Room to Evolve

This week's episode is all heart. That's right, we're delving into Chakra Four - Anahata.

We are joined by the incredible writer, speaker, and workshop facilitator Emily J. Hooks.

Emily's work focuses on inquiry-based healing from past hurts. Her work reorients readers toward compassionate self-acceptance and accountability, and she specializes in the topic of forgiveness, which is the center of our conversation today and a beautiful embodiment of the heart chakra. In fact, it was such an in-depth and phenomenal conversation that our team chose to release it in two different parts. This is part one of our conversation and the second part will be released next week.

Emily spent the first few decades of her life managing her emotional and spiritual pain and the many traumas she had endured in her childhood. In 2003, she found herself in destitution and in deep suffering over the loss of the people who mattered most to her. Instead of giving up, she chose to move through the pain she carried and let go of her limiting beliefs about who she was and what the world was like.

In a huge moment of awakening, she saw her entire life unfold and self-compassion emerged. At that moment she vowed not to live a tragic life. To not just survive, but to thrive.

She began to deeply study the act of forgiveness, from texts and philosophies around the world. This led her to "relentlessly forgive" anyone who had ever caused her harm, including herself. As a result of this radical act of complete forgiveness, everything in her life transformed. And today her promise is to contribute as fully as she can for as long as she is able to.

Emily's work embodies the concept that through the work of forgiveness, we can all find love, compassion, and empathy for others and for ourselves; that it is possible to both mourn the loss of what was not, and fully embrace what is.

Her book, The Power of Forgiveness: A Guide to Healing and Wholeness, is available at all the major booksellers, and is linked in the show notes. Emily has also generously offered her Audible audiobook format to our listeners FOR FREE! Link & instructions on how to get the audio version of this powerful book are included below.

I can't wait to hear what you think about this conversation. Let's take a journey through the heart and explore the embodiment of true forgiveness.

Much love,

Jess

More about Emily:

More about Jess:

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

This week's episode is all about sound, which is directly related to Chakra Five - Vissudha (which means "purification").

Sounds are happening everywhere, all the time.

Pause for a few seconds and just listen. What do you hear? Maybe an airplane flying overhead, traffic on the streets below, birds chirping, the wind blowing, your dog snoring, children playing, a phone dinging, your stomach growling, and on and on! Even in the quietest of environments, there is always sound.

This chakra is the realm of sound, vibration, and resonance. It's where we both speak our truth and where we listen attentively to others. From my experience, Chakra Five is the chakra that is most frequently out of balance for people. Do you ever feel tightness in your trapezius muscles (where your neck & shoulders connect)? Hellooo Chakra Five!

Join me as we embody the fifth chakra, discuss the symptoms of imbalance (both excesses and deficiencies), and explore the different ways that sound (and silence!) affects us. And I share some great practices you can do to charge and release your own Chakra Five.

Let's jump into some good vibrations together. See you there.

Much love,

Jess

Join Jess in the Galapagos Islands, March 2-9! 

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Embodiment Online Course. Harness the energy of chakra one, and set a new foundation built on connection, gratitude, and trust in the world. Use coupon code PODCAST!

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

In today's episode, we have reached the part of the mountain that is Chakra Six - Ajna.

This chakra allows us to clearly see reality. It helps us discern between what is an illusion and what is truth. Living in a world full of differing opinions, false flags, false prophets, and propaganda – the truth can be tough to get to! Luckily, the six chakra helps us cut through the noise and distractions and allows us to connect with our inner guru. After all, it's the seat of our intuition!

Join me today as I walk us through how we can embody Chakra Six, including the organ systems it's connected to and where it lives in your body. We'll also discuss the physical symptoms of a Chakra Six imbalance, how it can help your life when it's in alignment, and ways to bring more Ajna awareness into your everyday life.

This episode will include some helpful practices that you can start incorporating into your life today. So let's get to it – our intuition awaits!

Much love,

Jess

Join Jess in the Galapagos Islands, March 2-9! 

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Embodiment Online Course. Harness the energy of chakra one, and set a new foundation built on connection, gratitude, and trust in the world. Use coupon code PODCAST!

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

Our first guest of Season 2 is a fellow Austin-based yoga professional whom I've known for many years and have a ton of respect for. Ana Pilar Cruz has been teaching yoga since 2001 and, in the modalities of Hatha, Hatha Flow, and Ashtanga Yoga, has been training yoga teachers since 2006 at both 200 and 500-hour levels in the United States and abroad. As the current Director of Yoga Therapy at My Vinyasa Practice,  she excels in teaching pranayama, mantra, and yogic philosophy & literature. Ana Pilar expands her teaching beyond the mat by bringing the history, philosophy, and mythology of yoga to communities and conferences across the United States.

She's here with us today to talk about Chakra Seven, how it is the gateway to the Divine, and how we can embody the Divine in our everyday lives.

Our conversation begins with the stages of life and how we embody them through the lens of the chakra system. From there we move into the practice of seeing the Divine in yourself and others, and then discuss different conditions that can create blocks in the seventh chakra and examples of how that shows up in world events.

We also talk about the importance of ritual in accessing the Divine, and how boundaries are important in creating sacred connections. Ana Pilar then shares how the way she was raised to simply be curious about religion and her own relationship with the Divine kept her mind and heart open.

This is such a juicy conversation and I could have talked with her for hours! We will have to have her back again. Enjoy this episode, and may it inspire you with a few ways you can find and sustain your own connection to the Divine.

Much love,

Jess

Online Yoga Membership (OYM) Boot Camp September 11-17 Sign up and get ready!

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

Embodiment Online Course.⁠ Harness the energy of chakra one, and set a new foundation built on connection, gratitude, and trust in the world. Use coupon code PODCAST!

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

Welcome back to Jess on the Mountain! We are kicking off Season 2 at the top of the mountain with the crown chakra – the thousand-petaled lotus of Sahasrara. Not sure how to pronounce that? Don't worry - even I mispronounced it for years!

Imagine the snow cap of a mountain taking the shape of a beautiful white lotus of enlightenment. This is our connection to Spirit and the Divine. This is where we get the 30,000-foot view that gives us self-awareness and an understanding of how the world operates.

Sahasrara is energy at the highest vibration – beyond sound and light, into ether and thought waves. Our energetic bodies, our etheric bodies, go beyond our skin and into the space around us, especially at the crown of our heads.

This podcast season's theme is Embodiment, so tune in to learn which glands the seventh chakra is affiliated with and how excesses and deficiencies can show up in our bodies. We then talk about what it means to embody Sahasrara in our everyday lives, and we end the episode with a brief meditation to help you embody Spirit.

Much love,

Jess

Join Jess in the Galapagos Islands, March 2-9! 

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Embodiment Online Course. Use coupon code PODCAST!

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

Welcome back to Season Two of Jess on the Mountain!

Last season, we started at the bottom of the mountain (at our root chakra) and worked our way up to the top, exploring each of the seven chakras as we journeyed alongside one another.

This season, we're going to start where we left off - at the top of the mountain! As we slowly work our way back down through the chakras, our focus this season will be working with the theme of Embodiment. Tune in to this intro episode, where I talk about embodiment and why it's so important, as well as provide some insight into the exciting topics and guests we have lined up for you this season. And if that wasn't juicy enough, I also announce a special companion online course called... (you guessed it!) Embodiment, which would make an excellent travel buddy as you follow along this season (totally optional of course!).

I'll see you at the top of the mountain.

Much love,

Jess

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

• 3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

• Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self-Assessment⁠ 

• Embodiment Online Course. Use coupon code PODCAST!

• Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

• More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

On the mountain of life, today we consider our choice of hiking partners, romantic or otherwise. After all, it’s not just you on the mountain! And everyone affects each other, through the chakras, on an energetic level. If we’re to experience Unity in the spiritual realm, it helps to have an experience of unity in the material world. This is how I see the crown and heart connected. Human love as a material expression of divine relationship.

My dad gave me much advice in this area over the relatively short time we had together, and today I share three of my favorite pieces with you:

Learn The Locks and Keys of Happiness:

Enjoy the Sunflower School in the Jess G Yoga Facebook Group! Mondays July 3-August 28.  Because sunflowers turn towards the light all summer long…

Join me in the Galapagos Islands! March 2-9, 2024

Other helpful links:

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

Jess G Yoga Facebook Group

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

Today is a great conversation about linking, meditation, and yoga therapy. Our guest is Amanda Green, who is a Certified Yoga Therapist and expert in teaching and guiding students and teachers in meditation, breath, postures, and chanting to foster healing and balance at Innermost Yoga and Yoga Well Institute. (Scroll down for whole bio and links.)

2:20 Amanda's journey

5:10 What is Yoga Therapy? (vs. private yoga)

7:00 Two ways we develop patterns

8:45 All about the Sixth Chakra: Ajna

10:30 What is linking?

16:00 Four reasons to meditate, according to the Yoga Sutras

20:25 Linking to a sunflower

22:20Like attracts like and the gunas

26:00 Dismantling our own structures: When and why we need help

28:00 How attachment to a meditation object can cause problems

35:20 When it's helpful choose your own object meditation

37:30 For those who can't visualize...

43:24 How to learn from Amanda

Want to learn more and experience object meditation?

Listen to Episode 89 of Ready, Get Centered, Go! with Jess G

Read this BLOG post from October, 2020.

Learn more about Yoga Therapy, and how we might start this journey together!

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: ⁠Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the ⁠Chakra Check-In Self Assessment⁠ 

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the ⁠Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet ⁠

More resources, links, and a form for thoughts and questions are at ⁠Jessgoulding.com/podcast.⁠

Connect with Jess on 

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

⁠Jessgoulding.com⁠

BIOGRAPHY

Amanda Green is dedicated to helping individuals recover physical and emotional health and to age well. In the process, students learn to move with the breath and spine and to train the mind. Her teaching style is clear and practical and includes discussion and reflection,  movement, breathing techniques, meditation, yogic philosophy, and vedic chant. Amanda is great at creating an efficient daily routine to meet the needs and interests of each client. Individual support and this evolving home practice is where the life-magic happens.

Amanda took her first yoga class in 2001 and has been practicing ever since. After moving from Seattle to Austin in 2010, she took her first yoga training and began teaching yoga full-time. Amanda met her teacher and mentor, Chase Bossart in 2011. At this time, her yoga practice took a turn toward a therapeutic approach and she went on to become a certified yoga therapist, to see clients, and to train other yoga teachers to do the same.

Amanda Green is a graduate of the YATNA yoga therapy program and an IAYT-certified yoga therapist. She offers group classes and individual yoga therapy to students online and at her private studio, Innermost Yoga in Austin, TX. Amanda is faculty at Yoga Well Institute and teaches in the 1,500 hour therapist training program. When Amanda isn’t teaching, you can find her hanging out with her awesome family, gardening, painting, or singing karaoke, usually out of tune.

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy, meditation

Today I’m celebrating how meaningful and fun the three workshops I taught last week were, and I want you to benefit from what we experienced. So stick with me to hear about the myth and the truth that emerged from this workshop! 

You can catch the workshop replay through June 18 when you sign up for the Chakra Savvy: Reset Your Life Game Plan FREE Trial

Get started or continue on your personal chakra journey:

3 questions to get you started: Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠

Settle into some journaling questions and a video guide with the Chakra Check-In Self Assessment 

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet 

Resource links, as well as a form for thoughts and questions are at Jessgoulding.com/podcast.

Connect with Jess on 

⁠Facebook⁠

⁠Instagram⁠

⁠YouTube⁠

Jessgoulding.com

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy

Today I have a few stories to share with you about hitting the reset button in any area of your life. 

Helpful resources:

3 questions to get you started: Chakra Savvy Quickie Quiz⁠ ⁠

Start with settling into some journaling questions and a video guide with the Chakra Check-In Self Assessment 

Listen about each chakra and keep it all straight with the Chakra Savvy Cheat Sheet 

Resource links, as well as a form for thoughts and questions are at Jessgoulding.com/podcast.

Connect with Jess on 

⁠Facebook⁠

⁠Instagram⁠

⁠YouTube⁠

Jessgoulding.com

TAGS

awareness,  mindfulness,   self study,   svadyaya,   self awareness,    chakras,    yoga,   yoga therapy