Podcasts That Take Yoga Off the Mat
Our yoga practice is not something that ends once we step off our mats－it is something that we carry with us into our daily lives.
There are many benefits to the physical practice of yoga, or asanas, including helping to heal the body, keep you healthy, and moving the body to ready the mind for meditation. Time spent on your mat is time spent learning, growing, and simply being. As I mentioned, our yoga practice does not end there, and neither does our learning.
Off my mat, one of my favorite ways to continue my learning is listening to yoga podcasts. This is something I have easily incorporated into my daily life to help make learning a priority, without having to set aside additional hours designated for such learning. How? Daily commutes! Whether I am driving to work, the grocery store, or out of town, I have found that incorporating listening to podcasts while driving has been an easy way to continue my yoga off the mat. Here are a few of my current favorites:
- YOGALAND PODCAST by Andrea Ferretti
After listening to the episode “All About your Fascia”, I was instantly hooked. Ferretti interviews people from all walks of life about a wide variety of yoga topics, including anatomy, sequencing, yoga in schools, Ayurveda, the business of yoga, self-care, and more. This is a great resource for both yoga teachers and those with a desire to learn more off their mats. Some of my favorite recent episodes include the “Begin Again” series with her husband, yoga teacher Jason Crandell. With over 100 episodes and a 5-star rating on iTunes, I highly recommend adding this podcast to your daily commute.
- IT’S NOT ABOUT ME By Dianne Bondy and Alicia Higgison
This podcast really transformed a lot of the ways I teach my yoga classes, without being a podcast about teaching yoga. Episodes really hone in on taking yoga off the mat, focusing on topics such as inclusivity, politics, body image, race, feminism, and more. Each podcast includes a discussion between friends Dianne Bondy, social justice activist, mother, and yoga teacher, and Alicia Higgison, writer, mother, and political junkie. The discussions are very informal and give the sense that you’re there having this conversation with them. At the end of every episode, we are reminded that “it’s not about me, it’s about us.”
- 10% HAPPIER with Dan Harris
Dan Harris, a news anchor for ABC, found meditation after having a panic attack on live television. Harris speaks openly about having been skeptical about meditation, what’s worked for him, and things that haven’t. With nearly 200 episodes and a vary wide variety of guests interviewed, including Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and RuPaul, there’s something for everyone here to help guide you toward finding a meditation practice that works best for you.
I hope you enjoy these podcasts as much as I do to continue growing and learning off the mat. Have you listened to any of these? What are some of your favorite podcasts?
Erin, Tiffany and Nicky take their yoga practice off their mat and into their lives.Nicky, Tiffany and Erin discuss how chaos has become the equilibrium in their lives, and just like their lives this episode ended up being completely chaotic from Netflix to yoga we couldn’t stay on one topic.