Sacred Listening Podcast
Conversations and guided practices for reclaiming self-care by listening inward.
April 14, 2025
Ep 26: Diaphragmatic breathing for perinatal care with Dr Samantha Quezet
The following episode is a guide practice meant to accompany the previous episode. For context, please refer to the previous episode. *** Diaphragmatic breathing is a powerful tool to connect to our deep core and pelvic floor during the prenatal and postpartum periods...and beyond! Not only does it help strengthen and relax our deep abdominal muscles, it is a simple practice for managing stress as well. Follow along Dr Samantha Quezet's guided practice for diaphragmatic breathing.
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April 14, 2025
Ep 25: The truth about postpartum care nobody talks about
There is a drastic difference in postpartum care between the Eastern and Western cultures, in which we explore in this episode with Dr Samantha Quezet. In the East, there is an emphasis on nurturing the mother during the month-long postpartum period, whereas in the West, it is more DIY. Dr. Samantha Quezet shares her insights on the significance of prenatal and postnatal care, and personal experiences with postpartum confinement. The discussion highlights the need for a cultural shift in how we view motherhood and self-care, advocating for a more supportive environment for mothers.
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March 9, 2025
Ep 24: Matrescence Part 2 - Reflection on one year into motherhood
They say that motherhood changes your life, and we had expected it to, but we weren’t prepared to the extent that the changes brought our lives. As we celebrate our baby girl's 1st birthday, I am reflecting on this whirlwind of a year full of extreme emotions, of being able to love so unconditionally, and on the self-nurture lessons I learned along the way. LISTEN IN: The unconventional way of me realizing that I want to become a mother How becoming a mother is healing my wound My struggle with my identity in the first few months postpartum The science behind nurture, and why acts of self-nurture extends beyond just nourishing oneself Photo credit: Andrew Wardlow
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March 9, 2025
Ep 23: Matrescence Part 1 - On self-nurture, healing, and compassion from C-section
Our baby girl is turning one! In celebration of her 1 year birthday, I am sharing a glimpse into my pregnancy journey and birth experience, what I learned about self-nurture (and what it is NOT!) in the process of becoming a mother. To be honest, I struggled with a lot of disappointment and guilt for myself with the outcome of the birth experience, and I did a lot of inner work to turn myself around from that. LISTEN IN to this episode on: My experiences on pregnancy, labor, and having had to transition to unplanned C-section Grief over not having had the birth experience I had envisioned Reframing my definition of self-nurture towards myself to resolve the disappointment around the unplanned C-section The importance of accepting the imperfect nature of self-nurture, that it is always an evolving relationship with yourself
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February 4, 2025
Ep 22: 7-Min Morning Contemplation (Gratitude, Forgiveness, Guidance)
In Episode 21, our guest Heather Grzych concluded that if there was one thing she wished everyone could do for their own self-nurture, it would be to spend a few minutes of quiet contemplation or meditation as we watch the sun rise. In this episode, I've included a simple guided contemplation that I learned 14 years ago, and still use till this day, to start my mornings. Listen and practice along with this recording the first few times, then take it with you in your quiet mornings.
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February 4, 2025
Ep 21: Nurturing our reproductive health and fertility with Heather Grzych
Fertility is an issue that usually doesn’t cross a birthing person’s mind until they are thinking about getting pregnant or having trouble getting pregnant. But fertility actually starts with a good foundation of not only healthy tissues, but also a healthy connection with one’s body and oneself. Even though becoming pregnant is a very natural occurrence, the way we live our lives today is anything but natural, which can affect the health of our reproductive tissues, our hormonal balances, and the levels of toxins within our bodies, just to name a few. Caring for our reproductive health is, after all, self-nurture. Today, I’m speaking with a friend of mine, and also someone I look up to, Heather Grzych, on the topic of fertility through Ayurveda lens. If you’re not familiar with Ayurveda, it’s a sister science of yoga, and we will be discussing it briefly during the episode, though it doesn’t do it justice to the complex system of art and science that it is.
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October 21, 2024
Ep 20: Medita con Elena en Español
Elena Velez , the Founder/Director of Community Restorative Training (CRT), brings 18 years of experience as a Certified Medical Interpreter (CHI) to create a bilingual stress reduction wellness program for essential workers. Her insights from community behavioral practices, learned through interpr
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October 21, 2024
Ep 19: Self-care for marginalized communities with Elena Velez
People of color and marginalized communities, who face a disproportionate amount of societal stress and burden, are often the ones who need self-nurture the most. But because of the economy around self-care, it is inaccessible to them, let alone enough time for themselves to think about how they can care for and nurture themselves. That is why, today, I asked Elena Velez, founder and director of Community Restorative Training, to be here with us today to speak on this very important mission she is on — to educate and bring accessibility of self-nurture to marginalized communities.
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August 28, 2024
Ep 18: How to abhyanga (Ayurvedic oil massage) with Yvette Racines
Abhyganga, or Ayurvedic self-massage, applies warmed oil (oftentimes infused with herbs for unique bodily constitutions) to our entire body from head (including scalp) to toes. This ancient and traditional practice helps with regulating the nervous system, nourishing the skin, and relieving tension from muscles and tendons. Yvette guides us into a simplified practice of Abhyanga that you can easily fit into your busy schedule!
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August 25, 2024
Ep 17: Self-care for perimenopause
How often do we feel that we are not in control when it comes to our hormonal health, and that we are unfortunate victims when it comes to menstruation and menopause? In this episode, I speak with Yvette Racines, founder of Vital Living Wellness, an Ayurveda inspired bodycare brand, on simple self-care and self-nurture practices that can aid us throughout our hormonal transitions, especially the transition into menopause. Listen IN to our conversation on self-care principles based in Ayurveda for a more easeful perimenopausal period. Even if you are not yet in that stage in your life, or past that, Yvette's tips are timeless and foundational for all, even non-menstruating folks.
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August 5, 2024
Ep 15: Lean into the superpowers of our menstrual cycles with Nicole Tillotson
Many of us are oblivious to the knowledge and awareness that how we care for our menstrual cycles can greatly impact our energy, mood, sleep, PMS symptoms, and more. Furthermore, when we choose to ignore, alter, and/or suppress the natural rhythms of our menstrual cycles, our entire bodily functions can be thrown off course, resulting in hormonal-related health issues. Listen in to my conversation with Nicole Tillotson, founder of Season and Cycle, on menstrual health, cycle syncing, and how we can actually revitalize our health when we lean into the little known secret superpowers of our menstrual cycles! We discuss the different inner “seasons” of the menstrual cycle and self-care practices appropriate for each “season” for ultimate self-nurture.
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July 22, 2024
Ep 14: Guided relaxation for inner rest and nourishment
This short and sweet yoga nidra / guided relaxation practice is suitable for when you are in a pinch with time, yet feel the need to nurture yourself. Embrace rest with these little moments of self-soothing to help regulate your nervous system throughout the day. The yoga nidra guides you through the contemplation that, when you tend to your body, your body will tend to you in return.
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July 22, 2024
Ep 13: Resisting against rest
In this episode, Elaine explores our relationship with rest and the resistance many of us have towards it. She shares her own journey of learning to embrace rest and the importance of balancing busyness with rest. Elaine encourages listeners to have an honest conversation about their relationship with rest and to reframe the idea of deserving rest. She emphasizes that rest is the foundation for success and caring for oneself and others. The episode concludes with a reminder to constantly listen to our bodies and adapt our forms of rest as our circumstances change.
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July 9, 2024
Ep 12: Guided meditation to anchor into yourself
This guided meditation helps you anchor into yourself, so that you can reconnect to who you are and what you value. This is a perfect accompanying practice with Episode 11: Prioritize Your Days Better With This Simple Trick. Use this meditation to help you with the exercise discussed in Episode 11.
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July 9, 2024
Ep 11: Prioritize your days better with this simple trick
Have you ever sat yourself down on the couch at the end of the day, feeling completely exhausted from a busy day, and yet, you couldn't quite remember exactly what you did? This is because we often fill our days somewhat mindlessly with busy activities that feel urgent (but may not be so important), and by the end of it all, you still didn't complete what you set out to do that day. And forget about personal down time! In this episode, discover a simple experiment that can help you reprioritize your days so that you can include your self-care, family time, work, hobbies, and other activities without having to choose. This experiment is inspired by Stephen Covey, author of \"7 Habits of Highly Effective People.\"
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June 26, 2024
Ep 9: Mental self-care and redefining “setting boundaries” with Irene Oyang
Can \"setting boundaries\" with other people be yet another form of finger-pointing rather than turning the mirror back to ourselves? How do we know whether we are trying to avoid a healing opportunity (which can be messy and painful) by \"setting boundaries?\" Listen in to this week's {potentially} controversial topic with my very dear sister Irene as my guest. We speak about: How we can miss out on healing opportunities and bypass deeper self-work when we are too quick to set boundaries with people who trigger us Recognizing good stress, and balancing stress with rest for better personal growth, healing, and development The need for everyone to reinvestigate our old emotional wounds rather than never ripping off the Band-aids
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June 26, 2024
Ep 10: Guided contemplation and journaling for setting compassionate boundaries
Every event and/or interaction that feels triggering to you can be an opportunity for further self-reflection and self-healing. This guided contemplation and journaling practice takes you through a compassionate exploration into your more reactive moments in certain events and/or interactions with people. While holding this compassionate space for yourself, reflect upon how you can communicate to set healthy, compassionate boundaries.
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June 9, 2024
Ep 8: Feel your feelings, get to sleep (Guided Meditation with Lauren Ziegler)
Why is it so hard for us to fall asleep at night? In the previous episode, sleep coach Lauren Ziegler suggests that it's in those quiet, dark hours of the night when our feelings catch up to us to a point of overwhelming us. In this guided meditation, she guides us through a tender journey of feeling our feelings and softening into them rather than fighting against them to help us get peacefully to sleep.
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June 9, 2024
Ep 7: Improve your sleep quality to regulate your emotions with Lauren Ziegler
In this episode, I have the honor of having Lauren Ziegler, IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a sleep coach to discuss the importance of sleep, and how it impacts our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Lauren also shares her experience with sleep difficulties and how she overcame them through yoga nidra and meditation. She discusses five ways to know whether your sleep quality is poor, how sleep and emotional regulations are closely tied to one another, and offers tips on improving sleep by practicing mindfulness during the day.
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May 26, 2024
Ep 6: Guided meditation for busyness, urgency, and
We are often driven by the insecure need to keep accomplishing and achieving things in this busyness culture. When this need is driven by the feeling that no matter what we do, it never is enough, then success becomes a constantly moving target. This guided meditation is designed to anchor ourselves back into what we already have, what we have already accomplished, and the fact that who we are, right here and right now, is already enough. There is no need to prove anything else to anybody, and especially, ourselves.
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May 26, 2024
Ep 5: Is burnout real? Transforming busyness and exhaustion to nourishment and flow
Have you noticed that oftentimes when asked: “how are you?”, many reply by saying: “oh, I’ve been super busy.” Busyness seems to be a badge of honor nowadays. There’s this constant need to do, achieve, perform, and succeed. While there is nothing wrong with accomplishing goals in healthy measures, when there’s an obsession with it, when the drive to accomplish stems from feeling insecure about ourselves, then that could be a recipe for burnout. In this episode, we discuss the burning (pun intended) question: \"Is burnout real?\" We will dive into the definition of burnout, what leads to burnout, and my own personal story of how I burnt out 3 times (and probably still counting) and how I regained my inner strength by nurturing myself.
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May 13, 2024
Ep 3: Self-nurture: redefining and revolutionizing self-care
What is self-nurture and how does it differ from self-care? This is the topic we are going to explore in today’s episode, and you can say is my crusade in revolutionizing the way we think about self-care, or rather, RECLAIM what self-care is for ourselves rather than being SOLD what self-care is. We will discuss why self-care portrayed by the media is inaccessible and unsustainable, and what you can do instead to take care of yourself without the glitz and glamor.
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May 13, 2024
Ep 4: Meditation - Find what nourishes your soul
This meditation practice guides you through a body scan and a inner contemplative experience to discover what truly nourishes your body, mind, and soul. The purpose is to find your own unique self-nurture practice that you look forward to do a few times a day on a daily basis.
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May 13, 2024
Ep 2: Somatic practice to tune in to your body
This somatic practice takes you through a slow and mindful journey in your body to hone your listening skills for your bodily sensations. By slowing down a simple movement rather than rushing through it mechanically, we get to pick up on so much more about what our body is trying to tell us.
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May 13, 2024
Ep 1: How to listen IN to our own body’s wisdom
Welcome to our very first episode of the Sacred Listening podcast! In today's episode, I am laying out the meaning behind Sacred Listening, and how I aim to guide you to \"listen IN\" to your body with this podcast. Chances are, if you've been living an over-scheduled, over-busy life, you haven't listened to what your body's needs are lately. Tune in to learn more about how to return to your body's wisdom to nurture, rather than neglect, your own self.
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April 30, 2024
Introducing: The Sacred Listening Podcast
Welcome to the Sacred Listening podcast — a sanctuary for those who feel overwhelmed, overscheduled, and overbusy. I’m your host, Elaine Oyang, IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. In this podcast, we explore the various paths of restoring balance in our body from issues such as depletion, anxiety, chronic pain, and stress. We do this by redefining what self-care means on an individual level as we dive into cutting-edge research, personal stories, expert interviews, as well as listening in to the magic and mysticism of our body’s wisdom. I welcome you to join us to reclaim self-agency over your health and wellbeing, launching soon on May 13, 2024.
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