Leadership and Yoga

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 

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 

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. 
Founding CLUB member special pricing is available until MAY 31, 2026. 
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