Meet Manami Yuzuki | Yoga Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Manami Yuzuki and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Manami, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
Everything that happens to you has meaning.

If you hit a wall and think it has come to you to figure out how to overcome it, you can go on believing that you can do your best and grow.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a yoga instructor. A yoga instructor can be certified after studying a 200-hour course.

However, the “vanakkam yoga school” where I studied made me realize that 200 hours is just the start of learning yoga, and that there is much more to learn from there.

Thanks to this, I have learned about 1,500 hours of yoga to date.
The content of the study is not only physical matters, but also how to feel happiness in daily life.

The physical lessons I have learned have brought smiles to many people’s faces as a teacher.

One elderly lady who had given up on the idea of sitting on her knees became able to do so, and another whose blood pressure had been high returned to normal and was able to stop taking medication.

Others have reported that their insomnia has been relieved and they are now able to enjoy life more.

The internal learning has not only helped the students, but it has also made my own days calmer.

I used to be swept away by my family’s mood swings, but now, although we fight, we are able to talk calmly with each other and my family no longer controls me with their mood swings.

I am able to overcome other difficult events that happen to me without falling apart in the spirit of “Do what you love and love what you do.”

Our emotions become imbalanced due to comparison, doubt, and laziness, but this has decreased and as a result, I am less tired.

Not only at the yoga studio, but also at the gym, where we talk about the internal aspects of yoga in class, I have been able to differentiate myself from other instructors by spreading the word that yoga is not only a physical approach but also effective internally, and now my classes are not booked and I receive complaints.

After class, I am surrounded by students who ask me, “What kind of practice should I do?” to “I am happy to hear that my body is no longer in a state of discomfort after the class.

Of course, it takes time and money to learn.

But I am sure that 200 hours of study alone would not have brought me to this level.

I am sure that I would have remained an inexperienced instructor and could only pass on my somewhat shallow knowledge of yoga.

Thanks to what I have learned, I can teach yoga to people of all ages, men and women, people with stiff bodies, and seniors.

For example, suppose there is a person who cannot do a pose because of stiffness or pain.

How to respond to this situation is where the yoga instructor shows his or her ability.

If the instructor says, “Take it easy, you don’t have to do the pose,” be careful.
You don’t have to force it, but do you think that doing nothing will relieve the person’s pain? No way.

If you can’t tell the person exactly what to do to get rid of the pain, what are you going to do?” If you cannot tell the person exactly what to do to get rid of the pain, then you will never be able to get rid of the pain unless you learn what to do.

Yoga is not only for the young, but it is also effective for seniors.

Uploading beautiful poses on Instagram is one thing, but if more instructors understood this and could share the benefits of yoga, I think the world would be a healthier place.

I am sure it is difficult to understand yoga, which has existed for 4000 years, in 200 hours.

I believe that by continuing to learn, you will find yourself becoming more humble and more aware of what you are teaching.

I don’t think there are many schools that offer yoga teacher training courses that will allow you to improve your skills to this level.

I was probably LUCKY. I was. I happened to meet a yoga master named “Master Sudhakar”, I was able to attend “vanakkam yoga school”, and I had a group of friends who wanted to grow together. Who to learn from, where to learn, and with whom?

In yoga, this encounter is called the result of “karma”.

I am grateful for all the encounters I have had, and I would like to continue to take action to help everyone through yoga.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in the city of Hiroshima. Yes, the city where the atomic bomb was dropped.

To start the trip, I would like to take you to the Peace Memorial Park, where you can look back on its history and think together about the necessity of a world without war and without conflict.

From there, we will take a ferry to Miyajima. We will pay a visit to Itsukushima Shrine, a World Heritage Site. If it is warm season, it will be nice to just sit in the nearby Senjokaku (a temple large enough to hold 857 tatami mats) and lie down or close your eyes while feeling the breeze.

If you have time, you can also climb up the “Misen” mountain on Miyajima for a nice view of the Seto Inland Sea.

For meals, oysters are a specialty in winter. Sole food also includes okonomiyaki, dipping noodles, ana gohan, and since the ocean is nearby, sashimi is also delicious.

In the summer, there is swimming in the sea. There is also a river, so stand-up paddle is good. In winter, you can enjoy skiing and snowboarding, and there are also hot springs.

Although I have abstained from drinking alcohol, there are many sake breweries, so a tour of the breweries is also a good idea.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The people I want to shout to are yoga masters, yoga friends who study with me, and yoga students who attend me.

Website: https://ameblo.jp/yuzumanayoga/

Instagram: yuzu_mana

Twitter: yuzu_mana

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yuzuki.m/