Finding Harmony Podcast

A Round Table on The Advanced Practice

When we’re at home, most of us practice with a different intensity than we do in Mysore, whether it turns out to be more or less postures is another story. We spent an afternoon discussing what this looks like and why we do what we do with power couple Kate O’Donnell and Rich Ray from Ashtanga Yoga Portland Maine. We talked about Advanced Asanas and our relationship to them both personally, as well as collectively.
The first aspect we discussed is what sacrifices a person must make to practice Advanced Series on a regular basis, and barring those sacrifices, what then is Yoga and what is it for?
Not all people can do these complex advanced postures. And yet, all people can practice Yoga.
We discussed how exploring the minutia within a single posture can allow for the time and space to fully examine oneself within a posture, and how using asanas as benchmarks creates hierarchies of status (for better or worse). One thing we all seemed to agree upon is that all aspects of the body and mind can be examined in Surya Namaskar. Even simply examining your tongue might be enough to send your consciousness to other planes of reality.
Rich Ray has been practicing meditation and yoga for over 20 years. He trained as a resident monk for 4 years at a silent monastery. He taught yoga and meditation at state prisons in California and New Hampshire and started a meditation program at a women’s county jail in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the director of Ashtanga Yoga Portland Maine.
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Kate O’Donnell is the author of three Ayurvedic Cookbooks, including The Everyday Ayurveda Guide to Self-Care, The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook: A Seasonal Guide to Eating and Living Well and Everyday Ayurvedic Cooking for a Calm, Clear Mind: 100 Sattvic Recipes. She is a nationally certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and the founder of the Ayurvedic Living Institute.
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Harmony Slater is a Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, who has been teaching in the Mysore method for close to 20 years. Harmony is a strong presence in the Ashtanga community worldwide having founded two Yoga Schools in Canada. She has shared her experiences with the practice, pregnancy and childbirth in the books: ‘Yoga Sadhana for Mothers’ and ‘Strength and Grace: A collection of Essays by Women of Ashtanga Yoga.’
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Russell Case was the Founding Director of the Stanford Mysore Program for the last ten years. Prior to this he was the founder of the largest Mysore program in East Asia from 2005-2010, while living in Taipei, Taiwan. Since then Russell was project manager for the Jois Foundation collaborating with the child psychiatry team at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in undertaking the largest and most comprehensive longitudinal study on the effect of mindfulness and yoga on school age children in history. Currently he is focused on cultivating a robust career as a painter because yolo.
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On The Other Side of Darkness with Todd Boman

We were blessed today to catch up with our dear friend Todd Boman. Todd and Russell were both born in the Pontiac Memorial Hospital in the 70’s. Probably right along side Madonna Ciccone, a neighbor. Todd has a unique story to share. Growing up in Michigan as a young gay male is its own peculiar hellscape. He understood immediately (and by that I mean junior high school) that being gay in the 80’s and 90’s likely meant death from HIV/AIDS. Surviving the darker side of this AIDS crisis in America was fraught with escapist behavior and that became yet another damned issue to try and survive.
Todd is here to tell you it gets better. The best thing you can have is good friends and mentors to teach you how to Live and Love.
“Yoga is having the skills to put your life into action.” - Todd Boman
We touched on themes of Addiction, Crisis, Recovery, Yoga, Mysore, and his particular fascination with Chicago Folk Designer Edgar Miller.
“You are never alone, even though you might feel like it.” Todd’s message to all of us managing addiction and mental health issues.
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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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Grass Roots with Robert Moses

We were absolutely blown away when Robert Moses related the current pandemic of the Coronavirus to a powerful transformative goddess, Ma Corona Devi.
In this way, we most certainly felt like it was a blessing of the Mother Goddess Corona Devi, that this esteemed teacher of yoga, Robert Moses, came on our podcast to share with us personal stories from his incredible lifetime on the spiritual path.
Starting with being born in South Africa into a Jewish family, growing up during apartheid, to traveling through Europe in the 60’s on an architectural tour in a secondhand VW bus plastered with Lakshmi posters, and moving to Israel to become a renunciate Swami with the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Organization.
He was first introduced to the method of Ashtanga yoga, as taught by Sri K Pattabhi Jois, by the pioneer Norman Allen, in 1982. Norman had called him gruffly out of the blue, after twelve years of living in India. The rules of the Sivananda “Yoga Ranch” were that Robert was to teach Norman, until it became clear that Norman had something different to teach Robert. Robert began practicing with Norman in a small loft in NYC, along with another pioneer, Beryl Bender-Birch, who was learning this novel style of asana — something that was completely foreign to North America at the time.
Robert Moses was the first person to show Derek Ireland Surya Namaskara, which started him on his journey to Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, and Derek in turn, taught John Scott and Hamish Hendry, propagating the Asthanga yoga community in Europe.
Robert Moses shares with us the wisdom he’s learned about holding strong to the middle path, staying true to oneself, and connecting to something greater.
I’m sure you will find this interview as historically fascinating and personally enlightening as we did.
If you are interested in joining Robert Moses for one of his Pranayama Classes, his course on Vedanta or Hatha Yoga, he will be beginning a new session of classes THIS WEEK!
Find all the details on his website.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ROBERT MOSES
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Find out more about Harmony Slater and Russell Case and their upcoming offerings at harmonyslater.com and download my free e-book on Yoga Mythology.
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We love to read and respond to your comments - So drop us a note in the comments below and give us a shoutout 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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Can’t Cheat Karma

Harmony and Russell are at heart amateur archivists of the emerging yoga punk scene that grew up in the heart of Generation X. For us Lisa Schrempp embodies everything that is cool about how we did things. Angry, disaffected, latchkey kids, having to make dinner by ourselves; we made everything in our world by hand because no one else was around. That’s punk. And that is Lisa Schrempp to a T.
Lisa was a 17 year old human gazelle and modern dancer in Chicago. She received a scholarship to dance with the Alvin Ailey dance company, so she left Chicago and took off to the East Village Alphabet city (Needle Village), finding odd jobs, like working as a bartender, to help pay the bills. She didn’t take any shit and partied hard -- living the way she wanted. Eventually, she found her way to a 10 AM yoga class, (although 10 AM was a little early for her) and found herself practicing next a couple of sincere seekers: David Life and Sharon Gannon. Through her journey of over 35 years, in the ancient sciences of yoga and Ayurveda, Lisa found what she was searching for all along.
“If I’m prepared for the world, I can be a healing balm.” - Lisa Schrempp
Lisa walks us through her NY story and so much more in our podcast called “Can’t Cheat Karma.”
Hear her thoughts on Gurus, Cancel Culture, Yoga Scandals, and the importance of the weekly oil bath, she weaves a beautiful lesson of how we each have our own Karma to live out and how it effects our behaviors, but also gives us agency in the world to change our actions.
Find out more about Lisa Scrempp:
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Join us for our Online Autumn Retreat October 2-4.
Where I will be joined by Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤
And 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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Ashtangorexia Nervosa

Bibi Lorenzetti is (obvious to anyone who meets her) a star. We are absolutely delighted to have her on the podcast. But one thing you will find, as Madonna put it, when you are a star there is probably something wrong with you. And, like Russell and Harmony, Bibi shares body dysmorphia and has suffered with anorexia nervosa. The urgency to “progress” at the physical side of the yoga practice, often comes at the expense of one’s health, which is traced more deeply to an old feeling of insecurity. We talk about these issues, as well as the lengths we have gone to combat this insidious genetic disease, and how we have found healing from it as well.
Bibi discusses her transient childhood, arriving in Houston from Italy, with zero English language as a 10 year old. This was followed by a move to Spain as a 16 year old, where her body blossomed and her anorexia exploded. Eventually, after many years, she settled into a place of health and healing through her relationship to Barbara Verrochi and Kristen Leigh at the Yoga Shala in NY, where she dedicated herself to the practice of Ashtanga yoga.
Bibi, very honestly discusses how even at the height of her powers in the Ashtanga yoga practice, while finishing Third Series, the dreaded "Ashtangorexia" continued to haunt her as she contemplated having a child. It never really fully disappears… but we can learn to see it for what it is, a negative thought pattern.
Her decision to mindfully and consciously sacrifice herself to motherhood is an inspiration. And all of the lessons and awakenings that have come from allowing this new transformation to organically unfold has truly been a gift beyond anything she could have imagined.
Bibi Lorenzetti is a Level 2 Authorized Ashtanga Yoga Teacher & Holistic Health Coach. She received her blessing to teach Ashtanga Yoga in 2014, from the KPJAYI Institute in Mysore, India, where she has had the honor of assisting R. Sharath Jois multiple times over the years. She taught at the Shala Yoga House in New York City for over 6 years and is now the owner of her own Shala in Newburgh, NY: Ashtanga Yoga Newburgh (AYNBNY).
Bibi has been featured in Glamour Magazine, and in the Netflix Michael O'Neill documentary 'On Yoga: The Architecture of Peace.'
LEARN MORE ABOUT BIBI:
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Join us for our online AUTUMN YOGA RETREAT October 2-4. Where I will be joined by Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ And 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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Yoga and the Art of Porsche Maintenance

We had the great pleasure to interview our good friend, partner of Harmony’s dear friend Lara Land, the amazing Thimo Wittich. What strikes people about Thimo is his wonderful kindness and good humor. He is very much a sadhaka, like Rolf Naujokat and Swami Agehananda—all Good Germans. Ultimately, just good people that seek to heal the world through mindfulness practice.
Thimo sat and discussed a wide range of topics with us: The Ancient Catholic Carnival of his home town Cologne “Köln”, the anti-religious upbringing he shared with his widowed mother, and the ethics of being a Good Porsche owner. Throughout all of this he seeks to bring Bhavana—the cultivation or “bringing into being” of mindfulness to all aspects of his life, including how he cares for his baby daughter, Hannah.
“We are cultivating all the time, bringing things into being.” He says. You must create a clear intention in what you want to cultivate and use Metta — loving-kindness, as a practice to help heal our brokenness as individuals in society and as a global community.
As a Jew, Russell was initially very apprehensive about even having a German on the show. (This is very much tongue in cheek!)
We did, however, ask of Thimo on how we, as Americans, can learn from the racist upheaval of Post-War Germany and what was it like for Lara’s old German-Jewish family to bring Thimo in their lives and vice versa. These very personal topics are approached from a spirit of true curiosity and with much mutual love.
Peel Back The Layers with our Autumn Retreat October 2-4. Join myself, Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich for our AUTUMN YOGA RETREAT ONLINE.
Thimo Wittich is a writer, publisher and a yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher. He has been studying Yoga and Buddhism for over 13 years. His main field of interest is the study of the Dharma as found in the earliest Buddhist texts and the transmission of these valuable teachings into this day and age.
Thimo has taught Meditation and Yoga at Land Yoga and assisted his teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
Thimo is the co-founder and editor of evidero.de a German online magazine for a conscious, sustainable and healthy lifestyle.
This fall he is teaching an online Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course for Land Yoga as well as a social distant, limited enrollment in person MBSR course at Streamside Yoga. He is also leading daily meditation and a special course on early Buddhism for our online Autumn Peel Back the Layers Yoga Retreat.
For further information about his schedule please see his website.
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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.

Kiki Says It All

From her early origins in a full Opus Dei Catholic school in England to landing the part of Ariel Sharon the Israeli stripper in the blockbuster movie Striptease to becoming a leading figure in the Ashtanga yoga community and now holding the Guinness World Record for the longest held downward facing dog, Kimberly “Kiki” Flynn has lived a fantastical life.
As student of Lee Strasburg’s “Method” School of Acting in NYC, she also began learning Kundalini yoga in 1982. Shortly afterward, she was recruited by the CIA for her linguistic skills (the first of three attempts). Kiki became a student and teacher of Ashtanga yoga in the early 90s at Jivamukti Yoga. Shortly after Sri K. Pattabhi Jois came to visit on at teaching tour in 1993, she made her way to Mysore and quickly became the Doyenne of an ever growing group of new students who continued to gather year after year to learn from Pattabhi Jois. She was our personal Sanskrit tutor and guide to all things culturally appropriate in India.
Ms. Flynn presciently opened her first yoga school in chic Silverlake, Los Angeles in 1996. She has since led workshops and events throughout North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
As a wellness coach and private yoga teacher, her clients include Oscar and Grammy award winners, Pop Queens and crowned royalty.
Kiki also creates transformational yoga programming for individuals and communities with Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Cord Injury, TBI, PTSD and other neurological and mobility related concerns. She has taught and coached 1000s of students, and 100s of teachers and yoga school owner/entrepreneurs.
She recently launched and produces Kiki TV, a cloud based center for Wellbeing, Yoga, and Optimal Living with 100s of hours of video-on-demand, live Zoom classes, Sanskrit, chanting, tutorials and inspiration. Try a Free 10-Day Trial.
She is also passionate about coaching yoga teachers and wellness professionals to entrepreneurial success and 6-figure incomes. Find out more here.
Learn More About Kiki:
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DON'T FORGET!
Registration closes for my upcoming Pranayama Course Friday September 11. Sign up for this unique opportunity to deepen your practice with me and receive 1:1 coaching.
Peel Back The Layers with our Autumn Retreat October 2-4. Join myself, Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich for our AUTUMN YOGA RETREAT ONLINE.
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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.
Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! ❤ Give us a 5★ rating!

Time For A Breathing Break

In this episode of Finding Harmony, we’ve decided to take a little "Breathing Break." We wanted to share some funny stories and talk about our experience with the fourth limb of the eight-limb yoga path: Pranayama. During these especially stressful times, we felt it was important to share with you some of the many benefits that cultivating a regular breathing practice can have on your body and mind.
If you want to learn more about practicing the 4th limb of yoga: Register for my online Pranayama Course that starts Sunday September 13.
Peel Back The Layers with our Autumn Retreat October 2-4. Join myself, Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich for our AUTUMN YOGA RETREAT ONLINE. Registration is NOW OPEN.
Some benefits to lengthening your exhalation are:
It slows down your breathing pattern and releases tension in the body
It relaxes the Nervous System by stimulating the parasympathetic response
It tones the vagus nerve and stimulates the vagal break, which is responsible for slowing down the heart rate, and thereby helps to lower and normalize blood pressure.
It can reduce anxiety and depression and help to regulate your mood.
It ensures that your blood pH is maintained at an optimal level, thereby reducing inflammation in the body.
It improves our immune system functioning and supports healthy digestion.
It will slowly increase your lung capacity so you can breathe bigger, deeper breaths more naturally.
It trains you to feel comfortable with retaining the breath, thereby giving you greater breath-control.
Simple Breathing Practice:
To begin you can start with a practice of Simple Breathing. If you are new to this kind of breathing, start with three minutes. Inhale for three seconds and exhale for six seconds. Continue this pattern of lengthening the exhalation to be twice as long as your inhalation. If the 3:6 (inhale:exhale) ratio feels too fast or easy, then the next day you can extend both your inhalation and exhalation by one second, to create a breath rate of 4:8 (inhale:exhale).
If it is comfortable for you slightly tighten the glottis muscle at the back of your throat to create that “ujjayi” sound as you breathe, you might find you have more control over your ability to elongate your inhalation and exhalation.
When you slow your breathing down and consciously regulate your breathing pattern to a four second inhale and an eight second exhale, you are effectively restoring balance to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, in this case you would be slowing your breath rate to five breaths per minute.
Even with a three second inhale and six second exhale, your breath rate slows to just under seven breaths per minute, which is a significant drop from the normal, every day, breathing rate of fifteen to eighteen breaths per minute. This slowing of the breath in turn slows down your brain-wave patterns so they can drop into a more contemplative frequency.
Remember to breathe with a feeling of kindness towards yourself and patience with the process. You are doing something tremendously beneficial for yourself by taking a breathing break.
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Fracking Yoga

In this episode we catch up with dedicated Ashtangi, mother of two, and highly acclaimed jouranlist, Bethany McLean. She is also an author and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, who lives in Chicago.
Bethany’s gift is understanding where the bullshit is, and uncovering it. As Russell said “To put Bethany McLean in context, imagine if in Die Hard Jon McClane takes down Hans Gruber in a cowboy no due process kind of way, then its Bethany who uncovers the rampant embezzlement at Nakatomi Plaza!”
Many of you might remember her from the 2012 Vanity Fair article entitled: Who’s Yoga Is It Anyway? where she explored how the global Ashtanga yoga community grapples with the death of Guru, Pattabhi Jois, and the complicated response to Sonia Jones launching a chain of yoga studios under the “Jois” name. A name copyrighted and paid for, but a purchase that rankled the prickly egos of senior students who preferred their status just where it was: On Top.
She co-author with Peter Elkind, the bestselling book: The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron .
Her second book, which she co-authored with Joe Nocera, is called: All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. And her third book also co-authored with Joe Nocera, is Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants.
Bethany has a particular talent for following the numbers, exposing illusions, and popping bubbles to reveal where the truth lays hidden. This notion is of particular interest to Harmony and Russell as the Alberta economy is on the brink of collapse as Covid-19 exposes the pitfalls of cheap money in a dead service: Fracking. Alberta prides itself as the Saudi Arabia of North America, but as Bethany says, its not just a dollar spent and a dollar earned: “It’s much worse than that.”
In her most recent book titled, Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World, journalist Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that have plagued the American oil industry for the past decade, and turns an eye to the mysterious death of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon.
Find out more about Bethany McLean and listen to her podcast Making A Killing on iTunes.
As always, keep exploring my website and all my online offerings.
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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review ❤ and give us a 5★ rating.

Ashtanga Yoga Tiger Training

Larry Hobbs is an Italian American who grew up in North Carolina. He is an Army Veteran who considers himself a late bloomer, coming to the practice of yoga after turning 50.
We walk through Larry’s chaotic childhood — his mother doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t speak Italian, a tour in Vietnam, (his discovery that he didn’t have PTSD from the war, he had it from home), and his practice of martial arts. After his discovery of Ashtanga Yoga he learned from many senior teachers, notably the legendary Annie Pace, and ultimately found himself in Mysore, India, the bedrock of Ashtanga yoga, in 2008.
Now, nearing 70, Larry has learned about how to maintain his practice through a spinal surgery, a hip replacement, and has adjusted his practice to accommodate an aging body.
You’ll love listening to Harmony, Russell and Larry colloquially reminisce their memories from Mysore and about some of the idiosyncratic Senior Ashtanga teachers they’ve met along the way. As Larry was just in Mysore earlier this year, you will hear about his impressions of the New Sharath Yoga Shala and the younger community that continues to flourish there.
Learn more about Larry and his yoga shala: Hanuman Ashtanga Yoga
Find Larry on Facebook
As always, keep exploring my website harmonyslater.com and book your private yoga lessons with me online.
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 - Simply Click Here.
To purchase your own copy - Click Here.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! ❤
Give us a 5★ rating!