Share
![cover art for Yoga for Mental Health, with Dr. Lauren Tober](https://res.cloudinary.com/pippa/image/fetch/h_750,w_750,f_auto/https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5a5fdec3a4d96aa520f89227/1605525722488-f12b9721627c1e42f8fc5ff75960f1c9.jpeg)
On and Off Your Mat Yoga Podcast
Yoga for Mental Health, with Dr. Lauren Tober
We are continuing with our mental health theme in hopes of supporting you through these challenging times. If you missed our Episode #70: Yoga for Anxiety, find it here, and our articles and premiums episode on Alternate Nostrils Breathing, you can find the deep dive article here and the practice of alternate nostril breathing or a follow along on our Premium membership on Patreon. Some of you have reached out to say how much it helped them, thank you if you did!
For today's episode, I sat down with Dr Lauren Tober. Lauren is a Clinical Psychologist and Yoga Teacher with a passion for health, healing, happiness and awakening. She is the founder of Awake Psychology, an online Australia-wide psychology practice, the Centre for Mind Body Wellness in Mullumbimby (Australia), teaches Mental Health Aware Yoga trainings world-wide and runs several highly acclaimed online courses. Lauren believes that happiness is our true nature, and that yoga, gratitude, authenticity, compassion, creativity and community help us to cultivate happiness in our lives on an everyday basis.
1- Stress is a precursor to mental illness. It underlines a lot of physical and psychological illnesses.
Mental illness and mental health challenges are extremely common. In many western countries, 1 in 5 report a diagnosable mental illness in the last 12 months period. Another 1 in 5 people struggle without meeting the diagnosable caracterias.
2- Over half of yoga student report starting yoga for mental health reasons and more than 3/4 report continuing practicing for mental health reasons.
3- Creating a safe container in our classes is the first and most important thing we can do as a teacher to support our students, particularly those struggling with mental illness challenges. Be consistent and predictable, give permission to leave and leave the door unlock, use non-judgmental and inclusive language. Invite instead of insist, ask to notice instead of telling what their experience should be. Reduce likelihood of comparison and competition. Look at your own biases and beliefs. Be mindful of touch. Be fully present.
4- You don't need to fix people that are having an emotional response during class. You can be there for them, notice what's happening, but oftentimes, there's nothing you actually need to do. We don't need to rescue them.
5- Yoga isn't therapy but is therapeutic. Coming together in community, moving the body, mindfulness, practice to regulate our emotions, mood and the nervous system, exercice, are all things that are therapeutic.
- What in your life particularly brought you to want to focus your work on mental health and mental illness?
- Can you define mental illness?
- As yoga teachers, what should we know about mental illness?
- How can yoga teacher support students that come to yoga for mental health reasons? And how do we stay within our scope of practice while doing so?
- What creates a safe container in class?
- How can we ask permission to touch in a way that makes it easy and comfortable for people to say no.
- How can we be more present for our students?
- What should teachers watch out for to not be triggering, to not add on to trauma, or simply not to be counterproductive to their students needs?
- What are some therapeutic skills yoga teachers need to learn?
- Any tips for teachers that might have to deal with a moment of crisis in their class?
As always, I really appreciate your support with this podcast. Have you checked out our new Instagram page @onandoffyourmatpodcast already? We are starting all the way back from the beginning, revising every single episode! So come by and follow us so you can catch up on all the episodes you missed and their content or get reminders from your favorite episodes! You can also continue to support this show through Patreon. For as low as 5$ a month you get access to more content, exclusive episodes, tutorials, guided meditations and more, and in the 2nd and 3rd tiers, you get access to some or all the classes we’ve recorded on zoom and continue to record during the shelter in place. So, if you’d like to have access to all this and/or help me in the creation of this podcast, please find us on IG or Visit www.patreon.com/onandoffyourmat and become a PREMIUM member on the tier of your choice.
Dr Lauren Tober is a Clinical Psychologist, Yoga Teacher and certified iRest Meditation Teacher with a passion for health, healing, happiness and awakening. Lauren is the founder of Awake Psychology, an online Australia-wide psychology practice, the Centre for Mind Body Wellness in Mullumbimby (Australia) and teaches Yoga Teachers around the world about mental health with the Mental Health Aware Yoga training.
She has also created several acclaimed online courses, including Meditation, Pure + Simple, Living Your Heartfelt Desires and A Daily Dose of Bliss. Her work is soulful without being new-agey. It’s evidence based, without being clinical. It’s authentic, heartfelt and life changing.
She has been featured in various publications including Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Radio, Collective Magazine, Australian Yoga Journal, Australian Yoga Life Magazine, Peppermint Magazine and more.
Lauren believes that happiness is our true nature, and that yoga, gratitude, self compassion, authenticity, creativity and community help us to cultivate happiness in our lives on an everyday basis.
You can read more about Lauren’s qualifications and experience here.
FB group :
Instagram: @mentalhealthawareyo
More episodes
View all episodes
241. PREMIUM | High Vibes Practice
02:51||Ep. 241If you want to raise your frequency to uplift your mood and energy, improve your emotional and mental well-being, connect more deeply with your higher self, intuition, or a sense of universal consciousness, or even align yourself with the energies of abundance, love, and success for example so you can manifest more of what you desire, today’s practice is for you.Visualization is a powerful tool for raising your vibration because it engages the mind, emotions, and energy in a focused way that aligns you with higher frequencies and allows you to be very gentle.This practice is part of our premium subscription, to get access to it, become a premium podcast member.When you leave a review for the podcast on iTunes you can have access to the membership for free, including today’s class as a thank you for helping others to find the podcast and on their healing journey. DM @onandoffyourmatpodcast or email (erika.belanger@gmail.com) me a screenshot of your review and we'll get you set up.On the membership platform, you'll find: 1. Your premium podcast episodes ($5/month).2. You can now also have access to almost 600 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership ($25/month). 3. You can sign up for any live-stream class I offer!With our podcast premium membership, 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 a way 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.240. Falling in Love with Your Breathing (Part 1), with Alison Starr
42:09||Ep. 240Alison Starr, founder of Kanda Yoga School and creator of the 20 Minute Miracles app, joins us to explore how developing a relationship with your breath can transform your yoga practice and your life.Alison shares her journey of discovering functional breathing and how it helped her overcome chronic pain and instability. She explains the difference between functional and dysfunctional breathing patterns and how many common cues in yoga and fitness can actually restrict the natural movement of the diaphragm. Learn simple techniques to calm your nervous system, increase your inner awareness, and find more ease and presence both on and off the mat. Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/240239. Embodying the Sacred Feminine and Becoming Your Own Temple with Kori Hahn
30:42||Ep. 239Kori Hahn is an author, yoga and meditation teacher, surfer, and devoted mother. Her adventures took her from the frozen landscape of Alaska to the warm waves of Sri Lanka, where she founded the Santosha Society, a community dedicated to travel, surfing, and soulful living. She's helped hundreds of women explore Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, and soul growth, and she's here to discuss today's topic through the lens of her new book: A Temple of Her Own.Discover how to embody the Sacred Feminine and learn how embodying these feminine archetypes can help you through the different seasons of your life. Kori goes through the goddesses in her book and gives us the profound lessons we can learn through each one about romance, pain, creativity, abundance, wealth, and more.Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/239238. Stand Out as a Yoga Teacher Through Storytelling and Theme-Weaving, with MaKenzie Fly
47:57||Ep. 238MaKenzie Fly is a podcast host, retreat leader, and yoga teacher trainer living in Las Vegas. She helps yoga teachers get to their next level by developing more magnetism, attracting and retaining students through better sequencing, theme-weaving, and storytelling, and eventually becoming yogi-preneurs and building sustainable businesses as yoga teachers.Discover how to stand out as a yoga teacher by mastering the skills of theme-weaving and storytelling in your classes and in your business. MaKenzie shares why all of us are capable of telling a beautiful story through our yoga classes, and you'll get practical tips for implementing theme-weaving for the benefit of your students.Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/238237. PREMIUM | Jaw Release Practice
02:22||Ep. 237If you have regular headaches, pain in your face, neck or shoulders, ear problems, teeth sensitivity, clicking or popping in your jaw, you might have chronic jaw pain or even TMJ and this practice is for you.Learning how to improve your posture and your breath and how to process emotions like anger and anxiety can help prevent pain, and learning how to release and massage your jaw can help you deal with the symptoms.This somatic practice is part of our premium subscription, to get access to it, become a premium podcast member.When you leave a review for the podcast on iTunes you can have access to the membership for free, including today’s class as a thank you for helping others to find the podcast and on their healing journey. DM @onandoffyourmatpodcast or email (erika.belanger@gmail.com) me a screenshot of your review and we'll get you set up.On the membership platform, you'll find: 1. Your premium podcast episodes ($5/month).2. You can now also have access to almost 600 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership ($25/month). 3. You can sign up for any live-stream class I offer!With our podcast premium membership, 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 a way 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.236. From Corporate Autopilot to Rediscovering Your Purpose, with Celeste Unali
41:34||Ep. 236For today's episode, I sat down with Celeste Unali, a yoga and meditation teacher and women's mindset coach based in Australia. After a decade of working her way up the corporate ladder and experiencing plenty of success in the workplace, Celeste found herself feeling more uninspired and disconnected than ever. A deep journey of self-development led her to yoga, where she unexpectedly fell in love with the magic of mindfulness and watched as it unfolded in her life, driving deeper connection, purpose, and peace within herself and her relationships.Celeste and I discuss why you might need yoga as a high achiever, what to do if slowing down feels uncomfortable to you, and how the practice might be the key to giving you clarity on how to find more purpose, meaning, and joy in your life.Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/236235. Getting to the Root Cause of Your Anxiety, with Erika Belanger
46:23||Ep. 235Instead of putting band-aids on your anxiety, forcing yourself to calm down, or ignoring what you're feeling altogether, it's time to take a deeper look at your brain. You can leverage the power of your brain to start creating change directly, instead of only treating the symptoms of your anxiety. This work is transformational, and it starts here.Tune in this week to finally get to the root cause of your anxiety. I share how to start uncovering what in your life is really causing your anxiety, and you'll learn a powerful protocol for gaining a deeper understanding of your brain and harnessing its power to holistically address your anxiety for long-lasting change.Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/235234. Calling in More Money Through Excitement, Creativity, and Accountability, with Elizabeth Ralph
43:32||Ep. 234For today's episode, I'm joined by Elizabeth Ralph, a high-level wealth strategist and intuitive investor who retired at the age of 39 to teach others how to reach financial freedom through non-traditional methods.Discover the pillars of changing your relationship with money and calling in more money in your life. Elizabeth shares how to harness the beautiful energy of money and connect with this tool instead of resisting it, the importance of thinking about money creatively instead of emotionally, why wealth is a circle, and how to create money neutrality so you can call in wealth at the quantum level.Get full show notes and more information here: https://erikabelanger.com/234233. PREMIUM | Heart Womb Breath Meditation
02:29||Ep. 233If you want to reconnect with your feminine energy, support yourself lovingly in menstruation or cultivate more inner harmony when you’re feeling emotional, this practice is for you.Whether you have a physical womb or not, you can work with these centers of energy to create sexual healing, self-love and self-care.Learning how to come home to yourself in this way can also be supportive on a fertility journey or during pregnancy. This breath-based meditation is part of our premium subscription, to get access to it, become a premium podcast member.When you leave a review for the podcast on iTunes you can have access to the membership for free, including today’s class as a thank you for helping others to find the podcast and on their healing journey. DM @onandoffyourmatpodcast or email (erika.belanger@gmail.com) me a screenshot of your review and we'll get you set up.On the membership platform, you'll find: 1. Your premium podcast episodes ($5/month).2. You can now also have access to almost 600 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership ($25/month). 3. You can sign up for any live-stream class I offer!With our podcast premium membership, 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 a way 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.