With regard to coming to a better understanding of addiction, “we need to learn how to de-stigmatize the human condition.” Whether the addiction is to alcohol, nicotine, smartphones, this interview with Dr. Judson Brewer holds many insights for our individual and collective freedom.
Interviews on The Everyday Sublime
Interviews on Josh Summers' podcast, The Everyday Sublime: Shedding Light on Yin Yoga and Mediation.
Loch Kelly: Neuroscience of Non-Dual Mindfulness
Loch Kelly explains the relationship between two distinct neural structures in the brain: The Default Mode Network and the Task Positive Network. Learn how non-dual mindfulness harmonizes these two networks, priming your mind for greater creativity and flow.
Loch Kelly: Self-Realization and Self-Detox
“Let’s introduce the solution before we tackle the problem. Let’s introduce what can bear what seems unbearable – then we can deal with what [seems] unbearable.” – Loch Kelly
Loch Kelly: Everywhere, Nowhere, and Here
“What shifts is not you the meditator, not you the doer, not you the seeker or the small self… the beginning is to invite your already awake awareness which is identified [with something] to separate itself out. Let awareness be aware of the space from the space.” – Loch Kelly
Loch Kelly: The Way of Effortless Mindfulness
“From the cloud [of egoic, thought-based identity] we can drop below it, we can shift above it, or behind it, or to the side of it, to discover that we are also the sky.” – Loch Kelly
Paul Grilley: Psychology, Spirituality, and Yin Yoga
“My approach and my goal in my religious practices is to have a mystical experience. I do not believe that I need to be a perfect human being before I have that mystical experience. I believe that you can have a mystical experience as an imperfect human being.” – Paul Grilley
Paul Grilley: The Evolution of Consciousness
“If the snake is still in you, then you have to transmute that into a higher function. And that’s where philosophy and introspection are incredibly important.” – Paul Grilley
Paul Grilley: Suffering and Samadhi
“Technique can only take you so far… you gotta have the courage to go beyond your tradition and step off.” – Paul Grilley
Paul Grilley: The Tao of Paul
“The goal of yoga is to abide in your true nature… If you are not abiding in your own true nature, then you are identifying with the vrittis in your consciousness, and that is suffering.” – Paul Grilley, paraphrasing Patanjali
Stefanie Arend: Energetic Sequencing in Yin Yoga
It’s important as practitioners and teachers that we don’t fall into a kind of “alternative reductionism” when we apply principles of Chinese Medicine to how we work with our bodies and minds in Yin Yoga. Stefanie Arend and I explore how we think about the interface between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga.
Stefanie Arend: Meridian Massage
Meridian massage, meridian tracing and tapping, cultivating an intuitive listening to the needs of your body and mind with Yin Yoga. These are some of the themes Stefanie Arend and I discuss as we explore her new book, Be Healthy With Yin Yoga.
Stefanie Arend: Be Healthy With Yin Yoga
Yin Yoga supports a mechanism of self-healing by opening up stagnations and blockages within the fascial network. This in turn allows for the body’s energy to circulate in an unimpeded manner.
Dr. Timothy McCall: A Story of Healing
Dr. Timothy McCall looks at how illness can be a real moment of opening to lots of unfinished business, and we consider all the various levels of healing that can occur when we start to open to things that have been walled off to our conscious minds.
Dr. Timothy McCall: Holism vs. Reductionism in Medicine
In this episode, Dr. Timothy McCall speaks about the problems inherent in trying to evaluate the efficacy of alternative therapies from a reductionistic model. He also discusses the problems of implementing alternative therapies with a reductionistic mindset.
Dr. Timothy McCall: Starving Cancer
Intermittent fasting is a popular fitness trend to improve insulin sensitivity, decrease inflammation, promote cellular autophagy, and help manage weight. But what if fasting can also reduce the chances of getting cancer and help support one through cancer treatment? Dr. Timothy McCall shares his story of fasting through cancer therapy.
Dr. Timothy McCall: When the Doctor Gets Cancer
In the first part of my interview with Dr. Timothy McCall, we talk about what it was like for him to receive his cancer diagnosis and how he thought about approaching his treatment, bringing together the very best of Eastern and Western medical modalities.
Matthew Remski: Lighting a Path Forward for Safety and Transparency
The themes of power abuse, toxic group dynamics, and victim blaming are important themes for anyone who occupies the space of a yoga mat or a meditation cushion in the modern yoga landscape. Matthew Remski explains what reform might look like as yoga culture moves forward.
Matthew Remski: The Dynamics of Deception and Enablement
The Jois family held tightly to its narrative of legitimacy until, well, they didn’t. And this is what is both eerie and fascinating about the recent developments in the Ashtanga community. Here we see, in real time, the efforts of an organization to “brandwash” its unfortunate history.
Matthew Remski: Exposing Yoga’s Culture of Sexual Abuse
For over three decades, Pattabhi Jois sexually and physically abused his yoga students, mostly women. This abuse happened in plain sight. To understand how this was possible requires an exploration of toxic group dynamics, methods of deception, and networks of complicity. Matthew Remski explains this all in his book, “Practice and All Is Coming.”
Oren Jay Sofer: Trauma, Somatic Experiencing, and Integration
“Pack your rain gear before you leave home,” says meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer. In this episode, Oren explores how we can “pack” tools of stability, balance, and non-attachment, better preparing us to face the inevitable foul weather of life.