Shows / KIZUKI the Podcast
KIZUKI the Podcast
KIZUKI the Podcast is a collection of inspiring stories that center around the Japanese concept of kizuki. The host, author and awarded yoga teacher Mae Yoshikawa defines kizuki as a moment of epiphany, an ‘aha’ of realization or insight which opens the knower to a new dimension of truth.
Diving into an up close and personal telling of the kizukis that have starkly shifted Mae’s perspective and transformed her life and mind, it is Mae’s hope that these episodes may serve as a catalyst to…
Episodes
KIZUKI the Podcast074 The Great, the Radical, and the Subtle
Mae explores the outsized language of “great” and “radical” in American culture, contrasting it with Japan’s reverence for subtle perception. She reflects on…
KIZUKI the Podcast073 The Entitlement of the Victim Identity
Mae shares how a fleeting thought at lunch with a friend revealed a hidden entitlement rooted in generational victimhood. She reframes the cycle, offering a…
KIZUKI the Podcast072 Drop the Cynic
Mae reflects on cynicism as her old survival mechanism—how it shaped her identity, how her late husband’s neutrality mirrored it back, and how grief revealed…
KIZUKI the Podcast071 The Body Keeps the Score
Mae shares a deeply personal realization from her summer trip to the Philippines, where witnessing her children’s care and emotional maturity helped her body…
KIZUKI the Podcast070 Can You Love and Still Leave?
Mae revisits her first heartbreak—a relationship that ended not in betrayal, but in distance and care. She explores the emotional contradiction of grieving…
KIZUKI the Podcast069 Safety First
Mae reflects on how early childhood shaped her relationship to trust, and how love can’t truly land unless it first feels safe. Drawing from attachment theory…
KIZUKI the Podcast068 The Button
Mae reflects on a single therapy session that gave her something she didn’t even know she needed: a button. A symbol of support in times of need. A lifeline…
KIZUKI the Podcast067 Eat in Peace
Mae shares a surprisingly powerful insight into digestion, nervous system states, and why she stopped doing business meals and serving during family dinners. A…
KIZUKI the Podcast066 The Smartphone Addiction
Mae reflects on a sudden realization: smartphone addiction is quietly consuming people she loves. In this clear and compassionate episode, she offers three…
KIZUKI the Podcast065 Letting Joy In Without Earning It
Mae reflects on a profound moment that uncovered an old survival pattern: the belief that joy must be earned. Speaking directly to the part of us that doesn’t…
KIZUKI the Podcast064 The Price of Peace
Amid escalating conflict in the Middle East, Mae reflects on the history we rarely learn—and the reckoning required for real peace. From global politics to her…
KIZUKI the Podcast063 Stress Busters & Stress Prevention
Over dinner with old friends, Mae is reminded how often we lack real tools to process or prevent stress. She shares the conversation that inspired her to name…
KIZUKI the Podcast062 Unfamiliar Territory
Mae reflects on the subtle ways our bodies resist what we most long for—especially when it feels unfamiliar. Through a vivid dream and a childhood memory of a…
KIZUKI the Podcast061 Make a Splash
Mae shares a powerful train ride moment with her son that reveals how unfiltered honesty—especially about grief—can shake social norms. Through the eyes of a…
KIZUKI the Podcast060 Busy Is the New Numb
Mae explores the hidden ways we cope with overwhelm—especially through busyness and workaholism. Drawing from personal stories and cultural insight, she…
KIZUKI the Podcast059 Forgive Before You See Error
In this reflective episode, Mae shares a powerful kizuki sparked by the words “forgive before you see error.” Through the lens of parenting and the nature of…
KIZUKI the Podcast058 The Little Sweet Things
On an ordinary day, a small gesture—a train horn in response to a child’s wave—becomes an unforgettable kizuki. In this tender reflection, Mae revisits a story…
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057 The Trap of Performance
In this quiet yet piercing episode, Mae explores how our social selves, shaped by culture and conditioning, often lead us to adjust, strive, and “be good”—at…
KIZUKI the Podcast056 The One Who Slips and the One Who Sees
In this follow-up to The Slow Death of the Do-er, Mae explores what it truly feels like to “just observe” when fear arises. She reveals how real surrender…
KIZUKI the Podcast055 The Slow Death of the Do-er
In this deeply personal episode, Mae reflects on what it actually feels like to live inside the spiral—not as an idea, but as a lived, looping journey. She…
KIZUKI the Podcast054 The Spiral
In this episode, Mae reflects on her spiritual development through the metaphor of the spiral, exploring the quiet shift from mental mapping to simply…
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053 Pain vs. Pain
Mae reflects on a lifelong narrative she’s carried about her parents’ divorce—and the realization that the deepest wound wasn’t the event itself, but the…
KIZUKI the Podcast052 A Hundred Tiny Surrenders
In this quietly powerful episode, Mae shares a raw, present-moment realization: that surrender isn’t one grand moment, but a hundred tiny ones. She speaks…
KIZUKI the Podcast051 Quiet Confidence
Have you ever witnessed a moment of silence so brimming with meaning that it stayed with you, even without words? Such was Mae’s experience when she watched a…
KIZUKI the Podcast050 How to Talk to Your Fear
Mae explores the tricky nature of fear—how it subtly creeps in as she moves toward big changes. She shares her personal realization (kizuki) that fear is often…
KIZUKI the Podcast049 What Is Mine?
We rarely question the idea of “mine”—my body, my time, my life. But during pregnancy, Mae experienced a profound kizuki: the realization that the life inside…
KIZUKI the Podcast048 | What You Quit
This episode explores the power of quitting—how letting go can be more transformative than starting something new. Reflecting on two of the hardest things that…
KIZUKI the Podcast047 Clarity and the Weight of Empathic Guilt
In this episode, Mae unpacks the concept of empathic guilt—the tendency to feel responsible for others’ confusion—and explains how to let go of it. She…
KIZUKI the Podcast045 To Get Is To Give
Mae explores the unseen reciprocity in giving and receiving. Through a recent visit to a beauty salon, she discovers that what seemed like an occasion of…
KIZUKI the Podcast046 Thank You for Being
Mae reflects on what "Thank You for Being" truly means. Through a period of deep grief, she discovers that our worth isn’t tied to doing—it’s inherent. A…
KIZUKI the Podcast044 Shifting the Story
Mae reflects on being called chibi (the little one) and how she unconsciously accepted that role in her family. Over time, she realized that being the youngest…
KIZUKI the Podcast043 Devotion
Mae explores Bhakti, the path of devotion, and why it once felt inaccessible to her. She shares a story of feeling out of place at a kirtan in New York—until…
KIZUKI the Podcast042 The Threshold
Mae reflects on the profound nature of thresholds—those transformative moments when life shifts irreversibly. Through personal inquiry and journaling, she…
KIZUKI the Podcast041 No Accounting
Mae explores the universal topic of love and reflects on the futility of trying to measure it. Through two powerful stories—one about an Indian milkmaid and…
KIZUKI the Podcast040 Overthinking and Resilience with Jesse McCrindle
Mae sits down with Jesse McCrindle to explore the traps of overthinking, the tension between awareness and ignorance, and what resilience really means…
KIZUKI the Podcast039 The Neuroscience of Growth with Jesse McCrindle
Mae sits down with her nephew, Jesse McCrindle, a neuroscience graduate, to explore how our perceptions, unconscious priming, and confirmation bias shape our…
KIZUKI the Podcast038 Persistence
In this episode, Mae reflects on her biggest lesson of the year—persistence. She shares how persistence has shown up in her life, not as force or rigidity, but…
KIZUKI the Podcast037 What Do You Believe?
Mae shares a surprising lunch conversation overheard in Tokyo, where talk about kids and Santa Claus sparks reflections on belief, doubt, and mindful…
KIZUKI the Podcast036 Soy or Sauce?
Mae dives into the art of self-knowledge and the joy of truly attuning to your preferences. She reflects on the difference between recognizing what sparks joy…
KIZUKI the Podcast035 When You're Stuck
Mae reflects on one of the first major kizuki moments that transformed her life. Struggling with depression and feeling stuck, she found it impossible to…
KIZUKI the Podcast034 Readiness
This episode explores the conditions that foster the next kizuki—a moment of greater awareness. While a kizuki cannot be forced, Mae delves into the key…
KIZUKI the Podcast033 The Power Beyond Yourself
In this week's episode, Mae looks back on an incredible experience from her freshman year in high school that was ... highly stressful. Might this be an…
KIZUKI the Podcast032 Godly Moment
This week, Mae shares her take on a fun word-usage from colloquial modern-day Japanese. Similar but different than any English version usage of the term, Mae…
KIZUKI the Podcast031 Known By You
Mae reflects on the #GetToKnowMe challenge on Instagram that she recently took on. To present to someone "Who You Are" takes a little bit ... or a lot of…
KIZUKI the Podcast030 Stop Trying
Do you ever catch yourself trying too hard? And then knowing that you’re trying too hard but not quite being able to stop yourself? Well, there’s only one…
KIZUKI the Podcast029 Re-creation of Identity
The perks of hitting rock bottom are hard to talk about because no one wants to be there. But it's true, there are some. For Mae, the most notable of these has…
KIZUKI the Podcast028 Truly Smart
Is our quest to be smart getting in the way of our happiness? The modern-society rat-race often has us striving to rise to the top by being smarter than…
KIZUKI the Podcast027 Healing Generational Trauma
Have you ever noticed that some of the issues you're dealing with in your life didn't even start with you? It might be surprising at first, but it's true that…
KIZUKI the Podcast026 Thinking Is Not Smartest
Do you believe that thinking makes you smart? One might argue that our society has us believing so. Yet, the troubles of over-thinking seem to be on the rise…
KIZUKI the Podcast025 Bear the Silence
We all long for peace. Peace comes in the form of quiet. Less movement. Silence, even. And so, it's not uncommon that when peace comes in the form of silence…
KIZUKI the Podcast024 Like-For-Like
Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is to recognize your own limitations. Such was the case for Mae, as she reflects on the period of her life following her…
KIZUKI the Podcast023 Impatience
The modern world can feel super fast-paced and hurried. Which results in, as Mae reflects in this episode, a internal experience of impatience. As Mae catches…
KIZUKI the Podcast022 Trust the Process
Mae reflects on a conversation she heard between the Zen Buddhist teacher Adyashanti and a student who was experiencing mental turmoil. Mae related to this…
KIZUKI the Podcast021 Chest Hurts
Mae reads a deeply personal and meaningful article that she wrote three years ago. It is a piece that encapsulates the key kizukis of her grief experience…
KIZUKI the Podcast020 Sisterhood
Returning home from summer vacation, Mae reflects on the quality of friends in her life. What are the key elements that all of her dear friends across the…
KIZUKI the Podcast019 Hold On Lightly
How does one live true to oneself without being too stubborn, especially when your thoughts differ from your loved ones? A question from a student prompts Mae…
KIZUKI the Podcast018 Effortless Kindness
Mae had a little bit of a surprise this week. She received an unexpected compliment about, well, none other than this very podcast. It was about "being kind"…
KIZUKI the Podcast017 Imbued with Meaning
Delightfully like a child on Christmas morning, Mae opens the small gray box that her friend handed to her in celebration for her birthday. In it, Mae…
KIZUKI the Podcast016 Knowing That You Don't Know
Ever find yourself appalled with your own ignorance? While shocking at first, Mae reflects that this is a state that is essential for the yoga and meditation…
KIZUKI the Podcast015 I Am a Nobody
Meditation teaches us to observe our thoughts, and therefore, to begin to dis-identify with them. But what about the thoughts that we believe make who we are?…