Thank you for bearing with me while I’ve taken a short break. I’ve missed doing this podcast, and I’m so glad that Ty Powers, mindfulness guide extraordinaire, is the person to bring me back and round out this year.
"You live your values every day." I loved reflecting on this one sentence from Ty, even though so much else he shared is such a beautiful year-end gift. Ty has been working in the mindfulness, yoga, and Buddhist sphere for decades, alongside his wife Sarah who was a guest on this show in the fall. He works for Skillfullchange.org and is a change and transition strategist. We talked a lot about how modern life has blurred the seasons of our lives and how the information age has caused us to misalign our bodies from our minds. We discussed the challenges that modern life brings up and how we can continue to utilize the wisdom traditions to look inside ourselves to uncover and recover parts of ourselves we pushed to the side. Ty and Sarah call this work Internal Family Systems, in which you can imagine having a whole family inside of you with different personalities and stories.
These two episodes with Ty and Sarah, who I’ve known for almost 20 years, feel like the best way to wrap up 2023. Stay tuned for a special episode next week on my year and my plans for 2024. And let me know what you think of this episode!
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Terms and references:
1. Ty Powers
4. Buddhism: a religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings from the Buddha
5. The three marks of existence: in Buddhism, everything is marked by three characteristics - impermanence, suffering or dissatisfaction, and non-self
6. Internal Family Systems (IFS)
7. W.A.I.T. Why Am I Talking?
8. A Book of Silence, by Sarah Maitland
9. Lojong: a practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition which uses various lists of aphorisms for contemplative practice; mind training
10. Seven Points of Mind Training
11. Sarah Powers episode on The Weeks Well
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
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Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
It feels at once difficult and incredibly easy to describe Sarah Powers and her work. She’s yet another beautiful embodiment of the intention of this podcast. A multidisciplinary practitioner, teacher, innovator, woman, mother, and global citizen, she offers 35 years of some of the deepest and most committed messages of interpersonal insight on how best for our species to thrive. This, all while we learn to survive and face the consequences of climate change and the many distractions we have invented to look away from ourselves, each other, and the planet.
All of this has to do with the ground, as she describes in our conversation, of practice. One of the founders of Yin Yoga, author of Insight Yoga (2008) and Lit from Within (2021), and co-creator—along with her husband, Ty Powers—of the Insight Yoga Institute, her teachings are, in my mind, central to the importance and impact of modern yoga.
Share this episode and Sarah’s work with everyone you know. The sound of her voice alone is worth taking in. That’s before you get to the import of her message, her life’s work. Enjoy!
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Terms and references:
1. Sarah Powers
2. Insight Yoga, by Sarah Powers
3. Lit from Within, by Sarah Powers
4. Ida: one of the nadis, or channels of energy. Ida is the left channel, which has a moonlike nature and feminine energy.
5. Pingala: one of the nadis. Pingala is the right channel, which has a sunlike nature and masculine energy.
6. Sushumna: one of the nadis. Sushumna is the central and most important channel.
8. Ty Powers
9. Iyengar yoga: a style of yoga, founded by B.K.S. Iyengar, focusing on the structural alignment of the body through the poses.
10. Ashtanga yoga: a style of yoga, popularized by Pattabhi Jois, consisting of six series with a fixed order of poses.
11. YogaWorks
12. Erich Schiffmann
13. Bernie Clarke
14. Paul Grilley
15. Paul Grilley on The Weeks Well
16. Psychosynthesis: a type of psychology focused on a purposeful future, giving individuals the capacity to reorient their lives in the direction of meaning and values.
18. Vipassana: an ancient meditation technique focused on self-observation.
19. Tantric: a type of Buddhism that focuses on mystical practices and concepts as a path to enlightenment.
20. Dzogchen: utilizes methods of meditation and yoga that help one fully awaken from illusions of self and reality that cause suffering in life.
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
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Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
This conversation is one that I hope delights and inspires you. Always clear, succinct and, though he argues with this last point, original, Paul Grilley brought so much to the project that is The Weeks Well. I would call him—and Sarah Powers, who will be on the show in two weeks—the OG of Yin Yoga. In combining an East Asian word or concept with a South Asian word or concept, they have not only officially, through our industry’s nomenclature, broadened the definition and reach of yoga, they have underscored how yoga “is a thing in itself.”
We talked about the chakras as the multiverse, your body as something akin to a kind of clay you are working with, and, coolest of all for me, about how the body is a battlefield between higher spiritual ambitions and animalistic instincts you need to survive in this world.
Your sense of wellbeing is an even flow of energy. Learn more about what Paul and his many students and sub-students think about how to get there. Enjoy!
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Terms and references:
1. Paul Grilley
2. Paul's recent essay on chakras, bandhas, and mudras
3. Sarah Powers
4. Bikram yoga: a system of hot yoga, founded by Bikram Choudhury, featuring a fixed sequence of 26 poses
5. Power yoga: vinyasa-style yoga focused on building strength and endurance
6. Ashtanga yoga: a style of yoga, popularized by Pattabhi Jois, consisting of six series with a fixed order of poses
8. Hiroshi Motoyama: a Japanese parapsychologist, scientist, spiritual instructor, and author who focused on spiritual self-cultivation and the relationship between the mind and body
10. Chakras: seven energy centers that run from the base of the spine to the top of the head
11. Mudras: signs, seals or symbols
12. Bandhas: locks
13. Samskaras: mental impressions or memories
14. Nadis: channels of energy
15. Sushumna nadi: the primary of the three main nadis in the body.
16. Chittra ni nadi: an energetic canal within the spinal column
18. Medulla oblongata: the connection between the brain stem and the spinal cord
19. Dharma: one's duty
20. Physicalism: the doctrine that the real world consists simply of the physical world
21. Idealism: the practice of forming or pursuing ideals, especially unrealistically
22. Prakriti: the Nature
23. Purusha: the divine Self which resides in all beings
24. Vin Yin Yoga: blends the yang elements of a vinyasa class with the restorative benefits of yin yoga
25. Rudolf Steiner: an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant
26. Vinyasa: a style of yoga characterized by moving seamlessly from one pose to the next using the breath
27. John Schumacher
28. Savasana: corpse pose
29. Pranayama: breath control, one of the eight limbs of yoga
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
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Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
I learned about Tracee Stanley from Gail Parker. These are both names I hope you now know as you follow the conversations on this podcast and as we dive into what yoga lineage is and why or whether it matters. Tracee is the first teacher I’ve talked to who has come from the Himalayan Yoga tradition. I’m glad she’s the first and I am looking forward to more greats from that school. Tracee is an author, Tantrika, teacher and, as she underscored in our talk, a listener. She also strikes me as a nature goddess, as the images on her site show, and as she describes nature as the source of so much of her inspiration.
We talked about her experience identifying as a post-lineage teacher and how she dips in and out of teachings from elders and wisdom practices that continue to connect her to the experience of remembering. We talked about the “industrial overculture” that doesn’t want you to find your true self, because that wouldn’t be such a productive discovery, probably. She wrote her first book, Radiant Rest, from her “yoga nidra nest,” and her upcoming book, The Luminous Self, is a summary of many practices she has learned, taught, and witnessed in her decades of teaching. Enjoy!
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Terms and references:
3. Radiant Rest, by Tracee Stanley
4. Beryl Bender on The Weeks Well
6. Tantric meditation: an energetic-based meditation based on Tantra, an esoteric yoga tradition
7. Kundalini Yoga: a type of yoga that involves chanting, singing, breathing exercises, and repetitive poses
8. Hatha Yoga: the physical aspect of yoga practice, including postures, breathing techniques, seals, locks, and cleansing practices
9. Yoga sutras of Patanjali, translated by Mukunda Stiles
11. Koshas: the energetic layers, or sheaths, of the body
13. Rod Stryker
14. Doug Keller on The Weeks Well
15. Post-Lineage Yoga, by Theo Wildcroft
16. Gary Kraftsow
17. Rishis/rishikas: an accomplished and enlightened person; Rishika was a tribe in Central Asia and South Asia mentioned in Hindu and Sanskrit texts
18. Yoga nidra: also called yogic sleep, it is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation
20. Yoga Sutra 1:36 (from Swami Satchidananda' translation): "Or by concentrating on the supreme, ever-blissful Light within."
21. Gail Parker on The Weeks Well
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
💡For the month of August, we're re-releasing a few of our favorite podcasts from the 2023 season so far. Enjoy listening (or re-listening!) to these talks and, as always, tell us your thoughts and send over guest ideas.
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Dr. Shyam Ranganathan holds an MA in South Asian Studies and an MA and PhD in Philosophy. He’s a strong voice on social media, and this is one of the few yoga handles that actually stops my scroll. That's for the same reason he kept me rapt in our conversation two months ago. We talked about his research on understanding how Non-Western traditions such as yoga are marginalized in a Western world and how BIPOC traditions of philosophy can help understand colonialism and inform our way forward and away from it.
We discussed how he approaches the practice of yoga, which he basically equates with the word 'Bhakti' since both words point to devotional practices; he describes yoga as being about devotion to individual and personal autonomy or sovereignty. Since so many of us don’t speak or study Sanskrit as a language or study yoga the way Dr. Ranganathan has, it strikes me that there is a lot to learn here. He offers a fresh perspective on pre-colonial yoga and how we can reclaim threads of it into our modern understanding of what we’re doing and how we’re practicing. I absolutely loved this conversation and hope you do too.
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Terms:
1. Logos: an appeal to the audience's sense of reason or logic
2. Religio: A Greek term originally meaning an obligation to the Gods
3. Dharma: duty
4. Churning of the Milk Ocean: an event in Hindu mythology when the gods obtain immortality by consuming the elixir of immortality
5. Ishvara: in Hinduism, God understood as a person
6. Tapas: spiritual austerity
7. Svadhyaya: spiritual study
8. Samskara: mental impression
9. Puja: worship service
10. Virtue ethics: a philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating virtuous habits
11. Consequentialism: a theory that says whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes
12. Deontology: the study of nature of duty and obligation
13. Bhakti: devotional worship directed to one supreme deity
14. Kaivalya: experience of absoluteness
15. Dharmamegha samadhi: cloud of virtue samadhi (contemplation); when you have lost even the desire for enlightenment
16. Brahmans: members of the highest Hindu caste
17. Asmita: ego sense
18. Vyasa: a revered sage in most Hindu traditions
19. Samkhyakarika: the earliest surviving text of the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy
20. Vrtti: modification
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References:
1. Dr. Shyam Ranganathan's Yoga Philosophy website
2. Dr. Shyam Ranganathan's Instagram account
3. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swami Muktibodhananda
5. Anjali Rao's episode on The Weeks Well
6. Shannon Crow's episode on The Weeks Well
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
💡For the month of August, we're re-releasing a few of our favorite podcasts from the 2023 season so far. Enjoy listening (or re-listening!) to these talks and, as always, tell us your thoughts and send over guest ideas.
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Have you ever thought about relaxation being a prerequisite to rest? Jillian Pransky does, and she says that relaxation is a prerequisite to listening. As we discuss here, it’s a process, and one that, thanks to science, we can now name and describe in detail. I would suggest that Jillian is part of a new cadre of experienced teachers exploring the art and practice of restorative yoga, which, yes, has its roots in Iyengar Yoga, but which is evolving beyond this original offering through such interdisciplinary health-span studies as the ones Jillian has been engaged in.
Jillian's teaching is most influenced by the Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chӧdrӧn. We go deeply into her experience as the yoga teacher for Chӧdrӧn's years of retreats at Omega Institute, when she "rewired her brain" to teach the way she does now. Like many, Jillian grew up ambitious, athletic, and professionally successful, and what she has found through years of practice is a sweet spot of nervous system and body-based regulation that comes from aligning the somatic layers of the body—these in the South Asian philosophy and practice are the physical, mental, emotional, breath, and bliss layers, or the koshas.
I can't recommend her Deep Listening enough, and I remain astonished that she was even able to use it as a title because isn’t that what all yoga practice is? I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
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Terms:
1. Yoga asana: yoga postures
2. Guru/Shisya: spiritual guide or teacher
3. Tantra Yoga: a practice using yantra (a figure representing a particular aspect of the Divine) and mantra (a sound formula for meditation) to experience the union of the masculine and feminine within the individual
4. Chakras: seven energy points running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
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References:
2. Deep Listening, by Jillian Pransky
3. Dr. Gail Parker on The Weeks Well podcast
4. Transcendental Meditation
5. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, by John Bradshaw
6. Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
7. Alan Finger and Mani Finger
8. ISHTA Yoga
9. The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast
10. International Association of Yoga Therapists
11. Jon Kabat-Zinn
12. Deepak Chopra
15. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swami Muktibodhananda
16. JJ Gormley
17. Tara Brach
20. Seane Corn on The Weeks Well podcast
22. Eddie Stern on The Weeks Well podcast
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
💡For the month of August, we're re-releasing a few of our favorite podcasts from the 2023 season so far. Enjoy listening (or re-listening!) to these talks and, as always, tell us your thoughts and send over guest ideas.
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Doug Keller's talks with me continue to be some of our most popular episodes. Here in his second episode, we explored what became a set of expanded precepts whose inclusion into modern practice could change yoga practice. Rather than the 10 yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances) that nearly every yoga teacher at least touches on in a teacher training, he offered 20. These come from the Natha Yogis, who in the 9th-10th centuries carried on with these behavioral suggestions for living a good life and, in doing so, embraced the tradition in yoga of practicing, experimenting, sitting with those experiments, and practicing some more. I think it's time in modern yoga to consider what Doug and I explored here. We also got into politics and social issues! I hope this talk delights you as much as his first episode did!
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Terms:
1. Prakriti: the Nature
2. Upanishads: Hindu religious texts in Sanskrit that make up the Vedas
3. Mahavira: founder of Jain spiritual system
4. Vedas: the most ancient Hindu scriptures
5. Mahabharata: a Sanskrit epic poem, which includes the Bhagavad Gita
6. Pada: portion
7. Kleshas: obstacles; the kleshas are considered the cause of suffering and are to be actively overcome
8. Henry Thomas Colebrooke: a Sanskrit scholar and orientalist
9. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: a German philosopher who is considered one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy
10. Ralph Waldo Emerson: an American writer and philosopher who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century
11. Henry David Thoreau: an American wrier and philosopher who was a leading transcendentalist
12. Neo-Vedanta: also called Hindu modernism, the Hinduism that developed in the 19th century
13. Swami Vivekananda: the first Hindu teacher to arrive in New England, taught Vedanta
14. Chakras: seven wheels of energy in the body located from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
15. Hatha Yoga Pradipika: a 15th-century Sanskrit text on hatha yoga
16. Western Esotericism: combines spirituality with an observation of the natural world while also relating humanity to the universe
17. Samadhi: contemplation; the final limb of the eight limbs of yoga
18. Jivanmukta: someone who has gained complete self-knowledge and self-realization and has attained liberation
19. Dharma: duty
20. Kama: pleasure, enjoyment
21. Kaivalya: a state of liberation reached by realizing that one's consciousness is separate from Nature (prakrti)
22. Natha Yoga: a variation of Tantric yoga; melded principles from yoga, Buddhism, and the Shaivism branch of Hinduism
23. Bindhu: a point or dot
24. Purusha: the divine Self which abides in all beings
25. Muktananda: the founder of Siddha Yoga
26. René Descartes: a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
27. Tantra: a type of yoga using yantra (a sacred geometrical figure) and mantra (a sound formula) to experience the union of the masculine and feminine within the individual
28. Mukti: spiritual liberation
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References:
1. Doug Keller
2. J-aim
4. Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda
5. The Weeks Well episode with Seane Corn
6. Doug Keller's guide to the yamas and niyamas
7. The Weeks Well episode with Eddie Stern
8. The Weeks Well first episode with Doug Keller
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
💡For the month of August, we're re-releasing a few of our favorite podcasts from the 2023 season so far. Enjoy listening (or re-listening!) to these talks and, as always, tell us your thoughts and send over guest ideas.
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Seane Corn is one of the most influential people in modern yoga. Her journey in yoga teaching and service work started after her teacher training and at the moment she "niched" into a student group she believed she could help. When she met her students at Children of the Night, a non-profit serving girls between 12-17 who had been sex trafficked, she says they served her, rather than the other way around. Since then she has taken her career into many important areas of the yoga market: She has raised millions of dollars for the various organizations she has founded and/or served (see: Off The Mat Into The World), written a popular book (Revolution of the Soul), and continued to teach her heart out. Now, after 25 years of teaching yoga, she is starting a teacher training program. In this conversation, taped in May, we dove deeply into the shadow work she has done to evolve her practice—to drive her pain into purpose. Seane talked to me about how wonderfully adjunctive both psychotherapy and the map of the energetic body have been as she continues excavating and embracing the fact that a spiritual path means recognizing that we’re all capable of hurting and being hurt.
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Terms:
1. Vagus nerve: responsible for the regulation of internal organ functions, such as heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as vasomotor activity, and certain reflex actions, such as coughing
2. Tantrika: relating to Tantra (a practice using yantra and mantra to experience the union of the positive and negative forces within an individual)
3. Prana: the vital energy
4. Chakras: seven energy points running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
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References:
1. Seane Corn
2. Revolution of the Soul, by Seane Corn
6. The Weeks Well episode with John Schumacher
7. The Weeks Well episode with Rob Schware
9. The Weeks Well episode with Eddie Stern
10. The Weeks Well episode with Stephen Cope
11. Off the Mat Into the World
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Dr. Jennifer Webb has been immersed in the study of psychology since her undergraduate days at Harvard in the 1990s. She got her Doctorate in Philosophy and Clinical Psychology from USC, and then she went on to Duke Integrative Medicine Center for her post-doc work. This is where she started intersecting professionally with yoga practice. At Duke, she learned how mindfulness is what she described as "the center of the wheel" for the work she was doing, which was to perform research and teach on weight loss and strategies for positive body image. This turned into a profound shift that she made—which she has been exploring for 17 years at UNC Charlotte where she is now an Associate Professor—around body positivity and loving and celebrating being the body you're in, versus trying to fix it and make it different.
I first met Dr. Webb through a research presentation she gave with Sat Bir Khalsa and me on media misperceptions of yoga. Seeing the numbers from Dr. Webb on how media has portrayed yoga as being either for loin-clothed men with long beards, or for thin, able-bodied white women in skin-tight athleisure wear is real. It's also encouraging to know that someone as smart as she is is contributing to so much change in the perception of yoga.
Dr. Webb has been diving ever deeper into the study of yoga and what component parts of it have efficacy for the populations she has been studying, so much so that she became a yoga teacher in 2021 through the first ever BIPOC-centered training through Integral Yoga. In this conversation, we talked about her past research studies, the most significant of which was with Curvyyoga.com. We also talked about how scientific literacy is one of the important aspects of society in today’s age of misinformation. Enjoy!
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Terms:
1. Randomized Control Trial: a study designed to measure the effectiveness of a new intervention or treatment by randomly assigning participants into an experimental group or a control group
2. Dialectical Behavior Therapy: a structured program of psychotherapy with a strong educational component designed to provide skills for managing intense emotions and negotiating social relationships
3. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy in which clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives
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References:
2. Dr. Jennifer Webb article: Realizing Yoga's all-access pass
3. Dr. Jennifer Webb article: Yoga at Every Size
4. Sat Bir Singh Khalsa on The Weeks Well podcast
6. Integral Yoga’s BIPOC Teacher Training Program
7. USC Department of Graduate Clinical Psychology
10. NCCIH
13. Melanie Klein
14. Eddie Stern episode on The Weeks Well podcast
15. James Fox episode on The Weeks Well podcast
16. Jessamyn Stanley
17. Dana Smith
18. Kim and Sat Bir Singh Khalsa video on yoga and pregnancy
19. Study on pregnant women's salivary cortisol levels going down
20. Chelsea Roff episode on The Weeks Well podcast
21. Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
James Fox started out in mindful meditation and yoga 30 years ago and soon after began teaching yoga to men facing life sentences at the San Quentin Prison. Soon after that, he founded the Prison Yoga Project, which is now all over the globe and is fueled by Fox’s dedication to teaching a trauma-informed approach in correctional facilities. The Prison Yoga Project’s reach is wide, in part because its approach is research based.
PYP’s and Fox’s classes not only address the standard self-regulatory aspects of any multi-modal yoga class; they even more profoundly apply a restorative justice model to help move students from the recognition of the harm they have done—not just to others but to themselves—to a place of empathy. This happens in many ways, but you will hear us talk most about the creation of community with them and for them. Fox talked about how to establish a practice in which everyone engages in pursuit of their highest good and their highest self. Indeed.
Enjoy the episode and as always, let us know if you have feedback, guest ideas, or anything else you want to chat about!
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Terms:
1. Restorative Justice Model: a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior
2. Raja Yoga: the system of concentration and meditation based on ethical discipline
3. Yamas: abstinence; the first of the eight limbs of yoga
4. Niyamas: observance; the second of the eight limbs of yoga
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses from their objects; the fifth of the eight limbs of yoga
6. Dharana: concentration; the sixth of the eight limbs of yoga
7. Dhyana: meditation; the seventh of the eight limbs of yoga
8. Asana: postures; the third of the eight limbs of yoga
9. Pranayama: the practice of controlling the vital force, usually through control of the breath; the fourth of the eight limbs of yoga
10. Ahimsa: non-violence or non-harming; one of the yamas
11. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: a form of psychological treatment that usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns
12. Dharma: one's duty
13. Sangha: community
14. Sympathetic Nervous System: the part of the nervous system that carries signals related to the "fight-or-flight" response
15. Parasympathetic Nervous System: the part of the nervous system that predominates in quiet "rest and digest" conditions; the main purpose is to conserve energy to be used later and to regulate bodily functions like digestion
16. Pada: part or portion
17. Victim Offender Education Facilitator: facilitators who work to help identify and repair the trauma as much as possible by creating an environment of trust, safety, inclusiveness, acceptance, and compassion
18. Moral injury: when one feels they have violated their conscience or moral compass when they take part in, witness or fail to prevent an act that disobeys their own moral values or personal principles
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References:
2. Prison Yoga Project's Donate a Book program
4. Sat Bir Khalsa episode on The Weeks Well podcast
5. Peter Levine
6. Gabor Maté
12. Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Dr. Shyam Ranganathan holds an MA in South Asian Studies and an MA and PhD in Philosophy. He’s a strong voice on social media, and his is one of the few yoga handles that actually stops my scroll. That's for the same reason he kept me pretty rapt in our conversation. Here we talked about his research on understanding how Non-Western traditions such as yoga are marginalized in a Western world and how BIPOC traditions of philosophy can help understand colonialism and inform our way forward and away from it.
We discussed how he approaches the practice of yoga, which he basically equates with the word 'Bhakti' since both words point to devotional practices; he describes yoga as being about devotion to individual and personal autonomy or sovereignty. Since so many of us don’t speak or study Sanskrit as a language or study yoga the way Dr. Ranganathan has–it strikes me that there is a lot to learn here. He offers a fresh perspective on pre-colonial yoga and how we can reclaim threads of it into our modern understanding of what we’re doing and how we’re practicing. I absolutely loved this conversation and hope you do too.
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Terms:
1. Logos: an appeal to the audience's sense of reason or logic
2. Religio: A Greek term originally meaning an obligation to the Gods
3. Dharma: duty
4. Churning of the Milk Ocean: an event in Hindu mythology when the gods obtain immortality by consuming the elixir of immortality
5. Ishvara: in Hinduism, God understood as a person
6. Tapas: spiritual austerity
7. Svadhyaya: spiritual study
8. Samskara: mental impression
9. Puja: worship service
10. Virtue ethics: a philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating virtuous habits
11. Consequentialism: a theory that says whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes
12. Deontology: the study of nature of duty and obligation
13. Bhakti: devotional worship directed to one supreme deity
14. Kaivalya: experience of absoluteness
15. Dharmamegha samadhi: cloud of virtue samadhi (contemplation); when you have lost even the desire for enlightenment
16. Brahmans: members of the highest Hindu caste
17. Asmita: ego sense
18. Vyasa: a revered sage in most Hindu traditions
19. Samkhyakarika: the earliest surviving text of the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy
20. Vrtti: modification
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References:
1. Dr. Shyam Ranganathan's Yoga Philosophy website
2. Dr. Shyam Ranganathan's Instagram account
3. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swami Muktibodhananda
5. Anjali Rao's episode on The Weeks Well
6. Shannon Crow's episode on The Weeks Well
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
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Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
One thing that I took away from my conversation with Patty Townsend is a dead ringer for something I took away from my talk with Jillian Pransky. I almost named these two episodes part 1 and part 2 because of the intersection of a few things: that of giving and receiving both friendship in and wisdom—love, really—in the practice.
It was a delight hearing about Patty's early days with Ashtanga, and then Iyengar, and then Tantra, and her other influential teachers, but what struck me most was her relationship with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, a movement artist interested in every type of healthy, holistic movement you can imagine.
Back to the friendship piece—Patty learned early on in her yoga career that there is no hierarchy in yoga, and no validity in the patriarchy to be sure. There is just co-creation, learning, and then more learning. Most of all, as she puts it: It’s not the mat, it’s the dishes and the children. I hope you enjoy this conversation with another maturing, great teacher who, in this case, has crisscrossed lineages to profound and inspiring effect.
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Terms:
1. Purusha: the divine Self which abides in all beings
2. Prakriti: the Nature
3. Sushumna: the main energy channel of the subtle body
4. Chakras: seven energy points running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
5. Hatha Yoga: the physical aspect of Yoga practice, including postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), seals (mudras), locks (bandhas), and cleansing practices (kriyas)
6. Shiva: God as auspiciousness
7. Shakti: power, energy or force
8. Samskaras: mental impressions
9. Koshas: the five layers (or sheaths) of the subtle body
10. Sarvangasana: shoulder stand
11. Sirsasana: headstand
12. Marichyasana 4: a twisting pose dedicated to the sage Marichi
13. Santosha: contentment; the second of the niyamas in the Eight Limbs of Yoga
14. Viveka: discrimination of the real from the unreal
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References:
3. Ganga White
4. Ana Forest
6. Patabhi Jois
7. BKS Iyengar
8. Kofi Busia
11. Angela Farmer
12. Richard Freeman
13. Beryl Bender
14. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino
15. Veronique Vienne
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
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Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Have you ever thought about relaxation being a prerequisite to rest? Jillian Pransky does, and she says that relaxation is a prerequisite to listening. As we discuss here, it’s a process, and one that, thanks to science, we can now name and describe in detail. I would suggest that Jillian is part of a new cadre of experienced teachers exploring the art and practice of restorative yoga, which, yes, has its roots in Iyengar Yoga, but which is evolving beyond this original offering through such interdisciplinary health-span studies as the ones Jillian has been engaged in.
Jillian's teaching is most influenced by the Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chӧdrӧn. We go deeply into her experience as the yoga teacher for Chӧdrӧn's years of retreats at Omega Institute, when she "rewired her brain" to teach the way she does now. Like many, Jillian grew up ambitious, athletic, and professionally successful, and what she has found through years of practice is a sweet spot of nervous system and body-based regulation that comes from aligning the somatic layers of the body—these in the South Asian philosophy and practice are the physical, mental, emotional, breath, and bliss layers, or the koshas.
I can't recommend her Deep Listening enough, and I remain astonished that she was even able to use it as a title because isn’t that what all yoga practice is? I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! Send feedback!
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Terms:
1. Yoga asana: yoga postures
2. Guru/Shisya: spiritual guide or teacher
3. Tantra Yoga: a practice using yantra (a figure representing a particular aspect of the Divine) and mantra (a sound formula for meditation) to experience the union of the masculine and feminine within the individual
4. Chakras: seven energy points running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
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References:
2. Deep Listening, by Jillian Pransky
3. Dr. Gail Parker on The Weeks Well
5. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, by John Bradshaw
6. Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
7. Alan Finger and Mani Finger
8. ISHTA Yoga
9. The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast
10. International Association of Yoga Therapists
11. Jon Kabat-Zinn
12. Deepak Chopra
13. Omega Institute
15. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swami Muktibodhananda
16. JJ Gormley
17. Tara Brach
18. Sharon Salzburg
19. Sylvia Boorstein
20. Seane Corn
21. Metta Institute
22. Eddie Stern
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Shannon Crow started her podcast, The Connected Yoga Teacher, in 2017. She did so after taking multiple teacher trainings and finding herself disconnected from her fellow trainees right after the training ended. This disconnection was something she also found as she started getting to know yoga teachers out in the world: From competition to cults, she found that teachers were not able to discover their true selves in teaching. So, she decided to help teachers feel more connected and to define their niche which, she says, gets rid of the competition because a) niching helps you do what you are most interested in and passionate about, and b) it enables you to be more collegial with other teachers as you refer students to the teacher you know works best for them. Shannon is also now deeply engrossed in pelvic health, which is why she has started the organization Pelvic Health Professionals. In this inspiring conversation, Shannon and I explore how yoga teachers can teach to their passion, and she encourages listeners not to give up.
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Terms:
1. Bhakti yoga: yoga of devotion; a path containing practices to unite the practitioner with the divine
2. Mantra: a sound formula for meditation
3. Sadhana: spiritual practice
4. Mula bandha: the root lock located at the base of the torso
5. Endometriosis: a condition in which endometrial tissue grows outside the uterus
6. The eight limbs of yoga: the eightfold path described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, including yamas (abstinence), niyamas (observance), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing practices), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (mediation), and samadhi (contemplation)
7. Ahimsa: non-harming or non-violence
8. Koshas: the five layers (or sheaths) of the subtle body
9. BKS Iyengar: the founder of Iyengar Yoga
10. Guru: spiritual guide
11. Shishya: succession from guru to disciple
12. Baddha konasana: lying down bound angle pose
13. Savasana: corpse pose
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References:
1. Shannon Crow Yoga and Consulting
2. The Connected Yoga Teacher podcast
3. Pelvic Health Professionals
4. Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers, and Practitioners, by H David Coulter
5. Kathryn Bruni-Young's Mindful Strength
7. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swami Muktibodhananda
8. Amanda Kingsmith on the Weeks Well podcast
9. Shelly Prosko of Physio Yoga
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
How many black men in their late 40s do you know teaching yoga and wellness? I met Reggie about 10 years ago as he began his mindfulness and wellness journey at the age of 40. Our conversation here, about what it means to practice being well, had all the threads of love, health, grace, peace, and joy (words he used in an email exchange after our talk). It’s a different kind of talk than the ones I normally have on this podcast, and that's because Reggie's emergence into this practice has come from half a lifetime of pain, grief, disappointment, and other feelings he says are necessarily ones you can't shy away from.
Of note for me, as I continue to learn about the wellness and yoga world in Denver: Reggie found his practice here in Mile High at a yoga studio called Kindness Yoga. Incredibly, given Reggie's deep and subtle work in this world, this studio has closed because its white male owner was canceled in 2020. Growth in any industry is difficult, and social accountability in the early 21st century is particularly swift and deep (if you're willing to be accountable!), and I want to bring up this interesting intersection because the Kindness closing is something I've wanted to explore on this podcast as well.
Reggie and I discuss all kind of things in our talk: the racism, the microagressions, and the sorrow and grief that he has had to get through to begin teaching what he has to say. His organization Active Peace Yoga launched about a month before George Floyd was murdered, for example. Since then, he has been talking nonstop about activism, peace, and yoga in his lived experience in his body. Enjoy!
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Terms:
1. Asana: postures
2. Sadhana: a spiritual practice or way of life
3. Karma: the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, which help decide their fate in future existences
4. Ahimsa: non-violence or non-harming
5. Sadhakas: someone who follows a certain sadhana with the aim of achieving a certain goal
6. Bija sound: a single-syllable sound that can be used in meditation
7. Satya: truth
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References:
1. Active Peace Yoga with Reggie Hubbard
2. Reggie Hubbard on Instagram
3. Kripalu event - Permission and Refuge: A Meditative Livestream Experience
5. Toni Carey
6. The Weeks Well episode with Eddie Stern
7. The Weeks Well episode with Seane Corn
9. The Weeks Well episode with Monique Schubert
10. Activist in Residence Program At Kripalu
12. The Weeks Well episode with Jivana Heyman
13. The Weeks Well episode with Anjali Rao
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
I decided to keep going with Doug Keller, whose first talk continues to be one of our most popular episodes. We did a minor review of his first talk, which was as dense and captivating as this one. Then, Doug explored what became a set of expanded precepts whose inclusion into modern practice could, in my opinion, change the game. These are 20 yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), rather than the 10 that nearly every yoga teacher at least touches on in a teacher training. Doug points to the Natha Yogis, who in the 9th-10th centuries carried on with these behavioral suggestions for living a good life and, in doing so, embraced the tradition in yoga of practicing, experimenting, sitting with those experiments, and practicing some more. I think it's time in modern yoga to consider some grounded experimentation and reflection as Doug and I explored here. We got into politics, social issues, and all kinds of other aspects that I hope delight you as much as the last episode did.
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Terms:
1. Prakriti: the Nature
2. Upanishads: Hindu religious texts in Sanskrit that make up the Vedas
3. Mahavira: founder of Jain spiritual system
4. Vedas: the most ancient Hindu scriptures, written in Sanskrit
5. Mahabharata: a Sanskrit epic poem, which includes the Bhagavad Gita
6. Pada: portion
7. Kleshas: obstacles; the kleshas are considered the cause of suffering and are to be actively overcome
8. Henry Thomas Colebrooke: a Sanskrit scholar and orientalist
9. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: a German philosopher who is considered one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy
10. Ralph Waldo Emerson: an American writer and philosopher who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century
11. Henry David Thoreau: an American wrier and philosopher who was a leading transcendentalist
12. Neo-Vedanta: also called Hindu modernism, the Hinduism that developed in the 19th century
13. Swami Vivekananda: the first Hindu teacher to arrive in New England and taught Vedanta
14. Chakras: seven wheels of energy in the body located from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
15. Hatha Yoga Pradipika: a 15th-century Sanskrit text on hatha yoga
16. Western Esotericism: combines spirituality with an observation of the natural world while also relating humanity to the universe
17. Samadhi: contemplation; the final limb of the eight limbs of yoga
18. Jivanmukta: someone who has gained complete self-knowledge and self-realization and has attained liberation
19. Dharma: one's duty
20. Kama: pleasure, enjoyment, desire
21. Kaivalya: a state of liberation reached by realizing that one's consciousness is separate from Nature (prakrti)
22. Natha Yoga: a variation of Tantric yoga; melded principles from yoga, Buddhism and the Shaivism branch of Hinduism
23. Bindhu: a point, drop, or dot
24. Purusha: the divine Self which abides in all beings
25. Muktananda: the founder of Siddha Yoga
26. René Descartes: a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
27. Tantra: a type of yoga using yantra (a sacred geometrical figure) and mantra (a sound formula) to experience the union of the masculine and feminine within the individual
28. Mukti: spiritual liberation
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References:
2. J-aim
3. Christopher Key Chapple
4. Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda
5. The Weeks Well episode with Seane Corn
6. Doug Keller's guide to the yamas and niyamas
7. The Weeks Well episode with Eddie Stern
8. The Weeks Well first episode with Doug Keller
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Seane Corn is one of the most influential people in modern yoga. Her journey in yoga teaching and service work started after her teacher training and at the moment she "niched" into a student group she believed she could help. When she met her students at Children of the Night, a non-profit serving girls between 12-17 who had been sex trafficked, she says they served her, rather than the other way around. Since then she has taken her career into many important areas of the yoga market: She has raised millions of dollars for the various organizations she has founded and/or served (see: Off The Mat Into The World), written a popular book (Revolution of the Soul), and continued to teach her heart out. Now, after 25 years of teaching yoga, she is starting a teacher training program. In this conversation, we dive deeply into the shadow work she has done to evolve her practice—to drive her pain into purpose. Seane talked to me about how wonderfully adjunctive both psychotherapy and the map of the energetic body have been as she continues excavating and embracing the fact that a spiritual path means recognizing that we’re all capable of hurting and being hurt.
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Terms:
1. Vagus nerve: responsible for the regulation of internal organ functions, such as heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as vasomotor activity, and certain reflex actions, such as coughing
2. Tantrika: relating to Tantra (a practice using yantra and mantra to experience the union of the positive and negative forces with an individual)
3. Prana: the vital energy
4. Chakras: seven energy points running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head
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References:
1. Seane Corn
2. Revolution of the Soul, by Seane Corn
3. Mona Miller
7. Rob Schware
9. Eddie Stern
10. Stephen Cope
11. Off the Mat Into the World
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Eddie Stern has been a spiritual seeker and curious contemplative his whole life. He has spent most of his time in the Ashtanga Yoga tradition and was a student of Pattabhi Jois, but along with many in the school, he has worked hard to heal traumas and elected to expand his view of practice participation in the world for the greater good. He recently decided to get his Masters degree (but he skipped college; listen in for the full details), and his dissertation was titled "Can Yoga Reduce Anxiety and Increase Perception of Purpose in life?" This work speaks to the heart of where he sees himself participating in the world for the rest of the time he's got here. The actions he’s taking in the world—such as inventing and sharing the popular The Breathing App, putting on a multi-month program with Deepak Chopra, and actually wanting to get into the ring and debate what he feels are incorrect and frankly harmful academic theories that have been promoted about yoga—are inspiring and, it seems to me, a function of his tireless intellect and desire to "do the work." It was that part that inspired me the most. Enjoy!
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Terms:
1. Sangha: community
2. Ardha matsyendrasana: half lord of the fishes pose
3. Asana: postures, the third of the eight limbs of yoga
4. Pranayama: control of the breath, the fourth of the eight limbs of yoga
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses, the fifth of the eight limbs of yoga
6. Dharana: concentration, the sixth of the eight limbs of yoga
7. Dhyana: meditation, the seventh of the eight limbs of yoga
8. Kaivalya: experience of absoluteness, non-qualified experience
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References:
1. Eddie Stern
2. The Broome Street Ganesha Temple
3. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
5. Yogananda
9. Aristotle
10. Ramana Maharshi
11. Think on These Things, by Jiddu Krishnamurti
12. Dharma Mittra
13. Ravi Singh
14. Kundalini Yoga
15. Amrit Desai
16. Kripalu
17. Deepak Chopra
20. Holger Kramer
21. Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory on Connection, Consciousness, and Being, by Neil Theise
22. Richard P. Brown
24. Resonance frequency breathing
25. Nature Journal article on resonance breathing
26. Doug Keller's guide to the yamas and niyamas
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter and to our latest regular content community, Substack. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Kino MacGregor manages to walk a fine line between the scroll-stopping stuff of Instagram and the deep practice of belonging, discernment, and freedom in yoga. If you do just take her in on Instagram, I wonder if you look past her flawless yoga asanas and pictures of the far-flung places she teaches, and read what she writes about her practices and experiences. She says repeatedly that yoga is not about the poses, which she calls the "grammar" of yoga; it's about looking deeply inside and freeing yourself through sensation, experience, and love. The poses do teach you how to learn to be in and understand your body, but they, along with the myriad other practices of chanting, pranayama, meditation, deep relaxation, and more, teach you how to move from the dissociation of daily life to getting closer to your experience of God.
In this conversation, we talked primarily about: 1) the responsibility of yoga teachers to protect the practices and lineages, 2) how 200 hours of training prepares you only to know whether you want to teach or not, but not how to teach, 3) how deep immersive study is the only way NOT to appropriate these practices, 4) how Ashtanga Yoga can be an accessible practice, and 5) how devotion to teacher and your own practice, largely through tapas or burning zeal, is the only way you will grow in the practice. We covered a lot more, and I hope you enjoy!
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Terms:
1. Asana: postures
2. Mantra: a sound formula for meditation
3. Sadhana: spiritual practice
4. Tapas: spiritual austerity or burning zeal
5. Arjuna: a main character in The Bhagavad Gita (a Hindu scripture)
6. Samskara: mental impression
7. Vasanas: the impression of actions that remains unconsciously in the mind and induces a person to repeat the action
8. Viveka: discriminative discernment of the untrue from the true
9. Abhinivesha: will to live
10: Koshas: sheaths of the body
11. Anamaya kosha: one of the five koshas, the food body
12. Manomaya kosha: one of the five koshas, the mind sheath
13. Pranamaya kosha: one of the five koshas, the vital energy or life force sheath
14. Anandamaya kosha: the last of the five koshas, the bliss sheath
15. Pranava: OM, the sacred sound
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References:
3. Omstars
4. Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
5. The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Eknath Easwaran
6. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda
7. The Road Not Traveled, by Robert Frost
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Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
Rob Schware and Chelsea Roff are doing so many interesting things in yoga that I don't know where to start in these show notes. First, they are disruptors in an industry that since its modern inception has served a small group of suburban and urban women and the cultural elite. Give Back Yoga Foundation, the organization they run together as Co-Executive Directors, is in the business of serving people in need: those working with addiction, cancer, eating disorders, and those in prison. Schware says, in fact, that he thinks yoga is only about service.
Second, before she started working with Schware, Roff went on a yoga strike to raise money for her first organization, Eat Breathe Thrive. She did this to raise $50K to fund a research study on a yoga intervention for eating disorders. This speaks to the heart of Give Back Yoga: Disrupting a marketplace with care and a family-based approach to service those in need, but also, with scientific research. Those at Give Back wake up every day aiming to deliver more yoga services to those in need with interventions backed by research, and Roff's Eat Breath Thrive is just one of several organizations that Give Back fiscally sponsors to do their work. The organization also has donated more than 35,000 mats to teachers to help get the communities they serve practicing.
Finally, Give Back has launched a university for teachers all over the world to educate them on best practices for teaching the communities their sponsees have taught them how to work with. Schware says they are drawn to teachers and professionals with a “fire in the belly;” that phrase could well have been the title to this episode. Enjoy! Check out all the links from Give Back below, and I hope you consider working with them!
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Terms:
1. Randomized Control Trials (RCTs): prospective studies that measure the effectiveness of a new intervention or treatment
2. Maitri: Sanskrit word meaning friendliness
3. Ahimsa: Sanskrit word meaning non-harming or non-violence
4. Bhakti yoga: yoga of devotion or love that unites the practioner with the divine
5. Samskara: Sanskrit word meaning mental impression
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References:
6. Yoga4cancer
7. The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute
____
Episode credits:
Original music by Kim's band Governess.
Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.
____
Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.
Follow Kim on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).
Copyright © 2023 Weeks Well®.
