OM is the mantra of all mantras, the expression of perfect perfection of life that is happening as every person and every form of the cosmos. Including you, the reader. Pronunciation of OM reveals this to the whole body and mind.

This conversation is between two devotees of the OM: Sybille is a Yoga teacher, student of Sanskrit and the wisdom traditions, mother, historian, and co-founder of Hatha Vinyasa Parampara Studio in Mainz, Germany. She is also a lover of the vibration of the OM. We explore the beauty of Om, its sonic completeness, and how Sanskrit, practiced rather than merely studied, can cleanse the doors of perception.

Om Is The Breath Of The Universe – It includes all other sounds, and contains the same rhythm of expansion and return found in life and nature.

Sanskrit Is An Embodied Practice – Beyond signifier and signified, it is a sonically intelligent language that includes the whole body nervous system.

Sound Is Real, Not Just Symbolic – In Sanskrit and in Yoga, sound actually exists, it wriggles through the air, it ripples through us; it's not just a vehicle of conceptual meaning.

Precision In Mantra Creates Harmony – Subtle shifts in pronunciation affect energy, and pleasure leads the way.

Chanting Is Subtle Asana – Just like postures, refining sound in the instrument of our body involves subtle adjustments, in devotion to the flow of prana

Silence Is Part Of Om – The fourth part of Om is silence, the natural state, what is the base of all sound and form.

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Grief is love.

Fear, anger, pain and grief are biological functions that resolve into compassion for all. Rather than fixation on my one dominant emotion, we develop an emotional intelligence. We predict the next emotion that is more fundamental than our present emotion. By this intelligence, we come to compassion. It is our own intelligence. We are born with it.

We saw an extraordinary Yoga transformation occur over one year.

Jin Hee Kim, (or Jinny) is a yogini from Korea and Melbourne. Over the past year, she has gone through a powerful journey of loss, realization, and return. Jinny shares how the death of her sister-in-law and the pain passed down from her mother, a woman identified as a shaman, led her into deep grief that no method could resolve.

When we met in Bali, she began to see that this grief was actually love. That the only way forward was to stop seeking and do her Yoga. To feel, to breathe, to be in her life.
This is a real and intimate dialogue about feminine power, suicide, healing, and what Yoga actually is. She speaks from experience. We do not need to run to monasteries or look for answers to big cultural promises. We need to be here. In our bodies. In our breath. In our relationships. This is where life is.

Grief Is Compassion – Jinny's journey began when she realized her grief wasn't something to fix. It was something to feel and offer.

Stop looking, start living. Stop Seeking, start Breathing – True Yoga began for her not in techniques, but in the simplicity of breath and body, just as they are.

Healing Is Intimacy – She found that healing came through a close relationship with herself, her family, and her surroundings.

Masculine Drive, Feminine Wisdom – A deep shift happened when she embraced her feminine. Shakti softened the fierce Shiva. The secular must serve the sacred.

Cultural Shame Holds Trauma – By speaking openly about her mother's story, she ended a cycle of silence and fear.

The Seduction Of Enlightenment – Her biggest lesson was that we don't need to transcend life. We need to live it fully, in our own way, in our own language.

You are the beauty. You are the intelligence. You are already in perfect harmony with life. You don't need to seek it. You need only participate in it.

Learn more and access the course at https://www.heartofyoga.com

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Can Yoga be real in the corporate world? Can we live from the natural state while moving through meetings, deadlines, and the everyday push of professional life?

In this conversation with my good friend and dedicated practitioner Maartje Hesseling, we speak about what happens when Yoga becomes a daily reality. Maartje lives in Switzerland and works at a high level in the corporate world, but over the last three years, she has quietly come into a steady rhythm of practice. We talk about how that shift has changed her life, not by chasing self-improvement, but by staying close to what she actually is.

This one is for anyone who has felt torn between their inner life and the world of work. Maartje shares from her own experience, and her clarity and honesty really shine.

Yoga as Daily Relationship – Yoga becomes sustainable when it's not a self-improvement project, but a daily pleasure and relationship with life.

Drop the Drive – The subtle pressure to always get better is deeply ingrained, but it's not necessary. It's not helpful.

Corporate Compassion – When we're intimate with our own life, we relate with respect and clarity to everyone around us, even when things are tough at work.

Inclusion as Yoga – True inclusion at work begins by truly seeing each person, their presence, their gifts, and being in relationship with them.

No Conflict Needed – Yoga in the workplace isn't about turning anyone into a spiritual person. It's about being human together and making space for wellbeing.

Start With Practice – The clarity, confidence, and connection we long for don't come from a strategy. They come from simply showing up in our practice.

You are the beauty. You are the intelligence. You are already in perfect harmony with life. You don't need to seek it. You need only participate in it.

Learn more and access the course at https://www.heartofyoga.com

Support the Heart of Yoga Foundation.

This podcast is sustained by your donations.