Unlocking Gateways to Your True Nature with Yoga, Meditation, Breathwork, and Beyond with Luke Wientzen

Today our guest is a guy who has the word zen in his name, my amigo Luke Wientzen returns to the show for a full length episode. In case you missed it, Luke was on the show for a microdose nature episode #6 where he led us through meditation three ways. Please check that out if you missed it. Luke Wientzen has been a yoga, breathwork, and mindfulness teacher for the past 15 years and also worked as a public high school special education teacher for 18 years. He’s the Co-Founder of Our Breath Collective and the Founder of Inner Echo. Luke has been curious his entire life about the greater mystery of this human existence. He has studied with many masters in a wide range of practices, from yoga - for its physical embodiment and therapeutic healing approaches - to various breath techniques, energy medicine, martial arts, and several schools of meditation. Luke passionately shares wisdom from his own direct experiences in the interest of furthering the benefits of healing and awakening to himself and others in his life and communities.We open up today’s convo with a brief meditation guided by Luke, then dive into his early nature influences feeling the sharp change of seasons, we talk about his journey to each of his practices, how he learned to reframe his relationship with pain from a yoga-induced back injury (including visualizing yourself in the flow walking into Studio 54 in 1977, just groovy with some fresh threads on!). We get into how he weaves together yoga, meditation, and breathwork as gateway practices for revealing your true nature, living in a greater sense of wholeness, and living from the heart. We discuss the subjective similarities between psychedelics and meditation spurred by a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and of course we learn how Luke defines nature and how he microdoses it regularly.  Episode Links@lwzen Luke Wientzen on Instagram Inner Echo (main place to sign up for work with Luke)The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez documentary by Stacy PeraltaTias LittleEsalen InstituteHenry Shukman at Mountain Cloud Zen CenterTim Ferriss Show Podcast (Episode #531): Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs. Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the DoorwayTim Ferriss Show Podcast (Episode #560): Zen Master Henry Shukman — 20 Minutes of Calm, Plus the Strange and Powerful World of KoansWaking Up App by Sam HarrisDogenZen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceLoch KellyHuberman Lab podcastNature by Ralph Waldo EmersonOn Having No Head by Douglas HardingKenshoConnect with Nature Junkie@NatureJunkieRadio on InstagramEmail: [email protected] (submit a microdose of nature by emailing a 30-60 second voice memo with your name, how you microdose nature and how it makes you feel so we can share it with the community)Newsletter SignupShow Production CreditsPodcast cover art by Ahab Nimry (@ahabnimry, https://bigdaytheagency.com/)Outro music on acoustic guitar by Tyler JohnsonEnjoy the Ride,Jeff