Skillful Means Podcast: Recent Episodes

Jennifer O'Sullivan & Annie Moyer

Spiritual nourishment for yoga practitioners and teachers.

Text me your feedback.

Rug up and head outside for this outdoors walking meditation. Practiced by the Buddha himself, walking meditation is an antidote to restless and aching joints and can be practiced anywhere you you're already walking.

The meditation starts at 2:56 if you want to jump ahead, but assumes you're already outside and ready to go.

Halfway through the practice (~15mins), you'll be prompted to pause the recording if you want continue for longer. Just hit play again when you're about 15 minutes from your final destination.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Jen's back from a brief hiatus to talk about how to build a sustainable spiritual/contemplative practice that can withstand the shifting demands of your time and energy. You can't really lose a practice, but circumstances change and your practice can and should change with you.

In this episode you'll find

Why "class" as a construct isn't the paradigm you need to follow when crafting your personal home practice
What the Buddha's Raft Parable can tell us about letting your practice adapt to your situation and not the other way around
How to approach resistance in your practice with support from IFS Parts Work and the Four Hindrances

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

While Jen's taking a mini-break to get her homework done, here's the second of two short practices based on research she did last summer.

If you're curious about the theory behind these yin yoga micro-practices, check out the last segment of Episode #113, where she talks about how practices like this can boost your mood by reducing tension and elevating your energy.

In this micro-practice, Jen guides three yin yoga poses while directing your attention to the the breath.

The sequence uses minimal verbal cues and several minutes of silence for each pose to help you deepen into the embodied experience.

Poses: sphinx + reclining twist on each side

Suggested/Optional Props: folded blanket, blocks, small cushions

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

While Jen's taking a mini-break to get her homework done, she's bringing you the first of two short practices based on research she did last summer.

If you're curious about the theory behind these yin yoga micro-practices, check out the last segment of Episode #113, where she talks about how practices like this can boost your mood by reducing tension and elevating your energy.

In this micro-practice, Jen guides three yin yoga poses while directing your attention to the physical experience of being in the poses.

The sequence uses minimal verbal cues and several minutes of silence for each pose to help you deepen into the embodied experience.

Poses: butterfly + half butterfly on each side

Suggested/Optional Props: folded blanket, blocks, small cushions

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This is an encore practice with former co-host Sarah Jane Shangraw from back in November 2019.

Developed by Tara Brach, RAIN is a technique you can use to skillfully relate to difficult emotions in life, whether they turn up in a meditation session or in daily life. The acronym — which stands for Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture — invites us to accept inner discord with an open heart.

I, Jen, wanted to share this practice as a companion to the most recent episode on Self-Compassion (#113). RAIN evolved as an approach to working with the hindrances, where the Buddha himself implored us to meet common meditation obstacles (aversion, craving, dullness, restlessness, and doubt) as inevitable and, therefore, not worthy of self-criticism. The practice of RAIN provides us with steps for letting go of self-judgement while inviting in the natural impulse to alleviate our own suffering through kindness and acceptance.

You can find Sarah Jane at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/coaching.html where she offers online classes and coaching support.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

To wrap up the 4-part series on practices and teachings that nature open-heartedness, we're focusing on self-compassion.

We can be our own worst critics, but the wisdom teachings want us to remember that compassion shouldn also be directed towards ourselves. We are, after all, manifestations of the divine.

So, in this episode we look at what Buddhism, Yoga, and Taoism have to say about self-compassion (which - spoiler - isn't much!) through the lens of moderation, non-harming, and cultivating contentment. We also take a look at what modern psychology research - primarily by Dr. Kristen Neff - has to say about the benefits of self-compassion.

Jen also answers a listener question about how to get started with Buddhist practice before sharing a bit of context behind the two yin yoga micro-practices she's sharing in October.

Resources Mentioned on the Show

Self-compassion.org ~ hosted by Dr. Kristen Neff
Self-compassion exercises: https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-practices/
Buddha ~ by Karen Armstrong
Siddharta ~ by Herman Hesse
Buddhism: A Concise Introduction ~ by Huston Smith & Philip Novak
Essential Buddhism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs and Practices ~ by Jack Maquire
The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings ~ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Bhavana Society Meditation Center
Plum Village Practice Centers
Plum Village Meditation Groups
Mindfulness in Plain English ~ by Bante Gunaratana
Dharmaseed

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In order to be an open-hearted, compassionate person, we first have to notice the things things that need our support. This is where mindfulness — the practice of presence — comes in. It teaches how to engage directly with what's real, rather than what we wish were true.

This month we're back to mindfulness basics with a guided practice that starts with concentration practice (samata) and then follows with insight (vipassana). The practice starts right away (no intro) and includes periods of silence (nothing wrong with your player).

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In Part 3 of the Awakening the Heart series, we're looking at why acts of kindness and service are powerful resilience-builders — possibly the exact things we need if we're to overcome so much divisiveness in our relationships and discourse.

To understand why a generous spirit is so supportive, we explore the Buddhist and Yoga concepts of dana (generosity) and seva (selfless service) and how they relate to modern psychology's hope theory (hat tip to CR Snyder).

Then Jennifer is joined by friend and colleague Laurent Goldberg to talk about her simple but brilliant Career Support Care Packages, which perfectly illustrate how generosity can restore our sense of agency and hope when everything feels so dispiriting.

Highlights include:

how the Eastern philosophical traditions from India view dana and seva
how willpower and waypower fuel hope
why helping others should be in your resistance/resilience toolkit
how Lauren designed her care packages to support both sender and receiver
thinking about service not as self-sacrifice but as a way to put your skills and talents toward the greater good

Links

Get in touch with Lauren Goldberg: https://laurengoldbergcoaching.com/
Send a Career Support Care Package: https://laurengoldbergcoaching.com/career-support-care-package
Building Movement Project's Social Change Ecosystem Map: https://buildingmovement.org/our-work/movement-building/social-change-ecosystem-map/

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Tonglen - the practice of sending and receiving - helps us to be with hardship without falling into despair. An explanation of the practice appears in the Lojong teachings and is associated with those who follow the path of the Bodhisattvas.

In addition to cultivating an open, spacious heart, Tonglen can help us to cultivate the paramitas - the perfections - especially generosity, loving-kindness, determination, and diligence.

The practice starts at 3:14 after a brief introduction. If your player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Continuing our series on Awakening the Heart, this month we're exploring the Buddhist path of the bodhisattva through the cultivation of bodhicitta - the awakened heart-mind that forms the foundation of compassionate living.

Drawing from Mahayana Buddhist teachings, we also take a look at Lojong (mind training), the Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practice that can be used as a powerful framework for developing genuine compassion.

Highlights include:

Cultivating the open-hearted attitude of enlightened ones (Bodhisattvas)
Two types of Bodhicitta
Paramitas (Perfections)
Short history and details of Lojong
Unpacking of the First Lojong statement: Train the Preliminaries
Tips for working with the Lojong phrases

Mentioned on the show:

Judy Lief's online Lojong translation and commentary: https://judylief.com/offerings/slogans-of-atisha/
Norman Fischer's "Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong" https://bookshop.org/p/books/training-in-compassion-zen-teachings-on-the-practice-of-lojong-norman-fischer/9663817?ean=9781611800401&next=t
VIA Character Strengths & Virtues: https://www.viacharacter.org/
Dalai Lama Poem "This Precious Human Life" https://mountainsangha.org/a-precious-human-life/

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In this variation of loving-kindness, or metta, meditation, tap into the energetic resonance of the heart to awaken loving feelings within before sending them outward.

Inspired by Taoist visualizations, Mahayana buddhist practice, and Hearth Math's quick coherence technique, generate love and good will toward yourself and others. Many studies have shown that practices like this not only feel good, but also reduce stress, increase a sense of calm, and help us avoid despair by reminding us of our shared humanity.

The practice starts at 3:52 after a brief introduction. If your player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

Mentioned in the introduction:

Love 2.0 by Dr. Barbara Frederickson
Heart Math Quick Coherence Technique

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

While the world may feel increasingly more fraught, we can't sustain ourselves on anger and fear alone. We must remember what we're fighting for and, as Tennessee Williams asks of us, save the love.

This latest episode kicks off a series of episodes on Awakening the Heart - theories, teachings, and practices that will better sustain us in the months and years to come.

This month, we take a look at why shouldn't feel guilty for taking time out of resisting to foreground what brings us joy and happiness. In fact, making sure we build in positive moments in our lives is going to set up our brains to be more creative and energetic warriors.

Some highlights include:

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson's theories on "micro-moments of connection" and Broaden & Build
The Mahayana Buddhist concept of bodhicitta (open-heartedness)
Dr. Rick Hanson's "Taking in the Good" practice.

Resources Mentioned on the Show

Love 2.0 ~ Dr. Barbara Frederickson

Bodhicitta ~ Tricycle Magazine

Taking in the Good - Dr. Rick Hanson

*** Jen's got space on her coaching roster. If you'd like to work 1:1, go here for more info: https://www.sati.yoga/ifs-coaching/index.html

And you might also like Jen's newsletter: https://www.sati.yoga/letter/index.html

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This month's practice features an embodied mediation to help you stay present with life's challenges without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.

Inspired by Roshi Joan Halifax's teachings, you'll cultivate a foundation of stability to underpin your capacity for openness and compassion.

This meditation includes several periods of silence of around 3-6 minutes. The guidance assumes you're sitting (chair or cushion are fine) so that you can experience the support of the spine.

The practice starts at 2:43 after a brief talk. If your player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This month, we're looking at a question that comes up a lot:

All parts are supposed to be welcome, but how do we work with feelings we don't like?

Drawing on Buddhist wisdom and the function of emotions, we're exploring:

Why equanimity is about including our feelings, not surprising them.
What the Buddhist teachings on dukkha (suffering) can tell us about why fighting against our emotions creates more suffering.
How so-called negative emotions serve as important internal motivators.
Simple techniques to start reframing your relationship with difficult feelings in order to create a welcoming inner atmosphere for all your parts.

Mentioned In The Episode:
Join me for one of my upcoming Pause and Reset gatherings—hour-long meditative sessions combining desk-friendly yoga, mindfulness practice and parts work meditations. The next one is on June 4th and is pay what you can.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

The Taoists believe that we can harness the stabilizing qualities of Earth Qi along with the generative qualities of Heaven/Sky Qi to improve physical health, increase longevity, and cultivate inner harmony.

In this guided practice, Jennifer O'Sullivan shares a visualization technique, paired with mindful breathing, to mobilize and balance these vital energies in the body.

👉 After a brief introduction, the meditation begins as 1:48. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

There are definitely times when we need to get a hold of ourselves. But how do we do that without dismissing our feelings?

This brief Parts Work practice is for moments when you feel too activated or busy for deeper introspection but also need to find our center. It will help you create space – access Self Energy – around difficult emotions while honoring their presence.

Practice this technique regularly when you're calm so you are more likely to reach for it when you need it. It'll help you build up your capacity for self-connection and self-compassion so it becomes a resource even in really trying moments.

👉 After a brief introduction, the meditation begins as 1:48. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Grounding practices are more than just coping mechanisms during tumultuous times. They're empowering strategies to discharge excess emotional energy while tap rooting your inner strength and resilience. In this episode, we're exploring:

An empowered way to think of grounding as a practice
6 principles of effective grounding techniques
Proactively collecting your tools so you can reach for them when you need them

Jennifer also pulls from yoga and Buddhist dharma teachings to answer a listener question about engaging others in our values-based causes without creating harm.

Resources Mentioned On This Show

Adyashanti: https://www.opengatesangha.org/
14 Precepts of Engaged Buddhism: https://www.lionsroar.com/the-fourteen-precepts-of-engaged-buddhism/

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Instead of speculating endlessly about why you might be avoiding something, ask the part that's hesitating!

Based on Internal Family Systems (IFS), this guided parts work practice will help you identify and get to know the part (or parts) that are resisting taking action.

If you're new to IFS Parts Work, check out Episode 29 for a primer and 30 for a basic guided practice. You might also appreciate Episode 100 for a deeper dive into what lies underneath resistance.

👉 The practice follows a brief introduction at 3:18. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Ever wonder why you feel resistant to doing something that you actually want to do?

This month we're unpacking the complexities of resistance through Buddhist teachings and IFS Parts Work. We're going to scrap the self-sabotaging label and get to the roots of why most people struggle to make progress on their goals.

The difference types of resistance according to Buddhism's Five Hindrances
The IFS Perspective on the intentions of parts and why they put up road blocks

Jennifer also shares a few personal anecdotes that highlight a compassionate approach to getting things done.

Resources Mentioned in the Show

Satipatthana Meditation by Bhikkhu Analayo
Toward a Psychology of Awakening by John Elwood

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

As a practice of being, Yin Yoga creates a unique container for exploring the restless impulses to fix while encouraging us to relax into self-acceptance.

In this short practice, Jen shares three postures that target the Earth element as a way of amplifying stabilizing yin energies while directing attention to the Hara - the belly center - as a way to deepen into your home ground.

Postures in this practice:

Reclining Butterfly
Reclining Twist
Supported Pontoon (bridge with extended legs)

Props:

One block (or similar object) - necessary
Additional block or two small cushions - optional
journal - optional

The practice follows a brief introduction at 2:10. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Feeling the pressure to do all the things?

This episode explores the balancing act between living up to expectations, following the rules, and being true to yourself.

• Identifying shoulds (compared to wants & needs)
• Self-compassion vs should-ing on yourself
• Sensing shoulds in body, heart, and mind
• Parts Work (Internal Family Systems - IFS) for uncovering the roots of shoulds
• Strategies for managing a to-do list of things that are important to you

Parts Work Questions mentioned in the show:
- Why is this important?
- How did this become important?
- What would happen if I did something else instead?
- Do I really want to do this? Or do it in this exact way?

Resources and People mentioned in the show:
- The Center for Nonviolent Communications Feelings & Needs Inventory
- Building Movement Project Social Change Ecosystem Map
- Racheal Cook

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This preview pod explores the concept of upaya (skillful means) and its relevance in today's polarized world + how this focus will be reflected in the next iteration of the show.

Jen emphasizes the importance of developing presence and awareness in order to meet life's challenges with courage and heart.

Highlights include:
• Cultivating what Roshi Joan Halifax calls a strong back and soft front
• What kind of awareness is needed for this moment
• Recognizing "lab time" on the mat as preparation for real-life challenges
• Building a diverse toolkit of practices for various situations

Listener feedback and support is essential to the evolution of the how, so don't forget to fill out the survey form: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This preview pod marks the return of the Skillful Means Podcast, where Jen introduces a new format focused on listener questions and community storytelling... plus a little preview of what's on the horizon for the show.

Send me your questions, favorite resources, and vignettes to help shape the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

Mentioned in the episode:
• Lojong Slogans

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Jen wraps up her partial series on the Brahma Viharas with Mudita, commonly translated as "sympathetic joy." With Mudita, we're asked to rejoice in the good fortune of others, admittedly not easy.

This is why Jen likes to think of Mudita as "delight," specifically delighting in joy itself whether it's originating from someone else or from within. But, when we are able to delight in other's happiness, it's further solidifies our connection and sense of interconnectedness, helping to ease the suffering of loneliness and isolation.

The meditation starts at 3:39. If your podcast player support chapter makers, you can skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Have you ever caught yourself (or been caught by someone else) with your head buried in your smartphone while doing something mundane like brushing your teeth or walking through your home?

If so, you can probably relate to the lure of distraction when certain moments don't seem worth our full attention.

In this contemplation, Annie invites us to view these small, ordinary moments during the day as portals to mindfulness that may reveal a hidden treasure of simple awe that awaits our ordinary attention.

To skip the talk and go straight to the mediation, fast forward to 3:33 or use the chapter marker if your player supports them.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

Continuing her mini-series on the Brahma Viharas, the Four Immeasurables, Jen shares the Tibetan practice of Tonglen. This training in compassion is an inner alchemy where the practitioner seeks to transmute the suffering of others.

Tonglen teaches us how to grow our hearts beyond the boundaries of those in our in-crowd. It invites us to embrace our common humanity as an extension of our own being.

This particular variation of Tonglen is inspired by a version by Roshi Joan Halifax.

To skip the talk and go straight to the mediation, fast forward to 4:18 or use the chapter marker if your player supports them.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

It’s counterintuitive but essentially true: all phenomena itself is neutral, including people and events, and they have equal capacity to provoke suffering or ease alike – it all depends on how we meet the moment.

As we continues our series of practice this summer, Annie offers a contemplation on how we might work with discernment in shaping a skillful state of mind when facing difficult circumstances.

The meditation starts at 2:57. If your podcast app supports chapter markers, you can jump ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

Some of the most treasured and widely-practiced Buddhist Teachings are the Brahma Viharas (The Four Immeasurables). They also appear in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as one of the many practices that settle mind.

Sometimes referred to as "The Four Faces of Love," these teachings help us to foreground love in all our encounters... with ourselves, loved ones, community members, and even people that we don't particularly like.

As part of our summer series of practices, Jen is going to share 3 of the four "Divine Abodes," starting with metta (loving-kindness). In this practice, we're training up the capacity to tap into our shared humanity and awaken goodwill towards others.

The meditation starts at 2:04. If your podcast app supports chapter markers, you can jump ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

The old Zen proverb that says “before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water” is a gentle reminder that chasing the ecstatic will ultimately let us down. Instead, if we can stay close to the ordinary matters of each moment, we may be much better positioned to experience luminous presence.

In this practice, Annie discusses the true meaning of mindfulness, and invites you to use your immediate surroundings as a platform for awakening to the moment.

The meditation start at 2:40. If your podcast app supports chapter markers, you can jump ahead.

~

This summer, we here at Skillful Means Podcast are taking a hiatus from releasing discussion episodes. Travel plans being what they are, it was going to be a challenge to get together.

But we aren't leaving you hanging! Join us for bi-weekly practices that you can practice wherever you are. No props necessary.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

In the last of our series on the less common practices of the First Foundation of Mindfulness (Mindfulness of the Body), Jen shares a practice of contemplating the four elements of the body: earth, water, fire, and air.

Because everything in the manifest world contains these elements, this practice helps us to embody interconnectedness. We're also encouraged to soften our sense of exceptionalism. We are, after all, just this.

The meditation starts at 3:00. If your podcast app supports chapter markers, you can jump right to it.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Could you imagine a yoga class without postures? In fact, millions of dedicated yoga practitioners don't practice asana at all.

In this episode, Annie and Jen discuss ways to engage with the teachings separate from asana, drawing on guidance from the "Bhagavad Gita" and their own experiences.

"Bhagavad Gita" quote mentioned in the episode:
Chapter 2 Verse 42-43
"There are ignorant people who speak flowery words and take delight in the letter of the law, saying that there is nothing else. Their hearts are full of selfish desires, Arjuna. Their idea of heaven is their own enjoyment, and the aim of all their activities is pleasure and power."

Summer Recommended Reading
Contemplating Reality, Andy Karr
Waking, Matthew Sandford
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Silo Series, Hugh Howey

~ ~ ~

We love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

In the First Foundation of Mindfulness, the Buddha shared several practices that were intended to help practitioners release their attachments to the body. Whether we are concerned about it's size and shape, the body's age, specific parts... we're encouraged to experience the body as it simple is: comprised of hard and soft tissues... organs... parts.

In this month's guided practice, Jen shares a variation on the contemplation of the anatomy of the body.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

We are thrilled to welcome Sarah Powers, author and co-founder of the Insight Yoga Institute, onto the show to talk about embodying the qualities of love and compassion. This is the "finale" episode our series on the 12 Embodiments of Yoga.

Sarah was the perfect guest for this topic as compassion is such a central theme in her teachings. Throughout the sweeping conversation, Sarah helps trace the line between practicing on a mat and love and compassion as an orientation towards living life.

Notable touchpoints include:
~ why starting a practice with self-compassion sets the mood for what's to come
~ an attitude of wonder vs imposing a strict structure on our practice
~ yoga practice as a container for meeting our full selves
~ getting comfortable with discomfort
~ the pressure to perform our best selves
~ are we practicing for ourselves or others?
~ how to be in touch with others' pain without attempting to carry it for them
~ being with the tumult in our world without drowning in it

Sarah teaches all over the world. To sign up for her next training or retreat, visit: https://sarahpowersinsightyoga.com/

If you want to take her US-based Level 1 Yin Yoga Teacher Training in DC at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio, follow this link: https://sunandmoonstudio.cowtinker.com/om/workshops/sarah-powers-insight-yoga-teacher-training-intensive-summer-2023

~ ~ ~

We love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

While we may train up mindfulness in formal settings, our true aim is to become present and aware all the time. So, at some point, we must take the practice off the cushion or mat and point it towards the everyday things that we usually take for granted.... washing our hands, preparing a meal, folding laundry.

In this guided practice, Jen guides you to mindfully eat an orange. Even if you don't particularly like oranges, this is still a surprisingly potent practice because it helps us to separate the experience of mindfulness from what we prefer, enjoy, or dislike.

Props: one orange

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In their continuing exploration of Annie's 12 Embodiments of Yoga, in this episode, Annie and Jen discuss the nuances of Kindness and Generosity.

While this may seem like a breezy topic, these qualities (and their corresponding actions) ask of us a certain amount of magnanimity that has to be cultivated and applied intentionally. Jen & Annie look at how to do that and how their own orientation has changed over their decades as practitioners.

~ ~ ~

We love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

Jen continues her series on Mindfulness of the Body variations with an exploration of standing, one of the four traditional meditation postures.

Standing practice can be a respite for many who find sitting for long stretches uncomfortable. And standing can quickly become uncomfortable itself, which his why it is a potent posture to practice with.

But mostly, this is one of Jen's favorite meditation postures because you can practice it almost anywhere you happen to be standing in line.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

We're back from an unplanned hiatus with our continuing series on Annie's Twelve Embodiments of Yoga. This month, Jen and Annie are chatting about the role of wonder and whimsy in practice. Jen is a little skeptical, especially with whimsy, having generally approached her practice as a serious endeavor. Listen in to see if Annie can bring her around.

Mentioned on the Show:
"Yoga and the Quest for the True Self" by Stephen Cope
"Wonder – is not precisely Knowing" by Emily Dickinson

What We're Reading:"Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann
"This Side of Brightness" by Colum McCann
"Apeirogon" by Colum McCann

Murderbot Diaries by Martha C. Wells
"A Memory Called Empire" by Arkady Martine
"A Desolation Called Peace" by Arkady Martine

~ ~ ~

We love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

Jen's back with a series new series of guided practices exploring different ways of working with the body to establish mindful awareness. Pulled from teachings in the Buddha's Four Foundations of Mindfulness, our hope is that cultivating mindfulness through the body will help you to find grounded stability and continuity in your connection to the present moment.

In this first of five practices, you'll explore Mindfulness of Body Posture, a teaching that can be transferred to any shape whether you're standing, sitting, lying on the beach, or even in a yoga posture. Jen uses Half Butterfly, a simple and accessible Yin Yoga posture in this meditation.

To skip right to the practice, jump to 5:00 or use the chapter marker.

Props you might need:

block
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Unlike all other biological organisms who have built-in mechanisms to maintain homeostasis, human minds are at the mercy of themselves. They gallivant around, unchecked, until we choose to rein our own thoughts in.

In this guided practice, Annie offers a method for helping those galloping thoughts to gently return to a centered place in the body that can orient the mind around gentle peace.

Meditation starts at 2:03.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

Continuing with our exploration of Annie's 12 Embodiments of yoga, Jen and Annie chat about sacrifice and spaciousness. With Jen feeling like sacrifice is a loaded term, they spend some time unpacking what is really expected of us when it comes to spiritual growth. In particular, they explore how sacrifice is a necessary natural process and creates the conditions for the spaciousness that promotes the ease and wellbeing we want our practice to foster.
~ ~ ~

We love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

In this guided practice, Annie shares inspiration from recent scientific breakthroughs in nuclear fusion.

She suggests that we can turn simple inward focus into bright, shining energetic presence to generate our own little sunbursts of kindness, patience, and compassion.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

In this meditation, Annie guides you through a practice of making space for others, especially those who share different philosophical or political beliefs or who we find emotionally activating. Instead of trying to find common ground, Annie offers the option of rooting yourself in the present moment while inviting spacious, peaceful presence to guide you.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

Continuing our exploration of embodied qualities of Yoga, Jen & Annie discuss the nuances of Courage and how it's a necessary ingredient for our Practice.

They also share how they're getting ready for the Winter season.

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

Dovetailing on our conversations on embodiment, Annie's back with a guided practice that reframes distracting thoughts by laying a simple and straightforward path an easy breath. In this practice, Annie share's the mindfulness technique of noting, which draws compassionate attention to rumination while giving you the option of choosing not to stay there.

We hope this will be of benefit.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

In this episode, Jen and Annie take a look at two of Annie's 12 Embodiments: quiet and attention. The sweeping conversation covers a lot of ground from inner spaciousness, meeting emotions with compassion, quietude in relationship, beginners mind, quality of attention, and is it creepy to do nothing at a coffee shop?

They also share a few "hacks" that are saving their lives right now.

Mentioned in this episode:
Alter Eco Chocolate Bars
Hungry Lady Salads by Kathleen Ashmore
Pets + Oxytocin

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga).

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks.

Join Annie Moyer as she guides you through an exploration of embodied listening, connecting you to the subtle vibrations of sound that can be felt throughout the body.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays.

The word embodiment is becoming as ubiquitous as mindfulness these days. Wondering if the word is drifting in meaning, Annie and Jen look at what embodiment is through several lens including spirituality, philosophy and psychology. They also point out ways in which something may appear to be embodied but not.

And this is all a lead up to a series of upcoming explorations in what Annie has dubbed "The 12 Embodiments of Yoga."

Mentioned in this episode:"Years and Years" on HBO
"Upload" on Amazon Prime
"Futurama"
Bo Forbes
John Schumacher
"Radical Wholeness" by Philip Shepherd (Note that neither Annie nor Jen have read this book nor are we familiar with the author. So this is not an endorsement. We just mentioned it on the show. If you've read this book, we'd love to know what you think. )

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga). Check out her upcoming in-person class in Arlington, VA .

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) on Wednesday nights (in person or online) for meditation and dharma talks

None

In our fifth and final Short Yin Yoga Practice Snack, Jen shares offers some relief for the upper back, a common area of tension for a lot of people.

Throughout the practice, she'll also help you mindfully attend to your breath as a way of gathering and calming the mind.

Postures in this practice:

rolling panda x2
butterfly variation

Props you might need:

block
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

Visit our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skillfulmeanspodcast/) for a time lapse video of this practice if you aren't familiar with the postures.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this month's conversation, Annie and Jen are exploring the question: who's the real teacher in the yoga room? To put another way, how do we balance listening to our own inner guidance with that of the person standing at the front of the room?

The discussion spans a range or themes around agency, autonomy and what's the purpose of the teacher in spiritual life and practice.

Mentioned on the ShowSarah Powers
Stephen Bachelor
adrienne maree brown

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga). Check out her upcoming Yin Yoga & Taoism training.

Find Annie at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com) and check out their upcoming 200hr Yoga Teacher Training.

In our fourth Short Yin Yoga Practice Snack, Jen skillfully and tenderly guides you through a sequence of postures for the thighs and back. Because the thighs, in particular, can be a challenging target area, she also offers nervous system support with gentle breath work and visualization.

Postures in this practice:

dragon x2
caterpillar

Props you might need:

block
bolster or firm cushion
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

Visit our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skillfulmeanspodcast/) for a time lapse video of this practice if you aren't familiar with the postures.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

We're continuing our exploration of opposites in the way that yoga is practiced and taught with a look at the debate over form and function when it comes to asana. How do we stay safe in the yoga room? Should we focus on how the postures look and try to work towards alignment paradigms? Or should we focus on the why? We also dive into deeper questions around the overall purpose of asana in the broader context of yoga practice and how Instagram Yogis are impacting how we think about asana.

Mentioned on the Show
How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body - William J. Broad, NY Times
John Schumacher
Angela Farmer & Victor van Kooten
Eric Schiffman
Paul Grilley
Jules Mitchell

Who's Inspiring Us with Innovative & Accessible Approaches to Asana
Matthew Sanford + Interview with Kirsta Tippett
Jivana Hayman
Theresa Murphy
Heart + Bones Yoga
Dianne Bondy

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

In the third Short Yin Yoga Practice Snack, Jen guides three postures for the upper chest and arms. This little practice is a nice antidote to desk posture.

She also shares encourages to become more familiar with the feelings that arise when we practice, holding whatever arises in a compassionate container.

Postures in this practice:

supported fish
banana x2

Props you might need:

block
bolster or firm cushion
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

Visit our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skillfulmeanspodcast/) for a time lapse video of this practice if you aren't familiar with the postures.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this month's discussion, Annie and Jen unpack sutra 2.33 from "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali." When negative thoughts arise, this sutra advises that we cultivate the opposite.

Is Patanjali advocating for spiritual bypassing? Or is this an early form of cognitive behavior therapy?

And how might more modern interpretations of this sutra be used to inadvertently cause harm?

Mentioned in this episode:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali translation and commentary by Alistair Shearer
Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Sally Miller's Instagram post on Yin Yoga and Anti-racism

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com). Listen live to Annie's dharma talks on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/SunMoonYogaStudio/featured).

In this second Short Yin Yoga Practice Snack, Jen shares three postures that target the inner and outer thighs to help promote gracefulness and mobility in areas that are often stiff.

Jen also sprinkles in a dash of mindfulness of body sensation while encouraging you to also notice the way your mind reacts to being in the postures.

Postures in this practice:

dragonfly
reclined, single leg twist x2

Props you might need:

block
bolster or firm cushion
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

Visit our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skillfulmeanspodcast/) for a time lapse video of this practice if you aren't familiar with the postures.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In the next few discussion episodes, Annie and Jen will explore some of the common opposites that show up in our practices spaces and in conversations among practitioners and teachers.

They start things off with the friction between purusha (unbounded consciousness) and prakriti (form/matter), which are outlined in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as the framework for understanding our existence in the universe. How does one balance the needs of the form body with the spiritual aims of practice? Are we too enamored with the physical aims of practice or too pre-occupied with transcending form?

Mentioned on the show:Your Atomic Self by Curt Stager

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com). Listen live to Annie's dharma talks on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/SunMoonYogaStudio/featured).

This is the first practice in a series Jen is calling "Yin Shorts: Short Yin Yoga Practice Snacks with a Dash of Mindfulness."

Kicking things off, Jen focuses on the low back with three poses that will hopefully help you feel a little more mobile and comfortable in the low back. She'll also guide you through a survey of the three centers of your inner world: body, heart, and mind.

Postures in this practice:

sphinx
1/2 butter variation x2

Props you might need:

block or two
bolster or firm cushion
yoga blanket or stiff beach towel

Visit our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skillfulmeanspodcast/) for a time lapse video of this practice so you can see what the postures look like.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Following on Annie's series of contemplative practices on the kleshas, Jen and Annie discuss how uncovering the roots of our "mental poisons" might guide us in navigating current events that feel particularly fraught.

Resources Mentioned on the Show:G.R.A.C.E.: Training in Cultivating Compassion-based Interactions via Upaya Zen Center
The Lightmaker's Manifesto by Karen Walrond

What We're ReadingSmall Wonder: Essays by Barbara Kingsolver
Wild Seed (Book 1 of The Patternist Series) by Octavia Butler
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com). Listen live to Annie's dharma talks on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/SunMoonYogaStudio/featured).

In the last practice in our series on the kleshas (hindrances) Annie masterfully guides you through a contemplation of abhinivesha. Often translated as "fear of death," it can also mean "will to live." But it's the flavor of fear of abhinivesha, compounded by other kleshas such as raga (attachment) and dvesha (aversion), that abhinivesha creates so much suffering. In this gentle practice, you'll connect with the cyclical quality of the breath as a signifier of the give and take of life.

For repeat listens the meditation starts at 4:01. If your player supports chapter markings, you can skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she teaches hybrid online/in-person classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

This month, Annie and Jen discuss how consequential our language is, particularly when cultivating a culture of inclusivity in our yoga and spiritual spaces. We see yoga communities as microcosms of general society, and we believe that the grassroots work we do in our small spaces rolls up into the more nourishing and equitable world we'd like to see in the world.

Teachers, Books, and other References mentioned in this episode:If we missed one, let us know at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.comEmergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
Dianne Bondy
Paul Grilley
Your Body Your Yoga by Bernie Clark
Leslie Kaminoff
Amber Karnes
Jivana Heyman
Accessible Yoga Community
Kelly Diels

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

Continuing our contemplations of the kleshas — t he causes of suffering — Annie guides us through a tender exploration of dvesha, or aversion. Noting that we tend to view our aversions as safety measures, Annie gently encourages us to widen our bandwidth of experience to include discomfort so that we don't waste precious energy that we could be directing towards growth and transformation.

For repeat listens the meditation starts at 3:48. If your player supports chapter markings, you can skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she teaches hybrid online/in-person classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Annie and Jen explore the nuances of Tapas (heat) and Santosha (contentment), two oft misunderstood concepts. Is tapas really about burning off impurities through vigorous practice? Is santosha a ticket to complicity?

Have a listen and let us know what you think!

~ ~ ~

What We're Reading:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
The Expanse Series by James S. A. Corey
Grounded Spirituality by Jeff Brown

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

In this heart-filled third of five practices on the kleshas – the causes of suffering — Annie guides you through the difference between love and attachment (raga), beautifully bringing to light how the suffering of our conditioned experience snuffs out the luminous essence and unconditional presence of divine humanhood.

For repeat listens the meditation starts at 2:57. If your player supports chapter markings, you can skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she teaches hybrid online/in-person classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Jen and Annie excavate some themes and lessons from the hit TV show "Ted Lasso" including: the shadowy side of positivity culture, how much are we truly responsible for other people's wellbeing, the ways in which letting go of craving and aversion comprise the maturation process, and the sympathetic joy modeled in key characters' friendship.

They also share some everyday practices that'll help you find yoga in ordinary moments.

Mentioned In Everyday PracticesGrounded: Finding God in the World-A Spiritual Revolution by Diana Butler Bass

Find Jen's Restful Winter UnChallenge on Instagram: @satijen

~ ~ ~

Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

In this second of five practices on the kleshas – the obstacles that hide our true self – Annie unpacks a beautiful contemplation of asmita, egoism. More than just holding a high opinion of one's self, asmita is all about mistaking the ever-changing features of our existence as permanent and definitive. When we are able to see through this veil of separation, we move further from suffering and closer to our divine, wise nature.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she teaches hybrid online/in-person classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Annie and Jen examine a problematic dynamic in yoga spaces where competition fuels predatory tactics that ultimately serve few people. They also discuss the commodification of yoga classes and how studios and independent yoga teachers can come together in shared purpose and mutual support.

~ ~ ~

What We're Reading:

Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville by Akash Kapur

Lit From Within: Yoga, Teachings, and Practices to Illuminate Our Inner Lives by Sarah Powers

Jailbreak: The Making and Breaking of our Invisible Prisons - An IFS Informed Escape by Angela Huebner

~ ~ ~

Mentioned on the Show:Therapeutic Yoga Training with Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peal

~ ~ ~

You can reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

Jailbreak: The Making and Breaking of Our Invisible Prisons--An IFS Informed Escape

The philosophical tradition of yoga suggests five root causes of suffering, known in Sanskrit as kleshas. While the specific spins of our minds differ from person to person, these "hindrances" can be considered universal.

In this contemplative practice with Annie Moyer, we’ll focus on the first of these culprits, avidya (ignorance), which is a misunderstanding of our true nature — a confusion between what’s eternal and what’s fleeting. Whenever a distraction grabs hold, we'll practice meeting it with a wisdom reference that reframes our understanding of the essence of being-ness.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she teaches hybrid online/in-person classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

This week, Jen welcomes her new cohost Annie Moyer to the show. They discuss

Annie's unusual yoga beginnings,
her yoga guide stars,
her thoughts on what yoga students are seeking in a post-pandemic world,
and Annie's work with Awakening Yoga Spaces, a non-profit coalition of yoga and wellness communities committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the yoga world.

~ ~ ~

Find out more about Awakening Yoga Spaces: https://www.awakeningyogaspaces.com

~ ~ ~

You can reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen through her website (http://www.sati.yoga) and Annie through Sun & Moon Yoga Studio (https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com).

So it happens that impermanence has found its way to Skillful Means Podcast. Jen teases some updates and says adieu to Sarah Jane who is stepping back (but not away) to expand her work in a number of exciting – and needed – areas.

Find out more about Sarah Jane's upcoming programs at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com

She will soon be offering a Mindfulness for Yoga Teachers Course, and several End of Life Programs including a Death Cafe. You can also join one of her two weekly virtual offerings.

And be sure to return next week when Jen will introduce her new co-host. They're chatting about competition in the yoga world and how teachers and studios can collaborate more.

~~~

We love your feedback! You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

Frequent bouts of stress and anxiety create physical tension in the body. When stress persists, we can "forget" how to relax, a common source of chronic pain.

In this practice, Jen prompts you to alternate between tensing and relaxing different muscle groups to help you not only release chronic muscle tension, but also get more familiar with the difference between what tension and relaxation feels like.

Progressive Relaxation is well-studied and has been shown to not only reduce the effects of stress and anxiety, but also relieve insomnia, decrease headaches, control blood pressure, and ease digestive upset.

Instructions for how to set up for this practice start at 1:36 and the meditation starts at 2:30. If your podcast app supports chapters makers, you can use them to skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Of the many reasons to practice Yin Yoga, working with the energy body is one of the most alluring. Yet, this ephemeral force can be elusive for many practitioners.

In this guided practice, Jen takes you through a short series of gentle and accessible Yin Yoga poses while directing your attention through the physical realm and into the subtle body.

The practice follows a brief introduction at 1:24. If you podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In the Second Foundation of Mindfulness, the Buddha outlines practices for working with feelings. Not quite the same as emotions, feelings are the visceral, body-based responses to circumstances before the mind turns them into emotions.

In this guided practice, Jen helps you to establish a neutral anchor with the breath before exploring the preferential tones - also known as hedonic tones - that arise in response to how we feel from moment to moment.

This episode begins with a short talk. Use the chapter marker or jump to 2:45 to skip straight to the meditation.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

With this meditation, Sarah Jane takes the instructions “Pause, Soften, and Connect,” which are often delivered at the beginning of a meditation, and stretches the time we spend with each one.

With occasional instruction, she illuminates the possibilities each of them points to: With “pause,” the shift from everyday mind to mindfulness; with “soften,” receptivity and the ability to stay with; and with “connect,” growing our internal awareness to include what is external. In a wonderful way, this mindfulness meditation supports the simple change from doing to being.

Also, in familiarizing ourselves with the feel of the body-heart-mind system when we follow these guidelines, we are building a muscle we can use in everyday life to slow ourselves down and bring our full presence to what is happening inside and around us.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions.

Unfortunately for humans, our nervous system's stress response only has two settings (on and off) even though we understand degrees of tension. Whether we feel the pressure of a work deadline or an existential threat, our body responds the same way.

However, we can "hack" the stress response with body-based tools that tell the nervous system that we're OK.

In this episode, Jen guides you through a simple and powerful embodiment practice using breath work and sensation to send a signal to your brain that you're OK even when there's tremendous uncertainty.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Equanimity is a steadiness in heart and mind that has a spacious feel. It is “being with” rather than “reacting to” present-moment experience, which makes possible the beat between stimulus and response. We can choose what we do next rather than impulsively react. Thus, equanimity supports agency and choicefulness.

Also, it balances the three other “Divine Abodes”or “Immeasurable Qualities” so valued in Buddhist tradition: loving-kindness, compassion, and empathetic joy. For example, when we are equanimous, loving-kindness will not become harmful attachment. Compassion will not have the quality of pity. Joy will not tip over into unmitigated exuberance.

Keeping equanimity in heart and mind as we go about our days ensures we are not thrown off course by unpredicted circumstances; we are steady. We are not as uncomfortable or fitful with uncertainty; there is ease with not knowing. We do not feel betrayed by life when things don’t go as planned; we more easily adapt.

In this equanimity meditation with Sarah Jane we spend time calling to mind properties of the natural elements and feeling how they can support equanimity.

This is the final practice in Sarah Jane’s second series of meditations inspired by Buddhism’s four “Immeasurable Qualities.” For meditations using the traditional phrases to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, try episodes 9, 13, 16, and 24. This second set is less traditional, calling on the flavor and feel of each. You’ll find these meditations in episodes 42, 44, 46, and 48.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions.

In our latest guided practice, Jen blends two potent practices to help you land in the tranquility of open, spacious awareness.

The traditional way to call forth this energy is to concentrate on the breath while gently discouraging distracting thoughts, sensations, and other inputs from taking root in the conscious mind. But a lot of people find this very challenging, often retreating from meditative practice thinking that they aren't cut out for it.

If you struggle with quieting your inner chatter, you might find this Internal Family Systems (IFS) meditation more accessible. Instead of trying to screen out your inner voices, you'll be invited to be a compassionate witness for their concerns before you kindly ask them to give you a little space.

Jen uses IFS parts language in this practice. Although you don't have to know anything about IFS to follow this meditation, if you're unfamiliar with IFS and Parts Work, have a listen to Episode 29, where Sarah Jane and Jen chat about what IFS is and why yoga and mindfulness practitioners should look into it. In Episode 30, Jen shares a practice of getting to know your parts.

This episode starts with a little dharma talk followed by the practice. If your podcast player supports chapter markers you can skip ahead. Otherwise, the meditation starts at: 03:08.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

Jen is a Level 2 IFS Practitioner and an enthusiastic booster of parts work. You can get in touch with her directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching for groups and individuals.

Acknowledging that humans are hardwired to be on alert for danger, and that imbalanced states can cause us problems such as anxiety and doubt, we would do well to incline the mind toward goodness and gladness.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane touches on the negativity bias and the nature of both conditioned and unconditioned happiness.

Through mindfulness meditation – and the RAIN method in particular – we become aware of the mind states that stand between us and a sense of freedom, states that are natural but not always helpful.

Then, through the cultivation of gratitude and joy, and by replacing resistance with acceptance, there is the possibility of generating happiness that is characterized not by excitement or exuberance but by contentment and peace.

If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can start the meditation at 2:20.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions.

According to Chinese Energetic Medicine, the heart is vulnerable to heat of the summer season. In this short but sweet practice, Jen while guide you through three Yin Yoga postures — melting heart and empty coat sleeves — to nourish this most vital organ. Each posture is paired with meditative practices phrases in the Plum Village tradition to foreground the qualities of presence, self-compassion, and peacefulness.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane supports you in turning toward what is present in the body, heart, and mind, and holding it with kind regard without insisting it change or improve. This act of compassion toward our humanness is the means by which we move from a state of dissociated trance to wholeness and presence.

Near the end of the meditation Sarah Jane reads “Clearing,” by Margaret Postlewaite, a New York-based licensed psychologist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers donation-based classes, meditation and yoga practice groups, and 1:1 mentoring sessions.

In this guided practice, Jen shares the Microcosmic Orbit, a Taoist meditation for longevity. Circulating Qi (life force energy) through a loop formed by the Governor Vessel (Du Mai) and the Conception Vessel (Ren Mai), protects Jing, or Essence Energy, from depletion.

Jing is finite, given to us during conception from our parents. As we live our lives, our activities will either conserve or deplete Jing. Once we use up all of our Jing, our life is at its end. So, it's important to protect Essence Energy whenever possible through a balanced and harmonious lifestyle and with practices like this.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane invites you to settle into a posture that will support your mindfulness by inviting a relaxed quality in the body and wakefulness in the mind. After a period of arriving, she shares a technique for how you might use mental noting to disrupt discursive thinking.

With 1-minute-long periods of silence interspersed with gentle encouragement and descriptions of the effects mental noting might produce, this 20+ minute meditation is a good one to try if you’re newer to sitting for longer periods.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers donation-based classes, meditation and yoga practice groups, and 1:1 mentoring sessions.

In our second book club, Jen and Sarah Jane follow some dharmic threads through the ancient Taoist text the “Tao Te Ching” by Laozi and enjoy the poetic language used to, somehow, beautifully illuminate something that cannot be defined.

The Tao is the source of everything and the way of life, and this text invites us to align ourselves and our lifestyle with the natural order of things. In their discussion, Jen and Sarah Jane focus on just a couple of themes: effortless action (wu wei), as well as Taoism’s Three Treasures: compassion, frugality, and humility.

Both Jen and Sarah Jane’s teaching practices and offerings have been informed by years of study and practice in Yin Yoga, which is based in Taoist energy practices. Their appreciation for the text, the lineages it has birthed, and the teachers who transmit its teachings is great.

If it has been years since you read the pithy 81 chapters that constitute this metaphysical classic, or you haven’t yet picked it up, you won’t want to miss this.

As Skillful Means Podcast heads into a partial summer break (though Jen and Sarah Jane will continue adding guided practices to the podcast feed), you are invited to also drop into simplicity inspired by advice both practical and profound of the “Tao Te Ching.”

Tao Te Ching Translations Used in this Episode

"Tao Te Ching Online Translation" is Derek Lin and Lama Surya Das’s “Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained.” https://taoism.net/tao/tao-te-ching-online-translation/

“Tao Te Ching” translated by Gia-fu Feng, Jane English, and Toinette Lippe: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679724346

"Tao Te Ching" translated by Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tao_Te_Ching

Online Programs

Jen leads Yin Yoga teacher trainings and is offering a 35hr Yin Yoga & Taoism virtual course in June 2021. You can find out more at www.sati.yoga.

Giving to India
UNICEF: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/india-faces-brutal-covid-19-crisis-unicef-there-help/38520

Indian Red Cross: https://www.indianredcross.org/ircs/COVID19Donate

Oxfam: https://www.oxfamindia.org/coronavirus

Word Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/news/wck-activates-chefsforindia

Care: https://www.care.org

~~~

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this guided practice, Jen offers a meditation on establishing body awareness as a mindfulness anchor. Because the body is always available, bringing our attention to the posture and sensations of the body helps us to connect to the immediacy of the present moment.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers Yin Yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the concept of precious impermanence, an organizing principle for many Asian religions and belief systems.

Impermanence dignifies the transient nature of reality. Clinging to things as if they could be permanent is what causes unnecessary suffering in life.

Through Buddhist, yogic, and Taoist textual references and stories, Sarah Jane and Jen demonstrate the value of seeing the world as ever-changing and uncertain. Not only is it realistic, but it compels us to live meaningfully, passionately, now.

~~~

Books

Find the following books in your local Black-owned bookstore:

"Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong" by Norman Fischer
"Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living" by Pema Chödrön
“The Five Invitations” by Frank Ostaseski
“A Year to Live” by Stephen Levine
“The Trauma of Everyday Life” by Mark Epstein.
"The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace & Ecology" by Thich Nhat Hanh
"The Next in the Stream: Lessons from Nature on Being with Pain" by Micheal Kearney, MD.

Online Programs

A Year to Live course at Spirit Rock. You can also find it at InsightLA and other centers, usually offered at the beginning of a calendar year.

Mortal with Alua Arthur (end-of-life doula, attorney, professor, and minister) and Caitlin Doughty (mortician and author). This course helps people meet their fear of death.

Sarah Jane is an end-of-life educator and doula, focusing on mindfulness practice for presence, peace, and purpose. She offers Death Cafes and a mini-course she calls Mindful Approaches to End-of-Life Matters. For more information, go to www.sarahjaneshangraw.com.

~~~

May Dharma Book Club

Start reading the Tao te Ching and send in your insights and questions by May 1 to be included in our next episode.

~~~

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this meditation inspired by popular teacher Jack Kornfield’s tree meditations, Sarah Jane guides you through a visualization that accesses the stabilizing and steadfast qualities of trees.

Recalling a tree that has been significant in your life is the beginning of a short relational journey that includes rooting downward for nourishment and rising to the challenges of life’s seasons.

Then, breathing like the tree and being like the tree, we enhance a sense of interconnectedness and presence, and trust this inner ground as a place to return to, again and again.

~~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.comwith your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly. She offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions. In all her offerings, she promotes self-awareness and interconnectedness using contemplative and somatic methods drawn from yoga, Buddhism, and spiritual psychology.

In this inaugural episode of the bi-monthly Dharma Book Club, Sarah Jane and Jen chat about The End of Your World. In this book, based on a series of his talks on the nature of enlightenment, spiritual teacher Adyashanti describes both the initial “glimpses” and the journey to “abiding awakening,” which he also describes as abiding as “Spirit.”

Concerned that folks will assume this book is not for them, Jen and Sarah Jane encourage listeners to see for themselves, and not to be surprised if it validates a potential “glimpse” into a non-dual understanding of reality.

Uninterested in re-teaching Adyashanti’s worldview from their point of view (which can only be limited and incomplete) Sarah Jane and Jen simply lay out the themes of the book, and talk about a few things that “popped” for them, made them think about other teachings, or seemed like places to investigate further.

If you haven’t read the book yet, Jen and Sarah Jane hope their chat will inspire you to take a look. No spoilers in this episode! You can still send in your feedback -- they’d love to hear from you.

~~~

The Dharma Book Club pick for May 2021 is the Tao te Ching, a fundamental text on Taoism, which Jen and Sarah Jane draw from in their integrative style of teaching.

~~~

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this month’s guided practice, we offer Yoga Nidra, the sleep of the yogis.

The practice of Yoga Nidra dates back thousands of years and was developed to invoke a deep meditative state so that the practitioner may gather soma nectar for rejuvenation and immortality.

Today, Yoga Nidra has drawn a lot of interest for its ability to relax the body’s stress response. Many people who practice Yoga Nidra regularly experience reduced anxiety and depression along with better nighttime sleep and overall improved feelings of wellbeing.

In this practice, Jen guides you to invite radical self-acceptance and awaken to boundless compassion, invoking the ancient Tibetan mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum.”

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this episode, recorded nearly a year after the first COVD-19-related lockdowns, Jen and Sarah Jane discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the mad rush to move trainings and retreats online.

From individual teachers, to studios and centers, to decentralized institutes, the pandemic has brought much change in the way teaching –and learning –is done. Impacts include increased access to teachers and programs, relaxed program requirements, and more.

This evolution has greatly benefited us all as students. However, pitfalls abound. Sarah Jane and Jen get real about imposter syndrome, FOMO, and other psychological states and circumstances that can lead to going overboard and taking on too many trainings in this environment of boundless opportunities. Never happy to leave things there, they also offer practical strategies for maintaining balance as lifelong learners.

Dharma Book Club Starts Next Month
The first installment of Dharma Book Club approaches! Start reading The End of Your Worldby Adyashanti and send in your insights and questions by March 1 to be included in our next episode.

~~~

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this episode, Sarah Jane introduces and leads a mindfulness meditation on the four elements from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Foundations of Mindfulness) as taught by the Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo, a contemporary Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar.

Contemplating the elements (earth, water, fire, and wind, according to early Buddhist writers), as they are expressed both within the body and outside in the natural world, can lessen harmful over-identification with the body. They also remind us that we are in and of nature, not separate from it. Further, it can give rise to the key insights of impermanence and emptiness.

In this meditation, we use the body scan as a way to discern the presence of the Earth element through solidity particularly in the bones. Water is present as moisture in the mouth and cohesion of the flesh. Fire, or the heat element, is known through the sensation of temperature on skin. And we note Wind in motion, circulation and, of course, breath.

Bhikkhu Anālayo compares this practice to receiving a package in the mail that is meant for someone else: It is enough to look at the address and realize the parcel is not ours. No need to open it to search its contents to know this. In other words, we need not analyze the expression of elements in the body; it is enough to notice them and to comprehend the continuity between ourselves and nature and the ever-changing flow of experience.

ResourcesFind Bhikkhu Anālayo's writings freely available through Universität Hamburg, where he serves on faculty at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies.

"Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation: A Practice Guide" by Bhikkhu Anālayo inspired this episode's meditation.

You can join Bhikkhu Anālayo for one of his courses or workshops at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts or online.

~~
Don't forget! Dharma Book Club starts in March 2021. Join us in reading “The End of Your World,” by Adyashanti, available through many Black-owned bookstores.

~~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly. To sign up to attend her ongoing twice weekly live meditation drop-in, visit Mindful Morning Sangha.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane return from a winter break. Amidst ever increasing levels of upheaval in the States, they discuss their go-to practices and resources that buoy body, heart, and mind.

In a casual back and forth conversation, they describe the methods and inspirations they rely on, including hara breathing, the idea of expansiveness, contemplating the elements while walking in a cemetery (yup!), weekly planning, and more.

Not ones for navel-gazing, Jen and Sarah Jane put their practices to work not only in replenishing their reserves, but also in helping them to continue showing up to life with passion and resolve.

And, big announcement! Skillful Means Podcast is excited to share a new feature on the show: Dharma Book Club! Every two months, we'll discuss books guaranteed to inspire. Our first selection is The End of Your World by Adyashanti. You can read along with us and share your thoughts via email or our new SpeakPipe voicemail account. We are excited to share your thoughts on the show.

We are social! Find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this Taoist meditation, Jen will help you harness the loving energy of a smile and direct it inward for profound sense of self-compassion, joy, and relaxation.

In Taoism, it's believed that the energy of negative emotions blocks Qi flow, leading to disease Practicing the inner smile meditation will help you clear out blocked negative energy for improved health, well-being, and longevity.

This is an old practice, more recently popularized by the Qigong master Mantak Chia.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this talk and guided practice, Sarah Jane describes the benefit of thinking of Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths as Four Ennobling Tasks. As tasks, the teachings become invitations to action. In the case of the first, the invitation is to comprehend dukkha (suffering). How? We practice. Why? Clear comprehension gives rise to liberating insight.

But more than orienting our minds toward helpful concepts that support practice, this episode is meant as a gift during a holiday season in which people may feel tender and weary from struggling through the public health, social, political, and environmental crises that accelerated in 2020.

There is much suffering happening. It is our hope we may manage, together, to hold the inarguable suffering--the aging, sickness, and death that are inevitable--and diminish the secondary suffering present in our bodies, hearts, and minds.

The goal is not to avoid emotional difficulty. It’s not to acknowledge it and leave it at that, either. Instead, we are meant to use it for the sake of inner freedom, or at least more ease. May there be more ease within us and between us as we make our way into 2021.

In her talk, Sarah Jane draws from teachings from Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincino Weber. In the meditation, she quotes Stephen Schettini:

"We’re all faced with the same fundamental choice of calming the mind or letting it go its own scattered way. Leaving it to the caprice of unplumbed emotions leads to a life that’s mysterious in all the wrong ways."

The meditation starts at 8:40. If your podcast app supports chapter markings, you can jump straight there - useful for repeated listens.

~~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.comwith your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly where she offers weekly classes, monthly workshops, meditation groups, and mentoring.

Jen wraps up our first virtual retreat with a practice very dear to her heart.

Loving-kindness, or metta, is at the very heart of spiritual practice. By tuning into our common humanity, we not only touch the essence of our true Self, but we are able to recognize and appreciate the Self of others, even difficult people. Consider this a training in radical acceptance.

Jen shares her thoughts on retreating and then guides a gentle mindful movement break followed by a loving-kindness practice in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, her spiritual teacher.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers weekly classes, workshops, and trainings as well as group and private mentoring sessions.

Welcome to Sunday, the third day of “Tuning In, Reaching Out.” We are maintaining our commitment to practice in part through the connections we’ve made and the energy we’ve felt from you, and we hope you feel the same.

Sarah Jane is interested in the active quality of compassion and how it can inform and even compel us to engage in the world. She opens this practice with a short yin yoga sequence (butterfly, sphinx, and banana/crescent poses) during which she introduces lojong (practice slogans) and what it means to Resolve to Begin. Then, after some movement to juice the body, she offers a talk on the many faces of compassion, and closes with a compassion meditation.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

We welcome your comments and questions. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com where she offers offers weekly classes, monthly workshops, meditation groups, and mentoring.

Welcome to the second and fourth overall practice of “Tuning In, Reaching Out.” We have deeply enjoyed connecting with some of you about intentions, methods, hindrances, and insights. A deep bow to all practitioners.

In this practice, Sarah Jane shares thoughts on the purpose and practice of mindfulness through the Early Buddhist lens and highlights some aspects of the Satipatthana Sutta, an early practice guide in the voice of the Buddha. She suggests a few yin postures in which to dwell while practicing each of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness--body, feelings, mind, and phenomena.

Yin postures include butterfly, sphinx, and supine twists. A blanket and cushion will be useful. The practice ends with a 15-minute sit.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

We welcome your comments and questions. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com where she offers offers weekly classes, monthly workshops, meditation groups, and mentoring.

Welcome to the second day of your virtual retreat. This morning, Jen brings you a gentle yang yoga practice in the tradition of her root teachers of Nosara Yoga Institute. This practice is appropriate for all levels including beginners, but you may find it helpful to have some asana experience in order to follow the verbal cues.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers weekly classes, workshops, and trainings as well as group and private mentoring sessions.

In this second practice of the Tuning In, Reaching Out Virtual retreat, Jen will guide you through a timeless meditation called Shamatha, or calm abiding. You'll have an opportunity to practice in a formal way as well as in Yin Yoga postures.

The postures featured in this practice include: butterfly, sphinx, empty coat sleeves, and reclined twist. You might appreciate having a folded blanket or blocks handy for the poses as well as whatever set up you use for meditation practice.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers weekly classes, workshops, and trainings as well as group and private mentoring sessions.

We are pleased to kick off our virtual retreat with this Yoga & RAIN Meditation practice with Sarah Jane.

In this guided practice, Sarah Jane invites you to spend a few moments warming the body and enhancing chi circulation with simple movements undertaken in concert with a slow and steady breath. We then settle in and progress through the steps of RAIN meditation--Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture--with the opportunity to rest in various yin yoga postures through their unfolding.

Poses include: child's pose, shoelace, dragonfly, recalled butterfly, and savasana. You may need a blanket or two and a pillow or cushion for support in the yin postures.

Developed by Vipassana teacher Michele McDonald and championed by psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach, RAIN is a mindfulness-based, self-compassion practice that can be used in a moment or over a lengthy meditation sit, and anywhere in between.

Our intention in offering this practice at the outset of the retreat is to fortify you and provide a useful tool you can bring forth when emotional discomfort arises, presenting the opportunity for an accelerated cultivation of loving awareness.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast is offering this virtual retreat to help you recommit to your yoga and mindfulness practice even - especially - during this difficult time.

We welcome your comments and questions. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com where she offers offers weekly classes, monthly workshops, meditation groups, and mentoring.

This is just a quick reminder about the upcoming virtual retreat here on the podcast.

Join us on Nov 20-22 for twice daily practices to help you strengthen your connection both to yourself and to those around you. Episodes will appear here in the podcast feed at midnight and noon EST.

You can also join for optional live Zoom calls and receive email tips. Sign up at: http://bit.ly/tiro2020

We hope this offering is off benefit to you and the wider world.

You can find Skillful Means Podcast on Facebook and Instagram, or send us your comments at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

As a companion to episode 29 on Internal Family Systems (IFS therapy), we invite you to enjoy this guided parts meditation.

Jen will help you locate and get to know one or more parts during this experience. IFS is an embodied practice, so the doorway into your inner environment is through body sensations. After a few minutes of guided relaxation, you'll start to track your somatic experience as a way of foregrounding what needs the most attention right now.

It's helpful to engage in IFS parts work at a quiet time where you are neither rushed nor distracted. Many people find this to be a fruitful addition to their daily practice.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, and trainings. She also offers group and 1:1 IFS coaching sessions.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane finally and excitedly get around to talking about Internal Family Systems.

IFS is having a moment lately, and is being brought into yoga and Buddhist communities by some prominent teachers, including Sarah Jane and Jen’s primary teacher, Sarah Powers.

Since Jen has completed Level II IFS training, Sarah Jane asks her to describe the core proposition of IFS – that our mind is composed of sub personalities that have their own perspectives and motivations – and the benefits of bringing this model into spiritual life.

Ever concerned about the spiritual bypassing, appropriation, and dilution they see in many parts of yogaland, particularly in the U.S., Sarah Jane and Jen speak specifically about what IFS can do for yoga practitioners who seek to heal the wounds that prevent them from fully showing up.

Resources Mentioned

Sarah & Ty Powers’ Insight Yoga Institute
Amy Weintraub’s Lifeforce Yoga
“Introduction to Internal Family Systems” by Dr. Richard Schwartz
“Self Therapy” by Jay Earley
Jen’s All Parts Are Welcome 4-week IFS Support Circle

Join us for our first live Virtual Retreat, November 20-22: Tuning In and Reaching Out

We believe in taking the opportunity we have here now, in our ephemeral existence and in uncertain times, to strengthen the web of interconnectedness, in which our freedom is found.

And so, our first virtual retreat will feature talks and practices that encourage inner investigation as well as interconnectedness.

Get all the details and register for live Zoom calls and email support

You can find Skillful Means Podcast on Facebook and Instagram, or send us your comments at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

In this meditation drawn from Taosit practices, Sarah Jane guides you through a breath-based visualization for replenishing and balancing inner energy.

We are both individually whole and inextricably interconnected with each other and the natural world. We can view everything--even human beings--as composed of elements and infused with energies that, when in balance, create harmony and health.

By drawing grounding earth chi, or earth energy, from below to fill the dantian or hara, the body’s energetic center in the lower abdomen, we capacitate stability. Similarly, by drawing energizing heaven chi, or sky energy, from above to fill the heart center, we capacitate liveliness.

In this meditation we spend time doing both, using long, slow, smooth breaths as guides. After filling the hara and heart, we start to intermingle these two energies for a sense of balance, harmony, and health.

Well rooted and in touch with our depth, as well as filled with activating energy, we will not need to leave our inner ground in order to navigate the shifting course of life.

~~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly where she offers weekly classes, monthly workshops, meditation groups, and mentoring.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane address the human predicament: We are wired to avoid unfamiliarity, uncertainty, and unpredictability in life, even while these very forces are ever-present realities. This simple paradox is the source of much of the stress in our complicated lives.

Acknowledging the particular challenges of navigating life in the midst of a global pandemic, the US election, and seasonal changes, Jen and Sarah Jane share the methods they use to soothe the nervous system in times of distress. But what about building long-term resilience so that we may engage with life as it is, no matter how it is? Back and forth, they share what they’ve learned for, drop by drop, “filling the pot with good.”

Ultimately, they talk about how understanding and accepting the nature of change can ease passage through life that will naturally be filled with obstacles. Like water running downhill and around obstacles, aligning ourselves with the way things work is foundational to living a life free of, at least, the unnecessary sufferings we place upon ourselves.

Related Resources

Sarah Powers Insight Yoga and online practices to fill your water pot, drop by drop.

Adyashanti’s The End of Your World, for spiritual clarity on the nature of the world.

Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright, on how Buddhism addresses the human condition.

Coming in November on the show!
We’ll be offering a virtual retreat in November, with live Zoom check-ins to start and end, two practices a day via the podcast feed for three days, and two Q&As tucked in between for support. Make sure you're subscribed to receive it all.

In the meantime, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us your comments at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

In this guided Yin Yoga practice, Jennifer guides you through a short series of postures designed to nourish the spleen and stomach.

According to Taoist Energetic Medicine, the spleen and stomach work together to perform the important function of extracting vital life force energy from the food we eat. When the spleen and stomach experience disharmony, it affects our entire organ system.

These organs are also associated with important emotional and mental faculties including feelings of groundedness, connectedness, understanding, insight, and mental clarity.

During times of transition or great uncertainty, we tend to feel the opposite, including anxiety or a sense of being like a boat adrift on a rough sea. Mentally, we tend to lose focus and our ability to stay on task.

In this practice, we fortify the organs most affected by these emotions. During the poses, Jennifer unpacks a centering technique called The Three Grounds of Support. The meditative aspect of this practice will help you to tap inner resources to help you meet the challenges of these uncertain times.

You’ll find it helpful to have a bolster or firm cushion on hand for one of the postures.

Disclaimer
The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.comwith your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers weekly classes, workshops, and trainings.

The landscape of yoga studios is not what it once was. With some studios closed permanently and others open only temporarily or in limbo, practitioners who relied on guided classes may be more motivated than ever to develop a self-led practice.

In order to have a regular self-led yoga asana practice, you need one thing: some form of inquiry practice. Whether it’s a regular mindfulness practice, a journaling practice, or another method of self-examination, you need to be able to assess your current state of being so that you can select methods that address your present needs.

After all, what is a yoga practice if not the opportunity to attune and attend?

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane introduce the body-heart-mind check-in, a three-part inquiry practice that allows a practitioners to investigate:

How does my physical body feel today?
What is present for me emotionally?
Where is my mind and is my mental body cluttered, free, or something else?

And once we know how we are, we can proceed from there. Jen and Sarah Jane share tips and examples from their own practices and teaching.

Resources Mentioned

3-Part Check-in Meditation Guided Practice
Loving Kindness Guided Practice
Compassion Guided Practice
Sympathetic Joy Guided Practice
Equanimity for Balanced Action Guided Practice
Mindfulness of Breathing Guided Practice

Jen & Sarah Jane’s Weekly Yin Yoga & Mindfulness Classes via Zoom

Follow us on Facebook or Instagram, or email feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

Wrapping up our series on the Four Immeasurables, in this guided practice, Sarah Jane Shangraw unpacks the fourth “sublime state,” upeksa (equanimity). Upeksa is a state of non-preferencing that can arise in meditation when we feel into and accept the uncontrollable flow and tonality of experience, and leave it at that.

Not a cool and distant quality, equanimity combines the wisdom of understanding together with compassionate inclusivity. Under its influence, we are balanced and open, able to “be with” rather than give in to the compulsion to “react to.” More broadly, it helps us accept our joys and sorrows equally, and engage skillfully in the wider world, despite its many challenges.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly and sign up to attend her ongoing twice weekly live meditation drop-in, Mindful Morning Sangha.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane take a look through the Buddhist lens at the mind.

Specifically, they explore using mindfulness, being with discomfort, and taking responsibility as foundations for the necessary and ongoing work of recognizing and undoing our conditioning, including unconscious bias.

Though this conversation is inevitably incomplete, it touches on several concepts that can serve as jumping off points to further our contemplation and engagement in a world where the dominant racial identity group must reckon with and right deeply rooted, systemic wrongs. Conversation includes:

What mindfulness is and isn’t
Internally and externally focused mindfulness
Not scratching the itch (being with discomfort)
We are not our minds after all (thank goodness)
The sausage-making effect of conditioning
How much control do we actually have?
The almost inevitable “affective push” of feelings
Practices for seeing and slowing automatic mind
Questions we should not stop asking ourselves

Related Links & Resources Mentioned

Implicit Social Attitudes Test from Project Implicit, Harvard University

“The Buddha’s Original Teachings on Mindfulness” a Tricycle.com article containing Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation of the Satipatthana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

Metta Hour Podcast, Episode 87, where Sharon Slazberg interviews Ruth King on her work encouraging mindfulness to meet unconscious bias and more.

Sarah Jane’s Introduction to Mindfulness & Compassion Online Course

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us your comments at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly.

In this episode, Jennifer offers guidance for creating space between a difficult stimulus and the response to it. Whether you are confronted by a challenging event or a triggering conversation, the prompts in this meditation can bring forward a more responsive — rather than reactive — inner attitude.

The setting for this guided practice is sphinx pose, chosen for being a relatively gentle, although not entirely neutral, shape. Postures can help us approximate uncomfortable situations so that we can practice how we respond to them.

For more guidance on how how to practice this way, check out this article.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga.

In this episode, Jen is joined by her friend and colleague Kaya Mindlin to discuss the Bhagavad Gita and how to fully and authentically show up for social justice while staying true to one’s dharma.

In this sweeping conversation that, at times, adopts the atmosphere of a workshop, Jen and Kaya discuss:

how to embrace the discomforts of learning,
the setting and themes of the Bhagavad Gita,
what is yoga,
understanding the mind through the lens of the Gunas,
what the Vedas can tell us about the origins of implicit bias and how we can overcome them,
ancestral work,
and how the Gunas shed light on some of the ways we may be missing the mark when it comes to our activism.

About Guest Host, Kaya Mindlin
Kaya Mindlin is a Yoga therapist and educator who has been teaching the “softer side of yoga” for 19 years. Her background includes thousands of hours of in-depth study with masters in the Vedic Tradition - including Therapeutic Yoga, Ayurveda, Vedic Astrology, Sanskrit and Yogic Texts, Vedanta and Tantra. Kaya makes traditional teachings powerfully meaningful for yogis living a modern life. Her warm and intelligent approach inspires dedicated yogis and teachers in every aspect of life. Kaya's students are often longtime seekers who resonate with her storytelling, technical acumen and mothering bhava. She is committed to supporting spiritual growth and resolving misleading messages in the popular Yoga world through her programs. Kaya lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Vedic Astrologer Michael Manzella and their children.

Links & Resources Mentioned

Kaya’s Website & Instagram

The Nectar of the Gita Online Course
Use Coupon Code skillfulmeanspodcast20 for 20% off

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji & Anthony Greenwald

Implicit Social Attitudes Test from Project Implicit, Harvard University

Resmaa Menakem on On Being with Krista Tippet

~~

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us your comments at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com.

This guided meditation encourages you to take up residence in your body in order to be present for the life that is inside you right now. With kind attention, we feel into the physical body and citta (the heart-mind), which may need some buoying.

Then, drawing on our own creative compassion, we resource ourselves internally so that we can meet the call of the wider world in the in this and future moments.

Finally, we wish safety, happiness, and peace to all beings, near and far, known and unknown. May it be so.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly.

Today, we pivoted a bit to share resources on the intersection of mindfulness, Buddhism, anti-racism, and collective healing. We focus on the major voices, most of them people of color, shining a light on the social justice issues facing spiritual communities and how to overcome them.

Books:
The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Adyashanti

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji & Anthony Greenwald

Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity & Community by Larry Yang

Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out by Ruth King

Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation by Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Lama Rod Owens with Jasmine Syedullah

In Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves & Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness by Rhonda V. Magee

People:Rev. Gini Gerbasi, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on Twitter

Larry Yang

Plum Village Global Sangha

Alice Walker

Ruth King

Lama Rod Owens (Instagram)

Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Rhhonda V Magee

Statement from Ty Powers, co-founder of the Insight Yoga Institute.

Additional Exploration:
Implicit Social Attitudes Test from Project Implicit, Harvard University

Background on “Beloved Community,” coined by philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and used by spiritual communities when cultivating anti-racist culture.

Alice Walker, American novelist, poet, and social activist, in conversation with Pema Chodron.

White Awake is an online platform focused on social justice education for people who are classified as “white”.

Arise Sangha (Awakening through Race, Intersectionality, and Social Equity) is a community of mindfulness practitioners and monastics in the Plum Village tradition.

Talk to us: feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

Inspired by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Pebble Meditation, Jennifer guides you through the four qualities of freshness, solidity, clarity, and freedom in the container of a calming Yin Yoga practice.

Each point of the meditation is paired with a Yin Yoga pose that evokes these qualities including sphinx, supported caterpillar, reclining butterfly, and pentacle.

Originally developed for children, the Pebble Meditation is, nevertheless, very popular with adults for the peaceful state that it awakens. You may find it helpful to follow this practice any time you are feeling strong, unpleasant emotions such as anger or agitation.

You'll need a yoga bolster or firm pillow for this practice.

Tha brief description offered before the practice starts at 1:30. If your app supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead and get started right away. You can expect moments of silence so that you can practice the inner methods offered.

Disclaimer:Practicing yoga postures comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga.

In Episode 17, Sarah Jane and Jen spoke with their teacher Sarah Powers about the wisdom and opportunity for awakening amidst the suffering of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the recording of that episode, Sarah generously led an inquiry meditation for holding and healing wounded and distressed parts of ourselves with maitri, loving friendship to ourselves. We decided to release this meditation separately so that you can return to it again and again as need.

The meditation begins at 00:27 and is approximately 15 minutes long.

Following the meditation is a dialogue where Sarah Jane and Jen share about what arose for them during the practice. Sarah skillfully unpacks their experiences within the wider context of "parts work" according to the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model. This is a teaching unto itself, and it is our greatest hope that it will be of benefit.

The dialog begins at 16:00.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

You can find more audio recording from Sarah Powers on her website.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

Our primary teacher Sarah Powers has spent decades studying, living, and teaching from the Wisdom traditions--Buddhism, Yoga, Taoism, and contemporary western psychology. As the new coronavirus pandemic spread, Sarah joined us via Zoom from London to talk about the wisdom and opportunity for awakening amidst this suffering.

From how to be sick, to parenting, to lifestyle medicine, in this episode we hear about aspects of the harmonious approach to living Sarah developed well before our current circumstances. We examine the question, "how do we foreground what is most important and bring meaning to this precious, impermanent life?" In repsonse, Sarah discusses developing an inner life, taking risks, and healing ourselves as well as supporting others.

Sarah illuminates our 21st-century predicament – violence, environmental crisis, the harm caused by industrialized food – and shares her vision of the gifts in this global pause. May we look back on this five years from now and see, as Sarah envisions, that this is “the moment we kicked over into something totally renewed.”

During the recording of this episode, Sarah generously led an inquiry meditation for holding and healing wounded and distressed parts of ourselves with compassion. We decided to release this meditation separately as a bonus along with a very potent dialogue about Internal Family Systems (IFS) parts work.

Find out more about Sarah Powers and in the Insight Yoga Institute.

Inspiring books mentioned by Sarah Powers in this episode:

The Legacy of Luna by Julia Hill Butterfly

Lessons from the Light by Kenneth Ring, PhD, and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino

The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Unattended Sorrow by Stephen Levine

Intimacy from the Inside Out by Toni Herbine-Blank, Donna M. Kerpelman, Martha Sweezy

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga and Sarah Jane at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com

Mudita, or sympathetic joy, is the third in the series of the four most highly regarded qualities, or “sublime states,” in Buddhism: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy)and upeksa (equanimity).

Mudita is a potent practice that helps us experience joy even when life feels difficult and warm feelings are hard to access.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane helps you bring forth feelings of joy so they will be more likely to arise spontaneously in daily life.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

In Chinese Medicine, the immune system is comprised of a protective barrier of energy (Qi), called Wei Qi ( pronounced “way chee”), that circulates through the body while also emanating about an inch around the outside of the body. The Taoists believe that, like a force field, Wei Qi prevents external pathogens, like viruses and bacteria, from making us sick.

In this guided practice, Jennifer shares a gentle Yin Yoga practice that targets the Kidney, Urinary Bladder, Lung, Large Intestine, Spleen, and Stomach meridians to help strengthen Wei Qi.

You’ll need a yoga block or similar substitutes such as a thick book or a firm pillow.

The episode starts with a brief description of Wei Qi. The practice starts at 1:46. If your app supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead and get started right away. You can expect moments of silence so that you can practice the inner methods offered.

Disclaimer:The information and postures shared in this episode are not a substitute for proper medical care. If you are ill or injured, please consult your physician.

Practicing asana comes with inherent risk. It is up to you to assess whether the postures shared in this practice are appropriate for you. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or movement program.

You assume responsibility for any injuries suffered while practicing these techniques.

~

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga.

Continuing the conversation on how Yin Yoga affects the physical body, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the physical benefits of the practice, immediately zeroing in on the elephant in the room: the edge.

What is it? Why is it important? Is it safe to spend time there? How might we describe it to students so they can safely encounter it, so they can find their sweet spot?

In the course of this discussion Jen coins a phrase: ujayii bypassing. If you don’t immediately have an idea what that might be, you might be doing it, and missing out on an important aspect of yin yoga asana practice: feeling.

No discussion of yin yoga would be complete without delving into sensation and the practitioner's attitude or relationship to it. And what about pain? Is it possible for a practice to help us redefine or diminish it?

Jen thinks Gate Control Theory may be at play in the way in which yin yoga asana minimizes her back pain. Sarah Jane muses whether yin yoga could have made her stronger. (More likely it improved her proprioception.)

Finally, Jen and Sarah Jane wend their way toward the healing effects of embodiment practices on trauma and body image, and how well suited yin yoga poses are to this work.

Resources

“Not Too Much and Not Too Little,” an article in which Bernie Clark explains the “Goldilocks position”

“Gate Control Theory and the Brain,” a recent article on Very Well Mind

The Neurobiology of Pain and Yoga as its Medicine an article on helping students reframe their relationship to painful sensation using internal methods and asana.

Enhancing Proprioception and Interoception in Yoga, Jen offers some practical advice for yin and yang teachers.

Overcome Trauma with Yoga (video) from Bessel van der Kolk on KripaluVideo

“How Yoga Helps Heal Trauma: A Q&A with Bessel van der Kolk” on Kripalu.org

Center for Trauma Embodiment and Trauma of the Justice Resource Institute is the epicenter of trauma-sensitive yoga and yoga teacher training

Paper from David Emerson et al. that codified principles of trauma-sensitive yoga, which Sarah Jane incorporates into her yin yoga instruction

“Yoga, Body Image, and Self-Acceptance: A Review of Yoga & Body Image” in Yoga International by Jennifer Mattson

Body Positive Yoga with Amber Karnes

Dianne Bondy Yoga is For Everybody

Karuna, or compassion, is the second in the series of the four most highly regarded qualities, or “sublime states,” in Buddhism: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy)and upeksa (equanimity).

Compassion arises when loving-kindness meets suffering and stays loving. It's more of a process than a static quality. In practice, we call upon this natural capacity of the heart and purposefully sustain it through the repetition of phrases.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane encourages you to draw on the natural care that arises when considering a beloved person’s measure of suffering. You'll take that energy and direct it to you both before expanding in all directions to include all beings.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

In this episode of our continuing series on Yin Yoga, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the physical benefits of the practice. Many of us practice Yin Yoga, at least in part, to give ourselves the chance to experience “just being,” an antidote to the stresses produced by our busy lives. But even as we enjoy the emotional and mental effects of slowing down in Yin poses, all sorts of wonderful things are happening on the physical level.

As we unpack the benefits of Yin Yoga, including better mobility, Jen addresses common misunderstandings about the impacts of the practice on various tissues in the body. The result is a mini-primer on contemporary and emerging understanding of topics such as “stretching”--what is it?--to the longevity of the effects of practice, topics every yin yoga teacher should be at least somewhat familiar with.

And we didn’t even get to embodiment and body image, topics in the realm of the physical that are inextricably linked to Yin for so many practitioners! Stay tuned for those discussions in part 2, episode 14, next month. (Interceding odd-numbered episodes are guided practices.)

Resources
Facebook Group: The Art and Science of Teaching Yin Yoga

Jen’s Online Fascia Course: Fascia 101

Jules Mitchell’s new book: Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined

Paul Grilley’s book: Yin Yoga: Principles and Practice

Yin Yoga: Principles and Practice 10th Anniversary Edition

Many yoga and mindfulness practices are specifically designed to grow one's capacity to remain present - internally and externally - from moment to moment.

In this guided practice, Jennifer shares a simple practice for getting to know the current state of your body, heart, and mind so that you have the information you need to take care of yourself in a practice or in daily life. This meditation is particularly beneficial at the very beginning of a yoga practice, so that you have a better snapshot of what you need and how your body may react to the practice.

The meditation is presented in the container of Butterfly, a relatively easy and widely accessible Yin Yoga posture. It is based on techniques shared with Jennifer and Sarah Jane by their teacher Sarah Powers. Being in non-neutral shapes can accelerate our ability to move out of the busyness of the thinking mind and into the more intuitive body mind.

This episode begins with a short explanation. Instructions for Butterfly begin at 1:30. The meditation starts at 2:45. If your app supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead and get started right away.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga.

Yin yoga, the slow and quiet approach to asana, flows against the current of mainstream yoga practices these days. With this episode, we urge you to try it based on the ways in which it bolstered us during challenging times.

Not to dismiss the physical and energetic benefits of the practice, here we’re talking about an often unspoken aspect of Yin Yoga, that the poses serve as accessible containers for mindfulness meditation and similar practices.

In this episode, we get personal and share our early experiences with the practice and the ways in which it accelerated our relationship to the inner methods and transformed our lives.

In a yang society that encourages us to strive to the detriment of our health, Yin practice is a key tool for balance and awakening.

We would love to hear from you! Send us your stories about how Yin Yoga has impacted your life. You can email us feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or tag us on social (@skillfulmeanspodcast) on Facebook and Instagram.

If you want to know more about us, find Sarah Jane at https://www.sjswellness.com and Jen at https://sati.yoga.

Mentions:
If the opportunity to study with these yoga teachers comes along, take it!

Biff Mithoefer

Sarah Powers

And here is an introduction to Mindfulness of the Body from Ralph Steele: Dharma Talk

Metta, or loving-kindness, is the first of a series of meditation practices offered by the Buddha to cultivate the four qualities of love: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy)and upeksa (equanimity). Practicing loving-kindness (metta bhavana) begins a process that, when mature, leads to a more accepting, kindly, and caring relationship towards one’s self and others.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane takes you on a sweet and tender journey to self compassion.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

Maintaining practice is a must for yoga and meditation teachers, as well as serious practitioners of all sorts who are interested in spiritual growth. Establishing and maintaining the habit of practicing regularly is often hard won. It doesn’t take much to disrupt a daily routine, so what happens when holidays arrive? What happens when we travel for work or go on vacation? How does our practice life fare when we are among family we rarely see, or who don’t understand—or worse, don’t value—our path?

Knowing that consistency is key, we need to be clear about the circumstances that crowd out opportunities to practice or that tend to challenge our dedication, as well as the strategies that help us honor our commitment as practitioners.

In this episode we share our stories and approaches from standing meditation in the shower to practicing in airport corners and keeping the peace with family. We also consider issues around practicing in public (beaches and airports) and identifying and attending studio yoga classes in faraway cities.

Share your tips for maintaining your practice outside your normal rourtine on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. Tag us at @skillfulmeanspodast and we’ll share your tips with our listeners.

Mentions:

Thanissaro Bikkho discusses how to work with challenging family members in his talk “Skillful Shelter” published on Tricycle.com.

This relaxing Body Scan practice is inspired by a Buddhist teaching called Mindfulness of the Reality of the Body that appears in the First Foundation of Mindfulness. It's designed to help cultivate non-attachment to the body and to demonstrate one of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings: impermanence.

Jennifer begins this episode with a short talk on the context and intention behind the Body Scan practice. The meditation begins at 2:40.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

In this bonus episode and companion to Episode 6, Sarah Jane takes you through a guided RAIN practice. Experience for yourself this transformative method for reframing your relationships with your feelings while cultivating self-compassion.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.

RAIN (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Nurture) is a mindfulness meditation method developed by western Insight Meditation teachers to support practitioners in skillfully dealing with difficult emotions. RAIN can be used as an antidote to obstacles when they arise during meditation practice, as a practice in and of itself, in partnership, or off-the-cushion as a means to simply and mindfully pause during a challenging situation.

Sarah Jane is a regular practitioner of RAIN, and Jen has questions. In this episode, Jen shares what she has heard about RAIN meditation and asks Sarah Jane to help fill in the gaps. Together they cover its purpose, method, and benefits...and how it fits with each of their developing understandings of the Buddhadharma.

In an effort to make what she believes is an incredibly transformative meditation practice seem as accessible to others as it feels to her, Sarah Jane attempts to breathe life into what may at first sound systematic. Get a sense of the creativity involved in using RAIN to go from a contracted state of over-identification, confusion or denial into a state of loving awareness.

Sources and Resources:

Insight meditation teacher Michele McDonald coined the term RAIN and offers an online course through Tricycle.com.
Psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach champions RAIN with a robust website that includes an accessible recorded meditation practice as well as a RAIN Partner Protocol and audio guide.

In this practice episode, Sarah Jane guides you through the practice of walking meditation. You can expect instructions, reminders, and several periods of silence for you to focus on the experience.

A formal meditation practice doesn't have to be static. Walking meditation is particularly helpful when you're feeling restless, but it also takes your practice off the cushion and into daily life. And the Buddha himself was fond of this practice.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

In #4, we discuss what it means to advance in a yoga practice. Through the lens of the koshas--concentric layers of a human’s identity described in the Upanishads--you can view advancement as moving from the gross to the subtle, from the physical to the mental.

We unpack the koshas and their related practice methods from the outside in, from asana for anamaya kosha (the physical or “food” body), to pranayama for the pranic body, and so forth.

From her perspective as a private teacher, Sarah Jane shares the qualities that arise as harbingers of an advancing practice, and reveals her guiding principles for establishing a self-led practice. Throughout the show, Jen offers some nuggets for yoga teachers on how to bring a wider variety of teachings into the yoga room. This discussion would not be complete without noting how crucial it is to resist external pressures to focus too closely on asana.

As yoga teachers, we are concerned with the integrity and depth of the methods available to us and our students. And as Buddhist practitioners we cannot help but bring up wise effort and muse how anandamaya kosha, the innermost sheath seems akin to buddhanature. We finish with resources for people who want to move beyond asana and pranayama.

Follow us on Facebookand Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

Sources and Further Reading:

Athorough article-length overview of “The Koshas: 5 Layers of Being” by Linda Johnsen.
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, speaks about disembodiment, yoga, resilience, and more in On Being “How Trauma Lodges in the Body.”
“Meditation in Motion,” a quick description of Kripalu’s integrated approach to practice.

Training Beyond Asana:

Kripalu School of Yoga
Sarah Powers’ Insight Yoga Institute Primary Level Teacher Training for teachers and long-time practitioners.
The Himalayan Institute’s Mission Programs
Kaya Mindlin’s Supreme Release Yoga online programs integrate the full spectrum of Vedic wisdom.
Tricycle Magazine, Shambala Publications, and Sounds True offer online courses ranging from meditation to subtle-body yoga to deep dives into the Buddhist Canon.
Through Sati Yoga, Jen offers the online course “Taoism & Yin Yoga: Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Practice.”
Sarah Jane offers Wednesday Morning Sangha, a live, online drop-in meditation group.
Spirit Rock live streams Jack Kornfield on Monday nights and Insight Meditation Community of Washington live streams Tara Brach on Wednesday nights.
The UC-Berkeley Greater Good Science Center and Sounds True offer a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

Breath awareness is the heart of a mindfulness practice, a gift that brings the mind and body together in the present moment. This simple, yet profound, meditation will help you relax while also boosting concentration and focus.

You can practice with this meditation by itself. The short format also makes it ideal for meditating before a yoga practice to help you settle the mind and cultivate a state of inner listening.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

In Episode 2, we unpack “skillful means”: teachings and methods that support a practitioner’s journey on the path toward enlightenment. Serious yoga practitioners and teachers know this both includes and goes beyond asana and pranayama. So, what other means can we take up to wake up?

According to the Buddha, there is no one prescription. In Buddhism, skillful means (Pali: upaya) are whatever is expedient to continuing along the path, and appropriate to the circumstances (and discarded when no longer so). They are accelerative and adaptive, but may not lead to the ultimate truth...and that is okay. Examples from our practices include enhancement methods such as yin yoga, compassion meditation, and self-inquiry.

While the concept of upaya is used in some Buddhist contexts to classify teachings in a hierarchy, we use the concept to discern what is and what is not skillful when it comes to trends in contemporary western yoga (enter: goat and beer yoga).

Follow us on Facebookand Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

Sources and Further Reading:

An overview of Skillful Means from the online wiki Encyclopedia of Buddhism
The Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra, translated by Gene Reeves and published online by the Montreal Institute of Applied Mindfulness
The Tricycle.com article “When to Let Go of the Dharma, Too,” includes the Raft Parable, and teacher Stephen Batchelor discusses letting go of means to a particular end, and the empowering approach of secular dharma
In contrast to Batchelor’s secular lens, in the Tricylce.com article “Entering the Lotus,” Zen priest Michael Wenger shares the role the vast and iconic Lotus Sutra plays in Buddhist practice
The Aimee Mann song, That’s Just What You Are

In Episode 1, we start at the beginning, with the phenomenon that gave rise to the shared project that is Skillful Means Podcast: spiritual friendship.

In Buddhism, spiritual friends (Pali: Kalyāṇa-mitta, Sanskrit: -mitra) provide support and encouragement along the path. They may be monastic, lay peers, or teacher/student pairs. These relationships are fertile ground for better understanding the nature of the mind while also being protective in a world where contemplative practice is counter-cultural.

We use stories from the Buddhist Canon as well examples from our own lives to illustrate the purpose of spiritual friendship (supportive of practice), how it operates (encouraging the wholesome), and what a spiritual friendship is not (concerned with fixing). We also talk about whether and how it shows up in parts of the yoga world.

Our hope is to inspire you to identify and foreground spiritual friends or potential spiritual friends in your life. We end with resources that will help in this endeavor.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com

Sources and Further Reading:

“Spiritual Friendship,” excerpted from a lecture by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and published by Bodhi Monastery.
A big part of creating the conditions necessary for true happiness, according to Thanissaro Bikkho in his talk “Skillful Shelter” published on Tricycle.com, is choosing admirable friends.
In “The Whole of the Spiritual Life,” American Buddhist nuns Thubten Chodron and Ayya Tathaaloka discuss friendship in an interview with Sarah Conover on Tricycle.com.
“Making Friends on the Buddhist Path,” by Norman Fischer on Lionsroar.com opens with Ananda’s incomplete insight into the role of friendship in spiritual life and the Buddha’s teaching to Meghiya on the “five things [that] induce release of heart and lasting peace.”
In “Good Friendship is the Entire Spiritual Life,” published by the Garrison Institute, Josh Korda reflects on social connection in spiritual community.
In Beginning Anew: Four Steps for Restoring Communication, Sister Chan Khong, long-time friend of Thich Nhat Hanh and nun in the Plum Village monastic community, describes the conflict resolution process developed among the Plum Village monastics.

Resources for developing spiritual friendship and sangha:

Spirit Rock’s Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) network “Guidelines” and “Best Practices and How to Start a Group”
Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation Sangha Building Resources, including “Sangha in a Box
Insight Dialog guidelines and practice opportunities from Gregory Kramer
RAIN Partners protocol and guided meditation for in-person or online dyads, from Tara Brach

Welcome to Skillful Means Podcast.

Through the lens of Insight Yoga, hosts Sarah Jane Shangraw and Jennifer O'Sullivan will offer conversations on a variety of topics including:

an emphasis on the quieter, yin aspects of practice
nourishing the energy body
weaving in meditation with asana, and
inquiry methods, particularly Internal Family Systems

Launching: Late September 2019

Future episodes will drop every other week on Thursdays.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or drop us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com