The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

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 →  https://www.brettlarkin.com/uplifted/
 
© 2026 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com

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 => https://www.brettlarkin.com/chakralive/ 
 
FREE Practice: Chakra Vinyasa Flow | FULL BODY STRETCH FOR CHAKRA OPENING
Relevant Blog: How To Ignite The Power Of The Seven Chakras
 
Relevant to Today's Episode:
💖 History of Yoga
✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🐍 Yoga for Self Mastery
🎧 Also Listen to:
#303 – The 7 Chakras as a Tool for Personal Growth
#341 – How To Balance Your 3rd Eye with Guru Singh
#370 – Yoga's Messy Origins: Understanding Yoga's Historical Context
 
© 2025 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com

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 https://www.brettlarkin.com/chakralive/ 
 
GUEST EXPERT: Cyndi P Stewart, PhD. | @stewartcyndi
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 rootcausehealthsolutions.com 
Connect with Cyndi: https://rootcausehealthsolutions.com/ 
Read about surgery and recovery on Cyndi's website here: https://rootcausehealthsolutions.com/body-mind-spirit-my-transformational-journey-through-hip-surgery/ 
 
FREE Practice: MORNING YOGA FOR TIGHT HIPS & LOWER BACK | Stretches for Flexibility - Unleash Your Creative Energy✨
Relevant Blog: 10 Yoga Poses For Hip Pain That Anyone Can Do
 
Relevant to Today's Episode:
📚 Healing with Somatic Yoga Book 
✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🌀 Somatic Yoga Life Coaching 
💫 Somatic Certification
🎧 Also Listen to:
#285 – Is Yoga Enough…? with Dr. Jen Fraboni
#300 – Unraveling the Mystery of Chronic Pain for Yoga Teachers & Practitioners with Kim Patel
#369 – Nervous System Masterclass with Kristin Leal
 
© 2026 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com

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 → https://www.brettlarkin.com/uplifted/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=uplifted 
 
FREE Practice: The Healing Power of Divine Love | VINYASA FLOW HEART OPENING
Relevant Blog: What Are The Gunas In Yoga? A Complete Overview
 
Relevant to Today's Episode:
✅ History of Yoga
📚 Healing with Somatic Yoga Book 
🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🐍 Yoga for Self Mastery
🌀 Somatic Yoga Life Coaching 
💫 Somatic Certification
🎧 Also Listen to:
#297 – What is Samkhya Philosophy and How is it Different from Yoga?
#364 – Dissecting The 8 Limbs and Their Origins
#404 – What If I Fail? Krishna's Answer to Your Inner Critic (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6)
 
© 2026 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com

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 → https://amzn.to/3WGulGG 
 
FREE Practice: 30 Minute Morning Vinyasa Yoga Flow for a Boost of Energy | WAKE UP & STRETCH
Relevant Blog: Exploring the Five Human Design Types: A Guide to Self-Discovery
 
Relevant to Today's Episode:
📖 Yoga Life Book
📚 Healing with Somatic Yoga Book 
🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🐍 Yoga for Self Mastery
✨ AI Training Course
🎧 Also Listen to:
#291 – How to Get an Agent, Write Your Wellness Book and Make a Bigger Impact
#326 – How To Plan The Ultimate Yoga Photoshoot
#386 – Stop Selling Products—Start Selling YOU: Human Design for Visibility & Flow with Juliette Stapleton
#396 – Rewire Your Nervous System + My New Somatic Healing Book is HERE!
 
© 2026 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com