Ep #29: Limb Two Niyamas: Saucha, Cleanliness: Guts, Brains, Clutter

Slayer gets down in this episode singing us a jam. As if that's not entertaining enough, we get a nice visual of poo being shipped off in vials for the mad scientists at the Gut Health Lab to analyze so we can clean up our gut and eating. Lots of goodies packed in this episode about the 2nd limb of yoga, the Niyamas and the first of 5 of them: Saucha. In practicing saucha in our lives, we create more space to create, live healthier lives on our paths to self-realization. Self-discovery is key in this Niyama as Slayer shares with us and gives us plenty of tools to do so.

References in the Show:

Heartsing Podcast Episodes
More on Magic Pages and the Mind
Episode 11: Game Changers: Meditation, Magic Pages, Weight Loss Thoughts
Episode 20: Weight Loss: Sugar, Carbs and Fasting
Episode 21 Weight Loss Stories from MEfirst Sisterhood

Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga
365 daily reflections offering a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life, from the acclaimed yoga teacher, Rolf Gates.

To Reference more on Patanjali and the Yoga Sutras:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Sacred Teachings)

Viome Gut Health Test
https://beta.viome.com/

AddieBeall.com


Get Social with Me!
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Transcript

Limb Two Niyamas: Saucha, Purity: Guts, Brains, Clutter

Episode 29 brought to you by reflective Coffee Shop Addie. Listen, I am so jazzed about the Second Limb of yoga, the Niyamas, of which there are 5 and they are all my JAM! So as I started writing to try and squeeze all 5 of these paths of self observance and care that Patantaji laid out for us way back somewhere around 500 AD, I realized pretty quickly—we are only getting one of these bad boys in today! 

Today I will be sharing with you  about the first of the 5 Niyamas, which is known as Saucha or cleanliness or purity. Now, before you run for the hills—I promise to not only make this somewhat entertaining for you, but leave you with some tools you can implement now to create more peace in your life!

I will of course share my story, cause it’s what I do, and also some tips and tricks to inspire you on your Quest. Really no matter what that quest is-better health, more happiness, business goals.

As I was researching for this episode, I ran into this book I am LOVING called Meditations from the Mat. The book is a stories from this yoga teacher about applying these principles to every day life, much like we are doing here in this podcast. 
 
As I was leaving the coffee shop today in mid-writing of this episode, I got in the car and was listening to this book, and the chapter I’m on opened with this line from one of my all time favorite songs by the Indigo Girls “Darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable, and lightness has a call that is hard to hear.”

I used to LOVE this song you guys. 

Picture 1980’s Addie singing at the top of her lungs just feeling like the world didn’t understand me. 

I remember feeling like this song just GOT me, but now I see it in a whole new way…all of it, the darkness and the light, the part where she talks about seeking “solace in a bottle at 3 am, or possibly a friend and she went in “seeking clarity” but woke up with a head foggier than ever. 

Hell if this wasn’t a good portion of my life, with food, wine, Netflix…all the things….wanting to FEEL better. 

Wanting clarity and just making it foggier through trying to solve my emotions with things outside of myself until I ended up in that 300 pound ball of misery you here me refer to so often.

AgggggHHh!!! 

It’s just so clear—seeking clarity everywhere but where it is—right inside, where the light is. 

The divinity that is already within us. 

This is like with weight loss. I spent my entire life seeking outside of myself for the solution. 

This diet, this exercise program, this health tip…and, while I will tell you that this knowledge has indeed helped me learn to live a healthier life and lose weight, that my transformation ultimately came when I turned the magnifying glass inside of me and got to my darkness, and even embraced it.

Through Meditation, uncovering my light that was hard to hear…because I was so busy shoving all these things in my body and mind that I didn’t have space to hear.

I had no idea. 

As I started the meditation practice, I started to hear this voice that was ME, but deeper. 

Seeming magical and mystical at first. 

The voice I would hear throughout my life that I would chalk up to “crazy” and my inner critic would chime in any time she had a great idea and shoot that ME down. 

That ME is loud in different ways. She only has so many tools at her disposal. 

She can communicate through my body I learned, so as I started to get healthier and create more space and energy to hear my insides, I got more in tune with my true nature, and this guidance system inside. 

Then I stumbled into a few different avenues of clearing my mind as well…and that was added super powers and fits right in with this first of the Niyamas. 

Through clearing my mind and doing the work I could see how I was actually responsible for everything I have created through my THOUGHTS. 

It was so powerful to take them out and have a look at them!

To not be afraid of those darks parts within me, but start to embrace them??? What? 

Are you CRAZY?! 

LOL. Now, I’m like, what more darkness can I find? Let’s get it ALL out! 

The Indigo Girls then talk about trying to define the source—going to churches and mountains…we GO places…and ha! 

Jokes on us, right? Because we don’t have to go anywhere at all. It’s right within, we just can’t hear it because we are so busy trying to define it. 

And that brings us to the title of the song, closer to FINE…when we let go. 

When we let go of that blanket of fear, stop trying to define our lives. 

Stop allowing the dark choices that don’t serve us—the road of Preya and not the choices that take us to the light—the path to Shreya. 

The Solace in a bottle at 3 AM.

This episode is all clearing that space so we can make room for us to hear what is right within…so we can know we are “closer to fine” 

And…. closer to what is divine. 

So, let’s get Closer to Fine, shall we? 

Before I dig in, because you will hear yoga a lot—let’s again define this. 

It is not just positions on a mat that is yoga, although that is one path. 

Yoga comes from the sanskrit “Yuj” which means to join and this is meant body, mind, spirit, breath, environment…all of it. 

So, as we discuss yoga on the Heartsing Podcast know that I will refer to the physical postures as Asana yoga to help with the confusion and we will talk about that specifically next week and how to make it accessible to you, no matter your level of fitness and why you want this part of your habit stack eventually—and how it can be much “easier” than you may think and even enjoyable!

This week I am so excited to share with you about the Niyamas, the second limb of yoga as taught to us by the ancient sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. 

Last week we dug into the Yamas, which are about all of those things outside of us…how we show up in the world, including even our energy we are putting in the world through our thoughts, not just our actions. 

Living in Love, showing love in our thoughts, words and actions. 

For people just joining in or maybe missed the last 2 episodes, no worries, they are not dependent upon one another, just like the limbs of yoga themselves aren’t. 

You can experience the path of yoga from any limb, any time, in many ways, but it is said that the Yamas and the Niyamas, the first two limbs are the foundation for the rest of the path. 

All of these paths, or limbs are areas for us to explore and develop as we return to the understanding of who we truly are. 

That space and light within us. 

Nothing is required except our dedication to wanting to change, to seeking to improve our lives. 

That’s it. 

Seems so simple when you put it like that, huh? 

In the upcoming weeks we will talk about the remaining limbs of yoga which include Asana postures and 

Pranayama—or the breath, the life force…mastering our breath leads us to still the mind and again, prepares us for the practice of being able to focus, or meditation

Pratyahara and has to do with withdrawing from the 5 senses. 

Dharana where you choose what to focus on and learn how to focus your mind. 

Dhyana is where we master the ability to focus and referred to often as meditation and finally

Samadhi is where our consciousness becomes the object. 

Where we are one. 

The light within that if you picture these paths of yoga more like circles going in, Samadhi would be the inner most circle. 

However, we can also think of all of these like spokes on a wheel too…that each of these spokes helps us move the wheel forward and hold it up and work together to help us reach the ultimate goal or self actualization.

And, this is why there is no quick solution. 

And, indeed we spend most of our lives seeking something we just don’t know WHAT. 

I have been on this recent part of my journey for just 3 years and made many changes, but they were all small at first, tiny little baby steps. 

The Niyamas are the things that we work on within ourselves on this path and this is the part I realized that are all things that are included in the MEfirst process, the sisterhood and that the guide I created. 

Now, mind you I’m not the first person to put this all together in this century, or the century before. 

We just all have different ways of doing it, see it through different lenses that are colored by our life experiences. You will see my process and teachings evolve from my desire for a healthier body. 

This is what propelled me to seek. I thought if I could just get thin, happy would be there, and while in a sense that has been true, it hasn’t been because of how I thought, or how I was conditioned.  

What are you seeking? 

Many of you that find me are on the path seeking that same holy grail of weight loss, but as we start to dive in, we realize it’s about so much more…and start to create magic in our lives. 

For me, I like systems. I always liked to set up my offices, and create checklists and procedures. To train people and look for efficiencies so I could better help the process and my teams grow. 

I even created a procedure manual at one point in my career for a small property management company. 

So, as my journey unfolded and I started to teach others, it was a natural progression for me to create a similar process so I could help teach others and that was how the MEfirst Guide and course was born from trying to teach those in my sisterhood some of these things you will hear today and many others.

So amazing when we can look back and see how the path set us up for where we are. 

Look at your path—how has everything you have done lead you to where you are? 

It was really remarkable when I came onto this information from THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO and realized I just took a really long way to get to something that has been a staple in so many paths to self actualization. LOL! 

However, what that long path did for me was help me put a process in place to help guide others in today’s world that are seeking as I was for the ever illusive holy grail of weight loss. 

MY people—YOU! That’s right, you are my also crazy, delightful, love and light filled humans that might just be amused enough by my story and voice to find a path in for yourselves. 

So here we are my friends, over 3 years of sharing my story, over 100 pounds shed and a body full of heartsing to take it’s place! 

Listen closely to this episode, it holds so many nuggets to use on the path that you are on already. 

Through this process, we Start to bring to light these aspects of us we keep hidden. 

We start to take ownership of our lives and make long lasting changes. 

We develop more and more of the superpower of awareness.

This episode will involve many HOWS, but the important thing I want to stress is TINY LITTLE CHANGES. 

One OF OUR favorite saying sin the sisterhood is “Step away from Perfect” 

I say this to myself all of the time—see Corporate Addie Perfectionism episode for more on that. Heh

Okay, enough of the disclaimer to take baby steps—here’s the meat, let’s get to it!

Niyamas: laws of personal observance—if that doesn’t say it all. Learning to become the observer, that is half the battle isn’t it? We spend so much time judging….yes, other people, but even more so ourselves. 

You know what they say about who your harshest critic is.

HEH.

Well, in order to affect true transformation, we need to start putting on our scientist’s hat as we take a look at ourselves inside. To learn to do this objectively is a game changer on this path. 

I already shared that the first Niyama is Saucha, meaning cleanliness—what toxins do we need to cleanse within us? 

Just THINK of all the things covered in just this ONE Niyama! 

As we work to purify our bodies and minds and environments…the topics are literally endless here! 

On my food is fuel journey, there has been a direct correlation with how well I am fueling my body and how well I HEAR my inner voice and as I release this attachment to food as an object of affection…think about that. 

I hear this a lot (and was it a lot), “But I LOVE pizza” or “I’m not GIVING up foods I love”. 

Look, I get it and no one is saying you HAVE to “give up foods” to lose weight. You can just eat less, of course.

But as you start to acknowledge that what you put in your body MATTERS. 

That your cells are changing in each moment, and in each moment you have a choice to help your amazing vessel you were given to experience this world to better health and longevity, 

maybe you start to make choices that have a little bit less of those foods you “LOVE” because you want to FEEL good and because, well, quite simply—it’s EASIER.

I would like to offer you this thought—you LOVE your children. You LOVE yourself. 

You might even love your husband—hahahah…totally kidding, I’m sure you do 😉 

Pizza….TASTES good.  

Perhaps you love the TASTE of pizza and maybe the comatose state it puts you in so you don’t have to think and feel.

You are not in love with the pizza. 

But we get so emotional about it—like you are having a child taken away. 

NOOOOOO not the pizza! 

LOL! Funny, right? And then you head off on a tailspin of “I’m being restricted so now I’m going to binge.” 

Hmmm. Guess who is in control of ALL of that? 

You. In your MIND. 

I know, that sucks huh? 

We restrict ourselves ALL the time in many areas of our lives. 

We just like to keep lying to ourselves about food because it tastes good and the brain gets happy dopamine hits. Look, I’m not saying I’m totally pure over here, but I am much cleaner than I was when I started and that too is a gradual process. 

But, let’s start with Satya, a Yama from the last episode meaning Truthfulness. 

Let’s start being honest with ourselves and at least have the awareness around what we are doing so we can make better choices. 

What is your food you LOVE, that you are like HELL NO SLAYER?!!! 

I had plenty, and pizza was one once upon a time! 

My love affair with pizza stopped long before I lost all the weight though.

Here’s the thing—if you knew you got sick every time you ate pizza, would you keep doing it (some of you will say yes, but let me tell you from being a person that gets sick eating pizza—I can’t have tomatoes or night shades without breaking out). 

I no longer LOVE pizza and extremely rarely eat it…even without tomato sauce.

Would I enjoy the taste of pizza? Absolutely.

Would I enjoy the red rash of excema that breaks out all over my neck and sometimes my face and other areas of my body that is itchy? 

Um, hell no. 

My body was literally SHOWING me what was not good), but I would dabble because I LOVED pizza so much. 

So, I would hurt myself for the taste of pizza. Hmmmm. 

I still do it sometimes. One of those everytime I’m like, “Damn, why did I do that?”

We sure like to keep hurting ourselves, huh?

You know how else we hurt our bodies? 

Carrying excess weight, not getting enough nutrients from good foods…

I see this mental dance on gut health tests (which brings us to an act of Saucha—cleansing our guts), and 

I’m as guilty as all get out on this one.  

You might be thinking what is a gut health test?  

Next month I’m digging in that science more, so stay tuned for that, but basically You order a kit, take a poo and send it in top a lab of amazing scientists who analyze your microbiome and all that fancy science stuff that goes on in your gut. 

Did you know the gut is where 90% of your immunity powers exists? 

90% you guys and we are messing around with so many processed foods and crap!

Okay…anyhow,…these amazing scientists finish their magic and they send you back a list of foods for YOU and your gut!

Guess what you CANNOT type in to the list? PIZZA

Hahaha. Of course not! 

It’s not the weight watchers app with more processed foods than whole foods, all the crap we have created on the planet to pollute our bodies in one quick source so we can ponder what to spend our allotted calories on. 

These are ingredients my friends! I know, right?! 

What a concept. hahaha

And we use our bodies to tell us when and how much to eat. 

The gut health test will tell you serving sizes and guidelines, but I haven’t done that this entire journey. 

I’m listening to my internal guidance system…for the first time in my almost 50 years on this planet! 

Well, except when I was an infant I’m sure.

My last gut test came back that I had an apple virus! What?! An apple virus!

I have literally not eaten an apple since (and I’m well over due for a test to see if I can add them back in). 

Now, this has probably reversed, but I’m so trained by that, I just don’t eat apples. 

And let me tell you, I LOVED apples! 

I was eating one a day, you know to keep the Dr. away. hahahah

But, I have eaten many other things that are so bad for your gut they aren’t even LISTED on the test—Processed to heck pizza of course, Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked Ice Cream to name another— Just picking one out of the blue you know 😉 ha! 

Maybe if I could get them to send me a list of my foods I love back on a gut health test as I have a virus to it, it would make it easier to stop? 

It sure did with pizza and apples. The consequences were right in front of my face. 

There are all kinds of consequences on labels and we don’t even see them. 

Okay, this turned into a bit of a food rant, and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I did not start my journey eating as clean as I do now, and I will not end my journey where I am at. 

I started making small, healthier choices, never giving up on the fact that I could one day be a person not obsessed with food. 

And, guess what you guys, it’s working. 

So if I sound passionate about this cleaning out our bodies, it’s because I want you to feel it too, and I know it’s possible for every single human now. 

Just keep making those small changes. 

As you do this, the cleaner we get our bodies, and the more engrained our new habits become, the less time we spend on “when will I get that pizza I love” and more time we spend on creating our lives from a that magic space and getting love from WITHIN us

In the groups I coach there are several people playing with their gut health and can even tell how things are processing just by listening to their body. 

You know what this gives you? The superpower of awareness of your BODY. You can actually hear the signals that you were intended to because your body isn’t running around on a 5-alarm alert trying to process all the crap you put in to it. 

Then guess what? 

Then you want that stuff that causes the alarms even less. 

But first? 

You gotta clean it out and that is a process sometimes…unless we are told we have a virus, apparently, then it’s easy. 

What about Saucha for your mind? 

I could go on this cleansing topic all day! Someone rope me in! hahaha

This is why you hear me rant on about the Magic Morning Pages that I rave on about in the Game Changers Episode! 

This is a tactic to clean your brain out! 3 pages of stream of conscious writing…you latterly DUMP it out versus maybe journaling with a prompt or an idea where it is more guided—which will also clean you out! The more you can write out what is in your brain, the better. Once you can SEE it, you can do something about it. 

Brain dump your TO do’s and goals out quarterly, monthly and weekly—cleaning this out helps us see what is important and what is just JUNK. 

Then we can literally dump the junk and take action on what will help us get to our goals!

Do you have a journaling practice of any sort? 

I highly recommend it. It is one of the first habits I implemented on my path and a GAME CHANGER.

How about a coach? 

Do you have a life coach or someone you talk to that is just for YOU? 

That you can release what is in your mind and work through your thoughts and have them seen from a completely objective, judgement free zone? POWERFUL! 

Investing in coaches on my path has been a catalyst and I self-coach myself every day through magic pages and the MEfirst Guide process that is full of opportunities for self-reflection. 

Saucha in our environment

Clearing my space has been coming at me from the Universe lately in many ways. 

Through abundance work I was doing, through minimalization posts in my feed, and then the cincher—I’m in the life coach school self coaching schooler (did I mention I love to learn???) heh

I was listening to Brooke Castillo talk about Clearing the clutter, and she said this one thing that changed everything for me (Brook has a lot of these nuggets for me for some reason--where I will hear one line and it changes my perception. 

She said all of these things in our space are taking our energy. 

That if we are desiring to create from our future, to constantly have our brains thinking about other things is distracting us from creating. 

OMG! 

You know how I am about my energy and creating right?!

Well, I have emptied two car loads of things like clothes that no longer fit. Items of my Mom’s I was hanging on to that I realized are just filling space I could be creating with.

Mom wouldn’t want that! I can think about her any time I choose, and have plenty of photos to look at if I want to take a trip down memory lane. I cleaned out dishes I haven’t used. 

I can’t believe how much stuff I have packed in the 26 foot Adventure RV! 

How did this happen? 

What about you? 

Do you have “space” for abundance? 

For thinking? 

What are we hanging on to with all of these “things” or being afraid we won’t have that one thing we need to use two years from now? 

This is the year I clear the space and I don’t fill it back up with THINGS. 

How else can we clean our environment? 

Because as we learn in understanding yoga—it is a connection of body, mind and soul and our environment…because our environment is in us. We are the creator. 

Maybe we clean up what we are watching too—on TV and social media-clean up your newsfeed so to speak!

Clear the clutter from your inbox…unsubscribe to people…unless it has Slayer in it, then keep that email. Heh

Are you following people on social media that don’t make you feel good? 

Are you experiencing negative emotion because of these things in your environment? 

This could relate to drains in our lives too. Remember that episode of the podcast about Radiators—the people in your life that lift you up and Drains…the ones that bring you down. 

Watching what toxins you are putting in your mind and space are just as important as our bodies…maybe more so. 

How can you relate this Niyama to your life? 

Let’s recap some ways you can take action on Saucha-

Clean your body—

·     you can get a gut health test, I’ll link a popular one below. 

·     You can increase your knowledge in an area such as the impact of flour and sugar on your body I’’ll link an episode I did on this that also has more resources, and we talk about this a lot in the Facebook group too.

·     you could start making small choices to choose the veggies over the pizza more times

·     You could not over fuel—therefore creating more space in your body so you can feel your emotions and what is going on in there.

Clean your mind—

·     Magic Morning Pages—I’ll link the game changers episode in the show notes for you to help with this process if you don’t have a journaling practice. 

·     You can set goals and empty your mind about everything you will need to do to get there—including what your road blocks are, this becomes your action list to take small steps on. 

·     You could hire a coach—I know a great one who just happens to have a slot open in my private coaching schedule…hee hee. I’ll put a coaching link below so you can see more about that. 

Clean your environment

·     Clear you house, car, garage…get the clutter out. Start with a drawer and work your way up. 

·     Make your bed every day. 

·     Clean the sinks. 

·     Clean out your newsfeed, email inbox. 

·     Watch your news and TV Show consumption and be mindful to balance it out.

REMEMBER:  Pick one area to work on—maybe your gut health, cleaning a closet or cleaning out your brain. 

Start small, so often we give up because we try to do ALL THE THINGS. 

Who is guilty for being in that club? 

I know I was…I’m going to eat right, go to the gym , journal, plan…all at one, and I had never done any of it habitually. What happens? After a few weeks your brain is like “F_YOU SLAYER—back to the pizza and red wine chickie! 

This is WAY to uncomfortable. 

So, instead,  create a vision of your future self and take small tiny actions each day, but also release the vision. Pick one of these things to actively work on. You can dabble in others, but only make a habit out of one at a time. 

We didn’t create these bodies and lives overnight, we are in this for the long game my friends.

Allow the Universe to deliver the path, as you take small little actions toward what you want. 

We will talk more about this when we hit the 5th Niyama, so stay tuned!

And join me LIVE in the FREE Facebook Group it’s been SO fun to see all the new sisters coming in from listening to the podcast! If you aren’t in there already, hit the link in the show notes and be sure to answer the questions so the Young Jedi will let you in so I can chat with you LIVE! I can’t wait to get to know you and let’s clear space in our hearts, minds and souls together and connect on a whole new level! 

As always, thank you for all of the love my loves! 

See, you can LOVE me, just not the pizza…bahahahahah. I really appreciate all of the shares, comments, feedbacks and reviews! It really means the world. If you haven’t left one yet, and, well, hopefully you enjoyed this since you made it to the end…please drop me a review! It helps the podcast get noticed! 

Until next week my Witches and Bitches, 

Slayer Out!

 [AK1]Could mention episode 3 for the story of Preya and Shreya—I need to edit this out