Yoga, Ayurveda & Somatic Wisdom for Modern Life

About Yoga, Ayurveda & Somatic Wisdom for Modern Life

Are you someone with a full life who has genuinely tried a lot - different practices, different approaches, different ways of feeling better - and still find yourself wondering why something isn't quite landing? Or maybe you're a yoga practitioner or teacher who loves the mat, and is starting to sense there's a deeper layer waiting: in Ayurveda, in nervous system work, in understanding what's actually happening underneath the poses? This podcast lives at that intersection. I'm Maxi Meissner - yoga teacher, Ayurveda counselor, nervous system coach, and PhD in medical sciences. My work draws on 20+ years of Ashtanga yoga and Ayurveda practice, Somatic Experiencing training, and years of biomedical research. What fascinates me - and what this podcast is really about - is that ancient Vedic wisdom and modern nervous system science are often describing the same thing. Just in different language. And when you start to understand both, something clicks. Here we go beyond quick fixes and surface-level wellness. We talk honestly about rhythm, regulation, and what it means to digest life - not just food, but experiences, stress, change, and everything in between. About why knowing what helps isn't always enough. And about how real, lasting change tends to be quieter, slower, and kinder than we've been told. No rigid rules. No performing wellness. Just grounded conversations where science, lived experience, and ancient wisdom sit comfortably at the same table. Episodes are in English and Dutch - because language, like healing, is personal. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. More of my work lives at www.maximeissner.nl (http://www.maximeissner.nl). Come say hello on Instagram @maximeissner or LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/maximeissner.

Publisher

Maxi Meissner

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Apr 2026

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

15 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Regulated Doesn't Mean Calm

   Nervous system regulation is one of the most talked-about concepts in wellness right now. But there's a misunderstanding embedded in how it's often presented, that a regulated nervous system means a calm one. That the goal of all this work is a kind of settled, peaceful equanimity. This episode explores and challenges that. Because regulation doesn't mean calm. It means capacity and responsiveness, the ability to move, to activate when life calls for it, to settle when settling is appropriate...

2. 

   15 Sept 2026

   The Room That Breathes

   A few weeks ago I taught the first workshop of three Embodied Ashtanga Yoga workshops here in Groningen. We spent a full day exploring the breath, not just talking about it but practicing with it, exploring nuance. Feeling it. Noticing what it does, what it changes, what becomes available when it's present and what gets lost when it disappears. And afterward, a few participants came up to me, sharing some version of: The breath landed more deeply. Not just the why, but something in their body...

3. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Room to Land - On Orientation, Safety and Settling

   This episode is about something that sounds almost too simple but that I've come to believe is one of the most foundational things the nervous system needs in any new or unfamiliar situation. (And isn't it often the thing that seems the most simple, that is really important...?) Orientation. From a Somatic Experiencing perspective, orientation is the nervous system's way of asking: Where am I, and is it safe enough to be here? Before it can settle, connect, learn or grow. It's the quiet scann...

4. 

   24 Aug 2026

   From the Inside Out #7: When Effort Becomes the Problem

   This is the last episode in the mini-series From the Inside Out - and perhaps a topic you recognize. We explore force, restriction and willpower... over-efforting. The strict protocol. The intense regime. The renewed resolve that starts on Monday. These are some of the most normalised approaches to health and wellbeing in our culture, and also, often, some of the least effective for creating lasting change. This episode explores why, and why that's not a personal failing but a very understand...

5. 

   15 Jul 2026

   From the Inside Out #6 - Catching Relief Is Not the Same as Building Rhythm

   This one opens a little more conversational than usual, I talk a little about my summer, about camping, and the particular satisfaction of moving toward something rather than having it handed to you. And then it finds its way to the occasional yoga class, the spa day, the breath work session, the massage that unknots something for an afternoon, the cold plunge that gives you that jolt of aliveness for a little bit. All these things feel good. Really good. And that's not nothing, that's real. ...

6. 

   29 Jun 2026

   From the Inside-Out #5 - Your Body Is Not A Dashboard

   About twelve years ago I got a step counter, a simple one. And within a few weeks I stopped wearing it, not because it didn't work, but because it was taking the felt sense and joy out of walking. I was tracking my steps instead of feeling my feet on the ground. That small experience stayed with me. And I think about it a lot now, in a wellness culture where tracking everything, sleep, HRV, recovery, readiness (soon hormones) has become not just normalised but actively encouraged. This episod...

7. 

   22 Jun 2026

   From the Inside Out #4 - From the Outside In: What Passive Consumption Misses

   Maybe your bathroom shelf looks a little like a small pharmacy. Ashwagandha. Magnesium glycinate. Vitamin D3 with K2. A probiotic. A stress support complex with adaptogens and B vitamins or a menopause complex with all things that sound ancient and powerful. And you pay a lot of money for the supplements. About ten years ago I worked with a practitioner who put me on a supplement protocol. Around ten different pills a day. I gagged taking them. My body was telling me something. I just wasn't ...

8. 

   15 Jun 2026

   From the Inside Out #3 - Beyond the Story

   Many people who find their way to this kind of work have already tried a few things or more, sometimes (talk) therapy, coaching, self-inquiry, sometimes years of it. They understand themselves (very) well. And yet in their body and in the actual felt experience of daily life something hasn't often shifted (much). This episode explores why. And specifically, why some of what we carry lives beyond what language and conversation can fully reach. This isn't a criticism of therapy, which is genuin...

9. 

   8 Jun 2026

   Why It Hasn't Worked #2: The Gap Between Insight and Change

   You've probably read the books. Listened to the podcasts. Done the research. You understand your patterns, your attachment style, your dosha - maybe better than most people understand theirs. And yet something still hasn't quite shifted. This episode explores one of the most common, and least visible, gaps in the healing process: The gap between insight and change. Between knowing something intellectually and actually living it or experiencing life differently. Between understanding you...

10. 

    1 Jun 2026

    Why It Hasn't Worked #1: What Keeps Us Stuck - Even When We're Trying

    Maybe you've already tried a lot. The therapy, the supplements, the morning routine, the retreat that felt transformative - for a bit.. Maybe you're functioning well on the outside and running on empty on the inside. Or you simply have the quiet sense that something still isn't quite landing - despite everything you've already done. This episode opens a new mini-series: Why It Hasn't Worked - And What Your Body Actually Needs. Not to dismiss what you've tried. Not to add more to your list. Bu...

11. 

    18 May 2026

    You Were Never Actually on Trial: For anyone who has ever felt like they had to earn their place

    This episode runs 50 minutes - grab a tea. Maybe you know the feeling of working hard to be believed. Of achieving a lot and still waiting, somewhere underneath, to be found out. Of freezing exactly when you most want to speak up. In this episode I share something personal - more personal than I usually go. I talk about being born two months premature, what the doctors told my mother, and the math sessions that followed. And I talk about what my nervous system was actually doing in those mome...

12. 

    11 May 2026

    Ashtanga Yoga: Thuiskomen in je lichaam (Nederlands)

    Aflevering 4 - en de eerste in het Nederlands. Ashtanga yoga als oefening in ritme, veiligheid en innerlijk leven Sommige afleveringen van deze podcast zijn in het Engels, sommige in het Nederlands... en dit is de eerste Nederlandse. Aflevering 3 gaat ook over Ashtanga yoga, maar dan in het Engels. Dit zijn geen vertalingen van elkaar. Elke aflevering heeft zijn eigen leven, zijn eigen verhaal, zijn eigen ingang. Dit is de mijne - in het Nederlands. En misschien hoor je aan mijn stem dat he...

13. 

    4 May 2026

    Coming Home to Your Body - Ashtanga Yoga as a Practice of Rhythm, Safety and Inner Awareness

    This episode is one of my favourites so far - and honestly, one I've been wanting to record for a long time. Twenty years of practicing Ashtanga, fifteen years of teaching it. There is so much I love about this practice and so much I wanted to share. The passion probably shows. And there is still so much more to explore - so yes, more episodes herein are coming. (Tip: this one works well at 1.25x speed 😊) Whether you've been practicing Ashtanga for years, are quietly curious about it, or have...

14. 

    27 Apr 2026

    The Doing Was the Sedation - and Why Nothing Quite Lands

    Maybe you wake up already overwhelmed before the day has even begun. Maybe you're functioning well on the outside but there's a quiet voice underneath asking: is this really all there is? Maybe you've tried a lot of things - and they helped, a little, for a while - but something still isn't quite landing. In this episode, I go into the heart of why I work the way I do - bringing together yoga, Ayurveda, and nervous system work - and why so many people are still struggling even after trying a ...

15. 

    20 Apr 2026

    Welcome - This Is Where It Begins

    Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. This first episode is an honest introduction: Who I am, what I do and why this podcast has been quietly waiting to begin for longer than I'd like to admit. I share a little about my path - from growing up in East Germany to becoming a world champion rower at 17, through years in medical science, psychology and research, to twenty-plus years of Ashtanga yoga, Ayurveda and nervous system work. And the part that maybe matters most: What I learned from my o...

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

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

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