Podcast appearances and mentions of Rod Stryker

Renowned yoga teacher Rod Stryker joins me to explore what yoga truly is—and what it isn't. Beyond just stretching and fitness, we dive into the deeper purpose of yoga, the spiritual hunger many feel, and how modern yoga has both evolved and lost its way. Rod shares wisdom from The Bhagavad Gita, The Four Desires, and decades of teaching, touching on life purpose, meditation, stillness, and the power of yoga nidra. We also discuss the difference between teaching and simply conducting a class, the commercialization of yoga, and why real transformation happens off the mat. Plus, we even find a yoga lesson in The A-Team! A rich, fun, and thought-provoking episode for practitioners, teachers, and seekers alike. Read more about Rod here: parayoga.com We're resharing this episode because it's one of our best, and packed with timeless insights on embodiment that are still relevant today. If you missed it the first time, we think you'll love it. ------------------------------------------------------ Rod is one of the world's most influential yoga and meditation teachers. His teachings have touched thousands of students and hundreds of teachers worldwide. The founder of Tantra Yoga Alchemy, Rod created one of the world's most comprehensive online yoga training programs. He's authored "The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom" and "The Four Desires Workbook." Rod's teachings continue to evolve, blending ancient wisdom with modern insights that address the all aspects of life. Through his writings, workshops, and digital platforms, he remains committed to guiding individuals toward greater self-awareness, purpose, and fulfillment in an ever-changing world." ------------------------------------------------------ Check out our YouTube channel for more coaching tips and our Podcast channel for full episode videos Uplevel your coaching with a free copy of Mark's latest eBook, The Top 12 Embodiment Coaching Techniques  Join Mark for those juicy in-person workshops and events Fancy some free coaching demo sessions with Mark?  Connect with Mark Walsh on Instagram 

This episode was recorded at Blue Spirit in Nosara, Costa Rica while on retreat.  We were lucky to share the retreat center that week with world renowned yoga teacher Rod ...

Yogi Aaron's journey in the yoga world began in the mid-1990s, a time when the practice was gaining traction globally. Practicing alongside notable individuals like Wade Morrison and witnessing the rise of brands such as Lululemon, Yogi Aaron has seen the yoga community evolve over the years. He takes pride in Lululemon's international success, particularly given its Canadian roots. Born into a "hippy dippy" family, Aaron's early years were steeped in alternative spiritual practices, including time spent at a spiritual healing center in Vancouver. This background clashed with his Christian evangelical upbringing, creating an internal conflict that would later shape his approach to yoga and spirituality. Challenges and Transformations As Aaron aged, he noticed his body tightening and saw yoga as a solution for maintaining mobility. Initially, his practice focused on physical stretching and hardcore power yoga. However, a pivotal moment came when Wade Morrison commented that Aaron lacked true practice. This critique pushed Aaron to seek a deeper understanding and more profound guidance in yoga. Aaron's yoga practice not only improved his physical flexibility but also enhanced his mental focus, helping him manage his attention deficit disorder. His formative years at a boys' boarding school in Alberta, filled with outdoor activities, had taught him the importance of managing his energy effectively. Despite early improvements, Aaron faced worsening back problems due to incorrect adjustments and stretching practices in yoga. These injuries led him to delve deeper into yoga beyond physical postures, exploring its spiritual dimensions.  He studied with various influential yoga teachers, including Rod Stryker, Rajmani Tigunait, and Alan Finger, embracing the deeper, spiritual aspects of yoga. This journey took him beyond physical poses to a greater understanding of energy management and enlightenment. Innovations in Yoga Practice Aaron's commitment to yoga, despite significant injuries, led him to question traditional practices and seek new understanding. He discovered muscle activation techniques, which provided profound insights into biomechanics and muscle function. This newfound knowledge transformed his approach to yoga, shifting the focus from traditional stretching and alignment practices to proper body mechanics and muscle activation. Recognizing the need to challenge misconceptions in the yoga world, Aaron began to understand his body's pain and stiffness, particularly in his hamstrings. This exploration led him to integrate muscle activation techniques into yoga, aiming to replace traditional stretching with muscle activation.  Aaron discovered that muscle tightness, such as in the hamstrings, is a protective mechanism due to other muscles not contracting properly. True mobility and stability, he realized, come from muscles contracting and shortening correctly, not lengthening. To bring this biomechanical awareness into yoga, Aaron developed the A.Y.A.M.A. (Applied Yoga Anatomy and Muscle Activation) method. His teachings emphasize the importance of proper body mechanics and muscle activation for true mobility and stability. Aaron's Blue Osa Yoga Retreat & Spa serves as a sanctuary for yoga teachers, individual retreat-goers, and hosts his yoga teacher training sessions. To distance his yoga retreat from his previous naked men's yoga group, he rebranded himself from Aaron Star to Yogi Aaron. He leverages online platforms like YouTube and the Yogi Club to provide content and courses on becoming pain-free. Commitment to a Pain-Free Life A key message in Aaron's teachings is the importance of finding a real teacher who challenges and inspires growth. Despite facing resistance and skepticism from the yoga community due to his unconventional views on stretching, Aaron remains steadfast in his mission. His book "Stop Stretching" and his teachings aim to help people live pain-free lives. For those interested in exploring Yogi Aaron's innovative approach to yoga and mobility, his website, yogiaaron.com, serves as a comprehensive hub. Here, visitors can access his book, podcast, and free resources, including a "7 Days to Becoming Pain-Free" series. Aaron's commitment is clear: to help anyone who comes into his space live their best pain-free life. In this podcast, you will learn about: The emphasis of Yogi Aaron's A.Y.A.M.A. method on muscle activation and proper body mechanics over traditional stretching. The integration of physical flexibility, mental focus, and spiritual understanding in Aaron's journey, enhancing overall well-being and managing attention deficit disorder. The impact of significant injuries on Aaron's shift to muscle activation techniques, transforming his approach to yoga and mobility. Aaron's use of YouTube and the Yogi Club to provide courses like "7 Days to Becoming Pain-Free," aimed at helping people live pain-free lives. The focus of Aaron's trainings and retreats on proper biomechanics and muscle activation for achieving true mobility. And much more. EPISODE RESOURCES: Website Book Podcast Practice 7 day pain-free series Join+learn Instagram

Send us a Text Message.Discover the insights and transformative power of yoga and Tantra with world renowned teacher Rod Stryker. Host Todd explores Stryker's journey from his first experience at age five to his profound teachings today. Learn about the nuances of Yoga Nidra, the sacred practice of revitalizing temples, and the four desires shaping our purpose. This episode delves into the depths of meditation, relaxation, and finding balance in modern life. Perfect for those seeking a deeper understanding of yoga's spiritual and practical applications.Visit Rod on his website: https://www.rodstryker.com/Key Takeaways:The Journey of Yoga Practice: Rod Stryker recounts his introduction to yoga at a young age and how influential texts and teachers shaped his path.Understanding Tantra: Stryker articulates the principles of Tantra, highlighting its worldview and practices aimed at uncovering the sacred within.Sacred Energy and Temples: Stryker describes initiatives of reinfusing energy into sacred spaces, promoting a reciprocal relationship with these spiritual environments.Yoga Nidra's Importance: An in-depth look into Yoga Nidra, its stages, and why it's crucial for addressing modern-day restlessness and achieving true relaxation.The Four Desires: A guide to discovering one's life purpose, balancing essential desires, and aligning them with spiritual goals.Thanks for listening to this episode. Check out:

This episode was recorded at Blue Spirit in Nosara, Costa Rica while on retreat.  We were lucky to share the retreat center that week with world renowned yoga teacher Rod ...

In this episode, we ride the highs and lows of the path of yoga and tantra. We explore how the tools we cultivate in our practice can help us find ourselves and cultivate a reference point for inner stability during difficult times.Join us as we welcome the renowned yogi, Rod Stryker, who shares his profound journey in yoga, beginning from his early days of discovery, leading to his evolution as a revered teacher.

Rod Stryker, founder of ParaYoga, talks with J about the formative events that shaped yoga becoming part of popular culture and the spiritual underpinnings that call it into question. They discuss Yoga Works and the 80's LA Scene, Manny and Alan Finger, westernizing the message, seeking vs career choices, branding and creating empires, defining Tantra, teacher/student relationship, guard rails in the pursuit of truth, nonduality and divinity, science of energy management, mapping out the nature of mind, and a singular vision of the heart.   To subscribe and support the show… GET PREMIUM.   Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.    

Rod Stryker is the founder of ParaYoga®, and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom. He is renowned for making ancient wisdom and practices accessible to modern audiences. Raised in Los Angeles, Rod was just 19 years old when he began his study of yoga. He taught his first class in 1980 and went on to teach here at Esalen, among many, many other locales. In addition to mentoring thousands of students worldwide, Rod also serves on the board of Give Back Yoga Foundation and is a featured faculty member of Yoga International. He is a father to four amazing souls and currently lives in Boise, Idaho. In there role of co-host and wisdom contributor is Sadia Bruce. Sadia serves as head of Experiential Programming at Esalen, where she also teaches yoga in the tradition of Krishnamacharya. Sadia endeavors to create energized, radically-inclusive learning environments that are guided by breath and driven by inquiry - she hopes to share an understanding of yoga that is integrative, sensorial, and enlivening. Sadia is also committed to bringing yoga and yoga-based practices to non-traditional environments and underserved populations, and to mentoring new teachers in relational dynamics, development of teaching voice, and teaching to economically, ethnically and culturally diverse populations. She is an insightful, sensitive teacher whose breath-based teaching encourages pleasurable practice that nourishes rather than depletes— inspiring new openings rather than the deepening of old patterns.

This session recorded during The Embodiment Conference (TEC) 2020.   Rod Stryker, world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, founder of ParaYoga®, and author, creator of online yoga trainings and the app Sanctuary - https://www.parayoga.com/   To join our courses and our community go to www.embodimentunlimited.com Find Mark Walsh on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/warkmalsh/ The Embodiment Conference https://theembodimentconference.org/

In today's episode of Talk Nerdy To Me, we're going to dive into the intersection of science and spirituality, the autonomic nervous system, why stress isn't actually as bad as you think, and one of the most powerful practices you can do right now to support your brain and body. Today I'm talking with Kristin Leal: a teacher, lecturer and body worker who travels the world with her MetaAnatomy trainings passionately sharing about the miracle of the human body and the liberating potential of both movement and stillness. She is the author of the books "The Yoga Fan” and “MetaAnatomy- A Modern Yogi's Practical Guide to the Physical and Energetic Anatomy of Your Amazing Body” which was called "smart and sassy" by Elena Brower and "a luscious resource" by Rod Stryker. Teaching for nearly 30 years, she has graduated thousands of teachers through her own 200 and 300-hr teacher trainings along with working for in person and virtual yoga training programs around the world. In 2021, she was invited to join the anatomy advisory team at Yoga Journal Magazine. These days you can find her in her new home in London, England writing books, studying in a nearby park full of swans and teaching virtually and producing offerings in her faux fur lined-plant and bone filled home yoga studio.Episode Resources: V.S. Ramachandran Quote: “The human brain is without any doubt the most complexly organized form of matter in the universe. The brain is made up of 100 billion nerve cells or neurons. Someone has calculated that the number of possible permutations and combinations of brain activity exceeds the number of elementary particles in the universe. And this gives you some idea of the staggering complexity one is faced with in trying to understand the functions of this mysterious organ. So the question is, "How do you even begin?"Click here to learn more about KristinClick here to join Kristin's Vagus Nerve MasterclassClick here to get Kristin's 20 Hour Nervous System Training and get 20% off with promo code: talknerdytomeGet Kristin's book MetaAnatomy hereFollow Kristin on InstagramIf you loved this episode, help us get it into more ears by leaving a 5 star review and subscribing on whatever platform you're listening on. For the month of June 2023, when you share this podcast and tag @alex_nashton on Instagram, you'll be entered into a giveaway for the chance to win a 90 minute long coaching call with Alex. Each episode that you share in June 2023 will lead to one entry which means that you can share all of them! TALK NERDY ON INSTAGRAMLEARN MORE: www.alexnashton.comJoin Alex's free challenge: 5 Days to Overcome Anxiety

We are bombarded with how society tells us we should be living our lives so it can be hard to go against the norm.  Belinda and Erin talk about ways you can begin to live a life authentic to you.     The book Erin referenced is The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom by Rod Stryker.   Read more about Erin and Belinda and their retreat on their website: https://midlifestateofmindpodcast.com/   Follow them on social media: FB: https://www.facebook.com/midlifestateofmindpodcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/midlifestateofmindpodcast/

Ever wonder if there is more to yoga than just the yoga postures? Join my guest Eric Shaw for a discussion around his new book called Sacred Thread: A Comprehensive Yoga Timeline: 2000 Events that Shaped Yoga History.  Eric's teachings and passions have been influenced significantly by his teachers, in particular Shandor Remete and Rod Stryker. You can visit Eric on his website at prasanayoga.com and you can purchase a copy of Eric's new book on Amazon here.We discuss topics like:What is the pre-common era?Yoga sutras and urbanization in India.Buddha gives us a new philosophy of life.The difference between consumer consumerism and environmentalism in India.Mapping connections through language patterns.Who were the key cultural movers of the Theosophical Society?The History of the Hatha Yoga Project.Historical perspective of Krishnamacharya's story.Thanks for listening to this episode. Check out:

Rosie speaks with Rod Stryker about taking accountability for a mistake as someone in a position of authority.Owning up to mistakes is always a grueling process. It's even multiplied when there's a power differential in the dynamic. Trust is a critical element that binds people to authority figures. The gravity of crossing boundaries and breaching this trust is seen and felt on a larger scale. Rod walks us through the process of repair, self-reflection, taking accountability, and the lessons he learned from making a grave mistake as an authority.This episode is brought to you by: Remedy+Use code 'Rosie20' is up and running. Customers will save 20% on everything available on the site.https://myremedyproducts.com/ Rosie speaks with Carmen Rita Wong about unraveling her family's biggest secret in her memoir, Why Didn't You Tell Me?. Your identity is the most critical piece of yourself. You carry it to every place you go and in everything you do. But as children of immigrant parents, having to tie down very different geographical and cultural boundaries makes this pursuit more complex. How do you begin to embrace who you are after a lifetime of trying to fit in and find your place in the world? Author Diego “Yung Pueblo” Perez joins Rosie in this episode. They talk about the value of collective healing in global transformation. In a world where self-help and personal healing have become priorities, we have forgotten how to heal collectively. We have become fixated on our political differences. We have lost sight of our shared objective of making the world a better place for everyone.Resources - You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta: https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Radically-Loved-Self-Love/dp/0593330153Radically Loved is now part of the iHeartMedia Podcasts: https://www.iheartmedia.com/podcasts. - Have a specific topic in mind?Email us at info@radicallyloved.com.Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at https://www.radicallyloved.com/free-stuff!FREE Action Guide! Sign up at https://www.radicallyloved.com/episode-show-notes, and I'll send it right away! Stay updated!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieacosta/Twitter: https:twitter.com/rosieacostaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/radicallylovedrosieTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsrosieacosta

Rosie speaks with Rod Stryker about taking accountability for a mistake as someone in a position of authority.Owning up to mistakes is always a grueling process. It's even multiplied when there's a power differential in the dynamic. Trust is a critical element that binds people to authority figures. The gravity of crossing boundaries and breaching this trust is seen and felt on a larger scale. Rod walks us through the process of repair, self-reflection, taking accountability, and the lessons he learned from making a grave mistake as an authority.This episode is brought to you by: Remedy+Use code 'Rosie20' is up and running. Customers will save 20% on everything available on the site.https://myremedyproducts.com/ Rosie speaks with Carmen Rita Wong about unraveling her family's biggest secret in her memoir, Why Didn't You Tell Me?. Your identity is the most critical piece of yourself. You carry it to every place you go and in everything you do. But as children of immigrant parents, having to tie down very different geographical and cultural boundaries makes this pursuit more complex. How do you begin to embrace who you are after a lifetime of trying to fit in and find your place in the world? Author Diego “Yung Pueblo” Perez joins Rosie in this episode. They talk about the value of collective healing in global transformation. In a world where self-help and personal healing have become priorities, we have forgotten how to heal collectively. We have become fixated on our political differences. We have lost sight of our shared objective of making the world a better place for everyone.Resources - You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta: https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Radically-Loved-Self-Love/dp/0593330153Radically Loved is now part of the iHeartMedia Podcasts: https://www.iheartmedia.com/podcasts. - Have a specific topic in mind?Email us at info@radicallyloved.com.Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at https://www.radicallyloved.com/free-stuff!FREE Action Guide! Sign up at https://www.radicallyloved.com/episode-show-notes, and I'll send it right away! Stay updated!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieacosta/Twitter: https:twitter.com/rosieacostaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/radicallylovedrosieTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsrosieacosta

Jeremy Wolf is an esteemed yoga teacher based out of Colorado. With more than 25 years of experience practicing yoga, he's here to help us understand how we can expand the practice into our daily lives. You can check out his virtual yoga nidra courses and more over at jeremywolfyoga.com Show Topics - How does yoga unfold? - Is yoga a religion or science? - Yoga off the mat - How the 8 limbs expand our practice - The potentials within stillness - The destabilizing nature of overstimulation - Breathe to ease mental agitation - Cultivating a neutral viewpoint - Converting pain into understanding - Recontextualizing freedom Jeremy's Bio "Jeremy's interest in mind and body began with martial arts, and later meditation became his doorway into yoga. He received his initial yoga certification in India in Classical Yoga and has completed his 500hr certification through Rod Stryker's school of ParaYoga. He is an E-RYT 500, YACEP, reiki master, meditation and yoga nidra instructor, with certifications and formal training in the Bihar, Himalayan, iRest and Amrit methods, and a music producer/label DJ for France's Ultimae Records. His weekly classes and trainings seek to embody the richness and holistic practice of yoga's deeply spiritual origin."

Ever wonder if there is more to yoga than yoga postures? Join my guest Eric Shaw for a discussion around his new book called Sacred Thread: A Comprehensive Yoga Timeline: 2000 Events that Shaped Yoga History.  Eric's teachings and passions have been influenced significantly by his teachers, in particular Shandor Remete and Rod Stryker. You can visit Eric on his website at prasanayoga.com and you can purchase a copy of Eric's new book on Amazon here.During this conversation we discussed:the history and philosophy of yogathe timeline associated with modern yogathe origins of yoga in relation to the archeological findings at Mohenjo-daroEric's experience with Iyengar yogaWhat yoga was like on the West Coast of USA during its peakYoga as a global realization vs. a cultural specific identityand quite a few more topics.Thanks for listening to this episode. Check out:

This week on Radically Loved, Rosie speaks with Rod Stryker about taking accountability for a mistake as someone in a position of authority.Owning up to mistakes is always a grueling process. It's even multiplied when there's a power differential in the dynamic and even more so when all of this is played out on social media. Trust is a critical element that binds people to authority figures. The gravity of crossing boundaries and breaching this trust is seen and felt on a larger scale. Rod walks us through the process of repair, self-reflection, taking accountability, and the lessons he learned from making a grave mistake as an authority.This episode is brought to you by: OPENLet's practice together! https://www.withopen.com/LOVEDUse promo code: LOVEDKa'ChavaKa'Chava is offering 10% OFF for a limited time. Go to www.Kachava.com/lovedEpisode Highlights[02:12] What Human Beings Have in Common[05:00] Becoming Accountable[09:29] Take Accountability by Taking Responsibility[13:14] An Opportunity to Learn[17:43] The Challenge of Moving Forward[24:35] Navigating Intellectual Boundaries[29:56] How His Intentions Behind Teaching Changed[37:19] How to Cultivate a Sense of Compassion and Openness[48:20] On Mob Mentality[50:35] The Gap Between Intent and Impact[58:04] Seeing Beyond the Surface[1:01:28] The Title of Yogarupa[1:06:25] The Lesson He Wants to Leave His Children[1:09:57] How Rod Feels Radically Loved PresentlyResources:Connect with Rod Stryker:- Website: https://rodstryker.com/ - The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris: https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Ape-Zoologists-Study-Animal/dp/0385334303 - Right Use of Power by Cedar Barstow: https://www.amazon.com/Right-Use-Power-Heart-Ethics/dp/0974374628 - Yoga-Vasistha of Valmiki, edited by Dr. Ravi Prakash Arya: https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Vasistha-Valmiki-Volumes-Edited-Prakash/dp/B001TE2EM8 - You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta: https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Radically-Loved-Self-Love/dp/0593330153 - Radically Loved is now part of the iHeartMedia Podcasts: https://www.iheartmedia.com/podcasts.- Have a specific topic in mind? Email us at info@radicallyloved.com. - Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at https://www.radicallyloved.com/free-stuff!- FREE Action Guide! Sign up at https://www.radicallyloved.com/episode-show-notes, and I'll send it right away!Stay updated!- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieacosta/- Twitter: https:twitter.com/rosieacosta- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radicallylovedrosie - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsrosieacosta

This week on Radically Loved, Rosie speaks with Rod Stryker about taking accountability for a mistake as someone in a position of authority.Owning up to mistakes is always a grueling process. It's even multiplied when there's a power differential in the dynamic and even more so when all of this is played out on social media. Trust is a critical element that binds people to authority figures. The gravity of crossing boundaries and breaching this trust is seen and felt on a larger scale. Rod walks us through the process of repair, self-reflection, taking accountability, and the lessons he learned from making a grave mistake as an authority.This episode is brought to you by: OPENLet's practice together! https://www.withopen.com/LOVEDUse promo code: LOVEDKa'ChavaKa'Chava is offering 10% OFF for a limited time. Go to www.Kachava.com/lovedEpisode Highlights[02:12] What Human Beings Have in Common[05:00] Becoming Accountable[09:29] Take Accountability by Taking Responsibility[13:14] An Opportunity to Learn[17:43] The Challenge of Moving Forward[24:35] Navigating Intellectual Boundaries[29:56] How His Intentions Behind Teaching Changed[37:19] How to Cultivate a Sense of Compassion and Openness[48:20] On Mob Mentality[50:35] The Gap Between Intent and Impact[58:04] Seeing Beyond the Surface[1:01:28] The Title of Yogarupa[1:06:25] The Lesson He Wants to Leave His Children[1:09:57] How Rod Feels Radically Loved PresentlyResources:Connect with Rod Stryker:- Website: https://rodstryker.com/ - The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris: https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Ape-Zoologists-Study-Animal/dp/0385334303 - Right Use of Power by Cedar Barstow: https://www.amazon.com/Right-Use-Power-Heart-Ethics/dp/0974374628 - Yoga-Vasistha of Valmiki, edited by Dr. Ravi Prakash Arya: https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Vasistha-Valmiki-Volumes-Edited-Prakash/dp/B001TE2EM8 - You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta: https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Radically-Loved-Self-Love/dp/0593330153 - Radically Loved is now part of the iHeartMedia Podcasts: https://www.iheartmedia.com/podcasts.- Have a specific topic in mind? Email us at info@radicallyloved.com. - Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at https://www.radicallyloved.com/free-stuff!- FREE Action Guide! Sign up at https://www.radicallyloved.com/episode-show-notes, and I'll send it right away!Stay updated!- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieacosta/- Twitter: https:twitter.com/rosieacosta- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radicallylovedrosie - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsrosieacosta

Rod Stryker is a world-renowned meditation teacher, yoga educator, and thought leader. One of the world's leading yoga and meditation teachers, Rod Stryker, has dedicated the last 40 years of his life to improving the lives of others through his teaching, lectures, writing, leadership, and service.  Rod is the founder of ParaYoga®, and the author of two books—his first, The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom, and his second, Enlightened Sleep, soon to be released. He is the creator of one of the world's most comprehensive online yoga training programs and, most recently, Sanctuary with Rod Stryker: the meditation & yoga nidra app with deep sleep, yoga, and pranayama (breathing) practices.  Rod has also written numerous articles on yoga and meditation, has been featured in countless interviews, and has been a keynote speaker and presenter at a multitude of conferences internationally. Rod Stryker is renowned for making ancient wisdom and practices accessible to modern audiences. He continues to share the gifts of his practice, discipleship, and life with diverse audiences beyond the yoga world––which is to say, anyone wanting to experience the tools (such as meditation and deep relaxation) that help them successfully navigate an ever-changing world, or those simply looking to improve their quality of life and well-being.  Raised in Los Angeles, California, Rod attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of Denver, in addition to studying abroad. He was 19 years old when he began his study of yoga. He taught his first class in 1980 and led his first teacher training seven years later. In addition to mentoring hundreds of teachers and thousands of students worldwide, Rod Stryker also serves on the board of Give Back Yoga Foundation and is a featured faculty member of Yoga International. Rod is father to four amazing souls and currently lives in Boise, Idaho.     https://www.instagram.com/rodstrykerofficial/

Amy talks with Dr. Lisa Kaley-Isley about chanting in the yoga tradition. Dr. Lisa is a Clinical Psychologist and certified Yoga Therapist who integrates the wisdom and techniques of both eastern and western philosophy and psychology to understand the human condition, alleviate suffering and promote holistic growth and transformation. She is a dedicated yoga practitioner and experienced yoga teacher in the Sri Vidya tradition of the Himalayan Institute, as taught by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Rolf Sovik, and Rod Stryker.Lisa studied Yoga Therapy with Gary Kraftsow of American Viniyoga in the lineage of TKV Desikachar and Sri Krishnamacharya. She has conducted and published yoga research and presented on various yoga topics at conferences around the world. Lisa is a founding member of the Global Consortium on Yoga Therapy (GCYT) and a member of the Accreditation Committee of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Lisa is also a member of the teaching faculty at the Yoga Therapy Institute and presents the ‘Yoga Psychology: philosophy and practice for anxiety and depression relief workshop. Amy and Lisa discuss Lisa's background, Lisa's travel adventure, Chanting & Japa mantra meditation, Adapting and moving her practice online during the pandemic, Initiation and what it means and a lot more. They talk about the following:Lisa's background and journey as a spiritual seeker living in this human bodyLisa and her husband's adventures and moving to Europe to fulfill life dreamsHow she started her chanting groups online during the pandemic and found the positive in online teachingChanting & Japa mantra meditation and the underlying mechanisms for growth, healing and beyond The Idea of initiation into mantra meditation and why it is essentialLisa's thoughts on inner transformation and how chanting can assist in the process  If you would like to receive the free infographics and handouts that correspond to each episode on the Yoga Therapy Hour Podcast, please subscribe to our segmented email list. You will have the opportunity to determine the Infographic Topics that you would like to receive. When The Yoga Therapy Hour Podcast has a topic that corresponds to your choices, then you will receive an email for that week with the PDF's for download.Topics you can choose from include: • Yoga Therapy & Mental Health• Yoga Therapy & Physical Health• Social Justice in yoga & Yoga Therapy• Yoga/Ayurveda Toolbox• Yoga & Indian Philosophy• Global & Trending Yoga Therapy TopicsClick the link below to subscribe. It takes 10 seconds total.https://amywheeler.com/subscribe Today's podcasts is sponsored by: Optimal Statehttps://theoptimalstate.com/  We have all benefitted from the ancient wisdom of India and her people, so it feels really great to be able to serve in this way. The Optimal State family has pledged on-going support of $250 per month, to go directly to KYM Mitra (www.kym.org). We will collect the monies and gift them each month. Please consider a recurring monthly payment to the fund. Even a small gift or intention makes a difference! If we make more than $250 in any given month, it will roll into the following month's payment. The hope is that we can contribute for many years to come. If you even lose the link to donate, it is at the top of the homepage at www.amywheeler.com also. I will be reporting on the website the progress; how much money is coming in at any given time and where we are in the process of getting this project off the ground.Here is the link for you to get started with your donation. We are so happy that you have decided to join us. We thank you for the bottom of our hearts!Link to click in the description: http://Paypal.me/KymMitraDonationCheck out Amy's website http://www.amywheeler.comChant with lisahttps://www.facebook.com/LisaLifeTreeYogaUK/ Check out lisa's websitehttps://lifetreeyoga.com/

This episode is being brought to you by Forecast located in Homewood Alabama. Forecast is a hair salon on a mission to shape a movement in the beauty industry focusing on education, fashion and creativity. Forecast strives to train stylists with the latest in education to provide their guests with the latest trends. Follow them on instagram @forecastsalon or find them online at https://www.forecastsalon.com/ As this podcast goes to air, we have just moved through the last new moon of winter. The new moon in March is all about going deep within your Spirit. This Pisces New Moon can help you to love and be loved.  Heal past hurts and traumas. Have a big, loving heart and an open mind. It allows you to receive power from the invisible realm and circulate stagnant energy.  The entire Pisces season allows for you to manifest what from your visions from Winter. Find that sensitive part of you.. the wise wisdom that your soul offers you. Pisces energy is deep. It is caring and loving. Just be careful that you don't take on more than your energy!  Knowing  your energy ... your truth … your voice.. your Spirit is so valuable at this time. And that's where the RITES come in to help you move through all this stuff! Rites being Reiki.. Intuition.. Tarot.. EFT and Stones and crystals. When you start going within and connecting to your soul and your spirit, you will find your answers. As we move through these comic transitions, now is the time to clean up your energy with an energy clearing session.  Schedule one… in person or online. When you work with the energy body, it helps to release the old patterns and all that old stuff you carry around.  Empowered Spirit Private Mentoring Program. Schedule a Spiritual Upgrade Breakthrough call with me and let's talk about how my programs can help you. In today's episode I wanted to start off the month honoring Int'l Woman's Day. It was through instagram that I happened to meet Rachael McKee who has been working on an amazing project for this.  The project is called Messages From Her and is launching on kickstarter on March 8th.  In this episode we talk about questioning what it means to be a woman... the oracles.. powerful woman.. spiritual guidance.. the breath.. and accessing your own Intuition to inspire you to take a step forward with these powerful 44 women supporting  you. Rachael McKee is a lifelong student, writer, poet, artist, and businesswoman. She is also a breathwork facilitator.  She holds a BA in Communication Design and Ethical Business that she has used to help solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies develop ethical business strategies, improve design and presentation, and dramatically increase clarity, market placement, & profits.  Rachael has over 10 years of extensive studies and/or certifications in breathwork, yoga, leadership, spirituality, & philosophy (of many genres). She has and continues to study with some of the leading teachers in their respective fields, such as; David Elliott, Kirsten Warner, Rod Stryker, and Lisa Wimberger. Rachael is currently on a hiatus from holding one on one private sessions (in-person in Boulder, Colorado or remote via Zoom/Skype), couples sessions, group classes, and corporate classes as she brings this new work out into the world. Website - Kickstarter - Instagram Madonna! Our pick for this International Women's Day is Madonna! "I am my own experiment. I am my own work of Art" Be a trailblazer! No one has the patent on creativity! Go your on way. Change your style and anything else that needs a shake up. Bend the norms! Pay attention to random bursts of energy! What a beautiful message! It is time to get in touch with your Spirit and what's happening in the world around you. Click on the link above for the Kickstarter campaign and get your deck for Messages From Her. Be sure to share this out to anyone you know that could use some empowering and inspiring messages. Leave me a review on iTunes. Spring is coming. Now is the time to clean up your energy and radiate your light. Thanks again for listening. To your Spirit! Terri PS.. Join the Radiant Light Method. 21 Days to Radiate your Light in 21 minutes a Day. Sign up and download my new App! Join Terri's Facebook Group Follow Terri on Instagram Find her on LinkedIn Episode Credits: Sound Engineer: Laarni Andreshttps://www.facebook.com/laarni.andres.7

How much longer can I keep teasing the podcast name change to Table Rush!  Not much longer I hope.  It is eminent.  I talk about the journey to this point and the refining of the Perfect Customer.  What message I want to bring.  Etc.  And just a bit reflective on the path to this point.  Lots to be grateful for.Administrative: (See episode transcript below)Check out the Tools For A Good Life Summit here: Virtually and FOR FREE https://bit.ly/ToolsForAGoodLifeSummitStart podcasting!  These are the best mobile mic's for IOS and Android phones.  You can literally take them anywhere on the fly.Get the Shure MV88 mobile mic for IOS,  https://amzn.to/3z2NrIJGet the Shure MV88+ for  mobile mic for Android  https://amzn.to/3ly8SNjGet A Course In Miracles Here! https://amzn.to/3hoE7sAAccess my “Insiders Guide to Finding Peace” here: https://belove.media/peaceSee more resources at https://belove.media/resourcesEmail me: contact@belove.mediaFor social Media:      https://www.instagram.com/mrmischaz/https://www.facebook.com/MischaZvegintzovSubscribe and share to help spread the love for a better world!As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Transcript: Mischa Zvegintzov  00:03This episode is about the how... Oh my God.  There's so many distractions right now. cars everywhere. I walking a different route and there's so many people.  it's Halloween ish. people in costumes skateboarders.  people with kids dressed up their dogs dressed up.  A whole pack of 30 somethings just skateboarded by dressed up as everything from...  It's all ladies so from cowboys dressed up as males to bunnies to everything in between. all on skateboards some of them pushing kids. but oh my goodness, and I'm just having bouts of insecurity as I'm walking with my phone and my MV88 mic recording.  Anyhow talk about messy action but this thought is so top of mind for me that I've just got to express it. And and basically it's that you know, The original podcast The Accelerated Path To Peace  podcast you know, although I'm changing the name and doing a rebrand to Table Rush. Table Rush masterclass. that the original accelerated path to peace podcast was indeed you know, documenting, documenting of my, of my entrepreneurial journey, the starting of the podcast, just to add a year ago. You know, hitting a year ago, this actually could be on the actual year anniversary. But, you know, step one, define an audience or your, your, you know, your dream customer.Mischa Zvegintzov  02:14So I worked up a rudimentary dream customer to get into the game who I thought it was, and that was the, perhaps, you know, brokenhearted, divorce dad? And how do we, how do we help that person get back on track? Or what when they're ready, you know, they're like, Alright, I'm done suffering. And being in the mire. So, let's, let's break through and in charge forward. and, and then, you know, the dream 100 putting together that list of 100 people who, who I want to work with in that regard. So there was so many people that helped me along the way with meditation, yoga, spiritual practices, energy work, writing, journaling, you know. Kyle Cease was in there such a major influence on me. And, you know, Rod Stryker, and his, his ideas, and the, the Dharma code, you know, your life mission statement. and, and working on all that stuff, and really going deep with meditation and writing and journaling and self growth. and and hunkering down you know, and, anyhow.  so all those people within all those modalities, and then really having my mind open to, well, there's those modalities that Misha used. And there's the, you know, recovery framework that's within athletes been such a big part of my life for 30 years, 35 years, on my whole life, really, because my parents were trying to get sober in my youth, as well. So deep roots there, but that there's all these other modalities that once I opened my mind, just a little, it was like, wow, there's all this cool stuff out there cool ways to calm your mind to find center to tap into, you know, to tap into your inspiration. and and, you know, the tools of a Good Life Summit came out of that as I started interviewing all these amazing people and all these things. and all that's a big part of the entrepreneurial journey, right? Mischa trying to find what he's good at. How can Mischa help? Who is that person that Mischa can help?Mischa Zvegintzov  04:58And then, you know, bring entrepreneurship into that which I love entrepreneurship and have my whole life and, and it's a great my spirituality absolutely expresses itself through my entrepreneurship. And so although, you know, there's some changes ahead that hopefully everybody will stay with me with and enjoy and like and prosper in, but perhaps not I totally understand it. I am just trying to say that we're not trying to say I am saying that...  you know, the first 360 episodes have been about my entrepreneurial journey, and my struggles with new ideas, new concepts, learning new things. And the online world. I've been so offline. For the last five years, as I've dug into yoga, and all that stuff, like, I was basically non existent on the social media and really just digging deep on the internal work. So this is like a fast forward process for me. Or was that is that the right word? Fast forward? I don't know, I think you understand what I'm saying. But just talking about the learning and things I'm trying to do to grow an audience that, you know, building summits, all these things. And it's interesting, because I really was relatively tech savvy. You know, in my younger years, that's normal for a lot of adults, actually, we sort of are super tech savvy and then we turn into the parents who aren't tech savvy, perhaps. And I've definitely experienced some of that.  But still am tech savvy.  I love the direct response marketing. I thrived within that, and the mortgage business for 15 years, and creating flyers and mailing lists and mailing to them and then, you know, collecting emails and nurturing my old clients with email campaigns, and then being available when they needed help.Mischa Zvegintzov  07:18And, and so this is very much, Mischa 2.0. And, you know, the, the, the emergence of that and, and I hope people are learning and enjoying the ride with me, and I'm doing my best to add value. And I just, I guess, maybe this in an appreciation for where I am right now. and how some things and ideas are coalescing, and coming together. and that although you know, it's a, it's a big shift in branding and podcast name, that it's exciting for me because it's going to be more focused. I'm dialing in the focus, right, the original, you know, thesis for The Accelerated Path To Peace  was very broad, very broad, you know, a wide net.  and, but very much about documenting my entrepreneurial journey, trying to be of service trying to learn how to craft my skills to bring the market and an entrepreneur way. and then hopefully, hopefully, inspire other people to do the same. And just have fun too. I'm big about having fun these days. You know, what, I do this for free and for fun? Yes, I would. And it turns out I am, because I am not at profitability yet. I'm trying. I'm working hard. But hopefully that's around the corner at some point. And anyway, I I just I'm just very excited to continue to talk in a more focused way about my entrepreneurial journey.  about the skills and tools and frameworks and systems that I'm creating to help people.  And that you get to come along with me and yeah, that's what I've got. I think that's enough. So So to recap, you know, the, The Accelerated Path To Peace  podcast was very much about my entrepreneurial journey, can literally hear it almost from the beginning 360 episodes ago to where I am now today. And this is just a refinement of that focus of that and, and so much of the musings again won't be the same. But hopefully there'll be more focused and more useful and more... you know, I'll have... again as I've said... what I'm good at, I'll be able to you know, turn into products to help people. So there we go enough out to me. Thank you for listening. The change to the new podcasts name. Table Rush is eminent. Hopefully it will not be a surprise for you when that happens. All right, love to all. 

As we get ready to complete the rebrand of the podcast to the “Table Rush Talk Show”.  I believe that we can express our spirituality through our entrepreneurship. So we're going to be talking a lot about that in future episodes, and just growing businesses and having fun in sales and marketing and all kinds of good stuff. I believe a big part of expressing ourselves through entrepreneurship is meditation.  And so with that I bring you the “Bliss Meditation.”   A meditation written by Rod Stryker.Administrative: (See episode transcript below)Check out Rod Strykers "The Four Desires Here".  https://amzn.to/3y7m7KHCheck out the Tools For A Good Life Summit here: Virtually and FOR FREE https://bit.ly/ToolsForAGoodLifeSummitStart podcasting!  These are the best mobile mic's for IOS and Android phones.  You can literally take them anywhere on the fly.Get the Shure MV88 mobile mic for IOS,  https://amzn.to/3z2NrIJGet the Shure MV88+ for  mobile mic for Android  https://amzn.to/3ly8SNjGet A Course In Miracles Here! https://amzn.to/3hoE7sAAccess my “Insiders Guide to Finding Peace” here: https://belove.media/peaceSee more resources at https://belove.media/resourcesEmail me: contact@belove.mediaFor social Media:      https://www.instagram.com/mrmischaz/https://www.facebook.com/MischaZvegintzovSubscribe and share to help spread the love for a better world!As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Transcript: Welcome, everybody to the Thursday meditation of what is about to be the Table Rush Talk Show, the Table Rush Talk Show. And again, as a reminder, I'm in a rebrand and just about to change the name of the podcast from Bitch Slap ...The Accelerated Path To Peace over to the table rush, talk show. It's going to be more entre proneural minded, entrepreneurial minded. Again, this is the Thursday meditation, so hang in there with me.00:40 I believe that we can express our spirituality through our entrepreneurship. So we're going to be talking a lot about that in future episodes, and just growing businesses and having fun in sales and marketing and all kinds of good stuff. I believe a big part of expressing ourselves through entrepreneurship is meditation. And meditation is such a powerful tool to help us tap into that creative zone.  To co create with the universe. to be inspired.  to learn how to be nice and calm when the battle gets strong, shall we say. But nonetheless, here's a meditation. This meditation is a script that I have grabbed from Rod Strykers the forward desires. So let's get started. And be aware that there are some some spaces of time in here where I will not be talking. So it might be a minute, at some points and some points, two minutes where I won't be talking. So the meditation will be over, I will just be being quiet. So let's get started.02:03 Start by sitting tall, either in a comfortable and supportive chair, or on your couch or perhaps you've pulled over and are sitting in your car. The key thing to me is that you're sitting comfortably, where you can sit for 15 or 20 minutes withoutfeeling like you're having to hold a position if that makes sense.02:35 Alright, here we go.02:37 Close your eyes02:42 become aware of your body02:46 just relax and feel your body at rest.02:54 Become aware of effortless breathing02:59 feel the whole body03:02 and feel it breathing effortlessly?04:05 Now we're going to begin to count backward on our breath.04:12 We're going to start up the number 10. And whenever we notice our body breathe out, that will be the first count. So breathe in.04:29 First exhale 1004:36 Breathe in04:43 next exhale eight.04:48 Continue breathing. Each breath is a step backward where you feel your body and mind relax.05:00 acts more and more deeply05:06 continue05:09 the closer you get to zero05:12 the more your body and mind approach a state of complete ease05:21 on each exhale peel away another layer of stress and tension05:35 at zero rest in complete stillness and peace05:41 for a moment just feel the presence of stillness and peace.06:46 Now bring your attention to your forehead in the space between your eyebrows as you hold your attention there.07:59 Become aware of your body breathing,08:04 don't force or try to shape your breath.08:08 Just be aware of the point between your eyebrows and your body breathing08:16 the more effortless you can be the better.09:20 Allow your awareness to connect your breath to the point between your eyebrows.09:29 Now when you notice the body breathing in, your awareness moves from the point between your eyebrows to the midbrain.09:40 Something called the third eye.09:44 The midbrain is the point in the middle of your brain, roughly between your temples.09:52 When you notice your body breathing out, sense your awareness moving from the point from10:00 that point to the point between your eyebrows10:05 continue10:07 just continue to feel your awareness move from one point to another on the movement of your breath10:18 as you breathe in, awareness moves from the center of the eyebrows to the midbrain.10:27 As you breathe out awareness moves from the midbrain to the center eyebrow to the eyebrows Center.12:46 As your mind begins to settle,12:50 you will begin to feel the practice becoming more effortless and a growing sense of calm. Continue15:01 gradually you will become so relaxed your mind so quiet that you will be able to rest15:12 your whole being absorbed in a rhythm of deep rest and contentment17:23 as you experience this sense yourself becoming fully absorbed in the center just be there watch feel and listen?19:37 As the mind and body enter into a rhythm of deep peace and effortlessness, you begin to sense that your awareness at the point between your eyebrows moves in and out on its own independent of the breath19:59 eventually you can stop thinking about and working with a breath and just be aware of a kind of effortless pulse moving in in and out of the Third Eye Center20:17 gradually feel a sense of bliss unfolding your whole being flooded with a boundless sense of contentment and joy20:29 don't try just be aware and at the same time completely effortless contentment will continue to unfold the more completely you let go into effortlessness?22:46 now become aware that the source of this contentment and joy you are experiencing is actually coming from you. It is you continue letting go into the meditation until you feel that you are the source of joy and bliss. Eventually your body will feel so full of ease that you won't need to do the practice anymore.23:19 At that point, notice a feeling of deep peace both inside and outside you25:39 remain in this place for as long as you like.25:44 The meditation is complete.25:48 When you're ready,25:51 bring your awareness back to your breath.25:55 Breath in26:01 gentle breath out through the mouth.26:08 Breath in through the nose26:13 gentle breath out through the mouth.26:18 Wiggle your fingers26:24 wiggle your toes26:31 roll your head from side to side. Blink your eyes open.26:38 Embrace the new awareness26:42 that you have of your surroundings.26:45 And take that wisdom that you have that connection to your center and bring that to the rest of your day.26:56 Have a fabulous day27:11 Thank you, thank you. Thank you for spending time with me today. As someone who has committed to growth and service to this world, I so appreciate your willingness to come with me go within and serve our world through change. If you found value in this podcast and you know someone who can use this message, share this episode with him. Share it so our mission can be achieved one episode at a time and of course subscribe so you can hear more. And lastly for more resources on what has helped me on my journey and can help you on yours. Go to be love dot media forward slash resources. That's B E L O V dot media forward slash resources. Thank you again for listening

Lauren Walker, founder of Energy Medicine Yoga and author of The Energy To Heal, returns to talk with J about seeing ourselves as energy and coming together to create healing fields. They discuss her experience and views of Rod Stryker and the calamity in the Parayoga community, healing traumas and holding teachers accountable, understanding that the substrate of all existence and experience is energy, ramifications of reductionist materialism, and the 8 month free course she is offering to co-create healing.   To subscribe and support the show… GET PREMIUM.   Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.    

Yogi Aaron is the owner, operator, and lead yoga facilitator at Blue Osa. During his 30 years of study, Aaron has developed an intrinsic understanding of yogic philosophy, anatomy, and the subtle body having studied under yogic masters such as Alan Finger, Bryan Kest, Genny Kapuler, Rod Stryker, Swami Rama, and David Swenson, among others. Throughout his journey, Aaron has made several pilgrimages to the Himalayas where he sought a deeper understanding of the Vedic tradition and Tantric pathways. These experiences blessed him with the opportunity to mentor under several spiritual masters and inspired him to create a yogic community in the lush Costa Rican jungle. And so, Blue Osa was born! Creator of Applied Yoga Anatomy + Muscle Activation, Aaron brings three decades worth of study, mentorship and experience into his teachings, with a strong emphasis on yoga therapy and alignment. In this episode of the Fall In Love With Fitness Podcast, Aaron and I discuss how and why he discovered yoga, why so many people believe the notion that yoga is all about flexibility, and how daily yoga practices can completely transform your life. Grab Yogi Aaron's FREE Muscle Activation course here https://www.yogaonlinebyblueosa.com/become-pain-free-applied-yoga-anatomy

Kristin Leal, author of MetaAnatomy: A Modern Yogi's Practical Guide to the Physical and Energetic Anatomy of Your Amazing Body, talks with J about the mapping of human body and experience. They discuss the Jivamukti Yoga Center on Second Ave that they both started practicing at, who Kristin went on to study with from there, Rod Stryker and scandal in the Parayoga community, failed models, how we hold teachers and teachings, gross and subtle anatomy, wiggling in poses, spiritual realities, and the practicality of "being in your heart."   To subscribe and support the show… GET PREMIUM.   Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.  

Yes! We made it to 100! This podcast has been a labor of love for the last 3 years. I've had the immense pleasure to chat with some of the most accomplished yoga teachers, wellness experts, and spiritual teachers in the west so they can share their work and best-kept secrets with you. Some were genuinely excited to come on, others I had to slightly harass and I've reached out to many more who never even made it on. I want to take a moment to say thank you to all our guests so far, for giving freely their time, sharing their expertise, and being so open and generous with the process… For today's episode, we are celebrating, by first, doing a recap of the episodes that were the most listened to in the last 3 years. We'll also go over the episode that you guys voted for to enter our celebration giveaway and I want to underline a couple of episodes that I think were underrated but that were special to me and that should have made it to the top of the chart in my opinion.100TH EPISODE GIVEAWAYIf you voted for your favorite episode, thank you so much!Our randomly selected winner for our 100th episode giveaway is Flo Dupuy from the US. Congratulations!!!Our winner voted for Ep58 Restorative Yoga and the Importance of Slowing Down, with Judith Hanson Lasater. Their takeaway was “Some people's cholesterol levels dropped up to 50 points in one hour of yoga practice. Cholesterol is a measure of stress. The sequence is not the key part, it's more taking the weight of stress off. It is so powerful.”I want to say a huge thank you to all our sponsors for this giveaway. You are winning a 100$ gift card from Athleta, a yoga mat from Liform, an Eco Yoga Bolster and Acupressure Mat and Pillow set from Ajna WellBeing, a Roll Model Starter Kit, and a class pass for one of Jill Miller union-fit classes, one month on my membership, an eye pillow from Spritz wellness London, and the book Move, Connect, Play from Jason Nemer.TOP 5 MOST LISTENED EPISODESHere are our top 5 most listened-to episodes of the last 3 years!#25. The 8 limbs, with Janet Stone.#58: Restorative Yoga and the Importance of Slowing Down, with Judith Hanson Lasater.#1: When you say yoga…#75: The Art of Sequencing with Jason Crandell.#46 Chakras 101, with Anodea Judith.EPISODE VOTED FOR IN OUR GIVEAWAYDuring the episode, I mentioned the 3 episodes that were the most voted for. Here they are:#93: A 3 Step Guide to Being More Yourself, with Erika Belanger.Meiling voted for #93 and shared: The moment I heard this episode, I was super confused about my path and my decisions, and I remember being in the car alone, looking for a sign and I wrote yoga podcast on Spotify, and On and Off Your Mat came out and I don't know what, but something made me choose this episode. I went to a lake with my journal and started to write all the questions with their answers, and Felt so relieved. Thank you so much for guiding me. My takeaway is “Stay focused on yourself, what you want and what you can control.” #87: 5 Reasons you Procrastinate, with Erika Belanger.Emily voted for #87 and said “Listening to the episode made me feel like Erika was living life alongside me! She shared best practices without imparting shame and gave me actionable steps to take that didn't require much effort.”#92: Your Nervous System and Digestion, with Rachel Everett.Cristina voted for this episode and said: I've always had gut and digestive issues, this episode allowed me to connect the dots and understand why I've struggled so much.Many more episodes were voted for here an incomplete list:#90: Beginning Again, a Way to Practice and to Live, with Peter Walters“I love the vibe. It's chill and makes me feel really comfortable.”#77: Setting Goals and Moving Forward with Erika Belanger“It has helped me finally learn to set goals and actually complete them for once! You broke everything down into manageable pieces for me and I don't know something just clicked and I wrote it all down and viola!”#89: Creating a Sustainable and Loving Approach to Yoga, with Brea Johnson“I have had some health struggles this year that have made me have to adapt my yoga practice to really fit my needs. It's hard not being able to just follow any yoga flow, but works like this podcast are helping me”#74: Yoga, Chronic Pain, and Mental Health, with Erika Belanger“Having a daughter with chronic pain made this episode a must listen and I got great reassurance around managing pain within yoga.”#54: Meditation 101, with Bex Urban“Bex talks about meditation and yoga in a really unique and all-encompassing way. Her view is that for some people, yoga can be perfecting crow pose; for others, it can simply be learning to breathe better. Her words gave me the mindset and space to reshape my views. I began to realize that sometimes my yoga practice can be just me on my mat focusing on my breath rather than any set posture. That yoga is what you make, it every time you take to your mat. How liberating! Thank you Bex.”#80: Awakening and Healing Your Womb with Diana Beaulieu.“This episode so touched me. I really related to everything that was being said. Erika's questions always bring out the best in episodes.”THE UNDERRATED EPISODESThese 2 episodes have a special place in my heart…#64: Sanctuary Meditation and Yoga Nidra with Rod Stryker.#34: Real Love, Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness with Sharon Salzberg.SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW! BECOME A PREMIUM MEMBER TODAYIf you haven't already done so, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast anywhere you listen. Find out how here.We recently transitioned our Premium Membership to this new platform: www.withribbon.com/u/erikabelanger. As a member, you can get a ton of exclusive audio and video content. We added a new library of almost 200 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership. Finally, you can sign up for any live-stream class I offer! Everything yoga-class-related is now in the same place! If you're new to With Ribbon, here's a walkthrough video I recorded to help you find your way around.Know that as you become a Premium Member, your contribution ripples to thousands of people every week, allowing me to offer accessible quality free content to a wide community of yogis. This podcast is one of the away I contribute to the community, and this membership is a way you can too. It allows you to share everything yoga offers with the world by supporting me in the creation and production of this podcast while I choose to keep it ad-free. RETREAT / GO FUND MEI'll be leading an Eco-Luxury Yoga Retreat in Mexico, in November 2021. I heard you, you've been craving to immerse yourself in yoga, nature, and community again so you can feel renewed and re-enliven. Many of us are suffering from zoom fatigue. So I'm offering you to hit the beach and the reset button so you can let go of this last year. You'll find all the info for that retreat at erikabelanger.com/yoga-retreat-mexico.In parallel, I have launched a Go-Fund-Me campaign. I know yoga retreats are an investment and I know how hard the last year has been. Yoga retreats were in my personal growth, so I wanted to give back. I'm raising money while investing alongside the community to make the experience of a yoga retreat available to students who wouldn't be able to participate otherwise. If you're able to donate anything you could transform someone's life. And if you're in need you can apply for the scholarship. And either way, I'd love for you to share it with the people you love and on social media. That's a simple way you can directly impact others' lives in a positive way. Find the Go-Fund-Me Campaign here.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/5a5fdec3a4d96aa520f89227. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the podcast community grows, Christine reintroduces herself and the purpose of the show through four stories of profound meetings in her own life, and puts the question out: what meetings have been profound for you? What is a profound meeting?Paying attention to the first hit. Mentions: Jill Manchester, Marty StollerCapacity and Calling out the Best in Others: ROTC boot camp at Ft. Knox, KY and meeting Drill Sargent CollinsSelf Acceptance and Not Power Yoga: Meeting Mark Whitwell (15 min in) (also mentions Rosalind Atkinson Jodi Blumstein, Baron Baptiste, Parayoga and Rod Stryker, Esalen Institute)Forgiveness, Transformative Justice and Being Bound Together: Meeting Jacques Verduin (also mentions James Fox and the Yoga and Prison project, Insight Out and the GRIP training program)Raising the Bar on Presence: Meeting Adam Bauer (About 24 min in) (also mentions Eddie Modestini and Nicki Doane, her book First Steps on the Path of Yoga, Amy Fox and Mobius Leadership, Thomas Huebl and Collective Trauma, Elizabeth Walsh)My Why, and The Androgynous SoulRosebud Woman See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  In our last episode of the series, we talk to Lisa Horwell about how she found yoga to help her in her recovery. Yoga Therapy, Sound Healing and Gongs are a huge part of her offering and we discuss about how these practises can be used in healing and addiction recovery.   The pandemic has been a time of significant change and many people have found themselves turning to their addictions for support through this time. If someone is in need of help with their addictive behaviour, Lisa offers yoga therapy for addiction and sound healing, She works in addiction/recovery rehabs every week and offers 1-1 sessions via zoom.   About Lisa Horwell...   Lisa refers to herself as a Grateful Yogi, a Sober Witch and a Gong Goddess. Her yoga journey started in 1995 when she was in the grips of PTSD. Her first class allowed her to experience deep healing, realising she needed regular practise in her life. She studied the BWY teaching diploma, then the Pregnancy module with Wendy Teasdill. She has been teaching community group classes/ pregnancy/ post natal / children's yoga in schools and furthered her studies at Yogacampus, as a qualified C-IAYT yoga therapist. Lisa teaches ‘yoga therapy for addictions ‘ to trainee yoga therapists and with Nikki Meyer is becoming a Y12SR leader in ‘yoga for addictions'.    Lisa is also a sound healer, after studying with gong master Don Conreaux and offers both yoga therapy and sound healing on a 1-1 basis or in small groups. She also works in addiction/recovery rehabs every week and offers 1-1 sessions via zoom. Lisa owns a yoga retreat in Brittany, France called Grateful Retreat and hosts sacred ceremonies and rituals in alignment with the goddess!   Contact Lisa Horwell on email at Gratefulyogi@me.com https://www.facebook.com/gratefulyogigongwitch   Recommendations: In this episode we mention and recommend podcasts from Russell Brand, DJ Fat Tony, Joan Halifax and Rod Stryker.   Listen to our From The Heart podcast on all major podcast directories or catch up on series one directly via our website:   www.anahatayogacentre.com/podcast-season-1/   Follow From The Heart on Instagram at @from_the_heart_podcast   ******* From The Heart is a podcast about Yoga, Mindfulness, healing and wellbeing from Dawn Lister and Daniel Groom, founders of Anahata Yoga Centre, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK. Conversations in this light hearted, kind and honest podcast series brings together people who have found ways to practise self-care in their lives, by sharing their knowledge, experiences and insights. Anahata is a heart centred and nurturing Wellbeing Studio in Leigh on Sea, Essex. Specialising in Yoga, Pilates, Yoga Therapy and mindful meditation. They offer expert tuition in small groups run by qualified and specialist professionals, who are experts in their field. Many of their teachers offer skills which support members of the public affected by long term health conditions, which may affect them physically, mentally and or emotionally. Catch up on previous episodes via the Anahata website at www.anahatayogacentre.com/podcast-season-1 Follow From The Heart on Instagram at @from_the_heart_podcast. Follow Anahata Yoga Centre on Instagram and Facebook at @anahatayogacentre.

Our modern technological world is not conducive to spaciousness and restfulness. However, there's still a way for us to carve out space for resting well amid our busy lives. Listen to this episode to learn about Rod Stryker's bio-hacks for a restful life. Also, get insights on how to reduce pain and increase clarity during our waking hours!Visit https://www.radicallyloved.com/episode-show-notes/ for the full show notes and action guide download.

Creating Space, Resting Well, and Moving Toward Consciousness with Rod Stryker We're so used to being busy all the time because we live in a fast-paced world. When we do find time for ourselves, it's frequently filled with noise from technology. More often than not, we are not resting well , reflecting, and connecting with ourselves. It is only through relishing in silence and creating spaciousness that our body, mind, and soul will be truly restored. Rod Stryker joins us once again to talk about the importance of creating spaciousness in our lives. As a yoga and meditation teacher, Rod explains the significance of honoring our human need for resting well. And for those who feel like they're too busy to be resting well, Rod shares some workarounds and bio-hacks to conquer that challenge. Lastly, we talk about how we can deal with life's pains and difficulties. If you want to know the secrets to resting well and feeling more connected with yourself, then this episode is for you! Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: Learn bio-hacks to resting well and creating spaciousness in your busy life. Find out why we seem to forget all our pain and suffering when we sleep. Discover how to deal with pain upon waking up from a delightful sleep. Resources Pre-order Rod's book, Enlightened Sleep. Pre-order my book, You Are Radically Loved. Connect with Rod: Facebook | YouTube | Instagram ParaYoga Sanctuary with Rod Stryker: The Meditation & Yoga Nidra App Create a daily meditation ritual in just seven days! Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies on the Radically Loved website! FREE Action Guide! Apply the lessons you learn from this episode as you listen! Sign up at com, and I'll send it right away! Episode Highlights How Spaciousness Allows for Resting Well Life in the industrial world, especially with technology, isn't conducive to the nervous system. We have disconnected from the body's four basic rhythms: the circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycles, and rest and activity cycles. Every 90 minutes, our bodies are meant to rest. When we slow down, we also become bored. Boredom is critical to autobiographical planning, which is when our brains slowly begin to unwind and self-reflect. This process creates spaciousness in our minds, and allows us to be more present and embodied. Creating Spaciousness in a Busy Life Using bio-hacks, you can create spaciousness even in your busy life. Simply shifting from a narrow to a wide view can trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for rest. You can also follow the Pomodoro method. When you take short breaks, you allow your brain to go into exploratory mode. You'll find it easier to work afterward. In resting well, it also helps to watch what you do in the last 30 minutes before you go to sleep. You need to be willing to step away from your responsibilities in your waking state and step into the mystery that is sleep. What Happens When You Sleep Rod explains sleep in terms of Yoga. As we extract ourselves from the physical, mental, intellectual dimensions, we move towards consciousness. Consciousness is self-organizing, which means that as you approach it, you start to heal on all other levels. Rod says that in sleep, we're on the precipice of consciousness. We experience what Yogis call a floating delight. In sleep, the body also enters a self-organizing state where it repairs and regenerates. However, when we wake up, we have to reconstruct who we were before sleep. Unlike sleep, meditation offers an opportunity to choose how much of the “old you” you want to keep. How to Deal with Pain in the Waking State We humans prefer the familiar as opposed to the unfamiliar. We'd often prefer familiar pain to the unfamiliar cure. When we sleep or meditate, life seems harsher because we compare it to the peace and spaciousness that sleep and meditation provides. The solution to this challenge is creating spaciousness and separation, and interrupting cycles of hyperarousal. During the pandemic, teenagers experienced mental health problems the most. That's because they haven't experienced enough difficulties to know that they'll be okay. Stepping away from your grief or loss reminds you that other things continue to endure. Becoming More Conscious When you're focused on yourself, you're in subject referral. Object referral is when you pay attention to things outside of yourself. We switch between subject and object referral all the time, but neither depict reality. To smooth out the harshness of reality and achieve clarity, try to walk the line between subject and object referral. Consciousness is in subject and in object, but is transcendent to both. The Power and Grace of Present Moment Perception Rod recounted how years ago, his two children got very sick and were brought to a hospital by a life flight. He thought that if he wanted to be of service to his family, he needed to tap into the power and grace of moment perception by moving towards his consciousness. Although it was a difficult process, Rob was able to access spaciousness and handle the situation well. Parting Words Rod recounted how years ago, his two children got very sick and were brought to a hospital by a life flight. He thought that if he wanted to be of service to his family, he needed to tap into the power and grace of moment perception by moving towards his consciousness. Although it was a difficult process, Rob was able to access spaciousness and handle the situation well. 5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode [04:12] “[The industrial world] is not a construct that's conducive to your nervous system to the human nervous system.” [14:18] “Step away and shift the rhythm. And then we begin to work more in sync with the nervous system and what it really does want.” [24:28] “We don't give ourselves the opportunity to have that patience because we've been so desensitized to being bored, to being patient because everything happens so quickly. We've sort of primed ourselves to having this instant gratification.” [27:23] “We prefer the familiar, as opposed to the unfamiliar. And we would actually, in most cases, prefer the familiar even if it's painful than the unfamiliar even if it has the promise of being less painful.” [35:13] “The idea is you practice awareness through the course of your life. You remember that you're neither your feelings and your thoughts, nor are you what the world seems to be doing.” About Rod Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher and the founder of ParaYogaⓇ. He has been sharing his wisdom and guiding his students for over 40 years and has authored The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Rod has also recently developed the app, Sanctuary, for those who want to experience the life-changing practices of meditation and yoga Nidra. Rod is known for his capacity to make ancient wisdom and practices accessible to modern people. He guides different kinds of students and audiences. He helps individuals wanting to improve their well-being and those seeking to apply time-tested methods to meet the demands of modern life. If you want to know more about Rod and his work, you may visit his website. You may also follow him on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. This episode is brought to you by FLEX  Go to flexfits.com/loved and use code loved for 20% off Flex Disc Starts — or 10$ off your first Flex Cup—plus free U.S. shipping!    This episode is brought to you by SAKARA Go to Sakara.com/loved for 20% off your first order. Enjoy the Podcast? If you felt radically loved from listening to this podcast, subscribe and share it with the people you love! Love to give us 5 stars? If you do, we'd love a review from you. Help us reach more people and make them feel loved. Do you also want others to rest well and have more spaciousness in their lives? A simple way is to share what you've learned today on social media. Don't forget to follow and message us on these platforms! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieacosta Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosieacosta Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radicallylovedrosie TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsrosieacosta To feeling radically loved, Rosie

Temat energii i jej regenerowania to temat rzeka, ale ja zaprosiłam do podcastu tym razem wyjątkowego gościa - uczestniczkę mojej Akademii Biznesninja, Elę Pękalską z ZestAcupuncture, która zajmuje się medycyną chińską, ziołami oraz pracą z emocjami i traumą - do rozmowy na ten temat.W tej rozmowie Ela mówi o tym, o czym mówi się MNIEJ w kontekście energii - o naszym układzie nerwowym.Linki do odcinka:- Rod Stryker, o którym wspomina Ela - https://www.parayoga.com/- Amy Cuddy książka "Presence", (pl. "Wstań) https://www.taniaksiazka.pl/wstan-skuteczny-sposob-by-zyskac-pewnosc-siebie-amy-cuddy-p-772988.html- Strona www Eli: https://zestacupuncture.co.uk/- Ela na Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elapekalska/- Lista oczekujących do kolejnej edycji Akademii Biznesninja (wrzesień 2021): https://www.lidiakrawczyk.com/akademia-biznesninja-lista-oczekujacych/

On this episode of Magical Moments Jill interviews Kevin Courtney who is a spiritual teacher in yoga, meditation and consciousness focusing on mindful practices and care! Kevin is a dear dear friend and it is an honor to share his magical life and the future magic that is in store for him!   Kevin Courtney is a meditation, mindfulness, and conscious leadership expert.  He offers practitioners an effective and accessible pathway to personal transformation through his one-on-one mentorship company called INSIGHT, an event-series known as The Eightfold Path, weekly meditations on IG Live, and collaborations with the likes of iFit, Gaia Online, TED, and The Class. In his twenties, Kevin found himself consumed by work in business development and consulting for companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and GM. His high-paced career was met by two cataclysmic events: being diagnosed with a life-threatening stage of cancer & witnessing the tragedy of 9/11 from just a few blocks away.  He knew he was destined for a different path.Kevin abruptly left his corporate career, committing himself to the study of psychology, yoga, and meditation.  A life-long student, Kevin rooted his 25 years of learning in the teachings of Richard Freeman, Swami Satchidananda, Nikki Costello, and Rod Stryker. Rooted in the teachings and in practice, he founded his company INSIGHT in 2013, a one-on-one program designed to awaken the consciousness of high-impact leaders through the science of meditation, and contemplation. His work has been featured in Human Shift, Well + Good, VOGUE, The New York Times, VICE, and YOGA The Secret of Life. His album Nada Sadhana, an ideal instrumental soundtrack for bodywork sessions, yoga classes, walking meditation or relaxation, has been played over 4 million times on Spotify.Kevin currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and continues to expand the reach of his teachings through mentorship, online meditations, workshops, and retreats. Click https://www.kevinjcourtney.com/newsletter to receive written reflections from Kevin every New Moon and Full Moon, as well as early announcements on workshops, retreats, and special events.

Welcome to Illumine, the podcast, with your host Sarah Shedd. Each week we sit down with filmmakers, writers, actors, fine-artists, and healers to share stories and answer the why behind creativity itself. We'll discuss the context of a project, a dream, or a mission and get to its core — we will see why and how each core shines. This show is produced by Sophie Kohn, we invite you to open your minds, and your hearts, to greater luminosity. This week I'm chatting with my good friend Kristin Leal. Kristin is a NYC based teacher, lecturer and body worker who travels the world with her MetaAnatomy trainings passionately sharing about the miracle of the human body and the liberating potential of both movement and stillness. She is the author of the books "The Yoga Fan” and "MetaAnatomy- A Modern Yogi's Practical Guide to the Physical and Energetic Anatomy of Your Amazing Form" which was called "smart and sassy" by Elena Brower and "a luscious resource" by Rod Stryker. IG @metaanatomy Follow us on instagram @illuminepodcast @art_shedd @sophiekohnphotos

I continue to gain ground with the summit and along the way I notice some funny things about life.  I fill you in on my Dharma code.  And it turns out I have a local fan!Episode notes:I got Calendly up to speed so I could send a calendar invite to Anthony Trucks and the speakers who say yes.  Rod Stryker says “no”.  And I talk some of his yoga lineage. Also my Dharma Code:Live openInspire transformationFearlessly face the greater goodKnow I am lovedYour Dharma code is basically your personal life mission statement.  It can be different things for different people.Had to clean up my emails…  It had gotten jammed up so I created some filters to move emails to certain folders.I was hopping to get the speaker invite page done…  Which answers many of the speakers questions…  But did not get it done…  So get to keep doing it via email :).On my walk today a crazy jogger stares me down and yells “You've got that podcast!”  Uh Oh, yes I do…Got my second covid shot so perhaps I'm going to be a flesh eating zombie with the rest of the covid shot havers.  Supposedly we are gonna be genetically modified someone text me…So I went to 7-11 unusually…  To get my son a Bang energy drink.  Energy drinks are nasty.  The line was crazy long.  10 or 11 people.  So I had ten minutes to look around 7-11 while I was waiting in line.  It is all gross ass junk food, alcohol, and toxic energy drinks.  Maybe a bubbly water and a banana or two…It is not the Covid that's gonna going to turn us into the flesh eating zombies it's gonna be the people that are hanging out at 7-11.  God bless you if you like 7-11.  I have a couple friends who are active participants at 7-11… And I only got 3 new intro emails off today, but I am avg 5 invites per day.  I'm def gaining ground. Start podcasting!  Get the Shure MV88 mobile mic, you can literally take it anywhere on the fly https://amzn.to/2Mnba3QAccess my “Insiders Guide to Finding Peace” here: https://belove.media/peace    See more resources at https://belove.media/resources.   Email me: contact@belove.media   For social Media:      https://www.instagram.com/mrmischaz/  https://www.facebook.com/MischaZvegintzov     Subscribe and share to help spread the love for a better world!As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

It's time again for our guiding seasonal podcast with Tahnee and Mason, where they tune into the energetics, undertones, and wisdom of the season within Daoism. With 30 days of Jing in full swing, and people easing back off stimulants, this episode couldn't have landed at a better time. In Daoism, the season of Winter is associated with the element of water and the wonderful Kidneys. The Kidneys are the bedrock of our yin/yang energy, a storehouse for our Jing, and govern the regulation of fluids in our body. Of all the seasons, Winter is the most Yin. The beauty to be found in this season comes from allowing space for introspection, reflection, restoration, and the inner alchemy of the kidneys, transforming fear into wisdom. As with all the seasons we move through, Tahnee and Mason translate a fluent foundation of what embodying this season looks like; The warming foods to eat, herbs to have on hand, and practices that best support us, both in this season and in this point in time collectively. Dress for the elements, protect your Qi with layers and woolies, observe Mother Nature; And as the sun sets early and rises late, so should we flow with her motion and allow our bodies to rest, and consolidate our essence into Jing. Tune in~     "I can feel the depth of that Kidney energy and the untapped potential within it. That's where the Jing lives, in the Kidneys. But when it comes down to fear, it's the wisest organ because it's the most practical".  -Mason Taylor   Mase and Tahnee discuss:   The energetics of Winter. Why rest is crucial in Winter. Herbs and foods for Winter. Observing fear-kidney related. Transforming fear into wisdom. Balancing Yin and Yang energy. The esoteric nature of the Kidneys. The Water element and the Kidneys. What menstruation blood says about our Jing essence. Practices and meditations to support us through Winter.   Tahnee and Mason Taylor Tahnee and Mason Taylor are the CEO and founder of SuperFeast (respectively). Their mission with SuperFeast is to improve the health, healing, and happiness of people and the planet, through sharing carefully curated offerings and practices that honour ancient wisdom and elevate the human spirit. Together Tahnee and Mason run their company and host the SuperFeast podcast, weaving their combined experience in herbs, yoga, wellness, Taoist healing arts, and personal development with lucid and compelling interviews from all around the world. They are the proud parents of Aiya and Goji, the dog, and are grateful to call the Byron Shire home.   Tahnee Taylor Tahnee Taylor is the CEO of SuperFeast and has been exploring health and human consciousness since her late teens. From Yoga, which she first practiced at school in 2000, to reiki, herbs, meditation, Taoist and Tantric practices, and human physiology, her journey has taken her all over. This journey continues to expand her understanding and insight into the majesty (that is) the human body and the human experience. Tahnee graduated with a Journalism major and did a stint in non-fiction publishing (working with health and wellness authors and other inspiring creatives), advertising, many jobs in cafes, and eventually found herself as a Yoga teacher. Her first studio, Yoga for All, opened in 2013, and Tahnee continues to study Yoga with her teachers Paul + Suzee Grilley and Rod Stryker. She learned Chi Nei Tsang and Taoist healing practices from Master Mantak Chia. Tahnee continues to study herbalism and Taoist practices, the human body, women's wisdom, ancient healing systems, and is currently enrolled in an acupuncture degree and year-long program with The Shamanic School of Womancraft. Tahnee is the mother of one, a 4-year old named Aiya.   MasonTaylor Mason Taylor is the founder of SuperFeast. Mason was first exposed to the ideas of potentiating the human experience through his mum Janesse (who was a big inspiration for founding SuperFeast and is still an inspiration to Mason and his team due to her ongoing resilience in the face of disability). After traveling South America for a year, Mason found himself struggling with his health - he was worn out, carried fungal infections, and was only 22. He realised that he had the power to take control of his health. Mason redirected his attention from his business degree and night work in a bar to begin what was to become more than a decade of health research, courses, education, and mentorship from some of the leaders in personal development, wellness, and tonic herbalism. Inspired by the own changes to his health and wellbeing through his journey (which also included Yoga teacher training and raw foodism!), he started SuperFeast in 2010. Initially offering a selection of superfoods, herbs, and supplements to support detox, immune function, and general wellbeing. Mason offered education programs around Australia, and it was on one of these trips that he met Tahnee, who is now his wife and CEO of SuperFeast. Mason also offered detox and health transformation retreats in the Byron hinterland (some of which Tahnee also worked on, teaching Yoga and workshops on Taoist healing practices, as well as offering Chi Nei Tsang treatments to participants). After falling in love with the Byron Shire, Mason moved SuperFeast from Sydney's Northern Beaches to Byron Bay in 2015. He lived on a majestic permaculture farm in the Byron hinterland, and after not too long, Tahnee joined him (and their daughter, Aiya was conceived). The rest is history - from a friend's rented garage to a warehouse in the Byron Industrial Estate to SuperFeast's current home in Mullumbimby's beautiful Food Hub, SuperFeast (and Mason) has thrived in the conscious community of the Northern Rivers. Mason continues to evolve his role at SuperFeast, in education, sourcing, training, and creating the formulas based on Taoist principles of tonic herbalism.   CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST    Resources: Jing Tonic Chaga Deer Antler 30 days of Jing Sleep-Our Top 10 Tips Yoga Nidra    Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We'd also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:00) Hello, everybody.   Tahnee: (00:01) Hi, everyone.   Mason: (00:02) It's wintertime.   Tahnee: (00:03) Brr.   Mason: (00:03) Ready to jam about the water season.   Tahnee: (00:07) So excited.   Mason: (00:08) Are you?   Tahnee: (00:09) Always.   Mason: (00:11) Excited about winter? That's a transformation now.   Tahnee: (00:13) I like winter. I know it is. I'm from far North Queensland so I don't like winter historically but I have grown to love winter and I think the kidneys are my favourite organ system to talk about if one can have a favourite.   Mason: (00:29) Yeah. My favourite child's Aiya.   Tahnee: (00:31) You only have one child.   Mason: (00:32) Yeah. That's true. You only have five organ systems. Yeah. I definitely feel you. Do you just want to jump straight in and let us know why you love talking about it so much?   Tahnee: (00:43) Sure. Being interviewed on my own podcast. Our podcast.   Mason: (00:48) Yeah. It's still just my picture on the ... No, we're rebranding because that was from a long time ago.   Tahnee: (00:55) I hijacked it. Yeah. Why do I like the kidneys? So I think I like it on an esoteric level because it's all about the karmic blueprint of the organism as it comes in. But on a more practical level, I think the kidney's governed regulation of the fluids in our body and our on a Western lens that hormonal axis of relationship and I've just come to really appreciate how important it is to nurture that system. One thing I'm really conscious of is how esoteric we go on this podcast so I want to try and keep it practical for a little bit at least. I think when we talk about kidneys we're really talking about the ability of the body to be in integrity and to have integrity through the joint systems, through the organ structures as well. So the spleen's really responsible for the meatiness and the integrity of the muscles and their ability to be harmonious and responsive and full of blood and all those things.   Tahnee: (02:02) But the kidneys provide this consolidation and lifting and holding energy so when we talk about things like prolapse or joint issues we really see that as a kidney problem. I'm someone who has had a lot of bad stuff a couple of times in my life and I've really come to appreciate how much working with the kidney meridian has benefited that. On a psycho-emotional level, I really like how it speaks to transforming fear into wisdom which I think it's really difficult but I think it's a really worthwhile thing. When you look at the things in your life that really scare you whether it's death or financial like lack of finances or all of those primal... Yeah. Even your sexuality a lot of people have a lot of fear of sexuality. These are all really deeply connected to the kidney story.   Tahnee: (02:55) If you look at the chakra system as well it's connected to that second chakra and also to the base chakra with the adrenal glands so it's really around all of those foundations of our human existence which is somewhere to live, someone to love us, enough money in the bank to survive, purpose and meaning in our lives. Using the journey of life to become wise. So a running joke in our house that I'm going to be really cool when I'm 60 but I think about instead of being I'll have to achieve something about when I'm 20 or 30 or whatever it's like take the long view and look at life as this opportunity to grow and develop and become wise, become... I guess let life shape you a little bit and that really aligns for me with the kidney essence because you think about what water does, it corrodes through rock to form these beautiful gorges and rivers.   Tahnee: (03:48) If you've ever been in a plane flying over the earth and you see a river meandering through a desert or through a forest it's such a beautiful metaphor I think for life. Because it's not like a straight line to the sea. It twists and turns and bends and that's literally what kidney energy points to. Remember that water finds a way no matter what. There's always a path to the sea and we're meandering through life following the flow of life. So it points very much the Dao to me and I guess especially as I get older I'm really feeling into that new way, effortless effort, that sort of grace that comes through trusting in life. I think the kidney really invites that in. That was a long answer to your question.   Mason: (04:37) Yeah. I'm just interested. I'm always interested to see what you bring up in the beginning because that sets me off. The fee one sets me off. We've talked about journaling as a practise in autumn-   Tahnee: (04:49) It's good for all seasons.   Mason: (04:51) It's good for all seasons. I find at the moment I like the confrontation around fear. I like the awareness and the appreciation and gratitude for fear as a feeling because naturally if everyone just goes in you can feel how much that fear has kept you alive. It's kept you safe. It's kept you... Maybe at times, you've gone to a Tony Robbins conference and he's told you to explode beyond your fear and you've gone out and done something exceptional. It's really great to have that heart energy all the time but if anyone who owns a business or who has their own whatever, just has a job if you constantly explode outside of what your body is telling you is reasonable like 100% of the time eventually you burn out. There's a little bit of reasonableness around some of the fears that you have.   Tahnee: (05:41) Yeah. Well, I just want to jump in because you said courage which is really one of those values of the heart and the lungs. The upper dantian organ systems and again to get a little bit esoteric but if you're constantly draining the kidney essence before its really cultivated and naturally bubbling up-   Mason: (06:02) What's that process?   Tahnee: (06:04) Well, this is inner alchemy so this would be Neigong practise which is probably a little bit out there for the podcast but it's the cultivation practises. So if you're working with the water wheels in the body which are basically like energy currents in the body you're starting to consolidate your essence into jing. You're using chi drawn from the earth so that on the very base of the foot you can't see me I'm touching my hand as if it were afoot but if you go from your middle toes to the little divot underneath the pad of your foot just before the arch of your foot there's a kidney point called the bubbling spring. In QiGong when you place your feet on the earth after a certain amount of practise in the Wu Chi stance a way of leaning forward into the balls of the feet really resting them on the earth and connecting to the earth.   Tahnee: (06:55) You start to feel almost as if bubbles or water bubbles are pressing up against the sole of the foot and it's called the bubbling spring point literally because you can feel the chi of the earth drawing up into the body through this point. A lot of the practises that I've learned through the Daoist arts are really around drawing earth chi up and into the body because that grounds us and it balances and it harmonises us and it reminds us of where we come from which is the earth so we're safe. We're safe here. We're not not here for a reason kind of thing. It gives us that grounding and connection. It's also very healing because earth chi is really healing for us especially those of us in device land all the time getting back to the earth is really important.   Tahnee: (07:41) Then that chi we can draw that into the body and we can use that in the initial stages it's to clear tension and a lot of the stuff Benny does, Benny Fergusson the Movement Monk. His work is around this. It's releasing the superficial stages of tension which is built up through emotional suppression and life. Then as we clear that we start to get into cultivation so that's when we're storing energy instead of spending energy so most of us the moment we get an inch we take a mile and I'm talking about myself as well here. I always start to get enough rest we start to get a good diet. We start to get on the herbs, we start to do the practises, we start to feel really good so then we go and push ourselves really hard and do something crazy. So we haven't reached the stable place where we're actually really grounded and that's what you're talking to. You've got one course and suddenly you're inspired to take on the world but you don't have any foundations to actually tackle it.   Mason: (08:40) Yeah. I think it's all done without a real appreciation and gratitude of that fear. Everyone's like feel the fear and do it anyway. I like to feel the fear and now I do. I think I've burnt myself out quite a lot with that personal development. Hardcore hostile entrepreneurial scene and now talking about the journaling I do it sometimes, I journal. I'll even counterintuitively do it on my phone if it strikes me but the whole reason I like winter as well. I like this kidney energy at all times of life as well as I start to get hopefully a little bit wiser and I'm not just going go, go, go at all times of the day. I'm appreciating that once you get to three to five o'clock in the organ wheel you can move into bladder time. Then five to seven you're moving into the kidney time and you can gauge how well you're able to adjust to a convalescence accumulating yin energy.   Mason: (09:35) I bring this up just because it's a really nice gauge for everyone going forth to know well, am I enjoying this wintertime? What does it actually mean? It's like that time of day when you're winding down how successfully can you do it? How successfully can you go into the blackness of night and the blackness of sleep? It's definitely been a big struggle for me over the years and that's why I'm really with you. I can feel just the depth of that kidney energy, just the untapped potential and that's what the jing lives in the kidneys and that's our potential. But when it comes down to fear it's the wisest organ because it's the most practical. It's like if you're going for that walk, I went for a walk with Benny actually the other day and we were walking pretty close to a cliff and there was a big drop-off. I felt the fear and I felt that part of me judged that fear just being like come on then. Just get closer, you're fine. You can trust yourself. Then I was like all of a sudden that wisdom. It's wisdom. I'm-   Tahnee: (10:35) Don't be stupid.   Mason: (10:36) Yeah, don't be stupid. I was like, okay. I caught just how much my body was like it seized up even though I was in a safe position and I trusted my body and I was like okay, I can ease up here. Then in terms of going that little bit closer like my mind was telling me, no, go closer. Dance right on the edge. I was like I got really grateful for that fear right now probably I don't need to go closer to the edge now. Then from there, I get a cascade of different thoughts and different feelings. That's a very simple example but that sparked a lot of-   Tahnee: (11:07) No, it's a great example. It's ego and all these things playing off in your mind and you're able now to take... This is literally the point of spiritual practise is to step out of the bullshit on that lower level of mind. I'm going to lean into the Ayurvedic text because I think they explain this very beautifully where it's like yeah, you've got ahamkara. You've got the ego itself who's saying I want to look a certain way and be a certain way in the world and that means I can handle this challenge. Then you've got Buddhi the wise mind going, really? Watch the emotions, watch what's playing out right now. Watch... We could get into these are scars which are habits of conditioning that you've got from what does it means to be a man. It means that I challenge myself. I push myself to go to the edge and this is literally the gift of the kidney is to go all of that stuff playing out. How do I rise above that? Be still, notice what's happening and make a wise decision which is important. I think it's a really useful life skill.   Mason: (12:11) Lots of big decisions come about. There's a lot of fear right now. There's fear of people who aren't vaccinated, who are vaccinated. There's fear of never being able to travel again.   Tahnee: (12:20) Governments. I think literally we're in a time of collective base chakra blasting because the systems that people have relied on forever are coming apart and this is where it helps to have a practise that grounds you back to the earth and says we're right here right now in this moment I'm okay. Does that mean I don't take action? Of course, not. But it means that I have a touchpoint or a reminder or a place to come to that's safe within me that's not provided by something external. So when the government collapses or when the economic system falls down or when you can't travel again you're not going to freak out because you know that you're okay right here where you are. You don't need to travel to validate your existence. I think these are the things that lack in our culture at this time.   Mason: (13:09) Well, it's nice when you look down into the pools of water within you. That's why it's nice to rest because if you don't rest you don't accumulate water. If you don't have downtime you don't-   Tahnee: (13:20) You don't accumulate chi. The whole point of this stuff is if we keep going 100% all the time you're never going to a yin state which is what kidney is, it's ultimate yin. Then we age, we lose our chi, we start to degenerate and that's not of service anyway to ourselves, our families, the planet.   Mason: (13:40) We are back on the journal once more. It's just a useful thing if you've got these crippling fears about your children or what's going to happen to your parents or so on and so forth. I sit there sometimes and I go through all the hypotheticals which I don't know if anyone... It's not a common practise in our-   Tahnee: (13:59) Scenario planning.   Mason: (14:00) ...culture. Oh, exactly in business it's scenario planning and it's really scary to go through what are the absolute worst scenarios that could play out in the business. It's like it's better just to keep them there but it's not wise to. So I've been doing that just whether it's in the shower or that's why it's really nice to have that downtime again on the earth and go for a walk. I go for a walk with a mate every week and I talk about them openly all these... You can get trapped in the doomsday ness of it.   Mason: (14:29) But if the intention of the practise is to, I just want to see what's real. I want to feel into that. You're feeling into the water within yourself and that's chi within yourself. So it's got a particular formation. You want to go about perceiving and exploring that chi as it's expressing within you and you'll find the wisdom within okay, that fear, where does that go to? What's the intention? It becomes 3D, 4D, 5D. It's not just I'm scared because I want to stay alive. You can start feeling the story and the metaphor playing out around that if you play that fear out to the end. Okay. At that point, that's good fear. Really like it. Gosh grateful that we have that fear of whatever it is, social anxiety, being judged, losing all your money, never being able to travel, having forced medical stuff upon you, having people not doing medical things.   Mason: (15:14) Whatever it is, whatever your fear is it's all valid. So your experience and you just go. That's really reasonable. Ah, at this point there's a grey zone and murkiness and then you sit in that murky zone because it's not just a fear. You don't allow that fear to give... Don't have an aversion to that area and go and sink into that area. Okay. That's when you rest, you accumulate all this chi, you accumulate those deep waters and those reservoirs of water. If you don't have those you have nothing to explore and you become a shallow person. You can't get that action. You become shallow, you become externally driven, you need identities, you need dogma. Don't think because we're talking about kidneys that people need to be sick or completely tapped out on their kidneys or of their adrenals. It could be a slight dysfunction but people these days, even young people they're not honouring this process and therefore you see there's an extreme amount of people acting in shallow ways and having shallow belief systems.   Mason: (16:16) Therefore they're outside of themselves. There's no wisdom in what they're saying. They're just given a rough document of the ideology that they're following and then they go and just regurgitate that and repeat that and go and gather evidence. So that's all kidney water systems. So it's nicer to be in flow with nature and create those deep reservoirs of water and if you feel the fear then feel that murky zone and then you move towards that experience and wisdom engagement. Then what you'll see is there's a real constant opportunity for transformation and change to occur there.   Tahnee: (16:51) Yeah. I think what you spoke to there I mean it's not even on an individual level. I don't think it's an individual problem, I think it's a collective problem that we aren't... The Neijing which is where a lot of our philosophy comes from really. Which is one of the oldest pre-TCM text classical medicine texts to basically sleep until the sun rises high in the sky basically. You're supposed to sleep a lot in wintertime. I know for me we're both feeling sleepy around seven or eight o'clock at the moment and we're in bed really early at the moment.   Tahnee: (17:54) I'm sleeping until seven most mornings and I'm really feeling this deep nourishment from sleep at the moment. Obviously, we have a business and children so we still end up burning the candle but how many of us push through winter not getting that hibernation time, that deep rest of restoration in the chi and the organs. Then oh, we get sick, and then oh, we're suddenly like I'm crook all the time. It's like it's not because as a culture we keep the momentum going all year round. We don't have this time of acknowledging and even making sacred the rest and the sleep that we require. I think the Neijing they had this foundational text that was an understood part of the culture. I guess I'm making a broad assumption so maybe I'm wrong but we don't grow up with that. I grew up in the tropics where you have wet and dry seasons basically. If it's cold you wear a light jumper and that's it-   Mason: (18:48) Aussies are on. The mittens are on. The [inaudible 00:18:49] are on.   Tahnee: (18:50) But we never had any real... I remember my mum saying keep your kidneys covered but that was about as far as it went. I really was shocked when I moved to a cold climate. I had no idea. I think I'm 35. I've just learned how to layer and how to stay warm, like wearing UGG boots in my house and all these kinds of things. It's really taken me a long time to understand cold and cold invasion. These ideas in Chinese medicine that seem really foreign to us as Westerners because cold isn't something that can invade you but in Chinese medicine, it's literally it can. It's a pathogen and it enters your body. If you think about homeostatic processes, your body is trying to maintain its temperature. If it's constantly being punished by cold air and it's having to push back and try and stay warm enough that's going to drain your resources. It's going to drain your reserves. It's going to drain your chi.   Tahnee: (19:38) You're going to be more susceptible to getting sick. Now is the cold a pathogen or are you now more susceptible to viruses and bacteria? I don't know the answer to that but I would assume that it makes a lot of sense to stay rugged up against the cold to prevent your body from having to be stressed out by this thing. We live in an area where barefoot is common. You see kids running around barefoot all the time. I really make my kid wear shoes and socks with warm things on her feet in winter even though I believe that barefoot is best. It's like at some point we also have to maintain the health of the body. I think it's a really interesting... I'm not saying I have the answers but it's something I find really interesting how little respect our culture has for the elements and respecting the elements and being really conscious and mindful of cold and its effect on us as an organism. Yeah.   Tahnee: (20:34) I think also when we think about the Neijing saying we need this inner time it's very transpersonal in that collectively if we all slow down and we all turn our attention in and we spend this time in reflection and restoration and then we come back collectively. That's a really powerful shift in our culture that we've spent time in this yin state that isn't outward and isn't... I guess that's probably never going to happen but I think it's really interesting because what you're talking about with the depth of water we've all seen the movies, we've all seen Jaws and [inaudible 00:21:13] and deep water is scary. Deepwater brings up our deepest most primal fears around what's lurking underneath the surface. That's why meditation is hard for so many people. That's why being still is hard for so many people because when you stop moving you start to feel all of the things that are hidden beneath the surface that you've been moving to stay away from. So meditation to me is one of the ultimate kidney practises in terms of connecting to that inner world and connecting to the subconscious under the surface narrative that goes in all of us. I feel like the season is a really big invitation to slow down and meditate more and be less active but maybe more internal.   Mason: (21:58) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I've got a little bit of an idea I just want to explore. Hopefully, it lands but you're just triggered by the fact you were saying it's such an introspective time. So we go in and we view what is ourselves and we get really intimate with self-agency, feeling ourselves on more I would say of an infinite nature. I'm feeling our spiritual nature and closing off from the world a little bit. We close off a little bit socially. We're not as socially engaged, we're not taking input outside but it's something I just realised for myself running in spiritual circles so much. It's probably a lot around here in what we do wave as the superior is staying within. Staying yin and not going out and interacting heavily with other people and allowing your personality to form and develop. This is something that happens in the yang. It happens in springtime, it happens in summer. It happens in high activity times in business.   Mason: (23:09) I'm thinking about it because I'm thinking a lot about feedback and it's something I don't... I don't enjoy feedback. I like being a part of a team but I've got this... This is no, I'm in touch with who I am on the inside and the way that I am. I'm introspective and I don't often then go and take that and then run out into my community and allow for there to be feedback that I really take on about the way that I'm interacting with the world. The way my mannerisms, my temperament. I sit in that yin introspective place a lot of the time. I'm just realising, by the way, this is very conceptual everybody but remembering that kidneys are the source of yin and yang. So if you are excessively yin in your life. If you're excessively in that space of I'm just staying inside of myself.   Mason: (24:09) I'm not accepting input. I'm not going out and allowing the daggers to be thrown that occur within an interaction especially in those high summer times. Then what happens is you don't actually allow that yang energy to cultivate within the kidneys as well. So the yin becomes a little bit more shallow as you go along. I'm really in my internal world and being selfish and talking about my own process here but I hope that just talks a little bit to the experience of remembering that this time a lot of people really love the yin when you get to shut off from people and you don't have to be forced to interact and take feedback and really be an interactive force. But remember you're going to be able to go deeper the more you go out and allow the judgement in, the people refining who you are, all that be socially engaged. I bring that up because if you can do that if you can stay within that wheel of cultivating yin and yang within the kidneys and you do that by staying within the circulation of the seasons and the days so you're going between yin and yang, yang and yin.   Mason: (25:13) You're going to have very significantly differently expressed parts of yourself coming out all the time. Then the kidney water can cultivate because kidney water is potential. What happens if you have water? You have life, you have lots of water in an arid land you're always going to be able to have potential to create food and survive. Eventually, you want aquifers. You want aquifers that are pure and able to give you a real solid store of water. Then what happens is the yang comes in, that fire comes in and heats up that water so the water can move around your body. So this is just bringing the significance of why it's so important to go into this cultivation time but also be in and respect the difference between yin and yang and those parts of yourself.   Mason: (25:57) If the yang can really be expressed within yourself as well then you heat up all that potential, you heat up that water. It becomes a vapour, goes up, and allows the germination within the liver to happen and you're basically keeping the body nice and supple. You're circulating the water in. The part of that is if you're constantly introducing water to an ecosystem you never know what's going to germinate at different times as you go along. I think there's a subconscious fear there even of going really I understand myself and I want to stay right here. If you keep going along the wheel of the year between yin and yang as you go along different aspects of your personality, different parts are going to germinate and take seed.   Mason: (26:42) You're going to have to have the wisdom to go cool, this is an identity. I know that there's a part of myself that's really beautifully expressed in that but I'm actually going to go and explore a different part of myself. So kidneys are always so tied in with who am I? If you can look into the deep dark waters you can realise it's a little bit more fluid than you think it is.   Tahnee: (27:05) Well, the deep connection to I am universal really. It's the [inaudible 00:27:12] fire and this whole concept of where we even come from that's kidney essence. It's kind of like Shakti and yogic texts but it's literally how each cell knows on this higher consciousness level what to become. If you're the sperm and the egg uniting you know how to make a human. Well, how does that even happen? How is that information, that data transferred and interpreted? Where does this blueprint come from and this is kidney energy, this is jing, this is that primordial essence? So there's this really deep connection to ancestry to all of creation really through the kidney essence. I think if you think about the archetype of the kidney it's the magician or the wise sage. So it's this person who's connected to more than just... It's the shaman really.   Tahnee: (28:13) It's the person who can bridge worlds. So I think that sense in the kidney what you're speaking to with going up that kind of happens naturally. The Daoist practise is the whole point is you cultivate enough jing that the expression coming up through the shen is pure. You're consistent and you're authentic because it's what you radiate is aligned and so it's not this inner process that happens through. Meditation is the start of that process but at a certain point in meditation, you're not going through your shit anymore. You're accessing that stillness and then in that stillness, you're starting to feel the prana. In the prana, you're starting to understand that you can use your awareness to bring prana into the body or chi into the body.   Tahnee: (29:11) Then you're starting to cultivate that and then you're using your practises to integrate this kind of experience into... It's getting kind of esoteric. sorry. But that's when shen radiates and there's this very strong relationship between the depth of winter and the peak of summer and there has to be to have your full expression out into the world. You have to have the opposite. That's the polarity I suppose of the yin and yang expression of those organ systems and in Daoism, we do meditations where we unite the heart and the kidneys and we bring the cold energy from the kidneys up to the heart and cool the heart because you're always expressing your heart gets hot, it gets overheated. If you're never bringing your shen and your authenticity and your expression and yourself down back to the kidneys to warm them up the kidneys get cold and they start to get exhausted.   Tahnee: (30:05) So that's this unifying function of the heart and the kidney meridians and the meditation's really beautiful. You're imagining the heart is the lotus and the kidneys is the lotus bulbs and then the legs are the roots down to the earth. Then the lotus is opening up to the universal energy above. That's a really nice metaphor I think for how we've got the energy provided for the flowering of our life from the kidneys. Then the heart provides that flowering expression. I think when we think about what happens in wintertime if you're flowing with the seasons you feel you want to cultivate quiet. You want to reflect. You want to be still. You want to stay warm, all of these things. The moment some of us your energy's different. You're up, you're out and by the time peak summer's coming you're on your own fire. So you want to have the reserves that you've cultivated in winter available to you in summer.   Tahnee: (31:01) It's like having resources to draw from so I think that's where we don't take that opportunity to slow down and winter's really about that. It's about closing off and storing and I don't see that as a negative thing. I've come to really enjoy that about winter, that I'm less social and I'm less concerned with the outside world at this time. I just want to be with my family and in my home and we're making soup and we're slowing down and my daughter's taking a thermos to school. It's all very cute. I think that's really what I have learned is to yield to the changes the season brings and that trust that the full expression will come. That's my take on all of that. I don't know if we wanted to talk to herbs and how we would work with them at this time of year.   Mason: (31:57) Yeah. I might just quickly talk about what the kidney's associated with. If you think about its water. If you think about the story within your body of water, bringing the germination its fertility. If you want to stay fertile if you want to maintain potential you need to have that water. Just imagine that water chi. Yes, there's all these hormones and it's like there's a huge association of the sex hormones with the kidney water energy. So if your mind needs that, really go with that and really make that association. Then sometimes it's nice to just fall into the metaphor of the elements as well. So think if you've got water sitting there with reservoirs and you're doing a really good job at sustainably releasing that water up so that it can make the tissue nice and moist and nice and lubricated then you're going to have fertility all over your body.   Mason: (32:47) That means regeneration of cells and that's why quickly touching on herbs like the yang herbs especially which increase the yang within the body which mobilises the water and allows germination that happen. That's why when that happens what do you have when you're fertile when you have fertility? Obviously, you have new life. Obviously, you have regeneration going on. From that yang there's stamina and potential that comes about so therefore it's the deer antlers and eucommia barks and Cordyceps that are associated with that. But just for your own fertility look at the water management and look at sustainability in your own lifestyle. Look at how if you're unsustainable with your energy if you're unsustainable with your money. I really hope that everyone knows that when I say these things I don't have them all sorted out in my life. I'm definitely-   Tahnee: (33:47) Does anyone?   Mason: (33:48) No. Some of these things I talk about like I'm really struggling with myself and just hope everyone's able to just take this as theory basically or something that we can all work within. Work not necessarily towards. But it's really nice to look at even again and go back to that journal. What aspects of your life are really sustainable? Look back on how you partied. Look back on how you didn't party and express that summer because that's another thing for those of you who want to get the most out of this season. Maybe it's knowing harmony. Maybe you didn't go full fire which we always assume it's the other. We always assume that people aren't resisting the winter months but of course, it's going to be the other way around. Look at sustainability within your life. That's going to be that you're actually going to be able to maintain fertility.   Mason: (34:39) That means libido, sexual vigour, sexual capacity, sexual fluids, and the capacity to regenerate sexual fluids. These are all things. So how sustainable have you been with sex? Too much? Not enough? There's no answer here and that's something I think if you see an aversion towards sometimes with Daoism because they're like it seems very rule-heavy. You're allowed to have this much sex. Not this much sex, you can't ejaculate so on and so forth. These are all just really loose suggestions especially from a civilization that really liked things to be really defined. But you just take them and you just work them into your own.   Tahnee: (35:14) Well, the distinction too is Confucian versus Daoistan. The Confucians were quite rigid and the Daoists had a lot of the rules were based on chi so it's about chi cultivation. So I think that's what I've always found really interesting is if you look at what the Confucians contributed which was they were society structure. Then you look at what the Daoists contributed. So I have found in my experience with the teachers of Qi Gong that I've studied with and I've learned from some who are very loose. It's like going with the flow, finding your own form, feel your body's fluid. Others are really strict and really regimented and really rule-based. Master Chia who I have learned the most from when he speaks to sexual cultivation for men especially. He's like younger men go for it, you've got heaps more to spare but as you get older you need to be more mindful.   Tahnee: (36:10) He has some structures and guidance around that but I think it's a really personal thing and one of our big guiding principles at SuperFeast is sovereignty. I think the whole point of this information is not for us to be like we know the best and you guys should do these things it's really about reflecting on our own journeys to this point and hopefully providing some context for what you might want to look at through your own life and then filter that into what's relevant for you. I think this is really important when it comes to any kind of teacher or any kind of education. Especially when it's ancient stuff because we've lost so much. We only got the classics in English in the 80s and that's not very long ago and we don't know what other texts there were that were destroyed.   Tahnee: (36:56) Mao Zedong's team destroyed a whole lot of beautiful literature and writings from earlier times in China and I'm sure other things that were lost. It was oral traditions so I'm sure many things were lost in that way. So we're lucky to have what we have but we're making assumptions from a limited number of sources really at the end of the day. I don't speak Mandarin or read Chinese characters unfortunately so I'm learning through people that have translated it for me and they can make assumptions. If you go and read the [inaudible 00:37:27] I've read five or six different translations and they're all so different. Some are poetic and beautiful, some are really modern, some are really traditional and follow the translations really literally but then they're a little harder to interpret in a modern context.   Tahnee: (37:43) I don't think you can say there's an unequivocal right or wrong way. I think nature is there as a great teacher and she's been there through all of the traditions and kidney time is probably one of those times where we really remember how powerful nature is and especially if you're somewhere... We're in Byron it doesn't even get that cold here but if you're somewhere where it snows like I've been Scandinavia that it shuts down. You're snowed in. Nature is so powerful that she can shut down civilization for a period of time and it's dark and it's a different experience to be in those places and I don't know what it's like to live there through winters.   Tahnee: (38:22) But I can imagine you wouldn't be going out and doing things all the time. You'd want to be staying home and staying warm and staying in bed. I know people get a lot of seasonal effectiveness disorder and these kinds of things but I think part of that's got to be that we're culturally pushing ourselves to not just stay home and rest during these times. We've separated from the family unit so people are alone in apartments when they should be with their families. Again not everyone wants to be with their families all the time. I get all of that but you can see how as we've moved away from collective living and these nature-based cultures you can see how these health problems arise. I'm using inverted commas that you can't see which really come a lot from our social and cultural context. So I think one of the things we love about this is it gives us a language and a story and an explanation for how we have noticed our own lives adapt and change as we've gotten older and smarter and wiser. Yeah. I think hopefully you guys can take some of that and find what works for you and then move on.   Mason: (39:28) Yeah. You definitely hit it and that's how institutionalised do we want these healing systems to be? Where it's like uh-uh-uh this is the system, that's the text that we have to go by therefore follow this rule. It's like hmm, I don't think that's how Daoism works and that's why there's such a split between traditional Chinese medicine which is institutionalised, and classical Chinese medicine which is based on well, what's your experience? What are you perceiving because it's reality versus road learning? So I think you're going to see more and more of that split occurring. I think you're going see more and more that split genetically towards people going on that path of not saying good or bad that's a very murky thing to say but there is a path towards cultivating greater potential, self-cultivated potential versus reliance in order to ensure that potential now I'm using inverted commas is present within the body. So one is reliant, one is self-cultivation. A little bit of both is probably good as well.   Tahnee: (40:36) If we're going to be Daoist... Well, yeah. I think you have to remember that we're a species that thrives in smallish groups so I think that's something we have to take into account is human nature. But then I also think self-cultivation and self-responsibility is really the essence of the Daoist way. I think any time we're getting to guru worship or giving away power to an ideology or some kind of text or anything then we're starting to understand that maybe we've moved away from really our own selves. I guess that's what that reflection time and that kidney... If you're exhausted... I'm a mum. I have a business. I know what it feels like to be really tired sometimes and I don't want to take care of myself. I don't want to take care of anybody else.   Tahnee: (41:25) I just want to get away from the world when I feel like that. That's not a great place to be contributing your best from. So if your kidneys are tapped out then you're not going to be even beginning to radiate shen. You're not going to have the motivation to transform into liver vision and planning and getting things done. Yeah. If you're someone like Master Seng he's on the opposite side of things who can never seem to get out of that yin state then maybe there's this stagnation in your water and you need to clear that out. You might need a different kind of treatment to the people who are like Mase and myself who are go, go, go.   Tahnee: (42:03) So I think it's important to have a look at your own pathology and your own habits. This is a personal observation in my body but if I've had a really kidney deficient month and that would look like for me not getting enough sleep, doing too much work, being a bit too busy outside of my good solid, retainer structure then my menstruation will usually have a brownish tinge which means I've really dried out my water. I'm sort of burning my blood a little bit. I'm dry and it's not good. On the flip side of that if I've had a really stressful and that would typically be more of a livery kind of month where I've been really fast-moving and anxious and stressed and in my head and thinking a lot and maybe even into spleen deficiency my blood's going to be bright red and it's going to be really thin.   Tahnee: (43:04) So that's the structure and the substance of my blood is missing. So I'm looking at my menstruation and I'm using it as this guide to say okay, well, that's moving and kidney deficiency. This is me being in liver or spleen deficiency. Then I will adjust my lifestyle and my diet depending on how that works, what I'm seeing, and what I'm observing. So there are self-reflections that I've been able to develop over the last few years thanks to support from acupuncturists and people who've helped me understand that. But now I can see what I'm doing to myself and I can have more self-awareness and self-reflection on what to adjust in my life. So those are for me things that I'm really conscious of and have to be aware of because that's this idea of your menstruation being a report card.   Tahnee: (43:50) The kidney provides the water for the blood so it's a really important part for women. Important for men too but the spleen provides the nutrition for the blood, it provides from the food the substance that makes the blood healthy. The liver cleans and transports and transforms the blood and the water from the kidneys is provided to help keep the blood fluid and flowing. So that's why I would get that brown more congested blood toward the end of my menstruation if I'm in kidney deficiency. So those are things that you can think about if you're someone who wants to learn more about that. I'd recommend going and getting a close relationship with an acupuncturist and being really open and sharing about your body and about the things you observe and getting that kind of self-awareness because it's going to help you.   Tahnee: (44:33) A lot of other people were shocked with big bags under their eyes with kidney deficiency and things like that. You can look at what your tendencies are: weak lower back, weak knees. I know if my back's going that's when I'm in kidney deficiency. Whereas for other people that could mean liver deficiency. It could mean different things so you need to learn your body signs and what it does. But if you're getting older and your knees are starting to go and your hips are starting to go those things are a pretty good sign that you're burning out your jing and you want to look at slowing down a little bit. Getting into some more restoration and maybe working with some herbs may be working with a practitioner starting to cultivate. Very important I think.   Mason: (45:10) Stillness practise, contemplation time, coming down in that afternoon period and so just remember very quickly the kidney's a regulating bone integrity, bone marrow integrity. So imagine just that life being born from that marrow pure potential for the human body. So you're tapping out your jing, you're tapping out your marrow. You're going to see faster degeneration as you age, you're going to see faster ageing come about. That's why you see, some people grey hair is inevitable but there's been countless people who are in superficial jing deficiency and kidney deficiency and have started developing greys and they go hey, I got into beauty blend and my greys have stopped coming through, what the hell's with that? I mean yeah that's not going to happen for most people who have got greys but for those of you that are really superficial, it's like yeah blood. Blood getting up there. Nourishment getting up into the hair and pigmenting.   Tahnee: (46:13) I miss [inaudible 00:46:14] because it was really good for that too. That is kidney and jing that's what you're talking about. We talked a bit about the yang of kidney but the yin of kidney is more of that substance of the blood, the marrow, the brains. The kidneys are in Daoism when Chinese medicine the brain is called the sea of marrow. So really the integrity and quality of the brain is supported by the kidney energy. So we look at using kidney hubs to support brain function and again if you think about these degenerative diseases that are now showing up especially in Western culture with the brain you can point to a lot of our habits through our society as also being implicated in that degeneration.   Mason: (47:03) Non-sustainable practises. Non-sustainable habits. Really simple. It's so boring hearing myself say it over and over again and talking to myself as well. It's really comforting as well feeling the freedom come through that discipline around okay, it's not going to stop. Sleep, consistent diet. I would love the extremes I don't think we'll get to it today. But cold plunging it's another extreme. Tahnee was talking about how nice it is just to live within the elements and respect them and be like cool I'm just going to flow with you and see what you can tell me and just yield. But we're so addicted to dominating. No, I'm not going to go with the flow. I'm not going to be conventional. I'm going to fly in the face of winter and I'm going to go further into cold plunging. We'll see if we can get to that but it's just that's all well and good in particular times of life and I'm not saying what we're doing is better than anyone else is doing but as a thought maybe we can start looking at sustainability in our lifestyle based on what's happening in the elements around us as a way to go...   Mason: (48:26) It's not a competition to not age as fast either. It's about us personally feeling our own potential and our own cultivation and our own what's possible for ourselves and then that really does come back to gosh, I don't know, I'm just looking behind you at the Daoist in Alchemy chat and I just said intergalactic journey. But it is true. It is your own intergalactic journey. Maybe that for you means there is a degenerative thing coming a little bit earlier than some other people that they didn't live sustainably. I'm not saying get caught up into that competitive way of living and I know that. I've said that because I'm bringing up the cold plunging and I know that's a relative conversation. Some people really do find benefit. At the moment I'm not saying don't do it but anyway. I've gone off task. I think I'm going to bring up the cold plunging conversation in another one because there's lots of little distinctions-   Tahnee: (49:24) Yeah. I want to be really clear that someone like Wimhauf who we've met he's devoted to his practises. He 100% is a young body type, yang like Y-A-N-G-. He's strong, lots of muscle mass. He has done lots of chi cultivation and he's an extreme example of what's possible and I'm 100% for that stuff. I'm really into it. If I didn't have all the shit going on in my life that I had I would totally be experimenting with all of that and I think what I see a lot is people go from their normal Western life to just into these practises which again in Daoism they're really common. In Tibetan Buddhism, in yoga, my teacher tells stories of the monks being buried in snow and having to melt their way out to show how strong their chi is. These are QiGong practises that you are supposed to show as a level of mastery and that's cool just learning a breathing practise and jumping in the cold all the time.   Tahnee: (50:29) It's a start of that but you don't have the context of chi or prana and you don't have that immersion in the system I guess. I don't know if Wim does that if you go on his retreats and things he takes you deeper and I'm sure there are people that are close to him who learn the real deep techniques. I'm 100% for people exploring that stuff. But we hear a lot from people who are like, oh, I got sick after cold plunging again.   Mason: (50:55) I don't have a menstrual cycle anymore.   Tahnee: (50:58) Yeah. Because cold has entered the uterus and you haven't cultivated your dantian enough your lower dantian that it's projecting heat so it's able to prevent you from getting cold penetrating into that space. So there's no talking about that it's just like oh, it's a part of cold plunging or something like that. Well, it's not. It's not a physiologically healthy thing to have happen to a woman in that time of her life. So I guess that's the kind of disclaimer and container to all that stuff. I think there's lots of really interesting conversations to be had about it because I definitely believe in it as a practise. It's really incredible but I think it's in the vortex, out of the vortex we always used to say. You have to have the container in the context and the explanation and the understanding.   Mason: (51:43) Sorry, I'm going to go because there's one little last bit of it. Can you have a yang and a yin approach atmosphere around the way that you're looking at it? I think again it's reliance. In the yang season in summer, it's great to have reliance on things to get heat because you're out there, you're experiencing, and then when you go into yin time it's like maybe I want to be able to cultivate something on my own. Maybe I want that to be a little side dish to what I can do myself.   Tahnee: (52:08) I think quickly with diet. So warming foods. So animal foods are really warming and taste yum so they can be really useful especially if you ask someone who feels the cold and who isn't particularly strong in winter. If you're not into those you can look at things like seaweeds and all of the traditional winter vegetables, your roots, your gourds, those kinds of things, pumpkins. Garlic and onions are really warming if you can tolerate them. Squash, zucchini, all those things you'll see them. I'm going to the farmer's market got all the winter vegetables coming through. Caulis all that kind of stuff. A lot of traditional things for winter weather there's herbal wines and stuff as well because alcohol is warming. Yeah, which is obviously something to do with moderation. With pepper or your Ayurvedic spices anything that warms your digestion. Ginger. Ginger tea is my number one go-to. Boil it up just slice it into fine little chunks, boil it for at least 10 minutes because you want to get it really strong. Then I put a little bit of panela sugar in that and then just drink it.   Mason: (53:17) Get the cinnamon in.   Tahnee: (53:17) It heats you up from the inside out. You just want to avoid the tropical stuff. You want to avoid too much dairy all of those things that are cooling and cold are not super helpful this time of year. Again if you look at Ayurvedic diets and things they always warm up the milk and add spices and ginger something like a chai. That's a better way to consume dairy than having a cold flavoured yoghourt or anything like that. Same with coconut and those kinds of things and a lot of people love coconut but it wouldn't be probably that ideal to have in winter.   Tahnee: (53:50) Winter it's actually one of the reasons you have spicy coconut soup things in Thailand and stuff is because coconut by nature is cold and then you add all the spice to it which helps to make you sweat and cool you down in those hot climates. So if you're looking at more of those broth kinds of things, more of those nourishing homely style meals at this time of year.   Mason: (54:11) You got to mention black foods. Kidney beans. Black sesame seed, black beans-   Tahnee: (54:21) Seaweeds. Yeah. All of those kinds of things. Molasses is really good-   Mason: (54:23) Molasses. Dark leafy greens thrown in there too... We're loving our slow-cooked meals. Soups.   Tahnee: (54:32) I don't have any affiliation with them but I bought an Instant Pot. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me, especially as a mum. It's so good. Okay. Mase is sick of hearing about my Instant Pot.   Mason: (54:45) No, I'm not.   Tahnee: (54:46) You love it too don't you?   Mason: (54:47) Yeah. I've been using it quite a bit. You will absolutely love us and your spleen will love you if you have a glass of warm to hot water first thing in the morning. That's my favourite at this time of year. Some days I forget but in winter I'm five days a week since I was in China and was told by my Daoist, my tonic herb friends that that was their favourite tonic ever. Just guys beanies, socks, long walks in nature.   Tahnee: (55:21) Yeah because cold gets into ears which are related to the kidneys, the back of the head, the neck, the back of the neck around C7, the lower back, and then down really through all the joints in the lower body and the soles of the feet. Also through the arms and the hands so you really want to cover as much as you can but you'll have an area where you have a tendency to be weak so you want to be extra mindful of that. So for me, it's the feet and the back of the neck. I have to keep those areas warm otherwise I can feel the cold getting in. So you'll just have to play around with that and see what you really feel you need to stay warm but that's important.   Mason: (56:00) Having a break from stimulants. Don't have to be strict if you like them you like them. It is like throwing pebbles into the pond so you can't look down into your depths. That's why we do 30 days of jing in Australian winter. Sorry Northern hemisphere folks but it's even in the middle of summer it's a great experience for you guys to all have. Just getting off stimulants for 30 days and you can do it anytime. We've got all the resources there. We've got a Facebook group there for you to go and join and just give you the down low but it's basically adding in the jing herbs or the jing formula which are the kidney, that's the kidney formula. Really great herbs to be having during the winter. You might feel in the beginning there might be three weeks or four weeks in the beginning of the winter season where you're craving the kidney herbs, jing herbs, and then maybe you don't feel like them as much. Don't worry about that. It's like there's no rule that you have to have only kidney herbs when you're in winter but it's maybe just a little bit of a guide. That's what I'm like in spring. At the start I'll go two or three weeks hard on the beauty blend and then it just breaks out and I'm off doing intuitively whatever I want.   Tahnee: (57:14) Well, yeah because as the seasons change and this is in the Neijing as well I'm pretty sure. I think it's the first 18 days of every season as you're transitioning in it when the chi is the most unstable. So you're really wanting to smooth the transition as much as you can. So I often think about that as what can I do to stabilise as much as possible during this time? Yeah, I always feel the same at the first few weeks of the season coming in and I'm really hyper-aware of it, and then it settles in and it's just part of life those next couple of months. But, yeah, I think it's important to remember that's usually when people get sick because they're clinging to old habits or they're not really listening to what their body's asking for as the season changes and that's where the herbs can help to cultivate the organ systems and support them because the seasons demand a lot of the organ systems that they're correlated to. So that's why we can support them with herbs. I'm really lacking Chaga at the moment which is common for me. In winter I'll start to use Chaga again. I don't usually use it through the rest of the year.   Mason: (58:26) Pregnancy in winter for you.   Tahnee: (58:28) Yeah. Funny.   Mason: (58:33) Yeah. Big shout out to Chaga, Chaga has been my go-to winter herb. I forgot to message you yesterday and ask to bring a big bag home but go and do that right now. Thanks, guys. I was just going to give a shout out to the yoga Nidra as a winter practise as well-   Tahnee: (58:53) I love yoga Nidra.   Mason: (58:54) ...and yin yoga if you get on our newsletter list and jump on Instagram as well. Tiny has got some yin yoga sequences coming up.   Tahnee: (59:06) Yeah. I forgot about that but we have shot the photos and what I was thinking is for each season I'd give you a sequence or a couple of sequences to practise during the three or four months of the season just to help cultivate the chi. We've been sharing some Daoist practises. We've been sharing like in autumn we have lung tapping and all of those kind of things. We've got some stuff filmed for kidneys which is coming up and we're just going to keep trying to give you guys some lifestyle stuff as well to support because I think for both of us that's really been a big part of our journeys is not just taking the herbs but also using them with the practises that support the function of the herbs and the health of the chi in the body.   Tahnee: (59:53) So yin is something that I love and I think it's really easy to do at home. You don't need to be good at yoga. You don't need to be flexible. You don't need to be really... I often do it in my UGG boots and my tracksuit on the floor. It's not very attractive but it does the job and it's really quite easy just to be still and feel into your body. It's a very yin kind of kidney practise. So I think hopefully you guys will love that and you can send through any requests if you want sequences for any type of thing. But yeah. I don't think there's much else to say there at this point.   Mason: (01:00:30) No, thanks, everybody. I hope you join us on the 30 days of jing. You can find that over on Facebook. You can look up the group, 30 days of jing and you'll find it there and request to join.   Tahnee: (01:00:43) We'll all be doing it, not all of us at the office, most of us at the office will be doing it and I'm really excit

In this episode I catch up with my friend and Mentor Ship and discuss all things Meditation.If you are interested in getting your 200hr YTT check out Mothership, they are currently taking applications for their upcoming course starting September 2021. https://mothershipyoga.com/teacher-training/Here's a little bit more about Michelle and Mothership Yoga.Michelle Shipley (aka Ship) E-RYT 500 Hour Yoga Alliance MemberI'm in LOVE with my yoga practice! A hyper, type A personality, I found yoga after trying kickboxing and almost completing a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  Apparently, I thought kicking people made me feel better? In 2003 I tried a yoga class with Paola Di Paolo in Toronto and was hooked.  Returning to the mat moving slowly and deliberately began to offer benefits no other workout had. I began to sleep better, live with compassion, and deal with years of unresolved grief.In January 2007,  I travelled to Nosara, Costa Rica to study under world-renowned yogis, Don and Amba Stapleton, at the Nosara Yoga Institute where I became certified as a Yoga Alliance recognized Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher.  More recently my studies have included workshops and master classes in Ashaya Yoga lead by Todd Norian,  Amy Ipoliti, Rod Stryker, Rodney Yee, Colleen Saidman Yee and Tiffany Cruikshank Yoga Medicine.In yoga we are asked to check our egos at the door – which I can do – but – I travel with my sense of humour and I find it to be such a good tool when guiding a yoga class!  The foundations of my classes are a gentle Hatha Yoga based practice exploring Yin Yoga postures while incorporating a strong emphasis on Iyengar's alignment principals.  Breathwork with emphasis on coming home to the body as a major theme is presented through guided meditation and asana practice.Mothership Yoga Wild Wellness Retreats began in 2008 offering a wonderful mix of yoga practice, theory, guided meditation, massage, sound therapy and plant-based whole foods. We retreat in Ontario Canada, OBX North Carolina and Nicaragua. Mothership School of YogaValerie Giles joined Michelle Shipley of Mothership Yoga in May of 2015  where Val and Ship co-founded the Mothership School of Yoga.  We are very pleased to be offering a MODULE BASED; Yoga Alliance Accredited, 200 hours Hatha Yoga Teacher Training + 300 Hour  Advanced Yoga Teacher Training in London, Ontario with plans to take both courses around the globe.Every Mothership School of Yoga Teacher Training and Mothership CommUNITY class is tailored to the individual clients in the room.  We educate highly skilled instructors who are adept at offering modifications to each posture.Be sure to follow Ship & Mothership on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mothershipyoga/Check out some of these studies on Meditation and the Benefits https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depthhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/?sh=484d0dbf1465https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation

We have Tahnee and Mason jumping on the podcast today, delving into the season of Autumn - Lung Metal time with all the essentials on the best practices and herbs to support our Lungs, digestion, Qi, and protective Wei Qi as we descend into these cosier months. In the tradition of Chinese medicine the Lung is paired with the Large Intestine, so not only is this a season to focus on breath, letting go, and cutting away what is no longer needed, it's also a time to direct energy towards digestion. Tahnee and Mason dive into the foods for this season to best nourish digestion and the cathartic process of digesting, assimilating and, releasing experiences in this last cycle of seasons.    As the air cools down and we observe Mother Nature contracting into her next rhythm, we find ourselves in a macro/micro reflection, naturally being pulled to go within. With wisdom and nurturing truth, Tahnee and Mason encourage us to fall into this space of transformation, exhale the high energy of warmer months, condense our Yin energy and support ourselves through daily practices that allow what is no longer needed to fall away. Tune in for soul nourishing knowledge.    Tahnee and Mason discuss: Specific protective herbs to cultivate and maintain Qi & Wei Qi. Supporting and regulating Qi in the body. Supporting Yin energy. The qualities of Metal energy. The importance of seasonal living. Herbs to support the Lungs and Kidneys. Herbs and practices to prepare the body for Winter. The 'medicine' that comes through evolving with the seasons. Physical exercises to support Lung Metal energy. Breathwork, meditation, and practices for introspection. Foods, herbs, and tips for hydration and fluid regulation in this Yin cultivating season.   Tahnee and Mason Taylor Tahnee and Mason Taylor are the CEO and founder of SuperFeast (respectively). Their mission with SuperFeast is to improve the health, healing, and happiness of people and the planet, through sharing carefully curated offerings and practices that honour ancient wisdom and elevate the human spirit. Together Tahnee and Mason run their company and host the SuperFeast podcast, weaving their combined experience in herbs, yoga, wellness, Taoist healing arts, and personal development with lucid and compelling interviews from all around the world. They are the proud parents of Aiya and Goji, the dog, and are grateful to call the Byron Shire home.   Tahnee Taylor Tahnee Taylor is the CEO of SuperFeast and has been exploring health and human consciousness since her late teens. From Yoga, which she first practiced at school in 2000, to reiki, herbs, meditation, Taoist and Tantric practices, and human physiology, her journey has taken her all over. This journey continues to expand her understanding and insight into the majesty (that is) the human body and the human experience. Tahnee graduated with a Journalism major and did a stint in non-fiction publishing (working with health and wellness authors and other inspiring creatives), advertising, many jobs in cafes, and eventually found herself as a Yoga teacher. Her first studio, Yoga for All, opened in 2013, and Tahnee continues to study Yoga with her teachers Paul + Suzee Grilley and Rod Stryker. She learned Chi Nei Tsang and Taoist healing practices from Master Mantak Chia. Tahnee continues to study herbalism and Taoist practices, the human body, women's wisdom, ancient healing systems, and is currently enrolled in an acupuncture degree and year-long program with The Shamanic School of Womancraft. Tahnee is the mother of one, a 4-year old named Aiya.   Mason Taylor Mason Taylor is the founder of SuperFeast. Mason was first exposed to the ideas of potentiating the human experience through his mum Janesse (who was a big inspiration for founding SuperFeast and is still an inspiration to Mason and his team due to her ongoing resilience in the face of disability). After traveling South America for a year, Mason found himself struggling with his health - he was worn out, carried fungal infections, and was only 22. He realised that he had the power to take control of his health. Mason redirected his attention from his business degree and night work in a bar to begin what was to become more than a decade of health research, courses, education, and mentorship from some of the leaders in personal development, wellness, and tonic herbalism. Inspired by the own changes to his health and wellbeing through his journey (which also included Yoga teacher training and raw foodism!), he started SuperFeast in 2010. Initially offering a selection of superfoods, herbs, and supplements to support detox, immune function, and general wellbeing. Mason offered education programs around Australia, and it was on one of these trips that he met Tahnee, who is now his wife and CEO of SuperFeast. Mason also offered detox and health transformation retreats in the Byron hinterland (some of which Tahnee also worked on, teaching Yoga and workshops on Taoist healing practices, as well as offering Chi Nei Tsang treatments to participants). After falling in love with the Byron Shire, Mason moved SuperFeast from Sydney's Northern Beaches to Byron Bay in 2015. He lived on a majestic permaculture farm in the Byron hinterland, and after not too long, Tahnee joined him (and their daughter, Aiya was conceived). The rest is history - from a friend's rented garage to a warehouse in the Byron Industrial Estate to SuperFeast's current home in Mullumbimby's beautiful Food Hub, SuperFeast (and Mason) has thrived in the conscious community of the Northern Rivers. Mason continues to evolve his role at SuperFeast, in education, sourcing, training, and creating the formulas based on Taoist principles of tonic herbalism.   Resources: TremellaAstragalus Qi Blend Reishi Cordyceps Mason's Mushrooms    Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee: (00:00) Hi, everybody, Mason and Tahnee here, we're here to talk with you about the autumn herbs that we love. We wanted to share with you some of the tonics that we would use in this season, helping to sort of regulate the qi of the season, which relates to the lung organ in the body, which is also paired with the large intestine in Chinese medicine. And this is the metal element. So it's really a lot to do with letting go. It's a lot to do with our breath and our digestion. It's a lot to do with being able to assimilate all of the beauty and the gifts and the accomplishments that we've made over the last cycle of life. And then to sort of let go of anything we don't need as we move into the winter months. Tahnee: (00:44) So it's a time unlike summer were we're all out there and excited and active. It's a time more of coming in, the cooling and condensing yin energy. So we really want to support that, we want to support our yin as best we can at this time. And so a lot of the herbs that we'll work with in this season will kind of support not just the lung, but also the kidney energy as well, as we transition toward the winter months. Do you want to chat a little bit about what we have here? Mason: (01:12) Yeah, it's just such a, bringing up, moving into winter, I just think it's always, for me, the value of autumn when I put it in context of the entire year, but especially the fact that we're going into winter and preparing for that time. Always being aware of the season that you're in is going to end and lead into another period and they all weave in and work in together. And if the lungs can be nice and vibrant and healthy, metal attracts water, that's going to descend down, become the yin of the body. I mean, if you're tired and exhausted and need more foundational essence, it's a really good thing to just tune into what Tans were saying then about letting go and supporting that lung tube. But yeah, what are you diving in to? I know you can't see them, but I think we brought astragalus, chi, reishi, cordyceps, Mason's mushrooms. Tahnee: (02:02) Yeah. Well, I mean, qi was the one that you put together, but we sort of chatted about the intention behind that. And when we look at what we are working on, when we're talking about chi, the lungs are really this capacity of the body to bring in qi from the air. Yes, there's also oxygen and CO2 and nitrogen, all these things coming in, but really when we look at the ancient traditions, breath is all about chill or prana. So we're trying to capacitate the body to store and condense as much energy into the body as possible. So yeah, like Mason was saying, when it's this time of year, you want to be resting more and you really probably want to amp up those self-care practises. There's a saying, and I think it's in the Suwen where it's like, "In summer you can get away with a lot more than you can in autumn and winter." Tahnee: (02:47) You just have to be a bit more careful and a bit more mindful. So that's why we would start to use those more protective herbs at this time. So chi, if you think about what qi is, qi is that life force that moves through the body, but it's also exists in different forms within the body. And we don't want to get too technical here, but there's a type of qi called wei chi, which is your surface immunity. Or I think of it more as your defence field. If you can imagine that you have a protective shell of energy around you and we've all felt what it feels like when that gets infiltrated, usually by things that travel, or lots of people, those kinds of things. Or when we just burn ourselves out. qi is sort of when we work on the wei chi, we're aiming to expand that barrier, I guess. An energetic barrier that we have, which protects us against energetic invasion and also physical, which can also correlate that to energetic viruses, bacteria, these kinds of things that try and get into the body. Tahnee: (03:45) And they're only getting if there's a pathway in. So one of the things that we do with preventative medicine is try to prevent that pathway from existing. And so most people do find that if they aren't taking care of themselves, they will get sick when the seasons change. And that's because the qi becomes really unsteady and our bodies are unable to handle that, and so we get unwell. Similarly through autumn and into winter, if we aren't maintaining that self-care practise and that ability to sort of maintain our healthy chi, then we are going to get weaker and more prone to infections and those kinds of things. So you don't have to get sick in winter. In fact in an ideal world, you wouldn't, so that's what these things are fun. So I love qi at this time of year, it has astragalus in it. It has a bunch of other herbs that support the spleen as well. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about your intention with putting together chi? Mason: (04:38) It's been a really appropriate blend for the previous season, being that of the earth, but even more so now in autumn. Even though these herbs are supporting that transformation of qi through to explain and what you eat, and then through what you breathe to become your nutritive qi that gets into your organs. But as Tanie is saying, if you can think lungs being the metal, I kind of also... It's energetic. Sometimes I feel like when my qi is getting strong, that regulatory qi that runs just underneath the surface of the skin and then can energetically push out. It creates this big metal shield. And that is what comes about through having strong lung qi and a capacity to transform the wei qi through what you breathe in. So through having astragalus as the one of the top herbs in there with the other beautiful lung herbs, white atractylodes, codonopsis, bringing in the Turkey Tail as well. Mason: (05:34) The intention was to support through fluid regulation, as well as a number of other functions, is to just simply cultivate qi within the lung through supporting that lung system in transforming between the yin and yang energy. And that is all you need to be doing is capacitating the lung organ through herbs, through living appropriately with the seasons, so everything's, as Tans was saying, it's starting to descend now a little bit. So you start getting a little less intense with the way that you're living. It's not so much fiery summer vibes. And if you do that, you cultivate that qi in through the lung, you create that shield, life feels all a little bit better. And so the qi herbs are funnily the ones that the Taoists will take constantly. They'll never stop them. And so you can see a reishi's in there as well. But astragalus' one of those top ones that they will say, "I just never stop." Because you never stopped wanting that strong, qi cultivation in through your organs and that shield, but this is the season. Mason: (06:42) And it's amazing how everyone, when the amount of hundreds, it must be thousands at this point, people who kind of clock on to taking qi herbs now. It's probably the one that's the easiest one for people to relate to because people really want to prepare for winter and fortify themselves. And so the biggest transformation of realising, "Ah, sometimes if I take herbs appropriately for the season, I see this huge change months down." That's probably, taking qi herbs in autumn is probably the one that will create the biggest perception, and people will see how you can transform your life if you get onto the herbs at the right time. Tahnee: (07:23) Yeah. And I mean, that's similar to why the mushrooms work so well as well though. A lot of them have, we were talking about the treasures in Taoism, so you're looking at Jin, Qi & Shen, and a lot of the mushrooms are triple treasure herbs. So they work on all three at the same time, or they will have sort of one or two really strong correlations or functions. So something like Mason's mushrooms is going to have things like reishi and cordyceps in there, which support lung function. And when we're supporting also the flow of the qi in the body, so Mason was talking about the spleen before, the lung and the spleen work really closely together. Tahnee: (07:59) So they're basically producing the qi that powers our body, and that's called true human qi in Daoism, in the translation obviously, and that relationship between healthy digestion and healthy assimilation and then healthy breathing. And then the ability for our bodies to be powered by that, that stops us from drawing from our reserves, stops us draining our Jing. So you'll see a lot of the time in the West, people breathe very shallow, there's not a diaphragmatic breath. You can hear Aria in the background. And so what we're aiming for in this season is to really prioritise a nice deep, expensive breath and supporting the body with this lung herbs. So Mason's is another one that we would recommend all the time, but we would also really specially look at it in these kinds of seasons where we want to build immunity and we want to start thinking about storing chi. So just like a squirrel is going to bury his acorns in autumn so he has something old for winter time. We're kind of looking to do the same thing in ourselves. Tahnee: (09:03) So it's something that I think is a really important thing to consider when we're thinking about seasonal living is, "All right, yes. So maybe you have been able to express and dream and vision in spring time, I've done that sort of party expression, joy thing in summer, and spent my late summer harvesting and assimilating and digesting everything. And now we're coming down into autumn." It's like, "Let go of what we don't need, focus on rest and prioritising our self-care and turning into these techniques and traditions that have this support for us." So this is where our herbal practise, for me, would really ramp up. In somewhere, I might be a bit loose with my herbs every day, in autumn, no looseness. Like, I'm on. And we'll be doing breathing practises, and you are supposed to sleep more so you maybe won't be waking up as early, but you'll maybe try and use those early morning hours to do breathing practises. And so Mason's got some other videos that we can share them, we can share some Pranayama and things like that, but that's something you want to bring in. And you'll notice it, if you're taking qi herbs, doing the breathing practises, working the upper body, you'll really noticed a shift shifted this time of year. We've also got cordyceps there, I think? Mason: (10:26) Yeah, it's just here. Tahnee: (10:26) So, do you want to talk about cordy? Mason: (10:26) Yeah, I was just, everything you said then has given me a bunch of insights. The preparation time you put in now, like the squirrel getting the acorns, means that if you let go of the summer energy, because there's also mourning going on within the grief within the lungs, and if you can successfully let go of the summer, you don't waste your grieving energy on grieving for summer. You can actually go and grieve the things that you're appropriately ready to let go off and have that beautiful experience of letting go and then the potential for new life to come through. The herbs support us with doing that. But with cordyceps, I was just thinking, what a lot of people do is hold onto that summer. And so you might feel the association that you have to cordyceps still being one of fire and wanting to feel your endurance and the capacity and the yang elements of your workout being potentiated. Mason: (11:18) Now we still work out in autumn, but you'll find that what will come forth as a quality is one that's less of complete activation. We're starting to actually just to descend, and so we're going for quality, not quantity. And so with the cordyceps, you will see the taking of cordyceps maybe the focus won't therefore be on you getting maximum output, but you'll take cordyceps and and have like a deepening of the quality of your breath practise. You might want to go a little bit more inside rather than looking at what you're outputting externally. You want to see what you can perceive and what capacity you're increasing internally through taking cordyceps during this time. And that could be really transformational. Doesn't mean that it doesn't actually help with endurance and your power and all those kinds of things. Mason: (12:09) It still absolutely does. And I've got a couple of friends actually, who are working on going for the CrossFit Games right now. And for them, it can still bring forward the qualities, but they're definitely focused on output. So it's make your own adventure, but just dip into that methodical metal energy that's there right now. That's just a bit more like I just said, standing solid and going a little bit more inside. And so if you can apply that intention to when you're taking your cordyceps, I think you might find you get even more output when you get around to those points like spring and summer next year, you'll find you've actually gone next level. Tahnee: (12:54) I think that's interesting. Because I often used to talk to shift workers when I taught yoga and they'd be like, "Oh, I can't live with the circadian rhythm because I work at night." And it's like, "Okay, but that's fine, you still need to have rhythm." So what humans thrive on, we're really animals at the end of the day, we are attached to this cyclical nature of the earth and how we're rotating around the sun and you know, this galaxy and the universe and all of these things. There's this kind of cycle that exists within everything on this planet, from the cells and the atoms in the body all the way up to the macrocosm. So if you're training for CrossFit games right now, and it's not a time for you to rest, you're still going to emphasise your kidney energy because that's sort of the foundation and the place where the metal is going to pour itself into. Tahnee: (13:47) And you're also going to at some point have time where you slow down and accumulate qi and allow everything to gather back in and the way in which the sort of concept of metal is expressed in the Daoist tradition is this sort of bowl that they used to have on the top of the mountains that all the dew would condense onto and they would capture the precious water from that. And this idea that the lungs being the sort of roof of the organs in the body, right up high, let's forget about the brain for a second, and they allow the qi to condense down into the kidneys and we can store that for our sort of next phase of development and growth and evolution. Tahnee: (14:25) This idea that we're kind of constantly on a spiral of evolution. This is really what we need to remember to have in our lives. So if you're someone who travels a lot, air hostesses that would always be in different time zones and it's like, "Fine, but you still need to have these phases of life where you slow down, condense, assimilate, use a kind of discernment." Like when Mason's saying that methodical nature of metal, metal is like the sword, right? It can cut and it can be incredibly discerning, and it can say, "No, enough's enough. That's too much, whatever, grief." Again, what Mason's talking about, you might start working with qi and kind of long herbs and suddenly have repressed memories come up. And that's not a bad thing, that's stored in your body as an energetic imprint and if it's moving, well that's something that we would typically say is good, right? Tahnee: (15:18) As long as you have the space in the container to feel that, and that's why there's this invitation to slow down and start turning within, which is what yin is all about. It's about the slow kind of feminine dark aspect, the inner aspect, that interiority. As opposed to yang being all of the expression and the outward, and it's about everybody else, it's not about me. So that's the invitation of this energy. So you might be watching this in springtime and feel a calling to that, and that's fine. You're leaning into an intuitive sort of sense of needing to be held in that way. And one thing our acupuncturist used to always say is, if you haven't been living with the seasons, and let's face it, even those of us that are aware of this, aren't perfect, it takes a while. Tahnee: (16:03) It takes a while for your system and your lifestyle to adapt to these ideas. It's not something that happens overnight. And he used to always say, "To even say that you're living with the seasons you have to live perfectly through at least one cycle. At least one year of full living to really even understand what you're starting to talk about." So I think it's a really interesting thing to start to feel into and explore. And as you start to learn about the stuff, you work with the herbs, they sort of bring out these experiences in here. And it's for me, such a powerful medicine, and I think like Mason's saying in another video, I think we were talking about our culture's just disassociated from nature, we've lost that. And this is a way to sort of regain some sovereignty and some deep connection to the source of life, which is the sun, the earth, the stars, the [inaudible 00:17:00], and all the other plants and animals around us. Mason: (17:02) Hmm, beautiful. Tahnee: (17:04) Anything else you want to say? Mason: (17:07) I might just finish off. I didn't bring any tremella, but tremella mushroom is just the final very- Tahnee: (17:13) Ah, it's tremella. Mason: (17:13) I mean, yeah, tremella just sits on a mantle in our kitchen. Tahnee: (17:21) We just have like a kilo of it, so it's not very attractive. Mason: (17:21) At all times. Just a beautiful nutritive, these are all food grade herbs, but tremella's like very much a food. So you can have more of it than most herbs. Very lubricating for the stomach, but very lubricating for the lungs, so if you do find yourself, it's a very dry season. And so this is why a lot of, there's Poria and white atractylodes helping to regulate fluids in the body through this spleen, and the lung does a lot of regulation of the fluid. And so ideally if you're healthy and not being an air hostess, that's different. If you're up in a dry environment like that all the time, ideally you can get through without getting any dryness coming up in your skin, which isn't bad if it does come up. If so, just focus on your hydration, but then that's where those qi herbs and then tremella can come in at another layer to bring some really beautiful hydration to your lungs and therefore your skin. Tahnee: (18:20) Yeah. Normally the lung correlates to the skin, to the sort of nose region as well. So we're kind of going to be seeing things expressing through there if there's imbalances, so like Mason's saying, if you're starting to notice that skin's drying out it is a good chance to look at how much you're burning through your energy and your chi. Could be that you need to rest more, hydrate more, take herbs like tremella. Be a good chance to see a practitioner and have a chat about what's going on for you. So yeah, if you're interested in more of this stuff, we're going to have more content coming. Mason: (18:54) Yeah, just subscribe, like, share, do all the things. The more you guys do that and the more you guys comment and let us know how you're finding this information, the deeper we will go, and I think everyone will benefit from that. But you know, if you want us to just shut up and say, "Take adaptogens!" You can let us know that as well, but we'll probably delete it. Joking! We're all laughing. Mason: (19:23) Hi everybody, let's go through some basic tips and ways to get in the flow with this season, with the autumn energy. The reason we are doing this is because when we are being exactly considerate, this is what the Daoist said, you got to be considerate of where the earth is in relation to the sun and the moon. And the way that we can get direct perception of such a macro concept is what's going on in the seasons. And we can emulate, and it's not even emulating, it's just going to where our body wants to go. And so by doing these little simple things, there's definitely ways that we can unpack each of these and go deep and personalise them as well, they're quite general. But by doing this, we are ensuring we're supporting the lung metal qi to cultivate and transform through that entire lung organ system. Mason: (20:14) When that happens, life gets a lot easier. Now, yes, but stop thinking about your 80, 90 year old self. The seasons allow us to go and enjoy the seasonality of ourselves, so there might be qualities here of this lung season, where you might just be a lung person. You might be methodical and tend towards being melancholy and all these kinds of things. You're rigid, it's hard for you to change, you're a perfectionist. We've all got an element of that there within ourselves, it might not be what's dominant for me, it's not completely dominant, but I really relate to this season. It's like absolute medicine for me as I'm such a creative open person. And sometimes it's hard for me to come back down to earth. For me it's definite medicine, but for everyone, we get to enjoy the seasonality of our emotions and ourselves and the process that it takes to evolve ourselves, so that when we get to 80, 90 years old, hopefully we've become elders who have earned the right to pass on our wisdom to those who are younger. Mason: (21:16) But it starts here and now, so the first one is really just getting into the general energy, you want to make sure that you're not really attached and holding onto that summer energy. And that's quite often, I know here in Australia, everyone's just, we think we've got a two second little winter and it's just like, "All right, this is just a space holder until we get back to the warmer months." But you know, really stepping into it and embracing of the fact that things are starting to cool down, days are a little bit shorter and just letting go. Summer is done. It's gone, let's accept that. And that's what this season is all about. We start very quickly there, then we can get actually into the reality that we are in autumn and we're in a yin descending energy. Mason: (22:04) Accepting that, embracing that. Then you're going to be able to get into the beautiful cleaning and dirty work that... I say dirty work because we are letting go here in this season. And it's not just a letting go. This is our first tip, getting into this energy, allowing this to come into presence in the way that you're designing your lifestyle, the way your practise looks, is getting into this letting go energy. But it's not always just an ambiguous, "Oh, I'm just going to let go of whatever there is that I don't need." That's an element, and we're constantly doing that with the breath, and as we do that, we're kind of chopping away some and taking on a big rug of perfectionism or unrealistic expectation or excessive judgement of ourselves that isn't really being useful for our capacity to perceive our own intrinsic value, and that's what we're looking for here. Mason: (22:59) But remember this metal, it's precise and it's not ambiguous. And so you'll consciously take that chef's knife or that samurai sword and contemplate and consider what you want to carve away and drop and let fall to the earth. So that in that trust of this process of letting go of that which you feel like, "I might practise not having that with me, I'll keep on cutting away that way of judging or that style of perfectionism or whatever it is, cut it away. Cut it away and drop it." It's in permaculture, that's chop and drop. That is what then goes in and puts nitrogen into the soil. That's what goes in and nourishes the soil so that it can become mineralized and lush and rich. And you can get that beautiful decomposing and decaying going on. Mason: (23:50) And then when you get around, you've had an appropriate winter. You get around to spring time, you're going to start getting a real reaping of new beautiful energy being breathed into your life. And that's the opportunity here, so if you can get in a presence that that is, you don't have to think about this all the time, but there's a particular energy of you drop in and feel that metal energy. You feel the qualities that we're talking about in how it personally feels to you and allow that to come to the surface during this season, then you're going to have a much smoother ride letting go. Mason: (24:24) Now, number two, very simple one. I know a lot of people, this is something I never thought I'd say when I was in my twenties, I was like... All those basic grandma little tips that come from Chinese medicine or even from my grandparents, it's like, "Cover up when you go out and it's cold. If it's windy, put a scarf on." That in autumn, and winter, but especially in autumn, when it kicks up and gets a little bit windy, putting that scarf on and protecting your neck from the cold and the wind, such a top tip. Mason: (24:56) And it's really relevant for me, when I was like I was saying in my twenties, because in my twenties, I just had so much time to do my personal practise and cultivate my energy and spend so much time in the sun. I was just able to do whatever I wanted to stay vibrantly healthy and I had a nice strong metabolism. And so I didn't feel the relevance of doing those extra little things like putting a scuff on making sure I've got socks on and shoes on, covering up when it's getting a little bit cold. And so I'm not letting that cold energy into my body. It's not a smart thing to be doing when you're yin. But as I've, I'm working a little bit more and I've got a child and I don't have all that crazy time to stay cultivated, these little tips, like putting a scaffold and stopping that wind from penetrating your body. Mason: (25:43) And what it does that wind is especially cutting in through the neck and it beats down at that surface protective wei chi, that protective energy that's like a shield. Can beat away at it, beat away, beat away, and that it penetrates. And then it's allowing a doorway for all those other pathogens, viruses and things to be able to get in during that season. So you might as well just cover up your neck. The benefits of staying exposed to the elements are in short little snippets, like that cold exposure. Go and do your cold exposure, but do it in short snippets, don't always be exposed to the cold. And if you're doing extremes, make sure your body's got the juice, the Jing, and the hates to be able to bring itself back to centre without too much fuss. Shoes and socks on, scarf on. Very important. Mason: (26:31) It's a dry season. Hydration is super important and it's a really wonderful time for you to be really focused on you're cultivating waters. Now, if you get into of the energy of the season, the metal will accumulate and attract water. And then that allows distil that down and send that down to the kidney. So you will have a very successful winter. You won't be spending winter healing from all the burnout from the yang months. If you can transition now into a yin time energy, you will start accumulating all this beautiful, these waters and this yin, this descending energy, this quietening down energy, and then you'll get to winter and you'll actually be cultivating, not healing. And if you want to be a really vibrant, healthy 80, 90 year, old, hundred year old and beyond, where you're not relying on drugs and surgery. I'm not saying that's bad or a failure if that's what happens, but if you want to have that intention, this is a really important season. Really, really important season. Mason: (27:29) And bringing up failure, this is a methodical time in terms of bringing the energy of the lung season. It's very objective, just very matter of fact, this metal energy. And so you can look at objectively there's things that you might've failed in doing. And don't avoid feeling that failure and mourning, say the loss of something, there are a lot of people in this season will go like, "Oh, if only I'd made this choice of doing this degree, or if I hadn't burned the bridge with that person." A lot of melancholy a lot of really consistently mourning or going over your failures because it's a perfectionist season. But if we can presence all those failures and accept what we've done, and then ease into them, we can start to see the value that was there in that failure and then integrate the lessons and move on very objectively. Mason: (28:22) This isn't a la-di-da like, "Oh, just slap some positivity pie on it." Put flowers on a piece of poo, the poo's still there. No, we want to look at the poo and see, and feel the intrinsic value of that experience. And you can bring that into your meditative practise and into your cognitive practise. That would be very useful. But back on hydration, lots of water. Water first thing in the morning. Start making maybe a little bit of warm water if your body has a hard time getting warm. Little pinch of sea salt can be a beautiful way to charge your water and then spinning your water and vortexing it. Get that electrical charge going. We love water with electrical charge. Shake it up. Don't just drink stagnant still water. Where do you see stagnant, still water in nature that's acceptable for drinking? You don't. Mason: (29:09) Animals and humans, we always go for the moving water because it's alive and it's vibrant. And that's the same I want you to be doing with the water that you drink and get the quality of water up. I'm just going to continue to be drinking wild spring water. It's the only way to go for me, but if I am drinking something that's not wild spring water, I'll be putting molecular hydrogen in it. And that's a tip and something that I think is really important for this day and age to make your water better. And it's just a little, little thing that you can add in. I get mine from supercells. Mason: (29:37) Next, we're going onto the food. Eating appropriately. We can go so deep on this, but the colour of the autumn is white and so you start moving into some like white foods, congee is just like the absolute, should be on the flag of autumn. We've got a beautiful congee recipe over at SuperFeast. You can go type congee into SuperFeast, and you'll be able to find that. But then obviously it's going to be seasonality, it's going to be know pumpkins and squash and pears and apples are going to start to come in. And the beautiful thing is you cook and poach those kinds of foods, they are really fluid forming. They deliver a lot of fluids to the body. And so you're going to find that with like persimmons and all these beautiful autumn foods, that they help to cultivate water within the body. Mason: (30:23) It's great to add tremella if you are particularly dry as well to your recipes as well, sweet and savoury, it's a really beautiful food. And then just little additional like hemp seeds, walnuts also deliver a lot of, particularly to the lungs and the large intestine, deliver and help cultivate some fluids. So it might be nice to start sprinkling them on some on top of some of your soups, crushing them up on some of your soups, a really great way to go about it. Exercise, exercise is going to start, the priority and the focus of your exercise and practise is no longer going to be, say the fiery gains of summer, but the energy of which we've talked about today. It's going to start to going a little bit less on the prioritisation of flogging yourself, getting gains, mass sweating sessions, and you want to stop bringing that methodical energy, that almost an analytical kind of energy to getting the value. You want to first of all, start with finding intrinsic value in yourself rather than flying out into ambiguity of getting gains in your body. Mason: (31:28) You also want to start looking at, when you're practising , you want to start watching for where you're judging yourself heavily, you've failed, you haven't hit this, at this age I thought you'd be here. So on and so forth, and then really get the value of your experience and then go forth with, and it's a really good season to have solid plans. Start tracking your physical practise, tracking for the year ahead where you'd realistically, because it's very grounded, realistic season, what you would like to achieve in your body. What's actually valuable to you and what's not valuable to you and has been projected onto you based on a past ideology you were or marketing messages, whatever it is, you can start really feeling what's valuable to you for your physical and energetic output through your meditation and your practise and these kinds of things. Mason: (32:19) But mainly to start relaxing, don't go too hard. If you're doing saunas, same thing. You don't want to be releasing heaps of fluid right now. So if you're having a sauna, or your infrared sauna, just open the door maybe a little bit, you're still getting blasted with those infrared, far, near, mid infrared rays, and they're still doing beautiful stuff at mobilising your body, maybe just don't sweat so much. And if you are, have a mineral complex or sea salt that you having and really focus on that rehydrating. What else have we got to talk about? Smell, right? So we want lots of time as we start descending, it's a lot of yin. Hopefully in a family flow, you can start doing a little bit of less, we're in a family flow, right now you can hear Aria in the background, not wanting to go to daycare today. But what you're going to see is like, hopefully you can start having less of the crazy obligations and social interactions that come with the summer months. Mason: (33:16) It's so beautiful when they're there, but you really need a reprieve and so hopefully you can start dedicating more time say with your family or with yourself just being in nature, at the beach, going for walks and particularly just spending time and then a little bit of contemplation, right? And then focus on the smell, engage the lungs through the sense. And so really focused this season on the smells that are in the forest or at the beach or wherever you are, even if it is in the beautiful suburb that you're able to go to nearby and walk through. That's what you want to be really focusing on. Same in your cooking. You're using more spices and engaging your senses and that'll get your lungs really salivating, and what happens when you salivate? You start secreting fluids, and that's what we want. We want lots of fluids coming out through getting engaged through our sense of smell. Mason: (34:10) Finally, we, no, no 'finally', that's it. Guys, just remember it's a very practical, it's a beautifully practical season and it's one that is absolute medicine for us in our Western worlds. And you don't have to do it all right now, you're going to have lots of these, hopefully. Lots of these autumns to do this. So start slow, be really intentional. Let go. Really start letting go, and then allowing yourself to perceive your own uniqueness, the uniqueness around you, the value you have intrinsically, the value around you. That happens when you can start letting go.

It's that time of year again, where we descend from the peak of summer months, from the highs of long days and energised bodies, into a coming back to earth and ourselves. This fulcrum between seasons, coming out of summer but not quite in the preparations of Autumn/metal time, corresponds with the earth element. It's a time to anchor yourself in a place of equilibrium and nurture where you are out of balance through solitude, grounding practices, and nourishing foods. From this place of harmony and groundedness allows the bridging of heaven and earth, where dreams and aspirations come into reality. On the podcast today, we have our favourite duo exploring the earth element and how we can support ourselves, our families, and all of humanity in this axis point between seasons. In their natural ebb and flow, Tahnee and Mason discuss the earth element in all its dimensions, foods and practices for grounding energy, and nourishment of the digestive system with a specific focus on the pivotal role of the spleen in this time.   "There's something to me, with coming back to the earth element, that you can nurture, support, and nourish your family through this kind of devotion to feeding and nourishing them in the best possible way. I think there's something so beautiful about that". -Tahnee Taylor     Tahnee and Mason discuss: Late summer, entering into the earth element. Exploring the harmony and groundedness that the earth element brings. Grounding practices for the mind/intellect and body Getting grounded to take specific action and manifest dreams. The spleen/earth relationship The role of the spleen. Signs of spleen and digestive imbalance. Spleen consciousness; The reasoning mind and our ability to make clear judgments. Foods to eat in the late summer/earth season to nourish the spleen and pancreas. Nourishing the digestive system to support clear vision and thinking. Supporting digestion through warming foods. Qi blend to support the spleen and earth element. Mother Earth, the ultimate source of nourishment; how this translates to our relationship with our bodies is this season.   Tahnee and Mason Taylor Tahnee and Mason Taylor are the CEO and founder of SuperFeast (respectively). Their mission with SuperFeast is to improve the health, healing, and happiness of people and the planet, through sharing carefully curated offerings and practices that honour ancient wisdom and elevate the human spirit. Together Tahnee and Mason run their company and host the SuperFeast podcast, weaving their combined experience in herbs, yoga, wellness, Taoist healing arts, and personal development with lucid and compelling interviews from all around the world. They are the proud parents of Aiya and Goji, the dog, and are grateful to call the Byron Shire home.   MasonTaylor Mason Taylor is the founder of SuperFeast. Mason was first exposed to the ideas of potentiating the human experience through his mum Janesse (who was a big inspiration for founding SuperFeast and is still an inspiration to Mason and his team due to her ongoing resilience in the face of disability). After traveling South America for a year, Mason found himself struggling with his health - he was worn out, carried fungal infections, and was only 22. He realised that he had the power to take control of his health. Mason redirected his attention from his business degree and night work in a bar to begin what was to become more than a decade of health research, courses, education, and mentorship from some of the leaders in personal development, wellness, and tonic herbalism. Inspired by the own changes to his health and wellbeing through his journey (which also included Yoga teacher training and raw foodism!), he started SuperFeast in 2010. Initially offering a selection of superfoods, herbs, and supplements to support detox, immune function, and general wellbeing. Mason offered education programs around Australia, and it was on one of these trips that he met Tahnee, who is now his wife and CEO of SuperFeast. Mason also offered detox and health transformation retreats in the Byron hinterland (some of which Tahnee also worked on, teaching Yoga and workshops on Taoist healing practices, as well as offering Chi Nei Tsang treatments to participants). After falling in love with the Byron Shire, Mason moved SuperFeast from Sydney's Northern Beaches to Byron Bay in 2015. He lived on a majestic permaculture farm in the Byron hinterland, and after not too long, Tahnee joined him (and their daughter, Aiya was conceived). The rest is history - from a friend's rented garage to a warehouse in the Byron Industrial Estate to SuperFeast's current home in Mullumbimby's beautiful Food Hub, SuperFeast (and Mason) has thrived in the conscious community of the Northern Rivers. Mason continues to evolve his role at SuperFeast, in education, sourcing, training, and creating the formulas based on Taoist principles of tonic herbalism.   Tahnee Taylor Tahnee Taylor is the CEO of SuperFeast and has been exploring health and human consciousness since her late teens. From Yoga, which she first practiced at school in 2000, to reiki, herbs, meditation, Taoist and Tantric practices, and human physiology, her journey has taken her all over. This journey continues to expand her understanding and insight into the majesty (that is) the human body and the human experience. Tahnee graduated with a Journalism major and did a stint in non-fiction publishing (working with health and wellness authors and other inspiring creatives), advertising, many jobs in cafes, and eventually found herself as a Yoga teacher. Her first studio, Yoga for All, opened in 2013, and Tahnee continues to study Yoga with her teachers Paul + Suzee Grilley and Rod Stryker. She learned Chi Nei Tsang and Taoist healing practices from Master Mantak Chia. Tahnee continues to study herbalism and Taoist practices, the human body, women's wisdom, ancient healing systems, and is currently enrolled in an acupuncture degree and year-long program with The Shamanic School of Womancraft. Tahnee is the mother of one, a 4-year old named Aiya.   Resources: SuperFeast Qi Blend  YingYang Wuxing For Inner Harmony with Rhonda Chang EP#89     Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:00) Hey everybody.   Tahnee: (00:01) Hi, everybody.   Mason: (00:02) Happy late summer.   Tahnee: (00:04) Yeah, that's what we're here to talk about.   Mason: (00:08) So talking about the earth element today, I also like the way Rhonda Chang has been on the podcast. She says, not earth element, soil element. I like that as well. I go both ways though.   Tahnee: (00:23) Swinging around.   Mason: (00:25) It's a bit more tangible for me, because when I'm ... Every time I do one of these podcasts, it's a really good anchor for me, actually, practise. Everyone at each season, go going into a podcast about that season, and it helps you drop in and really ... And I'm walking around and I'm, "Oh, I'm feeling the wood element. And I'm feeling the quality of wood internally." And that's very obvious because that's wood, it's sprouts, it's growth. And fire's very obvious. Earth though, I'm, "Am I feeling the whole earth? Am I feeling Gaia consciousness?" Whereas if I go soil, this is spleen soil season. It's easy for me to get in and meditate on and feel about ... Feel that quality, that energetics of soil internally. And that's why I bring it up.   Tahnee: (01:10) Interesting. Yeah. Because see, for me it's more like a weightedness and I really relate to that centrality and the gravity of earth, as in it's holding us to it, and it's kind of drawing us back down. And so you think about the energy of fire, which is so high and I can feel there's kind of a neutral grounding at this time of year, which I've noticed in my energy that I've gone from being really busy and really social in summer and feeling quite active, to sort of ... I can feel the change. I can feel this kind of almost consolidation that kind of feels like it happens around this time of year. And earth is present in all of those transitions between seasons, so we feel that energy at least four times a year. But especially this one where it's kind of that drop from the peak of summer, but we haven't quite hit the depth of winter, or even the sort of descent of the sort of metal time of autumn time.   Tahnee: (02:25) So yeah, I can feel this sort of equilibrium, I guess, in this time. And I think it really shows you where you're out of balance. I've just been noticing that in me there's this invitation at this time of year to examine where I'm out of balance and out of harmony. And I think earth, of all the elements, invites harmony the most. The others can feel like they slide easily in one direction or another for me, but this one sort of always feels really grounded and then lands. So I hope that made sense.   Mason: (02:58) Yeah, I mean it touches on a bunch of things I was feeling might come up later, but we might as well dive into it. See, I think that's an important one for me, because I know there's a little bit of back and forth about ... This isn't actually ... This isn't a season, this is just another fulcrum between seasons. Which is true, it's important for me to kind of really ... That's been good practise for me to remember there's those few weeks, or however long it's present for me between every season where I come into the transition period. And I come into that ... Well, everything consolidates. I can fall on hard, solid ground and move between a water energy and a wood energy, which are really different.   Mason: (03:40) But here, in the late summer, always feels relevant because it's always ... It's a time when, A, we've had the summer. So we've never needed grounding more in the year than after summer. And I feel like the way the consciousness of each organ system kind of plays out, the G. Here we're going into the E, the YI, I'm not sure what the pronunciations, "Yee," or, "E," of this spleen consciousness. Being the intellect, the reasoning mind, being able to make judgments and have acceptance. And it's the intellect, the capacity to think and have good quality thoughts, or maybe have bad quality thoughts. After summer, we've just been flying on such a high, it's probably the time when we've been the most active. And potentially we've kind of moved away from say, in winter, you're going to see a real coming forth of our meditation and mindfulness, and really going in practise being the real ... Even though we might do it all year, it's really the focus during winter.   Mason: (04:49) Summer, maybe it's not the whole ... It's not coming to the forefront. And so we need to really ground down after that fire time and really check in with the quality of our thoughts, the quality of our intellect, and really ... And I was reading about someone's ... An interpretation, which really ... Because I love the dreaming aspect of the whole Daoist system. And because it's a big bridge between ... It's a major bridge between heaven and earth, that spleen energy, although there's many organs that play a role in that. This is where we get to really consciously wield the sword of how we are bridging between heaven and earth, or mainly our dreaming. What do we aspire for in our life? What do we feel our destiny is? And that's something that people might relate to in kind of visioning and visioning in that spring season, and having the vision kind of just being acted upon and come to life in the summer.   Mason: (05:48) But that spleen system, that spleen consciousness comes forth at this time of year, in those fulcrums between the season to really sit down, ground our thoughts and our mind, and have a look at basically how we're doing in bringing our dreams into manifest and grounding it from the heavens into this world. And I really like that, because it's probably ... I relate to it because it's probably something I skipped past, and that's where one of the biggest pieces are in this season. It's a really beautiful time to go in and have a look at that inner critic, and that ... Whether it's been ... Are we still remaining constructive? Are we still remaining acknowledging of everything that we actually have done? Are we sticking to the plan? Are we executing the plan effectively?   Mason: (06:34) All these things that our intellect can be like. Because the mind and the intellect, I feel sometimes it gets forgotten in the ... I don't know, in the health world that I've run in. Whereas that's something ... It's just so important for us to make sure that ... Not just have mindfulness and go into space, and not just quiet the mind, which obviously is another one that's really beneficial. But to really hone the mind and sharpen the mind so we can come better at bringing our dreams into reality. And we need to ground, and I think that will be really coming to the forefront for me this season.   Tahnee: (07:11) Yeah. I mean, the word that keeps popping into my head is substance. And I think when you think about what the spleen represents in the body, it's the substance, it's the muscles, and the kind of meat or the flesh of your body. And I think when you are kind of, I guess what I'm sort of ... The tangent I'm going on, having heard you just speak then was, yeah, there's this kind of substance that comes from acknowledging this transition and this element that kind of provides this real foundation and kind of bedrock on which the more lofty ideals can kind of manifest, and the spiritual ... I come back to Master Chia's work, we can't go off into the astro realms unless we have a really strong connection to the earth, and we remember her as mother and as the ultimate source of nourishment, and that we've chosen this reality to have this substantial experience so that our soul can ... Or our spirit can feel what it's like to be in this tangible form.   Tahnee: (08:15) And I think that invitation of earth and that kind of association with the mother, and nurturing, and the sweet flavour and all of these things that it has, it's really a lot to do with substance and with building us and who we become. And yeah, I think that idea of the intellect and the mind, I think clear thinking and clear seeing comes through a healthy digestive function, right? And we've got western medicine kind of correlating this idea of enteric brain, which is a very old concept that's kind of been revived recently, and-   Mason: (08:53) Can you go into that?   Tahnee: (08:54) Yeah, yeah. So basically we all kind of know that we have the spinal cord, and the brain, and all of this kind of stuff. And I think it was in the '40s, or it might've been even earlier, a man proposed that there was a gut brain, which was kind of poo-pooed a little bit at the time, there's no neural cells in the gut, it's all happening in the brain and in the nerves, and all that kind of stuff. And anyway, I think recently in the last couple of years, if not decades, there's probably someone who knows more about this than I do.   Tahnee: (09:26) But just from my research, there's basically been now evidence that yeah, the gut is heavily involved in producing neurotransmitters and in actually ... Stress response and all of these kinds of things. And that actually, yes, it's acting as a brain and it's signalling to the body to do certain things and certain functions at certain times. And so I, obviously coming from the Daoist perspective, think each of the organs is a brain, and believe based on my experience and what I've studied that that's what's happening, is they're all controlling our function through their lens, and our job is to harmonise that function and to harmonise their relationship with one another. And you can think of the brain as a mission control or something, but everything is kind of making things happen.   Tahnee: (10:16) But yeah, to take it back to the spleen, if you think about ... It's sort of this organ that in western medicine has again only recently been kind of recognised as being necessary as a part of the immune system, as a part of our defences. And one of our acupuncturist's favourite words is, "Bonds and boundaries," when it comes to the spleen. But if you think about the mother/child relationship, the boundary or the bond, the bond is very strong and the boundary is very small. A mother will do almost anything for her child. And you tend to see that in people who are ... I'm using air quotes here, "Spleeny." People who have a sort of tendency to bring balance in the earth element is ... They have a tendency to have really poor boundaries, to overstate their bonds, and also to have this kind of mind that runs wild on them. And that creates a lot of anxious thoughts and ... Mas and I are both put your hands up. Creates a lot of anxious thoughts and a lot of repetitive thoughts, and can really-   Mason: (11:14) Well the repetitive thoughts, you always use the word just ruminating-   Tahnee: (11:17) Yeah, digesting, right? And that's the thing that the spleen opens to the tongue, to the mouth. So we receive not only nourishment through our mouth, but also emotional nourishment. And if you have a tendency to over-crave sweet foods, or to need to lean on sweet foods emotionally, there's a very good chance that that's a sign of a spleen imbalance in your body. Similarly, anyone who's holding too much weight will probably also have some dysfunction going on with the spleen, because by its very nature, the spleen's not transforming the food into Qi, it's transforming it into mass, right? Into substance.   Tahnee: (11:53) And so this is not to say there's anything wrong with being a bit chubby or whatever, that's totally fine, but it really comes down to, if you're looking at this system as one of personal evolution, and personal understanding, and personal sovereignty, well then you're using all of this stuff as feedback for your own growth and understanding. And I think when you look at what the spleen represents, it's so beautiful and it can also be so detrimental. Because we all need more nourishment, and more love, and more care, and we need to direct that to the earth and we need to be able to receive that from the earth. And it's that giving and receiving, I think that can be a problem in our culture as well.   Mason: (12:34) Yeah. I mean that nourishment, everyone can put their hands just over there, the bottom of their left rib cage now and just send some good Juju into your spleen, which is the in organ. When we talk about the soil earth element, includes the pancreas, and the stomach being the yang organ there. Someone who was saying it's like the Goldilocks organ. It's not too hot, not too cold, not too soft, not too hard. It's fine, we were just playing Goldilocks at the beach yesterday with Aiya. It's very appropriate. It's subconscious. Subconsciously manifesting the organs into our playtime. But that's something when it comes to ... It's kind of like this ... When you get into your 30s, everyone's all of a sudden ... Me partying when I was 25, Friday night out just flogging yourself, and then you get to 30s and your idea of a perfect Friday night is pyjamas a little-   Tahnee: (13:36) Bed.   Mason: (13:36) Yeah, bed basically. I think there's just a time when your intellect does kind of get honed into one that we'd call adult or mature, or where you become ... Hopefully some responsible thoughts and intellect can start coming forth and you start making more responsible nourishing choices about which form within your lifestyle flow you're going to see consistency, maybe some discipline. But basically that's when you say nourishment-   Tahnee: (14:08) It's stabilising.   Mason: (14:09) Stabilising, exactly. And the other way it's put, that spleen, that the earth is the adhesive between all the other organs. It's what gives them ... It's the earth it's-   Tahnee: (14:20) The hub in the wheel. If you visualise that central axis on which everything spins, if you don't have good digestion, if you don't have good thoughts, if you don't have good boundaries and good bonds, relationships and things that nourish and support you, well then really those are sort of the foundations of a healthy life. You know... One quick tangent I wanted to jump on was Mas was just talking about the stages of life. And in, again, the sort of Chinese worldview, or the Eastern Asian worldview, the early ... I can't remember, I think it's the first fourteen years or it might be seven years and eight years ... Yeah, it's seven years for women and eight years for men, I think. So the first seven years are wood, so you're very yang, you're growing really fast-   Mason: (15:03) [inaudible 00:15:03]   Tahnee: (15:03) So you're very young, you're growing really fast.   Mason: (15:03) Like a sprout.   Tahnee: (15:03) No, it must be 14. Because anyway, you might have to Google this. For the first chunk of life you're wood. Yeah, you're this little sprout, you're growing, if you've ever been around a child, we have a four-year-old, never stop moving. Heal really quickly, run really hot, don't need to wear clothes all summer. You've got a picture in your head of that.   Tahnee: (15:23) Then we go into the fire stage, which is our twenties when we're really burning bright, we're really social and really trying to get ourselves out there in the world. Again, we can all probably relate to that, where there's this real drive and real fire and real burning purpose and passion.   Tahnee: (15:40) Thirties is when we hit that earth time. Yeah. And so we've landed and we've learned a few things along the way. We've learned what doesn't work. We've been burned. We've also worked out maybe where we fit in the world a little bit and we've worked out what we need and what we don't need and so we're starting to... The spleen's job is to... or the stomach and the spleen, their job's to separate that what we want to digest and eliminate the rest.   Mason: (16:06) Sorting.   Tahnee: (16:08) Yes. And that's... I can't remember the words right now, but it's sort and something. Anyway. But yeah, they're going through and determining what's necessary. And so that's really what this stage of life is that we're in, is this more grounded stage of life. And then you move through into the metal years where hopefully you've accumulated some wisdom, but you also give less shit. You're starting to cut some stuff out of your life, you might start to think about retiring, you might start to not deal with people that you would have put up with in your thirties or whatever. And then you're into a more spiritual age later on, where you're in those wisdom years, where hopefully you're contributing back your wisdom to the people around you, your society, your culture.   Tahnee: (16:50) So, that's in loose allegory for the human experience and the soul growth over those years. So, I think those of you listening in your thirties, yeah, you may feel like there's a stabilising and a slowing down and a consolidating, but I would invite you to see that as a very natural process, and something that doesn't need to be fought. Despite what I hear from friends who are like, "Oh my God, when I was in my twenties." It's like, no, now we get to reap the harvest of all of that work that we did understanding ourselves, all the things we tried, all the experiments.   Mason: (17:22) And that's, I think, important. We talk about the anxiety that's out there and we're not going to go into diagnosing anxiety or anything like that, but quite often it's related to the heart. But Tahns said it one day, she's like, "A lot of anxiety comes from that spleen earth energy as well, because you're just constantly chewing, chewing, ruminating, ruminating, ruminating." And when you just said, "Oh my God, when I was in my twenties, I was doing everything right", whatever, whether it's health, profession, there's a little bit of comparison. And another thing that comes into this spleen... Emerging from this spleen energy, is accepting. A real grounded accepting. Cool, this is where I'm at in my life, or getting to a physical practise. Cool. This is where my body is at today without going into all that comparison, because when you go into that comparison, you're going to start looking at your intellect, and your inner critic giving you a flogging.   Mason: (18:19) And so it's really important, I think it's really important for us to really accept this stage of life that we're at and with what's naturally and energetically coming with it during this time of life, or even if you're not in this time of life, during at the fulcrums of the season. And just remember the soil is at the centre of that elemental medicine wheel. And so we base a good chunk of your lifestyle around ensuring that this spleen, earth, soil element is going to be healthy because it is the glue that brings everything together.   Mason: (18:54) All the other elements, the reason there's able to be Yin yang adjustment through the body is because all the elements can pass through the soil and basically interchange and connect with these other elements. It's a transporter and a transformer. And so the spleen is able to... So those let's say the kidneys are able to get water received by them to the liver so it can become more pliable through the spleen. So same as like the fire is able to send heat down to the kidneys through the spleen, water is able to go between lung and kidney through the soil of the body as well.   Mason: (19:37) So when Tahn says it's a nourishing energy, it's a grounding energy. It's why all over blogs and Instagram and people's conversations around health when they've been going to these extreme diets, for instance, or you've been searching for what's wrong with you. At some point, if you will go with the process, you get a little bit accepting of the chop wood, carry water, we're in the Year of the Ox. And there's a little bit of Oxen energy to that soil. It's like, "Okay, cool. I accept where I'm at in life. And I accept I'm maybe not going to be able to find, keep on finding answers, it might be unsustainable if I keep on going extreme. I'm going to have to go a little Goldilocks here and get a little bit more consistent with my diet, maybe with when I'm eating with what I'm eating with, what my schedule looks like." So on and so forth.   Mason: (20:27) So that's always... I feel like we've given a good amount of context to what I find myself, which is, in my twenties, I wouldn't be such a spleen-y person, because I was... I remember really rolling my eyes when I was a raw foodist. I was doing all kinds of extremes. I was fasting a lot, so on and so forth. Because that really worked for me back then.   Mason: (20:51) But I remember just rolling my eyes whenever I heard anyone talking Chinese medicine principles around having breakfast, a nice nourishing breakfast, three square meals, and especially a really good breakfast at the start of the day. Ensure you do physical exercise and the same meditation, the same sequences, get really familiar with the way that you move your body, and you cultivate your energy, talking about like, hey, let's not drown the spleen in cold raw foods. And that is something I feel like there needs to be a real bridging, which funnily enough, that's what the spleen is making this connection between those worlds that are nut salads and smoothies.   Mason: (21:37) I get it, especially during these seasons, it's just so easy versus everything always needs to be cooked. Bringing a connection between those two segments of our own psyche, our own health practises, the health scene, the practitioners, like there's bacterial experts, gut bacteria experts that are just like, cool, whatever. You don't worry about... Just get different pigments and different fibres in. Don't worry about the temperature and so on and so forth. And then likewise, you've got the Chinese medicine, which is just as long as it's all really well cooked and energetically and check with the seasons. But there's going to have to be a little bit of crossing paths and conversation between those two worlds to get a little bit more wisdom there.   Mason: (22:23) But I think it's a good one for everyone to be really meditating on and remembering we're out of balance when it comes to the seasons. Most people have some small spleen deficiency, not most people, but a lot of people. And if you're trying to get back in flow with the seasons, you're going to need to be standing on solid ground. And the place to do that is to have a spleen friendly diet and a spleen friendly lifestyle. So yes, we will probably start talking about a few dietary principles during this season, a little bit of sense and why certain sweet... because it is a sweet flavour.   Tahnee: (23:10) Sadly doesn't mean sugar, though. I think there's a few things in there, just to backtrack a little bit. I think if you think of this concept of alchemy, which is really at the heart of these Daoist and the Vedic's other aspect of the tradition that I study, is the Vedic side of things. And at the heart of that is really fire as the element that really transformed humanity. And I think what I've really come to understand and to have a lot of reverence for is the... We just tried to light a fire yesterday with wet wood and it was a shit fight. Our neighbours probably hate us now. There was smoke everywhere. It was a really unpleasant situation for us and for them.   Mason: (24:00) We brought this [inaudible 00:24:01] all over Argentina.   Tahnee: (24:03) We did. I think that's a really nice allegory really for the digestive system because it's not like every meal is not going to digest well, we can light a fire 99% of the time. But I think over time, if you just keep adding damp wood and trying to light that fire, you're going to run out of chi, and you're going to create a lot of soot in the body, right? You're going to end up with a lot of inflammation and all of this stuff because the body is just not coping. And it doesn't necessarily... We've had rain solid for a week to get to the point where the fire won't light, right? So it's I think the conditions have to be against you or you've created an imbalance. And again, this can take time. A lot of people we speak to are like, "Oh, it was fine", and Mason was fine, when you were raw for a while.   Mason: (24:57) Yeah. Four years was good. And then I instinctively went, I'm going to move before something shitty happens.   Tahnee: (25:03) Yeah. And I think I can refer back to my very complicated relationship with food and see how much damage I've done to my spleen and my digestive function, through everything from disordered eating to controlling too much cold and damp and wet foods, to forgetting to eat because I get so in my head. There's lots of different ways in which I've created any sensitivity really that I have in my digestion.   Tahnee: (25:34) So I think there's this really interesting dance there that each person has to dance for themselves around how sensitive they are. I do believe you can rebuild digestive fire, absolutely have seen it, and I know that it's possible, and I've felt it in my own body where I can digest things I couldn't digest 10 years ago, but I do think there's this really interesting personal dialogue we have to learn to have with our body where we drop all of the bullshit from everyone who's throwing ideas at us, and we just come back into, well, what really works for me?   Tahnee: (26:05) And again, if you think as the stomach as a receiver and a warm environment in which food lands, it takes no knowledge of science to know that you're going to have to use energy to warm up cold food. That's just obvious. So if you're tired and weak, and you're using energy to digest, that's not going to be ideal. And so it starts to look at... It depends. If you feel really vital and you have a lot of energy, a lot of space, it's probably fine to eat a lot of cold wet food. If you don't, then maybe it's time to make a change. And it goes all the way through.   Tahnee: (26:41) And again, if you look at the spleen, if you look at it's role as really providing the nourishment for the blood, again, it comes down to, well, what is blood made of? And so again, we're looking at are we providing the foundations for healthy blood? Are we providing enough fluid? Are we providing enough nutrition? And how is that being alchemised by the body? Which is really the important part, because you can eat the best food and you can eat organic, and you can eat this and that. And if your body's just not doing anything with it, it's a waste of time. So really the invitation of this spleen and earth energy is to transform and alchemise everything that we consume, which does include emotions and even the words that we speak.   Tahnee: (27:20) And I think that's a piece that's often missed when we talk about health is it's what... I've got some stuff going on in my family right now. My digestion has been awful basically since it happened, because, and you think about, again, the archetype of family and what all of that means, there's this lack of stability and foundation for me that I'm now having to rebuild on my own. And so I'm seeing that mirrored in my body and I think there's this real need to remember that we don't just digest food, but we digest energy, and we digest emotion.   Mason: (27:54) Thoughts. Beliefs.   Tahnee: (27:54) Yeah, exactly. And so part of what you digest when you eat a certain way is the ideology of that system of eating. And so I think that's something we all have to just really slow down and take stock of and see where we want to align ourselves, but-   Mason: (28:11) Well, because it becomes your flesh.   Tahnee: (28:13) Yeah. It literally becomes what you're made of and it's that you are what you eat cliche, but it's true, right? If you're unable to digest your emotions, they're going to go somewhere in your body and you're going to hold them. And the muscles are really the overflow for what our organs can't digest. So if you've ever had a recurring muscle pain that comes about when you have an emotional experience, you can start to think, okay, well, let's say it's something to do with stress and the liver, and you might get a sore neck and shoulder. It's yeah, my liver is overburdened. It's created this excessive heat or this reaction, which is now being manifested in my muscle. My muscle's taking that energy away from that organ, and yes, doing the organ a favour, but now, I have a sore shoulder, or a sore neck.   Tahnee: (29:04) And so you can start to look back at, okay, well, what do I do now to nourish my liver chi? How do I support myself? How do I avoid recreating this situation? So you start to use yourself as a little science experiment. As a curious little exploration of what I can do. And I think that's one of the big invitations of this earth energy is to start to nourish yourself as you would want to be nourished. To look at yourself as deserving of that level of care and effortless, thankless care that a mother gives to a child, that the earth gives to us.   Tahnee: (29:43) And then in exchange, we're then able maybe to give that to others and it starts to build out this altruism. And the best expression of earth is this altruistic caring non-martyred, loving expression of unity and sharing...   Tahnee: (30:00) ... kind of unity and sharing and sympathy and understanding amongst everyone. And obviously we don't have that in the world, but that's a really great expression of it. And the other side of it, is this kind of narcissistic, controlling, needy, anxious, overthinking, kind of analysing that stuff. So, we're kind of trying to lean a little bit more on the former and a little less on the latter.   Mason: (30:29) Good. Rant.   Tahnee: (30:29) I've been talking for like 20 minutes.   Mason: (30:32) No, so good. I just went to lots of places just in terms of accepting that nourishment coming our way, because I was just thinking about... I'm going to talk a little bit about fasting and intermittent fasting, but I'm not going to go too deep and I'm definitely not poo-pooing you guys. I'm just talking about like, I think it's really clinically used or used with a very specific intention. I think it's great, but I came to my own conclusion that I don't think it's a healthy thing to have like a permanent inclusion in a lifestyle for me anyway.   Mason: (31:03) And definitely from what I can see, and we were talking about quality of flesh and quality of muscle. And I remember feeling really strong and being in a community of people that seemed really strong and had good looking muscles, but I could never shake that using something like that intermittent fasting, again, not poo-pooing, not saying this is fact, just going on a thought, just going up on a bandwagon, the quality wasn't there. I didn't like the quality of the flesh and the quality of muscle that I was seeing in my peers and I was seeing in myself.   Mason: (31:34) And I don't know why that was. I think because, one, I had a fanatical ideology and that's something I don't... I've learned what it feels like to create flesh from more fanatical ideology. And two, I really got caught in the logic and I think this is where the spleen can get the most damage in raw food diets, ancestral kind of intermittent fasting kind of style diets. All these things that kind of disconnect us from being grounded and allowing our pure logic and intellect to just... And accept the nourishment that's coming for us.   Mason: (32:10) In that spleen season, we can go into like, you know what, intellectually, it makes sense that as hunter and gatherers, we wouldn't be going out and we wouldn't have that abundance. And therefore for me, what I'm realising there is, is I felt guilty about the level of abundance that I have access to here, in this day and age and that this civilization for all the awful things and amazing things that it's done, I have a genuine mistrust of it. I don't accept any of the nourishment because there's other people that maybe aren't getting nourishment based on other political... This is me, my spleen mind running off and going.   Mason: (32:51) I don't actually deserve it. And therefore I try and logic my way or reason my way, intellect my way to a place, where I am replicating some kind of other diet under the guise of getting health outcomes or logic verse just getting grounded and not having to fly off and go for some crazy ideology, but just continuously grounding and starting with that point of nourishment, which is like why I was thinking of intermittent fasting. And then for me, it was huge coming to having a three-square meal thing. I felt like a failure going to that. That's like eating way too much, even though then the principal becomes only eat till you're like 80% full.   Mason: (33:33) But I was like, why am I doing this? Why do I have to eat? Because you're hungry and I've been there. I've done lots of fasting. I love that point when you kind of stop getting hungry. But when I became really grounded and I grounded my intellect in my mind, and I started accepting and looking and thinking about nourishment, accepting nourishment coming my forth, I don't think it's an absurd statement. to think the natural tendency that everyone is going to accept from their mother is to eat when you're hungry.   Mason: (34:04) So I think as well, if people don't agree with what I eat at this time because it's breakfast and lunch and dinner, and they're synthetic things. Breakfast time is something that was created by Kellogg's and blah, blah, blah. I get all that. You go through all that programming bullshit. And then you do get to a point in the morning though, when you're just hungry. And that's what the spleen is. It's very grounded. Well, should I eat or should I not? Should I fast, should I not? Are you hungry? Yes. Okay. Is there something like diseased in you that clinically you've seen that intermittent fasting is going to help you get through that and get back into a metabolic balance or perhaps get your pancreas working in alignment? You've got whatever it is.   Mason: (34:43) I could do it and heal, but then you always come back to the centre of the wheel of the earth and accept that nourishment. And yeah, I just really, I guess I just went off and did a little bit of healing then when you were talking about that. The stomach, sitting in there, I think they say it likes to sit at about like a 38 degrees.   Tahnee: (35:09) Yeah. It's slightly warmer than body temperature. I can't remember the exact temperature, but I think that's... I mean, it's interesting, you're talking about even receiving nourishment because that's kind of the archetype of the stomach, is it receives, right? It literally controls the receiving. It's like a compost bin. So if you've ever composted and you know that if you put too much wet stuff in there, it gets stinky. If you don't add enough dry stuff... So this is-   Mason: (35:32) Great analogy.   Tahnee: (35:33) Yeah. And I think people forget like it's soil, right? So to make healthy soil, you need carbon, you need all sorts of various things. I think the older I get, the more I think we should eat most things in a lot of variety all of the time, as in way more diversity than is probably promoted in a lot of the mainstream diet fads. But I really noticed for myself, if I don't eat a lot of high fibre food and well-cooked vegetables and stuff, if I eat too many starchy things, like spelt pancakes or whatever, I don't feel like my digestion flourishes as well. So I can feel that there's this kind of desire for the body to sort of compost these really natural foods, right? And you think about what we would have had access to. They are things like your fruits, your vegetables, your nuts, your meats, your grains and legumes and things that are prepared.   Tahnee: (36:32) And again, I watch YouTube videos of indigenous cultures preparing food. They spent all freaking day doing it. Like they're not ever eating a Twinkie or anything that's in a packet, like to prepare a legume or a grain that's soaking and that's sprouting and they're mashing and they're grinding. It's a process. And I think we've really lost touch with how much labour it takes to get food to a place where it's digestible. We just kind of plonk some stuff in a pan and eat it. And it's like, yeah, there's actually a lot of effort and time and energy. And that's one of the things that the industrial revolution did for us was it took us away from having to prepare our foods possibly to the detriment of our bodies. And I think we would all agree that hasn't been the best for human health.   Mason: (37:20) To an extent. I mean, there's definitely-   Tahnee: (37:20) Well, yes. Sorry. That's not true. Yeah. There's more longevity and stuff. But I guess in terms of those markets of like wellness, like that's-   Mason: (37:25) Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I was just thinking about exactly that, like it's another part where I draw back. I was just thinking about apples and thinking how... You were talking about indigenous preparation. I was thinking, oh yeah, they couldn't just go grab an apple. And I was like, but there's this amazing thing of like seeds going all across the world and us developing crops and biodynamic gardens bringing us these amazing produce, so we can use all this produce. Most of what we're getting locally and seasonally, pretty much none of it is going to be, for most people listening to this, like indigenous foods coming from this land or indigenous meat's. Nonetheless, that's like that can... But then you start bringing in preparation. We've had such a speed up of convenience, which to the extent has kept people fed, which is essentially a good thing, people to be able to be fed. Then you get excess, you get excess of crap, excess of corn, excess of wheat, and you get GMOs, all that kind of stuff coming in.   Tahnee: (38:22) Yeah. Cheap stuff. Yeah.   Mason: (38:22) But if you come back and you accept the nourishment and the abundance, but then, as you said, the spleen is going to like you putting a lot of time and preparation into... And if you can weave that back into your kitchen, if you can have...   Tahnee: (38:36) Well, I think it comes back to nature. I remember, I lived with a Japanese family. I lived with two. One was very modern and one was very traditional. And in the traditional one, the grandma got up every morning at 03:00 or 04:00 in the morning and she would start cooking breakfast and we would have a proper meal with like a soup and rice and sausage and an egg thing and sushi.   Mason: (39:00) Yum.   Tahnee: (39:00) Yeah. A proper meal for breakfast. And then we'd have the same thing for lunch if we were there and we'd have something else for dinner. And that's literally her gig was they grew the green stuff right next to the house. They bought some other stuff from the market. And I remember thinking, at the time being 16, eff that, I'm a feminist and I'm never going to do that. But there's just something to me, coming back to the earth element, that you can nurture and support and nourish your family through this kind of devotion to feeding them and to making sure that they're fed in the best possible way. I think there's something really beautiful about that. And it's taken me a good 20 years to see the beauty in that.   Tahnee: (39:41) But I think there's something in that, around the connection to nature as well. And if we're talking foods for the spleen, they are really a lot to do with those sort of naturally sweet kind of harvest foods, your grains, your nuts... Not so much your nuts, sorry, your grains, your legumes. You have root vegetables, that kind of thing.   Mason: (40:02) Yellowy foods. Yeah.   Tahnee: (40:03) Yeah. Like your pumpkin or squash.   Mason: (40:05) Squash, sweet potato.   Tahnee: (40:06) Yeah. And I think that if you think about how you feel-   Mason: (40:09) White rice is really a good neutral spleen tone applying food alone.   Tahnee: (40:13) Yeah. If you think about how you feel after you eat a big warm bowl of pumpkin soup or soup potato curry or something, you feel really like hugged in this... I interviewed Andrew Sterman recently, if you haven't heard that one go back and listen to it, but he talks about you want to feel like your belly's purring after you've eaten a meal. And I think just that sense that the foundation of your wellbeing is going to come through having that kind of happy feeling of food cooked with love, chosen carefully for what you need to balance your body and to really nourish and support [crosstalk 00:40:49].   Mason: (40:48) Massive diversity of what you're eating and different types of fibres. I think that interview was amazing. I think that combination of his and I interviewed Jason Jason Hawrelak on that. Increasing, he's just studying the microbiome in getting a diversity of bacteria there. And that's a beautiful kind of like... If you can listen to those and not try and put those two philosophies, because one's like naturopathic and the other one's Chinese medicine, don't try and lay them over each other, but just like the soil earth element, just feel that space between them and feel them communicating.   Mason: (41:21) And then from the other side of those two things that you could be interested in for better health outcomes, you can find what could come the other side is more nourishing and tailored. You've got the evidence on your side and tradition on your side of a capacity to make a family culture and have a food culture, which is going to get you through the other end with your spleen chief flowing, therefore, hopefully your other elemental organs flowing with greater ease, yin-yang transformation happening with greater ease. It doesn't mean everything's perfect in the body, but you're in flow. You're in communion. You're grounded enough to be able to take very specific action as well to manifest your dreams.   Mason: (42:08) And that's something I think, I feel it's probably like there's another little bit of a tangent, but it's something that you do see a lot as people go, like lots of dreams when you're in your teens or 20s, and then you kind of grow up. It's like in Hook, I always talk about Hook. Peter Pan, lost boy, and then goes, "I want to get married. I love someone." And so he goes over and he just forgets all his... Forgets Never Never, basically forgets how to dream and Crow and fight and fly, and how to have happy thoughts.   Mason: (42:48) But then the spleen season, if you're alive enough in spring and you have enough trust and confidence in yourself to start dreaming up and thinking, what would I like? What's going to really light me up and make me feel like I've really been able to do what I'm here to do, which is bridge heaven and earth, and bring some magic to me in this world? And that doesn't need to look extravagant or anything, just allow yourself to be in that dreaming.   Mason: (43:14) When it gets to these earth seasons, it's a really good time to... You're mature and start making your decisions and really quiet your mind. And really ensure that you're being critical and judgmental in a way that's really going to take you further towards living your best life, for a better word, and an expressed life verse being judgmental to others and yourself and critical of yourself, because that does eventually turn your flesh into kind of that energy. And you can feel it.   Mason: (43:54) I remember, after I got out of my raw kind of food worlds, I became quite critical of, and people probably hear the hangover of it, I talk about it all the time, critical of myself kind of falling into those ideologies for just how much I externally started to identify, became a bit resentful towards the health scene. I became resentful to the kinds of information that people would put out there with conviction, not knowing the whole of the system, just doing things willy-nilly, which I saw could put people in danger, which is probably because that's what I felt like I was doing, to be honest.   Tahnee: (44:37) Well, it's interesting about the spleen and the intellect aspect of it. If you are in ideology, that's a sign of spleen imbalance, right? If you think about what a lot of these diets do is they disturb the healthy flow of spleen qi in the body. And that affects the ability, the capacity to think. So people get myopic, they get stuck on, this is the only way. They can't digest that there might be two or three or four or five or six or a thousand different ways to eat.   Tahnee: (45:03) .... That there might be two or three or four or five or six or 1000 different ways to eat or to behave. And so it sort of becomes this my way or the highway kind of a thing. And again, it comes down to bonds and boundaries, right? Like a strong boundary against everybody else, and only my tribe is right. And that tribalism is really not what we need. Like our whole world is incredibly tribal right now. And it's not really in service to the growth of humanity, it's not in service to like our collective growth as people of a country or a state. Whatever your thoughts are on what's going on globally, there's a lot of stuff that isn't really that helpful. So I think when we think about this sense of like what the gifts of the spleen are, it's empathy, it's understanding that you may not agree with someone, but you can empathise with their perspective.   Tahnee: (45:48) Well, if your spleen is out of balance, you're not going to have that. You're going to think that they're wrong. You're going to be black and white. You're going to be divisive. Similarly, it's about altruism and about supporting the whole of humanity. Well again, if you're out of balance, you're not going to be feeling like that. It's about stability. If you're not stable, is it really working? And I think that's the, I mean, that's one of the things I believe very strongly with yoga is, if your practise isn't making you more stable, you're doing the wrong practise for you. And I think-   Mason: (46:17) That kind of links into like looking at what's your relationship like? What's your house like? How is your work life? Before you go out and try and save the world, making sure your own house is ... at least you're in the middle of ... at least you've got to practise consistently and you're getting your house in order.   Tahnee: (46:34) Yeah, and I think-   Mason: (46:35) I don't [crosstalk 00:46:35] like lofty ... I don't [inaudible 00:46:38] get it perfect. And then you can go out-   Tahnee: (46:39) No, well that's liver.   Mason: (46:41) Yeah.   Tahnee: (46:41) Perfectionist liver friend. But yeah, I really do think ... like I think that something we talk about a lot is I look to people who are our peers, or even really well known in the scene and they aren't stable. They aren't people that are steady and consistent. And I find there's something about that that I'm a little bit wary of, because I think, "Well, I'm more interested in learning from someone who's been around for a while and who's really spent time diving into their understanding and their experience." And that leads you to teachers that are older and that have been around a while. And they very rarely teach black and white. They very rarely say there's one way. I mean, "It depends," is pretty much the mantra of my life because it's like there is no right way.   Tahnee: (47:33) And all of this stuff is really just someone wrote this down because someone downloaded it probably from wherever you want to believe. I believe from some kind of source, consciousness. And they've been able to put it down in a language that we don't speak anymore, that's been translated through time. There's lots of arguments about what things mean. And then we're here having this conversation on a podcast, this is our understanding and interpretation of someone else's insight. And we all have the capacity to have these insights and these understandings. And I think it just becomes, again, about how we assimilate and digest these ideas. And so just to keep bringing it back to that spleen element, you're creating the soil of your life through composting everything you come across and turning it into your foundation, your stability. And that's, I think, the piece that is really important, is it's not about, "Oh, it's spleen time and I have to eat pumpkin," it's about what do you notice and observe when you lean in to what's abundant in your ...   Tahnee: (48:37) Like in my neighbourhood right now, there are lots of sweet potatoes around. They're at all the farmer's markets and they're everywhere. It's like, well, that would make sense to me to eat them because they're there, they're growing. And hey, oh, by the way, they also worked for spleen. Isn't that interesting? And I think this is this really kind of interesting thing that you start to notice these things, like you were saying, you start to kind of, year on year, develop and cultivate this deeper level of understanding and relationship with these things just through living, not through trying to put on some, "I'm a Daoist and I believe it's spleen time, and I'm going to do this."   Tahnee: (49:10) And I think that's the same with the herbs. Like if you're working with ... Some people might need spleen herbs a lot, all the time. They might just have a tendency to really go out of balance in that area, and they really need that support. I can sort of be like that sometimes. Other people might feel like they want to work with them around the change in season. Other people might just want to work with them when they feel called to. You can work with your practitioner and find out what's going to be appropriate for you at this stage of life. So I think there's so much diversity in how we approach these things, but-   Mason: (49:44) That's probably worth mentioning. Like when we're talking about spleen deficiencies, we're talking in a very general sense, allowing the soil, the earth Chi to flow smoothly through the spleen stomach meridian, which can mean many things for everybody listening to this, but it's just feeling generally in harmony. And especially at this point, your intellect, the good quality thoughts, beliefs, and then your digestion. And so it's like you look at are you getting bloating? Are you holding weight? Is there IBS? Is there a bit of leaky gut going on? Is there a runny stool? Is there, to a lesser extent, constipation, but still there? And remember, where there's spleen, there's dampness in the spleen, you imagine the soil's just sopping wet, soggy, but then there's damp heat and damp cold. And then when we look at the stomach, we're going to see generally it's going to be heat, stomach heat. And so you're going to look at things like indigestion and reflux and those kinds of things.   Mason: (50:52) But we're not trying to diagnose all these things. Make sure you're with ... If there's something in those areas and really digestively something really going wrong, or especially if psychologically, something you can not, you haven't been able to get on top of it, don't try and do the lifestyle changes. Don't try and shoulder the burden. Remember to accept nourishment, and there's going to be people out there, practitioners, they're going to be able to help you kind of hone in on that as well. But in general, yeah. I mean, when you look at the Qi herbs, they're all about supporting the spleen function and quite often the lung function, because that's what delivers us our vitality and our daily Qi, so all the organs can run and thoughts can move and all that kind of good thing.   Mason: (51:34) So yeah, at this time of year, for sure, especially when here it's so muggy and damp, I like having the herbs in the Qi blend. I felt really comfortable when it came out with the Qi blend, because there's so many ... Poria, is the mushroom in there leading the charge, able to transform that water. If there's too much water. And likewise, guys, all the mushrooms are basically known in Chinese medicine as the regulators, water regulators, like the Warren G of the water in your ...   Mason: (52:08) And then the roots, like Astragalus. So like your Homie Nate   Tahnee: (52:16) Stop.   Mason: (52:19) So it's a really good time to get those moving in, especially the mushrooms, moving that water. Because remember, if that water's ... what's going to be able to travel through soggy, sopping water? You can't ... I can't remember what the word is. Friable.   Tahnee: (52:38) Yeah.   Mason: (52:39) Yeah. Like to be able-   Tahnee: (52:40) Soil.   Mason: (52:40) Yeah, soil. So you think you-   Tahnee: (52:41) Can move through it.   Mason: (52:42) Yeah, you think water can move through it, or especially that's what you want to be able to do ... moving in there.   Tahnee: (52:47) [crosstalk 00:52:47] can push through easily.   Mason: (52:49) Yeah. Cheese can move through there. Worms are going to be able to be present there in the soil. Maybe not. Let's stay in the analogy with that one. But yeah, very general. But mushrooms are always ... I mean, the good thing about Qi herbs is they're all so general and you can't really go wrong. But as Tahn's said, some people will notice really big differences. You make all these lifestyle kind of changes that we've spoke about. Remember that it's a time to get grounded and have a look at your inner critic and your beliefs and all these things. Remember, it's a transitional time. So you do have the opportunity at the fulcrums of the season, as you do all the time, you can tune into that earth energy. But really, if you sit down, stop distracting yourself. That's why people go on social media breaks and like little holidays, because when you stop having all that information coming in, you don't have to digest as much and chew on as much. And therefore you can chew on what's present in your body and make little adjustments, transitions.   Mason: (53:45) Remember, to transport you over to another ... You can transport yourself back over into connecting with those dreams you had when we’re 20, and just with this maturity you've got, and start making really intellectually aligned, good quality decisions. And you have a look, "What's my beliefs that I have? Cool. All right, I'm going to have to ... I might actually start working on that belief." And then you go at it like an ox, like a chop wood, carry water. You just plough ahead and plough ahead at it. So really important for you to do that. But yeah, if you get into the Qi herbs, the mushrooms, you might see that you'll physically may notice a little bit more vitality. Your digestion might get a little bit more honed. It's very correlated with immunity. So it's actually the time of year anyway you want to start ... You always want to be taking the mushrooms as far as I'm concerned. There's a black and white statement for you to [crosstalk 00:54:38] say, that's the exception.   Tahnee: (54:39) Yeah. There's an exception to every rule.   Mason: (54:40) Generally, but Qi, I mean at this point Qi kind of starts really making an appearance, and then I go ... And then I start going real hard as I get into March. And then all of autumn it's like the focus, because they had the spleen herbs and the lung herbs, and then they start really fortifying your surface protective Qi, your [inaudible 00:55:03] Chi, going into winter. And it's important, especially with everything that's going on in the world. There's always immunological stuff going on in the world. Everyone would be in such a better position if we took herbs appropriately, lived a little bit more appropriately for the seasons. But people want the easy way out. And so this is the way that is going to bear fruits, and allows ... Ultimately we want the consciousness, from a Daoist perspective, the consciousness of each of our organs to be flourishing and freely expressed. As we are in alignment with the yin and the yang, we're able to go down in the night, up in the morning, go down in winter, come up in summer. Right now we're going to be ... You prepare. You get grounded.   Mason: (55:46) Prepare, we're going to be leaving these warmer months. Really get grounded and sit into that and allow yourself to feel all that, everything there is to feel, still enjoy it. And then you'll be ready to mourn the loss of the warmer months when we get into the lung season. But yeah, just make sure you don't miss these opportunities. Or even just like start touching them a little bit, and start getting into flow a little bit.   Tahnee: (56:11) Yeah. I think that's a nice segue into ... we'll be back for metal soon. And we hope you all are thriving out there. And-   Mason: (56:22) Well this is a nice one because this is relevant for Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, since it's the Earth season. It may not be to the full extent of late summer.   Tahnee: (56:31) Yeah. You guys are sliding the other way, but yeah.   Mason: (56:34) Yeah. You're sliding the other way, and it's good to get practise in embracing this energy and feeling that these intentions come forth in the kitchen, or in your practise, in your meditation, when we go between the seasons, and especially when we go between summer and autumn. Any other little thing? No, I think I was just going to talk about saliva being the substance.   Tahnee: (56:57) I have so many other things. But I think, I mean, we have a daycare run to get to.   Mason: (57:03) Yeah, I do.   Tahnee: (57:04) Real life.   Mason: (57:06) Just embrace your saliva during these times, guys. That's the substance of the spleen. I was thinking about [Tani's 00:57:15] teacher, [inaudible 00:57:16] practise in the morning. Chew, chew, chew, chew for a few minutes, and collect all that saliva and then swallow it down and send a little hello to the spleen, with its own essence.   Tahnee: (57:27) Well, and I was thinking if any of you with students out there, it's a really disruptive time to the spleen. So any study, any constant reading, any intellectual work over the top, so too much of it. So it doesn't have to be any, but just like anything that's in excess, then you will feel out of balance. So just remember that's a good time of life to work with the chi herbs and to get supported with the kind of spleen aspect of your life. So try and stay grounded and steady in other ways. And if you are really out of whack because of what's going on around the world, again, probably a time to really work on your stability and your groundedness and your connection to the Earth, and remembering that you've got that ability to just sit and feel and connect. And don't let your mind get away with you. Practise whatever you need to practise to stay sane at this point. But yeah, just these are all pretty spleen disturbing times that we're in. So yeah, lo

What is meditation supposed to look like? How are meditation and yoga supposed to serve us in our lives? What happens when reality messes with our stories about how things are supposed to be? We dive into these questions and so much more with the amazing Caitlin Cady author of Heavily Meditated and self professed Meditation Junkie, who’s used the power of the “good sit” to turn her health, happiness and world around. And whose mission is to remind YOU of your magic!”Resources & MentionsDrop Chara an email about how your feel your truthCaitlins Website: www.caitlincady.comCaitlin’s Book: https://caitlincady.com/pages/heavilymeditatedYoga Teacher Training with Rod Stryker: https://www.parayoga.com/parayoga-master-training-online-curriculum-2/Tara Brach: https://www.tarabrach.com/Sally Kempton: meditation sit up: https://www.sallykempton.com/resources/life-questions/the-mentalogue/Danielle Laporte Core desired feelings is the way you set goals: daniellelaporte.comAyurveda for Yoga Teachers Training with Chara: https://www.blissbodyandsoul.com/ayurveda-for-yoga-teachers/

In this episode, I interview Brad Hay, a world-class senior Level 3 ParaYoga and Meditation Teacher and an Ayurvedic Specialist. He is one of only 6 authorised level 3 ParaYoga teachers in the world and has been officially initiated into the ancient tradition of the Himalayan Masters (Sri Vidya).    This is one of my most favourite episodes so far as Brad inspired me to become an Ayurvedic lifestyle practitioner whilst I met him in Bali.   Brad shares his story into his Dharma, as he began practising yoga many decades ago whilst in a rehabilitation centre, Brad knew he had found a strong and powerful practice that could lead him away from his dependency on alcohol and drugs, to pursue something that would lead him to be on the most well-known Yoga teachers of the Sri Vidya lineage.   After meeting his teacher @Rod Stryker the founder of ParaYoga, who is one of the world's pre-eminent yoga and meditation teachers in the world. Brad got taken under his wing and he now offers a unique blend of both extensive Tantric Hatha Yoga knowledge and merges it with his love for Ayurveda to give depth and effective guidance for the modern Yoga practitioner.   Brad leads online training and intensives in Australia and Internationally that combine these ancient systems making them accessible and practical without diluting the traditional teachings.   Enjoy tuning into this awesome episode and laugh hearing about Brad's adventurous life into a purposeful living!    Brad has lots of upcoming online training's focusing on Yoga, Ayurveda & Tantra - click here: https://brad-hay-yoga-ayurveda.mykajabi.com/workshops-single-classes Connect with Brad: Instagram @Bradhay32 Website: https://www.bradhay.com/ Connect with Bryre Roots: Email: Bryre@bryreroots.com Website: Bryreroots.com Instagram: @Bryreroots Music by @ellearthur

Today marks a special 100 episodes of the SuperFeast podcast, that's 100 episodes of inspiring conversations with brilliant humans progressing the world through health and wellness! Over the past 100 episodes, the SuperFeast podcast has had hundreds of thousands of downloads and connected with people from Nigeria to Greenland. This evolving journey wouldn't be what it is without you, the listeners, your interaction, and the energy you bring to this space. On Today's podcast our favourite dynamic duo, Tahnee and Mason sit down for a reflective conversation on the journey thus far; the most listened to episodes, the guests that filled them up, and exciting prospects for the future of SuperFeast podcasts. It's always magic when Tahnee and Mason share the mic, and with the 100th episode and a new year ahead of us, it's a perfectly aligned reason to have them back on the podcast connecting with the SuperFeast community.   Tahnee and Mason discuss: Reflections of the SuperFeast podcast, looking back six years from the Mason Taylor Show to now.   The evolution of the podcast landscape over this space in time. The most popular episodes/guests and the topics that consistently resonate with listeners (we've linked them all in the resources below). Health protocols in our ever-changing contemporary landscape; intentionally creating a healthy space to continue questioning beliefs, integrate opposing ideas, and move into a place of harmony, which is in alignment with every traditional system.  The guests that influenced and cultivated Tahnee and Mason's introspective journeys. Navigating the newly emerging health scape where holistic traditions are being meshed with more reductionist methods. The Women's Series; Tahnee's journey through the many dimensions of experience her guests have brought and the gift of sharing space with women who have so much wisdom to offer. Future directions and Visions. Sex; a popular topic that always gets ratings.  Gratitude and the value of reviews.    Tahnee and Mason Taylor Tahnee and Mason Taylor (recently married!) are the founder and CEO of SuperFeast (respectively). Their mission with SuperFeast is to improve the health, healing, and happiness of people and the planet, through sharing carefully curated offerings and practices that honour ancient wisdom and elevate the human spirit. Together Tahnee and Mason run their company and host the SuperFeast podcast, weaving their combined experience in herbs, yoga, wellness, Taoist healing arts, and personal development with lucid and compelling interviews from all around the world. They are the proud parents of Aiya and Goji, the dog, and are grateful to call the Byron Shire home. MasonTaylor Mason Taylor is the founder of SuperFeast. Mason d to the ideas of potentiating the human experience through his mum Janesse (who was a big inspiration for founding SuperFeast and is still an inspiration to Mason and his team due to her ongoing resilience in the face of disability). After traveling South America for a year, Mason found himself struggling with his health - he was worn out, carried fungal infections, and was only 22. He realised that he had the power to take control of his health. Mason redirected his attention from his business degree and night work in a bar to begin what was to become more than a decade of health research, courses, education, and mentorship from some of the leaders in personal development, wellness, and tonic herbalism. Inspired by the own changes to his health and wellbeing through his journey (which also included Yoga teacher training and raw foodism!), he started SuperFeast in 2010. Initially offering a selection of superfoods, herbs, and supplements to support detox, immune function, and general wellbeing. Mason offered education programs around Australia, and it was on one of these trips that he met Tahnee, who is now his wife and CEO of SuperFeast. Mason also offered detox and health transformation retreats in the Byron hinterland (some of which Tahnee also worked on, teaching Yoga and workshops on Taoist healing practices, as well as offering Chi Nei Tsang treatments to participants). After falling in love with the Byron Shire, Mason moved SuperFeast from Sydney's Northern Beaches to Byron Bay in 2015. He lived on a majestic permaculture farm in the Byron hinterland, and after not too long, Tahnee joined him (and their daughter, Aiya was conceived). The rest is history - from a friend's rented garage to a warehouse in the Byron Industrial Estate to SuperFeast's current home in Mullumbimby's beautiful Food Hub, SuperFeast (and Mason) has thrived in the conscious community of the Northern Rivers. Mason continues to evolve his role at SuperFeast, in education, sourcing, training, and creating the formulas based on Taoist principles of tonic herbalism. Tahnee Taylor Tahnee Taylor is the CEO of SuperFeast and has been exploring health and human consciousness since her late teens. From Yoga, which she first practiced at school in 2000, to reiki, herbs, meditation, Taoist and Tantric practices, and human physiology, her journey has taken her all over. This journey continues to expand her understanding and insight into the majesty (that is) the human body and the human experience. Tahnee graduated with a Journalism major and did a stint in non-fiction publishing (working with health and wellness authors and other inspiring creatives), advertising, many jobs in cafes, and eventually found herself as a Yoga teacher. Her first studio, Yoga for All, opened in 2013, and Tahnee continues to study Yoga with her teachers Paul + Suzee Grilley and Rod Stryker. She learned Chi Nei Tsang and Taoist healing practices from Master Mantak Chia. Tahnee continues to study herbalism and Taoist practices, the human body, women's wisdom, ancient healing systems, and is currently enrolled in an acupuncture degree and year-long program with The Shamanic School of Womancraft. Tahnee is the mother of one, a 4-year old named Aiya.   Resources: The Power of Menopause with Jane Hardwicke Collings (EP#77) Life-Changing Sex Makes Anything Possible with Kim Anami (EP#28) Yin Yoga with Anatomist and Yogi Paul Grilley (EP#59) Why Chinese Medicine is Failing Us with Rhonda Chang (EP#80) Ayurveda and Yoga-The Healing Arts with Myra Lewin From Hale Pule (EP#55) Reclaiming Pureness and Sovereign Living with Jessika Le Corre (EP#96) Tools For Healthy Living with Dr. Claudia Welch (EP#32) Authentic Sex with Juliet Allen (EP#31) Embodied Movement with The Movement Monk Benny Fergusson (EP#56) Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee: (00:01) Hi everyone. I'm here with Mason.   Mason: (00:04) Hi guys. How are you?   Tahnee: (00:05) Yay. And it's episode 100, which means we've made it through 100 interviews and chats with each other and others. And we just wanted to check in with you guys today because I was laughing to myself thinking about when Mason first tried to get me on the podcast and I was moy resistant as they say in Spanish. And I have really enjoyed it, actually, coming full circle and have had some amazing chats and have really enjoyed the opportunity to get clear on my voice and my interview style and how we connect with people and sharing it with you guys.   Mason: (00:49) Yeah, it's been great watching you step into that side of yourself because you asked great questions.   Tahnee: (00:54) So do you.   Mason: (00:55) Thank you.   Tahnee: (00:56) And it's really cool. I remember when I first met Mase about six years ago, he was doing a podcasting course, I think, or kind of interested in starting his own podcast or maybe you were in a mastermind group or something.   Mason: (01:10) I didn't go that far. I just signed up for the free seven steps-   Tahnee: (01:15) Trial.   Mason: (01:16) No, just a little guide, seven steps to set up your podcast. Went and did that with... Can't remember who it was through, but it was just one of those ones. It just popped up in a-   Tahnee: (01:25) An ad or something.   Mason: (01:26) Yeah, it was an ad and I was like, hmm, not bad.   Tahnee: (01:29) Yeah and I remember you had the Mason Taylor Show and if you're listening and you haven't checked out that stuff that was from probably five or six years ago now. And I remember having listened to podcasts, but I think it was not what they are now where they're just abundant in all spheres. It's been really cool to be involved peripherally and then more closely lately as SuperFeast podcast has evolved. And we're really excited about the next 100 episodes.   Mason: (02:02) Doing the podcast five years ago, it's interesting. It's a similar feeling to when I started SuperFeast and I was like, ah, it's probably not appropriate to sell medicinal mushrooms because the market seems saturated already. And then you fast forward five years and you're like, ah, no, that was like-   Tahnee: (02:20) [crosstalk 00:02:20]-   Mason: (02:20) Yeah. And like five years ago I was like, oh my gosh, there's a bajillion podcasts out there, but it wasn't at the point now where it felt something where it's accessible for absolutely everyone, to do it. It didn't feel natural. It didn't feel as much stepping out on a ledge.   Tahnee: (02:39) And I think, obviously, as a medium, it's just ballooned and it's been such an interesting thing to observe and we're talking the SuperFeast podcast, hundreds of thousands of downloads. People listening, I was looking at the country map before we jumped on, from all over the world from Nigeria to Greenland. I don't even know if people live in Greenland, but all over the place. It's quite wild to me to see how diverse and vast our listenership is. And even the topics that have really resonated with you guys because I guess we would not have picked them, but then looking at the statistics, we've got the semen retention and some of the episodes on sex, especially Kim Anami and Juliet Allen are really popular with you guys. And then female hormones, obviously a massive topic and one that are really of interest to the people listening to us. That's been, I think, a really interesting thing to reflect on as-   Mason: (03:38) Well, the interesting thing with the SuperFeast podcast is we didn't really have a strategy, which is something. It's like, all right, we'll take 100 episode kinda settler. And in terms of, strategically, it being like a marketing tool for the business, you would've thought that we would have sat down and gone, right, we're going to do these kinds of interviews with these kinds of people, these kinds of topics, but we didn't do that at all.   Tahnee: (04:07) People we're fans of or that we think would be interesting guests-   Mason: (04:09) Which I think that's a huge reason. For some people, I don't know, maybe for some of you, you wanted to hear about herbs and that's something that I've strayed from, but you can see we're in some of the top podcasts. It's the Reishi one, the Chaga one, ashwagandha-   Tahnee: (04:31) Cannabis-   Mason: (04:32) Yeah and then then like, cannabis is a little bit different, but yeah, nonetheless, it's something that I'd love to hear from you guys if those, even if it's just like a rapid fire, me talking about a particular herbal, Tahnee talking about a particular herb, if you want to hear a little bit more about that, I'd be super stoked to jump in there and do that. But it's been part of the beauty and I think part of the reason we've been... I think we've got so much structure in many areas of life. It's been it's in the business getting more structure in place in the business.   Mason: (05:07) It's nice having this open book, chaotic world and even though what I was saying is I think maybe there's a few of you listening, it'd be great to hear if you feel like more consistency is something that keeps you there, but I think it's been a huge reason why the podcast resonates with so many people is just this like open field of possible ideas and bringing the guys in and talking about Ayurveda and then classical Chinese medicine and then bringing naturopaths in. And we don't try and layer all these things on top of each other and make it fit a particular idea around health. It's just going out and exploring what's out there, which I feel like I've needed that in the podcast and it's helped me keep me motivated and [inaudible 00:05:54].   Tahnee: (05:54) Well, I think that's the bit you probably don't appreciate from the listener's perspective, but for us, running a company and being parents and life, it's a great way for us to stay really connected and to learn and to be inspired by people who are really on mission, I guess, for want of a better way of saying it and who have really devoted themselves to a particular topic or area of research. And I was thinking about the podcast that really moved me and I remember listening to Jane Hardwicke Collings, who I interviewed earlier this year, she did a piece on menopause with us and I was moved to tears by that interview. I just was so touched by her strength and her power and her capacity to capture what it is to be a woman in these transitory phases of life and-   Mason: (06:44) That was number 77, The Power of Menopause.   Tahnee: (06:47) Yeah. And then the other one, I was trying to think of the ones that really, really resonated. I was really excited to speak to Kim Anami and that's one that you guys have all voted is very, very popular. That was number 28. But coming back to Jane, that was one of the ones where people would stop me on the street and just say, oh my God, that podcast moved me. And everyone from young women who just birthed their first child to women in their 50s and 60s who were touched that someone had discussed those topics so openly. That was really special. And I remember being really moved by speaking with Paul, my yoga teacher, Paul Grilley, which I think he's number... We'll look that up. But yeah, that was a really special one for me because-   Mason: (07:36) That's number 59.   Tahnee: (07:37) He's been such a huge influence to me in my teaching and my life. And I know for you Mace, Rhonda's been a big influence.   Mason: (07:47) The Rhonda Chang interview's number 80. I think it's called, Why Chinese Medicine is Failing Us. It's been interesting. It's creeping up there more and more, becoming one of those cult conversations. You can see like this month it's got way more downloads than anything else [inaudible 00:08:10] actually-   Tahnee: (08:10) Still-   Mason: (08:10) Jane's there still like charging away and I assume that'll get up there. I like that because I think for a lot of you who are listening, I heard some people listen to one of mine and Dan Sipple's conversations, which if you want to just hear me and my mate, who's a naturopath, me coming from Taoist perspective, him naturopath perspective, and just seeing just how those conversations run side by side, but someone shared it on Instagram recently and was like they come for the talk on gut health, the conversations and the protocols on gut health and they stay for Mason's rants about ideology.   Mason: (08:50) And I don't know if you guys are still enjoying it or not whether I'm flogging a dead horse, but naturally, that's been something probably because I've been really going through some reconciliations within myself and some integrations with myself and also just really pausing to consider where in the health landscape there is room and tools being provided to people so that we're safe to go into a big rule set approach to health or a protocol, a healing protocol, and then where the skill set is in going beyond to well, what do you go to beyond that, beyond the labels and coming further into yourself and then realising that we're not going to land in a place of being sure and it's such a weird world, where we're in a completely new world when it comes to the accessibility that we have to health protocols and technologies and traditional technologies and traditional systems that it's all just experimental as anything right now. What is a healthy, ongoing space to keep on questioning our beliefs and questioning how we've integrated opposing ideas and then move into a place of it's in further and further harmony, which is in alignment with every traditional system. It's never ending and it doesn't ever stop evolving, but there is a way to surf it in harmony and stay healthy.   Mason: (10:13) That's been a huge one for me this year, which a lot of you would have heard and Rhonda's conversation is probably the biggest one in number 80, Why Chinese medicine is Failing Us just because it represents something I'm close to as a hobbyist with Chinese medicine and enjoying Taoists medicine, especially, and she's someone sometimes you're like, am I crazy here? Is there actually any difference? Is there an institution when it comes to health or the Chinese medicine that's different to how it was done previously? Is this just the natural evolution? Is it in fact unnatural? Is it bad or is it good? Is it great to have options? Where's the [inaudible 00:10:57]... But it was just all meshed in. It was just Chinese medicine is Chinese medicine is Chinese medicine is Chinese medicine. It represents the wider conversation around when something that was holistic gets layered on something that's reductionist. And so that's another one, that number 80 conversation was one I had seen people writing to me and stopping me on the street going far out, Ronda's is just a firecracker, but she's just nailed it.   Mason: (11:27) Am I crazy here? Is something that blurred here? We should be making the distinction that this is a new medicine and a new technology and not just pretending that we're practising the traditional style and with that, why isn't it working? And I feel that about a lot of things. I see a lot of people going down a health ideology that's got all this modern biohacking layered over it and we're like, yes, I'm doing the traditional thing and then I've watched it fail so many times and then going, okay... I'm going a little bit of a rant, guys, but this is just wrapping up my approach to the podcast. Going like, well, where does our faith actually lie? Does it lie in a system or in an ideology and a set of rules that we can identify with and that are external or is there something else that we can learn to have faith and trust in, which is self-regulating and never moving?   Mason: (12:27) And that's something that that conversation and reading Rhonda's book and talking with her really helped me go, no, I'm not crazy here, there's just a little bit more of a distinction that's needed, especially when there's so much coming. There's so many new systems coming out as Western medicine goes charging forth, thankfully, in other areas, as long as it's not getting layered over and bastardising everything that we've had there. If we're able to preserve that, then that's beautiful as well. A lot of this year in the podcast has been me wiping out a lot of that confusion and learning how to navigate this new emerging health scape.   Tahnee: (13:12) That's a way more complex than my year. My year was like emotions and amazing women, which I feel like that's such an interesting... I've felt that my personal journey was around this wider acceptance of the vast, many layered dimensions of experience that women have and also that everyone has and then also the themes around that. I think I've really learned to be less judgmental and to not always project my experience onto other people and not to try and always use myself as the reference. And I think it's been interesting talking to people who they're just so strong and grounded in themselves.   Tahnee: (14:04) I'm thinking about Jessica Le Corre right now. I spoke to her on my birthday, on my 35th birthday, and I feel she was a bit of a gift. That was episode 96. She just epitomises to me the place I would like to step into or the place I see myself stepping into as I get older. And she really, really moved me. And also I'm thinking of Myra Lewin, the Ayurvedic teacher. I think her episode was... Looking at one up, number 55. Ayurveda and yoga and she was another one I think that really moved me. Claudia Welch, I've spoken to a lot of women who are just proper powerhouses and I think that's something that I've really... Number 32's Claudia Welch as well. Something I've really kind of-   Mason: (14:58) It's one of the favourites as well.   Tahnee: (15:00) Yeah. I've always said to Mase, I'm going to be a really cool old lady when I'm 60. And I think speaking to these women that are elders and even if they're only 10 years older than me, but they've settled into themselves in a way that I think young women often haven't and it's really special to share the space with them. And just so many interesting and inspiring women and men, I think have graced our microphone this year.   Mason: (15:31) And that's an interesting reflection because I've definitely noticed that in you stepping into a part of yourself. I'm not sure what you mean by using yourself as a reference, not doing that as much. Is that-   Tahnee: (15:46) I think just sometimes because I've had a pretty interesting, vast life experience in some ways. And I think sometimes I can try and empathise through my experience instead of just allowing that person's experience to be separate from me a little bit. And I think it's just something that as you grow up, you realise you haven't seen it all. And I'm may be not clear [crosstalk 00:16:12]-   Mason: (16:12) No, no that's clear.   Tahnee: (16:12) Just coming to me at this moment, but that's what I'm feeling into that I've noticed, like assumptions I've made or going into interviews with a certain assumption or certain sense of where it's going to go and then just being completely stunned in a positive way where it's just been so much richer and deeper and more powerful and more educational for me on a really personal intimate level than I would have imagined. A chat about, say, I just did one, it hasn't come out yet, about PCOS and I've not experienced that personally. And I went in with some assumptions around what PCOS is just based on my experience in dealing with it with people who we speak to and then just having this whole more vast conversation around it, I suppose, than I would have been able to have with Amanda, this TCM doctor. I think it's great. It's humbling and it's inspiring and it just constantly reminds me to stay in that beginner's mind and that Zen mind of not knowing, which was a conversation we're having last night about acting rather.   Mason: (17:20) Oh, yes.   Tahnee: (17:20) [crosstalk 00:17:19]-   Mason: (17:20) Not losing yourself in the character.   Tahnee: (17:22) Yeah, and I think you can easily get your ego really wrapped up in knowing-   Mason: (17:26) Oh, in a narrative?   Tahnee: (17:27) Yeah.   Mason: (17:27) That's something at times I was like, all right, we've got to have a very specific SuperFeast narrative. And now the idea, for example, I remember the week after I had that conversation with Rhonda and we were really heavily exploring that area, which is something I feel like I've popped. It's like just because I'm exploring an area and really enjoying it and going in and getting good realisations doesn't mean that that's my narrative, doesn't mean that's the truth, doesn't mean that we can't explore other areas. It seems obvious, but for me, I'm such a purist sometimes. And I had that conversation with Rhonda and watching, looking at what's happened when we've used, say, Western diagnosis and Western diseases in with Chinese medicine and yet, the week after or even like you were saying, this podcast that came out before this one, is a Chinese medicine doctor exploring PCOS and that's fine and that's beautiful and I'm interested to hear about that because it's like...   Mason: (18:30) I think I've [inaudible 00:18:33] what I mean there, but I feel we are really opening up and exploring on the SuperFeast podcast more and more. And that's something I did notice this year, it was just how many elders you had. You'd come away feeling really solid, just really reflected, I think, where you've been moving. And for me this year, when I've had guys on the podcast, I've been chatting to young guys. It's been Sage Dammers and Dan Sipple and Taylor Johnson and another big one was Nick Perry. But I feel that's just where I've been at. I've been trying to explore. I didn't want to be led. I wanted to be in the dark and be talking to other guys who were potentially going through that same stage of life because I needed to work it out for myself. But I can see now I'm ready to have some conversations with those guys that have just really landed in themselves as well.   Tahnee: (19:34) Basically guys, this is our therapy and you're just along for the ride because I often think about that. I'm like, I'm not promoting SuperFeast, I don't have anything to sell, I just want to have a conversation.   Mason: (19:46) I've started to be good and in the intros sometimes promo products and things.   Tahnee: (19:50) But I'm like, it's funny because to me it feels almost separate from SuperFeast except that it informs my growth and my evolution and I know the team listens and gets value out of it and support us in the production of it. They're all engaged and [inaudible 00:20:08]. It obviously informs the SuperFeast philosophy and how we do things and often conversations are sparked from listening to the podcast on how we do things and what we can do better or how we can navigate our roles better and all these things. It's just an interesting thing to me that it feels so much less a marketing part of the business. It feels a personal exploration/soul nourishment/education piece. That's an interesting thing that I've been observing is like it's not really something I think of in a sales and marketing capacity. Even though I started thinking about it because one of our consultants placed the podcast within a marketing flow and I went, oh, I didn't even think of it that way. That's been an interesting little distinction for me this year as well.   Mason: (21:04) As the business mushrooms and I'm not out doing-   Tahnee: (21:11) Is that a pun?   Mason: (21:13) Mushrooms and it's growing in its own way and I'm not in front of people at markets anymore and you're not helping at events talking to people. And so the podcast continues to be a way to associate all those conversations because normally people come up to the markets back in the day when I was growing SuperFeast-   Tahnee: (21:35) You're having the chance.   Mason: (21:36) Or when people come to you. Well, yeah, someone was like, I have an autoimmune condition. I wouldn't be sitting there just promoting SuperFeast. I'd have this huge other exploring conversation that would always need to come back to the way that we're living in general, the way the diets looking in general.   Tahnee: (21:53) Totally. It's a part of a piece of a puzzle, not a silver bullet solution. And I think that's something we wanted to convey in this ramble was that we're really interested in the direction that you guys want to hear us go with this thing. We don't have a plan. We are just reaching out and when people can, we're interviewing them and we're recording stuff that we think is interesting or that people on our team find interesting, but we haven't heard a whole lot from you guys beyond the feedback. I've quit social media, so I'm not hearing from anyone, yay, but we'd love to hear from you guys about people you think we'd froth on interviewing, people you want to hear interviewed. I think as I look at the podcast circuit and there's so many of the same names popping up across all these different podcasts and sometimes I just think, it's like people just do the circuit and they do all the podcasts. And then I'm like, I want to offer something a bit more diverse and interesting, like voices-   Mason: (23:00) I think Matthew McConaughey just finished doing that.   Tahnee: (23:02) Doing the podcast circuit?   Mason: (23:02) Yeah.   Tahnee: (23:03) Well, why didn't we get him?   Mason: (23:03) Good question. We got to consider ourselves being more like the ballers and go for the big fish.   Tahnee: (23:08) I don't know if we're quite there yet.   Mason: (23:10) No, we're definitely not there yet.   Tahnee: (23:14) Matthew lived with my friend as an exchange student actually when he was 18. We have a contact. Anyway, but my preference is not to do the famous... Look, if they're famous and they kick ass and it's something I feel we could really contribute to your earbuds, but I think in general, you can find those interviews already. I want to do people that are maybe not getting a lot of publicity or that are doing the work quietly in their little corner and don't have that kind of capacity to generate fame for themselves or-   Mason: (23:51) And it'd be interesting to hear, just for you guys, if you like, if you're [inaudible 00:23:54] on SuperFeast podcast and you're just really enjoying it, what you'd like to hear. This year hasn't been a lot about us because I know a lot of people want to hear from me and Tahns about what's your diet like and what's your lifestyle? and I don't know if we've been exploring, just trying to land somewhere-   Tahnee: (24:19) I feel like we don't spend any time together at work. That's the biggest thing. We work together, but we both hold really different roles in the business, whereas I'm usually more in an administrative role and Mason's more in a marketing role. Our days at work don't overlap that much and I think we haven't prioritised taking this time to chat to each other in this capacity, which I think is more realistic in the new year as things have settled down a bit. COVID has been, for everyone I'm sure, disruptive to the flow and we've just landed back on our feet, I think, after that period of time. And so I feel I do podcasts at seven in the morning or late at night or around... A lot of people I speak to are in the States, so I'm often working with really bad time zones where I'm getting up really early or you're looking after Aiya It's not like we can go duck off together and record one.   Mason: (25:13) I think that'd be a nice intention for us to just set or just have the intention anyway to start lapping here and there.   Tahnee: (25:22) And I'm also not the kind of person who really likes sharing those things because I think it's odd, but I'm also happy to have people want to. For example, the pregnancy podcasts, which are just-   Mason: (25:34) That's what I was just thinking of.   Tahnee: (25:34) So popular and the prenatal preparation one and-   Mason: (25:39) And the nourishing her yin, the live event, that's like, I mean that's-   Tahnee: (25:43) See, those to me though require a lot of push for me to share myself and if I'm really honest, I feel uncomfortable. And I often think about what I've shared on this podcast and I feel really uncomfortable, but it's already done so... But I think it's for me, it's my own, I don't want to ever feel like people think they need to... Yeah, I just think it's one of those things where so much of it's a personal journey for me and not something I share publicly, but if that's something you guys really want to hear and Mase does get those requests a lot through his-   Mason: (26:20) I think every time there's a request, it's like, look, I know you guys aren't going to have an exact diet or rule. We'll see if we can lap over because every time we do tune in, it's just a little... I think it's weird because Tahnee and I don't get a lot, a lot, a lot of time to just sit down with each other and flesh these things out outside of a podcast. And it's like, let's not have a mic between us every time we get that chance to just do that-   Tahnee: (26:48) [crosstalk 00:26:48] together.   Mason: (26:48) We just have enjoy be together. But there's definitely room for us to jump on and just be like, this is what the diet has done in the last year and this is where the fluctuations and this is where we're trying to land. I've definitely started sharing a little because we get asked a lot about diet and everyone knows we're not experts on that topic, but we've had a lot of interactions with thinking about the diet and so we'll see. That's not a black and white conversation, so we'll see if we can colour it in and do some sharing around that one. Definitely, I can get the feeling if there's anyone that wants to learn about any particular topics in Taoist herbalism that I can share about.   Tahnee: (27:37) I've got a couple of things lined up just from my background, like yoga nidra. I've got a chat coming up with Rod Stryker next year. I have-   Mason: (27:46) [crosstalk 00:27:46] he's the one that Tahnee's been learning from him, but our yoga nidra that Sophia runs on a Wednesday, so everyone's been doing it.   Tahnee: (27:55) And with Nicole's teacher, whose name I don't remember, but she's amazing, too. And we have definitely got some podcasts on [inaudible 00:28:03] planned. I'm trying to get my Taois teacher Master Mantak Chia on the podcast, I'm working on it. I just think there's lots of people out there that we're connected to that would be great to feature because we know their work and we love their work. And I know Mase has Benny on regularly and Benny's a close friend of ours as well as an excellent genius of movement. What numbers are Benny if we're looking for them-   Mason: (28:32) We've had Benny twice. Benny, the embodied movement one is really most popular, me and him just riffing a lot. That's why I talk in that one because we're riffing. So number 56, if you want to hear me talking with my friend, or 87, if you want to hear Benny talking a little bit less interrupted.   Tahnee: (28:53) How could you not interrupt someone? Anyway, I'm sure there'll be more of that stuff. I think you and [Tanya 00:28:59] should re-record-   Mason: (28:59) Oh yeah, that's a good.   Tahnee: (29:00) Because Tanya's a close friend of ours, who's a permaculture lifestyle guru.   Mason: (29:06) The Mason Taylor Show, we've had a really good conversation with Tanya [inaudible 00:29:11], it's called, Dancing the Patterns of Permaculture. If you can go find number eight on the Mason Taylor Show, you can tune in with us talking about permaculture and then when we get her on the SuperFeast podcast, you can see the difference and the evolution of where that conversation goes. But yeah, that's a good call. There's a lot of people on the horizon. For some reason, I don't know, I thought you guys were all sexually liberated and maybe that's why you like the sexy conversations-   Tahnee: (29:42) Sex is very popular.   Mason: (29:43) It's by far the top one-   Tahnee: (29:46) Four or five?   Mason: (29:46) That's downloaded is Semen retention. Is that because, did that get shared around in a bunch of like guys circles? Or is it women going like, hold the phone, it is possible? Authentic Sex with Juliet Allen is way up there as is Tahnee's conversation with Kim Anami. They're seriously popular. If there's any aspects around sexuality and any experts that you'd recommend us listening to, we definitely don't like... I think it's nice. We like people on the edge, but sometimes... It's interesting to know what you guys are enjoying about that. We don't particularly feel we're being naughty or taboo talking about these kinds of things, but I think, for some of you, maybe you're enjoying the fact that it feels really edgy, us talking about this kind of thing. I'm not sure why that's so popular. Sex is great. And so it's an obvious reason, but yeah, if you guys want to send us an email or anything and just let us know, you're reflecting over the last 100 episodes why you've been drawn towards particular topics and others not so much, in particular, personalities more so. It'd be really great to hear and you'd all probably notice and appreciate Tahnee's audio is way better these days.   Tahnee: (31:14) That was our number one comment was fix Tahnee's audio and guys, I'm a quiet person anyway. So I'm learning to be more articulate in the microphone and I'm learning how to use microphones. Mason didn't teach me anything. He just gave me one. I'm working on it and that kind of feedback is really useful, too, because I'm new to this and we are often just making it up as we go along.   Mason: (31:43) Thanks gang. Hey, reviews. I know a lot of you, a lot of you listening have left reviews, but it's the classic, it's like-   Tahnee: (31:49) They always help.   Mason: (31:51) Well, they're fun to read. I really like reading them when they come through.   Tahnee: (31:56) We share them with the whole team, too, so that we have a Slack channel. If you don't know what Slack is, it's kind of like inter business communication system. Our whole team uses it and we have a channel called Awesome Feedback, and we put feedback from all different areas of the business. People who love receiving a love letter from the warehouse all the way up to podcast reviews or customer service feedback on how much someone's health has changed from using SuperFeast. And it's just a way for us to celebrate the success and the joy that SuperFeast brings in people's lives. We also have channels for complaints, so don't worry, we're not just totally sunshine and focusing on the positive, but we really enjoy sharing that with everyone and everyone really enjoys reading those and they always get lots of positive comments and emojis and love.   Mason: (32:44) It can be specific. Sorry, it can be specific as well. You can say like, oh my gosh, this episode was great and I really loved this about Tahnee or it doesn't have to be a big, wide, general review. You can get really nice and specific there.   Tahnee: (32:58) Just anything, if you want to share with us, we love it. And same if you want to email us or contact us, it's just both of our first names at SuperFeast.com.au. That's an easy way to get in touch or through the team email, which is on our website or the contact forms. You can just reach out to us and let us know your feedback and just stay in touch. Sometimes it's like talking to space. It's nice to know there are humans out there listening. And so apart from seeing that in the numbers yeah, it's a great way for us to get feedback. I think that's about all we wanted to say.   Mason: (33:34) Thanks everyone. Thanks for coming along for the journey.   Tahnee: (33:36) We'd be interested to hear your favourite episodes, too. Those are just some of my favourites, but if you have any that really resonated, let us know.   Mason: (33:45) Always appreciate you guys sharing them. I'm still there on Instagram. When you tag favourite conversations and tag me in it, it always makes me really smile. Just thanks for making sure that the word's getting out there. Hopefully we're a nice little sanctuary of very deep diving ideas without it being a place where anyone needs to subscribe to anything in particular. I'm hoping that everyone feels very non-judged and able to just really explore interesting ideas in this and through this podcast.   Tahnee: (34:25) Aho.   Mason: (34:25) See you guys.   Tahnee: (34:28) Bye.

Struggling with how to develop your intuition? Wondering how to hear your inner guidance? Asking yourself how to listen to your inner voice? This Today Dreamer podcast with Kevin Courtney will help you learn to listen to your inner flow of sound. Kevin leads us through a guided healing meditation after a deep discussion sharing some inspiring spiritual stories. Besides the meditation for positive energy and chat around spirituality, we also talk about some "self-improvement" tips and ways to deepen your experience through radical self-honesty. We touch on the uncertainty of the current times and explore ways to move closer towards our true selves. Connect with Kevin Courtney's powerful work here: https://www.kevinjcourtney.com/ In this video podcast, I chat with Kevin Courtney about his life's struggles and how he is continuously moving into life following his sense of intuition and inner flow of sound. We don't so much talk about how to control your inner voice but rather how to flow with it. His story will inspire your journey and show's that even at the worst of times our inner voice is speaking to us we just need to learn how to listen. Hopefully, this provides a little more clarity, positive energy and mindfulness to your conscious and personal growth journey! * [Website](https://www.todaydreamer.com/) * [YouTube] (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFZupRA9wLAezNdEUTDYCg?sub_confirmation=1) * [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/today.dreamer/?hl=en) Who is Kevin Courtney? Genuine and down-to-earth, Kevin Courtney is considered one of today’s leading spiritual teachers in the field of yoga, meditation, and conscious leadership. Kevin offers guidance and practices that are designed to translate well beyond the mat. Initiated in his relationship to movement and connection to nature as a child surfing in San Clemente, California, Kevin has dedicated the last 22 years to the pursuit of awakening consciousness. Kevin’s teachings focus on the tools he has discovered to be the most effective: awareness, breath, vitality, strength, and mental clarity. Finding inspiration in teachers like Dharma Mittra, Richard Freeman, and Swami Satchidananda, Kevin dedicates his study through the mentorship and guidance of Nikki Costello, Rod Stryker and his daily personal practice His classes are a combination of tantric hatha yoga and qi gong to purify and ignite the body’s vital energy, coupled with Iyengar alignment and calculated posture sequencing to manage and direct that vital power. Kevin's work has been featured in Well + Good, VOGUE, the New York Times, VICE and most recently in Francesco Mastalia’s photography book - YOGA The Secret of Life. (pictured here) In 2013, Kevin created INSIGHT, a one-on-one program designed to awaken the consciousness of those in high-impact positions of leadership. INSIGHT has afforded Kevin the opportunity to sit at the table with many of the world’s leaders in economics, finance, science and technology, global politics, and wellness. Kevin’s INSIGHT practice is based out of Brooklyn, NY and online. Kevin is a contributing teacher for Taryn Toomey’s exclusive deep dives, ‘The Retreatment,’ and he is a featured teacher on The Class by Taryn Toomey digital app. Also the creator of Nada Sadhana, the musical group’s debut album “The Brooklyn Sessions Vol. 1” became one of the most listened to albums in yoga studios across the country, and currently has 115k active listeners on Spotify, with almost 3 million listens. Kevin offers workshops, classes and retreats worldwide, and is also a featured teacher on GAIA online.

Struggling with how to develop your intuition? Wondering how to hear your inner guidance? Asking yourself how to listen to your inner voice? This Today Dreamer podcast with Kevin Courtney will help you learn to listen to your inner flow of sound. Kevin leads us through a guided healing meditation after a deep discussion sharing some inspiring spiritual stories. Besides the meditation for positive energy and chat around spirituality, we also talk about some "self-improvement" tips and ways to deepen your experience through radical self-honesty. We touch on the uncertainty of the current times and explore ways to move closer towards our true selves. Connect with Kevin Courtney's powerful work here: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinjcourtney.com%2F&v=Swob-tN4wBw&event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbUhaUFA5QWlucnV4YnZKa1RsblAyczAtVkw1UXxBQ3Jtc0tteHJURFVCeGtrZVZheF9zMC1oTVkxWmRVWDEyeDZoQXNQX3lzVElaSmlqZjYxTGVMcm1hb0tzSWZ3aDhLc2dMWVUzRDNVRGcwY1JMN2RyTVNWc2ZYcUE4UW04anBuTjJ6bHZnUmxJd0Q2aHllUl96Zw%3D%3D (https://www.kevinjcourtney.com/) In this video podcast, I chat with Kevin Courtney about his life's struggles and how he is continuously moving into life following his sense of intuition and inner flow of sound. We don't so much talk about how to control your inner voice but rather how to flow with it. His story will inspire your journey and show's that even at the worst of times our inner voice is speaking to us we just need to learn how to listen. Hopefully, this provides a little more clarity, positive energy and mindfulness to your conscious and personal growth journey! * [Website](https://www.todaydreamer.com/) * [YouTube] (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFZupRA9wLAezNdEUTDYCg?sub_confirmation=1) * [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/today.dreamer/?hl=en) Who is Kevin Courtney? Genuine and down-to-earth, Kevin Courtney is considered one of today's leading spiritual teachers in the field of yoga, meditation, and conscious leadership. Kevin offers guidance and practices that are designed to translate well beyond the mat. Initiated in his relationship to movement and connection to nature as a child surfing in San Clemente, California, Kevin has dedicated the last 22 years to the pursuit of awakening consciousness. Kevin's teachings focus on the tools he has discovered to be the most effective: awareness, breath, vitality, strength, and mental clarity. Finding inspiration in teachers like Dharma Mittra, Richard Freeman, and Swami Satchidananda, Kevin dedicates his study through the mentorship and guidance of Nikki Costello, Rod Stryker and his daily personal practice His classes are a combination of tantric hatha yoga and qi gong to purify and ignite the body's vital energy, coupled with Iyengar alignment and calculated posture sequencing to manage and direct that vital power. Kevin's work has been featured in Well + Good, VOGUE, the New York Times, VICE and most recently in Francesco Mastalia's photography book - YOGA The Secret of Life. (pictured here) In 2013, Kevin created INSIGHT, a one-on-one program designed to awaken the consciousness of those in high-impact positions of leadership. INSIGHT has afforded Kevin the opportunity to sit at the table with many of the world's leaders in economics, finance, science and technology, global politics, and wellness. Kevin's INSIGHT practice is based out of Brooklyn, NY and online. Kevin is a contributing teacher for Taryn Toomey's exclusive deep dives, ‘The Retreatment,' and he is a featured teacher on The Class by Taryn Toomey digital app. Also the creator of Nada Sadhana, the musical group's debut album “The Brooklyn Sessions Vol. 1” became one of the most listened to albums in yoga studios across the country, and currently has 115k active listeners on Spotify, with almost 3 million listens. Kevin offers workshops, classes and retreats worldwide, and is also a featured teacher on...

For this episode, I sat down with Yogarupa Rod Stryker. Rod is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. He is the creator of one of the most comprehensive online yoga trainings in the world and most recently, the app Sanctuary, a premier destination for all levels of those wanting to experience the life-changing practices of meditation and yoga nidra, Rod has dedicated his life to improving lives through his lectures, writing, practice, teaching, leadership, service and family life.MY 5 BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:1- Hierarchy in teaching doesn't have to be informed my patriarchy or dominance. The role of a teacher is to lead by definition, but to eventually make themselves obsolete, by empowering their students so they can walk away and stand in their own wisdom and capacities.2- Ultimately what determines the quality of your life is the quality of your perception of life and the depth of your own self-awareness. Yoga is about the mind more than it is about the body. The end goal is the refinement of the quality of your perception, so yoga asana is a meditation tool.3- Yoga Nidra is the conversion of sleep and meditation. Your body is fundamentally asleep and your mind gets into a delta pattern; it's most quiet, most relaxed, deep state of relaxation, but there is still a thread of being conscious. It recalibrates us our perception of ourselves by being both a practice and a state of consciousness.4- To live a happier, more purposeful life, you have to start by getting still. Then, you get clarity on how to live in alignment with your purpose. It doesn't matter what you're doing in life, but you won't find happiness until you live a purposeful life. You will feel lost for not having done what you were here to do, not being who you were meant to be, and creation will suffer from you not playing your role in it. "An undisciplined mind is unfit for any path". 5- Understanding your life purpose helps you deal with the small things in life, not only the big challenges. When you learn how to responds better to those small things, your destiny changes. You take the driver seat in shaping your destiny by making those everyday small right decisions. Peace is never guaranteed but we are each responsible for finding our own peace and best form of self-care is to overcome our nature.QUESTIONS HE ANSWERED DURING THIS EPISODE:How do you describe ParaYoga?You recently launched a new meditation app called Sanctuary, why did you choose to chOne of the things you teach is Yoga Nidra, for listeners that have never done Yoga Nidra before, can you explain what it is?How do to start moving towards a happier and more fulfilled life? How do you uncover your true purpose and live a happier life?SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW!DONATE OR BECOME AN EXCLUSIVE MEMBER TODAY.Thank you so much for listening and being part of our 64th episode! If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe, rate and review anywhere you listen. As always, I really appreciate your support with this podcast whether it’s through reviews or through Patreon. I have just added 2 new tiers to the premium memberships. As before, with a small donation of $5/month you can get access to more content, exclusive episodes, tutorials, guided meditations. on August 1st, you got a 25 minutes delicious Yoga Nidra,so perfect timing! Now you can also have access to some or all the classes we’ve recorded on zoom and continue to record during this shelter-in-place. If you’d like to have access to all this and/or support me in the creation of this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/onandoffyourmat and become a PREMIUM member on the tier of your choice.ABOUT OUR GUEST​​Yogarupa Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. He is the creator of one of the most comprehensive online yoga trainings in the world and most recently, the app Sanctuary, a premier destination for all levels of those wanting to experience the life-changing practices of meditation and yoga nidra, also known as Enlightened Sleep. Rod has dedicated his life to improving lives through his lectures, writing, practice, teaching, leadership, service and family life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nancy GoodfellowLuminous Heart Yoga InstituteYoga Academy InternationalRod StrykerAshtanga YogaAnusara YogaPranamar Villas & Yoga Retreat

Leah Kinsella at leahkinsella.com teaches from her own dedication to the practice of ParaYoga® and has been fortunate enough to have high caliber teachers, Rod Stryker, Brent Anderson, Jack Kornfield, & Sally Kempton. Her direct link to the Himalayan tradition provides the method she teaches called Sri Vidya tantra. Leah teaches as she has been taught by her teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, using time-tested ancient methods in today’s modern world.

Leah Kinsella at leahkinsella.com teaches from her own dedication to the practice of ParaYoga® and has been fortunate enough to have high caliber teachers, Rod Stryker, Brent Anderson, Jack Kornfield, & Sally Kempton. Her direct link to the Himalayan tradition provides the method she teaches called Sri Vidya tantra. Leah teaches as she has been taught by her teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, using time-tested ancient methods in today’s modern world.

In this episode Shannon speaks with Rebecca who is a yoga and meditation practitioner and teacher with over 20 years of experience as a student, and eight as a teacher. The ladies dive into what it means to find your own path despite your childhood programming and religious experiences. Both ladies share their first angel experiences, and Shannon shares a personal story about connecting with angels during her miscarriage and a surgery that gave her a whole new perspective on the angel council. More about Rebecca: Rebecca Davidson is a yoga and meditation practitioner and teacher with over 20 years of experience as a student, and eight as a teacher. She completed both her 200 hr and 500 hr teacher training under Kim Manfredi at Charm City Yoga (Baltimore, MD). Since completing her 500 hr training Rebecca has participated in continuing education workshops taught by Sarah Platt-Finger, Alan Finger, Rosie Acosta, Seane Corn, Jillian Pranksy, Rod Stryker, and Cyndi Lee. She specializes in yoga nidra, restorative, tantra, and other spiritually-based practices such as mantra, pranayama, and meditation. Rebecca is a doTERRA Wellness Advocate, an intuitive tarot and oracle reader, a visual and performing artist, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Painting at the Savannah College of Art & Design. When she is not practicing, teaching, making art, or helping others transform/heal, Rebecca is probably drinking tea and listening to music or a podcast. She is a tree-hugging, crystal-collecting, essential oil wearing, animal loving, sober vegan. Find her online at : www.createyourlifewellness.comwww.rebeccadavidsonart.comTo learn more about the Host of Awakening With The Girls you can check out Shannon at www.ShantasticShine.com For more uplifting content check out www.bringme2life.com And to be a part of our real time community discussions you can join our facebook group at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/832175253510166/

In this episode of Meditate with Kate, I sit down with Kate Waitzkin. I first discovered Kate’s meditations with Goop. I’m very excited to share this conversation with Kate and learn about her journey to yoga + meditation, how she is using this time at home with her family and growing her online yoga community. Kate is also an essential oil educator and in our conversation, she shares a wealth of knowledge about essential oils and which ones she uses to help her feel grounded and more at ease. Our conversation ends with a lovely meditation led by Kate in the final 10 minutes. More about Kate:Kate Waitzkin is a mama and yoga and meditation teacher recognized for her accessible and potent approach to leading guided meditation and for creating an impactful experience through vinyasa flow with a blend of breath-centered movement, inspired sequencing, and purposeful moments of reflection. Kate has taught yoga and meditation since 2006 and continues to lead public and private classes, workshops, retreats and teacher training programs throughout the year. She currently offers LIVE yoga and meditation classes online each week through her online platform, SHALA COLLECTIVE. Formally trained through YogaWorks in New York, her primary teachers today are Rod Stryker and Elena Brower with whom she travels to study annually. To learn more about Kate, her work and book classes with SHALA Collective, please visit: https://www.katewaitzkin.com

Meet Roxanne Joly: "On being a seeker!" I am very excited for you to listen to the newest series of my podcast called sharing journeys. I get to sit down with some of the most inspiring and influential people that I have had the pleasure of crossing paths with to understand what makes them incredible and how they show up in service for others. The first in this series is from a long time gem in my life who shares her journey as a Seeker! Roxanne Joly, Yoga teacher, Reiki Master, Shamanic Healer, Avedeic practitioner and mother of two. Roxanne has been practising and teaching yoga for over 20 years. As a pioneer in the yoga industry, Roxanne opened her own yoga centre in 2002 so that I could share the beautiful benefits of yoga within the community After outgrowing the role of yoga centre owner and becoming a mom to 2 beautiful girls, she sold the business so that she could deepen herself in healing service by offering yoga, Ayurveda, reiki and shamanic teachings. Roxanne has spent decades growing both as a teacher and as a human being in her personal growth and has studied with great teachers like Rod Stryker and Pete Bernard. Roxanne’s essence along with her passion to bring steadiness, calmness and joy to her students is a gift that all who cross her path receive. But I am going to let you find that out for yourself now, take a listen... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kristy24/message

In this episode of Meditate with Kate Podcast, I have a conversation with Nikki Smithson:Nikki Smithson is a lead senior instructor at YogaSource Los Gatos, where her teaching journey began, as well as other well-known and revered locations throughout the Bay Area. She teaches gentle Yoga, vinyasa, restorative, yin, meditation and Yoga Strong, and leads various advanced studies and teacher training programs. She is a massage therapist and an Ayurvedic Lifestyle and Health Coach specializing in Women's health, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, pelvic pain and inflammatory conditions. Nikki has been practicing yoga for 12 years and is currently continuing her studies with the Shakti School and with Rod Stryker of Para Yoga. She believes that Yoga truly is for everyone and that it is an opportunity to step into the power of self and be in the unending beauty of the flow of life.You can find more about Nikki and her work by visiting www.nikkismithson.com

In today’s episode, world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, Rod Stryker, shares with us the vast experience and wisdom that he has accumulated over the past 40 years. Join us today as Rod helps us to better understand the value in suffering, the importance of connecting to breath and body sensation, and some sage advice on how we can use uncertainty and challenge as a catalyst for self discovery. Highlights: Understand how challenge and suffering is part of the path to self discovery Discover the 4 Desires and how they can assist us in finding our Dharma. Learn how to deal with suffering more skilfully through the parable of the well-known Buddhist story about the second arrow. Gain insight into the overlap between thoughts, experiences, desires and Samskara. Learn how to recognize and break unsupportive habits.

Welcome to Yoga Unplugged ConversationsA podcast dedicated to helping you grow, thrive and gracefully make tough life decisions, so you can lead a happier, healthier life.Yoga Unplugged Team member Sarah Burchard is your host. She invites special guests on the show to deep dive into real life issues, providing tools and philosophies to help you navigate them with greater ease.Sarah is a freelance writer, natural foods chef and certified health coach who is passionate about promoting local businesses and food through her writing, farmers market tours and farm-to-table events under the name, The Healthy Locavore. When she is not talking food she's marketing events for Yoga Unplugged and supporting the yoga community on Oʻahu. In todayʻs episode Iʻm talking to Brenda Kwon. Brenda is an award-winning writer with over twenty-five years of teaching writing and literature. She is also a teacher of yoga with a background as a reiki master and energy worker. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training with Mary Bastien, Murti Hower, and Jennifer Reuter at Open Space Yoga in Honolulu; completed her 500-hour teacher training with Rod Stryker; studied Amrit Yoga Nidra with Kamini Desai; studied Restorative Yoga with Judith Lasater and studied Ayurveda with Kathryn Templeton from the Himalayan Institute and Dr. Robert Svoboda. As a yoga teacher she specializes in the transformative power of yoga nidra and bhakti yoga and brings an inward meditative quality to her slow-paced asana based classes. She also leads yoga teacher trainings and workshops on Ayurveda. Today, Brenda and I are discussing Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of love and devotion. We talk about… ● The principals of Bhakti Yoga● What she experienced at Ram Das’s final retreat before he passed● The difference between love and desire● Advice for anyone suffering from a broken heart● How to find real love● How to practice Bhakti Yoga With the practice of Bhakti Yoga love never leaves your side. It is with this practice that we can learn to become whole on our own and cultivate inner peace amidst the turbulence of everyday life. - Follow Brenda Kwon:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLive Zoom Classes See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Yoga teacher Rod joins me to discuss what yoga is and isn't, the spiritual hunger, teaching vs “conducting”, scandals, stillness, “living yoga”, The Four Desires, The Bhagavad Gita, life purpose, Feldenkrais vs. yoga, life transfer, “flexibility”, daydreaming, the Witness, yoga nidra, balancing life purpose, meditation and The A-Team! A rich, fun and deep one. https://www.parayoga.com/

5 Principle powers of creation expressed through the experience of our being.  Iccha Shakti: the unlimited power of will, determination and drive to fuel us and to become the unstoppable force in fulfilling our intention, purpose and experiences in our lives. Jnana Shakti: the boundless power to know from our intuitive wisdom of discernment from real and unreal, truth and untruth, virtue and non-virtuous.Kriya Shakti: the ability to choose wise actions, that are aligned with your intentions and purpose, guiding you skilfully to fulfillment. Cit Shakti: the power of an illuminated mind, clear, undistracted, undistorted. To fully awaken to the light of knowledge resting within and expand in that light. Ananda Shakti: the known experience of being whole, complete, at one with all. Filled and embraced in Pure Conscious Awareness that is always present. Bliss, serenity, peace.  Using the mantra introduced to me by one of my teachers, Rod Stryker.“There is a light, that lights the whole world.It radiates the truth.Boundless will.Skill in action.And is the source of all knowledge.” The use of this mantra and the focus of the preamble and practice is for you to feel that light within, to use the light to fuel, heal and inspire you as you reconnect with more meaning in your practice, relationships and life. May you be moved by the true nature of the JOY of being alive!

5 Principle powers of creation expressed through the experience of our being.  Iccha Shakti: the unlimited power of will, determination and drive to fuel us and to become the unstoppable force in fulfilling our intention, purpose and experiences in our lives. Jnana Shakti: the boundless power to know from our intuitive wisdom of discernment from real and unreal, truth and untruth, virtue and non-virtuous.Kriya Shakti: the ability to choose wise actions, that are aligned with your intentions and purpose, guiding you skilfully to fulfillment. Cit Shakti: the power of an illuminated mind, clear, undistracted, undistorted. To fully awaken to the light of knowledge resting within and expand in that light. Ananda Shakti: the known experience of being whole, complete, at one with all. Filled and embraced in Pure Conscious Awareness that is always present. Bliss, serenity, peace.  Using the mantra introduced to me by one of my teachers, Rod Stryker.“There is a light, that lights the whole world.It radiates the truth.Boundless will.Skill in action.And is the source of all knowledge.” The use of this mantra and the focus of the preamble and practice is for you to feel that light within, to use the light to fuel, heal and inspire you as you reconnect with more meaning in your practice, relationships and life. May you be moved by the true nature of the JOY of being alive!

5 Principle powers of creation expressed through the experience of our being.  Iccha Shakti: the unlimited power of will, determination and drive to fuel us and to become the unstoppable force in fulfilling our intention, purpose and experiences in our lives. Jnana Shakti: the boundless power to know from our intuitive wisdom of discernment from real and unreal, truth and untruth, virtue and non-virtuous.Kriya Shakti: the ability to choose wise actions, that are aligned with your intentions and purpose, guiding you skilfully to fulfillment. Cit Shakti: the power of an illuminated mind, clear, undistracted, undistorted. To fully awaken to the light of knowledge resting within and expand in that light. Ananda Shakti: the known experience of being whole, complete, at one with all. Filled and embraced in Pure Conscious Awareness that is always present. Bliss, serenity, peace.  Using the mantra introduced to me by one of my teachers, Rod Stryker.“There is a light, that lights the whole world.It radiates the truth.Boundless will.Skill in action.And is the source of all knowledge.” The use of this mantra and the focus of the preamble and practice is for you to feel that light within, to use the light to fuel, heal and inspire you as you reconnect with more meaning in your practice, relationships and life. May you be moved by the true nature of the JOY of being alive!

The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Ep 142: Living the Sutras with Kelly DiNardo   Description: The Yoga Sutras are an essential framework in yoga, but the reality is that it can be difficult to incorporate the sutras into our teachings, our own practice of yoga, or even into our own lives. Kelly DiNardo has some practical strategies to help us apply the teachings of the sutras to our modern lives.   Kelly DiNardo is the owner of Past Tense Yoga Studio opened in 2009, host of the Living It Podcast, which focuses on the realities of living your yoga practice, author of several books, and freelance journalist who contributes to various popular publications. Her most recent book, co-authored with Amy Pearce-Hayden, Living the Sutras: A Guide to Yoga Wisdom beyond the Mat aims to make the other aspects of yoga as approachable and accessible as the asana is today.    To many of us, the sutras can seem intimidating and inaccessible, but Kelly's book presents them in a way that is engaging and easy to understand. Kelly shares what sparked her interest in the sutrats, and her inspiration to write the book. She also provides some insights into how best to translate the ancient wisdom found in the sutras into something accessible and relevant to today's world, and how to cultivate the mindsets, habits and practices needed to live a joyful and purposeful life.   If you've ever wondered how to bring more of yoga philosophy into your life, or wanted a more practical application of the sutras, this episode is a great starting point.   Key Takeaways: [5:38] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Kelly DiNardo [6:39] Kelly has been a yoga studio owner for 10 years! What got her into yoga in the first place? [8:12] When did Kelly's interest in the sutras develop? [9:43] Kelly shares more about her inspiration and experience with writing Living the Sutras: A Guide to Yoga Wisdom beyond the Mat. [10:47] Shannon and Kelly discuss how her book is presented in a way that makes the sutras easy to understand. [12:18] What are the sutras? [15:04] Yoga is a work in, not just a workout. What has Kelly's experience been in people not wanting to work on themselves? [18:00] Kelly's book is divided into three books. She explains the different sections and what they represent. [21:20] Kelly shares the insight that you can work all of the practices of the eight limbs at the same time. [23:22] What does Kelly mean when she says "everything is yoga"? [26:44] What message is Kelly trying to convey to yoga teachers and yoga practitioners? [28:15] Kelly has a list of resources that she has included in her book. [28:50] What are Kelly's thoughts on the Sanskrit? [32:12] Shannon and Kelly discuss why it is okay to admit when you don't know or struggle with things. [33:10] Kelly talks about some of her experiences in the process of writing the book. [34:54] How have the sutras informed how Kelly runs her yoga studio and her yoga business? [38:41] What are some tips and tricks Kelly would share with yoga teachers who are thinking about opening a yoga studio? [42:06] Kelly shares some insight for people who are struggling with marketing and selling in their yoga business because it feels against all the yoga principles. [46:04] Kelly is doing a card deck as a supplement to the book. [47:13] What kind of feedback has Kelly received on her book? [49:54] What is Kelly's advice for people who want to write and publish articles? [52:36] Get in touch with Kelly via her website, check out her podcast and connect with her on social media.  [53:38] How are you living your yoga? Shannon would love to hear from you!   Links: Kelly DiNardo Kelly DiNardo on Instagram Living the Sutras: A Guide to Yoga Wisdom beyond the Mat, by Kelly DiNardo and Amy Pearce-Hayden Past Tense Yoga Studio Living It Podcast Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg The Language of Yoga: Complete A-to-Y Guide to Asana Names, Sanskrit Terms, and Chants, by Nicolai Bachman  The Four Desires, by Rod Stryker  Living It Podcast Episode 1: Living with Purpose with Rod Stryker Contact Kelly for Course Info (Mention The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast for a 20% coupon code!) Namastream Mediabistro Freelance Success Gratitude to our Sponsors Schedulicity and Yoga for Pelvic Health Teacher Training.   Quotes from this episode:   "If we're living our practice off the mat, then yoga is everywhere for us."   "Yoga is both the goal, the means and the end."   "One of those limbs is our asana, or physical practice, but what I find really interesting is that it's actually less than 2% of the yoga sutras."   "What happens on the mat is a reflection of what's happening off the mat."   "There is an opportunity for yoga or a yoga mindset in every moment."   "You can do yoga and never do asana. Or you could do asana and never do yoga."   "I think understanding the language is an opportunity to go deeper into the practice."   "So few of us think about our breath until there's something wrong with it."   "I think it's important to have a business / professional mindset if you're going to run a studio and I don't think there's any shame in that."   "You physically cannot do what you do if you are not making an actual living."

Yoga nidra has become a popular and effective relaxation tool common in many yoga studios. But it is not always practiced with an understanding of its original purpose. Yogarupa Rod Stryker has taught yoga nidra for 40 years and has a book coming out called Enlightened Sleep. I’m very excited to bring him onto the podcast, where we dive deep into yoga nidra. The post 089: Yoga Nidra with Rod Stryker appeared first on John Douillard's LifeSpa | Ayurveda + Natural Health.

Yoga nidra has become a popular and effective relaxation tool common in many yoga studios. But it is not always practiced with an understanding of its original purpose. Yogarupa Rod Stryker has taught yoga nidra for 40 years and has a book coming out called Enlightened Sleep. I'm very excited to bring him onto the podcast, where we dive deep into yoga nidra. The post 089: Yoga Nidra with Rod Stryker appeared first on John Douillard's LifeSpa | Ayurveda and Natural Health.

When you think of a widow - I bet an elderly woman comes to mind. Death is a seldom talked about topic and widows and widowers seem to get lost by the wayside. At any age, what do you do when you suddenly lose your spouse? Is it more difficult when you are of an age that people don't expect that to happen? What are the challenges that no one talks about? Will things ever be the same? Where does one go for support? My guest has been through it all. She became a widow at a young age and is no stranger to death. Hear her story of moving through grief and coming out on the other side. You are not alone. Kirsten Joy Burch started her professional career as a medical assistant / office nurse in Dallas and Denton, she ran business operations for a large hospice in Missouri, and came back to Dallas for a career in finance & sales operations in the software industry during the booming late '90s. A wave of death came into her life around 2011, and she lost her step dad, godfather, and father from emphysema, pneumonia, and small cell carcinoma. Two months after her father died in her arms, her husband developed brain cancer. He was 40. She quit her corporate job to become his caregiver. Counseling and Yoga Therapy was her tool to stay functional. A short while after her husband passed away, she began a 26 month intensive studying the science and philosophy behind why the yoga was working so well for her; She was healing, and regaining mental capacity steadily. Kirsten studied ParaYoga with Rod Stryker, and was initiated into the tradition October 2014. She continued her studies in ParaYoga, and the her Ayurveda Lifestyle Counselor certification in 2015 with Arpita Shah of Om Yoga Journey and have certifications in Yoga4Cancer, and Yoga for Anxiety & Depression. Kirsten leverages yoga as medicine, and teaches traditional yoga and ayurveda, meditation, and Yoga Nidra. For privates or private group classes, please contact her directly at kirsten@livingyogadallas.com or Kirsten@PraniLife.com www.allwaysanotherway.com

    00:46                                     This is the 108th episode of changing the face of yoga and I have a great guest today. Her name is Kelly Di Nardo. Kelly is part of my subtle yoga themed month and she's going to talk about yoga philosophy, which is something I've always had trouble getting into a class. 01:06                                     So let's learn about Kelly. Kelly is a freelance journalist and the author of several books, including Living the Sutras a guide to yoga wisdom beyond the mat. It gives readers a modern, accessible and personal look at ancient yoga philosophy and the wisdom found within, she is also the producer editor and cohost of the living at podcast and owner of past tense Yoga Studio in Washington DC. As a freelance journalist. She specializes in exploration, whether it is internally through yoga and meditation, physically through health and fitness, culturally and socially through profiles or the myriad other ways travel brings all that together. She has written for, Okay, the Oprah magazine, Martha Stewart, Living Health, the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and others. So welcome Kelly. And is there anything else you would like to add to that introduction? No, that was beautiful. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited about this 02:12                                     I've always found it really hard to integrate the yogic philosophy into classes. I read a bit about your book and I liked the fact that after you've explained the sutras, you actually give related writing prompts so people can really apply what they've learned. I thought that was a great idea. So why did you decide to actually write a book about this? 02:39                                     Well, honestly very similar to you, I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around the philosophical side of yoga. And I met this wonderful teacher, Amy Peers Hayden who ended up being my co-author on this project. 02:57                                     And she gave these beautiful Dharma talks before her classes that really made it very modern and accessible. I mean, I remember one time she gave a Dharma talk about, I think it was about discernment, but she related it to Tacos and I thought if someone can make yoga philosophy and tacos relevant. This is just amazing. I wanted to understand it more. I kind of had turned over this idea for a book that would make the sutras modern and accessible and relevant. And then when I brought it to Amy. We really talked about having it be a journal as well, so that people could make it personally relevant and very tangible to themselves and their lives. That's kind of how that came to be. I think you can read all the philosophy you want and all the interpretations, but you know, our hope is that with the writing prompts that people can really do the work and make this fascinating and very, very smart, relevant wisdom, really personal to them. 04:20                                     I noticed that you said this particular book is about the first two chapters , the Vrittis and the Yamas and Niyamas. And could we just have a little bit of definition of Vrittis and Yamas and Niyamas. I'm sure the listeners will understand, but there may be a few that would like a little refresher. Absolutely. So our book focuses on the first two padas or chapters of the Yoga Sutras. And those two are really about the practice of yoga. The system of yoga. They start by defining what yoga actually is, what gets in ,the way; and then it outlines the eight limb system which is the practice of yoga. And the second two books really in the original, in the yoga sutras, really talk about the results of what happens and when you, when you reach the state of Yoga, when you reach enlightenment. 05:36                                     And so Amy and I focused on the first two books for two reasons. One, they're the most tangible. It's the work. And second, we have not yet reached a state of enlightenment ourselves. We didn't really feel like we were capable of talking about that. So the vrittis, these are the fluctuations of the mind. The whole potentially defines yoga as the stilling of the sensations of our minds. So I love the phrase that Buddhists used, which is monkey mind, which is that idea that like a monkey jumping from branch to branch, our thoughts jump from one to the other. And so yoga according to the Patanjali is calming those fluctuations. The way that he describes how we do that is this eight limbs system. And one of the things I found really interesting, especially given our age today where we talk a lot about you do you and working on ourselves Patanjali actually says we should do the opposite. We should work from the outside in. And so the Yamas and Niyamas are often referred to as the 10 commandments of yoga they're the moral code of Yoga. And the first five are how we deal with the outside world, what our relationship with others is kind of the rules for how we interact with other people in the world around us. And then the second five or how we treat ourselves and how we behave towards ourselves. And then from there, once you've got your moral code, your foundation, then you move towards to Asana, which is the third limb. And I, what I found really interesting is that it's less than 2% of the entire yoga sutras. So I know our focus again is usually on downdog and pigeon pose, but potentially it says nothing about that. You move further inwards, you've got the physical body and then you move to the breath, which is really a gateway to the mind. And then the last four limbs really deal with our minds. So stilling the senses and or controlling the senses would be the better way of putting it. And then different depths and levels of meditation are the last three. That whole process is all to still the fluctuations of the Vrittis. 08:25                                     What's your best advice for a teacher who wants to introduce the yogic philosophy into her class? How would you advise her or him to go about it? 08:46                                     I think it's really important to make this advice modern and relevant. In our book, I'm pretty sure we're the only yoga book that references Fight Club for example, or Dr Seuss, , the talented Mr Ripley. We also talk about things like the power of habits, which is made famous by Charles Duhigg's book or we talk about the flow state. I think that we can find yoga everywhere in so many places off the mat. I think you can introduce this philosophy in ways, in surprising ways, in ways that you might find in, in books or television or in psychology or social research. And so maybe there's something in your newspaper or a magazine that you read and you think, oh my gosh, you know what, this story is actually really about ahimsa, or this thing happening now is really about discernment or the importance of a consistent and steady practice. There are really interesting ways to bring that into play. I have a 4 year old and one of his favorite books for a long time was this wonderful book called Penguin problems. And I, after I read it a few times to him, I realized that this book was really about the importance of being in the present moment and the here and now and this idea of abundance. And I brought the book in one of my classes and I read part of it and use that as a way into talking about abundance. And not wanting what we do not have. I think it takes a way of looking at the world with your yoga glasses always on, if that makes sense. 11:01                                     I think that does, cause sometimes to me the sutras almost sound like Nostradamus. You can take it almost any way you want to and I think it's really smart of you to anchor it in the current culture because what he has to say of course is, is timeless, but it can be kind of hard to understand sometimes. So I think that's a great idea. I love penguin problems. That's a great way to think about it. Has the book been published yet? 11:35                                     Yes, it came out in June of last year. It's done really well. It prompted us to take it to the next step with our podcasts so that we can talk to other people, not just yogis that we in our first season we did talk a lot to mostly yogis. But just how they do what we're talking about. How do you take this ancient philosophy and actually live. Because I think we as teachers have to be living it or at least trying to live it, before we can bring it to our students. 12:13                                     I think that's true. So let's your podcast, I have it here somewhere. Living it podcasts. that might be a great resource for all you listeners out there, so you could actually see how people are usually using it. We can just kind of skim over the surface on this podcast, but I think that would be very helpful to people because I do think it's hard to make that translation. 12:43                                     Yes, I think so. And, and I'll give you, I'll give you an exclusive here, our first season of the podcast, really looked at what yoga is, what gets in the way, and then how we can practice with ourselves and our ego and then in our relationships. And then how meditation and Yoga are kind of intertwined. Our second season is going to be 10 episodes just on the Yamas and Niyamas. So each episode will focus on one of them. Um, so that will hopefully be dropping in September. 13:22                                     f 13:22                                     For the listeners, that's just a really great resource for you and I'm really glad you told us about it because I do think it needs some serious contemplation before you can make it really work for you in the class. Can you give us a specific thing that you either wrote about, are you doing your own class? Although I did like penguin problems, I thought that was great. That people could use say about, about Vritti. I had a teacher that talked to me about Vritti and he, he said something I thought was very interesting cause I'd never heard this before, that Vritti is not exactly the state that you're trying to get to. It's just is that's kind of the, not quite monkey mind state, but it's, you're really trying to work beyond that, that you, you need to calm yourself even more. So how would you in your class talk about vritti? 14:34                                     Yeah, that's a great question. The way that we talked about it in the book, and I'm going to flip to that page, the way that we talked about it is that the Vrittis are like Instagram filters? Honestly, they're filters or lenses that color, how we see things and sometimes they can make the picture prettier or rosier and sometimes they distort it and like a fun house mirror almost. The trick then is to really see things clearly and without the filter. And I think that, um, I think that when we can do that, when we can see things clearly without any filter on it, then we can begin to understand who we really are. And when we can begin to understand who we really are, then we can understand our unique purpose or Dharma for being here on this planet and what we're supposed to do. And that, I mean, when you knew those things, that is incredibly expansive. That's how I would describe the Vrittis and in a way that I think students could really understand what they are. Because I mean, let's be honest, everyone seems to be on Instagram and knows how to doctor a photo. Right? Sure. 16:03                                     No, that's, that's really good as soon as you said that. I can understand that. Give me, if you feel comfortable doing so, a benefit for yourself for doing this study and working internally on this. 16:23                                     I mean, I think there are so many, the the way that Amy and I worked on the book as one example, it felt like I was getting my PhD in the, in the yoga sutras and I, we really had to dive into it in a deeper way and, and she has been studying them for much longer than I have. I'm not going to write something that I haven't done or that I don't really believe in. So for me, this was a really deep dive into this and I came away with some very, very tangible things and changes that I made to my own life. And probably one of my favorite takeaways is this idea of cultivating the opposite and Patanjali talks about the fact that you're never going to replace bad thoughts, negative thoughts with positive ones. Our brain just doesn't work that way. If I tell you, I mean this is a famous psychological study. If I tell you right now to not think about the white dog for 30 seconds, the only way you're going to not think about the white dog is if you replace it with something else like a green elephant. And it's the same. It's the same with our thoughts. And so the way that that feels really tangible to me is when I'm dealing with somebody who's difficult or maybe just challenging me in some way. I try and think instead about instead of how they're driving me crazy, what could the thing that they have brought to my life and if I can't think of a very good thing, at least thinking that all situations and everything is temporary, everything is always changing. That's enough to replace the negativity. And then I can see that person or sometimes myself in a much more positive way. I think some of it's fake it till you make it kind of things that, you know, it feels a little weird to think nice thoughts about someone who's driving you crazy. Or for some of us it's hard to think actively positive thoughts about ourselves. You work that muscle a little bit and it gets a lot easier. I think that is one way that for me is really important. I think these are little things that in total really make life better and that make us a little less crazy and a little calmer and more appreciative and aware of the abundance that does exist in our lives. And when we can do that, I think that starts to kind of clear the smudges off of the lens, so that we can see things more clearly. That, does that make sense? 19:23                                     It does. this particular book is the first two books of the Patanjali Sutras. Are you planning anymore? 19:37                                     We do have another project in the works. It will be more of the first two books and it really will be a great resource for teachers. So we have not signed our contract with Shimbala on it who is our wonderful publisher. I can't say more yet, but I promise as soon as I can I will email you 20:10                                     i 20:10                                     Is there anything that you would like to talk about that we haven't covered or we haven't covered in enough enough depth that you would like the listeners to know about this? 20:21                                     Oh, that's a great question. You know, I, I will say I was very intimidated by the sutras. I mean I studied them in a couple of early teacher trainings, way back in the day and then I didn't really do much with them. And, and I get that. I get how they can be intimidating and the ideas seem, you know, a little old. I think really the wisdom within is life changing truthfully. And I think one of the, one of the big things that I have remembered, I am somebody who came to my yoga practice very much just interested in the Asana and the physical. You know, I, I was not really interested in the other aspects of yoga and it's still really struggle with meditation. And for me it's a nice reminder that you can practice yoga and never do Asana ever in your life and you can do Asana and never practice yoga. And I would like to take credit for that. But it's actually something I learned from Rod Stryker and I think that as intimidating as the sutras can be, there are so many good, um, modern translations and approaches to it. Ours being one of them, that they're really worth the work, the study. 22:00                                     I think that's very wise that you can do asanas, but never do yoga. So, because so many people now think that yoga is Asana and, and that's a good way to start. You know, it's a nice gateway, but there is a great deal more if, if you choose to avail yourself of it. 22:24                                     And I say that with no judgment because I think, I know that this is a debate that happens often in the yoga community, my feeling is I don't care why someone comes to their mat. For me as a teacher, that's an opportunity. I'm not going to judge if they're there to lose five pounds or to get looser hamstrings or to destress or because they want to sleep better. Personally, I don't care. My job as the teacher then is to start to open up their idea of what yoga is and what it can be. And so that's just an opportunity for me. And I think that's really kind of a wonderful gift that we teachers have. It's really sort of amazing. 23:12                                     That's a great way to think about it. I really want to thank you for coming on the podcast. I think it was a really interesting one. And I do want to say again that the book is Living the Sutras: A guide to yoga wisdom beyond the mat. And I assume that people can get it at all of the regular outlets like Amazon and all of that. 23:42                                     Exactly. Absolutely. 23:44                                     I do think that the way that you put it together with writing prompts after you've read about it, is a really excellent way to go about learning My problem with the philosophy is that I learn it, I think, oh yeah, that makes sense. And then it just goes totally out of my mind. And with the writing prompts, I think it would stick hopefully a little better. 24:07                                     What I usually suggest to people as they read it once through before starting the writing prompts, because I think for some people the writing prompts can also be intimidating for people who think they're not journalers, but, um, you don't have to do them. No, nobody's checking. 24:25                                     Okay. You don't have to send in your answers. If you're interested in this for yourself, or to apply this to your classes, this sounds like an excellent resource. And don't forget that the podcast, Living it. Is going to be a, you even more in depth information and that starts, the second season starts in September. The first season is already gone, so you can probably even find it on Itunes, is that correct? Yes. Itunes, Google play. And we have a website called livingit@podcast.com so you can listen directly from there. That's great. Okay, so those are all available to you. I'll put all that in the contact details. hank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it and I thought it was really interesting because like I said, I'm kind of out of my depth when it comes to the philosophy and then giving it to my students. So I think you're doing a great service, so thank you.                                                 Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie Contacts: Website: livingit@podcast.com Email: kelly@kellydinardo.com FB: kellydinard0 Insta:#kellydinardo                                                                                               

Yogarupa Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for over 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. He is the creator of the most comprehensive online yoga teacher training in the world and most recently, the app Sanctuary, a premier destination for all levels of those wanting to experience the life-changing practices of meditation and yoga nidra, also known as Enlightened Sleep.  Rod has dedicated his life to improving lives through his lectures, writing, practice, teaching, leadership, service and family life.This interview with Rod Stryker I found so inspiring and refreshing. He is a true master teacher with such clarity and it was an honour to host him on the show. It was wonderful having him shine light on how Tantra can help us in daily life, as the concept of Tantra has become 'muddied' in the new age with much confusion around what Tantra even is. We also discussed how Yoga Nidra is such a powerful method in todays modern day where stress and poor sleep patterns are huge issues for many.I hope you enjoy my interview with Yogaruper Rod Stryker.Check out his online trainings at:https://www.parayoga.com/parayoga-master-training-online-curriculum-2/And check out his app 'Sanctuary'  to deeply assist you on the path:https://www.parayoga.com/sanctuary-meditation-app/For those of you in Australia that are wanting to dive into Rod's teachings in person he will be on the East Coast during the month of August:https://www.parayoga.com/event/yogarupa-rod-stryker-at-the-south-coast-soul-festival-in-jervis-bay-australia/If you'd like to support the podcast please visit https://stuartwatkins.org/podcast/Much love!Support the show (https://stuartwatkins.org/podcast/)

On today’s show, Rod Stryker and I continue our conversation on the deeply healing and transformative practice of Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra essentially translates to the ‘end of all thoughts’ because it is a process in which we learn to let go, to relax and restore, to diffuse our awareness, and to just BE. We’ve created a world where we are always doing something; with our Iphones and tablets constantly by our sides and work or life stressors always on our minds, we are continually thinking, working, or moving. We are hardly ever still, and we are never bored anymore! With a lack of daydreaming or boredom, we are unable to fully process and digest our emotions or experiences, and in turn we unable to know our true selves. If we don’t allow ourselves the time and space to dissolve, to daydream and to relax, even the simplest of tasks will become very difficult for us to accomplish. Life isn’t about learning to cope, to mitigate, or to be only partly insane….it’s about Thriving. Listen in and learn how to live a life of Thrive with this timeless practice of Yoga Nidra.     What you’ll get out of tuning in: Why are Deep Rejuvenation, boredom and daydreaming so important? How do we avoid going to sleep while we’re awake? What is America’s number one health crisis and why is this cause for serious concern?   Links Mentioned in Episode: Rod’s website Rod’s facebook page Yoga Nidra Meditation app- Sanctuary with Rod Stryker Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal Yoga Health Coaching Have a conversation   Show Highlights: 1:08- Rod talks about the final of the 4 stages of Yoga Nidra. Spirituality, as well as the 4 fundamental stages of Nidra. 6:00- What does a lack of daydreaming and boredom do to us physiologically? If we don’t get bored, we don’t process who we are in time and space. Who am I? What do I stand for? What do I want to do on this planet in this life? In our fast-paced, technological world, we do not allow space for boredom and we are therefore unable to answer these important questions. 13:30- The state of expanded awareness that comes from Yoga Nidra, ie. Flow state, biohacking, and maximizing cognitive function. How do we avoid habitual thinking and how to we avoid going to sleep while we’re awake? 20:50- We can no longer afford to not be passionate about finding what is true, what is real, and what is truly important. Learn to tune into yourself with Yoga Nidra, to learn to not push against what the body and mind desires, to drop into yourself and allow. Insomnia is currently the biggest health crisis. If you continue to push your nervous system too much for too long, there will be repercussions.   Favorite Quotes: “It’s about allowing these awareness breaks, instead of coffee breaks.” -Cate Stillman   “You are the presence that exists in your own heart.” -Rod Stryker “We need times with no-thing.” -Cate Stillman “You’ve got to root to rise, you’ve got to get down to get up.” -Cate Stillman “Our problems have now gotten bigger. There is a bigger price to pay for the misalignment with the authentic self.” -Rod Stryker   Guest BIO: Yogarupa Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom and the creator of the app Sanctuary, a vital resource for the practices of meditation and yoga nidra (also called Enlightened Sleep––the ultimate science of deep relaxation). Rod has dedicated his life to improving lives through his lectures, writing, practice, teaching, leadership, service and family life. Contact him on his website and facebook page.

Culturally, we are moving towards higher levels of division and speed. Everything in our world is getting faster and faster and thus we are having to split ourselves up into smaller parts to get everything done. This disrupts our physiology as we have to process more sensory input than we ever have before; the acceleration and distraction we have created in today’s world causes us to be anxious, fearful, depressed, or scatterbrained. Yoga Nidra is a practice that allows us to do the opposite. By lying down and using the healing power of Divine Sleep, we feel both a sense of unity and a slowing down; we feel wholeness once again. The practice of Yoga Nidra allows us to slow down while making us more unified both individually and collectively. On today’s podcast, world renowned Yogi, Rod Stryker, tells us why Yoga Nidra, the yoga of Enlightened Sleep, is such an important and effective methodology in our world. It is healing not only on a physical level, but therapeutic to all five of our koshas. Listen in and gain insight on this practice that could possibly change and heal your life! What you’ll get out of tuning in: What is Yoga Nidra? Why is Nidra so important and so effective in our daily lives? How can Yoga Nidra benefit you?   Links Mentioned in Episode: Rod's website Rod's facebook page Discover more about Body Thrive Show Highlights: 1:15 - We as humans have lost the ability to relax. Rod Stryker tells us why Yoga Nidra is so important and effective in our lives today. Culturally we are moving towards higher levels of diffusion and division- we are speeding up in life to accomplish more, and at the same time being split up into smaller parts. This leads us to fear, anxiety, restlessness and the inability to relax. 11:10 - Rod talks about the beginning of Yoga Nidra- where and when it came from and the ‘krama’ or sequencing of Nidra and how it progresses. 17:20 - We hear a bit about each of the 5 goals of Yoga Nidra- healing, improvement of cognition, and transformation. Tune in to the second half of this podcast to hear the final goal of Yoga Nidra. Favorite Quotes: “The more focused you are, the less conscious you are of the big picture.” -Rod Stryker “Sleep is a transition from minutiae to expansiveness.” -Rod Stryker “The more you let go, the more you are supported.” -Rod Stryker   Guest BIO: Yogarupa Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom and the creator of the app Sanctuary, a vital resource for the practices of meditation and yoga nidra (also called Enlightened Sleep––the ultimate science of deep relaxation). Rod has dedicated his life to improving lives through his lectures, writing, practice, teaching, leadership, service and family life. Contact him on his website and facebook page.

Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, guiding and sharing his wisdom for 40 years. He is the founder of ParaYoga®, the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom and creator of the app Sanctuary, a premier destination for all levels of those wanting to experience the life-changing practices of meditation and yoga nidra, also known as enlightened sleep. A living link to a venerable lineage of sages and teachers, Rod is distinguished for his ability to make ancient wisdom and practices accessible to modern audiences. A thought-leader for how best to live with meaning, creativity, responsibility and freedom, he guides experienced students and teachers of yoga and meditation seeking to deepen and share their understanding of the ancient wisdom and timeless practices. In this episode we discuss: - Knowing we are already innately whole - Stilling the mind gives us the opportunity to understand our true nature and purpose - Discerning the difference between non-constructive and constructive purpose - Working with the desires in our life - Understanding our happiness is an expression of how close we are to living our purpose

Cam Watkins is my brother and is the co-founder of Darch Physio. Check out his work at:http://www.darchphysio.com.auSupport the show (https://stuartwatkins.org/podcast/)

Rod Stryker is a yoga and meditation teacher. He has spent forty years teaching individuals and companies how to cultivate yoga practices and meditation techniques into their daily lives. He is also the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Rod has recently launched his app, Sanctuary, to help people around the world become masters of meditation and yoga nidra. Learn more at rodstryker.com

Rod Stryker Radically Loved Podcast   Rod Stryker is a world-renowned yoga and meditation teacher, author and creator of the most comprehensive online yoga teacher training in the world. He is also my teacher!   Rod has spent the last forty years teaching the practices of yoga, meditation and yoga nidra around the world. He works one on one with clients, helping them find and keep enlightenment, as well as corporations, introducing them to the holistic methods to provide healthy, thriving work spaces.   I work closely with Rod as his student and find myself constantly mesmerized by his tight tie to his inner knowing. Spending hours with him reminds me that we are humans interacting with each other, and it is up to each individual to be the light we choose to spread throughout the world through our interactions.   In this episode of Radically Loved, Rod and I talk about how technology is affecting our brain chemistry and why we find ourselves so addicted to Netflix and our cellphones. We discuss yoga nidra and how it is the most powerful form of sleep and meditation available. Lastly, Rod explains how to identify unhappiness and where to begin in shifting into a space of happiness and fulfillment.   Radically Vibrant Rod   Using Yoga Nidra to find peace and relaxation in place of meditation Becoming aware of the amount of endorphins we are stimulating in our brains through social media and understanding the consequences of our relationships because of it Identifying our unhappiness, analyzing our patterns and finding the solution through asking, how much joy is in my life?   Radically Inspired Clarity   Yoga Nidra is more efficient than sleep, giving you the equivalent of two hours of sleep in twenty minutes of a practice Our nervous systems are the same as they were thousands of years ago, yet we aren’t feeding them as we used to due to technology and that’s what has led the western world to increased stress levels Learning to love yourself and seeking out who you really are by finding the part of your soul that doesn’t change is a fundamental part of lifelong development   Rod Stryker Answers…   What are the healing benefits of Yoga Nidra and how is it utilized for people with past trauma? How do we eradicate our inability to identify that we are unhappy or unfulfilled? What rituals do you practice and commit to on a daily basis? What is your hope for the younger generations?     Radically Loved Quotes   “We become so disconnected and as a result of that disconnection our nervous system is upside down. Most of us are always in the sympathetic rhythm which means, fight or flight.”   “Forget what I learned through yoga, because I don’t just want to insert that. Something’s not working and, is there stuff that the yoga tradition can tell us that can help us find solutions?”   “People who look for the benefits of meditation but find meditation difficult, will find the same thing they are trying to access through Yoga Nidra.”   “If you are able to relax, it is a privilege.”   More About Our Guest   Rod Stryker is a yoga and meditation teacher. He has spent forty years teaching individuals and companies how to cultivate yoga practices and meditation techniques into their daily lives. He is also the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Rod has recently launched his app, Sanctuary, to help people around the world become masters of meditation and yoga nidra. Learn more at rodstryker.com   JOIN MY FACEBOOK GROUP: https://tinyurl.com/yavhjs3v   This episode of Radically Loved is sponsored by the Four Sigmatic Mushroom Focus Shot. http://www.us.foursigmatic.com/#_a_radicallyloved Use the promo code RadicallyLoved to receive a discount on your next order.   Join me in Scotland, as I lead a radically loved group of yogis through finding their life purpose, move them past their limiting beliefs and connect them to their higher purpose. April 13th-April 20th, 2019, Learn more here.

David Harshada Wagner is a masterful meditation teacher who travels the world facilitating training programs, courses and retreats all around the world.Follow his work via:http://davidhwagner.comTake his classes online at YogaGlo:https://www.yogaglo.com/preview/teach...Audio and video edited and mixed at The Mix House Sound Studio: WWW.MIX-HOUSE.COMTo support this podcast please visit:https://stuartwatkins.orgSubscribe to the podcast channel at:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/t...To view the YouTube version of this podcast visit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ahKi94EqIMMahaloSupport the show (https://stuartwatkins.org/podcast/)

Adam Whiting, now a well-known yoga teacher around the world for his smart sequencing and anatomical focus in class, was at one time just trying to understand what was going wrong in his body. After seeing doctor after doctor in Manhattan, trying to diagnose massive dizzy spells, headaches and seemingly random spouts of numbness throughout his body, he was told by all accounts that his body was "fine." "I was diagnosed with having anxiety disorder and panic attacks," Whiting told me. "And it didn't fit for me, because it wasn't presenting itself as anxiety. I wasn't stressed. I wasn't depressed. And in my mind, at that point, my knowledge about anxiety disorder was so limited that I was sort of in denial." At that time, Whiting was working in New York as a musician. But in order to pay the bills, he worked nine-to-five at an insurance agency - a job which, he describes, was a major catalyst for his anxiety disorder and also the catalyst for him finding what he was truly meant to be doing. "A friend introduced me to asana, to postural yoga. After several months of just doing yoga...I could feel the anxiety start to unwrap itself. It was just the most amazing feeling of actually feeling safe in my own skin again." After feeling how yoga helped and healed him, he knew it was something he wanted to teach. From that point forward, he launched into his first teacher training. He began teaching right away, supplemented that with playing music, and didn't look back. And even though it became a greater hustle to make ends meet, it was all building towards a greater purpose, or Dharma, as you'll hear Whiting describe in the episode. He started teaching more and more classes, then began traveling for workshops, and then started running trainings and retreats, all in addition to playing music on the side and weaving it into his teaching repertoire. He describes it as all part of a tapestry in "whatever this career is." Whiting sums it up nicely, but his tapestry is composed of many moving pieces that all move him in the direction where he wants to take his career and his life. From moving to Australia to lead trainings alongside owner of Power Living Duncan Peak, to hosting retreats across the world, to moving back to the U.S. to lead his first 200-hour yoga teacher training on his own, Whiting lets meditation be his guide in setting goals for his future. And rather than setting traditional, tangible goals, Whiting is focused on following his Dharma. He sees those action items to achieve more as the logistics to align in order to go after something bigger. "I absolutely do have goals of running more teacher trainings, of having my advanced 300-hour training up and running, of having a tour in Australia and running retreats in Australia and Bali. But in my mind, I sort of think of them as logistical things to align so that I can look out past that and set my sails towards that journey with the knowledge that the winds are going to blow me somewhere completely unexpected, but also with the the trust that wherever I end up is where I'm supposed to be." Listen to Adam Whiting’s episode of the #WeGotGoals podcast to hear more about how he views Dharma, his purpose and duty in life, and the way he views goals that ladder up to that. Thanks to Cody Hughes for the photo used in this post. You can listen anywhere you get your podcasts (including Spotify!) and if you like what you hear, please leave us a rating or a review. And stick around until the end of the episode, where you’ll hear a goal from one of you, our listeners. (Want to be featured on a future episode? Send a voice memo with a goal you’ve crushed, a goal you’re eyeing, or your best goal-getting tip to cindy@asweatlife.com.)   --- Start transcript: [0:00] Jeana: Welcome to We Got Goals, a podcast by asweatlife.com, on which we talk to high achievers about their goals. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen with me I have Maggie Umberger and Cindy Kuzma. Cindy: Good morning Jeana. Maggie: Morning Jeana. Jeana: Good morning. Maggie, this week you spoke to Adam Whiting. And you actually got to do that interview from home. Maggie: I did. I talked to Adam who is a yoga instructor. Who I think started teaching in Charlotte, North Carolina. Where I am from. And then has since moved to Australia and then back to North Carolina. But he continues to lead trainings and retreats and experiences across the world. In Bali. In Sri Lanka. In throughout Australia. He's taught at Wanderlust. He teaches in a lot of places. I've always just really respected his classes. I have loved them and I wanted to know a little more about his journey to yoga. How he got to the idea of wanting to teach internationally. Because that is a whole other track of teaching that I don't know a lot about. So I was really excited to get to talk to him and then I was home. So I got to do it in person before taking one of his awesome classes. Cindy: Oh, that's so great and it sounds like not just what he said but how he said it left an impact on you. Maggie: It did. And I didn't even say this to him after. So if he listens to this episode he'll be like, "Oh, she didn't tell me that." But I was noticing how mindful he was as he was answering any of the questions that I asked. Or response to something he would say. And thinking about that a little bit more. And even like closing his eyes. Taking time to answer mindfully. I don't do that always. And so I think we don't always love silence and we kind of mumble through things until we get to the point. But he was just really thoughtful about what he wanted to say. And then speaking to that versus talking around the point at all. So I thought that was probably a testament to, in general, his journey toward mindfulness as a teacher. He didn't begin teaching yoga with this meditation center. He actually talks about this in the episode of being very anxious and having anxiety attacks and not really sure of what was going on in his body. He was a musician in New York. Doing that grind of working other jobs. Sitting at a desk while he was trying to have gigs at night and make it as a musician in New York. He was getting beat down through that grind. And so meditation actually, when he was introduced to it just had him sitting with his thoughts more. And he didn't really like that. And so the Asana practice, the movement piece of yoga was what keyed him into a different way of life. Or a different kind of thought pattern. And that he could get out of that anxiousness mode. So the meditation piece came later as I learned. But it really is like a stronghold to his practice and how he teaches now. Jeana: And Maggie, Adam almost didn't do this interview at all, right? And this isn't the first time this has happened to us. Can you talk a little bit about why he sort of has trouble with the concept of goals? Maggie: Yeah, he asked me like, "Is it okay if I don't really have goals. If we do this interview?" And I always think any input on how people view goals is beneficial. However, you see it. Whether you notice or, you know, want to kind of go down the path that one of these goal-getters goes down. Or you kind of take that at face value and choose something different. That's what's cool about this podcast is there's so many different viewpoints. And he said that he's worked with brands and at companies where setting goals has been a central piece of the puzzle. And so he understands it. And he knows that there's benefits to setting a ten-year vision and going after it. And then really executing on your one-year goals to make that ten-year vision a reality. But for him, what's he's found along the way is that he is much more in tune with the idea of dharma. Dharma he says is widely known as your calling but really it's more like your duty. Like your purpose. Why are you put on this earth? And you've got to find that. You've got to search for that. And then you've got to do it. And so that's really what leads him. And that seems ambiguous. And that can be scary. Like that's scary for me to think about. Just, oh my god, what is the one reason I'm here on this earth. But that doesn't really scare him. That's more of like what lights him up. And I think when he speaks about that you'll hear just how much of a guiding force that is for and all of the teachers he has learned from and how teaches now. Jeana: Well what a mindful way to think about goals and we're so excited to hear this interview with Maggie and Adam. Keep those earpods in goal-getters. There's more to this episode at the end. We'll hear from people just like you out there achieving big goals or trying new things or maybe just setting big goals. [4:56] Maggie: So I'm here with Adam Whiting. Who I have had the pleasure of taking class from many times before he moved to Australia. He's a yoga instructor traveling around the world teaching yoga. Also a musician. You're many things Adam and I'm really, really excited to get to talk to you about your journey as not just a yoga teacher but I mean really as a teacher. For a lot of different people across the world. It's a pleasure to have you on our podcast. So thank you for joining us. Adam: Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. It is completely my pleasure. Maggie: So I did take your class probably first six years ago. Before you moved. And I remember it was like a Wednesday night, 8-9pm or something. And it was a class that I felt like changed my life. I loved it. Adam: Oh wow. Maggie: Yeah, it was just like the transitions were so interesting and you had such a unique perspective. And I remember the savasana was like 15 minutes long. And I had never had that before. And I so appreciated it. So before we jump into talking all about goals. I would love for the listeners at home to just get to hear your journey to yoga, just really briefly. [6:14] Adam: Yeah, absolutely. The story sort of starts in New York City. And I was living there. I moved up there in 2001. And lived up there for a few years. While I was up there I started getting some pretty massive dizzy spells. Some pretty massive headaches. Some random parts of my body, my arm, my face, my legs, were going numb at random times. And I really wasn't sure what was happening. And after taking a tour around several medical professionals, neurologists, doctors, general doctors, MRIs, spinal taps, blood tests. They basically all came to the conclusion that my body was fine. And I was diagnosed with having anxiety disorder and panic attacks. And it didn't fit for me because it wasn't presenting itself as anxiety. Like I wasn't stressed. I wasn't depressed. And in my mind at that point, my knowledge about anxiety disorder was so limited that for me I was sort of in denial. Saying no these are physical symptoms. These are symptoms that I'm getting headaches, I'm getting dizzy. This is physical things. Something has to be physically wrong with me. And it took this really compassionate doctor speaking to me about. Well, she actually made a bargain with me. She's like listen. I understand where you're coming from but let's put you on these anti-anxiety medications for just a little bit. And if your symptoms go away then we can talk, right. Then if you come in believing that this is actually what's going on with you then we can work around different ways to sort of treat the symptoms. So I agreed. And lo and behold she was right. And immediately, I started sort of seeking different ways to address the issues. Medication worked wonderfully for me but I also knew that it wasn't something that I wanted to be reliant on long-term. And I knew that there were other answers out there for me. So I started looking at meditation as the means to heal and to move on from this. And to be completely honest with you, meditation in and of itself actually made it worse. Because I was at that point, just in this state of just. I didn't realize how stressed I was. I didn't realize how just overflowing with anxiety I was. This was just post September 11th and the city was in turmoil. And the world was in turmoil. And to be there during that time. I didn't really realize how deeply those rivers of anxiety were flowing. So when I was asked to sit in the stillness of meditation it actually triggered more anxiety. And it triggered more panic attacks. So I moved away from that. And then finally, you know, a dear friend of mine introduced me to Asana, to a postural yoga. And after several months of just doing postural yoga I could finally start to feel that sort of barbed wire of anxiety, you know, start to unwrap itself from my being. And it was just the most amazing feeling of actually feeling safe in my own skin again. But like I said, not realizing how unsafe I felt. And then I started exploring more meditation with the postural yoga. And immediately when I felt how amazing this practice was. And how much it served to help me and heal me. I knew it was something that I wanted to teach. Pretty immediately, I knew that this was calling out to me to share. So after getting my first yoga teacher training certification. I just jumped into teaching right away. And, you know, I was young and fresh and so passionate about it. It's funny looking back on those first classes those, you know, six, seven, eight years ago. I sort of shake my head a little bit. Of like, oh my god those classes must have been awful. But I think that's sort of true in any sort of medium you care so much about. And as you grow and evolve and mature, your teaching and your skill and your craft evolves and matures. So hopefully, eight years from now when I look back at the classes I'm teaching now I'll be appalled because I've learned that much more in the eight years. So after teaching. I was in Charlotte, North Carolina for a few years teaching. And I got this amazing opportunity to teach in Australia. This wonderful man, teacher, business owner. His name is Duncan Peak, owns Power Living Australia Yoga. And that is a group of nine studios around Australia and New Zealand. And after some sort of back-and-forth and a wonderful trip to Australia. I agreed to move out to Sydney and help coach their teachers and lead their teacher trainings. And travel around to the cities in Australia where they have studios. And teach classes, run workshops, run teacher trainings and, you know, also run retreats in Bali for our teacher trainings. So it was an amazing few years of really quick growth. Really rapid education on my part. And just to be in that part of the world was unbelievable. It's still some of the most beautiful places I've ever been are there. So I lived there for a few years and it was absolutely amazing. But towards the end of those few years, I could feel these little strings pulling my heart back to America. My family's here and we'd always been really, really tight. And in Australia, just being able to come back once a year was amazing but it wasn't quite enough. And there were some issues with family stuff that were really pulling me back to be home. To be closer with family. And it also sort of aligned really beautifully with my desire to be an independent yoga teacher. Working out in Australia was absolutely amazing but I was also working for another brand. And it was an amazing brand but it was a brand that wasn't Adam Whiting or Adam Whiting Yoga. It was another brand. And there's always been a craving inside of my journey and my career to just speak from my own voice and teach my own trainings in the way that I've learned. And the way that I want to share. Without really, it might sound blunt, but without really having to answer to anybody else. So in moving back to America and back to Charlotte. And running my first teacher training here which is an independent Adam Whiting Yoga Teacher Training. It feels amazing to be able to, you know, put my stamp on the certificates. And say that, you know, these students learned from me. And to be able to craft my own calendar and run my own events. And just sort of again, it sounds blunt, but not to have to answer to anybody else. To be able to craft my own future in the way that I want it is really encouraging and I'm really excited about the next few years. Maggie: I hear probably something that a lot of people would nod their head at and say that they want to be in charge of their own destinies too. Adam: Absolutely. [14:28] Maggie: And that's a huge, like. I can imagine that feeling, that calling inside you. Cause I feel it in me. And I feel like so many people. Especially now, that there are so many avenues to create your own path. That it isn't the 9-5 structure of jobs as much as it used to be. Especially in the recent years. So I wonder, what for you was some of the helpful guides in pushing along this path. To create it for yourself. Because while I know a lot of people want it. It's another to actually go for it and do it. [15:02] Adam: Yeah, absolutely. It's I think my journey is not quite a typical journey. My journey started playing the guitar. As you said, I'm a musician. And I started playing the guitar when I was eleven or twelve. And I was only playing it for a couple of years. And just by sort of coincidence and I think we'll talk a little bit more about coincidences later. The guitar teacher that I had was graduating from college. And he said, "Okay. I'm leaving you. I can't teach you anymore. But there's this amazing school. And I want you to go down for a summer session." So and that was University of North Carolina School of the Arts. And it was between my eighth and ninth grade year. And I studied there for a few weeks. And it was my first sort of time away from home. And I remember I was really homesick. And I think I cried a lot on the phone with my mom. It was terrifying being away from home that young for me. But then basically by the time I got back home from the training or the summer session, the guitar teacher at this university had called my mother. And said that he wanted me to study there full-time. So I studied at this university, at this conservatory for seven years. Through high school, through my undergrad. And immediately that's when I moved up to New York City. And when I got to New York was the first time I ever had that real 9-5 job. And, you know, like any musician in New York, especially. You're a musician which means you're unloading trucks. Or you're a waiter. Or you're, you know, working data entry at an insurance agency. Which is what I was doing in a cubicle from 9-5. And I think that working that job was one of the catalysts for one. One of the catalysts for my anxiety disorder and my stress because I was so deeply unhappy there. But because of that was the catalyst for me getting out. You know, and I remember the day that I quit and it was. I remember walking around. It was in downtown New York, in Manhattan. And I remember walking around after I had resigned. And I was sort of like halfway smiling, halfway crying, like halfway like I don't know how I'm going to make a living now. But I had no choice. It was one of those things that comes up with me quite often is I don't have a choice right now. So this is the path that I'm going to walk down. So from there on out, I pretty much just started hoofing it as a musician. I started teaching lessons. I started performing as much as I could. I recorded an album. And I was still unloading trucks at a Crate & Barrel in midtown at the same time. So I was still working jobs to pay my rent. But there was always this sort of, just this hustle, of you've got to do this. Because you don't really have a choice. And then I moved back to Charlotte. And when I moved back to Charlotte from New York. One, the cost of living was significantly less. So I was really surprised that I could make a living as a musician at that point. You know, gigging on the weekends and teaching lessons. And then teaching yoga. And all of a sudden teaching yoga so sort of started to take precedence. And I started teaching more and more classes. And then I started traveling for workshops. And then I started running trainings. And then retreats. And it was sort of this beautiful crescendo where more and more yoga opportunities were coming and the music opportunities were sort of fading away. And what's beautiful now is that they've both sort of come together. Like I'm still playing music, we're running Kirtans. This, you know, traditional chants in yoga. And recording a cd. And it's sort of come together in this beautiful tapestry of whatever this career is. But I think what you said is really important. Is that I think the definition of career is really changing. That the idea of that 9-5 job that my dad had where he worked for Federal Express from out of college until the day he died. Really it still exists but it's not. I don't think it's really the stronghold that it used to be. And now there's sort of this freedom of creating what you want to create for your life, for your job, for your career. And it still terrifies me. Because I'm sitting here. You know, meandering into my late thirties. And really happy with my career and really happy with where everything is right now. But I'm also thinking about retirement funds and do I want to be teaching yoga when I'm in my fifties. Or what's going to happen and how am I going to create this financial stability that. You know, if I did follow the path of my father or my grandfather that they had the retirement funds and the IRAs and all of this stuff set up which I don't have. And part of me gets really terrified about that and then part of me also is just sort of trusting, right? Part of me just sort of thinks. Okay, well here we are. And this is the path that I'm moving through in this lifetime. And, you know, these first few decades I've figured it out. So hopefully I'll continue to figure it out. Maggie: I think it's a good mentality. I mean if your past is any track record for the future, you will figure it out. So let's talk about big goals. The biggest question that we ask on the podcast is what's one big goal that you've accomplished that you're proud to say that you did and how you got there? [21:07] Adam: It's interesting. I knew that you were going to ask this question and I've spent some time these past couple of days sort of hovering around that question. And I really didn't come up with one goal. Because I'm not really the type of person that sort of makes a goal list. Or a vision chart. And, you know, through my teaching and yoga I've interacted with several brands who have put me through that sort of, you know, vision statements and ten-year goals and five-year goals and one-year goals. And I think that's very helpful and I think there's a lot to be said for that. But at the same time even when I was doing it. It wasn't really lighting me up. Like it wasn't inspiring me for the future. For creating something that moved me closer towards whatever those goals are. It actually sort of intimidated me a little bit. So I was like well I don't know. I don't want to set this goal that I'm not sure of this house or this family or this career. Like I want these goals and I want these visions but I also want to be able to flow. And if I didn't have that idea of flow in my life. I wouldn't have ended up in Australia or Bali or back here. And I don't think I'd be where I was right now. So there's something to be said for. In yoga, we call it Sankalpa and Sankalpa means intention. In yoga, we speak towards the word dharma a lot. I think it's softly and steadily turning into a phrase that might be a bit overused these days. Or maybe mistranslated is a better way of saying it. But in dharma, a lot of people think of dharma as being your calling. But the more accurate translation actually means your duty. I think that's a little bit more accurate because it's not just what am I inspired to do. It's like what do I have to do? Like why was I put here on this earth? And I have to with everything that I have and with my entire being and with my entire life I have to find that. I have to find my calling. Why I'm here. It's my duty. And for me, instead of charting out ten-year, five-year, one-year. The way that I've sort of navigated through it is more silence. More meditation. More introspection. And when I sort of back away and take those times of stillness and of meditation. I feel like I'm shedding away the layers of the external thought patterns. Of my doubts and of my worry. And of that constant negative chatter that lives in my head and a lot of other people's heads. To just sort of sit in my center. To sit in my being for a little while. And to actually listen. And to listen to what my heart truly wants. And it's in that listening that my compass sort of sets itself. And what the yogic tradition believes is that once you find that connection to your source. That connection to your calling. And you notice, we could several words here. We could use the word the universe, we could use the word divinity, we could use the word grace. But when you start to notice the essences of that force, that power, that energy resonating in your life. That energy starts to notice you noticing her. And she begins to unfold for you. And what I mean by that. One of my favorite quotes which may or may not be tattooed somewhere on my body in some way. Is an Emerson quote which is, "The world makes way for the man who knows which way he is going." It really resonates with the Vedic knowledge, with the yogic knowledge of once you have discovered your dharma. Your path down this life and you set your sails and you start moving in that direction. The world has a beautiful way of creating the path for you. And it's not going to be the path that you think it is. You know, it's not going to be the route that you think you should be going down. But it is a path that if you trust it, it will lead you to somewhere beyond your wildest expectations. So in goals, I absolutely do have goals. Goals of, you know, in 2019 running some more teacher trainings. Of having my advanced 300-hour training up and running. Of having a tour in Australia. And running retreats in Australia and Bali. And these are sort of, I guess we can consider them short-term, one-year goals. But in my mind I sort of think of them as logistical things to align. So that I can sort of look out past that. And like I said set my sails towards that journey with the knowledge and the expectations that the winds are going to blow me somewhere completely unexpected. But also with the trust that wherever I end up is where I'm supposed to be. Maggie: I have a two-part question. Or maybe two separate questions. Adam: Okay. Maggie: First, do you know what your duty is now? [26:55] Adam: Okay, interesting. So good. I'm leading a teacher training here in Charlotte. And we just, and I think a couple weekends ago we just had this conversation. There's this beautiful book. It's called The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. And it's this modern sort of retelling. Not necessarily retelling but a modern analysis of the Bhagavad Gita. And it talks about all of these characters who've found their calling. And they pursued it. And we had this big conversation with our trainees. And some of them knew and some of them didn't. And some of them were really stressed out that they didn't know. And some of them were really disappointed that they didn't. And some of them weren't sure that it was right. And it was really revealing. And we have a retreat coming up in a couple of weeks where we will go through a process of finding their dharma. Or I don't know that puts a lot of pressure on the retreat. Let's say getting closer to discovering it. In my journey in discovering it and what I've found. And this is through working with an amazing book called the Four Desires written by an amazing yoga teacher named Rod Stryker. He puts you through several writing exercises. In several different manners which pulls away sort of this layered thought of what dharma really is. And I think in Western wrapping we often think of dharma as your career, like your job. And if not that, maybe it's your family. And if not that, maybe it's something along those lines. And when I went through this, these exercises through this book and through working with Rod Stryker. I came upon what he calls your dharma code. And it takes several sort of drafts. And several pages of writing and crossing out and editing and writing and crossing out and editing. And I came upon one, and the person I was working with had me read it out loud. And as soon as I read it out loud. I looked and she looked at me. And she said, "Nope, that's not it." And my feelings were really hurt. And I was like what do you mean, this is it? And she asked me, "Were you editing yourself along the way when you were writing? Were you trying to steer the ship in a different direction? Were you editing along the way?" And I was like "No...yes." And I looked back at what I was writing and I was like totally I was. Because I thought I knew the answer already. And I wasn't leading myself into being vulnerable and open. So we tore it up. We started over again. Rewrote it all over again. And then at the end of this process. She said, "Okay, read it to me again." And the dharma code that I wrote was, "I share my story with the world without hesitation or doubt." And as soon as I said that I saw her face light up. And my face lit up. And she said, "Did you feel that?" And I was like, "I don't know what it was but I felt it." And it was just as soon as I read it, it was this surge of energy running through every cell in my body. You know an energy that we call alignment. And I was like oh, it totally redefined this idea of dharma for me. It's that I've always been a storyteller. As a musician, as a songwriter, as a yoga teacher or a workshop and a training facilitator. It's always been about a story. And sharing a story. And when this dharma code came about saying I share my story with the world without doubt or hesitation. It landed in a way that it didn't define me. In a way of putting boundaries around me. But it defined me in a way of lifting me up and giving myself permission to pursue these dreams with everything that I have. And that's the second teaching of the Bhagavad Gita which we said before. You know, the first teaching is find your dharma. Find why you were put here. Because you being in a body that is breathing and alive right now is nothing short of a miracle. And there's a reason for it. So step one is to find that. And then step number two is to pursue it with everything that you have. With absolutely every cell of your body. And in finding this dharma code. That little, short little sentence. It was, it felt like somebody put a match to my fuse. And all of a sudden just this rocket was about to go off. It felt unreal. Maggie: Like you could almost get out of your own way. Adam: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. And I was in my way more than I wasn't. And I still am, right? It still happens where I'm just like tripping over myself. Because my mind and my chatter and my doubt gets in the way. But, you know, all it takes is that, those moments of daily meditation and coming back to that dharma code. Which is like, oh yeah. I get it now. Maggie: That actually is a good segway to my other piece of the question. Because I'm interested in hearing you talk about the space in between where you went from being anxious by sitting with yourself and trying to meditate. And then to having such solace with meditation and really cherishing that time. How did you find that? Or how did that progression in your life happen? [33:09] Adam: Yeah, absolutely. For the first several years of my yoga practice, it was really predominantly a postural yoga practice. It was an Asana practice. And meditation was an off and on thing. You know, I would do meditation when I was in teacher training or when I was studying or when I was on a retreat with my teacher. And it was something that I always knew the benefit of. But never committed to a daily practice. And then several years ago, I made a trip to India during a pilgrimage called the Kumbh Mela. And the Kumbh Mela is every twelve years. It's this pilgrimage at the banks of the Ganges River. In a little town Allahabad. Not that little. But it is the biggest gathering of human beings in the planet. I think it's some 80 million people make the pilgrimage to what's known as the Sangam. And the Sangam is the confluence, the joining together of the Ganges River, the Jamuna River and the mystical Sarasvati River. And every twelve years, it's the alignment of the planets is said that that spot in the planet is the third eye of the planet. And every twelve years, the third eye opens. So if you are lucky enough to bathe yourself in the Ganges at this time. It's said it's so holy that your sins are forgiven, your children's sins are forgiven and your grandchildren's sins are forgiven. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was one of those pilgrimages that words can't really capture. We were staying, our campgrounds for this pilgrimage was about a kilometer downriver from the actual Kumbh Mela. But there were millions and millions and millions of people in this festival ground, pilgrimage grounds and there were 24-hour chants happening. Fires burning. Just millions and millions of people. And that energy was just rolling down the Ganges. The smoke was rolling down the Ganges. You could hear the chants. And it just sounded, in the middle of the night you would wake up and you would just hear [...]. Of just these chants happening and the energy was palpable. It was amazing. And I was there with Rod Stryker and another great teacher. His teacher, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait. And it was there that I really found my meditation practice. We worked a lot with mantra. We worked a lot with different sort of meditation techniques. That finally just sang. You know, it felt like music to me. It felt like a song. And I think, you know, in the years prior when I was working in yoga and trying to find this meditation practice. I couldn't really find it because I didn't really have a teacher. Like I didn't have someone to teach me the technique. You know, it's like trying to do a handstand but you're just alone in your room. And you're just flinging yourself up and down. And there is nobody there to tell you the technique to get into it. Meditation was the same way. So I finally had found a teacher. I had found somebody to lead me into the technique and to guide me and to answer my questions and to relieve my doubt. And so for years after that, I was meditating in this japa mantra practice. Which is a repetition of a mantra. And it's the practice that I've relied on heavily throughout these last several years. And then when I was in Australia I met another amazing yoga teacher, meditation teacher. And his name is Jonni Pollard. And his organization is called One Giant Mind. And his manner and his way of speaking about meditation and teaching mediation is profound in it's simplicity. What he is doing now is he working to strip away all of the pretenses, all of the structure on meditation. That for a lot of people can seem really daunting and really intimidating. And his technique is so simple but it's so refined. So I've started studying with him. And I'm actually right now moving through his teacher training to become a certified meditation teacher in One Giant Mind. And it's this very simple mantra. It's this very simple beautiful process. That you just sit down for twenty minutes twice a day. And right now, that's the practice for me that's having the most profound effects. You know, I will always be a fan of postural yoga. I will always be a fan of moving my body and finding freedom through that movement. But right now, in this sort of journey through the meditation practice which is now spanning a couple decades. Meditation is where I find the clarity, the peace, and the reconnection to myself that I'm so often missing. And in trying to teach others now. In my teacher trainings and in the retreats, the skill and the craft of meditation. It really is learning a new practice and it's creating and cultivating these new habits. But without fail if I can get one of my students to sit down for 30 days straight of meditation, then they're in it. They're in it for life. Because within those 30 days they have noticed such a profound shift in their connection to joy, in their calmness, in their balance, in just their way of being. The way that Jonni Pollack often says it, "You know those points in your life where, you find yourself just happy for no reason. Like you're sitting and watching a sunset. Or you're walking your dog. Or something beautiful happens and just this like really gentle wave of contentment and happiness sort of waves over you, washes over you." He says that's your natural way of being, right? That should not be an anomaly. That should be your regular state of being. And connecting to a meditation practice lets you access that state of being with such ease. And it's been a practice that has saved me several times. And like I've said, I love Asana and I love moving my body and I love sweating. But for me now, the postural yoga practice and the meditation practice are two sides of the same coin that I don't really want to live without either of them. [40:34] Maggie: So the last question which you sort of touched on. And I think maybe it wraps up a lot of the things that we're talking about of kind of getting out of your own way. Or being able to sit to really know where you want to go and where you can live out your duty or your dharma. Maybe that kind of comes up in this question of what's a big goal that you see for the future, that you want and why do you want it? Or how do you plan on getting there? [41:01] Adam: Yeah. About a year ago. Or it's been a little bit more now. A year and a half to two years ago. I had a pretty catastrophic injury. My L4/L5 disc blew and the extruded disc actually wrapped around one of my spinal nerves. And I lost function of my left leg and I lost feeling in my left leg. And coming from a state of yoga aware and movement where I really define myself as a mover. As a postural yoga practitioner. To have that taken away from me was heartbreaking. I mean the pain was excruciating. But it also forced me to redefine where I stand as a teacher in this practice. And after the surgery. And after the rehab. And reintroducing my body into this movement practice was so enlightening. One in terms of what my body was capable of doing. Or more accurately what it's no longer capable of doing. How to be okay with that. But also looking back over the past ten years of moving my body in Asana and being able to see really clearly with. Hindsight is 20/20. Being able to see really clearly the movements that I shouldn't have been doing. The transitions that I shouldn't have been doing. The fighting my body to try to get deeper mobility. To try to get a deeper forward fold. To try to get the legs behind my head. That, you know, in hindsight really was just ego. It was really me just fighting to prove something that was really pointless in the first place. And what I find now that I'm back on the mat, back in my practice. Is that I'm still so inspired by the movement. I'm still so inspired by the Asana. And it is an exploration and it is a joy to find new ways to move. It's an art. It's just like music. It's like songwriting. It's creating a sequence and moving your body through the sequence. It's dance. It's songwriting. It's poetry. But what I've found is that there needs to be science behind the art. There needs to be knowledge behind the art. And in all bluntness and in all openness. I think that is lacking, that knowledge is lacking. Especially in the new yoga teachers around today. Which we were all there. I was a new yoga teacher. And I was just sort of making it up as I went along. But one of my goals now is to. Number one always keep refining the way that I teach. And to keep building my knowledge base so that my knowledge of anatomy, of the biomechanics of the body, of how bodies are supposed to move and how to keep people safe is always growing. But now on top of that. Now that I've become. I've been teaching teachers how to teach. My goal is to educate yoga teachers in how to keep people safe. In how to try to in as many instances as possible avoid the injuries that we all get so often. I mean, yoga is movement and in movement, there is inherent risk. Right, there is inherent risk in hamstring pulls or wrist injuries or shoulder injuries. Like it's going to happen. And, you know, if you compare yoga to American football the risk level is quite low. But what I see is that the level of injuries in this practice is much higher than it should be. And it's much higher than it should be because I think there are inherent flaws in the structure of how we train and certify teachers. Which is a really long conversation probably for another day. But I think it's really important to, number one allow the people who are so passionate about yoga and who really want to teach the yoga to allow them to teach. But I want to in my trainings guide them to teach in a way that is knowledgeable and educated and is capable of moving people through their practice in a safe and empowering way. So in creating my 200-hour program and in 2019 unveiling my advanced 300-hour program. That's really the goal of it. Number one, get people meditating. And as always learn about the philosophy, the vedas, the mantra, learn about the heart of the yoga. But at the same time heavily immerse them in anatomy, in functional anatomy, in alignment. In getting people to understand what safe movements are. What aren't safe movements. What transitions we shouldn't be combining. And how we can continue to watch this beautiful methodology of yoga grow in the amazing expansive way that it has been growing. But to ensure that it's growing in a mindful and responsible way. Maggie: So Adam, how can people find you and listen to you through your new cd? And keep up with where you are and where you're going? Adam: Yeah. So the website is adamwhitingyoga.com and everything on social media. Well, Instagram and Facebook is Adam Whiting Yoga as well. So Adam Whiting Yoga and you can find me anywhere. And the new cd is hopefully coming out sometime in 2019. Fingers crossed. I'm really excited about that. But the partners that I'm working at are touring musicians in Australia. So we have just a little bit to go. So hopefully the stars will align and we'll be able to get that sooner rather than later. Maggie: Thank you so much for joining me on this podcast, We Got Goals. And it was an honor to have you. Adam: The pleasure was all mine. Thanks so much. Cindy: He goal-getters. It's Cindy Kuzma. Just checking in to let you know that we're about to play another goal from one of you, our listeners! If you would like to be featured on an upcoming episode of We Got Goals here on A Sweat Life. You can record a voice memo with a goal you've set, a goal you've achieved, just maybe your dharma, your purpose. Whatever you want to tell us about that's related to goals. Record that, send it to Cindy@aSweatLife.com. And we could feature you on an upcoming episode. Thanks for listening and here is one of your goals. Britney: I am Britney and I am from Southern Indiana. One goal getting strategy that's worked very well for me is keeping my goals to myself. Which is a little different then what some people do. But I've found that it helps me because it helps me make more attainable goals rather than goals I share on social media that maybe are a little more grandious then they should be or aren't quite as fleshed out as they should be. You know, we're in the age where we want to share everything with everyone on social media. And sometimes in my experience, it's worked best for me to just keep it between me and myself. A really good example was when I was finding my new job. I kept it kind of vague when I talked to people about it. And I just said you know I'm hunting. And I wrote down everything I wanted out of my job. I wanted very specific benefits and I wanted a very specific atmosphere and culture. And I just kind of went after it and found it. And it was nice because I wasn't cluttering it with other people's kind of input. And it was just me and my goal. [50:00] Cindy: This podcast is asweatlife.com production and it’s another thing that’s better with friends. So please, share it with yours. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts including on Spotify. And while you’re there if you could leave us a rating or a review we would be so grateful. Special thanks to Jay Mono, for our theme music, to our guest this week, Adam Whiting, to TechNexus for the recording studio, and to Kathy Lai for editing. And of course to you, our listeners.

​Mary Bruce is an internationally beloved yoga teacher and a rare guide that is breaking the mold of the modern climate of yoga.  A yoga teacher since 1997, Mary considers herself a forever student and began her journey in 1995 with Julie Crutchfield. She was so inspired by what she learned with Julie she continued her studies with her Teacher Yogarupa Rod Stryker in 1998. Mary Bruce is now a senior student of Rod Stryker’s and is Level III ParaYoga® Certified, a Certified Four Desires Trainer and a member of the Para Yoga certification board. She is also a 500 hour E-RYT Yoga Alliance teacher, a Relax and Renew trainer under the mentorship of Judith Lasiter, a certified Yoga Nidra Facilitator and a Reiki Master.   Learn more about Mary www.marybruce.com

Erica began practicing yoga when she was 15 years old as a way to help heal her scoliosis and avoid surgery. The deep connection she found with the yoga tradition and the transformations she witnessed in her body, heart and life have made her a yogini for life. Erica earned her 200 hour teaching certification from the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in 2008, her 500 hour Master Immersions training with Mary Bruce and Lynn Matthews in 2012, and has studied with Para Yoga’s Rod Stryker, Michelle Dante, Max Strom, Sangeet Kaur Khalsa and others. Erica has a strong desire to share her knowledge and love of yoga with others as well as continually build her knowlegde and love of the practice within herself. Her classes focus on breath, movement, and awareness of the present moment which sets the foundation for her students to rediscover their inner brightness, and peace of heart. Patrick grew up in Colorado and has always had a love for being active, and engaged in life. However at the young age of 28 his active lifestyle was brought to a screaming halt by chronic fatigue. After spending over 200K on doctors without help he was frustrated.  This was the wake up call he needed to step outside of his daily grind, and he made it his mission to do everything possible to heal himself. He found himself drawn to the teachings and practice of yoga, as well as the innovations of modern science. Through healing himself and finding his own balance Patrick was left feeling empty by his corporate America lifestyle and decided to pursue a life of fulfillment by helping others create health and balance in their own lives. His classes focus on having fun, letting go of self doubt, and strengthening our bodies so that they may express their optimal level of human potential.

In this month's podcast, Dr. John interviews Rod Stryker on tantra, sex, and relationships. The post Podcast Episode 062: Tantra, Sex + Relationships with Rod Stryker appeared first on John Douillard's LifeSpa.

Watch the Podcast: Download the Podcast: Air Date: May 1, 2017 Playtime: 1 hour, 9 minutes Link: Download mp3 (right-click here and select ‘save’) Listen: Subscribe: iTunes | YouTube | email | Spotify | RSS Rod Stryker’s Biography Yogarupa Rod Stryker is the founder of ParaYoga® and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a The post 062: Tantra, Sex + Relationships with Rod Stryker appeared first on John Douillard's LifeSpa | Ayurveda + Natural Health.

We all have a deep, soul calling to live a life that has meaning and purpose. How do we discern that call and respond to it? How can we overcome fears and obstacles to realizing our purpose in life? Join Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian in a conversation with her special guest Rod Stryker, a longtime teacher of yoga philosophy and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom.  Find out how, by connecting with our dharma, we can live by the power of the soul, in alignment with the power of the universe. 

Rod Stryker (also known as Yogarupa) is widely considered one of the West's leading authorities on yoga, tantra and meditation. He has taught for more than thirty-five years, is the founder of ParaYoga® and author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Rod has contributed to countless wellness publications and recently launched one of the most comprehensive online yoga teacher trainings in the world. At the forefront of integrating ancient yogic wisdom into a broad array of modern-day applications, he is a thought leader and mentor to thousands of ParaYoga practitioners and hundreds of teachers throughout the world. Rod lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.  

Namaste Yoga Revealed Podcast Community! This is Alec Vishal Rouben here to welcome you back to an exciting episode! Today we are blessed to Highlight Rod Stryker, a Senior Teacher in the community of Yoga!   Back in July I was fortunate to sit down with Rod while attending Wanderlust Festival in Aspen, Colorado.   Rod Shares a plethora of wisdom within ParaYoga, Tantric philosophies, how to incorporate attention to Bandha’s and much more! If you are looking to better understand the subtle body, then this is a conversation to tune into! This is a potent episode for all students and teachers to check out!   Rod Stryker is a gemstone and the Yoga Revealed Podcast community is honored to highlight him! If you want to practice with Rod Stryker, visit https://www.parayoga.com/events/ for a list of his scheduled events and trainings through 2016-2017 calendar year! Join Rod Stryker at Hanuman Festival 2017 in Boulder, Colorado, June 15-18th, 2017. Elevate your festival experience with the NEW Peak Experience Package, which offers you a richer and more intimate experience than the three-day pass, filled with amenities and comforts so you can dive deep into a high-level experience. Connect with your favorite teachers in small settings, enjoy master classes, fuel your body with delicious meals, and raise your vibration with VIP-style access for the ultimate yoga weekend. Learn more about this ultimate pass at http://www.hanumanfestival.com/peak-experience   Until next time,   Namaste See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this podcast, Rod Stryker speaks about the history and origins of Tantra, the practice of tantra and mantra, what it means to have a Guru, the experience of samadhi, and the ultimate aim and purpose of yoga.

Each person longs to satisfy an inherent desire for happiness, both in the outer world and on the inner journey of self-knowledge and transformation. The ancient tradition of yoga provides a practical and comprehensive science for realizing life's ultimate aims. Join Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian in a conversation with master yoga teacher Rod Stryker, author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Discover ways to live a fulfilled life with lasting happiness and inner healing, your best life imaginable.

Rod Stryker is one of the world's leading yoga and meditation teachers. He has helped thousands of people from all walks of life recognize their soul's call to greatness and achieve their dreams. In this talk, Rod will outline the practical and powerful approach to embodying the highest principles of yoga without ever doing a yoga pose as well as how these ancient teachings allow us to thrive and realize a complete and balanced life. Some of the topics he will cover include: finding your soul's purpose, the keys to happiness, the spiritual principles of shaping destiny, and achieving lasting freedom, as well as how these principles intersect with the practice of meditation and deep relaxation. The lecture will conclude with a short meditation practice. Speakers: Rod Stryker

Rod Stryker, author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom, joins Yogacharya O'Brian to explore how yoga can be about living the supreme life. For those who are willing to take yoga's promise to heart, open to their own divine potential, chart their course, and engage fully in the practice, life in this world is simply auspicious.

Discover how we can work with our deepest intentions and use the power of resolve—sankalpa shakti—to meet challenges, overcome obstacles, and realize our potential. Rod Stryker, Yoga and meditation teacher, founder of Para Yoga and author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom, returns to The Yoga Hour for this inspiring conversation with Rev. O'Brian.