Yoga Therapy: Recent Episodes
Shira Cohen- Yoga therapist & writer
The Yoga Therapy podcast, find out how Yoga therapy MOVES YOU INTO LIVING WELL.
Authentic conversations with Yoga experts sharing tips, advice and stories of how Yoga therapy changes lives through self-agency.
Join us and hear stories of healing, health, wellbeing and wholeness.
Breakdowns, the crumbling of the old and the tower falling are all frightening moments in our lives but they are also the bringer of newness and fresh connections and experience of self and our world.
Books:
Fritjof Capra - The Hidden Connections
Iain McGilchrist - The Master and His Emissary, The Matter With Things
Shira Cohen - Reclaiming Our Wellbeing
Summer holiday full of space, calm and spirituality have me filled with confidence and reserves of joy and freshness! The new is essential to breathing life into the old. Seeing and feeling without bias through meditative and contemplative practices gives us back the space we require to embrace life more fully.
Science is a basis for the profound study of the essence of life, but can never reveal more fully what we intuitively already know, that life without devoting some aspect of life to the divine leaves our lives feeling meaningless and without direction or worth, and in that void science can and does lead to dogma.
Books:
B. Alan Wallace - Embracing Mind
Shira Cohen- Reclaiming Our Wellbeing
Dr Lisa Turner shares her incredible journey to how she arrived at, and developed, her CET training- Conscious Emotional Training. Using neuroplasticity to remove trauma, resistence, emotional blockages, it re-CETs us like it never happened so we're a new YOU ME WE.
We talk about why some don't heal or move on, and how CET creates expansion and growth in the nervous system removing the maladapative neural wiring that keeps us stuck and creates more channels.
Lisa Turner's book CET Yourself Free
This week's podcast Gillian McMichael, Yoga and Ayurveda teacher, transformational coach and educator and trainer, shares how we can Come Home to our true self.
We discuss how through working with the whole person consciously, including physical health, wellbeing and spiritual needs and growth, we come home and feel more connected, not just with self but also our bigger family and self.
Herbs are potent, rich and powerful because they seek deep in the earth for nourishment, they are intelligent because they find ways to nourish themselves, cooperating with other living species to enhance life for all involved.
Hippocratic oath- Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.
Elderflower recipe:
20-50 Elderflowerheads
1 kg organic natrual sugar
1.5 L water
4-5 lemon juice and zest
25mg citric acid
Gently shake and wash flower heads removing any bugs.
Boil water. In a big pot add sugar and water and stir till all is melted without it coming to a boil. Add zest, flowers, lemon juice and citric acid. Let it cool then place in fridge for 2-4 days.
Strain filtering the flowers with sieve and after with muslin cloth
Low self-esteem and confidence often cause us to project our own goodness onto others, while being hyper critical of self.
Here's a short meditation for uplifting, inspiring and filling ourselves up with our golden self through other.
How important is self-expression to our wellbeing?
How does it affect our creativity, emotional and mental as well as physical health?
How can self-expression refine through communication?
What can we do to enhance it?
Resources:
Reclaiming Our Wellbeing by Shira Cohen
https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp
Potatoes, rhubarb and eating seasonally can be fun and luscious and bring back the balance to hormonal health as well as wellbeing!!
Shira Cohen, Reclaiming Our Wellbeing
Burnout podcast
Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Link to understanding thyroid health with Dr. Izabella Weltz
"It's not survival of the fittest but survival of the most nurtured."- Evolutionaty psychologist Casalino.
The basis of life is love. Simple practices to reconnect with our self love don't need to be difficult.
What could be more essential than loving the self for our world? Why is it so hard and what can we do to break the limiting habit and beliefs?
Order Reclaiming Our Wellbeing here for more of these quick yet deep delicious Yogic tools!
A solo on what comes up when we're at the threshold of a breakthrough and why it's so hard even when we know it's better for us seen through the biopsychosocial and spiritual lens.
Soraya Saraswati shares her Awakening Hearts, a culmination of her life work of yoga, trauma work, somatics, chakras, aromatherapy, Ayurveda and Advaita philosophy, and her love for Greece!
We talk about after effects of covid regulations and vaccinations; injuries and deaths from the vaccine, the consequences of refusing vaccines such as job loss, persecution, ridicule, smearing and belittling those who are more critical about health measurements.
Work With Us:
Soraya Saraswati https://sorayasaraswati.com
Shira Cohen https://shiracohen.yoga
Questioning Covid vaccine links:
Dr John Campbell
Senetor Rennick
Aseem Malhotra
Dr Jay Bhattacharya
realnotrare.org
Change emotional currents, ride their waves and find out how that affect body through hormonal changes Take a look inside the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axbc8Y4zjzs&t=51s Order book here: https://shiracohen.yoga Much Love, Shira
Sharon L. Coggan, former clinical associate professor of Harvard Universtity of Colorado, Denever, director of Religious Studies programme and author of Sacred Disobiedence, takes us on a wonderful journey through she-story, myth and the collective consciousness of transformation.
We discuss the importance of meaning, the difference of the Hero and Hera journey. By discovering courage, fighting our demons, the tasks, trials and tribulations of decapitation of the ego by following our heart to find our gems and gifts to offer the world.
Sharon tells Odysseus' journey of breaking down hubris and takes us on a beautiful story of wisdom and insight with Psyche and Eros to illustrate all the trials we need to go through to grow and live fully.
Ian Stevenson 27 cases of reincarnation- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242424836_Ian_Stevenson_and_Cases_of_the_Reincarnation_Type
https://harperandharley.org/pdf/sacred-disobedience
Sharon L. Coggan, former clinical associate professor of Harvard Universtity of Colorado, Denever, director of Religious Studies programme and author of Sacred Disobiedence, takes us on a wonderful journey through history, mystery and the collective consciousness of now.
And how Hera, the Greek goddess of power and fertility became degraded to a jealous bitch, as an expression of supressed energy of our present collective amina and her sons, the animus, which we see back in emotional and psychological repression, frustration, repulsion, and denial of sex, humanity and divinity causing gender and identity issues, radicalisation and division.
Resources:
Carolin Myss- Invisible Acts of Power
Carl Jung's book Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Karen Armstrong- A History of God
Sharon's course
Gabor Maté- When the Body Says No
Jules Cashford and Anne Barring- The Myth of the Goddess
Ian Stevenson's books on reincarnation
This solo is full of inspiration, wisdom and love from Tama J. Kieves, Sharon L. Coggan, Diana Tokaji, and a little from me, Shira Cohen!!
A quick review of the ways we can quickly co-regulate and co-create through coherence and cohesion!
What do we need to do to co-create a world that gives us back our meaning, values, humanity and dignity?
Which beliefs make us feel and seem stuck in these societies that have lost all moral values?
How can we move torward a global society that gives us back our sense of meaning, feelings of belonging and significance?
How can we begin to dismantle the systems, structures, dynamic and relationships, is being shut down on every level of freedom of expression and living fully?
What steps will bring back the trust and belief of our human family, in our inherent incredibleness, deep integrity, our immense love, power and caring compassion?
Resources:
David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything
Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All
Vivek Ramaswamy, Woke Inc.
Stem cells study
Alina Calinescu, who was on in May '22 talking about functional aging, came to talk about how to choose a good quality yoga therapy training.
The fast pace evergreen and modern consumerism mindset is affecting the quality of all institutions, including educational programmes, negatively impacting the quality of trainings; from prior education requirements for entry, to foregoing recommendations and actual depth of a training.
We disscus how to research and find authentic, ethical schools, online training pros and cons, price, follow-up mentoring, investment, traditions and yoga therapy business model.
Work With Us:
Alina Calinescu
Shira Cohen
Andres Gonzalez, yoga teacher, author and mindfulness instructor, share his, and his friends, journey of creating their project and programes of the Holistic Life Foundation.
We talk about the 7 essential steps of set up supportive projects, services and programes for community upliftment and helping children to greater opportunities and success.
Andres talks about the book Let Your Light Shine.
Work with Shira
Resources:
PATH SEL - Social Emotional Learning
Shepard Pratt
Mark Greenberg
Johns Hopskins randomized stress reduction & mindfulness research
Vipassana from the S. N. Goenka tradition
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana
Anodea Judith, Yoga teacher, clinical psychologist and author of 10 books, has a passion for chakras and manifesting.
She shares how we can work with the charge of the energy body, for anxiety, depression, trauma by understanding the deficient or excessive energy in each chakra.
We discuss manifesting and bringing light into the world through work and women leaders.
"Manifestation requires an acceptance of limitations. A boundary allows us to contain, and thus collect and build." - Anodea in Eastern Body Western Mind
Judtith Anodeas's books
-
Easter Body Western Mind
-
Charge, and the Energy Body
-
Wheels of Life
-
The Global Heart Awakens
Anodeas's Women Leader Cards
Work With Us
Anodea Judith's Creating On Purpose Course -The Art of Masterful Manifestation
Shira Cohen Yoga Therapy 1 to 1
Harpinder Mann, yoga teacher, mindfulness educator and co-founder of the social justice programme Women of Colour shares the power of storytelling.
We talk about uplifting others without righteousness, cognitive dissonance and trying to find who we truly are past identity and conditioning, systems of oppression and repression, and how can WE move forward through co-creating communities by looking at the dirty truth and do our dharma; duty.
Vipassana with S.N. Goenka
Love & Rage Lama Rod Owens
Astrology with Pam Gregory & Molly McCord
Professor of Religious Studies Sharon L. Coggan shares her womanhood wisdom and extensive knowledge of the Goddess and matriarchal societies, myths and religions.
Looking at the different types of the goddess within us through the lens of relational poles, independent; amazonian and crone and the dependents; mother and lover. And how we can develop them by seeing them in our lives.
We discuss daily experiences of women with patriarchy, male gyneacologists and the consequences of masculine frustration from fear of the unpredictable.
Christiane Northrup - Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Christine Downing - The Goddess
Marija Gimbutas
Merlin Stone - When God was a Woman
Jeanette Seally and Shira speak about women's health from the Ayurvedic and Yogic perspective, the Kayalpa window, the Great Transformation or the Rock.
The importance of the special care for healing postpartum and the impact the care from family, community and culture can mean to mother and child, and our future.
Work With Us:
Jeanette Seally
Shira Cohen
Sarva Blackwell
Isha Oaks
Dr Vasant Lad
Pancha Kola Ghee
Ysha Oakes Sacred Window Care Sarva Blackwell Indu Arora Sukshma Sharira
Sharon L. Coggan, previously professor of religious studies, and author of Sacred Disobedience, discusses the importance of goddess to our modern culture with Shira.
Why has modern culture has lost its sense of the sacred? How did our present common fear of mystery and divinity come about? What has caused are we starved for the profound experience? What is the difference between religion and mysticism? What are the effects of purposeful suppression of the goddess, the feminine aspect in every being and repressed sexuality?
We look at the triple goddess Uma/Parvati, Durga and Kali, women archetypes, symbolism, etymlogy and how to use it for self-development and shadow work.
Work with Sharon
October 11 - Nov. 1: Chinese Philosophy, Religion and Beyond. University of Denver Enrichment Program 4 Tues. evenings, 7:00-9:00 p.m. in person, on campus, Sturm Hall 479.
November 2: Dream Analysis Through the Ages: Gods, Indigestion, Freud and Jung. Denver Women's Press Club, 1325 Logan St. Denver, Co.
Carl Jung
Mircea Eliade - The Sacred and the Profane
Tony Wolff's Feminine Archetypes
"Horizontal humans cause less harm and become portals of healings."
Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, yoga therapist, author of Yoni Shakti and Yoga Nidra Made Easy, eco-feminist, shares her very early journey into yoga for health and passion for womens health the power of rest, Yoga Nidra, with Shira.
Uma explains how and why starting yoga therapy with yoga nidra enhances healing, awareness and growth. She talks about Devi, the Goddess, Shakti as the power of creativity, preservation and destruction, as rest.
We touch on politics, patriarchy, capitalistic life as the cornerstone preventing deep rest, honouring the seasons and feminine cycles of sleep, social connection and celebration for enhancing health.
Free Yoga Nidra Cyclical Wisdom
Work With Us:
Uma Dinsmore-Tuli
Shira Cohen
Other Resources:
Yoga for Health with Richard Hittleman
Emma Cannon - The Baby-Making Bible
Tricia Hersey - The Nap Ministry
Yoga Nidra Network
This, the fifth part of five, a series on self-development to the fullest through elements, emotions and chakras.
Using the teachings and tools of Yoga as therapy for dealing with difficult emotions in uncertain times and re-connecting with Self more fully, authentically and autonomously.
Much Love, Shira
This, the fourth part of five, a series on self-development to the fullest through elements, emotions and chakras.
Using the teachings and tools of Yoga as therapy for dealing with difficult emotions in uncertain times and re-connecting with Self more fully, authentically and autonomously.
Much Love, Shira
This, the third part of five, a series on self-development to the fullest through elements, emotions and chakras.
Using the teachings and tools of Yoga as therapy for dealing with difficult emotions in uncertain times and re-connecting with Self more fully, authentically and autonomously.
Much Love, Shira
This, the second part of five, a series on self-development to the fullest through elements, emotions and chakras.
Using the teachings and tools of Yoga as therapy for dealing with difficult emotions in uncertain times and re-connecting with Self more fully, authentically and autonomously.
Much Love, Shira
In this solo conversation I discuss the importance of having difficult conversations. We look at what creates trust and how self-knowledge and the yamas and niyamas are key to building trust to self and therefore others.
We do a short practice to reclaim trust, safety and grouding in times of uncertainty. We use the earth element to re-build new pathways of trust in our body and mind.
Work with Me:
Yoga therapy 1 to 1
Libby Hinsley, DPT, C-IAYT and author of her new book Yoga For Bendy People, shares with Shira how yoga was so easy for her because she was hypermobile.
We talk about all the different styles of yoga and finding the right style for your body's needs, abilities or goals, which change as we age or realise what exacerbates or relieves our issues.
Libby shares how hypermobility can be the underlying cause to reproductive, nerve and digestive health issues as well as anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and autoimmune issues, through collagen.
Work with Us:
Libby Hinsley
Shira Cohen
Resources:
Lee Kajewski Podcast
Beth Spindler and Vagal Tone
Georgetown University
Iyengar Yoga
Ashtange Yoga
Desikachar Viniyoga
Ganesh Mohan
Lee Mejewski, C-IAYT, author of Yoga Therapy as a Whole Person Approach to Health, founding director Yoga for Health Institute, Senior Yoga therapist at Kaivalyadhama Institute, she runs her retreats, Beyond Cancer.
She shares her story of yoga, cancer and how life led her to her candid wisdom, insights and experience as a cancer expert and working with chronic psychosomatics conditions.
We talk about how yoga therapy is a complementary practice that heals deeply, regardless of beliefs or cultural/spiritual background, because it helps us connect us to something bigger. And trusting the process.
Work with Us:
Shira Cohen
Lee Majewski
Rupert Spira
George Washington University for Spirituality in Health Care
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Research funding by pharma:
-
Illusion of Evidence-based Medicine
-
entangled with pharma,
-
big pharma under the spotlight,
-
pharma sponserhip of research favors product bias
Dr Nivedita Pingle, certified Yoga therapist and allopathic doctor, shares with Shira her passion and story of going from her masters as a physician to becoming a yoga therapist with her teacher and mentor.
We discuss how yoga therapy can help prevent chronic metabolic conditions and how mindful movement helps us live with the complications of dis-ease and injury that's irriversable.
We talk about the HPA axis as the intermediate of hormones, immunity and enzymes, and much more juicy physiological processes.
Work With Us:
Dr Nivedita Pingle
Shira Cohen one to one
Dr. Karandikhar
Osho- Rajneej
Kaitlyn Holsapple, Yoga therapist and somatic therapist, shares her story of being born a yogini, thanks to her dad, with Shira.
We talk about healing complex trauma, anxiety, depression and disassociation through embodied experiences that yoga and somatic work facilitate, for the creative and sensitive ones.
Kaitlyn explains how sensory and psychological perception influence vagus activity and processing. She shares the importance of wonderful practices to self-regulate vagal tone.
Work with Us:
Kaitlyn Holsapple
Shira Cohen
Resources:
Ashley Turner
Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No
Keirin Brown, yoga therapist and somatic life coach, and Shira talk about yoga therapy enabling the ability to connect with the emotions through the body and movement.
We talk about feelings and emotions as chemical waves we can ride to radical acceptence by slowing down, have visceral awareness, connecting to our inner child and freeing the shadows.
We discuss how somatic work naturally releases coping mechanisms, maladaptive patterns, drives and old emotions.
Work with Us:
Keiren Brown Services
Shira Cohen One to One
Resources:
Nurturing Our Humanity
JBrown Podcast Yoga Talks
Pema Chodron
Matt Kahn
Anodea Judith- Eastern Body, Western Mind
Jessica Hirani, Yoga wellness therapist, shares her story of burnout and reclaiming wholeness and meaning with Shira.
We discuss emotions and the associated stigma of burnout and chronic fatigue, and the resulting depression if we don't act on the deeper intuitions of our bodymind seeking healing and wholeness.
Looking at the process of undoing limiting patterns and moving into our greater selves, and superpowers.
Work with Us
Shira Cohen Yoga therapy One to One
Jessica Hirani Yoga therapy session
Resources
Gabor Maté- When the Body Says No
Yoga Campus
Charlotte Watts
Leah Barnett
Lauren Mason, yoga therapist and educator specialising in prenatal, postpartum and infant loss, shares her story with Shira.
We discuss how yoga helps emotional and mental wellbeing, and yoga therapy is about bodymind inquiry and asking the kind of questions to help self-agency and empowerment.
We talk about pedagogy, teaching teachers, creating pelvic and reproductive health.
Work with Us:
Lauren Mason Yoga therapy
Shira Cohen Yoga therapy One to One
Resources
Libby Cox
Douglas Brooks
Gary Kraftsow
Leslie Kaminoff
Alina Calinescu, like a good pitta person, shares her journey of many loved trainings, mentors and teachers, with Shira.
We discuss the pricelessness of learning for many years under the mentorship of knowledgable teachers and the importance of trust for healing.
We talk about pain care, functional aging, the importance of languauge, understanding the body, anatomy, fascia, kinesiology and movement for different bodies.
Judith Hanson Lasater
Articles about Alzheimer's naps & Taking Longer Naps with Age
Work with Us:
Alina Calinescu - Fb IG
Shira Cohen Yoga therapy
Jill Manos, Yoga and art therapist, case manager and therapuetic mentor, courageously shares her alchemical story with Shira.
She talks about addictions, high functioning, shame, battling with control and not feeling good enough, and how Yoga therapy is a way out of being stuck and self-esteem.
We discuss the importance of social connections, feeling the presence of another, regulating emotional states and finding the window of tolerance.
Work with Us:
Jil Manos - Yoga Therapy
Shira Cohen - Yoga Therapy
Phoenix Rising
Michael Lee
Kahlil Gibran- The Prophet
Brene Brown- Daring Greatly
HeartMath
Keri Marino, IAYT certified Yoga therapist, spiritual life coach and speaker, shares her journey with Shira, of eating disorders to a new relationship with herself and body through Yogic chanting, helping her to choose another path of eating and living.
We talk about the importance of relationships, universe of emotions and how yoga facilitates being with every part of ourselves, we discuss shame, autonomy and self-worth, and being a beginner again
Tapas
Work with Us:
Keri Marino - Befriend Your Body course
Shira Cohen Yoga therapy sessions
Tara Mitra, yogini and yoga therapist in the Krishnamacharya tradition, a vedic mantra and rituals sadhaka and teacher sharees her passion for chanting with Shira.
We speak about our unconscious programming to keep going without rest and how complexity kills the power of pause, and how chanting can undo these unconscious patterns.
Improving listening skills, the power of focus, sharpening and clearing the mind, as well as affecting our breath, physiology and nerves.
Work with Shira
Work with Tara
Upcoming
2 day Santi Mantra Course April 23 & 24
Panchmaya kosha ~ exploration & chanting April 30 & May 1
4 week Introduction to Chanting ~ 4 weeks (June & July)
Instagram, Facebook
Brahma Sthana
Ayur Mantra
JBrown Yoga Talks
Ramana Maharishi
Amma
A deep and questioning talk about fear, the underlying principles of domination; supressing the unknown; the feminine, emotions, and anything that can cause unpredictible outcomes.
How can we move forward together in honesty and authentically?
Work with Me
Free Resources
Book a podcast call
Humankind - Rutger Bregman
Child Labour of Cobalt in Conga
Leslie Kaminoff, Yoga educator, co-author of Yoga Anatomy, founder of the Breathing Project and soon to be launched platform for yoga therapists and 1 to 1 yoga, shares his yoga journey with Shira.
We talk dissection, yoga going online, vagal tone, yoga therapy or yoga education, power and assymetric responsibility, healing, student-teacher relationships
Larry Payne PhD
Desikachar
T.Krishnamacharya's Makaranda
Light on Yoga - BKS Iyegnar
Amy Matthews
Beatrice Beebe
Liby Hinsley
David Frawley
Gary Kraftsow
Shira talks about how women are the reason there is Life, and not honouring that in our systems is the underlying factor to dis-ease, dysfunction and dis-organ-I-sation. We’re free to work for our money, drive cars, live alone, take any professional path and even become leaders. But the path for a woman is always a battle field that encroaches upon our self-esteem and self-worth.
In religious texts, media and medical instituitions we’re bombarded with messages of being inferior, or objectified as some thing to be had by another.
Add the fact that we have 4 phases each month and 4 extra cycles over a life time then men, and you understand why women are 30% more likely to burnout.
Article with Womens four phases
FLOWING WITH OUR CYCLE Free PDF
Donate with Stripe
Rob Lamport shares with Shira Cohen, how he turned to yoga for back issues and it enhanced his work, mental health and slowly change his career.
We talk about how spinal alignment equals physical and physiological health, and movement is key to our health on every level, affecting every system, vessel and cell.
We touch on the power of being present in the body, and body awareness as the basis to the safest way to create healthy movement first and correct foundation.
Work with Us:
Rob's Courses
Therapy with Shira
Resources:
T. Krishnamarcharya
Heart formed first; Yoga, Fascia, Anatomy & Movement- Joanne Sarah Avison
Judith Lasater - Experiential Anatomy
Invisible Women- Caroline Criado Perez
TKV Desikachar
Joline Lenz is an entrepreneur, recruiter and co-author of Inspiration at Work, she helps others elevate, envision and empower courage, connection and creativity and shares her personal story with Shira.
We talk about accepting ourselves fully, flaws and all, as we go through the process of self-realisation, following our energy and bliss, as well as unraveling our shadows and the habits of hard knocks.
Work with us:
Joline Lenz
Shira Cohen
Books:
Louise Hay - You Can Heal Your Life
Anita Morjani - Dying to be Me
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Documentary:
Thrive On
Ayurveda is the science of life that seeks to enhance health, happiness and growth.
Add it to Yoga and we have a whole system to prevent dis-ease, reverse chronic conditions and help induce remission in severely chronic states.
We look at the six stages of dis-ease and how we can increase health in each of our bodily systems to create vitality.
Work with Me
Ayurvedic Essential for Great Digestion
Pawanmuktasana series to increase Range of Motion in all joints of the body
Wheel of Life
Donate on Stripe
or PayPal
Amanda Monnier, certified yoga teacher, nutritional coach, Bsc. in psychology and criminal justice, shares her coming out of the spiritual awakening closet, with Shira.
Amanda is a big proponent of our highest vibration and self, being authentically ourselves.
In this wonderful conversation, we discuss the wisdom of presencing, surrender, following the heart and honouring the feminine in each moment, as the pathway of authoring our life.
We talk about the messiness, and the beauty of spiritual awakening, the power we each have when we drop our conditioned beliefs, infantalised attitudes and limited structures that are remnants of patriarchal culture of productivity and progress at all costs.
Charlotte Kahn, certified yoga therapist, passionately shares her knowledge and expertise with Shira, about the potential of yoga therapy for Parkinson's.
We discus the function of dopamine on brain, motor and neural health. Touching again on the importance of social aspects of group classes and community.
We talk about automated and unconscious learning, importance of gut health contributing to the development Parkinson's.
Work with Us
Charlotte's Workshop- Teaching Yoga for Parkinson's
Shira's Yoga Therapy
Parkinson's Support and Care UK
Books
Yoga Therapy for Parkinson's & Multiple Sclerosis - Jean Danford
The Brain's Way of Healing- Norman Doidge
Shira talks about bringing back balance during perimenopause through diet, practices and journaling.
Perimenopause - The Change - is often not spoken about and yet affects us more deeply than we like to admit. From physical weight gain and lack of energy to deep emotional soul seeking.
It can leave us feeling paralyzed, confused, angry, dissappointed and alone. Yet a body is fully equiped to bring back balance.
The underlying imbalance lies in physiological shifts in hormones production moving into other endocrine glands or even systems!! Adapting to the new cycles and sites our body needs to activate, causing the changes we experience on all these levels.
Support the show
YMEA to regulate the cycles during perimenopause.
Oestrogene deficiency symptoms
-
hot flushes
-
night sweats
-
vaginal dryness, wall thining, infections
-
mental fuzziness, memory loss, mind blocks
-
moodiness, irritability, anger
-
loss of labido : Remedy- Soya
Progesterone deficiency symptoms;
-
bilateral headache
-
PMS symptoms
-
anxiety
-
nervousness : Remedy- Vitex Agnes Castus; chaste berry
Alternate nostril breathing / NadiShodona video starts at 13:48
Journaling prompts
Dear....,
I am angry with you because...
You ruined my life because...
I hate you because...
I'm scared of you because...
I feel sorry for myself because...
I feel excited with you in my life because...
i love me with you because...
I'm happy with you because...
This makes me feel...
Vidya Lakshmi, a doctor of physiotherapy, naturopathy and Yogic science, is a believer of Healthy People Healthy World.
Vidya's just as passionate to educate people about self-regulation through natural means of body, breath and food as medicine.
She shares how the eight limbs, or steps of Yoga, as a means to work with yoga as therapy, to affect our physiology, change our hormonal health and improve cellular intelligence.
Explaining how our very own bodies make the medicine, called hormones, is within us. Yet everyone is searching outside themselves due to ignorance.
With a very thorough explanation of the connection between eating habits, fasting and chrocnic disease. And how traditional Indian medicine successfully aids recovery in COVID cases.
Work with Shira
Work with Vidya
Show support by donating!
Low Oxygen Drives Cancer Growth? Article
Rachel Posner, certified Yoga therapist and mindfulness coach with a masters in counselling, and Shira come together to talk about our global suffering, fears and trauma in today's complex world, the triggers as well as tools.
We discuss community as the basis of healing from stress, trauma and suffering using the tools that affect neural wiring and neuronetworks, co-regulation, moving from cognitive to somatic experience.
We cover empathy versus compassion, empathy networks, emotional awareness, boundaries, regulation and homeostasis through being with and accepting dysregulation to self-heal when we're in fight/flight/freeze and move into rest and digest.
The need to control on many levels, physical, mental emotional, psychological, due to fear and overcoming it.
Work with:
Rachel Posner
Rachel's Relax & Reset
Shira Cohen
Show your support and donate!! Every bit helps.
Laura Kupperman and the Yoga Therapy group
Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy
Books:
Rebecca Solnit Hope In the Dark
Riane Eisler & Douglas Fry Nurturing Our Humanity
Ghada Osman PhD, psychotherapist, LMFC and accredited Yoga therapist, and Shira talk about the importance of mental and emotional health, mental exhaustion from a constant push to achieve, power through, control, supress, decide and produce.
We talk about the power of yoga therapys mindbody mindful practices giving us the insigh and realistion as central to healing.
We have a delicious long discussion about emotions. Their effect, function, power and physiological mechanisms, and affect on mental health, and the importance of showing our emotions pertaining to physical health, and the power of somatic work to induce psychological health.
We talk about how slow, grounding work creating certainty and safety, is essential to heal trauma, PTSD and other deep psychological imbalances.
To work with Ghada Osman
Book- Mental & Emotional Healing Through Yoga
Video Series - Yoga for Stress & Anxiety
Therapeutic Course Yoga for Mental Health Certification
Work with Shira Cohen Mentioned in the podcast;
Kripula centre
Balarama Chandra Das
Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy
Louise Hay
This years last podcast ends with a smiling awareness meditation, from the Heart to the Ends of the Universe.
Helping us feel connected, in unity with the whole and remembering that the mystery of life is always underneath all the ups, downs and ambiguity of our challenges.
Support the podcast!!
Direct transfer S. Cohen | Triodos Bank | NL27 TRIO 0379 7084 77
Stripe https://buy.stripe.com/9AQeYsfXj66Z3Sw6oo
PayPal @shiracohen1326 https://paypal.me/shiracohen1326?country.x=NL&locale.x=en_US
Joy Ravelli, registered yoga therapist, who has been training yoga teachers for decades and has an IAYT accredited Yoga therapy school, shares her yoga story.
Joy loves to teach and incorporate dance and authentic movement into yoga, a mentor who sees yoga therapy as a friendship with a holistic yoga teacher. And how maintaining joy is the essence of yoga therapy when personalised.
We discuss how all yoga is healing, and the importance of accreditation and regulatory bodies to ensure the quality of yoga teaching and yoga therapy as a profession.
Joy shares how COVID reveals healing isn't a one size fits all treatment forcing medicine to be client led instead.
We speak on the importance of purpose and one of Joy's gifts is guiding others to the wisdom in our wounds. And finding inspiration in the everyday and navigating life.
We talk about working with the cycles of seasons, months and day. How difficult emotions and habis are related to patriarchal systems, and requires cultivating beneficial patterns to replace them.
Work with or train to become a Yoga Therapist with Joy
Work with Shira
Mentioned in the show;
John Featherstone
Doctor Raul
Thich Nat Han
Pema Chodrun
The Prophet- Kahlil Gibran
The Bhagavadgita
The Yoga Sutras- Patanjali
Candice Clark, liscenced counselor and certified yoga therapist, shares her story with Shira, of how her experiences led to seeking ways to heal and process her PTSD, trauma and discovering yoga therapy.
Candice loves evidence-based Yoga therapy because it's effective, long lasting and cost effective, whilst avoiding retraumatising or triggering traumatic experiences. Also explainsing the purpose of cognitive therapy and memory recall.
Find out why it's great when a trauma survivor actually gets up and leaves your trauma sensitive or trauma informed yoga class. Candice shares how daily exposure to inequality and violence contributes to constant hypervigilance.
We discuss the importance of trying out different modalities and inroads to prevent internalisation of rejection, how physiological and physical holding patterns of energy and emotions need to be experienced and released as an essential to healing trauma.
Work with Shira
Work with Candice Clark
Candice's Return to Presence probono program
Some research on yoga therapy compared to cognitive processing therapy:
https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/for_researchers/cyber_seminars/archives/video_archive.cfm?SessionID=4014&Seriesid=98
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25004196/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33788599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215954/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32160072/
Also mentioned:
Mindfulness-based stress reduction programe MBSR from Jon Kabat-Zinn
Peter Levine
Bessel van der Kolk
Pat Ogden
Candace Pert PhD. - Molecules of Emotions
Gabor Mate
Molly Birkholm
Brandt Passalacqua, seasoned yoga therapist and founder of the Breathing Deeply, shares with Shira how his near fatal autoimmune condition led him to yoga nidra, preventing death, and subsequently to his passion for yoga therapy.
We touch on autoimmune conditions having similar underlying cause of imbalance if we look at the energetic; physiological, body, and how Ayurveda, yoga nidra and meditational techniques effecting our reactivity and stress, but more importantly our natural healing and integration.
Brandt shares his experiences of how yoga therapy can significantly reduce autoimmune flares, prevent sugery, reduce pain, cure scorliosis, relieve fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and obesity.
We talk about how the effects of adverse childhood experiences, ACEs, especially sexual abuse, translate into trauma due to lack of tools, knowledge and support to healthily express, or share, our inner struggles, enabling healing.
How yoga therapy is somatic as well as cognitive; body awareness and self inquiry, enabling us to enter and access healing through different lenses and layers, and understanding how interconnected the body and mind are. And how looking at all our layers is necessary to help a person heal deeply.
Brandt covers the different kinds of yoga nidras and why it can be effective or adversely affect others, depending on, many things, one being a person's background.
We briefly discuss the importance of seeking help long before crisis situations, physical or psychological, preventing much suffering through self-awareness and self-knowlegde that both Ayurveda and yoga therapy encourage.
Work with Brandt - Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy
Work with Shira - Shira Cohen Yoga Therapy
Mukunda Stiles
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Richard Millar - iRest
Bessel van der Kolk
In this excerpt from Shira's Yoga Teacher's class, a journey through the five elements, the basis of Ayurvedic principles, and the Koshas, a pillar of Yoga therapy, she explains the functions of the mind and which major contributor causes mental health imbalance.
We look at how the left and right brain hemispheres, respectively Ida and Pingala nadi, each has needs, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities which we can affect through the 8 limbs of yoga.
Learn why it's so important to check our input and understand how we affect output effectively with a comprhensive practice using mudra, mantra, movement, Pranayama, Pratyahara, mindfulness concentration and meditation.
Join the next Yoga Teachers class starting in January
Montserrat G. Mukherjee, C-IAYT yoga therapist and founder of The Yoga Therapy Institute share with Shira, how an injury in a yoga class started her road to yoga therapy.
We discuss the importance of the client's story and how we need to adapt and change the practices to evolve our choices according to the person and present reality, how the state of our world reflects our hormonal state, and that following our evolution we will find the solutions.
Montserrat shares the wonderful work she, her amazing team and students, do through the Yoga Therapy Institute, and the results of completely adaptive work; if one way doesn't work then we find another way. Leading to life transformative changes, sometimes.
The essence of yoga therapy is the person and finding they way for the individual, never giving up, including the environment, and all relationships; food, family, money, work, sleep, and is often the path of the desperado.
Montserrat eludes to an often overlooked link between health and dis-ease as our social connection; love, physical touch and the emotions relationships invite regulating hormonal homeostasis as an important aspect of healing.
We talk about the incredible importance of stories and how they connect connect us, the importance of critical thinking when a student to prevent power dynamics.
Study with Montserrat Mukherjee at the Yoga Therapy Institute
Work with Shira Cohen
Uma Dinsmore-Tuli's amazing book - Yoni Shakti
Dr. Vasant Lad's book The Yoga of Herbs
Blue Zones, Live Longer, Better
Berenice Miles is a certified yoga teacher and therapist, shares her story of, and passion for, yoga, and how helped her overcome PTSD and her eating disorder and sent her on her Yoga therapy quest, with Shira.
Bernice explains meditation is a big part of the healing from eating disorders because living our minds most of the time, we realise we are not our thoughts. How yoga enables a new relationships with others and ourselves; through self-compassion and coming home in the body.
We talk about writing books and self-publishing, Berenice's book about busting yoga myths for the beginner so people feel more confident coming to a class.
Enabling clients to deal with stress with simple tools and teaching them how to regulate their autonomic nervous system, Berenice, like any good Yoga therapist, empowers the individual.
Shifting mind states, self-confidence and esteem, emotions and accepting the good the bad and the ugly of self and life, through specific yoga practices.
Work with Shira
FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShiraCohenYoga YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKSzPo-SCftKExzMp6g0n_w
Work with Berenice FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenseekingcalm YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEAfjOvHTnoYlkJ8C9PoI1g Heather Mason at The Minded Institute
Montserret Mukherjee at the Yoga Therapy Institute
Yoga Campus
Manuela Heider de Jahnsen at Society of Friends
Leila Stuart, certified clinical massage and yoga therapist, passionate pioneer of movement education, and author of the book Pathways to a Centred Body, shares with Shira how an injury led her to yoga as therapy back in the 70s, on a daily basis to keep the pain at bay.
Liela reveals how prana is conscious bio-electromagnetic energy, and needs to move through us to affect the quality of our emotions, energetic charge and how that effects physiology.
She explains how yoga therapy is a specialised training ensuring client safety and wellbeing through more education and understanding of the body, physiology and psyche, because many different causes can contribute to a specific issue.
A guided experiental anatomy practice that empowers. So self-knowledge leads to better habits, relationships and moods. And self-awareness, essential to lead us from unconscious incompetence, through conscious incompetence to conscious competence.
The importance of the multidimensional psoas; accessing our interic nervous system, connecting the entire upper body with lower body, enabling us to go deep within both viscerally and emotionally and mentally.
And how experience is knowledge and why being present and feeling what we experience leads to self-knowledge and empowered to change their health and wellbeing.
We talk about the importance of community and mentorship instead of yoga as commodity.
Work with Leila: www.leilastuart.com https://www.yogacampus.com/courses/events-and-continuing-professional-development/pelvic-balance-yoga-therapy-for-pelvic-realignment
Work with Shira: https://shiracohen.yoga
Mentioned during conversation:
Tom Myers
Handspring Press
Joanne Spence, a certified Yoga therapist and slow movement maven, M.A. and author of Trauma Informed Yoga- A Toolbox for Therapists, shares with Shira her yoga story. How chronic pain from a car accident, lack of sleep and associated depression led her to yoga classes and becoming a yoga therapist.
This podcast is about teaching only what we know, feel and intuitively experienced, how yoga increases our awareness to our inherent strength, power, complexity and adaptable system of our body as the hormonal changes during pregnancy and motherhood raising many issues and energy changes, asking us to be radically accepting of ourselves.
Yoga therapy is a specific way to apply yogic practice to our conditions to increase, decrease and change our energy and affecting mental health. Yoga therapists see these as intertwined and can create a customised practice according to individuals needs.
Joanne touches on why and how such a small but vital aspect such as movement co-ordinated with breath, changes our physiology, even just standing up! How breathing is a direct access to the nervous system, pathway into releasing tension, reinvigorating our physiological resources , and how yoga trains us to be more tolerant, resilient and be adaptable to different situations.
Joanne explains why physiological understanding and scientific language is important, such as; phenomenological reflection- first person experience. We need to know that the practices and results are duplicatable and measurable. These practicalities provide evidence to get programs funded.
More of Joanne’s writings and resources are available at www.joannespence.com.
In this beautiful conversation, Evan Soroka, certified yoga therapist and author of Yoga Therapy for Diabetes, shares her broad and deep knowledge and experience of diabetes with Shira and her story of living with it.
We talk about the challenges diabetes management entails, how yoga helps self-regulate, promotes autonomy and well-being, and why emotional fitness is vital for diabetes health.
Evan explains why glycemic control isn't sufficient to ensure positive outcomes and how yoga is a missing link in the standard of diabetes care. You'll learn about the different types of diabetes, how the doshas are related to the dis-ease process, and practices for supporting blood glucose regulation and energetic balance.
Finally, we end with the essence of yoga and how it can translate into all these different yoga therapies to provide health and essential prerequisite to the actual practice of Yoga.
Work with Evan Soroka
Work with Shira Cohen
Beth Spindler, a teacher since 1976, has the highest certification in yoga therapy, and shares some of her wonderful wisdom and fun, muttley and varied tools for fear relief with Shira. She's also written Yoga Therapy for Fear, Treating Anxiety, Depression and Rage.
We talk about the benefits of integrating different yoga traditions, such as Iyengar, flow, viniyoga and power yoga. Finding the right teacher or teaching that resonates with us as we grow, and finding our own voice as a teacher, and adding things out that are off the beaten path into our toolbox.
How taking yoga therapy into the home is real because you can use what's in the home, instead of buying more expensive stuff. Beth gives us buckets of practices, first starting with something she learned from the Sri Vidya Tantra, which works directly on the vagus nerve, calming the mind through physiology, instead of wresting with the indominable mind.
She decribes how the vagal nerve cradles our organs and working with it is the easiest way to access relief from fear quickly. We discuss how the doshas, Vata, Kapha and Pitta, correspond to anxiety, depression and rage. And fear underlies all these as traumatic responses to stressors.
Here are a few of her interesting articles;
-
A Short Practice to Help During a Panic Attacks
-
Screen Apnea What it is and How Breath Work can Help
Work with Beth Spindler
Work with Shira Cohen
This week a quick announcement;
Due to professionnal changes I'm changing weekly podcasts to bimonthly for the next few months, until more certainty and time manifests.
Posture is affected by muscular imbalances due to sedentary lifestyle, compounding our already compromised bodies and nervous systems. This practice improves posture, activates and strengthens core stabilizers to lift up the pelvic floor, massage internal organs, relieving our spine and supporting our central nervous system; beloved Uddiyana Bandha.
Work with Shira
Dijan, certified yoga teacher, therapist and classical Tantra teacher, and Shira talk about how getting ill and finding the tools of yoga therapy, Ayurveda and the East, are sometimes the only means to heal from deep rooted imbalances and issues.
We discuss the importance of the mentor/therapist and deep connection fostered to plant the seeds for healing to occur, even if the fruits come months, years and decades after the meeting.
How the intake is vital to understand which layers of being need softening, clearing, strengthening or bolstering, how many, or all aspects of life need to be looked at, and specifically addressed with a programme of tools and teachings that creates structure and healthy life habits.
Creating self-awareness and adapting to cater to the individuals needs, yoga therapy creates programmes easy do to, so changes are seen within the first few sessions to begin with. And the importance to self-care and self-love through.
Dijan also shares her extensive knowledge and experiences of the teachings of the Great Ten Goddeses, Dasa MahaVidya. And learning to work with our shadows, emotions and our darkside.
Tantric Shivoham School
Niya Bajaj, trauma sensitive yoga therapist, and Shira talk about eating issues, body dysmorhpia and the underlying causes being very deep rooted in patriarchal socities.
Niya shares her story of growing up with Ayurveda and Vedic studies at home with her family, how her undiagnosed hyper mobility led to chronic pain, anxiety and eating issues.How taking up space, social anxiety and eating conditions are often connected to wanting to be unseen.
We talk about how knowing more about anatomy, fascia and biomechanics makes us better teachers as well as making safety and accessibility priorities and possible as teachers.
Trained in trauma informed yoga and yoga therapy for deliberate tools and practice; more body awareness, self-agency and a sense of power and control, leading to a better relationship to self. We discuss the importance of food habits and sensual awareness of enjoying food.
Niya explains the different kinds of trauma, the levels of intensity of our trauma and therefore our disassociation or reactivity. We talk about the importance of relationship, connection and association by reconnecting individuals to our interconnection, instead of individualism and separation.
And seeing our oneness as the essence of ourselves and life as a means to healing.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holisticyogatherapist/ Website: http://www.nblife.ca/ Email (for sessions): niya.bajaj@gmail.com
Jennifer Spofford, yoga therapist specialising in trauma, chronic pain and embodied awareness coach, and Shira Cohen talk about shifting mindsets and energetic states through yoga therapy, embodied awareness and gentle breath and movement work.
We talk about grounding, why it's important and how it facilitates feeling centred even when the ups and downs in life seem overwhelming, and finding more moments of connection and calm, or even joy.
Jennifer talks about her different trauma informed work to self-regulate by noticing when things are off, and create homeostasis with the tools of shaking, dancing and releasing tension.
To work with Jennifer
or Shira
Trainings
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma with Bessel Van Der Kolk
Deniz Aydoslu, author, certified yoga teacher and therapist, and Shira Cohen, talk about how purpose and our story is essential to finding meaning and helps us build a bridge out of old patterns of stuckness.
Deniz loves thinking outside of the box and redefining the constructs of health and dis-ease, and how learning the tools of self-care and support as an art can be woven into our culture and education systems.
We look at how yoga therapy and bodymind work is crucial for moving out of depression through emotional wellbeing and mental health, and how moving with the body and senses has deep effects on both our thoughts and feelings.
Deniz shares how depression is an invitation to re-examine our lives and is a transformational process. We discuss how emotions are energy in motion that need to move through us as emotional expression. And the root cause of our depression epidemic is emotional illiteracy and suppression affecting our physiology.
Books mentioned in the show;
Messages From the Deep - Deniz Aydoslu
It's Not Always Depression - Hilary Jacobs Hendel
Do Less - Kate Northrup
Sharon Greenspan, international speaker and health coach, certified yoga therapist, and board certified holistic health practitioner, shares her story and powerful work with Shira to empower people to move out of dependency.
Sharon takes us through a practice to show how to move out of discomfort, and the fastest way to move out of acute anxiety attack is engaging the five senses to get back into our body when we dissassociate.
We talk about energy, breath, physiology, neuroenergetics, the water in our body as a conduit for electricity and energy. How coaching and talking through to challenege beliefs, mindsets and patterns of self-perception.
Sharon's Website: www.sharongreenspan.com Book: https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Your-Way-Health-Workbook/dp/0983008701 An article about PTSD (it's not just for veteran's): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/ Folks can join my FB group: Sharon's School for Healthy Living https://www.facebook.com/groups/SSFHL or just friend me https://www.facebook.com/wildsuccess - be warned there might be pictures of the amazing sunsets we get in Tucson!
Susi Wrenshaw, Yoga therapist specializing in mental health, trauma and attachment, shares with Shira her story, work and passion to use various tools and techniques supporting people to heal from trauma naturally through knowledge, experience and methods that help the mindboy recover.
Susi explains why the body is important in healing trauma, how breath influences body, nervous system and mind, and why understanding and using vagal tone shifts our patterns.
Shedding light on how and why people with trauma find it hard to feel, recognise and verbalise their emotions, and how safety is the essence for healing.
Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory - 'Safety is the absence of the threat, but the presence of connection.'
Susi's Website: https://www.traumatherapymanchester.com/ Recent article in Yoga Therapy Today (the IAYT magazine) https://www.traumatherapymanchester.com/yoga-therapy-in-the-nhs Training courses: https://www.traumatherapymanchester.com/train-with-us YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFaldRma_Jl1fg2AZGPb7sg?view_as=subscriber Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traumatherapymanchester Twitter: https://twitter.com/TherapyMcr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traumatherapymanchester/
Rosemary Holbrook joins Shira to talk about yoga therapy for trauma, resilience, addictions and unhealthy relationships. The importance of emotional and body awareness as the way to heal unresolved trauma by dealing with underlying feelings, fears, beleiefs and memories.
Rosemary passionately shares her evidence based knowledge and research, blending science and eastern philsophy seamlessly. She's transparent about her story and what led her to yoga therapy, her investigative mind searching for answers to prove what most yoga teachers and therapist experientially know and feel.
Explaining what trauma informed yoga is, and what essential basics we can apply in any space to facilitate a sense of safety and self-agency for students and clients. Last but not least, this young woman explains how Vedic astrology can help us when we seek meaning in our lives and stories.
Books mentioned-
-
Waking the Tiger, Peter Levine
-
The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk
Article on the difference between yoga therapy and general yoga.
Karen Klenner, registered Yoga therapist and author of Healing from Divorce, and Shira are happy to connect after being partners in yoga therapy training at the Enlighten Events.
Karen shares her story of divorce and how there wasn't any resources to help her heal, so she wrote her own.
We discuss how yoga therapy is different from yoga classes, effective and individualised by 'bridging', a vital part for connecting with clients and facilitating their inclination to accept therapy, and initiate their own process to living well.
Karen's new passion for Sound Showers, alleviating stress, anxiety, high BP, immune function and calms the nervous system. Learning with Avishai Barntan, Karen ends with a short sound shower practice to clear the mind and enter a state of no-mind, Unmani.
Enjoy! And be with you in August!
Shira and Jeanette Sealy talk about the many ways Yoga therapy facilitates all the liminal spaces and phases of our life, such as death, birth and sex. Resolving the unresolved as a way to heal and surrender to relief suffering.
We talk about being a single mother and our guilt, women's journeys to self-love, self-compassion and the rise of the feminine, care-taking, attending to our tender moments, to raise better children, and creating a better world.
"Healing is an experience of awareness, which doesn't mean there isn't suffering, it means we live in a conscious way with it."
Documentary about the magic of music for mental health- Alive Inside
Jeanette Sealy's Yoga Teacher Mentorship
Jeanette's Yoga Family Retreat
Article on Dementia
Carol Krucoff, Yoga therapist and author of Relax into Yoga for Seniors offers trainings for Yoga teachers wanting to wark safely with seniors, talks with Shira about how yoga can help us age well, prevent falls, become more aware and enhance proprioception.
Carol shares some of the most common postures leading to injuries when teaching yoga to older bodies, the effects of aging on the spine, tissues and heart, and what precautions are essential to make yoga safe and aid functionality and enhance quality of life.
Teaching Yoga to Seniors Online Training: https://www.teachingyogatoseniors.com
Yoga for Seniors: www.yoga4seniors.com
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6v3gr18ItFfg-bagQC-eQ
Chair Stand Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_BNJiL5ZoE&t=108s
Today Shira talks about what yoga therapy is, which tools are used, relationships, support network, life meaning, work, lifestyle and occupational effects are all taken into consideration.
We look at how a session starts with a broad, as well as deep, in-take, taking time to get to know the person makes it different from other modalities, and therefore effective.
We also look at how a training integrates many important aspects of being human, and how all these layers need consideration to effectively help each individual.
Managing my depression and anxiety since age 15 with Yoga, meditation and breathing, postnatal depression involved Ayurvedic guidance to accommodate new lifestyle patterns. Working with our layers of biology, physiology, mind, emotions and psychology, Yoga therapy can help shift depression, anxiety and trauma.
We can do many things to alleviate our biological responses to the adversities of our current life. Reducing physical, physiological, emotional, mental and psychosocial stress.
Included is a short practice to shift biological health and energetic stance. The article Depression, Anxiety and Biological Health has more tools and tips how to manage, self-regulate and eventually shift our state.
Tyla Arnason shares with Shira how movement is a safe and beneficial part of the cancer continuum. She talks about the importance of adapting the practice to the individual especially in group yoga therapy at the University of Calgary.
Yoga Thrive's group programs are value for community, coming together with people on a similar journey, in a safe environment adds to the benefits, helping with adherence and accountability for those who struggle with commitment and being active.
Tyla also teaches a teacher training of evidence-informed yoga program for individuals diagnosed with cancer (on- and/or off-treatment) and their support persons.
Laura Staton, yoga therapist and occupational therapist, and Shira Cohen, talk about how pain decreases life functioning and impacts how we show up for our lives.
Yoga Bones, a Comprehensive Guide to Managing Pain and Injuries Through Yoga, incorporates strategies to manage physical pain and emotional self-regulation. It combines her knowledge and experience in both professional fields.
We discuss how function changes throughout our lifespan and its impacts on quality of life. How yoga practice can increase self-agency with skilled therapuetic tools to increase strength and life participation and decrease discomfort.
Yoga Bones is both beautiful and practical, easy to use and specific. A great gift for anyone whose reduced activity is due to pain or injury.
Insta: luluotyoga FB: lulu OT + Yoga www.laurastaton.com
Anca Amariei and Shira Cohen talk about training to become a Yoga Therapist, the Yoga Therapy Institute in Amsterdam, the importance of an in take to understand a clients story as the actual healing or treatment process of any underlying issue; especially in cases of chronic dis-ease, our five layers as onions; essential to work wholistically.
Anca shares her story of tension, responsiblity and stress related to work, causing intense headaches and led to her Yoga journey which quickly developed into Yoga therapy.
We finish with an easy and effective yoga practice to relieve tension and stress around shoulders, neck and back.
Improving physical posture improves health, breathing and mental calm here's a PDF Improve Posture to help you get started ;)
Enjoy the talk!
Shira and Amy Jarvis have lots of fun talking about how Yoga is different from Yoga therapy, being about healing the self, how breath is really the transformative practice, that mainstream practices such as mindfullness, iRest and meditation, are orginally an aspect of Yoga's extensive array of practices to work with body, physiology, mind and psyche.
Amy talks about having to choose between a career she loved and the desire to be a full-time mother, and learning to teach in a therapeutic form to group classes and how that is an option even in a drop-in class.
Amy, both creative and playful, also shares a great tip to cultivate the better skills to teach, touch and observe effectively. How to cue and work with older students, beginners and people with injuries. Shira shares a wonderful prompt for strengthening our positive pathways of mind towards the end of the talk.
Shira talks about burnout affecting not only health care professions, but also teachers, single parents, traders, managers, bankers and entrepreneurs. Knowing it as adrenal fatigue opens up a treasure chest of tools and tips.
We finish with an excerpt from Diana Tokaji's book Six Women in a Cell, and Katherine May's book Wintering; a journey into the season of burnout.
DHEA, produced by our ovaries and adrenals, is a hormone that improves stress recovery, energy, mood, sleep, immunity and libido. During perimenopause our ovaries stop producing most hormones and adrenals and pituitary take over this function.
So what happens when our adrenals are fatigued? You guessed it...
Trauma, small and big, also negatively affects our adrenals and therefore increases our likelyhood of burnout.
Overcoming Burnout Tools and tips
- Get tests done- at a functional medical doctor see what causes imbalance, adrenal fatigue tests, microbiome and methylation labs
- Minimise stress- which areas causes stress- work, family, home, personal. Create a schedule to minimize stress and more rest. REST REST REST. Meditation, Sama-vritti; breathing in and out same ratio of 5 counts 2-5 mins a few times a day.
- Decrease Inflammation- curcuma, bitter and astringent foods bring down the acidity, caused by excess sweet, sour and salty foods. Leafy greens for HPA.
- Eat Protein rich foods- adrenals need protein to convert into hormones and healthy endocrine function, relieving anxiety, insomnia and mental fatigue.
- Healthy Fats- olive oil, coconut oil, ghee and avocados
- Supplements & Herbs- Zinc, vit D, C, chamomile, ashwagandha, radhiola, liqourice
Andrea Trank shares her story of anxiety, autoimmunity and emotional dysregulation prompting her to find stress relief through Yoga practice, and improved gut health through functional medicine.
Andrea found the answers for her constitution and issues in HeartMath's simple and effective practices based on research of heart-brain coherence and vagal tone and physiological regulation.
Andrea and Shira, like many health professionals, seek outside conventional medicine to find answers to women's health, which is complex due to our varying hormones during cycles and phases of life.
Seeking to connect the dots and find the right practices and tools to regulate the complex system of women's hormones, health and lives starts with knowledge and sharing what we discover.
Resources mentioned;
-
Invisible Women- Caroline Perez
-
Emotional Empowerment FB group
-
Free PDF Yoga for Anxiety
-
Free PDF Yoga for Burnout
-
Free eBook Yoga for Overcoming Addictions
This week Anne-Laure Peaucelle and Shira Cohen discuss emotions and how they can be the trigger as well as the transformative factor in our lives. Learning to make peace witn emotions instead of supressing and managing them.
We touch on how trauma triggers, or is triggered by, emotions. Why people struggle so much with struggling, shame and feeling painful or difficult emotions.
Anne-Laure guides us through a lovely, simple and effective practice to deal with difficult emotions.
To work with Anne-Laure's www.yogawithannelaure.com
Her Instagram www.instagram.com/yogawithannelaure & Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/yogaandemotionalfreedom
Shira's Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShiraCohenYoga/
Shira's free resources https://shiracohen.yoga/free-yoga-resources/
Working with Shira https://shiracohen.yoga/yoga-therapy/
Steffany Moonaz and Shira discuss Yoga therapy for arthritis, and what kinds of Yoga classes benefit, rather than aggravate, arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.
We touch on systemic inflammation and its relationship to depression, what makes Yoga therapy different from most Yoga classes and how to find resources and a good teacher for this condition.
Dr. Steffany, Yoga therapist, Yoga researcher, and director of research at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, creates, evaluates and trains professionals in programs to work safely and effectively with people who have arthritis and related conditions.
She has written Yoga Therapy for Arthritis for Yoga professionals, healthcare professionals and people living with arthritis who want to better understand the role of yoga in arthritis management.
Shira talks about transforming Shame to Self-Confidence, self-worth and self-respect by understanding self-sabotage.
There are many reasons we self-sabotage. Unconscious inner drives make us go round in circles, related to past traumas, undigested fears and internalised shame. Shame is a powerful emotion of social acceptance. At the extreme it means exclusion from tribe, family, society. Internalised and unconscious, it drives our every action, thought and word.
Negative thoughts, beliefs, patterns and reactions reveal a healthy underlying need for self-protection from shaming and blaming. These surface to be explored, expressed and embodied so we digest internalized past traumas through clarity. Clarity and identifying patterns is connected to our Fire’s ability to act, do, give light, energise discern and transform.
Research correlates shame to autoimmune dis-ease, cancer and other inflammatory conditions. It’s an internalised biological expression of the belief that we are not welcome, worthy or wanted. It’s one of the most excruciating emotions a social creature can endure, and therefore we internalise it.
Shame is physically express by turning away, eye rolling and displaying disgust or disdain.
FIRE TRANSFORMS ONE STATE TO THE NEXT
Emotionally, mentally and physiologically our digestive fire consumes, assimilates, integrates and eliminates. Absorbing what’s good for us and excreting what’s harmful. We discern, clarify and get to the point by moving between two extremes, by journaling doing, sharing and expressing. And fire initiates that shift and discerns what’s needed and what’s not, to find a middle ground.
The story of SATI becomes PARVATI through leaving behind the safety of the known. She can no longer stomach the shame of her identity. Disgust arises as self-protection, and self-reflection helps identify what causes us to feel shame, then transforms it into anger. Giving us the plenty of energy and power to move on and self-worth, we honour our core values. Using focus, determination and self-respect Parvati creates change and finds her own way to self-confidence. Parvati leads to self-confidence, by focusing on what we want and through that clarity, Brilliance.
In the middle ground we feel confident, enthusiastic, empowered, passionate and worthy. To get to those feelings we need fire to bring light to the unconscious drives, digest the undigested and get clear on what we’re angry and ashamed of, so we can eliminate it from our system. Understanding if your fire is excessive or deficient helps you know if you need more or are over doing it.
Deficient fire we're not good enough ANGER, BLAME, RESENTMENT, SHAME, SELF SABOTAGE, WORTHLESSNESS. Excessive firewe're better than others, JUDGEMENTAL, CRITICAL, ARROGANT, CONCEIT.
By allowing ourselves to feel shame, resentment can arise and then anger gives us plenty of energy and power to move onto self-worth, to honour our core values. Using focus, determination and self-reflection we find our own way and shift towards self-confidence, by focusing on what we really want that clarity leads to brilliance.
Diana Tokaji and Shira talk about Yoga therapy for acute stage trauma, and how calming the nervous system isn't accessible for those still in trauma.
Feeling strong and embodying power, is key in this phase of healing. Diana teaches ten anchoring points:
-
Vigilance
-
Symmetry
-
Narrow Stance
-
Knees Parallel
-
Closed Kinetic Chain
-
Heels on Earth
-
Quadriceps Engaged
-
Eyes Open
-
Head Level
-
Protective Gesture/Mudra
We do a short practice for strength and empowerment, and how essential a place of focus is to feel safe, and being in the physical body through strong practice brings about this safety and 'tethering'.
Shira talks about her journey of being without a permanent home, burnout and finding ways to work with associated emotions, mental and psychological states, and how it led to her forth-coming book, Reclaiming Wellbeing.
Diana is IAYT certified, has her M.Sc. in Yoga Therapy, is a choreographer, and author of Six Women in a Cell, and Surviving Assault - Words that Rock & Quiet & Tell the Truth She leads professional trainings in a strength-focused approach to trauma care for Yoga professional and psychotherapists.
Alla and Shira get into the nitty gritty of their passion- Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy - Yoga combined with Ayurveda to adress specific health issues, dis-ease, and emotional and mental imbalances, and returning to feeling whole again. Recovering what we thought was lost, whether physical, mental or psychological
We discuss how physical dis-ease is the manifestation of a long process, and talk of the vast potential Ayurveda has to offer Yoga by being body positive. That day to day inclusivity can transform chronic health challenges by understanding our nature, prakriti, and imbalances, vakriti, through Doshas, elements, koshas, prana.
Work with Alla
Work with Shira
Beth and Shira talk about teaching gentle Yoga during COVID, adapting Yoga to the individual and the people that turn up to class and how mainstream media misrepresents Yoga.
We talk about Yoga as Self-awareness using the 5 koshas as a tool to transform, how important it is to go slow during a first class or yoga therapy session, when we guide them into deeper layers of self, first bringing clients and students back to a safe resource within, in case of trauma and anxiety.
We discuss being a writer, author and getting your book published traditionally, self-publishing and hybrid publishing, publishing rights, how authors need to stick together. Beth's new book Enlighten Up, help(s) you move through life from a calm center no matter the swirls, whirls and storms that will inevitably surround you. Reading about my journey and those of my friends, colleagues and students will help you with yours." -Beth
www.bethgibbs.com
Soraya, Yoga therapist, naturopath, writer and singer, and Shira talk about self-awareness, the senses, body and breath, mindfullness as a means to calm 'mental trains' and being more present as a means to healing. The difference between affirmations and Sankalpas.
We discuss how Yoga therapy and Yoga nidra are forms of self-care, helping us deal with overwhelming emotions, pain relief, stress and uncertainty, especially as single mothers, and how conscious parenting is one of the most beautiful expressions of spiritual embodiment.
Soraya's Yoga Nidra https://terryoldfield.bandcamp.com/album/yoga-nidra-3 https://terryoldfield.bandcamp.com/album/yoga-nidra-2-2 Soraya's podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-healing-mirror/id1499911012 And Satsang: https://sorayasaraswati.com/online-satsang/
To reclaim wellbeing, Yoga therapy works with five different bodies, physical, energetic, mental, higher intelligence and causal. In this podcast Shira explains what they are, how they affect us, and we them, and how to work with them holistically. Ending with a short meditation at 19:10, you can to access them too.
To celebrate Women and Women's Day a short celebration of the beauty and power of Nature, Shakti and body positive attitudes by embracing all we are.
This Womben’s Cyclical Wisdom PDF helps us to easily see where we’re at in each menstrual phase and what living, yoga and work practices work best.
Yael Sunshine is a Yoga therapist and teacher and has her Masters in teaching, with certification in early childhood, childhood and special needs. In this conversation Yael and Shira touch on what yoga therapy is, the importance of whole person healing related to special needs, autism, anxiety and holding space for emotions instead of spiritual bypassing. We end with a short and sweet calming breath practice for care takers.