Rebirth, Restart, and the New Year with Guy Donahaye
Happy New Year, Thundercats!
(That’s the name Russell’s come up with for “the Finding Harmony fanclub.” Shout out to Valerie Swift for setting this up! hint hint…. lol!)
To start your year, here’s wonderful interview, with the one person who made Russell the most nervous to talk to!
Yet, like all things, the experience of actually sitting down with Guy Donahaye was an absolute delight.
Guy Donahaye was Russell’s first Mysore style Ashtanga teacher in NYC, his mentor, and the last man certified by Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois — and possibly the first Certified teacher to publicly reject him as “Guruji.”
Guy has a very natural and shy reticence about him. It’s one of his strongest characteristics and is something his students would all immediately ascribe to him. So we were absolutely thrilled to have him join us and talk so much! He was loving, humble and engaged with our conversation in a sincere way, with the intention of cultivating a deeper understanding around why we do the things we do, what’s the true purpose for practicing yoga, and how this might be approached in different ways.
We believe that he very much appreciated our work and we are honored to add his voice and point of view to our collection of esteemed perspectives from practitioners and teachers all over the world.
With Guy, we spoke about regret a great deal, and whether regret and learning are both possible.
For example, can you regret getting into a bad marriage and subsequently a divorce, if you, as a person, learned so much from the experience?
Isn’t this what the Dalai Lama teaches us when he says that China’s treatment of Tibet is and was his greatest teacher?
Still, Guy seems to regret his treatment of Russell in his Mysore room 20 years ago. Whereas Russell was deeply grateful for his experience, and regrets ever leaving him.
So here we are. Now. Where we are.
And really, what regrets can we truly carry when we look deeply into the turbulent stillness of our hearts with kindness, humour, and compassion?
All our love to you, with the dawning of new days, in 2022!
Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats Ho!
Fire up your sword of Omens!
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations.
Your contributions have allowed us to keep our podcast ad and sponsor free. Creating, editing and producing each episode takes a lot of time. It is a labor of love. And would not be possible without your kind support.
If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤
Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.”
Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.