In the first episode of a 4-part series, I welcome Bernie Clark back to the podcast to discuss his new book, Your Spine, Your Yoga. In it, Bernie talks about the main themes in the book including the importance of stability over mobility in the health of our spines.
Everyday Sublime: Shedding Light on Yin Yoga and Meditation
Yin Yoga and meditation are refinements of awareness. The purpose of this podcast is to illuminate the theory and practice of Yin Yoga, Chinese Medicine, and meditation as three interwoven tools for apprehending the "Everyday Sublime." As Stephen Batchelor says, "the mystical does not transcend the world, but saturates it."
Available in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, Castbox, Overcast, PlayerFM, Beyondpod, PocketCasts, TuneIn, and (almost) anywhere else you listen to podcasts!
Yin Meditation: The Instructions
Rather than trying to domesticate your thought process, Yin Meditation offers a process for refining your understanding of how your inner world works. Approaching your meditation with a receptive attitude is the least intrusive way of getting to know the natural terrain of your inner landscape.
The Role of Remembering on the Path
In this final installment of my 3-part interview series, we explore tricky Buddhist concepts of anatta (non-self) and nirvana. And we consider that present moment awareness is not sufficient for the development of deeper wisdom and understanding in one’s life. For that, memory is required.
The Insight of Experience
In many styles of meditation, if we hold too tightly to meditative instructions, we may unintentionally cut many things out of our meditation practice. In part two of my 3-part interview series, we explore letting more things “in” to your meditation, and not letting go too quickly.
Thoughts Are Not the Enemy
In meditation, all too often, people struggle with their thinking, and feel badly that they can’t stop their “monkey mind” from thinking so much. Here’s a gentler, more compassionate approach to working with one’s mind in meditation.
Season Finale – Summers’ Break
This episode is the season finale of The Everyday Sublime, before I close up shop for the summer. I give a preview of what’s to come in September, and a quick look back at some of the highlights from the past few months.
David Lesondak: All Things Fascia
I talk with David Lesondak about his new book, Fascia: What it is and why it matters. David is rapidly becoming a rock star in the fascial world, having extensive work in structural integration, as well as having attended and presented at many of the Fascial Congresses.
Chinese Medicine: The Organs, or Zang-Fu
Chinese language tends to describe the Organs and their functions in poetic terms. Their language is metaphorical, often drawing on images from nature and human governance to describe the various processes of human health.
Bernie Clark: Understanding Yin Yoga
Here, Bernie Clark talks about the fascial concepts of dynaments and creep. He discusses some misunderstandings of Yin Yoga, as well as how to think about propping and assisting in Yin Yoga.
Chinese Medicine: What is Essence?
“The best way to affect positively one’s Essence is by striving for balance in one’s life activities: balance between work and rest, restraint in sexual activity and balanced diet. Any irregularity or excess in these spheres is bound to diminish the Essence. A direct way to positively influence one’s Essence is through breathing exercises and such exercises as Tai Ji Quan and Qi Gong.” – Maciocia
Bernie Clark: The Science of Yin Yoga
Listen to Bernie Clark discuss: antifragility, confusion between correlation and causation, the four levels evidence in science, piezoelectricity, and Yin and Yang stress on our tissues. Essential listening for Yin Yoga teachers.
Chinese Medicine: What is Blood?
The second big function of the Blood in Chinese Medicine is that Blood is said to have the function of ‘moistening’ tissues. Strong Blood prevents things from drying out. Healthy Blood keeps the tissues moist, keeps the eyes from feeling dry, keeps the sinews (or tendons) lubricated, and moistens the skin, nails and hair, preventing all from becoming dry, cracked, and brittle.
Bernie Clark: Hypermobility and Hyperextension
Many people express concern about issues of hypermobility and hyperextension in Yin Yoga. Here Bernie Clark explores these concerns and logically defends Yin Yoga. Essential listening for Yin Yoga teachers.
Bernie Clark: The Mindset of a Teacher
For yoga teachers, it can be a challenging process to unlearn rigid rules of alignment and to adapt their teaching to the unique experience of their students. Here, Bernie Clark will walk you through how to think about and teach functional alignment in Yin Yoga and beyond.
Chinese Medicine: The Sources and Functions of Qi
As with everything in Chinese Medicine, all entities – whether they be a type of energy, an organ, or a meridian – tend to be defined by the functions they perform. And the concept of Qi is no different. It’s classification as a type of energy is defined by what functions it performs, and for Qi there are Five Primary Functions.
Chinese Medicine: The Meridians
One way of thinking of the Meridians of Chinese Medicine is that they are, generally speaking, channels of communication within the organism along which subtle informational signals are transmitted.
Emerging From Hibernation
Back from the Yin phase of Winter Hibernation, I’m excited to tell you about what’s in store for Season 2 of Everyday Sublime. I have a couple of quick updates about the Summers School of Yin Yoga, and a line-up of superstar interviews for 2018. We’re off to a great start this year, and I’m looking forward to connecting again.
Winter is the Most Yin Time of Year
In 2018, the Summers School of Yin Yoga will be unrolling a unique way study Yin Yoga with a modular curriculum, as well as a way to earn a 200hr or 300hr certification in Yin Yoga, if you’re interested. Each of the core modules of the school will include an online component (taken prior to attending the session) and a live four-day immersion. This will allow us to start at a much higher level when we come together live, and will provide a much richer learning experience overall.
Chinese Medicine: What Is Qi?
Qi is “perceived functionally, by what it does,” is critical to remember. Entities in Chinese Medicine are almost unanimously “perceived functionally,” that is, defined by what they do. We’ll see this affirmed again and again when we look at the meridian system. Meridians are defined by what they do, functionally – the organ system – organs are defined by what they do, functionally – and the Vital Substances of the body – which again are defined by what they do, functionally for the whole organism.
Chinese Medicine: Mastering the Relationship
A point that many authors and practitioners of Chinese Medicine often reiterate is that as qualities of change, Yin and Yang are in a constant process of controlling and balancing one another. A static, unchanging balance is never achieved. What is observed and assisted, however — both by the skilled yoga practitioner and practitioner of Chinese Medicine — is a smooth process of balancing