Leadership and Yoga

A flop era is a temporary period of personal setbacks, low motivation, declining popularity, or general failure. Don’t let a flop era turn you away from what you truly love. This is for you if you’ve been asking, am I special? Can I really figure this out? The answer is yes, when you live from your true genius. And especially when you learn to trust life.

I have 2 pieces of homework to help you get through your flop era and come out stronger.

You in your trying, you in your failing, are infinitely more wise than a you that never started, and a you that never continued.

Join my Patreon to support the podcast, and for creative support & community. Upcoming guided meditations and live workshops are here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawnakru/?hl=en

00:00 intro

06:00 animation

07:00 changing the podcast name

10:30 trust changed my life

12:00 friendship you wouldn’t believe

14:00 what to remember in flop era

17:45 my flop era

19:45 are you special?

23:40 10 years old

27:40 tell a new story

29:30 stop picking the wound of the flop 

31:00 yoga, music & creativity bring heaven to earth

32:00 homework!

Jordan B is a yoga educator and content creator, known for her “big sister advice” and her gift for translating yoga philosophy into practical wisdom you can actually use. In this episode, we talk about creativity in yoga, discipline vs. devotion, what makes yoga an art form, why Jordan calls yoga “body poetry”, and how to integrate yoga philosophy into your life and practice. This conversation feels as warm and personal as Jordan’s advice, full of gems for yoga students and yoga teachers. This episode is for you if you love yoga and are looking for ways to carry it beyond the mat and into your life.

Jordan’s Website

Jordan’s Instagram: @jordanbyoga

Jordan’s Youtube: @jordanbyoga

Jordan’s TikTok: @jordan.yoga

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, join monthly workshops, meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

OfferingTree is an all-in-one business platform for yoga teachers and studios. It handles your website, scheduling, payments, and marketing in one place. Try it free and get a discount with my link here⁠⁠! (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Time Stamps:

00:00 intro

05:56 finding yoga

11:36 deciding to change directions

16:45 what is yoga to you?

20:21 rituals

24:12 dedication vs devotion

26:20 yoga as “body poetry”

28:52 trusting

36:53 big sister advice

51:37 rapid fire questions

52:21 billboard question

I fell in love with yoga because of a teacher at a dirty studio down the street, because of the ones who taught me to float and fly, and because of the teachers who called me by name before I was sure I belonged.

After interviewing over 100 yoga teachers—from living legends like Sri Dharma Mittra and David Swenson to daily studio instructors—I realized the real magic isn't in theory or instant gratification. It’s in the stories, the trust, and the willingness to keep figuring it out when there is no clear path.

In Part 1 of this mini-series, we’re cutting through the noise and diving deep into three core lessons on Abundance & Trust:

1. It’s in the living, not the theory 

2. The relentless energy to figure things out (and why having "no Plan A" might be your greatest creative power).

3. How to move with trust, drop the fear, and recognize when you already have enough.

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, join monthly workshops, meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

OfferingTree is an all-in-one business platform for yoga teachers and studios. It handles your website, scheduling, payments, and marketing in one place. Try it free and get a discount with my link here⁠⁠! (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Time stamps:

00:00 intro

03:50 Trevor, Kino, Arundhati, Carling & future of the series

05:36 what is this podcast?

06:00 this 100 yoga teachers series

11:00 creative support

12:30 from self-imposed chaos to systems

14:45 airplane game 

17:00 lesson one: it’s in the stories, not in the instant gratification

18:20 David Swenson fired from teaching yoga

21:20 David Swenson’s scrap of paper

24:20 lesson 2: the energy to continuously figure things out

28:25 no plan A, let alone B

31:38 lesson 3: trust and have no fear, mysteriously it works out

34:10 Sri Dharma Mittra on money arriving for his mission

37:50 hermit crab theory of change

39:28 Sri Dharma Mittra on not having students in his yoga class

41:20 scholarship for listeners idea

42:30 enough

44:00 writing prompt

Jada, known online as @flowgogirl, is a yoga and movement teacher as well as a content creator. Her love of movement is a contagious energy, and her passion for yoga and dance is clear in everything she shares. She inspires her students and audience to honor the gift of life through movement and to remember how lucky we are to be able to move our bodies. In this conversation, she talks about where her creativity comes from, how she trusts her body to guide her, her morning routine, and her experience of moving through grief.

Jada’s Instagram @flowgogirl - https://www.instagram.com/flowgogirl

The Sol Space

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, to meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Try OfferingTree for free⁠ ⁠with my link here⁠⁠ (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Time Stamps: 

00:00 intro

02:03 sponsors

05:56 cultivating an energy of freedom

08:07 on confidence

09:15 what made you start?

10:54 first hot yoga class

13:28 finding motivation to move

14:28 music and movement

16:25 how do you create your flows?

18:00 how do you prepare to teach?

19:01 morning routine

21:13 childhood dreams

23:43 loss and grief

26:49 feeling untethered

28:43 quitting a job for a dream

31:08 social media

33:28 finding inspiration

35:34 creating & connecting online

38:47 what keeps you coming back to yoga?

39:49 teacher training in India

43:02 creativity & trusting ideas

46:22 trusting yourself

48:53 what makes a good leader?

53:16 rapid fire questions

54:17 billboard question

55:44 favorite emoji?

Poetic lessons from yoga on not rushing. If you’ve been living on fast-forward, constantly optimization-obsessed, and terrified that slowing down means you’ll run out of energy or fall behind, this episode is your permission to stop sprinting. We’re diving into the real reason we trap ourselves in chronic busyness, why we’re deeply tired rather than lazy, and how to transition from operating on stress hormones and caffeine to tapping into true creative presence. I share stories from the mat, savasana, alongside reflections on yoga philosophy, the 8 limbs, and why yoga doesn’t take time, it gives us time. Plus, we explore poetic reflections on time scarcity, breaking the addiction to hustle, and five simple ways you can practice "un-hurrying" your everyday life this week. 

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, join monthly workshops, meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

OfferingTree is an all-in-one business platform for yoga teachers and studios. It handles your website, scheduling, payments, and marketing in one place. Try it free and get a discount with my link here⁠⁠! (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

STAmina apnea breath hold app mentioned:

https://getstamina.app/ 

Krishnamacharya poetry:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cWwnn_nOU5FHPkqBbPRJnoicHmC6Zbzg57axeYp9M50/edit?usp=sharing 

Time stamps:

00:00 yoga poetry on rest

05:10 animation

07:10 what is this podcast? 

08:30 homework 1: handwritten snail mail

09:40 homework 2: salute the sun 

11:20 homework 3: eat outside barefoot

12:25 homework 4: breathholds STAmina app

14:10 homework 5: sacred moment

18:30 i meditated for 1 year and then fell off

20:30 feeling out of control w/commitments

21:30 how to say yes to less 

23:30 “no time” prose

27:00 Krishnamacharya poetry 

28:30 diamond sutra

32:00 slow down to speed up story

35:30 bigger vision: OfferingTree & Yoga Trade 

37:49 secretary quote story

40:47 grandma me poem

Arundhati Baitmangalkar is a Seattle-based yoga teacher originally from South India. She is the host of the Let's Talk Yoga podcast and owner of the Aham Yoga Studio. Arundhati has a beautiful, tangible way of explaining how to teach yoga philosophy that is both practical and grounded in yoga's roots. She shares her method for measuring "success" in your yoga practice (the "three C's") and advice for teaching yoga with heart. This episode is for you if you're looking for guidance as a yoga teacher or to feel re-energized by your own yoga practice.

Arundhati’s Website

Let’s Talk Yoga Podcast

Aham Yoga Studio

Arundhati’s Instagram - @arundhati_baitmangalkar

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, to meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Try OfferingTree for free⁠ ⁠with my link here⁠⁠ (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Time Stamps:

00:00 intro 

02:02 sponsors

07:12 the experience of interviewing

13:44 choosing a mentor

17:59 discernment as a teacher

23:00 tangibly teaching philosophy

28:26 first asana class

31:34 what is yoga to you?

34:11 following the yoga

37:58 what do you wish more people understood about yoga?

46:30 staying close to your values

49:02 balancing tradition and student agency

53:25 yoga is not the spa

55:46 let people meet themselves

59:18 clarity, compassion, contentment

1:07:37 rapid fire q's & billboard question

Today’s episode is about how yoga gives us new eyes to see life, differently. To see things as they actually are, not as we are. Because every one of us has the filter of the ego on every piece of information we take in. We have distractions preventing us from seeing the beauty of what’s in front of us. We have AI and the mental noise preventing us from hearing the extraordinary silence of being alive. The extraordinary state of being present, perhaps for the first time in our lives or the first time in a while.

In an age dominated by AI, constant distraction, and hyper-abstraction, it’s easier than ever to feel disconnected from our bodies and the beauty right in front of us. Yoga is the ultimate form of embodiment, which is the ultimate antidote to feeling disconnection in the digital age of AI slop.

Social media workshop for yoga-inspired people:https://www.patreon.com/shawnakru/posts/social-media-for-167218388?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠ - https://www.instagram.com/shawnakru⁠⁠⁠⁠

Shawna’s website⁠ - https://www.shawnakru.com/⁠⁠

Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠https://www.shawnakru.com/yoga-teacher-roundtable

time stamps: 

00:00 yoga’s eyes poem

01:00 yoga is about trust

2:25 information overload

03:30 stories and embodiment instead of abstraction (ai is abstraction machine) 

04:05 what ai really is

05:06 living as a machine not a human

06:45 ai fear mongering

07:54 yoga begins with listening

10:15 yoga poem 34

11:30 see through yoga’s eyes

This is how yoga healed my relationship with God, what spirituality is without religion, and overcoming religious trauma. I used to have a huge aversion to the word "God." Growing up with a religious background left me carrying so much guilt and fear that when I stepped away from church in college, I unintentionally shut down my spirituality and creative spark altogether. It took over a decade of yoga, deep philosophical study, and unexpected everyday encounters to reclaim what that connection actually means to me.

• How yoga healed my relationship with God and helped me move past religious trauma

• Why so many of us feel triggered by the word God or resistant to traditional religion or spirituality without religion

• What texts like the Bhagavad Gita actually teach about divine energy

• How to find sacred meaning in everyday moments, soil, and simple presence

Whether you consider yourself agnostic, deeply spiritual, religious, or completely unlabelled, this episode is an invitation to think for yourself, drop the rigid rules, and step into the sweetest feeling of all: knowing the divine within you.

Social media workshop on Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, join monthly workshops, meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

OfferingTree is an all-in-one business platform for yoga teachers and studios. It handles your website, scheduling, payments, and marketing in one place. Try it free and get a discount with my link here⁠⁠! (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Here is the complete, consolidated set of timestamps for Part 1 and Part 2, filtered so that every section is spaced at least 3 to 5 minutes apart for optimal YouTube video chaptering:

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Praying to the Sun with a Stranger (Yoga Poetry)

03:59 - Who Today’s Episode Is For

06:03 - The Search for the Divine Within (Swami Vivekananda Quote)

08:29 - What Does God Really Mean? (Episode Agenda)

10:52 - Sacar Las Piedritas: Sponsor Announcements (OfferingTree & Yoga Trade)

13:13 - Is Yoga a Religion? Breaking Down the Definition

18:09 - Rethinking Worship, Devotion, and Power

22:50 - What the Bhagavad Gita Teaches About God

27:21 - Experiencing Nature as the Divine

32:01 - Returning to Presence & Unpacking Religious Guilt

36:49 - The Osho / Young Life Land Connection & Dogma

39:07 - The 6 Systems of Indian Philosophy (Shad Darshana)

41:33 - Social Media for Creators & Patreon Workshop

44:27 - Reclaiming Your Inner Power: Talking to My Uber Driver

47:12 - "Take the Word Back" (Guest Insight from Ben Kalra)

This interview with Deepika Mehta, one of India's most prominent yoga teachers, is all about creativity and devotion within the practice of yoga. Deepika is a Level 2 Authorized Ashtanga teacher, trained directly under Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, is a global speaker, and has also worked in television and media. We talk about her creative process, spiritual practice, movement as expression, embodiment, and about the essence of yoga, which she describes as "arriving at stillness through movement." She also shares about a serious rock climbing accident that changed the course of her life, and how she found her way back to movement and yoga after being told she may never walk again.

Deepika’s Instagram @deepikamehtayoga

Practice with Deepika (Retreats and Offerings)

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, to meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Try OfferingTree for free⁠ ⁠with my link here⁠⁠ (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)

Time Stamps:

00:00 intro

03:01 Yoga Trade & Offering Tree

08:52 childhood memories 

11:50 spirituality growing up

13:18 spirituality now

16:59 archetypes

19:16 early impressions of yoga 

20:55 rock climbing accident

26:01 creative expression 

29:45 what is your creative process?

32:55 first ashtanga practice

42:04 qualities of a yogi?

46:11 working in media and television

55:44 how do you prepare to teach or lead?

01:00:36 rapid fire questions

01:02:01 billboard question

Today’s episode is a lifeline and wake up call to stop fighting change (or wishing for it but procrastinating it) and a reminder that often the miracle is already in motion. 

Change isn't a sign that you failed or that life is falling apart; it’s proof that life is making room. Before any miraculous manifestation or quantum leap occurs, the universe clears out what can no longer fit in your next season. The right help, the right people, and the exact resources you need are already on their way to meet you halfway.

My guided journal: 

https://www.ritualofwritingjournal.com/ 

Original writing by Victoria Hutchins I mentioned: “For the ones who left” from MAKE BELIEVE. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBwWfhQv4kU/?igsi=MTY2ZmIxNzZmYXhlZA== 

People I’m enthusiastic about writing of mine: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Db_JM3Dm9M4/?img_index=7&igsi=YTV5ZWs3Z242c29m 

Yoga Teacher Roundtable application:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OLW6ewNcsIy8OX7rjlWOTvCNavZ3U9uHgYgcyj1RfGI/edit  

Patreon: Leadership and Yoga CLUB. To support my work on this podcast, join monthly workshops, meet fellow listeners, and more… Join below. 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

OfferingTree is an all-in-one business platform for yoga teachers and studios. It handles your website, scheduling, payments, and marketing in one place. Try it free and get a discount with my link here⁠⁠! (My sponsor) 

Sign up for Yoga Trade’s passport: https://join.yogatrade.com/membership

(My sponsor)