A Show About Yoga, But Not About Yoga
16 Nov 2025 · 7 min
Ryan Spence, a former big-law lawyer turned yoga teacher, starts a podcast for stressed professionals who want to clarify their purpose and explore different life paths. He uses yoga as a framework for focus and resilience, and will talk to teachers, coaches, and people with stories to tell.
Questions this episode answers
Episode one (teaser/introduction).
Ryan Spence.
Chapters
Welcome to the Yoga Den. Are you a stressed out cog in the corporate wheel? Do you find yourself asking, what am I doing and why am I doing it? Then the Yoga Den is the place for you. I'm your host, Ryan Spence, AKA the big law dropout, writer, yoga teacher, and your guide on the path to well being through yoga. Yoga helped me find my purpose, change my mindset and my life. And in this podcast, I'll share how to live a life of intention, knowing reaction. Each week I'll be talking to a variety of guests, covering pearls of wisdom to help you figure out where you're heading to where you really want to go. I won't find your purpose for you, but I'll help you plan the route. So sit back and grab a drink. I've been expecting you. Hello. Welcome to episode one of the Yoga Dan podcast. This is a teaser episode, an introduction if you will, to let you know a bit about me and a bit about what you can expect from the show each week. Let's start with me. I'm your host, Ryan Spence, yoga teacher, writer, now podcaster and ex big law lawyer. And I help lawyers and corporate execs through yoga think clearer, move freer and sleep deeper so they can figure out their purpose and where they want to go. So why another podcast? Well, my experience As a lawyer, 11 years split between London and Singapore, I understand the pressures that lawyers are under and that those pressures are not exclusive to lawyers. The long hours, the toll that takes on your physical and mental well being, the stress, the anxiety, the thinking about whether what you're doing is really what you want to be doing and not really knowing what you would do instead. You see, we start these careers, we go through the training and we get on this train and it sweeps us along to a destination that at the time seems somewhere far off in the future. And as we get closer and closer, we don't stop to take the time to look up and think about whether where that train is going is where we really want to go. And we also, even if we do have those thoughts, just think that we can't get off the train. We want it now. To the outside world, we're successful, we've got a great job, great salary, we should just stay on that train, not get off to wherever it's going. And we think that we have to do that. We can't get off, but that's not true. We don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. If you can look beyond break out of your mental cell of self limitation. And just look up, look up at the sky and realize that there's no ceiling to what you can achieve. You don't have to do the same thing you've always been doing. And from sharing my story and my experience, I want to inspire you to think big, to challenge those expectations, and to embrace the unknown. You see, we keep ourselves locked in this mental cell, and we limit ourselves to thinking about opportunities that only exist between those four walls and that ceiling. But there's a whole host of things beyond that if we just step out and look beyond. And that's what I want to deliver to you guys through this podcast. The fact that there is more, there is another way. But this isn't just about my story. Each week, I'll be speaking to a variety of guests who've managed to carve out a life for themselves that is more in alignment with their values, that's leading them to their purpose, and speaking to people who can give you some advice, some tools, uncover some pearls of wisdom to help you figure out yourself if where you are is where you want to be and if where you're heading is where you want to go. So we'll have yoga teachers, life coaches, an athlete or two, and also just everyday people with interesting stories to tell, people who've managed to make a life on their own terms and take control and live a life in line with their values and what they want to do. So now you may be thinking, what's all that got to do with yoga? Well, yoga. Yoga is what set me on the path, changed my mindset, changed my life. See, yoga isn't just about getting on the mat for an hour. It's not about handstands or headstands on Instagram, as cool as that may be. It's far, far deeper than that. See, for me, yoga provides the framework for how I live or how I choose to live. Yoga gives you focus, gives you resilience, gives you discipline. It gives you a whole host of tools that you can take with you off the mat to help you carve out a life for yourself that is in line with your values and your purpose. And if you can take the time to delve down that rabbit hole of yoga, you'll learn a whole lot. Not just about yoga, but more importantly, about yourself. But the Yoga Den podcast, it's about yoga in that yoga is at this very foundation. It's at the core of what I do, but it's also not about yoga. It's far broader than that. The Den is a place where you can come and sit and have discussions about things that matter in the world. Discussions about personal development, self improvement, mindset. That's the key. One Health and fitness. There'll even be some talk of veganism, but we can come to that in later episodes. But whatever it is that's out there, yoga touches it. Yoga is not something that you go and do in isolation up on the mountainside. It's part of everyday life. It's part of my everyday life, and it can be part of yours. And you can embrace those principles as part of your life to ultimately lead you to the path of your purpose. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Yoga Den podcast. If you like the show, tell your friends, subscribe, or give us a review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps to get the show out to others and lets me know to keep creating new episodes. And if there's anyone you think should be on the show or you'd like to get into the Den yourself, drop me a line and let's see if we can make it happen. You can hit me up on Instagram, heogadenpodcast and also Ryan Spenceyoga. So until next time, eat plants, give thanks, do yoga, peace.