The Heba Shunbo Podcast

I love yoga! Yoga is a practice that helps balance and restore harmony to the body, mind and soul.. Today life is hectic to say the very least, hence yoga is so important for our wellbeing these days, it is the best form of physical and mental therapy I know. However it depends on how we approach our practice.

How do we reap the benefits of yoga on the physical, mental and spiritual level.

Who is feeling burnout? To me, it feels like many people around me are feeling emotionally, mentally and physically drained. I know I certainly am. Is it the effect of the pandemic? Life can feel very overwhelming these days, and I think we need to recognize it so that we can do something about it..

Maha Abouelenein is a strategic communications consultant, with a roster of the who’s who of clients. During our talk, she talks about how she kept her focus narrow, during her 30-year career span, she focused on the one thing she loves and that is how to create value for her clients through communications. She talks about how it hasn’t been all rosy, and she’s had some challenges along the way. Maha doesn’t shy in the face of adversity and in fact she has learnt to pivot those challenges into successes and prides herself on being a workhorse, she always gives 100%, and always stays ahead of the curve. We discuss NFTs, VeeCon – the first conference to be focused entirely on NFTs – and how she is giving back through the creation of her own NFT.

In this episode, I ponder the world that is crypto, NFTs, and the digital world.. Firstly, I try to wrap my head around what NFTs are; try to understand it and break it down. And, secondly, I ask the question to myself and to my listeners, do we dive into the world of digital investment blindly in order to stay relevant and out of FOMO – fear of missing out? In this day and age, new things keep popping up, and life seems to be flashing before us at the speed of light, I’m just trying to keep up! Who is with me?

Have you ever felt like something is wrong with you? Do you hear very often “you’re too sensitive”, “stop overthinking everything”? do you very often feel overwhelmed by the world and what’s going on around you? Too many people? So much bad news, needing a lot of recovery time to get over the constant bombardment of information and external stimuli? Then you just might be a highly sensitive person. HSPs are misunderstood and can grow up feeling isolated, and are often judged and criticized because of their differences and their extreme sensitivities. However, once you discover you are a highly sensitive person, all of it starts to make sense. With that comes greater self-awareness and self-confidence and makes it easier for you to channel your emotions better, and protect yourself from feelings of continued anxiety and depression from the world around you and the things outside of your control.

Yoga is about creating harmony between body, mind and soul; which even after 20 years, I have to honestly admit, I am not even close to achieving. At times, yoga can even feel very much like the opposite of harmony, when all we see on social media is yogis doing handstands, effortless looking backbends, and other contortion type postures. After all these years, I’ve come to the realization that my yoga practice is not a linear path, it’s a reflection of my state of mind and ultimately my self-acceptance. 

I talk with Dylan Bernstein, an Ashtanga yoga instructor – a practice that is driven by the breath and postures – about his unwavering commitment to the practice, and what it symbolizes to him. As a teacher, he’s discovered that at times it’s not about the postures at all and rather about connection and self-acceptance. Can we benefit from yoga without a daily practice? Listen more to find out. You can connect with Dylan via his website or his Instagram account.

I’m back with Season 3, kickstarting the new year with an episode on my vision for 2022. I loved taking this time to think about how to shift gears, reflect on 2021, try to digest the rocky start of 2022, and how to turn it around to make it a great year.

You’ll get to hear all the commitments I’ve made to myself, and I’m also calling on you to make some of your own.

What will you commit to this year?

Infertility is a condition that affects both men and women, and even though 15% of couples worldwide experience infertility, it is considered a dirty little secret that no one is comfortable talking about. My guest Nathalie Carpenter describes it as a mental, emotional, and physical condition that never goes away. As women, we power through it even though it takes a serious toll on our emotional wellbeing; we are expected to suffer silently and mostly alone, because for some reason, most societies have labeled it a female issue.

Today, I sat with Georgina Fuller, writer for The Telegraph, The Guardian, and Grazia UK, for a candid discussion on the challenges of raising kids nowadays. From social media, helicopter parenting, COVID-19 and dealing with comparison to other mothers, we hash out everything about the difficulty of just raising our kids the way we want to.

When was the last time you and your partner honestly talked about sex? Have you ever even talked about it? I'm joined by sex therapist ... who answers all the questions some of us are too afraid to ask. How often should I be having sex? Is it ok that I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to? What's the right amount of foreplay? Are porn and masturbation bad for my sex life? And most importantly, we talk about the importance of being honest with your partner and how to navigate those difficult - and even awkward - conversations. 

For more info on where to find Tara, you can find more info on her website, and on Instagram.