What do you do when the physical and financial foundation you’ve been building all your life starts to crumble? What is the process for coming to terms with the reality that you’ll never be disease free? What goes through the mind of someone who has lost everything and gained themselves in the process? And what does it look like to discover your true gifts and share them? These are just a few of the questions that we’re asking and living on the podcast this week with Fleur Marks, wellbeing expert, coach, founder and curator of The Wellbeing Store in Byron Bay.

References and Mentions:

• https://thewellbeingstore.com.au/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/fleurmarks
• https://www.instagram.com/thewellbeingstore/

• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/thegifts-hub/
• Kristin Neff: Self Compassion: https://self-compassion.org/
• Ayurveda for Yoga Teachers Course with Chara - https://bit.ly/ElementsofYoga

What is meditation supposed to look like? How are meditation and yoga supposed to serve us in our lives? What happens when reality messes with our stories about how things are supposed to be? We dive into these questions and so much more with the amazing Caitlin Cady author of Heavily Meditated and self professed Meditation Junkie, who’s used the power of the “good sit” to turn her health, happiness and world around. And whose mission is to remind YOU of your magic!”

Resources & Mentions

• Drop Chara an email about how your feel your truth

• Caitlins Website: www.caitlincady.com
• Caitlin’s Book: https://caitlincady.com/pages/heavilymeditated
• Yoga Teacher Training with Rod Stryker: https://www.parayoga.com/parayoga-master-training-online-curriculum-2/
• Tara Brach: https://www.tarabrach.com/
• Sally Kempton: meditation sit up: https://www.sallykempton.com/resources/life-questions/the-mentalogue/
• Danielle Laporte Core desired feelings is the way you set goals: daniellelaporte.com

• Ayurveda for Yoga Teachers Training with Chara: https://www.blissbodyandsoul.com/ayurveda-for-yoga-teachers/

What are the key tools we need as individuals and groups moving through challenging moments of transition. What supports create opportunities for transitions to truly transform? Why is holding space a vitally important skill to cultivate at this point in our history? Chara & Maria explore these questions and more in this enlightening conversation with Heather Plett, author or The Art of Holding space: A practice of love, liberation and leadership.

Resources:

• Heather's Website: https://heatherplett.com/
• Center for Holding Space: https://centreforholdingspace.com/the-art-of-holding-space/

What is it about conversation that changes us and the world around us? Is there a meditative quality to discussion that has the potential to shift aspects of our character and relationships that might not otherwise be noticed or moved? Our chat with Rane Bowen and Jo Stewart, hosts of The Flow Artists podcast shed some internal and external light on these questions! It was an opportunity to dive deeper into how it feels to speak out loud about the things that are important and sometimes unknown and how talking, like yoga, has the power to connect, inspire and enrich us in ways we might not always consider.

Resources & Mentions

• Garden of Yoga https://gardenofyoga.com.au/:
• The Flow Artists Podcast: https://podcast.flowartists.com/
• Thrive Northside https://thrivenorthside.com/
• Rane’s response to being named one of the 20 Yogis of Color to watch in 2020 - https://www.gardenofyoga.com.au/videos/ranes-big-idea/
• https://www.gardenofyoga.com.au/videos/list/
• Guide for applying for grants https://thrivenorthside.com/tips/grant-writing-tips-and-strategies
• Mycelum Made https://thrivenorthside.com/stories/mycelium-made
• Pandemic Portraits https://www.instagram.com/pandemicportraits_au/
• Alli Black https://www.alliblack.com/
• Accessible Yoga Training. https://www.accessibleyogatraining.com/
• Jivana Heyman: https://www.accessibleyogatraining.com/about-us
• Chair Yoga with Claire Cuneen. https://www.getfitwhereyousit.com.au/teachertraining
• Michelle Cassandra Johnson: Skill in Action book. https://www.michellecjohnson.com/skill-in-action-book
• 20 Yoga Teachers of Color to Watch in 2020 list https://www.yogawallanyc.com/blog/2020/1/9/20-yoga-teachers-of-color-to-watch-in-2020
• Dr Gail Parker: Race Based trauma: https://podcast.flowartists.com/episodes/dr-gail-parker/

2020 has been a challenging year for so many reasons, some of which we’ve talked about and a number of which we haven’t. In this bonus episode Maria and Chare dive into one of the biggest issues that we’ve been quiet about this year… Maria’s cancer diagnosis. Chara has a chance to ask the questions she’s avoided asking and Maria has an opportunity to share what it feels like to come face to face with your own mortality.

Yoga is a practice that nearly everyone buys into. It’s promise of flexibility and adaptability are a powerful and enticing invitation to engage in the uncomfortable for a greater good. But what does it mean to LIVE your yoga? And how can yoga be a tool for changing not just our bodies but our world? Maria and Chara explore these ideas with Kristine Weber and Kiesha Battles, two courageous yoga teachers who have created a project aimed at offering yoga’s ancient principles for ethical living as a lens, and tools for transforming racism and the landscape of social justice from the inside out!

Kristine and Keisha’s course: Yoga Ethics For Transforming Racism: https://go.subtleyoga.com/transformation-1

Keisha Battles: https://www.kieshabattles.com/

Kristine Weber: https://subtleyoga.com/kristine-kaoverii-weber/

Mentions:

• Maya Breuer: http://www.mayabreuer.com/
• Course: https://kripalu.org/resources/finding-my-seat-circle-yoga-retreat-women-color
• Kriya Yoga: https://yogainternational.com/article/view/yoga-sutra-2-1-translation-and-commentary
• Dave Charlton and Ranju Roy: Embodying the Yoga Sutra: https://embodyingtheyogasutra.com/
• Yoga Alliance session on Ahimsa: https://www.yogaalliance.org/Get_Involved/COVID-19_Resources/Archived_COVID-19_Workshops_and_Events/CE_Workshop_Yoga_as_a_Living_Practice_Ahimsa
• White Ally: by Sonia Roberts: https://www.awakenedlovewarrior.com/products/white-ally-a-guide-to-cultivating-a-deeply-spiritual-antiracism-practice-signed-copy-by-sonia-roberts
• Kelley Palmer: “one of Keisha’s teachers of the yamas and niyamas
• Website: https://peacefilledmama.com/about/
• Course on Accessible yoga training site: https://www.accessibleyogatraining.com/race-equity
• Black Teacher’s Yoga Alliance: https://blackyogateachersalliance.org/
• Desikachar’s book “The Heart of Yoga” :https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Yoga-Developing-Personal-Practice/dp/089281764X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+heart+of+yoga&qid=1602275216&sr=8-1
• Debra Adele’s book: The Yamas and Niyamas https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/7057515-the-yamas-niyamas-exploring-yoga-s-ethical-practice
• Amplify and Activate: Jasmine Hines. https://www.amplifyandactivate.com/about-us
• George Floyd: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/george-floyd
• Breonna Taylor: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/breonna-taylor
• State of the Union:https://stateofunionyoga.com/
• Race in America: https://otmtraining.offthematintotheworld.org/p/race-in-america-2020
• Georg Feurstein: https://www.traditionalyogastudies.com/
• Michelle Cassandra Johnson: https://www.michellecjohnson.com/

How does who we are and where we come from live in our bodies and in our yoga? What does the story of how and where we move tell us about who we can be? Maria and Chara speak with cultural anthropologist and yoga and meditation instructor Alma Duran to explore the landscape of the intersection of yoga and cultures and how they uniquely inform the way we carry our past, present and future in the moment and in life.

Highlights:

• “I didn’t come to yoga because there was something wrong with me. I came to yoga because I saw happy people.”
• “We carry the story of our culture in our bodies.”
• “My yoga training and my mindfulness training have helped me enormously to deal with uncertainty and know that it is okay”
• "The price that I have had to pay was to disintegrate my previous lives. I had to shed my skin as a snake does when it grows……It has been a process of simplifying, deeply simplifying my external life and of letting go of a lot."

Resources & Mentions:

• Viniyoga: https://viniyoga.com/
• Gary Kraftsow “We practice yoga because it prepares us for death.”
• Maty Ezraty: https://matyezraty.com/
• Fred L Miller; http://fredlmiller.com/Meet_Fred.html
• Sivananda yoga: https://sivananda.org/
• Larry Payne: Yoga Rx:
• on J Brown’s Podcast: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/yoga-talks-podcast/2018/9/larry-payne
• On Yoga International: https://yogainternational.com/profile/larry-payne
• Desikachar: The Heart of Yoga https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Heart_of_Yoga/vV0oDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
• Dave Charlton and Ranju Roy: our interview https://www.blissbodyandsoul.com/podcast/
• “Ishvara pranidhana: faith that the universe is supporting you”
• Emma Balnaves: our conversation https://www.blissbodyandsoul.com/podcast/

Chara and Maria reconnect with Maria’s former student Shonali Sabherwal, now a nutritionist who’s been leading the macrobiotic eating charge in India with three books and a long list of Bollywood star clients. Shonali talks about what it took to get there as a single woman in India, what her work means to her and what the future holds for her work and the health of her country!

Resources & Mentions

• Website: www.soulfoodshonali com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShonaliSabherwalSoulFood/community/?ref=page_internal
• Soul food Conversations Podcast on Audible
• Shonali’s books: The Detox Diet, The Love Diet, The Beauty Diet
• Dr. K.G. Raveendran
• Gary Vaynerchuk - Crushing it.

Description: What is the role of conscious communication in our living and healing? What is the value of communication to the vital responsibility we have as teachers of yoga to hold space for our students? How can we as individuals become more aware and effective at knowing and sharing what’s in our hearts for the good of our relationships and the world? We explore these questions and more in this heartfelt and enlightening conversation with yoga teacher and communication expert Lucy Karnani.

Episode Highlights:

• Lucy talks about her recent transformation and new found love for cooking
• Why she started teaching yoga and what keeps her coming back
• The keys to connecting with students… and yourself
• The power of the mentoring relationship and how mentoring has impacted her life
• What it means to hold space and how holding space relates to communication
• The role of communication in healing
• How she’s changed her mind about Ayurveda

Lucy Karnani

Website: https://www.yogacommunication.org/lucy-karnani

Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0648260119/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_QRofBb6AAY9ZZ

Mentions

The Yoga Institute: https://yogainstitute.com.au/lucy-karnani/

Michael de Manicor: https://yogainstitute.com.au/michael-de-manincor/

Richard Miller: https://www.irest.org/about-irest-institute

Heather Plett: https://heatherplett.com/holdingspaceresources/

Ayurvedic cleanse links:

4 signs that you need an Ayurvedic cleanse quiz: https://www.doyou.com/4-signs-that-you-need-an-ayurvedic-cleanse/

Chara’s website: https://www.blissbodyandsoul.com/

7 day cleanse with Chara

What does the process of owning your yoga look like? What is the role of a yoga teacher in helping you to get there? And what is the ultimate value (or the point) to doing the work to create yoga that is uniquely yours? These are some of the things we talked about in this juicy conversation with yoga therapist and physiotherapist, Libby Hinsley. We go deep into the heart of teaching and practicing yoga guided by Libby’s wide-ranging wisdom, experience and passion. A fabulous discussion about many concepts that are dear to our hearts and our practice!

We talked about...

• Cultivating an internal practice rather seeking to master external alignment cues - the yoga of knowing yourself
• Interoceptive cues and the overlap of hyper mobility and aging
• Should we teach our students anatomy?
• Is it up to us as teachers to set the goal for the practice?
• Why having the perspective of anatomical variability will put a lot of people at ease.
• What messages we send with the language that we use
• Working with chronic pain
• How yoga can help you answer the question, ‘what matters to me?’
• How yoga creates a vital space for community that is key to “heart happiness.”
• Anatomy bites: http://www.anatomybites.com/cues

Resources & Mentions:

• Libby Hinsley: https://www.libbyhinsley.com/
• Paul Grilley’s bone gallery: https://paulgrilley.com/bone-photos/
• Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram
• Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome