Brahmani Yoga Resources
Recommended Books
- The Transformation Journey - Julie Martin
An Immersive Experience For Personal Development & Creative Empowerment - The Yoga Body: The origins of modern posture practice - Mark Singleton
This is the book that blew the lid off the idea that our inherited asana practice has been around for a few thousand years. Not an easy read but worth getting through it. - Fascia: What is it and why it matters - David Lesondak
The best book on understanding Fascia published so far! - The Biology Of Belief - Bruce H. Lipton
About the cellular structure and how our thoughts effect everything that manifests in our bodies - The Original Body: Primal Movement for Yoga Teachers - John Stirk
An amazing teacher that really connects the deeper energy work. - The Great Work Of Your Life - Stephen Cope
I recommend all teachers read this book. It will wake you up to making sure you’re on the right path for you and probably confirm a lot things you’ve been feeling anyway. - Born To Walk: Myofascial Efficiency and the Body in Movement - James Earls
- The Science Of Yoga: The risks and rewards - William J.Broad
A collection of research projects that looked into the claims that yoga makes and why so many people have been injured over the years. - Intelligent Yoga: Listening to the body's innate wisdom - Peter Blackaby
So much great, sensible information in this book. - The Body Keeps The Score: Mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma - Bessel Van Der Kolk
Dr. van der Kolk is the leading trauma expert looking at the effects in the physical systems and how to work with people who have experienced deep trauma. - Awakening The Spine - Vanda Scaravelli
Yoga for health, vitality and energy. A beautiful book that inspires me deeply. - Moving Consciously - Sandra Fraleigh
Somatic transformations through dance, yoga and touch - You Are The Placebo: Making your mind matter - Dr. Joe Dispenza
Great work on the power of our belief systems over our bodies.
Stay in Touch
Podcasts featuring Julie
The Transformation Journey
On And Off Your Mat with Erika Belanger
Erika's biggest takeaways from this podcast:
1- Transformation is an ongoing process. You can’t move into growth until you take stock of where/who you are now. Then, you need to practice acceptance and get in touch with what you want instead of not want. Define it and refine it. When you don’t know what you want, you are at the mercy of random chaos. Transformation is about focusing our energy. And we can’t direct our energy towards what we want if we focus on what we don’t want.
2- Deep down, we don’t usually want to change who we are, so much as change how we feel about who we are. If we don’t come from a place of need to change but focus on our sensations, we can be open to the possibility for growth and realize we’re already ok.
3- Our brain is wired for repetition. The limbic system is organized by our ancestral beliefs and the way we were brought up. They create a loop in our thoughts and it takes focused energy to break out of its momentum.
4- To create real change, we have to take knowledge and turn it into experience, into energy and this is where the yoga practice comes in. This is why yoga is not about shapes, but feeling and sensing.
5- How would you act if you already had/felt what you want to have/feel? Find the things that make you feel like the person you want to be and start to act how that person would act.
Embodied movement & changing the 200hr TT model
The YAY!YOGA Podcast
In this episode of the YAY!YOGA podcast, we talk about Julie’s Vedantic background, the old school way of becoming a yoga teacher, how and why she moved from traditional Ashtanga yoga towards an embodied movement practise and we talk about the process of elimination as a way to come back to the present moment.
Somatic Yoga
The Embodiment Podcast
Julie joins the show from Goa to discuss a somatic approach to yoga beyond making the shapes and blindly following tradition. She touches upon neo-colonialism, culture, travelling yogis, yoga for Indians vs. Europeans, dissociative yoga, unworthiness, social media, entitlement and freedom in yoga.
Yoga in the World
The Embodiment Podcast
Julie Martin re-joins the show to discuss the benefits of a somatic and embodied approaches to yoga. Culture power and yoga, self-worth and yoga, tango, awareness, modern times and being a yoga “in the world”.
“I am preparing people for a job that is in service to others”
No Ordinary Yogi
Today’s episode is an interview I did with senior, international yoga teacher Julie Martin. We recorded the interview on Sunday March 15th, just as Covid-19 was really starting to take a hold. We were in the midst of the Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2020 here in the UK and I don’t think there were any coronavirus cases in Hawaii where Julie lives at that time. Anyway, the reason I reached out to Julie is because I came across this article she’d had published on Shut Up and Yoga, entitled The 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training and The Demise of Modern Yoga. I felt that I had to speak to her. The article is linked in the show notes, but I’m going to try and summarise it here.
Talking, Teaching & Flow with Raphan Kebe
Yoga with Julie Martin
TALKING TEACHING & FLOW Podcast is a podcast where Teachers discuss what it is, what it means, and what it takes to teach what they love.
Rethinking Yoga Creatively
Creativity for All Podcast
After listening to this episode, I’m pretty sure you will be tempted to start a yoga practice or refresh an existing one or, at the very least, your take on movement and your own body is likely to change, so enjoy!.
The Queen of the Yoga Rebellion
Yogapodden
In this podcast, Julie Martin, explains where she got it all from. Via dance, she entered the yoga world, and today she´s a highly visible and popular representative of the un-orthodox, inventive yoga which does not fear neither influences from other forms of movement nor new research into the body, for example the fascia - research that might lead to having to throw some of the old stuff overboard.
FREE RESOURCES
on Brahmani Yoga
Movement Principles & Philosophy
Gain a basic understanding of embodied yoga, its evolution, the benefits of natural way of moving, letting go of old alignment cues and so much more.
This course will take you through concepts around:
- Starting a conversation with your body
- Natural movements
- Brahmani Yoga Principles
- Teaching principles
The Transformation Journey
An Immersive Experience For Personal Development & Creative Empowerment. Download the first chapter of my new book all about an embodied approach to sustainable change. A journey of understanding your brain and why it’s sabotaging you, combined with embodied practices such as meditation, journaling, mindful activities, breath-work, play & creativity to incite change that is accessible and sustainable.
Anatomy & Yoga
People, Websites, Articles and Podcasts to follow
- Gary Carter: Anatomy & Movement Teacher
Gary is an amazing teacher and is always looking towards upcoming research in anatomical movement in order to make sure that what he is teaching is up to date and also relevant for the movement world. If you can get to any of his workshops or courses I highly recommend them. **This is my anatomy/movement “guru” and I recommend getting to any course he does!! - Musings with the Movement Man: Podcast with Stephen Brabrook
Another great practitioner who interviews like minded people on his podcast and has recently had David Lesondak as a guest! - Thomas Myres: Anatomy & Fascia
Tensegrity and Lines of Movement can all be discovered with Thomas Myers informational videos. Search for Thomas Myers on Youtube and you’ll find lots of interesting and informative videos. - Liberated Body: Podcast with Brook Thomas
These podcasts are interviews with experts in the body/movement/manual physical therapy world, all at the top of their fields offering loads of content that incredibly useful. One of my favourites! The author is Brooke Thomas who writes for a few websites but on this one you can download her information booklet on “Why Fascia Matters” - Fascia Research: Group led by Dr. Robert Schleip
Dr. Robert Schleip, is considered the foremost expert on fascia at the moment. - Breaking Muscle: Website about injury prevention
Lots of information about preventing injury on this website aimed towards sports people and rehabilitation. Doesn’t talk much about yoga but he does give a lot of information about why NOT to stretch. - Gil Hedley: Bodyworker
The guy who gave us the Fuzz speech. He also has many other very useful videos. He is not a yoga practitioner, but a body worker. I love following his FB page as he brings out the beauty, poetry and spirituality in the study of the human body - Leslie Kaminoff: Yoga Anatomy Teacher
Another great Yoga Anatomist. He also has a series of videos breaking down anatomy and the different asana’s that may be hurting us. - Niki Vetten: Yogi - Injury prevention
Another great blog site by Niki Vetten who is a yogi and works specifically on injury prevention for all movement based practices. She has great articles on Yoga Butt, Sacral Illiac problems, why the Gluteus Maximus and Medius are so important for our sacrum support, etc - Paul Grilley: Yoga Anatomy Teacher
If you haven’t checked out any of Paul’s videos yet, I fully recommend it. He talks from a yoga point of view and in his anatomy videos breaks down the different bone structure limitations that can cause problems for yogis. However, I don’t agree with his philosophy about fascia and yin, long held stretches. But his other anatomical information is great. - ARTICLE: Fascia as a proprioceptive organ and it's relationship to chronic pain
- ARTICLE: Stop stretching
- ARTICLE: The vagus Nerve - Emotions and difficulty with mindfulness practices
Spiritual Investigations
People & Podcasts
- PODCAST: Bliss and Grit
A weekly podcast from Brooke Thomas (of Liberated Body above) and Vanessa Scott as they discuss the ups and downs of being on a spiritual journey, what it means and why its not always about the warm fuzzies, and more often about the discomfort and unraveling. Wonderful, non-dogmatic dialogue. - PODCAST: Kiran Trace
A wonderful, practical spiritual teacher if you like the no-nonsense way of understanding how to connect to our deeper selves. - PODCAST: Buddha at the Gas Pump
Podcast with Rick Archer talking to people about their own spiritual awakening experiences. Non dogmatic. - FACEBOOK COMMUNITY: Yoga Movement & Research
It’s a closed group but you can ask to join. Started by Diane Bruni and full of dialogue about how we need to move forward and evolve with the yoga practices instead of being “ok” with injuries to ourselves and students. This group can get a little carried away down critical paths, but if you don’t get too involved in following the thread of comments and stick to the article and videos posted here you’ll find it beneficial. - FACEBOOK PAGE: Matthew Remski
What Are We Actually Doing in Asana. He posts great blogs and articles, started threads that can get pretty heated, but ultimately he’s asking questions about what is yoga, what isn’t, who are we to define this and where is it headed. He brings up great points to ponder.
