Skillful Means Podcast

Text me your feedback. We are pleased to kick off our virtual retreat with this Yoga & RAIN Meditation practice with Sarah Jane.  In this guided practice, Sarah Jane invites you to spend a few moments warming the body and enhancing chi circulation with simple movements undertaken in concert with a slow and steady breath. We then settle in and progress through the steps of RAIN meditation--Reco...

Text me your feedback. This is just a quick reminder about the upcoming virtual retreat here on the podcast. Join us on Nov 20-22 for twice daily practices to help you strengthen your connection both to yourself and to those around you. Episodes will appear here in the podcast feed at midnight and noon EST. You can also join for optional live Zoom calls and receive email tips. Sign up at: http://b...

Text me your feedback. As a companion to episode 29 on Internal Family Systems (IFS therapy), we invite you to enjoy this guided parts meditation. Jen will help you locate and get to know one or more parts during this experience. IFS is an embodied practice, so the doorway into your inner environment is through body sensations. After a few minutes of guided relaxation, you'll start to track y...

Text me your feedback. In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane finally and excitedly get around to talking about Internal Family Systems.  IFS is having a moment lately, and is being brought into yoga and Buddhist communities by some prominent teachers, including Sarah Jane and Jen’s primary teacher, Sarah Powers. Since Jen has completed Level II IFS training, Sarah Jane asks her to describe the core...

Text me your feedback. In this meditation drawn from Taosit practices, Sarah Jane guides you through a breath-based visualization for replenishing and balancing inner energy.  We are both individually whole and inextricably interconnected with each other and the natural world. We can view everything--even human beings--as composed of elements and infused with energies that, when in balance, create...

Text me your feedback. In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane address the human predicament: We are wired to avoid unfamiliarity, uncertainty, and unpredictability in life, even while these very forces are ever-present realities. This simple paradox is the source of much of the stress in our complicated lives.   Acknowledging the particular challenges of navigating life in the midst of a global pande...

Text me your feedback. In this guided Yin Yoga practice, Jennifer guides you through a short series of postures designed to nourish the spleen and stomach. According to Taoist Energetic Medicine, the spleen and stomach work together to perform the important function of extracting vital life force energy from the food we eat. When the spleen and stomach experience disharmony, it affects our entire...

Text me your feedback. The landscape of yoga studios is not what it once was. With some studios closed permanently and others open only temporarily or in limbo, practitioners who relied on guided classes may be more motivated than ever to develop a self-led practice. In order to have a regular self-led yoga asana practice, you need one thing: some form of inquiry practice. Whether it’s a regular m...

Text me your feedback. Wrapping up our series on the Four Immeasurables, in this guided practice, Sarah Jane Shangraw unpacks the fourth “sublime state,” upeksa (equanimity). Upeksa is a state of non-preferencing that can arise in meditation when we feel into and accept the uncontrollable flow and tonality of experience, and leave it at that. Not a cool and distant quality, equanimity combines the...

Text me your feedback. In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane take a look through the Buddhist lens at the mind.  Specifically, they explore using mindfulness, being with discomfort, and taking responsibility as foundations for the necessary and ongoing work of recognizing and undoing our conditioning, including unconscious bias. Though this conversation is inevitably incomplete, it touches on severa...

Text me your feedback. In this episode, Jennifer offers guidance for creating space between a difficult stimulus and the response to it. Whether you are confronted by a challenging event or a triggering conversation, the prompts in this meditation can bring forward a more responsive — rather than reactive — inner attitude. The setting for this guided practice is sphinx pose, chosen for being a rel...

Text me your feedback. In this episode, Jen is joined by her friend and colleague Kaya Mindlin to discuss the Bhagavad Gita and how to fully and authentically show up for social justice while staying true to one’s dharma.  In this sweeping conversation that, at times, adopts the atmosphere of a workshop, Jen and Kaya discuss: how to embrace the discomforts of learning,  the setting and themes of t...

Text me your feedback. This guided meditation encourages you to take up residence in your body in order to be present for the life that is inside you right now. With kind attention, we feel into the physical body and citta (the heart-mind), which may need some buoying. Then, drawing on our own creative compassion, we resource ourselves internally so that we can meet the call of the wider world in...

Text me your feedback. Today, we pivoted a bit to share resources on the intersection of mindfulness, Buddhism, anti-racism, and collective healing. We focus on the major voices, most of them people of color, shining a light on the social justice issues facing spiritual communities and how to overcome them.  Books: The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Adyashanti B...

Text me your feedback. Inspired by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Pebble Meditation, Jennifer guides you through the four qualities of freshness, solidity, clarity, and freedom in the container of a calming Yin Yoga practice. Each point of the meditation is paired with a Yin Yoga pose that evokes these qualities including sphinx, supported caterpillar, reclining butterfly, and pentacle. Origina...

Text me your feedback. In Episode 17 , Sarah Jane and Jen spoke with their teacher Sarah Powers about the wisdom and opportunity for awakening amidst the suffering of the coronavirus pandemic. During the recording of that episode, Sarah generously led an inquiry meditation for holding and healing wounded and distressed parts of ourselves with maitri, loving friendship to ourselves. We decided to r...

Text me your feedback. Our primary teacher Sarah Powers has spent decades studying, living, and teaching from the Wisdom traditions--Buddhism, Yoga, Taoism, and contemporary western psychology. As the new coronavirus pandemic spread, Sarah joined us via Zoom from London to talk about the wisdom and opportunity for awakening amidst this suffering. From how to be sick, to parenting, to lifestyle med...

Text me your feedback. Mudita , or sympathetic joy, is the third in the series of the four most highly regarded qualities, or “sublime states,” in Buddhism: metta (loving-kindness) , karuna (compassion) , mudita (sympathetic joy) and upeksa (equanimity).  Mudita is a potent practice that helps us experience joy even when life feels difficult and warm feelings are hard to access.  In this guided me...

Text me your feedback. In Chinese Medicine, the immune system is comprised of a protective barrier of energy (Qi), called Wei Qi ( pronounced “way chee”), that circulates through the body while also emanating about an inch around the outside of the body. The Taoists believe that, like a force field, Wei Qi prevents external pathogens, like viruses and bacteria, from making us sick. In this guided...

Text me your feedback. Continuing the conversation on how Yin Yoga affects the physical body, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the physical benefits of the practice, immediately zeroing in on the elephant in the room: the edge. What is it? Why is it important? Is it safe to spend time there? How might we describe it to students so they can safely encounter it, so they can find their sweet spot? In th...

Text me your feedback. Karuna , or compassion, is the second in the series of the four most highly regarded qualities, or “sublime states,” in Buddhism: metta (loving-kindness) , karuna (compassion) , mudita (sympathetic joy) and upeksa (equanimity).  Compassion arises when loving-kindness meets suffering and stays loving. It's more of a process than a static quality. In practice, we call upo...

Text me your feedback. In this episode of our continuing series on Yin Yoga, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the physical benefits of the practice. Many of us practice Yin Yoga, at least in part, to give ourselves the chance to experience “just being,” an antidote to the stresses produced by our busy lives. But even as we enjoy the emotional and mental effects of slowing down in Yin poses, all sorts...

Text me your feedback. Many yoga and mindfulness practices are specifically designed to grow one's capacity to remain present - internally and externally - from moment to moment. In this guided practice, Jennifer shares a simple practice for getting to know the current state of your body, heart, and mind so that you have the information you need to take care of yourself in a practice or in da...

Text me your feedback. Yin yoga, the slow and quiet approach to asana, flows against the current of mainstream yoga practices these days. With this episode, we urge you to try it based on the ways in which it bolstered us during challenging times. Not to dismiss the physical and energetic benefits of the practice, here we’re talking about an often unspoken aspect of Yin Yoga, that the poses serve...

Text me your feedback. Metta, or loving-kindness, is the first of a series of meditation practices offered by the Buddha to cultivate the four qualities of love: metta (loving-kindness) , karuna (compassion) , mudita (sympathetic joy) and upeksa (equanimity).  Practicing loving-kindness ( metta bhavana) begins a process that, when mature, leads to a more accepting, kindly, and caring relationship...