Yogaland Podcast

How can you get the most from your restorative poses? That's a question that Roger Cole and I explore on this episode. Roger Cole is an internationally recognized, certified Iyengar Yoga teacher who has been teaching since 1975. He is also an accomplished scientist educated at Stanford University and the University of California, with specialties in the science of relaxation, sleep, and circadian rhythms.In this interview, Roger explains how to use the Baro Reflex to maximize relaxation in restorative yoga poses. As he puts it, there is not one single system that is responsible for relaxation -- in yoga classes, we often focus on the nervous system. But, if you "gang up a lot of factors that promote relaxation," you're more likely to go deeper and feel more restored afterward. We also talk about that time he took B.K.S. Iyengar to a lab and tested his breathing (with interesting, if imperfect results), and a possible reason that inversions promote relaxation.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode78/Shout-Out to Sponsors:1. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.2. Care/Of is a new, online vitamin company that is devoted to personalization and authenticity in its sourcing. Set your health goals, take their quiz, and they'll give you vitamin, mineral, and adaptogen recommendations. They also include sourcing information and studies to give you background on your choices. I've had fun trying them out!  Visit takecareof.com and use offer code YOGALAND at checkout for 50% off your first month of vitamins. 3. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 4. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.5. Zola is a new online wedding company that’s reinventing wedding planning and the registry process. Plus, there’s an app for your Ipad, iphone and AppleWatch – check and update your registry in real-time. For $50 credit toward your registry, visit zola.com/yogaland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy gratitude week folks! This week, Gina Caputo returns to talk about her Yoga Off the Mat/Let's Stay Together Challenge. I love the idea of infusing our holidays with meaning and with practice. This challenge does exactly that with small, actionable ideas for us to do together each week leading up to the holidays. Imagine the ripple effect it would have if everyone listening to this podcast took part. Makes my heart full just thinking about it! Use the hashtags #yogaoffthemat and #letsstaytogether so we can find each other and support each other in the challenge.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode77/Shout-Out to Sponsors:1. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that’s helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order.2. Care/Of is a new, online vitamin company that is devoted to personalization and authenticity in its sourcing. Set your health goals, take their quiz, and they'll give you vitamin, mineral, and adaptogen recommendations. They also include sourcing information and studies to give you background on your choices. I've had fun trying them out!  Visit takecareof.com and use offer code YOGALAND at checkout for 50% off your first month of vitamins. 3. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 4. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.5. Zola is a new online wedding company that’s reinventing wedding planning and the registry process. Plus, there’s an app for your Ipad, iphone and AppleWatch – check and update your registry in real-time. For $50 credit toward your registry, visit zola.com/yogaland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jason and Andrea sit down to review some of the themes discussed in episode 74 with Jill Miller and to delve more deeply into the topic of yoga injuries. How do we stop overpraising flexibility and "going further" in a pose without becoming afraid to fully use and inhabit our bodies?Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode76/Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe.2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've all been there -- in that yoga class where the person next to us is not doing any of the poses the teacher calls out, or in teacher training when someone asks question after question after question after...you get the picture. Do these people drive you crazy? Or, if you're teaching, do you wonder how you can make that rebellious person follow your lead or satisfy the questioner's endless questions?This week, my guest is New York Times bestselling author, Gretchen Rubin. Her new book, The Four Tendencies, offers a framework for understanding how different personalities respond to both inner and outer expectations. I thought it would be fun to take Gretchen's framework into the yoga room to see how it plays out. We talk about The Rebel -- that person in class who is not doing any of the poses the teacher calls out. The Obliger -- the person who needs outer accountability to help them stick to their inner expectations. The Questioner (my tendency) who asks question after question after...you get the idea. And The Upholder who can tend toward being rigid. As Gretchen says, "Understanding fosters tolerance" and her framework offers ideas for understanding -- and managing -- our own tendencies as well as those around us. Give it a listen and let me know which type you think you are! Use the hashtag #yogalandstories. Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode75Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried LOLA yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe.2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, chemical-free sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jill Miller is the creator of Yoga Tuneup and The Roll Model Method -- a self care method that utilizes specific poses, sequences, and self massage tools to help you tune into your body's "blind spots." Jill's method can help ease and pains, it can soothe your nervous system, and increase proprioception -- that important ability to feel where your body is in space. Just before this interview, Jill made the announcement that years of wear and tear on her body (including yoga practice) have led to the need for a hip replacement. Understandably, the response in the yoga community was one of shock, curiosity, and even some judgment. Jill was kind enough to share her story -- what she thinks led her to this point, what she would do differently, and why she's not throwing yoga under the bus.For shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode74/Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe.2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to psychologist and author, Kelly McGonigal, listening to someone else's story of resilience and overcoming adversity can have a positive effect. Listening to someone's "restorative narrative" can inspire strength and courage in you. In addition, if you're the person doing the storytelling about your own traumatic event, and you both acknowledge the difficulty as well as the how it transformed you in positive ways, you are more likely to have better health outcomes. In this light, Andrea tells her breast cancer story and shares the four profound ways it has changed her three years later. Shownotes: http://yogalandpodcast.com/episode73Shoutout to our sponsors: 1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit http://mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to http://burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND. 3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to http://sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, I talked about the science of self-compassion and how self-compassion practice has more favorable outcomes than boosting self-esteem. On this episode, I offer a way to put self-compassion into practice by sharing a 10-minute guided Lovingkindness meditation. This type of meditation involves silently repeating a mantra and extending love and compassion toward yourself, then toward someone you love, then toward all beings. The full meditation is written out on the shownotes page: yogalandpodcast.com/episode72Shoutout to our sponsors:1. To my women listeners out there – have you tried Lola yet? LOLA is a female-founded company offering organic cotton tampons, pads, and liners. For 60% off your first order, visit mylola.com and enter the code YOGALAND when you subscribe. 2. Burrow is a new online company that creates modern, CHEMICAL-FREE sofas that ship to you within a week! For $50 off your purchase, go to burrow.com and use the promo code YOGALAND.3. We all go through busy times where it can feel like a challenge to eat well. One thing that's helped me is Sunbasket meal delivery service. Go to sunbasket.com/yogaland to get $35 off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

High self-esteem used to be regarded as a vital component to happiness. But it's fallen out of favor in the past decade. Research -- much of it led by Dr. Kristin Neff -- has shown that self-compassion is a more effective way to increase optimism, happiness, curiosity, and connectedness. This episode talks you through the research and offers three very practical ways to incorporate self-compassion in your yoga practice and life.SHOWNOTES: yogalandpodcast.com/episode71/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of my favorite quotes from Jason is,"I believe that we should embrace anything and everything that helps us and our students be well." On this episode, we dive into the meaning behind that quote and why it's important to advocate for our students to try other modalities if needed. There are times when yoga teachers feel pressured to know all of the answers or to make a diagnosis and there are also times when we unintentionally make our students feel guilty if they're not finding healing in the yoga room. Jason dispels these ideas and helps teachers cope with not having all the answers.Shownotes: yogalandpodcast.com/episode70/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all struggle from time to time with the question -- "Am I doing enough?" This week, Jason and I talk about this question and this fear in the yoga room. His clear message: Trust in the process of yoga. And return to the fundamentals of what we're trying to teach (and learn) in yoga: To hone attention and discipline so that we can remain steady in the face of stress. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.