Yogaland Podcast

A hike in the Ajanta Caves in India several years ago sparked a massive creative project for artist and yoga teacher Amanda Giacomini: To put 10,000 Buddhas out into the world. Her work has appeared on murals, canvases, and prayer wheels in cities from Washington DC to Los Angeles to Panama. Amanda tells the story of what inspired the project, her creative process, and how it feeds her own life an...

Tiffany is a renowned yoga teacher and the founder of Yoga Medicine. She's also a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and ran an acupuncture clinic at Nike headquarters for years. Tiffany offers her unique perspective on how to modify our diet, asana, breathwork, and meditation for spring. She also (very patiently) answers my questions about the ways that Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medici...

Jason comes back to Yogaland to answer your questions, specifically:- Is the cue 'flatten your tailbone' correct or outdated?- Why do yoga teachers tell us to flex the foot in Pigeon Pose? How does it protect the knee?- Why is sacroiliac pain such a pain in the a$$?Thank you to all of you who have sent in questions! We have a sequence on the blog for low back pain. Link on the shownotes page: yoga...

Maty Ezraty is a genuine pioneer of yoga in the U.S. One of the original co-founders of YogaWorks, Maty is a true teacher's teacher. On this episode, Maty shares stories from her early days as well as how her practice has changed with age. She also shares her approach to mentoring teachers and students, which is an alchemy of communication, love, and meeting people where they are. Shownotes for th...

In this age of insta-celebrity and everyone chasing their 15 minutes of fame, it's refreshing to talk to a long-term, successful yoga teacher. Deborah Burkman is one of these people. She's been teaching for 17 years, in many settings, and loves her job. She's not famous and, at this point in her life and career, she's grateful for that. Her message to all of us: Find your purpose and come back to...

Alexandria Crow grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family and her grandfather was a traveling preacher. These days she travels the country teaching yoga -- and it recently dawned on her that there are parallels between the two. Because of this, she's careful about not cultivating a guru persona -- her hope is to teach her students to use the tools that she presents to investigate on their own a...

Richard Rosen is a yoga scholar and teacher who has authored five yoga books that are well worth reading. I talked to him about his most recent, "Yoga FAQ, Almost Everything You Need to Know about Yoga -- from Asanas to Yamas." This book is rich with tons of historical info and yet, Richard is refreshingly honest about how traditions change and evolve. We focus mostly on his Patanjali's Yoga Sutra...

This week, I talk to Nikki Estrada about the first two ethical guidelines in the Yoga Sutra: ahimsa (nonharming) and satya (truth). Nikki has more than 20 years teaching experience and has been leading 200 and 300-hour teaching trainings for more than 12 years. She was Director of Trainer Development for YogaWorks for more than 7 years where she supported and mentored teacher trainers. She leads i...

Jason takes on questions that surround yoga teaching this week including:- To use Sanskrit while teaching or not?- How to care for yourself during an injury?- How do you help individuals find their unique pose in the midst of a group class? You can find shownotes for this episode, with lots of blog posts from Jason about teaching at yogalandpodcast.com/episode38/ Support this show http://supporter...

The Q&As with Jason are back! On this episode we talk about hopping back to Plank Pose, what happens when your wrists won't cooperate in arm balances, and tips for Triangle Pose. The BIG TAKEAWAY is this: Not all poses work for all bodies. Take that in. Let it bum you out. Then listen to the episode and let that truth set you free. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode36/ Support this show http:/...

On this episode, I talk to Kelsey Crowe, the co-author of the book, "There is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love." The book is funny, it's written without judgment, and it's filled with helpful and achievable ideas to help us connect to and support each other when life gets tough. It's also designed by the fabulous Emily McDowell. Sho...

I bet you can conjure it up pretty easily: The image of the calm, benevolent yoga teacher who NEVER GETS ANGRY. You might wish that you were that person. And perhaps such people exist. But the rest of us mere mortals get pissed sometimes. And sometimes getting pissed is OK and warranted. The question is, how do you take your anger and channel in ways that are positive? And how do you learn and gro...

Bex Urban joins me on this episode to share her many years of navigating the challenges of putting together a successful retreat. We talk risks, rewards, coping with busted septic tanks, and more. My hope is that this episode will inspire retreat newbies -- both students and teachers. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode33/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland . Hosted on Acast....

Among her other great qualities, I like to think of Stephanie Snyder as the queen of the playlist. On this ep, she offers her intention behind including music in class, her thoughts on the tradition of sound in yoga, plus mistakes she's made over the years. BONUS: One of Steph's favorite bands, Young Moon, create the soundtrack for this episode. For more shownotes go to: yogalandpodcast.com/episod...

Bo Forbes spent years as a practicing psychologist and is now a yoga teacher with a keen interest in neuropsychology. On this episode we talk about how to cope with empathic distress as well as the different between the brain's default mode vs. direct experience mode. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode31/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

I live in a state of duality when it comes to New Year's resolutions. On the one hand, I loathe them. I loathe the intense focus on self-improvement and self-achievement that's emblazoned across magazine covers in the month of January. And yet, I love the idea of taking a moment to pause and reflect on the previous year and to think about how I'd like to live in the coming year,This episode focuse...

Hello Yogaland! On this episode, we reflect on 2016 and the ways that we've grown. We talk highlights and challenges and reveal our top secret (sort of) plans for 2017!Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode29/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, I reflect on one of the most important reads of the year for me -- Kelly McGonigal's book, The Upside of Stress. A psychologist and yoga teacher, Kelly's book is filled with compelling research about how the way we think about stress may be more harmful for our health than stress itselfShownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode28/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland...

Before jetting off on his most recent trip to Hong Kong, I sat with Jason to answer more listener-submitted questions. This time we just happened to get questions that all centered around the lower body. So, we talk about:* How to best work with tight hamstrings?* How to best recover when your hamstring has been overstretched?* How to find stability and strengthen the low back, quadratus lomborum...

This week I chat with Kate Holcombe of The Healing Yoga Foundation in San Francisco. Kate has an amazing story to tell -- and I asked her to tell it in the top half of the interview -- about how a life-threatening accident while studying abroad in India during college set her on the path of becoming a student of TKV Desikachar. The second half of the interview focuses on a few of the sutras that h...

On this episode, Jason answers questions submitted by listeners:* What are your views on what it means to be a yoga student today?* What's the difference between a yoga student and a yoga consumer?* How do you deal with the yoga community where there is so much inconsistency and fakeness?* What do you think will be important for yoga teachers to focus on in the next decade?* What do you think abou...

This week's episode is like a shot of happy for your soul. I spoke to Dana Trixie Flynn, co-founder of Laughing Lotus about her new project: Dana is working on opening a donation-based yoga studio in the seventh ward of New Orleans. If you know Dana at all, you know how much she lives, breathes, and loves music -- so this new center will have live New Orleans jazz music. In this interview with Dan...

On this episode Jason answers three of our listener questions and it just so happens that they all focus on some aspect of shoulder anatomy. We also talk about cats a lot. Here are the questions:* Why do we flex the ankle in poses like Reclined Pigeon?* Is "pull the shoulder blades down" a "bad" alignment cue?* In Plank Pose, do you push strongly through the arms and upper back? Or soften the shou...

You might know Rachel Brathen as "Yoga Girl" on Instagram -- she's one of the original yoga insta-stars and has 2 million followers. Two million! That's crazay! And yet, despite this quick rise to fame, Rachel is incredibly down-to-earth and not afraid to say that the superficial side of social media can suck the life out of a person from time to time. I wanted to know what makes Rachel tick, so I...

On this episode Holly Whitaker of the Home Podcast talk about how yoga and meditation can be helpful tools for recovery. Holly is a life coach and spiritual teacher, kundalini and vinyasa yoga and meditation instructor, writer, and speaker. She's also the founder of Hip Sobriety, which aims to provide a modern, holistic, accessible and desirable path to sobriety, and to remove the stigma associate...