Kundalini Rising, Marilyn Smith

Marilyn Smith, Yogarama

Marilyn Smith owns the beautiful Yogarama studio in Seattle, WA. This studio is a hybrid online and in-person studio specializing in somatic practices, breathwork, mindful meditation and sound baths. I love it because there is so much offered online for only $25/month. And that includes a large video recording library! Enjoy the listen and check out this wonderful teacher and amazing offerings at her studio. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:10

Well, here we are again with the Weavers and Healers Podcast, I'm Betsy a McDonald, having conversations with interesting people who are bringing their own journeys and healing into the world for us to benefit from. So today's podcast is with Marilyn Smith of Yoga Rama in Seattle. I have been taking her online yoga classes in the morning for quite a while. And they are really precious to me and to my physical body and my spiritual body and my emotional body. So I wanted to get to know her a little better, and we just had a marvelous time in our conversation. I hope you have a good time listening too. Here we go. Okay. Oh, yay, I'm so glad this worked. Oh, Marilyn, so good to have you here. We basically met, although we didn't really meet, but you were part of the capacitar training that I took some years ago. So we know each other through Sheila, right? Yes, yes. And I can't even remember if that was pre or post-COVID, but I'm thinking it was a while ago.

Speaker 2 1:31

Yeah, probably.

Speaker 1:33

Right. You know, the the introduction that I had to your work, I thought was part of the capacitar training, but I don't remember now.

Speaker 2 1:42

Oh, I think what Sheila had me come to one of the meetings and do a breathwork class or something to that effect. Interesting. And that was my introduction to them. And that was that was pretty much it. I don't think I went any pursuit any further than that, and nor was I meant to necessarily. And I was just starting to get during COVID, I started teaching breathwork classes from my living space. And then post-COVID, I opened up a yoga studio and started teaching uh kundalini yoga classes as well as breathwork classes.

Speaker 2:20

But that was the the genesis of all that yeah, that must be what it was that it was during COVID because everything was online and um and then your offerings were online. I just, you know, it was like, oh, my body needs this, and you're just such a beautiful teacher.

Speaker 1 2:37

Really? Oh, that's nice of you.

Speaker 2:39

Thank you.

Speaker 1 2:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2 2:41

I guess I do need to hear that sometimes. You just, you know, you just lose perspective. You're like, oh my God. Well, and you're a qi gong teacher. Is that so that's very cool too.

Speaker 2:52

Yes, and and during COVID, I went all online, and pretty much that's what I do now. I don't, I don't, um, I teach just on Sundays, but I couldn't really go back to in-person because I have people from Kansas and Pennsylvania and things like that. But yeah, so um, but that's yeah, that's one of the one of the things that I do. But I I got into that when I retired from being a principal and a teacher.

Speaker 2 3:19

So I guess I just Where were you a principal?

Speaker 3:21

Uh well, I live in the eastern Sierra, so it's in Bishop, California. Uh yeah.

Speaker 2 3:28

So it's such a small world. Well, of course, Bishop is a very small town.

Speaker 1 3:33

So that's your mammoth here.

Speaker 2 3:35

You're you're on the way to Mammoth. That's how I know Bishop. When we were kids with my girlfriends, we used to go travel to Mammoth by way of Bishop, I think, from LA. Is that right? Do I remember?

Speaker 3:46

From LA, sure. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, so you grew up in LA. LA born and raised.

Speaker 2 3:53

Yeah. Is that where your mom still lives? Uh no, my mom was in Monterey. My dad passed away a couple of years ago, but they had moved to Monterey a while ago. So she's still, she's 91, she still lives by herself, Betsy.

Speaker 4:07

Oh wow. I know. That's amazing. Yeah. Mine lived by herself, although my brother had been in her home for a few years, but she's 99 now and just now went into assisted living. Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 2 4:20

Wow. How is she how has she had those these these late years? Is she doing okay physically, mentally, emotionally?

Speaker 4:28

Yeah. Quite quite. So, how did you get into yoga?

Speaker 2 4:32

How did I get into yoga? God. Uh, I'm gonna tell you the the spiritual story only because it's more fun. I I have taken yoga on and off for years and years and never really took to it. The postures and holding them, it's hard. You know, yoga's hard, it's difficult. And I recognized that I could probably get in great shape, but it and you had to still your mind in order to hold the postures that they would do for you know an extended period. And I recognized that and I always felt great afterwards, but I never really took to it. I never really took to yoga all that much. But then I always I always thought of myself as a someone that should be interested in yoga.

Speaker 5:15

So I said sorry, I I love that because I can relate.

Speaker 2 5:20

I started a business with a friend of mine in London, and it was a bottled water company where we donated the profits to clean water initiatives, and we launched uh PLA polylactate lactate acid uh plastic, the first on the European market. So it was a big deal, and we did really well, and it went very, very well. And one of our big investors was um anyway, the one of the big investors was a woman who was a meditator, and the business relationship ended in not a great way. And I was out to lunch with her, and she said, It sounds like you need to quiet your mind. And the minute she said that, I knew that was exactly right. Like it just it was music to my ears. And I said, What do you mean by that? And where can I go? So she turned me on to her father. I spoke to her father. He was in India, probably. I think he's they they she's from Delhi, and he said, Uh, you should go to uh Vipassana, a 10-day silent meditation retreat with Vipassana style meditation. And so I did, and I went in North Forks, uh, California, near Yosemite, and I absolutely loved it, and it changed my life, and I became a very serious meditator. I meditated for an hour in the morning and an hour at night for a couple of years, and then I was back in Seattle after being in London, and uh someone said to me, Have you heard of Kundalini Yoga? Oh, I know what it was. So I I received an email from not Groupon, but Living Social, which is similar to Groupon that said 10 yoga classes for a dollar each all over Seattle. I'm like, oh, I'll get back into yoga too. That's great. And and so I went to these different yoga classes and I didn't know the difference, you know, vinyasa, you know, Hatha, Kundalini to me, I no idea. And one of them was a kundalini class. And then I went to the class and I go, I am not in, you know, Kansas anymore. Uh, because the uh the woman who taught the class, who remains a very good friend of mine to this day, was uh dressed in white and she was wearing a white turban. And uh and that led to taking classes from the guy who owned the studio, uh and his name was Sada. And I started taking classes from him. And a friend of mine, simultaneously a friend of mine was kind of saying to you, you know, that's kundalini is probably perfect for you. And uh before I got really, really involved in it, a couple things happened. Um I received the email from Living Social saying and it said Kundalini Yoga. And I thought, oh, I've heard that name before. And then one day I was, I made a living in my twilight career as a real estate agent, and I was in my car and I was driving to an open house. And uh I parked the car across the street from the house, and I was a couple minutes early, and I saw a bunch of people standing on the porch, and they all had ropes on. And I thought, oh, that's really weird. And I got out of the car, and as I got out of the car, I hit the door really hard on the corner, and I went, ow! And everybody on that porch turned around and looked at me, and I looked at them. It was like one of those freeze frame moments. And I went up and to the porch, and they were just breaking up a class, and I said, What are you guys doing? They said, We just had a kundalini yoga class.

Speaker 8:53

Yeah, you start getting this sense that you start getting these calling me.

Speaker 2 8:58

Yeah, the universe is is calling you. And I said, That's very cool. And then one of the women walked out, and one of the guys took me aside and said, She's enlightened. Wow. She's enlightened. And I said, Oh, wow, that's really cool. But anyway, so and so a couple of things like that happened, and I thought, okay, well, the you know, however that works, you know, whether or not you're, you know, you're creating your own reality or you're getting a little bit of a push, I was getting pushes. And so I really started seriously going to kundalini yoga, and I really loved it. And I was only in, I think I started going to classes every weekend, and one of the teacher came to me and said, You should take teacher training. And I said, Oh, I'm I don't want to teach, I just like the way it makes me feel. And I was having I was having some true experiences as a consequence of it. And I uh uh he said, No, no, no, you don't do it to to teach. You might end up teaching if you do it to learn and to expand and to grow consciousness and all of that. So I did, and I took it and it was finally the rest of sisters. Yeah, so I got very involved and I helped him and another teacher uh do teacher training for a couple of years in Seattle, and then uh COVID hit, and then after COVID, I opened up a yoga studio, and so it became it became a big part of my journey, big part of my life.

Speaker 10:26

And is that basically your um what you're doing for a living now?

Speaker 2 10:31

Or is that no, I don't make a living at it. I lose money every month. It's really a kunal in yoga is so different, as you know, from the other yogas. It's not posture-based uh postures is certainly a part of it, but they use chanting and breath work uh a lot. And the other thing we use is I call it like pattern movements. Uh we use it in white tantric a lot, like you'll take your arms and you go like this. Right. And in a class, you might do it for three minutes or six minutes or seven minutes or eleven minutes. But if you go to a proper white tantric class, you know, you do it for 30 minutes, or you'll hold your arms like this for 30 minutes, and it's very, very, very difficult. But it is amazing what where your brain will go and how you will actually your your mind, your your the brain lets go. And the somatic experience allows for new information to get into the brain, and I have had that experience again and again and again, and so I I see the value of kundalini yoga, it's really uh quite extraordinary. And so I uh yeah, I can't remember where I was heading with this.

Speaker 11:44

What was I what was my point from saying that? Um, oh uh well, I I had just asked if that's what you were doing as a career, but um oh right, so yeah, no, so I I I thank you.

Speaker 2 11:57

Thank you for bringing me back on track. So I started the studio not with an interest in making money, but an interest in teaching to people what I had learned because I found it to be so profound, and this this uh ability to become a more aware human being, become a more conscious human being, I think is it's the next uh horizon for us. And so I thought, well, I I'm here, so I'll put myself right there in the forefront with a lot of other people. But that's why I started it. I wanted to put it out there and help people and help and help myself, by the way.

Speaker 12:44

Well, as the person said, you know, when they were trying to talk you into doing the teacher training, it's it's not just about teaching others, it's about educating yourself, yeah. Right. Um but thank you for for doing that because and and I love learning about this. Um, you know, I uh do this as one of my practices, but I don't really know anything about kundalini at all. Um, but I just know it's really good for my body.

Speaker 2 13:12

But you're inspiring me to look a little more deeply into well the the the the longer classes are they are you know basically all the yogas are designed to get the kundalini to rise in the body. Do you know about the kundalini energy?

Speaker 13:31

Oh only this much, but I suspect it's similar to you know the energy work that comes along with uh qigong and um I'm also uh doing some work in Andean medicine as well. But no, if you would describe about kundalini, that would be great.

Speaker 2 13:49

Well, you know, I don't know that I know that much either, and I think that I know that teachers try and pass along either what they've learned through their own body or what they've been taught. And I have promised myself that anything that I teach will be something that I've learned through the experience of my own body. And I've received a lot of calls from different people asking about Kundalini rising and you know, is it dangerous and did it happen to you? And it's happened to me, and this is what's happening to me. And I will tell you this their experiences are similar but very different. Everybody has very different experiences with this event. But it is an event that happens in the body, and it's not something that is confined to Kundalin yoga. I think all the yoga is probably ultimately that's the kind of the end game, which then becomes the beginning again. Uh uh, but we all go about it in different ways. Like, you know, if you if you practice, I think it's Hatha, it's more, you know, or vinyasa, it's more of a physical practice. So they're very good at the physical. Or, you know, when they brought yoga over from the east, it became power yoga. That was they came up with that here in the west. So it became a very physical practice. Um and I think that vinyasa is more too, I don't want to cut it short, but you know, if you and if you go to Zen Buddhism, it's all about you know the mental body, right? Using the mental body to uh to to gain awareness uh through meditation. Uh and if you go to a church, you know, it's uh it's all about you know being told that this is the way it is. So that's really more mental body, probably more in Zen Buddhism. Maybe you could call that spiritual body, but actually that's probably a better way to describe it is that they are using the capacity of meditation to reach higher states of consciousness. Vinyasa uses the physical body to reach higher states of consciousness. Churches use the mental body to total here's information, information. The church, you know, the priest is the the priesthood class has all the information, and you are just here to be a passive observer in in a lot of churches. And then and then Kundalini combines all of them. They do physical, they do the mental, and they do the spiritual, which is the meditation and the chant. It's all of it. And I think it's the the the origin and it's not the right one. Like if I'm sounding that way, that's not what I do the way I mean to sound. But it is it is really harkens back more to source. I mean, of the way that I think that a lot of the masters on the east were practicing yoga. They were meditating for long, long periods of time, they were chanting for long periods of time, they were you know, they were doing physical postures for sure, and then they were doing the you know, they were learning as well, they were feeding the brain with information. And that's exactly what kundalini yoga is. It's it's working on all of these areas. So it's really it's been quite extraordinary. And I still love the Pasana meditation, sitting there and basically observing, scamming your body, and doing nothing. I think it's a great practice, and probably in the end, the ultimate game of the body is to sit with yourself, I think. But kundalini is kind of this little bit of a shortcut, it's a little bit of a body hack, and it gets that energy going in the body. They they figured out a way to get that energy to rise from that, you know, that base of the spine or the sacral area all the way up to the top of the head. But you have to be a very serious practitioner and do it on a very regular basis, and it's it's uh is extraordinary. And it's you know, there's so many energy events in the body, but the only one I think it throws people off because that people don't understand Kundalini has nothing to do with sex, they are they are different events entirely. But I think the best description that I can give that would explain the way that I see it is that you know, the the orgasm, you know, you you you're you're born and you're in the world, you have no idea until you do that the body is capable of an orgasm. And that's like a it's a very private event, and it's at a very extraordinary event, but it's it's quite expanding, right? It's like very surprising. It's like, oh, I didn't know my body. Oh wow, that's really weird. Well, kundalini is it's it's not about sex, but it's a very similar thing. It's something that can happen in the body that that is, you know, it's an event that happens. And once it happens, you start getting this circular or this orbit of energy that will come and circulate in the body. And it happens in different ways. Sometimes it feels like the energy is coming in, sometimes it feels like the energy's releasing. And so I'm no, I'm not an expert, you know. I don't know. I just do the best that I can to try and describe uh what I think it is, and then and then hopefully help other people do it. And and what it does is it it changes your whole life, it opens up your consciousness, you become a more aware person, for good or for bad.

unknown 18:53

Right.

Speaker 18:53

Oh, this is so interesting because you know, you're um it's so related to qigong and the you know the microcosmic org orbit and the macrocosmic orbit. And um oh nice, yeah. Um it that's just that same um and the orbit this way, and the orbit this way. Right.

Speaker 2 19:12

That's I mean that's the way I hear it described. That's not the way that I experience it, but I hear it described this way, which I get, and this way, like the cross, like the Holy Ghost.

Speaker 19:21

Yep, yep, yep. And the you know, we had have sound healing in uh, you know, there's hundreds, if not thousands, of different kinds of qigong, but um, in the one I was trained in, uh, there's specific sounds from ancient Taoist texts that um work with each organ system. And I yeah, I I love sound healing. That's why I stayed in teacher training for three years so I could teach it. But sound healing. Or qi okay, really? Wow. Yeah, I you know, it's like one year you can teach this one practice. If you stay for three years, you can teach these two other practices, which are the main ones I wanted to teach. So I'm like, okay, Siri's talking to me, which is a little odd. I don't think it's enlightenment, but I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 20:08

I mean, I don't think that there's any, I don't think that there's enlightenment. I'm gonna put it in quotes because I think that whatever you achieve, there's just something after that, and there's something after that, and something else. So everybody, I think we talk about these things as if they're one thing, and they're not. It's not. But yeah, the human experience is infinity, and you know, who knows uh what what conversations about certain things align and don't. I mean, it's just you know, you do the best you can try and understand what you're taught and then what you experience, and then you hope to do a a good job passing it on without messing it up.

Speaker 20:44

That's right, that's right. Yeah, I think you know, there's there's momentary aha moments, and um, yeah, and and it's interesting because I um in my qigong years, uh people would be describing all these things they would feel in their bodies, and and I'm like, I'm not feeling that. And uh what I'm seeing is my life is doing very interesting things, and I there's different things opening up to me on the outside, but I didn't feel anything that people were describing internally, and it it wasn't until I went to my first uh because I I did all the coursework online and all anyway, but I went to my first retreat in person, and I had heard that a sign of energy moving was your saliva would increase, and um uh so during sound healing, I I suddenly had all this saliva, and I'm like, yes, I finally got a sign that there's energy moving in my body.

Speaker 2 21:46

So, you know what? So there you go. Isn't that fascinating? So I'm told that energy moves in the body a certain way. You you're told that energy is moves or or you have a sign in another way, and you Received the sign that you were told about, and I received the sign that I was told about. And I think that is so true about the human condition. I think that they're seeds. And if you and that's the beauty of the passing on these traditions, if you plant those seeds in people's heads, the chances of them happening are far greater. I mean, you you can go online and read about people who have spontaneous Kundalini awakenings and they've never even heard of it, but that is very, very rare. I think it's more uh, you know, the seed is planted, and then your body's intelligence kind of steps up and goes, Oh, okay, let me let me let me create the saliva, you know, let me do the whatever it is that they and and I hear that all the time. Different people say that they have these different events in the body and they had been told about them before, and then they finally had it. It's like, oh my god, what does that tell us?

Speaker 22:47

Right, right, right. And then what's the um the impact of these, you know, these energy fields that um you know, we yes, we're individuals, but we're not really individual, and so um, you know, we've got these fields around us that um that move ourselves but also other people in various ways. It's like, yeah, I it's hard to describe what I'm trying to say, but but you know, for example, somehow in this lifetime I met you, which is kind of interesting, yeah. 100%.

Speaker 2 23:22

And I really, really I hold on to that and I and I recognize that is being the case with so many things that happen and yeah uh you know why that is, I I don't know. Right, but I love the idea of it. Yes. I love that I love that it does happen. I love that I read someplace that if you work really hard and you keep trying to achieve whatever spiritual greatness you have for yourself, that if the universe senses that it will start pushing you, it will start pushing you in a certain direction. It's almost like you're building energy, so it's some sort of energetic machine starts to happen too. And of course, when you experience it, you think the world is magical, it's unbelievable, and then it goes away. And you're like, what happened? Why you know, aren't I trying hard enough? Right. That space, that that very quiet, still, you know, space. Is that why? And then you keep, you know, you ask questions, you think it's just you know, then it becomes a game like everything else. And you think, well, you're missing the point, you know. You're gonna go chase something, then you're you're out of the game, you're out of it by chasing it.

Speaker 24:43

Well, that's that's where trust comes in, right? You know, you've said yes, you've opened yourself up to uh whatever this is, and then every now and then there's I'm just speaking from my own experience, there's a little sign like, Oh yeah, okay, all right, I don't have to try so hard, I just need to trust and listen. Yeah, um, yeah.

Speaker 2 25:06

Yeah, that is so true. And that's actually that's my practice now. And I it seems like I am progressively not as good as I used to be at it, probably because I've made it a practice. So I think I'm gonna call it a sign that I'm heading in the right direction because it's become so hard. But I am trying to teach myself how to let go. And uh it's been the toughest couple of years I've ever had in my life. Oh, because I have a lot to let I have a lot to let go of with the studio, with my personality, with my uh ability to communicate with people in the way that I want to, the, you know, to get the response that I want to, the the you know, and and the more I try, it seems like the harder it gets. And I just believe that I'm gonna reach some point, and then it I am literally and truly gonna let go. And it's all gonna look the way it should look, which is something you don't have that much control over, and you're just here to observe and and and and and and accept with as much grace as possible.

Speaker 1 26:17

Yeah.

Speaker 26:19

Oh that's that's really thank you for sharing that. Um sure. Yeah. And each person is so different. And yet um somehow or another there are connections made between people that are on that same yes journey. And um I don't know if you've done any tea meditations. That's my one of my latest, if you will, um it's not an obsession, it's just a new and really valuable to me practice. Um let's see, how did I even find her? It was uh this person, I think she's from Seattle. She's a consult a business consultant, but also um the person who offers tea meditation. Right now she's over in China with her teacher harvesting and creating these teas. And then every, I think four times a year, she does a seven-day tea sit, um, which is coming up in May. And it's just the most lovely meditation with the plant people. And um uh I don't know. I just got I was just thinking about that as you were talking, so I'm just passing that on to you. It's seven days. Is it seven days? Well, just for an hour in the morning, like at six thirty five to seven forty five in the morning. And they and you're with people or are you online together? Online, yeah. And um, I think most of her the people who come are her business clients and they're young and they have babies and stuff. So it's kind of I feel like the grandma in there, but uh interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, it's just it's this beautiful thing. And then I've been connected. We we're doing some teas here in my little town with some friends, and and uh one of my Qigong teachers also does tea. And then what's the other? Um, oh, and then I just got connected to Global Tea Hut.

Speaker 2 28:28

Anyway, it's what do you do?

Speaker 28:30

Do you serve tea or or and and and yeah, this one's a very um there are all different kinds of tea meditations. This one, so we we get these whole leaf teas and you have a tea bowl. Uh sorry, I'm already describing my oh well anyway, you have a tea bowl, and you first warm the the tea bowl because you are preparing the bowl so that the qi of the tea doesn't go into warming up the bowl, but the bowl's ready for the tea. So it's all very much um respectful of of the plant people and connecting in in gratitude um with uh the plants who have created the air that we have here to breathe. And and then so yes, so she's teaches us how to just uh drink the tea with reverence and with prayer, and then and she's got a couple a couple different meditations with the tea that she's learning from her teacher. Uh and then yeah, so for about after she introduces some meditations and some teachings, you drink tea for about 20 minutes, and so you're just it's like it is meditating because you're just um you know allowing the tea to go into your body, your lower Dantien.

Speaker 2 29:52

And um I love that. Anyway, Lower Dante, by the way, Lower Dantien. I think that's kundalini. I think that's the kundalini. I think the Dantien is the Kundalini. Yeah, I think they're they're they're they're referring to the same thing. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 30:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure there's there's probably some really great overlaps um between Kundalini Yoga and Qigong. It would it'd be interesting to follow that, um, follow those threads and see. I I have I have a belief that these practices that have mainly been given to us, I guess you'd say, by men, at least in this time frame, that women are now gathering these and connecting them and weaving them together. Like um my Qigang, I'm doing with Quechua with from my Andean practices, uh, which is the language of Peru, you know, the the highlands. Um so uh so connecting that that indigenous language with movements from China, which is kind of interesting. Um I've also been doing one of the practices with uh some of the chanting that you've given us, which um is very interesting too. So very cool.

Speaker 2 31:14

Yeah, incorporate and that is by the way, that's I love that. We all love that. We know, you know, I I I have a friend who uh practices uh I don't even know how you would put it, but she uh she she does ritual, you know, and she's very into uh communing with uh with spirits, and she incorporates the chanting that she loses that she you know learned from this kundalini practice. I mean it's you know it's gurmukhi, it's Sanskrit, and some other practices you use Hindi. They're all you know, they're all sourced from India, all the chance. Yeah, uh that's it's also oh good.

Speaker 31:58

I was gonna say it's all just so juicy what you share in our little bit of time in the mornings, you know.

Speaker 2 32:03

So oh good. Oh that's so nice. I I try and keep it the words as brief as possible, only because it's a daily practice. But the Sunday class, we we definitely I try and pick one concept. Uh, but I don't tend to, I don't know that it makes me very popular, but I don't tend to talk about concepts that I've read in a book. I I am more comfortable talking about the practicality of what we do and how it can affect your body and how it's a yoga of awareness, and you know, awareness extends to others, but it's mostly to yourself, you know. It's you know, are you aware of yourself? And the more aware of yourself, like drinking the tea, yeah, you become aware of that warmness and that beauty of a entering the body, and it's a somatic practice. I mean, kundalini yoga is a somatic practice as much as any other practice.

Speaker 32:58

I think that's what I love about your classes is that is that I can tell it comes from a place of experience and authenticity.

Speaker 2 33:07

And um, I really appreciate that. I appreciate that. Oh, thank you. Well, you're just you're saying that says a lot about you. So well, I'm gonna miss you for a month.

Speaker 33:17

That's I'm like, okay, I can do this.

Speaker 2 33:20

I I I know I was just telling Doris, the one who's taking over for the month, that I'm really feeling very insecure about leaving for the first time. I left in 2024, no problem for a month, no problem. But now I'm getting more attached to it. I don't know if that's a good thing, but it's been it's harder for me to leave this time. So but I'll be back. We'll do something. I think it's a break is good for everybody, and you guys get a different perspective of the practice. Uh and you know, uh Doris was my, you know, she was one of my teachers. So when I went through teacher training, I went through it with her, but she was one of the first ones to actually teach. And so a lot of us that went to that class would go to Doris's classes, and I always describe her as a teacher's teacher, and that's because that's the way I think of her. Oh, and uh so and she's also, you know, she just came back from India. She's she's been studying Ayurvedics and Jodish uh uh astrology for years now. I mean, she's very educated. This is not me. I am not, I do not consider myself educated in those ways, and nor do I care to. It's I'm I'm in my practice is different, but I love hearing about it. I love learning from people that take the time to figure things out and you know put it into language for the rest of us. But my Thursday class, it's normally kundalini yoga. She's taking over and she's gonna do a bit of kundalini yoga, but it's also uh Jotish uh astrology, which is very Eastern astrology is very different than Western, and she's gonna break it down. She's broken down to five different classes, so you should try and go, Betsy. I guess if you enjoy it.

Speaker 34:55

Thank you for that. Yeah, I I haven't really branched out other than your morning classes, so not even on the Sundays. I'll have to uh get more into it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah, there's so much out there, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:09

And that's one of the reasons why I don't. I've I what I've realized, there is so much out there that I'm more interested in the education of myself. I had to make a choice. It's like, where are you gonna spend your time? And it's really, you know, I teach 11 times a week, and yeah, that's not, you know, it's teaching me. It's teaching me a lot. I'm learning a lot. And it's not book learning, but it is the self.

Speaker 35:36

I'm learning a lot about the self. Yes, and I appreciate that so much. And uh thank you for putting it out there. You know, I just um the people that bring this um weaving and healing, the name of my podcast, um, you know, to others, it's just such a valuable thing. And when I, you know, you're right, there's a ton of things out there, and I have to be really careful, even though I'm retired, um, to really filter what what is meant for me, what really speaks to me. And your yoga class has just been essential. And um, I don't make it every day, but it's a it's a really essential practice for me, as is tea and qigong and um and then my my Peru Andean stuff. Yeah, and uh I know exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2 36:30

And if we you know if we could master what we have on our plate, how lucky would we be? Right. But you uh but these practices, isn't it amazing to think that we are practicing? This has been around for centuries and have been perfected by people who have none of the noise that we have. You know, some of them were in caves and they would like, you know, do the same thing. It's like, oh, my body does yes, that's really interesting. And what I've come to realize in the the practice of kundalini yoga, we you know, we talk about the broad brow point and you know, looking into the third eye and or you know, clenching the the pelvic floor muscles uh in order to try and get the energy come up. But but in deep meditation, and when I've done kundalini yoga for extended days, I realize that those practices are actually natural events and they happen in the body, and we teach them as things to do, like now look at the brow point or now you know clench your pelvic floor muscles. But if you never were taught that, the body will spontaneously create those events where you you experience them. Isn't that wild?

Speaker 37:35

That is wild, and I so believe that that makes so much sense. So much sense. Oh my goodness. Well, I don't want to take too much more of your time. This has been I know I knew I was gonna love talking to you.

Speaker 2 37:51

I just I knew I would.

Speaker 37:52

That was really fun, and you know, come up to Seattle, come say hi to us someday. Oh, I would love to. I haven't been to Seattle in a long time, and and yeah, I'd love to get back there. Oh, that would be fun to come in person. Oh my gosh. Exactly.

Speaker 2 38:06

And we love happy. I'm really appreciative. I should pass that back to you. It really makes me happy when I see you there because I know that you're a practitioner and you're coming from a different discipline, and it makes me happy when you come, as it does the other, the other students that come along. So I could just like, wow, who are we and what are we doing?

Speaker 38:27

And do we know what we're doing? And good for us. And do we need to know what we're doing? Probably. I do think I think there's all these fields, energy fields that we've been called to to create together, whether we know it or not. I think this is part of the earth healing, and maybe we don't really need to know exactly what we're doing, as long as we're we have good hearts.