A Curious Yogi with Bobbi Paidel

In this short episode, I share my personal story of how Himachal Pradesh, India shifted my belief and mindset to one that is rooted in freedom, service and sadhana.

And I let you in on why I decided to do something as crazy as hosting a retreat there and of course, invite you to join me for an incredible journey in this lesser-explored area of Northern India in March 2025. Come explore the magic!

✨ Visit www.bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat to download the info guide.

✨ Hit me up at [email protected] if you're curious and want to discuss it in more detail.

Thanks for being here dear Curious Yogi 🙏

“What are the ethical implications of yoga being used by these racially oppressive, colonial forces and being used to help people who are agents of that oppression feel better and decompress and destress?”

I am honoured to introduce you to this week's guest, Sheena Sood, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Sociology, activist, yoga practitioner, and healing justice visionary. Sheena is on the editorial board of Race & Yoga Journal; is a co-founder of Yogis for Palestine - and the founder of Yoga Warrior Tales. Her research is focused on what she calls Omwashing; the weaponization of yoga by far-right imperialist forces and military and policing institutions.

Sheena gives incredible insight and uncomfortable facts to direct our attention, contemplation and action toward the “deeply unfree world” in which we all participate.

We dig into the important topic and difficult reality of the oppressive systems in power along with the responsibility yoga practitioners have to examine and question them if we sincerely wish to shift the collective towards liberation and embodied freedom for all.

References:

• I referenced some of Sheena's published work and highly recommend reading more from her sheenashining.com/publications/
• Aljazeera Article; ‘Om-washing’: Why Modi’s Yoga Day Pose Is Deceptive
• Undrowned Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Connect with Sheena:

• Sheenas Instagram instagram.com/sheena_shining/
• Yoga Warrior Tales Instagram (for your kids!) instagram.com/yogawarriortales/
• Yogis for Palestine Instagram instagram.com/yogis4palestine/
• Sign up for Sheena's newsletter pages.sheenashining.com/newsletter
• Yoga Warrior Tales Program {Note link correction] yogawarriortales.podia.com/

Thanks for listening!

Bobbi

💭 Find the full show notes and video clips bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep14-sheena-sood

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast/

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat/

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me bobbipaidel.com/connect/ 🙏♥️✨

“The communion of spiritual life and worldly life. Only if you understand your spiritual life, can actually live your worldly life quite beautifully.”

A special guest and inspiration today is the one and only Arohini Narain, Chief HR and Strategy officer from Lucknow, India. But more than a successful businesswoman, Ruhi is a satsangee first and foremost.

In this episode Arohini shares the wisdom of her spiritual master who has guided her through her successes and challenges in life. She speaks with clarity and conviction in the teachings and shares the resting places shes’ cultivated within herself which allows her the freedom and strength to know her spiritual master and her ashram are always with her.

We touch on

➖ The confusion between spirituality and religion

➖ Worshipping the universal being in all

➖ How to overcome suffering of a divided world

➖ Neti Neti

➖ The true meaning of "ashram" and so so much more!

I hope you take as much practical knowledge as possible to begin to find the same spiritual joy Ruhi has and live your worldly life just as beautiful!

Thanks for listening!

In Oneness,

Bobbi

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep-13-arohini-narain

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

“We have both always been searching for something that gave us purpose and meaning, to fill that whole and guidelines to live after.”

Raw. Real. Totally Joyful.

Richard Grønlie and Line Sortehaug made a huge impression when I met them earlier this year. They are a Norwegian married couple with three kids, they are yoga teachers, and they are addicts.

Their story is one of transformation and redemption. They share their views on life, yoga, recovery and how to handle the ups and downs that will inevitably come our way. Richard and Line walk the talk, they are role models to anyone struggling with addiction, in any capacity. And also a reminder to us all that another way of life is always, always possible.

Find Richard and Line’s yoga space Styrkestua IG HERE and FB HERE

Check out Back in the Ring Foundation at backinthering.no

And check out my recent episode (S3 Ep8) with Alexander, the founder of Back in the Ring HERE

Thanks for listening!

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep12-richardandline

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

“Being truly conscious requires stepping back from compulsions and attachments - a change in the operating system. And sometimes we need a helping hand for that. We can’t do it alone, nor should we have to.”

For me, the healing, the coming home, starts with shame. And is currently seeped in gratitude.

In this solo episode, I share my personal story woven together with words from wise teachers and thinkers. Borrowed from the sages, saints and sponsors who have inspired my own inquiry into addiction, mental health and healing, I share my take aways from 6 years of sobriety.

The intention in this honest, and unpolished episode is to share my hope, courage and strength for any other yogis or seekers out there struggling with addictions, compulsions and their own "stinking thinking".

Let’s all remember Swamiji’s words; “God lives in the effort.”

In this episode, I mention a few resources

➖Yoga and the 12 Steps: www.y12sr.com

➖And check out this lit Season 1, Episode 25 with Nikki in season 1 HERE

➖Gabor Mate’s book, “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction” HERE

And, connect below if you’d like to connect or reflect privately on this episode.

Thanks for being here.

💭Support the podcast and join our monthly satsang at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

“Take that 7 minutes (meditation) a day. And nurture it like a little seedling and watch how it grows into the beautiful plant of oneness and watch how it oozes out into your life.”

This week's guest is Mayank in New Zealand, he is first and foremost a yogi and meditator. He teaches Somatics, Restorative Movement & QiGong at the Wisdom of Meditation Centre in Te Horo, New Zealand.

Mayank and I discuss his story of growing up in a religious home and talk about the expanded meaning of the “G” word (GOD!). Mayank graciously shares his lifetime of study and meditation in India and how to live our awareness practically, in a life filled with many ups and downs.

He shares with me on how to “build the relationship” with meditation over time, so that “meditation does me, I don’t do meditation.”

Find Mayank HERE:

Retreat: .wisdomofmeditation.com/retreat-himalaya-2024

Kirtan: spirit-of-kirtan.bandcamp.com

Season 1 episode 12 with Shikhaa HERE

A great conversation, I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for listening!

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep10-mayank

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

“Decolonizing yoga is admirable but I think it is just better to learn yoga.”

I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Shyam Ranganathan a field-changing researcher, scholar, author, and teacher of philosophy, and an expert in the neglected traditions of Indian moral philosophy, which covers practical questions of how to live, what to aim for, and what we should value—including Yoga.

Find Dr. Shyam Ranganthan 100 Hour Level 1 Yoga Philosophy Training and other courses at: yogaphilosophy.com/level-1-and-2-certification

Find his most recent book Yoga - Anticolonial Philosophy HERE

I’m looking forward to discussing this episode during our next monthly Satsang which always takes place on the first Sunday of every month.

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

“The real beauty of yoga is about letting go, being flexible and seeing that there is infinite potential in every moment.”

Today I’m joined by R. Alexander Medin, a certified Ashtanga Teacher and all around amazing human with an incredible capacity for giving and sharing yoga with generosity, joy and clarity.

Alexander shares his story and perspective with immense insight from transitioning from professional boxer to breakdancer to ballet dancer to being certified by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois - an honor achieved by only 33 individuals.

Alexander and I discuss his work with addicts and inmates, using the body as a tool and how the real yoga is to meet the challenges of life.

And SO much more....

Join myself and Alexander at his Norges Yoga Festival in Norwary this July: norgesyogafestival.no/en/home

Find Nøsen Yoga and Mountain Hotel HERE or on IG: @nosenyoga

Check out his work with the Back in the Ring Foundation: backinthering.no

Thanks for listening!

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep8-alexander-medin

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭Join me in northern India for the Yog Sadhana Retreat Himalaya March 2025 bobbipaidel.com/himalayan-retreat

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

"A very very important practice that has to be included in our lives is to not believe our thoughts. Any thought that comes in and makes you unhappy be sure it is untrue."

Wow wow wow! This episode was incredibly delightful to record and edit because it is packed to the brim with knowledge rooted in freedom and can be applied practically without any struggle.

A jewel in my podcast treasure chest and a real privilege to introduce you to Shaarda, a Shashtri Scholar with a PhD in Vedant, a poet, a photographer, a lover of India, a fellow satsangee and a wise friend who showers us with knowledge in this conversation.

Shaardaji and I get right into why we need spiritual people, her experience of meeting Swamiji, the most important practice of attending the knower, the second most important practice of never believing your thoughts and asking ourselves…what is it that we really want?

Trust me, dear curious yogi, this is one of the most charming and practical episodes for anyone who never wants to be unhappy.

Sit down and relax with Shaarda and I.

Thanks for listening!

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep7-shaarda

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨

In this episode, I’m talking to Simon Jalonen, or Nurse Yogi as you might know him.

Simon is a registered nurse, a yoga practitioner and a certified teacher.

Simon is also my partner in freedom and in life and it was such a joy to have his perspective and lived wisdom on a Curious Yogi. He is a Swede of few words, but yes, those words are very carefully selected and wonderful.

Our conversation today is focused on Seva or selfless service, healthcare work and charity. Where do they all intersect with our sadhana or spiritual lives?

Support our +Lamb Trek on June 15th for children living with HIV in India trek.positivelamb.com/t/trek-ldn

Learn more about our Sweden Retreat for Healthcare Professionals bobbipaidel.com/healthcare-retreat

Thanks for listening!

💭 Find the full show notes at bobbipaidel.com/podcast-s3-ep6-simon-jalonen

💭Support the podcast and join monthly satsangs at patreon.com/acuriousyogipodcast

💭 If you liked this episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts – it really, really helps the show reach more people, plus I love reading each one.

💭 Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram stories @bobbipaidel

💭 If you’d like to chat about the show, be a guest, or practice together find me at bobbipaidel.com/connect 🙏♥️✨