Where Gothic Literature Meets Ashtanga Yoga

What happens when a scholar who studies death for a living discovers she must learn to truly live in her body? This haunting conversation explores literature, yoga, and the long road to embodiment.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Introduction to Finding Harmony Podcast
• Meet Jessica Murphy: Gothic Literature Scholar & Ashtanga Practitioner
• Teaching English Literature at the University of Iceland
• Jessica's Literary Works: Wishbone, Ossa Vivi, Moss & Rose
• Poetry, Novellas, and the Gothic Genre
• Victorian Literature vs. Romantic Period: Claiming Jane Austen and the Brontës
• Existentialism, Death, and Childhood Philosophy with Her Father
• Father's Influence: TM, Hippie Culture, and Zen Catholicism
• Coming to Ashtanga Yoga at Age 39
• The Challenge of Backbends vs. Hip Openers & Arm Balances
• Using the Body to Be Embodied: Balancing Cerebral and Physical Work
• Kapotasana and the Death Drive: Flirting with Mortality
• Eating Disorder History and Ongoing Body Image Work
• Why Backbends Bring Up Old Wounds and Feelings of Not Enoughness
• The Beginner's Mind in Yoga Practice
• Creating False Equivalencies: Yoga Series as Academic Degrees
• LSD, Academic Structures, and Her Father's Generation
• Jack Kerouac's Journey and the Beats
• Memorization in Education: What We've Lost
• Reciting Shakespeare: "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"
• William Blake's "The Tiger": Fearful Symmetry
• Reading from "The Face in the Window" (Gothic Short Story from Ossa Vivi)
• Visual Imagination and Playing with Language
• Meeting Her Husband: Two 19th Century Literature Scholars in Iceland
• Looking for Someone Like Herself vs. Someone Opposite
• Balancing Creative Writing with Academic Pressures
• The Difference Between Tenure Track and Department Member Positions
• Her Husband's Prolific Academic Output: Philosophy and Literature
• Writing as a Labor of Love vs. Academic Requirement
• Being "High on Life": Creativity and Sensitivity
• Why Creative People Struggle with Depression and Anxiety
• The World Feeling Like "Too Much": Colors, Sounds, People
• Artistic Pursuits as Protection from Overwhelming Sensations
• The Quiet Life with Cats and Writing and Yoga
• Russell's Invitation (That Got Declined)
• Victorian Tea Ceremonies and Paying for Art
• The Japanese Tea Ceremony as Art Form: Greg Kinsey's Story
• Bad Art, Bad Writing, and Bad Asanas
• Harmony's Inner Circle Mentorship Program Invitation

This episode is a deep, insightful exploration of navigating life as a highly sensitive creative person, balancing intellectual pursuits with embodied practice, and finding home in your body after years of disconnection.

GUEST BIO:

Having taught at Vanier College, Dawson College, and Université de Montréal in Montréal, Qc, Canada in the past, Jessica Murphy, Ph.D. currently lives in Reykjavík, Iceland and teaches English literature at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands). Her areas of interest and expertise are Victorian and Romantic literature as well as detective novels, gothic fiction, and children's literature. In addition to publishing a novella entitled Wishbone (available on Amazon) and having her poetry published in an anthology featuring the works of poets from around the world entitled Words Apart: A Globe of Poetry, she has co-authored an epistolary novella, Moss and Rose and a collection of gothic short stories, Ossa Vivi, with Mae Kellert. Her scholarly publications include "'[T]he world's a beast, and I hate it!': Naturalism in Amy Levy's The Romance of a Shop" and an article on Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale. At present, she is working on a chapter on the double in Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted that will be included in a book, published by Routledge, featuring various essays on the doppelgänger. A cat lover and an avid Ashtangi, she has been practicing Ashtanga yoga for the last seven years.

CONNECT WITH JESSICA:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjcats/
• Books available on Amazon and major retailers

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Gothic literature and yoga philosophy both explore transformation, duality, and the shadow self
• Backbends can bring up body dysmorphia and old wounds—this is part of the healing work
• The poses that challenge us most teach us the most about ourselves
• Writing autobiographical fiction can be a powerful healing practice
• Highly sensitive creative people often need embodied practices to balance intellectual work
• Surrender doesn't mean giving up—it means releasing control of outcomes
• You can care for people without carrying their burdens
• Success in yoga isn't about mastery—it's about growth and self-discovery
• Memorization and recitation connect us to literary tradition and embodied knowledge

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