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How to Know If Your Spiritual Practice Is Working | Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12

Release Date: 11/11/2026

How to Know If Your Spiritual Practice Is Working | Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

What’s the best way to connect with the Divine? Through a personal relationship with a God you can name, picture, pray to, and love or through meditation on something infinite, formless, and beyond personality? That’s the practical question Arjuna asks Krishna in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12. Krishna’s answer opens a conversation about Bhakti Yoga, devotion, meditation, and what to do when spiritual practice feels difficult. In this episode: 🔹 Why devotion and meditation on the formless Divine can lead to the same destination, but one may be easier for the human heart and mind 🔹...

Foot Anatomy: Do You Understand the Architectural Masterpiece You’re Standing On?

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

You don’t have to fly to Rome to marvel at incredible architecture. One of the most sophisticated engineering masterpieces you’ll encounter is already attached to your leg. Each foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, three arches, and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. All absorbing force, helping you balance, communicating with your brain, and adapting to the ground beneath you. In this final episode of our anatomy series, we’re giving your feet the attention they deserve. In this episode: 🔹 How the three arches work together like a suspension bridge to support, absorb force,...

Diaphragm Anatomy: Do You Understand the Muscle Powering Every Breath?

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

What if I told you there’s an elevator inside your body that you ride roughly 20,000 times a day, but most of us have no idea how it actually works? In Part 2 of our anatomy series, we’re going inside the anatomy of your breath. You’ll meet the giant jellyfish-shaped muscle underneath your lungs, the trampoline at the bottom of your pelvis, the expandable walls surrounding them, and the tiny tourists trying to get the full tour of your torso. Because breathing isn’t just about your lungs. Every breath is a coordinated movement between your diaphragm, ribs, abdominal muscles, pelvic...

Spine Anatomy: Do You Understand the System Holding Your Practice Together?

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

Your spine is a team. A very talented team, with some serious communication and boundary issues. In this episode, the first of a three-part anatomy series, we’re looking at the different curves of your spine. Not as a boring anatomy lesson, but as the dysfunctional workplace happening inside your body. Because every section of your spine has its own résumé. There are movements it’s naturally great at, movements it struggles with, and jobs it will happily take over even when it absolutely should not be in charge. In this episode: 🔹 Meet the workplace characters living inside your...

Why Spiritual Highs Don’t Change Your Life (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11, Part 3)

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

In this final installment of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11, Arjuna has just experienced one of the most extraordinary mystical visions in the entire text. He’s seen Krishna as the infinite creator, destroyer, and force behind all of reality, and his response is surprising: Please become ordinary again. Because what happens after the spiritual high? After the retreat, the awakening, the incredible meditation, or the moment where everything suddenly makes sense, you still have to come back down the mountain and live your life. In this episode: 🔹 Why Arjuna asks Krishna to return to his familiar...

“I Am Time”: The Most Famous Verse in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Part 2)

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

“I am Time, destroyer of worlds.” This is the most quoted verse in the Bhagavad Gita, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood. In Part 2 of our exploration of Chapter 11, Krishna reveals his universal form to Arjuna in one of the most awe-inspiring visions in all of sacred literature. Yet instead of feeling enlightened or peaceful, Arjuna is overwhelmed with fear. Together, we’ll unpack what Krishna really means by “I am Time,” compare this unforgettable moment with Jesus’ Transfiguration, and explore why encounters with the Divine often leave us speechless rather than...

Why Can’t You See God Yet? (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11, Part 1)

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

Why does Krishna wait until Chapter 11 to reveal his universal form? In this episode, we explore one of the most dramatic turning points in the Bhagavad Gita. After ten chapters of spiritual teaching, Arjuna is finally granted “divine sight.” But why now? In this episode, I’ll compare Krishna’s revelation with Jesus’ Transfiguration, explore the yogic concept of avidya (ignorance), and explain why spiritual practice doesn’t create God. It removes the veil that keeps us from recognizing what has always been there. In this episode: 🔹Why Arjuna couldn’t recognize...

The Forgotten Way to Learn Yoga Philosophy: Ancient Memory Practices (Part 2)

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

We live in a world obsessed with consuming more information. More podcasts. More reels. More quotes. More content. But what if transformation doesn’t come from learning something new, but from deeply remembering something ancient? In this episode, we explore how to intentionally choose a mantra, sutra, psalm, poem, or sacred line to memorize and why this practice can become a powerful anchor for anxiety, overwhelm, distraction, and nervous system regulation. You’ll learn: 🔹 How to choose a verse or mantra that speaks directly to your current season of life 🔹 Why memorization changes...

Hatha or Kundalini Yoga? How to Find the Style That Fits You

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

Hatha and Kundalini are both yoga, but they can feel completely different in your body. In this episode, I break down some of the biggest differences between these two styles: how they use movement, breath, meditation, mantra, repetition, and the subtle body. Plus, why one style may resonate with you very differently than another. If you’ve been Kundalini-curious, love a traditional Hatha or Vinyasa practice, or simply want to understand what all these different yoga “styles” are actually doing, this is a great place to start. I’ll explore: 🔹 How Hatha/Vinyasa and Kundalini approach...

Inside Somatic Coaching: How to Release Stuck Energy

The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

Today’s episode is another behind-the-scenes look, this time inside my Somatic Yoga Training and Embodied Yoga Life Coaching Certification. This teaching explores how we move energy through the body using breath, movement, sound, and visualization. Inside EYLC, we work with different maps of the subtle body, including the doshas, polarity, Shiva and Shakti, and the relationship between movement and stillness. In this clip, I explore why movement is not just something we do before meditation. Movement can help us express, discharge, and release what may be stuck in the body so we can access a...

More Episodes

What’s the best way to connect with the Divine?

Through a personal relationship with a God you can name, picture, pray to, and love or through meditation on something infinite, formless, and beyond personality?

That’s the practical question Arjuna asks Krishna in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12. Krishna’s answer opens a conversation about Bhakti Yoga, devotion, meditation, and what to do when spiritual practice feels difficult.

In this episode:

🔹 Why devotion and meditation on the formless Divine can lead to the same destination, but one may be easier for the human heart and mind

🔹 The compassionate “ladder” Krishna offers when constant devotion feels impossible

🔹 How the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras approach practice differently

🔹 Why Krishna says spiritual maturity is measured not by mystical experiences, but by patience, compassion, forgiveness, steadiness, and how we treat others

It’s easy to measure practice by how often we meditate, how much yoga we do, or the experiences we’ve had.

But Chapter 12 asks a more uncomfortable question: What is your practice producing in your character?

Want to go deeper between episodes? Subscribe to my new Uplifted Substack for yoga philosophy, reflections, teachings, and conversations delivered straight to your inbox: https://substack.com/@upliftedtrainings

📖 Different translations explored:

Barbara Stoler Miller: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-Krishnas-Counsel-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553213652

Godsong by Amit Majmudar: https://www.amazon.com/Godsong-Verse-Translation-Bhagavad-Gita-Commentary/dp/1524733474

Eknath Easwaran: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-2nd-Eknath-Easwaran/dp/1586380192

Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by Swami Prabhupada: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-As-Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada/dp/0892131233

FREE Practice: Easy Kundalini Yoga for Women | Kriya to be DIVINE LOVE EMBODIED

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