Meditation Conversations

Yoga for Grief Support: A conversation with Chris Armstrong

In this episode I talk with Yoga Therapist Chris Armstrong about her work with grief – the Yoga for Grief Support classes she teaches at Mayo Clinic, how she approaches grief with her yoga therapy clients, and some of her personal grief journeys. Grief has many flavors – unresolved grief, anticipatory grief, immediate and ongoing grief, complicated grief. Grief is messy. It's not pretty. Yet I found myself responding “that’s so beautiful” to the experiences Chris shares. Yoga can help! Find Chris at https://chrisarmstrongyoga.com [https://chrisarmstrongyoga.com] You can also experience a gentle asana practice and reflection on someone you miss that  Chris teaches at Mayo Clinic - available as part of  Yoga Well Institute's podcast [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1MfM21xImWXmE5IQubmEwq?si=0JayBWhlTD6nKAdTAMazZA] series. Join the Meditation Conversations online community to share your experiences and reflections https://meditationconversations.com  [https://meditationconversations.com]

Talking about Meditation Experiences: What's there to say?

If you teach meditations, you and your students will benefit from encouraging your students to talk about what happened for them in the meditation. How do you get the conversation started? What is there to talk about? I share insights and guidance for conversation topics applicable to most meditations. Then I use a specific meditation (A Being That Can Fly), to illustrate points of interest in the student experience for each of the 12 steps in the meditation. It's best if you do the 20-minute Being That Can Fly meditation first (it's the episode before this one) and then listen to this podcast. Then come over the Meditation Conversations online community to join the conversation (https://meditationconversations.com [https://meditationconversations.com]). Carrie Heeter (PhD, RYS200) is a meditation teacher, writer, and scientist. She is Professor Emeritus of Media and Information at Michigan State University and author of the book An Inside Look at Meditation: Experiences for healing, support, and transformation. She is a long-time personal student of Marcel Allbritton (PhD, C-IAYT) and has engaged in advanced Yoga studies with Chase Bossart (C-IAYT, RYT500) through Yoga Well Institute for more than a decade.

A Being that Can Fly Meditation by Carrie Heeter

This 20 minute Being That Can Fly meditation integrates breath, movement, and visualization steps to set a stage for participants to have unique personal experiences. In the Meditation Conversations podcast episode 4 (now available) I use this Being That Can Fly meditation as an example to showcase ways to encourage students to talk about the experiences they have doing a meditation. So do the meditation, then listen to theTalking About Meditation Experiences: What's there to say? podcast. After that please join me at the Meditation Conversations online community to continue the conversation (https://meditationconversations.com) Carrie Heeter (PhD, RYS200) is a meditation teacher, writer, and scientist. She is Professor Emeritus of Media and Information at Michigan State University and author of the book An Inside Look at Meditation: Experiences for healing, support, and transformation. She is a long-time personal student of Marcel Allbritton (PhD, C-IAYT) and has engaged in advanced Yoga studies with Chase Bossart (C-IAYT, RYT500) through Yoga Well Institute for more than a decade.

Evil Buddhists and Evil Yogis: A conversation with Robyn Love

Listen to Robyn Love and Carrie Heeter discuss Robyn’s extensive study and practice of Zen Buddhism AND yoga. Then join the conversation by logging in to the Meditation Conversations online community (https://meditationconversations.com [https://meditationconversations.com/]). For most of us in viniyoga, Zen Buddhists are “the other guys” and we don’t know much about them. Robyn is a unique crossover person. She is a Zen Buddhist and a certified viniyoga yoga therapist, and she founded the Atha Yoga School (https://athayoga.ca [https://athayoga.ca/]) In this podcast Robyn shares personal experiences and insights from decades of deep study at the Zen Mountain Monastery (https://zmm.org/ [https://zmm.org/]). We also talk about viniyoga—how it is similar and different to Zen Buddhism, what’s special about viniyoga, and how she bridges these two worlds. Mentions of “Chase” refer to her teacher Chase Bossart, Director of Yoga Well Institute (https://yogawell.com [https://yogawell.com/]).

Meg Bratt's adventures teaching a Path in the Woods meditation

Listen to Meg Bratt and Carrie Heeter discuss Meg's adventures teaching A Path in the Woods progression of five 15-minute Breath-and-Movement meditations for Yoga Well Institute (https://yogawell.com).  Then join the conversation by logging in to the  Meditation Conversations online community (https://meditationconversations.com). Meg was unexpectedly called upon to teach—she had no time to prepare. When she started teaching she did not know what she would teach! Things went well. Things continued to go well for several weeks. And then life threw a curve ball that again necessitated Meg to abruptly shift how and what she taught. Meg tells me it was fun. As a student I can attest that it went very well.  It also gave us plenty to talk about.