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Real Talk – An Interview With Hanuman Festival Founder Yoshi Aono (Video)

The Hanuman Festival is an annual yoga and music festival that takes place in Boulder, Colorado every June. Hanuman Festival has become a household name in the yoga community, bringing together some of the most renowned yoga teachers and mindful musicians from around the world.
 
We sat down with the founder + director, Yoshi Aono to talk about how this now iconic yoga festival started. He is a devoted humanitarian, serial entrepreneur, avid guitar player, and all around inspirational human.
 
We wanted to learn more about this festival and the man behind it so we interviewed Yoshi at the YouAligned HQ. Get ready for an amazing look into the Hanuman Festival’s roots, it’s seva-centered mission (seva means selfless service), and the journey Yoshi took to get here.
 
Hear Yoshi talk about what it was like to live naked on a beach in Kauai, Naked Yoga before it became a thing, how world travel has shaped his mission for Hanuman, and how he gained the confidence to carry it into his life’s work.
 

“That’s what I’ve found in life. You put intention out there, you get psyched on it, you believe in what you’re doing, and then this natural flow happens.”

 
Learn how the Hanuman Festival got its namesake, and find out which world festival Yoshi considers to be Hanuman’s ‘sister’ festival.
 
We talk about Yoshi’s seva-based Hanuman Adventures that have taken him around the world, from Bali to Africa, Louisiana to India from saving an orphan’s life in Africa to creating lifelong friendships in Rishikesh.
 
“When you go to a place like Rishikesh, you understand seva is not something you do, seva is just something you are. It’s a way of being.”
 
We also talk about conscious business and spiritual entrepreneurship – and Yoshi’s advice is enlightening, inspiring, and practical.
 

“Instead of operating from the head, try operating from the heart.”

 
He says intention is key – to always come from a place of grounding and intention. Be devoted to it. Ask for help, ask people who have gone through it, ask the elders for advice. And remember that you are not alone.
 

“Within us all, we have so much potential … to contribute to a larger society, whether it be your family, your community, your state, the country you live in, or the world. We have this innate potential to contribute.”

 

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Thank You to Yoshi and the Hanuman Festival Team!

We are incredibly grateful to share Yoshi’s inspirational words and work. To Yoshi and the entire Hanuman team – we send gratitude and love!
 
Thank YOU for taking the time to watch this interview. We’ll leave you with a quote from Yoshi about gratitude, yoga, and navigating this life:
 
“Gratitude is so important. It is supremely important to be grateful. When you get into that toxic, negative place and you’re running from an ego-based fear paradigm, that doesn’t help anything. We’re here for a blip in time.
 
In the scheme of things, we’re just here for a blip in time, so if you choose to be in a place of fear and egoic self, that’s a bummer.
 
That’s what yoga helps us with is to become a ninja and recognize those things quicker and quicker. Over time you don’t allow yourself to go into that place of spinning out, playing the victim, or operating from fear. You operate from a place of inspiration, abundance, and natural flow.”
 

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