Episode 01 - What is Yoga?
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SHOW NOTES
This bonus episode features excerpts from guests featured throughout Season 1 - leading yoga instructors and executives.
Listen as they share their answers to the question, "What is yoga?"
Please subscribe, listen, share it with a friend, and visit sparkpluglabs.co for more inspiring content.
IN THIS EPISODE:
Jeanne Heileman, Featured in Episode 2
Teacher Trainer with YogaWorks since 2005
Level II Certified ParaYoga Instructor
500-ERYT
Nishanth Selvalingam, Featured in Episode 3
Yoga Philosophy Teacher, Yoga World Heart
Meditation, Asana, and Pranayama Teacher
Tiffany Russo, Featured in Episodes 4 and 8
Yoga Teacher, Mentor, Trainer, Athlete, World Traveller
Senior YogaWorks Teacher & Teacher Trainer
SmartFlow Yoga Teacher Trainer
Navi Radjou, Featured in Episode 5
Author, Frugal Innovation & Co-Author, Jugaad
Innovation & Leadership Advisor
Thinkers50 Innovation Award Recipient
Dianne Bondy, Featured in Episode 6
Author, Yoga Where You Are and Yoga for Everyone
Social Justice Advocate
Master Yoga Teacher 7 Leader, Yoga For All movement
Sameer Bhide, Featured in Episode 7
Author, One Fine Day
Brain Stroke Survivor
Camille Moses-Allen, Featured in Episode 9
Top Baltimore Yoga Teachers
Senior YogaWorks Teacher & Teacher Trainer
OM Yoga Teacher & Restorative Yoga Teacher
Bob Levant, Featured in Episode 10
Iron Advocate
Philadelphia Lawyer - secured the largest malicious prosecution civil rights verdict in Pennsylvania history
Certified Yoga Instructor & Mental Health Counselor
Lisa Walford, Featured in Episode 11
Level III Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher
Co-Author, The Longevity Diet & The Anti-Aging Plan
Co-Creator, YogaWorks Teacher Training Curriculum
Marc Holzman, Featured in Episode 12
Certified Ayurveda Practitioner and Amrit Yoga Nidra teacher
Streaming on Glo.com
Creator of Evolutionary Habits, an Ayurveda Health Coaching program
Erin Owen, Featured in Episode 13
Professional Certified Coach
Executive Career Coach
Reiki III and Reiki Master Certified
Ronna Schneberger, Featured in Episode 13
Award-Winning Naturalist, Interpreter, and Hiking Guide
Yoga and Meditation Teacher
Forest Therapy Guide
Dr. Chiara Hayganush Megighian, Featured in Episode 13
Aya Institute of Systemic and Leadership Coaching
C-IQ (Conversational Intelligence) Certified Coach
Melissa Townsend, Featured in Episode 14
Artist, Author, Psychic & Astrologer
Author, Meditation Deck - Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Sanskrit Teacher and Translator
*Not included in this Bonus Episode:
Vivica Schwartz, Featured in Episode 15
E-RYT 500 Yoga Instructor
Teacher Trainer, Mentor
Ayurveda Wellness Counselor
Special thanks to video producer Adrian Pirvu and to website editor Kendra Claudette.
LINKS
Find Monica on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
TRANSCRIPTS
Note: Please excuse any errors in the transcription.
Monica Phillips (00:00):
(music) Yoga Philosophy for Everyday Living, a podcast to bring the ancient wisdom of yoga, to inform your everyday living on and off the mat. Hi, I am your host Monica Phillips. So often we sabotage ourselves because of the chatter in our heads. This podcast will take you through the eight limbs of yoga with leading yoga instructors and introduce you to executives who have brought yoga into their lives so they can thrive. Please listen, subscribe, and share it with a friend.
Monica Phillips (00:41):
Welcome to Episode One of Yoga Philosophy for Everyday Living. I'm your host Monica Phillips. In this episode, we explore the question, "What is yoga?" with short clips from leading yoga instructors and executives who lead through practice? When I say I'm a yoga instructor, sometimes I hear people say, Oh, I'm not flexible. Or, Oh, I'd like to try that some time, but I'm not sure how to get started or I'm not in shape yet. Sometimes people tell me they like a more active workout and can't sit still in yoga. And of course I know so many friends who've tried several kinds of yoga or tell me what kind of yoga they practice. Vinyasa, Kundalini, gentle yoga, hot yoga, and more. That's awesome. Yoga can be so many things. And throughout this series, we'll strip away the layers of the artichoke to get to the heart of yoga. Now let's hear what the experts have to say.
Jeanne Heileman (01:31):
Yoga is, it means union, and it really is uniting our body, our mind, our breath, and our spirit, because most times we're fragmented in one way. And so it's bringing those together so that we feel fully content.
Nisanth Selvalingam (01:50):
When a person asks the question, who am I? What is beauty? What is truth? And what is God? Yoga is the realization that the answers to all of those questions is the same.
Navi Radjou (02:05):
Yoga is the union of the individual self with the universal self.
Tiffany Russo (02:14):
Yoga, today, because it changes every day, yoga feels like connection, connection to the self, coming back to true self. Every single day.
Dianne Bondy (02:26):
Yoga is an ability to connect and to live in the moment and to show up for each other. That's what it means for me.
Sameer Bhide (02:36):
So it focuses on wellness practices for both the body and the mind. It helps you accept any situation the way it is, not the way you wanted it.
Camille Moses-Allen (02:52):
It's about relationships. So whether that means the relationship of what your hand and foot are doing in the asana practice, the physical practice, and that also can mean the relationship of your mind to your breath, to your body, to your surroundings. I think it's about relationship and that means it's personal and individual to you.
Bob Levant (03:11):
It is the practice of learning to be comfortable in uncomfortable positions.
Lisa Walford (03:24):
In general, people tend to think of yoga as a spiritual practice. We've heard that the word yoga means union. For me, yoga is a path by which we can cultivate a deeper sense of resonance with ourselves, with a very deep sense of self.
Marc Holzman (03:48):
The longer I'm in this yoga game the more I understand that to mean our ability as individual humans, to be able to connect - yoke - unite - reunite with something bigger than just ourselves. At least for in my definition that the purpose of the poses of the Asana is secondary behind having a greater experience of connecting to your highest self.
Erin Owen (04:31):
Yoga is the way that we quiet our minds so we can see truth in our lives.
Ronna Schneberger (04:35):
I met one of my teachers and mentors. His name is Dr. Richard Miller, and he is the head if iRest Yoga Nidra, and he refers to yoga as the inquiry into our timeless nature. When I get to that quiet place, everything is there inside of me. There's clarity, there's calm, there's truth. It's that true nature that we are.
Dr. Chiara Megighian (04:59):
Yoga is the control of the thought waves of the mind. Through yoga, I could consciously decide to change my reactions and that was perfect for coaching.
Melissa Townsend (05:19):
Yoga is developing a different relationship to all that stuff that goes on inside. All the thinking, feeling, sense of "I-ness" just letting that all draw down and having a different relationship to it.
Monica Phillips (05:36):
Thank you for joining me for Yoga Philosophy for Everyday Living. Please learn more about our guests in the show notes and check out their awesome yoga classes. Subscribe, like, and share this podcast with a friend. And please send me your feedback. I would love to hear from you. You can learn more at www.sparkpluglabs.co.