I did not know what I was going to talk about on this week's podcast, right up to the moment of recording it. I realized that this was an indication that I should "do nothing." Lee Lozowick, teacher to many of my teachers, talks about doing nothing. And Thich Nhat Hanh, my first-ever spiritual teacher, wrote a whole passage in one of his books about aimlessness, just being where we are with no particular goal in mind. This week gave me change to put aimlessness into practice, so we talk about it a little then put it into practice together with a guided meditation. // 3:36: yoga philosophy discussion, 13:11: guided meditation // Stay connected on Instagram: https://instagram.com/laura__tara/

When spiritual practitioners make social media posts giving us "readings," messages or other insights about our lives, this can be tricky. There's no way for the person making the post to know who is actually receiving the message, and we have no way to expect or give consent to what's being offered. This week, we discuss how this practice misaligns with healing principles of consent and spiritual principles of empowerment, then practice a guided breath meditation for personal empowerment and agency over our own energy. // 3:58: yoga philosophy discussion, 25:14: guided breath meditation // Stay connected on social media: https://instagram.com/laura__tara/

This week, we diverge from our traditional discussion-then-meditation format to focus solely on our embodied, present moment experience. Based on the principle of "working in the here and now" as presented by psychologist Irv Yalom, we bring awareness to all layers of our experience as a practice of holding ourselves in wholeness.

This week's episode is a story about how I ended up at an Ash Wednesday church service after teaching a yoga class, decided I wanted to do a 40-day sadhana (spiritual practice) during the 40 days of lent, and came to understand that gratitude is a practice of praising God / the sacred. Together, we partake in a guided gratitude meditation to practice gratitude as a tool for living all of life as praise.

4:27: yoga philosophy discussion

25:19: guided gratitude meditation

Recently, I discovered that I miss the feeling of being in a romance with life. In our heavy and often sad or distressing circumstances, it's not as natural to feel wonder, sweetness, beauty, dreaminess. Once I named that to myself, life lined up in a way that has reminded me that it, life itself, is a romance. This week, I share about the ways I've rediscovered that and offer a guided visualization meditation for playfulness, curiosity, wonder... romance.

3:49: yoga philosophy discussion

20:34: guided visualization meditation

There has been a lot to "figure out" in our collective human experience lately. Over the last few years in general, and for me, around the future of this podcast, recently. On this week's episode, I touch briefly on my decision to keep hosting Awareness Offerings on Spotify in addition to the 2 other platforms it lives on. Then, we talk about how, because there has been so much to "figure out," our minds can easily default to a state of overanalyzing and constant thinking. I share the teaching I've been working with to help me let go of figuring things out all the time, then we go into meditation to put it into practice.

3:57: Yoga Philosophy Discussion

22:26: Guided Meditation

We're living in a world that has tried to create a black-and-white binary between freedom and fear, as if they are opposites. The Hindu philosophy that has influenced yoga has a different story to tell. This week we explore how the mythology of the goddess Kali invites us to relate to our fear differently and live life from a place of wholeness. Together, we put it into practice with a guided mantra and visualization meditation.

3:26: yoga philosophy discussion

25:56: guided meditation

In this week's briefer Awareness Offering, I share the lessons I've been learning about practice from being in acute physical pain over the last month. It comes down to the fact that when we cannot pick up the formal tools, what we have left is compassion. We put this into practice, in the present moment, together.

This week, I share about my relationship to sacred music and how it has coincided with my relationship to the sacred itself. I talk about my understanding of yogic singing and how finding this practice helped me reclaim a relationship to the sacred that I once thought had to turn away from. Then, for our shared spiritual practice, I sing some sacred Sanskrit mantra and invite you to join me. The words we sing are: Bajrangi Hanuman (3x) Mahavir Sri Rama Rama Ram Bajrangi Hanuman.

3:08: yoga philosophy discussion

23:34: mantra and meditation

This week, my podcast recording day has coincided with the anniversary of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. We discuss how the philosophies of psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Twin Peaks character Dale Cooper, and the January 6th attack are related, and what this all means for the work and practice of yoga. Then, we embody this understanding with a simple wholeness meditation.

4:22: yoga philosophy discussion

35:00: guided wholeness meditation