Finding Harmony Podcast Episodes

Do you want to experience the next level of freedom? Then learn to merge your analytical brain with your intuition in a systematic way through syncing your life with your menstrual cycle. Learn to predict your energy so you can reliably know when it’s a “hell yes” or a “hell no!” Menstruation is a topic we seem to talk a lot about as Ashtanga yoga practitioners. Our personal “moon days” as women, whether to take rest, or practice, whether this is a misogynistic tradition or something truly help...

The last time Russell saw Kerri Kelly they were getting robbed together on Chamundi Hill outside of Mysore, India. For Russ it was the best trip he ever had to India. Imagine an episode of West Wing where one of the communications staffers working for Josh Lyman took a yoga side-trip while on an important diplomatic tour, and got stuck in India with no money, passport, or visa. No way to leave the country and no way to stay. “DONNA!!!” Listen to this #funnynotfunny tale, as Kerri and Russell pul...

We’re living in a world full of constant pressure and distractions with a zeitgeist that reinforces “more, more, more!” In this episode of Finding Harmony, I’m talking with author, entrepreneur, business coach and thought leader for a new generation, Marie Forleo, about how she manages time, what self-care practices she personally prioritizes, and how she balances creativity and structure to optimize her innate sense of flow. If I told you that you could decrease your stress in only 5 days, tha...

Kintsugi means “golden journey.” It’s the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by binding the pieces back together with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it treats the breakage and repair of something as part of the history of an object, rather than something to be disguised, discarded and forgotten. This is exactly what Mae Yoshikawa has courageously done with the pieces of her life’s story, time and time again. And what remains is the most exquisite work of art to...

Kayoko was born in Tokyo as the country was rebuilding after WWII. She moved many times with her family to different parts of Japan, as her father was transferred to various jobs within the banking industry. She grew up in a very traditional Japanese family, which meant she intimately experienced the differences between how girls were treated compared with boys. For example, she explained her dismay to her mother as her brother was put in a far superior school then she was, and he mother simply ...

We are delighted to introduce you to our dear friend Krista Shirley. Currently residing in Orlando, Florida, Russell met her years ago, while recruiting teachers for the Jois Foundation. Harmony insists she knew her first (and evidently all our friends knew Harmony first and better!) - LOL Krista is a voracious learner and she takes this infectious energy, AAA-type personality, to her whole life, business, motherhood, and Ashtanga yoga practice. If it can be said of anyone, it has never been mo...

Kaitlyn Rose Holsapple believes that the body is our most sacred guide. Her work now is focused on helping others integrate their past pains so these hidden shadows no longer subconsciously drive the choices in life. As a Somatic Yoga Therapist, she helps clients connect with the innate, intuitive wisdom of the body. This wisdom is present in “every” body, and helps up to organically move stages of healing. Our guest today, Kaitlyn, is someone who recovered from PTSD as a result of being victim...

Miranda Mitchell is an Energetic Alignment Coach and Traditional and Quantum Human Design™ Specialist who helps thought leaders align energetically so that they step into creating more impact with sustainability and ease. Before becoming a Human Design Coach, Miranda was a personal trainer and Ashtanga yoga professional, assisting with Krista Shirley in Orlando Florida! In today’s episode you’ll learn about Human Design and how it can help you in your life. We’re also talking about injuries, re...

If you thought you knew John and Julia Scott, you’re going to get a whole new look into their personalities here on our podcast today. You’ll hear about John Scott’s roots growing up in New Zealand and the similarities between clans, even from different parts of the world. Our conversation looks at how ancient rituals from different cultures effect us still to this day. We’re asking some difficult questions, like can anyone ever really teach you anything? And how can you claim your own sovereig...

Born in India, growing up in Dubai, and then returning to India for college, our guest today might have a name that sounds like she’s from Europe, but she deeply connected in mind, body, and spirit to her native roots as a Christian-Muslim Indian. Some of our questions today are centered around how we can honour the roots and history of yoga while it’s become a global movement being absorbed into many different cultures and contexts. How do we keep yoga authentic, without becoming fanatical? W...

Yoga is a journey of un-layering that we embark on again and again, each time we peel back another covering of our inner light the process of transformation takes place. It’s shedding the masks we wear to navigate our way in the world and place down the “airs and graces” we often take up to make ourselves feel superior to others. It is becoming who we truly are. More natural. More simple. More real. In this episode you’ll hear Philippa Asher and I peel back the layers of the Ashtanga yoga pract...

Our guest today is a lovely Elvish woman, who could’ve easily descended from a family of Wood Nymphs. Ellen Johannesen was born in Norway but has spent many years living abroad, mainly in India and Nepal. She was first introduced to yoga during her career as a professional dancer and has been teaching now for over 20 years. In 2002, she co-founded the first Ashtanga studio in Oslo, Norway, where she headed up the Mysore program. However, her time in India led to a growing interest in Buddhism, ...

PART 2 with Dominic Corigliano A "Trance State" is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli. It is also a state of mind that we can enter into through Yoga Practice. We're talking about Trance States with Dominic Corigliano in this Part 2 continuation of our Part 1 (Episode 65 - Listen on iTunes) conversation. Whether you call it an auto-hypnotic state or a trance state, yoga can be used as a technique that we u...

Dreams of becoming a Professional Golfer crushed by debilitating back pain sent Rob Lamport on an epic search in Secret India for the esoteric teachings that could free him from his body pain. He lived in Mysore and practised with B.N.S Iyengar as well as Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois. Learn why you might want to be careful eating too many bananas! After his first trip he swore to never go back to India (like so many of us!) but after a few months away, he began to miss it and so decided to ...

Our guest today is a dear friend. She is so delightfully effervescent and youthful in her attitude that she could’ve been sprouted out into the world like an Athena parading out of Zeus’s skull! Basia Lipska Larsen is a passionately cheerful person, so much so that one cannot help but smile in her presence. When we know someone as well as we do Basia, our conversation becomes much more casual. You’ll hear Russell teasing Basia recklessly as he does, and getting a few verbal pokes back as well. ...

Today our guest is South African born Michael Schabort, an indubitable ‘child of the wind.’ Michael is an interesting person, who ever so naturally goes with the flow. Someone who floats through space and time like a salmon swimming up river. There are bears. There are female salmon. But there is also the journey home. And the journey for the sake of journeying itself. We had the sense of speaking to someone with that beautiful combination of both water and air, a unique balance of a kapha-vat...

We are delighted to share with you today a conversation— a chai stall chat, with a dear friend in the pranayama teacher Siobhan Fitzgerald. A woman who is presumptively Scottish, but we soon learn who is from nowhere and every where all at the same time. Russell and Siobhan are both affected by the same distinction of personality, say, that comes with the constant movement, the traveling of the nomad. A nomadic child can write off a person, never speak to them again. For often in their lives th...

So.. you woke up this morning and got on your mat and put your earbuds in and said lets do it. Lets do our practice and get it done! You did the best you could. Some days that’s ok, and sometimes it’s wonderful. Most of the time, as we all know, it’s a slog and you wonder just how these advanced practitioners do it, right? How do they maintain their practice? How do they perform at such a high level, and it all seems so effortless compared to what we’ve got to work with, maybe? The steel rod in ...

We caught up with J Brown, podcast creator, and host of Yoga Talks for the last seven years. With tears shed all around, J shared with us the story of how he lost his mum as a very young man. It's a heart rending story. And, for all of us when our heart rends it is an opportunity for healing. To heal is a blessing. We just don’t often do it. I think for most of us when we are slapped in the face we take the wound, and we smoulder and burn. We thicken and take long stares. Our guest today chose ...

From skiing and horseback riding to fighting fires and then throwing herself fully into her Ashtanga Yoga practice, after being stuck in Marichyasana-D (a difficult twist in the Primary Series) for 4 years, she continued on with dedication and determination, to become a Fourth Series practitioner under the guidance of David Garrigues and Dena Kingsberg. Sarah Hatcher began her Ashtanga practice with an eclectic collection of teacher from which she continues to draw inspiration from. In this ep...

Armed with Pasasana as a superpower our guest today, Vikram Jeet Singh joins us to talk about the evolution of the asana practice and our attachment to the physicality of it and how we can begin to embrace a wider scope of practice. Mr. Singh is a natural intellectual and easily speaks to any subject related to yoga. He has a clear, disciplined mind and is a joy to sit next to in the inimitable fashion of parampara. There is an exquisite vibration of gentle being that comes with sitting next to...

“Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love.” Leonard Cohen Diana Christinson takes us on quite a journey. It reminds us of Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me To The End of Love, a sacred vision of love and life that reflects our Hero’s quest to find meaning in both. As a fellow student in Mysore, like so many of us, we know Diana by virtue of having been there to...

This morning it is our delight to present one of the most interesting people alive: The lovely Alyson Stover! With these people its always one near death experience after another and then some… Please enjoy your morning as our guest today entertains us with insider stories about DC, cross Atlantic ocean travel, Hollywood, big studio executive jobs, Ashtanga yoga in the 90s, and of course, harrowing health scares. No good life is complete with almost dying a few times! “Water flows continually ...

Happy Mother’s Day! We are so delighted to share this conversation with you this morning. This is an important week and an emotional one. Pranidhi Varshney is the founder of Yoga Shala West, a community-supported Ashtanga Yoga studio in West Los Angeles. She is also mother to two children who she describes as “courageous and wise little beings.” The thread that runs through all her work is the desire to build community and live from the heart. Of all the things she is, a mom, a business owner,...