The Uplifted Yoga Podcast

Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? Part 2 0

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#401 – Who Has Your Attention? Attention Economy vs the Ancient Path

#415 – From Self-Improvement to Reverence (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7)

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May 13, 2026

If yoga doesn’t really have a Satan figure…what’s the enemy?

In this second part of my comparative theology series, I explore what Hindu philosophy names as the real obstacle on the spiritual path: ego, desire, delusion, and ignorance.

We continue tracing parallels between Jesus, Buddha, and Hindu mythology — but here the focus sharpens around one big idea: the deepest danger isn’t pleasure or power. It’s misidentification.

In this episode, I explore:

🔹 Why the “enemy” in yoga often sounds like self-doubt, ego, and identity insecurity

🔹 What Hindu myths reveal about spiritual power without humility

🔹 Why temptation often shows up right before transformation

🔹 How self-sabotage can actually signal a threshold moment

🔹 What Jesus, Buddha, and Hindu philosophy all teach about staying rooted in who you are

If you’ve ever felt yourself unravel right before an up-level — or noticed self-doubt get louder the moment you’re about to expand — this episode is for you.

💖 Want to keep exploring yoga philosophy in community?
Join me inside the Uplifted Membership for deeper study, spiritual conversation, and the Yoga Sutras Book Club → https://www.brettlarkin.com/uplifted/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=uplifted

FREE Practice: Full Body Somatic Workout for Women | Yoga to Find Your Power & Release Guilt

Relevant Blog: Self Love for Women: How to Cultivate Compassion and Confidence

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✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training

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Healing Painful Joints with Scott Hogan 0

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#297 – What is Samkhya Philosophy and How is it Different from Yoga?

#387 – Book 4 of the Yoga Sutras: The Mystical Path to Liberation Explained

#413 – Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? Part 1

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May 6, 2026

If joint pain has ever made you afraid to move, this episode is for you.

In this conversation with Scott Hogan, we talk about what actually helps painful joints heal — and why doing nothing often makes things worse. We explore the relationship between movement, compensation patterns, nervous system safety, and how to rebuild strength without constantly re-triggering pain.

In this episode, we cover:

🔹 Why people get afraid to move after injury — and what to do instead

🔹 The difference between mobility and stability (and why both matter for healthy joints)

🔹 How pain compensation patterns can quietly create bigger issues over time

🔹 Why core stability is often the missing piece in joint healing

🔹 How to think about recovery, connective tissue, and rebuilding beyond your old baseline

This is such a grounded conversation if you’re navigating pain, getting older, or trying to support your body with more intelligence and less fear.

📘 And if you want to go deeper into the nervous system side of healing; Grab my book Healing with Somatic Yoga → https://amzn.to/3WGulGG

GUEST EXPERT: Scott Hogan | @scotthhogan | @saltwrap

Scott Hogan is the author of the best-selling book, Built from Broken. And founder of SaltWrap, a therapeutic sports nutrition company.

Scott’s website: saltwrap.com

Get Scott’s book Built from Broken: https://saltwrap.com/pages/built-from-broken

FREE Practice: 5 Minute Easy Kundalini Yoga | MORNING YOGA FOR STIFF JOINTS

Relevant Blog: Yoga For Arthritis: 9 Poses For Joint Pain Relief

Relevant to Today’s Episode:

#300 – Unraveling the Mystery of Chronic Pain for Yoga Teachers & Practitioners with Kim Patel

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#285 – Is Yoga Enough…? with Dr. Jen Fraboni

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How the Yoga Sutras & Bhagavad Gita Were Originally Taught (And Why It Feels So Different Today) 0

Apr 29, 2026

Have you ever wondered what the original learning environment of yoga philosophy actually looked like?

In this episode, I share why texts like the Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads were never meant to be read alone—and how studying in community can completely transform your understanding.

As I’ve been leading my Yoga Sutras Book Club, I’ve seen how powerful it is to learn this way—and why it might be the missing piece in your own practice.

We explore:

🔹 Why reading alone is actually a modern anomaly

🔹 How sutras were designed to be unpacked together

🔹 Why commentary and conversation deepen insight

🔹 How community supports nervous system regulation

If something feels like it’s missing in your spiritual study, this episode will show you why.

💖 Want to experience this in practice?

Join me inside the Yoga Sutras Book Club where we study these teachings the way they were originally meant to be explored—together, in community, and in conversation → https://www.brettlarkin.com/uplifted/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=uplifted

📘 Want the physical, glossy keepsake journal? Order it here → https://cart.brettlarkin.com/sutras-journal-pada1/

FREE Practice: 15 Minute Power Morning Vinyasa Flow For Strength

Relevant Blog: What Is Santosha? Yoga’s Philosophy of Happiness.

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Guided Meditation for Busy Women to De-Stress (16 Minutes) 0

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#297 – What is Samkhya Philosophy and How is it Different from Yoga?

#358 – Intro to The Bhagavad Gita: How Do You Navigate Moral Dilemmas?

#364 – Dissecting The 8 Limbs and Their Origins

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Apr 24, 2026

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/

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Are the Chakras Just New Age Woo? Yoga, Anatomy & the Truth Behind the Energy Centers 0

Apr 22, 2026

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

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💖 History of Yoga

✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training

Hip Replacement & Yoga What Teachers Need to Know w Cyndi Stewart 0

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#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

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Apr 15, 2026

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✨

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#300 – Unraveling the Mystery of Chronic Pain for Yoga Teachers & Practitioners with Kim Patel

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#285 – Is Yoga Enough…? with Dr. Jen Fraboni

#369 – Nervous System Masterclass with Kristin Leal

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From Self-Improvement to Reverence (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7) 0

Apr 8, 2026

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

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Relevant Blog: What Are The Gunas In Yoga? A Complete Overview

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#404 – What If I Fail? Krishna’s Answer to Your Inner Critic (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6)

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#297 – What is Samkhya Philosophy and How is it Different from Yoga?

#364 – Dissecting The 8 Limbs and Their Origins

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How I Get TV Segments & Talk on Camera (Without Stressing Out) 0

Apr 1, 2026

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

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#396 – Rewire Your Nervous System + My New Somatic Healing Book is HERE!

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Yoga Doesn’t Have a Devil. So What’s the Enemy? (Part 1) 0

Mar 25, 2026

Let’s talk about something a little controversial today… the forces of evil. 👀

How do different wisdom traditions frame temptation, demons, and the dark forces that often appear right before a spiritual breakthrough?

I’ll explore the story of Eve in the garden, Jesus in the desert, and Buddha under the Bodhi tree, comparing how each figure faces illusion, doubt, and distraction—and what we can learn from them in our own practice.

I’ll also break down how yogic philosophy (and Hinduism more broadly) defines the “enemy” very differently—from the ego as adversary to karmic patterns of desire and delusion. We’ll explore:

🔹 Why the darkest moments often come before awakening

🔹 Jesus vs. Mara: how two traditions handle temptation

🔹 The serpent’s tactic: twist truth, create doubt

🔹 Why contentment (Santosha) is spiritual protection

🔹 Vedanta’s view: ego, craving, and identification as the true ‘enemy’

🔹 How to tell if you’re in a “spiritual setup” moment

This is part one of a two-part conversation exploring temptation, truth, and the psychological and spiritual forces we encounter on the path. Whether you’re deep into the Gita or just navigating your own spiritual uplevel, this one’s for you.

💖 Ready to deepen your practice and live from your true nature? Explore the Uplifted Membership here => https://www.brettlarkin.com/uplifted/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=uplifted

Book mentioned: Deceived No More by Doreen Virtue

FREE Practice: 10 Min Kundalini Kriya For Awakening For Beginners | GUIDED KUNDALINI MEDITATION

Relevant Blog: What Is Santosha? Yoga’s Philosophy of Happiness.

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✅ History of Yoga

📖 Yoga Life Book