The Heart of Yoga

Mark and his dear friend Patrick collude at the beach in Australia to discuss Patrick's life of Yoga and insight. They unpack the lie of "trying to get there" through Yoga. Get where? We are already here! Patrick breaks down the regular Australian conditioning of beer and sport, and relates how one sentence from a partner inspired a quest for change. They chart the murky waters of addiction to asana, and transforming it to participation in reality. Patrick teaches Yoga and Tai Chi in Australia, Sri Lanka and Fiji, and has been the heart and soul of Fiji teacher trainings for nearly a decade. His teaching is characterised by wisdom, humour and the unexpected. Explore Patrick's website at https://www.bodyawareness.com.au Follow our podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can leave a recording here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

This podcast tells the story of Maja's transition from social activism to Yoga revelation. How Yoga becomes the means to enacting the change we want to see. As Gandhi said.. "be the change you want to see." In this conversation we hear once again the process to become an actual Yoga teacher in real life and community. From Sloviana Maja's background and society has had its own traumas and horrific trials. Life has been difficult. Maja speaks of her personal victory in the midst of societal patterning, hostility and despair. As a government public health professional working in the struggles of social policy Maja has been conscientious and ambitious to improve the difficult conditions of the world. She speaks of how her Yoga has enabled her to do this, while transcending conflict with society and in herself. Maja speaks of the various vehicles in which she has learned to teach Yoga effectively. At her work in very large groups of colleagues, in smaller intimate circles of friends, and in one-on-one private tuition. Maja is the hope of humanity.

In this episode we are graced by world-friend & yogini without borders Manisha Lebel. Yoga Teacher, Naturopath, Herbalist & Wisdom Holder. Manisha and Rosalind discuss how Manisha's extensive yoga practice, teaching and academic research backgrounds resonated straightaway with the breath principles Mark was passing on. We talk about being an outsider, New Zealand colonial patterning, people pleasing (especially as women), and how we can cut through indoctrination and authoritarianism of all kinds and stand in our own ground. We cut through the illusions of generational barriers to express our heartfelt gratitude for the friendship of each other. "Everything that I have been seeking is where I am". Manisha describes experiencing the breath as the central feature in the Heart of Yoga practice, everything else falls away and loses significance. Not a rejection of life's roles, but a releasing of projections on one's self, and an acceptance of reality as it is. We discuss the falseness of the mind/body split and how the breath provides the doorway to realization that there is no such split between the heart, mind and body. "What an opportunity to live before we die". A discussion about the pain that the body goes through during life and how this often makes us disassociate the mind from the body to avoid feeling pain. Manisha teaches both private and group sessions in her communities in rural NZ, and she talks about making relationship and breath the centre of every teaching occasion, and how this changes our relationships. And how, exactly? We talk about moving away from the commercial Yoga industrial complex, and learning to deal in diverse forms of exchange. Beyond the money economy. Manisha also tells the story of how she met Mark for the first time, and the profound effect that meeting had on her. We also touch on the resonance of the yoga wisdom with Māori culture. Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you have a question for a future episode, you can record it here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

How do we make the shift from practitioner to teacher? Who should become a teacher? How do we make sure we don't become "One more monkey" in the yoga industrial complex? How to keep the heart in yoga? Mark interviews Andrew about his experience of this process and emergence from the middle-class massage into a life of meaning, play, & subversive subtlety as a practitioner & teacher. Andrew talks about his current project offering yoga in high schools for both students and teachers, drawing on his own experience as a disillusioned teenager chafing against the restrictions of school and family. They discuss getting free of the search for an intangible distant realm of happiness, or a distant god, and instead coming home to the local and our immediate environment in time and space. Mark and Andrew talk about the natural movement to wish to share yoga after feeling the doors it has opened in one's own life, and how this gradually becomes the most important thing in one's life. How do we find teaching opportunities? When shoudl we teach? What if no-one is interested? What if they just want stimulating gymnastics? Mark and Andy also discuss the resonance between aspects of yoga and of the indigenous Māori culture of Aotearoa / New Zealand. Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

''How to find a good yoga teacher? How do you find a teacher that you trust, and can generate a connection with? Not only that, but find a teacher that does not see themselves in a position of power and does not have your monetary value as student in their 'business' as a priority?" In this episode Mark and Rosalind talk about this most basic of questions, along with the even more basic questions of why we would even want a yoga teacher, and what that is anyway. Some aspects we cover: - The origins of yoga as a practice of mutual respect and care for others and the community, without authority and power. - the change in student-teacher relationships to power dynamics and business interest as the norm - The three qualifications of a good yoga teacher according to Krishnamacharya. - Cultism in spiritual practice; how to sense someone who is driven by social hierarchy, power and money. - The use of knowledge as a means to create seniority and power in the modern world of spiritual practice. And the contrasting experience had by Mark with his teachers Krishnamacharya and Desikachar. - "Yoga is not a salvation cult". A good teacher should not be promising any method or secret knowledge that will get you to where you think you want to go. Any promises of this nature should be treated with caution as the promise is most likely more of a product to be sold than a spiritual practice. - A conversation about the ironic inflexibility of modern yoga, how it pushes people into predefined patterns regardless of the differences between individuals, and how this is a reflection of the patterning seen in modern society. - What to look for: the breath as THE central element of asana practice. The unity of body, mind and breath must be present from the first moment of the yoga lesson, yet is often not given precise or any attention in modern yoga teaching. - "You don't do yoga, yoga does you". Participating in the flow of life and being in the moment, as opposed to using spiritual practice to try and get somewhere you think you need to go, and how a good teacher can help thwart the latter tendency. - Yoga as a method to release the mind from habitual thought. A symptom of modern living that affects most people in negative ways. Yoga can be a way to free yourself of unnecessary thought and be in the world's beauty. To find out if we know a good teacher near you, please email studio@heartofyoga.com Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

A conversation between Rosalind and Alesha Keen, yogini & important teacher of the UK. Alesha is breaking new ground in England, drawing upon her decades of experience across yoga, psychotherapy, and numerous other modalities from West and East to help individuals "bloom in their own garden." In our wide-ranging discussion, she offers us her first-hand yogic perspective on the initiations into embodied wisdom through our life, including the profound gateway into eldership of the menopause. Some of the other things we discussed: - The need for Yoga to be adapted to our bodies and lives as we ourselves and our needs change - Benefits of Yoga one-on-one as opposed to group classes - The barriers to Yoga created by its confusion with fashion, gymnastics and exercise, and how it can intersect with our already-pressured body image. - The journey with yoga and menopause and how the latter has demanded a refinement in asana and breath - How both Yoga and the initiation into wisdom of peri-menopause and menopause call us to slow down and listen to the body... - Ageism and loss of intergenerational relationships... looking at some examples of reverence for the "wisdom of years" in non-western cultures. - we discuss the unfortunate public perception of yoga as reflected in Ricky Gervais' new show 'Afterlife' and the painful yoga parody in it, and how to work with this - The initiation that is motherhood is also woven into our discussion! You can find more information about Alesha's work and teaching at www.aleshakeen.com and www.aleshakeenconsciousliving.uk Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Ryan Stanley is the Heart of Yoga in San Diego. He teaches from the heart to the heart of everybody. The message from UG Krishnamurti that "there is nothing to be liberated from" hit him like a tonne of bricks, and since then he has been restructuring his practice, yoga studio and teaching around this whole-body realisation. Here he talks with Mark about the transition from 'yoga sales' to yoga instructor to an actual Yoga Teacher, sincerely caring about self and others. He has managed to bring all the other styles and put them into the context of the breath principles that Krishnamacharya, grandfather of modern yoga, actually taught. They discuss this and survival during the pandemic, and yoga in the midst of family life. Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a voice question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast

Mark sits down with long-time friend and German Yogini Sybille Schlegel to reflect on many things, including the dreadful shadow of war in Europe, with its grim echoes of the past. Sybille draws on her background in history and present role as co-founder and teacher of Hatha Vinyasa Parampara Studio in Mainz. A student of Sanskrit, she talks about the journey from conscientious western academic to whole-body understanding. Sybille speaks about discovering the principles of Krishnamacharya and the implications for her teaching and community, the influence of the sage Nisargadatta Maharaj, and the impact of yoga on all relationships. As well as co-founding and teaching at her yoga school in Mainz, Sybille writes a monthly column for Yoga Journal Germany, and has co-facilitated the 'Good Vibes' Yoga Festival in Darmstadt. She has hosted Heart of Yoga teacher trainings in Mainz for many years & has been instrumental in introducing so many good people to their breath & embodied experience. More info on the school at www.hathavinyasa-schule.de

From the banks of the holy Ganga to the East Village, Manhattan, Jeremiah Brimlow and Mark's friendship has flourished. Jeremiah is a bridge of the ancient world to the modern times, of east and west, but also of the early days of yoga arriving in New York City to the current situation. Mark and Jeremiah reflect on the shifts they have seen, on the legacy of the US counterculture, and staying in the pure essence of spirituality in a confused world of spiritual business. Jeremiah is the Urban Angel because he does just that. In this episode you will hear... 03:00 Jeremiah and Mark talk of New York, Lineage and staying pure and true to the vision of truth. 11:00 Giving others opportunity to become greater, and to disappoint. Knowing and following your true path. A Hippie heritage. 21:00 Finding ways to work together, and change the paradigm of living. Getting caught in nonsensical systems, and the systems are down. Hope. 36:00 There was always Yoga, and a culture that could be. Being downwardly mobile, and relating to every human with openness. 50:00 Feeding only one third of the belly. The posture of gluttony. One arm up. 64:00 Teaching, shared energy and finding a new perspective on the practice. Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Malika Warda is a mystic Yogini poet currently residing in the land of ancient light, Western Australia, and co-founder of the extraordinary yoga, meditation and sound healing studio Cntrspace in Perth. She is the author of a book of poetry by the same name, a photographer, and a deep explorer of the human experience, drawing on her Yogic, Palestinian and Australian Indigenous heritage. Malika and Mark speak about her journey to find the real depth Yoga offers, the impact of finding it on her relationships with self and others, the unfolding of a profound yogic sexuality, and healing the mass social repression of the feminine. You will hear how relatively quickly when a person receives yoga, transmission into local community can occur. Malika is a wonderful example of a yoga teacher of these recent times. You can find Malika on IG @malika.abuwarda___ and in person teaching at her studio in north Perth at Cntrespace. In this episode you will hear... 03.30 How, where and why Mark & Malika met. A pivotal time in Malika's life. Finding more to Yoga. 08:00 Actual Yoga happening in and around Malika and her practice. Results and friendships. 12:00 Finding strength, beauty and form as the feminine. A process shown and shared. A feminine force repressed. 17:00 Empowered utterances of Yogic realizations. Sexual intimacy and freedom from patterning. 25:00 Spiritual wisdom was packaged as a mechanism of male authority. Adding value and actualization of a real Yoga practice. Follow this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.