A Grateful Life

Every Monday morning, as the sun is coming up, I walk down my friend's garden path to her house for tea ceremony. 

Gentle music. Incense. Bowls of tea. A handful of women from my little town, sitting together in silence. There is some kind of alchemy there I cannot fully explain. What I walk away with is always more than the sum of its parts.

My guest today on the podcast has just written a book exploring rituals just like this.

Tracee Stanley (she/her) is the author of the bestselling books Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self, and her new book, Living Ritual: Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit, is out this August. 

Tracee has been a student of Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan Masters for over thirty years, and she is devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga nidrā, rest, meditation, self-inquiry and ancestor reverence.

In this episode, we talk about ritual as something far bigger than incense and candles.

We explore:

• The difference between internal ritual, external ritual, ceremony and rite of passage
• The sandhyās, the sacred transitional points of the day in Hindu philosophy, and how to weave micro rituals into a busy, householder life
• A threshold practice for marking what you're leaving behind, what you're present to, and what you're walking towards
• Tea ceremony as a portal, including the five vāyus (subtle winds) and how different teas can be felt moving differently in the body
• Ritual and rite of passage as tools for marking life transitions such as divorce, menopause or grief, and the value of sitting in liminal space
• Reclaiming attention from devices, including Tracee's analog cocoon practice and her yearly six-week break from social media
• The four aims of life (puruṣārthas), artha, kāma, dharma and mokṣa, reframed away from grasping and towards nourishment and support
• Tracee's own morning ritual, from mantra and chanting through to tea and mind mapping

This conversation left me thinking differently about the small transitions in my own day. I hope it does the same for you.

Connect with Tracee Stanley at https://www.traceestanley.com/

Join the Australian 2026 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training in September at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online 

Listen to the music for nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join/

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

Before I met Jo, my mental image of aerial yoga was mostly circus-like. Beautiful, yes. Fun, sure. Relevant to the yoga teachers and therapists I work with? I wasn't convinced. Boy, was I wrong.

Jo Stewart (she/her) is one of Australia's most experienced aerial yoga teachers. She founded the Garden of Yoga studio in Northcote, Melbourne, co-hosts the Flow Artists Podcast, and has spent years developing a genuinely accessible, therapeutic approach to aerial yoga, one that understands that different brains and bodies need different pathways into regulation, rest and inner awareness. Her first book, Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga, is published by Singing Dragon and is out now.

Aerial yoga, it turns out, is not what I thought it was. The hammock in Jo's practice is a prop, in the same spirit as a bolster or a block. For students who are neurodivergent, living with anxiety or PTSD, or who simply don't find stillness regulating, aerial yoga can open up a whole range of options, like gentle rocking, cocooning, deep pressure, spinning, or closing the world out entirely, while still practising alongside others.

We also moved into territory I find myself returning to again and again. How do we reckon with the harm caused by influential yoga teachers while still practising within traditions they shaped? Jo explores this honestly in her book, and we unpack what it means to hold that complexity without erasing it.

And then I turned two questions from the Samādhi chapter of her book back on her. How would you act if you were already enlightened? And what stops you?

It was, as Jo put it at the end, a little bit like therapy. I'll take that.

In this episode, we explore:

• What aerial yoga actually is, and how the hammock functions as a therapeutic yoga prop rather than a circus apparatus.
• Why stillness is not the only route to calm, and how the hammock allows for movement-based regulation in a group setting.
• The particular benefits for neurodivergent students and those with anxiety or PTSD, including options for deep pressure, vestibular stimulation, cocooning and visual control.
• The historical roots of supported inversions and fabric use in yoga, from the Indian thottil through Krishnamacharya's ropes to the Iyengar rope wall.
• The difference between circus and yoga, performance versus inner experience, and what aerial practice genuinely shares with both traditions.
• How to navigate the harm caused by influential but abusive teachers, and why Jo chose to name B.K.S. Iyengar's complexity directly in her book.
• The importance of teaching students to trust their own intuition over any teacher's authority.
• What it looks like to act as your highest self now, without waiting for the perfect moment.
• People-pleasing in helping professions, when is it genuine service, and when is it something else?

Connect with Jo Stewart at https://gardenofyoga.com.au/

Join the Australian 2026 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training in September at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Download the music for nervous system regulation playlists at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join/

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance, or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

What does it take to leave behind everything you've built, cycle 8,000 miles across the world, with no clear plan for what comes next?

I recorded this conversation live at the Bali Spirit Festival, sitting across from Charley Patton, co-founder of the iconic Yoga Barn in Ubud. After 16 years climbing the corporate ladder in America, Charley did something that many of us dream about and few of us actually do, he left. Not impulsively, but with intention, careful planning, and a custom-built touring bicycle.

What began as a two-week stop in Bali en route to Cambodia became, slowly and irreversibly, a life. And out of that life grew one of the most beloved yoga spaces in the world.

So often we look at a successful and established business, and don’t know about the real people behind the scenes and all the decisions, big and small, that led them there. And I loved hearing about Charley’s journey. We talked about the moment Charley realised his outside life no longer matched his inside life and how yoga cracked something open in him that made staying impossible.

We talked about Bali's extraordinary spiritual culture, the 2002 bombings and how the Balinese community responded, the ethics of tourism and how to show up with humility on land that isn't yours.
 
We talked about what it really means to follow your dharma and why that might be one of the most practical and political acts available to us right now.

In this episode, we explore:

• Charley's 16 years in corporate America, and the Sunday dread that finally made staying impossible
• How yoga first helped him survive, and then helped him see he needed to do more than survive
• His solo 8,000-mile bicycle journey through seven countries and the two-week Bali stop that never ended
• The founding of the Yoga Barn - from a tiny by-donation space on the third-floor to one of the world's most well-known yoga communities
• Balinese spiritual culture, the significance of ceremony and offerings, and what the 2002 Bali bombings meant on a spiritual level for the Balinese people
• The ethics of tourism and how to travel with consciousness, humility and an open heart
• The question of congruence - are you living from the inside out, or wearing a mask every day?
• Joseph Campbell's hero's journey as a map for those standing at a crossroads
• The concentric circles of right relationship - with self, partner, family, community and the world

Connect with Charley Patton at https://theyogabarn.com/

Find out more about the Bali Spirit Festival at https://www.balispiritfestival.com/

Join the Australian 2026 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training in September at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

What does it look like to say yes to life in the very week your father has died?

I recorded this conversation with Bex Tyrer (she/her) at the Bali Spirit Festival in Ubud, exactly one week after her father passed away at the age of 98.
 
I wasn't sure we were going to do it. We'd been planning this interview for a while, but when I heard about her dad, I thought we'd postpone.

It wasn't until the morning of the recording that Bex said yes, and what unfolded was an incredibly intimate and honest conversation.

Bex is a yoga teacher and facilitator at the Yoga Barn in Ubud, where she's been a resident teacher since 2008. She holds an MPhil from Oxford University, has taught yoga in Bali's largest prison, in refugee camps in Palestine and in women's refuges in Kathmandu, and brings a rare combination of intellectual depth and embodied wisdom to everything she does.

In this episode, we talked about what it's like to grieve a parent you've been saying goodbye to for a decade. About compartmentalisation, and the patterns we carry from childhood loss. About sitting beside someone you love as they slowly leave, and how music and eye contact can reach through when words can't.

Bex shared the story of her father's extraordinary life, from working-class Scotland to the Australian outback to a care home nearly a century later, and the inheritance he left her that had nothing to do with material wealth.

We also talked about death itself. The myth of Eos and the grasshopper. Reincarnation, synchronicity and signs. And how we can hold the closeness of death in order to allow for more life.

This is a tender one. 

In this episode, we explore:

• Bex's father and his remarkable life, from 1920s Scotland to Australia as a £10 pom 
• Losing a parent at age 11, and the patterns of compartmentalisation that followed
• Not being greedy with your grief and what it means to share grief as an offering rather than keeping it private
• The myth of Eos and the grasshopper
• What yoga, mindfulness and embodiment practices offered Bex through the grieving process
• What might happen after we die
• The parallels between the end of life and the beginning
• The "dance of life" exercise
• Choosing life in the face of loss, the inhale as a yes to life and the exhale as giving life back

Connect with Bex at https://www.instagram.com/bextyreryoga/

Find out more about the Bali Spirit Festival at https://www.balispiritfestival.com/ 

Join the Yoga Psychology Mentorship starting 28th May 2026 at https://www.yogapsychologymentorship.com

Join the Australian 2026 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training in September at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online


This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance, or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

​​I met Janet Stone at the Bali Spirit Festival in Ubud last week, where we sat down together between workshops to have this conversation.

Janet is an internationally recognised yoga teacher who has spent decades travelling the world with her two daughters, teaching and practising and building a life that looks nothing like the conventional path.

What I didn't expect was how openly Janet would speak about her experience of perimenopause, and specifically what happened when the practices that had sustained her for years simply stopped working.

As someone in the yoga and wellness world, she had all the tools - meditation, prāṇāyāma, sādhana, supplements, tinctures, all of it. And none of it was enough.

What followed was years of not understanding what was happening in her own body, until an OB-GYN who'd been practising in her classes quietly said, "Why don't you come see me in my office?"

And everything changed from there.

This is a conversation about what happens when the spiritual toolkit isn't enough, and the courage it takes to say so.

In this episode, we explore:

• What it's like to raise children on the road as a globally travelling yoga teacher
• The profound free fall of the empty nest
• The intersection of menopause and spiritual practice, and why ‘just meditate more’ isn't always the answer
• Janet's honest experience with HRT and why she believes we need to move beyond the pro and anti camps
• Yoga nidrā as digestion, not just of food, but of undigested emotional experience, trauma and grief
• Her new book, Stories of Our Lives, and using mythology to see beyond our own inner narrative

Connect with Janet Stone at https://www.janetstoneyoga.com

Find out more about the Bali Spirit Festival at https://www.balispiritfestival.com/ 

Join the free 10-day Yoga-informed Therapist Interview series at https://www.yogainformedtherapist.com

Access my nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join


This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

What if psychosis isn't the opposite of sanity, but part of a spectrum of human experience we all share?

Anneke Sips and I were supposed to record this episode together in India. But when her Emirates flight was cancelled, our plans unravelled, the internet failed us twice, and we finally ended up recording from opposite sides of the world, me in Bali, Anneke in the Netherlands, hoping the connection would hold. It did. And what followed was one of the most honest and expansive conversations I've had on this podcast.

Anneke is a psychiatric nurse, yoga therapist, and author of a brand new book, The Wisdom of Psychosis, seven years in the making and just now landing in the world. In it, she bridges Western psychiatry and yogic philosophy to offer a completely different way of understanding psychotic experiences, not as something broken, but as something deeply human.

In our discussion, you’ll hear Anneke go out on a limb and be critical of both the psychiatric system she was trained in and the spiritual communities she belongs to. She shares her own psychotic-like experiences with remarkable vulnerability, and what she says about the relationship between connection and healing will stay with you.

In this episode, we explore:

• A spectrum of experience from ordinary to extraordinary - normal altered states, everyday psychotic-like experiences, spiritual emergence, spiritual emergency, trauma-induced altered states, psychotic episodes and mystical experiences
• Why trying to convince someone their beliefs aren't real destroys the therapeutic relationship, and what to do instead
• Anneke's own extraordinary experiences, shared with disarming honesty
• The difference between informed consent and engineered consent in psychiatric care
• Where medication fits, and why ‘you'll need this forever’ deserves questioning

If you stay to the end, you'll hear Anneke's message to anyone who has experienced psychosis, and her words about resonance as both gift and challenge are quietly powerful.

Anneke Sips is a community psychiatric nurse, trauma therapist and yoga therapist based in the Netherlands. With over 25 years of experience in psychiatry, she specialises in childhood and religious trauma and in supporting people through extraordinary and spiritually profound experiences. Anneke founded Network Yoga Therapy in 2010, organised The Yoga Therapy Conference in 2015, and is a founding member of the Global Consortium of Yoga Therapy. Her new book, The Wisdom of Psychosis, is available now.

Connect with Anneke at https://www.annekesips.com

Join the free 10-day Yoga-informed Therapist Interview series at https://www.yogainformedtherapist.com

Access my nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

What does it really mean to go to India for Panchakarma?

Before I came to Kerala, I had a vague sense that it would be nourishing, restorative… maybe even a little luxurious.

And while there were moments of deep care and tenderness, what I’ve experienced here is something quite different.

More disciplined.

More confronting.

And, in many ways, more transformative.

In this episode of A Grateful Life, I’m joined by Dr Sreejit, Chief Physician at Athreya Ayurvedic Centre in Kerala, where I’ve been immersed in Panchakarma for two weeks.

Together, we explore what Ayurveda actually is beyond the Western wellness lens, what Panchakarma really involves (and why it’s not a spa experience), and how this ancient system understands healing across body, mind, and what we might call soul.

Dr Sreejit brings over two decades of clinical experience, grounded in a lineage-based Ayurvedic tradition, alongside a refreshingly honest and pragmatic perspective on both the power and the limits of any healing system.

In this conversation, we explore:

✨ What Ayurveda is, beyond doshas and food lists 
✨ The difference between curing disease and cultivating health
✨ Why Panchakarma is not designed to be relaxing
✨ What’s actually happening during detoxification and why it can feel intense
✨ The role of digestion in physical and mental health
✨ How Ayurveda understands anxiety, depression, and psychological suffering
✨ The importance of preparation, expectation, and commitment in healing 
✨ Who Panchakarma is for and when it may not be appropriate
✨ How trauma can surface during body-based treatments, and how it’s supported
✨ Integrating Ayurveda with Western medicine, especially in complex conditions like cancer
✨ Simple ways to bring Ayurvedic principles into everyday life
✨ Why sleep may be one of the most important foundations of health

If you’re curious about Panchakarma in India, this episode will give you a grounded, honest insight into what it is and what it isn’t.

Connect with Dr Sreejit at https://www.theathreya.com/

Join the free 10-day Yoga-informed Therapist Interview series at https://www.yogainformedtherapist.com

Access my nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

Most of us come to yoga through the body.

But at some point, many practitioners begin to sense that yoga is much deeper than the postures.
In this episode of A Grateful Life, I’m joined by yoga teacher and author Amy Landry to explore the philosophical and spiritual teachings that sit beneath modern yoga practice.

Amy’s new book, The Ocean of Yoga, offers a thoughtful guide for anyone who feels curious about the deeper layers of yoga. In our conversation, we explore yoga as more than a set of techniques. Amy describes āsana as a doorway into the temple of yoga. A place many of us begin, but not where the journey ends.

We also explore two powerful yogic frameworks that can help guide our lives: the four aims of life (dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa) and the four stages of life (brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa).

If you’ve ever wondered what yoga is really pointing toward, this conversation offers a beautiful place to begin.

In this episode, we explore:

• What yoga really means beyond the postures
• Why āsana can be understood as the doorway to deeper practice
• The role of sādhana, or committed spiritual practice
• The four aims of life and how they guide a meaningful life
• The four stages of life and the householder path
• What it really means to be a yoga teacher

Connect with Amy Landry at https://amyelandry.com/oceanofyoga/

Get Amy’s free pre-order bonus companion guide at https://amyelandry.com/oceanofyoga-preorder/

Join the free 10-day Yoga-informed Therapist Interview series at https://www.yogainformedtherapist.com

Access my nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join

This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

Today’s episode is truly a podcasting highlight for me.

I’m joined by Dr Elaine Aron, clinical and research psychologist and internationally bestselling author of The Highly Sensitive Person, a groundbreaking book that has been in print for nearly thirty years. Her work has shaped the way millions of people understand themselves, and it deeply shaped me too, both personally and professionally.

In the first half of our conversation, we explore what it really means to be a highly sensitive person. We talk about temperament, overstimulation, depth of processing and the gifts and challenges that come with high sensitivity. 

Elaine shares how the research unfolded, what has surprised her over the decades and why sensitivity is not a disorder but a trait with evolutionary value.

In the second half, we move into territory I didn’t initially expect. Elaine has recently written a new book, Spirituality Through a Highly Sensitive Lens, and our conversation takes a beautiful turn into spirituality, meditation and enlightenment.

We explore themes that will feel very familiar to many of you who live at the intersection of yoga and psychology:

• Cleaning up, growing up and waking up
• Yogic philosophy and psychological maturation
• The difference between emotional healing and spiritual awakening
• And Elaine’s own personal experiences of enlightenment

If you stay right to the end, you’ll hear her speak vulnerably about her own awakening process, which is both profound and refreshingly human.

As someone who has been a psychologist and yoga teacher for over twenty years, I found this conversation incredibly rich. Elaine brings scientific rigour, lived experience and spiritual curiosity together in a way that feels deeply integrated.

In this episode, we explore:

• What defines a highly sensitive person
• The science behind sensory processing sensitivity
• Why sensitivity is often misunderstood
• How highly sensitive people experience meditation and spiritual practice
• The relationship between psychological development and enlightenment
• The process of cleaning up, growing up and waking up
• The risks of bypassing emotional work in the name of spirituality
• Elaine’s reflections on her own spiritual experiences

Connect with Elaine Aron at https://www.hsperson.com

Join the free 10-day Yoga-informed Therapist Interview series at https://www.yogainformedtherapist.com

Access my nervous system regulation playlist at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/join


This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

What if nothing is fundamentally wrong with you?

What if awakening isn’t something to achieve, but something to remember?

In this episode of A Grateful Life, I’m joined by Richard Miller (he/him), PhD, to explore some of the biggest and most misunderstood ideas in yoga and spirituality - innate wholeness, non-dualism and enlightenment.

Richard is the founder of the iRest Institute and co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapy. As a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, yogic scholar and spiritual teacher, he is widely regarded as a leader in the fields of meditation, yoga therapy and mental health.

Listen in as we explore:

• What innate wholeness really means (and what it doesn’t)
• How to honour pain and trauma without spiritual bypassing
• Non-dualism and the healing of separation
• Enlightenment as a remembering, not an achievement
• Why awakening is not about losing your humanity
• The role of practice, mentorship, and community

Connect with Richard Miller at https://www.explorationsinstillness.com

Connect with iRest at https://www.irest.org

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting 16th February 2026 today at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Download the free Patañjali's Eight Limbs of Mental Health Aware Yoga ebook by Dr Lauren Tober at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/8limbs


This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.