How Josh Blatter blends yoga, mindfulness, and service—from the studio to the UN

Yogaland Podcast

Andrea Ferretti

Health & Fitness, Yoga, Yogaland

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, I’m joined by yoga teacher and global mindfulness facilitator Josh Blatter. We talk about his teaching journey—from the yoga studio to his work with Peace on Purpose, a program that supports United Nations staff working in some of the most high-pressure environments in the world.

Josh shares:

Why questioning long-held beliefs is vital for yoga teachers
Studying in the Viniyoga lineage and the individualized approach to yoga
What it was like to study at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai
How Vedic Chant is a powerful part of his personal practice -- and how challenging it is to learn
Peace on Purpose and his recent trips to Bangladesh and Pakistan
How Josh teaches in high-stress environments and how cultural sensitivity shapes the work
Advice for yoga teachers on staying inspired, grounded, and financially afloat
A guiding principle for sustainable teaching and caregiving (this one's a huge lightbulb moment for me!)

Thank you, as always, for listening and sharing the podcast.

If you'd like to keep up with us, subscribe to our newsletter at: jasonyoga.com/newsletter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone. I'm Andrea Ferretti and this is Yoga Land.
0:09.0	Today my guest is Josh Blatter. Josh is a yoga teacher here in Carlsbad, California.
0:16.0	If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you might know that Carlsbad has been our family's hometown now
0:21.7	for about four years. So I got to speak to Josh in person, which was really, really fun.
0:28.3	So I've taken Josh's class here in Carlsbad and he is a very thoughtful and deep and intelligent
0:36.2	vinyasa yoga teacher. I knew that he had studied for some
0:40.1	time at the Krishna Macharia yoga mandrum in Chennai, India some years ago. And if you are familiar
0:47.7	with that center, it's a vinyoga center. So I got to learn from him today what he learned from that program and
0:56.4	how he integrates it into his very modern Vinyasa teaching. I learned something new about
1:02.3	him, which is that Vedic chant is the focal point and centerpiece of his personal practice.
1:07.6	So I got to learn more about that. And I got to ask him all about his role as a
1:13.9	program developer and facilitator for a program called Peace on Purpose, which is a collaboration
1:21.6	between the United Nations Foundation and Lulu Lemon. And the work that these people are doing is amazing. I'm just going to
1:29.9	read a little bit from their website. This is from the United Nations Foundation website.
1:35.0	And it says, why peace on purpose? UN development and humanitarian workers are doing meaningful work
1:41.5	in some of the most stressful and hostile conditions in the world.
1:45.2	They're responding to global conflicts, extreme poverty, and the climate crisis.
1:49.7	These jobs often result in burnout and other physical and mental issues.
1:53.9	Peace on purpose gives UN workers the support they need so that they can continue to be effective change makers.
2:03.2	So Josh and the other program developers came together, developed this day-long mindfulness program for these workers around the world.
2:10.1	And they go where they are needed. They go where they are invited. And they present this
2:17.0	yoga and mindfulness program to anywhere between
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andrea Ferretti, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Andrea Ferretti and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.