Yoga Is Vegan

In this episode Holly Skodis interviews Karo Tak about her life as a vegan activist, yoga teacher and chef.

Karo focuses on 3 main components in her life: FOOD, YOGA & ACTIVISM. She is a very active travelling vegan chef, yoga teacher and activist. She travels the world to teach Jivamukti Yoga, talks about animal rights, facilitates cooking classes and compassionately spreads the word for animals worldwide. She runs her own vegan cheese company: GOPAL VEGAN CHEESE & yoga apparel: SHAKTEE. She facilitates her own vegan cooking workshops, events, talks and seminars all for the betterment of the world. She is just about to start her food, yoga and activism tour travelling to Holland, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Topics discussed:
Jivamukti Yoga - Jiva means individual soul and mukti means liberation. The practice of Jivamukti is very strong and liberating. The Jivamukti Yoga method emphasises asana, scriptural study, devotion, prayer, music, chanting and meditation as well as veganism, environmentalism and political activism. Karo’s classes are dynamic and energetic with a smashing play-list, teachings drawn from her own life experience and work as an animal rights activist.
Effective approaches to talking about veganism
Going undercover on slaughterhouses
Extinction Rebellion: an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimize the risk of social collapse.
Vanessa Van Noy Episode 10
Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness' podcast Getting Curious
Karo's vegan cheese company Gopal Vegan Cheese
Gopal Mantra on Spotify by Krishna Das
Karo's Raw Hazelnut Vegan Brownies.
So the other day I made these yummy hazelnut brownies kind of by accident as I just tried to blend a few things together hoping it would work and it did indeed work. I tried to remember amounts as much as I could, so try for yourself and just add anything else you think might work well in the recipe, the sky is the limit, my friends.
Ingredients:
2 cups hazelnuts
1/2 cup cacao Powder
3/4 cup coconut Sugar
1 cup coconut Oil (liquid form, so it works well to let the oil sit in warm water for a while so it becomes really liquid)
1 tsp Himalayan salt
Optional: 10 soaked dates (check that there is no pit inside)
Method:
Start by blending the hazelnuts and the sugar together. You really want the hazelnuts to be like meal, powder form nearly, so really well blended. Then add the cacao. Blend again. Then you add the coconut oil and salt. Blend well together. So if you have the dates then keep the blender going while you add the dates one by one to the mixtures. The dates are like the glue which will create a perfect consistency and make the setting process a little quicker in my opinion BUT last time I made this I had no dates and it still set perfectly, so if you don’t have dates, no problem!
Then place the mixture in a cake form, line the cake form with vegetable paper, cling wrap or foil. Let it set for at least 24 hours in the fridge. And voila you’re in business. Enjoy!
*Optional you can save a few hazelnuts and crush them a little or blend them just a tiny bit and sprinkle them on the top. Looks great and taste delicious.
Connect with Karo:
Instagram: food: @karoveganator
yoga: @jivamuktikaro
Website: www.karotak.com
Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/JKZQC3m_5qI
Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/goforyourlifenow/

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis interviews Julia Butterfly Hill about how living in a tree for 2 years inspired her to teach others that each and every one of us makes a difference.

Julia Butterfly Hill is an activist, author, motivational speaker, and life coach. She is best known for having lived in a 200 foot tall, over 1,000-year-old California redwood tree for 738 days without ever touching the ground from December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999. Hill lived in the tree, known as Luna, to prevent Maxxam Corporation controlled Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down and logging the surrounding grove. She is the author of Legacy of Luna and Becoming and co-author of One Makes the Difference. Julia spent over 15 years being in service to the planet and all her beings. Julia also has been a joyous vegan for over 20 years.



Connect with Julia:
Website: juliabutterflyhill.com

Melissa Eliyahoo is a conscious momma of two little girl, and on a mission to spread positivity out into the world. She is co-founder of H2life a company that creates positive intention products. These products are being used worldwide and in schools on kids reusable water bottles. In addition to the products they offer, H2life has a student run program where they spread positivity in schools.

Topics discussed on this episode:
Vipasana Meditation
Healing with foods
Superfoods
Raising a family when you are the sole vegan
Manifestiation techniquess
Sadhguru https://isha.sadhguru.org/us/en
H2Life

Connect with Melissa:
Website: loveh2life.com discount code VEGAN
Instagram: @loveh2life

In this episode Holly Skodis interviews Julia about how she found Veganism through yoga.

Julia has studied deeply with dance, yoga, meditation, movement practices, and integral anatomy for over twenty years. She has had the privilege of teaching in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Israel, Italy and currently in Los Angeles. She found Mysore style Ashtanga yoga five years ago, and gratefully went vegan shortly after. Her intention with all of her endeavors is to rediscover our innate curiosity and compassion, so that we may each continue our journey inward and onward with faith, steadiness and ease. She bows down to the teacher within for eternal guidance and understands that true love will free us all.

Topics discussed this episode:
What it means to be vegan
Channeling anger
Effective vegan activism

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis interviews Sande Nosonowitz about how her yoga journey led her to becoming a vegan activist.

Sande is a master-certified vegan coach, writer and educator. For three years, she penned a column for Living & Being Magazine (part of the USA TODAY network) called ‘Living & Being Vegan,’ and has just published her new book, “OBLIVIOUS; A Vegan Memoir.” This comes after her first compilation book, “Living & Being Vegan; How Veganism Heals Your Body, Mind and Spirit.” Her multi-media presentation, “How Veganism Heals,” has been enjoyed by groups at venues such as The Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital, Dutchess Community College, The Omega Institute Staff Program, The DrawDown National Environmental Program, The Fountains at Millbrook Community Education Series, and coming this fall, The Vassar College Lifelong Learning Institute.

She’s a proud co-founder of the Hudson Valley Vegfest held annually in New York State. Sande is also a certified yoga & meditation instructor who designs a line of yoga & vegan-inspired jewelry that she lovingly calls, “Hip & Holy Bling.”

Sande teaches a full transition to veganism, including online modules, cooking classes, field trips to the grocery store and trips to the animal sanctuaries. An activist, teacher, student and animal lover, Sande lives in upstate New York with her vegan husband and plant-based yellow lab, Henry.

OBLIVIOUS; A Vegan Memoir is available on Amazon, and you can learn more about all of Sande’s offerings on her website; www.sundaravegan.com

*Sundara is the Sanskrit word for beautiful, interpreted as inner beauty, flowing from grace and wisdom.

Connect with Sandee:
Instagram: @sundarajewel
Facebook: @sande.nosonowitz
Website: sundaravegan.com

YIV's Holly Skodis interviews yoga teacher Danae Bocabarteille about her journey to veganism through Ayurvedic yoga.

Danae is a french designer who specializes in sustainable design in Paris. A few years ago she started teaching yoga and ayurvedic cooking. She's now practicing these two activities at the same time. She believes that building bridges between yoga and ayurveda is the key to health and happiness. The practice is adapted according to your dosha, the season and your pathologies. Practicing yoga led her to a non-violent lifestyle of veganism.
What is traditional Ayurvedic yoga?

Ayurvedic yoga is based on the knowledge of Ayurveda and dosha balancing (Pita, Kapha, Vata).
When our body, mind and spirit is balance we do not get sick, we are happy and full of energy. At the beginning there was no separation between yoga and ayurveda, then one started to develop as a spiritual practice as the other develop as a medicine.

The yoga I teach comes from Sri Aurobindo’s vision on integral yoga.
The goal of yoga is to reach the state of "union" with oneself and the world around us, cultivating joy and energy into our everyday lives.

Integral Yoga combines different styles of yoga, Hatha Yoga, Pranayama (Breath Yoga), Yoga Nidra (Dream Yoga), Meditation (Spirit Yoga), Kundalini Yoga (Life Energy Yoga), Mantra and Song to balance our dosha.

Danae's Green Agni Balancing Hummus

Green Agni Balancing Hummus
300 gr of raw edamame beans (or peas)
1 clove of garlic
1 cif of cumin
1 garam massala (or 5 spices, ra salt hanout)
a handful of fresh coriander
juice of a whole lemon
salt and pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sesame or tahini seeds


Mix everything and add a little water for the texture and that’s it!

The edemame and the green peas tend to balance Kapha and Pita but they are very charged in air element when they are raw.
To avoid a Vata imbalance in the recipe you can first cook the beans, which will make the hummus sweeter and replace the olive oil with sesame oil.

Kapha may feel lighter using sunflower oil and without sesame seeds.
Danae also offers workshops on ayurvedic cooking, and how to use spices and food to come back to our true nature.

Connect with Danae:
Instagram: @danae_yoga_ayurveda
Facebook: @Danae Bocabarteille

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis and Tiffany Paultauf talk about how rescuing a pig started her journey to veganism, yoga and eventually starting her own farm animal sanctuary.

Tiffany Paultauf and her husband Joe Bonitatebus started the Sleepy Pig Farm Animal Sanctuary where they have rescued over a dozen farmed animals from slaughter. Their goal for the future is to grow the sanctuary and to rescue more animals, as well as educate the community about obtaining a vegan lifestyle. At the the moment they are in the process of becoming a non profit.

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis & Robin Singh discuss:
• The Peepalfarm, a stray animal rescue, vegan organic farm, low impact farmstead and a small scale social enterprise in India
• Karma yoga & other yogic practices
• Consumption and it's suffering footprint

Robin's an Entrepreneur, working for doing good. Starting his career
as a hacker in 1998, he then founded Ejunkie in 2003, a service to
remove technology barrier for artists and authors wanting to sell
their digital content directly to buyers. Later that year, he moved to
Tucson, Arizona and continued to build Ejunkie.

After successfully exiting in 2011, Robin started working to help
animals in February, 2013 starting in Auroville, India and then
Delhi. Realizing that the nature of welfare projects in India being
such that they can't be scaled by scaling the infrastructure, he
changed the strategy from just "doing" to involving and inspiring. In
December 2014 along with two other co-founders he started Peepal Farm
- a place for animals to heal, and be heard. He's been building it,
running it, and living there since.

Connect with Robin:
Website: https://peepalfarm.org/
Suffering Footprint: TedX Talk

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis & Julie Kirkpatrick discuss:
• Jivamukti Yoga and it's inclusion of veganism
• Insights that Julie has learned from Sharon Gannon & David Life
• How to approach veganism with yoga students

Are you intrigued by yoga? Are you interested not only in the physical practices of yoga, but also by the philosophy and history? Do you want to learn more and go to a deeper level with your yoga practice? Perhaps you have been a practitioner for many years, but never seem to quench your “yoga thirst”? If any of those statements apply to you, then you share something in common with Advanced Certified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher, Julie Kirkpatrick, who is also searching for deeper meaning of life through a deeper understanding of yoga and how it can help modern people live a meaningful life in troubling times.

The founders of the Jivamukti Yoga method, Sharon Gannon and David Life, granted Julie the Advanced Jivamukti Yoga Teacher certification in 2005. David Life is Julie's brother, so the method has been accessible to her since its inception in 1986. Julie has been and continues to be a student of the method and a seeker of understanding of yoga, since that time. She completed her 300 hr. training in 2003, and her 800 hr. training in 2004. Her association with Jivamukti Yoga has allowed her to teach classes, workshops, and retreats abroad in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, Turkey, Canada, and Vietnam, as well as in the United States in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Ohio.

Julie brings to her yoga classes a wide range of experience, having taught a variety of class styles including open, basic, vinyasa, prenatal, children’s yoga, and restorative classes. She strives to bring together practitioners through a sense of community with each other, for really, there is nothing more valuable in yoga then coming together as a community of spiritually minded truth seekers, which happens every time we gather together to practice yoga. Julie strives to uphold this vision.

Before focusing full time on teaching yoga, Julie worked in public education, visual arts, and community gardening. She was an activist for fair housing and community garden preservation on the Lower East Side of New York City, where she has lived with her children Jules and Alex Febre since 1981.

Connect with Julie:
Facebook: @julie.kirkpatrick.58
Instagram: @juliefrancine1

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Victoria Moran is a vegan of over three decades, a yoga practitioner of half a century, and was voted “Peta’s Sexiest Vegan Over 50” in 2016. Listed by VegNews among the Top 10 Living Vegetarian Authors, Victoria made her reputation in the self-help and spirituality genre with books including the international bestseller, Creating a Charmed Life. In the vegan space, she’s written books including The Love-Powered Diet, The Good Karma Diet, and the iconic Main Street Vegan.

Moran is founder and director of Main Street Vegan Academy, an in-person program in New York City that trains vegan lifestyle coaches, educators, and entrepreneurs. The Academy has over 400 alumni in twenty-eight countries, who are engaged in vegan enterprises ranging from counseling to cooking to cowboy boots.

Featured twice on Oprah and regularly appearing on television and radio, Victoria is an internationally celebrated speaker and host of the award-winning Main Street Vegan podcast. She is also lead producer of A Prayer for Compassion, the 2019 documentary from Student Academy Award winner, Thomas Jackson, that explores the intersection of food choices and spirituality. She lives with her husband, writer and musician William Melton, their rescue-dog, Forbes, and a handicapped pigeon named Thunder, in a “green” building in New York City.

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis & Victoria Moran discuss:
• Yoga, spirituality and Ahimsa
• Superfoods
• The Vegan Documentary "Game Changers"
• The Main Street Vegan Academy
• Activism

To learn more about Victoria visit www.mainstreetvegan.net

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