You know those yoga classes that have the power to bring you to your knees at the beauty of it all?

The sacred spaces in your practice when your heart cracks wide open and everything just makes sense.

Even if it’s just for a fleeting moment, we get this clarity that shows us we are all connected—not separate.

When we can marvel at the messy, intricate details of our whole-hearted lives and realize they are so damn beautiful when woven together (and when we take the time to notice).

You know those moments.

Music can bring us there. Music can transform.

I love listening to soul stirring playlists on my yoga mat.

I think that the right piece of music, when chosen with love, with a beautiful sequence, can change us.

Irrevocably.

I’m talking—shake us to our core, melt us and leave us shifted and altered in the sweetest, most luminous way.

Coming from an Ashtanga background—practicing and teaching in a quiet room for so many years (which, in hindsight, was exactly what I needed at the time)—one of the reasons I now absolutely love teaching flow and yin is because I get to accompany my classes with heart pumping, deeply moving playlists that (hopefully) leave my students feeling alive, thoughtful and beautifully blessed.

So sweet elephants, without further ado, my playlist for you.

This is for rainy days, juicy yin practices, heart opening conversations with our besties, snuggling with our little ones, smooching with our sweethearts and the days when we feel a little tender.

A little vulnerable.

Here is my version of a super chilled out yoga mix.

Cavalier by James Vincent McMorrow

Such an intimate, warm and exquisite artist. This song has heart, and then some.

Possibility by Lykke Li

Yes. Kinda dark and sombre, but hopeful, and will leave you feeling luminous and completely swept away.

Breathe Me by Sia

Sweet Sia. This song is saturated with soul and stumbles right into your tender heart. To be sure, one of my all time favourites.

Dandelion Wine by Gregory Alan Isakov

Slow, sincere and soothing, this woozy, heartwarming track is so incredibly sweet.

Hey Now by London Grammar

Smokey, raw, real and undoubtedly one of the most beautifully haunting voices out there.

Sweetheart, What Have You Done To Us by Keaton Henson

Vulnerable, graceful, heartbreaking, and so, so lovely.

Stay Alive by Jose Gonzalez

This spirited song leaves me so completely hopeful. Peace. Possibility. This life is meant to be celebrated.

To Build A Home by Cinematic Orchestra (feat. Pat Watson)

Exquisite, elegant, melancholic and beautiful.

Kusanagi by ODESZA

Magic. Sparkly, effervescent magic.

Enjoy, sweet ones.

 

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Author: Shannon MacLaggan

Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Travis May

Photos: Brittany Gillman Photography