Native Yoga Toddcast

Sam Manchulenko | Yoga, Intuition & Compassionate Awareness

• Todd Mclaughlin • Season 1 • Episode 255

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Sam Manchulenko is a seasoned yoga instructor and spiritual guide based out of Winnipeg, Canada. She is renowned for her expertise in facilitating yoga teacher trainings and workshops that integrate yoga philosophy with practical spiritual tools. Trained under prominent spiritual figures such as Dharma Mittra, Byron Katie, and Eckhart Tolle, Sam offers unique insights into yoga and personal development. She specializes in psychic development, intuitive empowerment, and blending various philosophical teachings to help individuals achieve internal harmony and mindfulness.

Visit Sam: https://www.samtheyogi.com/

Key Takeaways:

  • Integration of Practice: Sam highlights the impact of practicing yoga alongside spiritual guides and emphasizes the importance of embodying compassion and curiosity.
  • Yoga and Dance Synergy: Discover how both yoga and dance facilitate mindfulness, presence, and the subtle art of offering oneself to a greater purpose.
  • Philosophical Insights: Explore the power of detachment and the unconditional love that comes from accepting challenges and darker emotions.
  • Psychic Development: Learn about psychic development or intuitive empowerment and how it focuses on attuning to one's inner vibrations to manifest positivity.

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Todd McLaughlin:

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, body work and beyond. Follow us at @nativeyoga and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Todd, welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast, I'm your host, Todd McLaughlin, and today we have a truly special guest, Sam Manchulenko. Sam, the heart and soul behind living yoga with Sam, where compassion joy and authentic self discovery are at the center of her work with roots in professional dance and over 20 years of yoga study, Sam has trained deeply in traditional yoga, breath work, meditation, coaching and human development. It's all woven into a playful, heartfelt approach that helps people heal from the inside out. Today we're diving into Sam's journey from movement and pain to self compassion, how yoga became her life path, and the insight she shares with students around the world. I'm so excited for her to be here. I'm so excited for you to be here. Thank you for your support and listening. Please go check out Sam at her website, Samtheyogi.com the link is in the description, and you'll easily find her. Go ahead and send her a message and let her know what you think and feel about this episode. I'm so excited you're here. Let's go ahead and begin. I'm so happy to be here now with Sam Manchulenko, Sam, thank you for joining me today. I'm really happy to have this opportunity to meet with you. I've heard so many nice things about you, and so this is a real honor and a privilege. Can you tell me how you're feeling today?

Sam Manchulenko:

Wow, thanks Todd, I'm feeling amazing today. Yeah, I'm, I'm in New York. I love studying with Dharma, and I just got in a couple days ago, and I feel like, you know, just kind of living off his high vibes.

Todd McLaughlin:

Cool, yeah, some of those of you that are watching on YouTube saw Sam's hands kind of like moving around her head. So, so, um, I was gonna ask you what, what talk a little more about, like, what you feel, what you're feeling.

Sam Manchulenko:

Well, um, you know the shortcut. So Yoga, you know the practice, I guess they would say there is no shortcut. You just practice. But there's something I find that happens when I'm sitting in the presence of someone who really embodies the practice, that it's, you know, these moments in time you get to feel, it feels like a shortcut. So when I'm sitting with Dharma, he's so established in curiosity and playfulness and compassion that, well, I mean, it says this in the Bhagavad Gita too. It says that we don't heal the world through like rajas, through like forcing and changing and pointing fingers, but by apps becoming established in that vibration of sattva, or that vibration of unconditional love, that that vibration goes out and and affects everything it touches. So there's this feeling when I'm close to dharma that that just that flow of unconditional love that I perceive as coming from him. It just, it's, it's a wonderful gift to be in.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yes, yes. Do you have hopes that if you continue with the yoga practice, you'll have that same effect on the people that you study and practice with?

Sam Manchulenko:

Well, I don't I know that I can't do it. I know it's not me. I also know, like as much as we say, it's being in Dharma, I also know it's not dharma, and dharma wants us to know it's not him. And yes, I would love everyone around me to feel happier and more joyful, and I can also see that that has been an attachment in my life that has caused some suffering, and even though. It seems like a kind thing to want to alleviate suffering and for others to be happy this kind of like diving right where I am in my practice right now is, is realizing what I'm working on learning right now is the value of the challenges and the darker emotions and and the the I guess it's the unconditional love to hold space for all of those two, yeah, being non attached about that desire,

Todd McLaughlin:

well said, doesn't it almost seem a little like wanting to be able to positively affect others might actually be a hindrance, and therefore, by actually just being ourselves, that somehow that then might translate into them noticing that. Does that make sense?

Sam Manchulenko:

I think so. Yes. And another spin that just came up in my head too. Is wanting, wanting to have that effect on others, is treating them or perceiving them as not being perfect

Todd McLaughlin:

in that moment. That's interesting. Yeah, that's a good point.

Sam Manchulenko:

It's like judging that. I often joke that Jerry Seinfeld is another one of my gurus. I was listening to a great interview of his yesterday where he was sharing about posting, like, old bits of his comedy. And someone else said to him, like, oh, like, you know, were you embarrassed? Or, when I look at my old stuff, I hate it. And he says, No, you can't do that. Like, that was just a necessary, you know, rope bridge that you had to cross to get there. And I was like, oh, that's just so wise to to know wherever someone is. So my desire for someone to feel better than they are is is not noticing that where they are is a necessary step on their journey.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah. Is the first thing that popped in my head there is, I noticed you facilitate yoga teacher trainings. Is that correct? So have you found situations where you're facilitating those and the energy is going a little, I don't know, sideways or awry, in relation to the way what your intended concept that you're trying to portray is maybe not landing the way you thought. And then the students, you know, there's a little bit of friction somewhere, is that? Is that something that you've experienced before? I'm just

Sam Manchulenko:

curious. I'm dropping in.

Todd McLaughlin:

You can take, yeah, you can take long pauses. I know I'll ask you hard questions so I you can take as much time as you would like to to answer.

Sam Manchulenko:

The first yoga teacher training I led was the most challenging and some really challenging things, a very challenging experience happened in one of the students life. She her partner, passed unexpected, expectedly. It was a very small group, so I mean that that changed the course, not by any just by the natural flow of what was being dealt with and and how the teachings

Todd McLaughlin:

were. That's a good example. Yep,

Sam Manchulenko:

yeah. Like, what's happening in life? I guess, you know the other time when I was doing teacher training and then covid, I think a lot of us experienced that. Oh, okay, now this is,

Todd McLaughlin:

how are we gonna deal with this? Yes,

Sam Manchulenko:

dharma. I'm sure I you've, you know, probably heard Andrew say, like, just to dance with it. Dharma often says, like, you dance with it. Whatever is happening, you dance with it. And when I do the trainings, there's always a picture of dharma. And, you know, a lot of us that will study with them were like Dharma says, dharma says, dharma says, you know, so hopefully, I always imagine that it's somehow like we can serve as a channel, and we're not really teaching it.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, yeah. Cool. Can you talk a little bit about what it's like living in Canada in the winter, where you are, I believe you're in Winnipeg, which is that Manitoba County.

Sam Manchulenko:

It's Manitoba is the province. Yeah, very good. And you're

Todd McLaughlin:

north in relation in the United States, north of North Dakota. Yeah. What is the, what is the scenery like, and what's the weather like right now, in the winter, I'm down in Florida, and so I just try to imagine, what did how do they do it up there? How do they do it? Because I'm such a, I'm such a, I'm not good in cold weather. I need to get better at it.

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, you know, it's funny. They often people say, Well, you know, I'm a yogi. I'm not affected by the cold. I've heard someone say that here before. I'm like, go live in Winnipeg. If you're still a young it's definitely it can be a challenge. I'm also yeah like that. So for me, I struggle with it. I love to be outside. And my brother lives in Florida, so I love when I'm visiting there, being outside. Where is he in Florida? He's in winter garden. Nice. Very cool. Yeah, so it's, it's really nice to be there, and there's some beauty in the winter too. I have one of my good friends is from the Netherlands, and she loves winter, and I love watching how she embraces it, and cross country skis and it whenever I go back in the cold, it's, there's a silence, like a different kind of silence, when everything is covered in snow, a stillness at times. It's it's a teacher. Everything is,

Todd McLaughlin:

I agree with you. I agree any hardship, if we can somehow turn it into, this is a fun learning lesson. Oh, it feels like we feels like we jump a hurdle somehow. Can you talk to can you share with us? Why do you think yoga came into your life?

Sam Manchulenko:

Oh, why do I think yoga came into my life,

Todd McLaughlin:

or we could reverse that question, ask it more from the angle of like, Why do you think what attracted you to yoga when you first started to start to be curious or inquisitive? Like, what's this yoga thing?

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, I didn't like it in the beginning. What was the setting? So, you know what yoga had it did come into my life? It's like it had to say, Hey, you're coming this way, whether you like it or not. The first setting, I was a dancer, and I lived in Toronto, was training there, and in the late 90s, and our teacher brought in a yoga teacher for kind of like cross training, and I would always leave at Shavasana. I'm like, Oh, that makes me tired for ballet. Now. I'm like, Oh, the best part. So the in the beginning it it helps me my body. Dance was my first yoga when I danced, I felt completely present. My mind was off. I was in my body. And so then I started to notice when I had an injury and I couldn't dance to the same then yoga was a way that I could get into my body, and meditation and my mind was so busy and so unkind, and really yoga. I needed the mental yoga. I mean, that's what it is. It's not the poses i love. When Dharma says you don't have to do any of these postures, it's, you know? It's really about understanding who you really are. I was very confused about who I was and my my belief in who I was wasn't measuring up to anything of value. So there was a deep sadness and heaviness, and yoga came and shook that up and turned it all around.

Todd McLaughlin:

And yeah, good answer. Good answer. What do you think shares similarity? I feel like you answered this a little bit already. The first half this question, but the second half, I'm really curious. What do you feel dance and yoga share in commonality, and where do you feel like dance and yoga are very different?

Sam Manchulenko:

Well, it really depends on your how you're coming at it. So I I didn't love yoga. I liked yoga. It was fine, but I didn't love it until I started Dharma yoga. And in Dharma yoga, dharma shares to offer the poses. And so when you're offering it like, you know, it's not making a shape, but it's imagining you are that, which is how I danced. When I danced, I felt like whatever I was expressing, I just felt like I was that, like it wasn't it felt like something else was moving my body. And when I practiced Dharma yoga, it really does. When you're offering it, it's like you're offering it to whatever this infinite creative source inside of you is saying here, like, enjoy doing this through this body and seeing through this and hearing this way. And then I can say what it what it has differently. I think that's the intention of yoga is this oneness. Is like to feel our connection to, you know, like there's the surface self, so all the images that the ripples at the top of the ocean, but to know that there's this how, how we're we're connected. There's one thing expressing through all these shapes and in dance. Yes, because, you know, if you wanted to do it as a career, there was this competitiveness that came in where it wasn't just being that shape, the shape you were being, was never enough. You had to push it a little harder.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I That makes perfect sense. I am. I was never a dancer beyond going to a concert and dancing and having fun, but not like I always respect. I get a chance to speak with dancers, and I love hearing about that, how, how the transition and the appreciation for one and both in the other. Do you still, occasionally, maybe don't put tap point shoes on, but do you, do you still move your body in the way that you have been trained since you got started in that world?

Sam Manchulenko:

I do? Yeah, it's still the person that lives in the condo above me plays the piano. And I love, like, I moved into my condo right in covid. I had no furniture, and I would love when I'd hear the piano like, but yeah, I do notice sometimes my body will just, especially if it's happy, it just dances. I think dancing and singing are natural medicine that we're meant to have. And it's, you know, I think Yoga also brought me back to that, like, just kirtan. I love singing, kirtan for just the devotional aspect of singing, versus before I was insecure of my voice, like, oh, I can't sing. I'm not good enough. And like, Oh, this is an offering too. Everyone can do it so, but yeah, I'll catch myself. If I'm really happy, I won't even notice. I'm like, oh, it's dancing.

Todd McLaughlin:

That's cool. Sam, do you so you currently teach in Canada? Do you have a studio? Do you work at a studio? Do you work solely online?

Sam Manchulenko:

I don't have a studio. I rent studio space when I'm there, but I primarily teach workshops. So I do the teacher training and I teach. I study a lot with Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle as well. And so I don't know if you know Byron Katie, but all of her work is about the mind.

Todd McLaughlin:

I've never read any of her books yet. I have her in my queue. I've heard other people that are wanting to do, isn't she the one that kind of coins the term, or one of the people that really popularized the term of like, do the work? Is that is that Byron

Sam Manchulenko:

like, where her technique is called the work, the work there it is.

Todd McLaughlin:

I've heard amazing things about it, and that her the way she prompts you can really get you to see a little deeper into patterns, why we do what we do, all that sort of stuff. But I don't know a lot, so I'm so happy to hear that you're involved in that. Can you explain a little more what you are getting out of doing the work with her, and any insights that we could gain to help us along the way, absolutely.

Sam Manchulenko:

So you know the yoga teachings like the causes of suffering are attachments, and dharma often says it like all of our attachments are mental, like we are attached to our stories. I love you. Ever listen to Krishnamurti? Yes, I love he often talks about like, who are you? Who you think you are, is a collection of memories, right? Like these mental images, these stories, we identify as these, and these are attachments, like we think I am this, and that person is that, and they shouldn't do this. And I need this, and I want this, and we're tethered to these beliefs. And what the work is is a way. So her whole thing, her first book, is called loving what is it's about learning to love everything. So she says the ego is a frightened child looking for a home in yourself. And what we tend to do is, when we first learn, okay, your attachments are causing suffering. Then we try to push them away, which is aversion. And then this doesn't work, right? It's like we double down on them, nope. So we have an unpleasant sensation in our body. Is a sign we're believing something that's that's not true. But then we we push it away, and it stays there. So the work is a loving way to meet these thoughts and to inquire. There's four questions. So say I was having the stressful thought they don't care about me in a specific situation. Say I was somewhere and someone gave me a look, and I think they don't care about me. So her first question is, is it true? And we're not meant to answer these quickly from our mind. It's a meditation. So you sit still, you anchor yourself in the situation, you see where you were, you notice what they did. They don't care about you. Is it true? And it might be yes, it might be No. Both answers are equal, and. Then the second question, Can you absolutely know it's true? So if you said yes, you know, can you know for certainty it's true? And sometimes I'm a yes and sometimes I'm a no on that, both answers equal. Question three is, how do you react? What happens when you believe that thought? And this is, this is where you really start. I find I really start to understand my ego, like, Oh, when I believe they don't care about me. You know, what do you do? I like contract. I try to act in a way to impress them. I I smile when I don't feel Smiley. Or I I think they're wrong, or whatever it is. Like, some way we tend to maybe go into victim mode, but you start to really notice, how do you treat yourself? How do you treat them? What past images come to mind? What do you imagine for the future? And it's just not to be disappointed or frustrated, just to notice, hey, look, this is interesting. This is a world that's created by believing a thought. The fourth question is, you imagine, who would you be if it was impossible in that situation to believe that thought? So you're still, still there. They do the same thing. They look at you the same way, but it's impossible for you to have that thought. You don't care about me and almost all the time in Question four, I find Question four is where you get to experience the state of yoga or presence like I notice, oh, I can notice that they're scared, or I noticed that they felt embarrassed, or I can see different things, but You without the thought I'm more in my body, grounded, so it's really beautiful. And then you turn the thought around, not because the opposite of the thought is necessarily true. No thoughts are ultimately true, but to notice, hey, they don't care about me. What's what's an opposite of that they do care about me? Can I find some examples where they do care about me, and almost always you can, and then I don't care about me. Can I find some examples in that situation where I don't care about me? Oh yeah, I'm sad, and instead of, you know, noticing and turning into that, I'm pretending to be fine. Or, you know, what do I notice? I don't care about them. Oh, yeah, I'm not noticing their feelings. I'm just wanting them to validate me. You know, it's really fascinating. And when you can find evidence for all these opposites of that one thought that you believed, it really opens up your mind.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, amazing. That sounds like a great little four step protocol to not have chaos take over all of a sudden.

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, it's love. The ego never wants to do it, you know, the ego's like, Nope, I don't want to do it. And Katie recommends, you know, don't do it on the most challenging thing, just any stress that comes up, you know, just she's she says, a worksheet a day keeps this, keeps the insanity away,

Todd McLaughlin:

and a worksheet meaning like you'll actually take the time to write this stuff down. Yeah.

Sam Manchulenko:

She has on her website everything you need to do. The work is free. So she has something called a judge your neighbor worksheet. And she says, you know, we're always told not to judge, but the ego is judging. So she's like, give it. She says, a way to actually stop the ego and stop the mind is to put the thoughts down on paper so you can see them, so we don't see them, then they're just spinning, spinning. You know, you can walk the whole day. You don't even know what you're thinking, but you're mad. You feel it.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yes, what are you noticing when you go back and read what you wrote a year ago, a week ago. What are some of the insights that you find you get when you go back and read over what you've written?

Sam Manchulenko:

Delight, yeah, there's often delight compassion. A lot of self compassion arises like, oh, wow, you know, and it's often really funny. You know, I've watched her facilitate people on really challenging worksheets, and it often gets to the point where they are laughing really hard about what the ego believed, with no disrespect to it. Like Dharma says, often be grateful to have an ego. You need the ego to exist but, but don't think it's you don't, don't be confused by that. That's cool.

Todd McLaughlin:

How do you weave that into your yoga classes? Or do you,

Sam Manchulenko:

well, I do a lot of workshops with it cool. So in the workshops when we're talking about yoga philosophy, so we it really intertwines, well, with the understanding of the yoga philosophy and the koshas, this is all how to work with mano, Maya Kosha, right? This, this, this mental layer that's not really discerning. How can we meet it with with compassion and with wisdom? Yes, good point. You know, we're so. I often say, my first yoga teacher training, I came back a terrorist because I learned all these things about the yamas and the niyamas and, like, it's so easy about like, Oh, that's not compassion and that and that and that and all these fingers. I was like, Oh, I'm even worse now than I was like, and, and really it's the work isn't out there. The work is to come inside and to notice what, what can I not love yet? What? Where am I at war with reality?

Todd McLaughlin:

Great point. Those are great pointers. Thank you so much. And then you had mentioned that you also do work with Eckhart Tolle. Have you actually met him in person, or gone to a lecture that he's taught. Or do you work more off of his books and audio?

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, I've done so. He's done some four month courses. He did one on becoming a teacher presence that I did a few years ago. He did another one on conscious manifestation that I did so I've gone to a few those courses start with an in person retreat, and then there's three months of training, after I went to a retreat with him at omega last year as well. I've never like sat in a room and chatted. We're not buddies, but I've sat in a room it's very you know, the same thing I share about Dharma, about being in that vibration, I experience it with Katie and Eckhart as well. And, you know, I was thinking about it with Katie last time like I it's so easy to feel open and expansive and in this state of love in their presence, and they don't want us to just do it with them. And I was asking myself, What is the difference? And what came to me is, you know, I perceive them as being awake or enlightened, so I there's like this reverence and recognition of what's actually behind those eyes. And what if I looked at every single human that way? Yes, and I wonder my my hunch is that that's what cuts us off, is as soon as I look at a human and so it came to me the difference maybe, between false humility and real humility, where, you know, we're taught to be humble so trying to win the favor of God, or so that we're seen as a good person or kind like this fake humility that cuts us off, versus what I recognize in those three is this real humility of recognizing what's looking back at you in all the forms, in all the bodies.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, that's so cool. You know? It's funny, because when you when you say that, it reminds me of my wife and I were in India and going to Mysore to go study with patapi Joyce, and we hadn't met him yet, and we're having this feeling of like, Okay, we're gonna go meet a, like, a big time guru, you know, a big teacher. So I was nervous, but I was excited. And we get into the taxi, and I asked the taxi driver, because I'm just like, vibing on India, like, whoa. And I said, you know, do you have a guru? And he kind of said, Everybody's guru, you know. And I kind of just thought that's a really good answer, because that's, you know, like you said, like you were just saying, to be able to look at everybody as is it? Is it us projecting our desire for the person we're sitting with to be someone more than we hope we are, versus, you know, how much is it that projection? You know, another question I had the other day, I was walking my dog in the morning, and it was a really beautiful morning. It was just magic. And I thought, wow, it is so beautiful right now. And then I kind of, as I was looking at the trees and the sky, and I thought, but is the sky? Are the sky, and is the sky, and are the trees like beautiful? Or is that my mind projecting beauty onto it, like, is it intrinsic in the nature of manifestation, like prakriti or the man at the manifest universe? Is it actually beautiful? Or is it from my own human condition? Is it something that like beauty? Is something that the human feels, because then if I try to analyze it from my dog's vision, like, how does my dog is she looking at this guy and going, Wow, it's so beautiful today. What do you think? Do you feel like beauty is coming from the human being, like the because as humans, we have this like we have love, we have anger, we have hate, we have joy. We have all these mixtures of emotions that we can feel. And I just wonder, I mean, I don't expect to have an answer here, but I just would love to hear your thoughts on, is beauty intrinsic in nature and or is it something that is actually stemming from your. Soul or your spinal cord and brain.

Sam Manchulenko:

Well, when you were saying that I could feel like I could feel the beauty that you heard, yeah, like the beauty of your mind and yeah, what came to me was like, Yeah, to to love everything that way. I Yeah. It's from, it's the mind. It's the mind. My, that's my, guess. That's me too. I think this is what the text tell us too, is that everything seeing is empty, you know, the mind is projecting onto this beautiful, ugly. Yeah, I remember, years ago, I was in Bali. I was hanging out with these two women from Taiwan. We saw this beautiful rose, and it's so beautiful. And then a moment later, this big spider web. And I went, Oh, spider web. And they said, No, same beauty. I was like, Oh, you're way more advanced.

Todd McLaughlin:

That's a great story. Thank you. Love that stuff, right? Isn't that? What's so cool about traveling internationally because of the cultural differences, it's like our, our, you know, our Groundhog Day experience of like, alarm goes off and hit the button. Here I go. I stand up, you know, versus, when you're overseas, it's like, everything's a little different, and we just approach it a little differently. And and those little interact, those interactions that we have with people that give us an insight, like you just said, No, the spider web. Look how beautiful that is too. You know, like, I love that stuff about I love that's about travel. Have you been able to turn your experience of living at home where your home is into the feeling like you're always traveling? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, do you work

Sam Manchulenko:

on that I have, I've wanted to and I haven't yet.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah. All right, good answer, yeah, yeah.

Sam Manchulenko:

I love that. You say Groundhog Day is my favorite movie. Is that not the best, or what? It's the best? And I love like, there's this whole shift, like, when the piano starts playing, like when he embraces creativity and just surrenders to be a karma yogi, and he's like, That guy's gonna fall out of the tree at this o'clock. Hold on. You know, he's less concerned about himself. And, yeah, okay, I'm interested in this girl, but right now I gotta catch this guy from the tree. I love it,

Todd McLaughlin:

isn't it great? I mean, sometimes I'll, you know, like the real simple, mundane things, like, Okay, I'm grabbing toothbrush, putting paste on here I go to then, like, stop and be like, I'm gonna do something totally different that I never do. I'm gonna put the toothbrush down on the sink and just stand for a second. You know what I mean? Like, just to try to break out of, yeah, break out of that constant pattern that that can just be autopilot, you know? Uh huh, that's cool.

Sam Manchulenko:

This is, this is not related to that, but the game I used to play when I was a kid, I was, you know, because they'd say, Oh, there's someone everything you're doing. There's so many people on the planet, someone else is doing the same thing. And I would try to, like, I want to be the only person on the planet doing this. So I love that. Try to make a shape, and I'm the only person on the planet moving. Like, right now it's like, maybe not, I don't know.

Todd McLaughlin:

Oh, I love that. That's a good one. Good one. Oh my gosh, Sam, that's cool. So you have wonderful teachers. You get to study and practice with dharma. Katie, Byron, Ecker, Tolle, what? What is your current like? What do you get the most joy out of now, in relation to when you work with students, what's the the main avenue that you find is your your way to really just kind of get in there with people and get this, this process going of helping people to think and feel and and see the world in a new way.

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, I love talking with humans. So I did. I also do, you know Martha Beck, I don't. She's a coach. She has this training, like Wayfinder coach training, which is, you know, basically, you know this difference between the social self, like what we're conditioned to, how we're supposed to live, what we're supposed to, who we're supposed to be, and the essential self like what actually feels authentic and natural for us. And her training also uses the Work of Byron Katie and and some presence practices. So I really enjoy doing that kind of work with people and then sharing like psychic development and meditation. Have you done psychic development with dharma?

Todd McLaughlin:

I have not. I have not with dharma. I remember when I first saw that he had that on his website that he was off. Frame that I was very Oh, I don't know what the right way to say this. I was like, what is that? You know? What is that? What could that even mean? And how could, how could someone teach me to develop my psychic powers? And I even have more questions of like, what does that even mean to be psychic? And then, do I even believe that people can be psychic, and so no, to be very honest, I have not, and I would love to, and that was my next question. I wanted I noticed on your website that you're offering online psychic development training and or a workshop series that's happening. I believe this episode will be released a little after your start date, which is January 19, but I'd love to hear your interpretation and understanding of what that means psychic, psychic development. I'd love to hear

Sam Manchulenko:

Sure, yeah, I thought the same thing first. So Dharma always says psychic doesn't mean like holding a crystal ball and seeing the future, but in really developing your intuition. So the psychic development series is intuitive development, and the psychic centers are the chakras. So when these energy centers are open and flowing, there's this, this intuition and things, you know, we tend to think that everything happens by physical doing, by, you know, the beef and the bones moving and you know, our bodies and minds forcing things to happen. Where the belief behind the practice is that everything is according to our vibration. So it's more tuning our vibration to how we wish things to be, and then from that, things happen more efficiently. So Dharma often says, like, if you're an architect, you have to draw a blueprint first before you build it. And he says the psychic development practices where you actually the techniques are to purify your energy and strengthen your aura, like your firewall and and then you imagine what you would like to happen. I have really interesting like the home I live in right now. I imagined living there and being able to, you know, come and practice with Dharma the way I do. Like these things he talks about, when he was in his guru's ashram, he was responsible for he was like the handyman. And one day something was broken, he had to fix it. And his he needed a two by four certain dimensions, and he just did the practice, and he knew it will come. And then the next morning, he went on a walk, and someone had just thrown out in the garbage the exact dimensions he needed. And you know, he says maybe, you know, maybe they were held on to that board for they'd had it for years, but something in their vibration said today, throw it out, right? So it's how things are working in the subtle. But he talks a lot about really when you're doing the practice. He says the best way is to keep your to keep your energy, your vibration, high, because same attracts same. So the real purpose of of psychic development practice is to to be more responsible with our our vibration and our thoughts.

Todd McLaughlin:

That's really interesting, too, from the angle of, if I sit and visualize manifest something I'd like to manifest, that maybe that might actually be limiting me from what an even more interesting potential. So, like, what you're saying is, then, instead of, I mean, it's kind of fun to visualize, like, I guess I wanted to back up a little bit and see like, about ask you, I'll ask you a question a second about how you landed in the house that you landed in. But like, what you're saying in terms of, like, if I just focus on vibrating or feeling like I am at my highest self, that and then waiting to see what the universe provides as opposed to universe. Can you please provide me with this? Does that? Do you think that's true, or does that make sense?

Sam Manchulenko:

Well, so when I do the practice I was at first, I was not comfortable imagining anything, so I would just sit at the end and imagine, like I'd say, please help me to really understand the teachings. Most of the time when I do the practice, I tune into feeling not the specific, like, Why do you think you want that? So when you want that, you'll feel connected or safe or supported. So sometimes you know, if you're feeling lonely and you want companionship, imagining that companionship can tune you into the vibration of feeling that companionship. It doesn't necessarily it has to be there, but it's instead of us vibrating with this, imagine. Lack of it. It's tuning into so you can either go, I don't know that I'm answering here. You are, you are okay.

Todd McLaughlin:

I know it's a hard, it's a difficult thing to put into words. That's why I think you're doing a great job. Keep going.

Sam Manchulenko:

You know, it's so often, it's the qualities like, how do I how do I want to feel? But if I can't feel that, I don't know how to feel it. A mental image can help get me there, like if I imagine this, this Katie did this with a woman. I was with her at New Year's, and there was a woman that really wanted to have a baby and and wasn't, hadn't gotten pregnant and and Katie said, Let's just sit for a moment. Imagine, imagine your baby's here and you're holding her, that's it. And she said, looking down at her and feel the intimate connection. And as she was doing that, I joined in and did that meditation too, and just could feel this love. And and Katie said, Whenever you want a baby, do that. And this woman already had another child, and she said, the child you have in form is just as imagined as this one. Because, you know, all the story, all this, when we talk about like, is the day beautiful. That's imagined, right? That's your mind putting something on it. It's the same. So it's really, I think the practice is learning to use Dharma says, imagine the very best, or you learn how to imagine better. We spend so much time imagining lack and separation and disconnect. And if you really sit in and just imagine, you know, it's it feels good, and it changes the way you behave when you're coming from that place of being feeling whole and connected, versus lack and and scared. Great.

Todd McLaughlin:

Answer. I think you did, I think you did it. That was good. You know, it's funny, because I was with what we're one of the some of the rhetoric while you're in the US right now, some of the rhetoric that keeps popping up over and over, we're so divided. The country is so divided. And so the more you keep hearing it, and the more you keep saying it to your for I keep saying it to my friends and wife and like, oh my gosh, we're so divided. Isn't it crazy how divided we are. And then the other day, I was kind of like, but wait, of course we are if I keep saying that, like, so maybe the way we turn this around is we start saying we are not divided. We are not divided,

Sam Manchulenko:

right now, what's that? Let's find some examples so connected or we're not divided. Like, look at me and you, yeah, we've never even met before, and we're talking on this.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, good point. Bing, yeah, you came in with full trust, you know, like, you don't know me. We've never talked before. We had like, a couple words to say, Can you do it at this time? And you said, Yeah, I can. And, and so, so that's a really good point. I like to I like that you're bringing that up to just the the fact that we're willing to share humanness without any reservations about what does she want? What does she you know, what I mean, like, what I don't know. I agree with you. I think that's a very cool part. What else? What else comes to mind for you? Where we're not separated,

Sam Manchulenko:

not separated, you know, we have, we have some of the same questions. I love when you said, like, is it a beautiful day, or am I just, you know, like, we have the same curiosities. Yeah, we're interested in,

Todd McLaughlin:

yeah, good point, good point. And funnily enough, too, when I interview Canadians. I had someone say to me, Well, are they going to talk to you because you're American, you know what I mean? Because, like, I don't know. Like, if you watch a certain news story, it might be like, you know, there's all this feuding going on and, and, but I don't feel like you or I even thought about, like, you know, we're just, like, two or just two people that like yoga, and we're excited to talk about it. Like, how could we see a division between the fact that there's a line on the map where you're at that part of the on the land over there, and I'm down here, and there's a bunch of lines between you and I, right? Bunch of lines. But are they really lines? Are those? Do those lines really exist?

Sam Manchulenko:

Don't know where you find them if you go for a walk, I don't know.

Todd McLaughlin:

Ooh, I like that. That's a good one.

Sam Manchulenko:

When I'm in a plane, I can't see them. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin:

when I drive between Florida and Georgia, I cross a sign that says, Thank you for visiting Florida, and then as I go about a mile further, it says, Welcome to Georgia. I guess there was a line. So. Where. But it's, isn't that interesting that when we look at the way the amount of like warring going on over lines and division between my side of the wall and your side of the wall, or, This is my house, and in, don't you know, I have a wall here to separate me from you outside, up there, and then, you know, all that stuff that's going on right now. It's interesting. I, I know I'm a dreamer, so and I, you know, I understand where people might be, like, Come on, dude, stop dreaming. But I can't stop dreaming. Yeah.

Sam Manchulenko:

And I think also, I mean, what I kind of going back to some of that work of Katie is, is working on, where are those divisions inside my own mind, side me? Where are the imaginary lines?

Todd McLaughlin:

Oh, that's interesting, too. Han just going within the mind and looking for the oh my gosh, yeah.

Sam Manchulenko:

She often says, like, work on the one, the one person you can the one you actually can change, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin:

yeah, that's cool. Well, what I noticed that read your website, what can you talk to me a little bit about your one to one coaching so you offer that via online. So I'm gathering like I could sign up and take a coaching session with you. If I were to sign up and take a coaching session with you. How would what you and I are doing right now differ from what you do in a session,

Sam Manchulenko:

you'd have an objective. So there would be something, you know, some change or some shift, or something that you would want to explore. And so the the questions and the work we would do would be around that specific objective that you set, and then I would be there as curious open space, so asking some questions, maybe using some tools or techniques to help direct you towards your inner wisdom and your your answer of it. So right now, I'm sharing a lot of my opinions in a coaching session. I wouldn't share. I might ask, like, Oh, I'm having a thought. Would you like to hear it? And if you say, No, great. And then just asking more questions and noticing what I notice about what you're saying, what sticks out. And, yeah, yeah, that's cool. And I also so on Mondays, I do a half hour session. So it's a people sign up for the month. It's called love in action, and it's a reset. We do a little meditation, and then we talk about some concept in how to actually live our practice off the mat. So that's like an easier way to kind of come in and and get to have a sense of what it's like to work with me.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, that's cool. Very nice. What other things do you employ and or offer? I'm I, I feel like once, like you've been in the game, I don't want to use that terminology. You've been working in this field for, for a long time. And when you work in a field for a long time, I don't know, one of the transitions that seems to happen for a lot of people is like, we get really stuck on this one thing, and we think this is the end all be all thing. And then we stick with it in a couple more years. Then we go, Well, let me learn something else. And before you know it, we have this toolbox that has a whole bunch of tools in it. And then we start actually getting good at knowing which tools to pull out for which job. Do you have more tools in your toolbox that you typically like to pull from? Or do you have a very Do you like have two tools in there? Like, you're like, I got a hammer and a saw, and I can do it all with these two I don't need a bunch of tools.

Sam Manchulenko:

Exactly, right? Yeah, a lot of inquiry, a lot of like yoga, philosophy, meditation, self reflection.

Todd McLaughlin:

Can you define Korea for us and explain what your understanding of Korea is, oh,

Sam Manchulenko:

well, cleansing technique like what needs to be cleansed? That's kind of a funny word, because we also isn't that interesting. The ultimate kriya is likely presence, like awake awareness. So if we're able to access that place of let's say I'm feeling a sensation in my body that feels like separate or different or agitating. If I can drop into awake awareness and hold loving space for it, I think that's the ultimate kriya that that

Todd McLaughlin:

that's a great answer. I never thought of it like that.

Sam Manchulenko:

No enemy, not the nothing separate to clean. No problem. I. And then, you know, when we're having a hard time accessing that, it's so interesting because we can say, like mantras that, you know, can Korea to to cleanse the mind, but then it also, it can imply that there's something wrong with the mind that we're fighting it. So never to do any of those techniques as a battle, but just as an act of love. So out of love, I'll practice these mantras, but if we do it with that like I gotta get rid of these thoughts, pushing them away, then we're in more.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, great point. You're kind of centering the objective. Because I believe you use the word objective just a moment ago. What's our objective? Yeah, yeah. You're centering around, like the objective. What is the objective of the curate kriya versus Okay, now I'm going to cleanse my part of my body or cleanse but I think that's interesting. I get that.

Sam Manchulenko:

I think it comes back to when Dharma says, do it as an as an offering. So instead of doing this practice because something's bad or wrong or I need to change me or, you know, from that striving place, just offering the mantras, offering the pranayama, offering the techniques.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yeah, nice. How has your own experience with injury and healing helped shape how you work with students who are in pain or recovering from setbacks, I just threw a spanner. I had that, I'll be very honest. I had that question already crafted. I just waited to kind of pull it out, so I change tracks really quick on you there, so I apologize for shifting so quick. But okay, yeah, well, I guess let me help make it easier for you. Have you ever felt pain before?

Sam Manchulenko:

Yes, okay, the answer is coming. I think when Okay, the thing that made the pain so intense was the hatred of it, that it was wrong or bad or shouldn't have been there, or was ruining my life, getting in the way of my life. And I do my best with students when they're having an injury to try, what would it be like to love that part, as opposed to being mad at it or saying, you know, my stupid knee? Oh, no, no, no, here's you. I think, yeah, I really prolonged, how long I was in pain because I was just so mad about it. It wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't what I had planned. And,

Todd McLaughlin:

yeah, yeah, good answer. Good answer. I think that's really smart actually. I know when I've been recently with gratitude when I wake up and if I feel pain, instead of in trying to catch my mind right when it starts to go down the Oh no. How am I going to do this today? And then right away this morning, my back. So I was like, I'm grateful I have a back. I'm grateful my I don't really like how it feels right now, but at least I have a back. I'm grateful that. Okay, I'm sitting up right now. Okay, I can sit up. Okay, I can actually move around. So I think I agree with you. Like, what that seems like, what you were, what you're talking about, too. Like, you know, but you're I really agree with what you said as well, that like just being so angry at the pain, like,

Sam Manchulenko:

Yeah, crazy thing. Katie says that all pain is remembered or anticipated, and during the first

Todd McLaughlin:

remembered, all pain is remembered. So, so you feel pain, oh, so, I guess remembrance and anticipation. So we're either, like going past or we're going future. So pain is either me still holding on to the fact that was painful before, anticipated. I'm just figuring it's got to hurt today too, because it hurt is that? Is that where we're going here? Is that? Am I getting it right? Tell me what you think.

Sam Manchulenko:

I don't know. I'll tell you my experience. So the first time after I heard her saying that quite a bit, that I used to get migraines a lot. And I had a migraine, and I was feeling it as pain, and then so aware, I imagine, what if these were the first sensations you ever had? You have no sensations to experience them. So this is the first time experiencing ahead and when I got really still and experienced those sensations without past sensations to compare it to. It actually wasn't pain. It actually felt fine. So I I can see, like when I have pain, it's there's this duality of a remembered sensation and this current sensation isn't as good as that remembered sensation or and then also, like, anticipated, remembering, okay, now, because of this current sensation I'm imagining, XYZ won't be able to happen. Or some, some type of comparison that's made from grabbing, grasping onto a mental image of past or future and comparing it to what's happening now,

Todd McLaughlin:

that's a good insight.

Sam Manchulenko:

It's interesting, like, in the work without feel pain, like, can you get completely present right in the center of it? It's really hard to stop, because the mind, when there's pain, it's just spitting up so many stories. Oh no. Now this, now, this, now, this, now this, like it's a story generating machine. But if you imagined, or, you know, still let those stories go, but instead of letting your attention go towards them, if you stay right in the center, is there still pain?

Todd McLaughlin:

That's really good advice. I can't wait to try to apply your idea tomorrow morning.

Sam Manchulenko:

I hope you don't have to. Thank you.

Todd McLaughlin:

I'm already anticipating. All right, so I got a lot of work to do. Clearly, I have one, one more question for you, and then we'll start to kind of go toward the toward our close and I'll what is your hope for the future of yoga communities and practitioners as we continue to evolve our understanding of mind, body and spirit.

Sam Manchulenko:

This is a funny word because I also just listened to Katie ripped into the word hope,

Todd McLaughlin:

baby, rip in. I'm okay with it. You're right. I mean, I Yeah. What like making fun of this idea of hope because I'm not present, if I'm, I understand where you're going. So I need to hear your I need to hear what you have to

Sam Manchulenko:

say, what you said, like, whenever you have a hope, I hope, blah, blah, blah, that you're stealing the now, that it has this undercurrent of, right now isn't enough, or that now, you know, yes, that something something that there's something better, something would be better. And I also there's an amazing teacher, Susan Jeffers. She is a great book. She's not alive anymore, as far as I know, embracing uncertainty, and there was a really good exercise she shared about hope and wonder. And she said, when you hope, there's something you hope for. She said, there's infinite options in every moment. But if you're hope, you're like saying this is the one outcome I want, and then it makes the all other infinite, minus one wrong. But I'll still answer the question because, you know, it's still a lovely question. Like, I'll be a

Todd McLaughlin:

little more careful next time I craft my questions for you, I know, no, I'm just having fun with you.

Sam Manchulenko:

You know, for I've noticed in in my practice, just how it's meant to be about love, and I think ultimately it's about coming home to love like this joyful, like unconditional love that we really are. And my practice started off so strict, and still sometimes I can be so strict and harsh on myself. And so maybe my hope is that we could all lighten up and just enjoy our messiness and our so called flaws. And you said you didn't like that word game, but maybe this whole game, this whole leela, this play of existing in a human body and just let it be more light and fun and messy as it is.

Todd McLaughlin:

Yes, wow, Sam, so fun. Thank you so much. Really. I really you threw so many great ideas our way, and I really think all the listeners are going to be so happy to try some of these ideas out. I think probably what good advice is like, just pick one of these things and just actually practice it and try

Sam Manchulenko:

it. Thanks. Todd, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin:

oh my gosh. Sam, well, I look forward to your adventures that you're going to have. What? What are you? Are you going to go down to dharma studio tomorrow? Are you. It's the evening. It's New York. What time are we now? It's like

6:

35pm you're in New York City. You're probably gonna be going out at 2am and disco and then be at the studio at 5am and just be just ready to go. Yeah, all right. Well, I really appreciate

Sam Manchulenko:

tomorrow, so I'll be back there Saturday. Oh,

Todd McLaughlin:

fair enough. So you do have the day off tomorrow? Yeah, all right. Well, you are going out tonight. Then I was right.

Sam Manchulenko:

No, my very favorite friend who I'm staying with just got home, and so we'll visit and play for a little bit.

Todd McLaughlin:

Cool, cool, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Sam, and I really appreciate this. And I thank you. Thanks, Todd. Thank you. Good to see you Sam as well. Thank you so much, Sam for sharing your story, your wisdom and your heart with us today. I really appreciate your perspective on how compassion transforms our relationship with ourselves and others. Remember to go check Sam out at her website, Sam the yogi.com you can find out all her classes and workshops, and she offers something called the Mental Cleanse, which you can sign up and practice with her online. And to all of you tuning in, thank you for practicing presence and curiosity with us. If this conversation moved you, hit subscribe, drop a review, go ahead and share it with a friend. We really do appreciate it until next time, keep breathing, keep exploring and keep living. Yoga off the mat as well as on. Namaste, 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 at Native yoga center.com, and hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends. Rate it and review and join us next time you for you.