Finding Harmony Podcast Episodes

Yan, like a good champagne, has a sparkling personality. We very much enjoyed chatting with her in Portugal about her life, Injuries with the practice, and learning to thrive despite suffering from an autoimmune disorder. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of yoga practitioners are female, we asked Yan what it’s like to be a female teacher in the Mysore room, and her personal experience with the unconscious bias towards women (or against women) that we all seem to continue to carry. Yan ha...

In this week’s Finding Harmony Podcast episode, you’ll come to the confluence where Kundalini and Ashtanga yoga meet… In the heart of Sat Inder Khalsa: the Kwisatz Haderach. In this episode, we learn that in Frank Herbert’s Dune Universe, a Kwisatz Haderach would be a male Bene Gesserit, who would have access to the memories of both his male and female ancestors, as well as an ability to bridge space and time with prescient ability... In other words, He would be Bene Gesserit, Reverend Mother,...

Jens Bache is not your ordinary Ashtanga yoga practitioner or teacher. He came to yoga as a highly celebrated Engineer, in the middle of a very normal career trajectory, yet he was looking for more… Life had to have more meaning. He felt isolated and stressed. Then in 1997, on a work-study trip in Berkeley California, Jens Bache experienced yoga for the first time. “A daily yoga practice at home gave me the peace of mind I was looking for.” When he returned to Copenhagen he participated in hi...

What makes someone electric? In today’s episode we’re going to find out. Stan Woodman joins us in conversation. He has that beautiful esprit de corps that comes from overcoming adversity with a team in fellowship, even in the face of great tragedy there's still Love in the group. Good parenting does that. Stan has a confidence in him that he is loved and will always be loved. Not in an arrogant way whatsoever, but as a man who loves all beings and naturally sees Love within them. Not many me...

Dr. Elizabeth Ball is a unique teacher within our community. She's akin to the Neuroscientist Meditator or the Warrior Poet… A person uniquely situated to watch reality, as the seer residing in herself. She observes with awareness. As water gives life to the ten thousand things; yet does not strive to do so. She simply does. And so, with her PhD in immunology, Liz is uniquely situated to observe the physiological process of becoming whole as she dips her toe into the water of serenity. Come sit...

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...

Merry Christmas! For this year-end special we have a little present for you all. Some Magic! We would like to introduce you to an incredibly interesting practitioner and teacher, Andrew Eppler. At one time, he was a kind of young-prince in the Ashtanga Yoga culture. Introduced to the practice by the late Cliff Barber as a 14 year old. He was Guy Donahaye’s first Ashtanga teacher in Oxford when he was assisting Danny Paradise, as a 19 year old. Andrew has given us all an incredible gift. He has ...

What does cooking, painting and yoga all have in common? Listen to this week’s episode of Finding Harmony with Tara Mitra to find out. Tara is a life long lover of learning, discovering new ideas, people, and places. It seems no accident that her mentor, Guru, and main teacher was named after the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning: Saraswati. Growing up in an abusive situation, she searched for different therapies to help heal from the past trauma. She found ...

The truly bizarre thing about living in an intentional ‘spiritually aspirant’ community (for decades) is that you share profound memories with a select group of folks who you know only incidentally. Yet, those shared memories are quite intense and emotional for both of you. You can imagine a professional athlete might feel the same or a developer in Silicon Valley. You watch from afar sometimes as friends you’ve known for 20 or 30 years develop “Google” or win an NBA championship; and yet, unde...

New York, New York. If you can make it there you can make it anywhere. Today we interview Barry Silver, traveling artist, explorer of the mystic and esoteric realms. Although Barry is currently based in Mexico, we met him back in Mysore, India, as one of the “Cool Kids” from a thriving New York Ashtanga scene. At the time he was assistant to the revered Eddie Stern. And intimidatingly self-composed. Looking back at those times in the quiet suburb of Gokulum, Barry has shared with us new insigh...

Sweden is famous for IKEA, ABBA, Minecraft… and Spotify! Today we speak with the lovely Lisa Lalér, who was born and raised in Stockholm in Sweden. We’re extremely grateful that Lisa opened up to us about her turbulent childhood and the trauma accumulated in her body which manifested as stiffness; so much so, that when she came to the practice of Ashtanga yoga she was praised as the stiffest student Maria Boox had ever seen! We spoke to Lisa about leaving her marriage to pursue her dreams, an...

We were engrossed in conversation with our dear friend, Certified teacher Karyn Grenfell, Founder of Ashtanga Yoga Melbourne, when she mentioned a hilarious old trick... Karyn recounted, while backpacking (back in the day, before cell phones and the internet) how she planned to meet a friend at a particular time, on a particular date, in a particular city neither had been to, on the corner of two streets... Months in advance! These days, we’re so inured to the constant flow of information and co...

Grab a coffee, brew your tea, crack a coconut, because this is a real “chai-stand” conversation! In today’s episode you’ll hear story after story about different people and events within our global yoga community, including celebrity encounters, and funny stories about our time in Mysore, both together and separately. Our guest is not a professional yoga teacher, but is someone known and loved far and wide within our global yoga family. Joey Solano is an accountant. He is someone who finds gr...

Similar to Ganesha the elephant-headed deity in India, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings in ancient Roman mythology. He is usually depicted as having two faces. Susanna Finocchi, (our first Italian guest!) is a woman who knows these transitions well. Susanna expounds on the weirdness of being a Southerner in the North. You become a kind of “in-between person,” neither here nor there, but like all these mythological figures...

Samhain or All Hollow’s Eve is an ancient festival of the northern Gaelic islands. It’s a celebration meant to honor the beginning of winter when the demarcation between this world the other is thinned. On this day the Aos Si (the Fairies! as they say) travel more easily into our world, and we must disguise ourselves or risk being taken by them! And so... to celebrate this day and these celestial beings, we present our friend and fellow Canadian, an Irish born lass, Emma O’Neill. She’s a lady ...

It is probably no secret to you all that we (Harmony & Russell) enjoy watching television together (shhh…!). After finishing over 21 seasons of Hell’s Kitchen, we moved on to prestige dramas like The Handmaid’s Tale and Mrs. America, and our current obsession, Succession… and often you’ll find references to these narratives percolate in conversations with our guests. We’re in the Golden Age of Television, but the real prototype of our time is the “Walk and Talk” by Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, ...

We can not wait to introduce you to our guest this week: Michael Baidoo. Michael is very unique in that he’s what we might call a “CoVid phenomenon.” He is completely self taught through online resources, social media, and Zoom. And, he is amazing! It’s a delight for us personally as older, less awestruck, students (Harmony and Russell have been doing Ashtanga Yoga for over 50 years combined!) to encounter such an enthusiast for yoga, and for the Ashtanga Yoga in particular. For someone like M...

Observe this seeming contradiction: The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans. - Jacques Cousteau - Today we are taking a deep dive into the ocean of yoga with Dr. Daniela Ceccarelli as our guide. We’re learning about coral reef ecology, the purpose of counting fish, and what this ultimately has to do with the health of our oceans. While we're down there... we disco...

It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to our friend Anna Guryeva. She graces us a with a marvelous little window into the Russian soul. From the heart of Siberia, she reveals a path to joy. To see the beauty of the Russian spirit, one must understand the generational hardship of the people, and Anna’s narrative, though particular to her, shares this ancestral trauma. To know the horror of the last century, and the centuries of slavery that came before, and Anna’s own personal enslavem...

It is such a joy to meet a human being dedicated to evolution, self discovery, and insight. It’s our pleasure to introduce to you the accentless Englishman, now profoundly Canadian, Geoff Mackenzie! Citizen of the world, swimmer, rugby player, and avid skier… Mysore teacher and Yogic Health Coach. He tells us how his practice has evolved over these past few year, becoming less strict. He’s created a more adaptive approach, more personal, and not dependent on needing to “show your practice off” ...

Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor need no introduction. In this episode, we talk about the dissolution of our minds, bodies, and practices in the face of time. How do we let go of the physicality of the practice? We were curious after 50 years of yoga, how they’ve maintained their enthusiasm in the face of age. What we heard was extremely enlightening, and surprisingly heart-opening. Your whole body and mind are an offering. You are never throwing it away… But rather, allowing it to shine no ma...

It is with great pleasure we introduce to you the contagiously ebullient Hanne Sydanmaa from Helsinki, Finland. We asked Hanne to share a bit about the birth of Ashtanga Yoga in Finland, which continues to this day to have the most practitioners per capita over any other country in the world! We tried, in our way, to get Hanne to open herself to us… So that you could see the Real Hanne, with her zestful and sparkling personality. Alas, like all Fins, they are hard to coax out from their safe, ...

If you ever wondered how gods are made, our guest today will tell you they start out as heroes. They become big enough to thrust out at Brad Pitt and decide the fate of thousands of women and children. Hector must have been like that… a giant like Priapus or Goliath standing in the way of Achilles. Probably a good sized lad. Maybe even 6 foot 4 and full of muscles. Our guest today is very much like this. She is larger than life and it makes sense that she married a Golden God like Derek Irelan...

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 are reminded of Malcolm X when he wrote in the forward to his autobiography that 'the lurid gossipy details of his misspent youth were not meant to simply entertain but to educate th...