Skillful Means Podcast
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.
Find out more: https://www.skillfulmeanspodcast.com and https://www.sati.yoga
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 29 minutes
- Episodes
- 125
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
#112: Mindfulness Meditation Guided Practice
In order to be an open-hearted, compassionate person, we first have to notice the things things that need our support. This is where mindfulness — the practice of presence — com…
#111 Awakening the Heart Part 3: Generosity of Spirit with Lauren Goldberg
In Part 3 of the Awakening the Heart series, we're looking at why acts of kindness and service are powerful resilience-builders — possibly the exact things we need if we're to o…
#110 Transform Suffering with Brief Tonglen Guided Practice
Tonglen - the practice of sending and receiving - helps us to be with hardship without falling into despair. An explanation of the practice appears in the Lojong teachings and …
#109 Awakening the Heart Part 2: Training in Compassion
Continuing our series on Awakening the Heart, this month we're exploring the Buddhist path of the bodhisattva through the cultivation of bodhicitta - the awakened heart-mind tha…
#108 Awakening Heart Meditation
In this variation of loving-kindness, or metta, meditation, tap into the energetic resonance of the heart to awaken loving feelings within before sending them outward.
Inspired …
#107 Awakening the Heart Part 1: Accentuate the Positive
While the world may feel increasingly more fraught, we can't sustain ourselves on anger and fear alone. We must remember what we're fighting for and, as Tennessee Williams asks …
#106 Strong Back, Soft Front Guided Meditation
This month's practice features an embodied mediation to help you stay present with life's challenges without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.
Inspired by Roshi Joan Halifa…
#105 Embracing Difficult Emotions
This month, we're looking at a question that comes up a lot:
All parts are supposed to be welcome, but how do we work with feelings we don't like?
Drawing on Buddhist wisdom and t…
#104 Earth and Sky Guided Visualization Practice
The Taoists believe that we can harness the stabilizing qualities of Earth Qi along with the generative qualities of Heaven/Sky Qi to improve physical health, increase longevit…
#103 I See You, I'm With You Guided IFS Practice
There are definitely times when we need to get a hold of ourselves. But how do we do that without dismissing our feelings?
This brief Parts Work practice is for moments when you…
#102 Standing Your Ground + Leading with Spiritual Values
Grounding practices are more than just coping mechanisms during tumultuous times. They're empowering strategies to discharge excess emotional energy while tap rooting your inner…
#101 Working with Resistance Guided IFS Practice
Instead of speculating endlessly about why you might be avoiding something, ask the part that's hesitating!
Based on Internal Family Systems (IFS), this guided parts work practic…
#100 What's Stopping You? Buddhist and IFS Perspectives on Resistance
Ever wonder why you feel resistant to doing something that you actually want to do?
This month we're unpacking the complexities of resistance through Buddhist teachings and IFS …
#99 Come Home to Yourself, Yin Yoga Guided Practice
As a practice of being, Yin Yoga creates a unique container for exploring the restless impulses to fix while encouraging us to relax into self-acceptance.
In this short practice…
#98 Who says you should? Uncover what matters to you.
Feeling the pressure to do all the things?
This episode explores the balancing act between living up to expectations, following the rules, and being true to yourself.
• Identify…
Preview Pod: Upaya (Skillful Means) As Life Practice
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…
Skillful Means Podcast is returning!
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 prev…
#97 Delighting In Joy Guided Practice
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, a…
#96 Portals of Mindfulness Guided Practice
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…
#95 Tonglen Guided Practice
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 p…