Peter's Podcast

In today's episode, I speak about trauma-informed yoga with Tara Tonini, who recently led a training at ISHTA Yoga. Tara is the founder of Bloom Healing Yoga & Wellness. A lover of movement, color and creativity, she is a yoga teacher, doula, Reiki Master and acupuncture student with a passion for women's health.

Tara currently serves as Director of Curriculum Development & Mentorship for Exhale to Inhale, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering those affected by domestic violence and sexual assault to transform their lives. ETI uses the healing practice of trauma-informed yoga to empower survivors, while helping communities develop skills and knowledge to support them. 

You can learn more about Tara at www.taratonini.com and more about Exhale to Inhale at www.exhaletoinhale.org.

Please come to Antigua with me and Petra Rakebrandt this Easter. Details at sugarridgeantigua.com/yoga-retreat/

Peter's Podcast is going live February 15 at ISHTA Yoga. I'll be speaking with Mona Anand. Join us! Details at ISHTA Yoga under Events.

More events and information at peterferko.com.

It's the morning of the second women's march and I take you to class! I share a lecture about the nature of us as co-creators of the universe. Then I describe how yogis use OM or AUM to reconnect and become whole. This brings us wisdom and inspiration in living.

There's a meditation practice at the end of the episode, so you can try it for yourself! Then come see me for meditation class at ISHTA Yoga.

Only a few days remain to get the reward of a yoga nidra recording on Patreon. Sign up by Feb. 1 and I'll lull you to sleep!

Check my website, peterferko.com for details of upcoming events, including retreats and Peter's Podcast Live with Mona Anand.

Namaste!

In today’s episode, I’m stepping out, from our kitchen to the living room, to talk to my wife Wendy Newton about the fine line between the kinds of practices we use in yoga and their similarities and differences from religion. In case you’re new to the podcast, Wendy Newton is a yogiraj, or master, at ISHTA Yoga, as well as having a profound knowledge of polarity therapy and other bodies of wisdom. She works privately with students as a yoga therapist and polarity therapist (contact her at [email protected]).

Upcoming events mentioned in the show:

In this episode, I take a moment in honor of Martin Luther King Day. I mention that I have a tradition of listening to his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, which can be found here. I mention this week's New Yorker cover, which can be seen here.

I then head to Times Square in Manhattan, to the office of Thijs Beuming, a professional scientist who wanted to deepen his yoga practice, so took 500-hours of yoga teacher training. Thijs has a love of yoga, but has some resistance to the way yoga teachers use scientific language in imprecise and even inaccurate ways. We have some fun figuring out how to walk the line between metaphor and fact. I hope it will help yoga teachers and be interesting to practitioners as well.

We mention Thijs's partner, Irina Kruzhilina, who teaches at ISHTA (and is quoted in my book Yoga for Artists).

And a last minute headline: Peter's Podcast is coming live to ISHTA Yoga February 15!

Please support Peter's Podcast on Patreon.com/peterspodcast!

Today's episode starts with a Cappuccino Q&A session about yoga asana — postures — and the importance of the whole of yoga practice.

I then have an enlightening talk with Nat Ma. Nat is a spiritual adventurer. He spent more than a decade in the marketing world, rising to enviable corporate heights, but he wasn’t happy — in fact, he was the opposite. His attempts to figure out what felt so wrong brought him to ISHTA Yoga, where he began a meditation practice. He then began to rethink his life. Nat spent the last year traveling the world with only a backpack and the desire to transform, and find his life’s purpose. I caught up with Nat on his recent visit to New York. I hope you are as inspired by his story as I was.

We mention ISHTA Yoga, where I teach and Nat has studied.

Please support me at Patreon.com/peterspodcast! Thank you.

You can find out more about me and my work — including upcoming retreats — at peterferko.com and follow me on social media on Facebook and instagram.com/peterferko/

You can follow Nat Ma on social media: https://www.instagram.com/iamcommonplace

Happy Solstice, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Christmas, or whatever you appreciate this time of year! The holidays around this time celebrate light, and today’s podcast is about light’s energy: vibration. Here’s a link to a video that shows you how vibrations move matter in beautiful ways. I head over to visit my student and kirtan co-conspirator Lindsay Sanwald where we talk about mantras and kirtan.

But before I head out, I wanted to share something from Oprah’s Supersoul podcast, which Lindsay turned me on to a while back. In Oprah’s recent conversation with Shawn Achor, who taught a course on happiness at Harvard, they discuss a practice of gratitude.

At this time of darkness and light, I just want to say, I’m grateful that you are listening to my podcast, and I wish you actual happiness and deep living. Come start the new year in the right vibration at ISHTA Yoga, New Year’s Day. Details are here.

I D G Y  D E A N  is the musical moniker of ISHTA-trained yogini Lindsay Sanwald. A one-woman psychedelic rock band, Idgy Dean has been composing DIY music for 20 years, playing various instruments in multiple bands, performing solo as a looping artist across the country, and producing critically-acclaimed records and music videos from her home base in Brooklyn, New York.

I hope you’ve noticed that I don’t run ads for taxis or mattresses or food delivery or underwear on Peter’s Podcast, but here’s a mini-advertisement for me.

I’m very excited to announce a summer retreat, led by Ulrica Norberg, Wendy Newton, and myself in Normandy, France this summer, August 14-18. It’s called Yoga and the Art of Living Creatively.

I’m also heading to the Caribbean for an Easter retreat with Petra Rakebrandt. Details here!

I’m teaching a 300-hr teacher training at ISHTA in January. I also teach regular asana and meditation classes there. See ISHTAYOGA.com for details.

Finally, I’m using Patreon to offer opportunities to work with me one on one. You can subscribe for a mantra session or for an hour video private. Of course, as they say on public radio, I hope you’ll subscribe at any level, just because you value Peter’s Podcast. Go to Patreon.com/peterspodcast.

Today on the podcast, I speak with Wendy Newton, my wife and a yoga master. Listeners have commented how much you like our breakfast table chats. I hope you like this one, too. I learned some fun new things about Wendy myself in this one as she shared her story of coming to yoga as a teenager! We mention Wendy's teachers Alan Finger and Heather Principe.

Then, I catch up with Jenny Bloom, and we talk about the #metoo moment in light of yoga insights. I hope you enjoy it.

I’m very excited to announce a summer retreat, led by Ulrica Norberg, Wendy Newton, and myself in Normandy, France this summer, August 14-18. It’s called Yoga and the Art of Living Creatively.

I’m also heading to the Caribbean for an Easter retreat with Petra Rakebrandt. Details will be coming soon.

I’m also teaching a Meditation Training with my own teacher Alan Finger and Sarah Finger, who appeared on a previous podcast. The meditation training is this Friday, December 15. I’m teaching a 300-hr teacher training at ISHTA in January. I also teach regular asana and meditation classes there. See ISHTAYOGA.com for details.

Finally, I’m using Patreon to offer opportunities to work with me one on one. You can subscribe for a mantra session or for an hour video private. Of course, as they say on public radio, I hope you’ll subscribe at any level, just because you value Peter’s Podcast. Go to Patreon.com/peterspodcast.

Today's episode begins with a monolog about deities in mantra. In it, I mention a Polish theatre production. The director's name is Jarosław Fret and the production that involved using ancient components of a mass was The Triptych

Then Rina Deshpande (bio below) joins me to talk first about the Indian cultural aspects of yoga; and then, about scientific research on yoga. Rina talks about growing up Indian in America. We muse about the pros and cons of the way yoga is reaching people today severed from its cultural heritage, and Rina talks about her recent article in Self (click the link to read her article).

Rina then puts on her science journalist hat to give us some tips on how to navigate the sea of stories about yoga and meditation in the news. I refer to a "news anchor." It was, in fact, Dan Rather on Pod Save America. What he said bears repeating: be aware that journalism comes in four perspectives: news (facts); analysis (connecting the dots of the facts); commentary (what analysts think that means); and editorial (opinion).

I'm leading a retreat to France this summer with Wendy Newton and Ulrica Norberg! Details at peterferko.com. I'm also leading a Meditation Training with Alan Finger and Sarah Finger December 15 and a 300-hr Teacher Training in January. The Meditation, Teacher Training, and regular class sign up are all at ISHTAyoga.com. Finally, I’m using Patreon to offer opportunities to work with me one on one. You can subscribe for a mantra session or for an hour video private. Of course, as they say on public radio, I hope you’ll subscribe at any level, just because you value Peter’s Podcast. Go to Patreon.com/peterspodcast.

Rina Deshpande is a yoga teacher, researcher, and writer based in New York City. Yoga helped her find stress reduction and happiness while working as a NYC public school teacher. After teaching children and school teachers ​and ​​helping found Relay Graduate School of Education, she came to ISHTA Yoga for teacher training. She also earned her masters degree from Harvard in Mind, Brain, and Education. She designs yoga and mindfulness research and instructional curriculum for Massachusetts General Hospital, the Marines, preK-12 schools, and ​writes for various online publications. In her most recent article for Self Magazine, Rina shares her perspective on acknowledging the cultural and philosophical roots of Yoga. Find her at rinadeshpande.com and follow Rina's mindful, whimsical illustrated poetry @RinaThePoet on Facebook and Instagram

Happy Thanksgiving! In this episode, I offer advice for deepening a holiday that often veers far from gratitude. Then I speak with a dear student of mine who has a lot of yoga training and a practice that she uses to find happiness in her professional life.

Elizabeth Chubbuck is a New York City business professional with a long-standing yoga practice. After studying at Trinity College in CT, she spent 4 years working for Hearst Magazines at Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping. Her side interest in gourmet cheese led her to Murray’s Cheese shop in Greenwich Village where she spent nearly 3 years volunteering in their classroom, and eventually accepting a job there. She is currently the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Murray’s Cheese. Through her professional journey, Elizabeth has consistently turned to yoga as a way to find space, and joy, which helps her in all the areas of her life.

Check out Peter's summer retreat, in France; trainings; and classes at peterferko.com

Thanks for listening!

Yogiraj Wendy Newton and I talk about the nature of love and how to find it!

Jenny Bloom and I start today's episode. I ask Jenny to share her experience after I gave her a personal mantra – just like you can if you subscribe at Patreon at the Mantra level. (You should subscribe at any level!)

Then, Wendy and I have a deep conversation about finding and staying in love. We discuss the book Yoga of the Nine Emotions, by Peter Marchand, where he talks about love and beauty, or shingara in Sanskrit. I also mention Mandy Len Catron's article and book about how to fall in love with anyone.

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