The Imagine Podcast · Episode 15
Give Life to Freedom
Freedom is not an idea we believe in. It's a discipline we practice — inside our own life, one breath at a time.
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In December 2024, María Corina Machado emerged from months in hiding to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, joining other Venezuelan opposition leaders. When Daniela saw it, something in her broke open. This episode starts there — at the intersection of external and internal freedom — and asks a question that Kundalini Yoga has been asking for centuries: what does it mean to live free?
Freedom is the word everyone agrees on and almost no one defines. We say we want it, we talk about it, we fight for it — but we rarely ask what it asks of us. The Nobel Committee's words landed hard: "Peace without justice is not peace, and dialogue without truth is not reconciliation." Daniela takes those lines not as political commentary but as a mirror. What would it look like to apply that same standard to our inner life? What in us is still waiting for permission to be free?
In Kundalini Yoga, Tapas is the concept closest to this question. Not self-punishment, not ascetic denial — but the inner fire of discipline, the willingness to keep showing up even when it's hard. Sat Nam — truth is my identity — is not a mantra we say once and carry forever. It's a choice we make, again and again, each time we want to take the easier path. The Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in Zürich at Imagine Yoga Academy is built on this: the idea that practice is how we learn to live what we already believe.
The episode ends with six questions — not as homework, but as a practice in themselves. What does freedom look like in your relationship with your body, your work, your relationships, your mind, your spirit, your truth? The invitation isn't to answer them perfectly. It's to sit with them long enough to feel something move.
3 Key Takeaways From This Episode
- 01 Freedom is a discipline, not a destination. Tapas — inner fire — is what keeps us aligned to what we know is true, even when the pull toward comfort or approval is strong. Freedom practiced is more real than freedom believed in. It shows up in small choices, every day.
- 02 Sat Nam is a daily renewal, not a one-time declaration. "Truth is my name" is a choice. We return to it each time we are tempted to shrink, perform, or disconnect from ourselves. Kundalini Yoga teaches this through repetition because repetition is how the nervous system learns to trust what the mind already knows.
- 03 Outer events can crack us open — and that's the point. Daniela saw something in María Corina Machado's journey that reflected her own inner question. The world outside is always giving us material for the work inside. The practice is learning to let it in without being swept away.
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Hi there, I'm Daniela Troconis.
I'm the co-founder of Imagine Yoga Academy and a Kundalini Yoga teacher trainer. For more than 14 years I've guided people toward reconnecting with their own truth through practice, breath, and honest conversation.
Since 2012, Pedro Misle and I have trained more than 900 teachers across Switzerland, Spain, India, and online.
The Imagine Podcast brings the conversations that happen inside our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainings out into the world — grounded, practical, and real. Just real practice for real life.
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Episode Transcript
Full transcript · Ep. 15 · Give Life to Freedom
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Episode Transcript
Full transcript · Ep. 15 · Give Life to Freedom
A Moment That Broke Something Open
Hi everyone, I'm Daniela Troconis. Welcome to a new episode of The Imagine Podcast. Today I want to talk about something that has been on my mind since December, when I watched María Corina Machado step out from hiding to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. She had spent months underground. She walked onto that stage anyway. And something in me cracked open.
What I saw wasn't just courage. I saw a choice. To give life to freedom — even at great personal cost. And I couldn't stop thinking: what would it mean for me to do the same? Not on a world stage. Just inside my own life.
What Freedom Actually Asks
Freedom is one of those words everyone claims to want. And yet, most of us live in quiet agreement with the things that limit us. Our habits, our fears, our unspoken contracts with other people. We don't betray our truth dramatically. We just postpone it. One day at a time. Until years have passed.
The Nobel Committee said something that stayed with me: "Peace without justice is not peace, and dialogue without truth is not reconciliation." I read that and thought: what is the version of that inside my own life? Because you can have an outwardly peaceful life — calm, managed, comfortable — and still be at war with yourself. Still be waiting for permission to be fully who you are.
Tapas and Sat Nam
In Kundalini Yoga, we work with two principles that speak directly to this. The first is Tapas — inner fire. Not punishment. Not denial. Tapas is the discipline that comes from love. The willingness to be uncomfortable in service of what matters. To keep practicing even when you don't feel like it. To choose truth even when the easier option is right there. Tapas is how freedom becomes real. Not a belief, not an aspiration — a daily act.
The second is Sat Nam. Truth is my name. Truth is my identity. What I find beautiful and difficult about this mantra is that it's not a statement about who you are. It's a commitment to keep choosing who you are — again and again, every time you're tempted to shrink or perform or disappear. We chant it at the beginning of practice. We return to it in the middle of our day. We use it when something in us wants to choose the old way instead of the real one.
Six Questions to Carry With You
I want to close with six questions. Not to answer right now. To sit with. To carry. Let them work on you.
Where in your body do you feel the most free — and where do you feel the most contracted? What part of your daily life most needs more honesty? Is there a relationship in your life where you have stopped being fully yourself? What would you do or say differently if you knew you were already free? What fire in you has been dimmed by comfort or by fear? And finally: what would it look like to give life to your freedom — not someday, but this week?
You don't have to answer all of them. Even one honest answer is a practice. Sat Nam.
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