A Grateful Life

Every Monday morning, as the sun is coming up, I walk down my friend's garden path to her house for tea ceremony.  Gentle music. Incense. Bowls of tea. A handful of women from my little town, sitting together in silence. There is some kind of alchemy there I cannot fully explain. What I walk away with is always more than the sum of its parts. My guest today on the podcast has just written a book e...

Before I met Jo, my mental image of aerial yoga was mostly circus-like. Beautiful, yes. Fun, sure. Relevant to the yoga teachers and therapists I work with? I wasn't convinced. Boy, was I wrong. Jo Stewart (she/her) is one of Australia's most experienced aerial yoga teachers. She founded the Garden of Yoga studio in Northcote, Melbourne, co-hosts the Flow Artists Podcast, and has spent years devel...

What does it take to leave behind everything you've built, cycle 8,000 miles across the world, with no clear plan for what comes next? I recorded this conversation live at the Bali Spirit Festival, sitting across from Charley Patton, co-founder of the iconic Yoga Barn in Ubud. After 16 years climbing the corporate ladder in America, Charley did something that many of us dream about and few of us a...

What does it look like to say yes to life in the very week your father has died? I recorded this conversation with Bex Tyrer (she/her) at the Bali Spirit Festival in Ubud, exactly one week after her father passed away at the age of 98.   I wasn't sure we were going to do it. We'd been planning this interview for a while, but when I heard about her dad, I thought we'd postpone. It wasn't until the...

​​I met Janet Stone at the Bali Spirit Festival in Ubud last week, where we sat down together between workshops to have this conversation. Janet is an internationally recognised yoga teacher who has spent decades travelling the world with her two daughters, teaching and practising and building a life that looks nothing like the conventional path. What I didn't expect was how openly Janet would spe...

What if psychosis isn't the opposite of sanity, but part of a spectrum of human experience we all share? Anneke Sips and I were supposed to record this episode together in India. But when her Emirates flight was cancelled, our plans unravelled, the internet failed us twice, and we finally ended up recording from opposite sides of the world, me in Bali, Anneke in the Netherlands, hoping the connect...

What does it really mean to go to India for Panchakarma? Before I came to Kerala, I had a vague sense that it would be nourishing, restorative… maybe even a little luxurious. And while there were moments of deep care and tenderness, what I’ve experienced here is something quite different. More disciplined. More confronting. And, in many ways, more transformative. In this episode of A Grateful Life...

Most of us come to yoga through the body. But at some point, many practitioners begin to sense that yoga is much deeper than the postures. In this episode of A Grateful Life, I’m joined by yoga teacher and author Amy Landry to explore the philosophical and spiritual teachings that sit beneath modern yoga practice. Amy’s new book, The Ocean of Yoga , offers a thoughtful guide for anyone who feels c...

Today’s episode is truly a podcasting highlight for me. I’m joined by Dr Elaine Aron, clinical and research psychologist and internationally bestselling author of The Highly Sensitive Person , a groundbreaking book that has been in print for nearly thirty years. Her work has shaped the way millions of people understand themselves, and it deeply shaped me too, both personally and professionally. In...

What if nothing is fundamentally wrong with you? What if awakening isn’t something to achieve, but something to remember? In this episode of A Grateful Life , I’m joined by Richard Miller (he/him), PhD, to explore some of the biggest and most misunderstood ideas in yoga and spirituality - innate wholeness, non-dualism and enlightenment. Richard is the founder of the iRest Institute and co-founder...

What does it really mean to have a guru? Is this path still relevant today? In this episode on the A Grateful Life podcast, I’m joined by Jai Uttal as he takes us on a journey to India in the 1970s to explore the guru-disciple relationship. When Jai arrived in India in the 70s, he discovered that the guru he had travelled there to meet had been jailed for murder.  So with his plans derailed, Jai’s...

In today’s podcast episode, I’m joined by Sarah and Ty Powers, long-time partners in life and practice, and two teachers whose work has quietly shaped how yoga, meditation, and psychological inquiry are woven together in the West. This is a gentle, spacious conversation, and a beautiful one to ease into the new year. We talk about what it really means to practise, not just on the mat or meditation...

In today’s episode, I’m joined by the incredible Bex Tyrer (she/her), a powerful voice in contemporary yoga and a longtime teacher based at the Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali. I first met Bex a few years ago when I dropped into one of her classes at the Yoga Barn and loved it so much that I returned a year ago for her 10-day immersion, Myth, the Magic and the Mastery . We might even be cooking up a proje...

Today’s guest on the podcast is the brilliant Dr Lindsay C. Gibson (she/her), clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents - a life-changing book that has brought clarity and healing to so many.  If you’ve ever found yourself feeling confused, guilty, or caught in a cycle of self-blame when it comes to your parents or family dynamics...

In a world that constantly pushes us to do more and at greater and greater speeds, prioritising rest can feel impossible. But rest is not only the medicine we need to heal in these times, rest is also a radical act of resistance, a quiet revolution of reclaiming our own humanity and sovereignty.  In today’s podcast episode, I’m joined by the incredible Octavia Raheem (she/her), where we unpack: wh...

What does it actually mean to live in accordance with your dharma, and how do you figure out what your dharma actually is? In today’s episode, I sat down with Myra Lewin, an incredible yoga and ayurvedic teacher and founder of Hale Pule, to explore the concepts of dharma and swadharma.  In our conversation, Myra shares her personal journey from the medical industry to discovering Ayurveda and yoga...

How can we regulate our nervous system, ease anxiety, and create lives of greater connection and wellbeing? In this heart-opening conversation, I sat down with Dr Kaitlin Harkess (she/her) to explore the transformative role of somatic practices, compassion, and lifestyle medicine in supporting mental health. Together, we dive into: The importance of connection for mental health and wellbeing How u...

In this episode, I sit down with the incredible East Forest to explore the profound connections between music, mental health, spirituality, mushrooms, gratitude and collective awakening.   Together, we dive into some truly thought-provoking topics, including: How music can be a powerful tool for healing and self-expression The importance of vulnerability in creativity and connection The role psych...

Will AI take over from yoga teachers? Join Lizzie Lasater and me as we explore this new frontier of AI in yoga practice, teaching and education. I’ve been watching as Lizzie has embraced AI in her yoga teaching lately, and was delighted to dive into this somewhat controversial topic with her. I think you’re going to love it! In this conversation, you’ll hear about the reservations we’ve both had a...

Join Elena Brower (she/her) and I as we explore her incredible new book, Hold Nothing . This conversation is an invitation to slow down, reflect and embrace the beauty of letting go. We talk about the transformative power of gratitude, the courage it takes to navigate life’s hardest conversations, and the lessons death can teach us about living fully. Elena also shares her journey through addictio...

So many people keep asking me if I have an audio version of my book, Mental Health Aware Yoga , so I’m doing something a little different today, and reading the first chapter of the book on the podcast! So, pour yourself a cuppa, snuggle into your favourite comfy chair and let me read you a story! In the first chapter, I share all about my journey with yoga and mental health, how and why I came to...

You don’t often hear the words sexy and menopause in the same sentence, so when my friend Lisa Fitzpatrick told me she was writing a book on the topic, I knew that I had to get her on the podcast to tell us all about it. Lisa (she/her) is a pelvic and sexual health educator, speaker, physiotherapist, yoga teacher and writer devoted to helping women reclaim their sensuality, self-worth and personal...

Why are so many yoga teachers in crisis and questioning their path? Join Theo Wildcroft, co-editor of The Yoga Teacher’s Survival Guide , and I as we deep dive into some of the challenges that yoga teachers are facing right now, including cultural appropriation, how to best honor the roots of yoga, the trauma embedded in sanskrit, the lack of pedagogy in contemporary yoga teaching, the tension bet...

Mindfulness without compassion can be pretty bleak at times.  In this heartfelt and insightful conversation, I’m joined by yoga teacher, author, and mindfulness facilitator Anna Taylor (she/her) to explore the deeper layers of yoga, compassion, and the human experience. Anna shares her personal journey through yoga and mindfulness, the vulnerable process of writing her new book, and how compassion...

Have you ever noticed how the same sequence, repeated with care, can feel brand‑new every time? In this episode, I sat down with Karen Fabian (she/her) to explore the unexpected magic of practising and teaching one carefully crafted flow again and again.  Karen shares the story of integrating her work as a health professional and a yoga teacher, and discovering how gratitude, creativity and straig...