RAW and Embodied with Andrea Stamp

You Get to Choose Your Journey with Adri Wignall

Andrea Season 1 Episode 11

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:00:45

Some people walk through things that could completely break them... and somehow, they choose to keep going.

This week on Raw & Embodied, I sit down with my beautiful friend, Adri, for a conversation that is honest, vulnerable, and incredibly inspiring. We talk about what it looks like to move through life's hardest moments, trust yourself, and continue choosing the life that's calling you, even when the path hasn't been easy.

Adri's own healing journey led her to become a Reiki Master, Kaiut Yoga teacher, and the founder of CURA Yoga Center. Her work is rooted in the belief that healing happens when we feel safe enough to reconnect with ourselves, our bodies, and our own inner wisdom.

This conversation is full of heart, hope, and the reminder that your past does not get to write the rest of your story.

If this episode speaks to you, please share it with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear these words today.

And if you're feeling called to do your own deeper healing, I offer Pathway to Your Inner Light one-on-one sessions. Together, we'll gently uncover the stories, patterns, and stuck energy that may be holding you back, so you can reconnect with yourself and the light that's always been there.

Learn more at peacefulbutterflyhealings.com.

Thank you so much for listening. If you're loving Raw & Embodied, please subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share the podcast. It truly helps more people find these conversations, and I couldn't do this without you.

Connect with Adri:
Website: https://curayogacenter.com/
Instagram: @rejuvenatewadri

Adri's healing journey began through her own lived experiences. After navigating significant childhood trauma, she discovered how deeply the body holds stress, emotion, and survival patterns—an awareness that became the foundation of her life's work.

Today, Adri is a Reiki Master, certified Kaiut Yoga teacher, and the founder of CURA Yoga Center in Boulder. Through Kaiut Yoga and Reiki Rejuvenate sessions, she creates safe, supportive spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, regulate their nervous systems, and experience healing from the inside out.


SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Ron Embodied. I'm Andrea, and I'm so excited you're here. This is a space where we are going to get real. We'll talk about healing, the stories we carry, the patterns that keep us stuck, the courage it takes to use our voice, and what it truly means to choose ourselves. My hope is that every conversation helps you to come back to your own truth, your own power, and your own inner light. So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to Raw and Embodied with Andrea. Today I have a beautiful friend Audrey with me. I'm glad that you come and visit with me. I'm going to read her bio because it is a beautiful bio and I don't want to miss anything because this woman has done a lot of amazing things. Alrighty. So Audrey is the founder of, I always say it wrong. Kura. Kura. Kura Yoga. I call it Kura. Yoga Center, a Cayute Yoga teacher, a Reiki master whose work is rooted in her own healing journey. After experiencing significant childhood trauma, she developed an early understanding of how the body stores stress, protection, and unprocessed emotions, an awareness that ultimately becomes the foundation of her work. She began her formal training in the healing arts in 2017 as a certified Reiki practitioner and continued studying psychology, energy work, and alternative medicine. I mean wellness. In 2019, she discovered Kayute Yoga Yoga Method with a direct focus on joint health, nervous system regulation, and the meeting of the body of where it is. This became a transformative part of her personal and professional journey. In 2024, she bought this beautiful studio, Kura. Right? Kura. Kura, Yoga Center and Boulder as an extension of her commitment to creating accessible, heart-centered space, heart-centered spaces for healing and growth. Oh my gosh, that's what this place is, by the way. Um, she completed her Reiki master training with me, Andrea. Um, and offer now offers Kay classes and private Reiki sessions. Her calling is to help others connect with their bodies, find their inner light, and overall heal to live a better quality of life. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for having me. It's such an honor to be part of anything that you do.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's so sweet. Um, I really wanted to have you on the podcast today because one, I know that you have a story that will definitely help others believe in themselves, even if things have happened to them in their childhood. And I felt it was also just really important because you do be with your heart in everything that you do. So I love that. And I really know that this wellness center is something that you built from the ground up, but it's something from your heart space, and you really do genuinely hold every single person that comes in that door with that space. Thank you for seeing that. I appreciate it. Of course. Alrighty, sweetie. Well, I want to dive right in if that's cool with you. Let's do it. Um, let's start by um, well, let's see. I've got a lot of good questions for you, and I actually want to stake on them because otherwise it gets sidetracked. All right. So your childhood was a little unique, and so I would really like it if you can take us back to little Audrey and what was growing up like for you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_02

I definitely feel like my childhood was a very transformative experience. Going through all of it was definitely something to get through, but I do feel like it's built me the foundation to be where I'm at now. Yeah. Um, I'll show start at the very beginning. I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was there until I was about six years old. And when I was growing up, my parents split really early on, but I was able to see my dad very frequently. And so although he wasn't in the house with us, he was always always very much a part of the picture. During that time, unfortunately, my mom um handled a lot of mental health issues, and that led to her becoming an alcoholic. So that's really where a lot of my early memories are. I think as a trauma response, a lot of those memories have been what I call just deleted, just to kind of clear space. But a lot of my childhood memories are flashbacks of really dark and heavy and hard things that five, six, seven-year-olds really shouldn't have to go through. Being almost 30 now, I see kids at the age that I was when I went through, and it just like wow, it just cracks my heart open.

SPEAKER_00

Well, because you look at them and you're like, oh my gosh, there's so little. How was I doing that? And like being so grown up at that age. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Hang on. Yeah. And I think that's always, you know, anybody that's known me from early on, that would be one of the things that they'd say about me is that I just had to grow up really quickly. And I was just put in the position to kind of take care of myself. And at that time, I was also really taking care of my mom as well. So it was about, I think it was seven when my mom really started getting down and out and really started struggling with her own addiction and her alcoholism. And at that point, my dad was part of the picture, but you know, it just wasn't um the stability that I needed. And so my aunt and uncle, my mom's sister, they so kindly opened up their hearts and their home to me. And I moved from Salt Lake City up to Breckenridge, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And I lived with them. I'll never forget my second grade year was just it rocked my world. Um, I was the new kid, and I just remember really trying to kind of break free from all of these protective mechanisms that I had been living in and just kind of starting at seven, not really understanding what the fuck that is. Exactly. Exactly. Um, you know, and being so young, I didn't really wasn't able to really wrap my head around what was going on, but I just knew that my mom was not well. And so we were living up in the mountains, and my mom is actually living down here in the front range, and she was in and out of rehab, she was in and out of, you know, safe homes, living with other alcoholics and addicts. And unfortunately in 2005, my mom took her life.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Um, she committed suicide, and from there, I just I remember everything about that moment, and I think that's really when a lot of my intuition started to come in because I knew that she was gone well before I was told. Um, it was the night before Halloween, and I just remember having this brokenness inside of me and just not really understanding what that was. And the day after I didn't go to school for some reason, which I thought that was weird. You know, every kid kind of looks forward to going to school in their Halloween costume and really just living it up in that way. And I remember I stayed home with who at the time I consider them my siblings now, but my cousins, because my aunt and uncle had taken me in. And um, they, you know, tried to do anything that they could to try to fill the void at the time with me. But I just I felt that something was coming, something was about to change my life.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And next thing I know it, my grandmother was living down here in Boulder at Deheim. And next thing I know it, I'm down here in Boulder, we're trick-or-treating down in my grandmother's neighborhood, and all of this family starts showing up. And I was just like, wow, like I wasn't expecting to see my aunt and my cousins and from Utah in Salt Lake City, like, this isn't Christmas. Yeah, exactly. Something is not right here. And I'll never forget when they called me upstairs and they said, Hey, Audrey, we need to talk to you. And I went upstairs and to my grandmother's bedroom and they closed the door behind us. And it was my both of my aunts and my grandmother, and they broke the news to me. And from there, you know, things get really blurry, as you can imagine, just trying to navigate grief and loss and and again, still not even really understanding what all of that means. Exactly. So yeah. And that was the first loss that I had ever had. You know, both my grandparents on both sides were still healthy and well. Like we'd never had a death in the family in this way, especially in such a sudden and drastic way. Right. Um, so at that point in time, you know, my biological dad, he traveled back to Boulder. And, you know, as a family, we're just kind of trying to navigate everything. And there was a little bit of a separation between my family and myself. My dad initiated that separation as just a way to try to protect me because, you know, he knew no different. Oh, your mom's gone. I'm gonna sweep in and come to help now. And so there was a little bit of a disconnection at that point where I was then separated from the aunt and uncle that I was trying to build that stability and kind of build the foundation with before my mom had passed. And so, kind of fast-forwarding a little bit through that, um, you know, I started living back with my aunt and uncle again, and they actually really adopted me. And that's all like though, right? Um, I was back in Breckenridge at that point. Yeah. So it's very easy for the wires to get crossed it. Don't hesitate to ask questions. I was like, I was like, wait. So, you know, the separation from my aunt and uncle then had happened, but then I was able to come back. And I remember then I was in third grade, and they decided that they were gonna adopt me, which just felt like the most loving gesture that I could have ever imagined. And from this point forward, because I was so young and still just trying to make the sense of everything, we'll refer to my aunt and uncle as mom too and dad too.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And so from that point forward, you know, it was 2006, 2007, and I just kind of tried to move on, I guess, and just kind of keep being a kid. And I was so fortunate of you know, my cousins at the time, my newfound brothers and sisters, they opened me with just as loving of arms as my aunt and uncle, mom too, dad too did. And so, you know, it kind of felt like okay, like this is the fine family dynamic that I was craving that was gonna help me heal.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And I think throughout that time, I really developed a lot of people-pleasing mechanisms because you know, subconsciously, and it took a lot of work to get to that point, but I think subconsciously I always thought it was my fault. I always had that sense of guilt.

SPEAKER_00

Why do you feel like that? I mean, I know that I hear that a lot with kids, you know. Why do you feel like it was your fault?

SPEAKER_02

I think that maybe, you know, if I because I was always a really good kid, you know, but maybe if I was a better kid, or maybe something that I could have done to make my mom would have wanted to live. Maybe not feeling that I did something wrong, but what more could I have done right? Yeah, if that makes sense, to want to give her that reason to stay, to be my mom, to work through her addiction and to her alcoholism and face those demons.

SPEAKER_00

What could I have done to like been a more perfect child that she would want to change for? Exactly. And all of those patterns.

SPEAKER_02

And so that people pleasing really, I think for a long time just became my identity. You know, I always wanted to hang out with the best kids. I always yearned to have the best grades, to, you know, be as engaged in school as I could. But I think that deep down, I was in the shadows myself.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you don't even know, you know, because we don't learn these things until we get older. And we don't even realize how much we are trying to, you know, put on a mask to everyone because we want to look a certain way and feel a certain way or let people think that about us, you know. So exactly.

SPEAKER_02

And that's the mask, you know, that I was wearing. And I think that that's what really helped me cope when deep down, I mean, now being eight, nine, ten years old and having suicidal ideations, not for the sake of wanting to die or to not be alive, but to wanting to be with my mom. And at that point, that was the only way that would make sense that I could be with my mom again. Like, oh, well, she's passed. If I were to pass, then maybe we could just be together again, you know? Um, so I think a lot of my childhood was internally just being at war with myself.

SPEAKER_00

And do you think that mom won and I mean two and dad two notice these kind of things?

SPEAKER_02

I do. I think that it's probably one of those things that in hindsight, it probably makes a lot more sense. In the moment, I think that you know, they were probably just so hyper-focused on making sure that I was okay. And that, you know, how do you even soothe a child who is navigating such grief and loss, and you know, instantly were I was put into therapy. And of course, you know, being eight years old, playing with polypockets, trying to demonstrate what you're feeling inside, right?

SPEAKER_00

You're like, it's not the same thing. Exactly. It was the same. You're like, I actually am dying inside just a little bit, but I don't even know what that means.

SPEAKER_02

But I don't know what that means and what that feels like. Um, you know, but along with that, of kind of having such strong duality within myself, I knew and I've always known from early on that I'm here to help people. I remember having a conversation with my godmother. I was probably 10 years old at the most. And she had this wonderful art room that I would just go and just create these little scenes and kind of oasises of an escape.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And I remember her talking to me about, you know, how you talk to kids. What do you think you want to do when you grow up? And I remember telling her that I wanted to build a center for kids to go that were hurting and needed to heal. Because at that point, that was like totally see you doing that at that age. That was like the only thing that made sense to me, you know, because how could I go through the worst thing that I have been through? And, you know, that was the worst thing to me. So, you know, I think that was one of the things that always has just been a seed that's been kind of ruminating inside of me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh built me to where I've gotten now. It's taken a lot to get here. I know.

SPEAKER_00

So as you start growing, do you guys stay out in Utah for a while and then so I pretty much from when my mom was in rehab, I was pretty much exclusively up here in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And my mom, you know, she would go to rehab, okay, get out of rehab. We would go live in Salt Lake for like three or six months.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

You know, she would overdose, something crazy would happen. Like I have memories of one moment we're like watching reruns of Gilligan's Island. And then the next moment I'm like trying to figure out how to call 911 and seeing her pull out on a stretcher. Like I can see that apartment, everything about it, just vividly, because so much trauma was there. And I think so badly she wanted to prove to me, to the family, to herself that she could do it, that she could be independent, but it just unfortunately just wasn't in the hearts for her. Um, you know, so at that point, I was pretty well rooted here in Colorado, up in Brackenridge, and we'll kind of move a little bit through some of like elementary and middle school. Right. And mom too and dad too were again just this embodiment of love and support and really helped me build a foundation. Yeah. But there was something beneath the surface there as well. Um, so 2014, I'm 16, it's my junior year of high school. And there had been some family drama, some situations, and just, you know, a lot. We had lost my grandfather, mom too had lost her dad. And so there was just it felt like we were back in the shadows. We were back in that kind of dark round. And things between mom two and dad too started getting a little bit hairy, and he traveled for work, so he was able to not be around as much, but still in a productive way because he's trying to provide for us. And and at that point in 2014, it was the end of March, and mom two took her life as well. Um, I was junior in high school, and you know, it just so happens I my boyfriend at the time was the son of the captain of the sheriff's department, and so we had access to law enforcement and support. And so I called my boyfriend at the time's dad and was like, hey, you know, I my mom is not well off right now. She didn't come home last night. She had called all of the siblings that were in the state up to have some family dinner and then just left. And so, you know, he of course having access to things was like, All right, let's do a welfare check. Let's see if we can figure out where mom two is and if she's okay. Maybe she's at a hotel, maybe she just needed a breather and she wanted to know you guys were all right. And I think it was maybe only 20 or 30 minutes later that we got the call that she had attempted suicide. She was still with us, but she was on her way out.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And so I remember being in my basement bedroom and just letting out like a blood-curdling scream and running up the stairs to my siblings, my cousins, whatever you want to call them. Yeah, mom to's kids, and you know, just having to be the one to break that news of hey, mom's not okay, and this is our time to go to the hospital. And so we like Mach 5, Mach 10, whatever you want to call it, got there. And again, those flashbacks is the vivid memories. And I think a lot of mom one's death and her manner of death was just so suppressed because I didn't understand. I didn't understand death. You were so young, let alone mental health, let alone suicide. Yeah. And so all of a sudden it just exploded inside of me. And I'm a junior in high school, two weeks about to take my ACT test and trying to figure out, you know, what I was gonna do with my life while everything underneath me was just crumbling, just crumbling. And so at that point, um, I really felt starting getting called to spirituality.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

None of my family was ever really very religious or very spiritual. It was just, we just kind of went about our lives. It wasn't really something that was brought to my attention. And there was this really cool store, it might still be there, um, the rock shop in Breckenridge. And I remember when my mom, you're familiar with that. Uh when mom when mom too was starting to fade out and it was clear that she was depressed, she was numbing, she wasn't well. I remember I went in there and I had a talk with the clerk, and I was like, hey, my mom's really depressed right now. What can you do for her? And I I had never worked with crystals, I had never done meditation or prayer or any of that. And they sent me with a little kit. And I remember them being on her bedside the morning after she had passed those crystals and just spoofing them right back up and just knowing like these are for me. This is this is my journey, this is what's gonna help me.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And I think seeing that potential of how it could have helped her, yeah, but just knowing like, no, this is this is me, this is what I need. And so at that time, you know, I was not ready by any means to leave the house. You know, I was going into the summer before my senior year and leaving and moving what little foundation I still had left felt like the scariest thing ever. And so I decided to stay and I did a semester at the community college there. And all of this was really just kind of sparking my fuel to my fire. I wanted to go into social work right because initially I really had that calling to work with kids who were hurting. And after this, I started studying more psychology and abnormal psychology. I didn't know that about you. So you did that at Front Range? Uh Colorado Community College. Okay, in Breckenridge. Okay. So I did a semester there. It was a semester after I graduated high school, and so much was shifting. I was in a long-term relationship at that point, and just it was not serving me anymore. And I knew that I needed to be as independent as I already was, I needed to be by myself and I needed to really just break free of everything that I have known. And at the time, my godmother was living down here in Inglewood.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And she had always, anyhow, she had always had, she always said, You always have a bed, you always have a room. And so I was signed up to take my second semester at Colorado Community Colleges, kind of start getting back in the rhythm of things. Right. And I was like, it just didn't feel right. Like that shift was happening, whether I wanted to, I don't know. And so I called my godmom and I was like, hey, is there any way that I can come and stay with you and test out the community college down there, maybe finish my two year degree in psychology?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And she was like, Yeah, of course, by all means. And so dad, too, comes home and I'm like packing up my room.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And he's like, wait, like I thought you meant like you were just gonna go take some classes down there. And I was like, I don't know what's happening, but I I'm just getting guided. I gotta go. I gotta go.

SPEAKER_04

I gotta go.

SPEAKER_02

And really at that point, it was 2016, 2017. And I feel like that was my cry for help of knowing as much as I needed to be independent, I needed to be held. And something I really learned.

SPEAKER_00

Like how much you needed to be held.

SPEAKER_02

Something I learned is that when you go through so much trauma and you go through so much crisis, you're just so okay with not being okay. But then the moment that things are okay and you're gonna say then it's like, all right, we're gonna spew again. Oh, that's gonna come up again. Um, so I think pretty quickly my godmother knew that that darkness, those the shadows that I call them, they're coming back. And it was like deeper than ever. I was really, really struggling with my anxiety. Um, my body was fighting me. I at that time couldn't barely eat anything. I had allergic reactions to corn, to soy, to dairy, to gluten. It was just like everything seeping out. Exactly. My whole body was just having that response, and I just had to face it. And so at that point in time, she, my godmother, when I was living with her, she had someone coming in with her to do Reiki on her.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And mind you, I'm like totally closed off to this. Like, I would make fun of people for going to acupuncture. Like dude, not was not open. Yes. And I was like, yeah, like, you know, sure, I'll try it. And so again, another really vivid memory, but we were out in the backyard, and I just remember when she placed her hands on me. I ashole projected. I left. I left all that weight, all that trauma, all the sadness, all the grief, all the shit. I was able to just leave it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I just looked down. I just looked down and was like, wow. Like, there's a potential to believe that there is light. It's not the shadows, it's not the dark. Yeah. And I was like, all right, I think this is it. I think, you know, this is my something.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And, you know, sure, it took some months of going through being a normal 19-year-old. 100%. Hanging out with the wrong people and doing the wrong things.

SPEAKER_00

You know, especially when you're numbing and still think that we are very old at time. And since you had gone through so much trauma, you definitely were like I was 25-30 in my mind. I'm like so smart and I know everything about everything. No mistakes.

SPEAKER_01

I can just numb out and do all the worst has already happened. You know?

SPEAKER_02

Um, but I, you know, at that point was very much self-medicating, hanging out with the wrong people. Just I saw a fork. There's a fork in the road. You can go here and keep going down this path, right? And maybe at one point be homeless on the side of the road, lost everything.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Or you can go this way.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And some of the best advice at that point in my life that I think has always stuck with me is that you need to find what your weaknesses are. Maybe to make them your strengths. Oh my gosh, right. And so that's just what I decided to do. I started dating my now husband at that point in time. And we very quickly started just building our life together and kind of going through the motions of what it's like to be independent, what it's like to live on your own. Right. And I really do feel like Ryan, my husband, is what helped me bring that sense of foundation back and bring that sense of security and just that longing to just be held just as I was and knowing that everything was just gonna be okay. Maybe if it wasn't then that it was going to be okay.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And so we started dating around 2016 or so. I was kind of wrapping up my psychology degree at Arabaho Community College, and I was like, oh, like psychology, this is cool and all, but I just really didn't resonate with the big pharma approach. I because I had seen how it had got I got so wrong. Uh-huh. I mean, both of my mom one, mom two were addicts in some way. They did the whole mainstream way of trying to heal mental health, and it just went so wrong. Not to say that it can't go so right for some people. But that for me was like, this is not it. But it is at the same time. Like I need to help people, but I need to find another way.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And so 2017 is when I did my first Reiki attunement and started being able to practice on myself and really starting to integrate the light back in and start to just bring it all into the nervous system and to allow the healing because you were finally giving yourself that space to acknowledge all of it that was sitting inside of your body instead of numbing it up.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And I think you know, so long in survival mode, it just goes back to that. You can be okay with being not okay, but then when you get a taste of what it's like to be okay, it's so much fun, so much cooler.

SPEAKER_00

And hey, you know, we bounce back and forth sometimes because it's just life, you know. And I think that we just give ourselves grace when those things do happen. But when you do start to feel that light, that divine light, and that connection to your soul and to source and to everything, you realize, oh my gosh, it can be so much better if I do give it space.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And I do feel it and I do let myself be raw and vulnerable and not scared and meaning to numb and hide and people please and make it seem like I was okay when I just wasn't.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

And I felt like I was okay to be not okay for a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I I mean, I feel like that is the most beautiful thing because it it I think sometimes we do have to hit that big piece like you did um when you were numbing out all the time and you felt like this is the fork in the road, we need to change everything. Like it is, it is a I don't think it's an easy moment because you do have those moments where you're like, sometimes it would be so much easier if I just went this direction. Because this one seems really difficult. But you know, once you make that turn and you finally do it, and I was I feel the same similar. I mean, our paths are very, you know, once we got into this like state, it started in 2017 for both of us. And I feel like when we saw that, we were like, yeah, we should go that way, you know. But I know that as humans, it's we know we still have those setbacks or those moments where we feel like it would just be easier to do the other.

SPEAKER_02

Totally. And I mean, I think still to this day, and probably always, always be presented with those forks in the road. It's just every time I choose to turn right, I feel more confident. I feel more sure this is the way.

SPEAKER_00

I do, I do, I do. Um, how do you think that these experiences did shape your relationships? Like in even with Ryan. Um, I think just with every all the experiences that you went through.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I think a lot of that just subconscious of losing, you know, my biological mom and then my adoptive mom, so young, it just really ingrained in me that I wasn't enough. I wasn't enough. And I carried that into everything.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Trying to go above and beyond, trying to do 150, 250% overachieving. Over exactly, and overexpending myself and doing things without intention, just doing things for the sake of feeling whole and being enough. And, you know, that I would say is one of the most pivotal things that inner work things that I've had to do is just knowing that I am, I am enough just as I am, whether I continue to keep working on myself and keep evolving or not. I mean, that's inevitable, of course, but I think that would be a big common theme for sure of, you know, whether it be with Ryan, my husband, or whether it be in different job situations, or always just subconsciously feeling unworthy.

SPEAKER_00

How did you work through that with him? Like, did you? I mean, I know you worked on yourself, but like how did you have to catch those kind of things when you were working in your relationship?

SPEAKER_02

I think, you know, when you're in a relationship, you have to be willing to have that co-co-creation and the collaboration. But you also have to be willing to face your own shit and look in the mirror. And I think once I really started looking in the mirror, so much of, you know, are you mad at me? Yeah. This or you know, are you upset? Like it just that just drops away. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. I I'm recovering people, please. So we'll all have we own that mask and so on. Exactly. And I think that once we do start owning um our own shit and we start doing our own deeper healing, no matter if it is severe trauma or it's just, you know, the day-to-day shit, I think that once we do start to really face all of those kind of things and we really start to love ourselves again.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And like love ourselves, like really love ourselves, like all of our pieces, even the ones that we don't technically like very much, you know, I think that makes our relationships, all of them, friends, you know, our spouses, partners, whatever, um, so different.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I I couldn't agree more with that. I think that there has to be a willingness to show up for yourself before you show up for other people.

SPEAKER_00

Which is not how we are taught. We're not trained that. And especially, I mean, I know that this happens with men, but I just noticed a lot with women. We are not, at least my my generation wasn't, and I'm like what, 15 years older than you? Something I was like, something like that. But I, you know, I just I know that we weren't, you know, and I think it's important for us to take that time for us to heal. And especially since, you know, both moms did those things and they were still thoughts going through your head, you know. I it's just it's for one, I'm really proud of you and everything you've done because I've known you for a while, so I know how amazing you are, but I just I think that no matter what, they would be so proud of you, like no matter what that you know that there always are. Yeah, but I just think that it is beautiful how you have been able to flip the script and say, not today, that's not happening, not in my lifetime, at least, not this one, as far as I have control.

SPEAKER_02

And yeah, you know, I I feel like I really have had to just taste so much of the shadows and the darkness in order to just have no other blunt choice but to make those right turns, but to choose the light. Because I've lived through so much at that dark and so much of those left turns. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and I feel like I don't think that people understand that when you do start working with your soul and with source energy, how much it starts to just shift everything, you know, how we think about everything, how we wake up, how we eat, how we walk. Like yeah, it really does, especially when you really take it to the place that I know that you and I do, and how we hold it in such integrity and love. And so we start to just understand that oh, we do have a bigger calling and that there's something calling in it, and that unfortunately we had to have these tough, really hard childhoods so we could shift to help others, like you said, to have no choice but to do that, you know.

SPEAKER_02

That's truly how I feel. Like I'm just this is what I'm here to do, right?

SPEAKER_00

So, so let's fast forward a little bit. So then you found Cyute. How did you find Cayute?

SPEAKER_02

So kind of shifting through, you know, my husband and I we were taping for a while, and I was starting to lean into more of taking care of myself and practicing yoga, and I started learning about I didn't even know what the nervous system was, Andrea. Like how much reprogramming and resetting I needed. Right. And so we were living in Broomfield at the time, and I think still there's not very many studios in Broomfield. So I'd like to just that one. Like yoga, it was just like yoga and broomfield near me. Right. And I was like, there's one. It was like hi, yoga broomfield. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. So I had sent them an email.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god, but you know that spirit was like, boom. Here you go.

SPEAKER_02

We're gonna water all those seeds we've been planting. Um, you know, so initially I had intended, I just wanted to deepen my yoga press and start showing up for myself in that way. And so I had a contacted Laura and Body owner, and I reached out to her and I was like, hey, I don't know if you maybe wanted to do like a cleaning trade. I'd be happy to come pick up the studio, if I could take a couple classes a week. And the first, I feel like really big shift of the divine timing was just here, because at that point she was like, Well, I actually just had my office manager put in her notice, and I see that you have a bunch of administrative background.

SPEAKER_01

And don't you love how students are like, excuse me.

SPEAKER_02

Again, like I was like, okay, like this seems like there's no choice to it. There's no even consideration. And so she welcomed me into the studio, and I was really able to, on one hand, start building a really consistent practice, learning about what the Kayute Yoga method is, a lot more focused on mobility, which I never really, you know, being in the early 20s at that point, I didn't, I was never injured, I never had pain in my body, but the nervous system aspect is really just what was like magnificent.

SPEAKER_00

I know when I first met her, she was just I felt like she was this little baby and she was teaching yoga that is for the joints and for these things.

SPEAKER_01

And I was like, I'm so confused.

SPEAKER_00

And how does she know? But it was amazing because you taught me so much about like how it wasn't just about that, and then how you know it really is the nervous system as well.

SPEAKER_02

And so yeah, we're just this vessel that brings it all together, and at that point, I was just this vessel that was like so high strong and holding so much, but at the same time, just so craving a shift and to start my life and to answer this calling that had just been calling, calling, calling, calling for so long. And so I at one hand was really building a practice and learning about the method, but on the other hand, I was being able to learn the inner workings of studio management, of working with clients and students and building a studio and really what it meant to hold space. Right. That was another thing I I didn't really understand until I started doing it. I'm like, wow, holding space for others. Maybe that's what this calling is. And so again, divine timing, COVID happened. And prior used to have travel internationally, Amsterdam, Canada, maybe to Brazil, where Kay Yoga's rooted. Yeah. And they were like, you know what? We're gonna do the uh beta trial of the online training. Six months, get your certification, bing bang, boom. I'm like, dope. Again, I don't feel like I have a choice. Like, this is just the next thing.

SPEAKER_03

I love that our stories are like I have never realized.

SPEAKER_01

So I call you my big sister. I'm like, I'm going, I feel like she's telling my story, but it's fine too much.

SPEAKER_02

And so Laura at the time, you know, we felt such a strong connection with me being in studio management and really working not only alongside the students, but being a student with them. Right. She was like, if you do the training, you can teach. You can teach right here with the people that you know. This could be like a launch pad. Uh-huh. And so that's what I did. I was working in a warehouse at the time, working like 40 hours a week. And then I would literally, I didn't have even have a car. I would walk from the warehouse to the yoga studio, and I taught two nights a week, and it was just the best thing ever. It was the most exciting.

SPEAKER_00

When I started teaching yoga madra, it was like it was like, I think this is for nice.

SPEAKER_01

Win-win, you know, it was so relaxing, even though I was the one teacher.

SPEAKER_02

But I was like, this is it, but it's not enough.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Like this is really where I need to be. I need to be holding space for people. I need to be opening people up to their own healing, to their own shadows, to their own darkness, right? So they can feel that light too. And so then the next divine timing thing happened. Um, Wendy Zaren, the studio owner, formerly the name Barnyoga Boulder.

SPEAKER_03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

She also had a teacher that was departing and they needed another teacher on their team. So, you know, very quickly I was able to start teaching a lot more between being in Broomfield and being up in Boulder. And I was like, This. This is so fucking it. Let's go. And, you know, really started building those one-on-one connections with people. And just so special. It's the most special thing. Like, I just started feeling this fulfillment of like, okay, this is why you had to get not only drive through the mud, but through the depths of the earth.

SPEAKER_00

So that way you can rise up and it's also so you can understand those things in other people and be able to hold them in this beautiful, like loving. Gentle. Yeah. Because you understand that they don't need to show up perfect. They can show up just authentically themselves, and you will be able to hold that space for them. So it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And so I started I, you know, getting more comfortable and expanding what it meant to hold space from people that were severely injured, people that were healing from knee hip replacements, or people like myself that just needed that deep recoding and that regulation, the taste of what it's like to be okay, even if you're not, just a taste of it. Yeah. And so, really, this is what I would call like the biggest divine gift. Um, at that point, Wendy, who I was teaching with, she approached me and she I I'll never forget. She asked me and she said, I think you're a really good teacher. Is this what you intend to do? Like, do you see yourself doing this? Yeah. I remember being kind of like curious about what why she asked me, like, yeah, of course. And then I think it was a couple months later when she had approached me and said, Hey, I'm I'm looking to retire and I want you to acquire my business. And you know, so we went through all of the process of the acquisition, and January 1st of 2024 was the day that my prayers, my dreams came true. Everything just came into alignment. I know two and a half years now. Uh-huh. Um, so early 2024, I was like, it felt like the biggest leap of faith I was ever taking because I knew that I was doing what I was meant to do, but I also, at the other hand, felt like I did not know what I was doing. You're like, So that's that's the whole business.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, right. Let's just try that out. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

And every day since then it's just been more of an assurance and a fulfillment and connecting with the right people and helping people and supporting others to really just heal. Um, as I mentioned, the business was formerly under Barn Yaga Boulder when I acquired. We didn't have like a brick and mortar, yeah, but we had the community. Yeah. We had the people. Yeah. And that was all that mattered to me.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

So we went through a little bit of back and forth with, you know, some short-term rentals, some spaces. And I always knew that I wanted to rebrand and kind of upgrade and evolve things and include Cyute, but also include so many of these other modalities that had been so pivotal to my journey. Right. Because, like you said, sometimes you have to live through it so that way you can help and recognize other people living through it. Right. And so we shift to ones have been a recurrence. So 1-1-24 was the first day of the business. And then 11-1-24 was the first day here as well. And I chose cura because it's the Portuguese translation for heel. Yeah. And not only with um Cayute being the Brazilian background, with my biological dad also having Brazilian background, it just it felt like everything just all came together at that point. So we've been here. It'll be two years in November. And yeah, I mean, it's insane to think like when we met, when I was just kind of like teaching as much as I can everywhere that I could, really just like drinking from that well that I knew I needed to. Yeah. I remember, you know, you mentioned, like, oh yeah, there's some people that might be interested in Reiki here, you know, maybe after class. And so to think, in just a matter of a couple years, going from like folding up blankets and trying to make a little thing after yoga class on the floor, to now like being here in my own space and my own center and having all the And just being the steward of all of this is it's the biggest gift from the universe. And you know, I tell people, my students, all the time to not even be 30. I just turned 29. I know.

SPEAKER_01

I don't be like this morning. I was like, I have no idea. Like, I think she's like 28, 29 now. And I was probably what, like 23 or 40 minutes?

SPEAKER_02

Um, you know, but to be at this age and just feel I hesitate to use the word fulfillment because I don't, I'm nowhere near done yet. Oh no, not at all. But that's the only way that I feel like I could put it. Like I just feel so assured in what I'm doing. And couldn't be more confident that the shadows and the darkness and everything that I had to face has really made it to be where I'm at now.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. My gosh, I love this. I can't believe it's almost been two years. I know. Time has flown by time has flown by. It really has. So is there, you know, as you grow the studio even more, do you have visions of like, you know, do workshops even more than you have been? Because I know that you started do getting those in. Because at first it was just cayutes. Yep. Yeah. And you started doing a little bit of Reiki services here and energy work. And then you started slowly bringing in other workshops and stuff. So you can talk about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, I think that my vision for Kura is just really to make this an accessible space of healing. Um and knowing that everybody's healing journey is different. And so having as many different various offerings and services that might speak to people and help them heal in their own ways and their own paths, I think that caute will always be the backbone just because it really is such a one-size-fits-all. In terms of, you know, you come in because your hips hurt, your shoulders hurt, and you walk out and all of a sudden you just released so much. You're so much more regulated. But outside of that, you know, I really I think if I were to answer that moment in terms of today, I think a lot of my focus is being directed into private sessions, working one-on-one with people and just learning how to navigate holding space in that way for people, you know, because I think that there is such a beautiful thing about a collective energy and group environment, but we're all a little bit more vulnerable when we're by ourselves and a little bit more authentic.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I think people put down their guard a little bit where they don't feel like they have to perform around other people, even if they are just, you know, a lot of people live in their heads. Oh, totally. And, you know, I know that me doing like group and one-on-one yoga for a while now, I definitely notice that everybody lives in their head. And so they'll be like, oh, I'm really just not flexible. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I remember those days when I used to say things like that. Or like just, you know, like I didn't do these because we are all just like thinking. So having those one-on-ones where you can offer, you know, coyote with energy work, with you know, whatever comes through and be able to give them that one support and it just allows people to feel so held.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I totally agree.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And, you know, I think outside of the private sessions and really nurturing people in that way from their heart space through mine. I do definitely, I love the workshop atmosphere because it's a way to kind of make a more playful and creative essence to it, but still really be doing the work.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I get the question all the time. Well, when do you practice yoga? When do you do energy work? When do you receive? It's all the time. It's all the time because that's how I've built my life. I'm practicing all the time, I'm clearing energy all the time, I'm filling up, I'm charging all the time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But there's so many people that just maybe don't know yet that all of that is so accessible and it's so tangible. And so I think, yeah, that would be the answer to that question is just making healing a little bit more appealing, yeah, a little bit less scary, a little bit more realistic.

SPEAKER_00

I think making it realistic is a good way to put it because I think that people don't understand energy work all the time. And we assume that they do just because they are in the yoga community. I I will get so many people that are like, oh yeah, no, I don't I don't do these things, which is totally fine. But I think that they just don't understand um when you are combining all of the different things. So I think it's beautiful, and more that we make it more the practical thing and also the normal thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

This isn't something like yeah, when did self-care become this like exact taboo radical ass? Like it's self-care. We have to do this so that way we can go live. And that really is, you know, the tagline of Kura's heal so you can go live a better life. Right. Because if you're gonna keep making those left turns, I'm sorry, but your life's not gonna get any better. But some people just don't know different because they're so programmed, they're coping, they're numbing, they want to feel safe in that.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and we have we live in such a society that take that pill, take this, do this. You know, it's so much easier. I think uh us as practitioners and people that have done this work for a while now, it is it is very hard. There is no judgment, it's just it's very hard to watch people that don't understand that how yes, it's work, yes, it takes more time when we do the self-healing by ourselves and we really have to do the work like the yoga, the stretching, the walking, the you know, the reiki, the this, all of the different things, acupuncture, everything. We it is it is work in removing layers and peeling the onion and like taking the time to get through it, and it isn't as easy as taking the alternative, but I feel like it's so much more beneficial. And if we can just continue to spread that, I think that's the most important thing because it's not as known as we think it is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I totally agree. And I think you know, not everybody has had a fucked up childhood and had to make their way through somehow, you know. Maybe things happen later in life and they have to be shown that way.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I really like how you mentioned no judgment because I think that really is at the core of so much of my work is just seeing people beyond their face, beyond their body, beyond their appearance, just letting people crack themselves open in a way where they can feel like they're being surrounded by compassion.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

I agree.

SPEAKER_00

Alrighty, I have a question, Toriel. Yes, um, what would you say to the woman who feels like her past is holding her back?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, give her that advice. That changed for me. What's the weakness here? What do you feel it is that's making you feel weak? And what is it that's making you feel held back? And how can you find a way to transform that into one of your greatest strengths?

SPEAKER_00

That's uh yeah, that would be my exact answer as well. I would just really want her to understand one, that she is not alone. Yes, that we all go through that response. I know that she's not, um, and that we all are gonna do it in different times, different layers. We have different timelines, yeah. We have different journeys, we have different um everything. And I feel that the no judgment, the compassion, the love, the self-love surrounding you around such kind of yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

One thing I would add to that is uh accountability. I mean, you have to choose to make that choice. Because at the end of the day, if you are gonna keep people pleasing, if you are gonna keep just trying to serve others, this vessel, last time I tracked, this is the only thing that we have at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And within. So if you're not constantly and it, it's a constant choice. It is a constant choice, it's a constant choice, and I think that is that commitment and that accountability is I choose to make a commitment to my higher self.

SPEAKER_00

Well, exactly. It is a devotion to your higher self, and people that struggle with the word discipline, then use devotion. Like because it I do struggle with discipline. I'm like, I really do. But if I can change it and you have to be willing to call yourself on your shit, exactly, period. And I think that you know, a lot of us will do the center work, but then we kind of get stuck in it. And so, how can you just keep that accountability, your devotion, and action to move forward? Do you know what I mean? 100% if we don't have that action piece too, a little bit of the dry. 100% you're gonna get stuck in that cycle where you're just continuously kind of like doing the loop of the healing, or I have to focus on this, and I did, yeah, but when are you living and also moving forward to going towards what you really wanted to go towards?

SPEAKER_02

I like the term comes in mind leap of faith because I really do feel like that is how I mean it's really only been only but 10 years in my life that I have chosen to have that devotion, to crack the shell open, yeah, to be uncomfortable, to be okay with not being okay. And you have to keep choosing that. I mean, it will be for the next 10, it will be for the next 10, it'll be for the next 10. And sadly, you know, someone could say, like, oh, I don't want to live like that. Well, to me, that's not really living.

SPEAKER_00

No, I agree. I I mean, I'm 47 and I will still have my days where I step a couple of feet back, you know, and then I'll be like, Yeah, but I don't want to do that. I really want to keep doing this.

SPEAKER_02

And I, you know, like I said, I think that I also watch just so many people that get stuck in that cycle and that loop of just like, I'll say this, it's not gonna come off very nice, but they get in the cycle of making excuses and they don't want to change anything, and so it just makes it the lack of accountability, really, you know, because it's easier to put that mask on and to just go on autopilot. Sometimes it seems easier, but it's not. It's not because you're not serving yourself.

SPEAKER_00

You're not serving yourself or anybody else on this planet while you're doing that. So let's see. If little Audrey could sit across from the woman you are today, what do you think that she would see?

SPEAKER_02

I think she'd be pretty excited that I've pulled off opening that center.

SPEAKER_01

I think so too. Yeah, I know so too.

SPEAKER_02

I think that it would be uh just the biggest conversation of just being so proud, so proud, and trusting those leaps of faith, you know, because like I said, I I was not open to the alternative wellness realm at all. Not that I was close to it. No, but I remember I used to be like that too. I remember I just wasn't exposed.

SPEAKER_00

I just wasn't exposed. And you listen to everybody else around you being like, oh, that's just hippie shit. It's just like whatever.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. So I think, you know, little Audrey would be say surprised, but just very prideful and just so surrounding her in love.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, I think that I have gone over a lot of my questions. Is there anything else that you would really want to share that you think that would be beneficial for anyone that has gone through what you've gone through, is been brave, courageous, and stepped into her dreams no matter what, and said, no, fuck that. I'm going to do all the things that I really want to do in this life. And I know you're not even close to being done. Is there anything else that you would give as advice for anybody else?

SPEAKER_02

I would say have no shame. Have no shame in where you've been. Have no shame in what you've had to go through.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And the shadows that you've experienced and mistakes that you've made in the wrong that you've done, have no shame. Because at the end of the day, if you're willing to be accountable and flip that switch and stop making those left turns, yeah, get out of autopilot, that's your foundation. But if you're gonna be ashamed, if you're gonna try to hide your past, if you're gonna be inauthentic, if you're not willing to be vulnerable, again, you're not serving yourself. And how could you ever serve anybody else?

SPEAKER_00

Even like the bare minimum we're speaking out of for a moment here.

unknown

Like, sorry.

SPEAKER_01

Your answer's like slapping me in the face just a little bit. Gonna be five. You asked. I know. I totally was excited, but I feel like spirit just came through you and was like, um, yep, there's something that you needed to like drop just boom.

SPEAKER_00

That was beautiful. Sorry, I agree. Yeah. It you have to be able to just fully, you know, stand in that vulnerability, not care about all of that, not care what people think and just be.

SPEAKER_02

That's a really big one. And I think that's something I've worked through so much that I don't even give myself the credit for now. Like I don't care what people think. I I don't care what people think because if you're not in alignment, there's something else that you are in alignment with.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

But if you are in alignment, then let's go.

SPEAKER_00

You know. Well, thank you so much for being on here today. Thank you for appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being vulnerable. Thank you for just being very open about everything. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I definitely want to recognize how much of a part of my story you've been for sure. You know, from not only just we did our Reiki 3 master training almost a year ago now, but just you really are somebody that I feel like I can crack my heart open to and just thank you. Really be so authentic and open with. And you're an inspiration with everything you do, every conversation that you have, and now every podcast that you record.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, thank you. I receive it. I receive it. It's taking a while, but thank you. You mean the world's me so thank you for the end today. Of course. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

And thank you to anyone that has listened through all the definitely check out my website. Yes, oh, yes.com.

SPEAKER_01

We are gonna give a shout-out, so slow.

SPEAKER_00

All right, all right, all right, back it up, back it up. Okay, so before we end, tell them how they can find you, website, everything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, um, on all the socials, it's all one word, Kura C-U-R-A, Yoga Center, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also find me under rejuvenate W Autry, rejuvenate with Autry, or my website, kurayogacenter.com. I teach, gosh, over a dozen. I think it's 14 Caillute classes a week. I lost count at this point. Um, I host workshops. I also have a wonderful team of contractors here. You do sound healings, other styles of yoga, and it's not limited here to just Boulder. I have lined things up to where we can radiate things beyond Boulder, whether it's through virtual classes or distance healing. Um, you know, if this resonates with you, I want to know and I would love to connect and support. Yes. Well, thank you. You missed. All right, I love you.

SPEAKER_00

All right, friends. Thank you so much for listening. If Audrey's story touched your heart in any way, I would love it if you could share it. Because seriously, you never know who needs to hear a story like today. Text it to a friend, throw it on their social media, whatever feels good and resonates with your heart. It just helps more people find this podcast and these stories that so need to be heard. Also, if you've been listening for a while and you're loving these conversations, I would love it if you could leave a five-star review. It takes 30 seconds and it honestly makes a huge difference for people to find it. All right. More than anything, I'm just so freaking grateful for everyone that has been listening. It is really touching my heart how much I get to share my voice and that it is that people are resonating with what is being shared. So thank you. I'm in deep gratitude and until next time.