This episode is a rebroadcast of a conversation originally released in August 2023. I'm bringing it back because the themes feel even more relevant today.

My guest is Neelu Kaur, author of Be Your Own Cheerleader, speaker, and organizational psychologist. Neelu works closely with South Asian and Asian women who are navigating burnout, self-advocacy, and cultural expectations in corporate America.

In this conversation, we explore the tension many high performers feel between a collectivist "we" mindset and a workplace culture that rewards individual visibility. Neelu introduces her "I-We speedometer" framework, offering a practical way to move between collaboration and self-promotion without losing your sense of self.

We also get into:

• Why the "your work will speak for itself" mantra often falls short
• How cultural conditioning can shape burnout and perfectionism
• Practical concepts like fit for purpose, reverse classroom, and time confetti
• How tools from NLP, yoga, and Ayurveda can help change not just how we communicate with others, but how we speak to ourselves
• What it really means to become your own cheerleader - at work and at home

This is a conversation about speaking up with integrity, managing energy in a nonstop work culture, and untethering from inherited templates that no longer serve us. Hope you enjoy it.

To learn more about how you can "Be Your Own Cheerleader," visit ⁠neelukaur.com⁠ or connect with Neelu on ⁠Instagram ⁠or ⁠LinkedIn⁠. Her book is also available on ⁠Amazon⁠.

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This episode is Part 2 of my conversation with Shyambo, founder of The Brighter Mindset.

This week, we explore how practices labeled as biohacks (i.e., cold plunges) can double as powerful tools for spiritual discipline. Shyambo shares why challenging comfort through the body can translate into patience, clarity, and emotional steadiness in everyday life.

We also unpack a powerful analogy about mental health: if your "basement is flooded," you can’t just keep scooping water out; you have to plug the hole. In other words, cultivating a calmer mind requires being intentional about content we watch, conversations we engage in, and calories we consume.

In this episode, we cover:

Cold exposure as a practice for training the mind, not just the body

• Challenging the five senses to build resilience and self-control
• Why constant comfort can quietly run our lives
• The "plug the hole" metaphor - and how unfiltered inputs overwhelm the mind
• How curating sensory inputs can shift emotional tone and mental clarity

To explore more of Shyambo's work, please visit ⁠thebrightermindset.com⁠, or check him out on ⁠Instagram⁠. You can also sign up for his 2026 Sedona Immersive Wellness Retreat ⁠here⁠.

To connect with Nikhil and learn more about Untether Your Life and related projects:

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This episode explores how spiritual mentorship, emotional equanimity, and intentional social media use can transform an anxious, approval-seeking mind into what my guest calls a brighter mindset. On a day honoring Guru Nanak’s birth and the guru tradition, it felt especially fitting to sit down with Shyambo, a spiritual mentor, founder of The Brighter Mindset, and content creator whose work has reached over 10 million people.

Shyambo shares how his life was shaped by his guru, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, and how trying to "perform" wisdom online led him into depression, imposter syndrome, and a deep misalignment between his outer persona and inner reality.

He opens up about his time in a mindfulness-based recovery program in Sedona, the shift from chasing likes to praying before every post, and why practices like prapti (nothing left to attain), emotional equanimity, and samp (unity) have changed the way he relates to success, comparison, and conflict – especially during tense cultural and political moments.

In Part 1, we touch on:

• What a guru really is, and how modeling a teacher’s inner state is different from just consuming their ideas.
• Shyambo's journey from pre-med tennis kid to spiritual mentor, and how early bullying and cultural barriers shaped his inner search.
• How social media became a "casino of validation" for him – and what finally forced him to step away.
• The role of mindfulness-based recovery in helping him separate ego from service.
• Why he now prays before every post, and how that single intention protects him from FOMO and metrics obsession.
• The concepts of prapti, emotional equanimity, and samp (unity) as antidotes to comparison, division, and reactivity in a post-election landscape.

Note: This is Part One of a two-part series. Part Two airs next week.

To explore more of Shyambo's work, please visit thebrightermindset.com, or check him out on Instagram. You can also sign up for his 2026 Sedona Immersive Wellness Retreat here.

To connect with Nikhil and learn more about Untether Your Life and related projects:

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This episode explores one of the most overlooked drivers of mental health: the quality of our relationships. With a former Surgeon General warning that chronic loneliness can impact the body the same way as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, the stakes have never been higher. So it felt fitting to sit down with someone who has been a guiding voice in this space since the earliest days of this podcast: Dr. Jyothsna Bhat.

Jyothsna S. Bhat, Psy.D. CMIP is a clinical psychologist, writer, and one of the most respected voices in South Asian mental health. She writes a monthly column for Psychology Today that explores cultural nuance, family dynamics, and emotional well-being. Jyothsna was also the first official guest of Untether Your Life when we launched in early 2022. And in a full-circle moment, she and I originally met nearly thirty years ago as undergrads at Washington University in St. Louis before reconnecting in 2022 through her writing.

We touched on so many topics in this discussion, including:

• Why relationship quality acts like medicine, and how loneliness can silently erode mental and physical health.
• The emotional load carried by caregivers, and simple ways they can protect their well-being without abandoning the people they love.
• Cultural dynamics in South Asian families, and how shame, comparison, and unspoken expectations shape empathy and boundaries.
• The art of asking for space, why it is not rejection, and how creating a healing bubble can accelerate recovery.
• The importance of curating your inputs, including Jim Rohn’s reminder to “stand guard at the door of your mind.”
• Social media as a tool rather than a trap, and how to find your tribe instead of feeding comparison.
• The enduring impact of a single supportive relationship, including how Shelly helped me reconnect with my core essence during a difficult season.
• Practical ways to choose quality over quantity, bring a trusted ally into challenging social situations, and rebuild community with intention.

To connect with Dr. Bhat and learn more about her writing, clinical work, and advocacy, visit her Psychology Today profile or connect with her on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Connect with Nikhil to learn more about Untether Your Life and other projects:

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EPISODE SUMMARY

In today’s episode, I talk about where I’ve been over the past year, why the show went on pause, and what I’ve learned along the way. From navigating the 2024 US presidential election to rediscovering the spark that started this podcast in the first place, I share the real story behind the hiatus - and what’s aheadfor the next season.

I also honor the people and moments that shaped thisjourney, and reflect on the rise of AI, the changing podcast landscape, and the power of community.

KEY TOPICS

• Welcome back and why it’s been a while
• The serendipitous origin story of Untether Your Life
• Various feathers in my cap: cracking the top 5 percent of Listen Notes + Signal Award reflections
• Listener impact and a quick request
• The election, déjà vu, and rewriting old narratives
• Three major November milestones
• Tech roots + the rise of AI
• Shoutouts to BroBots, Happy & Human, and Yoga in the Therapy Room podcasts
• Family, legacy, and a personal dedication
• What’s next for the podcast

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Dr. Jyothsna Bhat (early guest IG live collaborator)
• BroBots Podcast
• Happy and Human Podcast
• Yoga in the Therapy Room Podcast
• Practicing Mindfulness on the Go by Shelly Sood
• Signal Awards

• 
  

WANT MORE?

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This episode was released on the heels of perhaps the most dramatic election of our time—one that will have a serious impact on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and leadership initiatives in corporations throughout the United States. So I felt very fortunate to speak to one of the most compelling and dynamic authorities in this space—Dr. Priya Nalkur.

Priya Nalkur, Ed.D. is the President of The RoundTable Institute, where she leads a global group of coaches and facilitators to help companies build more inclusive leaders and workplaces. She is a professional speaker, coach and facilitator and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Heller School for Social Policy and has several courses on Udemy for Business. She is the author of the book Stumbling Towards Inclusion: Finding Grace in Imperfect Leadership.

We touched on so many topics in this discussion, including:

• Priya's innovative framework of JEDI for Leaders and JEDI for Coaches; how the notions of justice and belonging are often overlooked in many well-intentioned DEI intiatives in corporate America.
• How Stumbling Towards Inclusion evolved from a "manual" to accompany the JEDI training to also include her journey—from a child of South Asian immigrants who struggled to fit in, to her time at leading universities in the US (Harvard, Yale), to her current role as an authority on DEI and executive leadership coach.
• The genesis of The Roundtable Institute as a leadership development platform to focus on women and marginialized people, launched in the wake of the tumultuous 2016 election.
• Joseph Campbell's quote about "going into the abyss to recover the treasures of life and stumbling"—and how the notion of stumbling (as well as biking up steep hills in Southern California) plays into leadership.
• The relationship between the activity of dance—in all its forms—and the dynamics of effective leadership.
• Concepts discussed in Stumbling Towards Inclusion, including "lowering the waterline," allyship, and the notion of headwinds and tailwinds in leadership.
• Priya's experience as the child of Indian immigrants in Ontario, Canada, and how that shaped her lifelong mission for inclusion.
• Struggles that we as South Asian parents face in juggling the tasks of assimilating, succeeding in corporate America, while passing our cultural heritage (culinary, dance, musical) to our children.

To connect with Priya and learn more about JEDI, The Roundtable Institute, and her many other initiatives, visit priyanalkur.com or theroundtableinstitute.com. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Connect with Nikhil to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects:

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Since moving to Southern California last year, I've been blessed to cross paths with many souls on a similar journey of spirituality and wellness. I had one of these folks on the podcast a year ago, Kyle Peche, and am now delighted to welcome his wife Sundarri Rodriguez as a guest.

Sundarri is an award-winning actress, musician, and philanthropist. You may have seen her appear in shows on Hulu, indie films, or even local theater. Sundarri is passionate about healing others with sound. She is a performing artist, and plays shows around the Southern California area, with music on Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms. In 2023 she founded a non-profit organization called Soma Wellness.

Soma is a Christ-Consciousness based non-profit formed to build community and to serve those in recovery with holistic modalities, such as sound-healing, breathwork, and yoga. Please note that Soma Wellness is entirely separate from SOMA Breath, a breathwork modality which we've discussed on the show previously.

NOTE: Soma Wellness is entirely separate from SOMA Breath, a breathwork modality which we've discussed on the show previously.

Sundarri and I discussed many topics, including:

• How a tiger in a South Carolina zoo served as her namesake, and serendipitously led to discovery of sacred geometry, Kriya Yoga, sound healing, and other holistic modalities.

• The false dichotomy that often exists between Eastern and Western forms of spirituality such as Christianity and Hinduism. How many mistakenly see the former as overly rigid or confining, and the latter as too ethereal or abstract. How sages such as Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekananda help to bridge this gap; how their mission being carried forward today at organizations such as Self Realization Fellowship - where I originally met her and her husband (and former podcast guest) Kyle.

• Sundarri's Southern Baptist upbringing in South Carolina, which exposed her to speaking in tongues, and other spontaneous spiritual practices that she feels have largely faded away in the modern iteration of Christianity.

• The "origin story" of Soma Wellness, which sprung in some part from the tragic loss of her stepfather to addiction at age 45. How the platform combines sound healing, breathwork, yoga, and music to help those in recovery from addiction.

• How Sundarri is able to maintain her strong sense of spirituality, even while working in the music and film industries - traditionally seen by some as being more commercial and lacking in spiritual foundation

• House of Soma - a camping and music Festival held in Southern California, featuring more than 30 acts and the holistic modalities offered by Soma Wellness.

To find out more about Soma Wellness and connect with Sundarri / learn about her journey, please visit healwithsoma.com, or connect with her on Instagram at @ayoitssundarri or @healwithsoma.

Connect with Nikhil to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects:

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To comemorate the 90(ish)th episode of Untether Your Life, I'm rebroadcasting my appearance on the Happy and Human podcast.

I always walk away from my exchanges with the hosts - my friends Dinesh Melwani and Dr. Seema Desai - with some new insight, an expansion of my network, and at the very least, a good chuckle. This conversation was no exception. It's full of light-hearted banter, mixed with discussion of weightier topics such as breathwork, epigenetics, and the triumphs and tribulations of life in the South Asian diaspora.

In this far ranging conversation, we touch on the following:

• The implication of Bruce Lipton's conceptualization of our body as a community of 50 trillion cells. How this mindset can improve our decision making skills and sense of agency and empowerment.
• The power of Thich Nhat Hanh's mindful breathing techniques (i.e., "In / out, deep / slow") in enabling us to better navigate turbulent times, and help humanity "one breath at a time."
• What it truly means, as members of the South Asian diaspora, to have "made it" vis-à-vis the American dream. The impact on this pivotal success juncture of the Buddhist notion of impermanence, and the concept of asymptotes (pro tip: you may need to dust off your high school math textbook for this episode).
• The true meaning of the practice of "clean living," and how positive self-talk and gratitude factors into this
• How breathwork and humming can stimulate the vagus nerve, and activate our parasympathetic nervous system and the "rest and digest" response, widen our lens and help us move from scarcity to abundance mindset
• The perils of the "if / then fallacy" that many children of immigrants face in prioritizing success over true happiness, fulfillment, and physical and mental health
• Reflections on cold plunges and other practices covered in the Netflix Limitless series with Chris Hemsworth

Interested in checking out other episodes of the Happy and Human podcast? Visit the Instagram page or check them out on Buzzsprout. I highly recommend following these dynamic changemakers on Instagram as well (@dineshmelwani / @dr.seemadesai).

Connect with Nikhil to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects:

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