Yoga Room Mark Stephens

While wildfires are now considered a "season" in many parts of the world, the people who fight wildfires and structure fires are often the first ones on the scenes of other natural and human-caused disasters, accidents, and other events that threaten human lives. While trained and well practiced in their mission, firefighters and first responders often face personal, physical, emotional, and mental tolls with little time and fewer resources to help them in coping, healing, and moving forward in healthy ways.
Yoga teacher Shannon McQuaide grew up in a fire family with first-hand experience of the life and times of firefighters and first responders. With a strong background in education, an entrepreneurial spirit, and passion for doing good things in the world, she created FireFlex as a program for bringing the healing benefits of yoga into fire houses. Drawing from deep experience in yoga, trauma, and resiliency, her training of other teachers is making a difference in the lives of many who in turn make a difference in the lives of thousands.
Highlights of this episode include:
The Unseen Challenges of Firefighters and First RespondersStrength, Vulnerability, and ResiliencePracticing & Teaching Yoga and Mindfulness in Fire StationsHow to Prepare for Teaching Firefights and First RespondersSubtle Aspects of Teaching Yoga

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The idea of practicing or teaching yoga and meditation through digital devices can seem contrary to yoga as a living practice. We might think that human-machine-machine-human is far from the realm of the senses, of human connection, and can only disturb its purity or power. We want the real thing. Then came Covid. From the caves of our homes, we became grateful to have some semblance of visual connection with other people in a variety of experiences, including yoga, even if through a screen. Zoom became a household word, a verb of action.
In recent years, advances in visual graphics, artificial intelligence, and haptics have set the stage for revolutionizing technology-assisted human interaction. These and related technologies are providing invaluable interactive tools for those with immobilizing health problems and other socially isolating conditions. The potential benefits to everyone are worth considering.
Alex Haley is among the pioneers developing and connecting these technologies with mindfulness and wellness practices in extraordinarily creative ways.
Highlights of this episode include:
The Meaning of Mindfulness Practicing & Teaching MindfulnessPracticing & Teaching Yoga and Mindfulness in the Digital AgeDistance Learning and Human-Machine-Machine-Human InteractionHaptic Technology and the Near Future of Digital InteractionAccessibilityOffering Tree

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Racism, Incarceration, and Yoga with Ayla BenjaminRacism is deeply embedded in the histories of yoga even as it offers visions and practices of liberation. From delimiting caste systems in ancient-to-modern societies to contemporary racist ideologies and social and cultural forces, race matters, is a source of profound harm predicated upon fundamental lies about the nature of human beings. It is also highly correlated with incarceration, especially in the United States, which leads the world in imprisoning people, with one-fifth of the world's incarcerated population.
Ayla Benjamin, executive director of Boundless Freedom, is a dynamic activist and social movement leader working to end mass incarceration while brining yoga, meditation, and other practices of liberation and empowerment into prisons. 
In this episode, Mark Stephens and Ayla Benjamin discuss racism in yoga and society, and what many people are doing about it.
 
Highlights of the conversation include:
Ayla Benjamin's activist path from her roots in Minneapolis to her initial work in bringing yoga into California prisons.The experience of teaching yoga in prisons and insights into how one might best prepare for that service.How yoga yoga teachers can best develop the cultural competence for making yoga more accessible and meaningful in diverse communities.How Ayla's experience living near the location of George Floyd's murder and their involvement in related peaceful protests impacted her views about the work to be done.The work of Boundless Freedom.

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Tune in here for a conversation between Mark and Bernie Clark on science, myth, anatomy, fascia and yin yoga. Highlights of the conversation include:

Mark's 5-minute teaser, setting the table for thinking about science and myth.Bernie Clark's yoga journey to Yin Yoga.The contrast between the yoga of outer appearance and the yoga of inner experience, what Bernie calls functional yoga.How teachers and students engage in a dance around forms, feelings, and intentions in yoga practice.The development of new ideas about human anatomy, alternative "maps" in describing and understanding the body, and the proposal that a "fascial system" can be a useful map in practicing yoga.How new ideas can lead to new paradigms of knowledge or contribute to pseudoscientific distortions.How myth can inform and guide us along our various paths on and off the mat.Yin, yang, and diversity of human beings and beneficial practices.

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Sexuality and communication are as common as they are complex. While ancient-to-modern yoga texts and teachings provide various views on sex and morals, matters of sexual desire, power, transference, trauma, and communication are often as problematic in yoga classes as the are in the larger world. A generation of young people have grown up in confused cultures where "no means no" is all too often ignored, "yes means yes" can lead to unwanted interaction, and basic values of loving kindness and dignity get lost in questions of consent, which can obscure deeper feelings, desires, and needs for safety, joy, and well being.
Tune in here to learn more about sexuality and communication in yoga and life.
Episode Highlights:

A short introductory talk by Mark Stephens on sexuality and yoga.A fascinating exchange with Jennifer Hellwarth and Joshua Searle-White based on classes they've co-taught at Allegheny College on Sexuality, Relationships, and Consent.Conversation about sexual awareness, interaction in classes, power dynamics, and the importance of respect and kindness.Discussion of touch in yoga and life.
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The breath is essential for life and at the heart of yoga practice. Yet breathing is often difficult or disturbed, and in yoga it more refined techniques are often said to be dangerous and kept secret unless one is "blessed" to receive the teachings. In this episode, Mark first discusses breathing and pranayama (for about 15 minutes), offering some historical and philosophical perspective. He then gives a guided practice – basically the same daily morning practice he's been doing for the past 18 years.
Tune in here to learn more about breathing in life and yoga.
Episode Highlights:

A brief talk on breath, prana, and pranayama (breath cultivation practices), scanning the topic form ancient times to the present;Preparing for a safe, comfortable, sustainable, and potentially transformational pranayama practice;A guided practice practice with several techniques, including ujjayi, sama/visama vriiti, viloma, antara/bahya kumbhaka, kapalabhati, and nadi shodhana (all translated into and presented in plain English);References and links to resources for further and deeper exploration.
Sources & Links Mentioned:

Online 17-Hour Pranayama Course Starts May 5Mark's WebsiteMark's BooksValerie Roebuck, The UpanishadsYoga Sutra of Patanjali (c. 325 CESwami Swatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika (early 15th century)

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