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Frequent bouts of stress and anxiety create physical tension in the body. When stress persists, we can "forget" how to relax, a common source of chronic pain. In this practice, Jen prompts you to alternate between tensing and relaxing different muscle groups to help you not only release chronic muscle tension, but also get more familiar with the difference between what tension and relaxation feels like. Progressive Relaxation is well-studied and has been shown to not only reduce the effects of stress and anxiety, but also relieve insomnia, decrease headaches, control blood pressure, and ease digestive upset. Instructions for how to set up for this practice start at 1:36 and the meditation starts at 2:30. If your podcast app supports chapters makers, you can use them to skip ahead. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Of the many reasons to practice Yin Yoga, working with the energy body  is one of the most alluring. Yet, this ephemeral force can be elusive for many practitioners. In this guided practice, Jen takes you through a short series of gentle and accessible Yin Yoga poses while directing your attention through the physical realm and into the subtle body. The practice follows a brief introduction at 1:24. If you podcast player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In the Second Foundation of Mindfulness, the Buddha outlines practices for working with feelings.  Not quite the same as emotions, feelings are the visceral, body-based responses to circumstances before the mind turns them into emotions.  In this guided practice, Jen helps you to establish a neutral anchor with the breath before exploring the preferential tones - also known as hedonic tones - that arise in response to how we feel from moment to moment. This episode  begins with a short talk. Use the chapter marker or jump to 2:45 to skip straight to the meditation.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

With this meditation, Sarah Jane takes the instructions “Pause, Soften, and Connect,” which are often delivered at the beginning of a meditation, and stretches the time we spend with each one. With occasional instruction, she illuminates the possibilities each of them points to: With “pause,” the shift from everyday mind to mindfulness; with “soften,” receptivity and the ability to stay with; and with “connect,” growing our internal awareness to include what is external. In a wonderful way, this mindfulness meditation supports the simple change from doing to being.Also, in familiarizing ourselves with the feel of the body-heart-mind system when we follow these guidelines, we are building a muscle we can use  in everyday life to slow ourselves down and bring our full presence to what is happening inside and around us. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions. 

Unfortunately for humans, our nervous system's stress response only has two settings (on and off) even though we understand degrees of tension. Whether we feel the pressure of a work deadline or an existential threat, our body responds the same way. However, we can "hack" the stress response with body-based tools that tell the nervous system that we're OK. In this episode, Jen guides you through a simple and powerful embodiment practice using breath work and sensation to send a signal to your brain that you're OK even when there's tremendous uncertainty. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Equanimity is a steadiness in heart and mind that has a spacious feel. It is “being with” rather than “reacting to” present-moment experience, which makes possible the beat between stimulus and response. We can choose what we do next rather than impulsively react. Thus, equanimity supports agency and choicefulness. Also, it balances the three other “Divine Abodes”or “Immeasurable Qualities” so valued in Buddhist tradition: loving-kindness, compassion, and empathetic joy. For example, when we are equanimous, loving-kindness will not become harmful attachment. Compassion will not have the quality of pity. Joy will not tip over into unmitigated exuberance. Keeping equanimity in heart and mind as we go about our days ensures we are not thrown off course by unpredicted circumstances; we are steady.  We are not as uncomfortable or fitful with uncertainty; there is ease with not knowing. We do not feel betrayed by life when things don’t go as planned; we more easily adapt. In this equanimity meditation with Sarah Jane we spend time calling to mind properties of the natural elements and feeling how they can support equanimity. This is the final practice in Sarah Jane’s second series of meditations inspired by Buddhism’s four “Immeasurable Qualities.” For meditations using the traditional phrases to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, try episodes 9, 13, 16, and 24.  This second set is less traditional, calling on the flavor and feel of each. You’ll find these meditations in episodes 42, 44, 46, and 48.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions. 

In our latest guided practice, Jen blends two potent practices to help you land in the tranquility of open, spacious awareness.The traditional way to call forth this energy is to concentrate on the breath while gently discouraging distracting thoughts, sensations, and other inputs from taking root in the conscious mind. But a lot of people find this very challenging, often retreating from meditative practice thinking that they aren't cut out for it.If you struggle with quieting your inner chatter, you might find this Internal Family Systems (IFS) meditation more accessible. Instead of trying to screen out your inner voices, you'll be invited to be a compassionate witness for their concerns before you kindly ask them to give you a little space. Jen uses IFS parts language in this practice. Although you don't have to know anything about IFS to follow this meditation, if you're unfamiliar with IFS and Parts Work, have a listen to Episode 29, where Sarah Jane and Jen chat about what IFS is and why yoga and mindfulness practitioners should look into it. In Episode 30, Jen shares a practice of getting to know your parts. This episode starts with a little dharma talk followed by the practice. If your podcast player supports chapter markers you can skip ahead. Otherwise, the meditation starts at: 03:08.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. Jen is a Level 2 IFS Practitioner and an enthusiastic booster of parts work. You can get in touch with her directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching for groups and individuals.

Acknowledging that humans are hardwired to be on alert for danger, and that imbalanced states can cause us problems such as anxiety and doubt, we would do well to incline the mind toward goodness and gladness. In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane touches on the negativity bias and the nature of both conditioned and unconditioned happiness. Through mindfulness meditation – and the RAIN method in particular – we become aware of the mind states that stand between us and a sense of freedom, states that are natural but not always helpful. Then, through the cultivation of gratitude and joy, and by replacing resistance with acceptance, there is the possibility of generating happiness that is characterized not by excitement or exuberance but by contentment and peace. If your podcast player supports chapter markers, you can start the meditation at 2:20.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions. 

According to Chinese Energetic Medicine, the heart is vulnerable to heat of the summer season. In this short but sweet practice, Jen while guide you through three Yin Yoga postures — melting heart and empty coat sleeves — to nourish this most vital organ. Each posture is paired with meditative practices phrases in the Plum Village tradition to foreground the qualities of presence, self-compassion, and peacefulness.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane supports you in turning toward what is present in the body, heart, and mind, and holding it with kind regard without insisting it change or improve. This act of compassion toward our humanness is the means by which we move from a state of dissociated trance to wholeness and presence.Near the end of the meditation Sarah Jane reads “Clearing,” by Margaret Postlewaite, a New York-based licensed psychologist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers donation-based classes, meditation and yoga practice groups, and 1:1 mentoring sessions.

In this guided practice, Jen shares the Microcosmic Orbit, a Taoist meditation for longevity. Circulating Qi (life force energy) through a loop formed by the Governor Vessel (Du Mai) and the Conception Vessel (Ren Mai), protects Jing, or Essence Energy, from depletion. Jing is finite, given to us during conception from our parents. As we live our lives, our activities will either conserve or deplete Jing. Once we use up all of our Jing, our life is at its end. So, it's important to protect Essence Energy whenever possible through a balanced and harmonious lifestyle and with practices like this. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this guided meditation, Sarah Jane invites you to settle into a posture that will support your mindfulness by inviting a relaxed quality in the body and wakefulness in the mind. After a period of arriving, she shares a technique for how you might use mental noting to disrupt discursive thinking. With 1-minute-long periods of silence interspersed with gentle encouragement and descriptions of the effects mental noting might produce, this 20+ minute meditation is a good one to try if you’re newer to sitting for longer periods.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Sarah Jane directly at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/ where she offers donation-based classes, meditation and yoga practice groups, and 1:1 mentoring sessions.

In our second book club, Jen and Sarah Jane follow some dharmic threads through the ancient Taoist text the “Tao Te Ching” by Laozi and enjoy the poetic language used to, somehow, beautifully illuminate something that cannot be defined. The Tao is the source of everything and the way of life, and this text invites us to align ourselves and our lifestyle with the natural order of things. In their discussion, Jen and Sarah Jane focus on just a couple of themes: effortless action (wu wei), as well as Taoism’s Three Treasures: compassion, frugality, and humility.Both Jen and Sarah Jane’s teaching practices and offerings have been informed by years of study and practice in Yin Yoga, which is based in Taoist energy practices. Their appreciation for the text, the lineages it has birthed, and the teachers who transmit its teachings is great. If it has been years since you read the pithy 81 chapters that constitute this metaphysical classic, or you haven’t yet picked it up, you won’t want to miss this.  As Skillful Means Podcast heads into a partial summer break (though Jen and Sarah Jane will continue adding guided practices to the podcast feed), you are invited to also drop into simplicity inspired by advice both practical and profound of the “Tao Te Ching.”Tao Te Ching Translations Used in this Episode"Tao Te Ching Online Translation" is Derek Lin and Lama Surya Das’s “Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained.” https://taoism.net/tao/tao-te-ching-online-translation/“Tao Te Ching” translated by Gia-fu Feng, Jane English, and Toinette Lippe: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679724346"Tao Te Ching" translated by Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tao_Te_ChingOnline ProgramsJen leads Yin Yoga teacher trainings and is offering a 35hr Yin Yoga & Taoism virtual course in June 2021. You can find out more at www.sati.yoga. Giving to IndiaUNICEF: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/india-faces-brutal-covid-19-crisis-unicef-there-help/38520Indian Red Cross:  https://www.indianredcross.org/ircs/COVID19DonateOxfam: https://www.oxfamindia.org/coronavirusWord Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/news/wck-activates-chefsforindiaCare: https://www.care.org~~~You can find us on  Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly. Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this guided practice, Jen offers a meditation on establishing body awareness as a mindfulness anchor. Because the body is always available, bringing our attention to the posture and sensations of the body helps us to connect to the immediacy of the present moment. ~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers Yin Yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this episode, Jen and Sarah Jane talk about the concept of precious impermanence, an organizing principle for many Asian religions and belief systems.Impermanence dignifies the transient nature of reality. Clinging to things as if they could be permanent is what causes unnecessary suffering in life. Through Buddhist, yogic, and Taoist textual references and stories, Sarah Jane and Jen demonstrate the value of seeing the world as ever-changing and uncertain. Not only is it realistic, but it compels us to live meaningfully, passionately, now.~~~Books Find the following books in your  local Black-owned bookstore:"Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong" by Norman Fischer"Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living" by Pema Chödrön“The Five Invitations” by Frank Ostaseski“A Year to Live” by Stephen Levine“The Trauma of Everyday Life” by Mark Epstein. "The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace & Ecology" by Thich Nhat Hanh"The Next in the Stream: Lessons from Nature on Being with Pain" by Micheal Kearney, MD.Online ProgramsA Year to Live course at Spirit Rock. You can also find it at InsightLA and other centers, usually offered at the beginning of a calendar year.  Mortal with Alua Arthur (end-of-life doula, attorney, professor, and minister) and Caitlin Doughty (mortician and author). This course helps people meet their fear of death.Sarah Jane is an end-of-life educator and doula, focusing on mindfulness practice for presence, peace, and purpose. She offers Death Cafes and a mini-course she calls Mindful Approaches to End-of-Life Matters. For more information, go to www.sarahjaneshangraw.com. ~~~May Dharma Book ClubStart reading the Tao te Ching and send in your insights and questions by May 1 to be included in our next episode.~~~You can find us on  Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly. Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this meditation inspired by popular teacher Jack Kornfield’s tree meditations, Sarah Jane guides you through a visualization that accesses the stabilizing and steadfast qualities of trees.  Recalling a tree that has been significant in your life is the beginning of a short relational journey that includes rooting downward for nourishment and rising to the challenges of life’s seasons. Then, breathing like the tree and being like the tree, we enhance a sense of  interconnectedness and presence, and trust this inner ground as a place to  return to, again and again. ~~ Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.comwith your comments.You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly. She offers a donation-based mindfulness/compassion practice group, weekly Insight Yoga classes, and 1:1 sessions. In all her offerings, she promotes self-awareness and interconnectedness using contemplative and somatic methods drawn from yoga, Buddhism, and spiritual psychology.

In this inaugural episode of the bi-monthly Dharma Book Club, Sarah Jane and Jen chat about The End of Your World. In this book, based on a series of his talks on the nature of enlightenment, spiritual teacher Adyashanti describes both the initial “glimpses” and the journey to “abiding awakening,” which he also describes as abiding as “Spirit.”Concerned that folks will assume this book is not for them, Jen and Sarah Jane encourage listeners to see for themselves, and not to be surprised if it validates a potential “glimpse” into a non-dual understanding of reality.Uninterested in re-teaching Adyashanti’s worldview from their point of view (which can only be limited and incomplete) Sarah Jane and Jen simply lay out the themes of the book, and talk about a few things that “popped” for them, made them think about other teachings, or seemed like places to investigate further. If you haven’t read the book yet, Jen and Sarah Jane hope their chat will inspire you to take a look. No spoilers in this episode! You can still send in your feedback -- they’d love to hear from you. ~~~The Dharma Book Club pick for May 2021 is the Tao te Ching, a fundamental text on Taoism, which Jen and Sarah Jane draw from in their integrative style of teaching. ~~~You can find us on  Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly. Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this month’s guided practice, we offer Yoga Nidra, the sleep of the yogis.The practice of Yoga Nidra dates back thousands of years and was developed to invoke a deep meditative state so that the practitioner may gather soma nectar for rejuvenation and immortality. Today, Yoga Nidra has drawn a lot of interest for its ability to relax the body’s stress response. Many people who practice Yoga Nidra regularly experience reduced anxiety and depression along with better nighttime sleep and overall improved feelings of wellbeing. In this practice, Jen guides you to invite radical self-acceptance and awaken to boundless compassion, invoking the ancient Tibetan mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum.”~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

In this episode, recorded nearly a year after the first COVD-19-related lockdowns, Jen and Sarah Jane discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the mad rush to move trainings and retreats online. From individual teachers, to studios and centers, to decentralized institutes, the pandemic has brought much change in the way teaching –and learning –is done. Impacts include increased access to teachers and programs, relaxed program requirements, and more. This evolution has greatly benefited us all as students. However, pitfalls abound. Sarah Jane and Jen get real about imposter syndrome, FOMO, and other psychological states and circumstances that can lead to going overboard and taking on too many trainings in this environment of boundless opportunities. Never happy to leave things there, they also offer practical strategies for maintaining balance as lifelong learners.Dharma Book Club Starts Next MonthThe first installment of Dharma Book Club approaches! Start reading The End of Your World by Adyashanti and send in your insights and questions by March 1 to be included in our next episode.~~~You can find us on  Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome your messages at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com or in our voicemail box on SpeakPipe.You can also get in touch with Jen and Sarah Jane directly. Don't forget! You can also practice with us live each week: https://www.sati.yoga/practice/virtualclasses.html

In this episode, Sarah Jane introduces and leads a mindfulness meditation on the four elements from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Foundations of Mindfulness) as taught by the Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo, a contemporary Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar.Contemplating the elements (earth, water, fire, and wind, according to early Buddhist writers), as they are expressed both within the body and outside in the natural world, can lessen harmful over-identification with the body. They also remind us that we are in and of nature, not separate from it. Further, it can give rise to the key insights of impermanence and emptiness. In this meditation, we use the body scan as a way to discern the presence of  the Earth element through solidity particularly in the bones. Water is present as moisture in the mouth and cohesion of the flesh. Fire, or the heat element, is known through the sensation of temperature on skin. And we note Wind in motion, circulation and, of course, breath.Bhikkhu Anālayo compares this practice to receiving a package in the mail that is meant for someone else: It is enough to look at the address and realize the parcel is not ours. No need to open it to search its contents to know this. In other words, we need not analyze the expression of elements in the body; it is enough to notice them and to comprehend the continuity between ourselves and nature and the ever-changing flow of experience. ResourcesFind Bhikkhu Anālayo's writings freely available through Universität Hamburg, where he serves on faculty at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies."Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation: A Practice Guide" by Bhikkhu Anālayo inspired this episode's meditation.You can join Bhikkhu Anālayo for one of his courses or workshops at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts or online. ~~Don't forget! Dharma Book Club starts in March 2021.  Join us in reading “The End of Your World,” by Adyashanti, available through many Black-owned bookstores. ~~ Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com with your comments.You can also get in touch with Sarah Jane directly. To sign up to attend her ongoing twice weekly live meditation drop-in, visit Mindful Morning Sangha.