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:
Unlocking the Mental Benefits of Yoga: A Scientific Perspective with Jean Bryne
Join us as we sit down with our dear friend and distinguished guest, Jean Bryne, to discuss the depths of yoga's impact on mental health. With her extensive background in both traditional practice and modern scientific research, Jean offers a rare and insightful perspective on the mental benefits of yoga, explored through a scientific lens.
Transforming Adversity: A Powerful Journey Through Injury and Recovery with Jen René
Russell and I are having an eye-opening chat today on the Finding Harmony Podcast, with Jen René.
Jen's story is something else – she talked us through her journey of healing from a knee injury, and how it reshaped her yoga practice. We got into the nitty-gritty of balancing strength and flexibility, especially important for us women in yoga.
Ashtanga Dispatch with Peg MulQueen
Today I’m speaking with the O.G of Ashtanga podcasting. The woman who started “Ashtanga Dispatch,” the first podcast dedicated to Ashtanga yoga teaching, (long before most of us even knew what a podcast was, let alone had a library of them stored on our phones).
That’s right. I’m sitting down with the lovely Peg Mulqueen to talk about the benefits of having a mentor and how it’s different than being in a student-teacher relationship.
The Only Time Is Now… with Luke Jordan
This conversation with our Irish friend, Luke Jordan, is delicious. It left us craving for more. There’s simply is no good place to stop when souls join and dance together out beyond the world of ideas and language. So, we simply hit record and sank deeply into Luke’s vibe… and let time slip away.
It’s such a treasured experience to connect with someone so self-aware, so thoughtful, and so ready to deconstruct every presumption, every belief, and even reality itself.
Helena Rosenthal: Mystic, Mama, Musician
Helena first stepped onto the Ashtanga mat when she was 19 years old. Coming out of her rebellious teen years, filled with drug abusing and running away from home.
She was instantly bewitched by the method and has been practicing asana along with self-inquiry, ever since. She’s now living in Palma de Mallorca, and has opened up EARTH YOGA in Santa Catalina.
Finding A Stillpoint with Scott Johnson
Scott is a sensitive soul. His gentle, compassionate, kind energy is transmitted not only through his teaching style, but you’ll feel it in the way he speaks.
The space we enter around him is saturated with loving kindness.
We hope you enjoy this episode and find your own sense of encouragement, hope, and healing through absorbing and also integrating a new approach to your breath and movement practice. Maybe you’ll even find a Stillpoint amidst the chaos of an ever changing world.
Eternally Youthful with David Garrigues
You might know David Garrigues as a Certified Ashtanga yoga teacher, but today you’ll hear all about what spurred him into the Seattle punk scene, and how music pulled him out of a very difficult time in his life, where he was homeless and starting to sink into a very dark place.
How did he go from a homeless young punk rocker to practicing yoga in Mysore, India, with Pattabhi Jois? You’ll find out in this episode.
Paloma: No Woman, No Cry
Youthfulness. What a beautiful blessing. Here we are met today by such openness to life, and all that her future has to offer, Palmoa Tamayo, graces us with her purity of spirit and sublime optimism.
From her early years, being introduced to the Ashtanga yoga practice, to studying in Mysore, and then being called upon as Eddie Stern’s assistant, Paloma has crossed a chasm to touch into the depth of her yoga practice.
Anita Cunha Vegan Chef Extraordinaire!
Anita Cunha, our dear friend and beautiful Vegan Chef joins us today. She specializes in creating perfectly balanced Ayurvedic cuisine. We’re learning about her journey down the path of self-discovery through her love for spice and food. She has a beautiful book called, “VEGAN INDIA: My Love Affair With The Land Of Spice” in which she shares much of her story along with incredibly delicious recipes.
Anita believes it’s possible to gain esoteric knowledge of our body and mind through changing our eating habits. Flavors and smells have the power to bring transformation and change our consciousness
Life and Death with Ty Landrum
It’s with great pleasure we sit down to speak with Ty Landrum to talk about his passion for Philosophy and the interplay of Eros and Thanatos. What creates the desire to thrive?
We examine the existential pointlessness of enduring our own suffering… And how to end it? A question that’s plagued humanity since the dawn of time, birthing the disciplines of Yoga and Buddhism.
Turning It All Upside Down with Lotta Sebzda
We have such a joyous person to share with you today! We have the Handstanding Grandma!! Surprised to find out she’s almost the same age as us tho. Weird.
Lotta Sebzda has been practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa since 1999 and is a 56 year old grandmother as well an inspiring teacher both in person as well as on her online platforms!
The secret to Lotta’s continued love for the physical and spiritual practice… CURIOSITY!
Honouring The Wisdom of The Divine Feminine with Mariela Cruz
It is with great pleasure that I got to sit down and connect with my dear friend Mariela Cruz. Mariela is one of those phenomenal human who’s devotion and dedication is palpable. We’re diving into the power of the feminine energy, how the different Ashtanga yoga series embody different types of energy, and calling upon the goddess archetypes as a guide during different phases of life.
With International Women’s Day approaching on March 8th, this is the perfect way to reflect on the powerful experience of being born as female and what it means to embody this energy.
Connect & Protect with Marque Garaux
Halfway through this episode Russell exclaims, “Goodness, you are just a really nice, wholesome person, Marque!” And, our guest today well and truly is! You’ll find him somewhere in the woods, far away from the hustle of city life, enjoying a solitary life near lake Erie in Ohio.
Marque discovered Ashtanga Yoga while seeking different ways to alleviate his lower back pain. After noticing an almost immediate physical change, Marque then slowly began to see other positive changes happening in his life as well…
How To Become Trauma Informed with Lara Land
Lara Land speaks today about some of her personal experiences that brought her to this chosen path…
How she started off teaching yoga in Rwanda to survivors of genocide, and then after opening her yoga school in Harlem, NY, she recognized that her yoga space required a different kind of awareness and presence.
This guided her to create Trauma-Informed teacher trainings as well as write her new book: The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga
Learn why we need to be trauma informed in our teaching and as we facilitate wellness spaces, now more than ever.
A Helluva Lotta Fun with Ellie Smith
Ellie Smith: A recovering academic, now yoga teacher, entrepreneur, and writer with a persistent curiosity about the world, both natural and human, Ellie Smith is an absolute delightful human to spend time with.
Born and raised in Cornwall, U.K, after completing University in 2005, Ellie took a “gap year” and has ended up spending the last 17 years living in Japan becoming an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, teaching at a university in Nagoya.
Ellie is passionate about helping yoga beginners and the yoga curious navigate their way into the often confusing realm of yoga…
Bella’s Little Sanctuary, Come Find Refuge
The Hero symbolizes an impossible reality. And yet, somehow, we are surrounded by quiet heroes every single day.
Bella is one of these quiet heroes.
Overshadowed on Instagram (a different Meta altogether) by images of bodies demonstrating superhuman feats that appear impossible by any “normal” standards. Somehow our mind is tricked into connecting these Superhuman displays of prowess to symbolize a successful inner quest culminating in God Realization.
Bella Sarna is interested in creating a different kind of space. She’s focused on cultivating a little sanctuary to come home to. A sanctuary that’s as much a sacred place inside her heart, as it is a beautiful room to step into.
Christmas with Kino Yoga
Enjoy this relaxed, informal, conversation between old friends chatting about old times, as if we were catching up at the local Coconut Stand in Gokulum after a challenging led class.
The real charm of Kino though, besides her effortless ability to be vulnerable, as well as her deep and critical intelligence (which might be a somewhat delightful and unexpected surprise for the average IG doomscroller) is her down to earth, straight-up honesty.
Plant Based Himalaya with Babita Shrestha
Today, we are absolutely delighted to present to you an amazingly self made woman. Babita comes from one of those rare villages in modern life, so ubiquitous in the developing world with hard-baked Nepalese mud floors and kerosene burners for cooking. And, that is in fact, how Babita learned to cook by her grandfather’s side.
Listen in amazement as she tells the story of how she became an art and film student studying in Minnesota, and now a Barnes and Nobles best selling cook book author.
Tantra Flow with Jeanne Heileman
When Jeanne Heileman became a yoga teacher in 1996, there was no career for this field. She had the intention to teach once a week as a work supplement in the non-profit arts world to pay off her graduate school student debt.
In this episode, we’re talking about what makes a good yoga teacher and some of the insights Jeanne has gained through her years of practicing under the guidance of many different teachers. Experience bring wisdom and Jeanne has a depth of perspective that is rare in teachers today.
Gopi Kallayil: The Happy Human
Gopi Kallayil is the Chief Evangelist, head of Digital Transformation and Strategy at Google. What that exactly means… We’re going to unpack it inside this episode!
He is the author of two books, “The Happy Human” and “The Internet to the Inner-net,” published by Hay House.
He has released three music albums titled “Kirtan Lounge.”