Whole Life Yoga Podcast

Āsana literally means 'seat', the seat not just of our physical body, but of our whole psychic reality. Yoga techniques seek to cultivate a seat of awareness that is steady and clear, so we can move through the rich opportunities of life with greater poise, ease and in ways that can help us keep learning along the way. These days, āsana, or yoga posture practice, is one of the ways many...

This May 8-12 2024 I will be collaborating with Clare Nicholls on a living the yoga sūtra-s immersive retreat during which we'll explore how we can embody the practical, whole life teachings of yoga. In this conversation, Clare and I share some of our ideas, motivations and experiences of teaching, practising and studying with nature as the guru. This includes a mention of the teachings and p...

This week I'm going to be collaborating with Rosa Tagliafierro of ashtanga yoga italia in Milano, giving a weekend immersion in Italian. Here is an Italian themed podcast episode in which I share a yogic perspective on the Italian folk song Bella Ciao, a song I have sung since the first year I began learning Italian as an eighteen year old at university back in the 20th century.

In this episode I continue the conversation around the practical teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā with my friend and former colleague from Chulalongkorn University, Acharn Captain William S Whorton. As a combat veteran who has experienced and participated first hand in what he describes as an evil war, Bill brings a unique perspective to yoga and the teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā and how they can h...

In this conversation with Clare Nicholls, we consider: - what does it mean to 'live the yoga sūtra-s'? - why might a person might want to do that? How can these teachings help us weave greater harmony into the fabric of our being.  Clare and I will be facilitating a retreat exploring these teachings in greater depth this May 8th-12th in Switzerland: https://thecolourandthechaos.com/evolv...

Praha edition 2 - Jakob and the golden hearth As I’m still in Prague, I’m continuing on the Prague theme, here sharing another of my favourite yoga stories from beyond the Indic tradition. This one is of Jakob and the golden hearth. It features the Karluv most/Charles Bridge and the Prague castle. And it also allows me to talk a little about Purāṇa - the timeless, perennially relevant stories of t...

I am in the beautiful capital of Bohemia, not far from the Vltava river. In this episode I share a story of Princess Kolobiska, the young woman who knows how to find the sure way through even seemingly impossible situations by finding the middle path. This story from Czech folklore I know better from Italo Calvino’s Fiabe Italiane, where it is one of my favourites, the story of Caterina - La Conta...

In this episode I am in conversation with my friend and former colleague from Chulalongkorn University, Acharn Captain William S Whorton. Over the last twenty-four years, together with our great Sanskṛt teacher Acharn Tassanee Sinsakul, Bill has been studying and translating the Bhagavad Gītā. Their unique translation was recently published by Uppsala Books https://uppsalabooks.com/bg And I highly...

Let us not get lost in lamentation! As Kṛṣṇa urges us in the Bhagavad Gītā, life will involve gain and loss, joy and sorrow, hot and cold, pleasure and pain. The coming and going of these pairs of opposites is inevitable. Once we have felt and acknowledged something, no need to get fixated on it. Let us cultivate steady awareness so we can move through the inevitable ups and downs of life with gre...

Yoga wants to set us free, but in what sense?

Why does yoga matter? Why is it so helpful and relevant today? This episode considers some of the timeless principles of yoga and how we can work with them to help foster deeper harmony in our lives today.

On Kīrtan - Yoga of Sound and Song There are so many ways to practice yoga. Yet from a certain perspective, most yoga techniques are in some way about sound, vibration and harmonisation. Kīrtan is one of the techniques I especially enjoy sharing, here I share some thoughts on what kīrtan is, why and how it’s beneficial and in so doing attempt to illustrate how time working with yoga techniques mak...

First episode in the Whole Life Yoga Podcast. On faith and courage, or more precisely śraddhā and vīrya - the first two qualities Patañjali sets out as essential for yoga practice.  Bringing the ancient, timeless, perennial teachings of yoga to vivid life. Unscripted talks on whole life yoga. Considering life through a yogic lens. Exploring the yoga of the whole human being with reference to the c...