Finding Harmony Podcast Episodes

It is with great pleasure that we introduce our esteemed and most honorable guest: the beautiful, humble, and one might say, divinely inspired human, Nina Rao! What Nina enchants us with is an opportunity to reflect more deeply on what it means to cultivate a spiritual practice. And, the shadow side, which is to examine just how often we fail at this noble endeavor. As she reminds us, this too is OK -- even part of the path. We all have families, obligations, children, and the whole point is t...

Spiritual practice is about welcoming all of you. It's touching life exactly where life is touching you. It is allowing everything and everyone to be exactly as they are in this moment, without trying to change or manipulate our experience or theirs. In a way it is to give up trying to become anything other than you are. It's lovingly embracing that part of you that doesn't want to be embraced and meeting that part of yourself exactly where it is at. Meditation is a practice of becoming aware o...

"¡Hala Madrid! ...y nada más" means "Go Madrid and nothing more!" During the course of this interview a smile started to slowly etch itself into our very souls. Some people are built different. Some people hide themselves away, only revealing who they are little by little. Then, over the desert course, possibly after uncorking another bottle of wine, they mention the unmentionable and blow your fucking mind. That’s our guest today, Carmen Yagüe. You could say Russell sort of circled her, wit...

Our guest today was born in Germany, growing up on her family’s farm in Bavaria. *side note BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Auto Works... and that's where Harmony will be teaching this week, in Munich! When Ashtanga yoga found Viviane Simon she was going through a difficult period of depression, ending a seriously toxic relationship, and struggling with her weight, being 130kg (286 pounds). She enrolled in a “rebirthing training” course (which used a type of breathwork) and ...

What a beautiful podcast to kick off Pride month! This is an important month to celebrate our common humanity, diversity, and unconditional love and acceptance of one another. Jivana coined the phrase, “Accessible Yoga,” over ten years ago, and it has now become the standard appellation for a large cross section of the immense yoga world. He brought the Accessible Yoga community together for the first time in 2015 for the Accessible Yoga Conference, which has gone on to become a focal point fo...

We start off this episode with a cautionary tale about what happens when you experience debilitating back pain and don’t listen to your body, but try to work through the pain. Our guest Sally Parkes, began her journey in the health and fitness industry in 1998 after qualifying as a personal trainer and gaining a bachelor in Sport Science in the year 2001. Soon after, she experienced a deep calling to explore a more holistic approach to movement and breath, which led to Sally certifying as a yo...

We have an incredible conversation to share with you today! Introducing our new friend, the eminent Dr. Emma Bragdon. Emma has been a pioneer in body-mind-spirit wellness for 50 years. She has written 7 books and co-produced two documentary films on topics related to mental health and healing. In fact, she’s been a teacher in experiential learning for adults since 1985. Dr. Bragdon is the Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Energy Therapies, Inc (FET), a not for profit dedicat...

Well… we certainly didn’t expect that. We didn’t expect to be talking to Peter Gabriel’s niece. We didn’t expect her to actually be living beside Solsbury Hill. We didn’t think we’d be talking about all that much about Ben Folgle and the Animal Park show broadcast from her hometown of Bath. We didn’t think we we’d be talking that much about drugs and co-dependency and “good enough” mums and adult children of alcoholics. Well… maybe that’s not such a surprise, as Russell does like to typically g...

Kyra tells us, “All good things in my life are because of my parents.” Her parents were dancers, they’re liberal, kind-hearted humans, who found Ashtanga yoga first. They brought Kyra to her first class. However, at that time, Kyra was deeply struggling with bulimia and anorexia. And although the class made an imprint, a spark was lit. It wasn’t until after she left treatment that she was fully able to return to it. Diving headfirst with an openness to receiving it's healing effects. Today we...

Nadia Stinga Rihani is a mother of two, a yoga teacher (ashtanga level 2 authorised in 2014), a former gymnast, and a qualified strategic psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist. In 2019 Nadia was hit by a car, which left her unable to walk for many months, and she had to learn to start again completely. This accident resulted in the loss of her career and so, after taking off a period of time to focus on physical and mental rehabilitation, and also to have her second child (carrying the ba...

What is the spiritual path and how does it change us? This is a solo episode with some thoughts and reflections on what it means to have a spiritual practice and discipline. I offer a reading from the book: "Ritual As Remedy" by Mara Branscombe, ⁠a guest from back in January, episode 148⁠, and speak to how my own practice has shifted and changed over the years. “Your faith may be found inside the quiet of daily meditation practice or in your evening prayers. Be it fire ceremony, sweat lodge, ...

“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”— Frida Kahlo 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 o...

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...