Interview with John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga

• Tweet

• Tweet

Only 2 days prior to the launch of his “Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind” World Tour, I asked Katrina Knudsen, a.k.a Maha Communication Relations Representative with the Mostest, if Bay Shakti could schedule a 5 minute interview with John Friend. Not only did she promptly say yes, but she also said I would have 15-30 minutes for the interview. I was impressed with how receptive she and John were to the idea of the interview, and the easefulness, with which this interview came. There was no contract to be signed, no unnecessary bureaucratic procedures, just straight up trust and respect. John Friend strikes me as someone who is so highly attuned to energy, so plugged into his teachings, that he really puts into action, walks the walk, of letting his heart and the revelatory power of Grace lead the way, aligning with the flow of Grace and truly believing that the world is indeed Supremely ordered, as though this interview was meant to be.

(If you’re reading via email or rss, please visit click here for the video.)

I have never spent any intimate time with John. While we officially met when he walked into the room, I had introduced myself to him very briefly in L.A last year and at Wanderlust in July this past year. In fact, when he walked through the Interview room door, within 3 minutes, we were shooting the interview.  John is truly a man with a mission, an urgent message to share with the world, and I did not want to waste a second of his time. That being said, he was respectful and highly present with me. At one point during the interview, to gather my thoughts and reduce the intensity of interviewing the force that is John Friend, I broke eye contact with him, and when I reconnected eye contact, his face registered an expression of being disheartened that I would disengage for even a moment, break the connection for even a moment. What a lesson for me to stay plugged into this life, to be fully committed, present during each possible moment on this earth. Don’t look away! Stay plugged in! Especially when you have precious moments with a living legend. Gah!

One of my biggest take-aways from the week with John was the power of energetics.  There is nothing quite like teaching or partner poses to clue you into exactly, moment to moment, how your students or yoga partner is reacting to your teaching, the exchange of energy being a reflection of yourself and how willing you are to put yourself out there, to commit to life, to live life in the highest vibration, and this interview experience with John was no different. While I am clearly very impressed and inspired by John Friend and Anusara yoga, I realize that John is also a man, a human, and this helped ease my nervousness in both approaching him for the interview and conducting the interview.  I was still nervous, but felt confident and grounded. The interview took place during the lunch break on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 during the Immersion week. Katrina was polite (she is super cute!), but firm that we needed to be ready to roll right on time when John was ready.  I wanted to respect his time.  I left the Immersion room an hour beforehand to prepare the Interview room and center myself. All 4 parts of this interview lasted in total 16 minutes. I was pleased and relieved that I remembered all of my questions for him, never once looking down at my list of questions, dare I disappoint him by looking away!

When the interview was wrapping (I had neared the end of my questions), he seemed surprised that I didn’t want more from him. I didn’t want to be greedy. I figure that enough people are wanting a lot from him all the time. He actually seemed ready to continue on, as though he was just settling into the interview, when before he knew it, time was up. This is kind of an apt metaphor for life! Between the 3 minutes before the interview and the maybe 4 minutes after, he was in and out of the interview room in under 25 minutes.

I wanted to ask questions that were basic, accessible, but nonetheless fascinating, at least to me, and I hope to you, the reader. If I have the opportunity to bring you another interview with John or another teacher, would you like the chance to have me ask your questions on your behalf? If you had 16 minutes with a teacher, what would you ask?

None of the the interview was edited, the entire 16 minutes was broken up into 4 parts to make sure that each post was bite-sized and chewable, not an overwhelming commitment to watch. I hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for Parts 2-4.

I am excited to give back to the community in this way. It is clear to me that John appreciates and is encouraging of grassroots journalism, which is what blogging is. I regard blogging as a way for our community to stay engaged even when we can’t always make it to class. I hope to be able to continue to serve the kula in this way.

So Much Love to all Yogis on the Path!

The Interview Room at the Regency Center in San Francisco

Close Up: The Interview Room at the Regency Center in San Francisco

Ginger and John after the Interview

Transcript Part 1

{Ginger} Hello, my name is Ginger Coy. I’m a Yoga teacher here in San Francisco at Yoga Kula. I’m also the founder of Bay Shakti, a blog dedicated to Anusara Yoga in the Bay Area. I am greatly honored and privileged to bring to you today during the debut of his “Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind” World Tour, one of the most illustrious and esteemed men of our time, the founder of Anusara Yoga, Mr. John Friend.

{John} Thanks Ginger, that’s very nice.

{Ginger} Thank you very much for being here, and welcome to San Francisco.

{John} Yeah, I love San Francisco. It’s great to be back.

{Ginger} So you’re starting with the Immersion. {John} Right {Ginger} And I understand that you’ve been working with the Anusara Curriculum Committee to refine the Immersion.{John}Yeah, very much. {Ginger}  So just wondering what’s new for 2010?

{John} Well, in the curriculum scope of things, we just spent a year getting more clear about the standardization of the different elements that can define Anusara, and they are and they can include, the philosophy, the principles of our Shiva- Shakti Tantric philosophy, the Universal Principles of Alignment and the different elements that really make up and define our community. So these three big aspects: the philosophy, the Principles of Alignment, and the community are getting even more solidified and more coalesced with all of our new standardized curriculum, especially in the Immersion, so I’m presenting the first part of a 108 hour level one Immersion, and it is a standardized template that is now used all over the world. We’re in 70 different countries now world-wide. And even in all of these countries, even the little tests, if you will, we call them “Empowerment Reviews”,  it’s just to see at the end of an Immersion, how the students have assimilated and absorbed the material, even these documents are in different languages, so it’s a wonderfully standardized system, so that everybody can get into alignment with the same vision of Anusara.

{Ginger} I love the name of the tour, “Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind”.  What do you mean by “Blow Your Mind”?

{John} {laughs} Well, “Blow Your Mind”, … well your know, blow your mind for me is the idea of when something is so astounding, so amazing, that you just…your rational, linear part of the mind just stops. And in that moment, in the positive way it can be like, sometimes smelling a… such a gorgeous flower, it could be taking a bite of chocolate or food or something where you just seem to just… everything just stops. Your mind… you’re not thinking anymore, your just like, time is dissolved, and it can be in a moment of love with somebody and your just sharing a moment with someone that you really care for, and everything just dissolves. Time goes away. Your mind…that rational part of your mind is just blown. You can’t believe that…the time can go so fast. You can’t believe how much fun a moment could be. You can’t believe how much you might be able to shift as a person in such a short amount of time. You know, you think, oh, I can’t do that or I’m not like this or I’m not really that good at that or whatever. These diminishing aspects, the limiting aspects of the mind, they just get blown open many times when we’re in alignment with nature and spirit, such that Grace just pours in and there’s just truly a revelation. There’s just a mind blowing revelation. That’s kind of what I think of is this Mind Blowing Tour.

{Ginger} Right on!

{John} Yeah!

John Friend’s 2010 Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind World Tour

Related posts:

1. Interview with John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga, Part 3
2. Interview with John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga, Part 2
3. Interview with John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga, Part 4
4. Interview with John Friend at Wanderlust
5. Part 2: Interview with John Friend-Dancing with the Divine, 2011 World Tour