Enlighten & Elevate with Kelly
Thank you for being here dear soul! My name is Kelly and I am a Reiki Master, mother, wife, and lover of all things spiritual. Come with me on my quest to find tools and knowledge for continued spiritual growth. It can be tough to navigate the world as a human and parent. Dive in with me for enlightenment and ways to empower your life! We will explore many topics such as spirituality, holistic healing modalities, and metaphysics.
Enlighten & Elevate with Kelly
Soul Embodiment: Breaking Free from Mind Over Matter with Leslie Ellis!
Hello beautiful souls! What if the key to spiritual growth isn't transcending your body, but fully inhabiting it? Soul embodiment coach and certified yoga therapist Leslie Ellis challenges the fundamental "myth of mind over matter" that pervades so much of spiritual practice today.
For over 25 years, Leslie has guided seekers toward authentic connection with their bodies—not as something to overcome, but as the very vessel of spiritual wisdom. In this illuminating conversation, she reveals how our cultural obsession with controlling our thoughts often disconnects us from the wisdom of our physical experience.
Leslie shares the fascinating neuroscience behind emotions—how each feeling naturally lasts only 90 seconds before our thought patterns re-stimulate it—and offers simple yet profound practices to break free from unhelpful mental loops. When we feel our feet on the ground, notice the weight of our body in a chair, or simply observe the sensations of washing dishes, we cultivate a presence that transforms our everyday experience.
Particularly striking is Leslie's insight that meditation doesn't require sitting cross-legged in silence. It can happen while walking, with eyes open, or during daily activities. The true measure of spiritual practice isn't how well it conforms to an idealized image, but how effectively it helps you connect with your unique embodied wisdom.
Whether you're frustrated with traditional meditation practices, caught in cycles of uncomfortable emotions, or simply seeking a more grounded approach to spiritual growth, this episode offers refreshingly practical guidance for bringing presence into every moment of your life. Listen now to discover how coming home to your body might be the spiritual practice you've been searching for all along.
0:00 Welcome to Enlightened Elevate
10:10 The Myth of Mind Over Matter
17:01 Presence vs. Meditation Misconceptions
22:24 The 90-Second Lifespan of Feelings
28:30 Finding Your Unique Embodiment Practice
34:11 Coming Home to Your Body
To get in touch with Leslie Ellis:
www.yogaheartsong.com
https://www.facebook.com/leslie.ellis.359
https://www.instagram.com/leslie_atheartsong
Hello, beautiful souls, welcome to Enlightened Elevate with Kelly. Thank you so much for being here. I am a Reiki master, teacher, mother, wife and lover of all things spiritual. This podcast is a place where we explore metaphysics, holistic healing and so much more. Join me on a quest to find tools and knowledge for continued spiritual growth. It is my passion to help people learn more about the energy body and how spiritual knowledge can help us better navigate a chaotic world. It is really hard to be human. Learning self-mastery, unconditional love of yourself and others is the best way to better our world. The outer world is a reflection of our inner world. Gandhi famously said be the change you wish to see. Real change begins and starts with each and every one of us, so let's do the work. If you love this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. This helps with the algorithms and spreads the show's messages and makes it more discoverable. Thank you so much for being here again and enjoy this episode. Hello everybody, welcome back to Enlighten and Elevate.
Speaker 1:Today I have a special guest with me. Her name is Leslie Ellis of HeartSong Yoga, wellness and Coaching. She's a soul embodiment coach and a certified yoga therapist. She's been supporting soulful humans to live more closely to their soul, wisdom, purpose and deep desires. For over 25 years, she is a lifetime seeker of spirit, a poetry lover, nature lover, definitely a dog person. She lives at home in Bend, oregon, but she's currently traveling on a six-month adventure, traveling the Southwest with her sweetheart and her two dogs. Welcome, leslie, I'm really happy to be here, I'm really excited, and we were going to discuss today the myth of mind over matter and being in the present moment, so I'm going to let you take it away, leslie.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, the myth of mind over matter that came to me recently as I was thinking about just so many of the observations that I have as a longtime yoga teacher, meditation practitioner. I've been a yoga therapist for a long time and there's always been for me a real sense of curiosity and excitement about the human body and being in the spiritual community, which I also have been in for many years, I see a lot. First of all, there's a lot of conversation around detaching from the body. Of all. There's a lot of conversation around detaching from the body. Yeah, yeah, it's like ascending or transcending right, transcending what's the human thing that we're doing and trying to be more spiritual.
Speaker 2:And for me, the spiritual has always been really grounded in my body and with, first of all, I love nature. So being out in nature, hiking, moving my body, whether it is that kind of activity or in yoga postures, it's like that connection to myself through the body is profound. And I find that with my clients as well, that the more that they can get out of their heads and into their bodies, the more the word that comes to me is like effervescence. It's like there's this effervescent sensation of being alive comes, and to me that's a very spiritual, like being alive as a human here on the planet is a very spiritual experience, I would agree.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that you point out because they do talk a lot about raising your consciousness and I think sometimes people are thinking that is outside of your human experience. We're incarnated here for a reason. At this time we all agreed to come here and that's part of our soul contract and so we're meant to live this human experience. So if you're constantly in your mind or you're not actually fully in the present moment Eckhart Tolle is really. He's written much about being in the present the present moment is all we have and if you think about it, that's really true, like it is all that we have is the present moment, and how important it is to be present and you talking about all those things that nature, hiking, moving your body, all of that really does even people who aren't spiritual but say they love pickleball, or when you're in your zone and you are just in your game. That's a spiritual experience in my opinion. Of course, whether it's singing, dancing, people can feel that in many different ways and I just really loved all the examples you gave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this sense of being present, or this idea in a way of being present I've seen over the course of my practice and teaching in myself and in people that I've worked with. Sometimes there's almost a I don't know if it's a confusion or this feeling I can't quite get it right because I can't get my mind to shut down first of all, so I can't meditate. For example, people often say I'm not good at meditating because I can't get my mind to shut down. Or I see this almost compulsion to try to think one's way to being more present. If I can just focus my attention just right or think the right things or not get distracted, then I'll finally be present.
Speaker 2:And this is where I find again the body and embodiment which, like the definition of embodiment, is just that tangible expression of an idea. So that's what embodiment is the tangible expression of an idea. So when we take from the mind into the body and feel what's going on in the body, that immediately brings us present. So it's not about just focusing on your breath or just getting your mind to shut down, it's just feeling your body in space where it is noticing, sensation, what it is that's happening and that can help to calm and quiet our nervous systems and put us into a very different space of being, and then, whatever it is that we're doing, we can be more present.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think it's interesting too. You talk about, like people saying they can't meditate and whatever. I think it is hard because currently, in the times we live, it's very we're like inundated with stimulation, right, constantly, especially with people having smartphones. That is taking you out of the present moment. But having ways, I think, like you said, just studying being present, I think it is a challenge because we're overstimulated and we're it's like everybody is also super busy or we're especially, I think, in America. The American culture is we're always going or doing movie, doing this and that, so that also, I think, takes people out of their present moment in their bodies. But I think we can do anything that we want. It's just we think we can't because we're not used to it.
Speaker 1:Right, you don't start meditation and you're this like maybe somebody thinks of, like somebody meditating on top of a mountain or like having that soulful experience. That's what it's supposed to be. But nobody starts anything and it's absolutely perfect at it. You just it's like anything, it's like a muscle when you start weight lifting or running or walking, whatever, like you, you have to build your way to doing it. It's okay to have what do they call it?
Speaker 1:Monkey mind right, trying to be quiet and your mind goes elsewhere, which is totally normal. Normal, right, it's totally normal. But I know I, even as a parent because I have three children I'm used to noise and all the things. So for me sometimes silence is difficult, and I think maybe that's it too is that there's an uncomfortability with being quiet and silent, because it's in those moments too that maybe we need to work through some of the things that maybe we put in our back pocket or we you know what I'm saying. I think maybe sometimes that's too why people don't like to be silent, because when you're silent, some of the things that maybe you need to work on are going to come to the forefront yeah, one of the things I think with that sense of silence is this is where I think about the mind over matter, right?
Speaker 2:There's all these ideas that we have about how things should be and ultimately, if we can drop the ideas about how it should be and simply be present with how it is, we can make a lot of movement in bringing more peace and satisfaction even into our lives. So if we say, you say silence can be really uncomfortable, meditation doesn't have to happen in silence, first of all, but also it's uncomfortable. So we are with the discomfort, right, so we can sit with or be with the discomfort. Now, I'm not one who says meditation means you have to sit cross-legged on the floor with your hands on your lap and your eyes closed and be perfectly still. Meditation can happen in motion. Meditation can happen with eyes open. Meditation can happen in motion. Meditation can happen with eyes open. Meditation can happen with walking, right, yeah, but presence doesn't only happen in meditation.
Speaker 2:Meditation is a great place to practice being present because we create an environment, but the real value of presence is when it comes in the everyday moments, when it comes while you're washing the dishes, when it comes when you're in the moment of a conversation with another person, of those moments is enriched, is enhanced, and that's what, to me, is really exciting.
Speaker 2:When I think about this mind over matter, we think that what we think is the most important. We think that if we just think about it right, or if we change our mindset somehow so that we will be better, that is going to improve our lives. But for me, I think really, the improvement of our lives, our experience of lives, of our lives, is this yeah, we can improve our lives by being more engaged with our lives fully, from all of ourselves, from our being, not just from our minds, but from, like, the way that we inhabit our bodies, the way that we move, the way that we hold ourselves, the way that we relate with ourselves in the inner experience. So, when I think about embodiment, yes, it's the tangible expression of an idea, but it also is what is happening inside of you as you go through the motions of your day, as you go through and do all of those things that your life is made up of.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I was looking at your talking points over here and you do have one that I think is super interesting that spirituality and transcendence. It doesn't actually help you with being in the present moment and I think because it going to that thing where you know we're seeking outside of ourselves, no matter how spiritual you are, how much meditation you practice, how much yoga you do, life is still going to throw you curveballs right. There's always going to be the ups and downs. Life we're all going to deal with loss, of whatever kind it could be of a person, it could be of a relationship, it could be like many things like. No matter what, this is going to happen until we cross over, we're going to be in life.
Speaker 1:Living life and to be human is to experience a wide range of emotions and events, some of them traumatic, some of them joyful, some of them funny, right, like, we have that wide range. If you're constantly trying to transcend if you will, you're really not, you're right how does that actually help you move through it? I think that there is. I do think mindset is important and how we view is important. I do think that there's an important component to that, but maybe a balance there of still being present and then using your tools to work through. Because I will say too, when life does get difficult, the only way to get through anything is. I will say too, when life does get difficult, the only way to get through anything is through it. You have to feel it. As uncomfortable, as painful emotionally as those things are, the only way to get through them is to actually feel them, and you have to be present to feel in our body, right yeah?
Speaker 2:definitely. I think something else that often happens, kelly, and this is where I when I talk about mindset. Absolutely, mindset is important. The way that we view things, the perspective that we have, our level of acceptance, gratitude, all of those things they make a huge difference. But I think that sometimes people err to the side of. I can just think myself through this.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's where you're talking about. We have to actually feel it. But what happens with feeling and I think that this happens both with negative thoughts Sometimes we're trying to change our mindset, negative thoughts.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we're trying to change our mindset what we do is we push away the negative thoughts or the feelings, any feeling that we perceive as negative, any sensation that we feel is negative. There's this tendency to want to push it away and have a different experience instead, and what happens in that is that whatever it is that we're pushing away, like what you resist persists right, it's that old moniker, but it's going to keep coming back because there's some thing that needs our attention.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think you're also speaking to too. Like there is sometimes false positivity and or or toxic too, there is sometimes false positivity and or toxic positivity, toxic bypassing yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, and there is a components of that because you can look at a difficult situation and and say I can get through this, everything's right, because in a lot of cases, depending on what you're experiencing, it isn't fine and you know what. It's okay to not be okay all of the time. Right, we're human and so I think sometimes people have difficulty saying I'm not okay. There's vulnerability there, right when we express that we're struggling. When you say that you're struggling, there's something there, there is some parts of it where you're right.
Speaker 1:You can't just think yourself out of certain things. You have to feel it, you have to move through it, do have to move your body because we're like this energetic system, our whole body. We're this vibrating, beautiful, light, right, light body that we have and it is a vibrating thing and we're interacting with all these things around us and we have to use tools or things like that. In the present time it's becoming although a lot of this stuff is becoming definitely more mainstream. Where it is becoming, more and more people are talking about mindfulness, and even with younger kids, like they are starting to talk about it at school, sure, which is very positive. I think there's a lot in that. You can't think your way through things. You have to experience it. I feel like when you're in something difficult, how you work through that, is a growth process.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think it's a growth in an expansive process. I feel like there's always ups and downs through growing and expanding and you have to feel things, you have to experience it and I think maybe this is where I was going with it. Like you say, people do want to push away. Oh, I don't want to be angry or I don't want to be negative about this, but just saying, pushing it down right, that's not helping. If you're angry or you're extremely heartbroken or sad, you have to let that move through you. You have to feel that and then you can let it go, like, eventually, you let it go right, you can find a way to work through and let that go and not let that be controlling your feelings or how you're moving through things. But again, that's different for everybody, depending on what it is that you're trying to work through. I think that the time frame on all that is different. Pushing things away or repressing it, something's going to boil over them.
Speaker 1:If you're just like oh no, I'm not going to be negative about that.
Speaker 2:There's that piece of pushing it away and repressing it, that that's going to come back at you.
Speaker 1:You resist, persists right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I think what I'm trying to get at is you said something, kelly, about expressing it Like we can just going through and saying, oh, everything's fine, and putting on that happy light about it, even if inside you don't feel that, and I think that obviously can create some issues for us. But I think what happens is that even with ourselves we're sometimes like that. So it's not just the external expression of it, it's like a kind of internal conflict with allowing ourselves to feel what it is that's going on. And I don't know if you're familiar with the work of Jill Bolt Taylor. She's a neuroscientist who had a stroke. I think her book is called my Stroke of Insight or something like that. She had a stroke and she watched herself go through that process and through the whole experience she made a number of discoveries. After she recovered from her stroke she continued with this research.
Speaker 2:But there were a couple of things. I guess the one that comes to mind for me is she talks about a feeling, an emotion, a feeling anyone that you have that a feeling has a natural lifespan of 90 seconds. That's the lifespan of a feeling. So, yes, it can take us a period of time and it's all different based on what it is that's going on. Right, it can take us, however long it takes us, to work through an issue, but an actual feeling, it only lasts 90 seconds, according to research.
Speaker 2:Okay, but what happens is we re-stimulate the feeling through our thoughts, so we have a feeling and then we have a thought about it and that thought can re-stimulate the feeling. So this is where mindset, and like changing our perspective or changing our thoughts, and then we have a thought about it and that thought can re-stimulate the feeling. So this is where mindset, and like changing our perspective or changing our thoughts or using affirmations all of that can really help us because it can help to shift the feelings that we're having, that are maybe getting in our way. But I think that an element that I have found really helpful and that my clients also felt helpful, is that during that 90 seconds, the more present we can be with the feeling as it is, the more it can transform and shift into a direction that's going to be more supportive of us. So it's not just the way we think about it, but it's actually allowing ourselves to feel it can help it to change and then we're less likely to go into that thought loop that just re-stimulates it over and over.
Speaker 1:I like that. That makes complete sense. Is there an exercise or something that you work with your clients with where to help them do that exercise, or something that you work with your clients with were to help them do that, you know?
Speaker 2:absolutely. One thing I can say is you talked about yoga. Yoga is a physical practice. Right, it's a practice of the body.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I see, even with a lot of yoga practitioners, that they're not really present in their body. We're pushing and straining and like trying to perfect and get somewhere with our yoga practice. We're going to be not really fully physically present. So first thing is having actual practices where you are coming home to your body over and over again and building that muscle of awareness, noticing sensation, feeling what's going on, responding to what's going on. When we have that foundation, then in a challenging moment it's much more easy to tap into. So we could give an exercise for when you're having a really strong emotion, you can do this particular exercise to be more present with it. But I think the foundation that we have being with what is going on inside of us, that's going to help. Then, in the moment when those strong sensations come or a strong emotion come, we're going to be able to better utilize the skills that probably a lot of people have been instructed in, like to stop and take a deep breath Right, but it's stop and feel your body breathing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I hope that helps. That's not really super specific for your question like an exercise to do because there's so many different potential exercises one could do, but yeah, that building that muscle of being more grounded and present in your body just in the first place is going to help in those challenging moments.
Speaker 1:You're talking about breath, which is huge, and something that I noticed is when you're in a stressful situation, you're often not fully breathing, and that's something until I was made aware of I was reading something. When we're working through something and we're stressed out, you're not actually fully oxygenating your body. Yeah, and I started to have an awareness of that then. So when I was feeling stressed out and I realized this was 100% correct, I was not breathing, I was holding my breath. So it's interesting.
Speaker 1:But breath is something simple, right, that we can all use to fully get in touch with your body. It's something simple that anybody can get in touch with your body. It's something simple that anybody can, and there's a lot of tools out there to help people. There's apps I've even seen on smart watches of a variety where you can do breathing exercises, like I've seen. They have you count or hold your breath for a certain period of time and then release, and it's incredible. Something as simple as working with your breath and getting in touch with that really does get you in tune with your body. You don't have to pay something super high or have an expensive package or take a class or any of those things to get in touch or come home to yourself.
Speaker 2:I think that sometimes having some support to learn those practices can be really helpful Agreed support to learn those practices can be really helpful.
Speaker 2:One of the things that happens and I think apps can be really helpful and people get a lot of benefit from those. But sometimes those breath practices the way they're taught so regimented and structured they don't take the individual into consideration. So, for example, if you have instruction in a breath practice where it says, breathe in for four counts, then hold for four counts, then breathe out for four counts, then hold for four counts, that's a really common, the box breath that is taught. Often. What I've seen is that more people than you might imagine have pretty extreme anxiety with the practice. But what happens and again this is the mind over matter thing, right Is that somebody said this is a good practice to do to help deal with stress, to help be more present, whatever, and so they keep pushing themselves.
Speaker 2:I have students who have been like, okay, I just have such a hard time with that box breath or whatever other exercise it is, but I keep on trying, I keep on trying. And me as the guide, right? I might say like, why are you continuing to try on that when you're having heart palpitations or you're feeling so anxious or relieve the practice feeling more agitated than when you started it and you walk away thinking I didn't do it right. What happened is you didn't pay attention to the signals of your body. You're trying to override what your body is very wisely telling you, which is this isn't your practice for this moment. Right, this isn't actually helpful. It's not giving you what it is that you're trying to achieve. It's like the person who tries to meditate and it closes their eyes and tries to sit really still and just gets anxious or gets agitated and then says meditation doesn't work for me. So we're not actually present with what's happening and practicing.
Speaker 2:Feeling into that, like I always encourage, if you're trying to do a breath practice and it doesn't feel good and I'm not saying, oh, everything should give you a high or extreme pleasure, but if it doesn't feel good, stop, pay attention. How are you feeling what's happening? Because so often we're trying to do these practices or change our mind or change our lives when we're not connected very well in the physical realm. We're like doing it I almost think about like you're where there's a center of who we are right and we're often operating off to the side of that out of our bodies.
Speaker 2:I noticed this about myself years ago I realized, even as a yoga practitioner, who is very physical and can do a lot of yoga poses, and all of this years ago I realized that whenever I was trying to accomplish something difficult or I was having strong emotions, that what could happen is that, if I really paid attention, my being, my energetic being, was off to the side somewhere. I would even find myself looking up trying to figure out what I felt. So, not only breath to help to be more present, but feeling your feet on the ground, like feeling your weight in your chair, letting your shoulders relax Again things that you may have experienced instruction around before, but to do it on a consistent over and over basis is so helpful.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think what you're speaking to is spot on. Some people we put all this pressure on ourselves to do all these different things because good for us and it is good. But nothing's one size fits all and it's okay if the box sprint doesn't work for you or feeling it differently, like you said, just being noticing how your are, your shoulders are, your feet on the ground, all of that is it's really important and if it, like you said, if it's causing you more stress, then try something. Nothing is one size fits all. Everyone is such an individual. We're all made differently. We all have different personalities. I totally agree and I think it's really important that we shouldn't beat ourselves up because, say, transcendental meditation doesn't work, work for you, it's okay. It doesn't mean you're not spiritual, it doesn't mean you're bad, it is a real difference for all of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of the things. When I talk about soul embodiment, the intention there is, like your individual, like your unique self, like how do you embody that? Not some ideal or idea, construct of what and what that would be, but what is it for you. And so we have ways that we can connect with that soul wisdom and then really bring out the messages from that into these practices so that they help to inform what breath practices, what physical exercises, what kinds of movement are going to be the most supportive for your individual being.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you have to find something that you actually enjoy or you're not going to want to do it. You're not going to want to do it if it's every time. Oh God, I've got to sit and be quiet for 10 minutes. You're going to dread it, it's not going to help you and then you're going to end up stopping doing it at some point because it's a chore. And whatever you're doing, you should enjoy it. And I love that. You talked about walking, meditation, just walking, and being outside, hearing the birds, seeing the nature. All of that is absolutely a way of connecting to your body, to source, and there's just so many different ways to do it and everybody just has to find what works for them. Yeah, you know, some people love to run, some people hate to run. Right, there's always a way of connecting to your body and being present, and I like how you talk about it's really individual and that's how you work with people you know what works for them and giving them the tools to work through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that whole process, connect and to connect to what it is that they really both know about themselves internally but also can discover. What I find is that a lot of people have not really taken the time because they haven't been encouraged to. Often we ask the question like what do I want? What do I want to have happen? What is it that really speaks to me? So we, again, we are doing all this kind of seeking outside when there's so much wisdom in our bodies and in our inner being that's available to us, just waiting to be tapped into. And yeah, so that's just really exciting to me.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting when you start to your body is this magnificent gift that we are living with right, that we can feel things. I think anybody can. When you walk in a room, you can feel most people already get a feel for the room or you meet someone and you feel a certain way. There's something to that paying attention to what your body's telling you and that can also be pain or whatever, and that's also your body's telling you something. There there's always something, but often we do, I think, because of the busyness, sometimes we may just ignore it. Or you think sometimes people are always thinking about the next thing. Instead of Sit now, yeah, instead of sitting with what's right in front, we're like, ok, but I have to do this, to do that, or I think it's just part of being human, right, we get distracted sometimes with all the things. But I really like all that you're talking about with everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I hope it's helpful Ideas also right that we're expressing, and so I guess what I could encourage us all right now is to put it into practice a little bit, like just to take a moment and feel yourself sitting in your chair and, if you have your feet on the ground, feel your feet on the ground. And if you don't have your feet on the ground, put them on the ground, even if it's a floor right. But feel your feet and actually just take a moment to see. What does that sensation feel like? Is it the sensation of your socks against the soles of your feet? Are you barefooted and you can actually feel the texture underneath your feet? Do you feel like the solidness of your chair and the weight of your body?
Speaker 1:Absolutely All of those things.
Speaker 2:And so it's like again, where are you? And so that little practice I was just trying to take you through that's just to get you connected into your body and then, once you're there, you can start to feel more and know more about what it is that's important to you. One of the things that I do is use a lot of imagery and metaphor with people, and usually like your own images that happen to come. So as we're speaking, so I'm speaking to you and you talk about how important nature is you light up, then we would go right into that. Like, how important nature is you light up? Then we would go right into that.
Speaker 2:Like how does nature work in Kelly's body? How does Kelly's body respond to the sensations and scents and things that you hear in nature and that will awaken you. It's like it is enlightening, right right, it's expansive, it helps you. Somebody else might have a different kind of image that comes and then we can explore that. I think that it's not about the practice itself or what it is that we do. It's how we do it and how we're present with ourselves and knowing ourselves and experiencing ourselves as we're doing, whatever it is that we're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all of the different things. I love that being fully present, working through and you're giving really simple, practical information where somebody just getting used to Because people, I'm just as you're talking me through that and you were saying with your feet on the ground where your shoulders are at we're going through the motions of everything in our everyday life, when we're washing the dishes, doing whatever. I don't sit there and think how am I holding my posture, how am I doing is arm thinking about that, but we could be in a tent or and not even really realize it. But that's just something. Again, that's very interesting.
Speaker 2:If you have ways that you come back to your body and feel it through time and space and practices that you do that, then you do start to notice. When you're doing the dishes and your shoulders are tense and have the skill like, oh, I can relax my shoulders and feel my feet on the ground and take a deep breath and then continue on with the dishes, or I'll notice. For example, maybe I'm frustrated with something that my partner did and I'll be doing the dishes. We can use that as an example. In my mind. I'm like doing these thought loops of like why does he always do that?
Speaker 1:We've all been there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but because I've practiced so much like being present with what is, there's a part of my mind too that's oh wait, look at that thought loop that's going. What's happening there? What if I take a deep breath right now, feel my feet on the ground and do the dishes Like I don't need to be? Let's just do the dishes. Feel the water on my hands, feel the slipperiness of the soap, get that dish clean, whatever it is, and that again, that's presence and that can help shift us out of unhealthy or unhelpful patterns that we might get into.
Speaker 1:I think that's a really interesting point because you're not bypassing, You're just like hold on a second, bringing you back to yourself and taking you out of a. Again you said thought loop, which I love that because I think anybody can think we do get into that. We run it through our mind over and you're right, and that's not helpful. And I love that tool to just pull you back and say, okay, I'm not going to do that because it's not going to help me as I move through, and that's really important point. It's just you're not endlessly doing a practice that's just reinforcing something unhealthy. This may be where I was going with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there are so many examples. I think that we could pull out of our daily lives, but the ultimate offering might be where are you when that's going on and can you be present in your body and a lot of things. As soon as you come home to your body, they fall away because they're not important, like that thought loop that I was describing. That's not important and it's not helpful to me in my life. As soon as I come back into my body, it falls away. I can easily shift my attention. Other times there'll be something that is a feeling, an emotion, a situation that I'm trying to figure out, that I'm not just trying to get rid of it by coming back to my body. Clarity can come, insight can come, I can add more into my intuition and that knowing that I have about something doesn't happen in my mind. The mind is involved in it. Obviously that's part of our human wonderment too is that we have these powerful minds, but it's not just the way that I think about it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely mindful minds, but it's not just the way that I think about it absolutely, and maybe sometimes too, when you can pull your use that thing to pull, you can have a release right of some kind. Maybe you need to cry, maybe you need to. It's just a way of maybe releasing some of the frustration or sadness or any of that sort of thing, something versus something versus.
Speaker 2:Just think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very interesting. I love that You've talked about so many interesting things today, leslie. What would you like to leave the audience with? What would be something you would want to leave as a final thought?
Speaker 2:the final thought, I would go back to not so much the thought itself but to the experience of feeling your body and a question of what might happen for you, or what difference would it make if, in the moment of challenge, you could feel your feet on the ground or you could feel the sensation of your breath moving in your body? What might happen if, when you feel yourself like getting tense in your shoulders and getting up in your head, that you could let your weight sink down into your chair, and the only way to know what might happen is to try it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, developing awareness. I think that's really powerful. When I do have challenges, I'm not thinking about how I'm holding my body or any of those things, but that is really a game changer, right. When you have that awareness, it's in whatever that means to each individual. Whatever you're paying attention to in your own body, however you're going to work through, it's going to be different for each individual, but just having that awareness is really critical and powerful. That you point that out, you know that it's in all of that and there's a lot of the things. I want to thank you for being here, because all the things you've talked about are really you've given everybody who here listening really simple things that they can do to transform and become more present. I'm very grateful for all of your time today and for the information that you've given the audience. Where can they find you, Leslie? Where can people connect with you, follow you, reach out to you if they're interested in working with you? How can they do?
Speaker 2:that? Yeah, thanks Kelly, I do have a website. My business is HeartSongYoga. The website is yogaheartsongcom. I'm also on Facebook. Most of my activity there is on my personal profile. Maybe I'll put that in the show notes for people if they want to connect. Absolutely, yeah, those are the great ways to find me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time and for your wisdom and I honor the beautiful light you are, leslie, in this world, because we all are living in through such interesting times and anything that we can do to try to be more present and to work through what life throws at us, I think is really important. So thank you so much for your time, thank you.
Speaker 2:Kelly for having this beautiful podcast.
