Functional Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality
About
Hi, my name is Ava and I’m delighted to offer you “Functional Spirituality”. I invite you to integrate critical thinking into your heart, mystical and faith-based practices. I use an academic approach to investigate the roots of yoga and spirituality. I aim to reduce the dogma that has rendered so many schools and practices ineffective - and strange AF. Spirituality has a history of disempowering the individual, worshiping the guru or priest, without question. In this podcast, I aim to elevate the conversation around spirituality. I want to EMPOWER the meditator and yogi, and debunk the idea that the ‘ancient gurus’ had it all right. This places the power back in our hands, to live directly from our own experience. I hope you enjoy this collection of guided meditations, retreat talks and conversations.
Episodes
- Facilitator Tips for the Community
In this episode, Ava Irani shares practical reflections for facilitators within the Functional Spirituality community on how to hold space in a grounded, clear, and non-over-responsible way. The focus is on supporting others without over-i…
- Do You Think I'm Successful?
Ava Irani examines success from a functional spirituality perspective, challenging external definitions and emphasizing subjective elements like nervous system state and personal values. She reflects on her own journey with success, acknow…
- My Social Media Relationship Status: It's Complicated
This episode of Functional Spirituality with Ava Irani unpacks our complicated relationship with social media, examining how it's designed to capture attention and trigger emotions, yet also holds potential for creativity and connection.
- Personal Healing & Trauma-Informed Meditation with Ryan Hassan
Ryan Hassan and Ava Arani discuss how to approach active core wounds with compassion, referencing Internal Family Systems and the book "No Bad Parts." They also explore the challenges of committing to meditation and the principles of traum…
- Guided Meditation: Loving Presence Through the Body
This guided meditation, led by Ava, uses breathwork and music to foster a sense of love, safety, and ease in the body, encouraging kindness and presence. It aims to support nervous system settling, embodiment, and a deeper connection to on…
- Interview with Ava by Emma Campbell
Emma Campbell and Ava explore the concept of "dropping in" and how embodiment fosters presence and connection. The conversation touches on Ava's journey with silent retreats, the evolution of her teaching to include nervous system health,…
- Guided Meditation: A Spacious Pause for Joy
This guided meditation with Ava guides listeners to slow down, connect with their bodies, and allow a sense of joy, appreciation, and connection to emerge. It aims to support functional healing and spiritual oneness.
- How IFS changed my life
This episode details Ava's personal Internal Family Systems (IFS) breakthrough in India. She explains how protector parts prevent awareness of deeper pain and how healing is achieved through compassion and connection, offering insights for…
- Guided Meditation: Revealing the Stillness Within
This guided meditation, featuring Ava, uses a body scan, breathwork, and loving attention to help release tension and foster inner clarity and presence. It is designed for grounding, softening, and nervous system regulation, suitable for m…
- Guided Meditation: Softening Resistance to Meet the Moment
This guided meditation focuses on softening inner resistance to gently meet the present moment. It invites listeners to ground themselves in the heart space for presence, safety, and ease.
- Guided Meditation: Hridaya Meditation & Awakening
This guided meditation applies Hridaya meditation and Ramana Maharshi's self-enquiry teachings. It uses heart-based attention and enquiry to guide awareness toward its source, promoting natural softening of thoughts and identities for a gr…
- Is there a huge problem with Vinyasa?
This episode discusses how modern vinyasa yoga often deviates from ancient practices, having become an aesthetic invention. It examines toxic trends within the yoga industry, the relinquishing of student authority, and contrasts this with…
- The Pyramid No One Wants to Admit Exists in Coaching
This episode of Functional Spirituality unpacks the invisible pyramid within the coaching and wellness industries, discussing concepts like skill bypassing, surface culture, and cognitive dissonance. It offers a perspective on what genuine…
- Privilege vs. Advantage
This episode of Functional Spirituality features Ava discussing the concept of privilege, its evolution, and its distinction from advantage. It touches upon collective repair, healing, and dismantling unhealthy systems through functional a…
- Loosing a loved one - how to cope with death and loss
This episode addresses the fear of losing a loved one and the process of grief. It offers comfort and insight for those grieving or anticipating loss, exploring acceptance, modern distractions from mortality, and the relationship between g…
- Guided meditation: Coming home to yourself
This guided meditation,
- I'm not good enough
In this episode, Ava discusses her personal struggles with a deep sadness stemming from an unmet childhood need, specifically addressing the feeling of not being good enough. She details her process of integrating this sadness and attuning…
- What is an AWAKE teacher?
This episode clarifies the term “awake teacher” by exploring a functional approach to spirituality. Ava discusses avoiding assumptions and quick conclusions, delving into the rationalization of inappropriate behavior and the importance of…
- Guided meditation for putting your child to sleep
This 10-minute guided meditation with Ava helps parents and children achieve a calm, relaxed state for co-regulation and attunement. The practice promotes connection, presence, and safety, serving as a healing bedtime routine to support ch…
- Intention vs control
This episode distinguishes between intention and control, explaining how intention fosters alignment and effortless motivation, while control arises from unconscious pressure. It guides listeners to recognize these energies, reconnect with…
- How to heal from a traumatic event
This episode explains what trauma is and its physical effects. It details the mechanics of the healing process and explores various methods for addressing traumatic material.
- What exactly does a Therapeutic Embodiment session look like?
This episode explains Therapeutic Embodiment (TE), detailing what occurs in a session and its role in healing complex trauma. TE utilizes somatic principles and interoceptive reflection to manage nervous system stress, offering a new parad…
- How I'm being a good mum
This episode discusses the negative effects of complaining on the body and relationships, offering insights on how reframing challenges positively can foster optimism and improve connections. Ava shares personal experiences and practical e…
- Why are so many people turning Christian?
This episode of Functional Spirituality discusses the increasing number of people turning to Christianity. Host Ava shares personal insights, stories from converts, and perspectives from those who have left the faith, exploring the cultura…
- The Functional Spirituality 3 part method
In this episode, Ava explains the origins of the Functional Spirituality 3-Part Method, detailing its unique approach and foundations. The discussion covers the difference between awakening and deconditioning tools, the importance of inten…
- Guided meditation: Gratitude for healing
This episode features a 15-minute guided meditation led by Ava. The practice focuses on cultivating gratitude as a tool for healing, helping listeners connect with feelings of joy, love, openness, and presence.
- Guided meditation: Deep sleep
This episode of Functional Spirituality features a popular guided meditation for deep sleep, aiming to bring comfort, safety, and calmness to the listener's nervous system and body.
- My (2nd) intense birth story!
Ava recounts the intense, magical, and awe-inspiring birth of her second daughter, Leila, on May 9th. The episode contains graphic details and covers the labor process, escalation, delivery, and immediate postpartum moments.
- What is the root cause of our toxic culture? With Priya, Ava and Anaid
Priya, Ava, and Anaid explore the origins of toxic culture, discussing the impact of disconnection, collective trauma, and survival-driven conditioning on human behavior and societal structures.
- Q: What is Kundalini?
This episode addresses the listener question "What is Kundalini?", tracing its origins from Sanskrit to its cultural significance in India and modern scientific perspectives. Host Ava shares her personal journey and discusses the widesprea…
- Guided meditation: Taking a sacred pause
This guided meditation, led by Anaid, invites listeners to take a sacred pause for rest and self-return. It encourages exploring the inner landscape to release tension and cultivate present moment awareness, fostering a connection to one's…
- Guided meditation: Embodying relaxation and joy
This guided meditation invites listeners to relax their body and explore joy through deep breathing and stillness. The practice aims to foster peacefulness, gratitude, and a connection to inner radiance.
- Guided meditation: Embracing gratitude with ease
This guided meditation, led by Kate, uses gratitude as a path to presence and ease. By focusing on breathing in gratitude, listeners can soften their minds, relax their bodies, and open their hearts, cultivating deep appreciation and effor…
- Guided meditation: Light RAIN technique
This guided meditation with Ava utilizes the light RAIN technique, inspired by Tara Brach, to foster grounding and explore inner experiences by recognizing, allowing, investigating, and nurturing. It aims to increase accessibility to funct…
- Guided meditation: 5-minute relax and clear
This 5-minute guided meditation, led by Ava, is designed for quick relaxation and mental clarity. It aims to provide a sense of calm, suitable for a midday break or starting the day gently. The episode description also highlights free reso…
- The Natural Parent Fallacy
This episode examines the "natural parent" fallacy, exploring how deeply held beliefs about natural health and medicine influence parenting, overall reality, and the nervous system. It discusses shifting from natural to functional perspect…
- Guided meditation: Essence of Being
This guided meditation, led by Ava, encourages listeners to connect with their true nature and find stillness. It aims to increase accessibility to functional healing and non-dual spiritual oneness.
- Guided meditation: Smiling energy technique
This guided meditation, featuring Anaid, uses the smiling energy technique alongside breath and body awareness to help listeners achieve presence and release resistance. Further resources on functional healing and community connection are…
- Guided meditation: Grounding in presence and curiosity
This guided meditation, hosted on Functional Spirituality, invites listeners to cultivate aliveness and relaxation through breathwork, grounding awareness in the heart space with curiosity and kindness.
- Guided meditation: Using the heart space for healing
This episode features a guided meditation led by Ava, focusing on the heart space for healing and inner shifts. The podcast offers additional resources on functional healing, trauma-informed practices, and community connection.
- Guided meditation: Awareness of the breath
This guided meditation focuses on breath awareness, inviting curiosity and relaxation by settling attention on the stillness between breaths. It aims to increase accessibility to functional healing and non-dual spiritual oneness.
- Guided meditation: Creating a regenerative state
This guided meditation by Ava focuses on grounding energy, relaxing the body, and understanding personal needs to foster restoration and balance. It aims to enhance self-awareness and renewal.
- Guided meditation: Anchoring a word for 2025
This guided meditation from Functional Spirituality helps listeners choose a 'word of the year' to bring intention, focus, and clarity to their actions in the new year, emphasizing qualities over goals.
- Guided meditation: Return to presence
This 15-minute guided meditation focuses on returning to presence by connecting with the body and breath. It aims to help listeners experience the qualities of their being and embodied presence.
- Staying Balanced this Holiday
This episode of Functional Spirituality, "Staying Balanced This Holiday," offers journal prompts to help listeners navigate the stress of the holiday season by encouraging rest, reflection, and self-care. Ava shares prompts designed to ide…
- Guided meditation: Calming the nervous system
This guided meditation, a recording from a Monday morning session, focuses on using the body, breath, and earth as anchors to calm and ground the nervous system. It aims to increase accessibility to functional healing and non-dual spiritua…
- Parenthood questions with Ava and Anaid
In this episode, Ava and Anaid explore pivotal questions surrounding parenthood and the decision to have children. They discuss the challenges of motherhood, balancing work and family, concerns about the future, and the impact of technolog…
- Conscious activism & the environment with Stephanie Poly
Ava and Stephanie discuss conscious activism and its connection to the environment, highlighting the role of values and spiritual practices.
- Guided meditation: Ease into now
This episode features a 23-minute guided meditation with music led by Ava, aiming to help listeners slow down, relax, and find inner nourishment. It is part of the Functional Spirituality series, which focuses on healing and spiritual onen…
- Cultivating pleasure when you don't feel good part 2
This episode, the second part of a series, explores practical tools for cultivating joy and pleasure, especially when feeling unwell. It delves into practices such as gratitude, the heart-space, and smiling energy, offering a journal promp…