Q&A with The News Yogi Leslie Rangel

Focus on being human first, journalist second, she says

Leslie Rangel is a journalist, mental wellness coach and yoga educator who helps train journalists how to do their jobs in a healthier way — whether they need help balancing work and personal life or getting unstuck to reach a next step in their career.

Rangel said she started as a yoga teacher helping journalists but realized that some of her students needed help in other more practical areas so she got her coaching certification and started The News Yogi in 2020.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

How did you become a mental wellness coach and yoga educator?

In 2016, I had a panic attack right before a live shot. That day was really scary, because I didn’t know what was happening. I also didn’t want anybody to know, because I figured as a journalist, people would think that was weak and what was going to happen to my career? What if they’re not going to send me out on assignments anymore? The only thing I really knew to turn to at the time was yoga.

I decided to take a yoga teacher training and continued teaching yoga to the general population.

Then in 2020, we all know what happened. A friend of mine — she’s an on-camera confidence coach — said, “Hey, Leslie, you seem to have it all together. We’re all talking about this thing called COVID. Can you teach a meditation for us?”

I was really nervous because I didn’t know how that would be received, this mental wellness conversation in journalism, but I did it anyway.

At the very end of that meditation, I heard silence and I was really nervous. I was like, “Oh no, the feedback, nothing.” Then a split second later, multiple women came off mute. And they were like, “How do we get more of you?” It was so just lovely to hear that and also, in a way heartbreaking that the need was so incredible.

That’s really the day where I got pulled into being The News Yogi and teaching yoga for journalists.