The Uplifted Yoga Podcast
Go beyond surface-level spirituality and explore yoga philosophy that actually changes how you live. From the Bhagavad Gita and kundalini to somatics, nervous system healing, sacred symbolism, and modern life, Brett Larkin makes ancient teachings practical, emotionally honest, and deeply embodied. Whether you’re navigating a kundalini awakening, healing unprocessed trauma, questioning your purpose, struggling with self-sabotage or imposter syndrome, or trying to grow as a yoga teacher, coach, or healer, the Uplifted Yoga podcast offers grounded conversations that bridge ancient wisdom with real life. Explore yoga philosophy, nervous system healing, meditation, somatics, spirituality, and embodied leadership in a way that’s practical, thoughtful, and fun. New episodes every Wednesday. ✨Order Brett’s Books on Amazon ✨Go deeper at brettlarkin.com
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Stop Stacking Certifications: How to Integrate Your Gifts and Finally Use What You Know
08/26/2026
Stop Stacking Certifications: How to Integrate Your Gifts and Finally Use What You Know
So many of us think the next certification will finally make us feel clear, confident, or ready. But more information is not always the answer. Sometimes the real missing piece is integration. In this restream episode, I’m talking about the certification trap, why your nervous system may be keeping you in “learn more” mode, and how to begin organizing your existing tools into a clear, repeatable method that actually supports your clients and your business. We’ll also look at why movement, somatic awareness, and embodied coaching can create a deeper kind of transformation than talking or mindset work alone. If you’re a yoga teacher, coach, healer, or wellness practitioner who has taken multiple trainings but still feels scattered, this episode is for you. Let’s explore: 🔹 Why collecting more tools can sometimes become a freeze response 🔹 How embodied self-awareness differs from conceptual self-awareness 🔹 Why movement is essential for emotional release and somatic integration 🔹 The three pillars healers need to move forward You don’t need to do more. You need to do less, better. With structure, support, and a nervous system that feels safe enough to take action. 💗 Learn more about Embodied Yoga Life Coaching: 💎 Experience somatic yoga in this Embodied Yoga Workshop: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #299 – #363 – #386 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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The Shuniya Shift: Stop Using Kundalini Yoga to Fix Yourself with Bailee Buckendorf
08/19/2026
The Shuniya Shift: Stop Using Kundalini Yoga to Fix Yourself with Bailee Buckendorf
What happens when healing becomes another thing you’re trying to achieve? In this episode, I’m joined by my friend Bailee for a tender conversation about grief, the feminine, Shuniya, and the power of not fixing yourself. We explore grief not as something you “get over,” but as a living process to be felt, held, and slowly alchemized. Bailee shares how her journey led her into deeper stillness, sensory awareness, sound, archetype, and the feminine mystery. This conversation asks: What if there is nothing to fix? What if the next step is learning how to listen differently? Inside this episode, we explore: 🔹 Why grief is not something we complete, but something we learn to live with and honor 🔹 How Shuniya, or zero-point stillness, can create space for healing to land 🔹 Why “am I doing this to avoid a feeling?” and “am I doing this because I think I’m not enough?” are powerful questions 🔹 How simple rituals, sound, sensory awareness, and intentional contemplation can support integration My hope is that this episode gives you permission to stop treating healing like a race. You do not have to prove your worth through how much you process, achieve, fix, or overcome. Sometimes the most sacred shift begins when you pause, listen, and let what has already been planted finally land. 🐍 If this conversation stirred something in you: Download your FREE Feminine Kundalini Starter Pack: GUEST EXPERT: Bailee Buckendorf | @rebuilding.roots Bailee Buckendorf is a grief integration guide, contemplative writer, and founder of Sunia Shift. Her work weaves Kundalini yoga, archetypal practice, sacred ceremony, sound, somatics, and matriarchal wisdom to help people relate to grief not as something to fix, but as a source of knowing. Shaped by her own lived initiations as a widowed mother, ultra runner, and lifelong student of loss, Bailee supports individuals and groups through one-on-one containers, digital offerings, and seasonal experiences. Book Mentioned: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 💫 💖 🌀 🎧 Also Listen to: #281 – #324 – #332 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Feminine Kundalini Energy: Light, Dark & Tantric Archetypes
08/12/2026
Feminine Kundalini Energy: Light, Dark & Tantric Archetypes
Today’s episode is another behind-the-scenes look, this time inside my 200-hour Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training. This teaching comes from the Feminine Form Kundalini module, where we unpack what we mean by feminine energy. In yoga, tantra, and Kundalini, feminine energy isn’t about gender or identity. It’s archetypal energy, the Shakti current within all of us. In this clip, I explore Shiva and Shakti, the light and dark feminine, and why both matter. I’ll also look at how feminine energy becomes blocked, through over-control, disconnection from desire, difficulty receiving, and lack of boundaries. Inside this episode, I explore: 🔹 Why feminine and masculine energy are archetypal forces, not gender roles 🔹 How Shakti and Shiva represent movement and stillness, life force and consciousness 🔹 The difference between light feminine and dark feminine energy 🔹 How feminine archetypes can deepen your Kundalini yoga practice The feminine is not just softness. She is movement, desire, creation, destruction, renewal, and the living intelligence of the body itself. 🐍 Grab my FREE Feminine Form Kundalini Starter. It’s a beautiful place to begin exploring feminine energy, Shakti, archetypes, and Kundalini practice in your own body: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 🔮 ✨ 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #305 – #312 – #352 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Vibhuti Yoga - See the Sacred Everywhere: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10
08/05/2026
Vibhuti Yoga - See the Sacred Everywhere: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10
What if the world itself could become your meditation object? In this episode, we explore Chapter 10 of the Bhagavad Gita, known as Vibhuti Yoga — the yoga of divine manifestation and sacred seeing. This chapter explores how to train our perception and helps us stop dividing life into “spiritual” and “not spiritual.” The sunset, the breath, the body, the mountain, even impermanence, all can become doorways back to the sacred. It also marks a turning point in Arjuna’s relationship with Krishna. Until now, Arjuna has known Krishna as his friend, cousin, mentor, and charioteer. Here, he begins to realize that Krishna is not just wise, but divine reality itself. Inside this episode, I explore: 🔹 What Vibhuti Yoga means and why Chapter 10 is about sacred seeing 🔹 How Krishna teaches Arjuna to recognize the divine shining through the world 🔹 Why awe, beauty, and attention can become spiritual practice 🔹 How your body, breath, and everyday life can become doorways into devotion My hope is that this episode helps you look for the spark this week. Not by chasing a mystical experience, but by letting ordinary life become holy again. If this episode speaks to you, come practice with me inside Uplifted Membership, where we weave yoga philosophy, meditation, somatics, and embodied ritual into practices you can actually feel and live. 📖 Different translations explored: Barbara Stoler Miller: Godsong by Amit Majmudar: Eknath Easwaran: Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by Swami Prabhupada: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🐍 📚 💖 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #381 – #398 – #427 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Perimenopause, Cravings & Hormones: Your Body Isn’t Broken, It’s Speaking w/ Sema Özpekmezci
07/29/2026
Perimenopause, Cravings & Hormones: Your Body Isn’t Broken, It’s Speaking w/ Sema Özpekmezci
Do cravings, fatigue, or hormonal shifts have you feeling like a stranger in your body? In this episode, I’m joined by Sema Özpekmezci for a grounded, compassionate conversation about chronic illness, women’s health, perimenopause, hormones, and what it really means to listen to your body. We explore how midlife changes can feel confusing and how symptoms like cravings, energy dips, mood shifts, and inflammation can become invitations into deeper self-understanding. Sema also shares a powerful way to think about your hormones as the “CEO” of your body and why food, stress, blood sugar, sleep, and nervous system regulation all play a role in helping you feel balanced again. Inside this episode, we explore: 🔹 Why perimenopause symptoms, cravings, and inflammation may be body signals, not personal failures 🔹 How hormones, stress, cortisol, and the nervous system influence women’s health 🔹 Why chocolate cravings and blood sugar patterns can reveal what your body actually needs 🔹 How to respond to your changing body with curiosity, compassion, and practical support My hope is that this conversation helps you stop fighting your body and start listening to it. Because your body isn’t broken. It’s speaking. 💗 If you want to keep exploring this connection between the nervous system, embodiment, and women’s health, come practice with me: GUEST EXPERT: Sema Özpekmezci | Sema is a certified Clinical Nutritional Therapist and Functional Medicine Health Coach. She is a Yoga and Mindfulness Trainer and yoga/meditation enthusiast. She believes that nutrition, mind, and spirit are inextricably linked to our health and overall well-being and spreading and explaining this is her life's purpose. Connect with Sema and find her programs here → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 📚 ✨ 💖 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #366 – #369 – #384 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Nervous System Science Every Yoga Teacher Should Know
07/22/2026
Nervous System Science Every Yoga Teacher Should Know
What’s actually happening in the body when yoga helps you “calm down”? In this behind-the-scenes lesson pulled directly from the Uplifted 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, we explore the nervous system science behind yoga, and why practices like breathwork, inversions, mantra, repetition, and Savasana can profoundly shift your stress response. You’ll learn why yoga isn’t just about relaxing, but about building awareness, resilience, and the ability to move skillfully between stress and recovery. We explore: 🔹 How yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system 🔹 Why slow exhales and vagal tone matter for emotional regulation 🔹 The nervous system effects of inversions, mantra, repetition, and Savasana 🔹 Why yoga isn’t about avoiding stress, but responding to it differently 🔹 How yoga teachers help students build nervous system resilience through awareness This episode is a special preview from inside our teacher training and offers a glimpse into how we blend anatomy, nervous system science, yoga philosophy, and embodied practice together inside the program. 🎓 Curious about joining the next cohort of the Uplifted 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training? Learn more about our anatomy-forward, highly supportive online certification program → 💖 Or, if this episode helped you understand your nervous system or yoga practice in a new way, I’d be so grateful if you left a quick review for the podcast. Reviews help more yogis discover these teachings and support the show tremendously. ✨ Leave a review here: (If the link opens the show page instead of reviews, just scroll down and click on “Ratings & Reviews” then tap “Write a Review.”) FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🔮 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #420 – #424 – #429 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How the Divine Speaks: The Neuroscience of Sacred Storytelling (Part 2)
07/15/2026
How the Divine Speaks: The Neuroscience of Sacred Storytelling (Part 2)
Why do the world’s great spiritual traditions teach through stories, imagery, and metaphor instead of simple instructions? In this episode, I’ll explore why metaphor changes us in a way facts alone cannot and how imagery bypasses the analytical mind to speak directly to the nervous system, imagination, memory, and body. Building on Part 1, we’ll dive deeper into Tantra’s vision of awakening as a love story between Shiva and Shakti: awareness and energy, stillness and sensation, consciousness and embodiment. I’ll explore: 🔹 Why metaphor activates the nervous system differently than information 🔹 The neuroscience behind stories, imagery, and embodied learning 🔹 How yoga philosophy, Christianity, Buddhism, and Tantra all teach through metaphor 🔹 Why metaphor is essential for trauma-informed yoga teaching and meditation 🔹 Practical ways to use imagery, cue layering, and storytelling in your yoga classes 🎓 Want to become a more confident, creative, and impactful yoga teacher? Grab my free Sequencing & Cueing Bundle and learn how to structure classes, layer cues, and use metaphor and imagery in a way that truly lands with students → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🔮 🐍 💖 🌀 🎧 Also Listen to: #300 – #422 – #425 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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My Yogic Decision-Making Framework: How to Find Real Clarity
07/08/2026
My Yogic Decision-Making Framework: How to Find Real Clarity
How do you make a big decision… yogically? In this episode, I explore what happens when you deeply desire something — a new job, a baby, a retreat, a training, a relationship — but don’t actually have the capacity to hold it right now. This is a conversation about desire, capacity, and the real conditions for clarity. Because so often we think we’re confused, when really what’s happening is that one part of us wants something badly, and another part of us knows we don’t have the bandwidth. In this episode, I explore: 🔹 The difference between desire and capacity and why both matter 🔹 Why high desire + low capacity creates pain, burnout, and resentment 🔹 A yogic framework for understanding hard decisions through polarity 🔹 Simple somatic practices to help you feel what your body is actually saying 🔹 Four different decision-making archetypes and how stress changes the way you choose If you’ve been stuck in a decision, this episode will help you stop forcing clarity and start listening for what’s actually true. ✨ Make your yoga practice 2x more potent in 1/2 the time with my 💗 Get Yoga for Self Mastery => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📖 🐍 💖 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #297 – #314 – #350 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Somatic Coaching to Break Family Patterns with Amy Hunter
07/01/2026
Somatic Coaching to Break Family Patterns with Amy Hunter
What if the patterns running your life didn’t start with you? In this conversation, I sit down with Uplifted alum Amy Hunter to talk about the deeper work of somatic coaching, recovery, and healing family-of-origin patterns. Amy has taken multiple trainings inside the Uplifted ecosystem — including 200-hour, 300-hour, Kundalini, Embodied Yoga Life Coaching, and most recently the AI course — and now brings all of that into her own coaching practice. Together, we explore what it looks like to move from self-awareness into real change. In this episode, we cover: 🔹 How somatic coaching helps uncover family patterns that still shape your life 🔹 The connection between people pleasing, self-abandonment, and personal power 🔹 Amy’s six pillars of self-recovery and how they relate to the chakras 🔹 Why self-care is foundational if you want to change old patterns 🔹 A simple in-the-moment tool — Amy’s PIVOT process — for catching yourself and choosing differently If you’ve ever felt like you know your patterns intellectually but still keep repeating them, this episode is such a beautiful reminder that real change happens when awareness moves into the body. 🌀 Check out my Somatic Life Coaching Certification and join before July 10th to get the EARLY ACCESS EXPERIENCE => GUEST EXPERT: Amy Hunter | Amy is a certified Somatic Life Coach and founder of Guide By Your Side Life Recovery Coaching. Her passion is guiding people through difficult life transitions and easing the emotional and physical pain that comes with them. Her proprietary system—the 6 Steps of Self-Recovery & the 5-step PIVOT Process—combines Somatic, body-based practices with Root Cause Coaching, Hypnotherapy, and Yoga Psychotherapy. Get your free “5 Steps from People-Pleasing to Personal Power” guide or book a call with Amy at Connect with Amy: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🔮 💫 ✨ 🎧 Also Listen to: #299 – #354 – #386 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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What Is Bhakti Yoga? Krishna’s Most Confidential Teaching (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9)
06/24/2026
What Is Bhakti Yoga? Krishna’s Most Confidential Teaching (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9)
What if the deepest spiritual secret wasn’t hidden somewhere far away, but woven into your ordinary life right now? In Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna reveals what he calls the “king of knowledge” and the “most confidential secret”. A teaching so simple and intimate that most people overlook it completely. This episode explores the heart of bhakti yoga: devotion, relationship with the divine, and the radical idea that the sacred permeates everything. We explore: 🔹 Why Krishna says the divine is both everywhere and beyond everything 🔹 The paradox at the center of yoga philosophy and why it matters 🔹 How devotion shifts from external ritual to inner relationship 🔹 Why sincerity matters more than spiritual performance If you’ve ever wondered where the divine actually lives, or what devotion really means beyond ritual, this episode will change the way you see your practice. 👉 Dive deeper into yoga’s origins with my History of Yoga Course → 📗 Join the book club → 📖 Different translations explored: Barbara Stoler Miller: Godsong by Amit Majmudar: Eknath Easwaran: Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by Swami Prabhupada: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🐍 💖 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #401 – #415 – #422 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Stop Trying to Be Calm: Kali & the Stress Cycle
06/17/2026
Stop Trying to Be Calm: Kali & the Stress Cycle
What if stress isn’t actually the problem? What if the real issue is that your body never got to finish the stress response? In this episode, we revisit one of the most powerful conversations we’ve ever had on the podcast: why healing isn’t about becoming calm all the time and how sacred rage, movement, and emotional expression may actually be the missing piece to your healing. Using the archetype of the Hindu goddess Kali, we explore the difference between suppression and regulation, why so many yogis get stuck in spiritual bypassing, and how somatic practices help the body finally complete the stress cycle. We explore: 🔹 Why stress is not actually an emotion 🔹 How Kali represents sacred rage, truth, and transformation 🔹 The hidden cost of suppressing anger, grief, and overwhelm 🔹 Why calm isn’t always the goal of healing 🔹 How somatic movement helps complete the stress cycle If you’ve ever felt like you were “bad at healing” because you couldn’t stay calm… this episode is for you. 💮Sign Up for the Free KALI YOGA CHALLENGE: Get my Kali Guidebook as an instant download and move through the challenge starting on June 19th → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🐍 💖 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #324 – #325 – #345 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How the Divine Speaks: Sacred Symbolism in the Gita, Bible & Upanishads Part 1
06/10/2026
How the Divine Speaks: Sacred Symbolism in the Gita, Bible & Upanishads Part 1
Have you ever noticed that when humans try to talk about God, awakening, truth, or the divine we almost never explain it directly? Instead, we tell stories. We say life is a battlefield. God is a shepherd. The soul is a river returning to the sea. The self is two birds sitting in the same tree. Across cultures, centuries, and spiritual traditions, mystics don’t simply define the divine, they paint it. In this episode, I take you on a kind of devotional poetry slam through sacred metaphor. We’ll explore passages from the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Psalms, and yogic philosophy to see how spiritual traditions use image, story, and symbol to help us feel our relationship with the divine. Because metaphor doesn’t just help the mind understand. It gives the nervous system somewhere to rest. We’ll explore: 🔹 Why sacred texts use metaphor to describe the divine 🔹 What the Gita, Bible, and Upanishads reveal through images like rivers, shepherds, chariots, and birds 🔹 How metaphor helps us feel spiritual truth instead of just understand it intellectually 🔹 How sacred imagery can support meditation, teaching, and everyday life This is part one of a two-part episode on sacred metaphor, divine imagery, and why stories may be one of the most powerful spiritual technologies we have. If you’ve ever felt moved by a line of scripture, a yoga teaching, a poem, or an image you couldn’t fully explain this episode will help you understand why. ✨ Loving the podcast? Leaving a quick review on Apple Podcasts is one of the best ways to support the show and help more yogis discover these teachings. Tap here to leave a review: (If the link opens the show page instead of reviews, just scroll down and click on “Ratings & Reviews” then tap “Write a Review.”) And if you want to understand where the Gita, Upanishads, Yoga Sutras, Tantra, and other sacred yoga texts all fit together, my History of Yoga course is a beautiful next step. Get it here => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🕉️ 🐍 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #297 – #358 – #401 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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What Makes a Great Yoga Teacher Training? Your Questions Answered
06/03/2026
What Makes a Great Yoga Teacher Training? Your Questions Answered
Thinking about doing a yoga teacher training—but not sure how to choose the right one? In this bonus FAQ-style episode, I’m breaking down the questions I hear all the time—from “Will I actually finish?” to “Do I have to want to teach?”—and giving you a grounded, honest framework to make the best decision for YOU. Because not all trainings are created equal… and the difference isn’t just curriculum—it’s support, structure, and how you’re held through the experience. We’ll explore: 🔹 Why most people don’t finish yoga teacher training 🔹 The biggest mistake people make when choosing a program 🔹 What actually builds confidence (hint: it’s not more content) 🔹 How to know if you’re “ready” (even if you don’t feel ready) 🔹 And the one thing that matters more than anything else If you’ve been circling this decision, this episode will help you get clear—without pressure. 💖 Ready to deepen your practice and live from your true nature? Explore the Uplifted Membership here => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🔮 🌀 🎧 Also Listen to: #264 – #364 – #404 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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7 Ways To Cultivate a Yoga Practice That Sticks
05/27/2026
7 Ways To Cultivate a Yoga Practice That Sticks
If your yoga practice keeps falling off… you’re not the problem. In this episode, I share 7 simple, realistic ways to create a yoga practice that actually sticks—even in busy seasons of life. We explore how to: 🔹 Redefine what “counts” as yoga 🔹 Build consistency without perfectionism 🔹 Create anchor practices you can rely on 🔹 Eliminate decision fatigue (so you actually show up) 🔹 Make your practice feel good again Whether you're short on time, energy, or motivation—this episode will help you reconnect to a practice that supports you. ✨ Make your yoga practice 2x more potent in 1/2 the time with my 💗Get my book Yoga Life: Habits, Poses and and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst the Chaos => Get the Uplifted Journals: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📖 📚 ✅ 🐍 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #264 – #279 – #318 – #372 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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What Happens When You Die Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Explained
05/20/2026
What Happens When You Die Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Explained
What will your final thought be? In Chapter 8 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives a surprising answer: your last thought isn’t something you can control in the moment — it’s the result of what you’ve practiced thinking about your entire life. So this chapter isn’t really about death — It’s about attention. In this episode, I explore: 🔹 Why your final thought reflects your lifelong mental patterns 🔹 The powerful teaching: “Remember me and fight” — spiritual awareness inside real life 🔹 How attention shapes your consciousness and future trajectory 🔹 The meaning of Om as a tool to reorient your awareness 🔹 The difference between rebirth, higher realms, and liberation (moksha) 🔹 A practical question: where is your attention actually going each day? If you’ve been feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or pulled in a million directions, this episode brings you back to one core truth: You become what you consistently pay attention to. 💗 Want to shift what you’re practicing paying attention to? Start with my free somatic yoga class or workshop to reset your nervous system and come back to presence→ 📗 Join the book club → 📖 Different translations explored: Barbara Stoler Miller: Godsong by Amit Majmudar: Eknath Easwaran: Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by Swami Prabhupada: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📖 🐍 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #401 – #415 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? Part 2
05/13/2026
Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? Part 2
If yoga doesn’t really have a Satan figure…what’s the enemy? In this second part of my comparative theology series, I explore what Hindu philosophy names as the real obstacle on the spiritual path: ego, desire, delusion, and ignorance. We continue tracing parallels between Jesus, Buddha, and Hindu mythology — but here the focus sharpens around one big idea: the deepest danger isn’t pleasure or power. It’s misidentification. In this episode, I explore: 🔹 Why the “enemy” in yoga often sounds like self-doubt, ego, and identity insecurity 🔹 What Hindu myths reveal about spiritual power without humility 🔹 Why temptation often shows up right before transformation 🔹 How self-sabotage can actually signal a threshold moment 🔹 What Jesus, Buddha, and Hindu philosophy all teach about staying rooted in who you are If you’ve ever felt yourself unravel right before an up-level — or noticed self-doubt get louder the moment you’re about to expand — this episode is for you. 💖 Want to keep exploring yoga philosophy in community? Join me inside the Uplifted Membership for deeper study, spiritual conversation, and the Yoga Sutras Book Club → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🔮 💖 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #297 – #387 – #413 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Healing Painful Joints with Scott Hogan
05/06/2026
Healing Painful Joints with Scott Hogan
If joint pain has ever made you afraid to move, this episode is for you. In this conversation with Scott Hogan, we talk about what actually helps painful joints heal — and why doing nothing often makes things worse. We explore the relationship between movement, compensation patterns, nervous system safety, and how to rebuild strength without constantly re-triggering pain. In this episode, we cover: 🔹 Why people get afraid to move after injury — and what to do instead 🔹 The difference between mobility and stability (and why both matter for healthy joints) 🔹 How pain compensation patterns can quietly create bigger issues over time 🔹 Why core stability is often the missing piece in joint healing 🔹 How to think about recovery, connective tissue, and rebuilding beyond your old baseline This is such a grounded conversation if you’re navigating pain, getting older, or trying to support your body with more intelligence and less fear. 📘 And if you want to go deeper into the nervous system side of healing; Grab my book Healing with Somatic Yoga → GUEST EXPERT: Scott Hogan | | Scott Hogan is the author of the best-selling book, Built from Broken. And founder of SaltWrap, a therapeutic sports nutrition company. Scott’s website: Get Scott’s book Built from Broken: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🔮 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #285 – #296 – #300 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How the Yoga Sutras & Bhagavad Gita Were Originally Taught (And Why It Feels So Different Today)
04/29/2026
How the Yoga Sutras & Bhagavad Gita Were Originally Taught (And Why It Feels So Different Today)
Have you ever wondered what the original learning environment of yoga philosophy actually looked like? In this episode, I share why texts like the Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads were never meant to be read alone—and how studying in community can completely transform your understanding. As I’ve been leading my Yoga Sutras Book Club, I’ve seen how powerful it is to learn this way—and why it might be the missing piece in your own practice. We explore: 🔹 Why reading alone is actually a modern anomaly 🔹 How sutras were designed to be unpacked together 🔹 Why commentary and conversation deepen insight 🔹 How community supports nervous system regulation If something feels like it’s missing in your spiritual study, this episode will show you why. 💖 Want to experience this in practice? Join me inside the Yoga Sutras Book Club where we study these teachings the way they were originally meant to be explored—together, in community, and in conversation → 📘 Want the physical, glossy keepsake journal? Order it here → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 📚 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #297 – #358 – #364 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Guided Meditation for Busy Women to De-Stress (16 Minutes)
04/24/2026
Guided Meditation for Busy Women to De-Stress (16 Minutes)
If you’ve been working all day, running around, or living a little too much in your head, this short guided meditation is designed to help you shift out of “doing” mode and back into being. In this visualization, I guide you into a peaceful nighttime beach setting where you encounter a radiant goddess figure who bathes you in what I call the nectar of compassion — a symbol of the feminine qualities many of us forget to give ourselves: softness, warmth, receptivity, and care. You can practice this meditation lying down and return to it anytime you need to release stress, reconnect with your body, and transition into a calmer, more intuitive state. In this meditation, we explore: 🔹 A simple three-part breath to slow the nervous system and release the day 🔹 A soothing moonlit beach visualization to shift from mental activity into embodied presence 🔹 Meeting a compassionate goddess archetype representing nurturing feminine energy 🔹 A symbolic “nectar of compassion” ritual to soften tension and restore emotional balance 🔹 Reconnecting with the quiet strength, warmth, and intuition already within you This practice is especially beautiful when you're transitioning from work into the evening, preparing for rest, or simply needing a few minutes to reconnect with yourself. ✨ Want more practices like this? Inside the Uplifted Membership, you’ll find a full library of guided meditations, somatic yoga practices, and deeper trainings to help you regulate your nervous system, reconnect with your body, and build a sustainable spiritual practice. Join here → © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Are the Chakras Just New Age Woo? Yoga, Anatomy & the Truth Behind the Energy Centers
04/22/2026
Are the Chakras Just New Age Woo? Yoga, Anatomy & the Truth Behind the Energy Centers
Are chakras just a New Age myth—or is there real wisdom behind the energy centers? In this episode, I unpack the skepticism around chakras—and why it’s totally valid. We explore how chakras are not physical organs, but symbolic energy centers that correlate with real anatomical structures like nerve plexuses and endocrine glands. I also share how the chakra system evolved in ancient yogic texts, and how yoga teachers can present chakras in a way that feels grounded, inclusive, and relevant. You’ll learn: 🔹 The historical roots of chakras in ancient yogic texts 🔹 How chakras align with anatomical and physiological structures 🔹 Why skepticism is welcome—and how to teach through it 🔹 Ways to talk about energy without alienating your students 🔹 How to present the chakras through the lens of body awareness If you’ve ever felt torn between spiritual depth and scientific credibility—this episode bridges the gap. 🌈 Sign Up for the Live Chakra Challenge => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 💖 ✅ 🔮 🐍 🎧 Also Listen to: #303 – #341 – #370 – © 2025 Uplifted Yoga |
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Hip Replacement & Yoga What Teachers Need to Know w Cyndi Stewart
04/15/2026
Hip Replacement & Yoga What Teachers Need to Know w Cyndi Stewart
What happens when your hips can no longer do what your yoga practice asks of them? In this deeply honest conversation, Uplifted alum Cyndi Stewart shares her journey toward hip replacement surgery — and the identity crisis that followed. As a longtime yoga teacher, intuitive healer, and movement lover, she opens up about navigating chronic hip pain, reduced mobility, and the emotional spiral that can come when your body no longer “performs.” We talk candidly about: 🔹 Early signs of hip degeneration and what yoga teachers often miss 🔹 Why strengthening matters more than stretching for long-term hip health 🔹 How overstretching can accelerate instability 🔹 What hip replacement surgery and recovery are actually like (timeline, pain, mobility, surprises) 🔹 Supporting students with hip replacements in class 🔹 The grief, ego, and surrender that accompany physical limitation 🔹 Somatic tools and meditations that helped regulate pain and fear This episode is for yoga teachers worried about their own hips… for students navigating osteoarthritis or labral tears… and for anyone facing surgery and wondering what it means spiritually when your body says “enough.” Your body’s breakdown is not your failure. Sometimes it’s an initiation. 🌈 Sign Up For The Live Chakra Challenge GUEST EXPERT: Cyndi P Stewart, PhD. | Root Cause Health Solutions' founder, Cyndi Stewart, PhD, uses a unique "Mystics approach" to get to the heart of chronic health issues. Through her own healing journey, Cyndi discovered that physical symptoms are often the body's way of calling for attention. Her process integrates intuitive eating, bioenergetics, kinesiology, and the Akashic Records to uncover the root causes of dis-ease. A Kundalini and Uplifted Yoga teacher, she also uses yoga and meditation to ground her energy. To learn more about her work, including classes on Emotions & Metaphysical Kinesiology, you can visit Connect with Cyndi: Read about surgery and recovery on Cyndi’s website here: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 ✅ 🔮 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #285 – #300 – #369 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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From Self-Improvement to Reverence (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7)
04/08/2026
From Self-Improvement to Reverence (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7)
Are you collecting yogic wisdom… or in a relationship with Divine mystery? Today we’re opening into Chapter 7 of the Bhagavad Gita, and it’s a true turning point. The first six chapters have been so much about discipline, self-mastery, and effort… but here, we pivot into the bhakti arc: relationship with the divine. Before we drop into the verses, I frame the big shift this chapter is asking of us — and I weave it through a distinction that changes everything: jnana (intellectual knowing) vs vijnana (realized, embodied knowing). Here are the 5 biggest takeaways from this episode: 🔹 The pivot from self-effort to reverence + relationship (and why this is such good news if you’re tired of over-efforting) 🔹 Jnana vs vijnana: reading about truth vs living it in your nervous system, your body, your actual life 🔹 Krishna’s reveal: not “worship me as a personality,” but recognize the animating intelligence of reality (taste in water, light in sun + moon, Om…) 🔹 The gunas as weather patterns — and bhakti as remembering the “sky” behind them 🔹 The radical reframe: awakening isn’t a solo achievement… it’s participatory — you’re being met If you’re loving this deeper dive into yogic texts, come join me inside the Uplifted Membership for the Yoga Sutras Book Club — it’s where we keep studying together (with prompts, practices, and community) so the teachings move from your head into your life. 💖 Join the membership today and get all the details on our next call → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 📚 🔮 🐍 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #297 – #364 – #404 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How I Get TV Segments & Talk on Camera (Without Stressing Out)
04/01/2026
How I Get TV Segments & Talk on Camera (Without Stressing Out)
I recently went on live television — and it reminded me how much intentionality goes into both getting these opportunities and preparing for them. In this episode, I share how media invitations actually happened for me (spoiler: it wasn’t cold pitching networks)… and how I prep so live TV doesn’t fry my nervous system. If you have a book, retreat, teacher training, or offering you want to grow, this is the real behind-the-scenes. In this conversation, I cover: 🔹 The two-part strategy that builds visibility over time 🔹 Why doing “three uncomfortable things a day” changed my business 🔹 How local relationships led to magazine covers and TV invites 🔹 Why credibility and backlinks matter in the age of AI 🔹 My exact rehearsal process for live segments (so I don’t freeze) This episode is about outreach, alignment, nervous system awareness — and building momentum without overriding yourself. Because visibility should feel expansive, not depleting. 📘 Want to explore the work I referenced in this episode? Grab Healing with Somatic Yoga here → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📖 📚 🔮 🐍 ✨ 🎧 Also Listen to: #291 – #326 – #386 – #396 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? (Part 1)
03/25/2026
Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? (Part 1)
Let’s talk about something a little controversial today… the forces of evil. 👀 How do different wisdom traditions frame temptation, demons, and the dark forces that often appear right before a spiritual breakthrough? I’ll explore the story of Eve in the garden, Jesus in the desert, and Buddha under the Bodhi tree, comparing how each figure faces illusion, doubt, and distraction—and what we can learn from them in our own practice. I’ll also break down how yogic philosophy (and Hinduism more broadly) defines the “enemy” very differently—from the ego as adversary to karmic patterns of desire and delusion. We’ll explore: 🔹 Why the darkest moments often come before awakening 🔹 Jesus vs. Mara: how two traditions handle temptation 🔹 The serpent’s tactic: twist truth, create doubt 🔹 Why contentment (Santosha) is spiritual protection 🔹 Vedanta’s view: ego, craving, and identification as the true ‘enemy’ 🔹 How to tell if you’re in a “spiritual setup” moment This is part one of a two-part conversation exploring temptation, truth, and the psychological and spiritual forces we encounter on the path. Whether you’re deep into the Gita or just navigating your own spiritual uplevel, this one’s for you. 💖 Ready to deepen your practice and live from your true nature? Explore the Uplifted Membership here => Book mentioned: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 📖 🐍 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #362 – #395 – #408 - Aparigraha vs. Hustle Culture: I Quit Maximizing. Here's What Happened © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How the Chakras Relate to Polyvagal Theory + Your FAQ
03/20/2026
How the Chakras Relate to Polyvagal Theory + Your FAQ
What if your chakra “block” isn’t a block — but your nervous system doing its job? In this bonus episode, I go deeper into your most advanced chakra questions: from how the polyvagal ladder maps onto the energy body, to why certain life patterns keep repeating. We’ll explore how trauma, somatics, and subtle anatomy intersect — and why your healing path isn’t linear (and was never meant to be). We’ll explore: 🔹 Are chakras sequential or cyclical? 🔹 Why trauma theory transforms how we understand energy centers 🔹 How the koshas and gunas make chakra work more precise 🔹 Why you keep facing the same life lessons — and what to do about it 🔹 How each chakra reflects your nervous system’s state (fight/flight/freeze) This is a practical, somatic deep-dive into energy anatomy, grounded in compassion, science, and lived experience. If you've ever said "I feel stuck," this one’s for you. 🌈 Discover your dominant chakra with my FREE dominant chakra test => 🎁 Grab my new book: Healing with Somatic Yoga: A 6-Week Journey to Release Emotions, Rewire Your Nervous System, and Reclaim Your Body → FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🔮 🐍 💖 🎧 Also Listen to: #303 – #324 – #390 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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How to Get Inspired and Be Inspired (Even When You Feel Burned Out)
03/18/2026
How to Get Inspired and Be Inspired (Even When You Feel Burned Out)
If you’ve been feeling stuck or uninspired—whether in your personal practice or your teaching—this episode is for you. I’m sharing how I’ve reignited my own creativity over the years, not by pushing harder, but by allowing myself to breathe in new experiences. From Da Vinci to Mirabai, from Einstein’s violin to the poetry of Lalla, I’ll take you on a journey that reveals the true source of inspiration—and how you can access it again (and again). Here’s what I’ll explore: 🔹 What “inspiration” really means (and why you can’t force it) 🔹 How to feed your creativity through multi-disciplinary learning 🔹 Why your students crave emotion more than information 🔹 The power of music, beauty, and sensory detail to awaken your teaching 🔹 How you showing up in your element is the greatest gift you can give 🔹 Why “how” something is offered matters as much as what’s offered If you’ve been wondering how to get inspired again—or how to truly inspire others—this episode will give you a whole new lens. And maybe, a little fire in your belly. 🎉 And if you need just a little extra teaching inspiration download my sequences and get my free yoga playlist => 💖 Join our book club! We’re starting with the Yoga Sutras inside the Uplifted Membership here => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: ✅ 🔮 🐍 🌀 💫 🎧 Also Listen to: #299 – #363 – #401 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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The Adi Shakti Mantra for Overwhelmed Women with Polly Standeven
03/11/2026
The Adi Shakti Mantra for Overwhelmed Women with Polly Standeven
If you’ve been feeling braced, overextended, or stuck in your head — this episode is for you. In this conversation with one of my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training graduates, Polly of North & Soul, we explore the Adi Shakti mantra not as theory… but as medicine. This isn’t just a breakdown of Sanskrit. It’s a conversation about what happens when you stop micromanaging your life force — and allow energy to move again. In this episode, we explore: 🔹 Living at “two out of ten” versus fully expressed in your energy 🔹 Kundalini as your magnetism — your truest creative essence 🔹 How conditioning and trauma constrict your life force 🔹 Shiva and Shakti as awareness and energy inside the body 🔹 Why surrender feels unsafe when your nervous system learned to brace 🔹 The nurturing frequency of Mata Shakti (Divine Mother) 🔹 How to use the Adi Shakti mantra as an anchor when overwhelmed 🔹 The exact mudra and meditation setup We also talk about what it means to soften without collapsing. To allow energy to move instead of clamping down. To trust that you don’t have to control everything in order to feel safe. If you’ve been trying to hold it all together — this episode invites you into a different way. And, if this conversation awakens something in you, my upcoming Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training goes deeper into: • Mantra & energetic anatomy • Shiva–Shakti integration • Nervous system regulation • Embodied leadership GUEST EXPERT: Polly Standeven | Polly Standeven is the founder of North & Soul, a Kundalini teacher, and community leader devoted to feminine alchemy, energy work, and heart-led living. She is a graduate of Brett’s 200-hour YTT and Kundalini University and has taught inside Brett’s programs. Connect with Polly: Instagram: YouTube: Community: Website: FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📚 🐍 🔮 🎧 Also Listen to: #43 – #138 – #297 – #265 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Trauma-Conscious Kundalini: A New Era of Teaching with Katrina Marie
03/04/2026
Trauma-Conscious Kundalini: A New Era of Teaching with Katrina Marie
Does Kundalini yoga have to be intense and activating? What if it could be trauma-conscious, deeply supportive, and even soothing? In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Katrina Marie—trauma survivor, author, and lead trainer in Uplifted’s 200, 300, and Kundalini tracks—to explore how Kundalini yoga can be safely adapted for students with trauma and nervous system sensitivity. We talk about how to teach from a place of safety, how to create choice instead of pressure, and why your unique experience as a teacher is your gift. In this episode, we explore: 🔹 The difference between trauma-informed and trauma-conscious teaching 🔹 How to safely adapt kriyas and breathwork for trauma-sensitive students 🔹 Which meditations actually help regulate the nervous system (and which don’t) 🔹 Why choice and agency matter more than “pushing through” 🔹 The healing power of intuitive movement in Kundalini Whether you're a teacher or a student, if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed in Kundalini—or unsure how to adapt it—this episode offers tools, compassion, and inspiration. 💖 If you’re ready to dive deeper — Join me in the upcoming Uplifted 200-Hour Somatic Trauma-Informed Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training: GUEST EXPERT: Katrina Marie | Katrina is an E-RYT 500 with Trauma Informed and Kids Yoga specialities. Katrina’s mission is to help yoga instructors find their Trauma Informed voice through the Uplifted training, and to empower kids and adults with her yoga. Katrina has survived an abusive marriage, a school shooting, and strives to turn her own trauma into her dharma as she facilitates healing experiences for others. Mentioned Practices: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🐍 💖 ✅ 🔮 🎧 Also Listen to: #308 – #373 – #394 – © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Aparigraha vs. Hustle Culture: I Quit Maximizing. Here's What Happened
02/25/2026
Aparigraha vs. Hustle Culture: I Quit Maximizing. Here's What Happened
Are you addicted to efficiency? This episode explores the fifth Yama, Aparigraha — non-grasping, through the lens of modern life. We talk hoarding… not of stuff, but of tasks, to-dos, and productivity itself. If you’ve ever found yourself trying to “earn” your rest or multitasking even in your downtime, this one’s for you. Let’s talk about: 🔹 What it really means to stop grasping (hint: it’s not just about material things) 🔹 The dark side of the “maximizer” mindset 🔹 Why we hoard productivity (and how it erodes presence) 🔹 How contentment (Santosha) offers an antidote to overwhelm 🔹 What Mary & Martha can teach us about being vs. doing Yoga begins with your relationship to time, tasks, and how you be with yourself. Let this episode be your reminder: You don’t need to do more to be more. 💖 Give yourself permission to slow down, check in, and come home to yourself with my Yoga For Self Mastery course => FREE Practice: Relevant Blog: Relevant to Today’s Episode: 📖 📚 🐍 💖 🌀 🎧 Also Listen to: #384 – #403 – #404 – What If I Fail? Krishna’s Answer to Your Inner Critic (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6) © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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Root Chakra Meditation
02/20/2026
Root Chakra Meditation
Ready to reconnect with your roots? This short guided meditation focuses on the first chakra — Muladhara, the root chakra — helping you ground into your body and feel deeply supported by the earth beneath you. Whether you're feeling anxious, scattered, or just want to center yourself before your day, this practice is here to help you return to solid ground. In this meditation I’ll guide you to: 🔹 Visualize the root chakra and the fire at the earth’s core 🔹 Feel your body anchoring into the present moment 🔹 Explore the void — the energetic origin point of grounding and support 🔹 A simple but profound breath practice for nervous system regulation This is a powerful reset anytime you're overwhelmed or unmoored. Drop in and return to yourself. 💖 Ready to deepen your practice and live from your true nature? Explore the Uplifted Membership here => Relevant to Today’s Episode: 🔮 🐍 💖 © 2026 Uplifted Yoga |
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