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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
Deepen Your Practice Week 3 Asana & Pranayama
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Think yoga is just about touching your toes or striking the perfect pose for Instagram? Think again.
In this episode of the Deepen Your Practice challenge, Dee and I dive into the two most visible – yet often misunderstood – limbs of yoga: asana (physical postures) and pranayama (breathwork). While these are the most recognized aspects of yoga in the West, their true purpose goes far beyond flexibility or aesthetics.
Many people believe they can’t do yoga because they’re “not flexible enough” or their body doesn’t match the images they see online. But the truth? Yoga is for every body. Whether you're in a wheelchair, using props, or flowing through advanced poses, the practice meets you exactly where you are.
We share the inspiring story of B.K.S. Iyengar, who was once rejected from yoga classes due to his physical limitations. His response? He innovated props—like blocks and straps—to make yoga accessible to all. Today, props are a testament to the truth that accessibility is not a compromise; it's the heart of yoga.
Inside this episode:
- How sun salutations awaken energy and prepare the body for deeper practice
- Why heart-openers are essential in counterbalancing tech-induced posture
- What balancing poses teach us about humility, presence, and play
- The power of strength-based flows to build integrated body-mind resilience
- How asana becomes a mirror for our mental patterns, reactions, and emotions
- Why pranayama may be the most underutilized wellness tool in the West
We explore breath techniques like Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing), Kapalabhati (skull-shining breath), and Brahmari (bee breath), uncovering how they help regulate the nervous system, support mental clarity, and balance the brain hemispheres. With research showing that most Americans only use 10% of their lung capacity, it's time to reclaim the power of your breath.
This episode is a reminder that the essence of yoga is presence—a conscious connection to body, breath, and spirit. Whether you're showing up with a dozen props or flowing freely, this practice is for you.
✨ Join us as we continue to explore the Eight Limbs of Yoga—powerful tools for modern life, rooted in ancient wisdom. Because the answers we’re searching for? They’re already within us.
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Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened Podcast, a high vibe toolbox designed to help you connect to your body, mind and spirit. I'm your host, gianna Girusso, and I'm here to share tools, conversations and insights to help you on your journey of self-discovery. This podcast is all about exploring what it means to live a conscious, connected and nearly enlightened life, because the truth is, the answers aren't outside of us, they already lie within. Let's dive in. I'm joined again by d. We're moving on into week three of our deepen your practice challenge and this is a little podcast support hello hello, yes, podcast support.
Speaker 1:I love that I know and I love that we're doing this, because it's kind of like a living. It'll stay forever. It's like a living breathing thing, Diving into the eight limbs of yoga.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It's basically like a chat, a training in in a podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little mini training in a podcast, a little mini education, so knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yes, spreading that knowledge. So week three, we're talking about asana and pranayama, and this is basically like the meat and potatoes of yoga. This is like what we hear about in modern day classes. These are basically I don't want to say the only limbs that we talk about, but I think that these are at the forefront of what we talk about in modern Western yoga.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1:And this, this is like. So, when we talk about yoga, this is the reason why people are like oh, I can't do that. I can't do yoga, I can't practice. My body's not flexible, I can't do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good point. Yeah, it's not about touching your toes. One of my biggest things, I think, as a teacher, is like yoga is for every body, every body, I mean I think I've mentioned before on this podcast or to you, I can't remember, but my first student ever was in a wheelchair, is in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh. No, I don't think you've talked about this before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, it was a learning experience for me, but it was. I mean, I would deliver vegetables to her every week. And then I told her I was taking a month off because I was going to be doing my teacher training. And when I came back and saw her for the first time after training, she handed me an Iyengar book and it was for people who were in wheelchairs. And she was like when can we start?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I have the goosebumps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was. You know, it really was, I think, a beautiful way for her both her and I to give and receive this like beautiful gift, and it was awesome. Like it took a few months, but once I was able to, you know, invite her down onto the mat, it just things just continued to improve. You know, her scoliosis improved. It was a really wonderful experience that I had and I think when people think that you have to be able to touch your toes or you have to be able to be flexible, I mean I will outright admit that I am not the yoga teacher that stands on the head and does all these crazy inversions. That's just not me, you know. I think for me it's a lot about strength, balance and flexibility, which is what we were posting on today.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I don't know if you saw my post today too, but I saw this really great post of a yoga teacher and she was using a folding chair for her student as a prop and basically, uh, the premise of the the post was like, okay, this is yoga, without these props, these, this flexible person who has an advanced practice. But this is also yoga. The person who had he had two blocks, he had a blanket, he had a chair, um, and that too is like the advanced practice. Actually, one of our challenge participants posted today that she was like a little bit nervous about this part of the challenge because she has some back issues and she's not flexible and this isn't like the bulk of her practice, um, but that's okay right.
Speaker 1:It just goes to like there is a yoga for everybody. You just have to find what works for you.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, I often say those exact words in my, in my classes too is like find what feels good and like stay there and do that. You know, find what feels good for you on the mat and off the mat. And that's the premise of this whole challenge that we're doing, and I think it would. You know, we have to include asana because it is one of the limbs, of the eight limbs of yoga. So we do have to include it. But that doesn't mean I mean today, today, my, my, my pose was I was using a strap. I am a big proponent of props in my classes and I, I, even I wanted to. I didn't do this on purpose, but I, I actually, when I was making that video, when I first was like editing it to post it, I took out the part where I was falling over and I was like no, absolutely not. Like I have to include that because that's yoga, like I have to include that, because that's yoga.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that. Yeah, in my post from the other day I have like a little. You can't really see it because it's sped up, but I have a little wobble and like almost fall over too, and that is part of the practice. And when I teach either standing balances or arm balances in my classes, that's what I talk about all the time too. It's like this is your playtime, this like fall out.
Speaker 1:This is a controlled place to like fall out, laugh, like, but also see where your mind goes. Because if it's go, if it, if you're falling out, you're wiggling, you're wobbling. Your first instinct is to put yourself down. Negative self talk or like, like, get nasty, nasty. Like, notice that that's great information to have. Like, how can we disrupt that pattern? How can we change that? For it to be fun yeah, pro pose is a big one, like everyone's. Like, oh, I'm gonna fall flat on my face. It's like okay, well, you're in a controlled space to do so. Like, put a block out in front, put it out in front, try it. Yeah, fall like. If you, if you fall, like laugh. Or yeah, like mutter that swear under your breath, or like scream it loud, like yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2:I one of my students that I have is we do just that we like laugh about. I'm like, okay, we're going to try crow pose, we're going to get into crow pose today, and she's like, oh well, get me my bolster over here please, because I'm gonna fall on my face, and so we just you know it's. But as we continue to say here, like the practice, the more you practice, the more you can continue to practice, and the best way possible for you and your body and I think the challenge of the poses offers the practitioner the opportunity to explore and control all aspects of their emotions, just like you were saying concentration, intent, faith and unity between the physical and the spiritual energies of your body right, it's a tool, and I wanted to go back actually something about iangar, which I bring up in my classes a lot, because I actually don't use props a lot.
Speaker 1:When I first started started teaching, I did, and then I came through like new philosophy and now I don't use props as much, but I see their value in it for people who need them and I love to tell my classes like, if you need a block, use a and bks. Iangar is like the reason why we have yoga props and I love telling his story. Um, he was kicked out of every yoga class. He was like not flexible, he wasn't good at it, and his he came from a long line of like, basically like sages and gurus, and he was basically like, oh my god, I'm failure. And so he went home and he started.
Speaker 1:He started using cinder blocks and cinder blocks were the first yoga props. So that's what he used to bring the ground closer to him, to start to lengthen the hamstrings. And this is what I say to people who are like, oh, I can't do yoga. It's like well, this is why you need yoga, because eventually, yeah, you use those props, but eventually the hamstrings start to open a little bit more. Maybe you lengthen your psoas a little bit more, you start to let go of tension and dysfunction in the body and then all of a sudden, bam, you don't need the blocks anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally, and it's definitely to like, I think, to warm up those muscles, like, for example, like when I was doing today with dancer I love to practice with a band and then when I actually do release the band or whatever and just use my hand and my foot, it feels really good because I have, it's like muscle memory. Yeah, and you made that space Exactly, exactly, yeah, so it's, and I think, as you were mentioning before, like all of these postures and the asanas and the ones that might see quote-unquote, difficult to some people, you know it's the postures and the practice of asana help us to it like fosters a quieting of the mind, which is, I think, what we're to flow into, is like moving into breathwork, because that's the entire point of this limb of yoga.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, and I also say this like so. Yoga was created 5,000 years ago, basically for like 12 year old boys, so like the point of the practice was to get them to meditate and they needed to sit and meditate for six to eight hours. So how the fuck do you get 12 year old boys to sit quietly for eight hours? Like it seems like an impossible task, but the point of the practice was to move that physical energy out so that you had the space to sit and meditate. I mean, there's lots of, there's lots of benefits to asana, like most of the poses they have not just like a body benefit, but there's also like an internal body benefit where it benefits like an organ system or, yeah, there even. Yeah, it's so multifaceted, but it this is why it's really a science of well-being, because it was thoroughly thought out. Like the, the limbs of yoga flow into one another. It was, it's, it's a flawless design.
Speaker 1:It truly is yes um, so that that is basically asana. And so day 11, which was a few days ago um, we're like a few days behind on the podcast, I guess but, um, we did sun salutations and that is like um, like a warm-up it's. You know, it was intended to do at the top of the day to warm up the body, to wake up the body, and again, it had like specific um, it had like a specific purpose and I talked about in my poses, like I and this is like maybe a challenge for me so maybe next week in my classes, if you're listening and you go to bend or botega, like get ready for this, um, but maybe, like next week, I play with some traditional sun salutations in class yeah, I think that that's.
Speaker 2:I mean I, I, I would challenge you to do that. You know, I think it's that's.
Speaker 1:You're gonna just be living the experience that we're going through the challenge right now yeah, yeah, um, cause usually like I just I'm more of like a creative flower and I like, uh, one of my, so maybe it's not super flawless, but one of my I. One of my only gripes with yoga is that it's a very masculine practice because, like I said, it was created 5,000 years ago intended for men. Now it's funny moving into, like, the modern world. Like most of your yoga class, most of my yoga classes, are predominantly women. Yeah, so I like to bring in more of like the feminine energy to the flow. So the way I flow is very specific. It kind of like I use a lot of dramatic arm movement.
Speaker 2:You're also Italian, so that, just well, the arms and the hands are just the extension of the heart chakra.
Speaker 1:So like yes, um, yeah, so I bring in a lot more feminine um aspects.
Speaker 1:Like yoga is very up down, left right, it's very linear.
Speaker 1:So I like to bring more of like that feminine flow and a lot of my flows.
Speaker 1:They are reminiscent of kind of like a dance, because I feel like that really helps you connect one with your breath and two with your body and it really becomes a dance and it's a way to tune out and to just breathe and be in the moment with the breath, with the movement, and it's really a space to let go and that's why I actually offer so the way my classes go.
Speaker 1:I basically have three flows and they start to get like progressively harder, but I set like a solid foundation so that you I'll walk you through once, nice and slow, and then I'll walk you through a couple of times with the breath, and then I leave space for students to flow on their own and whether that's to continue what I taught or it's to do your own thing, and I think that that's a really important space in class and it really helps to find that I say it all the time it's like a moving meditation. It becomes just like you can close your eyes and you can just flow and breathe and like the thoughts fall away and it really is just like like a great tool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it is. I think I think once you have the found it would be. I'm excited to see how it goes If you do do that, because I think once, even like for example, in my, in my teachings, like I had one student who was like can you audio message me the sun salutation so that when I'm traveling I can just put it on and follow your words and do it myself.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Even though she wasn't going to have like a class and she didn't have access to virtual classes, like she could just put this audio on because she knew the basis. It's like this base foundation. She knew the basis, it's like this base foundation. So, whether you're adding in dramatic arm arms to each side or right, you know, here and there that can be your own thing, but if you have this base, this sun salutation base, you can just you can explore and make it your own. And that's like where I feel like as female teachers, we can bring more of that in and spice it up a little bit. But I think it's going to be interesting if you spice it up with with the tradition.
Speaker 1:I know I'll keep you posted on this. Next Monday is going to be spicy. So it's funny I actually used. So the flow that we posted, let me get it. Whenever we did. I guess it was when we did so. It was a couple of days ago, it was two days ago. The flow that I did is actually what I've been teaching this week, so that's kind of been fun. Yeah, so if you come to class this week you'll know what we'll be doing. Go check out my reel If you want a little sneak peek.
Speaker 1:And then day 12, we moved into heart opening poses, and I love heart opening poses just because modern technology is creating pathologies that we didn't see before and yoga being a practice of longevity, it really supports us in undoing those things. So I love heart opener poses for this reason. Because we spend so much time hunched over technology I mean literally the both of us are hunched over technology right now.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we spend so much time like hunched over technology. Steering wheels just like normal posture stuff, life stuff just kind of like rolls the shoulders and it kind of makes us like shrink in the chest. So I think that heart opening poses are really like the counter pose to life. And I teach twice a week. I teach like this therapeutic flow class, where it's like a mixture of yin, restorative meditation, breath work. It's a really slow moving class and we start every single class with a heart restorative, heart opener. So either over blocks or a bolster or, if you don't have those kind of props, just throw a bunch of blankets and pillows, get them between your shoulder blades and lie over them.
Speaker 1:I love restorative heart opening poses. I just I think there's there's so much benefit there and like I always tell my classes, if you don't want to be that hunched over little old lady like this is what we're doing. We're doing heart opening poses. We're gonna keep that nice posture, we're gonna open up the pecs. We're doing. We're doing heart opening poses. We're going to keep that nice posture, we're going to open up the pecs, we're going to reset the upper spine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does feel really good, I think, and this is where see you do use props, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:There's a time and a place.
Speaker 2:There is, and I think one of my favorite ways to use a band is like putting it that my favorite ways to use a band is like putting it, um, behind your head, like behind the neck, um, and then you bring it down behind your back and cross it in the front. I do think I have a reel on this, I'll have, maybe I'll repost it Um, but it helps you kind of fasten the band around your upper body so that you you can't curve your shoulders and you can't bring them in, because it keeps your chest open. And I've taught an entire class with that band in that in fastens that way. To specifically work on posture oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So my gosh, I love that I'll have to repost it or send it to you so you can see how to do it, but I'll even do it while I'm like chopping vegetables. I think that's what the real was like. I do it in my house. I've been cleaning my house. I'll put that on because I can. I can feel sometimes and even to like. This is where emotions right with us and I come back in. For me, personally, I know if I'm like not feeling well, if I have a lot of anxiety or feeling depressed, like I will litter, my shoulders will go in. Yep, absolutely so it's. You know how, as you were saying, how can you counteract that and bring open up your heart, open your chest to life, not just on the mat?
Speaker 1:to life. Yes, and it can be, because we're not used to like leading with our chest like that it can be. It can feel super vulnerable and in in my more restorative classes like I love to use blankets here because the weight on the chest or just feeling like we're like a little bit covered up, it just like, it just feels nice, it feels like a warm hug.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we moved into day 13, which is today balancing poses, which I had a lot of fun with. I love balancing poses, whether they're standing or arm balances.
Speaker 2:I'm not great at inversions either, but I love to teach them and sprinkle them in because they are fun and I think it really helps us to not take yoga so fucking seriously yeah, oh my gosh, yeah, totally and like we were saying in the beginning of this, like if you can involve laughter in the classes and you know it's medicinal, so any any time that I'm working through a class with students and there's a balance, sometimes what I'll do is we'll go through it and I'll say like, okay, I'll demonstrate. And then like let's just have some time where you guys play around with it, literally with those words, and I have some students who don't even try, which that's fine, that's your own thing. I have other students who are like in it and falling all over the place and all this stuff and I think that's you know, it allows the students to really and the practitioners to really make it their own. So if you can laugh, it just makes it a little bit easier.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's like. That's like laughing yoga, like have you ever seen those videos? I think it's big in Japan, but they basically just get together, come in a circle and like they just laugh their ass off. And there is so much healing in that, like what is better than like being with people you love, like friends, family, whoever it is, and having one of those laugh moments where you your belly hurts like you can't contain yourself it?
Speaker 2:loosens you up. I actually one of my students who became one of my best friends, she, she was like you need to teach a laughing yoga class. And I was like I need I'm sorry, I need to teach a what. And I looked into it and I just used. So what I did is that I had a group of people who were like close friends and we did it. It was hysterical, but it like you could feel any kind of grief or anything you're going through. Fall off with that and then guess what? Your asana is going to be so much easier for you to get into because your body is not holding so much tension.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh. I love that you have to do that again, maybe virtually, and I want to take it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's, it's funny, it's like the silly. It's silly is what it is. So, like in the same way, you're saying like you know, have fun with it, it doesn't need to be so serious, or like if we're in I one thing I love doing as a teacher is like you're in a pose, if you're in warrior one or you're in whatever, and you like tell a joke or whatever like to make people like relax a little bit. You know, it's like sometimes we're in, like you're saying like this very masculine way where we feel like all the poses need to be rigid and this in a certain way and that angle and blah, blah and yes, that is important.
Speaker 1:And like soften your jaw, jaw, relax, relax your shoulders, like this is yes, I always like I'm always gripping in my the front of my neck, like there's just so many places where it's like, if I really pay attention to it, it's like, okay, I'm in this pose, but holy shit, I'm holding on to all this tension yeah, it's incredible and you don't even realize it and like, even when you get into, for example, and you're ending your class, whether you have students in Savasana or however you end your class, you know, it's always incredible to me when I'm always like, okay, relax this, relax that.
Speaker 2:And even myself I'm like, oh my gosh, my jaw, like just touching my own face as I say that.
Speaker 1:So when I first started practicing yoga, I would do this crazy thing in hard poses where I would pull, which is funny. It's kind of faith yoga. So maybe I was onto something, but I would pull my lips over my teeth and I would like fight on my lips so hard why, I don't know. It's just like where I held my tension and it's something that I learned to catch and now I try not to do it as much.
Speaker 1:But if you look at old like I, there was a picture of me from I'll have to try and find it and post it but there was a picture of me from electric forest like way back in the day. So it's like that's a big music festival and they had like this awesome yoga class to live music every day and my friend Michaela and I went she's been on the podcast before um, but we went to yoga and she took a couple of photos of me during yoga and I'm just doing that face. There's like two different pictures and that was the big like seeing. It was like what am I doing? And then I started noticing it. It's like this weird like hold of tension thing that I would do in hard poses.
Speaker 2:It's incredible, but that's what doing this helps you understand your body and the way and where you're holding it. That's the magic of asana.
Speaker 1:It is. And then that moves us into day 14, which is working on strength building flow. And I love this because we think of yoga as a flexible, because we think of yoga as a flexible, like stretchy, kind of practice. But really the practice is meant to be fire building, it's meant to be strength building. And some of the poses are fucking hard. And they were meant to be hard. They were meant to bring up that muscle shake. They were meant to bring you and I say this in my yoga class a lot the yoga poses are hard Because they were meant to bring you to those deep, dark places of your mind.
Speaker 1:So you can practice letting that go and I use this example in my classes a lot and goddess pose, because that is a strong, sometimes uncomfortable pose because it's a hip opener. You're squatting down like if you've ever done wall sits. This is basically like yoga's wall sit, only without the wall. I mean you could do it with the wall. That would be a great, a great way to go deeper. But yeah, so I teach that in the middle of my flows and, like I said the first time, through a flow I take everyone through nice and slow. So we'll hold goddess for eight to ten breaths and people. You know that. That makes you want to come out. It makes you like I know my teacher. I got this from my teacher in arizona, anton mackie, which like someday I'm gonna get him on this damn podcast. But there was a time when I first moved to arizona that between both sides of the flow left side, right side we were holding goddess for like five minutes.
Speaker 1:His class is very fast moving and it's like definitely a flow class, but he would take the time to stop and let us simmer simmer in it, sit in it and that makes your mind go to like some crazy places, like it can bring up some crazy things, it you really meet your self-doubt, like that's for me, like when negative self-talk comes up, that's when I want to bail and give up. Um, so it's the. It's really a great tool to help to focus the mind. Like where does be the observer? Where does your mind go when the poses are bringing up heat, when they're, when it's hot in the room? Like where does your mind go and how can you practice keeping it in center or not just keeping it in center, but just coming back, just letting it go and coming back? I'm snapping over here.
Speaker 1:So I love. I love a good strength building flow and anyone who's listening, who has come to my power classes, is like, yes, because my classes. I am known as the hard yoga teacher. Yeah, around around Rhode Island lately and it's funny because people used to think my classes were easy and now that I've kind of like honed in on my teaching, people are always challenged in a delicious way, like it's not I'm going to push you outside of your comfort zone, but it's going to be hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're evolving, yes, and I think it's. It's probably one of the foundations too. I think you know people you know, even if you're not quote unquote as flexible as you want to be or as you think you might need to be, this is where you can also to really, I feel like, get a good. I don't I want to say workout, but I also want to say, just like the form, like this, the giving some love to your muscles where it's needed. And I think one point I would love to point out, because I think that I've done this even as just like not even as a teacher just as someone who practices yoga, I think I think sometimes we, as we're flowing and stuff, can have the I don't want to say, I want to say this like sink into our joints rather than building the muscle Like I used to do that.
Speaker 2:I used to do that, and so I think that that, as you were, like you were just saying, like evolving as a teacher, as a practitioner and now as a teacher too, making sure, okay, having my eyes half the time, I'm not even demonstrating, I'm speaking, I'm cuing, I'm watching people's where their, their legs are and, yes, like I was saying before, like the way you are positioned with your feet and your arms and your, your, you know your core, it all it really does matter. But I think that that's where I feel like evolving as a teacher. I've come to this place where it's like really making sure I'm watching where people are, you know, maybe sinking a little bit too forward, like that. That's to me is saying like, okay, like I need to cue better to understand that how do you say it and not how do you say it in English Anatomy, anatomy of the body to be able to say the muscles, the bones, where you're going and how, so people feel engaged.
Speaker 1:So that their muscles are engaged. Yes, that's, I say it in my class all the time this is a full body experience. Like there's a difference between putting your hands up and having your hands being like like limb hands and really engaging the hands, opening up the fingers Like you're like shooting firecrackers from your fingers. Like there is a difference. And going back to why it's beneficial physically, like we are literally because of modern technology, we are literally losing the ability to open our hands wide. We see more cases of carpal tunnel and all kinds of wrist dysfunction, and this is the reason. It's because we're losing the ability to open up our hands.
Speaker 1:And and so I talk about this in my yoga class all the time like you can throw your arms up and they can not be engaged and they can be like limp noodles up there, or you can really engage from fingertips to toes and feel that full body experience, because it's easy to rest in your bones, it's easy to rest in the flexibility. It's easy to fake it and not engage the muscles, but like you're and I say this in my classes too you're just cheating yourself, like I yes, I know I can tell if you're faking it or not, but like it doesn't matter to me. Like this is your experience, like what are you getting out of this? So if you're half-assing it like, why are you even here?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And that's my spicy yoga teacher and I definitely bring that to the yoga sphere Like, yeah, I'm a little on the spicier side. I'm going to push you and I think that's why, like, I've had a couple instances where people come to my class and like they don't like me because like I'm going to push you and I'm going to hold up that mirror for you and show you those places that you don't like and that you don't want to look at. But nine times out of 10, if the student sticks with it and comes back, they end up loving me, loving my classes, and not only does their practice expand exponentially, but, like they, they literally have a transformation. Like you can see it, people look different, and I'm not talking about losing weight. It's like a glow that people have about them. That is different.
Speaker 2:It's amazing what a deep breath will do to the body.
Speaker 1:Literally.
Speaker 2:I think so much of us are just suffering from having poor posture and no deep breath.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so many of us, and I think this is coming up in. So stay tuned for email from day 15, because this is what we talk about in day 15. A lot of us in modern culture are we spend too much time sitting and it again it's creating pathologies that didn't exist before or that weren't as common because people were more active. Like we see more hip and low back dysfunction. That's what so many people come to yoga for. Oh my, my chiropractor said this would be good for me. My PT said this would be good for me. My doctor recommended I come to yoga to loosen up my hips. It's like I hear that 30 times a day, probably, and it's because we're coming from a very sedentary sedentary. I can't say that word, so I'm just going to make it up, but I hope everyone knows what I'm talking about. Um, we come from a very sedentary lifestyle. We said a lot. I just make up my own English. It's fine.
Speaker 2:Sedentary.
Speaker 1:I have to, I have to spell it out. It's so. It's such a hard word.
Speaker 2:Why? Why, my brain is in spanish, so I can't really I mean, that's amazing, I wish not the woman to ask. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I do not have very my expansive vocabulary anyways, but okay, said in terry. Said in terry, I'm saying it phonetically, so anyone that was wondering.
Speaker 1:Thank you um, it's an adjective and it means tending to spend much time seated, somewhat inactive yeah, no, no and well, I think it's just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so much difference at our bodies as you were, you know. That's why there's that whole big thing about doing 10 K steps a day. Why? Because we've always been walking like five K a day.
Speaker 1:I know and honestly, like six to 10,000 steps when you really like think about it, it doesn't seem like that much.
Speaker 2:No, it's. It's really not like if you're not sitting in a desk, it's really not. I'm like my sister always laughs at me. She's like I don't know why you're counting your steps, because you live on a farm and you're on your feet literally all day, like, and so I? But I got it. I got one of those like fun tracker things to like check myself and I was was like oh, okay, like I'm losing my mind because you know, I don't know you do have days when, and if you do have days where you just sit and rot, like, that's okay too.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh my God, yes, that's so healing and for me, like I'm a projector in human design, so like sometimes I need that time to literally have a brain break and not do anything. Integrate, integrate, yes, I mean yes. We talk about asana like shavasana is the most important of all the poses and you're just lying there and you know I always end my classes saying that, like, this is the most important asana, right here yeah, I actually start a lot of my classes in Shavasana as well.
Speaker 1:I love that. I've done that a couple of times. We always start in child's pose. Um, because, like for the last, like I would say almost a year now I've been on and you've probably seen it in my reels, but I've been on this kick of a warm-up. Um, that's like child's pose, child's pose, the tabletop, tabletop to bear bear to high plank, lower down, inhale to cobra, exhale it back to child's pose. It feels so good in the body and again bringing those like circular emotions and not thinking about linear, but really like undulating and moving the spine it is. It is like such a great way to start a class.
Speaker 2:Love that. It looks nice and juicy.
Speaker 1:It feels so good in your body. And so, yeah, for the last like year I've been starting all of my classes with some variation of that Like, sometimes we throw a camel in there, sometimes I think you did that in your post yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it um, so yeah, that's hip opener, and then that moves us to day 16. So we're like officially halfway through this challenge, which is fucking wild. It feels good. It feels so good and it's been so validating and not that this is why we did this, but it feels so validating that so many people have come to me and said, like these emails are incredible, like I'm learning new things, I'm being reminded of things that I forgot. So I think it's just been like a really awesome journey and I know we've said this a bunch I don't know if we've said it on here, but we've said it to each other Like this challenge it turned out was like for us.
Speaker 2:And it's so awesome that other people are benefiting from it too. Yes, well, I think, yeah, for sure. I think we're learning a lot, even just like I'll say this really quickly on the back end learning a lot, but also on, like, actual knowledge and wisdom that we're sharing with people. I think, you know, it's bringing, as we mentioned all these things that, yes, we knew, but it's like bringing everything back up to the surface and allowing us, allowing that to simmer here and bring it back into not just our practices and our teachings and our classes, but just into our everyday life. You know, it's accountability, like I do want to be someone who practices what they preach.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. I mean there is.
Speaker 2:And that's what I would love. You know, that's I think you were saying, like that's who we're evolving to be, and if we can take people along with us, like come on in, like what is it from? Like get in losers, we're going, whatever.
Speaker 1:And that moves us into Pranayama breathwork, life force, energy. Oh, I think Dee cut out on us.
Speaker 2:Hopefully she comes back back sorry, I don't know what the that moves us into pranayama life force energy.
Speaker 1:We might have cut out a little bit. I don't know how this audio is going to be, but we'll see again.
Speaker 1:This is a work in progress and it's a learning experience for me we're flowing we're flowing, we're breathing, um, but breath work is such an important part of the practice and when I first started teaching yoga as a baby yoga teacher, I came across this study, um, and now it's a little bit outdated, so I'd love to see, like an update on this study, but it was done in about 2010, I want to say. But that study said and it was through the American heart and lung association, so that study said that the average American only uses about 10% of their lung capacity in an entire lifetime, and that absolutely blew me away. Like we're taking short, stagnant breaths and this is a lot of times, just contributing to, like, anxiety dysfunction, um, dysregulation, anxiety dysfunction, dysregulation, disease, like yeah, you name it Like the breath is so important I mean, it is literally what's keeping us alive Like if you don't have the breath, you will cease to exist.
Speaker 2:It's the first thing we do when we're born and it's the last thing we do before we die. And you can eat. You can live without eating or water for a few days, but you can't live without your breath. And I think that when we learn to breathe in like a conscious way, you know half of us aren't even breathing correctly. I know I mean doing it the opposite way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we talk about mouth breathing and how it is literally causing dysfunction and development of the jaw and how it can contribute to tooth decay. It's just there's. So the breath is so important and learning to breathe in and out of your nose is a huge piece of health.
Speaker 2:It's huge. I even like, as you know, as a mother like I, my son was having this thing where he was sleeping with his mouth open and this might be crunchy to some people, but it concerned me because their his brain is still developing and when he's not breathing like, his nervous system can't be fully, like, detoxed and regenerated. This is for anyone, not just him, anyone. If he's breathing through his mouth, he's not taking a deep breath. So I was like you know, I brought him to a chiropractor and all these things to to see, and you know I think we're doing a good job. But that's why people like you'll see that the new crazy is with mouth taping. Yeah, because, but I will tell you this, like the people who have spoken to that do that are like I've never slept better in my life.
Speaker 1:My anxiety is half of what it was I so being sick, being congested, is one of the worst things for me, because I cannot stand breathing through my mouth, Like now that I know and I'm conscious of it I've been practicing this for about 13 years. It's like breathing through my mouth makes me insane and there are certain breathwork techniques that, yeah, you do a little bit of mouth breathing, but I'm talking like on a whole, as a majority, like for most of your day, you should be breathing in and out of your nose. There are so many benefits to breathing in and out of your nose. It moistens the air that we breathe, it filters the air that we breathe before it gets to the lungs. Like there are so many benefits of breathing through the nose, so I think that taps it.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, oh no, no, go ahead. I was gonna say it taps back into tapas. So it's like you're creating this purification of your body. Amen, that's what I feel like when you start to understand and connect all these things. You said, like, as you began saying that this is a flawless design, like it really was, like they all.
Speaker 1:It's like this beautiful puzzle and you just can put all the pieces in together and they all fit so beautifully and this is how nearlyened was born because I feel like yoga as a whole is a collection of tools and it's like, basically in this beautifully packaged little toolbox and it's like here you go, here's the tools to get you through the hard shit, here's the tools to get you through the good shit. Like this is the tools for life and learning all of these techniques really has been like building my own personal toolbox and like once I had these tools and techniques under my belt, like I wanted to share them like. And that brings us into the types of breath work. So we're going into naughty Shodana, alternate nostril breathing.
Speaker 1:This is one of my favorite breathwork techniques for anxiety. It also helps to balance the right and left hemisphere of the brain. Like they knew this 5,000 years ago. It blows my mind, but Nadi Shodhana is a great way to relax the central nervous system. It's a great breathwork to do before bed. It's also a detoxifying practice. Any of the breath works are and yeah, so naughty should on an alternate nostril breathing is a favorite one for me and like way back when I was a baby yoga teacher, I actually used to start all of my classes with it and I maybe need to bring that back too.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that. Yeah, I think it's great. You can throw it in anywhere to, like you know, even if you get into and you're done with the fire, the physical asana in your class and you want to just have you know students go through that. I think that that's. I love doing that too.
Speaker 1:Recently I just taught sitali breath, which is like you make like the hot dog with your tongue and you breathe through it and that's like a cooling breath. So I thought that that was super fun and like again, a way to bring something silly into yoga. That's like beneficial but like everyone's gonna laugh at themselves doing that because it feels so silly, yeah. And then we're going into day 18 kapalabhati, skull shining breath, and this is're going into day 18. Kapala Bhatti skull shining breath and this is an energizing breath. It's a way to bring some like fire in. It's also great. So this time of year in New England we're like in the thick of spring. There's I told you like at the top of this podcast before we started recording, but it is we're full of pollen here and this is actually a great breath to do for um allergy season because it helps to just like clear out the nose and the sinuses keep the pathways clear and functioning properly.
Speaker 1:Yes, and then that brings us to the last day of this little section of asana and breath work, which is Brahmari, or like be buzz breath or be breath, and this is really great for focusing the mind, for calming anxiety.
Speaker 2:System regulation. I love this one yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, a silly little fun thing to do, like a great thing to teach children because they kind of do it naturally. So, yeah, I just I love these breathwork techniques, and so stay tuned for our posts on those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those will be fun to do More. Yeah, like be fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think that wraps us up for week three. You have anything to add, or?
Speaker 2:Um, I just am super happy. I just feel really grateful for everyone that has signed up and is participating. Whether you're doing it loudly on social media or you're doing it in the quiet of your own home, I think I'm just, I'm just really I don't know. I'm just really grateful for you, gianna, for doing this alongside with me, and for everyone that's involved, because you know it's it's, it creates community, and I think that it's a ripple. It just creates a ripple and I think that it just feels really good. So, thank you to everyone who's listening, who's participating, who's going to participate or who just is here for the knowledge and the conversation.
Speaker 1:Yes, or even if you're just listening to the podcast. These are great tools, like I said, tools to just have in your back pocket, yeah, and when you're ready for them, you know where to find us, yeah. Well, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of the Nearly Enlightened podcast. If this conversation resonated with you, I would love it if you shared it, leave a review, or if you reach out and let me know your thoughts on it. And if you're looking for more ways to deepen your connection to body, mind and spirit, check out my meditate to elevate my guided meditation portal, or visit nearly enlightenedcom for more resources. Until next time, stay curious, stay connected and remember the answers already lie within.