Herlihy Family Law
Alison Herlihy is a dedicated family law attorney with roots in Mobile, Alabama.
Herlihy Family Law
EP #5: Yoga as Medicine for Life's Difficult Transitions with Guest Elizabeth McCraw
Divorce ranks among life's most emotionally taxing experiences, demanding resources few people have readily available. In this deeply insightful conversation with Elizabeth McCraw, co-founder of Kindred Yoga Studio, Attorney Alison Herlihy explores how yoga offers unique tools for navigating the choppy waters of major life transitions.
Whether you're currently navigating divorce or supporting someone who is, this episode offers practical wisdom for using yoga as a tool for emotional healing. Visit kindred-yoga.com to learn more about getting started with a practice that supports resilience during life's most challenging transitions.
Visit HerlihyFamilyLaw.com to learn more.
difficult transitions, especially in a physical practice. That's what we do. We're physically in your body. If you come to a practice that is asana-based, you are going to have to navigate tricky, sticky situations and you're going to have to be kind to yourself while you do it.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast, your trusted source for expert insights on navigating family law matters with clarity and care. Whether you're tackling tough decisions or seeking guidance for your family's future, we're here to help. Let's get started.
Speaker 1:Hi. Today I'm joined by Elizabeth McCraw who, along with me, co-owns Kindred Yoga Studio right here in Midtown, mobile. But Elizabeth is the real founder of the vision behind the studio. She's a highly experienced yoga instructor and community builder. She's certified as an RYT 500 through the Yoga Alliance an Ayurvedic health coach and is working on her Katonan yoga certification. She's also trained in trauma-informed yoga, restorative yoga and Reiki.
Speaker 1:Kindred Yoga was born out of Elizabeth's vision to create a space where yoga and community intersect to support real growth and transformation, especially through life's more challenging seasons like divorce. I'm so excited to have her here to talk about how yoga can be a powerful tool for anyone navigating stressful transitions such as divorce. Elizabeth, can you share a little about your background and how you came up with the idea for Kindred Yoga?
Speaker 1:I will do my very best. So my yoga journey started when I walked into a studio class on my 29th birthday and just fell in love with it. I had done yoga through my pregnancies, on DVDs way back in those days, and so my first experience in the studio community was on my birthday. Wanted to treat myself, and from there it just snowballed and I got involved with the studio. I started working there and eventually became a manager. And then, just after that, I realized that I wanted to bring what I loved most about yoga to the Midtown community and to be able to build a kind of closer to home, tight knit community. That was more it's just more local to me, more my vibe. And so Kindred started with that idea of just like I want to. I want friends, basically, like I want to know people near me that are interested in the thing, same things that I am, and are at least like, want to, you know, have conversations and make connections. And so Kindred was just really that, that seed that then was planted and, um, you know, grew into what it is now and you know it's honestly surpassed all my dreams for what it could be. And and of course that's in large part, you know, because of our partnership too, that we were able to really create the space to have, you know, our vision, you know realized. And yeah, it's just been one of the best experiences of my life is just like being in community with the folks that come here. They're just so special, best students in the world. Yeah, we absolutely have the best students, I mean the coolest people, and it just really worked out because, I mean, it was, you know, your idea and your vision for so long and we kind of you and I had taught together at some other studios and sort of like connected up with this idea in the pandemic times and, you know, dragged it across the finish line into reality. So, yeah, it's been great.
Speaker 1:Um, can you talk a little bit about how yoga helps people? Can help people manage stress, anxiety or emotional overwhelm? Yeah for sure, um, so my favorite thing about yoga is that it works on many levels. It's one of the only like practices that is physical, that also works in a more in a in a mindfulness element. And also, you know, breath work is a huge part of our practice and even things like self-study, like yoga is such a huge umbrella of many different like paths to to knowing yourself better that you really can pick pretty much whatever like element you want to work into. Like, if you're you could practice yoga and purely, but just do breath work. You could practice yoga and purely, do asana. You could practice yoga and purely, you know, meditate.
Speaker 1:But what really is the strongest part is when all of those things come together and then you're able to see how you respond in those different situations.
Speaker 1:So I would recommend, if anybody's feeling like emotionally overwhelmed, stress or having anxiety, coming to a class is a great way to put yourself under a lens in a new way, where you're watching your responses to things that are happening in class, like there might be feelings of like I don't know the word, I don't know what this language is, I don't know what they're saying, I don't know what they're doing, I don't know how to do this certain thing, and you kind of bump up against like, okay, how do I treat myself when I feel awkward? How do I treat myself when I'm frustrated and I can't do something that someone else can do? How do I talk to myself internally? Do I have that self-compassion? Do I have that forgiveness? Do I have that patience with myself? And so mindfulness, awareness, emotional regulation and creating a space between you and your thoughts is one of the biggest things that I feel like yoga can deliver to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's such a great way to put that. Creating that space allows you to observe without judgment and, when you're not judging yourself for how you're reacting, you get less into that spiral of shame and anxiety, and you know the cascade of negative emotions that come from that, which just helps you live life better. Yeah, what else makes yoga different from other types of exercise, when it comes to mental health benefits in particular? Oh for sure. Well, I touched on it a little bit already, but it's definitely that idea that you know. Yoga is such a huge spectrum that anyone, from someone in a hospital bed all the way up to triathlon athletes, can find something for them in the yoga practice, which you can't really say that about weightlifting, or you know, growing or, you know, running Like when you're not running, you're not running when you're doing yoga.
Speaker 1:you can do yoga sitting in your bed and you know, a couple of stretches, some breath work I'll sit in meditation will give you such a big benefit and that's, with, you know, very little effort that you have to put into place. So there's chair yoga. There's people in wheelchairs that lead yoga, like there's so much there and everyone, no matter your abilities, can find somewhere that fits your lifestyle and gives you that good outcome. Like ups, the function of whatever you're looking to up, whether it's your mental health, your physical health, your spiritual health, you know it's.
Speaker 1:I taught a class last night to a group of girls who are in a leadership program that's part of the juvenile court system here in town, and I was explaining to them that yoga has been around for thousands of years, but the poses that are what we think of when we think of yoga have only been around for like a hundred years. There's so much more to it than the poses, yeah, and that's a really good point, especially when talking to people that are newer to it, that think they have to do the poses in order to do the yoga, or think they have to be able to stand on their head, or you know get down on the ground, yeah exactly Like.
Speaker 1:There is so much there that is beyond physical capability that is powerful. Well, you know, my day job when I'm not teaching yoga is, as you know, I'm a family law attorney, a divorce lawyer, and divorce is it's well known to be one of the most emotionally draining life events that somebody can experience. So how do you think yoga can, in particular, provide emotional support for people during difficult life transitions like that? Well and you said it at the beginning of the podcast as well as like difficult transitions, especially in a physical practice, that's what we do, you know. We're like, physically in your body, If you come to a practice that is asana based, like you are going to have to navigate tricky, sticky situations and you're going to have to be kind to yourself while you do it, or you don't have to be, but that's what we're hoping. Happens is like you learn to navigate tricky, sticky situations and you're going to have to be kind to yourself while you do it, or you don't have to be, but that's what we're hoping. Happens is like you learn to navigate situations that you've never been in before, that you don't have a roadmap to, that you are maybe uncertain or feeling a little insecure about, and so by doing that physically, it does something to the brain. It wires us to be able to look at situations and see alternate paths with more clarity and more focus. We do a lot of modifying at Kindred. We do a lot of variation poses. We have a lot of props behind me that's our prop wall that we're very proud of and like we want those tools to be at your disposal so that you're able to navigate transitions and feel what you want to feel in your body without feeling less than, without feeling like you're not doing something right or the way it's supposed to be, and that translates so well to life, Like when you have the tools you need, when you have support around you, the resources, the patience and self-compassion, which all of those things you know are pretty much woven into our practice here. It just helps your mind to be able to take on those hard challenges in your life and in your relationships and know that you're not going, know that you're going to be okay. Basically, yeah, I mean that self-compassion is such an important part of it.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I think is so interesting about the practice of yoga like literally just the physical part of doing the poses is, you know we're getting into different shapes that we don't get into in our regular life and you end up having to spend so much of your mental resources thinking about where you're putting your foot that you can't really think about what's going on with your divorce case or your stress at your job.
Speaker 1:You know and I always say that's such a, it's a good, it's a sign of a really good class when, like you don't even know where the time went or what even happened, you know cause you were just so in the moment of what was going on. And you can also like feel, like we do Shavasana pretty much at the end of every class. There's that sense of like I finally am able to like shrug all of this heavy weight off my shoulders. You know, like you, you've been through something physical, you've gone through a process, and then you lay there and you get to reap the benefits and you know, feel maybe a little lighter than when you came in, and then that carries over. And my favorite thing about yoga is it's like compounding interest the more you practice, the more you stick with your practice and you make it a part of your routine, the more you'll see those results of like oh, I'm not as harsh to myself anymore.
Speaker 1:Or I feel, like I've got more space to extend. Now that I have self-compassion, I can extend compassion more easily to others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it gets like deeper and more expansive and bigger and better, and y'all I mean, especially if you have kids and you're going through a divorce and there's custody stuff, like being able to come from that point of clarity and self-regulation as you're talking to your children about it, as you're talking to your you know, potentially ex-partner about it, like it helps. You come from a space of more like response rather than knee-jerk reaction, which I think yeah, yeah, that's a great point. Like, um, you know, reaction is like if you put your hand on a hot stove, you snatch your hand away, but a response is like you're able to take the space and the time to actually give due consideration to what you're saying and what your choices are and yeah, so you might not even yeah, you might not even put your hand on the flame.
Speaker 1:Then you know once you realize you know, that's the real goal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe we won't touch the hot stove this time. Well, what are some common emotional or physical challenges you've seen people bring to their yoga practice, especially during life transitions? For sure, we have one of our very first members just recently went through the process of adopting a new, a child and, and you know he's shared so much of that with me, just before and after class, kind of checking in with each other, chatting about stuff like that. And and it really is encouraging to me when you know, even if, like you know, he hasn't been to practice for a few days, and this is someone that comes like pretty consistently he hasn't come for a few days because maybe like stress and work stuff and you know, just having a bigger family all of a sudden, you know, can make things a little more challenging, but he comes to practice and every single time feels 100% better when he's done, like every single time is so glad he comes and like that's just one example. And you know, adopting a child, especially in the situation they were in, is always like intense and there's lots of transition and upheaval, lots of creating space for new relationships and things like that. But I've, you know, going through.
Speaker 1:I've had students going through breakups, going through physical setbacks which can bring in a lot of mental and emotional pain as well, like you've never been injured and frustrated or sick for a really long time and you just don't feel like you're at capacity or that you're able to do what you want to do. Like that's, that's really tough, and the great thing about yoga is you can come to practice and only do what you can do. You're not going to be forced to do anything you're not ready to do. So I think that's one of the good things about it. When anybody's going through a difficult like outer world transition, coming into the studio is a place where you get to feel safe and you get to like only do what you can do and then that iterates out into your life to where you can then recognize you know I can only do what I can do in every situation and that can be freeing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so. Yeah, that's so true. Can yoga? Do you think yoga can help people reconnect with themselves after a relationship ends? 100%? I mean, I think that's just blanket true that yoga can help just you reconnect with yourself, but especially when you've known yourself through the lens of being in partnership with someone else, like when, that's like the sense of self that you have as part of the unit or someone's better half, or whatever that can be.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's lovely, of course, to have a strong relationship with someone, but you can also like there's a risk of codependency, a risk of like feeling like you don't have anything without the other person, or like maybe you have mutual friends and like that's going to collapse if you don't you know, if you're not with them.
Speaker 1:But I think yoga, especially with the community we have here, it really shows you that there is, like you know, there is a whole world within yourself that you probably haven't explored yet.
Speaker 1:There are things you haven't paid attention to, perhaps there are activities you've never experienced. Like there's a whole world of yourself that exists no matter what, no matter if you're in a relationship or not, and I think yoga really proves that to you over and over. And then you know, maybe you'll come to class and meet someone and who knows? No, but like the friendships you make in community and the inspiration you get from others in community can help you realize like, oh, there's so much, there's so much more than my role as a partner. Yeah, well, you know, I think it's interesting that you mentioned the community aspect, because I mean, what I think is so cool about being a part of a strong yoga studio community is it's. You know, it's kind of hard to meet people in real life nowadays, and it's a great way to find people that have similar values to you. You know, For sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially as adults, like you know, we pretty much have work relationships and then like relationships we had for like 20 years or something like that. It's hard to have something in between, it's hard to just have friends in the moment. So, yeah, coming to a group class is a great way to just be like, oh, like you can do that thing I can't do.
Speaker 1:Tell me about it, or hey we both kind of struggled during this or like, oh, I saw you do this really neat thing. Or, you know, there's just so much space for and we do so much community connection like this, so it's it's from our art walk nights to, you know, our pop-ups and everything we try to really build that community in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, so for somebody that's new to yoga or like new to our studio, maybe feeling intimidated by going someplace that they're not familiar with, what's what's a good place to start or what's a good way to start? So I would say, if you're feeling particularly intimidated is, um, and or if you just want to talk through some things. I've had many people, um call the studio and I just talk them through what it's going to be like when they get here. That way there's like you know, they know they walk in, they know that sometimes the door can get a little stuck and, like, just push it a little harder.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I tell them like, really like granular details so that when they're arriving to class they feel like they already know the ropes a little bit. And then when they get here, I like to take them on a tour, show them where everything is and explain kind of thoroughly um, you know what practice is going to be like, depending on the class they're coming to. Um, I just try to give as much information as possible, because I've been in that position where I'm going to a new studio and you just stay there like feel awkward and you just I know it can like feel like the first day of middle school.
Speaker 1:You know you're like yeah, you're like in a lunchroom with your tray and you don't know where to go and you don't have a cool like group to sit with. But yeah, I really try to alleviate all that stress as soon as possible so giving a call if you're particularly um stressed about it, or showing up at least like 10 minutes before class is a great yeah, because our teachers always get to class like 15 or 20 minutes early.
Speaker 1:so I mean, you can always get there a little bit early so you have extra time to be shown around and settle in and everything. Yeah, the worst, the worst thing, is to be like stressed out, trying to arrive to your yoga practice like on time. So giving yourself a little time can help mitigate that idea of, like you know, in traffic, when you're stressed out, trying to get here on time, just give yourself an extra few minutes to get settled in is a good idea. Well, so what tips do you have for building a consistent yoga or mindfulness routine, especially for someone going through a major life change? For someone going through a major life change, it's it can be really hard. Like adding any new routine is.
Speaker 1:It's going to take some time, but my personal advice is just to start really small, and when you, you know, a great thing about yoga is that it can increase our dopamine and our serotonin levels and reduce our cortisol, exactly, yes, and so when we um, when we have achievable tasks and we get and like we, you know, can cross them off our list, that's going to boost our dopamine, and so what I would do is start small. So you're, you get on a good roll. So maybe you just start with one class a week and you come to um, you know you pick something on your schedule. Maybe you just start with one class a week and you come to you know you pick something on your schedule. You start with that one class. You do that for a couple of weeks until you feel like, okay, that's manageable, and then you build it over time into something like maybe, if your ultimate goal is I want to be practicing three times a week, or four times a week, or like every weekend, you can roll, you can snowball that a little over time and that's going to keep you from getting discouraged.
Speaker 1:Because if you start with a goal of like I want to go three times a week and then you miss like a couple here and there for that first couple of weeks, you're going to be like, well, I can't do that. You know that's not working. But start small, start slow and just show up to your mat. That's the hardest part. Showing up with your physical body on the mat is the hardest part. I promise the rest is pretty simple and I've never heard anybody regret coming to yoga practice. So I would just. I always feel better after I do it, no matter how I feel going into it.
Speaker 1:And I know when you're going through a difficult transition, your schedule can be really messed up too, like things are just changing.
Speaker 1:And so by starting small, you're not disrupting things too much and you're not adding too much onto your plate. So I would just recommend and that's why we have our new student special and that like month unlimited that we give to everyone that's like a new person in our community, because that helps them get to know their schedule and how we're going to fit into it without making any big decisions about like class packs and things like that. Yeah, I mean, and we offer classes all seven days a week, early in the morning, nighttime, midday, so I mean you know, 45 minutes, 90 minutes like yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:You can make it work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's usually doable Well, so tell us, talk a little bit about what role do breath work and meditation in particular play in stress reduction, especially like if you're having to do something really scary and difficult, like go to court or have a really hard conversation with your spouse or something like that. Yeah, for sure, I can definitely see how breathwork in particular would be great for that, because breathwork pranayama is pretty much like your own personal, like thermostat, and with your breathwork you're able to depending on what style you're doing, you can really jazz yourself up and you can really calm yourself down. So it plays with both parts of our nervous system parasympathetic and sympathetic, the more calming, deep like. When you think of like breathing practices, usually what comes to mind is like slow, deep breathing. That's going to be your best bet for trying to calm yourself down, like trying to create, like getting in more into that rest and digest part of your nervous system. It's going to be like slow, measured, intentional breath.
Speaker 1:Samavriti is one of my favorite practices for that. It's box breathing and so you just have equal counts inhale, you hold it for an equal count, equal count exhale, and then you hold it empty for an equal count. So it's like, literally just like boxing yourself in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you can breathe like in for four, hold for four, out for four, and you can do that anytime, right? Yeah, you can do that in the car before you walk into court. You can do that anytime, right? Yeah, you can do that in the car before you walk into court. You can do that. You know, you can do that at home before bed when you feel like you're too keyed up to like go to sleep. That's one of my best, like you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but I sometimes wake up ruminating in the middle of the night about all the things I'm failing at. Like everything that I need to do and that is my biggest like helper is just pulling in those box breaths, and sometimes it's three counts, three counts, three counts, three counts. Sometimes it's six, six, six, depending on what I'm feeling. And then on the other end of that coin, there's breath work that can like amp you up. It's like a shot of espresso and that's the more punchier, like kind of um, like Kapalabhati is what it's like Um. It's more of like an energy rising breath, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Really punchy breaths. You use your abdomen a lot more, um, and that would be good if you like fight or flight a lot. But you know freeze is another element that a lot of people can sort of like just withdraw and check out when they're going through something really hard. So if you're in like a really lethargic mode where you're sleeping all the time and it's hard to get up and do things, you know those kind of energetic practices like that could be really helpful. Yeah, one of yoga's and Ayurveda's biggest theories is like applying the opposite.
Speaker 1:So if you're feeling really keyed up, you probably don't need that forceful breath. You know you apply the opposite. You slow yourself down, you take more time, build more patience. If you're feeling lethargic and sluggish and brain foggy and clouded, you want to like clear some of that fog and shake things loose and all that stuff. So using your breath like that can be really helpful. Yeah, how do you encourage students to stay present when their minds are consumed with fear or uncertainty or stress? Well, as best as a yoga teacher can, of course.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're not therapists.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately we don't have like a secret button we can press, but, um, but, bringing it back to the present moment and bringing it back to like what's real, like what are your senses perceiving right now, um, that's always helpful because usually fear or anxiety you're in the future, you're spiraling into something that could happen or might happen or has potential to happen, or you're ruminating about the past and like, yeah, or things that didn't go right or things, yeah, so there's, like you know you're, usually, when your brain and you know your awareness is in the present moment, there's not much that you can find.
Speaker 1:that is, for the most part. That's wrong. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:If you're sitting somewhere, if you're on your mat, if you're at home and you're just noticing, literally I am alive, I'm breathing, I can smell this, I can taste this, I can see this, getting back to literally just the basics of what you're believing. Bringing yourself back to the moment through those portals of your senses can be a great like way to route your brain away from that anxiety and like future thinking or the depression and past thinking. So I mean, you know it's a, it's a really powerful thing to just give yourself permission to not do anything but be focused on this practice that you're doing for the next 30 minutes or 45 minutes or hour or even five minutes.
Speaker 1:If you're doing a five minute meditation. And also here like giving people permission to know that, like your problems will still be there when you leave.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like you know you, you can let go for 45 minutes or an hour, however much. We hope that, like that time in your practice makes you have, like, maybe, a different outlook when you leave, or feel like a little, you know you're like everything is still going to be there. I promise, like you don't, you don't need to worry about, like you know, losing something over the next hour or, you know, some sort of crisis happening. In that amount of time you can practice and you can like be there for yourself. Yeah, be there for yourself. That's so great.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else you want to add about the mission of Kindred Yoga and what sets it apart? I would say that, or what I hope would distinguish Kindred from other studios, especially down here in the South. So, like, yoga has kind of come into the West over the last 50 or so years, um, but in the South, like, things always take a little bit longer and so, um, like, and we've had yoga studios for a long time I don't want to like act like. You know this is anything new to the area, but it has grown, grown bigger, right? So, whereas before you might have to travel 30 minutes to a yoga studio just to find any sort of practice. Now there's like more of like community-based studios that are in different little niche neighborhoods and all of them, I mean like a lot of our students walks to the studio for class yeah.
Speaker 1:And what I love about that is that you could be practicing next to your neighbor, you know, like you could be practicing next to someone you see at the grocery store, you could be, you know it's, it's real community in the fact that, like, when we have more opportunity for people to practice, they're more likely to do it if they're somewhere close by, and it's also why I always think like rising tide lifts all ships, like I'm never upset when there's a new yoga studio in a different neighborhood. It never makes me feel like oh no, or anxious or anything Like I truly, because I always think like oh good, like there's more interest in this practice. That's a positive thing for all of us here. And and so Kindred really focuses on our community we do cleanups with Mobile Baykeeper. We have book club, um. Once a month we do pop-ups around town, usually like pretty nearby downtown or midtown, um, and it's really to just bolster the idea that, um, you know, you can find high quality yoga in your backyard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can you can find a space that feels you know good to you and feels like you are investing back into your community when you show up for practice.
Speaker 2:So that's a big focus. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, and it's so much more than just exercise, right? Like I mean, exercise is great, obviously, we all need that, but it's it's bigger than that. I think Absolutely it's bigger than that. And also, like you can't you might. Maybe that's how you get in and that's where a lot of people start their practices, with the physical, with asana, with postures, and then you start to get the benefits of the other stuff over time and then you start to realize like, oh wow, this is so much more and gives me so much more than I thought it would, and then that just makes you keep coming back, which is what's going to give you even more positive results over time. So, yeah, it's way more than physical and the physicality of it is how some of us get into the practice, but it's definitely not the last stop. Like you will find other positive outcomes from you know, start to finish in your practice.
Speaker 1:How do you think it is that that community aspect in particular can contribute to healing during tough times? Oh man, I mean we saw during the pandemic, like when we are not in contact with, when we're not in connection with people, when we're not seeing each other and listening to each other, it can cause, like such, you know, a feeling of isolation and a feeling of like I'm the only one going through this, or everybody you know, especially when we live our lives on Instagram or TikTok and we see all of the like packaged. You know shots of people's lives and we could think so much that our life is so much worse than everybody else, or like that we're not doing all the fun things and we're not. You know shots of people's lives and we could think so much that our life is so much worse than everybody else, or like that we're not doing all the fun things and we're not. You know, it's just it's so easy to be in comparative mode when you're not in community and connection.
Speaker 1:When you actually are able to connect with people and you can look in their eyes and share some of yourself and you're seen and being seen by someone, even if it's just your yoga teacher. And you came and you said, oh, my shoulder's been acting up and I might not be able to do everything. And you know that teacher looks you in your eyes and said, oh yeah, fine, like here, maybe use this, maybe try this. We'll, we'll like, we'll figure this out together. That is something that you just you can't get from an online practice or you can't. You just can't get it when you're not in.
Speaker 1:I always think I mean, this is my joke for a while. It's like I and I'm probably going to regret saying this in 50 years when it happens but I'm like AI can't replicate, like machines can't replicate human contact and connection and like being with someone and listening and and having your you know, just your whatever, how much of yourself you want to share with someone, like having that be received. So I think community is just a huge deal and I think it's why, as technology has grown so much and we've gotten more kind of in our own heads, in our own algorithms, like you know, you just start, you can just start spiraling and seeing like a lot of them instead of. You know we're all here to just do our best and I think that really shines through when you are next to someone and you're both struggling to. You know, and you know just come across.
Speaker 1:It's so easy to um, to feel alone when you're experiencing something hard, you know. But like my grandma used to say, there ain't nothing new under the sun, you know. So, like the chances are, if you ain't nothing new under the sun, you know, so like the chances are, if you're experiencing something hard, the person next to you probably has experienced something hard too you know, yeah, either a variation or something very similar, you know.
Speaker 1:But like the human emotion and our like you know, sweet little hearts and minds like you know, sweet little hearts and minds, like you know that we've all been through it, whatever it is, and when you recognize that and you know, are proving to yourself that it's not just you, it can, it can really help your mental and emotional health.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are there any specific offerings or programs at Kindred that are designed with emotional resilience or stress relief in mind? Oh, absolutely. So that's actually the one of the benefits of our yin and our restorative practices. We have yin, so yin is like a practice that's less, it's less vigorous and there's less like movement than a, than a, like a traditional, like vinyasa or you know, just like a moderate flow class. So you're really, you're in postures for longer and you're using props to stay in those postures for longer and that helps with your physical resilience because you're you're, you're supported, but you're also in those postures for so long that your muscles and your connective tissues can relax into them, right. So it's not like you're holding something for dear life. You're able to relax a bit, which also translate mental and emotionally to where you have to be still with yourself for those two to three minutes that you're in that posture.
Speaker 2:And that's hard.
Speaker 1:And it's hard, but you can also. You can also feel that sense of like with your yourself and not abandon yourself, which then builds in the resilience to be able to do that outside the walls, outside your studio. You know, stay with yourself, not abandon yourself when things are hard. And, yeah, and resilience is one of my favorite things that yoga can bring into your life, because it's like every single class, every single posture is like a mini like, kind of like a little nugget of a test of your resilience of like. Can I stick with this for a couple of breaths? Or do I recognize in myself that, even if I come out of whatever I'm doing and I need a break, that is resilience as well.
Speaker 1:That's your body teaching you to bounce back and I think that was one of my favorite things about building in so much yin in our schedule is like the idea of those more quiet practices, um, that can help you realize that you're, you're okay and you can hang out with yourself. Right, you don't need a distraction.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And and we also have other special classes and workshops too. Like you did that kindred breath series in the winter. That was all about breath work, and we've had meditation workshops before and in our challenge in in december. Our lofa are like our um, uh, oh yeah, our meditation challenge yeah, be here now.
Speaker 2:That's what it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those are just our regular classes, but all of our wonderful teachers make sure to weave in extra meditation and breath work.
Speaker 2:And that is.
Speaker 1:I think that's such a good thing for that time of year too, because you're seeing lots of family, you know you're in a bunch of situations that maybe you're going to office parties or just you know more functions, and so we built that on purpose to be in December, to be like you know, we are going to take it upon ourselves as teachers to make sure that you're getting that little bit of stillness in your day. So we also have our annual full day retreat that we do. That has a different theme every year. We've done like burnout, we've done finding your purpose, and definitely we'll definitely keep that going because that's such a great day. Oh yeah, and the nidra is that we, that we've lead it, uh, led in the um, past, um, you've done, you've done a nidra before a yin and nidra, and that is wonderful because you're you're not doing anything and but it's guided and so, and so you're, you don't feel totally like drift.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you, there's guidance, but you're also you're not doing much, so you really get to spend time and your nervous system. You know, I swear you can look up videos of like the brain waves and what happens during Nidra and it's so crazy. It looks like you're dead asleep and you know, and you're not.
Speaker 1:So there's just there are so many ways back to what we talked about at the beginning of of. This is like, literally from laying on your back doing nothing all the way up to standing on your head in the middle of the room, like there is something for everyone in practice, which, when you're going through a hard time in your life, showing up to something like that, where you know you can find your spot on the spectrum, can be really comforting. Yeah, yeah, very well said. Well, elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your wisdom and heart with the listeners.
Speaker 1:I know that so many people going through divorce or other family law issues are looking for ways to feel grounded and supported, and I think your insight into the healing power of yoga is just really valuable. So, if any, if anybody's interested in learning more or getting connected, you can check out Kindred Yoga at our website at kindred-yogacom, at our website at kindred-yogacom. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who might need a little extra support right now, and we'll see you next time on the Hurley Family Law Podcast. Thanks for having me, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in to the Hurley Family law podcast. Remember you don't have to face family law challenges alone. Visit Hurley family lawcom or call 251-432-7909 to learn more.