Finding Harmony Podcast Episodes

May the universe never abuse food. Breath is food; the body eats food, this body rests on breath. Breath rests on the body; Food is resting on food. The one who knows this becomes rich in food and great in fame." - Taittiriya Upanishad 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 ...

Eros is the drive of life, love, creativity, and sexuality, self-satisfaction, and species preservation. Thanatos, from the Greek word for "death" is the drive of aggression, sadism, destruction, violence, and death.” - Sigmund Freud 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...

What a fun episode we have today! As many already know, I loooooove astrology, both Western and Vedic, as well as some of the more “woo-woo” esoteric studies, like Human Design. That said, my favorite personality typing tool is the Enneagram, which I use to help my coaching clients explore more deeply their unconscious patterning. However, today we have a unique guest who’s offering us a different kind of grand synthesis to help us uncover a deeper understanding of ourselves. Although you migh...

Mind–body dualism is a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, meaning that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another. Of course… If you practice yoga, you know this is definitely not the case. We feel, think, and often remember through our body. Our body is a part of Prakriti “primary subatomic particles.” Our minds are also a part Prakriti. And what is left after prakriti is gone is simply awarene...

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. Seeing a lot of guys out there OUR AGE just dying off. Having heart attacks and brain aneurysms. Normal end of life stuff (rip Tom Sizemore). So Stop it!! Roll out your yoga mat out, get your chai all warmed up. We are going to spend this Sunday morning having the most delightful time. Lotta Sebzda has been practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa since ...

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. She’s heart-centered and gifted with supreme powers of intelligence, wit, and physical prowess! With 7 children, a lawyer, a gifted solo pianist, she’s also and Advanced Asana practitioner, studying with Sharath Jois in Mysore, India for the past twenty years. She was an ambassador to India on behalf of Costa Rica…. an...

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. As it turns out, it’s near what must be God’s country, I’m sure. Where if you bathe in snow, drink fresh spring water, sleep on top of a coffin, and eat grilled beef liver (but only once a month), you might too become ...

Today, we’re talking about how we can best serve and hold space within our classrooms, yoga spaces, and with our clients. It’s with great joy that we welcome back our dearest friend Lara Land. Lara 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. Then, after opening her yoga school in Harlem, NY, she recognized that her yoga space required a different kind of awareness and presence. ...

Right in the middle of this episode Harmony said to Russell “We need to get to the yoga part!” He said “Everybody does the yoga part! Ellie is a Cultural Studies professor. Lets ask about that! Deconstruct Orientalism or Japan or her personal experience with colonialism and being the Other!” Harmony sighed and said “Fine” “So.. Dr. Smith, what are Cultural Studies?” And Ellie said, “Oh gosh. I haven’t a clue.” So begins our absolutely scintillating conversation with the effervescent and gorgeo...

A meta critique came up in our conversation about the mythic “Hero’s Journey.” The Hero, which so often gendered male, is larger than life (think Brad Pitt—super cut with deliciously sumptuous lips.) 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” st...

We had the sense today that we were speaking with a soul who has a transcendent sense of confidence in herself. Not in any way an arrogant sense of entitlement, nor in a narcissistic way. But, someone who has the confidence that comes with not fearing death. Death being that slow cool release from a lifetime of bubbling growth, in the way that water must fall off a mountainside. The water has to fall eventually. So why not bathe yourself in it? Mara Branscombe is a mother, writer, yogi, artist...

We’ve signed up for something special today! Harmony’s had us get our human design charts done by a specialist, and guess what? We’re really compatible! Hell, we already knew that! But it sure was cool to hear how a Manifesting Generator with ‘sacral authority’ matches so beautifully with a Projector with SPLENIC AUTHORITY! What a fascinating conversation. Please curl up with your cup of tea or roll out the kinks on your Yoga Wheel and meet Adriana Keefe! Adriana is mom to three young children...

Katie told us that ours was the “single most fun podcast she’d ever been on. Bar none!” High praise to be sure. We were SO delighted! Getting to know Katie Silcox is like unwrapping a beautiful gift that keeps revealing more lovely surprises hidden inside the layers and folds: The Southern Belle as Mystic who shares openly about her journey and struggles, what brought her to seek out the wisdom traditions of the East and ultimately what’s inspired her to explore the philosophical teachings of ...

Happy New Year! Our guest Stuart, was born and bred in Kentucky. He mentioned that he had met Babita Shrestha, our guest from episode #141, who’s a Nepalese vegan chef, back in Kentucky, years ago. This made us smile, thinking about the deep desire we share to connect with each other. Our guest today shares with us his deeply integrated sense that all beings deserve space for life. And pulls back the curtain on how, like Mr.Anderson (before he becomes Neo in the Matrix) we’ve been living in a ...

It’s a very special Christmas episode! On this festivus morning, in the dark, on your mat, as you do your lonely yoga practice before your children awake, please feast your ears and bask in the wondrous splendiferousness energy that is Kino MacGregor! 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. We’re talking about just how hard this practice is and how ha...

Kia Miller is someone who lives a radiant and integrated life! She brings the inside to the outside world and in her meditations she brings the outside into her room. Sometimes that’s as simple as opening a window, even on the coldest of winter mornings. Kia describes her childhood as a paradise on the Falkland Islands amidst millions of sheep and a handful of shepherds and children. A paradise broken by tracer fire and the simple act of soldiers dying in front of her. Death is such a common d...

Mama, Humanitarian, Artist, Poet, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur, Teacher, and Mentor… Elena Brower has woven together a transcendental tapestry of conscious awareness through myriad diverse roles and interests, all of which bring her joy, to create a life that exemplifies compassion in action. It was such a true honor and blessing to have this time to sit alongside Elena this morning. We learn how her journey along the path of yoga began, how it’s continued to blossom into a study and practi...

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. Bab...

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. Three months after taking her first teacher training she found herself teaching 20 classes a week! A total life transformation that continued to evolve into her own style of yoga called Tantra Flow, which combines her 35 years of study in the practices and science of yogic...

Dear Happy Humans! It is with great pleasure that we introduce you today to an old friend, Gopi Kallayil! He’s an old friend of Russell’s. They met during his Silicon Valley yoga-missionary days during a very special dinner with Rep. Tim Ryan, “the Mindful Congressman,” at a time when it seemed that mindfulness and yoga would inevitably pervade every aspect of American life. Now though, Russell is a bit more bearish on the future of human civilization. Let’s see if Gopi can talk some sense in h...

After 20+ years in any business or doing any practice, it’s easy to become cynical… But try taking the cynical view with our guest today, Amy Priya Santos. Ha! She’s having none of it. Listen and see how yoga is working. Simply put, Amy is a very nice person. She’s full of love and grace and encouragement. She’s full of music, dance, and being in a flow state. She embodies, in her self effacing way, Mystic moments of consciousness— a fully immersive state with no attachments to any sense of se...

Michelle El Khoury is not only a wellness entrepreneur with a PhD and over twenty years of healthcare experience, but she’s also a wife and mother to three beautiful daughters. Her journey took her from Trinidad to the U.S, where she climbed the corporate ladder in a successful career as a pharmaceutical executive. All the while, becoming more aware as she grew up in America, how our society here is less of a creole melting pot and more like a segregated tiffin box. During her second pregnancy...

Today we’re speaking with Sophie Cleere. A vibrant woman who’s paving the way forward to for middle-aged women everywhere. She’s a body-positive coach and conscious sexuality educator. Sophie’s on a mission to end body-shame and help women feel confident, sexy and alive, no matter what their age! After leaving behind her career as an Authorized Ashtanga yoga teacher, running a successful yoga business, Sophie recreated herself by reconnecting to her intuition and learning to listen more attenti...

South African born, Tarin Calmeyer, is a Virtual Corporate Wellness Specialist. She’s the founder and chief wellness office of Los Angles-based company: Remote Team Wellness. We catch up with her living her dream life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! Today, we’re talking about the importance of taking time for self-care and some easy ways to improve your mental health. After traveling extensively as a young girl with her missionary parents, she moved to the U.S for for high school and immersed her...