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Nearly Enlightened
Join Nearly Enlightened's host Giana Giarrusso and discover the body, mind and spirit connection! The Nearly Enlightened Podcast is for the soul-centered seeker who is on the path of personal growth and spiritual development. This podcast takes a light-hearted approach exploring topics rooted in themes of mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
Nearly Enlightened
Yoga, Intention, and the Power Within with Dannica Lowery
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Join us as we sit down with Dannica Lowery, who takes us through her recent adventures to Italy, spanning Rome, Puglia, and the Amalfi Coast. Danica's journey is a tapestry of emotional connections, especially her unforgettable encounter with Emanuele and Alba in a small town outside of Rome. You'll be intrigued by her discovery of the unexpected cultural ties between Puglia and Muscogee through the humble prickly pear cactus, illustrating how different worlds can surprisingly intertwine.
What if your heart could literally shape your reality? In our riveting discussion on the Heart Core Intention Masterclass, we explore the intersection of quantum physics and spirituality. Learn about the helical ventricular myocardial band and its implications for understanding the heart as a vortex generating scalar energy fields. Featuring insights from the Heart Math Institute, this segment delves into the power of our hearts in creating our desired realities and suggests that our very biology is designed for creation. This episode will open your mind to the profound realization that we might be living in a kingdom of potential, crafted by our intentions and heart energy.
Ever thought about the transformative power of sense withdrawal? We unpack this ancient yogic practice, highlighting how redirecting awareness inward can manifest desired outcomes and align with spiritual faith. Our conversation also navigates the nuanced world of yoga principles, underscoring the importance of discipline and mental stillness. From the generational differences in problem-solving to the impact of modern textiles on our health, this episode is a treasure trove of practical wisdom. Finally, we celebrate the joy of returning to in-person yoga sessions in community spaces, emphasizing the profound connection between nature, spirituality, and our daily practices. Tune in for an inspiring journey that promises to enlighten and elevate your everyday life.
Heart Core Masterclass:
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Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened podcast. I am your host, gianna DiRusso, and today I am joined again by my friend, danica Lowry. Danica, welcome, thanks for having me again. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to have you. If you want a refresher on a little bit of Danica's background, please go listen to our episode that we just recorded, like literally a couple of weeks ago, Um, and then she was on. I think it's crazy, but I think it was like 2022. Um, so if you haven't listened to those episodes, go back, listen to them. Um, if you need a little refresher. She integrates yoga philosophy, quantum principles, somatic practices and plant alchemy to help guide individuals on transformative journeys, fostering connections that ground and enlighten, and I feel like this is the perfect space to talk about this. Danica, you just got back from like a really amazing trip to my ancestral motherland, Italy. How was it? How's it being back?
Speaker 2:Well, it was the trip of a lifetime, and I have. I've been to Italy before, once before, when I hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc. I spent briefly, just a few days in Cormiore, but that's a completely different region that we've than we visited this time, and my husband and I decided that we were going to take two weeks and we were just going to fly into Rome, rent a car and drive to Puglia, which I didn't know, but your dad is from Puglia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like right outside that region, vieste, like so crazy, because it's not really like. It's kind of off the beaten path, like not. I think tourists are starting to catch on about how great it is now, but it's not an area like. If my friends have ever visited, that's like, oh, I'm going there. So when I saw you there, I was like, oh my God, yes.
Speaker 2:Well, unfortunately, I didn't get to go to VSA. It was on our list but we didn't get to. We actually didn't make it, unfortunately. But we rented a car and we spent 10 days in Puglia, with our home base kind of in Ostuni, and we took little day trips to some of the neighboring cities. Vieste was like two and a half hours from Ostuni, so it was. It was a little hard for us to do a day trip after being in the car. Like you know, most of the days walk around.
Speaker 2:So, and then we spent a couple days in positano, on the amalfi coast, and then we, um, and then our last night, before we flew out, we booked this little room, uh, in this b&b on a whim, and I just I was like we could stay close to the airport on our last night, you know, and that way we could have a slow morning or we could just choose a random place that we've never been or never heard of and just try it out and see what it's like.
Speaker 2:And so I found this, this photo. I was just looking on the map on Airbnb and I found this photo that was of this cute little terrace and I was like, oh, let's just, let's stay here Cause this looks cute. You know, and that was actually the most incredible experience of our entire trip the people that hosted us their names were Emanuele and Alba and they didn't speak any English and we were using Google translate to communicate the entire time but they treated us like family. They gave us private meals, they gave us a private tour of the city in their own car and, um, when we had to leave the next morning, all of us were just almost in tears. It was so fun. And, um, that last experience in Arche with, um, the couple that I just mentioned, I think it was so profound, because for the 14 days that we were there, I noticed that I wanted to. I wanted to make a friend.
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't know how else to describe it. It's like I, I, I wanted to like make contact, reach out and make contact with someone and of course, I had, like little you know, experiences here and there communicating with people and just interactions and stuff. And I had a couple of really wonderful interactions with, like, a guy in a laundromat and then, um, a woman who owned, uh, a little restaurant in Astuni and we exchanged numbers, Um, but on our last night there, to really be made to feel like family was it was really deeply emotional and and I just loved it so much. It was one of the greatest trips I've ever taken and I've traveled to many places and this is probably like my fourth or fifth time to Europe and it was, it was just so wonderful.
Speaker 1:You could literally see it in your pictures. I was like my heart was bursting looking at them. I was like, ah, like first of all I'm having like crazy FOMO.
Speaker 2:So I found this link, this connection between Poolean culture and Muskogee culture.
Speaker 2:Whoa, I love this, yeah, so um, when I was there, I noticed prickly pear cactus everywhere and I noticed that people were taking some of the arms of the cacti and the fruit of the cacti and they were hanging it in like outside of their doors and stuff like that. And so I started asking people and I looked it up and I found that the sorry, the Italian explorers brought it from the Americas and took it over there. Now there's all this lore around it like cultural lore and Puglia, and it's considered a symbol of like prosperity and like abundance and good luck and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And in Muscogee culture, muscogee and people are known for our shell carvings and back before we had dremel tools and stuff like that we would ferment the prickly pear cacti juice, which is native to the area here, and we would use the fermented juice to carve into the shells. And we would use the fermented juice to carve into the shells. The fermented acidic juice would actually like eat the lines into the shells and we would paint it with like pig, like boar hair or something like that. And yeah, so it's like a really important part of Muscogeean culture and it's also a really important part of Boolean culture. Now.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh my gosh, that's so crazy. I literally grew up my grandparents would spend every summer there and they would come back and they would bring like all of these goodies and they would literally bring like a suitcase back full of prickly pears. So it's funny. I never knew that. I just knew like it was something that they did, they ate, they loved it. I'm like this is like sacrilegious, but I'm not really like a huge fan. Um, uh, but my dad is. He goes crazy over it. Like he would literally have me ship him some back when I was living in Arizona, cause it's part of the culture there too. Um, like this time of year, everything is prickly pear, from like jam to like juices, literally everything. So he would have me ship them from Arizona to Rhode Island, because it's like almost impossible to get it here.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so funny. I wonder if there are different species because we have native prickly pear here in Florida and I have some growing in my yard and I see it all the time growing out whenever I walk in the state parks and the trails and stuff and I wonder if it's a different species than it is in Arizona.
Speaker 1:I would be curious, or if it's like a story like that, how the Italians took it back from here, if it just kind of like made its way through trade, because even like with colonization comes like other things too, right Like. So the Rosigosa is huge in this area. It literally runs from like maine all the way down the coast and it's super invasive and it was brought over by, I believe, like the anglo-saxons and they they planted it here and then it, like you know, accidentally took over the whole coast from like Maine to Florida. Um, so I wonder if it's more of a story like that, or I'd be curious. So if anyone knows, please reach out to us. I'm going to be Googling later. Yeah, down the Google rabbit hole. Um, the other thing that I really wanted to have you on here to talk about is your hardcore intention masterclass. So it's something that I took. I believe you ran it in the late winter, early spring, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:I think I did it on the spring equinox.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds right.
Speaker 2:If I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1:Yeah and um. So your love of quantum principles and quantum physics, like I just um, like I talked about it a little bit on the podcast with Stefan um, because he is a physicist, and um, yeah, yeah, if you haven't listened to that episode, he's really cool. He is basically like he is the weatherman of the future, like he talks about space, weather and energies and frequencies and um, quantum physics and he brings in all of the sciences and for it's so funny because for so many people like science and spirituality have felt like two opposite ends of a spectrum and I love his perspective because they're one in the same for him. And like the more you learn, the more you dig in. It's like, oh yes, like it actually is one in the same.
Speaker 2:Well, I think quantum physics is the thing that kind of bridged that gap. It started to. It started to bridge the gap between classical physics and spirituality and what I've seen it do is bring everything back full circle. So now science is actually explaining spirituality.
Speaker 1:Which like love to see it because so many of us like me it's like oh, no, she's just kooky. It's like, no, no, there's like actual science behind this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the hardcore intention masterclass and I, I, uh, it took me a long time to come up with that name Because in the masterclass we talk about intention and how it's a posture of your heart and the function of the heart. Because there's a structure in the heart that is known as the helical ventricular myocardial band and this was discovered by a Spanish cardiologist. And when he discovered this helical structure of the heart that uses, when he discovered this helical structure of the heart that uses, um, vortex physics to to function it, it kind of threw a kind of threw a wrench in classical cardiology, you know, and people were like, oh, the heart's a pump, but it actually is, is not the way that they were teaching Um, the function of the heart was? It wasn't quite accurate. And it's interesting because if you look back across ancient times, people talked about the heart being a vortex, but they couldn't really prove it and for a while the structure of the heart was called a Gordian knot, and a Gordian knot is like an impossible knot to unravel, right, it's like a puzzle that you can't solve. And Dr Torrent Guas, who was the Spanish cardiologist, he actually unraveled the heart and saw that it was folded in on itself and he named it the helical ventricular myocardial band, and this creates the ventricles of the heart, the left and right ventricles of the heart, and the way that it causes the blood to move through the heart is in a vortical nature, meaning it's a vortex. But the specific way that the helical ventricular myocardial band is folded in on itself is very similar to a triple twisted Mobius strip.
Speaker 2:And the triple twisted Mobius strip is the same structure that physicists have used to generate scalar fields. And the scalar fields are also sometimes called Tesla waves. It's the famous waves that Tesla used in his Colorado Springs experiments. And then in the class I have some declassified CIA documents that go into how some of these scientists, these physicists who were working for the government, they'd started to use triple twisted Mobius strips to generate scalar fields.
Speaker 2:So through all of this information, pretty much the premise of this master class is that our hearts generate scalar energy fields, and this has been proven by the Hart Math Institute over and over again. And what makes scalar fields so interesting is that they're actually a potential. They're not the same type of electromagnetic waves that we would see that has a directional component, like light. Like light is radiating, it's moving in a certain way right. So a scalar energy field, rather, is a potential field. It lacks a directional component. And so the reason why I named it heart core intention is because our intention, the posture of our heart, the way that we visualize the, that actually gives these scalar fields a movement, a direction to move towards. And in the class I kind of break down how to become a quantum event, like not so much that you are working towards an event that you're trying to manifest to happen, but that you can become the event and you collapse time and space and you can actually build the reality that you want to live in using this intelligent design of your heart.
Speaker 1:Right, and that is super powerful, because we in the spiritual community we talk about manifestation all the time and it feels like this, like elusive, kind of like a theoretical concept, but really there is like. This gives it some tangible like weight to it, where it's like no, no, no, there's like it's, it's, it's real, it's not just like thinking and it will appear.
Speaker 2:It's in your biology. I mean, you were created in the image of God as a creator and it's literally in your biology, it's written in your biology and it's incredible. Stuff like that is fascinating to me.
Speaker 1:Yes, it almost stops you in your tracks because it seems so powerful and, as you're practicing these concepts, it can be overwhelming. You can create anything you want. You can create the life of your dreams. It's like it's, it's right there in front of us, it's, it's totally available to us and I, going back and like starting to read the Bible with new eyes and, um, just uncover new layers of spirituality for myself. I truly believe that earth this is like going to be a super radical statement here. Everyone buckle up I truly believe that earth is the kingdom of God. It's not in heaven. I mean, yes, it's heaven too, but like we have detached ourselves from the reality that this right here, the here and now, is the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I was about to disagree with you until you changed your statement. You said earth is the kingdom of God, and then you said the here and now is the kingdom of God. Okay, and so the only thing that I was going to disagree with was that in the scripture, jesus says the kingdom of God is within you. It's actually a heart posture, right? So this is everything that I was just talking about.
Speaker 2:It's a heart posture, it's a way of being, it's a life way, and then when we become it, when we become the kingdom of God on the inside, then we bring it forward and we live it and we create the ripple effect on earth. So, yes, I agree with you and I think it just needs. There's a. I think it needs a little bit more expansion to be able to hold the nuance there, because Jesus said in scripture when someone says, look, here is the kingdom of God, you'll know obviously I'm paraphrasing he's like, you'll know that. You know that's incorrect, because do not look there, do not look here, for the kingdom of God won't come by observation, it's actually in your heart. It's a heart posture, and when we can abide and live our lives by that heart posture, we do bring heaven to earth.
Speaker 1:We do bring heaven to earth. Yes, you just totally completed the thought.
Speaker 2:And so another thing that I talked about in the hardcore intention masterclass was concentration and the art of sense withdrawal. So Dharana and Pratyahara and Pratyahara and Pratyahara and Pratyahara I think I went into this in depth in the hardcore masterclass. I don't think I know I did, but as a yogi you know that was. Pratyahara was something that I think was not really ever explained well to me and I don't think a lot of people actually know what the art of sense withdrawal actually is and therefore it was kind of always this kind of abstract thing. But the art of the sense withdrawal, pratyahara, is something that is required in collapsing time and space and becoming the quantum event that we're trying to manifest. And when I figured this out, when it was revealed to me in my practice, I think of, like when people are like, where's your source? It's like my source, my source is divine source, like where'd you learn?
Speaker 2:that Right, exactly? Where'd you learn that? I sourced it From where? From the source. So when this was revealed to me in my practice, it was super profound for me and I felt so compelled to share it with other people, because for the longest time, pratyahara and sense withdrawal was conveyed to me as like sensory deprivation tanks and things like that you know.
Speaker 2:And so the art of the sense withdrawal is actually removing your awareness from the sensory input that's happening now, that's trying to tell you that your future and I'm using air quotes right now, that quantum event that you're trying to manifest is not happened yet.
Speaker 2:So sense withdrawal is withdrawing your awareness from all of the sensory input that's telling you that that event is not real or that it hasn't happened yet, or everything that's trying to solidify that it's impossible. Right, and drawing your awareness inward and conjuring the sensations that are the event, that the event is already done, that it's completed, and allowing yourself to to have the permission to feel those things right now. And that's how you're collecting time and space, right? So you have to ignore all of the information, the so-called proof around you that you have not manifested the thing and that the thing is nearly impossible, and then conjure the sensations of having the thing already now, in the present moment, right, because past and future are not really real. All that you have is the eternal moment. So you're collapsing time and space, drawing the event to you in that particular moment, and that's how you become the quantum event, using the art of sense withdrawal.
Speaker 1:That's a big one. Yes, sip, take a breath. That was. It's never been put to me like that before and for me, like I, it's been very surface level, sense withdrawal. It's like, oh, it's like a step of meditation. But when you really break it down like that, it, yeah, it's so much bigger, it's. There's a reason why it's its own limb and there's not just like one limb for just meditation, why it's its own limb and there's not just like one limb for just meditation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it is a step of meditation, you're right. And, like you said, it just it, it goes. It's more expansive than that and the meditation of becoming the event, you it, the art of the sense withdrawal is a mandatory part of it, because if you are trying to manifest an event, but you're still looking at the things around you as real confirmation that the event is not here, there's a dissonance, there's a conflict there, it's not going to happen, right? You can't look at the things in front of you and be like this is actually real, this is permanent, and then try to think yourself into another reality. To see the things in front of you as permanent is to deny that all things are possible with God in you.
Speaker 1:I love what you just said about. Oh my gosh, I like totally lost the thought. Wait, just paraphrase. Repeat what you just said really quick like totally lost the thought.
Speaker 2:Wait, just paraphrase. Repeat what you just said really quick. You to believe that the things in front of you are real and permanent is to deny that all things are possible with god in you yes, okay, let me try and gather my thought back.
Speaker 1:For this it was a lot I know I might have lost it. That's okay, it'll come, it'll come back. It will come back in the most perfect way. So, talking about this, this is really important because it's not just about thinking the thing and it will happen, but it's about changing your own internal frequency.
Speaker 2:It's about being the thing giving yourself permission to actually experience the thing without having the proof of it having been done in front of you yet. That's what faith is. Faith is how is it said in the Bible? There's a quote that I'm trying to recall right now. That's in the Bible. It's like it's the substance of the things not yet seen. Like you're, you're actually becoming a container for the substance of the things that are not yet seen. So you're holding the frequency and the sensations inside of having that experience.
Speaker 2:And what's so cool is that at the end of that masterclass I did in meditation, where we're talking about how your soul has a desire to experience here in this lifetime, but that desire comes with its own complete blueprint of how it's going to fulfill that experience.
Speaker 2:And that blueprint's not really any of your business as far as, like your ego goes right, because we can sit here and squeeze the life out of it and be like how am I going to do this, how am I going to do this thing, how am I going to make it happen? And you don't have to do that because it's that desire already has a how-to manual blueprint that it's going to fulfill If you can just hold the vision and hold the frequency of the thing that's not yet seen and it unfolds and those pathways open up in front of you because the blueprint is going to fulfill itself right. So it's not how am I going to do it, it's how do you want to do it and how do? How do you want to do it is really just allowing yourself to have the permission to feel the fulfillment inside of you, to feel it without attaching it to an outcome.
Speaker 1:And it's just like the, you know, just like when you simplify meditation, like meditation is allowing yourself to observe your thoughts without assigning any attachment or emotion or meaning. I feel like it's very similar here, where it's like you hold the desire for the outcome and you have faith that it's going to come, but you're not like. What is that? It's like a silly, cliche quote, but it's like be flexible. Don't be flexible with the goal, but be flexible with how it happens.
Speaker 1:Don't be flexible with the goal but be flexible with how it happens. It's like you don't necessarily have to know how, Like the how will unfold if you have the faith and you hold the frequency for the desired event.
Speaker 2:And it's not just holding the desire, the desire, it's noticing the desire and then having the vision inside of the desire, already manifest and complete, and then holding that feeling, that sensation inside that it's already done, it is done. That's what Jesus said it is done, it's done, it's finished. Because as long as we are in the frequency of desiring the thing, it hasn't happened yet. We're still in the frequency of pursuit and we'll always be in the frequency of pursuit. You have to be in the frequency of it is done, it's finished, I already have it, it's here.
Speaker 1:I think this was a message just for me.
Speaker 2:Um, there's a. When you were talking about um, about um quotes earlier, there was one that came to mind. There was, there was a couple of them, but there's one that came to mind that was um. People often say I'll believe it when I see it. But what if you see it when you believe it? And then the other thing that is making me think of is I think it's in it's either in first or second corinthians in the bible I can't remember which one it is, but um Paul is writing a letter to a church and he's basically like telling them you know, you, you, you men, are running a church and you're telling people that you're spiritual, but you're not, because you're still, um, succumbing to envy and greed.
Speaker 2:And you're spiritual but you're not because you're still succumbing to envy and greed and you're bickering amongst yourselves and all of these things. And he's like you are trying to be crafty, working in the world, but the ways of the world are I can't remember the exact verbiage, but he's like the ways of the world are like, laughable to God and the ways of God are laughable to the world. Right? So we think that we can be crafty and work and outside of us, and move the pieces around in the physical world, like manually. But we and that's a lot of work, it expends a lot of energy we don't have to do that because what we can do is what God has designed us to do is go inside, notice the desire, go inside of ourselves, notice the desire of the soul and then hold the vision of what we feel, like it might feel like when the thing is done.
Speaker 2:And the thing is done. And it is because the whole point of having a desire and a desire for an experience is so that we can have the sensations of that experience. But if we can conjure the sensations of that experience now, without the thing having happened yet, and then know, okay, well, I already have the experience, that's the secret to moving the pieces of reality around. We don't have to try to work so hard to move it around manually outside of us. We don't have to be crafty in the ways of man or the ways of the world, right, we can be crafty in the ways of God and just know that we go to our place and meet our father inside of us and it is done. We hold the vision, we have the experience and then us having that experience in the eternal now is the thing that collapsed at the time and space and draws it to us. That's, that's the secret to manifestation.
Speaker 1:Ooh dropping secrets on the podcast this week. Demystifying manifestation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you want to get into the nitty gritty of that, I invite you to take my Heart Core Intention Masterclass. I think it's only 33 bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's totally worth it if you want to learn more about this. I loved seeing all you had great diagrams of the heart and what you were talking about earlier the triple helix and that was like super interesting to me and so foreign to me and I just love. I love when science proves spirituality. Spirituality is something that's always come very easy for me. I was just like a person that was very connected from an early age and it wasn't. I was like lucky enough to have was very connected from an early age and it wasn't. It was like lucky enough to have a lot of people in my life who didn't stifle it.
Speaker 1:Um, and actually what you were just talking about, I, my grandmother, was like kept popping in my head and she used to say all the time like if God puts it on your heart, like it it there's no impossible. Like if God puts it on your heart, it's meant to be there and it's going to, it's going to come to fruition. So I love that because it it just reminded me of what you said for that desire.
Speaker 2:that is already complete. It's already going to unfold and come to fruition. If you can get out of your own way and stop thinking that you have to work so hard to earn it, because you don't have to earn anything that God's trying to give to you, you're already worthy.
Speaker 1:Worthy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it goes back to those yogic principles and I love when you can kind of connect the dots between um, like religion and spirituality and and yoga um, but in the yogic text, like basically Tanjali is telling you like you are already whole and complete as you are you are whole and complete as you are and and yeah, that's so true like a lot of us and we talked about this on, uh, this past week's podcast but we get caught in these loops of like shadow work, like marissa who was just on the podcast she calls them the shadow work queens who kind of like get stuck in that frequency of like only doing shadow work and not stepping out into the light.
Speaker 1:And I can see like the importance of talking about all of this stuff, because you're never going to get to that place of seeing your or you're never going to get to that place on the other side of manifestation, like you're always going to be in that, like you said, attracting frequency, and you're never going to be like in the frequency of actually like being in that event, and so it just kind of like ties up what we were talking about last week and I love when that happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think that it's important to have people that have like like specification and certain types of work so that they can become experts in guiding people through those things, and not that they're necessarily staying in that frequency themselves, but that they continue to go back into it so that they can guide people through it, to come out of it.
Speaker 2:You know, and so I I think that those types of people who, um, specialize in that type of work are, are, are really needed, and I think it's cool that they can, um, you know, harness and really hone in their expertise and their craft so that they can become experts in guiding people through that. And, and you know, I don't necessarily think that the people who work in that realm stay there themselves. I think that they just have a master key so they can go back into it and guide people through it. You know, yes, and that's not to say that sometimes people don't get stuck there. People who do the work sometimes, I'm sure, get stuck there, and it depends on if they're really embodying whatever story or narrative that they think that they're required to stay there in order to guide people through it.
Speaker 1:Right. It goes back to the frequency and the intention, right.
Speaker 2:It's. It goes back to the frequency and the intention, yeah, but I like to have the vision because I you know, I, with some evolve. I do a lot of somatic work and for me somatic work is kind of entry level to get into the meat and potatoes of consciousness work, especially in, especially in our industrialized modern world. We have to, we have to regulate our nervous systems, we have to get in touch with our bodies and go through our bodies in order to work our way into full-blown consciousness work where we are architecting our reality. You don't have the space in your nervous system if you're not regulated to be able to hold the vision and feel like you deserve to have the visions that your soul desires, the experiences that your soul desires, if you're living in survival mode. So I'm evolved and so I'm affluent.
Speaker 2:I do, but that's not where I'm at in my life. But I have what I call like a master key, like I said, where I can unlock that realm and continue to just guide people through it. I'm like the lantern holder on the, on the boat that's on the river Is it the river X? You know what I'm talking about. That's like guiding people through that passageway, but I don't stay there. You know that's not where I am in my life, but I've been and I've walked that path so many times that I feel confident that I can guide someone through that entry level to get them to the, the real magical fun of of consciousness work.
Speaker 1:Um yes, yes, and I love that you're talking about nervous system regulation, cause I think a lot of us who like used to teach power yoga and, um, like here in the West, like, as it gains more popularity, like we think of the power yoga as like the advanced practice, because it's all the poses that like look like party tricks and we're moving really fast and you know we're doing all of these things, but it's like no, that's actually like the most beginner basic form of yoga, like the real basic form of yoga, like the real, the real advanced yoga is in the stillness and I've been saying this in my classes recently like causing a little bit of a stir. Um, because people don't like to be challenged like that. They're like what do you mean? My arm balance is an advanced practice it's an advanced asana practice.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and and to advance beyond asana you've got to move into stillness, just like you said. But I think there is. There is merit in um finding physical mastery over your body and that in that way, and at some point you know, we know we're going to we're going to hit a point where it's like we're craving something more than we've already done. Everything there is to do with the body. Now, where do we go? Now, now that we've mastered the body, can we move into the mind?
Speaker 1:You know, and the asana practice is a great tool to start to learn how to master the mind. But even you know, like I teach hot power flow, so people expect to move very quickly. But in my classes there are going to be some poses that we're going to hold, like we're going to hold a goddess for 10, 12, 15 breaths and you're going to hate me. But when we find that stillness, like watch where your mind goes, like are you, are you throwing hate at the teacher? Are you telling yourself you can't Like what is happening in your mind? Like that is the real point of the practice.
Speaker 1:And here in the West, like we've kind of lost sight of it. And you know, when I first started practicing yoga 13, 14 years ago, you could not find a class that was less than 90 minutes. And now we're seeing like 45 minute practices pop up. It's like how do you even teach a power yoga class in 45 minutes? Like my brain physically can't wrap my head around that Cause. Like you're moving for maybe, maybe 42 minutes and you get like a little three minute Shavasana, like oh, we have watered down the practice and we've watered it down to this physicality, this fitness level class, but like we're forgetting that there are seven more limbs to the practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we've kind of tried to condense the practice into, like you said, like 30, 45 minutes to try to to try to make it easier to fit it into our busy schedules. But I think, uh and I do this too, like on my platform I have like 30 minute classes, 45 minute classes and stuff like that, because it's like it's better for people to do 30 to 40 minutes than nothing at all. But the point is to try to discipline your schedule so that you can fit in your yoga practice. And I love what you said just a moment ago about you know, asana.
Speaker 2:The point of it is to begin to discipline the mind so that you can pay attention to what you're doing. Whenever you are pushing your body to these, these different levels that you might not be used to, you know, are you noticing discomfort? Are you throwing shade and hate at the teacher? You know, teacher, or yourself or others, because of what they can do, that you feel like you can't. And it is that's the point of the practice is to discipline the mind, train the mind and overcome your own inner critic so that you can move into a more peaceful still place with your mind.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh my gosh. I'm glad that you reiterated, because I've been talking about discipline in my classes a lot lately, because yoga is a practice of discipline, like even if you just the discipline of showing up on your mat, making that time, even if it's just once a week, having the discipline to be like this is a non-negotiable like. We've kind of I've talked about this in my class this week so I know if some of my students are listening they're going to be laughing. But um, we've made discipline a bad word here in the west, like it has a very negative connotation. But yeah, like the reason I got into the practice, I think, was because I needed that disciplined space and it doesn't have to be like this bad thing. It's discipline is a good thing, right?
Speaker 2:well, I think we've equated the word, we've we've conflated discipline with punishment yeah but actually the root of the word discipline is the same as disciple, and discipline is actually a devotion to something, a discipleship to something. So when you can actually become a disciple, commit and devote yourself to your discipleship of your practice or your spirituality, or the training of your mind. The undisciplined mind is actually what the Bible refers to as free, untrained, undisciplined will. Free will, but God's will is the trained devotional consciousness that creates immaculately in the world. Right that we are immaculate creators. We conceive immaculately. The immaculate conception is a thought, a pure principle, thought, something that is of pure intention, that we're not conceiving out of a wound.
Speaker 1:That is like mic drop moment.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I 100% agree with you that disciplining the mind is paramount and if we can shift and reframe it from a punishment to a devotion, we're going to experience so much expansion around that.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely Absolutely, because I think you know I it's funny. A couple of weeks ago I had a lot of Gen Zers in my yoga class and we talked a lot about discipline and not like not every thought is valid, not everything, um, our brain tells us is fact, and that caused quite a stir, quite a controversy, and it's interesting to see how that that shift took place, where we have kind of been in this place where it's like, yeah, we're validating like every thought, every like thing that comes up in our mind, and I always go back to the sutras and pat and jolly and like he would describe those as disturbances of the mind, like even even joy was a disturbance of the mind.
Speaker 1:So it's just kind of, I guess, funny, ironic, whatever word you want to use to like see, like to be the observer of this as a as a teacher and a student of the practice and noticing where my own mind goes it's. It's just kind of. It's kind of funny how we went from seeing it as a disturbance of the mind to like validating everything that pops up in our head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these younger generations I'm noticing and not I don't know if I think it is the younger generation is, the more that I think of it. Um, I think that they've become accustomed to believing and misperceiving that feelings are facts, you know, and that if you disagree with their feeling, they believe that as a fact, like a fundamental part of their human identity, that feelings can't change or that feelings aren't fleeting right. Then, when you present something to them, like like you did, that those are disturbances of the mind, it makes them feel fundamentally wrong because they haven't had access to the? Um, the consciousness evolution that we've had through through yoga and then also just through our. Our generations are different, you know, we and I I think that you're the same age as me um, I'm 36, 33, but yeah, same millennials, so my I did not grow up with technology.
Speaker 2:You know, I didn't grow up. I didn't get a cell phone or a computer until I was 16. Um, you know when I would get home from school? I would do my homework if I had it, and I would be outside and I had to come home when the streetlight came on.
Speaker 1:And if I didn't For us? It was like when our mom was screaming out the front door yeah, If she didn't call us before the streetlights come on.
Speaker 2:As soon as streetlights come on, we are hightailing it back to the house, right, and we were so social, playing with our friends. We would all meet at the little transformer box on the corner after school, right, that big green box that's out there underneath the streetlight, and we would meet us at the green box, you know, and we would, and we would just run the streets. It's and I get it it's unsafe to do that now, especially with technology and human trafficking and all of that kind of stuff going on, that seemingly wasn't as big of a deal as it is now. I know that it happened back then, but I think technology has made it more dangerous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, some of our um like generational ideologies, because technology has opened the younger generations up to so much more uh like stimuli that I think that they're we. We're not evolved to process that stuff. We're not evolved to process these uh, um, not just the amount of stimuli, but some of these uh, global catastrophes and stuff like we're still trying to process catastrophes that are happening in our own myopic lives, you know. And then we're also trying to hold space for things that are happening on a world stage and and trying to validate all of it at the same time, and I think that it I don't really know where I'm going with this at this point.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm just rambling, but I think that there's just fundamental differences in in in the generations too, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I mean we got it too Like I feel like we were one of the most hated generations of all time, like millennials were blamed for everything. It was like I'm in middle school. What are you blaming us for?
Speaker 2:And then we were in college. They were still blamed for everything. I'm like we're almost 40 now. What are you talking about? Take it up with Gen Z.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is so true. And, like you said, like we have more information to process than ever before and also, like I feel like, because our generation was the last that kind of didn't have technology like we were, we were kind of like already established in our adolescence as technology started to progress. Yes, like we didn't, we had a lot of problem solving skills because, like, when we were out there running those streets and like playing in the woods and hanging from trees and doing whatever we were doing, there was like some problem solving that needed to be done, that like couldn't be Googled. Right now, these younger generations, any question they have, they don't have to problem solve or think critically, like they just consult Google and like that's crazy to me.
Speaker 2:I know. And then whenever whoever controls that information? Right? Right, that's scary because, like you said, they don't have to problem solve or critically think and now they're just conferring and consulting AI. But who's programming the AI?
Speaker 1:Yeah, whoever wants whatever story to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Out in the forefront yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, story to be, yeah, out in the forefront, yeah, yeah, I feel like we're gonna have to book another podcast episode to even expand on some of the other stuff that we're uncovering.
Speaker 1:I know right, and it's. You know, it's easy to talk about this stuff and be like, okay, here lies the problem. But like, okay, what is the solution? And and like it sounds so trivial, but I really do believe that the solution is teaching these yogic principles, because sub yoga out, like what yoga, what the Bhagavad Gita, what the Bible says, like it's all very similar. Like it's also similar Like they're there, I think they're all sciences of wellbeing. Like the Bible will tell you what to eat, what to wear. Like now I'm going to go down on a tangent. But what we're wearing, 90% of what we're wearing, is plastic.
Speaker 1:Like we do not talk about that. I actually, so this is really funny. My degree is in fashion, merchandising and retail marketing, and that's what I went to college for.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that about you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, I thought I was going to be a fashion girly and that's not what happened at all, as I sit here in my sweats with my hair on top of my head, anyhow. So we're wearing plastics, and one of the most shocking things for me was I think it was like my third year of college. I had to take a textiles course and I really saw how textiles are made and we think like, oh, it's just yarn woven together. And yes, in the past it was yarn woven together, but now it is chemical solutions that are pushed through these things that look like shower heads and they're either heated or cooled, or there's some kind of other chemical solution that's mixed with it to turn it into fibers. So we're literally turning plastic particles into fibers and then we're putting them on our bodies and now, when our bodies heat up with sweat or like whatever, we're like releasing these microplastics into the environment, into our bodies. And in the bible it literally tells you to wear wool and linen and like. That is it?
Speaker 2:those are the two best fabrics to wear, and these corporations are pushing this as green fabric because they're like oh, it's made out of recycled plastic bottles. We're cleaning up the earth, but we're poisoning your body. Wear our clothes.
Speaker 1:But also you're actually still poisoning the earth because every time it spins through your washing machine, little baby nanoparticles are breaking off of those fabrics and they're getting into our water supply. So we are making the problem worse while simultaneously greenwashing and like that sucks, because there are people who really, truly believe like that, oh, I'm doing this good thing by getting these recycled plastic sneakers, but like no, you're actually not Well and to talk a little bit more about the solution.
Speaker 2:I agree with what you said just a moment ago, where you said that you believe that the solution is to teach these principles that we're talking about, like on this podcast, so that we can teach by example, by lived experience, embodied wisdom, because there are a lot of yoga teachers out there who will teach the things that they abstractly know in their mind. But to know something in your mind is not the same thing as to viscerally embody it and live it out as wisdom.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean it goes back to the sutras too. Like several times throughout the sutras, Pat and Jolly says but don't stop here, Like don't get I'm paraphrasing. But he says don't stop here, Like don't get these gifts. And then stop and reach this plateau, Like keep going, You're always a student. So it doesn't matter how advanced the teacher is, Like the teacher is still a student.
Speaker 2:Yes, forever. And knowledge has to mature into wisdom, right? So not. And how do we do that?
Speaker 2:We actually have to make these principles practical so that we can easily integrate them into our everyday lives, because spirituality is not something that's separate from our everyday lives, and I know that through Muskogee culture that spirituality is how, something that's separate from our everyday lives, and I know that through Muskogee culture that spirituality is how you live your life. You have to weave those threads into a fabric, a tapestry, and make it one thing right, it's not. You don't just go to church on Sunday and then live your life a completely opposite way, and but on every Sunday you're spiritual, right? We have to stop trying to separate the two. And how you live your life, how you think your thoughts, is your spirituality. So we have to make these principles and they are.
Speaker 2:They're so simple, but humans tend to try to overcomplicate and convolute things right, because we will do anything to try to explain it rather than embody it, so that we can live it out and show it by example. We have to make it applicable and easily practical. Practical spirituality, practical magic. I think Albert Einstein said that if you, if you can't explain physics to a four-year-old and have them understand it in a simple way. You don't understand physics.
Speaker 1:Wow, spirituality really is like that yeah.
Speaker 2:If you can't take spirituality and explain it to a four-year-old in a simple way and have them be able to practically apply it to their lives, you don't understand spirituality. Although the four-year-old could probably tell you exactly because they, they already know it's not conditioned out of them yet probably yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, you want like a little bit of just spiritual enlightenment. Go hang out with the toddler. Yeah, yeah, exactly, I'm very excited because I have one coming. My sister is having a baby and I'm like, oh, I can't wait to be the fun auntie. I know that's so exciting for you. Congratulations to you and your sister. Thank you, oh yes, there was one more thing that I wanted to say about the sutras and it left me.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to see if it will come back. Oh, about complicating it. So the yoga sutra is like talk about humans, complicating things. Like the original text is like what? It's like, I think, 33 lines long or something like that. And when you go to buy a book translation on the sutras, it's like 500 pages long. It's like, well, like why, why it's 33 lines? Like how did this get so um heavy in translation? Yeah, so like we, we complicate a lot of the things, even in the sutras. Like the first time I bought a book of the sutras, it sat on my shelf for like eight years and then I needed it for, uh, the 500 hour ryt that I was doing, and it was like buy any translation that you like and I was like oh, I already have one, like this is so perfect. And then I finally read it and I was like are you kidding me? Like it's like, oh, you can start off by oming, like I was. It was, it was excruciatingly boring to me.
Speaker 2:Like I did not, I couldn't, even, I couldn't, I couldn't even retain what I was reading. Right Then the second time.
Speaker 1:It was like reading another language that you didn't, that you don't speak. Yeah, I could totally relate to that. The second time that I read it.
Speaker 2:I read it of my own accord. It had nothing to do with any of my yoga training or anything. I just cracked it open and I was like, let me just try to deepen into this and see what this is about. It was riveting, do you hear me? I literally was like breaking out in a sweat while I was reading it because I was so activated and excited while I was reading it and I was like, oh, I was like, oh my God, I did not even have the capacity to hold this information the first time that I laid my eyes on the pages of this book, and now I'm reading it, I'm highlighting it, I'm literally like I'm planning classes around it, like I could not devour it quickly and completely enough.
Speaker 1:It's like it's also like the yamas and the niyamas, like you're talking about the first limbs of yoga, and like we kind of just like blip right by them and it's like right to asana and it's like, oh, but before, in ancient times, before they were even practicing the physical practice of yoga, the physical asanas they were talking about like hygiene and mental observances and like all of these things that aren't a physical practice at all, and we just kind of like flip right by them. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I call the, the yamas and the yamas the 10 commandments of of yoga and they, they are those, um, those tenants that, like you said, they often just kind of get, uh, looked over completely, especially when people teachers don't integrate them into their classes, which I think that it's so useful to create themes around the yamas and the yamas because, like you said, in ancient times you had to master the limbs and then build on top of each one with the next one.
Speaker 1:So, it was just told to me by a fellow yoga teacher that when you would go and live at the ashram to like you were going to become a yoga teacher, they would give you like one color robe first. Like, let's say, it's yellow, so they would give you a yellow robe to start. And that was like you're a baby beginner, you're like just on your journey to becoming a yoga teacher. You did not get your second robe until you had been practicing for a minimum of 13 years, and then you get your orange robe after 13 years.
Speaker 1:You like advanced to like level two and I was like whoa, it's so easy to become a yoga teacher in the States these days Like you can literally take an online course where you're spending maybe like an hour and 15, um 150 ish hours in person um learning like lecture and philosophy. It's not that much at all. So it's just an observance. It's not like I don't I have no opinion on it, because I obviously got a 200 hour fresh out of a 200 hour. I'm like out there teaching my little heart out.
Speaker 2:But in our defense here in the West, when we're open to the maturation of the process. Getting out there and getting your feet wet and gaining the experience is what allows your spirit to mature into the deeper levels of yoga. And I understand the 13 years as a, as a initiate before you really become a practitioner. Right, you're initiating into this discipleship. I, I get it. I get it. And in the in modern times, what if the first 13 years of you teaching is your initiation into the deeper practices of? Because how long have you been practicing?
Speaker 1:Uh, that's so I said at the beginning. It's like, yeah, just about 12, 13 years, um, and it's so, uh, at the beginning it's like, yeah, just about 12, 13 years. There you go, and it's so. Uh, next week, uh, august 29th, uh, or 28th will be my nine-year anniversary of like stepping into the teaching world, which is crazy. Congratulations that, thank you. It goes by like so quickly. Like I, looking back on it now, like I'm kind of in this period of just like you know, um, just like reviewing and it's it's crazy, but it's been nine years, cause I even took like two years off from teaching, even though, like I was still doing the work, I was not focusing on the asana, I was focusing more on the other limbs that were like saving me from the asana. But 2020 gave me the push. It's funny because everything was shut down but I was like I think I'm going to teach in-person yoga classes again. Let's feel like the right time.
Speaker 2:Well, I have been taking some time off. I had some things go down at the studio that I was teaching at and I actually have not taught for a year in person. I've taught online. But this Sunday, in just a couple of days, I'm going to start teaching again in person, locally and just donation-based classes, and I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1:I love that and I don't know if it's just the name, but it's in a garden.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah, it's in a place called the backyard of love. It's at a? Um high biscus. It's like a B and B. Here out on the beach They've got beautiful oak trees, flowers, Um, and actually I used to play music out there a long time ago.
Speaker 1:What a full circle moment.
Speaker 2:I know I would do brunch in the backyard of love. And now, and, and their um, their slogan or whatever is like they call themselves the place to be. They have a sign out front and the original owner, who, who started the place, um, she was really big on, like hugs and like she was just a light in the world Um, and she is she's not dead or anything I was saying like was, uh, she doesn't own it anymore, it's under new management. But anyway, they have a sign out front and it says just be. And then it's a chalkboard and every day, every morning, somebody goes out there and they write something on it like grateful or something like that, and it's just really, it's really sweet and thoughtful and I'm excited to, to, to be back in the backyard of love.
Speaker 1:I love those like special community spaces, like if the last four years have taught us anything. It's like how important saving and nurturing and just like respecting those spaces are. And going back to Pat and Jolly and the yoga sutras, like that's where we were meant to be practicing. We were meant to be practicing out in nature under a tree, like that's so perfect, sounds like a great Sunday. I wish I lived close by You'll have to come and visit.
Speaker 1:I know I am planning a Florida trip. My parents live down there in the winter time, so I am going to be planning a trip around Christmas, ish, um, and then maybe again in the spring. So I'll have to maybe like come to you first and then make my way down the coast.
Speaker 2:Yes, just let me know keep me updated?
Speaker 1:yes, yes, I sure will. Well, thank you so much for coming on again. I loved hearing a little bit about your Italy trip and just talking all of the just like amazing spiritual concepts that I just hope to inspire people with. Like I'm not ever saying that like my way is the only way, but I love having, like all of these guests on to just show people the way in and I love that that you do that, that true inner work thank you, yeah, and I am so honored to be a guest on your podcast and even more honored to be your friend in real life, so thanks for always having me back.
Speaker 1:Yes, any, any and all times. Anytime you want to come on open invitation, we love to hear from you. Um, it's always a great conversation. I feel like all of my guests are so heart aligned with people who I would work with or people who I would recommend loved ones work with, and so when you come on and when other guests come on and you just share from that space of authenticity, it just it's like doing that purpose work of like when I was manifesting this podcast or when I was just like nearly enlightened wasn't even a thing and it's like I'm getting to feel that frequency that I was manifesting and there's literally no better feeling than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and keep holding that frequency, keep holding the vision, even whenever the information in front of you is trying to tell you otherwise, and then you will always, always, always. It never fails because it is done.
Speaker 1:And then you will always, always, always. It never fails because it is done yes, oh, divinely protected and guided Well. Thank you for being here and everyone, thank you for listening, because I wouldn't be able to keep doing this if no one was listening. So thank you for being here, thank you for sharing and writing reviews and all the amazing things Like I look at literally every single thing. So I appreciate you for being here. I appreciate you all for listening. This was an amazing episode. Thank you for being here and I will see you next time.