Welcome to 30 days of yoga. I’m Marianne. I’m a writer, a human rights advocate and a yoga teacher.

I believe it is possible – essential even – to do good and be well. But I also know it is harder than it sounds. It means working out what your unique way to serve the world is, AND how you take care of yourself to stay well.

The 30 Days of Yoga courses are designed to help you do just that: take care of yourself so that you can do your good work in the world. They are online courses that will help you start, and sustain, your own authentic practice of yoga.

I’ve learned (and am still learning) that kindness, especially towards ourselves, is essential to doing good and being well. So that’s what this course is all about. I hope you enjoy it.

My teachers: my yoga and meditation lineage

I am a 200hr Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. I did my basic training at the Byron Yoga Centre, where I learned how to keep my students safe (and the difference between your teres minor and major).

Additionally, I’ve done 120 hours of training in Shiva Rea’s intuitive, flowing style of hatha yoga known as Prana Flow. I received most of that training from Twee Merrigan, a powerful and passionate yoga teacher who taught me to share yoga as a path to living a life of joy, liberty and service.

Sean Corne, Hala Khouri and Suzanne Sterling are yoga teachers and social champions. They established the Off the Mat Into the World organization, for which I am the regional leader for New Zealand and Australia. They embody mindful activism and compassionate clarity and they are my teachers, my friends and my role-models.

Mark Breadner taught me that yoga is a sacred path to reveal the inherent wellness in all people, treat the whole rather than the parts, to address our own happiness and healing and to become catalysts for global well-being.

My Buddhist meditation teacher is Peter Fernando, who lived and trained as a Buddhist monk in the tradition of Ajahn Chah for seven years. By modelling genuine compassion and joy in all his teachings, Peter has been a huge influence on my own journey towards the gentleness of my original nature.