This episode I talk with Paul Grilley on his finding of and understanding of the Taoist Teaching of the Nei Jing Tu - a visual guide to the yogic experience.

language!⁠

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consider these common yoga teacher terms:

"modification" - something one does if a student can't do the full pose

"variation" - a variation on the standard⁠ - normally for more advanced students.

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this language is a problem. ⁠

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because it makes it seem that there is a 'standard' pose we all should work to... and we could all get there if we work enough. those who can do the standard teach everyone else (cos they can) and invite those who can to push it even further with 'variations' (for advanced people). ⁠

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this leaves the vast majority who cannot do the 'standard' and have to 'modify' (and get given all those cues to 'improve').⁠

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and how does that feel? exactly.

i want to you to consider that dropping these words is not being politically correct, spiritually liberal or inclusive. this language is bad because it is bad anatomy... come join me :-D

injury is unavoidable in life. we move too little or move too. and very often we have no idea why we injured ourselves. i offer my insight from years of practice and working with those in extremes - too little or too much... my answers may surprise you :-)

Former Principal Dancer of the Scottish Ballet and freelance choreographer, Eve Mutso joins me. Now a board member of Indepen-dance, an inclusive dance company for disabled and non-disabled people and Yin yoga teacher, Eve takes on her journey of success, injury and life after professional dance.

come join us.

Benoy Matthew is a registered physiotherapist, currently working in London, United Kingdom. As a clinician since 1998, he treated injuries ranging from minor ankle sprains to complex multi-trauma sports injury, but now specialises in hip and groin injuries for serious sports men & women.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Benoy commented that many yoga teachers came to him with injuries which he felt could be avoided.

I am excited to welcome Benoy and explore how we can all be smarter, more compassionate with our bodies in our Yoga. We talk about Benoy's 3 pillars of a good physical workout - stretching, cardio, strength (and how we need to have them all), how we are all different and how to identify difference between muscular pain and joint pain.

Come join us.

Yoga students often their yoga history from yoga schools & gurus with specific viewpoints or spiritual takes on the world.

This is great but potentially sub-optimal. Because they learn from a certain point of view, Yogis often miss out on a neutral, factual take on yoga, the ideas and the (crazy) characters in the 8,000+ years of the yoga story. Join me to listen to the facts without (so much) dogma!

High performance sport is a world balanced between the extremes of under achievement and injury, between the golden moments of glory and the dark psychology of failure.

Sports Recovery Psychologist Matilda Mayne joins us to delve into her discovery of yoga and how it relates to this fascinating culture of human achievement.

this week is cool!

i meet up with fellow acupuncturist and mugwort specialist, hannah swift. mugwort is a prize in chinese medicine.

and acupuncture really should be combined with moxa argues hannah as we dig around on the beach for this ever-present, but totally ignored, under our nose european herb. even acupuncturists aren't using it enough which is weird when the chinese word for acupuncture - zhènjîu - infers needles AND moxa, not just needles.

put it in your tea, smoke your body with it, get it in your life.

https://www.yellowempress.net/

in yoga, meditation, spiritual practice, self-improvement and all these pursuits, we seem fixated on transformation, improvement and refinement.

i propose we don't see our yoga this way. it should be a place free from all that pressure.

welcome! i have just come out of our latest yin yoga and variable anatomy teacher training and again have been shocked by how unconfident many yoga students are with exploring yoga poses (placing THEIR OWN hands and feet WHERE THEY WOULD LIKE to put them) and disobeying cues by yoga teachers. in this episode i list a few very obvious examples of movement outside of yoga that break the alignment cues we hold so dear and that many yoga teachers enforce.

and if others break our rules. why can't we? teachers need to stop telling people they are doing poses right & wrong. and this means they need to be better educated.