rules have to be accounted for and considered to make this happen.
What is your vision for Tadasana?
Tadasana is a transformational festival uniting yoga, music and community. It is a celebration of the possible.
Tadasana is intended to be a global brand that embraces yoga and a healthy, conscious lifestyle. We have been personally affected by yoga and feel it is a part of an answer to some of the world’s problems. We want to give people the tools they need to navigate their lives better and introduce people to modalities of living that are easier on themselves and easier on the earth.
There will be Tadasana events around the country and world.
Where can people buy tickets?
About the AuthorTommy Rosen is a certified Vinyasa Flow and Kundalini Yoga Teacher and a leading authority on addiction and recovery with 20 years experience helping others to overcome addictions of every kind. He is one of the pioneers in the relatively new field of Yoga and Recovery, which utilizes yoga and meditation to help people to move beyond addiction and build fulfilling lives.
Tommy teaches yoga at Naam Yoga LA, Bhakti Yoga Shala and runs workshops and retreats internationally. He also teaches and speaks regularly at Yoga conferences and festivals including the Wanderlust Festivals, Hanuman Festival and Bhaktifest. His blogs have appeared in The Huffington Post, The Daily Love and Yoga Mint. He has published articles in LA Yoga, Yogi Times and the Aquarian Times. Tommy lives with his wife, noted yoga instructor, Kia Miller, in Venice, CA.