Yoga Inspiration

This podcast episode will air the week before the United States Presidential Election, and I'm dedicating this discussion to the importance of civic engagement.  I was inspired to do so by my yoga students and fellow practitioners, whom I keep hearing say that they believe their vote doesn't matter, or that it doesn't count. So many American citizens sat out of the 2016 election for that reason, a...

This special episode of the Yoga Inspiration Podcast is going to feel like a conversation between friends. I have a lot of things on my mind since publishing my brand new book, Get Your Yoga On , and I feel like it's getting harder and harder for us to talk to one another with compassion. Studies show that bad news travels faster than good news. And, unfortunately, the algorithms in our social med...

What does it mean to be a lifelong practitioner of yoga? If you're a new student of yoga, meeting these seasoned and talented yoga practitioners is so intimidating. Especially if you have that feeling of unworthiness. Maybe you found yoga on Instagram or YouTube and you see other yogis and their gurus, and suddenly you think to yourself - "wow, maybe I'm not a real yoga student?" But there is noth...

It's so important to understand that we all come to yoga with different perspectives. I'm blessed to travel the world and teach yoga classes to people of all cultures and backgrounds, and guess what I've learned? I learned that yoga is a universal language that transcends any cultural differences we might have.  On this episode of The Yoga Inspiration, you will hear how one yoga student's journey...

If you're feeling anxious, please listen to this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast. Yoga gives you the power to step outside of yourself and watch your emotions from a different perspective, and I hope to inspire you to find happiness again through a lesson in post-traumatic growth. Yoga never promises to be an easy spiritual journey. The practice of yoga is a hard and arduous one, and it's...

Thanks so much for sitting with me and sharing this space with me. Sharing my practice and my podcast with you is an opportunity for all of us to share and really feel our collective energies even if we aren't in the same room. The non-local quality of consciousness is so important during times like these where we can't always be together or attend the yoga classes we're missing right now. I truly...

Your yoga journey brings a sense of balance in your life. The practice awakens the spirituality within us, and we carry that sense of transcendent knowledge with us on and off the yoga mat. For Edyn, from the Edyn Loves Life YouTube channel, she says that something special happens after that first savasana washes over us.  Edyn is my guest on this episode of the Yoga Inspiration Podcast. I'm in lo...

"There are some things that can't be rushed."  I'm sure you've heard your yoga teacher say that more than once, but it's true. If yoga teaches us anything, it is that most things in life - the best things - take time. The accumulation of wisdom is one of those things. No matter your age, you bring your experience to your yoga mat with every practice. My guest today on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast...

So many yoga students I talk to start their yoga practice because of a romantic interest. And it's one of the best ways to share yoga, to be honest. To be inspired by friends and loved ones is the best fuel for the fire.  A passionate inspiration like that keeps you on the mat -- it might even inspire you to tell others about yoga! That's how it happened for my guest Tracy, and he's sharing what i...

It only takes a few moments to break out of this pattern of craving and clinging we find ourselves trapped in. This metta meditation will bring you a few moments of mindfulness to achieve this. Sit with me now in a comfortable position or lay down, but don't get so comfortable you fall asleep! Because this metta practice is important. We're going to tap into the three points of mindfulness I discu...

Find a comfortable spot and grab a comfy blanket if you need, because this episode of Yoga Inspiration is a metta meditation practice designed to help you cultivate love, peace, and kindness, both within yourself and in the energy around you. I hear too often from my yoga students and other yogis out in the world that they are intimidated by metta practice. How can we be intimidated by this loving...

We practice yoga to heal. We practice yoga to make ourselves stronger - physically, mentally, and spiritually. I know that I first came to the yoga mat in search of something that would make me a better person. So it can be very hard for a yoga student to process the all-too-true reality that yoga is not the perfect path we intend it to be.   We practice yoga to be resilient, to be enlightened, an...

We all start yoga practice for selfish reasons. Our minds are in pain, our bodies are in pain, and we are looking for something to escape our suffering. Conventional happiness doesn't always cut it. We want a way to truly heal ourselves that isn't through prescription drugs or any of our other vices. I'm here to tell you today that there is no conventional path to happiness. In fact, there is no "...

Grief is such a profound subject that impacts so many of us. Yet it is still one of the hardest emotions to talk about, even with our closest friends. This episode of The Yoga Inspiration is very important because Cynthia, a new yoga student, is opening up to me about her own journey through grief, pain, and healing by practicing yoga.  Who do you turn to when you're grieving? Being vulnerable and...

We all come to the yoga mat for so many different reasons. We may crave a healthier lifestyle, or we believe we're ready to take on the spiritual journey of yoga practice. But this yoga journey takes us through more than meditation and asanas. And one of the greatest gifts of this journey is truly meeting our bodies for the first time. Meeting your body - more importantly, loving your body and bei...

Welcome to a new paradigm of thinking! This episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast is all about Spiritual Bypassing - an important term I want every yoga student to get familiar with. Understanding this concept is integral to your yoga journey as it can be what's possibly holding you back from your spiritual growth through yoga.  Spiritual Bypassing was originally introduced by John Welwood in th...

This episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast is important for every yoga student, teacher, and yoga studio owner to hear. I'm very excited about the energy Davina Davidson brings with her to the yoga mat, and the perspective she shares with us today is something the yoga community needs to hear.  Davina is the founder of The Melanin Yoga Project in Houston, a project that focuses on creating a spa...

Welcome to yoga class! As we navigate our new post-COVID world, I'm bringing you new opportunities to practice yoga online. This two hour class will give you the opportunity to meet me as a yoga teacher and follow me through one of my favorite ashtanga yoga flows. Are you ready to transcend your mind and meet your true self?  The goal of yoga practice is to help you realize that you exist beyond y...

Our relationship with ourselves greatly influences our yoga practice. And some of us might think of ourselves as our thoughts, or maybe we think of ourselves as our physical bodies. On this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast, I'm going to tell you that your sense of self is neither. Your life is more than this material structure. It's hard to detach our self-identity from our thoughts, but th...

Ashtanga yoga doesn't have a reputation for being accessible, and I've spent my career trying to change this. Because if you don't see yourself in this yoga space, how will you ever feel a part of our community? That's why I invited yoga teacher Angelica Wilson onto the Yoga Inspiration Podcast. Angelica's spent 8 years using her background as a dance instructor to create a more accessible space i...

This is a special episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast. It's shorter than you might expect, but I'm discussing the importance of ahimsa within our personal revolution. A cultural revolution is happening around us right now, and our yoga practice gives us the power to inspire change in not only ourselves, but in others.  Yoga practice is designed to break the cycle of suffering. When you sit qui...

Over the past twenty years, we have seen the yoga world morph and evolve. Yet we are still so far from where we need to be. It's a shame that it's taken us this long to recognize the need to support and uplift the black and brown voices in our yoga community. I invited Shanna Small on this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast to give us actionable steps we can take to make yoga more accessible...

Facing doubt is already hard, but imagine having to face it without your yoga practice. In this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast, I'm discussing how doubt sometimes kicks us off our mat, and the key ways we can all push through that doubt and stay dedicated to our yoga journey.  What does doubt look like to you? No one is immune to doubt, especially yogis. For us, yoga is not a clear or lin...

As a yoga teacher, it's been really wonderful to see students stay motivated and committed to their journey while practicing at home yoga. That's why this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast is a little bit different. Times like these require a different kind of inspiration.  So I'm sharing one of my recent Zoom calls, including a brief meditation and a yoga Q&A session at the end of this epis...

Yoga is hard. I've been practicing yoga for over 20 years, and I still think it's challenging. But something worth doing is never easy, and I'm talking about one of the most difficult practices in yoga on this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast - the Tapas. We all come to our first yoga practice for selfish reasons - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! Wanting to strengthen your b...