Why is it so hard for us to fall asleep at night? In the previous episode, sleep coach Lauren Ziegler suggests that it's in those quiet, dark hours of the night when our feelings catch up to us to a point of overwhelming us. In this guided meditation, she guides us through a tender journey of feeling our feelings and softening into them rather than fighting against them to help us get peacefully to sleep.

In this episode, I have the honor of having Lauren Ziegler, IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a sleep coach to discuss the importance of sleep, and how it impacts our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Lauren also shares her experience with sleep difficulties and how she overcame them through yoga nidra and meditation. She discusses five ways to know whether your sleep quality is poor, how sleep and emotional regulations are closely tied to one another, and offers tips on improving sleep by practicing mindfulness during the day.

We are often driven by the insecure need to keep accomplishing and achieving things in this busyness culture. When this need is driven by the feeling that no matter what we do, it never is enough, then success becomes a constantly moving target. This guided meditation is designed to anchor ourselves back into what we already have, what we have already accomplished, and the fact that who we are, right here and right now, is already enough. There is no need to prove anything else to anybody, and especially, ourselves. 

Have you noticed that oftentimes when asked: “how are you?”, many reply by saying: “oh, I’ve been super busy.”

Busyness seems to be a badge of honor nowadays. There’s this constant need to do, achieve, perform, and succeed. While there is nothing wrong with accomplishing goals in healthy measures, when there’s an obsession with it, when the drive to accomplish stems from feeling insecure about ourselves, then that could be a recipe for burnout.

In this episode, we discuss the burning (pun intended) question: "Is burnout real?" We will dive into the definition of burnout, what leads to burnout, and my own personal story of how I burnt out 3 times (and probably still counting) and how I regained my inner strength by nurturing myself.

This meditation practice guides you through a body scan and a inner contemplative experience to discover what truly nourishes your body, mind, and soul. The purpose is to find your own unique self-nurture practice that you look forward to do a few times a day on a daily basis.

What is self-nurture and how does it differ from self-care? This is the topic we are going to explore in today’s episode, and you can say is my crusade in revolutionizing the way we think about self-care, or rather, RECLAIM what self-care is for ourselves rather than being SOLD what self-care is. We will discuss why self-care portrayed by the media is inaccessible and unsustainable, and what you can do instead to take care of yourself without the glitz and glamor. 

This somatic practice takes you through a slow and mindful journey in your body to hone your listening skills for your bodily sensations. By slowing down a simple movement rather than rushing through it mechanically, we get to pick up on so much more about what our body is trying to tell us.

Welcome to our very first episode of the Sacred Listening podcast! In today's episode, I am laying out the meaning behind Sacred Listening, and how I aim to guide you to "listen IN" to your body with this podcast. Chances are, if you've been living an over-scheduled, over-busy life, you haven't listened to what your body's needs are lately. Tune in to learn more about how to return to your body's wisdom to nurture, rather than neglect, your own self.

Welcome to the Sacred Listening podcast — a sanctuary for those who feel overwhelmed, overscheduled, and overbusy. I’m your host, Elaine Oyang, IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. In this podcast, we explore the various paths of restoring balance in our body from issues such as depletion, anxiety, chronic pain, and stress. We do this by redefining what self-care means on an individual level as we dive into cutting-edge research, personal stories, expert interviews, as well as listening in to the magic and mysticism of our body’s wisdom. I welcome you to join us to reclaim self-agency over your health and wellbeing, launching soon on May 13, 2024.