Summary
Rob Lowe interviews Adriene Mishler, the creator of Yoga with Adriene, one of the largest yoga YouTube channels in the world. Adriene shares how she built her yoga community from a passion project started in 2012 with a film collaborator, never intending it to become a global brand. She describes her evolution from using yoga as a tool for self-improvement to embracing it as a practice of self-acceptance and nervous system awareness. The conversation touches on Adriene's daily routine, including protecting her mornings from phone and screen time, prioritizing intentional time with her dog Benji and her husband, and balancing content creation with personal practice. She discusses her current enrollment in a three-year accredited yoga therapy program and her renewed excitement about what research has proven yoga can do for the body and mind. The pair bond over sleep rituals, with Rob sharing his fire-gazing practice and both advocating for eye masks. Adriene also opens up about her experience with burnout and how it affected her nervous system, making practices like cold plunging feel overwhelming during that period. She mentions her love of infrared sauna, meditation, and the concept of practicing doing nothing, especially during Shavasana. The episode is a lighthearted but substantive look at how yoga serves as both a physical and philosophical practice for long-term wellbeing.
Key Points
- Adriene Mishler started Yoga with Adriene on YouTube in 2012 as a passion project with a film collaborator, never expecting it to become a global community
- Her approach to yoga has shifted from self-improvement to self-acceptance and nervous system awareness over the years
- She protects her mornings from screens and phone use, prioritizing intentional time before diving into work
- Adriene is currently enrolled in a three-year accredited yoga therapy program, reigniting her interest in what research has proven yoga can do
- Rob Lowe credits seeing Sting doing yoga 30 years ago as his introduction to the practice, noting that every man he knows who moves with youthful fluidity does yoga
- Adriene experienced legitimate burnout that left her nervous system dysregulated, making stimulating practices like cold plunging feel overwhelming
- She is a strong advocate for infrared sauna and meditation, and practices doing nothing during Shavasana as a deliberate skill
- Both hosts discuss sleep rituals including fire-gazing, eye masks, and creating intentional wind-down routines
Key Moments
Yoga as self-study rather than self-improvement
Adriene Mishler explains how her relationship with yoga has shifted from trying to better herself to simply showing up and noticing where she is, describing it as a sacred practice for self-awareness rather than performance.
"And I think the difference would be when I was younger, I was often doing that with the intention of trying to better myself. And I'm still trying to better myself as I evolve and get older, of course. Many of us are. But now I'm less interested in terms of yoga anyway. There are plenty of other things that I do that I'm like, must get better at it and excel. But yoga has become this really sweet, dare I say, sacred place for me to come to myself and remember, I actually don't need to like improve today or get better. Just taking the time and space to breathe and to notice where I'm at, notice my nervous system, notice my muscles, like the whole, you know, whatever it is that day. But I still think that's like the money. Like that's the thing that even to this day, I'm like, it works. It works when you just show up and look and ask yourself, how do I feel today? When you describe it like that, to me, it feels like how I feel when i meditate because it's and it's i i say the same things it's like it's not about a result it's about just just getting some consistency and there's no such thing as a bad yoga session there's no such thing as a bad meditation session there's the only thing bad is if you don't do it totally and and like having and being able to turn off the judgment of a particular performance of that of that day or that that that particular experience i think that one of the hardest things right now for me and yoga is that as the channel and and the community really is huge it's been huge for a long time international all across globe, every nook and cranny, a real honest to God, like honor and delight for me as a person. But I think one of the hardest things is just trying to keep it, for lack of better terms, simple, like keep it, or we can go back to keeping it real. You know, it's like, it's really hard. Obviously we live in a heavy commerce, you know, wellness is heavily commodified. I'm not saying here that I'm not like a part of that. We all are inevitably."
Rob Lowe's introduction to yoga through Sting
Rob Lowe shares the memorable story of visiting Sting at his estate in Wiltshire and waking up to see him doing naked yoga in the garden, which became a lasting inspiration for why yoga keeps people looking and feeling youthful.
"And I look down in the garden and there's Sting doing his naked yoga. And I was like, yeah, okay."
Yoga keeps men moving like boys with fluid movement
Rob Lowe observes that every man he knows who maintains youthful fluidity and boyish movement practices yoga, calling it a must for flexibility as you age, especially for activities like surfing.
"There's every particularly man that I know who moves like a boy and has that fluidity. Every single one of them, you talk to them, yoga. Every single one of them."
Research-backed benefits driving excitement at forty
Adriene describes enrolling in an accredited yoga therapy program and being reinvigorated by research proving what yoga can do for the body and mind, noting the profound effects on energy, self-perception, and how people carry themselves.
"I'm like getting stoked again about what all research has proven yoga can do."
Protecting mornings and the energy of yoga practice
Adriene emphasizes that yoga is not just physical but also works on energy and inner landscape, something that has been understood for thousands of years and has a real effect on how you carry yourself and see yourself.
"there's this whole other layer that has been around you know for thousands and thousands of years that that has a big effect on your, you know, the way you carry yourself and the way you see yourself and your, you know, your energy."
