The Weeks Well

In this episode, I sit down with Stephen Cope, author of the The Dharma in Difficult Times, and Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Stephen says that the genius of yoga in America right now lies in its ability to bring both psychology and neuroscience to yoga practice, and he believes that Sat Bir is at the forefront of this work. This conversation is about how science and modern psychotherapy are together modernizing yoga toward having its greatest impact so far in human history.

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Sanskrit:

1. Samadhi: contemplation

2. Dyhana: concentration

3. Sadhaka: a person who follows a particular spiritual practice

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Books and studies referenced:

1. The Dharma in Difficult Times, Stephen Cope

2. Ted Jack Kaptchuk 

3. Boston Conservatory

4. Boston Symphony 

5. Tanglewood Learning Institute

6. Mind and Life Institute 

7. Why practice yoga? Practitioners' motivations for adopting and maintaining yoga practice

8. International Journal of Yoga Therapy

9. Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

10. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

11. Efficacy of Yoga vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Stress Education for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

12. The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk

13. Why former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes loneliness is a 'profound' public health issue

14. The Yoga Sutras

15. Bhagavad Gita, Eknath Easwaran

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. 

Follow us on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

Show notes:

In this episode, I sit down for an intimate conversation with the legendary Angela Farmer, known as the creator of the first yoga mat, who has been practicing yoga for 50 years and teaching for nearly as many. During that time, she has learned how to take her yoga journey inward and to listen to the needs of her body to cultivate a practice that she says has no name. Angela and her partner Victor van Kooten were essentially cancelled from the Iyengar Yoga community before we even had a name for "cancel culture." She discusses her experience in Iyengar Yoga, whose focus on alignment has greatly influenced modern yoga, and her journey moving away from it and compares learning deep yoga study to learning the scales of a musical instrument. Although the scales may anchor you in your practice, they are the structure you may eventually move away from as you being to listen to your deepest need to express yourself. 

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References:

1. Learn more about Angela Farmer.

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter.

Follow us on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

What is yoga therapy and how does it address the whole person, whether that person is working with disease or wellness? In this episode, I sit down with four teachers certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) to learn about the transformational relationships, whole-person care, and wellness paradigm that characterize the yoga therapy profession. In order of speaking, the guests are:

1. Lois Steinberg, Ph.D., Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher Level 4, C-IAYT, Director Iyengar Yoga Champaign Urbana

2. Saraswathi Vasudevan, Founder and Director of YogaVahini

3. Diane Finlayson, Department Chair of the MS in Yoga Therapy program at Maryland University of Integrative Health

4. Molly McManus, Current Board President of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and Co-owner of Yoga North International SomaYoga Institute

The group discusses how:

1. they work with the western medical model.

2. you can change the way you think of the learning process itself through yoga therapy, and how working with yourself is the most fundamental thing you can do.

3. it's not about expanding the numbers of conditions but about taking in the complexity of the human being.

4. interoceptive information from the body informs yoga therapy, versus talk therapy, which is just about the mind.

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Also! This episode included some Sanskrit. We've translated most of the words used here:

1. Sankhya: a dualistic school of Indian philosophy

2. Ayurveda: an alternative medicine system that focuses on holistic healing 

3. Upanishads: the most recent part of the Vedas (the oldest Hindu scriptures)

4. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: a collection of Sanskrit threads on yoga theory and practice

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Also referenced:

1. International Association of Yoga Therapists

2. Yoga Therapy program at Maryland University of Integrative Health

3. Yoga North International SomaYoga Institute

4. Iyengar Yoga Champaign Urbana

5. Lois Steinberg's adaptation course

5. YogaVahini

6. Practicing Well episode with Sat Bir Singh Khalsa

7. Yoga Sutras

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter.

Follow us on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

How well can an industry be when its teachers don't make much more per class than just one student pays for that class? In this episode, I sit down with AJ Schneider, founder of Beyond the Green Coaching, to discuss how money flows in the yoga industry and community—and how it doesn't. As a yoga student, former full-time yoga teacher, and former studio manager of the YogaWorks in Washington, D.C., AJ has experience with many sides of the industry, including observing longtime teachers offering classes for free. AJ points out that this not only devalues their services, but also makes it harder for those who come after in the teaching world to establish their own value. We discuss the hard realities of making a career out of yoga teaching, as well as what the post-Covid path forward looks like for yoga teachers and the business overall.

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Books and media referenced:

1. Beyond the Green Coaching

2. Women and Money, Suze Orman

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter.

Follow us on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

What is yoga in its postural form? Millions of people in the United States practice yoga every day, and their practice takes the literal form of yoga asanas, or yoga poses. These poses are also being innovated every day in the unregulated market of yoga teaching which has set a suggested standard of just 200 hours of training. Most yoga trainings take less than a month to complete.

Books and media referenced:

1. Geeta Iyengar, Preliminary Course

2. BKS Iyengar, Tree of Yoga

Sanskrit words used:

1. Yoga: a yoking, to yoke

2. Prana: life force or "chi," a word that has no direct English translation

3. Ssana = pose

4. Pranayama = breath control/breathwork

5. Sirsasana = head balance pose

6. Sarvangasana = shoulder balance pose

7. Tadasana = mountain pose

8. Pratyahara = a technique of withdrawing the senses from outer stimuli/data

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter.

Follow us on Instagram (@weeks.well), Facebook (@weeks.well), Twitter (@weeks_well), YouTube (@weekswell), Patreon (Weeks Well), and TikTok (@weekswell).

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

“Virtually every yoga practice is capable of generating a relaxation effect." This is just one of the points Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, makes in our latest episode. Sat Bir and I explore the fact that yoga is a multifaceted mind-body modality offering basic strategies for coping with stress and emotion. Wee talk about how it is altogether different from a practice that the public perceives as a physical set of self-care exercises appropriate only for white, able-bodied women with time and financial resources.

As a researcher, scientist, and yoga practitioner, Sat Bir has devoted his life to bringing the scientific research on yoga to the public. He has done this the way any researcher would attempt to introduce new research in a virtually unknown field: He has conducted and begun to specialize his own research, established himself at a prestigious research school, and created professional connections—and symposia—with influencers within both yoga teaching and yoga therapy.

Here we talk about the recent Symposium on Yoga Research, held annually by the International Association of Yoga Therapists—what it is, why it's important, and where it could go. We also attempt to answer questions like: 

1. Could the growing field of scientific research on yoga have any impact on this unregulated industry of gig workers who, on average, have only 300 hours of training under their belt? 

2. How can yoga teachers reach the end user with scientific research most relevant for the condition they might be facing? 

3. How can the yoga industry reach doctors and other care providers with the right message and matchmaking in yoga for their patients? What is a yoga therapist and how might this care profession grow as the public becomes more aware of the efficacy of yoga practices for certain diseases? 

4. Has any scientific research on yoga reached the consensus-paper level in the medical community? (The answer is yes, and the research has been in oncology and chronic lower back pain).

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Books and media referenced:

1. Yoga Alliance videos on the Scientific Research on Yoga

2. Yoga Alliance webinars on the Scientific Research on Yoga

3. Symposium on Yoga Research

4. PubMed

5. Introduction to Yoga, Harvard Medical School

6. The Relaxation Response, Herbert Benson

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks

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For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

In this episode, I sit down with Chris Parkison, founder of the DC Yoga podcast. Chris and I met through the DC Yoga podcast and since then haven't stopped talking about the yoga industry and community, our time as yoga teachers and yoga teacher trainers, and how to deepen the practice of yogic techniques of transformation. In this episode we get deep in talking about the Vedic concept of the koshas, or layers of the bodily experience and expression. We also cover:

1. Chris's archival work on the DC yoga industry

2. His long-planned trip to India and how going to the "source" impacted his practice and teaching

3. The importance of mysticism and how, without it in your body, you're unhappy and incomplete

4. How much of a teacher's own practice reflects what they share in a teacher training and/or their classes

5. Oranges.

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Also! This episode included some Sanskrit. We've translated most of the words used here:

1. Kriya: action

2. Koshas: the layers of the body

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1. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van Der Kolk

2. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor

3. The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living, Stephen Cope

4. The Dharma in Difficult Times: Finding Your Calling in Times of Loss, Change, Struggle, and Doubt, Stephen Cope

5. DC Yoga Podcast

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks

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For more info on Kim Weeks and Weeks Well, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter for weekly updates to your inbox.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™.

In this episode, I share my thoughts on 20 years of yoga teaching and 30+ years practice with three of my students who share their own intersectional yoga journeys of differing backgrounds, bodies, and ages. They discuss their individual paths to yoga and what teachers and types of classes work for them.

1. Eric is close to 70 and practices Iyengar Yoga for resistance training. He loves being his age and able to do many of, if not most of, the poses in class that students half his age cannot. He feels empowered by choices in yoga, knows that these practices are what keep him getting out of bed in the morning, and he vastly—vastly!—prefers in-person yoga to online yoga. I also enjoy making him laugh when he's upside down.

2. Lizzie, in her 30s, has had scoliosis since becoming a teenager and, until finding my classes, found that yoga was painful and not useful for her. Now, she not only sees the benefits of a practice modified for her body's needs but also values yoga as a way to still her mind, no matter what else is happening in the world.

3. Miah is in her 40s and has practiced alignment-based yoga for decades. She loves her body and also knows that it has particular needs for it being safe. She loves both online and in-person yoga classes especially because they cool her ambitious, competitive side while also challenging her to do things that would otherwise scare her to try.

Episode credits:

Original music by Governess

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks and Weeks Well, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter for weekly updates to your inbox.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.

In this event, I sit down with three leaders in modern yoga, Gary Kraftsow of the American Viniyoga Institute®, Monique Schubert of Kripalu Yoga, and John Schumacher of Iyengar Yoga. In this first episode of Practicing Well, we talk about what yoga lineage is and why it matters. This episode covers:

1. The knowledge base, practical relevance, and teacher-to-student transmission endemic to yoga lineage

2. The community and connection held in tradition in yoga lineage

3. The original discovery of yoga lineages by the original yogis who "sat by rivers and in caves."

4. Multifaceted lineages such as Kripalu Yoga

5. The responsibility of yoga teachers to meet students where they are

6. How to trust the integrity of a system of learning and knowledge, and how the commercialism of yoga is less when the community connection is more

7. The imperfection of gurus

8. How, in yoga, "there is no place to hide" from your teacher or yourself.

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Also! This episode was Sanskrit-heavy. We've translated most of the words used here:

1. Sampradaya: the flow of the tradition

2. Parampara: the line that goes from teacher to student

3. Sangha: community

4. Guruji: what you call your guru

5. Guru: destroyer of darkness, bringer of light

6. Seva: selfless service

7. Svadharma: what you're here for in the phase of change and life

8. Householder: people who practice yoga while also trying to live ordinary lives in the world instead of living in an ashram

9. Antarayah: obstacles

10. Vyadhi: disease; it's one of the obstacles

11. Dharma: the teachings that lead us to freedom

12. Yamas: the first limb of yoga; social practices

13. Niyamas: the second limb of yoga; internal observances

14. Acharya: expert instructor

15. Satguru: fully realized being

16.Shloka: a phrase or sentence, like the sutras or the lines in the Gita

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References: 

Learn more about the American Viniyoga Institute®.

Learn more about Kripalu Yoga.

Learn more about Iyengar Yoga.

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Episode credits:

Original music by Governess

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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For more info on Kim Weeks and Weeks Well, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter for weekly updates to your inbox.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.

Copyright © 2022 Weeks Well™

Welcome🕊!

Practicing Well, a new podcast, is about how practicing being well = wellness. This podcast is about the modern practice of being your best self in your mind, breath, body, and brain. It helps you ground amid our bazillion distractions in modern life. You will hear conversations between people with a lifetime of practicing wellness and mindfulness, people who have a lot to say about the actual, dig-in dirty work it takes to discover the mental freedom, quiet, and internal bodily authority and autonomy—the peace—that is everyone’s birthright.

Hosted by wellness entrepreneur Kim Weeks, Practicing Well brings you conversations on the practices of wellness and yoga, how to understand the deeper study of yoga, and how to find out the best kind of yoga and mindfulness for you. In particular, we are asking these questions: What is yoga lineage? What is it, and why does it matter? How is the burgeoning field of scientific research on yoga and mindfulness the best way to validate yoga as a legitimate modality for both health and disease management? And, perhaps most vitally, what can we learn about the intersection of equity and wellness culture/industry? How many people are actually empowered with the resources to practice being well?

With Practicing Well, we hope to create a space for you to reflect on your own wellness practices for your body, breath, and mind. Practicing Well intends to curate impactful conversations, with actionable takeaways, for living an educated, embodied, wellness-practiced life.

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Episode credits:

Original music by Governess: "Decay" and "Ground Control"

Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School: https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/faculty-staff/sat-bir-singh-khalsa

For more info on Kim Weeks and Weeks Well, visit www.weekswell.com. Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter for weekly updates to your inbox: https://weekswell.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cab520ea5f3ee901294dab8a5&id=4d3a0e82e7.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.