Skillful Means Podcast

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Grounding practices are more than just coping mechanisms during tumultuous times. They're empowering strategies to discharge excess emotional energy while tap rooting your inner strength and resilience. In this episode, we're exploring:

• An empowered way to think of grounding as a practice
• 6 principles of effective grounding techniques
• Proactively collecting your tools so you can reach for them when you need them

Jennifer also pulls from yoga and Buddhist dharma teachings to answer a listener question about engaging others in our values-based causes without creating harm.

Resources Mentioned On This Show

• Adyashanti: https://www.opengatesangha.org/
• 14 Precepts of Engaged Buddhism: https://www.lionsroar.com/the-fourteen-precepts-of-engaged-buddhism/

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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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Instead of speculating endlessly about why you might be avoiding something, ask the part that's hesitating!

Based on Internal Family Systems (IFS), this guided parts work practice will help you identify and get to know the part (or parts) that are resisting taking action. 

If you're new to IFS Parts Work, check out Episode 29 for a primer and 30 for a basic guided practice. You might also appreciate Episode 100 for a deeper dive into what lies underneath resistance. 

👉 The practice follows a brief introduction at 3:18. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

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

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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.

Ever wonder why you feel resistant to doing something that you actually want to do? 

This month we're unpacking the complexities of resistance through Buddhist teachings and IFS Parts Work. We're going to scrap the self-sabotaging label and get to the roots of why most people struggle to make progress on their goals. 

• The difference types of resistance according to Buddhism's Five Hindrances
• The IFS Perspective on the intentions of parts and why they put up road blocks

Jennifer also shares a few personal anecdotes that highlight a compassionate approach to getting things done. 

Resources Mentioned in the Show

• Satipatthana Meditation by Bhikkhu Analayo
• Toward a Psychology of Awakening by John Elwood

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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.

As a practice of being, Yin Yoga creates a unique container for exploring the restless impulses to fix while encouraging us to relax into self-acceptance. 

In this short practice, Jen shares three postures that target the Earth element as a way of amplifying stabilizing yin energies while directing attention to the Hara - the belly center - as a  way to deepen into your home ground. 

Postures in this practice:

• Reclining Butterfly
• Reclining Twist 
• Supported Pontoon (bridge with extended legs)

Props:

• One block (or similar object) - necessary
• Additional block or two small cushions - optional
• journal - optional 

The practice follows a brief introduction at 2:10. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.

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

~ ~ ~

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.

Feeling the pressure to do all the things?

This episode explores the balancing act between living up to expectations, following the rules, and being true to yourself.

• Identifying shoulds (compared to wants & needs)
• Self-compassion vs should-ing on yourself
• Sensing shoulds in body, heart, and mind
• Parts Work (Internal Family Systems - IFS) for uncovering the roots of shoulds
• Strategies for managing a to-do list of things that are important to you

Parts Work Questions mentioned in the show:
- Why is this important?
- How did this become important?
- What would happen if I did something else instead?
- Do I really want to do this? Or do it in this exact way?

Resources and People mentioned in the show:
- The Center for Nonviolent Communications Feelings & Needs Inventory
- Building Movement Project Social Change Ecosystem Map
- Racheal Cook

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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 preview pod explores the concept of upaya (skillful means) and its relevance in today's polarized world + how this focus will be reflected in the next iteration of the show.

Jen emphasizes the importance of developing presence and awareness in order to meet life's challenges with courage and heart.

Highlights include:
• Cultivating what Roshi Joan Halifax calls a strong back and soft front
• What kind of awareness is needed for this moment
• Recognizing "lab time" on the mat as preparation for real-life challenges
• Building a diverse toolkit of practices for various situations

Listener feedback and support is essential to the evolution of the how, so don't forget to fill out the survey form: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

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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 preview pod marks the return of the Skillful Means Podcast, where Jen introduces a new format focused on listener questions and community storytelling... plus a little preview of what's on the horizon for the show.

Send me your questions, favorite resources, and vignettes to help shape the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

Mentioned in the episode:
• Lojong Slogans

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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.

Jen wraps up her partial series on the Brahma Viharas with Mudita, commonly translated as "sympathetic joy." With Mudita, we're asked to rejoice in the good fortune of others, admittedly not easy.

This is why Jen likes to think of Mudita as "delight," specifically delighting in joy itself whether it's originating from someone else or from within. But, when we are able to delight in other's happiness, it's further solidifies our connection and sense of interconnectedness, helping to ease the suffering of loneliness and isolation.

The meditation starts at 3:39. If your podcast player support chapter makers, you can skip ahead.

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

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at [email protected], or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

~ ~ ~

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.

Have you ever caught yourself (or been caught by someone else) with your head buried in your smartphone while doing something mundane like brushing your teeth or walking through your home?

If so, you can probably relate to the lure of distraction when certain moments don't seem worth our full attention. 

In this contemplation, Annie invites us to view these small, ordinary moments during the day as portals to mindfulness that may reveal a hidden treasure of simple awe that awaits our ordinary attention.

To skip the talk and go straight to the mediation, fast forward to 3:33 or use the chapter marker if your player supports them.

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

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at [email protected], or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can find  Annie at https://www.sunandmoonstudio.com where she offers dharma talks and meditation on Wednesdays. 

~ ~ ~

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.

Continuing her mini-series on the Brahma Viharas, the Four Immeasurables, Jen shares the Tibetan practice of Tonglen. This training in compassion is an inner alchemy where the practitioner seeks to transmute the suffering of others.

Tonglen teaches us how to grow our hearts beyond the boundaries of those in our in-crowd. It invites us to embrace our common humanity as an extension of our own being.

This particular variation of Tonglen is inspired by a version by Roshi Joan Halifax.

To skip the talk and go straight to the mediation, fast forward to 4:18 or use the chapter marker if your player supports them.

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

We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at [email protected], or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast.

You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

~ ~ ~

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.