Living Your Dharma: The Podcast with Aimee

Vishok jyotir means “the light beyond sorrow”: a teaching from the yoga tradition that guides us to a place within that is not defined by suffering.

In this episode, I explore this beautiful idea through both yoga and Sri Vidya Tantra: how practice helps us build a relationship with the steadier, freer part of ourselves, why this is not about bypassing pain, and how turning inward can loosen our dependence on external circumstances to make us feel okay.

We’ll also look at Yoga Sutra 1.36, the heart as a place of inner luminosity, and the role of practice in creating the conditions for stillness, clarity and a deeper sense of freedom.

Ayurveda is often translated as “the science of life”… but at its heart, this ancient system of health and wellbeing offers a way of understanding how to live in greater harmony with our own nature.

In this episode, we explore Ayurveda beyond the “dosha quiz”: how qualities like heat, movement, heaviness and stillness show up in our everyday lives, how our individual constitution forms part of our unique path, and why balance doesn’t look the same for everyone.

We’ll also look at prakriti and vikriti, the importance of daily rhythm, and the role of self-study in learning what actually supports us… so that rather than following another set of rules, we can become more available for Dharma: the life we’re here to live.

What do you do when you truly don’t know what to do?

When there’s a difficult decision in front of you, our instinct is often to think harder, analyse more and desperately try to force some clarity. But sometimes, the state we’re trying to make the decision from is part of the problem.

In this episode, we turn to the Bhagavad Gītā and the story of Arjuna: a warrior standing on the edge of battle, overwhelmed by the enormity of what lies ahead, and explore his guide, Krishna’s instruction to first become established in yoga, and then act.

We’ll explore what that can mean in everyday life, why calm is about so much more than simply coping with stress, and how reconnecting with the things that make us feel most deeply like ourselves can restore our clarity, courage, creativity and capacity to meet what’s in front of us.

How much of our lives are shaped by wanting what feels good… and trying to avoid what doesn’t?

In this episode, we explore rāga and dveṣa: attachment and aversion. They are two of the kleśas described in the Yoga Sūtras as patterns that can keep us tangled in suffering.

We’ll look at the difference between enjoying life and clinging to pleasure, why our attachment to comfort is often connected to our avoidance of discomfort, and how practices like self awareness and tapas can help us become a little less governed by both.

Because yoga isn’t telling us to stop enjoying the good stuff, or to deliberately seek out suffering! Instead we are invited to learn to enjoy without gripping, meet discomfort without immediately running… and, little by little, become more free.

What actually makes a good life?

We talk a lot about finding our purpose, growing, evolving and becoming better versions of ourselves… but thankfully, the yogic tradition doesn’t suggest that life should be one endless self-improvement project.

In this episode, we explore the four Puruṣārthas: Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Mokṣa; the four traditional aims of human life. Purpose matters, but so do the practical foundations that sustain us, the pleasure and sweetness that make life worth enjoying, and our movement towards greater inner freedom.

It’s a beautifully balanced framework for looking at our lives, and a helpful one to return to whenever something just feels a little… off.

Because a meaningful life isn’t simply one we’re constantly trying to improve. It’s one we’re actually here to live.

We know how to make time for work, family, exercise and all the things that keep life moving. But how much time do we deliberately set aside to tend to the person who is actually living that life?

In this episode, we explore Sādhana: the yogic tradition of dedicated personal practice. We look at what makes something a practice rather than simply a mindful moment, why movement, breath and stillness work together to take us inward, and the role of Saṅkalpa, or conscious resolve, in giving our practice direction.

We also explore why consistency matters, the tradition of committing to a practice for 40 days, and how, over time, Sādhana can become more than something we fit into our lives… it can become the axis from which we live them.

In a world so focussed on our physical form and external labels to explain “who and what we are”, it can be pretty refreshing to find a system that explains otherwise!

In this episode, we explore the Koshas: the five layers of human experience, and how understanding these layers can bring greater clarity, self compassion and direction to both our practice and our everyday lives.

We spend so much of our lives chasing the green lights and trying to avoid the red ones. But what if the moments we would never have chosen were also the moments that shaped us most?

In this episode, we explore the Tantric teaching of polarity and the idea that nothing in life is inherently wasted. This isn’t about pretending suffering is good or forcing a silver lining, rather it’s about discovering how even our greatest challenges can cultivate courage, compassion, resilience and wisdom… and how meeting life fully, in all its beauty and difficulty, might be part of the path itself.

In this episode, we explore one of Yoga’s most profound teachings: if each of us has a unique path to walk, why can it feel so difficult to recognise it?

Drawing on the opening verses of the Yoga Sūtras, we look at the nature of the mind and discover that the obstacle isn’t that we’ve lost ourselves, but that our perception has become clouded by the constant movement of thought.

Together we’ll explore why yoga is so much more than physical postures, how practices like Hatha Yoga help settle the whole system, and why a quieter mind isn’t the goal in itself… it is the doorway to greater clarity, freedom and authentic living.

In this episode, we explore the yogic concept of Svadharma: your unique path through life.

Drawing on the Bhagavad Gītā, we’ll reflect on why it’s “better to live your own dharma imperfectly than someone else’s perfectly,” and how our interests, talents, challenges and recurring longings may all be clues to the life we’re here to live.

We also explore the role of karma, the importance of discernment, and why following your dharma isn’t about making impulsive decisions, but about learning to trust the quiet threads that have been calling to you all along. The invitation isn’t to become somebody else, it is to become more fully yourself.