A Grateful Life

Moving with the moon is a way of living and practising yoga in tune with our menstrual cycle.

Today’s podcast episode is part one of a three-part series on living and practising yoga in tune with the different seasons of a woman's life, and in this episode, we’re looking at menstruation.

My guest, Ana Davis (she/her) is a feminine yoga teacher and trainer from Bliss Baby Yoga, and the author of the seminal book, Moving with the Moon.

In our intimate conversation, Ana shares about menarche as a rite of passage, and the importance of honouring this stage of a young woman's life.

And then she talks us through the four phases of the menstrual cycle, including the dark moon (menstrual phase), waxing moon (pre-ovulation/follicular phase), full moon (ovulation) and the waning moon (premenstrual/luteal phase), with some really valuable ways to live our lives, and adapt our yoga practice, to be in sync with our cycles.

This episode is for everyone. It’s for menstruating women, and it’s for all humans who live or work with someone who has a menstrual cycle, including partners, friends, therapists and yoga teachers. This is information we all need, whether we are currently menstruating or not.

Find Ana Davis’ book Moving with the Moon at https://www.ana-louisa-davis.com/books 

Sign up for the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Get on the waitlist for the 2025 Mullumbimby Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Find our global directory of Mental Health Aware Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com 

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au

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.

If you’re a yoga teacher, or have ever thought about becoming one, this podcast episode with Shannon Crow (she/her) is for you!

This episode is a full circle moment for me. 

After I was interviewed on Shannon’s podcast, the Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast a few years ago, my publisher, Singing Dragon, reached out to ask me if I would be interested in writing a book on yoga and mental health. I had actually already written the first draft of the book at the time, so it was such perfect timing. And so now, to be interviewing Shannon on my podcast, just as the book has been released into the world, feels like perfect timing too. I love how these things happen!

Shannon Crow is a yoga teacher and trainer, the host of The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast, the founder of Pelvic Health Professionals and a Mom to her three best teachers. 

In our conversation today, Shannon shares with us all about how to choose a yoga teacher training course, including some important red flags to look out for, whether this is your first yoga training, or you’re looking for ongoing professional development. 

We also explore how to sustainably keep teaching to prevent burnout, love what you do, and be nice to the planet.

Connect with Shannon Crow at https://www.theconnectedyogateacher.com/

Download a free chapter of my book Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book 

Join the free workshop Five Ways to Make Your Yoga Classes Mental Health Aware at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/workshop  

Sign up to the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training at  https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Get on the waitlist for the 2025 Mullumbimby Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Find our global directory of Mental Health Aware Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com 

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at  https://yogaaustralia.org.au 

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.

Delamay Devi (she/her) followed the sun and skipped out on winter for many years by travelling around the world teaching yoga.

Born and raised in Australia’s yoga mecca, Byron Bay on Bundjalung Country in Australia, Delamay started her teaching journey in the late 90s as a dance teacher, which progressed over the years to teaching yoga and sharing embodied practices around the world, with Shiva Rea as her long time mentor.

Delamay is passionate about sharing movement as medicine and yoga philosophy in sync with the natural cycles of existence, and it’s for this reason that I invited her to today’s podcast episode.

In the episode, we hear about what it was actually like to live without winter for years on end, and why she eventually decided to settle down. We also explore the four seasons of the year and how we can shape and adapt our lives and our yoga practice to live in accordance with these seasons.

Delamay is also a graduate of the very first Mental Health Aware Yoga training in Mullumbimby, Australia, and she shares a little about her experience of the training and how it continues to inform her yoga teaching.

Connect with Delamay Devi at https://www.delamaydevi.com

Download a free chapter of my book Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book 

Join the free workshop Five Ways to Make Your Yoga Classes Mental Health Aware at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/workshop  

Sign up to the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Get on the waitlist for the 2025 Mullumbimby Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Find our global directory of Mental Health Aware Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au

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.

How can understanding our doshas support our mental health?

In today’s podcast episode, I’m delighted to introduce you to Jody Vassallo. 

Jody has been a recipe writer and food stylist for over 20 years, working with some big names like Marie Claire, Donna Hay, Jamie Oliver and Vogue. She’s also a yoga teacher and ayurvedic practitioner. I love Jody’s cookbooks, and her book Beautiful Food is a staple in my kitchen.

In this episode, Jody and I talk about food as medicine through the lens of ayurveda, including the different doshas, how we can figure out what our predominant dosha is, how this relates to mental health and how we can use food as medicine to support our mental health.

There were so many things dropping in for me while Jody was talking about the different doshas, and I probably overshared a little bit about what was resonating for me!

Connect with Jody Vassallo at https://jodyvassallo.com.

Get your free ticket for the Mullumbimby Mental Health Aware Yoga book launch on the 28th of September 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/booklaunch. 

Join the free online workshop for yoga teachers on the 12th of October to learn five simple (but profound) ways to make your yoga classes more mental health aware at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/workshop.

Sign up to the 60-hour online Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting on the 31st of October 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online. 

Be the first to hear when registration opens for the March 2025 Mullumbimby hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga Training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid.

Visit our global directory of Mental Health Aware Yoga graduates at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com. 

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au.


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.

How do we bring polyvagal theory into our yoga practice and teaching to support healing and growth?

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr Arielle Schwartz (she/her), a fellow clinical psychologist and yoga teacher, and a leading voice in the healing of trauma, to dive into this fascinating topic.

Arielle is an internationally sought-after teacher and author of seven books including The Complex PTSD Workbook, The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook, EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, and Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga. As the founder of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy, she offers a mind-body approach to therapy for trauma and mental health.

Arielle had just finished reading my new book, Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers before our conversation, and she shared that there were so many parallels in our journeys, particularly in how we came to integrate yoga and psychology into our work. In the interview, we hear Arielle’s story about how she started yoga and how she eventually integrated it into her work as a clinical psychologist, and we also dive into some really juicy topics around polyvagal theory, trauma, how yoga can support our mental health through both a top-down and bottom-up approach, and how trauma recovery is an awakening of the spiritual heart.

Connect with Dr Arielle Schwartz at https://drarielleschwartz.com

Reserve your free place for the online Mental Health Aware Yoga book launch event on the 13th of September 2024 or the in-person event in Mullumbimby Australia on the 28th of September 2024 at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/calendar/ 

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting on the 31st of October at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Get on the waitlist for the March 2025 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training in Mullumbimby Australia at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid 

Find a yoga teacher who really understands mental health in our global graduate directory at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au 

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.

Pull up a cushion, pour yourself a chai and join Dr Raj Balkaran and I around the virtual fire for storytime.

Raj is a scholar of Sanskrit narrative literature, wisdom teacher and online educator. He's the founder of The Indian Wisdom School, author of the book The Stories Behind the Poses: The Indian Mythology that Inspired 50 Yoga Postures and runs a thriving one-on-one spiritual guidance practice.

In our discussion today, Raj shares about the importance of stories to impart and receive wisdom, and why understanding the stories behind the yoga asanas we know and love gives our practice a new depth.

While Raj has written a book about the stories behind the poses, the yoga tradition is actually an oral one, handed down verbally from teacher to student. And so in the second half of the episode, Raj takes us on a storytelling journey, and shares a few of the stories from his book, including Pranāmāsana (Reverence Pose), Sūrya Namaskārā (Sun Salutations) and Vīrabhadrāsana (Warrior Poses).

While I had read these stories in Raj’s book already, there was something profound about hearing them spoken, and I already know that my yoga practice is going to feel different as a result.
Listen in right to the end where Raj does a little giveaway!

Connect with Dr Raj Balkaran at https://rajbalkaran.com

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training, opening for registration today, at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Join our Mental Health Aware Yoga Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mentalhealthawareyoga

Find our global Mental Health Aware Yoga directory at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/directory

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au

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.

Have you ever wanted to go to India to experience authentic yoga and Ayurveda, but not sure where to start?

Let me introduce you to Amy Landry!

Amy is a senior yoga teacher, Ayurvedic practitioner, mentor and podcast host, and takes people on pilgrimages to India to create meaningful memories of a lifetime. What a job!

In this podcast episode, we’ll be hearing about Amy’s introduction to yoga, after finding an ayurvedic quiz online in the early dial-up days of the internet and coming across a yoga DVD in the newspaper, as well as exploring what it means to practice and teach yoga when you live outside of yoga’s source culture.

You’ll also hear Amy’s insider tips on the best places to go in India to experience authentic yoga and Ayurveda, whether you want to go on a yoga study trip, receive Ayurvedic treatments or a holiday to soak up the goodness of mother India.

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

Sign up for the Yoga Skills for Health Professionals training starting on the 5th of August 2024 at https://www.yogaskillsforhealthprofessionals.com

Order a copy and/or download a free chapter of Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book 

Join the waitlist for the next online Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting in October 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Join the waitlist for the next hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting in Mullumbimby, Australia on 15th-16th March 2025 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Find the dates for all our latest offerings at the Yoga Psychology Institute at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/calendar

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au

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.

Have you ever heard people say that yoga helps them to navigate the ups and downs of life?

I know this is something that I say all the time. But what does it actually mean?

In today’s episode, I’m joined by beloved Brisbane yoga teacher, Julie Smerdon (she/her), where she shares some of the big health and financial challenges of life, and how movement and yoga helped her to navigate them, as well as the one piece of advice she was given fairly early in her career as a yoga teacher that changed everything for her.

Connect with Julie Smerdon at https://juliesmerdon.com/

Order a copy and/or download a free chapter of Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book 

Join the waitlist for the next online Mental Health Aware Yoga training starting in October 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online

Sign up for the Yoga Skills for Health Professionals training starting on the 5th of August 2024 at https://www.yogaskillsforhealthprofessionals.com

Find the dates for all our latest offerings at the Yoga Psychology Institute at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/calendar 

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au 

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.

Danni Carr used to wake up some mornings with a feeling of dread, wondering if she’d remembered to put her kids to bed and what alcohol fuelled things she’d said or done the night before.

After years of touring and partying with her husband Ash Grunwald, a much-loved Australian Blues Musician, the excessive binges started to take their toll and the two decided enough was enough, and they both decided to quit drinking for a year.

Fast forward six years, and Danni is now the founder of the How I Quit Alcohol podcast, and is on a trauma-informed quest to kick the binge. 

In this episode, we get pretty personal, as Danni talks about the toll that alcohol took on her life and her kids’ lives, what was helpful in quitting alcohol, and how yoga, meditation and gratitude played a big part in quitting alcohol and staying sober. She also shares some great advice for anyone thinking about quitting alcohol or supporting someone who is. 

There’s a bit of swearing in it, so if you have kids around, you might like to put the headphones in!

As you’ll hear in the episode, Danni and I met when she attended an Embodied Yoga for Nervous System Regulation workshop with me a few months back, and she was also one of the very first people to jump online and sign up for the Yoga Skills for Health Professionals Training that’s starting in August.

Connect with Danni Carr at https://www.iquitalcohol.com.au

Ash Grunwald and Lissie Turner on the Gratitude Bench in 2016 https://www.facebook.com/drlaurentober/videos/759071430893547

Join the Yoga Skills for Health Professionals training at https://www.yogaskillsforhealthprofessionals.com

Find out more about my new book Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book

Join the waitlist for the next online Mental Health Aware Yoga training, starting in October 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online
 
Join the waitlist for the next hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga Training in Byron Bay in March 2025 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Find the dates for all our latest offerings at the Yoga Psychology Institute at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/calendar

Find out more about our wonderful sponsor, Yoga Australia, at https://yogaaustralia.org.au

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.

I like to think I'm a feminist, but my guest on today's podcast episode really called me out on something important!

Today’s episode is to celebrate our sponsor, Yoga Australia’s 25th year anniversary. And joining us is their Vice President, Merridy Woodroffe. Merridy is a wife, a dog mum, a lawyer, an ashtanga yoga practitioner and a yoga therapist, as well as being the vice president of Yoga Australia. 

Right at the beginning of the episode, Merridy calls me Dr Lauren, and when I tell her she can just call me Lauren, she very gently calls me out on it and points out how important it is to honour our titles and the hard work that comes behind them, especially for women who often underplay their achievements! So it made me rethink how I might be undermining myself by asking people to drop the doctor title!

I would describe Merridy as a multi-passionate individual, and in the interview, we explore how she brings the many facets of herself and her varied interests into her life and work, including yoga teaching, lawyering and being a tailor.

We also explore what yogic wisdom and practices she draws on to help her to manage the stress of being a lawyer, the ‘meditation flight’ she was part of organising for Virgin Australia, how the landscape of yoga in Australia has changed over the past 25 years and what to look out for if you’re thinking of taking a yoga teacher training course.

We had such a fun time in this episode!

Find out more about Yoga Australia, and all the wonderful work Merridy and the team are doing at https://www.yogaaustralia.org.au

Pre-order a copy of my new book Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/book

Join the 2024 Yoga Skills for Health Professionals training at https://www.yogaskillsforhealthprofessionals.com

Join the waitlist for the next online Mental Health Aware Yoga training, starting in October 2024 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online
 
Join the waitlist for the next hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga Training in Byron Bay in March 2025 at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Check out the Yoga Psychology Institute calendar at https://www.yogapsychologyinstitute.com/calendar

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.