When I bought my first iPod like more than ten years ago, I was already amazed by Podcasts. Somehow they were so much easier to use than just browsing on the web for some of your favorite meditations. Of course, at that time, there wasn’t that much available yet and I had to cope with a couple of random podcasts. Nowadays, we don’t have that problem anymore as we now have maybe too many options even.
Therefore I’ve made this list of great podcasts that have enrichened my yoga and meditation practice. I’m still enjoying them and I’m even listening to one of my favorite podcasts at the moment of writing this article. So let’s start with this one!
#1 Mantra, Kirtan and Stotra: Sanskrit Chants
Alright, in my article about mantras I’ve talked a lot about mantras, so I’m not going to talk about the effects and the why’s and the whatever’s. This is just going to be a review of this channel provided by Yoga Vidya. Which also happens to be my most favorite Podcast.
I love listening to music, and which way better to express yourself AND bring your awareness in than to listen and chant mantras! This channel is a podcast about all kinds of recordings of live bhajans or kirtans. This means that you’ll get the feeling that you are right there when you close your eyes. This is an absolute plus for me, if you are a little bit sensitive, you’ll be able to feel the group energy even better.
The little downside about this is that not all the recordings are that great. Because they’re also not always professional, sometimes it’s not that in tune. Which it also doesn’t have to be as you can just let yourself go without being perfect as well. Which is a great side of it ;). Of course, if you are listening and singing with headphones, others around you will not be aware that the recordings are out of tune as well.
Luckily, I’ve already made a little list of my favorite recordings that are available. Not only has this playlist my favorite mantras available, but I also picked those that have some better quality as well. They’re still not 100% perfect, but I just like it this way.
#2 Yogaland Podcast
This one is a great podcast for yoga teachers. And, a must-have for all teachers out there, especially beginning yoga teachers. It’s practically one of a kind as there are not that many podcasts that are just for the teachers out there. Well, besides this one I haven’t encountered any…
The great part about this podcast is that you’ll feel you can relate to anything they are talking about. Not only that but being a yoga teacher is being a student for the rest of your life. As there are as many characteristics as people are coming to your class, it can be tough sometimes to teach yoga. Within these podcasts, they tackle all of it! Which is a great free form of education.
If you are a yoga student, it would be a bit hard to follow the things they are talking about, so then I’d advise strongly against listening to this podcast. The talks are about yoga, but they are so focused on teaching yoga that you have to be a yoga teacher to fully grasp what they are talking about.
#3 Yogahealer Podcast
This one is a great podcast to do some soul searching. I’d advise you to listen to these podcasts when you have the time to listen to them as they are going quite deep. It might come in handy too having a notebook next to you as you might want to take some notes when you are listening to some of the podcasts.
The great thing about this channel is that the podcasts aren’t all very lengthy. There are quite a lot that is only going on for about 20 minutes or something. And I have to say that for my attention span that comes in very handy as I tend to dwell when I’m listening to a podcast that is one hour long.
The subjects are very wide and there are a lot of themes. So it might be that not everything will be fitting for you. There are talks about Ayurveda, how to reach your goals, yoga Nidra and more! Cate Stillman is having a very nice and smooth voice, which is great to listen to. Therefore it’s amazing to listen to her podcasts without snoozing off.
I think this comes because she also included exercises within her exercises, which makes her podcast quite interactive and makes you feel part of the show.
#4 Manifest Magic Meditations
This one is quite new, I discovered it recently, so I’m not sure how it’s going to develop. But so far I like it. Vanessa Marie Dewsberry is having such a relaxing voice, and I love the meditations that she provides.
Her latest meditation that I’ve tried out was about empaths and how to release the energy from others. Which has been a great issue for me in my past already. Often I feel like a sponge and how people are feeling is affecting me immensely. Therefore it’s great to have a meditation where you can release that energy and turn it around.
Together with affirmations, she is making her podcasts a blast to listen to. The affirmations make it very easy to stay focused and the music accompanied is suitable as well.
And for me, the greatest thing as well is that the podcasts aren’t that lengthy. I never really liked meditations that are hours and hours long. Not that I didn’t have the time, but with guided meditations, I feel that people are making it way to difficult for what they are trying to achieve. Silent meditations are something different and they are amazing to do for an hour if you are starting to get used to it.
I certainly would love to see and hear more from Vanessa and for now, I will enjoy the meditations that she has on her channel.
#5 Dhammatalks.org Evening Talks
Sometimes, what I find better than meditation, are just having talks about all kinds of the subject around self-awareness. Alright, it’s easy to just be able to meditate and listen to something and gently fall asleep. However, I’m also really interested in the philosophy behind it, and I feel it’s also necessary to know a little bit about it. And when you are listening to great teachers, you’ll also feel the calm that they transmit.
My guru is still Osho and I love to listen to him. However, often I also feel inspired by others. This is at the moment the only real spiritual channel that is just giving some teachings about self-awareness. Which is quite unfortunate, I’ve heard a lot of gurus and it’s a shame that they don’t bundle some of their talks into a podcast.
If any podcast creator is reading this, PLEASE MAKE THIS CHANNEL! I’ll be a true follower of that channel ;).
Conclusion
These are a couple of great podcasts to listen to. I wouldn’t suggest listening to them when you are driving your car as some of them have meditations involved in them. And also, with some channels you’d just need to put your attention into it, which isn’t possible when you are doing something else.
The podcasts are great though when you are commuting. They’ll make your train or bus ride a lot easier and you will have had your meditation for the day! Isn’t that a wonderful thing about technology?
And what about you? What are you listening to at the moment? Let me know in the comment section down below!
Nama-stay wonderful!
Wow! What a great post, I think and believe this is all what my close friend has been looking for, I will first have to share this article to him, he is really concerned with the yoga life, he is your number one fun, always reading your articles, am not sure whether he has read this, i really appreciate the way you present your information, simple and well detailed for anyone to understand, keep up the spirit I believe you inspire more people, I really appreciate you for sharing this content.
Thank you.
Thank you for this compliment Joy, it’s great to hear that people are following my articles š
Due to work stress, I have recently registered for a yoga class and it been areally nice experience There is so much to be learned about yoga, and although I have been reading a lot about it, I still don’t understand some of the things I heard in the yogaland podcast audio you gave in this article and from there I knew being a teacher of yoga isn’t as easy as I have seen it. are there any podcasts for students of yoga?
Hi Benson, podcasts aren’t really ways to talk about poses and everything as they are hard to explain without any visual content. Therefore there aren’t many podcast specifically about yoga. A nice podcast that I listen to occasionally is the “Sometimes We Talk About Yoga” podcast. Just two yogi women who are talking about all kinds of things, like yoga.