This week’s episode of the podcast is a short post-election reflection - just me sharing some of what’s currently on my mind and what’s sustaining me right now. This one is a little different, because I don’t really hide my political views, but I also don’t usually make them a focal point of my teaching. While I certainly have opinions and I care deeply about the issues, I also respect my students' autonomy and I try not to make too many assumptions about the views they may hold. I want to...

This episode of the podcast is a conversation about overcoming Imposter Syndrome. I’m speaking with meditation teacher Lou Redmond, and together we explore this very common fear that often holds good people back from truly expressing their creativity, leadership, and potential in the world. Imposter Syndrome is a form of self-doubt that causes us to worry about being enough, knowing enough, or having someone expose us as a fraud. We talk about how Imposter Syndrome often comes up when we are...

In this episode of the podcast, we’re exploring the idea of Mindful Movement as a form of “cross-training” for your awareness. It’s a fun metaphor for how Mindful Movement and meditation can fit together and enhance each other, and it might just inspire you to try something new! In fitness, cross-training is the idea that it's healthy to round out your routine with different forms of exercise like cardio, strength, endurance, mobility and flexibility so you get maximum physical benefits. ...

Today’s podcast is an exploration of life as a Highly Sensitive Person (or HSP), with my friend and colleague Erica Webb. Erica and I sat down for a deep dive into our shared experience of high sensitivity, and how we work with these traits in ourselves. This is something I’ve been looking at more closely over the last several months, and I knew that Erica had been speaking about HSP more, as well. So, I reached out and asked if she’d like to do a joint episode that we would each share on...

It’s our 100th episode! To celebrate this podcast milestone, we have a special episode this week, featuring the voices of the Moved To Meditate Podcast community. I wanted to do something different for our 100th episode, as a way of saying thanks to all who have been part of the podcast so far. So, I asked podcast listeners and guests to call in with messages about what they practice and why.   If you need a little boost of inspiration, be sure to tune in, because the messages were...

This week on the podcast, Amanda Hanna joins me for a juicy discussion about what trauma-informed yoga is (and is not). We give examples of the questionable trends and marketing messages we’ve seen lately, related to trauma healing, Somatics, Yin Yoga and other movement practices. Amanda Hanna is a seasoned Yin Yoga Teacher Trainer and leader of Trauma-Informed Facilitator trainings, with an academic background in psychology. After comparing notes on a few social media posts and ads we’d...

In this episode of the podcast, I’m talking with Jivana Heyman about accessible meditation. Jivana is the founder of the Accessible Yoga movement, and he has plenty of insights to share about how meditation practices can be relevant in our world today. You’ll hear about Jivana’s own personal journey of learning meditation, and his perspective on how an inward practice like meditation can help during uncertain times when the outer world also needs our attention. Jivana describes the central...

Are you a movement teacher who secretly worries that your classes might be too repetitive or boring? In this episode of the podcast, I’m going to encourage you to embrace repetition as a valuable part of Mindful Movement practice. When I was a newer Yoga teacher, I felt that pressure to come up with a brand new class plan and fresh sequences every week. I thought that if I repeated the same practices too often, students would get bored or think my classes were too basic. However, with...

This week’s podcast episode is a gentle movement meditation to help channel and clear the agitated energies of stress or anxiety. (The meditation itself starts around the 4:44 mark, after a brief introduction.) This practice is intended to help you “complete the stress cycle” by engaging your body’s natural fight/flight impulses through a few simple Qigong movements, with an emphasis on mindfulness. It’s kind of like a movement practice that has the feel of a guided meditation. You may have...

In this episode of the podcast, I’m covering six common mindfulness myths - things I think people often get wrong about mindfulness and meditation. Don’t let these trip you up, or stop you before you even start! I hate to see people miss out on the benefits of mindfulness because they’ve heard a confusing mix of messages about how it works. Some of these myths have unfortunately convinced a lot of people that they can’t meditate, even if they are interested in the idea of mindfulness. And,...

This week’s podcast episode is a guided Walking Meditation practice! The meditation itself starts just after the 5-minute mark, after a brief introduction to Walking Meditation. Walking Meditation is a traditional form of mindfulness practice, and it’s a great example of meditation-in-motion! If the stillness of sitting meditation doesn’t appeal to you, this might be another avenue for exploring mindfulness. This practice is often used as a type of formal meditation, but one of the special...

What is the role of alignment in Yoga? Is technique always the best route to safety in Mindful Movement? In this episode of the podcast, I’m sharing my take on these important (and big) topics through another excerpt from the book I’m writing.  The working title of my book is Teaching Mindful Movement, and here you’ll be hearing a section where I reflect on what it means to teach movements responsibly. We will address the issues of technique and alignment, the role of the teacher, and how...

Have you heard of Somatic Movement and wondered “what exactly is that?” In this episode of the podcast, I’m sharing a brief excerpt from my work-in-progress book, where I give an overview of the field of Somatics and describe how I use these movement practices. The working title of my book is Teaching Mindful Movement, and you’ll be hearing a brief section I’ve written about Somatics. This is part of a longer chapter that covers a few different movement modalities I like to include in my...

This week on the podcast, I have a very special conversation with Anne Cushman, a pioneer in the field of mindful yoga. Anne is a senior retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where she founded the first multi-year Buddhist meditation training for yoga teachers.  Anne Cushman has dedicated her life to the embodied Dharma path, equally exploring the wisdom traditions of yoga and Buddhism, since she started her practice in the 1980s. Her teachings and writings skillfully express the...

This week’s podcast episode is a guided breath meditation for sleep. I made this recording a while back, and I felt inspired to share it on the podcast now, since the last episode was a guest interview on sleep with yoga therapist Monica Le Baron. (The meditation itself starts at approximately 6:34, after a brief intro with a few updates about my book-writing process, the schedule of upcoming podcast episodes, and some background on today’s guided practice.)  Many of us suffer from sleep...

This week on the podcast, I have a conversation with Monica Le Baron, the author of Sleep Simplified: Simple Tools To Reduce Anxiety, Finish The Stress Cycle and Sleep Like a Queen. Sleep is crucial for overall health and affects many aspects of our well-being, including metabolism, immune system, brain function, and mood. If you struggle with insomnia, the good news is that you can improve your sleep with some simple yoga therapy practices like the ones we’ll be talking about in this...

This episode of the podcast is a gentle moving meditation, exploring what it feels like to slow down. We’ll be playing with pace as we do two very simple motions, observing the sensations in the body, and how movement can often influence our mental activity and nervous system state. The meditation itself starts at 3:10, after a brief intro. As we practice this meditation, you will check in with yourself in the present moment - noticing states like tension or ease, mental busy-ness or calm,...

In this episode of the podcast, you'll hear from two experts on neurodiversity-affirming mindfulness practices, Sue Hutton and Jan Wozniak. We’ll be talking about how Mindfulness Meditation programs can be offered in a more inclusive way for autistic adults, those with ADHD and other forms of neurodivergence. My guests, Sue Hutton and Jan Wozniak, work together at the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) in Toronto. The Azrieli Centre is a...

This week’s episode is a 10-minute guided meditation designed to help you cultivate joy. To include an awareness of the good, delightful, and joyful aspects of our experience is an important practice for developing inner resilience. (The meditation itself starts at about 8:20, after a brief intro to the topic.) There is a lot going on in the world that is distressing and disturbing – and those issues do need our skillful attention. But, in order to respond with clarity and energy, it helps...

Today’s podcast episode continues our discussion on Mindfulness Skills, picking up from Part 1 (which was Ep. 83). This topic explores the possibilities for growth and greater freedom that come from pursuing a mindful path. And, with a combination of traditional methods and outside-the-box practices, mindfulness can be more accessible, relevant, and personalized for each of us. I’m using the term “skill” very deliberately, because skills are learnable – they are qualities or tools we can...

This episode of the podcast is a conversation with Neil Pearson about how yoga and mindfulness can help you improve pain, understand your body’s signals better, and find relief. Neil is a physical therapist, yoga therapist, and author known for his work integrating yoga and pain science. If you are someone who lives with pain, and you’re wondering how yoga or mindfulness could help, this interview will offer plenty of concrete information. I think you will really appreciate Neil’s hopeful...

In this podcast episode, I’m addressing the question: What Are “Mindfulness Skills?” We’ll be covering a list of learnable abilities and characteristics we are developing through mindfulness practice. What are these skills, and why pay attention to them? A skill is something you deliberately train - it’s not just an innate quality, personality trait, or talent that you’re born with. We might also talk about some of these as “benefits” we gain from mindfulness, but thinking about it in terms...

In this episode, I have the joy of interviewing Dr. Tamara Russell about how to practice and train mindfulness in movement.  Dr. Russell is not only a neuroscientist and mindfulness researcher, but a clinical psychologist, and a martial artist with a black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu. She brings all of these perspectives to her mission of making mindfulness practices more accessible for more people, so that we can reclaim our attention, focus more on what really matters to us, and move our world...

Today's podcast episode is a quick update and preview of what's to come in 2024! I will be taking a holiday break from the podcast in December, so I can get organized for upcoming episodes in the new year, plus embark on a BIG new project. Listen to this episode for a sneak peek of our upcoming guest interviews and topics you'll hear on the podcast in the New Year. I also talk about some practice opportunities, like the return of the Ease In To Meditation course, and a spring half-day...