Richard Brook | Bridging Yoga & Traditional Chinese Medicine for Holistic Living

Richard Brook is a distinguished wellness expert specializing in holistic health practices, including acupuncture and yoga. He manages and operates Moinhos Velhos, a renowned retreat center in Portugal. With a rich background in running yoga and acupuncture businesses in London, Richard relocated to Portugal in pursuit of a lifestyle that aligns with his holistic visions. His expertise covers a wide array of wellness practices, where he has integrated his knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine with modern yoga teachings. Beyond his roles at Moinhas Velhos, Richard is recognized for his thought leadership in wellness, offering transformative experiences that merge healing with personal growth.

Visit Richard: https://www.moinhos-velhos.com/

Key Takeaways:

• Richard Brook transitioned from a busy life in London to managing Moinhos Velhos in Portugal, seeking a holistic lifestyle aligned with nature.
• The integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and yoga provides a deeper connection to the body’s internal systems, fostering both physical and mental wellness.
• Shared vulnerability and heart-centered practices can build strong community bonds within wellness retreats.
• Personal growth often arises from aligning one's life with their true purpose, as demonstrated by Richard’s transition to a wellness-focused career.
• Embracing holistic practices can generate a transformative impact on both personal health and community well-being.

Thanks for listening to this episode. Check out: 👇
8IN8 Ashtanga Yoga for Beginners Course Online- Learn 8 Limb Yoga in 8 Days - Get FREE coupon code for a limited time only (Regular price $88) https://info.nativeyogacenter.com/8in8-ashtanga-yoga-for-beginners-8-limbs-in-8-days/

Practice with Native Yoga Online - New classes EVERY day - Use Code FIRSTMONTHFREE https://nativeyogacenter.teachable.com/p/today-s-community-class

Subscribe to Native Yoga Center and view this podcast on Youtube.

Thank you Bryce Allyn for the show tunes. Check out Bryce’s website: bryceallynband.comand sign up on his newsletter to stay in touch. Listen here to his original music from his bands Boxelder, B-Liminal and Bryce Allyn Band on Spotify.

Please email special requests and feedback to info@nativeyogacenter.com

https://info.nativeyogacenter.com/8in8-ashtanga-yoga-for-beginners-8-limbs-in-8-days/

Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:22

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 where we explore the heart of yoga movement and mindful living. I'm your host, Todd McLaughlin, and today we're honored to have Richard Brook joining us, a teacher, a creator, and someone deeply committed to embodiment, presence and creative wellness. Before we dive in, make sure you check out

https: 1:25

//www.moinhos-velhos.com/ a beautiful space and community where Richard and many other others explore retreats, deep practice and connection in nature as well as juice cleanses. And don't forget to visit creativewellness.co.uk. Just discover more about Richard's work, his online resources and creative approaches to well being. The links are in the description. There's a right in the beginning we had a moment where his internet he got cut off. So don't worry, I keep talking. He comes right back in. It's like 10 seconds. So hang in there with us. Thanks so much. All right, man, I had such a good time talking to Richard. He has so much enthusiasm energy, and I think you're going to be able to feel it here as we discuss his journey through owning this retreat center and how passionate he is about sharing yoga, acupuncture and wellness with the people that travel through through Portugal. So let's go ahead and get started. Here we go. Man, what an opportunity. I'm so happy to be here with Richard Brook, uh, Richard, how you doing? Man, how you feeling?

Richard Brook: 2:29

Yeah, great. I mean, it's just really lovely to do things like this. I mean, you know, it's like the cherry on the cake. Out of all the things I do, get to engage with someone such a knowledgeable person, and get to share what I care about, I feel very happy to be here right now.

Todd McLaughlin: 2:43

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I feel the same way, and I I'm excited to hear about your current adventure, if I understand correctly, you're in Portugal at a retreat center that you are managing and running and offering workshops and retreats at called Monas velos. And you can find you on the that website, monios, dash, dash, velas.com which is in the description so people can click, wow, that's in that's a great endeavor. Can you start to help me understand why are you wanting to facilitate a retreat center?

Unknown: 3:20

So I first came here in 2014 so July 2014 and I had my own yoga and acupuncture business in London. And what tends to happen to me a lot when I spend a lot of time in the city, eventually it starts to get on top of me. And you know, while I love being in the creative maelstrom of somewhere like London, and I was teaching lots of different kind of niche events, and there's obviously a massive captive audience, you know, for creative nuances. When you're in a city, just the sheer act of being in the city would get on top of me, and what I find,

Todd McLaughlin: 3:56

uh oh, Richard, I lost your vocal. I lost your voice. Richard, one second. Let's try to see if we can get your microphone to click back on. Let me see. Let me see if I can't hear you. Oh, I lost you. Oh, man, that was quick. I hope the internet's gonna work. Let's see if he pops back in. I wonder. He's in Portugal, and in the country, is what I believe we were just getting into. And I think that the internet just crashed, and here he comes back in. All right, Richard, can you hear me? Let me see if I can hear you. Go ahead and say something. I can't hear you yet. Can't hear you, shaking my head.

Unknown: 4:40

So now I can. Now I can, you know,

Todd McLaughlin: 4:47

welcome to the joys of owning a retreat center where the internet may or may not work when you want it to. No kidding,

Unknown: 4:55

yeah, no. I mean, I've got good, you know, I've got like, over 100 megs at the minute. Yeah. Really know what happened there? All right, well, you know, sorry, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 5:02

don't worry. You know what? I kept talking and I started explaining to people, he we lost a connection and and now, and here you are. So I think let's continue on here.

Unknown: 5:13

Yeah, sure. So I eventually decided I need to get out the city. And I, you know, just I was reflecting back on my life, and I thought, okay, so when I've been happy, I've been happy when I'm working in a team. I remembered when I was working out in nature one year I was in New Hampshire in the US, working in the summer camp felt really amazing. And I'm obviously happy doing the things that I love, like, you know, doing the holistic stuff, rolled all together in my mind, and I thought, right. So if I find a retreat center, I can do all those things together. I'll be in nature. I'll be around people. I get to do the things I love. Well, obviously what I realized when I first started to search, usually, retreat centers don't really host their own thing. They're normally a building that you just rent out, and eventually, through a bit of good fortune, end up getting connected with this place in Portugal. I've been watching a TV program called the spa of embarrassing illnesses, which was a program which is following around a group of detox facilitators. And I remembered the name of their acupuncturist and yoga teacher, and he was amazing guy called Yaya Sagi. I later met him, but anyway, emailed him. Said, I want to do what you do. How do I go about it? He said, Well, our company hasn't got any spaces, but try this place in Portugal, moynis, delios, you know. And I came out here, and within two weeks, I felt completely different. Initially, my first, you know, tranche of time was just a month, but within two weeks, I went from being this kind of tight, decrepit pizza. CSI, watching, you know, just not a good state I was in to being out running every day, even all this connection, doing the subtle things I love, with the, you know, the teaching and the workshops. And I think in your life, once you push the bar up so high, you know, someone said two months, once you've tasted the light, there's no going back. I went back to London after a month, but after that point in time, it's always about getting back here. You know, it's like, what am I going to do to keep my relationship going with this place? Did a year and a half backwards and forwards, because I still running my business in London before finally, I made the full transition to coming out here. You know, that wasn't the end of that story, but I'll just share that bit from that in case you got anything on that.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:25

Yeah, that's so interesting. I hear you. I mean, I love the fact that you did a little homework. You You didn't just like go on a home buying website and say, I'm moving to that place. And then, you know, you went and checked it out, which seems very smart. I would imagine that'd be critical. And then obviously, since that kindled the fire and spirit to get back there, the amount of work it would take to continue that momentum. And here now, are you officially grounded and landed there, like you're planning, are you Yeah?

Unknown: 8:03

Tell me Yeah. I mean, the journey since then, there's been several ups and downs. So first of all, I did the year and a half backwards and forwards, and that was really interesting, because I think if you go somewhere once, you can have quite a random experience somewhere. But if you actually go backwards and forwards, like I did every month, so I'd come to Portugal for 10 days every month, and then back to London, you actually get really clear really quickly about how each place affects you. And again, I noticed every time I come to Portugal, I felt so light. I felt so connected to my body. What I recognized going back to London, it didn't really psychologically, matter how I approached it. I could be going back there thinking, right? I'm going to stay connected to my body. I'm going to make sure every day I'm doing my practices. Just when I got back in the creative stew, it creates a certain outcome in me, and it just made me realize the sort of set of ingredients that creates a certain outcome. I'd get back in the city, I'd immediately feel lonely, because I'm going from being in a community here to stepping foot into a massive city. You know, you're calling up your friends. You can't meet them for five days. You know, chaos all around you. And yeah, and I just, I became this person in that version of me, which I didn't particularly enjoy. And so after Yeah, so eventually I'll work my way here fully. I did a year and a half where I felt really on top of my game. So when I was initially here, it was like walking into a treasure trove, from a professional point of view. So the owners at the time, I really liked me. So like, Okay, on the programs, you can more or less teach how many yoga classes you want. You can do as many different evening meditations as you want. You can do table talks. You can practice acupuncture. And I was like, Oh, my God, all these things that are so dispersed. For me in London, I can do all within, like, a radius of 50 meters. I can, you know, I can get in people's heads. I can connect with the heart. I can teach them. I can treat them. I can do all these different things. And so I did that for you. Then about a year and a half, felt amazing. But you know what? I still had this image in my head of success with. Related to being successful in a city. I think it gets etched in your third eye when you're younger, this idea of maybe having an apartment in the city, earning good money in all that type of stuff. So I actually, I went back to London in 2018 and it went completely the opposite. I thought I could go back there, switch on all my yoga classes, you know, get my acupuncture patients back, you know, but I went back there and basically just had to start picking up loads of temp work. And it really made me realize that you can't recreate something. Before I'd left to come to Portugal, my yoga business was called Creative yoga London, and I was doing lots of fun yoga events that involved connecting people together. I was doing yoga classes for single people. I was doing yoga classes for couples. I was doing these big kind of yoga rave events. I was doing something called social yoga Tuesdays, where we do the class and hang out after I thought, I'll come back. I'll switch all that on. And it just didn't work, you know? And I thought, okay, it's gone. I'm trying to go back to something rather than forward to something, and within six months, I was then utterly desperate to get back out the city again, as then I ended up coming back here eventually, and to fast forward to where we are now, me and my colleagues, we now own this place. So we actually bought it just over a month ago. We worked under the original owners. Someone else bought it, and we've now bought it off him, so I've eventually worked my way up to kind of be in the position that I genuinely dreamed about when I first came here. I felt my heart open the moment I walked on the place. I remember sitting down one of the first days and looking at the founder, Frank, sitting at the table with the guests, and just thinking, oh my god, what would it be to own a place like this, to run these programs? I just couldn't. It was a height of summer, amazing people and like, Yeah, I'm there, you know. But as as as is the way, there's a little bit of a different reality. So it means I'm not so much on the front line anymore. I'm doing a lot of managerial stuff with what comes with that. And my determination this year is actually to get back in front of the guests more, because I miss it. I miss the teaching element, so this year I'm cranking up my teaching workload again. Yeah, wow, I hear you. Well, well,

Todd McLaughlin: 12:18

I have to interject a little because you said when you were there, you went back to London in 2018 things didn't work so good. But then fast forward two years, covid happened. What sort of correlation or coordination occurred in relation to the fact that that really shut things down? Where were you for say, 2020, through 2021, 2020,

Unknown: 12:39

that was really interesting. Yeah, so my I went back to London 2018 and I actually ended up rolling like a stone a little bit in 2018 2018 2019 so I couldn't get back here straight away. And so I actually wrote my book during that time. And then just when we got but you know what, I always wanted to come back here like always, and I kept emailing them, and you know, they didn't really have space. And just before covid happened, I'd been back in England. Didn't work for me. And I thought, okay, the only place I really feel comfortable is actually in the Algarve. So I thought, I'll head back here without knowing eventually where I'd end up. And on my way down, I called this center again, one more time, spoke to the boss at the time, and said, Look, can I even just come to be here? It was a dream of mine to get back here, because I felt when I left the first time, I always thought I could get back, and circumstances meant I couldn't. And I said, Yeah, fine, come back. Then things weren't going so well for the center at the time. I got back here, and within, like, a very short period of time, the start of 2020, that was when lockdown come. And if I hadn't have made that call, like when I was driving through France or Spain, I don't think I would ever have got back here. And the thing was, when I wasn't here, I felt like I'd messed up my entire destiny. I felt like I was stepping outside of what my purpose was, and I was literally thinking to myself, this lifetime, I've met a mess of it. I've completely made a mess, and I'm gonna have to wait till I come back again to get back on purpose. And so I was so lucky to get back in. And then when covid came, you know, we did two six month periods of complete lockdown. There was no money coming through the center. You know, we got to live out in nature. So that was lucky. So we weren't so exposed to some of the stuff that people were in cities. But, you know, it was, it was tough, like, financially for the center at the time.

Todd McLaughlin: 14:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe it. I hear, I think it was tough for everybody, right? I mean, obviously a few people made, well, like, zoom and everything. But for those of us that were working in a close quarter space, hands on, I work as a massage therapist as well, or, you know, like acupuncture where we're, you know, making contact. It was an interesting challenge, for sure. Well, you know, what do you what sort of takeaway Have you received in relation to watching all these challenges that have come your way and where you are now and then? For our listeners that probably are experiencing some challenges too? Two in relation to what you said about I felt like I was not following my path. Or what value do you feel there is in those moments of feeling like you're not doing what you really dream of doing, that you're going backwards, so to speak. Do you feel there's no do you feel there's value in that? Do you when you look back on that? Can you, can you pull some value out of that sort of struggle?

Unknown: 15:29

Yeah, absolutely, because it kind of taught me, in a way, you've got to be very careful what you quit on, you know, and it's to do with where the point of engagement is. It's like when I actually go into a yoga pose, you know? It's like, When am I not pushing and when I'm not holding back, and, you know, like, so even though there's challenges in it right now, it interests me. Like, I think there's nothing worse, in a way, than when your soul is a little bit bored in what you're doing. So even though right now I've got a load of challenges going on, some part of me super, super interested in it and, you know, and sometimes we get these times in our life where we just think, oh, it's all too much, but having stepped almost completely out of that for two years and felt like what a black hole actually was, I'm very careful now not to relinquish something that's got value in the same way, you know, a lot so, but there is a sweet spot, because that also doesn't mean making yourself a martyr to the cause and also putting yourself through a lot of pain when it's not really feeding you, but there's a nice point of engagement where I feel interested and engaged what I do. I said, just when I go into when I teach, actually, in my yoga classes, are going to a twist, you know. And I tell the guys, I said, when you first go into this twist, I want you to stop at your first point of resistance, because that was what engages you. If you stay there too long, you're going to get bored. So then you have to move a little bit further, but then you also don't want to force yourself into this posture, like use loads of energy and not feel comfortable, either. So for me, it's like this sweet spot in life. And yes, the value is in not relinquishing stuff too soon, because I've seen the edges. I think I've been over occupied sometimes my life, and stayed too long in things, and then I feel like I've also walked down a pathway. I've been bereft of purpose, and it wasn't nice. I didn't like it at all.

Todd McLaughlin: 17:16

Yes, yeah, I hear you on that. Well, I can definitely relate, you know, as an acupuncturist and a yoga practitioner, when we look at yoga philosophy and or theory, we hear about the 72,000 nadis that make up the energy channels of the body. Then we go over to something like Chinese medicine, where we see different meridians associated with specific organs, what have you what sort of correlations have you made in relation to the similarities of what yoga is attempting to do and what Chinese medicine is attempting to do, and what differences have you found where each one really does stand alone in its own sort of purpose?

Unknown: 18:00

Well, that's a really interesting question. So maybe I'll start with a bit that I think overlaps the most first so in both Chinese medicine and in the style of yoga that I teach drew yoga, we talk about the heart as being the supreme controller, and the heart having a sense of primacy. And so for me, like when I'm treating someone with acupuncture, as skillfully as I can. I've got to try and get as close to their heart. Because if your heart isn't really in something or engaged in something or energetically opened, then everything else tends to go into a state of distress, you know, like we see it as, like the king, you know, sitting on his throne, and he's passing out all the messages around all his soldiers. And if the king suddenly goes missing. Everything else falls into disarray. And with the star of Yoga I teach, there's a massive focus on Anahata Chakra, you know, so we're always I teach in a really light way. I try and make it fun, and I try and, you know, cultivate an atmosphere in the space where I feel people's hearts is enabled to open. And for me, that's by teaching in a soft way, because that's what suits me. You know, when I start my classes, I'm often talking to people. I'm saying that there's a big difference here between me saying, right, you're going to do a chest opener and crank your chest open. I said that is not the same as your heart energetically feeling met. And I wear lots of different styles of yoga, you know, so it's kind of what switches you on. But for me, then, when they're in the yoga class, opening the heart, you know, we've got this phrase, also Chinese medicine, we say where the heart is like the quietest whisper of any of the voices that you hear in your head. And it's the yoga that takes me there. It's the yoga that sufficiently quietens me, Darren, and creates the balance in me. And when you push that heart energy up to the surface the same way as it does in acupuncture, sort of text, command, again, of your energetic Network, also, when I push the heart to the surface in a yoga class, I think then you start to hear your deeper, more creative self, you know, and that's where you. I find the space to touch into what these deeper parts of you are, and I used to use like yoga and meditation a lot in the past, when I first discover it actually is the way I think of trying to get around and do a bit of bypassing, and then later on in my life, I learned that the inward journey that I take when I do yoga and meditation is bringing me closer to my creative voice, which needs to then take me out into the world to act on it. I always used to think it was all about letting go. Let you go. Let go of everything. Let go, let go, let go. And actually, that's where I find my creative impulses. So that's one layer where I think there's a real, you know, strong overlap, and then obviously, physio, physiologically with the meridians. You know, you could obviously with things like yin yoga, you know, specific kind of yoga, which really maps the engagement with the meridians. But you can apply that to any kind of yoga. You know, just when someone goes into a particular Asana, you can look at it and think, Okay, so the engagement there with a bladder channels, engagement with a small intestine channel. But, you know, I also, I'm going to slightly say, Glenn, I hope it's okay, but please, I actually think, I think we actually do yoga to keep us flexible so we can dance. Because the one thing that I find can really hit the mark in your body in a different way. I actually think yoga can still be quite prescribed, right? And some things you do can really be on the money with what you need right now. But when you actually really let your body off the leash, and you really let it dance and move, then I think it finds what it actually needs to move, but without the flexibility that yoga provides, you know, also, maybe not so great either. So I think we need all these levels. Yeah, oh my gosh, cool.

Todd McLaughlin: 21:43

Amazing answer. Thank you so much. I'm curious, how can I, as a yoga practitioner that is not trained in traditional Chinese medicine, doesn't have a understanding of how it works, why it works, and all this, how can I get more in touch with my internal organs, you know, like, when you say things like, kidney, Meridian, spleen, Meridian, or, you know, and then I think, spleen, I don't know, what the heck the spleen, you know, like, I mean, I might have looked at it, yeah, but is there a way that we could get a little more interactive with our individual organs to have appreciation for them?

Unknown: 22:21

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've got, the more you've got, the more classical theories, I guess, where you could even, I mean, in a sense, you could analyze your own behaviors. So let's say, you know, you're talking about the spleen, you could look at the your own behaviors. Are you someone who likes to give a lot or actually gives too little, because every organs kind of got a spectrum. Are you someone who pays a lot of attention to your body and your basic needs? Are you someone who's able to receive really well, or are you someone who always feels like your plates empty no matter what you've got in front of you when you talk? Have you got like a sing song type of voice? Because different organs come with different qualities of voice, sometimes even what people smell like. There's a whole influence there, the emotional disposition. Someone who's got a lot of spleen energy, you know, they tend to emit a lot of sympathy for other people. Again, all tend to be really cold. It can be either. But the bit I really like, and something I wrote quite extensively about, is, how do we experience the energy of these organs from within. So a body of work that I put together, which I'll talk about quite a lot in my book, is actually when each organ inside of you is kind of in ascendancy. It comes with a voice and a feeling inside of you, and some of these really obvious right? You know, when we talk about, oh, my stomach's empty, I feel hungry, and I'm thinking about soup or whatever it might be, burgers, I don't know, depending what your tendency is, you know what we talk about when our hearts really open? You know we recognize it is obvious. We feel a lot of joy, and maybe we know we're thinking lots of thoughts about things we're passionate about and people who we love. I put together a body of work through a lot of meditation, fused it with five elements theory, and kind of came up with a set of internal voices for each particular element or organ, you know. And I used to sit and watch my own narrative. I've always been really good at that. I even remember when I was a kid, I'd be walking down the road, and as if I was kind of watching myself, I'd be thinking, Okay, what am I going to think about between where I am now and by the time I walk to the end of the street? And so I really like to sit and observe these, these internal, I guess, dialogs, if you like. And again, in my initial understanding, when I first started doing stuff like meditation, the mind was an enemy. I was like, I wanted to do meditation to get away from it right until I started to realize, hang on, some of these voices in my head have actually got sense behind them, and that's the body mind talking to you. That's got intelligence. You know, there's lots of layers to the mind, but one layer is the body mind, you know. So for example, when I'm thinking structured thoughts to do with planning and decision making places I need to go. Other things I need to do. It's my liver and gallbladder when I'm thinking about things I'm passionate about. Maybe, you know, intimacy, connection with people, again, slightly nervous. One, it's your heart talking to your heart. Small intestine are paired together. You know, when you're thinking about food, meeting your basic needs, stomach and spleen, when you're feeling the need to create space and throw things away, that's the metal element, which is your lungs and large intestine. And when you're having thoughts that reflect on the past, it's your water element of your kidney and bladder. It's also the the the element within where we generate wisdom something happens. We spin it round like a washing machine, you know, kind of trying to clear it up, and we get a bit of wisdom from it. It's like, Okay, listen, that happened. I'm going to reflect on it next time. I'm going to do it different. And I'd love now watching these different parts of me talk to me, because it really helped my relationship to understand with myself, to understand that these voices in my head aren't something I need to run away from. They're trying to tell me what I need in my life. You know, because five elements theory basically says that, you know, if you live in tune with these different aspects of yourself, you're going to be well, you need some barometer for understanding how you're relating with them. And these internal voices, for me, are that phenomenal.

Todd McLaughlin: 26:22

Love it, man. Great explanation. You know, there's, there's a lot of people that perhaps get involved in some sort of life track where then they get really stressed out. I mean, you and I still get stressed out. I'll speak for myself, I still get stressed out. So I'm not saying that working as a yoga teacher solves problems of not getting stressed out and then needing a little bit of therapy, needing some treatment. Find someone like you who spent a lot of time studying and learning and and working with people and figuring out what works and how to then use that to further the skill. And this individual then goes, Wow, I wish I could work in that space. That's incredible. So I guess my question for you is, at what point in your life did you trust yourself enough to believe you could earn a living doing what you're doing, and was there a struggle there, or was it just a natural fit, just because the simple fact that you mentioned, even as a child, you had a contemplative nature, the fact that you even looked down the road and said, I'm going to walk from here to there, and I can't wait to see what thoughts are going to appear between here and there, and to be paying attention like that. That's a interesting thing that I I guess, as a human we probably all do this. Maybe, I don't know how much of us are aware that we're doing that, but so I guess to get back to my point, was that an easy flow for you to jump into this field, or did you go through some difficult stuff before you finally decided I'm going this direction?

Unknown: 27:59

What an amazing question, really, really, you're hitting the mark here, I've got to tell you. So, like, for me, I guess, you know, when I was growing up, it was in, you know, the 80s and 90s. I left school in the mid 90s, and I guess with some of the skills and talents I've got, I wasn't necessarily born into an environment which really fostered them, you know. So I was basically considered to be a bit shy and sensitive, as if it was a fault, you know, by the people around me. But obviously also recognize that everyone used to like to talk to me when people had problems at school, you know, they used to be a great listener, and, yeah, I just, but it wasn't as if any of the people around me, it wasn't like my careers advisors would be saying to me at that age, you know, what you make a great acupuncturist, or my parents were saying you really should perhaps consider being a yoga teacher. Because, you know, back in the early to mid 90s, right? It wasn't even a thing, and it's not even in their terms of reference, right? This is a big thing for me, you know, your parents, or for my parents, like, bless them, they really wanted the best for me, but their framework was that I might be a good lawyer or good accountant or whatever. And so I suppose there's two things. There was the recognition eventually that when I was doing holistic things, it started to make me feel good, and when I was doing when I wasn't doing that, I started to not feel good, you know, and end up getting chronic fatigue, basically, because I always felt that the holistic side of me needed to be on the side. I had more conventional jobs at like, my early jobs, I was like, managing a supermarket and stuff like this, and getting really burnt out. And then in the evening, you know, I'd go to a yoga class or whatever. But I suppose, again, it's something that gets burned in. It gets burned into your belief system when you're early and also not supported by the environment I was particularly in during that time. So that wasn't really a career path, you know, and I was a little bit scared to also confront family about it, maybe, and also say, You know what Mom, Dad, I fancy do now? X, Y or Z. And when I eventually did do that, you know, they were just happy for me. And I think what I just took it on so much, you know, and I projected it onto them, actually slightly, I think in the end, that they wouldn't actually like it if I relinquished all these things which my education had taken me towards and which had a higher value judgments. In fact, that was a higher value judgment in, you know, being a manager in a supermarket and earning good money, than dropping all that and going to an acupuncture college. But I was really reminded when I eventually ended up starting to study the holistic stuff of the first dean at the acupuncture college I was at the day I went to to visit there for the open day. He opened up his talk by saying, Look, we tend to get sick for two reasons, either we're doing too much of something that we shouldn't be doing, or we're not doing for something we should, which is actually more or less the same thing, right? Basically means you're a on the thing you're meant to do. I thought you know what? He's right? I'd had chronic fatigue for a year, hadn't worked, and what had happened is I'd had a year off, I went back to work, and within six weeks, I was really sick again, and I reckon I was on my hands and knees in my bedroom thinking, Oh, my God, I can't even have a basic job. So I went back to work in a really basic job, and I remembered being there, and eventually the penny dropped. I thought, well, hang on, in this year when I've had fatigue and not worked, actually, when I've gone to yoga class, I feel fine when I've been going to this reflexology evening class. I feel fine when I'm sitting down and reading all these books on Taoism, I feel fine. So eventually I just put two and two together and thought, so what if? What if I actually validate this as my life path, you know, and then a series of quite incredible coincidences happened, which is a whole thing in itself, and, you know, ended up studying acupuncture. But I think validating what your skills are, and I call it following the clues. So if anyone out here is listening, I think a lot of people are born with inherent healing skills. I don't necessarily mean, it means you have to drop the rest of your life in order to do them. Because I think health and well being is also about sense of direction, and as long as we're moving towards the things that feed our soul, so if you've got a healing skill and not using it as you start to move towards using it more great. But it doesn't mean you can't maybe do your other job at the same time. You just got to be pointing in the right direction at life, and maybe eventually it will flip over, yeah, you know, you turn the volume down enough on one thing, and you turn the volume up enough on the other Yeah, you know. And then it does its own thing, yeah, yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 32:34

Well, I love the way you explain that, because it's like, I think of all the years that go into, you know, here we are now. And so to be able to see it from that level of and I love the analogy, very simple, just turning the volume down on one and up on the other, and very gradual shift. So it's not like all volume off full blast. I mean, in a full blast on the other won't even happen. And, you know, you really that's not even possible. You have to start from zero. And, I mean, it's a

Unknown: 33:04

trick of the mind. Yeah, absolutely, a trick of my mind. Likes black and white. Life is the gray bit. As long as you're walking in the right direction, you know, you tend to work get there eventually.

Todd McLaughlin: 33:17

It's cool, Richard, I feel inspired talking to you. You know, I love I'm just glad that you believed in yourself enough to go forward, because I can feel your passion, excitement for what you're what you're doing and what you're into. So now that you you know you've made it, here you have a retreat center, I guess first question are yoga teachers and or retreat facilitators renting space at the center that you now run own. Or are you the full time you and your team, the full time caregiver, so to speak. And people are coming and visiting. How is your How are you planning to structure it?

Unknown: 33:57

So a little bit of both, right? So this center is set up as special specialist juice detox and yoga retreat. So it's set up in 1992 by Norwegian couple. So it's always done those programs. And so obviously I worked for them for years, along with my three colleagues who we now own the place. So so when they got old and unfortunately passed on, we just kept on running the programs. Because basically, we were running the programs on ground level anyway. So we carried on running these juice detox and yoga retreats. We've gently evolved them in different ways. You know, as things go along, you change and tweak little things. But essentially, the intelligence in the place is running these juice detox and yoga retreats. So we did 25 a year, and it leaves about one week every month where we've got a space. And actually, this year, for pretty much the first time in its history, we're actually having a really big push on trying to fill those gaps between our own programs. I mean, we can't work every week back to back. You just can't, you know. But what we've found is having a week in between where you've got someone else's retreat. It on the site actually keeps the energy levels up here. And it's actually quite nice, you know, it's fun, like, our programs are really therapeutically intense, you know. And I don't want to put any illusions out here that sometimes it doesn't take a lot of energy, because it does, like, it really does, you know. And when you've done like, 14 days in a row, two seven day programs together. You need a week off, and having someone else on site at that point doing their thing would be joyful for us. Yeah, wow,

Todd McLaughlin: 35:28

that's cool, man. Um, so I, I have done juice cleanses before. I found it very interesting, and I started small three day, then I did a five day, and then another time, a seven day, and I think the long assignment was a 14 day, and then I stopped. I stopped doing them because, um, they're always in the back of my mind, like I probably should do three days right now. You know, like I had a little too fun over the holidays, and it would be feel good to like. So I guess I want to pick your brain a little bit about, what do you think of them? What is your thought? Now, after hosting them for many for a long period of time, I have a lot of questions. I'm so curious, because I think that, Well, number one, if you were hosting people that were coming in for a seven day juice cleanse, just in terms of like, what you're saying with intensity. I mean, people go through some serious emotional experiences when you just go on juice for a little while, and all of our food cravings, all of the baggage that we carry in our bodies, about our beliefs about food. Also, the highs are pretty good too. I mean, I have had incredible highs where I'm like, Why? Why am I eating so much? What is the purpose of all that extra food that's just weighing me down? I feel so great, but I've also not felt so great either. So and I know dealing and coaching people along through that process must be an interesting experience. It I couldn't be easy all the time, so I can understand what you're saying. What are some of the things that you've noticed in you know, I guess I should just find out. Like, when you have people do juice cleanses, are you doing strictly juice or what is your protocols and working with people?

Unknown: 37:09

Yeah, so we do, we do seven or 10 days. Occasionally, guests might stop for two lots of seven together. Yeah, it's interesting. I said because when I first started here, I was really on the front line, but the bit of the program I really plugged into was that the program was more than just a juice cleanse. It was a chance to help to transform people. So, you know, you had frank and Anna Quinn and Janny at the time we'd set, you know, had been working as the management team and responsible setting the programs up, you know, and they were all interested in what's happening in your colon, you know, what, what, what's coming out of you, and what it looks like, you know, all these interactions on that level and the same way. Now, you know, I work with a nutritionist and one of my colleagues, Chris, you know, he loves to talk about what's coming out, you know, all that stuff. They love that. But for me, you know, the bit I plug into is we're programmed for body, mind and spirit. So it's like, how we're going to make these people? That sounds really kind of cliche. Am I going to make these people better people? But it's the bit I'm interested in is getting them in here. Also teach them yoga, teaching them meditation, helping them to learn holistic principles, how to learn to manage the stress in the life, how to get more connected with themselves, so that when they go back out, you know that then they're also living the life in a better way and in itself, the bit that I'm really interested in, but even standalone as its own program. But obviously, having worked with the juice desktop aspect of it for so long, what I recognize is it also makes people really malleable. Like said, people are going into such deep, intense therapeutic practice. Because I noticed when we have had other retreats on the site, it doesn't even feel like it scrapes the surface, like occasionally we've done very similar programs, but with food. And I'm like, it doesn't even really feel like anyone's here, because people go so deeply into an entire cleansing process. Because, as you alluded to, you know, there's a lot of social stuff. There's a lot of cycle, yeah, psychosocial, psycho, spiritual stuff, emotional stuff, that also comes up while you're cleansing. And that's why we've got a bunch of therapies. So we do yoga in the morning, between eight and 10, you know, which is obviously on a physiological level, it really works for the meridians, you know, you're nicely squeezing your intestines and all that kind of thing, you know, but it also starts to bring up a lot of, you know, on unprocessed emotion. And then we do three juices a day in a broth in the evening, but in the morning, people can go and have treatments. Obviously, I do acupuncture. We've got several types of body work. Another juice at one o'clock in the afternoon, they could have more treatments. We do a table talk with another juice at four o'clock. So here we've got a nutritionist starts the week telling her all about autophagy, all the different you know, because some people really come for that. They love that side of it. Other people are coming to want to get away from the city, right? They're burnt out. They've been living a bit too hard, and they need a reset. I've. A four o'clock table, look, and then go and have a sauna swim in the pool. And then there's an evening meditation. We do lots of things. Sometimes we do an ecstatic dance. I used to workshop on life purpose. We've got a sound healing session. My colleague, Chris, sort of devout Shivananda yogi, does this. Shivananda inspired fire ceremony, the agri otra ceremony. We do a tea ceremony, you know. And we've got some great people here all plugging in their thing, you know, really enthusiastic facilitators and so that. So no matter which bit of it you're interested in, if you're really interested in even just losing weight, so people come for that as well. But whatever your point is, you arrive, there's a lot of different dimensions and spectrums of personal development going on here, whether you just need some space and you're only a full walk around the reservoir every day, or if you want to have time and space to really connect with yourself and dive deep into the therapies we can cater to the whole lot. You know, we hit every level, basically.

Todd McLaughlin: 41:00

Yeah, incredible, amazing. Yeah, you're bringing it all all in so I can understand what you're saying, or people can find interest in and then open up their mind to a whole nother thing. So incredible. So I'm also curious, have you had to and or do you speak Portuguese?

Unknown: 42:03

No, not really, not really, 11 years, right? And where I'm in the Algarve is a big expat community. We all speak English on the site, right? So we've very rarely even had Portuguese staff. So in this little bubble, it's never really felt necessary when I go into Lagos, which is the nearest town. It's a tourist town, so the people here tend to mold to you. But when I'm out, and if I'm being honest, particularly if I'm on a date with a Portuguese woman, then it tends to come up as a problem, because they just they find it a little bit offensive to be honest. I haven't learned it. And when I went to live in Lisbon, I lived in Lisbon for a little bit. In that two years I was away, obviously, then you have to fit to the people there. So I actually made a real effort to learn it. Then I used to go to a Portuguese yoga class, right? So I'm pretty good at actually knowing what the what the body parts are in Portuguese. And I reckon I could probably maybe read or maybe not write it so well. But when it comes to listening to it and speaking it, I've got very little confidence. It's just I'm plenty intelligence, but that bit of my brain, it don't seem to my best friend, if I'm being honest,

Todd McLaughlin: 43:13

I hear you, Richard, yeah, it's a it's a tough thing to learn a new language. Oh, my goodness, I have a good friend that he is from here in the States. He's multilingual and Spanish and Portuguese, and he just moved to Portugal, and he absolutely loves it. I've been hearing incredible things about it, so that's why I was just curious, like, what it's like for you to live there, and how important is it to know the language and all that stuff. So I appreciate you filling in on all that is it. Is it? Where are you in proximity? I'll go on the map when we're done, and I'll look on the map to find out exactly where you are. I apologize I didn't do that first. But how far from the ocean are you?

Unknown: 43:55

About 15 minutes. Oh, one of the things we do with again, we really, once a week to the beach exactly, so we're just north of largos. So largos is a really nice tourist area in the Algarve. So on the south coast, towards the south west corner, you know, and along the Algarve, you've got some resorts a little bit more, I don't know, like a more Yang kind of tourism, shall we say, right? Stag parties and whatnot. You know, largos is a bit more family friendly. It's a little bit more of a kind of alternative traveler community, in a sense, lots of surfing and that that goes on here. I struggle here in the winter. Are you gonna lie like in the winter? There's no one else here. You've got lots of infrastructure, but not many people. And so I find that bit of a struggle. But there's a lot of holistic things, the saturation level in this area for holistic events is absolutely outrageous. It's almost like as far south as you can get in Europe before you'd end up in Africa. And it's as if people have kind of got sucked down here, interesting in conscious activity. And wow, some people have told me, you know, that they reckon there's very special properties. Now, I've never checked this, right? I've never verified this, but someone even told me once that when it was the Ice Age, apparently it didn't ice over here or something. You know, I stand to be corrected on that, but there's a massive amount of holistic stuff happening here. And our retreat center, it sits on something called a synchronic line. So a synchronic line is like an energy conduit. And I don't know if you've heard of a place in Italy called Darman hur it's a spiritual, scientific and artistic community where these these synchronic lines cross over. There's two of them that pass around the planet. That's what they did in Darman, or is they built these underground caves, temples that they put loads of high vibration information in so it would feed out. And. On these energy lines, and our center sits on top of one of them. Wow. Plus, there's loads of quartz in the ground here. So the energetic properties of this site are really special. It's, I mean, it makes something a bit more intense, but it feels like the energy here is pushing you up and out. It's really strong.

Todd McLaughlin: 45:58

That's amazing. I mean, it sounds like you were picking or picked up on that the first time you went there, because you said that you felt very like, Wow, this place is incredible, you know, so that, you know, potentially, that's what you

Unknown: 46:09

I felt that even before I arrived, I remember speaking someone on the phone, even before I came, I'm just having this really, this really lengthy conversation with them, as if some part me was already here, yeah. And then the day I actually walked onto the site, it's as if I could feel my heart opening. I was like, Oh my God, this place is amazing. That's cool. Just a place of joy, you know.

Todd McLaughlin: 46:29

Yeah, amazing. So then what it sounds like you've gotten planted. You've been there officially as the owner operator, co owner operator for a month. Where is your vision moving forward. Just keep operations moving forward. I heard you say that you'd like to get out in front of people a little bit more maybe, maybe find some assistance with the management side, so that you're able to be offering the classes and treatments and interacting. But do you have a even a further vision of not that you need to go any further. I'm very, I'm excited about what you've achieved already. I just, I'm curious, because the nature of our minds is to, like, what now? How am I gonna interact with this? What more could I do? You know, like, so I'm curious.

Unknown: 47:17

Yeah, well, this is great, right? Because actually, this is where it started to be a bit more fun again, because the last three years, we're actually just renting the site, and so there's very much a limit and a ceiling to what we could just do as the company running the retreats, right? But now we actually own the place. So I actually left and went and worked off site for three months last year, because I just felt like I'd hit my point of, you know, I'd hit my point where I wasn't feeling like I was growing anymore. I used to say to people, you know, you could probably message me at any time of day, and I'd even tell you where each person on the site is standing, because it got that familiar. And so, excuse me. So since we now own the place, there's a whole lot of new avenues and opportunities that have opened up. And I really love your question about like, you know, is maybe some part of me making plans and whatever. And I think sometimes in our life, with that kind of wood element, part of us, we know there's something we need to do, right, and we're really distinct that I've got this as a vision, as a plan, but sometimes it's also about embracing the unknown. And what I'm actually really enjoying at the minute is we know somehow we need to get this business to work, you know. And obviously we've been managing the business for a few years, so more or less we know it works financially. But we need to do things like increase our capacity. We need to get other retreats coming through this place, and just the connections we're going to make with that, like already, we've got, you know, a group coming on the site later this year. People are doing retreats, specifically people with alopecia and all this type of thing. And I'm getting chance to meet these great people, and I've got the opportunity to do that because I'm in this position here. So financially, we need to make it work, you know, but also the creative opportunities that come from it. And, you know, oh yeah, I feel very excited about that side of it, and that's doing some renovation at the minute to increase the capacity. And there's all kinds of things we'd like to do, but, you know, I'm not rushing either, you know, call it the happy wonder Chinese medicine. You know where you're going, you know, but you're not too rigid on the path either?

Todd McLaughlin: 49:23

Yeah. Great answer. You know, you made mention before we started our conversation, that when you were working, interacting with people, and now that you're in the management side, you're appreciating a little more about what management had done for you in the past in the sense that, like, you know, you maybe walk into a really fun yoga event and then, but the reality of what that building had to do to keep the electricity going and all that stuff, that's a lot, there's a lot of work there. So yes, can you talk a little bit about to those of us that are not aware of the behind the scenes work, and just how you're learning to integrate being good at both.

Unknown: 50:09

Oh, wow. So, I mean, I witness that every day, right? So when I first started here, I was kind of in this middle tier. We have a lot of volunteers. We're essentially a community which runs the business, and we've got a lot of volunteer staff. It's great. So we get people come in because they want us. They want to spend time with us and learn things. And we also get, obviously, to take, you know, to use their skills in the mutual exchange. When I first got here, I was nicely ensconced in this place of working loads with guests, doing all these great workshops, having all the fun with the volunteers. And I used to see the managers come. Down like super stressed every day, and I'm like, What's wrong with you guys, you know? And what I recognize now is when I walk down the site, and I walk into the house now, where essentially all the volunteers and the staff are hanging out, as I was 10 years ago. I'm looking through the eyes of the manager, right? So I'm thinking about the person who's, I don't know, who's got the feet on the furniture, and it's irritating me. I'm looking at the person who I know is eating the box of sweets that we've bought that are meant to go around everyone. I'm looking at the person who I know was late for the shift this morning, and I know they're also looking at me thinking, right? This is the guy who does our schedule. This is the guy I need to ask any questions about, about how long I'm going to be staying here for. This is the guy I need to ask about to do with this that workshop, and if I can change it to this like, so I basically feel like I'm in a role pretty much 24/7 and the and, you know. And last year it started to bother me a bit, because started to feel like I needed to distance myself slightly from the team, yeah. And then I thought, you know, this isn't right, because we're a community. I'm not just a boss, you know, and I, and I was once, like, kind of on ground level, kind of at the heart of it. And so I've made a real effort again this year, because what I recognize is the closer connection and the more communication empathy I build with the people around me, the more it actually offsets being in a role. And obviously, like, there's like, four or five people I work really close with here, and because we're on the same communication affinity, I don't care if they come up to me ask me a question about, I don't know when we've got to get the car fixed tomorrow, or the oven's not working properly, because I don't know, it's still fun. So I think the closer I can try and build these connections with people actually, the better. So this year, I'm trying to get close to everyone again and but it's not easy, you know, like today, there's been a whole bunch of challenges. And I walked down there and they're probably still the team down there, probably still expecting to see the same guy who was down there yesterday laughing and joking, you know? But I've kind of essentially got, kind of got one on me, because I got all this stress sitting on top of me today, and so it's like, I don't need to be honest. I don't know how to answer that, other than it's a journey I'm trying to work out, yeah, if I'm being honest, well, quality time with people the better.

Todd McLaughlin: 52:59

Okay, yeah. Well, thank you for being honest. I love hearing all these ins and outs, and I think that the more we can understand all the logistics, it just builds appreciation, like even if I, if I'm if I'm listening to this conversation and I'm getting ready to go take a retreat somewhere, maybe when that manager comes through, I might be a little nicer to them now, because I can understand what what they're going through. So I think being honest about all this is absolutely key. We don't want to create a facade that like, oh yeah, manager is just the bomb. It's great, you know, yeah. Another realization I had this week is that with the heaviness of the amount of stuff that we have to manage to keep the infrastructure in place so that we can come together. I guess I had a I woke up this week after having a challenge, and went right to my gratitude practice. And it just felt really obvious that the whole purpose, this is my own personal mission. My whole purpose is to create a space where people can come together. The more I look at the way technology is working with as we are, as humans, working with technology, the way information is moving around, the way people are, we are maybe connecting really good with some folks, like, I can connect with you super easy. We just jump right in. It's no problem. We we're sharing common ground, but we can see where there's situations where it's hard for folks to connect in. And when I was teaching a class the other day, I felt like, because I don't talk about any sort of right left conversation and keep it very neutral, I was able to look around the room and think, it doesn't even matter what any of these people what their actual beliefs are, in the sense of, like, whether we all Jive on the same thing or not, because we all came together with a common goal of practicing yoga together, that having a unified purpose really gives an opportunity for us to actually feel community. So I had this kind of overwhelming feeling of like, all I really have to do is just get people together and try to create make the space feel like we can all just practice. And I guess so, I just wanted to ask you, you know what, what are your thoughts about that and and do you, do you feel like that's a worthy goal? I think I know what your answer can be. But yeah, yeah.

Unknown: 55:18

I mean absolutely, like, there's certain things which supersede role. You know, when I think about it, the little phrase I get in my head is, well, everyone's got a heart, you know, and if you can hit people on that level, and it's like when I'm teaching a group down there, you know, sometimes got 12 or 13 people who have all come from completely different life contexts. You know, some are extremely successful. Businessmen we get here, or some people are the professional therapists, or, you know, whenever it doesn't really matter, but when you've got everyone in that same environment, there's a connective vulnerability. I've never used that phrase before, but I quite like there's the connective vulnerability when you get people in that that energetic climate where you're kind of going through a group transformational journey together, which binds you all together. You know, some people we've had here, and I haven't really had a clue they are, and then, like, afterwards, you kind of figure out, oh, wow, you're someone who, in a different context, has got a whole lot of other problems or whatever. And it's like, well, so what, you know, it's the same person who's in the overpass asking me questions or struggling to do trick and astronaut or whatever you know. So, yeah, so certain practices just supersede all of that completely.

Todd McLaughlin: 56:30

That's cool. I hear you. Richard man, well, thank you so much. I really enjoy your enthusiasm and your zest for life. It's refreshing, and I really appreciate it. I hope that somebody those of you listening, if you're traveling to Portugal, you'll click on the description links where you can find Richard's website, which is creative wellness.co.uk, you'll see it there. And then the Mona stash, Velo velos.com which I have not studied Portuguese either. And so with that being said, you know, hopefully some folks will want to come visit you there, and myself included, I hope to make it to Portugal to visit my friend. And when I'm there, I'm definitely going to come visit. Is there anything else, Richard, that you feel like you'd like to share with us as we turn toward our close of our session? Is there any words of inspiration, motivation or final thoughts that you have that you'd like to share with us.

Unknown: 57:26

Well, just, just if something I've said kind of touches you, you know, and you want to get closer to it, then I'd love you to come here and just try and stay close to yourself in your life, you know, try and do the things which exhilarate you. Try and keep doing practices which bring you closer to your own heart. There's only one of you, and you've got to do the things which kind of switch you on, you know? And yeah, try and stay close to what you need to do to make your life feel good for yourself, and then you benefit the people around you, too. Yeah, there you go.

Todd McLaughlin: 57:57

Awesome, awesome, man. Thank you so much. Thank you, Richard, that was fun. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that's our conversation with Richard Brooke, what did you think? Thank you so much for listening. If you want to go deeper with Richard's work, be sure to click over at their retreat website, which is moenos, velos.com to explore retreats and practice spaces. And also go to his website, creativewellness.co.uk, for his all his offerings, workshops, resources. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leaving reviews helpful. Share it with any friends who love to explore yoga, embodiment or creative well being, and until next time, keep practicing, keep breathing and stay present. All right, thanks. 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.