Skillful Means Podcast

Jan 21 2025 110 ep. 29 mins 19

Skillful Means Podcast artwork

Skillful Means Podcast offers practical wisdom for everyday life. Host Jennifer O'Sullivan explores navigating life's challenges through the lenses of Buddhist mindfulness, yoga, Internal Family Systems, and positive psychology.

Each month, episodes feature grounded guidance and accessible practices for meeting whatever arises with greater ease.

Jennifer is a Certified IFS Practitioner with over 20 years of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness.

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Preview Pod: Upaya (Skillful Means) As Life Practice

Jan 21 2025 6 mins

Text me your feedback.This preview pod explores the concept of upaya (skillful means) and its relevance in today's polarized world + how this focus will be reflected in the next iteration of the show. Jen emphasizes the importance of developing presence and awareness in order to meet life's challenges with courage and heart.Highlights include: • Cultivating what Roshi Joan Halifa

Skillful Means Podcast is returning!

Jan 14 2025 4 mins

Text me your feedback.This preview pod marks the return of the Skillful Means Podcast, where Jen introduces a new format focused on listener questions and community storytelling... plus a little preview of what's on the horizon for the show. Send me your questions, favorite resources, and vignettes to help shape the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagR

#97 Delighting In Joy Guided Practice

Sep 14 2023 15 mins

Text me your feedback.Jen wraps up her partial series on the Brahma Viharas with Mudita, commonly translated as "sympathetic joy." With Mudita, we're asked to rejoice in the good fortune of others, admittedly not easy.This is why Jen likes to think of Mudita as "delight," specifically delighting in joy itself whether it's originating from someone else or from within. But, when we a

#96 Portals of Mindfulness Guided Practice

Aug 31 2023 12 mins

Text me your feedback.Have you ever caught yourself (or been caught by someone else) with your head buried in your smartphone while doing something mundane like brushing your teeth or walking through your home?If so, you can probably relate to the lure of distraction when certain moments don't seem worth our full attention. In this contemplation, Annie invites us to view these smal

#95 Tonglen Guided Practice

Aug 17 2023 15 mins

Text me your feedback.Continuing her mini-series on the Brahma Viharas, the Four Immeasurables, Jen shares the Tibetan practice of Tonglen. This training in compassion is an inner alchemy where the practitioner seeks to transmute the suffering of others. Tonglen teaches us how to grow our hearts beyond the boundaries of those in our in-crowd. It invites us to embrace our common hum

#94 Drawing A Line Guided Practice

Aug 03 2023 12 mins

Text me your feedback.It’s counterintuitive but essentially true: all phenomena itself is neutral, including people and events, and they have equal capacity to provoke suffering or ease alike – it all depends on how we meet the moment.As we continues our series of practice this summer, Annie offers a contemplation on how we might work with discernment in shaping a skillful stat

#93 Loving-Kindness Guided Practice

Jul 20 2023 23 mins

Text me your feedback.Some of the most treasured and widely-practiced Buddhist Teachings are the Brahma Viharas (The Four Immeasurables). They also appear in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as one of the many practices that settle mind. Sometimes referred to as "The Four Faces of Love," these teachings help us to foreground love in all our encounters... with ourselves, loved ones, communit

#92 Mundane Ecstacy Guided Practice

Jul 06 2023 12 mins

Text me your feedback.The old Zen proverb that says “before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water” is a gentle reminder that chasing the ecstatic will ultimately let us down. Instead, if we can stay close to the ordinary matters of each moment, we may be much better positioned to experience luminous presence.In this practice, Annie d

#91 Mindfulness of Four Elements of the Body Guided Practice

Jun 22 2023 14 mins

Text me your feedback.In the last of our series on the less common practices of the First Foundation of Mindfulness (Mindfulness of the Body), Jen shares a practice of contemplating the four elements of the body: earth, water, fire, and air. Because everything in the manifest world contains these elements, this practice helps us to embody interconnectedness. We're also encouraged t

#90 Yoga Beyond Asana

Jun 09 2023 48 mins

Text me your feedback.Could you imagine a yoga class without postures? In fact, millions of dedicated yoga practitioners don't practice asana at all. In this episode, Annie and Jen discuss ways to engage with the teachings separate from asana, drawing on guidance from the "Bhagavad Gita" and their own experiences. "Bhagavad Gita" quote mentioned in the episode: Chapter 2 Verse 42-4