FINDING HARMONY PODCAST
What is a spiritual practice? How does it work? How will it improve my life? How will deepening my self-care transform me? What strategies can I use to improve my life, increase my health, and create wellness? How can craft a life that I love?
The Finding Harmony Podcast gets to the root of all these questions. Each episode is full of inspiration, humour, honest observations, and actionable steps that you can integrate to enhance your experience of self-love, develop a connection to Spirit, and create a life you truly love.
Show Notes Below:
Prison Cells to Nordic Retreats: An Unconventional Path of Yoga
We associate aggression and harm with boxing. When we think of yoga we associate peace and harmony. So it might seem counterintuitive that boxing shares some profound similarities with the more popular practice of yoga asana.
Alex's extraordinary journey from boxer to Sanskrit scholar, ballet dancer to Certified Ashtanga yoga teacher, to becoming a lifeline for inmates and addicts, and founder of Nøsen Yoga Retreat in Norway, will leave you in awe of yoga's power to heal and transform.
Lady Lucinda on Solsbury Hill
We have to say that this wild episode is one of our personal favorites.
The drugs and name dropping is one thing… Twee references to the Royal family compound our glee!
But, what gets us the most is when someone has a sincere relationship to the healing power of practice. And Lucinda Leachman is the first to attest to how it’s helped her immensely. Using it as a somatic therapy, it’s helped her to process the past, let go of shame, and move confidently into an unknown future.
A Trip Towards the Self with Barry Silver
Today we interview Barry Silver, traveling artist, explorer of the mystic and esoteric realms. Barry is astonishingly self aware of his own pursuit of cool, and seeking to be cool in the myriad communities he merged with. Whether it was Disco, Kundalini Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, or the “Burner Community,” he has come back to being himself again and again, finding comfort in acknowledging who he is. Like the Alchemist’s journey, he’s realized that there was nothing to strive for or become, and he oozed cool all along.
From altar building to cathartic scrapbook journaling, Barry Silver has traveled an interesting path to becoming a full-time artist… His work is comic, genius, and generous in a wondrously mysterious way.
Taylor Hunt: In Recovery
September is National Recovery Month. This national observance has been held every September since 1989, to educate and increase awareness around mental health and substance use disorders. It’s also a month to celebrate the people who have recovered and honor their strength in living healthy and rewarding lives. We invite you to sit with us today as we explore Taylor’s life and ask him about the inspiring work of his non-profit organization, the Trini Foundation, which is dedicated to sharing the life-changing practice of Ashtanga Yoga with those suffering from addiction. Harmony will be offering a class on Saturday September 18th in support of the Trini Foundation and their initiative to bring Ashtanga Yoga to those recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.
A Delicious Poison with Kate
Today we’ve created a Venn diagram of interesting listening…. Here you’ll find the intersection of the dedicated The Last Kingdom fan (secretly in love with Uhtred of Uhtred; and Aethelfled her personal hero), mixing with a keen interest in True Crime Detective procedurals, along with a curiosity in what it might take to become a female weight lifter, or body building champion (and this may or may not have nosedived into an obsession with professional wrestling, who’s to say really). All this crosses over with a love for tea, running, meditation, yoga and nutrition.
When Miles Smiles
Sarah Miles, a Hypno-Therapist, an Ashtanga yoga teacher, a Celebrant, and Mortician. She was also Russell’s apprentice in Brighton! We discussed Sarah’s harrowing knee story, and how she has a tendency to run directly into the face of what she fears. Finding ways to immerse herself in those activities that scare her most, so she can explore and understand why it makes her feel a certain way. And ultimately, overcome that sense of fear or dread. This is partly how she's ended up regularly bearing witness to both death and new beginnings.
Chasing Dragons with Dr. John Campbell
Even after practicing for decades, and finishing Advanced Series in Mysore with Pattabhi Jois, John found himself isolated, studying and writing his Ph.D thesis in Varanasi. Feeling alone, and confused in an alien environment, John found himself attracted to the darkness… And eventually lost himself in cycle of addiction. We explored together the mind-body connection in relation to substance use and addiction, gurus, the big Self, and how the practice can create a cycle of chasing dragons.
Rogue Yogi: Escaping Samsara
We are delighted to share with you a conversation with our fellow podcaster Nathan Thompson: Poet, Journalist, Buddhist Practitioner, and self-taught Ashtangi, as well as the host of the Escaping Samsara Podcast. In his teens Nathan tumbled headfirst down the deep tunnel of drug use and sank into a pattern of addiction. After a decade of darkness, he found his feet again through the practice of Vipassana Meditation in the lineage of S.N Goenka, a tradition that both he and Harmony share a connection with. You will love this lively interview!
On The Other Side Of Darkness
We were blessed today to catch up with our dear friend Todd Boman. Todd and Russell were both born in the Pontiac Memorial Hospital in the 70’s. Probably right along side Madonna Ciccone, a neighbor. Todd has a unique story to share. Growing up in Michigan as a young gay male is its own peculiar hellscape. He understood immediately (and by that I mean junior high school) that being gay in the 80’s and 90’s likely meant death from HIV/AIDS. Surviving the darker side of this AIDS crisis in America was fraught with escapist behavior and that became yet another damned issue to try and survive.
Can't Cheat Karma
Lisa was a 17 year old human gazelle and modern dancer in Chicago. She received a scholarship to dance with the Alvin Ailey dance company, so she left Chicago and took off to the East Village Alphabet city (Needle Village), finding odd jobs, like working as a bartender, to help pay the bills. She didn’t take any shit and partied hard — living the way she wanted. Eventually, she found her way to a 10 AM yoga class, (although 10 AM was a little early for her) and found herself practicing next a couple of sincere seekers: David Life and Sharon Gannon… and the rest is HerStory.
What's it gonna take? From Addiction to Ashtanga
In this episode we interview the wild woman herself, Santina Giardina-Chard.
Santina shares with us with her incredible journey. She experienced extraordinary childhood wounds, had a tumultuous early adulthood struggling with an addiction to heroine, lawlessness and eating disorders. Love had a way of finding her though, and a transformation started to happen through the connection with her (now) husband, Shane, the practice of Ashtanga yoga, and digging deep with Gestalt therapy.
We’re lucky to know her and she's lucky to be alive!