Today on the Leadership and Yoga podcast, I talk with Poranguí about the power of music to heal, awaken, and reconnect us to ourselves. In this episode, Poranguí shares what it feels like to improvise music in front of thousands of people with no set plan, trusting whatever wants to come through in the moment. We talk ritual, creativity, flow states, consciousness, ancestors, collective human connection, nervous system regulation, coherence as leaders, and music as medicine. Poranguí reminds us that interbeing is how we find meaning in life, and he leads by example.

This is what the yoga of sound really means. If music has ever made you feel something beyond words, this episode is for you.

Music in intro credit to Poranguí, "Amanecer"

Find Poranguí on instagram:

@porangui 

Poranguí events, tour, retreats:

https://www.porangui.com/ 

Poranguí on YouTube

Poranguí on Spotify

Technology fail at Envision festival we mentioned:

https://youtu.be/otkbFvz8Fy4?si=yV5o1OQGib-SbWLH&t=4758 

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https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

Time stamps:

00:00 intro

01:00 who is Poranguí? 

03:00 context & backstory

07:30 the body, Poranguí’s “favorite” instrument 

11:00 improvising and not planning shows

14:30 capoeira, playing & dancing with the “now”

17:45 it helps us face the uncertainty of life

20:45 “worst nightmare” technology fail in performance

25:00 the prayer is too potent, energy

28:50 what it feels like after performing

29:30 how to stay present while performing: widening awareness and tracking all

30:10 Schrödinger's cat, observer effect, parallel universes

32:30 intricacy, care vs perfectionism 

35:00 birth story how Poranguí’s parents met

41:30 serpent medicine: chased by snakes

44:30 trust

46:30 ancestors “anceStars” 

49:00 non-linear time and roots of trees

51:50 why are we here? scrap of paper

54:00 nervous system & our function 

55:00 consumerism culture 

56:15 keepers of fire: technology and AI. tending 

58:30 impacting the world as healers: heart song

1:00:30 heart 

1:02:00 the voice is the fingerprint of the soul

1:04:00 Poranguí’s rituals: getting into state

1:06:30 change and successes after retreat 

1:08:15 music expresses the inexpressible

1:11:30 why music touches us

1:12:30 the original pulse

1:14:00 billboard message, tour & learn from Poranguí 

After going deep in the yoga, we find that yoga is so much more than poses, identity, or surface-level spiritual aesthetics. In this episode, I share part one of 10 lessons I have learned from going deep with yoga: let’s talk spiritual materialism, devotion, creativity, stress, self-awareness, and what it really means to live yoga beyond the mat. We talk about why yoga practice is the boat, not the destination and how practice can become prayer, why discomfort creates freedom, and how real yoga changes the way we relate to every moment of life.

Keywords: yoga philosophy, yoga teacher podcast, authentic yoga, yoga spirituality, yoga beyond asana, modern yoga, yoga wisdom, yoga for creators, spiritual growth, conscious living

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

Join YogaTrade Council & take workshops with me (Try it free) And check out jobs on https://yogatrade.com/ (My sponsor)

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

Time stamps:

00:00 intro

01:00 toe dipping

04:00 cartoon

09:00 Yoga Trade

10:30 part 1: yoga is a boat

16:42 part 2: practice is prayer

20:40 part 3: not everything is yoga, but yoga is in everything

24:30 something i say during yoga class often

27:00 part 4: asana is a language 

29:00 healing and yoga: stagnation to flow

33:00 part 5: yoga makes you creative 

34:15 yoga reverses the flow of input to output

36:40 why ideas arrive in the shower

38:28 why winding tight makes us sick

39:30 creating from stress vs real energy

42:00 holding a basketball underwater

46:00 club on Patreon! 

In this sixth roundtable, yoga teachers from across the country and around the world share what teaching yoga means to them, lessons learned on the mat, bits of wisdom they've carried on from their own teachers, and their own “billboard messages.” See the link below if you're a yoga teacher and would like to participate in the next roundtable!

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Thank you so much to the participating yoga teachers! Links to connect with them:

Simone Marie-Elise - @ripplesinthematrix, www.ripplesinthematrix.com

Grace Gribble - @gracesgallivant, https://www.youtube.com/@practicegracefully

Ashley Simonis - @Ashleysimonisyoga; @homeyogamo, Homeyogamo.com; Substack.com/ashleysimonisyoga.com

Katie Farinas - @katie.farinas, https://katiefarinas.com ; https://substack.com/@katiefarinas, Katie’s Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2R3MeaPOtqgBUpngAzxCN0?si=4ae2fc1b329d4ccb

Mikaela Millington - @mikmill; @evolve.yoga.retreats, evolveyogaretreats.com

Veronica Drenth - @veronicasue_, https://www.theyogalens

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

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

Join YogaTrade Council & take workshops with me (Try it free) And check out jobs on https://yogatrade.com/ (My sponsor)

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

Time Stamps: 

00:00 intro

02:00 teaching with humility (Mikaela)

05:19 we are always planting seeds (Veronica)

07:41 you never know who you'll lead to yoga (Grace)

08:54 teaching authentically & honestly (Katie)

10:32 yoga doesn’t choose the qualified… (Ashley)

12:56 finding your own voice as a teacher (Simone)

19:12 Sri Dharma Mittra’s first studio

25:23 Grace’s story

26:55 Katie’s story

29:01 Veronica's story

30:52 Simone’s story

33:07 Ashley’s story

36:49 Mikaela’s story

42:11 closing thoughts

It’s time for Leadership and Yoga CLUB. Because your dreams are meant for people like you, and you meet your true friends on the mountain. 

To support my work on this podcast, to meet fellow listeners, and more…

Join below. See ya on the inside?? :) 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/shawnakru 

Time stamps:

00:00 intro

01:00 find your community

3:00 CLUB tour

10:40 the time is now 

13:00 you meet your true friends on the mountain

16:00 my billboard message

20:50 yoga can change the world

In this episode, yoga teacher Nicole Wild shares what she's learned about life and yoga from confronting death: both in the cadaver lab and through working in hospice, being with people in their last moments. She shares how sitting with grief and impermanence are part of her yoga practice, bringing in a deeper reverence for life. This conversation is about fear, discomfort, embodiment, gratitude, and embracing your life (and teaching) as you are, today.

"Allowing space for letting go, allowing space for endings, allowing space for deaths in all forms, whether that's actual human lives or just the little things we have to let go of on a day-to-day basis…doing that work is absolutely a part of the yoga practice." - Nicole Wild

Quote on the fires of the heart mentioned is by Edmund Wilson. View full quote here

Death as a Surprise Party poem from Make Believe by Victoria Hutchins 

Nicole’s Website and offerings 

Nicole’s Instagram: @nicolewildcollective

Book mentioned: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

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) 

Join YogaTrade Council & take workshops with me (Try it free) And check out jobs on https://yogatrade.com/ (My sponsor)

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

Time Stamps:

00:00 intro

08:38 the cadaver lab

13:01 fear around discussing death

17:30 griefwork

19:59 what got you into this work?

25:34 hospice work: there is nothing to be afraid of

27:26 being with people in their last moments

30:07 how does yoga help us approach our fears?

32:45 addressing the body and mind as a whole

35:35 the therapeutic process

38:15 yoga can be both confronting & comforting

42:36 yoga and creativity

45:38 what you look for you will find

48:01 you don't just teach what you know, you teach who you are

50:48 how can yoga shape our values?

55:20 rapid fire questions

59:56 the billboard question

Lizzy Beyer is an adjunct environmental science lecturer, a retreat host with "Surf With Amigas," a yoga instructor, and a surf instructor who is currently teaching yoga for a local homestay in Indonesia. Fellow yoga teachers and adventurous spirits: listen in for an inspiring conversation on living in alignment with your values and daring to follow your dreams. 

Lizzy’s Instagram: @liz_lives_ 

Lizzy’s Substack, Sunkissed and Hurricaned

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

Join a Yoga Trade free Council Session: https://form.typeform.com/to/RcnJx6ps

(My sponsor)

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) 

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

Time Stamps: 

00:00 intro

2:42 environmental studies

10:30 the yoga farm

14:05 different pathways to affect change

17:04 allowing yourself to dream & keeping the inspiration alive

22:19 travel opens the door for expansion

27:40 lessons from surfing

31:52 ecological grief

35:59 yoga trade 

42:45 yoga teacher training

48:10 yoga for surfers

53:28 living aligned with values

01:01:02 what makes an exceptional leader?

01:03:34 billboard question

Aren’t we all looking for that feeling of energy of waking up happy to be alive? That’s what it feels like when we learn to flirt with our life, to romanticize things enough to pay attention to the details. Flirting with your life is about patience, rather than convenience and instant gratification. It’s about being ornate, not ikea. And when we do this, we overcome numbness and feeling stuck and replace it with creative flow, and freshness. Flirting is about freshness, about putting flowers on our wall even though we know they will wilt. Freshness reminds us that we must allow for constant evolution and change in our lives. We wish to hold onto our inspired, high on life states once we have them, but they must be constantly refreshed. 

This episode speaks to the way that presence itself is a sensual thing, it’s what allows us to connect to the natural magnetism that exists in everything. Let’s talk rituals, solo-dates, exploration and reconnecting with the magic of life.

Substack I mention: How to flirt with your life by Le Secret Club 

Poem by Victoria Hutchins from MAKE BELIEVE

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

Time stamps:

00:00 intro 

01:00 romantic. 

03:50 substack: flirt with life. 

07:00 dating myself changed my creative outlet 

08:00 ornate vs ikea

12:30 newness vs freshness

14:15 pain is caused by a lack of love

15:15 the grass is already under your feet

16:30 presence is a sensual thing

18:30 it’s either gorgeous or devastating - Victoria Hutchins

20:50 moods are internal weather patterns

22:00 entropy, Gene Keys 

24:00 vacuum state: black hole to white hole 

26:30 list of ways to flirt with life

29:30 my inspiration bath ritual

32:00 change lighting & levels of energy

34:30 eating slower & savoring 

37:00 TEND - ayurvedic guidance 

39:30 other ways to flirt with your life

42:00 musical poetry on creative urge

5 steps to let go of your embarrassment whether that’s in life, teaching yoga, or creating. Let’s talk embarrassment, fear, perfectionism, how to be confident, self-compassion, awkward people, self-conscious people, and why highly embarrassed people are also often highly judgmental people. Public speaking is a major part of teaching yoga, so let’s dissect in thrilling detail how we can confidently share what we know. 

“The minute that we stop overstating our own self-importance, the embarrassment and tightness of trying to uphold some image of yourself, starts to fade away.” 

Included: Gene key 26 by Richard Rudd: moving from pride to artfulness to invisibility. 

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) 

Join YogaTrade Council & take workshops with me (Try it free) And check out jobs on https://yogatrade.com/ (My sponsor)

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

TEND spring sale code for 25% off: SPRING25

Gene keys profile I mention: https://genekeys.com/free-profile/ 

Adam Sandler interview with David Letterman: https://www.netflix.com/title/82014002 

Time stamps:

00:00 intro 

01:00 tulip story

06:30 Myke Towers tomato face embarrassment 

10:00 confidence teaching yoga

12:00 don’t “just jump”

13:00 your best is not good enough yet

15:00 the art of getting over embarrassment 

16:15 freestyle sponsors:

18:50 OfferingTree

20:25 Yoga Trade

22:30 TEND

24:30 5 steps to overcome embarrassment 

26:00 Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff

30:30 defense vs offense in embarrassment 

34:00 step 1: be seen as dumb

36:30 Adam Sandler and David Letterman 

42:00 judgmental people

43:50 step 2: play with contrast

48:00 step 3: face physical fear

49:00 teaching yoga embarrassing stories

55:00 pre-teaching tangible action to take

56:30 step 4: stop restraining yourself

59:00 decisiveness

1:02:00 step 5: turn pride into art, and become invisible 

1:06:00 artfulness quote

1:11:00 invisible, why do we want to disappear

1:12:45 when you make yourself self-important

1:15:00 you don’t need a life ring 

This is an immersive special episode, brought to life with music and sound effects. Listen for spoken word and storytelling written by me, Shawna Krueger, on the nature of time and anxiety, sending love to past versions of yourself, healing your past, finding hope in mental health darkness, and finding a way to create and show up as a creator for social media, or as an artist despite your own suffering. 

Today you will learn how to send prayers to YOURSELF, forward and backwards, and I will warn you, this episode is a little bit like the rabbit hole of the red pill in the Matrix. You can listen to it with eyes closed like a guided meditation visualization if you want. Today I tell you my story, from agony to greatness, from sadness to success in a raw, vulnerable way. But this is what my heart felt called to do, this is what I wrote, so here we go. 

Inspired by Richard Rudd and the Gene Keys, and Zach Bush.

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Join YogaTrade Council & take workshops with me (Try it free) And check out jobs on https://yogatrade.com/ (My sponsor)

time stamps:

00:00 intro

05:47 start of immersive special

09:00 dear past self

11:27 into the darkness

14:46 climbing out of the hole

17:46 love letters to your past self across time

22:38 when no one is listening vs thousands are listening

25:08 your dream come true feels like this

28:00 versions of yourself that got you here

33:00 witness your past self fully

37:01 a ripple in time: the nature of time

40:40 how to get out of the insects of the mind

45:00 inspiration is actually you, speaking to yourself

Ashish Arora is a yoga teacher based in Seattle, Washington, originally from Delhi, India, and currently leading teacher trainings and retreats around the world. In this episode we delve into the art of teaching, what tradition actually means in the context of yoga, yoga philosophy, and navigating cultural appropriation as a yoga teacher. Ashish also shares tips for remembering your students' names and finding your teachers. If you're a yoga teacher thinking deeply about why you teach, where the practice comes from, or how to bring more joy into the practice, this episode is for you!

Practice with Ashish

Find Ashish on Instagram: @ashishyoga

Listen to the previous episode with Ashish

Find Shawna on instagram: ⁠@shawnakru ⁠

⁠Shawna’s website⁠

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

30-day trial: Join Yoga Trade Council & take workshops with me

(my sponsor) Get a job teaching yoga abroad? https://yogatrade.com/ 

⁠Ayurvedic consultation with Art, TEND ⁠(My sponsor) 

⁠Yoga Teacher Roundtable free community events & mailing list⁠

Time Stamps: 

00:00 intro

01:40 OfferingTree

3:41 presence while teaching

5:33 tips for remembering your students’ names

10:06 growing up in India

15:01 laughter breathwork

17:11 the vastness of yoga

19:20 peacock pose & joy

23:45 finding your teachers

28:16 tradition in yoga

37:40 breath & energy

42:22 what is your definition of a yogi?

46:32 cultural-appropriation in yoga

55:57 what is our responsibility as yoga teachers?

59:55 rapid fire questions 

01:03:17 billboard question