The Mind Bod Adventure Pod

Latest Episodes:

Breath as Medicine with Therese Jornlin Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

Today we’re joined by Jeff’s good friend Therese Jornlin, teacher of meditation, yoga, and qi gong. Much happens in this episode! Therese re-introduces us to our breath as both medicine and guide. We learn how the specific way each of us breathes reflects our particular mental patterns and habits. The breath can show us where we’re stuck, and it can show us how to find a way through.
This is really an exploration of the wisdom of cycles: the inhale and the exhale, the up and the down, even life and death. We learn how Therese helped Jeff manage his bipolar symptoms, and how an appreciation for nature’s cycles can help all of us better manage life’s highs and lows.
There are actually two practices in today’s episode, one long and one short. Therese’s primary 17 minute practice begins at 6:03 and ends at 23:37. Her shorter two minute “whisper breath” practice begins at 47:11 and ends at 49:27.
Links:
• Therese’s website
• Therese's TED Talk: Reclaiming the Wisdom of Female Intelligence
• Therese's courses

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Connecting to the Land with Warren Hooley Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

If you live in the US or Canada, you may have noticed a movement to acknowledge local indigenous groups who've historically lived in a particular territory. For example, Tasha and I live in Toronto, Ontario, which is also where our nonprofit meditation community group – The Consciousness Explorers Club or "CEC" – operates. These days, at the beginning of every CEC retreats and meditation sits, even our virtual events, we say some version of "The CEC operates on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit, and is covered by Treaty 13." We say this as a way to situate us in an actual physical place. And we say it because we support the movement of truth, justice and reconciliation for Indigenous peoples in this country. It's been too long in coming.
In today's episode, we explore the inner practice of territory and ancestor acknowledgement.
Our guide, Warren Hooley, comes from a mixed indigenous and western background. He lives in the Syilx (Okanagan) Territory in Penticton, British Columbia, where he runs workshops on Facilitation, Indigenous Allyship, and Compassionate Communication. He also teaches at the Consciousness Explorers Club. Warren has really wrestled with this question of why territory acknowledgment matters, and how to engage with it in a way that is real and meaningful for the practitioner.
His beautiful guided practice is really a ceremony, complete with drum and singing. It has three parts: an acknowledgment of local indigenous groups, an exploration of our own ancestral roots, and finally connecting in a personal way with our own local landscape.
Warren’s 21-minute practice starts at 7:00 and ends at 28:00.
Links:
• Warren’s bio: http://cecmeditate.com/faculty/warren-hooley/

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

The Wakeful Body with Lama Willa Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Meet meditation teacher Willa Blythe Baker. Willa is an authorized Lama in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and author of our new favorite book: The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom.
She guides us in a practice called GROUND – an acronym that describes progressively more subtle and expansive "layers" of somatic experience. We drop from the physical body, to the subtle body, and finally into the causal or nondual “body” of awareness itself.
For Willa, the whole process is about “waking down” – in her words, “metabolizing, not transcending.” We also explore how to work with trauma in our body, and what it means to genuinely “befriend” our experience.
Willa’s 15 minute GROUND practice starts at 7:57 and ends at 23:12.

Links:
• Willa’s book: https://www.shambhala.com/the-wakeful-body.html

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Radiant Rest with Tracee Stanley Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

Today our explorer-in-residence is Tracee Stanley, a longtime student and teacher of Yoga and Tantra, and author of Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity. We’ve explored rest before on this pod, but not quite like this! When we sit and attempt to let go, what gets in the way? What messages about safety and worthiness are hiding in our nervous system?

For Tracee, rest is about sanity, empowerment, and resistance. Resistance to our own self judgements and the pressures of dominant culture. We talk about all of this from a place of rest.

To prepare for this week's practice, prep a space where you can get cozy. There is also a short journaling practice, so have a notebook and pen on hand.

Tracee’s 20 minute deep rest practice begins at 4:03 and ends at 24:03 with lots of juicy, insightful discussion after!

Just an extra note: our ambition with the “Mind Bod Adventure Pod,” as Tasha calls it, is to become part of your daily or weekly practice regimen. It is a place to explore a broad understanding of practice – from quieter meditation and movement practices, to more engaged life and work and communication practices. To do this in real-time, together. And then, after, we talk honestly about our own experience, as a way to help you get clearer about yours. In this way, we both connect to helpful practice resources, and we develop more confidence around being our own teachers and mental authorities.
The other part of this is exploring what kind of conversation emerges after we do a practice – when we're still influenced by the practice itself, when it is still in our nervous systems, as it were. That’s one reason it's important to actually do the practices. They help us see what else might be important. They can change the way we live and relate and listen and communicate.
So let’s party! And by "party," we mean close our eyes and do practically nothing.

Links:
• Tracee’s website: www.traceeyoga.com
• Tracee’s Deep Relaxation Course on Commune
• Tracee’s Yoga Nidra Training

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

A Psychedelic Sangha with Erik Davis Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

Today we meet Erik Davis, award-winning journalist and author, most recently, of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies.
Erik guides us in an imagination-based open awareness practice that for him is about cultivating a very specific kind of watchful attention. This turns out to be the perfect setup to discuss one of Erik’s specialities: the defiantly unclassifiable weirdness of psychedelic experience.
We explore the ins and outs of the current psychedelic revival, the heretical nature of psychedelics as “practice,” even the possibility of the Buddha himself being a psychonaut. Can we scale-up psychedelic use for the mainstream? Do we even want to? And down we go, into a highly entertaining rabbit hole.
Erik’s immersive 16 minute practice begins at 8:36 and ends at 24:20.
Links:
• Erik’s website: https://techgnosis.com
• Erik’s substack
• High Weirdness Book
• Psychedelic Sangha: https://psychedelicsangha.org
• Erik’s Guided Psychedelic Meditation Music Album Experience

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Love and Rage with Lama Rod Feb 17, 2022

Show notes

Today’s episode we’re joined by Buddhist minister and social activist Lama Rod Owens, author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger. Our subject is anger, something Lama Rod once had to suppress in order to survive as “a Black queer body in America.” He writes: “My fear of death and policing has translated into a self-policing of my anger, to such an extent that if it weren’t for my meditation practice, I wouldn’t know how to find my anger.”
How do we work with the energies of anger in this intense cultural moment? Do we need our anger to keep us motivated in the face of injustice and oppression? For Lama Rod, anger can start us off, but only love will sustain the work. This is the basis of his guided meditation – we connect to love and care as a way to hold both our anger and the “broken-heartedness” that’s often found underneath. A deep practice and a very raw conversation with one of the leaders of the next generation of dharma teachers.
Lama Rod’s 15 minute guided practice on care and anger starts at 11:50 and ends at 27:26.
Links
• Lama Rod’s website: https://www.lamarod.com

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Freeing the Voice with Debora Joy Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

In today’s episode we’re joined by the delightful voice coach and kundalini teacher Debora Joy. Debora guides us through an array of voice exercises, all of them meant to free us from the shackles of bodily restriction. We learn how the way we speak reflects our conditioning, and how opening up our voice can change who we are.
This episode is much more interactive than usual, almost all of it a practice. We left this one feeling exhilarated, full of energy and – yes – joy.
If you want to go straight to her first meditation to “clear out the garbage” it starts at 6:33 and ends at 10:03. If you want to go straight to the voice exercises they start at 23:34 and continue in various forms till the end of the episode!
Links:
• Debora’s website: https://www.deborajoy.com

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Wake Up to Sleep with Charlie Morley Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

Today’s episode is an energetic dive into the healing potential of the nighttime mind with Charlie Morley. Charlie is the author of several much-loved books on lucid dreaming, including his newest: Wake Up to Sleep: 5 Practices to Transform Trauma and Stress for Peaceful Sleep.
Charlie guides us in two practices: a powerful protection practice inspired by the Bön tradition of Dream Yoga, and a simple Yoga Nidra practice, meant to help reset the nervous system. Both help create a safe and supporting space for overcoming insomnia and getting a good night’s rest. We also explore what he’s learned about supporting veterans – and regular folks – with PTSD, how to renegotiate our nightmares, and the role lucid dreaming can play in all of this.
These are fascinating practices; we had an animated and wide-ranging discussion.
To go straight to Charlie’s 7 minute sleep protection practice, it starts at 21:30 and ends at 28:20.

Links:
• Charlie’s website: https://www.charliemorley.com
• Charlie’s book Wake Up to Sleep

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Loving Kindness with Sharon Salzberg Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Today we’re joined by Sharon Salzberg, one of the pioneers of Western Buddhism. She’s the author of a new book: Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World.
This episode is all about what’s possible when we bring a little (or a lot) more love into our lives. We explore her take on loving kindness, and learn in real-time how loving kindness can be an antidote to fear. We explore how the practice both synchronizes and conflicts with activism, and how to avoid the "Disney-ification" of loving kindness, among many other topics.
To go straight to Sharon’s 10 minute loving kindness practice, it begins at 06:26, and ends at 16:22.
Links:
• Sharon’s website: https://www.sharonsalzberg.com
• Sharon’s book, Real Change: https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/realchange/

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

The Deep Heart with John Prendergast Jan 20, 2022

Show notes

In today’s episode: psychotherapist and meditation teacher John Prendergast.
John is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence, a book that explores “the convergence of psychological healing and spiritual awakening.” For John, this happens most clearly and powerfully in the depths of the heart. How do we sensitize ourselves to this subtle space? This is our guide's expertise. John shows us how to rest in the heart as a way to appreciate and embody a different way of knowing and relating. We ask our hearts about our core limiting beliefs, and what it might mean to no longer believe them.
It’s an emotional journey – sincere and raw and often quite beautiful.

To go straight to John’s 11 minute heart practice, it begins at 8:42 and ends at 20:03.
Links:
• John’s website: http://listeningfromsilence.com

Support the show
Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Mind Bod Adventure Pod

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected