Episode 39: Yoga-ing Even Before It Was Cool with Marla Meenakshi Joy

Marla Meenakshi Joy, Owner and Director of Downward Dog Yoga Centre, spent years in the Himalayas studying Meditation, Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy.  She’s been studying meditation and the philosophy of the Vedas since 1988.  She began teaching in 1999 in Teacher Training programs across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia, as a teacher of Philosophy and Sanskrit, Chanting and Meditation, Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga, and Restorative Yoga.  Wait, there’s more!  She’s also a celebrated song-stress and leads Kirtan with her band SWAHA. 

What a pleasure it was to have a conversation with this soul that’s been steeping in the wisdom of yoga, continuing to expand her growth year after year.  What’s really interesting is hearing what the yoga scene was like 30 years ago.  In this episode, Marla shares her yoga journey from being a young 19 year old who went off to the Himalayas and finally found “home” in her yoga practice to the influential teacher/yoga studio owner/songstress that she is today.  We catch tidbits of her wisdom along the way as we take dips into understanding ashtanga vinyasa yoga, the Vedas, Kirtan and more.  Amongst the tools she shares are mantras to help clear the way, remove fear and reconnect to your true nature.

Resources:

Books recommended by Marla:

Yoga Mala by Pattahbi Jois

• Knowledge on Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
• Understand the cleansing process in the body as a result of practicing this type of yoga

Learn more about mantras: Thomas Ashley-Farrand's Books 

• Marla’s mantra recommendations:
  • To Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.  Use this to clear the way for your day: “Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha”
  • To Durga, the protectress goddess.  Use this to help remove fear: “Om dum durgayei namaha”
  • An abstract mantra that’s not associated with any deity or any form.  A universal mantra – the mantra of the breath. It repeats itself on every inhalation and exhalation naturally.  Use this one to be reminded of your true nature and reality: "So Hum" Translated, it means “all that there is, is me or I am all that there is”
    •   Inhale: SO
    • Exhale: HUM

Key Nuggets:

• Part of the practice of yoga is to contemplate the question "What is my true nature?"
  • Once you find the answer of what your true nature is then it becomes about deepening that understanding at all levels; and that’s where our practice of meditation practice comes in.
• Advaita Vedanta – non dual philosophy of yoga.  Based on this philosophy, there's an underlying oneness despite our perception of duality.  How do we get to that core of the oneness in nature?  Everything that we sense in the world will tell it that it’s separate from us.  To get to the core, we need to go within and get silent to understand it. If we don’t do the deeper practice, we end up wit intellectual knowledge but not experiential wisdom.
• Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
  • Richard Freeman brought the first exposure of this type of yoga in 1995
  • Consists of six series of movements, each series more advanced than the next.
  • Involves cleansing of the organs for each posture, concentration through your gaze, pranayama (breath practice) within the movements and vinyasa to link each pose elegantly
  • As a result of this practice, it changes the energy in your body and nervous system
  • One of the advantages of practicing the same sequence over and over is that it allows your mind to shut off and you can just get into the moves
  •  If you want to do more of a free flow class, you can create a sequence around the primary series.
• Marla’s top concepts that she tries to live by everyday:
  •  Come from a place of love
  •  Begin day with Sadahana (a daily spiritual practice) so that you give yourself space to fill your cup (and in turn have enough to fill others' as well).
    • Marla’s Sadahana: puja (ritual offerings) to deities, meditation, pranayama, asana 
  • Continuation of expansion on the path of self reflection
• The Vedas
  •  “Vedas” means knowledge
  •  It comes out from a time period where the great seers revealed wisdom that they channeled. 
  • Overtime, many different branches of philosophies has blossomed but ultimately the teaching comes from the well of knowledge that we are all one. 
  • Where vedas and what we know as yoga in the western world connects is that the asanas (the poses), which serves as a great start into the more heart centered aspect.  Once the seed is planted, the community, teachers and practice that you surround yourself will eventually lead you to bloom into the deeper inquiries.  Usually the next inquiry is the breath work and then meditation. Maybe even eventually getting into chanting and mantras.
• Kirtan
  • Comes from the root word “kirt” which means to celebrate, glorify and describe.  That’s why there is a sense of story.
  • Usually done as a call and response performance
  • Joy and bliss comes from the practice
  • Bypass the mind and transported into the heart
• Kirtan versus chanting
  • Kirtan is specifically a collective call and response performance.  On the other hand, chanting can be done in a variety of ways - you can chant a mantra, sutra, scripture or a prayer; they could be short or long; they can be done alone or with others.
• Mantras can help shift our energy, and the shift is different depending on if you're chanting externally versus internally.  Can help bring you deeper into meditation when done internally.
• Marla’s mantra recommendations:
  • To Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.  Use this to clear the way for your day: “Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha”
  • To Durga, the protectress goddess.  Use this to help remove fear: “Om dum durgayei namaha”
  • An abstract mantra that’s not associated with any deity or any form.  A universal mantra – the mantra of the breath. It repeats itself on every inhalation and exhalation naturally.  Use this one to be reminded of your true nature and reality: "So Hum" Translated, it means “all that there is, is me or I am all that there is” 
    •   Inhale: SO
    • Exhale: HUM

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

This path of enlightenment is something that really takes daily work, effort, and practices in order to allow it to unfold within yourself.  Have humility along the path because we are human and we mess up.  Be humble enough to reflect, apologize first,  and grow.   

One nugget of wisdom that you would share with fellow seekers who are also on this journey of growth and transformation:

Keep finding ways to open your heart and drop the monkey mind into your heart as much as you can. Cultivate compassion for yourself and in turn you’ll be able to turn it to others.  The practices that yoga gives us should be melting the heart.  If your yoga practice seems to be hardening you, take another look at it.  Unhappiness comes from disconnecting with self.  

There are two choices in this world: love or fear.

FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real                  

Links:

If you have any questions for Marla or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Websites:  

Music: www.swaha.ca 

Yoga Studio (Toronto, Canada): www.downwarddog.com

Email:   info@swaha.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marla.m.joy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meenakshiswaha

Twitter: https://twitter.com/meenakshiswaha

Episode 38: Stop Shoulding Yourself. How to Go For What You Truly Want in Life with Anna Lundberg

This soul searching business isn’t easy!  As we travel this journey to the heart, we're asked to take leaps, look fear in the eyes and move with great courage and unfold into who we really are.  Stories from each other can hearten this experience - the mere fact of knowing that we're not alone and that somebody else has done it too is uplifting.  In this week’s episode Anna Lundberg shares her story of breaking through - from neatly living the life that she was expected to (being a “good girl”), to busting into the success coach/author/business strategist lady boss that she is today.  There are so many golden nuggets of wisdom as we talk about shedding external expectations, finding success for ourselves and trialing the many different paths to figure out how what we truly want from life.  Anna shares her Guiding Star model that can help you figure out what you want, or if you already know, can help you stay on track to get it!

Before we dive in, a little bit more about Anna - Anna is a success coach and business strategist who helps people create businesses and build a lifestyle that allows them an unimagined sense of freedom, flexibility and fulfilment. She works individually with a select number of clients to help them reimagine success in their personal and professional lives and runs a group programme that helps people take their ‘One Step Outside the 9 to 5’.

Resources:

onestepoutside.com/finding-your-guiding-star

Key Nuggets:

• Anna's Story:
  • Grew up as a “good girl” and was motivated to meet up to the expectations and standards that were expected of her and to not make mistakes.
  • As a young student she wanted to change the world by working in international development (thought she was going to move to Africa to help ppl) but ended up in private sector in marketing.  
  • Eventually she saw the dissonance between her original desires to change the world and work for the UN or something versus where she currently working in marketing, selling perfumes.  There's no regret in the time spent in her marketing career as most of her opportunities present day stemmed from the skills and connections she made at her time there.  However, seeing the disconnection between what she really wanted versus what she was doing did create unhappiness in her life.
  • Eventually Anna ended up taking a sabbatical.   
    • Transformational experiences in our lives like taking a step back or a big travelling trip expands our vision of what the possibilities are.  For Anna it was the sabbatical that she took.  She used that time to travel to South America and realized that there were so many ex-employees and retirees who are now living a life “out of the ordinary”.  In that moment her view was expanded and she quit her job.
• The expected path is like a conveyor belt, but at one point in our lives, we do find ourselves asking “what is it that I really want?”
  • Another spin on that question is “what do you want from life?”
  •  It’s a hard and arduous journey to figure that out but Anna’s principle that she lives by is so grounding: “What you want is just one step outside of your comfort zone”
• One important lesson learned in Anna’s journey is that a new job isn’t the answer.  Work is not life and there are so many different facets to life as well – relationships, health, spirituality…
  • There are so many paths to your best life.  It's not just a matter of quit your job or not - there is no straight path and sometimes we just have to try.  We also need to look at the big picture and take all aspects of life into our happiness - relationships, health, spirituality....
    • In Anna’s  story, she took a few turns before landing to where she is today.  She tried consulting, living as a free bird and along the way she collected information as to what she liked and didn't like and then moved from there.
      • This story shows that it’s okay to try.  You’ll make turns and shifts as needed. There is no “right answer” or "wrong answer" for that matter.  There are many paths that can take you where you desire.
• Once you figure out what you want, you need clarity and commitment to push forth.
  • This goes back to the wisdom that intention will anchor you.  So know what your intentions are going into it.  Another way to put it is to “hone into your why”.
    • I love Danielle Laporte’s Desire Map because it helps you hone into how you really want to feel, and at the end of the day all of the goals that we create is because we want to feel a certain way.
      • Anna’s take on this is to break it down even further.  For example, if you want to be a writer, why?  And what kind - for example, are you aiming to be a famous writer? For herself she knew that she didn’t need to get famous from a book or anything but she loved writing and really desired engagement with people through her work.
      •   When it comes to intentions, when Anna says "intentional" she means that you need to remember that you have a choice in whatever you are doing, whether it be a certain client or the job you’re in. 
•  Anna’s own model that she created to help create transformation in your life and strip away the “should” is the: Guiding Star 
• Use these five points to carve out what you really want
  • Feelings: how do you want to feel?
  • Values:  What values are important to you ex. freedom, stability, security...
  • Strengths: understand your strengths and in turn gain confidence
  • Characters: there are many different characters within us ex. A business woman, a rebel hippie…and all of them need space to play out.  Identifying all of them will help you better understand what needs to be expressed.
    • Figure it out by answering: what kinds of roles are you playing in the moment?  What kind of roles will you want to play in the future?  Who are the people that you admire and what roles do they play that make them so special?
  • Environment: envision and develop an environment that can nurture you; to help you thrive rather than drain you.
    • It can be even as simple as knowing that being by the ocean will help you thrive.  If that's the case then go take a walk by the ocean (if it's available to you)
• In Anna’s experience and work, the biggest things that hold us back are:
  •  The “good girl” “good boy” syndrome where we keep trying to meet the expectations of somebody else’s definition of success
  • Beliefs about fear – fear of failure, making mistakes, looking foolish
    • A quote that helps: “discipline is remembering what we want”.  So the first obstacle is figuring out what we want and the second is actually going out to get it.  So you know that you want to be a writer but you don’t take the time to do some writing.  Or maybe you want to leave your job but you don’t take action to actually leave.
  • We falter when we don’t understand why our goals are meaningful and why we want it in the first place.  It could be that we don’t have the right goals, in which case it'd be wise to re-evaluate with the guiding star.
• Tools to overcome these obstacles:
  • Take some time away from your regular life whether it be a sabbatical or simply a day off in the mountains or something.  Gives yourself time to daydream and dissolve out of your regular rut.
  • Try new things – you’ll meet new people, learn new things and eventually the possibilities will expand.
  • Surround yourself with people who inspire you, lift you up and ideally are a few steps ahead of you so that you can learn from them.  You can do this in a variety of ways – the podcasts you listen to, Facebook communities, and even life coaches.  

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Success means ‘the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose” - and that means that you get to decide what that aim or purpose is! So be curious, try new things, strip away all those ‘shoulds’ and get back to who you are and what you really want - and then go out and take steps towards creating that as a reality in your life today.  Live out what your aim is any little way that you can right now.

What is one nugget of wisdom that you would share with everyone who is on this journey of growth and transformation?

Anna bases her work on the quote

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is one step outside your comfort zone”

and there are two key elements of that. First, in order to grow and transform you need to get out of that comfort zone - ‘scary’ tends to come along with ‘exciting’.  Anything that is worth achieving is bound to bring some discomfort and fears. But the second part is the ‘one step’ - you don’t need to take a massive leap, you don’t want to push too far into the ‘panic zone’, and taking imperfect but consistent action is going to get you much further in the long run.

Links:

If you have any questions for Anna or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:  onestepoutside.com

Facebook: FB group  One Step Outside  

Episode 37: Take Back Your Freedom with Little Rituals with Stacey Irvine

Stacey Irvine is a yoga teacher and registered nurse at the Alberta Children's Hospital.  Her yoga journey began ten years ago when she experienced injuries as a triathlete.  Unable to continue with her regular workouts with the sustained injuries, she was encouraged to practice yoga to rehabilitate.  She quickly fell in love - at first with the physical practice and then eventually realized that is also a great form of self development and self inquiry.  Yoga became a haven as she worked through anxiety and an eating disorder.  Soon, she dived into further learning by taking her first yoga teacher training. 

A number of years later, Stacey found herself in another challenging situation when her father and grandfather got into a tragic car accident.  This marked the first time she experienced going through the traditional healthcare system.  In doing so, she noticed some gaps.  The system didn't seem to take the human into consideration.  Yes, it healed the body but in addition to that her father was in need of somebody to hear him, hold space for him and help with the emotional side of recuperation.  That's where her passion for advocating for a more integrative healthcare system (between Western and Alternative medicines) was born.  In this episode Stacey gives us further insight on this as well as dives deeper into her story of her journey with yoga.     

Key Nuggets:

• When you start your yoga journey, take what you can out of it .  Remember that it doesn’t have to be one way or another.  There is a depth of knowledge to be learned when it comes to yoga and the self; trust that it will reveal itself to you as needed.
• What happens on the mat becomes a quick reflection of how we’re living our lives.
• When Stacey experienced the traditional healthcare system after her father got into a tragic car accident, she found that there was something missing.  The system was robotic and didn't take the whole human into account.  Aside from medical requirements, her father was in need of  somebody to hear him, hold space for him and help with the emotional side toward recuperation.  Eventually Stacey and her family sought out alternative medicines like yoga therapy and meditation for her father - tools that could be implemented to help regulate the nervous system and aid steadiness of the mind.  But this had to be done independently and outside of the traditional healthcare system.
  •  This experience is what spurred Stacey's passion to advocate for a more integrative healthcare system that bridges the gap between Western and Alternative healthcare systems.  She wants to help people remember their freedom to restore their bodies back to health.  
  • What’s happening in the mind can also delay healing too.
• As for health, Stacey herself has had to deal with bouts of anxiety.
  • When anxious one can feel scattered, like there’s no choice or there’s an overwhelming amount of choice.  
  • Holistic approaches that she used to deal with this:
    • Constantly coming back to center and place of stillness
    • Consistent growth, practice and leaning onto other people who are further along that path and can help support
    • Developing sense of trust again to remember freedom that she can choose how she felt
    • She found reprieve in a consistent yoga practice
    •  Dialed up self care – daily ritual to have at least a few minutes in a day where she got to be on her mat, sitting with a journal & coffee or listening to a podcast.  Some sort of physical or mindset training that would allow her to shift and let her come back to the center and remember once again that the noise being experienced is not her real essence.
    • Even 2-3 minutes count as something!
    • Little rituals that she put together and became the pillar of her feeling good 
      • These things can be simple.  (She reminds us that it doesn’t have to be Instagram worthy) 
      • Stacey's rituals for feeling good:
        • light a candle while working
        • be present when coffee is brewing
        • planting succulent (feels so nice to have life around the house)
        • Particularly loves journalling to help get through noise

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Our greatest challenges are also our biggest blessings.  They move us toward our wisest selves.  In the thick of the challenging times, there’s always somebody that’s just a little further along that can help support you until you’re able to use the challenge as a blessing.  We are very capable of healing ourselves and if we are committed to doing the work, we can look at ourselves honestly and question our choices with curiosity and grace.                         

What is one nugget of wisdom that you have for fellow seekers who are on this journey of growth and transformation?

Stay steady and consistent within your own growth and being the maker of your own happiness.  Progress over perfection.  Cultivate rituals or daily habits that help you return back to yourself.

Stacey stays consistent by committing to teaching yoga classes.  She knows that she can’t teach it unless she’s practicing, learning and totally embodying it.  Also, “The only way to be a light in this world is to do the work” – that entails making time for herself a non-negotiable.  If she doesn’t do it then her whole world feels it.   

Links:

If you have any questions for Amanda or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:  www.staceyirvine.com

Facebook:  Essential Collective (FB group about aromatherapy)

Instagram: @staceyirvineyoga

Episode 36: Creating From a Place of Calling. Yoga Festivals, Community, and Yogi Entrepreneurship with Robindra Mohar

This one is for everyone who is trying to start something out there!  A movement, a business, a whole new life....

Robindra Mohar is an Edmonton based educator + festival producer + DJ.  He and his wife Myrah are the creators of the Canada based It’s Time To Bloom Festival and Together We Bloom Society.  He is also the catalyst for Yogi Entrepreneur School where he helps entrepreneurs design heart led businesses.  He himself has been an entrepreneur for almost two decades.  Aside from allll of that, he's also a new dad, chef, yogi, chai & music lover.  What a multifaceted fellow!

In this episode, Robindra gives his insights on the importance of creating from a place of dharma (calling) and shares his story on what it was like to create a nationwide festival - challenges, rewards and lessons learned.    

Key Nuggets:

• For Robindra, one of the biggest benefits of yoga was that it helped him move from achieving (always striving) to allowing.
• A quote that he lives by and helps him through the tough times is  

“what you work, works”

• There are two worlds: one of creating or one of destroying
•  “All rivers lead to the ocean" – it’s about getting onto your own path and the river of creativity
• Own your calling.  Sometimes you just need to choose, and once you choose then the path can unfold for you. And keep choosing it [that calling that you committed to] again and again.  Take comfort that if this isn’t your calling, your calling will show up. 

"if this isn't your calling, your calling will show up"

• Your dharma isn’t about you.  It’s about how you want to leave that world and how that lights you up.
  • There are non complicated ways to live your dharma so don't psych yourself out by making it have to be this whole big thing.
  • There are many avenues to live your dharma and find flow.
• Entrepreneurship
  • Robindra's take on entrepreneurship is that creating something on your own should answer the key questions: how can I make my life happier and healthier; and how can I help others make their life happier and healthier?
  • His biggest challenge for the It's Time To Bloom Festival:  starting this thing that wasn’t creating financial abundance right away and the uncertainty if it will at all (as with all businesses when they start off).
    • To get through this challenging times as well as others that he's faced, he goes back to what he lives by which is "what you work, works".  If it's not working then maybe you're not working it.
    • Another thing that helped was to remember to slow down. There’s this shift when you are acting from a place of your calling.
• Biggest reward:  The impact that his creation has on participants' lives.  The example that sticks out is that there was this one participant, a young boy, who wasn't sure if he wanted to continue to live and was contemplating taking his own life.  Then he attended the Bloom Festival and his outlook was completely turned around.  To Robindra, impact like this is invaluable. 
• ·         Look at psychology and design.
  • One lesson from creating the festival -  in the beginning Robindra focused on creativity, intention and everything else except for designing it for himself.  When he thought about how he wanted this to serve him as well, that’s when it all shifted.  He designed his festival so that he no longer had to expend the energy to do the take downs himself and he made sure that the it was financially abundant.   
• Creating a community takes patience.  Most importantly you need to have clarity on who you're serving and how you can serve them.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Be 100% responsible for the results in your life.  For Robindra, he finds that the more responsible he is, the more he finds that self love shows up.  Doing things like honoring commitments to himself is part of that.  For example, if he decides to wake up at a certain time then he is going to do it.  The more that happens, the more the relationship with self is nurtured and that's one place that confidence stems from.

What is one nugget of wisdom that you would share with everyone who is on this journey of growth and transformation?

Simplify life in all ways. Look at your environment and clean it up.  Create a beautiful environment for yourself to be in to start to find alignment.  Once you’re in alignment you will become more magnetic and powerful in this world.  You’ll start to be in the flow.

Links:

If you have any questions for Robindra or want to learn more, connect with him through:

Website:  www.itstimetobloom.com

Instagram: @robindra       @itstimetobloom

Episode 35: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - How To Use Them In Your Life with Kelsey Delane

Kelsey Delane is a Yoga Mentor & Reiki Master who guides fellow Yogis & Yoga Teachers toward more sustained joy.  She has completed an impressive 1,000 hours of yoga training ranging from kids yoga, to trauma informed yoga, to Yoga Philosophy.  Her most passionate subject is the teachings of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  She shares this knowledge through one on one mentorship, online platforms and in-person workshops. Kelsey also shares her love of Yoga by training upcoming teachers throughout Orange County, and working with teen girls through the UPLIFT Yoga Foundation.

Kelsey has a radiant and serene way about her, and it's hard not to absorb some of that goodness when talking to her.  In this episode we talk about how yoga transformed her from a distraught college student with severe chronic anxiety and depression into a radiant being who who enjoys a strong and peaceful relationship with her inner world.  Of course, we also dive into her area of expertise - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  She gives us some tips on how to learn the teachings and how we can use them to become co-creators of our lives.

Key Nuggets:

• The practice of yoga is the practice of the mind
  • One lesson that brought Kelsey through her toughest times is the recognition that we are not our minds.
  • The teachings of the sutras say that yoga is the ability to harness the fluctuations of the mind.  That we aren’t defined by our mind (Prakrati (physical world) vs. Purusha (unchanging light, the highest self radiates joy))
  • When we realize this (that we are not our mind) then we are able to choose what thoughts we want to entertain and allow to grow roots, and which thoughts we want to allow to just pass through.
  • What helped Kelsey with this understanding is that she began to recognize the impermanence of her feelings.
    • When she practiced yoga and gave herself a chance to sit in stillness, she became aware of the thoughts in her head (ex. Mind seemed to be moving a million miles per minute).  That is key because many people don't even realize that these thoughts are happening in the first place
    • She began to formulate that if she's able to notice these thoughts speeding by, then she's separate from them and ultimately she is not her thoughts.  As she continued to practice sitting in stillness, she also began to notice a stillness , a kind of calm, beneath all the thoughts.
• Life will always have challenge and there really isn’t an arrival point.  With that in mind, joy is a choice not a destination.  It is liberating that you can choose santosha (contentment) at anytime.
  • To clarify, joy is not necessarily being happy all the time, but it's about embracing all the different experiences that come our way.  Without the fullness of different experiences and emotions it would be difficult to feel true joy.
• Another perspective that helped Kelsey through her challenging times is that rather than figuring out how to avoid pain and suffering, she shifted her mindset to asking herself how can she love and support herself through the unpredictable nature of life.
  • Kelsey's tool recommendations to cultivate a supportive friendship with yourself to get through tough times:
    • Journaling – when you’re caught up in the moment, flush it out on paper.  Let the thoughts freely flow – don’t edit or filter.  This will give you a clearer picture of what’s really going on and see where you can be gentler with yourself.  It allows you to re-evaluate if this is the attitude that you want to take and to see if there’s something that you need to ask for.
    • Ask for help from others. Share a struggle with somebody that’s safe, that you know and love and receive support from them.
    • Practicing Yoga
      • Make use of the mind body connection and bring movement into life so that you can allow the emotions to move through you.
      • Physical practice can help soothe your nervous system.  As you calm down, you’re able to find discernment to where you can be more gentle with yourself.
    • Pranayama – breathwork to anchor
      • Kelsey’s favorite pranayama (breath) practice is belly breathing - breathe deep into belly to connect back to body and out of the mind.  Place a hand on belly to help physically feel and root into the breath 
  • Practice above tools so that you can apply it easily in the moment.  You don’t need to wait for some scheduled time. 
• Yoga Sutras
  • The Yoga Sutras are part of the Vedas and are the foundational texts of yoga.  Written by Patanjali. 
  • Sutra means “thread”.
  • There are 195 threads of wisdom that show us practical ways to reduce suffering and bring about more sustained joy.
  • The sutras teaches the broader set of tools available to us for the practice of our mind beyond the asanas.  
    • “to say that asanas (the poses) is yoga is like holding up two eggs and saying that it is a cake”
    • Yoga is about the transformation of the mind 
  • There are four chapters in the Yoga Sutras:  Chapters one and two are practical wisdom while chapters three and four are more abstract.
  • The sutras provides an accessible trial and error approach.  Allows you to test out the tools and see how it works for you.  Teaches us to become our own guide.  It’s intended to be customized for each individual; it’s not about following somebody else’s instructions blindly. 
  • New to sutras?  Kelsey’s advice on where to start:
    • Self study by reading a book with quality translation.  Read it slowly, one sutra a day and maybe even meditate on it. 
      •  If a sutra falls flat it’s okay.  It might not be ready to be unfolded for you at this time.
      • Kelsey recommends finding a teacher or a community to discuss the concepts because someone else may be seeing it through a different lens and may be able to shine light on it for you to look at it with a different perspective
    • On that note, Kelsey teaches that Sutras is wisdom teaching which is different than informational downloading.  It's meant to be consumed and digested with a teacher and/or community.  Studying in this manner moves you from intellectual knowledge and into realized wisdom.
      • Find a teacher or mentor in your area by starting to look and ask.  If you know somebody who has what you’re looking for, reach out to them.
      • Keep eyes out for courses
      • Find a community in your area and if you can’t find one perhaps you want to start one.
      • Find an online group to discuss sutras (Kelsey has a free Facebook group available call Sutra Sanghas)
    •  “as soon as we open our eyes and ears and are willing to put ourselves out there, the relationships that will nourish us and the communities that we’re really yearning for will arise”
  • The sutras that Kelsey tries to live by everyday:
    • Prakti Prasha Bhavana: “If you are suffering, try to look at it another way”
      • A reminder of the choices that we have and that we get to choose how to perceive a situation
    • The beginning of chapter 2 where it teaches the final niyamas of the 8 limb path
      • Tapas – discipline required for new behaviour
      • Swadyaya – self reflection
        • Iswara-pranidhana – surrender
      • Theses three steps helps us create change, one step at a time, in any areas of our lives.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

You are a co-creator of your reality.  Although you can’t control many facets of your life, you can make choices that can support you in arriving to more joy.  In the face of adversity remember that you are a participant of the experience.  Ask yourself: What can I do to co-create a more joyful experience?

One nugget of wisdom you can share with fellow seekers who are also on this journey of growth and transformation:

Enjoy the ride because there is no destination.  There won’t be an arrival point where we don’t need to be on this journey. In accepting this truth, it allows us to indulge and savour the process rather than keeping our eyes on some imaginary destination that doesn’t exist.

Links & Resources:

If you have any questions for Kelsey or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:  www.kelseydelaneyoga.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kelseydelaneyoga

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/kelseydelaneyoga

Book Recommendations:

The Yogasutra of Patanjali LIBERATING ISOLATION by Frans Moors – Kelsey’s favorite translation because it includes the original Sanskrit but also dives in to a deep discussion of what each concept is about

The Heart of Yoga by Desikachar

Kelsey also has a Sutras Facebook group called Sutras Sangha where she discusses one sutra every week. 

Episode 34: The Basics of Ayurveda with Susan Weis-Bohlen

In this episode, we get to talk about a topic that I've been long intrigued by - AYURVEDA! 

Susan Weis-Bohlen is an Ayurvedic expert and author the book Beginner's Guide to Ayurveda: Essential Ayurvedic Principles & Practices to Balance & Heal Naturally.    On the Ayurvedic side, she's officially a Chopra Center Certified Ayurvedic Consultant; but she's also a meditation teacher, vegetarian cooking teacher and leads sacred site tours around the world.  Oh yea, she also owns a quaint bookstore cafe in Baltimore, Maryland.  While there is much wisdom to be shared, we focus on Ayurveda in this episode.

Ayurveda is considered to be the world's oldest medical system, dating back to be 5,000-10,000 years old.  I gravitate toward it because it's a holistic approach to health - mind, body and spirit.  It’s an intelligent system that leverages our natural functions to balance and heal rather than using force to create desired outcomes.  But it’s also a complex system that has many layers to it.  Traditionally the knowledge has been passed down by song and word of mouth.  Understanding it can be difficult and for me, it was hard to know where to even start.  That's why this conversation with Susan is sooooo good!  She shares the basic essential concepts that you need to know so that you can start applying concepts of Ayurveda to your benefit right away.  To name a few nuggets, we go over the framework of the constituents (doshas - kapha, pitta, vata) that rule this practice, how our doshas affect what foods are right for us, and guidelines for Ayurvedic eating that is beneficial for everybody.

Key Nuggets:

• Panchakarma  - an ayurvedic therapy that combines a number of modalities including herbal oils, singing bowls, massage….
• That Sticky Feeling (Susan talks about feeling "sticky" before she did her very first Ayurvedic treatment)
  • In Ayurveda, it’s called “Ama”.  A sticky substance (toxic residue, undigested food) in the body that blocks your circulatory channels (“shrota”) and prevents you from absorbing nutrients in your food.  Also blocks your mental system of absorption of ideas, creativity and manifestation.  In summary, a lot of Ama blocks your ability to move forward   
    • Symptoms of excess Ama:  generalized fatigue, coating on your tongue, don’t feel rested in the morning and don’t sleep well, sour smell to skin
  • The opposite of Ama is “ Ojas”.  As Susan puts it, “The liquid essence of life”. 
    • Result of strong Ojas: Feeling light no matter what weight is, good complexion, feel rested when you wake up in the morning, ideas and desires are manifested, excited about life, absorbing nutrients in food. 
  • In talking about Amas and Ojas,  Ayurveda aims for a subtle detox 24/7 – building new cells, muscles, absorbing nutrients and then eliminating.
    • When we’re not healthy, waste products build up and we get sick mentally and physically.  We need to constantly get rid of Ama and build Oja.  Techincally, our body does this naturally but we need to do our part and make sure we’re eating right and minimizing the amount of toxins that we take in  
• Ayurveda: “the science of life”
  • Considered the oldest medical system in the world, between 5,000-10,000 years old and was devised in India.
  • Takes on all aspects of medicine (ex. Pediatrics, surgery…..)
  • Comes from the Vedas, which is a system of life (Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) and is also 5,000-10,000 years old. 
    • Vedas includes meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, astrology…..
  • Knowledge passed down through sutras (threads) and are often in the form of song.
• Doshas  - means imbalance
  • 3 doshas comprised of 5 elements
  • Elements: space, air, fire, water, earth
  • Doshas: Vata, Pitta, Kapha
    • Vata: air and space
      • Dryness, changeability, spontaneous, creative, ungrounded
        • Tend to blame themselves
          • Routine is very important.  If unbalanced, will forget to eat.
    • Pitta: fire and water
      • Hot, intense, sharp, good communicators, opinionated
      • Tends to blame others
    • Kapha: earth and water
      • Like a big hug. Soft, sweet, everybody’s best friend.
      • Tend to take care of others at their own expense.  Withdraws because they don’t want anyone to worry about them.
      • Everyone has all 3 doshas but oftentimes one dominates
• Tastes: sweet, salty, sour, pungent, astringent, bitter
  • Use different tastes to build doshas
  • Vata: eat sweet, salty and sour. Dense calories and warming foods to ground.
  • Pitta: sweet.  Reduce anything that adds heat like spicy foods and sour foods (ex. Coffee, yogurt….)
  • Kapha: lighten up with bitter, pungent and astringent foods.  Also need warm foods b/c they are usually cold.
  • The discernment of these tastes in food is complex (ex. a raw onion versus a cooked onion are considered different "tastes") so guides are recommended.  There are plenty of food lists available online to help understand how to eat for you dosha.  Susan herself includes a list in her book, The Ayurveda Beginner's Guide.
• It’s good to know your dosha but don’t lead with it.  The goal is to be the healthiest that you can be and lead with that.  
• Dosha is part of everything (ex. Time of day , seasons) so you need to look at big picture.
  • SEASONS:
    • Vata = fall and early winter. Dry, leaves fall to the ground.
    • Kapha = late winter and early spring.  Snow melts, heavy wet earth.
    • Pitta = spring and summer.  Everything is super hot and things (like plants) need a bit more water.
    • During transition phases from seasons, you need to give your digestion a break because it’s so changeable.  Look for easy meals on the body – light and warming.  
    • If we are in va t a season then everybody needs to pacify for that dosha no matter what theirs is.
• We have doshas for everything: time of day, time of day and time of life.
  • TIME OF LIFE:
• Kapha = Babies.  .
• Pitta = Puberty onward. Hormones going crazy and then we are driving to move forward with life
• Vata = Senior years. We get creative, take time to do things we love.  Synovial fluids also begin to dry up, skin dries up.
  • TIME OF DAY:
• Pitta Day = 10am-2pm: When the sun is highest in the sky.  Have the largest meal of your day because it’s good time for digestion. A good meal will help you sail through Vata time.
• Vata Day = 2pm-6pm: If we had a good meal, we can be super focused and productive.  If not, then you crash and you feel like you need coffee and junk food.
• Kapha Day = 6pm-10pm: have a light meal.  Kapha doesn’t have as much heat and doesn’t digest food as quickly as it would during the day.  Great time for exercise because it helps you get through this time.  Also a great time to get ready for bed.  Don’t do things that excite the mind too much.
• Pitta Night - 10pm-2am:  A very important time because it's a time for digesting everything that happened throughout the day including food, people, experiences….. Also a time where there is preparation for elimination.  Getting to bed at by this time is important!
  • This is where Ama (that sticky build up of toxins) begins.  If you have a heavy meal or you don’t give yourself the time to sleep during this time, it will start to clog up.
• Vata Night = 2am-6am: If you're still up, you'll feel like you got a second wind or renewed energy.  If you don’t sleep on time then the vata time will take over and it’ll be hard for you to sleep.  If you're asleep then this is a time where you have vivid dreams to help detox mind.
• Kapha Night = 6am-10am: Try to get out of bed before this time you can use the winds of vata to help you get up.  Otherwise the kapha energy gets you all groggy. 
• Tips for Ayurvedic eating for every dosha.  Practices that you can take into your life right away!
  • Eat veggies within season. 
    • Ex. Winter = root veggies.  Our agni (digestive powers) is high and root veggies are really hearty and filling. 
    • Spring/Summer = agni decreases (we’re not as hungry) and the foods that grow in that season are lighter like melons.
  • A meal is considered 2 handfuls (2/3 of stomach for most people).  We only fill part f the stomach to make sure to leave room for digestion!  Susan gives the analogy of a fire - if you stuff a fire up with logs, the logs will smother it and end up putting out the fire.
  • An easy way to tell what foods you should avoid: FLUNC
    • F = frozen foods and meals that are loaded with preservatives, chemicals and sugar (frozen organic veggies and berries are good though).  Also no ice in drinks – too cold will reduce digestive fires.
    • L = leftovers.  The longer food sits, the more nutrients it loses.  Susan suggests leaving food for 24-36hrs max. 
    • U = unnatural foods.  Processed foods. 
    • N = nuked.  Avoid microwaving food because it kills the nutrients in the food.  Better to heat up on stovetop or oven.  Using a thermos is an option if you want to bring hot food to work.
    • C = canned.  Store bought canned food and sauces that have a lot of sugars or chemical coating on the can (bisphenol A is carcinogenic).  (Home canned foods are good though)
  • In summary, 3 meals per day, 2 handfuls per meal and avoid FLUNC foods.
  •  E ven small changes like the ones Susan suggests can have big impact on how you feel.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

 Notice what’s right for you.  Know that you don’t need to push yourself.  That you can sit back, listen, and take time to figure out what the next move might be.  Don’t forget to miss all the wonderful things around you that’s along the way.  Be humble and restful.  Everything can be fixed, everything will have it’s time.  Relax into it.  Be present and available with what is.                                                       

Links:

If you have any questions for Susan or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:   www.breatheayurveda.com

Email: susan@breatheayurveda.com

Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/susanweisbohlen

https://www.facebook.com/breatheayurvedaandmeditation/

https://www.facebook.com/vediccounselor/

Instagram: @susanweisbohlen

Call or Text : 401-979-2096

Resources:

Susan provides food lists, food guidelines, and a quiz to find out your dosha among much more valuable information about Ayurveda in her book Beginner's Guide to Ayurveda: Essential Ayurvedic Principles & Practices to Balance & Heal Naturally.   

Websites she recommended to learn more about Ayurveda include ayurveda.com and banyanbotanicals.com

Episode 33: Lessons From A Yoga Studio Owner with Jeff Mah

Jeff Mah is an engineer turned yoga teacher and yoga studio owner.  He and his wife owns the ever so popular The Yoga Lounge in the mountain city of Canmore, Alberta.  His journey has been a series of unexpected twists and surprises, at one point being an engineer and then later considering to maybe even do his MCAT to become a doctor.  In this episode, Jeff shares his story with yoga and what finally inspired him to leap into an unconventional (at the time) career path because it truly resonated with him.  And of course I had to get the scoop on what it's like to own a yoga studio!  Jeff gives us a glimpse by sharing the challenges, rewards and the hard work behind the scenes.

Key Nuggets:

• What helped Jeff decide where to take his career:
  • Seeing somebody else take the path that he aspired to was an inspiring example for him.
  • The feeling of his two choices were different.  One made him feel anxious when he thought about it and the other made him happier the more he did it.
• Lessons learned from opening a yoga studio:

1. If you're taking over a studio, you don’t have to change everything right off the cuff.  The community that’s already built is invaluable along with the staff who has been serving the community for so long.
2. Don't do something for somebody with the expectation that they need to do something back or they owe you.  Work on creating meaningful relationship instead.         

• So far, the biggest challenge of running a studio has been to stay relevant.
  •  By relevant he means bringing a style of practice that’s meaningful to students
  • Considering the age group of your students and any challenges that they are meeting
  • A constant evolution in your offerings to the students, be willing to change
• Behind the scenes: moving pieces that need to be considered as a studio owner
  • How to hire the right people
  • What kind of relationships you want to develop with staff
  • Cost structure of your passes/memberships 
• What helped Jeff with success:
  • Listening to feedback from students
  • Realizing that teaching awesome classes doesn’t cut it.  Needed to start learning the business skills as well.
  • Be willing to get help.
• Biggest rewards from running studio:
  • To be able to hold space for community and create  a community.
  • Cons tantly being surrounded by people you love.
• What motivates him to put in all the hard work into the studio and into teaching:
  • Being part of the evolution as he grows and his students grow
  •  Advocacy is also something that he is passionate about.  Jeff states that as studio owners or yoga teachers, recognizing that you have influence and you have the ability to help shape a conversation is so important.
    • How to advocate with love and positivity:
  • Get informed
  • Keep checking back with your motivation
  • Have your stance but look at what shakes your opinions a bit

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

The more you practice, the more personal it becomes.  Remember that your practice is fluid - evolving with it allows you to evolve and grow.

Your One Piece of Advice:

Come from a place of service and see the big picture.  Let that guide you.

Links:

If you have any questions for Jeff or want to learn more, connect with him through:

Website: www.theyogalounge.ca 

               www.jeffmah.com

Facebook:  @jeffmah

Episode 32: How Mindfulness Awakens Our True Selves with Julie Seibt

Julie Seibt is a yoga teacher with plenty of credentials under her belt - IAYT Yoga Therapist, Anahata Yoga Teacher and iRest Teacher to name a few. But it’s probably more accurate to just describe her as an ocean of knowledge.  This is one lady who is well versed in the matters of the heart and her unshakable truth shines through the entire conversation.  In this episode, we dive into a rich conversation about mindfulness and how you can apply it to live a life of freedom and of course more joy.  Julie provides clear examples and tools that can be simply applied for more peaceful living starting right now.  We hear her insights on how to create better relationships with ourselves (because one thing I’m learning is that it all comes back to self love folks!) and touch on my favourite topic – how to tap into that inner wisdom.  We begin and end with a beautiful meditation so if you’re able to set yourself up in a comfortable position, please do so and join in.  Alright, plug those earplugs in and let’s let the good vibes roll.

Key Nuggets:

• We can’t stop the difficulties in our lives but we can change the relationship with it.  We can come to a point where we surf the waves and almost welcome it.  Finding the lessons that are to be found.
• Once again we are reminded that yoga is more than the asanas (poses).  It in essence is a heart practice.
  • With that said, yes there’s more than just the body but also, while we’re in these bodies, we should learn how to take the best care of it.  After all, this is our vehicle for this life. 
• The mind body connection: tuning into it helps you see if you’re driving yourself for something that’s lacking.
  • For example, sometimes we force our bodies into what it “should” be like.  I'm "old" or "young" or "a yoga junkie" so it should work this way or that.
  • The mind body connection allows you to come back, moment to moment and hear what your body needs now.  Listen to its messages. As Julie says, to “heed the wisdom of our body”
• Listen to your body and ask kind questions:
  • Put your hand on your heart and ask “what do you need today”
    • You might not hear words, but maybe just a feeling.  The feeling is your answer, you should sit with it.
  • When you come into a challenging pose and you’re stretching yourself to find your edge, ask yourself “is kindness here?”.  And then take this question to the rest of your life – in meetings, at the grocery store….
• Mindfulness
  • Through the many definitions, as long as your intention for mindfulness is heart based, side by side with compassion and aligned with joy and equanimity, you are on the right track.
  • To Julie, mindfulness is also about seeing more clearly.  We’re all in a trance due to our conditioned minds – what happens to us in our childhoods all the way to what happened to us yesterday conditions our reactions and responses.
    • Mindfulness helps us see our conditioning more clearly and breaks us from the trance with our habitual self. It buys us space between reactivity and a wise response. 
  • An empowering realization is that we don’t have to act the way we were before.  We don’t even have to believe our thoughts.
  •  When we become less reactive, we are able to expose ourselves to our deepest truths, deepest yearnings
  • This is hard work!  Working on mindfulness means needing to sit with uncomfortable feelings, you need to make space in your mind to what the raw truths are and become vulnerable to what your heart’s true desires.
• Thoughts: 
  • We are not our thoughts.  We can’t control our thoughts, we don’t need to listen to it!
  • Mindfulness is when we can see the thoughts but not judge it.  If we take action on it then it’s a different story.
  • Julie shares an acronym from her teacher Michelle McDonald
    •  RAIN (a tool for anything that you're noticing - thoughts, emotions, feelings...)
      • R: recognition of the thoughts
      • A: acceptance that the thought happened (not necessarily that we condone or endorse the thought)
      • I: Investigation.  See what is going on there.
      • N: Non identification.  Don’t personalize the thought as yourself.  See it as a movement in awareness and in the mind but remember that the home ground of who we are is a form of wholeness, untainted.
  • We aren't our thoughts but what we can look at is how the thought feels, b/c behind every thought there’s a feeling. It could be something that needs to healed and once that’s paid attention to then the thoughts that you’re not happy with will come up less and less
  • Tip: You can make a date to investigate the thought if you can’t attend to it right away.  Put your hand where you feel it and sit with it.
• We want to be able to feel the most uncomfortable feelings like shame
  • Shame only thrives in secrecy.  Empathy is the antidote.
  • The Buddha taught about healthy shame and unhealthy shame.
    • Healthy shame comes with self-compassion.  
    • Unhealthy shame is one that you get stuck with and identify with.  You get hooked into thinking that, that bad thing is what you are.
• Our attachment to an outcome results in burnout.  When we accept and let go we are able to care for ourselves and loved ones much more.
• Awakening is waking up to the truth that we are not our thoughts, we are not our conditioned selves and that we are way more than that.  Waking up to these little truths.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Soften into the inherent grace that’s within you from moment to moment.  It’s when you soften that you allow ease and well being to come through.  Rather than trying to fix something or force something, sit with the not knowing.  Allow and release.                                     

Links:

If you have any questions for Julie or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:  www.bodymindease.com

Email:  julie@bodymindease.com

Episode 31: To Live Your Best Life Practice Self Care and Self Love with Melissa Jay

Melissa Jay is a registered psychologist and yoga teacher who has melded her two loves into Yoga Psychology.  The hard work she puts into her psychology practice and yoga retreats are all done in purpose of her mission, which is "to empower compassionate souls to love themselves unconditionally".  When we take good care of ourselves and ensure that our cups are filled then we are better to be able to show up and be present with the people that we care about.  The result?  Deeper connection, true connection. 

To live your best life you must practice self love and self care.  Part of that is to tune into your inner world, understand how you relate to others (because we relate to each other differently), realize what it is that you need and then ask for it and receive it.  The last part is where many people trip up.  There seems to be a resistance to receiving and it holds us back.  Plug in those earbuds and listen in because Melissa helps us understand four different ways we relate to each other, how to make use of that information (breaking beyond "what's wrong with me?") and gives a compelling case as to why it's important learn to receive what you need from others.

Key Nuggets:

• We’re all just seeking for lives that feel good on the inside.
• Self care:
  • They are the little moments throughout the day where we integrate mind, body and spirit.
  • Checking in with your mental wellness is just as important as checking in with your physical wellness.
  • Self care strategies:
    • Can be something simple like a cup of tea
    • Yoga
    • Seeking a counsellor to help get out of our heads and into a place of unconditional self love.  You don’t have to wait until something is terribly wrong.  It’s self-care in up-keeping your mental health
• There is a difference between empathy and sympathy:
  • Empathy is feeling with someone.  Can take perspective of somebody else and stay out of judgement.  Allows you to stay connected to yourself and ultimately builds your capacity for being kind to yourself when needed.
    • “help me understand”
  • Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone and it does come with a tone of judgement.
  • Brene Brown has an awesome video that helps explain the difference.
• Breathing and mindful meditation helps create space so that you can understand what you need.
• Our barriers to connection include worry, guilt, sadness, hurt, fear, stress and overwhelm
  •  Usually it’s one theme that keeps coming up
• Attachment (psychologically speaking) is connection and we need connection from birth all the way to the end of life.
  • We have different ways of relating to each other. These patterns can change but sometimes it
  • The four attachment patterns (Mary Ainsworth):
    • Secure: when we’re together everything is great and when we are apart it’s still great.  You know that the person you’re connected to has your back
      • Essentially true connection, one with unconditional love. 
      • It doesn’t mean it’s perfect – there are times that you get hurt but you get through it together and you get to be safe to  be your authentic yours.
    • Anxious attachment: needing to be close most of the time and difficult to be independent.  There’s a fear that if you’re away from that person you’ll lose them. Looks like neediness and always wanting to be close.
    • Avoidant attachment: keeping someone that you care about at an armslength.  Fearlful that if you let that person close to them you’ll lose them.  Feelings of anxiety, actually even more anxious than those with an anxious attachment.
    • Disorganized attachment: a small portion of the population where it’s a mix of all of them.
    • Attachment types can be different in each relationship.
    • Depending on where you are in your life you may develop a pattern that keeps showing up.  Ex. You can have an anxious attachment keep showing up in romantic relationships but have secure relationships with your family
    • Awareness of attachment type allows you to better ask for what you need
  • When we are aware of what’s getting in our way then we can as for what we need
  •  Practicing secure attachment
    • Melissa recommends reading the book "Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - And Keep - Love" by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller. It gives real life examples of how the attachment patterns may play out in your life and what to do with the awareness of your attachment type
• Self love:
  • A practice where we’re able to be kind to ourselves and step into a place where you’re unconditional with yourself.  To check in with yourself often and understand what you’re needing. 
  • Knowing that it's great to give to others and that it’s okay to receive as well
  • The more we give to ourselves, the better we can show up and give to the people that we care about.  Leads to fulfilling relationships
  • The primary ingredient to self-love is self-care ultimately connecting to our hearts
    • Getting to a place where you know what you need and being able to honour that
  • The most common place people falter when trying to practice self love is getting caught up in our brains – all those thoughts.  It’s either projecting us into the future or living in the past.  Moving into the heart is constantly coming back to present moment
    • The question is “how can I stay connected and keep coming back to the present”
    • Melissa’s favorite practice to coming back to present moment is as simple as three cleansing breaths: inhaling fully through your nose and exhaling fully through your mouth
• Moving through guilt is better than resenting something.
• By saying no we are actually empowering ourselves

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Take what fits and leave the rest. 

Links and Resources:

If you have any questions for Melissa or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:   www.canmorecounselling.com

Facebook Group: The Self Care Community

Instagram: @yoga_psychology

Resources that were mentioned in this episode:

Brene Brown’s video on empathy

Book: "Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - And Keep - Love" By Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

Episode 30: Messages from our Bodies and How Anahata Yoga can Help You Listen with Anne Douglas

Happy New Year! We kick off 2018 with an episode about the significance of tapping into your body's intelligence.  Anne Douglas is a teacher and yoga scholar who has had over three decades of experience practicing/studying in the field.  She is the creator of Anahata Yoga Therapy, which is a path for self-inquiry, loving kindness and the integration of what she calls "the issues in the tissues".  We spend the hour talking about Anne's journey through different forms of yoga, the relationship between emotion and body symptoms and how Anahata Yoga Therapy can help.

Key Nuggets:

• Anahata Yoga
  • Anahata is the heart chakra, and translated from Sanskrit it means“unstruck" like a bell singing out in its true nature
  • Anahata Yoga therapy is coming into the heart to find authentic expression
• Kripalu Yoga is the practice where it all started for Anne.  It is a spiritual practice rooted in Kundalini Yoga (energetics of yoga) and comes from the Kashmir tradition which embraces a nondual view, going beyond the teachings of Patanjali. 
• Body Intelligence:
  • Sometimes body pains are a reflection of our emotional world.  As Anne calls it, "the issues in the tissues". 
  • There can be trau.mas experienced or false beliefs built in our childhood that needs to be released
  • If not released properly, emotional traumas go underground into tissues and can get stuck in body.  In psychology it’s referred to as “bound arousal”
  • Initial shutdown usually manifests as symptoms in the diaphragm but can show up anywhere ex. hips, back, hamstrings…
  • There is a form of training called Wavework training which studies the energetics of emotion.  Based on this study, emotions move.  They need to move.  Wavework helps access emotions as energy and as emotion is felt, it is released and integrated through the body.
  • Allowing the emotion to move through is counteracting our developed behaviour of holding in our emotions.
• Two views on yoga: dualistic and non dualistic:
  • The classical teachings of Pantanjali is dualistic, the two sides being:
    •  Prakiti – all of nature, the potential of all that’s to manifest
    • Purusha – seer, witness
    • In this view, pure consciousness is separate from all of nature. 
    • In practice, it looks like a yoga practice where you try to work your way out of the body.  The belief is “I am not this body, I am pure consciousness”
  • There is also a non dual path which recognizes that there’s one reality and prakriti arises out of purusha.  The two are one (ie. The iconic figures like the Shiva Shakti being in an embrace). 
    • In this view, there is no split between the seer and nature.  We are all one.
• How to start applying the healing powers of Anahata Yoga:
  •  During your next yoga practice, make an extra effort to tap into the body. Notice the dominant sensations. Dialogue with it....you can start by saying “hello”.  This will give your body a sense of unconditional presence. 
  • By using phrases like “I’m going to be with you for ____ minutes”,  “I am here, I will stay with you”, you build a relationship with your inner self. 

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Your body is your vehicle in this lifetime.  Maintain it like you would a car with high octane fuel and anything else it needs then you can achieve a lot.  Perfect timing, quantity and rhythm beyond what you can imagine.           

Links:

If you have any questions for Anne or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website:  www.anahatayogatherapy.ca

Email:  anahatayoga@telus.net

Episode 29: Wisdom of 2017: Year In Review

It has been a wonderful year on Curious Monki! I am SO grateful for everyone who tunes in and for all the amazing souls who have graciously shared their wisdom.  The conversations have been heartfelt and rich with knowledge.  In this episode, I look back on some of the lessons shared. Among them are powerful messages like:  trust your intuition; life won't always take the path that you want it to and that's not a bad thing.  You must trust that something better is in store for you; self love and self compassion are the gateways to true happiness; you're a life long learner, that's what all these life experiences are for!  

I love having these conversations and it has been an absolute dream to share them with you.  As I've said before, this is a journey to the heart.  It's the discovering of all that we are.  Let's do this together and learn to connect deeper within as well as with the world around us.  Ultimately, you'll live the life of your true self and true happiness!

I sincerely hope that these conversations have been inspiring to you....maybe even illuminate something that you haven't discovered before. 

Now, I'd like to hear from you! 

• What has been your greatest lesson this year?

• What topics do you want to hear about in 2018?  I'm listening. 

Leave a comment below or go to the contact page and email me.

 Happy holidays and have a wonderful New Years!

Episode 28: Mastering the Business of Yoga: Three Key Items You Need To Succeed with Amanda Kingsmith

Amanda Kingsmith is a world traveler, yoga teacher and also the podcast host for two shows:  The World Wanderers and Mastering the Business of Yoga aka. MB.OM.  She's passionate about helping yoga teachers discover careers they love and enjoys working 1-on-1 with yoga teachers to help them build their business.  In this episode, she tells us how she managed to create a life filled with travel and adventure; all while doing what she loves from anywhere in the world.  We get business savvy as she shares three key concepts that will help you succeed in creating a business out of the thing (or things...yes, you can have more than one) you love!  This episode is for you if you're a yoga teacher, yoga teacher to be or if you're in the business of succeeding in doing what you love.  Plug in those earbuds and listen in!

Key Nuggets:

• The world is so much bigger than you think, which is great because it also means that there are so many more opportunities than you think.  Travelling can help broaden your view of possibilities.
• There’s not one right path in the world of teaching yoga.  Hone in on what you do really well. Your unique skills. And bring that out to the world
• The first step in teaching is to teach!  Try all sorts of things and see what resonates with you.
• In choosing your teaching path, also meditate on the lifestyle that you want.  That will help you determine your path as well.
• Amanda’s 3 most important concepts in the business on yoga:

1. Ask for help.  Don’t try to wear all the different hats.

• Hire people who can help alleviate your time so that you can focus on what you’re good at
• Think about the time that you’re giving up when you're taking on a task instead of getting help with it and consider if it's worth it.  For example, you can choose to use your time to do your own accounting or that time can be spent reading a book to sharpen your skills in yoga.  
• The form of asking for help doesn't always have to be a monetary value.  Energy exchanges are an option too - for example, Amanda exchanged private yoga lessons for her logo to be created.

2. Define your niche

• Take as many opportunities that you can when you’re starting off so that you can see what you like and what you don’t.  In Amanda's words “Say yes until you get your no”
• Narrowing in on what you offer will better position you to become the expert in that area.  It's important to note that this doesn’t mean you’re pigeonholed into just that specialty.  Ex. If you specialize in prenatal it doesn’t mean you can’t teach vinyasa

3. Diversify your portfolio and expand your offerings

• Consider all that you want to offer, from classes all the way to retreats.
• Imagine your offerings as a funnel and each layer of that funnel will attract a certain portion of your students.  Each layer of that funnel will also be a stream to bring in revenue.
• Funnels don’t always have to be just one thing.  For example, Amanda does yoga teaching but also business and website development.  You can couple a few other things that you like to do.
• The opportunities are expansive!  Don’t limit yourself to what you think it has to look like.

• Financials – how to make this business sustainable
  • Start by figuring out your budget and looking at what it would take to meet that budgets.  Ex. If you find out that you need to teach 40 studio classes every week, are you willing or even physically capable to? 
  • Yoga teachers need to understand their max.  Self-care for yoga teachers is pertinent.  There is such thing as a burnout point, make sure you take self-care and don’t overextend yourself.  Each person’s own burnout point is different.
• Amanda’s advice for new yoga teachers or yoga teachers to be:
  • Go ahead, do it!  Dive right into your own personal practice and journey.
  •  Delve into your own journey and
  • If it doesn’t become a business, you won’t lose out!  You’ll gain something.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

You aren’t going to know it all but that’s okay!  We’re all human and it’s okay to make a stumble here or there, we all do.  Don't hold back from diving into it because you’re afraid of the stumble.  Hopefully they’ll love you anyway but if not, that’s okay too.  You’re not going to be for everybody, and that’s fine.  Just remember, if you try to please everyone you’ll please no one. 

Links:

If you have any questions for Amanda or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Websites: www.mbomyoga.com

www.amandakingsmith.com 

www.theworldwanderers.com

Email:  info@mbomyoga.com

Facebook: @amandakingsmith and @masteringthebusinessofyoga 

Instagram: @amandakingsmith and @masteringthebusinessofyoga 

Resources:

Amanda is co-hosting a retreat in Nicaragua in spring 2018!  Click here if you're interested in taking this adventure with her.

Episode 27: Chronic Illness and Yoga: What it's like when our bodies don't work the way we want w/ Brittany Zeer

It’s one thing to develop a well-oiled routine and have the discipline to follow through but what happens if our bodies aren’t cooperating the way we want them to?  It’s excruciating to get through a trip to the grocery store let alone make it to a yoga class where you have to bend yourself in all sorts of shapes.  Each day is a toss-up – maybe you’ll be pain free, maybe you’ll be bed ridden…..or maybe you’ll think it’s a pain free day and then bam! just when you’re about to make it to an important appointment the pain hits and everything’s a write off.  It’s frustrating – how do you plan your day? How do you maintain a yoga practice?  How do you keep up a social life??  This is what life is like for somebody who has a chronic illness.  In this episode, Brittany Zeer is back on the show and we discuss chronic illnesses.  An accident three years ago left her with chronic migraines and now pain management is on her daily agenda.  She sheds light on what it’s like to live with a chronic illness, how loved ones can support, pain management tips and how to continue a yoga practice despite the obstacles. 

If you have a chronic illness listen in because you’re not alone!  If you don’t have a chronic illness, listen in anyway because it’s a chance to flex that compassion muscle.  The struggle isn’t always visible and there’s a huge part that we can play in supporting our friends.        

Key Nuggets:

• If you have a chronic illness, know that you're not alone!  There are communities like Migraine Mantras ready to support one another.  Sometimes sharing your story can help alleviate the pressure, and who knows, your story can end up helping somebody else! 
• What it's like to have a chronic illness:

  • It's a constant battle for balance.  They want to be able to go out and do regular things like running errands or coffee with friends but sometimes the body just doesn't allow it.

  • There's a great deal of guilt when they have to cancel plans.  Kind understanding can go a long way.   

• How can you support somebody who has a chronic illness:
  • The best support is just to listen.  You may not be able to offer a solution but that's not always what they're looking for or needing anyway.
  • Just being there is also a great one.  Again, there might not be anything that can be done about the pain but your presence in itself is comforting.
  • Release judgement of what you think person with chronic illness can and can’t do.
  • Don’t be afraid to console in them.  They want to support you as much as you support them!
• Brittany's rituals for managing pain:
  • Firstly, know when to say no and know that it’s okay to say no.  Listen to your body and don't push yourself too far.
  • Bubble bath with something soothing for muscles like lavender oil and relax.  Warning against peppermint!  Doesn’t feel so great in a bath. 
  • However, peppermint oil is great for around the head to alleviate some pressure if you have a headache or migraine. 
  • Breathe.  Link breath with song in the bathtub or wherever you are.
• There's a program called Love Your Brain that provides yoga classes especially for those who have a traumatic brain injury

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:                   

Share your story because you deserve to be heard – there is something that you can share.

Also, ask for support and be okay receiving support.    

Links:

If you have any questions for Brittany or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Instagram: @beezee89

Facebook: Brittany Zeer

Blog Posts at Migraine Mantras

Resource:

Love Your Brain – a non profit program specially designed for yoga with brain injuries.

Episode 26: How to Take the Healing Path and Live on Purpose with Nicholas Pepe

Nicholas Pepe is one inspiring individual who has dedicated himself to doing what I’ve decided to call “heart work”.  Work that is soul centred with the intention to help provide a positive impact on other people’s lives and the world.  In specific, he’s an Energy Healer and Personal Development Coach who specializes in helping women who are ruled by fear, doubt, and “low confidence” learn how to master their emotions so that they can live with Courage, Confidence and Freedom

Nicholas is the author of Courageous Acts of Self-Love, creator of a self-help channel on YouTube, and has been featured on MSNBC as well as several magazines.

In this episode, we have a heart to heart about some provoking life questions such as why is it important to heal?  What’s holding people back from joy?  How do we live our purpose?  Nicholas shares lessons and insights gathered from the work he’s done with clients as well as himself.

Key Nuggets:

• Healing where you’ve been hurt the most is where you can affect others the most.
• We’re all healers for our own life.  The external healers that we seek are guides that help bring us back to our own inner power.
• People are merely skimming the surface of their lives.  In other words, many people live with a lot of unresolved patterns and the same issues keep coming up over and over for them.  Nicholas urges you to be a submarine and go deep into the places that you were hoping to keep stashed away.  Oftentimes we don't even know ourselves at that deep level and that not knowing blocks us from our true selves.
• Healing can begin as easy as a moment of acknowledgement to yourself.  Nicholas uses the analogy of a stubbed toe - when we hit our toe against something, we hold onto it to soothe it rather than ignoring it.  We should do the same for our internal selves.  For example, if somebody said something to you and it triggered a negative feeling (ex. shame, guilt), acknowledge it rather than stash it away. There’s a part of you who is hurt that needs to be heard
• Saying “yes” is also a boundary to set. Say yes to yourself, yes to the parts of you that need healing, yes to taking more time for yourself.
• Most common obstacle that Nicholas sees that is holding people back from true joy is not having felt joy in it’s entirety.  The more things we need to heal, the less we can feel.  It takes energy to repress uncomfortable emotions. It’s like looking at a sunset and not experiencing the full beauty of it.
• Numb is still a feeling and holds a frequency.
• Feel your emotions through you body.  Oftentimes we add a label to how we're feeling and rationalize it out with our minds.  That's fine but we're missing the other part, which is how it feels in the body.  When we don't look at the whole, there is a disconnect.
  • We give words feelings.  In essence, feelings don’t require words.  Labeling is a limitation in itself.  The real emotion comes in shades....shades of anger….a ball of feels that can’t be explained in words
• We all have a purpose but sometimes we forget.  Perhaps we get lost in meeting the expectations of others or the expectations we've set for ourselves.
• Become aware of how you’re investing your energy.  Is there too much energy invested in too many places? When we don't think about how we are investing our energy, we can end up with not enough energy for ourselves

• You’re here on purpose, spend your energy on purpose, so that you can live from a place of more purpose

• The work we do on ourselves ripples out into the world whether we realize it or not.  We are being felt in many ways that we may not be able to see.
• What’s in your mind isn’t necessarily true.

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:                   

Every single thing you do matters.  You need to give more credit to yourself for the amazing things you do each day.  Just you being you is a victory.  You are much bigger than you think you are.

Links and Resources:

If you have any questions for Nicholas or want to learn more, connect with him through:

Website: nicholaspepe.com

Instagram: @ _nicholaspepe

You can get his FREE E-BOOK, Courageous Acts of Self Love at nicholaspepe.com/lp/

Episode 25: Meditation to Reset

It has been a mad busy month – vacation, a pending move (finally happening this week yay!!)  and hours of planning for my beloved father’s birthday.  I am so grateful for all of these wonderful happenings in my life but also kind of exhausted.  My mind seems to match the erratic positioning of the half-packed boxes in my little apartment.  There's a slight undercurrent of anxiety and even as I type out this plain and simple truth, I find myself on trial with self-judgement.  “There are NO excuses in life.  Pull it together, there is no room for FALTERING.  You are so lucky to have any of this, if you want it you’ll push through, power through, and deliver….and it better be a damn good job”.  And the usual soundtrack plays on, words dripping heavily.  Geeze, this harsh type of motivation is a whole different kind of exhausting.  Why do we need to be so hard on ourselves?  As I ponder this question the saving grace of all my lessons come flooding back to me.  The answer is that you simply don't. My logic mind rejects this idea but I've now developed a new voice that gently says "It's okay to rest".  If it's one thing that I've learned through my study of yoga and interviews with so many amazing souls, it's that all of this is a journey to the heart.  As the brilliant Rumi puts it

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

It's easy to continue with the familiar obligation to power through.  It's so much harder to stop in the midst of a tornado and find stillness despite the anxiety.  When life demands become overwhelming it's instinctive to descend into the spiral and try to get everything under control.  The only trouble with that is "control" is an illusion and the calculated descent quickly turns into a hard tumble.  I'm not going to lie, there's a part of me that totally rejects what I just said.  It prefers to maintain my old patterns.  It desperately wants to make life look effortlessly perfect (whatever that means).  But I've been down that path before.  Many times.  Self-care falls by the wayside, self-judgement becomes king, and the true self closes.  Another thing that I've learned is that "effortless" is achievable but doesn't look the way you expect it to.  It looks different depending on who you are but it holds the same lightness.  In essence, it's that glow that you see in people who live mostly in joy; and people who live in joy don't speak harsh words against themselves.  That's what I really, truly want.  This is a journey to the heart.  So there.  I will work against the nagging feeling to follow my old habits of continuing to produce even though I feel like a tired zombie.  I will tolerate the thought that if I choose to rest, my world will most probably crumble into a disastrous scenario so bad that I haven't even thought of yet.  And I will take on the challenge to rest hard because I feel a sense of relief just saying this, albeit a bit anxious.  To take a lesson from another brilliant mind

"I have so much to accomplish today so I need to meditate for two hours instead of one".  Ghandi

I'm willing to take a bet that I'm not the only one who has had a crazy few weeks.  That's why for this week, I've written this blog post plus I put together a ten minute meditation.  If you're on the same boat, let's breathe together, reset and re-calibrate.

~ Namaste  

Episode 24: Deepen Your Yoga & Heart Centered Living with Alice Hong

Alice Hong is a growth and transformation facilitator that guides others to listen deeply, love fully, and live wholeheartedly.  This travel junkie has her home base in Calgary, Alberta but she holds Yoga Teacher Trainings, Retreats and Women's gatherings all around the world like in Iceland and Bali.  Her ambition sweeps her away toward inspiring projects such as her recent endeavor to help women live more heart centered lives.  Despite the travelling and jam packed schedule, Alice walks with a steady air of centered-ness.  How?  Because she lives by the philosophy of Tantra which is the philosophy that everything weaves together.  A graceful dance of balance and harmony.  In this episode, we talk about the philosophy of Tantra, it's core concepts Shiva and Shakti (masculine/feminine energies) and how to deepen our Yoga practice beyond the poses.  

Key Nuggets:

• Alice's take on what yoga is: Yoga isn’t necessarily the physical practice.  It’s about learning to be as emotions arise.  It's a is a state of being in the present moment, of being attuned to what’s happening in that moment right now.  When we allow the chatter to fall away, that’s where the magic happens because then all there is presence and presence is love.  So all there is, is love. 
• The philosophy of Tantra.
  • Tantra means“to loom, or to weave” . It is the philosophy of everything weaving together.  There is no one way.  We can live through the lens and perspective of others. Shiva and Shaktiare at the core of this philosophy. 
    • Shiva: Masculine energy.  Everything is present, the stillness
    • Shakti: Feminine energy. The dance, the movement, the feeling; activating your senses
    • So Tantra is to have awareness (shiva) as we dance (shakti).  Aka. The centered-ness as the world turns.
  • About being in your body and celebrating it.  Sees the body as a beautiful gift that allows us to experience the nectar of life.  
• Our bodies communicate with us and we communicate back to our bodies.
  • To learn the language of the body, you need to learn as if you’re learning a new language:  First listen and understand the nuances of the body. Only then can you begin to respond. 
  • Incorporate breath, sound and movement to become attuned to the body.
  • We are also communicating to our body.  Depending on what’s going on in our minds, we are also communicating that to our body. (ex. If you keep thinking I’m too weak to do this, the body will respond accordingly). 
• A yoga practice: The practice itself is life.  It's about becoming present to the moment.  There are many tools to help with this:
  • Asanas – the poses help us work into our physical bodies and shaking off things that no longer serve   
  • Meditation – teaching focus and concentration, letting go and keep coming back to present moment
  • Pranayama – control our breath, our life force. Allowing us to let to and to let in
  • Mantra – using vibrations for resonance
• If you are searching to deepen your practice, remember that there is no one path.  When you don’t know where to direct your search, try a few different things to see what tool works for you.  Different teachers, a new workshop…   

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Don’t be so hard on yourself.  The only person that you need to live with is yourself.  For the rest of your life.  What do you want your inner world to look and feel like?  You’re the only one who has the power to create the space of inner self.

Links:

If you have any questions for Alice or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website: alicehong.com

Instagram: @alicehong108

Facebook: Alice Hong

Episode 23: Finding Yoga: Philosophy, Mythology and Mantras

Amy Thiessen is , among many other things, is a yoga teacher and a musician.  She’s melded her two passions into one beautiful craft.  Her talents are extensive, but her best known music in the yoga community are of mantra and prayer.  She mixes her captivating voice with alluring soundscapes to create space that’s perfect for internal exploration. Like with so many others, it has been (and still is) quite a journey with this Yoga.  There's an exceptional story to be told.  In this episode she shares her story and we talk philosophy, mythology and mantras.  In specific, how philosophies in yoga correlate with modern day psychology, the power of story telling to help us relate to ourselves, and the visceral effects of mantras.  Get those earbuds into your ears and listen in!

Key Nuggets:

• Amy on life and living: Our lives are a collection of moments.  Each moment is like poking a pencil through a piece of paper.  A little more light is let in with each moment until everything becomes translucent.
• Project Sundari is a project that Amy started where she uses her music to help people connect their world, pulling all the the pieces of yourself together so that you can just be and be whole. 
• On Love: based on the Brahmavarta, you don’t need to love the world all at once.  Begin by loving what is easy to love. Love internally.  Begin by loving the parts of you that are easiest to love.  Then love the places where you were wounded.  Compassion toward ourselves allows us practice compassion with others.  It will allow us to see that sometimes other people are wounded too.
• Change takes time.  The first step is to become aware, then we observe our behavior in this awareness.  Finally, we may choose to change the behavior if we wish.
• On Mythology: Stories allow us to utilize stories to explain psychological aspects. It's what makes the information rich and relatable.
  • Amy shares with us her favorite story - The birth of Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth & Beauty.  The story depicts how going into the depths of ourselves allows us to uncover a deeper beauty than ever before.  Plug in those earbuds to listen to this captivating story! 
• A mantra is a mind vehicle.  A place where you can place tour mind so that you can find presence
  • Each sound of the mantra correlates with one of the 50 petals of your bottom Chakras
  • Each mantra has a different resonance so different mantras are used to achieve different desired outcomes
• How to use mantras:
  • Choose a mantra that will cultivate what you're looking for (ex. grounding, connection, manifestation....)
  • You can sing, chant along or quietly listen to the mantra
  • Can use a mala to help repeat the mantras.  The audacious number is 108.  What does 108 mean?  Well, one variation of the explanation is that 1=the oneness that we are, 0=the circle of life, 8=infinity, the eternal flow of life.
• Mantras to try:
• So Hum: "I am that". Inhale “so”, exhale “hum”.  An excellent basic one to begin with
• Gayatri Mantra: A very popular and beautiful mantra to help you come back into your spirit and come back to listening to self

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

There’s no one big lesson.  There’s no one big thing.  It’s about everyday, every moment, doing the best we can and allowing ourselves to make mistakes and learning to hold ourselves in a way that honors who we are.

Links:

If you have any questions for Amy or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website: www.amythiessen.com

Instagram: amythiessenlive

Facebook: facebok.com/amythiessenlive

Episode 22: Hello Paradise! Hello Dreams! How To Achieve Success with Linsey Rankin

What It Took To Start a Yoga Retreat Centre: struggles, accomplishments and lessons learned along the way

Una barraca, which means “warrior lady”, is what Linsey Rankin is endearingly called by friends in Colombia.  For the past year, she has worked with a small team to run yoga retreats on a pristine piece of land in Choco.  Her vision affords the opportunity for yoga junkies and tourists alike to experience a part of nature that has barely been touched.   We actually talked to Linsey back in Episode 4, where she shared her big dreams of opening up a haven for yoga retreats in Colombia.  A year later, she’s living life exactly as she envisioned on her vision board.  She spends many days in paradise - beaching, swimming with whales and watching the monkeys go by.  Listen in to hear her story of how she achieved success.  She share her struggles, accomplishments, and lessons learned along the way.

Key Nuggets:

• Choco, a department of Colombia known as the city of eternal spring, is located on the western coast of Colombia.  That's also where Linsey has started her business for yoga retreats, Prana Pacifico.
• The most important thing for Linsey to achieve her goal was to have clarity in exactly what she wanted.  To gain clarity, she made a vision board which helped her solidify where she really wanted to be.  For her, that meant going back to Colombia
• Another important part of success for Linsey was to acknowledge her fear and do it anyway.  There is no perfect time, or absolutely perfect condition.  Rely on your intuition and if it still feels right, do it!
  • We all struggle with fear and doubt; instead of abolishing it, see it as part of the journey
  • Take your fear further and ask “if my fear comes true, what happens next?”  It might end up being a pleasant surprise as you realize that if that one thing goes wrong, it doesn't immediately bring you down to the worst case scenario. 

Ex. "what happens if we get rained out for this outdoor event?" In our head, we jump to "then the event will be a bust and life will completely suck moving forward!"  But really ask yourself "if you get rained out for an outdoor event then what happens next?"  Perhaps you end up going inside, perhaps you postpone the event.  Whatever it is, it doesn't necessarily go straight to failure.

• Another big thing with success is to keep going.  Don’t give up at the first sign of struggle and remember that it’s not a quick journey. It’s a long term plan, not a short term fix.  Look at the big picture.
• Even if it’s destiny and meant to be, it can still be hard
• Simple but great advice: If you need clarity, breathe.
• * Linsey has put out an invitation for international facilitators who are interested in running a retreat in Choco to contact her!  So if you have a craft in wellness and are interested in Choco, give her a shout with any of the below contacts.

Your Biggest Lesson From Starting Your Business:

Have clarity in where you want to go and what you want to achieve.

Be bold, make decisions that guide you closer to your goals.

Have faith, keep going despite hiccups and obstacles.

Links:

If you have any questions for Linsey or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Facebook: Prana Pacifico Retreats

Instagram: prana.pacifico.retreats_

Website: www.pranapacifico.com

Email: pranapacifico@gmail.com

Episode 21: Excuse Me Hakomi - Help Me Tap Into My Inner Wisdom w/ Martha McCallum

Like many of the great talents out there, Martha McCallum wears several hats.  Titles include master herbalist, yoga instructor, hiking guide and Hakomi Psychotherapist.  She is the artist of her own life and boy has she created a cool one for herself!  As a helicopter hiking guide, she enjoys the best of the Rocky Mountains every single week.  When she's not out in nature, she's helping others live mindfully through Hakomi therapy.  How did this cool lady score such a cool lifestyle?  Well, she let that inner voice guide her, even when it wasn't exactly clear where she was going.  In fact, there was a time where she felt scattered, like she was hopping from one thing to another.  Nonetheless she trusted that inner knowing and followed what felt peaceful, what felt right.  Heeding to the gut-brain (aka. heart, inner wisdom, organic body....take your pick) is the heart of Hakomi therapy.  Listen in to learn about what Hakomi therapy is and how you can use it to tap into your inner wisdom.

Key Nuggets:

• Stress is harmful and is the root of innumerable physical ailments.  You already knew that though.  So here's the real kicker: Our thoughts alone can trigger our stress reactions (ie. flight or flight)
  • This means that your negative thoughts are harming more than just your mood 
  • Mindfulness can help alleviate your negative thoughts and in turn keep you healthier in mind, body and spirit
• We aren't granted a line of sight for how our lives will pan out.  That's why you may be teemed with life worries such as "How does it all come together??"   "How do you know??"
  • Well as we learn from this episode (along with many previous episodes), you already know.  It's not exactly provided to you the way that you want to know - like I mean, I Ydon't know if you'll be the next singer/songwriter sensation, and you don't know either.  But your inner knowing will guide you to what your next best move is.  You just need to listen and allow life to unfold for you. 
• That leads to Hakomi Psychotherapy.  A mind/body tool to help you get deeper into mindful living.
  • It helps you tap into your body's inner wisdom and get good answers from your own body about areas of discomfort or stress.  If these answers are coming from your inner wisdom/gut feeling, it help you replace negative thought patterns with more positive ones.
• Start by getting to know your inner yes.  Choose what feel most peaceful, most right.  Use it for choosing even the small things like what to eat for breakfast.  It will help you strengthen the gut feeling. 
  • It can also help to remember the times that you just knew you had to do something.  What did that feel like?
• Our thoughts are getting in the way.  Just like clutter in our car or our offices, we should clear the clutter from our minds.  We can connect to the place where we feel love, peace….once that clutter is gone (ie. Meditation) 
• A strong meditation practice on the mat will allow you to better calm yourself off the mat when faced with adversity
  •  Ex. Not bursting out in responsive anger
• Mindfulness is when you are living each moment on purpose
  • Mindfulness exercise that you can do throughout the day: have an experience and observe yourself in your experience at the same time.  If you're stressed, watch the stress happening while it happens
  • Practice tip: just keep coming back to present, rework your negative thoughts to ones that feel good
• Martha's favorite Einstein quote: “the rational mind is a faithful servant, the intuitive mind is a sacred gift”   

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

You are the artist of your life.  Listen to your inner wisdom and use it for choosing what you do or don’t do.  It will give you directions for the most peaceful, most right path.

Links:

If you have any questions for Martha or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Websites: marthashelihikes.com, feelyourbest.info

Email: Martha@marthahelihikes.com

Episode 20: How Yoga Nidra Works & Sankalpa Guidance with Tanis Fishman

Tanis Fishman is a modern day mystic who has spent her life exploring different levels of consciousness to find deeper meaning in the human experience.  Questions about the meaning of life and a search for something more has been on her mind since she was a toddler.  Over her lifetime, she’s been gifted with two profound experiences that proved this feeling. One being an out of body experience and another an explosion of enlightenment.  In this episode, Tanis shares that part of her journey with us.  She also lends her knowledge about Yoga Nidra, a deep meditation technique that can bring you to a place beyond conscious limitations.

"Nidra", when translated to English means "sleep".  In essence, the practice of Yoga Nidra is that of Yogic Sleep.  Don't get this confused with regular sleep though!  The practice will bring you much different healing powers than regular sleep will.  Tanis explains how Yoga Nidra works as well as the layers of benefits that can help us transform.  We talk about Sankalpas and the best way to use them.   

Key Nuggets:

• Yoga Nidra Benefits:
  • Conscious relaxation. Relaxing the body, mind and emotions
  • Experience a state of freedom to just be
  • Open up field of experience for everything to be as it is
  • Being consciously present allows you to become aware of where your tensions are and what thoughts are destructive.
  • Access intuitive mind or higher perspective (see things more clearly) as you gain space from those destructive thoughts.
• Brain States:
  • Beta: Identifying with the conscious mind (where we usually are when we're awake)
    • High Beta: Thoughts rampant, believing thoughts to be true, focus only on reality of life, may cause stress.  
    • Low Beta: Thoughts more mellow, starting to relax
  • Alpha: Transitional brain state between wakefulness and sleep; the moment where you let go of thinking process (thoughts); a space where you are completely just being.  Right before we are identified with dreamer. There’s no time, or space or you.  Brain waves slow, least used brain state when we're awake
• Everything in the conscious that’s played out in your life (ie. preference, opinions, judgements) has its roots in the subconscious based on your belief systems that's supporting it. We don’t always know what our belief systems are, but we can look at our life to see what’s getting played out to better understand.
• Our consciousness acts as a filter.  It's harder to change our belief systems in our waking states.  That's why some people do not find affirmations very effective.  They are being filtered out by our conscious mind.
• When we are in a deep state of meditation, we get access to our subconscious in the Alpha brain state.  Our mind is more malleable. In Yoga Nidra we use Sankalpa. 
• Sankalpa:
  • Your personal resolution: a conscious direction of your desires and dreams
  • It holds an energy that allows us to change our limiting belief systems
  • A transformative part of the process
• How to make a sankalpa:
  •   “I AM _____________”
  •  Use present tense as that’s the language of the subconscious
  • State it in the positive
  • Keep it concise and short
  • You need something that comes immediate to you – make it easy for you to recite even in a deep state of relaxation
  • Choose your desired end state, not what you’re going through.
    • Example: “I am healing” will keep you in a state of healing. How would you feel if you were healed?  “I am healthy” “I am at peace” “I feel free” is better.
  • Examples: “I am worthy” “I am deserving of the best life” “I am deserving to fulfill my dreams”.
  • Ensure that it resonates with you.
• Factors affecting effectiveness of Yoga Nidra:
  • You may have hidden beliefs.  For example, a hidden belief that’s “it’s not possible to change” or “I’m too old to change”.  If a hidden belief is the stronger program that's running then you need to dissolve that before you can install something else.  aka. You have many layers, you may need to shift one belief before you can make another happen.  Another example is that you want to set your Sankalpa to "I am happy", but there’s a belief system underneath the surface where you tell yourself “You don’t deserve to be happy”
  • If you’re not in the hypnogogic state (ie. you fall straight to sleep) then mind won’t be as receptive to the Sankalpa.
    • Antidote: learn to maintain mindfulness in the relaxing brain states (ex. Don’t fall asleep)
  • Belief system not ready to be changed. Our belief systems were created to ultimately keep us safe. If we somehow feel that it's unsafe to shed the belief system then it won't change.
• How to know when sankalpa has been realized: When you react different, act different, thoughts begin to change.
• This whole process isn’t like peeling an onion, it’s more like unwinding a tangled web!

One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:

Be surprised about yourself.  To continue to grow, stay open and curious.  Also, where you find yourself passing judgement is where there is misalignment in self.  This simply means that a program (aka. belief system) is out of date and an update (aka. lesson) is on its way.

Links:

If you have any questions for Tanis or want to learn more, connect with her through:

Website: https://tanisfishman.com/

Facebook: Tanis Fishman

Facebook Page: Out of the Box with Tanis Fishman

Resources:

• Tanis provides free Yoga Nidra sessions on YouTube.  Go on, give it a whirl.  Practicing Yoga Nidra is really easy, all you need is to get snug, lie down and try not to fall asleep!  
• Tanis' explosion of enlightenment reminded me of this TED Talk: My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor about a brain scientist who seems to have experienced the same sensation of one-ness.