Vahid Coskun ~ Two Seconds to World Peace Through Breath

Vahid Coskun is a highly distinguished yoga instructor, author, and mindfulness coach based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of "Practice Beyond the Posture: Meet Yourself Through the Mental Dialogues of Yoga and Stay in Charge of Who You Are." With over 13 years of experience in teaching yoga, Vahid has developed a unique approach to integrating mindfulness into everyday routines. His focus is on drawing lessons from yoga postures to cultivate self-awareness. He has an advanced degree in yoga therapy and mindfulness from the Maryland University of Integrative Health. Vahid is actively engaged in providing corporate mindfulness training and holds workshops intended to enhance mental well-being.

Visit: https://www.wellnessassemblyservices.com/mentaldialogues

Key takeaways:

• Yoga and mindfulness extend beyond physical practice and help cultivate mental self-awareness.
• Bringing mindfulness practices to corporate settings involves translating Eastern concepts into relatable and actionable techniques for busy professionals.
• Spirituality and non-judgmental approaches, while highly valued, need critical evaluation to avoid being misunderstood or ineffectively applied.
• The power of individual responsibility in achieving a harmonious global community hinges on small, manageable changes, such as mindfulness in daily actions.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Yoga Through Compassion and Shared Human Experience
• 7:37 Exploring Spirituality, Identity, and Rumi's Influence
• 13:21 Transforming Corporate Mindsets Through Mindfulness and Meditation
• 21:12 Creating Wellness Events and Building Clientele Through Word of Mouth
• 27:06 Subjective Experiences in Yoga Classes
• 29:08 Mastering Focus and Multitasking in Bikram Yoga Practice
• 36:28 Exploring Subconscious Connections and Personal Boundaries
• 43:59 Enduring Bikram's Grueling Yoga Training and Unexpected Encounters
• 45:48 Balancing Trauma Sensitivity with Realistic Parenting Challenges
• 48:13 The Illusion of Change Through Meditation and Hot Yoga
• 51:10 The Balance Between Judgment, Guilt, and Spirituality
• 59:44 Two Seconds Away From World Peace Through Mindful Breathing

Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage, bodywork and beyond. Follow us at @nativeyoga and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Hello. Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. My name is Todd McLaughlin. My guest this week is Vahid Coskun, I'm so happy to have him here. Check him out on his website, wellnessassemblyservices.com, he has a book called Practice Beyond the Posture, and you can find that in the link below, click it. Check it out. I'll also have his instagram handle there. You can go ahead and follow Him. And wow, we covered a couple of really interesting topics of conversation, and I can't wait to hear what you think. My goal is to interview as many different people with as many different backgrounds, with as many different viewpoints and ideas about yoga so we can get a taste and a flavor for all that is available here in the world. And I think one of the main taglines that I really enjoyed out of this conversation was,"Why does meditation not work?" Hopefully that intrigues you. Let's begin. I'm so excited I have this chance to meet and speak with Vahid Coskun. Thank you so much for joining me. How are you feeling today? How's your day evolved so far?

Vahid Coskun: 2:27

Thank you very much for having me. Todd, I'm I'm pretty excited. This is a good chance to get to know you have some chat, and ideally, out of our conversation, people will be able to reflect on their life and take some get some takeaways. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 2:44

I agree. You know you are the author of a book called practice beyond the posture. Meet yourself through the mental dialogs of yoga and stay in charge of who you are. Can you tell me a little bit about what your process was in writing this book? Or maybe let me start off, let me back up a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit about like this synopsis of how you approach yoga, and speaking about yoga and yoga practice through this particular book?

Vahid Coskun: 3:15

I think this particular book or this perspective on yoga practice evolved over the last 13 years of me teaching, and we know the Bikram style, I just learned that you were, you were very close with that kind of yoga style, too. So when you first start teaching, there's a dialog. Everything is said. So there's a certain level of military attitude, like totalitarian regime. I tell you what to do, and you say exactly what I say, which works, which works for some people. I'm not saying it doesn't work, yeah. But when you do that and it doesn't work for certain people, you have to think I was like, ah, like, Is yoga not for everybody? Is what I am doing wrong, because as the person in authority of the class, that will also put you in a different place, yeah. So after maybe two, three years, now I'm comfortable teaching. I know exactly what to say. I could teach even in my sleep. So my insecurity of doing a good job in class vanished, and I could just be present. You know, I didn't have to be a good teacher. I didn't have to be a bad teacher. I could be whatever. And in that present moment that I was there in the moment enough to not worry about what I was doing, because everything was so automatic, I could start to observe other people going through the data experience. And the beautiful thing is, it's the same like what you go through in life is what I go through. It's the same thing. I think the alienation we feel is because we focus on the diff. Differences of what is so good. You know, I was like, ah, that person's life is way better than mine, this and that, but we don't really think that, hey, that person has the same suffering like I do. It might not look the same way. We might not be suffering in the same exact moment, but in general, the guardrails of our experience is so similar that I would see somebody in class suffering and being hard on themselves. You know, they are going through a hard time, but they are also thinking themselves into a way that doesn't help their suffering. So the process of this book or the mutation of my teaching evolved out of compassion, in a way, because you see some like, if you see a kid hurting themselves because they take the rake and then keep putting it like, into their head, and they don't correlate the fact that hey, because they are pushing at the bottom of The Rake, that's why the city is hitting them. I'm basically initiating people to think that hey, like this is where you step, and that is the consequences. So that space in the room in which I was able to observe somebody in their raw, naked thoughts, and then be able to knock them down, because it's also very hard to say it in class, like there's 20 people, 30 people in class, and I still have to teach the other 29 people, but I have to say something to you which will make sense to everybody. What will take too long? You will get mad at me, because I'm I'm talking too much. Yeah, I understand. So basically, I took it I wrote down. I take another case. I wrote it down. I saw another allegory. I wrote it down for five, six years, and when I gathered this all together, it become, it became a very relatable source for people to give a language on the experience that they are going through. You know, like, just saying it sucks is not enough. Like, yeah, this sucks, and this is how I handle it. So maybe we layer the emotions, or we layer the experience.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:14

Great point that's amazing when you how do you observe students and know that they are being hard on themselves. Is this through a dialog that you have either pre class, post class, or maybe even during, or are you able to observe body language that is representative of perhaps a negative mindset?

Vahid Coskun: 7:39

I think it's both, in a way that first, I have to be comfortable with myself. I have to be I had, I must have witnessed what they are going through, in a way, in my own experience, like because we can look at a spectrum of colors, and if you don't know any color before green, you will only see three colors. And if you can recognize, I was like, um, there's another break. So I think there's a little bit of of that is bandwidth, or being okay with what is rather than it's like, Ah, I'm such a good presenter, I cannot be nervous. So if I think that, then, when anxiety arises in my body, I will either disinterpreted or neglect it. So there is so many parts of me that I stop neglecting, and I could look at it without a non judgmental. Let's put it that way, non judgmental point of view. Then I'm like, oh, okay, this is what I go through. This is what I think in that moment. And when you look around with that lens, everybody's going through the same thing. It's like you look at the child and the child is about to hurt themselves, or the child about to do something that's not really what what is good for them. Is this mind reading, or is this experience gathered into a very organized pattern? I don't know, but I think it's, it's it's kind of both. Yeah, I'm not going to say that I'm a mind reader, yeah, but if I think I read your mind it's mostly true.

Todd McLaughlin: 9:27

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, because you're drawing from the probabilities and the fact that you're seeing that we all are the same, more or less. That's cool. Well, why do you think we have such a hard time seeing our similarities, and we tend to focus so much on our differences,

Vahid Coskun: 9:47

we like to be unique. I mean, come on, it's that's, that's the paradox, like we are all different, and the fact that we are all different makes us the same, like we are all spatial. But. Fact that we are all special makes us kind of mundane, but Alan Watts says this the best when you can hold two opposing truths. At the same time, you have arrived at peace, like you are a regular guy, you don't matter in the scope of the universe, but at the same time, you are the universe, like you are such a unique, true human being that is unignorable, like you have treasures inside of you. But at the same time, the guy right next to you has the same thing too.

Todd McLaughlin: 10:37

Yeah,

Vahid Coskun: 10:37

yeah. So it's, it's humbling. But at the same time, kind of giving you the self respect and worth that you have always been deserving of. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 10:52

what type of upbringing did you have with your since childhood? Did you have a spiritually orientated view of the world through the lens of your parents? Or is this something that you feel like you were so curious about from a young age that you've pursued up to this point? So

Vahid Coskun: 11:13

like my childhood was, in a way, a little bit organized. I had 30,000 eyes on me all the time because my dad was working for a for the government's religious department. So imagine all the priests in your little town knows who you are. That guy was me. Like all the Imams, there's, there's, I don't know, 3000 Imams, they will all know who I am. So I grew up with a lot of scrutiny, like scrutiny or with a lot of eyes on me, but the spiritual side is more from the culture there is, like in our culture, from from the east. Unreachable love is more valuable than the love that you can consummate. So in my mind, there was always this spiritual shenanigans, like we would grow up with the stories of Rumi or other folklore tales, or the guys walking on water. So as a child, I had big aspirations for enlightenment, huge, like, that was my goal. I'm like, Okay, if the biggest reward in life is enlightenment, which was true and but it also comes with the downsides of it, because you can't really give up yourself if you don't know who you are. So it, it builds very good foundations, but also lacks certain aspects, which is very complimentary to Western world. It's like you gotta be the individual, but it lacks the other side of the

Todd McLaughlin: 12:49

spectrum. So true. You know, I love that you brought up Rumi, because I can you tell me, like, what from? So you grew up in Turkey. What was your introduction to Rumi? Was that something that everybody knew who Rumi was, and he was celebrating? Because I feel like I had to be here. Someone had to say, Oh, look at this book. Check this out. And then Rumi blew my mind. I'm curious, is that someone that is a is very

Vahid Coskun: 13:16

definitely like a big figure. So those are essential Sufis, I would say, have a big, big place in literature too. He's understanding his sayings, or come, whoever you are, like, those kind of what is this main media phrases are, like, have always been around, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 13:42

that's cool. That's cool. Yeah, awesome, man.

Vahid Coskun: 13:45

So he's one of the most misunderstood guys too, because of, I think most of the English translations of Rumi, especially about Coleman Barks, have been very de islamized. De

Todd McLaughlin: 13:59

islamized, like they, like, love, the Islam component out of Rumi's language,

Vahid Coskun: 14:04

completely, completely, like, even, even, this is also, in a way, dangerous, because, like, one of the things I read beyond the righteousness and like doing right and doing wrong, there is a field I will meet you there. It's like, when you hear this, always like, Oh, this is so spiritual, so mystical, but it leaves you in a state of ecstasy. But we are not butterflies, like, you know, we are human beings. It's so good to feel that ecstasy, but it still has to be relatable. So one of the things that is missing is, for example, in that line beyond the righteousness and wrongdoing, there is a place in which the seeker prostrate himself. You just take that out, yeah, yeah. And then, like, he just put so that virtue of prostration is. Basically, like, your submission to the higher power. But you take it out there, you just, like, give the wine, but there is no light after it. So yeah, but it's beautiful. I think the way Rumi opened the heart of people in the West is is beautiful because it at least makes you Hey, like there's more, and I want it.

Todd McLaughlin: 15:23

Great point. Great point. Well, at what age did you move to you and us?

Vahid Coskun: 15:31

I first came when I was 20, and I have been here since I'm 26 so nice, nice. I've been in and out for a little

Todd McLaughlin: 15:39

bit. Can you tell me a little bit about what you currently do? Do you before pre podcast, before we hit record? You said you live in Washington, DC? Yeah, and I have from visiting your website, which let me make sure I get this right, is wellness, assembly services.com and that you do coaching for corporate individuals, mindfulness coaching for corporations and businesses. Is that, am I right?

Vahid Coskun: 16:12

Yes, that's weird, right? So after I was a hippie yoga teacher traveling the world, I like this is great, but, you know, I look at the calendar, it's not 1970s so I thought I would change something. I stopped being a hippie yoga teacher, and there was a master's program in Maryland, which is 40 minutes from DC. It's called Maryland University of Integrative Health. I did a master's on yoga therapy and mindfulness, and that switched my understanding of everything. I was the guy who didn't meditate because it wouldn't work. I couldn't meditate just structurally it wouldn't work. I'm always thinking, I'm always reasonable, I'm always headstrong, but doing this masters, I understood that wow, like there's another world out there that's just as real, if not more real, and there's a lot of work to do there too. But the problem is the Taipei guys, that is most of DC, does not have a way of relating to that mental side of the work without things turning into fairy tales. Energy. Work, Woody, Woody. You know, things get kind of out of touch, especially how people refer to this. Like, I am not going to make you sit down and focus on a beaming, radiant light showering on you. If your mind is running at the better brainwave 5 million times a minute, but that guy needs that the most. So I found the ways of convincing that guy into relatable, tangible, executable instructions, after which he experiences that state of bliss. And once he experiences once you will do anything to get there, then you will let the light shine on you this and that, but that first initial step of believing that world exists is the catalytic point. And because I had such a drastic experience of like, Oh, am I going to pay somebody to make me breathe to all like, the secret of life is in your breath, so I can cater to that old version of me who is still running and crunching numbers and, you know, achieving everything in their life, which I think I'm a good match for it. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 18:46

that's so interesting. I hear ya. Can you share a little bit about what your first experience having a professional gig where you got in front of a group of business orientated individuals in Washington, DC, and how that experience was for you. I had one. I had one really amazing experience, opportunity to go teach yoga to a corporate tech conference. And I had a blast. I had so much fun. I was very nervous going into it, because I operate in my own studio, and so I'm everybody who comes in, I know they want to be here. And so it's a totally coming out of your comfort zone to go into a conference room in a hotel full of folks that are looking at you like, you know that you can, you kind of get the sense that they already have this idea in their head that it's going to be a woo, woo, we kind of experience. And so to win them over was, was just one of the highlights. So I'm curious what what are, what was your first experience like, and what drives you to continue to do what you do?

Vahid Coskun: 19:55

I think my main drive, like everybody has insecure. It is nerves, this and that, but the way I write it off is, if I'm invited, I just have to be invited at the position that I'm at. I'm not a salesman. I can't make you my client. I can sell this HR, this program, but when I'm invited, that's how my first experience was it wasn't in DC, actually, it was in Washington. It was in New York City. I just met a wellness company that they signed a big contract with, MTA, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, huge place, and you have to work with bus drivers, just trained the conductors and the people at the headquarters. They put me into the headquarters. I went there, and it's like the Wall Street. So there's tables over tables with little cubicles, and everybody's running, everybody's screaming. That is the control center of MTA, and I was the third guy. The two guys before me, they came out, they had one hour shifts in in the room. They said, Oh, like, nobody wants to meditate. We just go there. We smile. I did one person. The other guy said, I did one person and one group. And I'm like, What is wrong with this. Like, I just walk in there and I'm just excited, like, these guys are me, you know, that's the 2027, version. Warhead is 50 years here, 40 years old lady there. 55 years another guy here. I'm like, Oh, I have to talk to these guys. I sat down with them. I just sneaked into a guy. I said, How's it going? He said, Good. How are you good they have meditation thing. Do you have time for that kind of with the good stuff? I told him. He started laughing. He's like, Yeah, it doesn't work. Like, what am I gonna do? I'm like, it's nothing. I just basically told him that just when you are sitting here, you hear the crowd. Like, how far can your ears stay? Like, can you the room was very big. I said, Can you pick up any sounds from the outside of this room? And I cue them into some numbers around him. Like, is there any different fonts? I basically, you know, made him check in with his five senses he didn't know. And I'm like, Okay. Like, come back here. Close your eyes and observe your breath for a second. He goes like this. He opens his eyes, he looks at me like, I'm a magician. Like, for me, it's, it's trivial. Like, that's like, how you begin, right? It's yeah, not even two minutes, the guy is like this, and I'm like, Okay, enjoy this. You can go back to work. Next table, next table, next table. Nobody said no to me. I've worked with probably like 29 people. I didn't when my shift ended, I didn't leave because they were still working on, like, I'm gonna stay here. And all of a sudden, I'm like, I got the key for these guys. And it just snowballed from that

Todd McLaughlin: 23:05

moment. That's so cool, man, that's so cool. So like, just so I understand the situation you it's almost like you're walking in and they're saying, Just go person by person and see if they want to have you work with them. And

Vahid Coskun: 23:23

so generally, how these things happen is the HR wants to throw an event, and it's their responsibility to make the event appealing, so they put massage, meditation, this and that. And what I do is I go in there and I just make a party. I i It's very easy to introduce everybody with the massage therapist, but when it comes to the yoga the acupuncturist, it's like a farmer's market for wellness, yeah? And then when people come in, you just have to see them where they are and then offer them what they need in a way that they can accept? Yeah, I can't. I can't tell you to do childhood work, or I can't get you onto a meditation or a acupuncture table if you don't think you need it. Yeah. So whatever you need, like my team, is very intuitive in terms of looking at you, forgetting about the structure and then giving you what you need. So that that program was just one service of that bigger company was applying. Now I translated it into my way of better way in DC. Most of the time I don't work with that schedule. It's very good, but most people can't really kind of sneak into your subconscious brain like I do. So we we either do group meditations, or I would work with their key team members one on one. It's a little bit more structured, but everything in. Person, I have zero professional things for the companies online.

Todd McLaughlin: 25:05

That's so cool. Do you You said my team is this? Is this your company? And you've put a team together now, so you're more or less in charge, and you're the one that's also going to Okay, let me back up. Do you to get jobs? To get work? Because I want to, I'm kind of putting, I want to put the hat on of thinking of maybe a yoga teacher that lives in an environment where there are a lot of professionals that are contemplating what it would be like to create a business career like you have out of this. What is the process of gaining clientele, like, what or are people seeking you because you've already done a good enough job in New York and you've done a good enough job here that now you've been able to have people contact you. But what does this process look like? How could this unfold for myself or somebody else curious? I

Vahid Coskun: 25:57

honestly I need mentoring myself in terms of selling. I spent two years, Brian, Tracy, Jim Rohn, just the top G's of of sales. I know everything about sales. My system doesn't like sales. Something intrinsically. I'm not the person is like, hey, this, this, this. But how my came around is, first, those subcontracts in New York gave me a very solid ideas like, Hey, this is a way more stable way of earning your life. And because I have been making Dc for six years, seven years at that time, people heard they're like, ah, that's so cool. Why don't you come to my company too? It's like, ah, that I heard about that event. Would that be okay if he did something here? So it's just word of mouth for me, very cool. And the bigger team is anything mindfulness or meditation related. I do it. I teach the courses. I do one on ones. And when I get those wellness party day at the office events, then I have to branch out. And I have a lot of subcontractors. I have my massage therapists, acupuncturists, nutritionists. Then we go to the office and do a four hour, three hour event in which all the employees are invited to come learn about their health, get a little bit of a massage, do a little bit meditation. Those are more like Happy Hour events that the companies are doing, but kind of regretting doing it. So this is a true gift to their employees. Kind of brings people back into the office and anything else, I'm basically in charge. That's

Todd McLaughlin: 27:47

cool. You teach at a yoga studio in DC as well. Correct?

Vahid Coskun: 27:54

Yeah, I hear my staple studios, the studio that I teach mainly I was a 22 year old young boy teaching yoga there, so I have been there for for a long time, and a very dear friend of mine has another studio in DC. So I do still teach in the studios, but it is a to help the studio, because when I'm around people gravitate towards it. B It also gives me new opportunities to meet new clients.

Todd McLaughlin: 28:25

That's cool. When you are working in the corporate office environment, do you sometimes let people know if you'd like to continue to practice? You could come practice with me at Tuesday at 10 o'clock or something like that, or maybe because it's nine to five, maybe like, Tuesday at like, eight o'clock at night, yeah, I'm guess, like, do you

Vahid Coskun: 28:46

do? I do invite people to the studios, not necessarily my classes, yeah, because my my classes are great, but if I'm teaching once a week, it's not enough for you. So I try to drag two people to the studios, and it's like, hey, like, some people will love this person's class, some people will hate Just don't ask anybody how this teacher is. Go take two classes. Have your own inventory of who you like, what you like, try it all. Yeah, very cool. It's a unique experience. Like, I remember one time I came out of a class. I hated the class. The teacher spoke too much of just the pitch, the tone, everything. I don't think objectively. There was one thing to like about the class. I come out this other lady comes out of the class. The teacher comes out of the class, and this other lady sincerely complementing what kind of a great class it was. And I'm looking at her, I'm like, is she lying? No, she believes it. She had the best class ever, and I had the worst class. So I'm like, okay, like, you know, there is no object, objective reality. Already

Todd McLaughlin: 30:00

here. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's so classic. I When you were telling me that story, I remember taking a hot yoga class from somebody. It was at B crumb studio in LA, and he was in the teacher training, and he was, it was almost like he was an auctioneer cartoon guy. It was. And I thought the same thing. I came out going, that was so obnoxious and and I had every other people go, Wow, that was incredible. So it is classic, isn't it? Do you held up your book earlier, and you showed me Eagle Pose.

Vahid Coskun: 30:35

Yes. Which pose would you like?

Todd McLaughlin: 30:38

Eagle Pose? Let's just start there. You showed me you have, has a line drawing of garudasana, Eagle posture, and shoot out

Vahid Coskun: 30:47

to Taylor castle. She did, she did all these drawings. Very

Todd McLaughlin: 30:51

cool. Amazing. Anybody that's listening can go to our YouTube channel and see why, showing us right now. And so, can you tell me a little bit like what that particular chapter talks about and or that particular pose. So I have an idea. We have an idea of maybe one of the storylines that you follow in relation to coaching us to have how we can work with our mindset. Yeah,

Vahid Coskun: 31:19

like this pause is actually has two reminders, because it's at the end of the warm up, you still have ample energy in your body. You feel like you can conquer the world, but the dialog gets very detailed now, and you haven't been paying attention to your breath, but you still want to do a great job. It's so true. And in the background of your mind, it's like, this is talking about a battle in the background of your mind, is this, yeah, basically, your heart needs the energy because it has to pump the blood. Your muscles need the energy because they have to structure your body. Your brain needs the energy, because you are doing something very sophisticated, like everything, 1234, so basically four times you are trying to cross the midline with your limbs. And in this this is like a beta version. In order to be in this moment, you have to be in your better brain waves, because there's just too many variables, too many thoughts. But also in the back of your mind, this is talking about the generals are fighting. What is, what is the good alignment? How do we engage the body? What do we do with the shoulders, with the hips? But you also want to do the perfect Eagle pause, what is good? Am I good? What is the best way of doing this? And this scene which everybody goes through, and then they think that, Oh, I just started thinking too much. Is just a scene. And in this moment is one of the first reminders to Hey, when this is all going on, you have to really be a master of multitasking. What is multitasking? You are relaxing the right inner thigh, but contracting the right outer thigh. You are contracting the entire thing in your body, but kind of creating space in your shoulders. You are working very hard with your body, but you kind of have to keep a serene place in your mind. So in this pose, I think I'm diving a little bit deeper into those dialogs. Yeah, it says like, what is good enough? What is good for? Who does the body have to be suffering to be able to feel like it's doing good enough. What is sufficient? Is survival sufficient? Yada yada yada. What defines good? When that ramble goes, yeah. And if you are not paying attention to it, it becomes your reality,

Todd McLaughlin: 33:58

true. Great point, I mean, and

Vahid Coskun: 34:01

when you know it's just like another folder, just another tab running, but then you bring the tab back into the browser in which the video and the sound effects are the same, then you feel better. So I'm basically it's so easy to say that, Hey, pay bring your awareness to your breath, bring your it's almost boring for me to tell you to bring your awareness to your breath, because it's just so easy, so vague, but in that moment when 500 other taps are running and you are barely surviving, there's only one thing you can do, like, Hey, pay attention to your breath. Like, come back to the center.

Todd McLaughlin: 34:41

Yeah, good point. I like the fact that you're bringing some of the nuance into the amount of energy we have at that point, especially when you're in a really hot room and you're just getting started, and you know that you have the balancing series that's about to follow one thing. I thought one thing I think is really interesting about the way that Bikram sequenced the postures is that, and I like to juxtaposition with other styles or other traditions in the way that they decided to sequence their their standing poses. And I like the fact, I think what's what's interesting in relation to him taking us from Eagle into standing head to knee, standing bow and balancing stick where you're doing these really long holds on one leg. And then he takes us into the wide leg stretching poses like the triangle and the wide foot stretching pose and the standing separate leg head to knee. Can you what is out of those three standing poses that I just mentioned, the standing head to near standing bow, or the balancing stick. Can you give me an idea of what ideas you put emphasis on in your book in relation to

Vahid Coskun: 35:50

for those three, I think the biggest part is focus, and I make a parallel in terms of how to, how to refer to your own thinking, like you are investing your money. You know, if you have $1 it's worthless. You know, what are you going to buy with $1 but again, if you put that dollar into an account next day, another one, so your tiny little bit of change eventually, with with consistent effort, becomes a little bit of a saving. Oh, you have $100 now. You also get $2 dividends on it. You know, it just becomes, eventually, your little change, if directed or invested in the right place will give you means that you would not be able to entertain before and in the same way, your attention is like $1 one second. Here a sound comes. I looked at I go on to the reels. Four seconds, four seconds, four seconds. So I'm just scattering $1 bills all over the place. But when you accumulate these little bits of attention, you cultivate a state of focus. It's a different thing, like $100 million is not the same thing is $100 million one dollars, 100 although it's it's the total sum of all. It is something different. It's the same I live 24 hours, but 24 hours of doing 24 think different things, versus 24 hours of doing just one thing. It's not the same thing. Yeah, it's like, the multiplier is not 24 it's it's 24 million times more. So the main reason, especially on the back become, would always say, these poles are balanced and now, but it's more like about your willpower and our willpower is with it. We don't know where it is, so I'm telling you, by bringing your mind to your right leg, you are teaching your mind how to turn attention into focus, and this will translate to everything else in your life.

Todd McLaughlin: 38:18

Yeah, great point. And I like the fact that you're creating relatable. Like, obviously, if you're working within the business world and you use an analogy about dollars, people are like, Oh, now I know what you're talking about. Like, speak more about this, right? Versus, if I don't know, you get a little more esoteric and start talking about the subtle body. It's just not going

Unknown: 38:39

I love that stuff. I love it. Yeah, very cool.

Vahid Coskun: 38:46

Your Manomaya Kosha is experiencing the trouble.

Todd McLaughlin: 38:53

Great point like so, can you speak a little bit about the importance of reading your group and then knowing how to connect, because you made a comment earlier where you said, not everybody knows how to get into the subconscious of other people's minds the way I do, or like maybe. So I'm curious if you could, and I like that you brought attention to that, because there is a real art to being relatable, and the fact that you brought the word subconscious, because I don't know how me, how often do I, as I interact with someone, the first time maybe I come in contact with them? Am I aware of what sort of subconscious interaction we're having? The surface level that's pretty easy to pick up on. So can you talk a little bit more about your understanding of what it's like to connect with others? Subconsciously,

Vahid Coskun: 40:36

it's burdening in the beginning, it's so basic. Let me honestly. Literally

Todd McLaughlin: 40:42

tell you, did you say burdening? Like it's

Vahid Coskun: 40:44

a burden burdening, yeah, it's Yeah. Burdening is hard if you don't have your own Yeah, boundaries.

Todd McLaughlin: 40:50

Okay, good. Great point, yeah. But please do tell me. Please be honest and tell me how you get I want to

Vahid Coskun: 40:56

hear Yeah, yeah. So like, you know, in the psychological world, trauma, trauma sensitive, childhood, this and that, I all respect that. But at the same time we are, we are in such desperate need of finding an enemy to feel safe, and the enemy becomes the trauma. Oh, I have this trauma. I have that. Everybody has a trauma. So basically, my childhood trauma brought me to this place in which, if I didn't understand the state of mind you are in, my survival would be threatened. There is the teacher walking the teacher is a very moody teacher, and the teacher so we have a saying in Turkey, take my son. His bones are yours. His flesh is mine. So basically, excuse me, his flesh is yours. His bones are mine. So basically, the teacher can do whatever they want with you, if you didn't memorize, if you didn't study, if you didn't do whatever. And my survival as my child was like, nobody likes to be beaten up, right? And I would have to know your mood in order to be safe. This is why there are empaths. I'm like, I'm such an empath, I feel everything deeply. Yes, you are because you had to as a child for your own safety, but like now I'm an adult, and I would still walk into the room and feel the cringe this person is going through, feel the suffering that person is going through, or feel the joy that person is in. But if I don't know who I am, it immediately like I will feel like how you feel. I don't know if you have been into like the if you have looked into the human design kind of things in terms of how you are as a person, and not having that boundary of hey, like, this is what you feel, and this is what I feel, I would literally feel like you,

Unknown: 43:09

I see what

Vahid Coskun: 43:09

you're saying, yeah, yeah. And, and in the beginning, I would come out of the class feeling like crap because people had a crappy class, or I would come out of the class feeling like a Superman because everybody had a great class, but none of it was me. I'm basically like a unknown cup that is easily fillable from any outside force, any outside energy and outside mood or attitude. And I stopped being, you know, overflowed by other people, by a lot of isolation, a lot of I spent, like, three days in a cave. I spent 10 days without food. And eventually I'm like, Okay, this is who I am, and this is what it feels like when something from me comes up, and this is how it feels like when somebody fills me up unconsciously, and then unconscious world is very open to being explored. Like unconscious world doesn't want to stay down, like they don't want to stay in dark. Those things want to come out to you. They are beautiful. But because our consciousness is so hyper focused on getting the money, getting the job, being like Taylor Swift, or whatever, you know, we are, like, so oriented in something else that, yes, I'm not even interested in me. Hey. Like I have bad feelings. Oh no, like I have good nothing, like I want to basically forget about me and be like her or be like him.

Todd McLaughlin: 44:49

Yes, yes.

Vahid Coskun: 44:51

So when I could contain my subconsciousness from being felt or discharging out, because you also give away too, I'm like, Oh, wow. Like, most people are just, you know, that's why people are friends. Like, ah, I feel great with this person, because you just keep bleaching their energy or giving your burden to them. You know, when somebody asks how we are doing, I'm like, oh, like, I was abused. I was this. How was that? Like, why are you unloading on me right now? Yeah, yeah. So I think the subconscious mind is a very, very beautiful place, but everybody has to spend some time, some time with

Todd McLaughlin: 45:32

it. Yeah. Good point. Good point. I mean, this is a great debate slash conversation to have, because I was just having this the other day. Yeah, with another yoga teacher in relation to the way things have evolved over the last 20 years from, you know, I mean, oh my gosh, we could go down a really interesting road, because if we look at the way Bikram was and the way he taught, I mean, it was, what's the right way to say, I typically use the same word, so I'm trying to be a little bit more creative. But it was very strict. There was no coddling. There was no at one point, I remember, I was on the third day of the training. I was standing up in the front thinking, I'm going to try to do a good job. And he held it so long in a pose and the standing head to knee pose, that it was so hot that my body started to cramp up after the class, to the point where I was going into dehydration, and my ears were like going, Wah wah wah. And all of a sudden I stopped feeling like I was going into a black hole, and my whole body started cramping up, fingers, toes, legs, arms, and I started screaming, and someone didn't know what to do. Everyone looked at me. They're freaking out. Why is this guy losing his mind? And I was like, literally, like, having a full body cramp up, and it was really painful. And so Bikram came over, and he put his hand on my chest, and he was like, Get up, boss. Get up. And I was so shocked out of my pain that I thought, I can't get up, and there's a big circle of people around me, and I got up, and I followed him. We walked to the locker room, and he looked at me and goes, you look like a baby when you cry. And I was like, Ah, okay. I was like, I don't even care what you think about me right now, I'm in so like, I was so like, I felt hallucinating. I was in this weird space. He was hard. He was a hard teacher. Man. He was so brutal. And so I guess my point is Now, fast forward 20 years, and we have a lot of trauma sensitive trauma, where teaching styles that are very prevalent now, which I agree with you, I am right on board with. And now I think we're in this interesting zone of somehow we could benefit potentially blending the like I like what you said, where you said, I can, I can feel your pain, but I don't have to take your pain on or I can know I have my own pain, but I don't need to dump my pain on you and in a self awareness. So I think there's room for us to be trauma sensitive and also a little edgy, too at the same time. Like, I don't know, what do you think?

Vahid Coskun: 48:26

100% I think the biggest trouble today, which I actually wrote somewhere in the book, I don't know which chapter, but the biggest trauma today is trying to be trauma free. Like, come on, you are not a spirit. Like, okay, you are a spirit having a physical experience. But again, listen to what you just said. You are a spirit having a physical experience. Why do you discard the physical part? Like this physical world is messy. It has problems. You look at a forest, and if you want to look some kind of an order in the roots of a tree, you are going to lose your mind. Like, I want a tree without the bump. Like, are you asking to write something? You know what? I mean, it became the trauma. I'm gonna make my child raise without any traumas, and now that kid is traumatized. I know because they didn't wanna, like, you didn't want them, like, make a little better, you know? Like, yeah, my did what my dad did, whatever I did. Like, can I do? Yeah, a little better than him. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, good point. We have been evolving for the last, I don't know how many 1000 years. Like, the evolution doesn't have to stop with me. You know, I should leave somewhere for my youngest. What is he gonna tell to his therapist? He should complain about me too, because I'm a real person and because he's a real person, yeah? Like we are not Virtual Reality perfections, you know,

Todd McLaughlin: 49:52

agreed? Yeah, good point. Good point. Well, to jump gears a little bit. I heard you made mention. You said earlier, before we push record, you said, you know, meditation doesn't work. And I, and it kind of took me back a little bit. Can you talk a little bit about what you mean by that statement?

Vahid Coskun: 50:15

Yeah, like most people that I work with, is just sore, headstrong, that they still believe so much in the lifestyle that they have. I should put it that way, they don't see any other way of living. There is only one way I can only live if I'm working 14 to 16 hours a week, a day, every day, if I'm hustling, if I'm running from this. That this is the only thing I know in terms of life, but you are telling me that, hey, there's something else. If you sit down and meditate, your life will be better. So I try to sit and I don't believe in that other life. I still want to do everything that I want to achieve in this life, I don't want to change anything, so just give me the fix that I will do whatever I am doing better. I don't want to change I don't want to change anything. I just meditated 20 minutes this morning. I said that I'm rich, I'm beautiful, I'm powerful. So where is the money? Or like, when you like. If you sit, you meditate, and if you stand up the same person you didn't meditate. If you sit, you meditate, and then you stand up a different person, then you meditate. So when I say meditation, don't work meditation, don't work in the lifestyle that you are desperately or hopefully or unconsciously trying to sustain. It will not work in that matrix. It will change your matrix. It will change your paradigms, but not for that part of you, not for the reasons you want it to work in the beginning, you know, it's just like a drug. Otherwise, I'm like in order to do what I have to do, let me get that fixed. And most people with hot yoga too, hot yoga has a very Druggy effect to it's because it's very chemical, addictive. It's so good, it's very helpful. And no matter how conscious or unconscious you are, you are going to have a great feeling after class. So that's the problem with my long time experienced students. They just go in there, they do whatever they do, they come out. So they are just doing the same thing they did 10 years ago, which is the same thing as, yeah, like, this is how I maintain the status quo.

Todd McLaughlin: 52:47

Yeah, it's good point, great point. I agree with you. Can, um, can you also you made another statement too as well that I thought was interesting, uh, mindfulness regarding not being non judgmental. Or can you speak a little bit about the role of judgment and our experience with interaction with society.

Vahid Coskun: 53:12

I think just like spirituality, I love spirituality, and I am a spiritual person, whatever. But when somebody says I am, I'm a free spirit. I am spiritual. I live a non judgmental life. Something inside of me works. It's, it's a very toxic idea. Today. I'm not saying spirituality or non judgmentalism or anything is bad within itself. It's just like money. Money is not bad. What you do with money is the result. So if you are a free spirit, and if you are a spiritual person, or if you are living a life non judgmentally, just so you don't feel bad about a mistake you made, I'll question it like non judgment is not a life with no mistakes, free flow, going with the flow. Non judgmental. Like, the understanding of non judgments is very toxic you do, like, if you're a human being, if you are living a conscious life, you have to have a faculty of discernment. We have to know what is right like. I have to know what is the good and what is bad fruit. I have to know what is poison and what is nutritionally feasible. But when it comes to this, oh yeah, I did this. I went through this toxic relationship, but it was okay. It was just so we are basically growing intricate ways of intellectualizing ourselves out of feeling guilt. You should feel guilty sometimes. You know it's part of the stigma. I'm not saying you should be crippled by guilt, but you should feel guilty if you did something bad. You should resent something if you did something that's worth resenting. So maybe that little bit, I'm not saying you should get stuck there, but you cannot improve if you do not see or recognize a mistake, if you don't see that like, I'm not telling you're a bad person, but you did some very bad stuff. Who is going to come to terms with that? You can't, because you are non judgmental. That means you have zero discernment. You don't want to look at your life and then take things in charge. Is like, okay, hey, man, we messed up. You. Know, I messed up 30 years in my life, which takes a lot of gut to assimilate. It's humbling. It's going back to the drawing board. It's accepting the fact that, hey, like, you are still a student in life. But no, I there is no mistake. What is our guy? Our guys are feelings. Now I felt like this, like the biggest justification for something is, I felt like, well, I thought we were supposed to not suppress the feelings. That's bad, but also not. We are not animals. We have urge control. You know, there has to be some, some criteria of this fine experience of being human, which discernment is one of the biggest essential parts of it. So that's why I said non judgmental approach doesn't work. I

Todd McLaughlin: 56:35

understand that. Do you? Let me just throw this out here and just see what your feedback is. If we look at Old Testament, New Testament and the Quran, there is judgment, like there's a price to pay if and then, as we're evolving, there's a lot of the atheistic movement is is growing in some respect and and so there's maybe a dropping off of a sense of any sort of judgment that could occur at the time of our passing. And do you think that that might be why there's a little bit of a movement toward, let's all be just kind of peace and love and not have any judgment. And I see what you're saying where you know, to live a healthy life, we need to have a healthy balance of a healthy balance of judgment, a healthy balance of guilt, a healthy balance of kindness and goodness toward others and sharing, and then also being able to stand ground and know when we're being taken advantage of. So I'm just curious if, in the relation to the under that sort of investigation of the evolution from our original religious underpinnings and where it's we're kind of like, and I kind of, and I get it, because I grew up in a very like, you know, judgment base, you're going to hell, kind of growing, you know, you do something bad, you're gonna pay forever, and you'll never get out of that place, right? So, you know, so part of him, at one point in my life, I was kind of like, I gotta leave all that behind. I don't want to live with all that judgment on me, right? And all that, that guilt, that Catholic guilt, all that kind of stuff. How do you feel? We could reconcile in our modern world, a balance between these opposing what seems like opposing forces. Maybe they're not.

Vahid Coskun: 58:30

I think the whole Democratic Party is running on guilt. It became like, I cannot talk to a white girl without her having to feel guilty. I'm like, come on. You know, like, guilt is interesting. But going back to the religion, oh, man, I just,

Unknown: 58:51

I know we're going to, like, really bad territory,

Todd McLaughlin: 58:53

yeah, but please, yeah, go ahead and I was gonna say, I know we're going to a tricky territory.

Vahid Coskun: 58:58

Let's go. I feel just so bad for God, because imagine he's, like trying to convey a message, you know, but then this message comes through with other people, again, people. So whenever there is people, there is humanistic touches, like struggle for power, for example, one of the main things, you give manpower and you see who he is. So I think the distaste on judgment is legit. It's reasonable, because the religious people have abused this power, like, yes, you will go to hell, you in general, unless you repent, you know that's that's the thing, but you feeling guilty and repenting and going back to the church is making me more powerful, because I'm the priest. So hey, like, come back to me. I am the guy who tells you exactly what the Scripture says, and you can understand it, and you need my judgments onto you, because if you don't do this, you are going to hell. So because of a person, we hate it like because somebody made a very uncomfortable chair. Now we hate the forest and all the wood. God gave the message. He said, Hey, like, don't kill each other. And then New Testament, as much as not killing each other, also love each other. And Islam came, don't kill each other. Love each other and live in a society. Oh, hey, like, you are using Android. I'm using Apple phone. He's using Nixie, Google, whatever we all need an operating system. And some people can argue that Android, Apple, whatever, is better, but in reality, they won't make the call. Like, are you actually calling with the phone, or are you debating with other phone owners that your phone is better? So like, in that same case, I like that. It's not the problem of the idea, yeah, it is how religious people impose those ideas on us so they felt more powerful. Yeah. I like that answer, yeah, but 100% like that, these taste for religious judgment I carried myself. I was exposed to it tremendously, but at least for me, leaving the environment that I was exposed to it, now I'm like, Okay. Like, nobody tells me nothing, yeah, yeah. But like, What do I tell myself, so, yeah, that that, that is the dialog. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:01:47

Oh, man, Vahid, I really, I really enjoyed meeting. I really enjoyed this opportunity to sit down chat with you, and I appreciate your perspective. And thank you so much for sharing it. And I really enjoyed, I want to get a copy of your book and and I really, I'll send you a signed copy. Let's put it that way. Thank you so much, and it's been a great opportunity I hope, to stay in contact with you. Is there anything that you, ah, you know, without putting pressure on you, but let me put a little pressure on you. Can you give us something good to close with that, let's go down the line of like I would, I do want, I would like to envision us being able to get along a little bit better together as a global community. Is there anything you can, you can share that you think could? Could help inspire us to pull

Vahid Coskun: 1:02:38

that off? Yeah, we are two seconds away from world peace, not too long, two seconds if everybody were to breathe or were to exhale, two seconds longer. You know, my main message is that, hey, like you are a very worthy person, you have the hidden treasures of the universe inside of you, but it just sounds too much. So instead, I think if you exhaled two seconds long, that effect will have overall lasting effects in your nervous system activity, and that down regulation of your nervous system activity will probably eliminate 80% of the problems and worries you generally have. So very applicable thing, I think, like, did you want a message? What did you want from me? I

Todd McLaughlin: 1:03:34

Well, yeah, that's that was exactly what I wanted. I think just the simple fact that you said we're two seconds away from peace. I mean, that caught my attention right away. That's because, I mean, you know, our minds are so hyper active. I thought you're gonna say we're two seconds away from destruction, but you actually, you brought us a little closer in the direction I was hoping to go, that like, look, no, we have enough. We have a grand opportunity. And and there's a lot of hope right now.

Vahid Coskun: 1:03:59

There is man, the hope and peace, basically anything else is a construct at the bottom, it's peace. And then someday we get tired of building too much crap and eventually go back to

Todd McLaughlin: 1:04:10

peace. Yeah. Oh man, thank you. Vahid, I really

Vahid Coskun: 1:04:14

thank you so much. Todd, thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you. You

Todd McLaughlin: 1:04:25

the native yoga Todd cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you like this show, let me know if there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve. And if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us@nativeyogacenter.com and hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends. Rate it and review and join us next time

Unknown: 1:05:15

you.