The Yoga Sutras Through a Woman's Lens

👋 Hey, I’m Rachel! I’m a content creator, yoga teacher, and coach, and a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman - ADHD a few years back, and I strongly suspect Autism too, so I choose to self diagnose for the time being, as AuDHD. I’m also a proud mum of three (all ND as well!).

Over the past five years, I’ve been on a deep spiritual awakening - one that’s reshaped how I live, parent, and show up in the world. I’m sober, I’m open-hearted, and I don’t hold back from sharing the messy, the magical, and everything in between.

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Transcript

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Conscious but grounded is a podcast exploring the intersection of neurodivergence and spirituality, high vibe living, while staying rooted in the very real challenges of life as a neurodivergent mom. Here I ask the big questions like, how do we connect to the universe while keeping our feet firmly on the ground? How do we honor our sensitivity, creativity, and unique wiring in a world that isn't always built for us? Expect honest, unscripted conversations, personal reflections, and inspiring guest episodes with spiritual teachers, healers and neurodivergent voices. This is a space for truth, humor, spirituality, and practical wisdom, so you can feel more connected, grounded, and at peace in your own skin. Let's dive in. Hi guys. Welcome back to Conscious But Grounded. So here I am. I've pulled over in the car because my mind is blown and I wanted to record whilst I'm in this. Kind of state. I pulled over to get a coffee and to talk because here's what we're talking about today, the Yoga Sutra, which is a book of a hundred ninety six, one line verse written by Pentandra Lee. Um, 200, I think it's 200 bc. So long time ago, 2000 odd years ago. This is what modern yoga is based on, right? So. F rewind a bit to this morning in the kitchen. I'm just thinking in my mind about a workshop that I'm hosting on Monday about yoga and the perimenopause and menopause, which by the way, I'm gonna be offering to my community afterwards as a recording. Um, and this suddenly occurs to me, yoga Chitty Vida, the second Sutra, the most famous sutra. Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind, right? He sets out his idea, the start of the book. This is what yoga is actually about. It's about controlling and eliminating our crazy thoughts. Okay? I go, wait a minute. In the entire Yoga Sutra book, does he mention females at all? Does he men, does he mention menstruation? Does he mention hormones? Does he mention menopause? Unlike. I wanna record on this and I, so I post in my yoga group and I'm already getting really interesting responses. We're all women in there as well, by the way. And I'm like, what the hell? How have I only just noticed this? I check with chat GBT and I'm correct. He doesn't mention it throughout the whole thing. The whole thing. So I just wanted to come on and talk about it because this is huge. Now I cannot be the first person that's ever noticed this, obviously. Then I had a quick look on Amazon and I found a book that does meant that does apparently look through the Yoga Sutra through a female lens, but I'm like, wait, how has one of the biggest holistic modalities on the planet yoga. Uh, how are we not having more of a discussion around this? Like how, you know, I'm an embodiment coach. The entire course of embodiment that I did is about understanding spirituality through a female lens, right? So it's about honoring our femininity, realizing that we change from a. We are different people from day one to day 28. If you have a 28 day cycle, I have less. We are different people. Why? Because we are fucking witches. We are fucking magicians. We 3D pent humans, okay? We are the most powerful beings on planet Earth. We have been subjugated and oppressed, and this is feminine rising right now. Look at what's happening right now today. Trump and Elon Musk falling out on Twitter, they're little boys. Women are rising to the top and they need to be at the top. They need, we need more women in power. We need more women to live as women, not to have our feminine. Are femininity eliminated and suppressed as it has been historically for so many years. So I asked the question to chat GPT. This is why I asked it. Okay. In the yoga sutras, does Patanjali mention menstruation, hormones or the female cycle at all? Anywhere. And if not, could we say therefore that the yoga sutra are patriarchal as they talk about cessations of the mind, but they don't take into account that women's periods do naturally cause fluctuations in the mind and in the body. Now, I'm not gonna read it word for word because that would be the words of track GPT and not, not me. And so I'm just gonna interpret what they said. Um, so basically it goes, yeah, you're right. And I'm like, mind fricking blown. Honestly, I'm so shook by this that somebody like me that's been studying yoga, oh my god, like for five years now, has only just seen this. The only time I think about my period in terms of what I do on the mat and things like that, I very much think about like I've just come on my period today, funnily enough. And I notice so much like the mood I was in yesterday, the mood I am today. Very, very different. As soon as I bleed my mood lifts basically. Um, and I think I'm starting to think, okay, that will affect the yoga practice I do today. For example, I don't personally do. Uh, inversions. I don't wanna tip backwards. I don't want my blood to rush back into my body, for example. However, I will think, right? I'll do more like yin style yoga today. I, I will say though, that a Aida does a, Aida is the sister science of yoga. We haven't talked much about a Aida on the podcast. I'm going to introduce all of these spiritual, you know, based notions to you so that you can be a bit more. So that you will be on board when I'm being more conversational about these terms. So a Aveda is the sister Science of yoga, uh, and it takes an entirely holistic view of the body, um, based around the elements. And so a Aveda does consider, uh, the stages of our monthly. Menstrual, you know, and hormonal flux. It will say, for example, this is a Vata period of your month. You know, this is a pitter period of your month, and this is the C period of your month. I, I can't remember which is which, right off the top of my head, but I've actually done a, a workshop on it before, but I've forgotten. Um, so that's interesting to me that ida, which is actually. I think Aveda came before Patanjali. I think it's the oldest, uh, in the terms of the yogic world. I think aur, vda, the actual medicine, uh, of those times came before. I need to check that though. Um, so it's blown my mind. So let me just refer back to what chat GPT says. He says, or she says, I said, you know what? I actually think PT is a woman. My track, GBT is a woman. So no, the tangly sutures, no, they don't mention it at all. Uh, and they don't engage with gendered, bodily, or hormonal experiences at all. Okay. Um, and it says it's reasonable and even important to name this omission. As part of a patriarchal framework work, and here's why. The yoga sutures were created around 200 to 400 BC in a deep patriarchal society. Of course, we understand that. We talk about that a lot in embodiment, like. Organized religion and even spirituality has had such a patriarchal background. You know, the earth-based wisdom of the woman, uh, has basically was basically eradicated, uh, around the time that things like organized religion started to come in. Um, everything is written through the lens of man and, and especially celibate male renunciate as well. Um. And also the yoga sutures speak in universal terms, the and the presumed universal subject is male. Okay, so the body and mind are treated as neutral, but that neutrality excludes the cyclical nature of the female embodiment, just as I kind of said. So what does that mean? You know, it's the, it says, it says here, and I totally agree with that, that the, the ideal in inverted commas, yogi is depicted as a disembodied still person, and it ignores the reality of a body in constant flux. And, and so this has really shook me because I adore the yoga suru. I think they're so important, and I don't think we have to throw the baby outta the bath water. I cannot stop saying that phrase, even though I hate it. Um, so, so I think it's really important to take it on board, but also add our modern lens. That to me is progress. Like we don't have to get rid of everything. We just have to acknowledge its context. Right. Um. So we are not being, um, reductive about this. You know, two things can be true. So that's really important rule for me in life. Two things can be true. So it is really important that we look back at things with a critical lens. Um, and I also, I was also really taught that at university, like have a critical lens for things and, and look at both sides of the argument. Um, I think it's really important. As people who are living spiritually, even if we are householders, that's not secondary by the way that, you know, the vast majority of the people on planet are householders. Um, it's really important. I feel like we are the very important people at this time because we are. Holding it down spiritually, and we are gonna be more and more important as people move away from kind of organized religion to pathways such as yoga. It's important to me that it's inclusive. It's important to me that we talk about neurodiversity. It's important to me that we have, that we include non-binary individuals. You know, it's important that. Everybody feels welcome in yoga and it's so important that we don't gaslight people like honestly in the Yoga Sutra studies, it's just occurred to me like when we're all talking about the the, we were all talking about the sutra and stuff. We always have these very funny, relatable, down to earth, very female self-deprecating moments where we like read a line and then we'll be like. Okay, so who's, who's, you know, waiting for each other to contribute on it. And we all always laugh and kind of go, nah, we're not there yet. Well, no, but we've never, ever given ourself grace. Like the word grace to me just keeps coming up. Give me some fucking grace. Like, I'm perimenopausal, I'm a woman, I've got a DHD, I need grace. I can't be zen all the time. I can't be equi equanimous all the time. Uh, and it makes me laugh and we all kind of go, nah, I've got a long way to go. But aren't we hard on ourselves? Like, I feel like if it was four men sat there discussing it, then they would be much more like, yeah. Um, I've actually, you know, I've achieved that several times or like, I feel like I have equanimity or whatever. You know, not only do we have all these hormonal fluctuations to deal with in perimenopause, menopause, by the way, not just in per menopause or menopause. You know, from the age of 12 or whenever you start your periods, you are in mental and physical flocks for the entire of your month. Um, I see this with my own eyes on a daily basis. And not only that, but we have higher expectations put on us. I, I am guilty of this myself. I expect more from my daughter and she delivers more. She's so much more self-sufficient. I do so much more for my boys. They need it. They are not as. Like self-driven as she is, but perhaps that's literally ingrained in us. Right. It's like instinct. It's actually ingrained. It's like epigenetics. Like we literally have so much more on our plates as women, and we've got this as well. And it's still to this day, we are overlooking ourselves. I cannot believe as a study group, we have all only just realized this and I'm not mad at anyone about it. I'm just like, this is evidence. This is big fat evidence that like we are still. Stacking guessing ourselves. We are still being gaslit by the patriarchy. You know, why can't you achieve equanimity? Why can't you achieve this, this, and this? Well, because it's it. It's not in built in our embodied system to be equanimous all the time. I'm not saying that we don't find these tools deeply useful. Absolutely. They are. Oh my god, they're so useful. Meditation the asana. Breath work. Fucking hell. They're so useful. My entire business is, is now focused on this holistic methods to help women perimenopause and menopause, especially neurodivergent women, um, sail these stormy seas and come out and make magic out of it. The other end. That is literally what my business is based on going forward right now. It's what I'm working on every single day, what I've just said to you. So I don't wanna disregard yoga. I don't, and I'm not gonna disregard yoga, but oh my God, how have I only just realized this now that actually the sutures is not. Through a female lens. So we have to put our own female lens on it. So in the message group I'm in with, um, the other women in the study group, someone just said something really cool, which is like, oh, there's four books. So perhaps each of those four books could be viewed as a, uh, a lens of like each of the parts of our cycle. Love that idea. Like what other ideas can we bring into this to kind of start to fucking pop. Our lens on top of it, like we have to do that. There's nothing wrong with doing that. In fact, I think it's really necessary. Um, so chat. GBT also talks about a more inclusive reframe, which I couldn't agree with more. So rather than striving to eliminate the fluctuations of the mind, a more feminine and cyclical approach to yoga might invite honoring the WaveLight nature of thoughts move and energy noticing and mapping mental and emotional shift. It's across the menstrual or moon cycle. That's really important too. If you don't menstruate, you can also very much be affected by the moon and, uh, you can honor your cycle with the moon. Um, and so a practicing acceptance and attunement not control or suppression. So it's really important just to note here, that pot potentially does not address menstruation or hormones in the yoga sutures. Uh. This is a patriarchal text. Okay. Does it mean that we have to chuck it at the bin? No. But does it mean that this is very fucking important? Yes. We have to. As women, as an embodiment coach, it's my responsibility to highlight this and to say, by the way, you have not failed and banging the steering wheel. You have not failed. If you cannot get into this state right now. It's a practice. Give yourself grace. Give yourself compassion, okay? Give yourself context and grace around everything, but keep returning to the path. So. I think it's really important as female, uh, as females, but also as a female yogi, um, to highlight this and also to challenge it and to try and evolve. So I, as I say, I am hosting a workshop on yoga practices, very much focused on p armor, which is breath work and meditation. But we are also gonna include some Asana practice in there as well. I'm gonna, I'm doing that for my yoga community, but I'm going to record it and I'm gonna offer it out to my own community too. Um, so keep, keep your eyes peeled. Another saying that I hate. Why do I keep saying these really gross sayings that are just like inbuilt in my brain? I actually hate them. Um, so I've come to the end of my coffee and I really need to go to the gym. This was an important one, guys like. I thought, oh, do I wait until I've processed this some more? And I'm like, no, my day is too busy today. I've got so much to do. And I was like, this is too important. And the mood I'm in right now is like it needs to be spoken about now. And so, yeah. Wow. Mind blown. So guys, I hope you found that lesson, that podcast episode, that chat, um, that rant, that soapbox episode, uh, useful. Message me. Uh, if you have any thoughts on it, leave a comment. Oh, guys, one more thing. Please leave a rating and review. I know how annoying that is. I don't think I've ever left a rating and review on a podcast in my life because I'm too busy and life's too short. But if you want a free tarot reading from me, so my, um, favored way. To do tarot readings is via voice note, so I'll need a picture of you. I will need some background information, and then I want you to send me a question that you want me to answer. I might have to reword the question and send it back to you, and then I will do you a tarot reading, uh, just one card because these things take quite a lot of time to get into that. Channeling state and I will also do you a bonus or Oracle card with it as well. Uh, and in return for that, I would love for you to leave me a rating and review. It's gonna help the algorithm pick up this podcast. I'm trying to share it more and be more brave and be more. Um, yeah, just like proud of like the work that I'm putting out there because it matters and it means something. Um, and so I have also got back on YouTube guys. There is a, a day in the life, like very raw vlog, uh, that I put up live, uh, yesterday. And I'm gonna be making loads more content. I'm actually working with a YouTube coach at the minute, and we are really focusing down on what my message is. And you know what? It's about helping women over 40. Go through these stormy seas of hormones, un undiagnosed neurodivergence, you know, and helping women, giving them the tools, the holistic tools so they don't have to cope by numbing out with alcohol, with social media, shopping, blah, blah, blah. That is my story. That is my message, and I hope that this episode has contributed to my message. Love you. I gotta go. Bye.