Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast Kari Doherty

Taking a break | Burnout
❤️Welcome to the Luminous Recovery Yoga YouTube channel! Our mission is to create high-quality yoga videos for people in Twelve Step Recovery programs. In these videos you will find simple, but powerful yoga and meditation practices that support sustainable recovery. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, and all recovery programs!
SUBSCRIBE to the channel to join our recovery family!
Discover new yoga practices and recovery themed talks that include recovery principles with yoga. Learn what it feels like to practice these principles in all of your poses!
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Omg, I did something so silly. 😂
 
Normally, when I produce my podcast episode, I set up the camera and film myself talking. I put that version on YouTube, and then I put an audio only version out for Apple, Spotify, etc.
 
This week, I accidentally had the camera flipped around without knowing it. I went to a beautiful park, picked a gorgeous place to sit, and then filmed the street instead of me in the pretty spot. Lmao. The funny thing is, just like the camera was facing the wrong way, I’ve realized I’ve been pushing in the wrong direction too.


I am forced to face something that I’ve avoided admitting for some time: I am deeply burnt out. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It's characterized by feelings of overwhelming fatigue, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness or lack of accomplishment.
 
If you’ve never experienced burnout—and I hope you haven’t—it feels like the kind of tiredness that sleep cannot cure. It’s beyond exhaustion. And it’s affected how I’m showing up as a teacher and in my whole life. 
 
What I know is that the cure for this type of burnout is savasana—deep rest. I often say when students lie down for final resting pose: “Rest requires as much practice as work itself.”
It’s time for me to practice savasana for myself right now. 
 
Starting June 1st, I’ll be taking June, July, and August off for recovery and deep rest. That means no live classes or new video content.
 
My hope is that with some rest I’ll rediscover my passions and have something new to share. 
 
In this week’s episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast, I share my process behind my need for a break. I’ve also shared how I intend to spend this time and my plans for the fall.
 
I want to reassure you that while I'm taking a break, the podcast isn't disappearing. While new episodes won't be released for a while, there is a treasure trove of past episodes that you can explore and revisit on my YouTube channel. It's my hope that these episodes can continue to provide guidance, inspiration, and company during your yoga journey, even while I'm recharging.
 
Currently, my plan is to head to Mexico for the summer. I’ll recuperate on the beach in the sun. I’ve been craving that for years. For the fall, I’ve been accepted in the Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) program at Portland State University.
 
I’m definitely not done with yoga. But, I need to change my relationship with how I do things right now. I’m rediscovering my own practice and need to cultivate stillness on my mat.
 
One of the most important yogic principles is sthira sukha asanam, or the balanced action between effort and ease. It’s about knowing when to retreat and restore, and respecting the signals from our bodies. This is the lesson I’m embracing now. I hope it inspires you to listen to your own needs and grant yourself permission to rest, renew, and revitalize when needed.
 
With love,
 
~Kari
⌚ SCHEDULE:
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My Recovery from Cannabis Use Disorder | My Sober Story | Meditation
❤️Welcome to the Luminous Recovery Yoga YouTube channel! Our mission is to create high-quality yoga videos for people in Twelve Step Recovery programs. In these videos you will find simple, but powerful yoga and meditation practices that support sustainable recovery. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, and all recovery programs!
SUBSCRIBE to the channel to join our recovery family!
Discover new yoga practices and recovery themed talks that include recovery principles with yoga. Learn what it feels like to practice these principles in all of your poses!
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Join the Luminous Recovery Yoga online studio! Your online membership includes LIVE weekly yoga classes with Kari and access to a full video-on-demand library with styles like Vinyasa, Yang/Yin, Mellow flows, Power flows, and Recovery themed yoga practices. This is your one stop shop for yoga, recovery, meditation, and all things Luminous!
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One of the habits I resolved to give up a few years ago was looking at my phone first thing in the morning.
 
Inevitably, there was usually a text, email, or communication that would inspire me to become immediately crabby upon waking.
 
I started to notice how this behavior could spiral into a whole morning, or even full day, of aggravation—not good.
 
The changed behavior was to get out of bed and head to my meditation cushion first thing.  
In fact, the rule became no phone contact until I’ve done my prayer and meditation practice.
 
Excepttttttttttttt, if I decided to blow off meditation that morning. 
 
I could come up with all kinds of reasons to blow off my practice for the day. 
 
Some of the excuses ranged from ‘it’s Sunday and I don’t meditate on Sunday’ to 'I slept late and I just don’t feel like it’. 
 
I could be pretty consistent unless I didn’t want to and then I would break the chain—so to speak.
 
Well, last April I didn’t meditate at all. Not one day in the whole month.   
I was traveling and it felt inconvenient. By the time I got home from all the traveling I felt like a basket case. I was tired of my excuses for not committing to a daily meditation practice.
 
I decided to commit to a one-year daily meditation practice. Every day, no matter what, I would sit on the cushion as soon as I woke up and practice.
 
May 4th, 2023 will be my one-year meditation-aversary. Ok, I’ll just go ahead and say it—May The Fourth Be With You!
 
One of the major life changes—among many—to happen for me this year has been sobriety.   
It’s not lost on me that my sobriety journey also fell within my one year of meditation commitment.
 
I am learning to hone in on one of the hardest things of all—how to sit with my feelings of discomfort rather than reaching for something to put in my mouth and change the subject.
 
This year I have learned how to be with myself in a whole new way. I am embracing the practice of feeling my feelings rather than turning them away.
 
In this week’s episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast I decided I wanted to share more about my journey to sobriety and healing from cannabis use disorder.
 
It’s not that meditation got me sober, but meditation has helped me to get present. My general M.O. for using substances—especially smoking pot— was to actively escape the present moment.
 
I want to be clear that I do not believe that everyone who uses cannabis has a substance use disorder.   
But my usage became obsessive and something I was finally ready to look at more closely.
 
In my active pursuit of a daily meditation practice I am learning how to heal my relationship with the present moment.
 
T

Ever met someone and instantly thought, "Yup, we're destined to be yoga BFFs?" 
 
That's how I felt back in April 2019 when I attended the Baptiste Institute's Assisting Course in San Francisco, led by the amazing Melissa Leach!
 
Melissa is not only a total bad@$$ yoga teacher but also down-to-earth, knowledgeable, and highly experienced in her understanding of yoga, functional anatomy, trauma, and mental health.
 
During that course, she introduced me to the world of assists in teaching yoga – a game-changing approach that focuses on co-creation between student and teacher, rather than just correcting or adjusting.
 
Fast forward to today, and I'm thrilled to share that Melissa is joining me on this week's episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast! 🎉
 
Get ready to dive into:
Melissa's unique approach to teaching yoga
The power of "it depends" when understanding the human body
How pain can be trauma surfacing in the body
 
Want more of Melissa? Find her on Instagram and check out her own podcast, Primal Performance Podcast.
 
If you enjoy this episode with Melissa, please like, comment, and share! Your support means the world to me.
 
With love,
~Kari
 
Transcripts:
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Interview with Melissa
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Kari Doherty: [00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast, hosted by Kari Doherty. The views and opinions expressed here are strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you like and leave the rest. These views and opinions do not represent any specific 12 step program. Only my experience, strength, and hope in recovering from the dise of addiction and codependency.
If you'd like to learn more, please visit my website at www dot luminous recovery yoga dot. Hello, my friend. Thank you for listening to the Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast. This is Carrie, and I just wanted to take a minute to tell you how excited I am to present this interview to you with Melissa Leach.
Melissa is someone that I met many years ago at a Baptiste Institute training. She is a phenomenal yoga teacher and functional anatomy enthusiast. In this episode, you'll hear all about what Melissa is up to and why [00:01:00] our favorite phrase is "it depends". So I hope that you enjoy this episode. If you like it, please feel free to share it.
Give us a comment and subscribe to my channel and over to Melissa's channel and support the work that we're doing in the world. It really helps to have people like you supporting the work and to keep spreading the word about good information. So with that being said onto the episode, 
Hello, Melissa. This is so exciting. Sometimes I have nightmares that I'm in an interview and I forget to press record. I've actually had this nightmare where I'm like in the interview and I'm like, I gotta press record. So I press record and, 
Melissa Leach: And I see the little, little button. 
Kari Doherty: Just the little button. I'm so happy to be here with Melissa Leach.
This is truly it's an honor to know you and to be friends with you, but also to consider you my precious, precious yoga [00:02:00] teacher. So I wanna introduce Melissa Leach. Melissa, say hello to everyone. 
Melissa Leach: Hi everybody. Thank you for having me. I'm, I'm honored and very grateful to be, to be here and to be with you.
Kari Doherty: Absolutely. I wanna just give everyone a little intro of how I met Melissa. So, I met Melissa in 2019. I was taking a. Assisting course through the Baptist Institute in San Francisco. So I flew from Portland to San Francisco to take this course, and Melissa was the lead trainer of this Baptist Institute assisting course.
And it was phenomenal. I just remember being like, this woman is so freaking cool and I really liked Melissa. And so I went home and immediately started following Melissa on Instagram and Facebook and then you know, followed you along just as we do with the people that we admire through so

❤️Welcome to the Luminous Recovery Yoga YouTube channel! Our mission is to create high-quality yoga videos for people in Twelve Step Recovery programs. In these videos you will find simple, but powerful yoga and meditation practices that support sustainable recovery. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, and all recovery programs! SUBSCRIBE to the channel to join our recovery family! Discover new yoga practices and recovery themed talks that include recovery principles with yoga. Learn what it feels like to practice these principles in all of your poses! _____________________________________________
Join the Luminous Recovery Yoga online studio! Your online membership includes LIVE weekly yoga classes with Kari and access to a full video-on-demand library with styles like Vinyasa, Yang/Yin, Mellow flows, Power flows, and Recovery themed yoga practices. This is your one stop shop for yoga, recovery, meditation, and all things Luminous! 📣 Please tell us what you think of this video ?? =====================================
➡️➡️➡️Sign up for a FREE class with me
I’ll never forget the time my friend called to tell me that he had an extra ticket to see Beyoncé in Seattle that night and asked if I wanted to go.


He called me in the morning while I was already at work and said that if I wanted the ticket, it was mine. I just needed to get there by the time the show started. ⏰


At the time, I was working as a chef in a private Catholic school. I never called in sick or took a day off that wasn’t pre-planned weeks in advance.


I decided my best course of action to get out of there immediately was to tell my boss that I had an emergency. 🚨


I told her everything was ok, but that I needed to leave and I couldn’t talk about it. 😶


She was a little concerned, but granted my request to leave with this vague explanation. 🤔


Now, as far as I was concerned, this was an emergency—a Beyoncé emergency. 🐝🎶


As a young, unmarried person without children, I believed an emergency was mine to define and according to my standards, this was one. 👩‍🎤🚀


I ran home. Grabbed the coolest outfit I could find and headed to Seattle to see Queen Bey. 🏃‍♀️👗👑
The concert was phenomenal. I was happy as a clam. The seats weren’t great, but who cares! I was in the physical presence of greatness! 🎉🎵


I slept for about 3 hours at my friend's apartment. I left Seattle at 3 am and arrived back in Portland to be at work by 6:30 am when my shift started. 😴🌃


No one pried into the nature of my emergency and except for one or two close work friends, I kept the experience inside the confines of my heart and mind. ❤️🤐


Maybe you can relate—most days I’m happy to follow my plans and routines, but once in a while, I am handed an opportunity to break business as usual and go with the flow. 🌊


When the opportunity to see Beyoncé presented itself, I embraced the spontaneity of the situation and chose not to let my work routine or the short notice get in the way of the flow.


I made a last-minute decision, thought on my feet, and didn’t allow the lack of sleep or the need to be back at work the next morning deter me from enjoying the experience and having a fantastic time. 🌜🥳


This week’s episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast is about going with the flow. In the episode, I discuss how going with the flow is a way to greet life on life’s terms. Flow is the absence of resistance. When I am not in resistance, I am more open to my Higher Power’s will for me. 🧘‍♀️🌿


Going with the flow means being open and adaptable to whatever life brings your way, without resisting or trying to control the outcome.


It's about embracing change, being spontaneous, and accepting situations as they are, rather than stressing over what you think they should be.

Yoga of Recovery | Interview with Durga Leela | Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast
❤️Welcome to the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast! Our mission is to create high-quality recordings for people in Twelve Step Recovery programs. In these audios you will find simple, but powerful yoga and meditation practices that support sustainable recovery. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, and all recovery programs! SUBSCRIBE to the channel to join our recovery family!
Discover new yoga practices and recovery themed talks that include recovery principles with yoga. Learn what it feels like to practice these principles in all of your poses!
_____________________________________________
Join the Luminous Recovery Yoga online studio! Your online membership includes LIVE weekly yoga classes with Kari and access to a full video-on-demand library with styles like Vinyasa, Yang/Yin, Mellow flows, Power flows, and Recovery themed yoga practices. This is your one stop shop for yoga, recovery, meditation, and all things Luminous!
📣 Please tell us what you think of this video ??
=====================================
➡️➡️➡️Sign up for a FREE class with me
https://www.luminousrecoveryyoga.com/free-class
 
This weekend we passed a collective milestone. Saturday was the three year anniversary of the Covid lockdowns. At least it was for Portland, where I live. I know in other regions of the country and world things may have been different. And, some folks went into lockdown sooner.
 
It’s wild to think of how much the world has changed in the last three years. Heck, I can’t believe how much has changed since last year.
 
Speaking of changes—Today is the first day of spring!
 
Spring is a time of transformation and renewal, a season that symbolizes new beginnings and fresh starts. It's a season that inspires us to reflect on our own lives and consider what changes we might make to bring more joy, fulfillment, and purpose into our days.
 
In this week's episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast, I sat down with Durga Leela, the creator of Yoga of Recovery, to discuss the unique and transformative power of combining Ayurveda with the twelve steps in her new book also called Yoga of Recovery.
 
From her own journey to sobriety to her groundbreaking work in the field of Yoga of Recovery, Durga shares her wisdom and insight in a conversation that is both inspiring and entertaining. 
 
Listen in to discover how this revolutionary approach to healing can help you find new levels of joy, purpose, and fulfillment in your own life.
 
Personally, Durga’s book played a role in my sobriety journey and this interview is the first time I open up about my sobriety on the podcast. It feels appropriate for spring. Like renewal and honest sharing.
 
This interview made me laugh. Durga is a hoot!
 
In the description of the video you’ll find all the links where you can find Durga. She has a book, a website, online courses, in-person retreats, and an Instagram you can check out.
 
If you enjoy this episode, I would love for you to leave a review and hit the like button. If you really like it, then please share the episode and the channel.
 
Here’s to a happy spring to you!
 
May the pollen be gentle, the flowers be fragrant, and the sunshine luminous!
 
With love,
~Kari
 
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The Gift of Confusion | Luminous Recovery Yoga
 
❤️Welcome to the Luminous Recovery Yoga YouTube channel! Our mission is to create high-quality yoga videos for people in Twelve Step Recovery programs. In these videos you will find simple, but powerful yoga and meditation practices that support sustainable recovery. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, and all recovery programs! SUBSCRIBE to the channel to join our recovery family!
 
Discover new yoga practices and recovery themed talks that include recovery principles with yoga. Learn what it feels like to practice these principles in all of your poses! 
_________________________________________________
Join the Luminous Recovery Yoga online studio! Your online membership includes LIVE weekly yoga classes with Kari and access to a full video-on-demand library with styles like Vinyasa, Yang/Yin, Mellow flows, Power flows, and Recovery themed yoga practices. This is your one stop shop for yoga, recovery, meditation, and all things Luminous!
📣 Please tell us what you think of this video ???
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➡️➡️➡️Sign up for a FREE class with me 
 
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🔥🔥🔥NEW PODCAST ALERT 🔥🔥🔥 (Read to the end for a special gift!)
 
I once had a teacher who said that “confusion is a mask that we wear to avoid being in our greatness.”
 
That always stuck with me.
 
Sometimes, when I get confused about what I’m doing with my life, I dive into a deep state of reaction and fear. 
 
It’s possible that confusion can be a tool for letting me know when it’s not time to act.
 
Rather than becoming too invested in the confusion itself, it can be a guidepost that more will be revealed later.
 
That’s why this week’s episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast is called The Gift of Confusion.
 
Maybe you can relate—sometimes I have a serious need to know everything. I want to know who, what, where, when, why, and how everything will work out. 
 
When I don’t have all of the details about how my entire life will unfold, then I convince myself that I’m confused.
 
Really, I’m not confused, it’s just not time to know.
When I am confused, often I’m trying to figure things out.
 
I have learned that life is not something to figure out, but rather, to be experienced.
 
I love taking this principle to the mat. Sometimes a yoga class or practice can be confusing. Maybe you don’t know what the teacher is asking you to do, or aren’t sure what the pose is “supposed to look like.” How often do you take that confusion personally? Like, maybe there’s something wrong with you, rather than just allowing yourself to be present to the moment. What happens for you when you become confused? How do you respond or react?
 
I made you a handy PDF for this week’s episode on the Gift of Confusion. There are questions for you to consider about your relationship to confusion. These questions are just for your consideration. Take what you like and leave the rest!
 
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Thank you for supporting “ Luminous Recovery Yoga ” you can follow me on the Social Media Links Below:
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