Work Besties Who Podcast
Building a bold community of work besties 💼👯♀️ to bond 🤝💞, banter 😂🎉, and bloom 🌸✨
🎙️ Listen to the Work Besties Who Podcast: where workplace friendships get real! From tea spills to relatable laughs, we’re unpacking everything about work life's ups, downs, and unforgettable moments.
✨ Join us for candid chats, relatable stories, and a sprinkle of chaos—because what’s work without a little drama and a lot of fun?
💼😄 Hit play, and let’s dive into the messy magic of workplace connections together!
Work Besties:-)
Work Besties Who Podcast
Movements of Mindfulness: Rethinking Yoga for Modern Lives
In this refreshing conversation, Jess and Claude sit down with Brea Johnson—founder of Heart and Bones Yoga—to explore how yoga can be reimagined as a sustainable, inclusive, and deeply personal practice.
From burnout prevention to mobility and mindfulness, Brea shares how online yoga has evolved beyond the mat and into everyday moments. Whether you're a seasoned yogi or just yoga-curious, this episode will leave you feeling inspired to create a wellness practice that actually fits your life.
Topics We Cover:
- What “Not Yoga” Yoga means
- Burnout, stress relief, and short practices that work
- Mobility, movement, and sustainable habits
- Why accessible yoga is more important than ever
- How online platforms are changing the game
- Building accountability and community in your yoga journey
Takeaways:
✅ Yoga can be short and still effective
✅ You don’t need a mat to be mindful
✅ Movement variety matters more than perfection
✅ Personalized, inclusive practices make yoga sustainable
Notable Quotes:
🌀 “This is yoga, but not yoga.”
🌀 “10 minutes can be enough.”
🌀 “You can do yoga without a mat.”
Connect with Brea and Heart + Bones Yoga:
🌐 heartandbonesyoga.com
📲 @heartandbonesyoga on Instagram
You can watch the full episode on Youtube
Follow us on IG , TikTok, Threads and LinkedIn
Please rate, comment and provide suggestions for upcoming episodes
Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband
Hello Work Besties. Do you ever feel like yoga's rules don't quite work for your body? Or maybe you've struggled with making yoga accessible and sustainable for yourself as a part of your daily routine? Well, what if there was a way to rethink about yoga and how it could really just fit perfectly into your life and your wellbeing? We have an exciting guest Bree who will be providing that example of how you can create a sustainable yoga practice, not just for you, but for your work bestie too, that will fit perfectly into your schedule.
Claude:Hi. I'm Claude and I'm Jess. We are corporate employees by day, entrepreneurs by night and work besties for life.
Jess:Join us as we explore how work besties lift each other up, laugh through the chaos and thrive together in every industry. Work besties.
Brea Johnson:Hi Brea, how are you? I'm fabulous and thank you for having me here.
Claude:Great. Can you tell a bit?
Brea Johnson:more about yourself. I'm Brie Johnson. I am the founder of Heart and Bones Yoga, so I have. Heart and Bones. Yoga is an online platform. We've been out sharing sustainable, accessible, wonderful, fabulous yoga education and classes online since like 2018. But myself, I've been teaching yoga since 2003. I've been doing this for a very long time. It's really wonderful to have been able to create this beautiful global platform and community to really give an approach to yoga that isn't your like. Let's get our leg around the head type yoga, kind of try to like. It's more like let's move in ways that feel really good and that are easy and simple. Let's be a little bit more mindful and lovely, supportive, realistic kind of ways you know. So it's yeah. So that's kind of really the heart of the heart and bones.
Jess:So, brie, when we, when we kicked off to just to chat with you before we started the podcast, you made a comment that I found really fascinating about how you think of yoga as the yoga, not yoga type product. Can you explain what that means?
Brea Johnson:Yes. So yeah, I sort of playfully said this is yoga but not yoga, and what I mean by that? Because yoga, it is absolutely yoga, it's 100% Like it's yoga. Yoga is this beautiful ancient wisdom tradition that's come to us from India for thousands of years. Like this, is this truly timeless practice that once it hit the West and once it hit sort of our modern times, a lot of our cultural things of like all the wellness industry and all the problematic stuff with that really seeped into how we practice this practice of yoga.
Brea Johnson:And so when I say it's yoga, it's not yoga, I'm not meaning it's not not yoga, but it's not the yoga that we see in the mainstream, that real sense that gives people the perception that, well, I'm not skinny, I'm not flexible, I don't have those $500 Lululemon outfits, right, I can't afford to go to that yoga studio. Or when I do go to that yoga studio, I feel totally out of place because everybody seems to be in this sort of just it's a vibe that maybe doesn't fit with me. So so that's what I mean when I say not yoga, it's. It's not that mainstream type yoga, it's the yoga that's like hey, how are you? Great, you can barely touch your toes. Fabulous, happy to have you here. We don't care, it's great.
Claude:Let's move and breathe and feel better together. It's like accessible yoga Anyone can practice it. Yeah, I mean, I actually love hearing that because I know with my sister-in-law each time I see her, oh, let's do some yoga. And I'm always scared because, like you say, I'm not flexible anymore, I don't have the body anymore and I don't feel comfortable anymore. So if there is in fact a class where I can relate, they can relate to me that, I think, is a win-win.
Brea Johnson:It is, and I and it's, you know, I sigh because it really is such a like what you say is such a thing and that it's a thing that I'm almost because I live in my own little bubble and so I'm almost surprised that this is not like, oh yeah, right, people are still feeling and having this perception that yoga isn't for them, or what you're saying that you've changed. You know, as we age, lifestyle, working jobs that require you to sit most of the day, right, these are the things that are going to make us feel like we can't do that mainstream perspective of yoga, because we already have this assumption that in order to do yoga, you have to be this young, flexible body and also because, like, not all yogas were created equal. And so you go to your local yoga studio where you don't really know what you're getting into, or your doctor's like you should do yoga, and then you go to the studio down the street, let's say, and it's like a flow class and that might not be appropriate for a lot of our bodies, and so then that turns a lot of people off of yoga and realize and think that that's not for them. Yeah, so much of heart and bones and my mission as a teacher and the platform, and all of our teachers on that platform, is really just like no, we've got ways for you to do this.
Brea Johnson:Five minute classes, 20 minute classes, classes on a chair, classes for chronic pain, because the yoga also is so much more than just movement, cause if it was just movement then we'd all go to like a Pilates class, right. So it's got the movement for us to feel better, but the yoga part of it comes in and the movement side, because we're bringing kindness, we're bringing self-awareness, we're bringing mindfulness. This is the benefits of the yoga in a physical form. May the day come where the default consciousness of people, when they're like, want to do yoga, they can trust that there are places for them to go, rather than everything that you just said, claude, which was I want to do it, but I don't really know if this is going to be right or I don't know if I'm going to be injured, because that happens a lot Right?
Jess:Exactly so, brie, you just mentioned a bunch of different kind of styles of yoga. Let's say you or your work, bestie has commented I kind of am interested in yoga. What would be a great place for them to start or places for them to look into?
Brea Johnson:That's so tricky because not all yoga, in how we practice it here in the West the West being like North America, europe like non, not India is pretty movement based and it is based in a lot of these little, in a lot of these styles, and so it's really truly not created equal in the sense that it's like well, it's a kind of pausing because it's a I wish it was a really succinct answer. It could be like well, go to this style of yoga and this is going to be the thing for you, but there's so many different styles that are problematic in a lot of ways. Like it's kind of interesting, without going too deep into the weeds of yoga, in terms of just like some of the styles are are have been created by men for men, in a way like Ashtanga yoga, some of these other styles, if anybody's familiar with them, a lot of times it was created for young boys who had physical abilities, who are able to do these like contortion-y things and not but who are the biggest practitioners of yoga these days?
Jess:but women, yeah.
Brea Johnson:And women, like of certain ages, that can't and won't and shouldn't and don't need to get our legs around our head and our head to our knees. So so the short answer first what do you want it for us? When I teach teachers as well, it's so much about this. Why are we doing it? What are we looking for out of yoga? And also, what are we looking for to help Like what are we doing for most of the day? So if you and your work bestie want to do a practice after work, I'm just going to make an assumption.
Brea Johnson:Most of us are probably sitting for a long time, so we need to do yoga because we're sitting and our hips are tight and our back is probably sore and we see that getting worse and worse over time. The shoulders hunched at the shoulder Okay, well, that's what we want to mitigate. I think when we think, plus stress right, plus the workplace stress yeah, so we have this whole thing of why we want to go to yoga is probably because we want to reduce our stress. We want to feel better and more flexible in our body and more flexible in our body your average yoga class at a yoga studio. I generally speaking and I'm making mass generalizations. We are all in different places around the world and it might be different in your community, but a lot of times those classes will probably be fine for your body because you're going to move, you're going to stretch and movement is really great to undo that work, body adaptation and stress adaptation. But I think it's helpful to try to go a little bit deeper and see if you can find classes that are talking about more mobility focused yoga, because when we think we need to get more flexible, we think we need to stretch more, but that's not always the case.
Brea Johnson:So for me, with Heart and Bones, it's really about this approach of. It's not a style of yoga. Because we teach yoga, we're going to bring more mobility focused movement, which means you're simultaneously improving the range of motion, which is what we want when we think we want flexibility, and then we're also improving at the same time with mobility, building the necessary strength, because when we're also sitting for a long time, we're probably losing strength and as we age, so I'm assuming mostly women as we. We listen to this, we know and we've probably be hearing it more and more it's like we got to build like our bone density, muscle mass, strength, train all this stuff, and yes, and yes and yes and one of the ways. So go do yoga and go pick up weights actually. So, even though I might be taking you away from heart and bones and yoga, please go lift weights. Actually, we do have some weight classes on heart and bones.
Brea Johnson:There, you there's my plug, but this mood, so it's having this like it's not just stretching, it's not just I have tight hamstrings Now I have to stretch them, it's strengthen them, mobilize them. So, approaches to yoga and teachers who understand anatomy, informed movement how you find that? I'm not sure, because I'm not sure all teachers are like. I'm an anatomy informed teacher, but if you start to hear those words around, then you can trust. Or if they say the words mobility, you might be able to feel a little bit more confident and like oh okay, this is the movement practice that's not just going to stretch me, but it's going to stabilize, it's going to strengthen me, it's going to help my nervous system, it's going to help my proprioception, my balance, everything that we need as we age and have sedentary jobs. That was a very thorough answer.
Jess:So thank you. I think about a lot of our questions that are coming from our work besties during our focus this season on wellness. It does have a lot to do with stress and burnout. Would that change your answer in the style of yoga or would it still be the mobility I think you can?
Brea Johnson:have it all. I'm a little bit biased because I've been teaching for 20 plus years and have been really teaching this anatomy informed approach for half that time, and I teach teachers to teach it around the world. This is the world one. That's the one where we're going to stretch and we're going to. It's quiet and yes, I'm not saying don't, because if you go and you love it, it feels good, hooray. But in my mind, especially if we work full-time jobs, we don't have kids and families, we don't have a ton of time to do a whole bunch of different things. So I'm always thinking contextually of the world that we're in. Well, we've got to multitask.
Brea Johnson:So, while we're doing yoga, can it have some strengthening elements? Can it have some flexibility elements? Can it have that yin style feel? It's like burnout, stress release, and I think you can and there's ways to do it. This is a generalized thing. It's going to be different for everybody. Our needs are going to be different.
Brea Johnson:Sometimes it's not a yin class, maybe a fully restorative yoga class where it's all the props all day long. You're just lying around and being held by those props. Yes, there's no strengthening and mobility going on, but holy, your nervous system loves that, but maybe you don't have time to do both a restorative and a more movement-based thing. So maybe finding classes that allow that ability to have we're moving, we're strengthening, we're doing all the things my body, my joints, my muscles need and want and we're giving time at the end to just relax, do our relaxation, do our Shavasana, and I think that's where I get really excited about having this online platform, because there's also then, the convenience factor. So you go to work, you work done at five, got to run to the yoga studio. When are you going to make dinner? When?
Claude:are you going to?
Brea Johnson:help like feed the kids, pick them up from daycare wherever and however you are in your life. The convenience of these online classes. For example, I have 10 minutes, and 10 minutes makes a big difference to my shoulders that have been at my ears all day because my boss has stressed me out and I've got this deadline. Wait, I can do 10 minutes of a shoulder mobility movement and that is actually supportive for your nervous system. It may not give the same feeling quite as like an hour of restorative yoga where you just lied around and had a beautiful delicious cozy nap and it's still beneficial.
Claude:That's also incredible to hear that we, like you, say we don't need to do a whole hour, even doing by 10 minutes, and so that you don't have to stress either, say, oh my god, I did not have time to do my one hour yoga, which again get to the other way, you're even more stressed out. But knowing that you can do just 10 minutes and there's going to be some benefits to it, it's so great to hear and when you hear that and I hope, as we're all listening like does your body just go right?
Brea Johnson:like sort of that. Okay, we're right, I don't like 10 minutes can be enough, and so that's a very good point and I think that's something that again, this mainstream perspectives and approaches to yoga under capitalism, which are we got to have you in and there's nothing wrong with an hour class, because I was about to say we've got to have you in for that.
Claude:Yeah, no, of course you have. Yeah, you have always. You know, okay, I can do the one hour, do the one hour I do. I can't do the 10 minutes. It's good enough, yeah.
Jess:Well, another thing to think about is cause.
Jess:We talk a lot about when we kicked up the wellness, what we were going to do throughout our work day to help alleviate stress, and you don't have necessarily an hour throughout your workday, so, seeing that there is on demand, five, 10 minutes, maybe even 15 minutes, whatever you could, whatever you can incorporate into your day might really be extremely beneficial, even more so than, like some of the things we've been suggesting which are also helpful, like going outside and taking a quick walk or just walking over to someone to say hi, but this could also do the stress release, but also this could also do the stress, the stress release, but also help you for other elements too, and it's not maybe it is an is research has really shown, and I call it like little movements more often, or little moments of mindfulness more often, because it's also that's where the yoga comes in, because that little moments of mindfulness is the movement when you remember to go right, right, okay, even five minutes, and it's so.
Brea Johnson:It's just such a deep program, I think, for all of us to just assume well, if I didn't get the burn, if I didn't get that hardcore sweat, if I wasn't on there for an hour and hour and a half, well, it doesn't, it didn't work, I didn't do enough. That is such a fallacy. It is such a fallacy that I feel I'm always just shouting from the rooftops no little bit of movements more often. Because actually, your body and your nervous system, your joints and your muscles actually all want variety and diversity. They want meaning, they want to move in a variety of ways more often when we're in that chair at work for hours at a time and there are so many different things. Because I have this online platform, I feel like I keep promoting it, but what I'm really just using is the example.
Brea Johnson:I keep promoting it, but what I'm really just using it because we have many people in our community that use it at work and because we have classes that you don't even have to stand up for. Standing up is really nice and actually there's classes that you don't have to do sitting either, they're just standing. But my point is, when you're at work you can do these like a whole entire little five to 10 minute shoulder sequence. Next sequence you will feel immediately this is the most beautiful thing. It's not just like, oh, that was probably good for me. You're like, oh my God, how did five minutes of shoulder.
Brea Johnson:So it really I just I think if we can just really learn to trust that those little movements of of, and it's in their little movements of self-care, and it goes back to what you both mentioned of making it accessible and realistic and not adding that extra layer of stress when the stress is already in our lives. Now we have to stress about doing the things that are good for us.
Claude:Right and I think also learning. For example, the 10 minutes might be the beginning, right? You start the 10 minutes. Oh, I felt so good, I want to do it again tomorrow. 10 minutes. 10 minutes might be the beginning, right? You start the 10 minutes. Oh, I felt so good, I want to do it again tomorrow. 10 minutes, 10 minutes. And then you're like, oh, let me do 15 minutes now, let me do 30 minutes. So those 10 minutes really make you start to have this habit to having to go straight to the one hour, which might be a bit scary.
Brea Johnson:It is daunting and well, and I always think of the yoga studio model and yoga studio is great to be able to go to, but that one hour as well isn't just an hour, because you got to get there.
Brea Johnson:It's the time to get there the time to change for it yeah that becomes elite, like two to three hours depending on how far away it is, and so what goes first in our stress management practices? That the thing that takes all the time. So you're so right Creating that habit. It's sustainable when we take those little bites and those little steps. It's way more sustainable for those habits. And then I in my experience people start doing this and then your body's just like hey, that was really nice More like remember that shoulder stretch.
Jess:They do it twice a day for 10 minutes Exactly. My leg feels good for the shoulder.
Claude:What about us? Oh yeah, their legs being generous on the shoulders.
Jess:So, brie, you talked about your online platform, your on-demand. How did you get started into that? Because it sounds like did you do traditional classes first in a studio.
Brea Johnson:The teaching since 2003,. Did it full-time. I've owned a brick and mortar yoga studio and travel teaching around the world workshops. I've been at this game for a while and then, when I started to switch into more of what I call this anatomy informed approach, which is just inherently more inclusive, little movement more often feel good. Do that everything we've been talking?
Jess:about.
Brea Johnson:I started to notice there's a lot of yoga injuries and a lot of this. I think it was around 2012, when there was a lot of conversation in the yoga world, of like, and there was this, I think, a New York Times article or some big article that came out about injuries in yoga, blah, blah, blah, and it just really created this story. And then a lot of teachers were like yeah, wait, this is true, I've been injured the people in my classes I'm teaching and what I was taught isn't really working for them. And so I started to do a lot of more education in anatomy and movement science, kind of outside of the yoga space, brought it back into yoga and then realized there's a lot more people wanting to do this and a lot more teachers wanting to learn this way.
Brea Johnson:I'm from Canada, but there was this global desire from people wanting to have more of this approach, and so it just lent itself really naturally to social media. In those early days, of course, and by 2017, I was starting to go okay, there's a real huge movement here. There's a real demand. Let's put this online so that it's not just like me on social media teaching people or on YouTube, but let's actually have this as like an online studio Launched that in 2018 and before the who knew the pandemic was coming.
Jess:Yeah, I was going to say, wow, that's like perfect timing ahead of the curve.
Brea Johnson:Yeah, absolutely so, then, which is great, because it normalized being online and it normalized.
Jess:Right.
Brea Johnson:A lot of people were also like well, how can I trust an online platform, you know, if the teacher is not there? And this is the. I think the other power to this approach is that I could go on and on all day, because it's just, I've seen the impact that even through the screen, even through a 10 minute class, 30 minute class hour class on the screen, because we're teaching it in this way of anatomy, informed movement, which means it's just inherently going to be focused on all bodies. It's inherently going to be clear, supportive cues that aren't focused on. Okay, we need to get into the deepest pose we can, meaning just always use leg around the head, because it's the most extreme thing. I don't think extreme one do, actually do that.
Brea Johnson:But it just because it really and I and I love it because, again, people who start to feel this in their bodies, even in an online class, and go, oh, this is what my body has been missing, I love the feeling of so many people will be doing yoga for years and they're like, yeah, it feels good.
Brea Johnson:And then they feel the how we sort of again this anatomy informed approach, sort of tweaks certain ways of getting into the movements and getting into bodies, and we actually don't often even do traditional looking yoga poses. A lot of it's deconstructed because that makes it more accessible. And then people are like, oh, that's a lunge, I've been doing a lunge for 20 years. And then they try our little cues and tweaks and it's like, yes, and your body just knows that it's good and right and so, yeah, so that was my big impetus with getting it online was like, okay, this is. There's not a lot of other things out there that are doing this Again, this mainstream approach which is just like a stretch feel good, toxic positivity and things like that with positivity and things like that.
Brea Johnson:And how do new people coming to your platform know which classes to take.
Brea Johnson:What a good question.
Brea Johnson:Another thing we're very passionate about in mainstream yoga we talk a lot about you got to do a beginner class, you got to do an intermediate or an advanced class, and what we're usually talking about when with the classes is that it's a progression of able bodiedness, meaning if I'm taking an intermediate or an advanced yoga class, generally speaking, I've got to have a certain amount of range of motion, so flexibility and strength to do these like big poses, and that when we unpack that and look at it, it's like, well, wait, so whoa, I've been doing yoga for 20 something years and my body's changing. I'm not as flexible as I used to be, or I got into an accident, or I have a lifestyle that you know, like all these factors. So wait, I can't go to this advanced class anymore because my body isn't what it was when I was 20, right, and so this like notion that advanced equals what you can do with your body is complete bullshit. I'm sorry to, but not sorry, no, it's okay, because then it leaves so many people out. So what we've done?
Jess:with.
Brea Johnson:Heart and Bones is very specifically. Let me just pause for a second. Beginner is helpful in the sense that if you've never done yoga before, maybe a beginner intro to the practice is important. But what we do in Heart and Bones is very specific. There are no beginner classes. There are no advanced or intermediate labeled classes. We just label it because, first of all, it's all again. This anatomy formed approach is really I call it the great equalizer. What works for the person who has a ton of flexibility and even hypermobility also works for the person who has barely any. Generally speaking, because of the way that we're in cuing and engaging and moving the body in this very mindful way. It works for almost everybody where the typical type of yoga is more. If you can't do put your head on your knees, then it doesn't really equalize people. It's very. If you're listening to this, my hands are moving apart like pulling.
Jess:Yeah, like segregated. You're putting people into different groups.
Brea Johnson:Already the groups already exactly in the same class and so we very confidently and successfully don't need to say because it works for everybody and it's like advanced beginner schmageddon. That's what I was, you know, like the, so then you can really just choose a bouquet. What class do I want to do? Are my hips sore? Cool, I can go to the body parts. There's a whole filter of like okay and body parts of like hip, shoulder, spine, full body strength.
Brea Johnson:we have, like, what am I in the mood for? Do I want an energizing class? Great, here, go look at the energizing ones. Am I just tired and I want to relax? Go to the relaxed one. So it's more giving the autonomy back to people. I'm not going to categorize myself in these weird things called beginner, intermediate and advanced. I'm just going to tune in and go what do I need right now? And then you search for it, and then there's going to be a whole bunch of options. How much time do I have? Oh, 20 minutes, perfect, great, I'm going to do this.
Jess:20 minute hip mobility restorative gentle class, boom done. I think that's so smart because when you do take that hour long class, like a portion of it is focused on areas that you might not really need to stretch as much or don't feel are helping you as much. So it gives you that ability to create your own class in a way.
Claude:Yeah, that's customized, that's for what you want. It's really the on demand right. It's really like what I want.
Brea Johnson:Yeah, I've never thought of it quite that. Thank you, both of you have that like it's custom.
Claude:Really like it's like good teamwork.
Brea Johnson:I like this. No, but the customization you're right, you're like curating your own classes, and isn't that kind of the core of what the yoga practice is? Our practice of yoga is about self-awareness and learning that self-awareness. So that would a great practice in and of itself. To be like what do I actually need right now? Not what this teacher is going to give me and assume for me. I get to sort of try, and then also, too, you get to like be like Goldilocks and try it out and go okay, does this 20 minute shoulder class feel good? And then you're in the middle of it and you're like heck no, this is not.
Brea Johnson:And then guess what? You're not stuck at the studio, you get to press stop. You can search and play five other classes and actually some people do do that. They've told me where they like, put them as a little like they make their own sequences with it.
Jess:Yeah, they make their own hour long class.
Claude:And do you sometimes also do like live classes?
Brea Johnson:Yes, yeah, absolutely so. We have a team of teachers that are on the platform and every month we always hold live classes, which is also really lovely and nice. And I always feel like I have to plug the beauty of online live classes too, because I also teach for the last seven years teacher trainings online and I think a lot of people are like, oh, that learning through a screen, how will I actually like, how can I be a yoga teacher If we're not there in person? But there's something, I think, because humans are so wired for connection. We are just like it's inherently here. Here we are chatting through a screen smiling and feeling good and feeling connected.
Jess:You still have that.
Claude:And I think COVID made it even more, because before it was more like screen or no, but we got so used to now have connections through the screen, yes, yes, and you're still feeling something, you're still getting something, and it's also inherently accessible because we're in different places.
Brea Johnson:And then let's say, with a lot of classes, again, we have this global community and, like we have a teacher in the UK, we have people coming from all over the world to attend, and that just couldn't happen in real life. Nobody can afford that, that's not realistic. And so then, to be able to have these classes, so that, and that's also nice, because it gives people also a little bit more accountability Wait, so I want to go online. It's hard to press play sometimes, but oh, there's a live class at two o'clock on Tuesday and I can just like there, I can be accountable and show up.
Jess:Hop on for that, right, yeah, yeah. And it saves you the time of commuting because it's at your home or anywhere you are, or the office, or the office.
Brea Johnson:And as a teacher who had been teaching in studios for decades, it's so nice to actually be on Zoom and I love being like, oh, your cat's so cute and oh, look at that dog in this. Or your baby's so cute, just seeing the little glimpse into each other's eyes Everybody's actual, real life seep in right yeah. Yes, and then they can just do. You have a work bestie.
Brea Johnson:Yeah, great, Of course I work in a non traditional environment in the sense of there's not an office that I go to outside of my home. This is the beautiful thing about having an online based business and so all of the our heart and bones back behind the scenes team. We're all in different places and so there's like the heart and bones work bestie. So definitely like Shannon and Ula are my two teammates that have been fabulous in the in the business. But definitely from a yoga teacher work bestie for sure I have like. The first one that popped into my mind is when my oldest friend's cat and she co-teaches our teacher training. We have many decades of work bestie conversation.
Jess:I see your eyes lit up as soon as you said her name, Not that the other two. It wasn't as exciting, but you were just like cat.
Brea Johnson:A cat Cause. It's that work, bestie, where you're like dissecting all the things and like, well, it's about yoga.
Jess:Yeah, but then you could like flip into something else in two seconds. Oh yeah, yes, yes. It just goes to show that I think having that connection, as we talked about, not just with the classes, but with somebody else and anything you do in life, can really add more purpose and more meaning to it as well.
Brea Johnson:And normalizing the things, especially in a workplace where we are here, we got to show up, we have to make money this is like whether we like our jobs or not and to have that comrade and to have that sort of oh my God, blah, blah, blah.
Jess:Yes, someone who automatically gets it.
Brea Johnson:You don't have to explain yeah, yeah, it's powerful Again because we're wired for connections. This is, this is just how are we are as humans, so it just helps to amplify who we are when we have that bestie or multiple besties.
Jess:Totally so, brie. We did mention the very beginning that we were going to have you answer a question for our work bestie community. So if you wouldn't mind sharing from your point of view, what's that one thing that our work bestie team can do to help each other when it comes to leveraging yoga to prevent stress and burnout, the first thing that comes to my mind is being accountability buddies with each other, because, again, we all have the best intentions.
Brea Johnson:We're like, I'm going to do this thing, I'm ready. You're listening to this podcast. You're like, yes, I'm ready. And then Monday morning rolls around and you're like, yeah, then I got this this deadline and I know my shoulders.
Brea Johnson:Because it's even right. Like how many times where it's like I need to drink water and you're sitting there at your computer getting the thing done. It's like, at least in my mind. I'm like Bray drink water. I'm like, no, I have to get the thing done. So it's like it's hard to do the things that we know are good for us. So, having someone with you that you're like, okay, let's make a plan, dart, as we talked about earlier, start with 10 minutes, 15 minutes once a day, twice a day, do a class or do some stretches, do whatever at your job, because that's the other awesome thing about doing things online you can do a lot of these things without having to change out of your clothes.
Brea Johnson:So there's a lot of movements that we share in the online studio, for example, where you don't even need a yoga mat, my friends so it makes it even more realistic where you can both be like I'm going to meet you in the conference room, we're going to do this, or meet you in your office, or however your workplace is set up. Yeah, we're not. We don't even have to change. We're going to do this little shoulder sequence, easy peasy done, and so you're like holding each other accountable for it and doing it together and going, oh yeah, okay, we got this, and then you can amp each other up for the next time.
Claude:Totally, we should do that. Yeah, we should Book a conference room, one that we cannot see anybody, because a lot of our conference rooms are actually glass. Right, and they're not, but then you can inspire.
Brea Johnson:Okay, well, mark my words. If you start doing that in a conference room where it's glass and people are walking by, you're going to start to create a snowball effect. Yeah, and all of a sudden and we have and again I like from some of our members around the world, we've had reports. We've had reports of this where one person starts at doing it at work and then it just became, and then now it becomes a thing where it's like, okay, at lunch somebody picks a 20 minute class and then half their workplace does it.
Jess:Does it? Yeah, that's so smart. It's smart small you made that comment Little movements will help you longer term, and I think it's like a trickle effect to everybody else. Yeah, yeah, so smart yeah.
Claude:Well, thank you so much, Brie. You gave us so many great insights and tactics for all the work besties everybody so we can't wait for them to try and let us know. How was it? Did you start? Did you try? Did you give this accountability? Because I think I really love that. That's also what that support right that we work about work besties. So, to all the work besties out there listening, if you're ready to rethink your yoga practice, grow your wellness business or just build a sustainable and fulfilling life, this episode was just for you and Brie, can you please remind everybody out there how can we go to your online classes?
Brea Johnson:You can go to heartandbonesyogacom so heartandbonesyogacom. You can also find me on Instagram at heartandbonesyogacom, so heartandbonesyogacom. You can also find me on Instagram at heartandbonesyoga, and YouTube as well. So there's a lot of free classes on there. And, yeah, and we also have Heart and Bones. So, especially if there's any yoga teachers listening to this, we have a very yoga teacher focused podcast as well. So just really search Heart and Bones Yoga and you'll find us probably everywhere.
Claude:Great and we make sure to share in our show notes. And again, don't forget to work besties to subscribe for more conversation.
Jess:That's both balance and joy and like the episodes and thank you so much Remember, whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings or just sending that perfectly timed meme. Having a Work Bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.
Claude:So keep lifting each other, laughing through the chaos and, of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive and don't forget to keep supporting each other. Work besties.
