Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
Hello and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast!
Our new second 6-part series of interviews is now out, where we again talk to yoga teachers both established and emerging.
We find out what got each of them into yoga, why they became teachers and got started, the styles of practice that interest them, who are their inspirations were and plans are for the future.
Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
YTTY12: Robyn Lynch - Perfect Health Centre
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Welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast!
Today my guest is Robyn Lynch from the Perfect Health Centre.
Specializing in ayurveda, yoga and transcendental meditation, Robyn is a prolific teacher and guide.
The Perfect Health Centre truly embraces living from a place of empowered wellness including yoga, ayurveda, Bowen therapy and physiotherapy.
You can find out more about Robyn at: Perfect Health Centre
If you’d like to express an interest in being a guest in our next series, we can be contacted on: infoytty@gmail.com
Further related content and bonus material will be posted on our Facebook page:
Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga Podcast
Discussed links to the other threads in the yoga tapestry:
Our chat with Robyn on this International Day of Yoga brings an end to our second series of our Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast. We’re proud to bring you the stories of all our amazing guests, and thank each one of them for coming on the podcast to share their stories, inspirations and experiences.
We’ll now take a short break, but look forward to bringing you stories from new guests later in the year. Until then, wishing you a happy International Day of Yoga and the very best in your own yogic endeavours!
Hello, and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga Podcast. Today, my guest is Robin Lynch from the Perfect Health Centre. Specialising in Arya Vedta, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation, Robin is a prolific teacher and guide. Perfect Health Centre truly embraces living from a place of empowered wellness, including yoga, ayahueta, bowent therapy, and physiotherapy. Today, Robin joins me from a home in central New South Wales. Good afternoon, Robin.
SPEAKER_01Good afternoon, Paul.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for joining us today on our little podcast. Well done.
SPEAKER_01I'm very happy to be here. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. And uh, you know, we've had a few false starts, but it's always perfect timing. So I'm really pleased to be here and looking forward to our chat this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Um why don't you just talk about what's been going on with the program that you've developed?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, thanks, Paul. So my work has been, I think like everybody's work, um uh process of evolution. And I've I have realized that actually most of my work or all of my work is really about about empowerment. Uh from the time that I was a school teacher, they used to teach nutrition and fashion. And my goal in that was to empower those students to be able to look after themselves and to be able to live and express themselves in the way that they wanted to. And I didn't realize that until recently that this long line, this long thread through everything I do has always been about empowerment. And yoga is certainly part of that. Um, you know, we know when we know how to look after ourselves, and yoga gives us so many tools in that way that we become empowered, and and as you said in the beginning, it's empowered living. That's um, you know, the big umbrella, being able to have the tools to um choose how you want to live your life. So, yeah, so in the last um, I suppose this year really, I have been evolving all of my programs and my teachings under the heading of empowerment, whether that's um empowered living, empowered meditation, um, empowered retreats. So it's all about people gaining tools and practices that can support them in not only living a better life physically mentally, all the things, but also uh in the tradition of the Vedas, to then go through the birthrights, and the fourth birthright is actually moksha, which is um freedom or emancipation, and and that's where we're all heading. And once we wake up to the past, once we realize that that's where we're heading, then it's okay, so give me some steps and tools that can support me and open up my awareness, my reframing, my aligning, um, to be able to get to this um expanded way of living.
SPEAKER_00And there's so many arrows and the quiver for that um generation of empowerment, isn't there? So we talked a little bit about that. Well, I mentioned them in the introduction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um Ayurvedas a key component of that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it certainly is. And I I know, so you know, I come from this background of school teaching, and and I know there's another umbrella in the Vedas. So I'm into and and aligned with everything Vedic. So Vedic is the um ancient wisdom that uh originated in India. Who knows how many thousand years ago that was. Yeah, yeah. So it is the oldest known text. I've I've just recently started studying Jyotish, which is Vedic um astrology. And they were talking about, I was learning about the Rig Veda, so there are four Vedas, four sorts, and Veda means science. So four of these texts, and the Rig Veda, uh, he was saying uh about it being um first um uh connected with or um connected to 21,000 BC. So, you know, we're talking a really long time ago, and I always think, look, if we're talking that long ago, who knows? Like, really, it's probably as old as people, as humans, you know, on this on this earth. Um, yeah, so the empowerment definitely comes from this Vedic wisdom. It is there. So with I mentioned the birthrights before. When I started studying uh Yurveda, and this was a little bit further down the track. Um I had this um moment, and it was one of those wake you up in the middle of the night and get you out of bed moments, where you wake up and you go, I there's something I'm supposed to get out of bed for, no idea what. And uh it came to me that I was supposed to have a look in the Charicas Amhida, which is um the Ayyubadic, one of the ancient Ayurvatic texts, like one of the most well-known ones, and there's eight volumes, and I have it, and I at that stage I hadn't really gone into it, it was just sitting beautifully on the bookshelf, and I thought, well, okay, eight volumes. Where do you want me to look in this? And I didn't really sort of get a direction, so I thought we'll just start at the beginning. And as I was reading it, you know, at two o'clock in the morning, and I'm reading through this um text, and there was a sentence that stuck out to me that has stuck with me, and it was Ayurveda came about because people weren't living long enough and weren't intelligent enough to attain the four birthrights. And so Ayurveda is the the wisdom around your health, so it it specifically pertains to health, all forms of health, you know, every sort of health we have, but it's about health, and so there was this realization that hang on, we're not getting to moksha. So the four birthrights are Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. We're not getting the moksha. And so, you know, in the book in the character it says then they went to Lord Indra and they took this to Lord Indra and said, this is the problem. And so then they devised, they came up with this whole system of knowledge called Ayurveda, um, that they gave to humans so that they could um live longer, live better, be clearer, and get to that stage of of Noiksha at some, you know, some lifetime. Yeah, so so yeah, so there's um the Vedas, I suppose. Um, Ayurveda in particular, because that was where I went first um after the yoga. Um, yeah, it really directed me towards empowerment. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This is an interview about you, and we're talking about your yoga journey, but if I if we just uh pause for a second, I'd just love to know a bit more about the Ayurveda. So how old do you think it might be in terms of a system, how wisdom of health?
SPEAKER_01In terms of betters and okay, so look again, it's it's I always like Ayurveda never really started and and will never end because this knowledge, Ayurveda is the science of life, or it's also called the knowledge of living. So this knowledge never started, it will never finish, it doesn't change, it remains the same all the time. Our access to it and probably the formalizing of it, it dates back to 7000 um BC, but whether or not that is accurate is an unknown. You know, it's it's just not known whether that's accurate or whether it would go back further. And you know, after, as I mentioned, you know, the Rig Veda going back to 21,000, I think we're just going to find out as time goes on, you know. But the first um records that that they that they talk about are in 7,000 BC. So, you know, and and I remember hearing um, I think it was Dr. Vassant Ladd who said, you know, 7,000 BC, 20,000 BC, like really, uh, because this knowledge is knowledge that is available to everyone, and there is uh there is a time when I was doing my Ayurveda training, and this this is really um stands out to me when we were learning it more over with the doctor, and and uh he was going through all this stuff, and there's a lot of Sanskrit, and you know, and I think, and we're at this immersion for 21 days, and we're there every day from 8 till 6, and he was there lecturing Indian accent and a lot of Sanskrit, and he's looking at us, and all of a sudden he stopped. And I think we must have just had these really blank looks on our face, and he said, You don't have to learn this. He said, You already know it, you're just remembering. And for me, I went, Oh god, he thinks I've done all the reading. I haven't done all the reading. I think I'm not remembering, I haven't read this. Yeah, yeah. It's like, and so, you know, and I know you know that was in a you know very green state of not quite waking up, still very asleep. And you know, now of course it's like, oh, we're all remembering. And that was that was all like the people who were around in whatever BC it was, they were so aligned. Nothing, you know, we we have so much that stops that alignment, but they were so aligned that the downloading, the connection with this science, with the Vedic wisdom, was instant, you know. They were looking at the stars, they were, you know, so aware of the movements and the changes and and the sounds, you know, um, the primordial sound meditation which I teach, you know, that they were able to detect the change of the vibration, the sound of the vibration would change every four to six hours, and they could detect what that sound was. Imagine that now, there is no way we could hear that sound. So their access, they were so aligned, their access to the wisdom certainly was this, you know, remembering it was it was an immersion in it, and so for us, we still have the ability to remember because it hasn't gone anywhere, it hasn't changed, and that's where meditation you know comes in and being in nature. So the more that we are um aligned, the more we go within, the more we wake up, the more we connect, and we just keep up spiraling on the journey. 117 beaches. Uh so yeah, it's pretty amazing. And then, you know, they mapped it out, and then they did this big map about what sound would be vibrating at what place in the world, yeah. You know, according to the longitude-latitude at whatever time. Like it's incredible. You think, oh my gosh, you know, we would need a very fancy computer program to get us to do that.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Which is probably what's something you might draw from now. I don't know. Yeah, we do.
SPEAKER_01That's where we get it from now. You know, it's been put into a computer program, and that's where we get it from. However, you know, this was this and the knowledge that they were able to access, um, it's we are just coming to that knowledge in our scientific research now. Like, you know, we're still waking up to the stuff. And particularly in Ayurveda, um, you know, the the health um or the healing, you know, benefits in Ayurveda, we still haven't got that in our scientific um world, you know, how we can heal people, or how people can heal themselves, really.
SPEAKER_00You know, we still haven't got that, and we're handing our healing over a lot and looking for things that are outside um band-aid fixes or something, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and there is considerate yeah, that's exactly right. And it's known that our body is the best pharmaceucy there is, our body can make any chemical that we need. So, you know, we we have all these farm pharmaceutical companies, but actually our body, when we the the problem is we need to be in alignment, so we need to start healing ourselves and do this healing progression. So this is the empowerment, you know, the empowered living. So the more that we come to that, the more that we can access the self-healing, um, which then allows us the self-realization. Yeah, but our body is so clever it can make anything we need, it can fix anything. Um, and I think you know, that's that's a really bold statement. And because it's so bold, it's you know, it it it is uh taken as well that can't be true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, or not wanting it to be true because not wanting it to be true, entire societal structures built around care and nurture and well-being and all the rest of it that um wouldn't be there otherwise. So in India they talk about um the br length of Brahman or the length of an enormous number of years. Um is there a circularity or a mandala effect in that time scale to what we're sort of talking about here? 21,000 years is but a blip.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, yeah. Is there a I actually couldn't, I I there would be, but I can't speak to that with great authority yet. But there would be, and that's what I love about like this is the whole empowering thing. It's like, oh my gosh, the more that we find out, um, the more it supports us in our in our waking up, you know, in our journey. Um yeah, and and it it just guides us. And it goes, and just like you said, you know, 21,000 years is a blip. It's like, it's like, you know, there's going to be 200,000 years and then there'll be the next bit, and then there'll be, you know, these four quadrants or these four circles. But um, yes, so I I actually I can't speak to that with wisdom uh at this stage. However, you know, in time, the more I study, and I think for me, yoga was definitely the entry point. So once um my yogic journey, I started yoga kicking and screaming, you know, like I I was 20 weeks pregnant with my first child. I was um teaching at the gym at the time, you know, teaching STEP and all those things back in whatever, whatever that was in '98, um, '97, '98. And I was, you know, running and all that stuff. Um, anyway, and I started doing yoga because you should do yoga when you're pregnant. So I started doing yoga, and as I said, I really went to a kicking and screaming. It's like, I don't want to do it, it's too slow. All of those things that you hear everybody say. Um, it was uncomfortable. Um, we used to have to sit, I did it in a little um a hall here, and uh it was a wooden floor, and you were sitting on the floor, and the beautiful yoga teacher, she would start every class with 20 minutes of meditation, sitting on this wooden floor with no supports, no anything. I was 20 weeks pregnant, I was probably as tight as anything anyway, because I was doing all this, you know, exercise. Um, and I was so uncomfortable. I have never been that uncomfortable, you know, and I was 20 minutes, and I would find every excuse to get up from that meditation. I would arrive late. Um, and I used to think, well, you know, if you're pregnant, I think you're allowed to go to the toilet. So, you know, I would just be and my back would be hurting. Um, anyway, I stuck with it, and I really I I know that there was a more powerful force that was that was holding me there. Um, if it had just been me, I wouldn't have stayed. Um, so I stuck with it, and um, you know, even after the birth of my first child, I went back again. It was just once a week because it was a um community class once a week. And I kept doing it, and then and you know, still not loving it, and I'm really not sure why I was going back. And there was some point where I realized, and this is this is like uh I have the very strong memory of this, driving home. We lived on a property out of town, and I'm driving home, and it wasn't from yoga, it was just in general driving home. Um, and I realized that I wasn't thinking about anything. I wasn't thinking about what had happened before, I wasn't thinking about what was happening in the future, I wasn't, I was purely in the moment. And it was this, and when I realized, I went, wow, that's unusual. Like that's not something that I'm aware of myself experiencing. And um, and you know, it was sort of from that point where I went, I think there's something more in this.
SPEAKER_00You you link the two together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I thought why am I thinking about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I thought, I think there's something more in what I'm doing because that was really, you know, that was what was changing my life, I think, this awareness. And um, and the other thing, once I started to um wake up to to yoga, and it was so this was, you know, 1997, 98, 99 into 2000, you know, just from then. So there wasn't, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have all that stuff. And so I would go, and also I live in a town with 8,000 people. So whenever I would go somewhere else in a big town to go to Sydney, wherever else, I would go to bookshops and I would buy whatever books I could find on yoga.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01Anything I could find. And and at that stage there wasn't a lot. There was a I don't know if it's still there, there was a really good um shop in Sydney, right in the heart of town. I'm trying to remember what street it was, but it was right in the heart of town. It was sort of down the Chinatown end, and it was this bookshop that was like everything yogic, Vedic, all that sort of stuff. Um, and I remember someone telling me about it and going in there and just feeling like I had, you know, fallen into Wonderland. It was amazing because I would go into bookshops and there would be three yoga books, and so I'd buy them all, go home and read them. Um, yeah, and actually, because I was doing this yoga, and she was a beautiful yoga teacher, it was very basic, basic yoga, and I kept thinking, I think there's more, I think there's more, and I'm buying these books and whatever else. And then one day, and this is like a huge turning point in my um, I suppose my arsenal work and my understanding, so this linked it up with Ayurveda as well. I went into um a bookshop in in Bathurst, it was the ABC bookshop in Bathur, and in the throw out section, you know, where they have the tub and they have all the things that are for sale, there was a double cassette of Shiva Ray Um yoga. So Shiva Ray is a teacher in the States, and um I bought it because I bought everything that I saw. So I bought it and I took it home, and it was a cassette. So it wasn't even it had a little booklet. I don't know if you you know remember those. They sometimes would get a little booklet that went inside it and you would get it out and you'd open it up, but it'd have like all the bits. This double cassette of um yoga asanas. Now, Shiva Ray, um, you know, with a name like Shiva, it's going to be something. Um she was like she spent a lot of time in India. She was actually married to an Ayurvedic practitioner. Now, her teaching, she was Talk about she talked about the five movements of energy, which I teach a lot when I teach yoga, you know, the um the five movements of Vata. Yeah, so um, and when you know, I'm hearing this and I'm going, Oh my gosh, this is amazing! You know, I'm fully waking up to this. It's like this is just exciting me, no end. And and somewhere in here, I went, I really, really have to learn a whole lot more. This is opening up a whole field of knowledge that I have no idea about, and again, it links to that empowerment. It's like this is stuff that when we know this, we can go that much further ourselves, you know, that much deeper. And on every level, I think for me, I was really before I came across yoga, and then particularly Ayurveda, when the two of them together, they were the answer for me for all of the confusion um I'd had, and then you know, overwhelm about what diet, you know, what exercise, what you know, what things should you be doing for your health. And I like just like I would have all the yoga things, I would have every book on diet and exercise, and you know, every magazine, because magazines were big then, and all the articles and the well-being magazine and the la la la, you know, trying to figure it out. And so for me, stepping into this pathway was so clear, it was like a light shining through everything. It was like, and this is and you know, then I think about the doctor saying about remembering this is really what it is, it's the door to remembering who I am and how it all works, you know. All the tools are there for us, we just have to remember. Um in the right order, which is which is exactly that's the first birthright. Okay, is Dharma. So the first birthright is dharma. So that's us actually fulfilling what we're here to fulfill. And once we open that door, once we um start walking that path, which is about accessing our truth, you know, it's an awareness, and um when and and in that too, there's unlearning because we take a path that we think we're supposed to take because we have learnt that this is what you do to be successful, or this is what you do to please people, or this is what you do because that will give you the most credit or make you the most money, or whatever, you know. Like we have all these reasons why we might go down a path, and we've lost this return to self, you know, this this intuitive knowing that is there for us. And when you talked about, you know, we all have these um these skills, like we all have these talents, we all have these gifts. And I I think it's like we're all the backpack guy on Jumanji, you know, um the the little guy on Jumanji, and he's he's he's the backpack guy, and they're in some some um difficult situation, and uh, you know, the big, what's his name, the rock, and he says, uh, he says, Oh, you know, what are we going to do here? Whatever's going on, and he says, Oh, all of a sudden he sort of wakes up and he goes, I might have something in my backpack. Let me have a look. And he pulls out some gripy gun or some, you know, that obviously wouldn't fit in the backpack. And that's that's us. Like we came in with the backpack. We are the backpack guy, you know, we're we're there, we've got it all. It's just realizing, and he was going, Well, what what have I got on my backpack? You know, then I've got the backpack guy, you know, there's nothing exciting about that. And then he realizes, oh my god, I've got everything I need, which is us, but we keep looking outside and going, oh, I can't do that, and we compare ourselves, you know, um, and we have these um these ideas or these not even ideas, these um, this focus on things that have nothing to do with us. But because we have been uh we've learnt behaviors, then we think that that's supposed to be for us, you know, this remembering and waking up to what it is we're here to do, and as I said, this is the first birthright, and once we get that, it actually opens the door to the other birthrights, and then we go back to Yoga and Ayurveda, which gives us the wellness and the knowledge to actually uh take this Dharma and do something with it, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, did you think um in 97-98 when you were a gym instructor to do this yoga? Was it was it a bit of a stigma back then or was it an easy easy access? You did you didn't enjoy it because you were 20 weeks pregnant, I got you know um, but was there a was it stigmatic in in terms of now or or less so or um not um not really a stigma?
SPEAKER_01Um no, not really a stigma. Um however, in saying that yeah, probably a bit of a stigma actually, but um in saying that I came into um into Caura, so as I said, a town of 8,000 people as a um nutrition and fashion teacher in a Catholic school. So I came here and I taught for so I came here in '92 and I did my yoga teacher training in 2003-4. So I'd been teaching in the school for all that time. Um and I often think that the reason my yoga practice was successful is because I was a teacher in a Catholic school, and so that took the stigma away from it. That was a thing that they already knew me. And I think if I'd come into town in, you know, a um bad skirt with tattoos and dangly bells, I don't know, you know. Yeah, so very acceptable, and it made it very, very simple for me um to do that so that people were happy to come and and be in my classes. Like it was very simple. Um, yeah, so and now I'm I mean, you know, now it's across the board and doesn't matter. Um, but certainly for a long time I was the only um I was the only yoga center. We'd we'd had, as I said, we'd had the yoga teacher doing the community classes, and yeah, so people were aware, but it certainly didn't have a big taker, not like the gym, you know.
SPEAKER_00Does the teaching background help that you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, certainly, you know, it that the simplification is actually one of my superpowers. And you know, the Jodish that I was talking about earlier, when you look at my Jodish chart, I can't be anything but a teacher. I am a teacher. Like I am, I am a teacher, and my um and I my particular areas are breaking things down and simplifying it and helping people to understand. That's really what I do. And then I have another particular area which which makes me question and um also aligns me with um cosmic knowledge. So I will be interested in things like um Ayurveda, like Vedic wisdom, like um religion or spirituality. So I have all these perfect, it's like a perfect storm of um of uh skill set, and I'm a backpack, it's it's all this stuff, and so for me uh I know that the key for me is being able to distill the wisdom so that people can access it, and it is really, really I I really um get such uh a reward, like it for me, it's fulfillment, complete fulfillment, when people get the knowledge and they're able to implement it and it changes their lives.
SPEAKER_00Magnificent.
SPEAKER_01That's it. And yeah, and I and and even like when I was teaching in the schools, it would be the same thing. I can see when I look at someone's face, have you got it or you haven't got it? And if they haven't got it, I go, okay, I need to do this a different way. How can I do it a different way? And yeah, that's you know, that is my superpower. You know, it's one of my superpowers, is that I can break it down and I can share it in a way so that people can access it. And I think that that is really, really important right now because there's so much knowledge and so much information that's being shared. Um, and people don't know where to start. Um and it's there for everyone, isn't it? Like we've all got access to that, and that, and for me, it's the the great unlearning that's really big in allowing yourself to connect with whatever it is, because we um try and fit into whatever box we thought we were supposed to squeeze into, and it's unlearning all of that and going, hang on, I already know. I already know. Let me just drop off a few of these layers that I've been collecting over the years, and then this will come out. And it's okay to choose that. It's perfectly okay to choose that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then from a physiological perspective, how much drops away when you get to that realization and and your sacred truth that I don't need to store all this up because so much emotion gets stored in the body, and then mental clarity to energetic optimizing and emotional.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. And I'm just thinking you know how it blocks the energy channels that we have 72,000 energy channels that travel across our body.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, not to mention the toric field and all that stuff, but we and so when when we have that um blockage, that contraction, then these get blocked, you know. Um yeah, and I yeah, it's so fascinating, isn't it? It's so great. The the last program that I just um finished teaching was called The Empowered Meditator, and um so I've I'm trained in um primordial sound meditation, which is a transcendental meditation, and that really served me, has served me really, really well. Um, and I bring that in when I do you know other courses, and now I've been able to expand that further to bring in more knowledge about um what's happening energetically, physiologically to us, and how those two work together when we meditate. Um, and that's been game-changing for people, and was game-changing for me when I uncovered it, but game-changing for people when they learn it. And the well, the empowerment and transformation that people have then said that they've experienced. I just had someone yesterday saying who was in the program, she said, Did you say that someone wrote three books? They said they wrote three books from that last program. And I said, Yeah, she said, that's amazing. I said, Yeah, she's that's she said it she from that program she was able to access three books of knowledge, and she um does work with goddesses and stuff, and it just all downloaded for her, and she was able to do these three books, and people like there was so much. People are telling me that um someone else said, Oh, you know, I manifested a new car, I like it was it was incredible. Healings, um, yeah, it was it was amazing the things that people yeah, because there was the knowledge, um, the understanding, the ability that went with that. So, how can I do these things? Like, how can I, you know, knowing that your chakras actually can move out of alignment and like they can be right anywhere, they can be anywhere. And so we actually need to bring them back in. And how do I bring them back in? And how do I keep them there, you know, and and what is going to happen if this chakra is over here? So the yeah, the the this is the empowerment. The empowerment is the knowledge some people don't even realize they have chakras, but you know, people that do, then showing them pictures and going, this is what it looks like when they can take a photo of where your chakra is and it's over here. Now, oh my god, you know, and we can actually, after doing these practices, you can bring them back in and you'll feel it. And that's why I think why aren't we connecting with this more? Because the knowledge of um you know of what is available to us, the the precision of nature, is it tells us there's an intelligence there that's way bigger and better and smarter than we can even you know begin to think we are. Um so why don't we access it?
SPEAKER_00And yet we're it.
SPEAKER_01And yet we are nature. So and this when we get back to the 21,000 years ago, when they were saying, oh, and they wrote, you know, this was when they they date the um Rig Veda back to his 21,000 years. So all of this information was brought together 21,000 years ago, um, the first book of the Vedas, and they were able to access all of that because, just like you said, we are that, and so because they were so aligned with it, they were purely that the balance of consciousness and creation.
SPEAKER_00So, how did Ayurveda come to pass? You you you talked about yoga and the curiosities of yoga and yoga opened these doors. Did that Ayurveda curiosities develop quickly, or was that something that was always sort of anyway?
SPEAKER_01Or well, Ayurveda, this is this is part of the starting on the path, take one step towards it and see if you support it. So, really, once I took the step towards yoga, um, and I started teaching yoga, and there was a point here, and this is the this is a real changing point in my life. So I'd done the yoga teacher training with IYTA.
SPEAKER_00IYTA, which how I met you. Uh yes, two questions of Ayurveda with us in 2021 when I was studying it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, so I'd done my yoga teacher training. I was never going to teach yoga, never. It was purely for my own learning, uh, because I am a learner, you know, I like knowledge. So, and then there was a woman in town who was um teaching Pilates back then as well, which is you know, pre-Pilates now, um, physiotherapist who was teaching Pilates, and she had to stop teaching, and so she asked if I would come and teach in her practice. And I went, Oh, you know, I really wasn't going to teach, and da-da-da. But she was a friend, and you know, her life was turning upside down and everything was going to shit. And so I said, Oh, all right, I'll come and teach, I'll run something. Okay. So I started teaching, and then her life really went to shit, and she had to close her practice. And I was halfway through teaching, or I was going to be halfway through teaching this um program, like however many weeks it was, when she was going to be actually closing the doors. So I had to find somewhere else to go and teach yoga. And I went around to you know, places to see if I could hire a room by the hour, and it was just so expensive. She found this um these rooms that I could rent for $135 a week. And I could have all these rooms, I ended up with like four rooms that I just was able to knock the walls out and have this great. It was amazing, like $135 a week. And so at the time I was still teaching teaching and I thought the walls out. I know it was amazing. Like it was like you can do whatever you like. The guy that owned it, beautiful George the Grocer, he he um I went and saw him and he said, Do whatever you like, Robin. Like whatever you want, doesn't matter. I don't mind, do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. You can so I did, and I spent like the school holidays. Had a friend who was a a builder, and he came in with me and we knocked out walls, and we made sure we left the bits that we needed to and painted and dah-da-da. And then I opened up this studio. But it was I was teaching, school teaching, and I had to decide because then I went, oh well, I'm actually starting a business. So am I going to teach or am I going to start a business? And then things were getting so squeezy at school. So I was not empowered as a school teacher. I had to fit into a box. I don't fit into boxes very well. So uh so it actually was great because you know, I I tell the story that I used to actually be in the principal's office more than the kids, getting into trouble for things that I, you know, and they they'd say, You did this, and I go, Really? Is that an issue? Like, can I not do that? And no, well, you have to ask this person and that person. I'm going, oh, for heaven's sakes. Like, anyway, so I would be in there getting in trouble. And I just went, you know what? I I did take 12 months' leave. I didn't completely leave. I took 12 months' leave and went, I'm gonna try this. And I did feel when I first started that studio, I felt like I had jumped off into the abyss without a parachute. I thought, holy smokes, what am I doing? I have no idea. Anyway, so I did it. And two weeks into that, because I'd I'd been at the point where I was doubting my my ability as a teacher because I was in trouble so much. And I went in there and I was teaching, and two weeks in, same sort of thing as driving home, I went, I'm actually a really good teacher. And it was, you know, again, it was this awareness thing, and it wasn't the ego. This was like, I'm actually a really good teacher.
SPEAKER_00Something else is saying that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's right. Something else is saying that. Like, and I went, ah, okay, so this, and I'm enjoying it. This is great, I'm loving this. So, you know, straight away I sort of went, okay, so this is what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be doing this. So then I thought, hang on, I'm living in a small country town. I am not going to be able to make enough money teaching yoga in a small country town because you know, this was 2005 and uh yoga hadn't really hit the straps yet. And I'm in a town of 8,000 people, country town. So I thought I have to do something else. And I kept thinking, what am I going to do? And people say, do massage. I don't want to do massage. Do, you know, do hypnotherapy. A doctor friend of mine said, do hypnotherapy and I'll send all my smokers to you. And I went, no, I don't think I'll do that. Anyway, I went on this retreat, and this is pretty funny because it was a raw food retreat, and while I was there, my tummy blew up huge because of all the real raw food. Like Ayurveda just goes, You need to cook your food. And while I was there, I was experiencing this. So it wasn't about Ayurveda. However, the woman who was running it brought in an Ayurvedic practitioner who did 90 minutes on Ayurveda. I hadn't heard of it. I had no idea what it was. She did this 90-minute session where we did a head massage and we did a dosha quiz. And I went, that's what I want to do. I didn't know what it was. No idea. No idea. And I said to her, Do you have, I was there for four or five days or something. I said, Do you have any books or anything that I could read? Anyway, so she brought me some books and then I had a chat to her at the end and she said, now if you're going to study this, don't study it. This again, this was 2006 probably. Um, don't study no, it was 2005 because I started studying in 2006. She said, Don't study it with anyone in Australia. She said, You need to study it with this doctor in New Zealand, blah blah blah. He's an Indian doctor, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, and so I just then took a step towards it and I was supported. I couldn't say it, I couldn't spell it, I had no idea. idea what it was, but I knew this was what I had to do. Wow. And that was it. I my learning, I remember the first the first session. We used to go down to Melbourne. I used to go down to Melbourne. It was every two months because of course we didn't have all of this and you did it all face to face. Every two months you'd go down to Melbourne and you spend a weekend with him and he would have all the modules and you'd have the modules and you'd be going through them. I turned up I'd driven from here to Canberra, hopped on a plane so I must have left here at about maybe three o'clock in the morning hopped on a plane flew down to Melbourne got a cab to where it was at to find the way la la la turned up 20 minutes late it had already started and as I said he was like an Indian accent really strong I was so vita aggravated. He's talking he could have been talking Martian. I had no idea what he was saying. So much you know um Sanskrit I'm just going I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. And I was thinking to myself how am I going to learn this when I can't even understand what he's saying and then we went and had morning tea and he was making chai and showing us how to make chai and talking about all the herbs. And again I'm thinking oh my god this is tea I hate tea I'm drinking short blacks you know I I'm so far removed from all this Ayurvated stuff I've got no idea like I'm so green and anyway so he's doing it and he's talking about all this and then he puts in milk and I go oh and sugar and I go so this is not going to be and I'm thinking how am I going to get rid of this cup of chai without anyone noticing or you know like how am I going to make my way through this anyway he hands over the chai and I have some and I go this is really really good it's really great. And then what happened next and we went back in he started talking and I could understand what he was saying. So you know anyone that knows about Ayurveda my Vada was like off the Richter scale we had this warm spiced grounding drink I was completely you know back in myself it was crazy and receptive again. Receptive it's like I could understand it was so wild I'm going this is wild I can actually understand what he's saying and then it went from there. But yeah there were so many points where I'm I have no idea what this is about even to the point where one month he said now next time you come you need to bring these bowls and towels and blah blah and I'm going someone else what what do we need to bring those for they said oh that'll be for the massage I went massage we're not doing massage I don't want to do massage I was I had no idea what I'd signed up for. Anyway but it was the thing so the yoga and then we marry that with the Ayurveda and then I really went into meditation and it's like this you know pyramid of um knowledge that will support you forever you know it's it you you can dive into that and you will have everything that you need can we mention Deepak Chopra and transcendental meditation so Robin you've also got this capacity for guiding and teaching TM we've done a session on by the way we have we have yeah and so that was after I what was that how'd that come about yeah so that was I had finished my training with the doctor I was an Ayurvedic practitioner and you know I am always wanting to learn like always what else and it's it is all about it's about me but it's also how can I help and how can I serve like what else can I share? How how can I help these people? I had finished my training with the doctor I was an Ayurvedic practitioner and you know I am always wanting to learn like always what else and it's it is all about it's about me but it's also how can I help and how can I serve? Like what else can I share? How how can I help these people? And it always has to be help myself first. Like it's like I have to taste the bitter stuff before anyone else does. Put your optic mask on before you yeah always and so um and so I'd I'd studied all that and the doctor wasn't offering anything else and I wanted to go deeper and and so I started looking around at what there was. So this was 2011 still we're very new in all of this like there's not that much around um and so yeah so I'm googling it. I think at this stage you might have been able to Google um and so I'm looking up what there was and there wasn't a lot that came up but DPAX. So the university um deep D Pax University came up and so I um thought that looks great I could probably do that. I applied to do um and they had an Ayurvedic course a meditation program and a yoga teach training program and so I thought well I really want to do the meditation because that's the bit that I feel like I'm missing. So I um I applied for it and I was teaching a yoga class I came out of the yoga class and um the girl who was my receptionist at the time she said oh there was a call for you and it was this woman from Chopa University and I went oh my god so it was just this doorway and it shocked me so much that someone rang me and said can I talk to you about this? And I went oh my god of course let's talk about it so it was more of that take a step towards it and see if you supported and so I spent two years traveling backwards and forwards to the States and I ended up doing I started with the primordial sound meditation which is the transcendental meditation that DPAC and um and uh Dr. David Simon developed which acts which uses those 117 beijas and the and you use the sound that was resonating at the time that you were born um and that's what they thought would be so great because in transcendental meditation which is you know fabulous there is um one sound and uh it's you know that's the sound and so what they thought wouldn't it be great if you actually had the sound that was resonating when you were born and it it took you back to the point and this is the great unlearning it took you back to the point before you'd layered all this stuff on top and that's where you were you know every time you brought in that mantra you were going back to that point. Yeah so that was that was pretty amazing. So that was the first six months was that and then I thought I might as well keep going. So then I kept going and did their yoga teacher training as well and um and also did their Ayurvedic training. So it was two years of um going backwards and forwards to the states to to study um and it really served me well that meditation uh was the was the learning that took my meditation practice to um to a very grounded earthed um open as well practice before that I was actually floundering and going well you know because again it's like diets and things there's this meditation and there's that meditation and there's this and there's do it this way and blah blah blah this I had an anchor and then from there um I was able to understand meditation better and where these other other types of meditation might come in. Yeah. Is it um the session we did is that the method are there other derivative methods or complementing methods it's that's the method that is the method that is what what you um what you do yeah yeah yeah yeah so and that you know it's still very much the core of my meditation practice um I do teach a lot of guided meditation so when I do the Empowered Meditators course and I bring in all these different aspects like heart coherence and um you know energetic alignment and things like that and I will g do guided meditations to um to create more of whatever it is we're doing but underpinning all of this or always underpinning all of this is the transcendental meditation because really that's what we're doing is we're transcending and it's the it's having the anchor that's what it's all about having the anchor to come back to um but I do find or and I do find that through teaching um particularly this empowered meditation course that I'm teaching that then people are able to access their meditation practice more um more fully and more easily and it's it's the knowledge the knowledge is empowerment you know knowledge is empowering it is actually I just wanted to share this with you one of the statements that I get a lot and this happened when I again this was a lot to do with Ayurveda when I started teaching Ayurveda and Ayurvedic programs or doing consultations and now it's with so much that I teach the statement that I hear and I think this is the blessing is this makes so much sense and I think that is that's the Vedic teaching because this is the remembering when we say this makes so much sense what we're saying is I remember I remember yeah remember and do what we're here to do.
SPEAKER_00Be the backpack guy yeah be the backpack guy that is willing to open the backpack up and yeah yeah get into the backpack and use all your tools like they're all there yeah and and that's you know and I I definitely find that you know that people once they start uh once they see it and someone will say you know they'll say something and they'll go well how did you find that out oh well I did this thing and yeah and as I said before the biggest reward that I ever get is when people say this makes so much sense it's like that is I go oh you've got it you are there once you're there like once you've got that it's like oh everything else just falls into place talk about uh that makes sense and the lights the light switch being turned on or the door opening in people's stories and their yoga and their their history and whatnot there's been sources of those inspirations and when you were buying every book that you could get your hand on was there anything there was there one or two that inspired you to do more are there people that you know or work with or so definitely um yeah definitely Shiva Ray she was she was a big turning point for me so getting that double cassette like that was a huge turning point um that that really spoke to me a lot um and then other teachers that um have have changed the way I do things and given me a lot of inspiration Judith Lassiter was one so Judith Lassiter um was the creator the inspire inspiration behind restorative yoga and uh I remember doing program with her at um was it YWCA I think in just near Hyde Park in Sydney and just you know that you know I did more things with her but I used to say it's advanced relaxation like it was just to slow down and be still and do nothing you know have as many bolsters and blankets and eye pillows and you know whatever you as you can and don't move for 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_01It's like oh my God this is what a wake up so certainly that huge change because I come from we come from a culture that goes fast and you know and we um we applaud we reward and applaud you know applaud and reward people that go fast um and I'm certainly was a go faster and so to open up another door to slowing down and to um recognise the health benefits the mental health benefits the you know all of the benefits of that so that was that was a real turning point for me and and then another teacher that I've follow and I love um is Donna Fahi. So Donna Fahi is a New Zealand um based in New Zealand teacher and again she's she's very much about um going slow, alignment breath um and and a lot of yogic deep yogic knowledge um the wisdom that runs through us um and applying that in your everyday experiences so I yeah she she really showed me a whole other way of being a yoga teacher um that was really yeah really really rewarding so I yeah if I if I think about you know teachers I would say they are the three teachers that kept me uh moving forward and then from there you know there's people that I've come across that I that I enjoy and I um but but they're the ones that were my anchors in all in different ways.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um is there a book in the offering in the offering for Robin to certainly is oh my gosh yep there is a book um there is a book and I've just found out the auspicious state which is called the um Maherta so the auspicious state for starting and this is I have started writing a book several times uh and I've never been quite sure what to write in this book because there's so much knowledge but now I have what I'm going to write about and I just got my auspicious state and time to start writing it. So yes there will be a book I've I am um I am hoping thinking praying that this book will be about two years in the offering and and it will be the backbone of this empowered living that ties all of this knowledge together and gives people tools to to walk through it and then that's supported by programs you know that people can can hop into and do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And whilst that's being written Perfect Health Center will continue to offer these services and people within the communities you're in and surrounding communities benefit from equally you do a lot of online work I guess and so you've got people dialing in from everywhere or yeah yeah I do a lot of online work. I have what was that?
SPEAKER_01I was in Sydney so yeah yeah yeah I yeah I do a lot of online work um and I take international retreats um and yeah the programs people just sign up for programs from wherever and I have um particular programs that run all the time I do a twice yearly cleanse I do um so it's seasonal um with the equinox around that time but because we have daylight savings I do it like the one for the autumn equinox I always do it after we finish daylight saving uh because and I do the other one after we start daylight saving because I think we get so out of whack with daylight savings that um that you know let's just start the new part in this more aligned um state so yeah so I have programs that I offer over and over and over again and then um I'm refining all the time what I offer um uh yeah but uh I I really feel that I I can now see what my lineage is I very much know that it's about empowered living um and that these are the core teachings that I have found valuable for people to be able to have that transformation in all aspects of their life and this is what I've found is that it doesn't matter whether it's finances or relationship or health or Dharma or whatever it is using these tools people can what I call up spiral they can move through this progression to to live a better happier more fulfilled more awakened more enlivened more enjoyable um life yeah more empowered beautifully done it's um such a good message do you find the notion of empowered living resonates more with women or men or both equally yeah look definitely women are the you know they're there they're at the door um men I think because we have been in this patriarchal world for such a long time it's um possibly and I you know your word is your wand um but could well take a little bit longer for them to come to the door and for them to give themselves permission to unlearn a lot of the stuff I mean they've been carrying this for a long long time um yeah women women are ready and particularly uh it's you know particularly the new generations that are coming through they're way more um transparent you know like they just go okay so what else can I do and what you know and I see that with my children um but also or and also the women who are now in their wisdom years so these are women who previously probably haven't found the empowerment that people do now in their wisdom years. So we've got all of these women you know 50 60 70 80 90 you know who are sharing their knowledge which hasn't been valued um to the you know how it is now so I think where we well the doors you know I think that the doors are really opening for the wisdom to come through and it's it's it's really has to happen now. And I went and saw um Marianne Williamson speak recently in Sydney just a couple of weeks ago she was speaking in Sydney and one of the things that um that she was that she says is um to change what's going on we have to create a tipping point of vibrational change so it's not going to be a Jesus coming in or you know any of that stuff we're not going to have a guru who comes in and we're going to change the world and she said you know if someone like that comes in they just get shot anyway you know so but what we have to have is we have to have these little fires, you know, these transformational um pots so that we have enough of them that it creates a tipping point so that when we say a truth like the body can produce whatever chemical it needs there's this you're right That's absolutely right. I remember that, you know, and and that's what we have to get to. So people like you, people like me, our job is to keep the fire burning and you know, spread that fire, like just keep going. And and for me personally, my I see my role as teaching, sharing the knowledge, and then those people that I share it with to take it and to teach it and to share the knowledge. So, you know, it we have to be the ones that are then letting this knowledge go out, which is exactly what you're doing with your podcast. You know, we have to be the ones who create the tipping point, you know, we have to contribute to it and not hide under a rock and not be scared and uh speech bringing something to you that you're ready to hear at that time too. Absolutely. And they were integral in keeping me on that path because as I said, you know, I came to yoga kicking and screaming. I had to have a reason, it had to make sense to me. And um, yeah, and you know, probably particularly at the beginning, traditional yoga didn't make sense to me. You know, it was I couldn't hook in because I was too fast for what was there in traditional yoga. I couldn't slow down enough to um to hook into it. So I had to uh hook into it in in different ways and incrementally.
SPEAKER_00In a sense, it's the starting of accepting that this this happens this way. And I'll give to it and it'll never stop giving back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think that we find that that um that our pathway is it's there for us. And if we're meant to take that path, there will be the perfect, you know, next stepping stone. Whoever it is you need to meet, uh hear, experience, learn from, they're there.
SPEAKER_00They'll be there, and you will meet them if you're receptive enough to know that the time that's the right thing for you to be doing. So I think you're an example of all the way along in those moments where this came to you and now it's time to do this. And the the the professionalism I think you've brought through the way you've combined are you better to yoga and and TM and woven that in, and you say continually refining it, it's a body of knowledge and work that gives that proficiency that just says, now write me down into a book, which is what you intend to do. And I think that's that's going to be just lovely. And uh I look forward to reading it when it comes out.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Paul. I look forward to reading it too when it comes out.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And having to work out what I'm gonna leave out as much as what goes in. That might be one of your challenges. Um I think so. Knowing so much, how do I but but your superpower was was simplicity and that's it. So rely, rely on your superpowers and you'll be true.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. Wow, what a wow. Well, I really enjoyed that, Robin. Yeah. Never really enjoyed it. Um, thank you for being a guest on my podcast.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank you for inviting me, Paul. I I really enjoyed sharing um all those stories, and I also really enjoyed your input as well. So, you know, it made um what I was able to bring to the table make more sense. And uh your questions, fabulous. Really great. Wow. Well, thank you, Paul. So great, really, really good, and finally made it to um to being in the same space at the same time. It's all good. Oh, thank you, Paul. That was great.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. Thank you so much for that. We hope you enjoyed hearing about Robin's incredible yoga journey. If you'd like to know more about Robin's Are You Better and Transcendental Meditation, you can visit the Perfect Health Centre website, and the link has been provided in the descriptions. Our chat with Robin on this International Day of Yoga brings an end to the second series of our Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast. We're proud to have been able to bring you the stories of all our amazing guests and thank them for coming onto the podcast to share their stories, inspirations, and experiences. We'll now take a short break, but look forward to bringing you new stories from new guests later in the year. Until then, wishing you a happy international day of yoga and all the very best in your own yogic endeavors.