Ep133: Suzan Colon on Developing a Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance Your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out

Suzan Colon is a yoga expert and speaker, and the author of the book, Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out. I’m thrilled to have her on the show this week to talk about her work and her book. Suzan Colon is a former senior editor for Oprah magazine, Details, Jane, and Harper’s Bazaar, and I have found so much inspiration in what she shares with us this week.

In 2002, shortly after becoming a yoga instructor, Suzan’s friend Francesco had a diving accident that rendered him unable to use his legs or arms. Suzan felt a strong sense that she could help him, and that he could use the properties of yoga to help him heal from the mental, emotional, and physical trauma he’d endured. In her book Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out, she chronicles the first 12 months after Fran’s accident, and, artfully weaves in the lessons of practicing a Yoga Mind for the reader.

In this episode, Suzan Colon and I talk about:

• Her earliest sparks of joy as a child: getting new books and reading them, spending time with her grandparents, and experiencing the art of contentment
• Working as a senior editor for Oprah, Details, Jane, and Harper’s Bazaar
• How working at O Magazine influenced her to follow the spiritual side of teaching yoga
• Training as a yoga instructor, and her desire to teach about the spiritual path of yoga
• Fran’s accident, their friendship, and how Suzan wanted to work with Fran
• Asana as the physical practice of the spiritual
• Maitri and kindness as part of life, and the way we interact with ourselves and others around us
• The role of intuition in following your heart and purpose
• The “Art of Contentment” – and how being content is a noble and joy-adjacent experience
• Finding “Pockets of Santosha” – those moments when you feel a giddy, universal connection with someone or something and act on it in some way
• Moments of joy, and how they make it easier to deal with the rest of life
• How Suzan approaches resistance: Fear and enthusiasm are twins holding hands. She suggests that even when you are afraid, you “do it scared”
• How to Jump Start Your Joy: by being kind, generating peace as part of our job on the planet, and taking the risk to do something you’ve always wanted to do

Resources
Suzan Colon’s Website
Suzan Colon’s book: Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance Your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out
How We Choose to be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People - Their Secrets, Their Stories by Tarcher Parigee (on Amazon)
Rick Springfield's interview with Lori Majewski on SiriusXM
Episode with Fred LeBlanc on Jump Start Your Joy
Episode with Julia Samuel on Jump Start Your Joy
Practicing the Vibration of Joy episode