Skillful Means Podcast

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Karuna, or compassion, is the second in the series of the four most highly regarded qualities, or “sublime states,” in Buddhism: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upeksa (equanimity). 

Compassion arises when loving-kindness meets suffering and stays loving. It's more of a process than a static quality. In practice, we call upon this natural capacity of the heart and purposefully sustain it through the repetition of phrases. 

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane encourages you to draw on the natural care that arises when considering a beloved person’s measure of suffering. You'll take that energy and direct it to you both before expanding in all directions to include all beings.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected]

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

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In this episode of our continuing series on Yin Yoga, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the physical benefits of the practice. Many of us practice Yin Yoga, at least in part, to give ourselves the chance to experience “just being,” an antidote to the stresses produced by our busy lives. But even as we enjoy the emotional and mental effects of slowing down in Yin poses, all sorts of wonderful things are happening on the physical level.

As we unpack the benefits of Yin Yoga, including better mobility, Jen addresses common misunderstandings about the impacts of the practice on various tissues in the body. The result is a mini-primer on contemporary and emerging understanding of topics such as “stretching”--what is it?--to the longevity of the effects of practice, topics every yin yoga teacher should be at least somewhat familiar with.

And we didn’t even get to embodiment and body image, topics in the realm of the physical that are inextricably linked to Yin for so many practitioners! Stay tuned for those discussions in part 2, episode 14, next month. (Interceding odd-numbered episodes are guided practices.)

Resources
Facebook Group: The Art and Science of Teaching Yin Yoga

Jen’s Online Fascia Course: Fascia 101

Jules Mitchell’s new book: Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined

Paul Grilley’s book: Yin Yoga: Principles and Practice

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

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Many yoga and mindfulness practices are specifically designed to grow one's capacity to remain present - internally and externally - from moment to moment.

In this guided practice, Jennifer shares a simple practice for getting to know the current state of your body, heart, and mind so that you have the information you need to take care of yourself in a practice or in daily life. This meditation is particularly beneficial at the very beginning of a yoga practice, so that you have a better snapshot of what you need and how your body may react to the practice. 

The meditation is presented in the container of Butterfly, a relatively easy and widely accessible Yin Yoga posture. It is based on techniques shared with Jennifer and Sarah Jane by their teacher Sarah Powers. Being in non-neutral shapes can accelerate our ability to move out of the busyness of the thinking mind and into the more intuitive body mind.

This episode begins with a short explanation. Instructions for Butterfly begin at 1:30. The meditation starts at 2:45. If your app supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead and get started right away.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected] with your comments. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga. 

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Yin yoga, the slow and quiet approach to asana, flows against the current of mainstream yoga practices these days. With this episode, we urge you to try it based on the ways in which it bolstered us during challenging times.

Not to dismiss the physical and energetic benefits of the practice, here we’re talking about an often unspoken aspect of Yin Yoga, that the poses serve as accessible containers for mindfulness meditation and similar practices.

In this episode, we get personal and share our early experiences with the practice and the ways in which it accelerated our relationship to the inner methods and transformed our lives.

In a yang society that encourages us to strive to the detriment of our health, Yin practice is a key tool for balance and awakening.

We would love to hear from you! Send us your stories about how Yin Yoga has impacted your life. You can email us [email protected] or tag us on social (@skillfulmeanspodcast) on Facebook and Instagram.

If you want to know more about us, find Sarah Jane at https://www.sjswellness.com and Jen at https://sati.yoga. 

Mentions:
If the opportunity to study with these yoga teachers comes along, take it! 

Biff Mithoefer

Sarah Powers

And here is an introduction to Mindfulness of the Body from Ralph Steele: Dharma Talk

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Metta, or loving-kindness, is the first of a series of meditation practices offered by the Buddha to cultivate the four qualities of love: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upeksa (equanimity).  Practicing loving-kindness (metta bhavana) begins a process that, when mature, leads to a more accepting, kindly, and caring relationship towards one’s self and others.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane takes you on a sweet and tender journey to self compassion.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected]

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Maintaining practice is a must for yoga and meditation teachers, as well as serious practitioners of all sorts who are interested in spiritual growth. Establishing and maintaining the habit of practicing regularly is often hard won. It doesn’t take much to disrupt a daily routine, so what happens when holidays arrive? What happens when we travel for work or go on vacation? How does our practice life fare when we are among family we rarely see, or who don’t understand—or worse, don’t value—our path? 

Knowing that consistency is key, we need to be clear about the circumstances that crowd out opportunities to practice or that tend to challenge our dedication, as well as the strategies that help us honor our commitment as practitioners.

In this episode we share our stories and approaches from standing meditation in the shower to practicing in airport corners and keeping the peace with family. We also consider issues around practicing in public (beaches and airports) and identifying and attending studio yoga classes in faraway cities.

Share your tips for maintaining your practice outside your normal rourtine on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected]. Tag us at @skillfulmeanspodast and we’ll share your tips with our listeners. 

Mentions:

Thanissaro Bikkho discusses how to work with challenging family members in his talk “Skillful Shelter” published on Tricycle.com.

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

This relaxing Body Scan practice is inspired by a Buddhist teaching called Mindfulness of the Reality of the Body that appears in the First Foundation of Mindfulness. It's designed to help cultivate non-attachment to the body and to demonstrate one of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings: impermanence.

Jennifer begins this episode with a short talk on the context and intention behind the Body Scan practice. The meditation begins at 2:40.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected] with your comments. 

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In this bonus episode and companion to Episode 6, Sarah Jane takes you through a guided RAIN practice. Experience for yourself this transformative method for reframing your relationships with your feelings while cultivating self-compassion.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected] with your comments. 

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

RAIN (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Nurture) is a mindfulness meditation method developed by western Insight Meditation teachers to support practitioners in skillfully dealing with difficult emotions. RAIN can be used as an antidote to obstacles when they arise during meditation practice, as a practice in and of itself, in partnership, or off-the-cushion as a means to simply and mindfully pause during a challenging situation.

Sarah Jane is a regular practitioner of RAIN, and Jen has questions. In this episode, Jen shares what she has heard about RAIN meditation and asks Sarah Jane to help fill in the gaps. Together they cover its purpose, method, and benefits...and how it fits with each of their developing understandings of the Buddhadharma.

In an effort to make what she believes is an incredibly transformative meditation practice seem as accessible to others as it feels to her, Sarah Jane attempts to breathe life into what may at first sound systematic. Get a sense of the creativity involved in using RAIN to go from a contracted state of over-identification, confusion or denial into a state of loving awareness.

Sources and Resources:

• Insight meditation teacher Michele McDonald coined the term RAIN and offers an online course through Tricycle.com. 
• Psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach champions RAIN with a robust website that includes an accessible recorded meditation practice as well as a RAIN Partner Protocol and audio guide. 

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In this practice episode, Sarah Jane guides you through the practice of walking meditation. You can expect instructions, reminders, and several periods of silence for you to focus on the experience.

A formal meditation practice doesn't have to be static. Walking meditation is particularly helpful when you're feeling restless, but it also takes your practice off the cushion and into daily life. And the Buddha himself was fond of this practice.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at [email protected]

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.