Leadership and Yoga

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. 
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⁠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)