My Daily Thread

About My Daily Thread

thread sutra, (Sanskrit: "thread" or "string") Welcome to My Daily Thread. A little slice of wisdom from the ages. From Patanjali through the present, a little riff to make your day! That's the thread, the sutra, the wise string that binds us all together.

Publisher

Jeff Lichty

Category

education · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Apr 2024

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

299 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   303: Mirror, mirror on the wall... yo! don't lie to me! - Svādhyāya

   Svādhyāya is usually translated as "self-study." In this episode, looks at it as a mirror, and asks whether we're willing to look into it honestly. Snow White's Evil Queen asks the mirror who's the fairest of them all. It's a fair question. She just doesn't want the real answer. She wants flattery. But the mirror can only tell the truth, and that tension is where the teaching lives. A little Sanskrit Svādhyāya is made of two parts: sva = one's own, the self adhyāya = going into, study, reading, a lesson (from adhi + i, "to go toward, to go over") So svādhyāya is literally "going into one's own." It can mean studying scripture, repeating a mantra, or turning honest attention on yourself. In Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras, svādhyāya is one of the five niyamas, or personal observances, listed in Sūtra 2.32 (śauca, santoṣa, tapas, svādhyāya, īśvara praṇidhāna). It's also one of the three parts of kriyā yoga in Sūtra 2.1, along with tapas and īśvara praṇidhāna. Sūtra 2.44 says that through svādhyāya we come into connection with what we hold sacred. In this episode: Where the mirrors in your life come from: an honest (and hopefully kind) friend, a scripture, a mantra, a teacher Why our first instincts get in the way: defensiveness when criticized, resentment when disappointed, envy when someone else succeeds Why those reactions are often pointing at the very thing we need to see Finding the pause, and what to do inside it A reframe from Kabbalah teacher David Ghiyam: pause, then tell yourself, "What a gift." Jeff's body-based version: notice the fight/flight/freeze response, exhale fully, let the exhale be the pause, hold the breath out for a moment, then bring kind curiosity and say, "This is a gift." Try this for the next couple of days: Notice the trigger (defensiveness, resentment, envy, inadequacy). Exhale fully. Let the exhale be the pause. With kind curiosity, say to yourself: "This is a gift." Let it settle into your system and your day. Question to carry with you: Are you willing to look in the mirror and see yourself as you are? Thanks to Madonna for the inspiration on the Kabbalah study. Welcome to My Daily Thread, a little snippet of wisdom from the yoga and meditation masters to start your day. Om, Peace, Out!

2. 

   13 Oct 2026

   302. Svādhyāya: Who Do You Think You Are!?

   302. Svādhyāya: Who Do You Think You Are!? How well do you really know yourself? What if getting to know yourself is getting to know the Divine? We've been exploring the niyamas in Patañjali's Yoga Sutras—five practices that encourage us to examine and cultivate our inner lives. After our recent series on tapas, the discipline and inner fire of transformation, we arrive at the fourth niyama: Svādhyāya — self-study. In Yoga Sutra 2.44, Patañjali tells us: svādhyāyād iṣṭa-devatā-saṃprayogaḥ Through svādhyāya, communion with one's chosen deity is attained. Wait, What!? A deity? Isn't self-study supposed to be about understanding ourselves? Of course! But perhaps there's something deeper. We spend enormous amounts of time studying everything around us. Other people's behaviour. Relationships. The news. Social media. Finances. What everyone else is doing. But how much time do we spend studying ourselves? And when we do look inward, are we learning—or simply criticizing ourselves? There's a difference between recognizing our reactivity and condemning ourselves for it, and recognizing that same reactivity with kindness and curiosity. Self-study isn't about finding more reasons to judge ourselves. It's about becoming curious enough to learn. We first explored svādhyāya in Episodes 206 and 207, looking at how discipline creates space for reflection, how sacred texts become mirrors for our behaviour, and how mantra recitation can support our practice. We also considered a wonderful approach to everyday life: "Let's see what the world presents." What if every experience—pleasant or unpleasant—offers an opportunity to learn something about ourselves? That's where svādhyāya moves beyond studying books and becomes a practice of living. Over the next few episodes, we'll explore this fourth niyama more deeply, including its traditional connection to sacred study, mantra, and the Divine. For today, consider this: What is life presenting to me, and what can I learn about myself through that experience? Not with judgment. But with kindness, curiosity, and a willingness to grow. Yoga Sutra 2.44 svādhyāyād iṣṭa-devatā-saṃprayogaḥ Om, Peace, Out!

3. 

   7 Oct 2026

   301. Tapas: Burning Down the House!

   301. Tapas: Burning Down the House! If a little heat transforms us, isn't more heat better? In this final episode on tapas, we return to Yoga Sutra 2.43: kāyendriya-siddhir aśuddhi-kṣayāt tapasaḥ Through tapas, impurities are diminished or worn away, bringing accomplishment or mastery of the body and senses. But how much heat is too much? Fire can cook your dinner. Fire can also burn your house right down to the ground. The same can be true of discipline. After decades of practicing Ashtanga Yoga, I'm grateful for the discipline of showing up, practicing when I didn't feel like practicing, and staying with it year after year. But as I've gotten older — and hopefully a little wiser — my relationship with discipline has changed. My body has changed. My ability to recover has changed. And my understanding of practice has changed. Which raises an important question: Is your discipline serving your life — or have you started serving the discipline? We need some friction for transformation. But if our practice is constantly injuring us, making us rigid, becoming obsessive, or feeding our ego, maybe what we're practicing isn't tapas anymore. Sometimes tapas means showing up and doing the difficult thing. Sometimes it means accepting what life has given us. And sometimes tapas is having the patience to allow time to do its healing. So as we finish this series on tapas, ask yourself: Is my discipline making me more rigid — or more compassionate? Is it making me more judgmental — or more capable of accepting life exactly as it is? And if I'm increasingly grasping and gripping for control: Is that tapas — or is it ego? Yoga Sutra 2.43 kāyendriya-siddhir aśuddhi-kṣayāt tapasaḥ Om, Peace, Out!

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings