We are so delighted to share with you the amazing show we had on Friday, September 30, 2011, as we opened our hearts to John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga. Just back from his teachings at a Wanderlust event in Las Vegas, John shared with us his thoughts about keeping ourselves centered while in a stimulated environment. We also talked about how the conceptual vision of Anusara Yoga is now specifically called Shiva-Shakti Tantric, and how it relates to Anusara’s interpretations of our inner and outer energies. Topics ranged from John’s combination of the Shaivite (focusing on Shiva as pure consciousness) and Shakti articulations of tantric philosophy, bringing a unique perspective to this ancient practice.

John Friend: What Vegas does, for instance, is it almost consciously tries to pull you out of your quiet center, and take you into a highly outward, stimulated environment, to make you excited, to have fun, and so on. There is something to that. At the same time there is an inner experience which is not often found in Vegas. It is often the focus of Yoga. Yoga being that if you want to connect to everything on the outside, the way to do that is to really connect in your very essence. It’s through that essence which I would call Shiva-Shakti, or the unity aspect of the universe, in that if you can go inside the very center of yourself, you can actually plug into everything else. To do that, to get into your center, you have to be able, to some degree, to withdraw from the outside and be able to focus in your core.

We were also so joyful to welcome #WIMG come-back guest: the wonderful and talented Kasey Luber, ambassador for Yoga Aid, video maven, and founder of Big Happy Day, spreading her message of yoga, health, and awareness through conscious media and the medium of video.

Kasey Luber: The founders of Yoga Aid were donating money to different Yoga charities and found that it wasn’t having the impact that they would have liked it to have. While you can donate money to someone, it’s a really different story to engage whole communities to get involved. They help set up the actual event, and then people in communities across America and around the world are setting up these local events, and getting people within their community to raise money. We just hit $86,000 and that has been all through people asking for personal donations within their community. People ask, “What’s a Yoga charity?” It’s a charity that’s putting Yoga into the places that we need it most–schools, correctional facilities, Africa.

To listen to the rest of the show, please click here.

 

 
This article was lovingly assembled and transcribed by #WIMG’s Incredible Intern, Social Media Maven, and Radio Broadcast Expert Jennifer Cusano. Check out more of Jenn’s exceptionally skillful work and wordsmithery on Here Women Talk, elephant journal, and LinkedIn.