In this conversation, Keri sits down with yoga teacher and clinical social worker Karen DeBaun, owner of Yoga Moodra, to explore yoga as a practice for living—not just another form of exercise. They talk about midlife beginnings, healing from trauma, and how yoga can become a framework for pausing, reflecting, and living more consciously in chaotic times.
Karen shares why discomfort and anxiety are often the doorway to real change, how curiosity keeps us from hardening into certainty as we age, and why she sees herself as an “ambassador of love and peace” in a culture that rewards speed, productivity, and numbness. This is an invitation to step off autopilot and into a more deliberate, awake way of being.
Yoga in midlife and beyond
How starting yoga in her 40s shaped Karen’s teaching
Why so many of her students have stayed with her long-term
What it’s like to come to yoga without being a “bendy 25-year-old”
Yoga as a practice for the mind, not just the body
The line that hooked her: gaining flexibility in the mind
How yoga supported her emotional and physical recovery after a serious motorcycle accident
Why she believes yoga is “a practice for living,” not just fitness
Capitalism co-opting yoga
Hot yoga, power yoga, and speed as the dominant narrative
What we lose when yoga becomes just another workout
Reclaiming yoga as “a sacred practice of remembering who you are”
Pause as quiet rebellion
How yoga classes are built around intentional pause and integration
Why rest, reflection, and stillness are almost nonexistent in our culture
Why even one hour a week of true pause can begin to change a life
Habits, autopilot, and conscious living
The difference between helpful routines and unconscious habits
Why Karen and Carrie are more interested in undoing habits than just trading old ones for new
How habits can become “brain shortcuts” that keep us from actually being present
From reactivity to response
How yoga has helped Karen become less reactive and more deliberate
The ripple effects of one person becoming calmer, clearer, and more rooted in their values
How this inner work quietly shapes our culture and communities
Yoga, activism, and being an “ambassador of love and peace”
Different roles people can play: activists, supporters, question-askers, rabble-rousers
Karen’s personal mantra: “Ambassador of love and peace”
Expanding the idea of activism beyond protests and picket signs to how we move through the world every day
Discomfort as a catalyst for transformation
Why anxiety and discomfort are often what finally move us to change
Karen’s own leap into yoga teacher training in her 40s (and imposter syndrome all along the way)
How to reframe discomfort as information and invitation, not failure
Why it’s so hard to try new things
From Karen’s article “5 Reasons Why It’s Hard to Try New Things”:
Our built-in negativity bias and brain’s obsession with safety
