Please rate and review The Yoga Hour on your favorite podcast player. It really helps us to be discovered by more listeners and we appreciate the feedback.
Calm Your Mind and Restore Your Energy
How do the tools of yoga help us to move beyond trauma? Joanne Spence, certified yoga therapist and author of Trauma-Informed Yoga, discusses using the ancient wisdom of yoga along with modern neuroscience to reduce stress and calm the nervous system.
Joanne Spence is a certified yoga therapist and has Social Work and a Master of Arts degrees. She is the founder and executive director of Yoga in Schools. Joanne trains and teaches yoga specializing in working with adults and children who are experiencing chronic pain, trauma, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and insomnia. Joanne is the author of the book Trauma Informed Yoga: A Toolbox for Therapists.
SHOW NOTES:
Joanne’s website is JoanneSpence.com. Her book we discussed in this episode is Trauma Informed Yoga: A Toolbox for therapists
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENT:
I really appreciated this program. The discussion centering on how trauma affects all of us and focusing on how to use yoga to bring the internal and external safety that we seek is timely post pandemic. Although the book was written for therapists, it speaks to all of us as we work with ourselves and those around us experiencing stress. Having Joanne demonstrate a few of the 48 tools she shares in the book was extremely helpful to experience. She simplified breath and movements like sitting cat-cow, making them easy to use in the moment.
Kriya Yoga Living
Discover how the practices of Kriya yoga awaken the heart and reveal innate divine qualities such as self-restraint, generosity, humility, and perseverance on the spiritual path. Join Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian as she discusses the key to living a joy-filled life.
Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian is the founder of the Yoga Hour. She is a spiritual teacher, writer, poet, and the spiritual director of Center for Spiritual Enlightenment—a Kriya Yoga Meditation Center with headquarters in San Jose, California. She teaches nationally and internationally and has received several community service awards, including the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Promotion of Religious Pluralism. Her latest award-winning bestseller The Jewel of Abundance: Finding Prosperity through the Ancient Wisdom of Yoga was published by New World Library.
SHOW NOTES:
Yogacharya O’Brian’s website is EllenGraceO’Brian.com. The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment’s website is CSEcenter.org. See her video teaching on Kriya Yoga Living as well as other video programs she has shared at her YouTube channel: Ellen Grace O’Brian
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM LISTENER NOTES:
Today’s program was such a rich teaching. I was really moved by Yogacharya’s teaching on humility. Her teachings on steadiness on the path and on generosity I found very profound and so very useful. I definitely want to listen again.
Yoga, Belonging, and Resilience
How can the inherent wholeness and belonging of yoga help us to bounce back when we meet the challenges of life? Yoga therapist Amy Wheeler, Ph.D., discusses how through yoga, we can develop resiliency while having compassion for ourselves and for others.
Amy Wheeler’s life purpose has been to change the way people view mental and physical health by educating them about the inter-relationship between Yoga, Psychology and Public Health. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and her B.A. and M.A. in Health Promotion. She has studied Yoga and Yoga Therapy in India, Europe and the United States. During the past 25 years, Amy studied extensively in the T. Krishnamacharya Tradition. Amy served as the President of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Additionally, she helped to develop and define standards for Ayurvedic Yoga Therapists in the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA). Amy has also conducted many yoga research studies at California State University, San Bernardino, where she has been an active Professor of Kinesiology for 25 years. Amy teaches many courses pertaining to Yoga, Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy of Sport and Exercise.
Show Notes:
Amy’s website is https://amywheeler.com.
Questions That Spark Transformation
How can the right questions redefine the trajectory of your life? Spiritual teacher and author of Spark Change: 108 Provocative Questions for Spiritual Evolution, Jennie Lee discusses how we can deepen awareness of our innermost needs, allowing us to initiate powerful shifts in our lives.
Jennie Lee is a recognized expert in the fields of yoga therapy and spiritual living. She has taught classical yoga and meditation for more than 20 years. She coaches private clients in practices that help them reconnect to soul wisdom and live purposeful lives. She is the author of several award-winning books including Spark Change: 108 Questions For Spiritual Evolution.
Show Notes:
Jennie’s website is JennieLeeYogaTherapy.com Her book that we were speaking about in this episode is Spark Change: 108 Provocative Questions for Spiritual Evolution.
Embody Your Meditation Practice
What role does our sitting posture play in the depth of our meditation? Will Johnson, teacher and author of The Posture of Meditation: A Practical Manual for Meditators of All Traditions, shares the importance of our body’s role in our path of spiritual transformation.
Wisdom From Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, Part Two
Join Dr. Laurel Trujillo and Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian as they explore Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Both practical and profound, yoga’s quintessential guide for the spiritual life shows us how to find peace and live with purpose.
Tranforming America’s Racial Karma
How can we participate in breaking the cycle of America’s racial trauma? Larry Ward, Ph.D., student of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America’s Racial Karma, discusses how we can bring clear intention and compassionate action to the path of racial healing.
Dr. Larry Ward is the author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the catalyst that sparked Larry Ward's journey into a life of planetary peacemaking. He is ordained as a Dharma teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition and has accompanied Thich Nhat Hanh on peace-building missions internationally, as well as throughout the United States. Dr. Ward brings 25 years of experience in organizational change and local community renewal in 20 countries to his work as co-founder and director of the Lotus Institute and as an advisor to the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Drucker School of Management, in Claremont, California. Dr. Ward holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and research on the neuroscience of meditation.
You can learn more about the work of the Lotus Institute at their website
WEBSITE: TheLotusInstitute.org
Wisdom from Patanjali’s Yoga sutra, Part One
Join Dr. Laurel Trujillo and Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian as they explore Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Both practical and profound, yoga’s quintessential guide for the spiritual life shows us how to find peace and live with purpose.