Everyday Sublime Podcast | Body, Mind + Beyond

"The goal of yoga is to abide in your true nature... If you are not abiding in your own true nature, then you are identifying with the vrittis in your consciousness, and that is suffering." - Paul Grilley, paraphrasing Patanjali

It's important as practitioners and teachers that we don't fall into a kind of "alternative reductionism" when we apply principles of Chinese Medicine to how we work with our bodies and minds in Yin Yoga. Stefanie Arend and I explore how we think about the interface between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga.

Meridian massage, meridian tracing and tapping, cultivating an intuitive listening to the needs of your body and mind with Yin Yoga. These are some of the themes Stefanie Arend and I discuss as we explore her new book, Be Healthy With Yin Yoga.

Yin Yoga supports a mechanism of self-healing by opening up stagnations and blockages within the fascial network. This in turn allows for the body's energy to circulate in an unimpeded manner.

In many of the traditions I've studied, the sublime is to be found literally hiding in plain site. To quote Stephen Batchelor, "the mystical does not transcend this world, it saturates it." In the season opener of 2020, I reflect on the podcast's name, the (slightly new) direction of the podcast, and make a key suggestion for your time of winter hibernation.

When we become stripped of our illusory perceptions of being separate, we can experience two simultaneous feelings. The first is a deep and liberating truth of interconnection and love. But we may also feel a profound sadness and mourning for all the energy invested in protecting and defending a self-image that was never actually there in the first place.

Dr. Timothy McCall looks at how illness can be a real moment of opening to lots of unfinished business, and we consider all the various levels of healing that can occur when we start to open to things that have been walled off to our conscious minds.

In this episode, Dr. Timothy McCall speaks about the problems inherent in trying to evaluate the efficacy of alternative therapies from a reductionistic model. He also discusses the problems of implementing alternative therapies with a reductionistic mindset.

Intermittent fasting is a popular fitness trend to improve insulin sensitivity, decrease inflammation, promote cellular autophagy, and help manage weight. But what if fasting can also reduce the chances of getting cancer and help support one through cancer treatment? Dr. Timothy McCall shares his story of fasting through cancer therapy.

In the first part of my interview with Dr. Timothy McCall, we talk about what it was like for him to receive his cancer diagnosis and how he thought about approaching his treatment, bringing together the very best of Eastern and Western medical modalities.

The themes of power abuse, toxic group dynamics, and victim blaming are important themes for anyone who occupies the space of a yoga mat or a meditation cushion in the modern yoga landscape. Matthew Remski explains what reform might look like as yoga culture moves forward.

The Jois family held tightly to its narrative of legitimacy until, well, they didn't. And this is what is both eerie and fascinating about the recent developments in the Ashtanga community. Here we see, in real time, the efforts of an organization to "brandwash" its unfortunate history.

Although Yin Yoga looks quite simple, being an effective Yin Yoga teacher is not so simple. There are five primary reasons someone should invest in proper training if they plan to teach others the practice of Yin Yoga. Let's go over each of them individually.

Before pausing for my summer break in August, I highlight some of the top episodes of the year so far, giving you a distilled recap of some of the conversations to catch up on or review again. I also announce the fall line-up and include suggestions for your summer reading.

For over three decades, Pattabhi Jois sexually and physically abused his yoga students, mostly women. This abuse happened in plain sight. To understand how this was possible requires an exploration of toxic group dynamics, methods of deception, and networks of complicity. Matthew Remski explains this all in his book, "Practice and All Is Coming."

In our yoga and meditation practice, we often value the cultivation of attention and awareness. But how might we better design our environment to support the development of attention? How might this redesign reinforce the intentions of our practice?

"Pack your rain gear before you leave home," says meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer. In this episode, Oren explores how we can "pack" tools of stability, balance, and non-attachment, better preparing us to face the inevitable foul weather of life.

Talking shop with Sebastian Pucelle, we roll up our sleeves and discuss potential interpretations of the Sanskrit word "nirodah" and what those interpretations mean for your practice.

Sebastian Pucelle describes meditation as a process of purifying the mind. Meditation isn't so much about attaining anything in particular as much as it is a process of letting go of things that distort and disrupt one's life.

Often in meditation, students can get frustrated by their mind's difficulty in following the meditation instructions. Sebastian Pucelle, the wonderful French Yin Yoga teacher, suggests that the two most important aspects of a meditation practice are one's intention and attitude, not the specific technique, per se.

The therapeutic encounter between a practitioner and patient is, in many regards, the most important part of a healing relationship. This encounter is another way of referring to the placebo effect. But far from being ineffective, all good healers try to maximize this effect. According to Dr. Daniel Keown, acupuncture is one of the most sublime forms of the therapeutic encounter.

How alive are you? This isn't a question that Western Medicine frequently asks, but according to Dr. Daniel Keown, this question is at the heart of Traditional Chinese Medicine. And the quality, quantity, and circulation of our Qi determines the potency of our "aliveness."

What is Qi? What are the channels of Chinese Medicine? What is fascia? These questions and more are taken up by Dr. Daniel Keown, explained with lucid brilliance. For anyone interested in Chinese Medicine, this is a must-listen.

Talking about difficult topics is not easy. Often we get trapped in patterns of reactivity and experience a clash of viewpoints. Oren Jay Sofer offers ways to move past through these impasses in learning how to identify the underlying needs being expressed - the needs that connect us to our shared universal human longings. From this sense of connection, collaborative dialogue becomes possible.

All too often, meditation is seen as a panacea for all that ails us. But meditation practice alone is not necessarily enough to smooth out the strife in our interpersonal conflicts. For this we need training in communication strategy - ways to escape the blame game and move towards a deeper understanding of shared needs and goals. In this episode, Oren Jay Sofer lays about a mindful approach to no...