Modern Mystics Podcast with Alanna Kaivalya, Ph.D.

If you've ever felt anxious about teaching yoga, or guiding people through a transformative experience, then you have suffered from imposter syndrome. Alanna talks about overcoming your fears and anxiety and ensuring you have everything you need to create the greatest impact possible with your gifts. Whether you're a yoga teacher, astrologer, tarot reader, reiki master, or any other kind of spiritual leader, make sure you are armed with what you need to step into your full power and potential!

Carrie Montgomery, creative director and somatic stylist for nearly a decade, discusses the empowerment that comes from dressing based on how you need to feel, rather than how society thinks you should look. She talks about the importance of authenticity and agency in our personal brands and how dressing for success is truly an inside job guided by our heart and spirit.

Geneva Montano, a midwife for more than 20 years, discusses the power of putting the authority of pregnancy and birth back into the hands of women and removing the shame around birth. Learn more about the spiritual path of birth, how to connect with baby, and how to step into this work yourself if you feel called to dive into the wisdom of the womb!

As yoga teachers and spiritual leaders, we desire to help everyone ... but can we? The success of our business and the impact we are able to make on the world is contingent on our ability to clearly define exactly who we can help ... and how! In this podcast, Alanna discusses the importance of niching down and getting super clear on the audience you can best serve and the pain points you can best solve in their lives.

As spiritual practitioners, we engage in rituals regularly ... but are you aware of how ritual works, and how to make it work even more effectively? Through the power of proper ritual, we can usher our psyches into a new phase of being, creating potent and lasting transformation. Learn the parts of ritual and how to intelligently craft a ritual for the greatest change.

Astrology has been an age-old skill for mystics and spiritual practitioners. Astrology is psychology, and it gives us insights into our patterns, habits, and tendencies. Understanding astrology allows us to emphasize the highest expression of our true nature and manifest our fullest potential. The most important part of our natal charts are the sun, moon, and rising sign. Learn what these mean, and why they are such important elements of what makes you you!

We are more than just a body and mind. We are spirit, too! While modern psychology typically overlooks the spirit, we can reintegrate all the parts of our psyche through a deeper understanding of spiritual psychology. In this podcast, Alanna shares insights into spiritual psychology, the parts of the psyche, the importance of depth psychology, and weaves it together with an understanding of yoga philosophy, and modern alchemy.

More than ever before, yoga teachers and other spiritual practitioners are being called into spiritual leadership. People need guidance, and support on their biggest life questions: Who am I? What is my purpose? Am I on the right path? The spiritual leader is primed to provide this guidance, but proper training is required. Learn more about what skills and training you need, and how to step into your role as a spiritual leader.

In July of 2005, Alanna released her very first podcast. Over the years, this podcast has evolved and grown to serve the needs of the yoga, spiritual, and modern mystic community. Hear Alanna talk about her podcast journey, and the intentions for this new iteration of the program!

While 2020 seems to continuously bring us conflict, elevating anxiety, and wreaking havoc on our mindscapes, there is a way to escape it all: through a carefully crafted gratitude meditation. This particular practice has long been the balm on the weary soul of students, and this meditation will bring light and joy to your heart. Note: The music portion contains the chant, Gam gam gam ganapataye namaha, Ganesha Sharanam. This chant invokes Ganesh, remover of obstacles.

Struggling as a yoga teacher? This podcast clearly outlines five ways you can boost your income and serve your students with tools you have right now. Learn to pivot your business to go online and reach a wider audience!

As a career yoga teacher, making a decent living is truly challenging. However, moving our yoga business online paves the way for true success. Going online is even more important in 2020, as fellow yoga teacher, Jory Serota, shares with us in this podcast. Hear his journey of going online and his $55K launch, and how you can do it, too!

2020 brings with it so many challenges, so much grief, and so many reasons to connect to our sensuality, eros, and wildness. The practice of embodied sexuality is deeply therapeutic in order to help us overcome grief to achieve greater states of pleasure. Kait Singley teaches us the importance of erotic embodiment as a spiritual practice, and offers practical tools to embark on the journey!

We all dream, but did you know that working with your dreams unlocks the power of your psyche? Melissa De Los Santos teaches us how to delve into dreamwork and understand what messages are encoded in our dreams. There is great personal growth to be had by diving into dreams...especially for the spiritual leader!

Spiritual leaders and yogis often struggle with what to eat based on ethics and belief systems. Registered Dietician, yogi, and funcitonal nutritionist, Kylie Fagnano, walks us through how to ethically make the best decisions for your health to keep you strong and fit to serve others with your gifts. She provides practical advice on discovering a new level of health and guidance on the warning signs of how what you eat may be impairing your wellbeing.

As a yoga teacher, it is likely you have experienced the perils of working in the yoga industry. Whether it be wage theft, devaluation, shady hiring practices, or something else...you deserve better. Emily Stewart, founder of Group Fitness Instructors United and The Kaivalya Yoga Method Academy lead mentor, is creating a groundswell of support for her union that helps to protect yoga teachers and raise their level of work to a legitimized and protected career path.

The primary tool of the yoga instructor and spiritual leader is the voice! How do we ensure that everything we say in class lands with compassionate direction? We tune up our cues, refine how we say things, and elevate our speech (and silence). Director of The Kaivalya Yoga Method Academy online teacher training, Andrew Hoffman, joins the podcast in this episode to give his essential insights!

On our journey to becoming extraordinary yoga teachers and spiritual leaders, we often receive feedback and support on how to grow and become better. Whether it be via tests, video uploads, or one-on-one coaching, the ability to take feedback and use it for growth, rather than as an obstacle is critical. Alyssa Arroyo, lead mentor on The Kaivalya Yoga Method Academy online teacher training, shares with us unique ways to grow and change as a spiritual leader -- and human! -- in the midst of challenge.

The Heroic Journey is talked about often in spiritual circles, but how does it really relate to our spiritual practice? Learn how the Hero's Journey informs our yoga practice and guides us toward the transformation and fulfillment we seek.

The four main types of yoga: Bhakti, Raja, Karma, and Jnana, give us the opportunity to bring yoga into our everyday life and make the state of yoga (psychospiritual wholeness) our new normal. Learn the four main yoga paths, and how to practice and teach them for greater wellbeing!

So many things are coming to the surface in 2020...the pandemic, social justice issues, climate change..what are we to make of them all? Diana Vilas, the Cosmic Cheerleader walks us through astrology's viewpoint on what is happening to the world right now. Receive guidance from the stars about how to move through 2020 with grace as a spiritual leader.

Mythology and ritual help us discover more about ourselves, move through challenging times, connect to something greater than ourselves, and engage us in our community. No one knows this better than Kwame Scruggs, founder of Alchemy Inc., an organization that works with youth to give them a mythological structure within which to grow and thrive. Learn how spiritual leadership is a required element of the process of growth and transformation!

One of the ways in which we participate in activism daily is through our food choices. As yogis and spiritual leaders, we want to make the most compassionate choices possible! One of these choices is supporting regenerative farmers like Jenni Harris, and her family. They have been running White Oak Pastures for five generations and challenge themselves to be the best stewards of land and animals possible. Hear Jenni talk about holistic farming, and how she and her family honor the purpose of the animals, plants, and people on her farm!

Veterans and active duty military put their lives on the line for the benefit of others -- an ultimate act of selfless service. In turn, as spiritual leaders, we must step up to provide safe, healing space for this community to participate in yoga practice. Justin Blazejewski, founder of Vetoga, talks about the best ways to do this and work with military and veterans.

Yoga originates in India, and today flourishes in the West. Questions of cultural appropriation often arise within the spiritual community, and there is a great responsibility on the part of yoga teachers to address this. Raj Patra, owner of Yoga for Life Portland, helps us navigate cultural appropriation in yoga with grace and integrity.

As we navigate racial justice issues as spiritual leaders, it is important to think about how we create wellness spaces that invite Black, BIPOC, and other communities into the fold. How do we communicate safety and inclusion? Eric Mosley, founder of Black Mat Yoga NYC, helps us to navigate this important conversation.

As spiritual leaders, we are here to usher people through all transitions in life...including death. This is a sacred privilege and one that we can hold with dignity and honor. Chaplain Andrew talks about the importance of holding the space for death and dying personally and professionally.

In this time of social justice, equality, and inclusion, it is important for us as spiritual leaders to practice good allyship and stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community members. Fellow yoga teacher and social activist, Jase Cannon, gives us great insight and suggestions on how to build more inclusive classes and community.

During this time of social justice and civil upheaval, our ability to practice non-violence in its most fundamental way empowers us to be agents of positive change. Learn how this practice changes your life, as well as those around you and gives you the resilience to always make the best choices for yourself and the world at large.

In light of recent police violence against people of color, including the death of George Floyd, our country has reached a boiling point. This podcast features social activist, yoga teacher, and mindfulness practitioner, Shawn J. Moore, who provides us with thoughtful strategies to lean into this evolution as spiritual leaders so we can better support ourselves and our community to create positive change.

While many consider enlightenment to be the goal of yoga, it's not! That is just a practice that helps us to get better at the REAL goal of yoga: excellent decision making. Learn about the yoga sutra and how it supports viveka (discernment) as the goal of yoga...so you can say an enthusiastic, "Yes!" to your life!

The demand is HIGH for getting your spiritual business online pronto. It's an important step to serve your students now...and long into the future! In this podcast, learn the most essential (and easy!) steps to create a successful online business that allows you to make more impact, and income.

Feminine energy has long been repressed, dismissed, and even forgotten. Take some time to rediscover the power of the feminine and learn more about its place as an essential energy of the universe. Along with the masculine, the feminine influences our life, practice, relationship, culture, and existence. Get to the heart of human nature -- of your nature! -- by learning more about how to honor the feminine and find a sense of equality between these two polarities.

This week, three planets turn retrograde. This is a major astrological event! Alanna guides you through what each of these planetary retrogrades mean, how to utilize their energies for your highest good, and the best ways to bring their influence into your life and work as a modern mystic!

Yoga professional and visionary, Emily Stewart, talks to Alanna about her creation of a yoga union to help professionals earn better wages, secure insurance coverage and make a living in our tough industry. She recognized many of the struggles of the yoga teacher and has sought to solve those problems by bringing yogis together and protecting them in this old school, yet innovative way!

You may have noticed that your "yoga bliss" is gone during this time, and your practice isn't producing the same results. Times of high stress (like right now) may require we adjust our practice in order for it to be more effective. In this podcast, we talk about four different practices that may help move the body out of a trauma response and restore relaxation.

As a spiritual leader, you are on the front lines of the mental and emotional crisis happening right now. This podcast gives you the practical structure of yoga psychology as well as immediately implementable tools to help you (and your clients and community) de-stress, feel more connected, and increase resilience.

It is more important than ever to have an online presence as a yoga teacher and spiritual leader. With people at home and sheltering in place due to COVID-19, we must reach them where they are: at home! You have the tools of yoga which expressly help your audience mitigate stress and anxiety as a result of this crisis. It is critical that you provide them with offerings that give them the tools they need...by going online!

Abundance is such a buzz word! Does anyone know how to actually get it? The trick may surprise you, and run counter to what you've heard in new-agey circles. Discover the heart of abundance and how you can be a channel for more of it.

Rituals may feel like a thing of the past, but they are absolutely essential tools for modern day people...especially the modern mystic! Learn why ritual is so critical for every human being, the elements of ritual, and how to put together powerful (relevant) rituals for yourself or others.

As a spiritual leader, by default, you are also an entrepreneur. Essential to your business tool kit is your smart use of social media. Alanna shares with you potent tips on how to make your social media shine so you can attract your tribe and make more impact with your work!

Yoga teachers are deeply affected by this pandemic with yoga studios closures. On the flip side, yoga students are now bereft of a primary source of comfort and camaraderie during this crisis…which is so needed. Yoga teachers need to step up into their roles as spiritual leaders and support their communities through this crisis. Alanna discusses ways to maintain spiritual and emotional wellbeing while continuing to responsibly connect to your community, even while practicing social distancing.

Have you heard that yoga is a 5,000 year old tradition? Well, that's partly true! However, asana (posture practice) is a really modern invention in the yoga repertoire. Bust through some theories on this podcast and learn the true history (and relevance) of yoga postures as a (very) modern day practice.

We often find ourselves in front of groups of people as spiritual leaders, and sometimes that means being with negative energy that we can't control. What can we do about it? This podcast covers techniques to maintain a high vibe and elevated energy, because it is so important for your success as a spiritual leader. Some of the tools Alanna shares with you on this podcast may surprise you! But, all will help to keep you in the highest vibration possible for the important work you do.

Modern Mystic and Alchemical Astrologer, Shellie Crow, joins us on the podcast to talk about bringing forth the feminine in astrology and modern life. Through her deep dive into women and gender studies, as well as all things mystical, Shellie has developed a unique niche and perspective in the way she utilizes astrology as a tool of empowerment and change for today's practitioner. Learn how, regardless of gender, how you can bring forth more of the feminine, and why it's so important!

As yoga teachers and spiritual leaders, we are small business owners...whether we like it or not! It is through empowering ourselves as entrepreneurs that we are able to actually make more impact with our gifts. At the heart of building our spiritual businesses is successful branding, which starts with getting super clear about who you are, who you serve, and what problem you solve. In this podcast, we explore the power of niching down, and telling your story through your brand so you can reach your unique audience and make a big impact with your business!

The month of February is all about love! Let's talk self-love, compassion, and forgiveness in terms of Metta (or, Maitri in Sanskrit), the practice of loving-kindness. This is one of the most powerful practices we can employ as spiritual leaders. It elevates our mind, and keeps our hearts clear so that we may absorb all the powerful benefits of our practice. Learn the background of the loving-kindness practice, as well as it's roots in the yoga tradition. Plus, you learn how to do a Metta meditation practice, so you can start opening your heart right away!

Astrology continues to gain popularity, and for good reason! As a modern mystic and spiritual leader, it is an essential tool and powerful way to look at yourself and your clients. This podcast drills down on the importance of astrology and shares the inner workings of your own psyche through the lens of astrology. Find out how astrology works, and why it works for you!