Finding Harmony Podcast

John & Julia Scott: Stand Fast Together in Love

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 sovereignty and self-responsibility?
John talks about how when we’re in alignment with our natural selves we coexist with nature, but when we live from a place of ego we can’t help but destroy the planet. We need to stop ‘the doing’ and start ‘the being.’
We’re all programmed to be something, or do something, but this creates a sense of separateness. Like actors lost in playing a part and creating a separate reality we’ve lost site of who we truly are.
What is the key to connecting back with our true self?
The sound.
If we can listen on a pure level, we will understand that everything is already perfect.
Come sit with us by the proverbial campfire, as we tell stories and discuss philosophy, there is always something new to share… And we’re still learning. ❤
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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT JOHN & JULIA
WEBSITE I JOHN SCOTT INSTAGRAM I JULIA GRANT SCOTT INSTAGRAM - johnscottyoga.com
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
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Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!
Opening & Closing music by Nick Evans.

Sophia French: Sanātana Yoga

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?
We look at how different cultures make monuments (or not) to themselves and how as “Westerners” we approach things quite differently from the attitudes found in the East.
Giving up her prestigious position as managing editor of Elle India, Sophia French left the modern city of Mumbai to go live in Mysore. Although she’s made it her mission to elevate and uplift traditional Indian culture, it’s people and voices, she, herself, is throwing off many of the cultural expectations that no longer support her feminist sensibilities, like making a conscious choice not to have children, or to live in common-law, unmarried for the past eleven years. These choices could be considered quite radical from a more orthodox cultural context; but as you’ll discover, Sophia is an embodiment of many divergent parts coming together in perfect harmony.
Sophia is deeply devoted to the philosophy of Sanātana Dharma, translated as “the natural and eternal way to live" referring to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our limited, transient sectarian belief systems. It’s no wonder that she was drawn to Ashtanga yoga and Vipassana meditation and is passionate about preserving the authentic yoga teachings, while being inclusive and diverse, so that the practice and philosophy can belong to anyone who has a genuine interest in transformation.
She tells us Dharma is a faith and it’s a way of life. But the deeper question is: Where does spirituality start and religion end?
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SOPHIA
INSTAGRAM I THE YOGA LIFE I INDICA YOGA
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The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make a Donation - https://harmonyslater.com/donate
Opening & Closing music by Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Un-Layering with Philippa Asher

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 practice. As two of twenty Certified women who teach this method, we’re talking about unique issues that relate to female practitioners. We explore what it takes to become a Certified teacher? And what are some of the pitfalls, obstacles, and challenges you may encounter along the way.
We touch upon the similarities between ballet and Ashtanga yoga, as well as what Philippa’s first trip to Mysore was like. You’ll find out what it was that continued to pull her back again and again, year after year, until she finally moved to India permanently, building a retreat centre in the jungle to host students of her own.
After going through eight rounds of IVF and tragically miscarrying twins, Philippa has learned a lot about letting go, as well as when it’s most important to hold on.
Philippa reminds listeners that Ashtanga yoga is actually a life choice. A state of being and a state of mind to help guide how you live your life. The practice is about so much more than simply collecting asanas, it includes the integration of all eight limbs into your day-to-day experience.
Two years back, Philippa returned to London, England, and you can find her teaching students in person as well as in online classes, workshops, and retreats around the world.
“If you want to speed up the process of yoga, slow down.” - Philippa AsherFIND OUT MORE ABOUT PHILLIPA
WEBSITE I INSTAGRAM - https://ashtangaphilippa.com/
JOIN THE INNER CIRCLE MEMBERSHIP TO LISTEN TO BONUS EPISODES!
PLUS LIVE CLASSES WITH HARMONY!
BECOME A MEMBER ♡ - https://harmonyslater.com/inner-circle-membership
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make a Donation - https://harmonyslater.com/donate
Opening & Closing music by Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

From Norway to Nepal with Ellen Johannesen

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, which brought her back to live and study for three years in Bylakuppe, at a Tibetan Monastery and Tibetan refugee settlement. She subsequently moved to Kathmandu where she became a Tibetan translator and earned a Masters degree in Buddhist studies and Himalayan Languages from Kathmandu University. During this time she founded the first Mysore program in the center of Kathmandu where she lived and taught for seven years.
Ellen also studied Sanskrit, which was traditionally widely used among the Nepali Brahmin population and the Newar Buddhists. More recently, she has returned to Norway, but continues to take students on transformational retreats, where you can practice Ashtanga yoga and go trekking in the spiritual hub of the Himalayas. She loves sharing some of her favourite places around and beyond the Kathmandu valley, while introducing students to the sacred sites and natural beauty that is Nepal.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ELLEN
INSTAGRAM I WEBSITE I On Yoga Norway
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY
WEBSITE
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations.
Your contributions have allowed us to keep our podcast ad and sponsor free. Creating, editing and producing each episode takes a lot of time. It is a labor of love. And would not be possible without your kind support.
If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support. Make A Donation
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤
Give us a 5★ rating!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Dominic Corigliano Part 2: The Trance State

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 use to change the mind's ability to filter information, which can result in a more efficient use of the mind's resources. This form of self-hypnosis, or "Trance-like" experiences, is probably a state you're familiar with if you've ever been so absorbed in an activity, like yoga, that it actually takes a moment or two to reorient yourself back into the existing time-space continuum.
This is a beautifully deep and honest conversation had between old friends, who love and admire one another, and here we are inviting you into this intimate setting to sit with us.
Spending time with Dominic will transform your understanding of the practice of Ashtanga yoga. His perspective is absolutely unique and spans many generations.
We feel this conversation is also relevant to shifting sands in culture right now in the context of empowering women to continue speaking out, using their voice, claiming their power, and not standing down in the face of oppression or abuse.
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations.
Your contributions have allowed us to keep our podcast ad and sponsor free. Creating, editing and producing each episode takes a lot of time. It is a labor of love. And would not be possible without your kind support.
If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make A Donation - harmonyslater.com
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤
Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Dr. Rob: More Than Anatomy

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 return and spent the next three years living there. (like so many of us!) Dr. Rob became a fixture in the Gokulu, community as our go too guy for putting overzealous yoga folks back together!
You’ll find Rob is a pretty humble and private guy. Now living in Italy, he continues to be fully dedicated to his yoga practice with a strong focus on pranayama, learning from Sri. O.P Tiwari (as Harmony has also done). He loves to cook, especially with his wonderful wife Tara Mitra, who was also a guest on our show (episode 91).
He offers online yoga anatomy courses for complete beginners and for those yoga instructors with previous experience. They offer insights into muscular and joint movement learned through modern medical research and clinical experience. Each course includes a basic understanding of anatomy and function, describes the most common conditions, and how to manage them through yoga medicine.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ROB LAMPORT
INSTAGRAM I WEBSITE I YOUTUBE
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make A Donation
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY and become an INNER CIRCLE MEMBER - harmonyslater.com
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.”
Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Solidarity with Basia Lipska Larsen

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. The charm for us occurs when we dive into questions that we would have never think to ask in person if we were just hanging out at the chai stall, or having lunch at a cafe in Mysore, India. Where we’re more likely to be caught gossiping about who got what posture that day or who was caught riding on who’s scooter (the most glaring tell in all Mysore).
We spoke to Basia about her childhood in Canada, and her own child currently growing up in Thailand; the difficulties of developing a yoga practice alongside motherhood and what shape this takes.
Russell tried very hard to talk about his Polish ex-girlfriend (which was loudly and quickly shouted down! LOL). All in all, we had such a fun time time talking to our old friend that we hope you enjoy sitting with us as well.
Basia is an artist and respected yoga icon in Poland, Norway, and Japan who has been involved with creative yoga concepts, yoga training programs and wellness collaborations in the form of production, illustration, performance, art direction, styling, yoga sequencing, and authoring. As a certified yoga professional with over two decades of experience in her field, she has created and developed training programs and held numerous retreats and workshops. From 2015- 2020, as Yoga Product Manager and Master Trainer, she was involved in the development of HiYoga of SATS - the largest fitness chain in Scandinavia.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BASIA
INSTAGRAM I WEBSITE
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make A Donation
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY and become an INNER CIRCLE MEMBER - harmonyslater.com
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.”
Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Homeward Bound with Michael Schabort

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-vata constitution, in Ayurvedic terms. So often embodying the qualities of air and space, but measured with a slow, watery quality that keeps them moving, sliding in and out of locations, spaces, and postures. This constitution lends itself to a soft, supple body and sweet disposition.
Boundless open space is where Michael prefers to live. Not getting caught in a trap, like a category or a name, is of utmost importance to him. The Sanskrit term “parampara” is about sitting next to someone and receiving their transmission. Not unlike the Sanskrit word “Upanishad,” which is composed from the roots meaning “nearness” and “to sit.” This is how we learn. By feeling. By sitting near to someone. And, we believe you will get the feel of Michael by sitting next to him today, and listening. That this, by itself, can transform your consciousness in some unspeakably profound way. We trust that you are in good hands here today.
From his Instagram: Michael Schabort. Artist. Curious, wild & free ~ Earth warrior~ made in Africa.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MICHAEL
INSTAGRAM I FACEBOOK
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make A Donation
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY and become an INNER CIRCLE MEMBER - harmonyslater.com
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.”
Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Prana For Life with Siobhan Fitzgerald

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 the nomad did just that, and had too. But, a nomadic child can also selflessly merge into a group like a chameleon, taking on the trappings and customs of the people in their milieu. Alienated as they are they can be real joiners.
Sibhan has taught Ashtanga Yoga as a led practice and Mysore drop in sessions and Traditional Hatha Yoga since 2004 and specialises in breathing practices in Yogic therapy. She has been teaching within Yoga teacher trainings in this specialist area the past 5 years. Her own Breath master has been her mentor since 2005. Recently due to his age he opened up the knowledge on a 3 year programme for his lifelong students at this amazing research Institute in India .....She completed these studies in India 2015-2019, with her guru Sri O. P. Tiwari and his son Sudhir Tiwari.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SIOBHAN
INSTAGRAM I WEBSITE I Workshop on Ayurveda and Yoga July 2
Find out more about HARMONY
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
Make A Donation
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY and become an INNER CIRCLE MEMBER - harmonyslater.com
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!
We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shout out on IG!
Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.”
Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Life As Art with Asta Caplan

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 our spine and the vulcanized rubber in our hips just don’t bend and melt like that, ok?!?
Here today is our special guest, Asta Caplan, whom to all purposes looks just that: EFFORTLESS!
Anything is possible and she does it seemingly all day, everyday. Feet on her head, bang. Feet twisted up in her belly, bang. Handstanding the whole time. And, yet our guest today has a bit of a twisted history.
She has a unique approach to practice because her past physical failings are something that she has come to terms with and subsequently works around. We believe you will be inspired to practice, and to live, after hearing her story!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ASTA CAPLAN
INSTAGRAM I WEBSITE I ASHTANGA SPIRIT MUNICH I ASHTANGA SPIRIT IG
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT Harmony: https://harmonyslater.com/
A big heart of thanks to our friends, family, and students from around the world, who’ve generously supported this podcast through your comments, sharing, and financial donations.
If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Every little bit goes a long way and we are immensely grateful for any and all of your support.
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