On and Off Your Mat Yoga Podcast

Yes! We made it to 100! This podcast has been a labor of love for the last 3 years. I’ve had the immense pleasure to chat with some of the most accomplished yoga teachers, wellness experts, and spiritual teachers in the west so they can share their work and best-kept secrets with you. Some were genuinely excited to come on, others I had to slightly harass and I’ve reached out to many more who never even made it on. I want to take a moment to say thank you to all our guests so far, for giving freely their time, sharing their expertise, and being so open and generous with the process… 

For today’s episode, we are celebrating, by first, doing a recap of the episodes that were the most listened to in the last 3 years. We’ll also go over the episode that you guys voted for to enter our celebration giveaway and I want to underline a couple of episodes that I think were underrated but that were special to me and that should have made it to the top of the chart in my opinion.

If you voted for your favorite episode, thank you so much!

Our randomly selected winner for our 100th episode giveaway is Flo Dupuy from the US. Congratulations!!!

Our winner voted for Ep58 Restorative Yoga and the Importance of Slowing Down, with Judith Hanson Lasater. Their takeaway was “Some people’s cholesterol levels dropped up to 50 points in one hour of yoga practice. Cholesterol is a measure of stress. The sequence is not the key part, it’s more taking the weight of stress off. It is so powerful.”

I want to say a huge thank you to all our sponsors for this giveaway. You are winning a 100$ gift card from Athleta, a yoga mat from Liform, an Eco Yoga Bolster and Acupressure Mat and Pillow set from Ajna WellBeing, a Roll Model Starter Kit, and a class pass for one of Jill Miller union-fit classes, one month on my membership, an eye pillow from Spritz wellness London, and the book Move, Connect, Play from Jason Nemer.

Here are our top 5 most listened-to episodes of the last 3 years!

• #25. The 8 limbs, with Janet Stone.
• #58: Restorative Yoga and the Importance of Slowing Down, with Judith Hanson Lasater.
• #1: When you say yoga…
• #75: The Art of Sequencing with Jason Crandell.
• #46 Chakras 101, with Anodea Judith.

During the episode, I mentioned the 3 episodes that were the most voted for. Here they are:

#93: A 3 Step Guide to Being More Yourself, with Erika Belanger.

Meiling voted for #93 and shared: The moment I heard this episode, I was super confused about my path and my decisions, and I remember being in the car alone, looking for a sign and I wrote yoga podcast on Spotify, and On and Off Your Mat came out and I don’t know what, but something made me choose this episode. I went to a lake with my journal and started to write all the questions with their answers, and Felt so relieved. Thank you so much for guiding me. My takeaway is “Stay focused on yourself, what you want and what you can control.” 

#87: 5 Reasons you Procrastinate, with Erika Belanger.

Emily voted for #87 and said “Listening to the episode made me feel like Erika was living life alongside me! She shared best practices without imparting shame and gave me actionable steps to take that didn’t require much effort.”

#92: Your Nervous System and Digestion, with Rachel Everett.

Cristina voted for this episode and said: I’ve always had gut and digestive issues, this episode allowed me to connect the dots and understand why I’ve struggled so much.

Many more episodes were voted for here an incomplete list:

#90: Beginning Again, a Way to Practice and to Live, with Peter Walters

“I love the vibe. It’s chill and makes me feel really comfortable.”

#77: Setting Goals and Moving Forward with Erika Belanger

“It has helped me finally learn to set goals and actually complete them for once! You broke everything down into manageable pieces for me and I don’t know something just clicked and I wrote it all down and viola!”

#89: Creating a Sustainable and Loving Approach to Yoga, with Brea Johnson

“I have had some health struggles this year that have made me have to adapt my yoga practice to really fit my needs. It’s hard not being able to just follow any yoga flow, but works like this podcast are helping me”

#74: Yoga, Chronic Pain, and Mental Health, with Erika Belanger

“Having a daughter with chronic pain made this episode a must listen and I got great reassurance around managing pain within yoga.”

#54: Meditation 101, with Bex Urban

“Bex talks about meditation and yoga in a really unique and all-encompassing way. Her view is that for some people, yoga can be perfecting crow pose; for others, it can simply be learning to breathe better. Her words gave me the mindset and space to reshape my views. I began to realize that sometimes my yoga practice can be just me on my mat focusing on my breath rather than any set posture. That yoga is what you make, it every time you take to your mat. How liberating! Thank you Bex.”

#80: Awakening and Healing Your Womb with Diana Beaulieu.

“This episode so touched me. I really related to everything that was being said. Erika’s questions always bring out the best in episodes.”

These 2 episodes have a special place in my heart…

#64: Sanctuary Meditation and Yoga Nidra with Rod Stryker.

#34: Real Love, Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness with Sharon Salzberg.

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast anywhere you listen. Find out how here.

We recently transitioned our Premium Membership to this new platform: www.withribbon.com/u/erikabelanger. As a member, you can get a ton of exclusive audio and video content. We added a new library of almost 200 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership. Finally, you can sign up for any live-stream class I offer! Everything yoga-class-related is now in the same place! If you’re new to With Ribbon, here’s a walkthrough video I recorded to help you find your way around.

Know that as you become a Premium Member, your contribution ripples to thousands of people every week, allowing me to offer accessible quality free content to a wide community of yogis. This podcast is one of the away I contribute to the community, and this membership is a way you can too. It allows you to share everything yoga offers with the world by supporting me in the creation and production of this podcast while I choose to keep it ad-free. 

I’ll be leading an Eco-Luxury Yoga Retreat in Mexico, in November 2021. I heard you, you’ve been craving to immerse yourself in yoga, nature, and community again so you can feel renewed and re-enliven. Many of us are suffering from zoom fatigue. So I’m offering you to hit the beach and the reset button so you can let go of this last year. You’ll find all the info for that retreat at erikabelanger.com/yoga-retreat-mexico.

In parallel, I have launched a Go-Fund-Me campaign. I know yoga retreats are an investment and I know how hard the last year has been. Yoga retreats were in my personal growth, so I wanted to give back. I’m raising money while investing alongside the community to make the experience of a yoga retreat available to students who wouldn’t be able to participate otherwise. If you’re able to donate anything you could transform someone’s life. And if you’re in need you can apply for the scholarship. And either way, I’d love for you to share it with the people you love and on social media. That’s a simple way you can directly impact others’ lives in a positive way. Find the Go-Fund-Me Campaign here.