Yoga Inspiration

As yoga evolves, there's a risk of over-complication and self-centredness. In this episode, Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, David Swenson, takes us on an exploration of yoga observations from almost 50 years of dedication.

To him, what's changed the most over the decades is the way people show up to yoga. For some there's a drive to 'complete it' while others can be overly fixated on anatomy. Too much of this and we can be distracted from the basic yet powerful benefits of the practice.

But there's also the beauty in watching yoga evolve. David has witnessed ashtanga branch off into different forms such as vinyasa and power yoga. So whether attitudes change or sequences morph into something new, the bottom line is that yoga evolves with the world around it.

And that's all fine–on one condition: we keep showing up to our mat and share the love we gain from our practice with the world. That's our duty.

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Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

We know that when we practice yoga, it has a positive ripple effect on the world around us. But in moments of injustice, we cannot rely on this as a way to change the world.

Azadeh sees both worlds as an Iranian woman and owner of yoga studios. She expresses how it's now more important than ever to ensure we speak of this oppression so that the world can awaken to the truth of Iran's reality.

We may turn to yoga for peace but Azadeh reminds us, anger is okay too. It's within our practice of meditation to accept all feelings; to be angry at the current situation is our right.

For women around the entire world, we need to resist bypassing and instead be heard.

We're being invited to observe whatever freedom we each have right now and take the steps to pass it on to our sisters in Iran. If we want peace, we must take action.

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Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Samin compares Iranian women to birds - they have wings yet they don't know how to fly. Samin herself was born and raised in Iran but once she left the country, she embarked on a yoga journey.

While her purpose is to share peace, her story is far from peaceful. Because like the birds she compares herself to, no journey is smooth for an Iranian woman. Even one that has left the country.

Her personal yoga practice began when she was 19 and ever since then, her path led her to build an online yoga school for the Persian yoga community as well as a community of Farsi-speaking yogis.

Within these communities, women have faced incomprehensible hardships from students practising in refugee camps to the borderline criminalisation of yoga in Iran. Samin not only provides a piece of joy in these lives but she speaks her truth on the issues in this episode.

Yoga touches more lives than we can often imagine.

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Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

The sad reality is that this is happening in our world. Kino talks with Maryam, an Iranian who emigrated from her home country in 2018, about the quality of life in Iran. More specifically, the country's unrest regarding women's rights - a backlash to the tragic death of Mahsa Amini.

Myram discusses how she found solace in her online yoga practice during difficult times and sympathises with her fellow Iranians stuck in the country where the internet has been prohibited and most outdoor exercises banned (to name a few restrictions).

In this episode, Kino and Myram also observe how yogis appear to lead from a place of love. It's that love which is crucial to understanding these devastating times. They emphasise how important it is to separate religion from an oppressive government.

Let's exercise discernment, love, and empathy for nuanced situations. Let's keep nurturing our love for ourselves on the mat so that we can keep sharing love with the world around us.

Start the journey now with your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

The call that brought us to our yoga mat is the same call that leads many of us toward the path of teaching.

The mental, physical and spiritual healing that can be found within a dedicated yoga practice is life changing. It's only natural that the desire to spread this wisdom with the world comes knocking.

But is that passion enough to be a good teacher? Your teacher training may have provided an immersion into yoga but the truth is, the deeper we dip our toe into the stream of truth, the more we realise that there's an entire ocean of knowledge yet to be understood.

This conversation explores a teacher's need to surrender to their life-long role as a student. To potentially hold space for someone's awakening requires a first-hand understanding of the power this sacred practice possesses.

A teacher will face many lessons - maybe even doubt and comparison. But these are lessons that are just as important as your studying. There is no rush. Take your time.

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Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

After an hour-long group meditation, all areas of the practice are covered. Why do we struggle to keep up a daily practice? Why do our thoughts spiral? Where is the subconscious mind located? This exploration provides consolation to the thinking mind's questions about meditation.

Whether it's five minutes or a one-hour sit, mediation is a practice that requires daily attention yet so many of us feel like we fail at it. The question is rarely whether we're capable though. Rather, we must understand whether we're asking too much of ourselves.

The secret to starting and sustaining a daily practice is to underestimate our capabilities and we might just surprise ourselves.

Once we find ourselves deep in these meditations, our thoughts come into focus. If the mind is left unchecked it can proliferate and remove us from our intention to be present. While the goal is not to rid all thoughts from our mind, we're often reminded that we're not our body, mind, or emotions. We are the awareness.

Being aware of a mind full of thoughts and a body revealing past emotions can make meditation challenging. It's true. But the more we dedicate ourselves to the practice, the more equanimity unfolds. It's waiting for us.

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Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to a guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Pranidhi Varshney is the founder of Yoga Shala West which is based in Los Angele and has been practising yoga for 15 years. She believes that learning is cyclical where the student learns from the teacher and the teacher learns from the student unlike a top-down relationship.

Previously, within the yoga community, there was a tendency to overlook the origins and lineage of yoga. Pranidhi feels it's important for this conversation and voices around yoga to include people of South Asian descent. Nevertheless, she is quick to admit that Western practitioners have played a key role in promoting Ashtanga yoga.

The Ashtanga community is in a transition and accessibility is a big part of that transition. People are moving away from strict regimens and harmful hierarchies that had made yoga feel restrictive and acted as a barrier for newcomers.

We can learn culturally from India where people who practice yoga incorporate it into their everyday life just like eating or combing your hair. Your life shouldn't come to a halt when you practice yoga.

Hopefully, during this transition, as teachers and practitioners, we can create a safe space where everyone can express their point of view without being shamed or ostracised.

Start the journey now with your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on

Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If

you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Important links:

• Pranidhi's Essay that was Published on Yoga Journal: https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/cultural-appropriation-yoga/
• Links to the site and Youtube: http://yogashalawest.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/user/PranidhiV

Dannion Brinkley had faced unimaginable odds, having several near-death experiences and even crossing over and coming back. He discovered that we are spiritual beings. Death, as we are taught, is only an illusion. Dannion works with those close to passing to accept that we never die.

The biggest mistake we all make is forgetting we are spiritual beings. And to be able to live now is a gift, no matter what may be going wrong in your life. As you release more love and gratitude, you enter your spiritual consciousness a little more.

A new world is being born. We are light bearers, holders of a certain spiritual consciousness, and grateful for the practice and whatever divine forces are at work in your life. As this world changes and shifts, we change and shift along with it, carrying the torch of our practice to new generations for future change.

Things that affect your dignity, like helplessness and loneliness, are grand illusions that we learn to accept upon living in this world. But, they are not present in the spiritual realm. When you realize this, the steps you take are in love and gratitude and the only power you have is within you. But this power in our breath is the power to create change from a distance.

You are a great, powerful, and mighty spiritual being, with dignity, direction, and purpose. You're in the right direction, but it's the purpose that most struggle with. It's not to be perfect. Your purpose is to be yourself and to make a difference. And you have the power within yourself as a spiritual being to do that.

Start the journey now with your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

A misunderstanding about meditation is that it calms your mind. But even after 20 years of practicing, a calm mind will still have days of chaos. The purpose of meditation is not to become calm but to create equanimity.

Though the words calm and equanimous are often used synonymously, there is a slight difference. Calmness can be compared to still waters, while equanimity is more like the sky. It's a container that holds all things.

The equanimous mind remains the same, no matter what happens. It contains all of your thoughts, emotions, and memories but does not react to them.

Similar to memory, mindfulness requires total presence and having full faculty of your senses. But while memories are rooted in the past, mindfulness is now.

If you can learn to anchor the mind with mindfulness and yoga practice, you can learn to become equanimous. Begin with a 5-minute meditation or mindfulness practice.

Start the journey now with your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Yoga is an existing flow, like a stream. It has flowed before you, you interact with it when you step in, but it keeps flowing when you step out. Lineage requires us to have a multidimensional outlook. To be able to look back, look forward, and be aware of our current standings.

It's not the type of lineage that involves genetics or bloodlines. To enter into the Yoga lineage, you must practice conscious choice and intentionality. It's Setting the intention to practice, making the conscious choice to practice, not to mention the practice itself.

Yoga is an intentional type of connection from teacher to student. The lineage of the practice gets passed on like a torch. The flame ignites within the teacher who lights the student's metaphorical candle, and so the flame burns on through others, as they pass it on.

When you devote yourself to the yoga practice, you aren't devoting yourself to the teacher. You're devoting yourself to the source, where the lineage points. How will you tend the sacred fire?

Start the journey now with your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com. Use code: PODCAST.

Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial or follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga. Visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com to learn more.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.