What does it mean to keep practicing after the loss of the teacher who gave you the practice?

In this deeply personal episode, Harmony Slater speaks with Bianca Oliviera — a Brazilian-born Ashtanga teacher now living in Katowice, Poland — about the sudden passing of Sharath Jois, the grief that followed, and how she continues to carry the teachings forward. Bianca was present at the Active Series training in Virginia when Sharath passed, and she shares her firsthand account of that day with honesty, grief, and deep reverence.

This conversation explores what happens to devotion when its outer form disappears — and why the essence of the practice, once received, can never truly be lost.

IN THIS EPISODE:

KEY QUOTES:

"Each time I finish, I feel good. Something inside feels better."

"He sacrificed so much so I could practice with Sharaji because he knew it was super special and important for me."

"Nothing is forever. Not our bodies, not our communities, not our guru, not our practices."

GUEST BIO:

BIANCA RAPOSO DE OLIVEIRA is a Brazilian-born Ashtanga yoga teacher based in Katowice, Poland. She discovered yoga in Rio de Janeiro and found Ashtanga after watching the Ashtanga New York DVD during a 200-hour teacher training in North Carolina. She traveled to Mysore approximately six times to practice with Saraswati Jois and Sharath Jois. She now runs an evening Mysore program and teaches online, and organizes yoga retreats with her husband and son Surya.

CONNECT WITH BIANCA:

Instagram: @biancayoga

Website: ashtangayogakatowice.com

HARMONY IS TEACHING IN PORTUGAL:

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:

Find Finding Harmony on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Podbean.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What does it mean to keep practicing after the loss of the teacher who gave you the practice?

In this deeply personal episode, Harmony Slater speaks with Bianca Oliviera — a Brazilian-born Ashtanga teacher now living in Katowice, Poland — about the sudden passing of Sharath Jois, the grief that followed, and how she continues to carry the teachings forward. Bianca was present at the Active Series training in Virginia when Sharath passed, and she shares her firsthand account of that day with honesty, grief, and deep reverence.

This conversation explores what happens to devotion when its outer form disappears — and why the essence of the practice, once received, can never truly be lost.

IN THIS EPISODE:

KEY QUOTES:

"Each time I finish, I feel good. Something inside feels better."

"He sacrificed so much so I could practice with Sharaji because he knew it was super special and important for me."

"Nothing is forever. Not our bodies, not our communities, not our guru, not our practices."

GUEST BIO:

BIANCA RAPOSO DE

OLIVEIRA is a Brazilian-born Ashtanga yoga teacher based in Katowice, Poland. She discovered yoga in Rio de Janeiro and found Ashtanga after watching the Ashtanga New York DVD during a 200-hour teacher training in North Carolina. She traveled to Mysore approximately six times to practice with Saraswati Jois and Sharath Jois. She now runs an evening Mysore program and teaches online, and organizes yoga retreats with her husband and son Surya.

CONNECT WITH BIANCA:

Instagram: @biancayoga

Website: ashtangayogakatowice.com

HARMONY IS TEACHING IN PORTUGAL:

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:

Find Finding Harmony on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Podbean.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

Harmony sits down with her fellow Canadian and spinal energetics colleague, Mel Brandt — chiropractor, coach, and founder of a new paradigm for healer-entrepreneurs. After 18 years building a multidisciplinary chiropractic clinic in Kelowna, BC, Mel recently sold her practice to step fully into the work she believes she was always meant to do: helping healers clear the energetic and subconscious blocks that keep them playing small in their businesses and their lives.

What begins as a conversation about spinal energetics quickly opens into something much larger: the emotional roots of physical pain, the limiting scope of institutional medicine, the spiritual initiation of selling a business you built from scratch, and the deep identity work required to ask yourself, "Who am I without what I do?"

Mel shares how a back injury she couldn't heal using conventional methods led her to German New Medicine — and the revelation that her pain was actually part of a healing phase, not a sign that something was broken. She traces her path from that awakening through subconscious coaching, spinal energetics training, and ultimately the decision to fully release her clinic identity and build something new.

Together, Harmony and Mel explore why healers so often undervalue their services, what makes coaching categorically different from training, and why the discomfort of evolving is — for both of them — far less painful than the discomfort of staying put.

This episode is for anyone navigating a calling that doesn't fit inside the box they've been living in.

Key Topics Covered

About Mel Brandt

Mel Brandt is a chiropractor, certified spinal energetics practitioner, and business coach based in Kelowna, British Columbia. She founded and ran a multidisciplinary health clinic for 18 years, growing it to 16 practitioners before selling in early 2026 to focus entirely on her coaching work. Mel now helps healers, coaches, and practitioners expand their impact, clear subconscious blocks, and build businesses that are aligned with their deeper purpose. Her current signature programs blend spinal energetics, subconscious work, and business strategy for practitioners ready to move beyond the treatment room.

Guest Links & Resources

Host Announcement: Portugal Sessions

Harmony Slater will be offering in-person spinal energetics sessions in Portugal this summer:• Lisbon (Agora Lisboa): June 25–28• Faro: July 8–12DM @harmonyslaterofficial on Instagram to book.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

Harmony sits down with her fellow Canadian and spinal energetics colleague, Mel Brandt — chiropractor, coach, and founder of a new paradigm for healer-entrepreneurs. After 18 years building a multidisciplinary chiropractic clinic in Kelowna, BC, Mel recently sold her practice to step fully into the work she believes she was always meant to do: helping healers clear the energetic and subconscious blocks that keep them playing small in their businesses and their lives.

What begins as a conversation about spinal energetics quickly opens into something much larger: the emotional roots of physical pain, the limiting scope of institutional medicine, the spiritual initiation of selling a business you built from scratch, and the deep identity work required to ask yourself, "Who am I without what I do?"

Mel shares how a back injury she couldn't heal using conventional methods led her to German New Medicine — and the revelation that her pain was actually part of a healing phase, not a sign that something was broken. She traces her path from that awakening through subconscious coaching, spinal energetics training, and ultimately the decision to fully release her clinic identity and build something new.

Together, Harmony and Mel explore why healers so often undervalue their services, what makes coaching categorically different from training, and why the discomfort of evolving is — for both of them — far less painful than the discomfort of staying put.

This episode is for anyone navigating a calling that doesn't fit inside the box they've been living in.

Key Topics Covered

About Mel Brandt

Mel Brandt is a chiropractor, certified spinal energetics practitioner, and business coach based in Kelowna, British Columbia. She founded and ran a multidisciplinary health clinic for 18 years, growing it to 16 practitioners before selling in early 2026 to focus entirely on her coaching work. Mel now helps healers, coaches, and practitioners expand their impact, clear subconscious blocks, and build businesses that are aligned with their deeper purpose. Her current signature programs blend spinal energetics, subconscious work, and business strategy for practitioners ready to move beyond the treatment room.

Guest Links & Resources

Host Announcement: Portugal Sessions

Harmony Slater will be offering in-person spinal energetics sessions in Portugal this summer:• Lisbon (Agora Lisboa): June 25–28• Faro: July 8–12DM @harmonyslaterofficial on Instagram to book.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What does yoga actually mean? If you answered 'union,' Harmony and Russell have a fascinating surprise for you. In this deeply rich conversation with Sanskrit scholar and Ashtanga teacher Zoë Slatoff, the trio explores the ancient philosophical roots beneath the practices many of us do every day.

Zoë is the author of Yogavataranam: The Translation of Yoga, A New Approach to Sanskrit, Associate Director of the Yoga Studies MA program at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), and a PhD candidate whose dissertation may permanently change the way you think about what yoga is for.

The conversation moves from Zoë's early years in Brooklyn and a pivotal Rodney Yee VHS tape, to engineering studies at the elite Cooper Union, to teaching 16 yoga classes a week in New York City, to the magic of Lakshmi Puram in Mysore before the internet existed. It arrives, finally, at the big philosophical question at the heart of her dissertation: how did yoga go from meaning separation to meaning union?

Zoë Slatoff is a Sanskrit scholar, longtime Ashtanga yoga practitioner and teacher, and author of Yogavataranam: The Translation of Yoga—a groundbreaking Sanskrit grammar textbook designed specifically for yoga practitioners who want to read the texts that inform their practice. She holds a master's degree from Columbia University in Asian Languages and Cultures, is completing her PhD at Lancaster University, and currently serves as Associate Director (and incoming Director) of the Yoga Studies MA program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She also teaches Sanskrit online through the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What does yoga actually mean? If you answered 'union,' Harmony and Russell have a fascinating surprise for you. In this deeply rich conversation with Sanskrit scholar and Ashtanga teacher Zoë  Slatoff, the trio explores the ancient philosophical roots beneath the practices many of us do every day.

Zoë is the author of Yogavataranam: The Translation of Yoga, A New Approach to Sanskrit, Associate Director of the Yoga Studies MA program at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), and a PhD candidate whose dissertation may permanently change the way you think about what yoga is for.

The conversation moves from Zoë 's early years in Brooklyn and a pivotal Rodney Yee VHS tape, to engineering studies at the elite Cooper Union, to teaching 16 yoga classes a week in New York City, to the magic of Lakshmi Puram in Mysore before the internet existed. It arrives, finally, at the big philosophical question at the heart of her dissertation: how did yoga go from meaning separation to meaning union?

Zoë  Slatoff is a Sanskrit scholar, longtime Ashtanga yoga practitioner and teacher, and author of Yogavataranam: The Translation of Yoga—a groundbreaking Sanskrit grammar textbook designed specifically for yoga practitioners who want to read the texts that inform their practice. She holds a master's degree from Columbia University in Asian Languages and Cultures, is completing her PhD at Lancaster University, and currently serves as Associate Director (and incoming Director) of the Yoga Studies MA program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She also teaches Sanskrit online through the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What does it actually mean to practice yoga — and are any of us really doing it? In this rich and unhurried conversation, Harmony sits down with Tara Mitra: Ashtanga teacher, yoga therapist, and devoted Vedic chanting practitioner who has spent decades tracing the practice back to its roots.

Tara's path moved from high-stress corporate life in Toronto to studying Ashtanga with dedicated teachers in Canada and California, then four years assisting in the Mysore shala, and finally into the Krishnamacharya lineage in Chennai — where yoga therapy, pranayama, Vedic chanting, and philosophy became her deepest studies. Today she works with everyone from cancer patients to hospice clients, with the simple premise: if you can breathe, she can teach you something.

This conversation is a slow, deliberate unwinding of everything we think we know about yoga — and an invitation back to what it actually is.

In this episode you'll explore:

Connect with Tara Mitra:

Resources mentioned:

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What does it actually mean to practice yoga — and are any of us really doing it? In this rich and unhurried conversation, Harmony sits down with Tara Mitra: Ashtanga teacher, yoga therapist, and devoted Vedic chanting practitioner who has spent decades tracing the practice back to its roots.

Tara's path moved from high-stress corporate life in Toronto to studying Ashtanga with dedicated teachers in Canada and California, then four years assisting in the Mysore shala, and finally into the Krishnamacharya lineage in Chennai — where yoga therapy, pranayama, Vedic chanting, and philosophy became her deepest studies. Today she works with everyone from cancer patients to hospice clients, with the simple premise: if you can breathe, she can teach you something.

This conversation is a slow, deliberate unwinding of everything we think we know about yoga — and an invitation back to what it actually is.

In this episode you'll explore:

Connect with Tara Mitra:

Resources mentioned:

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind

What if the most devoted yoga practice isn't happening at 5am in a Mysore shala — but in stolen afternoon hours between school pickups, on the floor of a LifeTime gym, to whatever music felt right that morning?

Harmony and Russell sit down with Tina Bock — Authorized Level 2 Ashtanga yoga teacher, mother of two, eight-year Abu Dhabi expat, and lifelong New Jersey girl — for exactly the kind of conversation Ashtangis have been having since the first Western students sat outside the shala gates with instant coffee and nowhere else to be. 

Warm, funny, philosophical, and completely real.Tina received her Level 2 authorization from the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India under the late R. Sharath Jois. She has been teaching since 2012, has taught workshops and teacher trainings in more than 14 countries, made nine trips to India for ongoing study, and is currently practicing what she calls the "Seventh" and final series: parenting.

Her path was not a straight line. From a 200-hour training in Goa at 22 (chosen because it was a thousand dollars for the whole month), to years of private lessons in Abu Dhabi palaces, to nine Mysore pilgrimages, to learning Third Series after her first baby was born — this is a portrait of what it looks like when practice truly lives inside a life, rather than sitting apart from it.

IN THIS EPISODE:

CONNECT WITH TINA:Instagram: @tinabock

Upcoming retreats and workshops: Follow Tina on Instagram for announcements

The Inner Rejuvenation Codes: https://harmonyslater.kit.com/inner-rejuvenation-codes-mc

Join the Lightworker Mastermind:  https://harmonyslater.com/lightworker-mastermind