Jul 10 2024 98 mins
In this episode, I was both privileged to sit with, and deeply inspired by, my guest, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, PhD. Uma is the author of Yoni Shakti, as well as many other books, and her work, along with Vicki Noble's, set something alight in me. As I read her book, I saw written in plain and clear language what my body-heart-mind had always known: there is a feminine source-point for yoga that is the key or code to understanding the truth of the practice. Uma helps me to unpack this awareness, and she and I cover many topics that are challenging but, hopefully, ultimately liberating. We do touch on some sensitive subjects, so be prepared for a big conversation.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How yoga has changed since Uma met (and fell in love with!) yoga in the 60s
- The abuse of power within largely patriarchal, commercially-driven yoga lineages
- The "yoga industrial complex"
- Why Uma no longer refers to herself as a yoga teacher
- How women can meet yoga as cyclical beings (menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause), and how we can all get more out of our yoga practice (hint: it involves more rest!)
- The natural siddhis and altered states of the feminine experience and how yoga seeks to emulate them
- The exploitation of yoga teachers in the current, unsustainable studio-based business model
- Yoga Nidra beyond its commercial trademarks - as a practice that is perhaps as old as humanity and found (in some form) across multiple indigenous cultures
- Uma's new book, Nidra Shakti, and her process of writing and researching
- How Uma's Celtic roots manifest in her yoga practice
- How Uma developed Womb Yoga
- The importance of education and community (sangha) in breaking through the barriers to collective healing and empowerment
- And so much more...!!
Throughout this episode, Uma advocates for a holistic, inclusive, therapeutic approach to yoga that honours the body’s natural cycles and supports collective healing. This podcast provides an in-depth exploration of yoga's commercialisation, the importance of reclaiming indigenous and feminine cyclical wisdom, and the empowerment of women through respectful and individualised yoga practices (and a lot more rest!). I cannot wait to share Uma's body of wisdom with you!
About Uma Dinsmore-Tuli:
Uma Dinsmore-Tuli inspires tired humans to restore rhythmic cycles of health through rest. She shares simple tools and yoga therapeutic techniques to recover health and reconnect to embodied wisdom. Uma met yoga in 1969, at the age of four, and fell in love. She’s been practising ever since, and teaching yoga since 1994. A yoga therapist with special expertise in yoga therapy for women’s health, Uma identifies her teachings as “post-lineage” yoga, rooted in yoga tantra and drawing on a variety of yogic traditions to share deeply nourishing and enlivening practices appropriate for contemporary life.
Uma works internationally, sharing yoga retreats, trainings, and empowerments that support the natural arising of prana shakti: the power of life. She trains specialist teachers in Total Yoga Nidra and Yoni Shakti Well Woman Yoga Therapy for menstrual and menopausal health, pregnancy, birth, and postnatal recovery. Uma is also the author of six books:
- Nidra Shakti: The Power of Rest: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Yoga Nidra (due for release July 2023)
- Yoni Shakti: A Woman's Guide to Power and Freedom through Yoga and Tantra (2014/2020)
- Yoga Nidra Made Easy (2022)
- The Celtic School of Yoga (2016)
- Yoga for Pregnancy and Birth (2010)
- Mother's Breath (2005)
Uma is also Co-Founder of Yoga Nidra Network (2011) and the mother of three children. Her practice and teaching respect the cyclical powers of the living earth and honour human life cycles as spiritual initiations (including menarche, conscious menstruation, menopause, birth, and postnatal recovery).
Uma's Website: https://umadinsmoretuli.com/
Yoga Nidra Network: https://www.yoganidranetwork.org/
Uma's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/umadinsmoretuli
Online Courses: https://www.yoganidranetwork.org/self-led-learning/
Other references mentioned in this podcast:
Vicki Noble: https://www.vickinoble.com/
Motherpeace Tarot: https://motherpeace.com/
Matthew Remski on Ashtanga Yoga Abuse: https://matthewremski.com/wordpress/tag/ashtanga-yoga/
Satyananda Abuse: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-releases/report-satyananda-yoga-ashram-released