Yogaland Podcast

Can you guess which podcast was the most popular of the year? I give you a glimpse into my analytics on this episode (spoiler alert: the #1 episode is not one of Jason's), plus we talk 2017 highlights (hello, creativity!) and lowlights (puffy eyes), what we're looking forward to in 2018, and how I aspire to channel both Maria Bamford and Oprah. (PS: Iyengar Yoga "belt" vs. "strap" question still not solved!!)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Judith Hanson Lasater and her daughter, Lizzie Lasater, have been on the podcast separately before. On episodes 64 & 65 I focused on their backgrounds and on the mother-daughter connection. This time, I wanted back up and simply ask the question, "Why restorative yoga?" Why now? And why isn't "regular" hatha yoga restorative enough? One response, in particular, surprised me -- seeing restorative yoga as a radical act of self care in a society that's so filled with aggression and violence.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode821.   Did you know that you can save money on your life insurance just because you do yoga? Health IQ is an insurance company that helps yogis get lower rates on their life insurance. To see if you qualify, get your free quote today at healthiq.com/yogaland or mention the promo code YOGALAND when you talk to a Health IQ agent. 2.   We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket m

Niika Quistgard, Ayurvedic practitioner extraordinaire -- is back! (She joined me on episode 17 for a great vata-calming episode. If you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it. It's a great foundation and complement to this one!) On this episode Niika explains the Ayurvedic approach to nourishing ojas -- thought to be our vital essence -- during the winter and the holiday season. When ojas is strong, we feel content, stable, and grounded. When it gets depleted, our immunity goes down the tubes (my parlance, not hers :) We got super-fancy and cross-cultural on this episode, because it turns out that the way to cultivate ojas is very similar to the Danish concept of hygge (think cozy socks, candlelight, and delicious spiced drinks). Niika also shares her approach to asana and pranayama for keep ojas tip top.Go to the shownotes page for an ojas-nourishing chai recipe from Niika and a link to her ojas assessment: yogalandpodcast.com/podcast/episode81/1.   Did you know that you can save money on

You've probably heard people say that a short yoga practice is better than no yoga practice. Jason and I heartily agree -- but it can still be hard to carve out the time. I think the root problem is that it's hard to step on your mat solo and know what to do. This episode will help you get over the avoidance. We talk strategy and Jason offers three concrete, easy approaches to creating a home practice sequence that suits your mood, your energy level, and your time crunch.If you still need help, I put lots of sequences here, on the shownotes page: yogalandpodcast.com/episode80/1. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.2. Care/Of is a new, online vitamin company that is devoted to personalization and authenticity in its sourcing. Set your health goals, take their quiz, and they'll give you vitamin, mineral, and adaptogen recommendations. Visit tak

When you're grieving, the holidays--with its equal share of memories and new situations--can intensify all of your feelings. The holidays can even surprise you with feelings that you might have considered long resolved. On this episode, Washington, DC, yoga teacher and studio owner Faith Hunter generously shares the story of losing her older brother, Michael, to complications from HIV. Faith and I talk about how time, therapy, patience, and yoga helped her move through the grieving process. If you're feeling all the feelings this season, my hope is that this episode will help you feel a little bit less alone in the world. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode79/Shout-Out to Sponsors:1. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.2. Care/Of is a new, online vitamin company that is devoted to personalization and authenticity in its sourcing. Set your

How can you get the most from your restorative poses? That's a question that Roger Cole and I explore on this episode. Roger Cole is an internationally recognized, certified Iyengar Yoga teacher who has been teaching since 1975. He is also an accomplished scientist educated at Stanford University and the University of California, with specialties in the science of relaxation, sleep, and circadian rhythms.In this interview, Roger explains how to use the Baro Reflex to maximize relaxation in restorative yoga poses. As he puts it, there is not one single system that is responsible for relaxation -- in yoga classes, we often focus on the nervous system. But, if you "gang up a lot of factors that promote relaxation," you're more likely to go deeper and feel more restored afterward. We also talk about that time he took B.K.S. Iyengar to a lab and tested his breathing (with interesting, if imperfect results), and a possible reason that inversions promote relaxation.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode78/Shout

Happy gratitude week folks! This week, Gina Caputo returns to talk about her Yoga Off the Mat/Let's Stay Together Challenge. I love the idea of infusing our holidays with meaning and with practice. This challenge does exactly that with small, actionable ideas for us to do together each week leading up to the holidays. Imagine the ripple effect it would have if everyone listening to this podcast took part. Makes my heart full just thinking about it! Use the hashtags #yogaoffthemat and #letsstaytogether so we can find each other and support each other in the challenge.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode77/Shout-Out to Sponsors:1. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.2. Care/Of is a new, online vitamin company that is devoted to personalization and authenticity in its sourcing. Set your health goals, take their quiz, and they'll give you vitamin, m

Jason and Andrea sit down to review some of the themes discussed in episode 74 with Jill Miller and to delve more deeply into the topic of yoga injuries. How do we stop overpraising flexibility and "going further" in a pose without becoming afraid to fully use and inhabit our bodies?Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode76/Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe.2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.  See acast.com/privacy for

We've all been there -- in that yoga class where the person next to us is not doing any of the poses the teacher calls out, or in teacher training when someone asks question after question after question after...you get the picture. Do these people drive you crazy? Or, if you're teaching, do you wonder how you can make that rebellious person follow your lead or satisfy the questioner's endless questions?This week, my guest is New York Times bestselling author, Gretchen Rubin. Her new book, The Four Tendencies, offers a framework for understanding how different personalities respond to both inner and outer expectations. I thought it would be fun to take Gretchen's framework into the yoga room to see how it plays out. We talk about The Rebel -- that person in class who is not doing any of the poses the teacher calls out. The Obliger -- the person who needs outer accountability to help them stick to their inner expectations. The Questioner (my tendency) who asks question after question after...you get the i

Jill Miller is the creator of Yoga Tuneup and The Roll Model Method -- a self care method that utilizes specific poses, sequences, and self massage tools to help you tune into your body's "blind spots." Jill's method can help ease and pains, it can soothe your nervous system, and increase proprioception -- that important ability to feel where your body is in space. Just before this interview, Jill made the announcement that years of wear and tear on her body (including yoga practice) have led to the need for a hip replacement. Understandably, the response in the yoga community was one of shock, curiosity, and even some judgment. Jill was kind enough to share her story -- what she thinks led her to this point, what she would do differently, and why she's not throwing yoga under the bus.For shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode74/Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. Fo

According to psychologist and author, Kelly McGonigal, listening to someone else's story of resilience and overcoming adversity can have a positive effect. Listening to someone's "restorative narrative" can inspire strength and courage in you. In addition, if you're the person doing the storytelling about your own traumatic event, and you both acknowledge the difficulty as well as the how it transformed you in positive ways, you are more likely to have better health outcomes. In this light, Andrea tells her breast cancer story and shares the four profound ways it has changed her three years later. Shownotes: http://yogalandpodcast.com/episode73Shoutout to our sponsors: 1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit http://mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within

Last week, I talked about the science of self-compassion and how self-compassion practice has more favorable outcomes than boosting self-esteem. On this episode, I offer a way to put self-compassion into practice by sharing a 10-minute guided Lovingkindness meditation. This type of meditation involves silently repeating a mantra and extending love and compassion toward yourself, then toward someone you love, then toward all beings. The full meditation is written out on the shownotes page: yogalandpodcast.com/episode72 Shoutout to our sponsors: 1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND. 3. We all go through busy times where it

High self-esteem used to be regarded as a vital component to happiness. But it's fallen out of favor in the past decade. Research -- much of it led by Dr. Kristin Neff -- has shown that self-compassion is a more effective way to increase optimism, happiness, curiosity, and connectedness. This episode talks you through the research and offers three very practical ways to incorporate self-compassion in your yoga practice and life. SHOWNOTES: yogalandpodcast.com/episode71/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of my favorite quotes from Jason is,"I believe that we should embrace anything and everything that helps us and our students be well." On this episode, we dive into the meaning behind that quote and why it's important to advocate for our students to try other modalities if needed. There are times when yoga teachers feel pressured to know all of the answers or to make a diagnosis and there are also times when we unintentionally make our students feel guilty if they're not finding healing in the yoga room. Jason dispels these ideas and helps teachers cope with not having all the answers. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode70/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We all struggle from time to time with the question -- "Am I doing enough?" This week, Jason and I talk about this question and this fear in the yoga room. His clear message: Trust in the process of yoga. And return to the fundamentals of what we're trying to teach (and learn) in yoga: To hone attention and discipline so that we can remain steady in the face of stress.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jason is back and he's sharing just a few of the values he hopes to pass onto his teacher training graduates. We talk about -- how do you develop a strong, personal point of view without minimizing others' points of view? And is yoga a discipline that changes over time -- are we allowed to revise? For shownotes and a full blog post go to: yogalandpodcast.com/episode68  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

MC Yogi is a well-known performing artist -- and perhaps one of the only rappers to write lyrics about Hanuman and Ganesha? -- and is married to artist Amanda Giacomini who I interviewed on episode 45. Together, they've owned and been the primary teachers at the Point Reyes Yoga Studio in Point Reyes, CA. On this episode, we talk about MC Yogi's his new book, Spiritual Graffiti, which tells the story of how discovering yoga helped him overcome his troubled youth and brought his artistry to life. Thanks to MC Yogi for allowing us to use his music for this episode. For shownotes and a link to order his book: yogalandpodcast.com/episode67  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the beautiful, moving, hopeful memoir, Estranged: Leaving Family & Finding Home. Jessica was raised in a seemingly typical middle class family in Long Island. But behind the scenes she suffered physical abuse from her father. She made the decision in her late twenties to stop communicating with her parents not knowing that the decision would become permanent. Now, 17 years later she's written a memoir that Elle Magazine included in their guide to the "best books of summer," and that Glamour called "gripping." Jessica was first introduced to yoga in high school and immersed herself in the practice after the estrangement. She practiced many different styles -- Jivamukti, Baptiste, vinyasa -- before settling on Iyengar as her chosen path. We talk about how yoga helped her reclaim her body, how it informs her choices now that she's a mom, and how it kept her sane and inspired during the writing of this book. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode66/  See aca

Lizzie Lasater teaches the pleasure of deceleration through Restorative yoga workshops and digital trainings. Lizzie is the daughter of venerated yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater, so I was keen to pick her brain about how yoga was (successfully! without rejection!) passed onto her. Lizzie also offers great tips for incorporating Restorative Yoga into everyday life. And, as she's witnessed both of her parents growing older and benefitting from lifelong yoga and meditation practice, Lizzie talks about the importance of taking the longview with asana practice. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode65/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Judith Hanson Lasater Ph.D., physical therapist, has been teaching yoga since 1971. Judith has written nine books and is one of the founders of Yoga Journal Magazine. I had many opportunities to interview Judith during my decade as an editor there, but this interview was so refreshingly different for me because I got to ask her whatever I wanted! She shared how she found yoga, the importance of following your intuition, and her tips for learning to communicate clearly. I have the utmost respect for Judith -- her body of work, her insight, her compassion and care for her students all shine through in this interview. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode64/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.