The Flow Artists Podcast by Garden of Yoga

Ana Forrest and Jose Calarco need very little introduction. Ana is known as a unique and independent yoga teacher who has forged her own path and educated many prominent teachers along the way. She speaks openly about her past trauma and the healing experiences she has had through living with Native American communities, which she weaves into her teaching today. Jose has also learned from Australi...

Mariko B. Ryan is the author of Infinite Threads: 100 Indigenous Maori Insights from Old Maori Manuscripts. "Infinite Threads" is an incredible book which reinterprets the manuscripts of Maori Tohunga (sages) in a way that has incredible relevance today. Rane and Jo both found the book full of wonderful insights which described aspects of Maori culture in a way that parallels mindfulness and yogic...

Alice Williams is a Yoga Teacher, writer, and the author of "Bad Yogi: The Funniest Self-Help Memoir You'll Ever Read". In this episode, we speak with Alice about her process writing the book as well as her experiences in yoga teacher training. We also learn about how Alice dealt with an eating disorder and the commonalities between her yoga teacher training with the 12 step recovery program. We d...

Cora Geroux is a yoga teacher, former studio owner, and the host of the Teaching Yoga podcast. Cora originally hails from Canada and is now based in Sydney, Australia. Cora has been teaching yoga & leading yoga teacher trainings since 2009. Before which, she obtained a BA in psychology from Simon Fraser University. Cora was also the co-owner of two small yoga studios for 3 years, before she left t...

Jordan Ashley is a yoga teacher and the founder of Souljourn Yoga. Souljourn Yoga Foundation is a non-profit that raises awareness and funds for girls education in lesser economically developed countries by teaming up with both local and international non-profits. They have hosted retreats in Rwanda, Morocco, Peru and more. Souljourn co-designs retreats with their partner organizations on the grou...

Cate Peterson is a yoga teacher, activist and the driving force behind LovEarth, YogaHive and Get Off Your Asana. Cate has done a lot of work around building relationships between the yoga community and the Aboriginal community in Australia, helping with projects such as Yoga on Country and the Reciprocity Action Plan group in collaboration with Yoga Australia. In this episode, we hear how Cate di...

We've been seeing all sorts of conspiracy theories posted online lately - from 5g causing coronavirus, to the Plandemic film and more. So we decided to have a chat with Matthew Remski. Matthew Remski is a yoga teacher, a writer and an activist. He has written extensively about cult dynamics in yoga, but recently he has turned his attention to the huge amount of conspiracy discourse that has been s...

Ria Tirazona is a yoga facilitator/education and licensed Psychologist from Manila. She manages a branch of a local yoga studio brand, YogaPlus. As a self-confessed emotional eater, Ria struggled with weight issues for most of her life. Through yoga, she found that she deserved to celebrate her body and treat herself with love and compassion. This is what she wants everyone to also discover. Her p...

Kelly DiNardo is a Yoga teacher, studio owner, podcaster, writer and author of the book Living The Sutras. Living the Sutras is an accessible and fun guide to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The sutras contain teachings on how to deal with loss, pain, dissatisfaction, and alienation as well as providing guidance on how to cultivate joy and lead a healthy, happy, fulfilling life. We feel that they ar...

In this episode, we speak to the amazing Aleisha Leonard about kirtan, yoga, trauma-informed practice and LGBTIQ+ Leadership. A lot has changed since we originally spoke to Aleisha for the podcast, so we begin the episode with a quick check-in from her current residence in London. We learn how Aleisha found a love of yoga despite initially finding it boring. We hear how she discovered kirtan and t...

In this episode we speak to Dr Gail Parker. Gail Parker is a psychologist and a certified yoga therapist. She is a nationally and internationally renowned media personality, educator, author, and thought leader.   Dr. Parker is the author of the upcoming book Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma, and current president of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance (BYTA) Board of Dire...

What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of aerial yoga? Is it a thin young woman, lithely moving about in an aerial hammock, maybe dangling upside down in some weird pretzel shape that barely resembles anything with the name yoga attached to it? Is it something more akin to a circus performance, with tricks and flips and a silk fabric digging into god knows where? To borrow a phr...

In the second part of our two-part special on hands-on assists, we go a little bit deeper! We hear how a trauma-informed context may change our approach to assists from Mei Lai Swan, then Amy Wheeler tells us about transference and countertransference and what role they might play when teaching yoga. We learn how culture, race and gender can change perceptions around touch from Jesal Parikh, Gail...

In this very special episode we ask the question - Are hands-on assists in yoga ok? We decided that this subject was just too big for one guest, or even one episode, so we have a whole range of speakers and we have divided the show up into two parts. In part one, we cover the different types of hands-on assists and some of their benefits, we learn some of the history of hands-on assists, we speak...

For our first episode of 2020 Jo and Rane speak with Michelle Cassandra Johnson. Michelle Cassandra Johnson is a writer, yoga teacher, social worker, activist, and author of Skill in Action. Skill in Action is an unflinching look at power and privilege, oppression, liberation and suffering, and invites readers to take steps to make changes in their lives to create a world that allows all of us to...

Carla Mullins is an ex-lawyer turned pilates and movement teacher and creator of the Makarlu Lotus. In our conversation with Carla, we hear about how she discovered pilates while dealing with some serious health issues and how this has inspired her to help others. We also hear about how her partner had a severe cycling accident and how this inspired the creation of the Makarlu - a versatile tool f...

Claire Nettley is a yoga and meditation teacher, former president of Yoga Australia and a prolific writer, having her work featured in Women’s Health Magazine, Australian Yoga Life and more. In this episode we discuss Claire's background growing up in the Salisbury region of England, and we learn about her professional life working in marketing. We hear about how Claire was introduced to yoga afte...

Ella Noah Bancroft is a Yoga teacher, artist, sexuality coach and an environmental and indigenous rights activist. In our conversation with Ella, we hear about her life growing up the daughter of a famous Aboriginal artist, and how she was raised on country in New South Wales after relocating from Sydney. We hear how Ella weaves together Indigenous philosophy with her yoga practice, while remainin...

This episode is released in partnership with Yoga Australia to celebrate their 20 year anniversary! We sat down with co-founder and former president of Yoga Australia Leigh Blashki while on retreat at Continental House at Hepburn Springs. This is the second time we've spoken with Leigh for the podcast and this time we had the chance to learn more about the history of Yoga Australia, including some...

It's been an unbelievable 2 years since we started the podcast, so we are celebrating! Hear us talk about what the last year of the podcast has been like, and hear questions and contributions from some of our favourite podcast guests. There are juicy questions on the role of podcasting for industries such as yoga, the relationship between the hosts and guests, as well as more lighthearted question...

Jose Goossens was the first President of Yoga Australia when it was known as the Yoga Teachers Association. In this conversation, Jose tells us about her background growing up in Holland before moving to Australia. We hear how Jose discovered yoga and she tells us how it took her 3 times going to a general yoga class before she truly decided that yoga was for her. We learn a little about the Melbo...

Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh are yoga teachers and the hosts of the Yoga is Dead podcast. In their own words: "Yoga is Dead is a revolutionary podcast that explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. Join Indian-American hosts Tejal + Jesal as they expose all the monsters lurking under the yoga mat." Jo and Rane love...

This episode is released in partnership with Yoga Australia. Leanne Davis is the current president of Yoga Australia. She completed her first Yoga Teacher training with the Sivananda Yoga and Vedanta Forest Academy in South India in 1988, and in this conversation, we learn about how she discovered yoga, how she went on to learn Ayurveda and Chinese medicine and how she weaves these together in her...

Teruki Nakano works as a Geriatric Psychiatrist and Yoko Nakano is an anesthesiologist. They are both yoga teachers and the founders of Medcare Yoga. They translated Jivana Heyman’s Accessible Yoga course into Japanese, and it is their mission to bring accessible yoga to Japan. 25% of Japan’s population is over the age of 60, and that figure is growing, so bringing a form of yoga to an increasingl...

This episode is released in partnership with Yoga Australia. Shyamala Benakovic is a Yoga teacher and the CEO of Yoga Australia. If you heard our episode with Michael de Manincor, he stated that the hiring of Shyamala as General Manager was his greatest success, which really speaks to Shyamala's talent, passion and incredible work ethic. In this episode, we learn how Shyamala grew up in Malaysia b...