Latest / The Thriving School Podcast with Jenni Awesome / Transformation and Ayurveda with Anna Casey
Transcript
- Jenni Awesome: All right. So today I get to have a chat with Miss Anna Casey. Anna, tell us a bit about yourself. Anna Casey: Hi, Jenny. It's fabulous to be here with you. tell you a bit about myself. I'd love to to tell you about my my journey of transformation. Transformation is really what gets me fired up in life. I feel like I have been multiple, multiple versions of the same person. And every time I get the opportunity to transform, I I see how my life changes. I see how opportunities in my life increase and how my quality of life improves and also the quality of life people of the people around me improve. So transformation is the name of the game that I'm excited about. And one of the big ways that I've been able to access transformation in my life is through Ayurveda. which is a sister science of yoga. It's the science of life. it's a system that came from India thousands of years ago. And it's been an anchoring and a leading light in my life and my transformation and guiding others in their transformation. Jenni Awesome: That's excellent. And we actually met through a transformational leadership group. Yeah. Anna Casey: Exactly. Yes. There's so many ways. Like transformation is one of the most fundamental building blocks of life. We're Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: constantly transforming. And so there are many, many ways that we as humans can access deep, meaningful spiritual transformation. Jenni Awesome: Right. I I remember one of the quotes that was always said was that the const the only constant thing in life is change. And so that transformational journey. Tell us a bit about how you got into Ayurveda. Anna Casey: I got into Ayurveda when I was in South America, which is funny. I did not get into Ayurveda while I was in India. I had Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: the pleasure and the honor of studying with a woman. Her name is Maria Fernanda Bueno, and she traveled to India when she was young and then came back to Ecuador and built a school. and I think like every Ayurvedic practitioner, Maria Fernanda practices and embodies and shares Ayurveda through her lens, which is what happens with all of us. and her lens is absolutely beautiful. I was living in Ecuador for sixteen years and I I came to Ayurveda right around the pandemic in 2020. And I I recognize now six years after the pandemic that this was a transformational time for the globe in many ways. And so most people found some sort of transforma some some sort of profound personal transformation. Obviously the world transformed in many ways. And if you talk to people, most people had a major spiritual shift in those times. And my major spiritual shift was finding Ayurveda. I I got cook connected into Ayurvedic massages, which after being locked down and living alone was welcome. and then I did a a a course to become an Ayurvedic coach. to help people use the Ayurvedic tools to reconnect with themselves and to reconnect with their lives in a different way. And that was all thanks to Maria Fernando Bueno, who created the Ayurvedic school in Ecuador. Jenni Awesome: Very cool. So how does a Ayurvedic massage differ from like a regular massage? Like what what makes it so transformational and and a good tool to use for that transformational journey? Anna Casey: So the Aurvanic massage is different from what you would consider, you know, a traditional or like a mainstream massage. It's different because it focuses on the body in a holistic way. And when I when I say holistic way, I mean mind, body, spirit. Jenni Awesome: Gotcha. Anna Casey: a traditional massage, we think of like deep tissue massage, which I also do and are also fabulous. And they focus more on muscles. Whenever we connect with someone and with an Ayurvedic massage, we are connecting with their physical body and we're also connecting with their subtle energy bodies. So we can see our physical bodies right here, but we all have a lot more energy that happens right than we're connected to. So when I connect to someone and when I give them an Ayurvedic massage, I'm connecting to their breath, I'm connecting to their energy, I'm connecting into their higher self. I give them the opportunity to send Intention. And then beyond that, the Ayurvedic massage helps lymphatic drainage, it helps circulation, it helps balance their five elements. So the five elements, that's the foundation of what Ayurveda is. It says that everything we see in our outer world, which is earth, water, fire, air, and space, those elements that we can see. And some some of them we can touch, some of them we can't. Those same elements are inside of us. So Ayurveda talks about balancing those elements. So in the Ayurvedic massage, each client is massaged with oils. Oil is a really important part of the Ayurvedic massage. Oil in Sanskrit, the word is snecha, which also is the word for love. So In the Ayurvedic massage, they use a lot of oil, and this is very nourishing for our tissues. And each client receives a different oil based on their unique body type, based on how much air, fire, water they have in their system. So those are the main differences. It's holistic, mind, body, spirit. We're balancing your specific dosha, your specific body type with oils, and it Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: uses a lot of oil. Which nourishes our our body. So yeah, it's a lot. Jenni Awesome: That was this was weird. You were talking about the massaging with the oils, the difference for the person, and I just got this huge whiff of rosemary. I'm nowhere near rosemary, but for some reason I just got a huge whiff of rosemary. So yeah. I don't know why, but I Anna Casey: beautiful. Jenni Awesome: just got a huge whiff of rosemary. So These massages sound amazing. And what I hear you saying is that through this Ayurvedic massage and through transformation, you're really focusing on us belonging to ourselves, our full selves, in this journey of being a human. So can I can I get you to elaborate a bit on what has your journey of belonging been? Anna Casey: Hmm, thank you for that. it's such an important question and you know, it could go it could start in so many places, but I'll I'll begin it with when I was in the university, I went to UTE in Knoxville. I I knew that I really wanted to speak Spanish. It was this like inner yearning that I had. I knew that I wanted to travel. I've always been so curious, and so I decided to do an exchange program and I'm and I went To Ecuador after I finished my undergrad at UT. And I ended up staying in Ecuador for 16 years. I didn't go back after my exchange program. so I lived a whole life in South America and I met so many amazing people. I built community, I created a career, you know, and and now I've come back to the US. I've been back in the US for about a year now. And it's been such a transformation for me to like come back to my country of origin and the whole time I'm considering this idea of belonging, you know? Like and I've I've reflected a lot on why did I leave to begin with, you know, what does it mean now that I'm back? Because, you know, we all know that the reentry culture shock is Jenni Awesome: Mm. Anna Casey: actually a lot harder than the initial culture shock of leaving. Because when you come back, you're not the same person. So you don't actually b you know, fit in, quote unquote, where in your country of origin and you don't fit in in the country where you've been living. So my journey around belonging has been really finding home inside myself. And the more and more I I I embody that daily and I really come back to myself, come back to what am I feeling, come back to what do I need and ground myself in that. The belonging along with the worthiness, because those for me are intertwined. When I know that Jenni Awesome: Mm. Anna Casey: I'm worthy of getting my needs met, when I'm worthy of living the abundant, beautiful life that I desire, the belonging comes also more easily. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: so I'm on a massive journey right now of belonging and you know, feeling belonging again in my country of origin. And it's a daily practice for me. Mm-hmm. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. I I can only imagine and I I know we've talked about like what are some of the things that you have brought with you to help you with this transition? Because I know there's a lot of people out there who have, you know, they travel, maybe they don't feel comfortable in, you know, the place they're in. So what are some things that you've kept with you to help you make this journey? Anna Casey: I am in the practice of setting up an altar. And this really helps ground me. there's so many different ways that you can make an altar that anyone can make an altar. The way that I like the most to think about it is who am I? what is it that excites me about life? What are my goals in life? Like what is g what is grounding me every day and the thing that I'm excited about in life. And Jenni Awesome: Mm. Anna Casey: those things are the things that I put on my altar. I also put pictures of my family on my altar. It's very well known, I think, in Mexico to have family altars. So I also do that. And because this c this relationship that I have with life and with nature, I mean, it's funny, right? We we as humans, we think that we're disconnected from nature, but we are nature. And so reminding myself that I am nature and nature is in me, I have the five elements also on my altar. So I have like a candle, some water, something that helps me connect with the with the air, which is like an incense, something that's space and a stone, something for earth. So Having an altar, I I have a little box. Even when I traveled to India, I have a little shoebox and I have all of my things that are important to me that help me feel grounded, that help remind me of who I am, what excites me, the people that love me, the people that support me. and I carry it all around in my little shoebox, and then when I get it to a new place, I set it up. And it it helps me it helps me anchor into myself, to my own being. Mm-hmm. Jenni Awesome: I love that. Okay. Wha what do you use for space? Like that's the only thing I I can't think of what what could you use for space? Anna Casey: You could use like a bowl or any sort of like any sort of receptacle. Right. Right. Jenni Awesome: Okay. Something that has shape to show the shape of space. Anna Casey: And that also a bowl is like you could also see that as symbolism for the feminine, right? Because like Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: our room is a bowl. We re the feminine energy receives. so that can be double meaning. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. So spe speaking of of wombs do you wanna take a quick minute and kind of talk about your your passion of of womb circles and and talk about what you do? Anna Casey: Sure, yes, I would love to share about the womb circles that I facilitate. so womb circle is a place where women come together, we sit in circle and we set us a common intention of healing and connection. And ultimately it's an embodiment practice. And what that means is that we connect with our bodies. And that sounds really simple, and it is simple, except for we have forgotten how to and we've also been trained out of doing it because we In our modern society, most people have a lifestyle where they live like in their heads all day, every day. We are constantly Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: like putting our energy and thinking, thinking, rational mindset, which is useful. And I definitely don't want to throw that away. What I wanna say is that that's not all of us. We have this whole body here that we often forget about. And as women especially, it's so valuable for us to be able to move that energy and move that consciousness down and connect with our bodies. So that's what I mean when I say it's an embodiment practice. And specifically we're connecting with the womb space in our bodies. This is our portal of creation, our portal of life where women receive and give birth. and we can give birth to humans and we can give birth to projects, we can give birth to many things. The point is that we connect with that space, which is our space of creativity, our space of passion, and our s it's ultimately the connection to the universe, right? This is where we receive spirits that are gonna become humans. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: so it's a sacred place that I love to give women the opportunity to connect with in a meaningful deep way with other women because whenever an embodiment practice alone is valuable and powerful. An embodiment practice together, sitting with a group of women, is exponentially powerful. Jenni Awesome: yeah. Anna Casey: So when we get together and we do this together, we can totally shift, transform, become aware of new things. And what really the most exciting part about it for me is women open up their lines of intuition. They open up the the communication that they have with God. Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: And they're able to receive information from God, from their Howard Power, from the universe, whatever you want to call it. about their lives and about what ultimately is gonna lead them to the path of living a more meaningful, a more on purpose, a more whole life. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. And and that just made me think about, you know, I would say societally, we only think about the womb when there's something wrong or you're having cramps or you're having periods. So there's a lot of negativity that is directed towards our our womb area, our area of creation. And so th this sounds like an amazing opportunity to shift that, to pivot away from that and truly accept that it for the the blessing that it is. Before we continue today's episode, I want to take a moment to talk about a mission that has become incredibly important to me. Every child deserves to grow up feeling safe, protected, valued, and free. Unfortunately, children around the world are being exploited and trafficked every day. And I don't believe we can simply hear about it, feel terrible, and move on. We have a collective responsibility to do something, to act. That's why I'm raising funds to support the fight against child trafficking and child exploitation and the organizations working to identify vulnerable children, rescue victims, and help survivors rebuild their lives. And you can do something. You Can be a valuable part of this mission and this work as well. You don't have to have thousands of dollars and you don't have to be an expert. You simply have the opportunity to decide that protecting children matters. Donate, share the mission, start a conversation, pay attention, use your voice. Because when enough ordinary people Decide that protecting children is our responsibility, extraordinary change becomes possible. If you'd like to stand with me, visit community.org backslash fundraiser seven three seven one zero two six. Together we can turn awareness into action, hope into impact. And create a world where children are protected. Protecting children is everyone's responsibility and it starts with us. Anna Casey: Thank you, Jenny, for bringing that up. It's true. We've been, we've been taught that the period is the worst thing, that we need to hate it, that it's terrible, that it's a curse. We have the worst. I mean, I say we because it is a societal thing. We have a terrible relationship with our menstruation, with our cycle. And Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: it's sad. And I understand I have terribly painful cramps. They've gotten a lot Jenni Awesome: Mm. Anna Casey: better. but it's true. We as women, we, we consider it negative. We have a negative connotation, a negative relationship with our womb space. And ultimately, it's it's our power. It's our creation. And and when we can shift and transform that relationship that we have with our own body, with our own power of creation, our whole lives change. Jenni Awesome: yeah. Like it's it's crazy. Once once we can recognize that that we have that power of creation. And I I think of so many people out there that are like, man, I wish I could do art. I wish I could do music. I wish I could create. And it's like, then go do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. You're gonna create whatever you're supposed to create. Like embody that. Enjoy it. Anna Casey: Yes, definitely. We all, we are creators. And another thing that modern society has nudged us towards is becoming consumers and not creators. Jenni Awesome: Mm. Anna Casey: Because this serves capitalism. And so Jenni Awesome: That's true. Anna Casey: in our in this day and age, it does take intentional focus. to focus in on what do I want to create? And just to create, just because it brings me joy, not because I want to make money, you know? but we we get to come back into that creative expression that we have innately as humans. Jenni Awesome: And I I wanna say that a connection that I've been making over the past couple of of months as as I'm going through this transformational journey too is that, you know, being the consumer puts us into a place where we are controlled by the the big government, the, you know, evil powers, whatever you believe it is. So as we take back our creation and our ability to love and create, you know, we break free from that and we break free from the mold. Anna Casey: Definitely. I totally agreed. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. So I I know that you have a shortened amount of time. Anna Casey: Yeah. Jenni Awesome: I also wanted to take a moment and and share that, you know, as part of our leadership transformational journey that we're both on, we have set a group goal of raising funds to combat child child exploitation and human trafficking. And you have had some beautiful revelations, understandings around this. And I wanted to give you some time to talk about. You know, what have you experienced by us supporting this movement? Anna Casey: Hmm, thank you so much for bringing that up. It's been a journey for me, like you said, thinking about the children, like how many children right now are being trafficked and exploited and abused and raped and just in captivity and how those feel children feel right now, how they feel worthless, that nobody cares about them, that it doesn't matter if they die. Like that's how those children feel right now. Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: And so learning about the work that the Tim Tebow Foundation does to save those children, the way that they go into the dark web, they find the perpetrators, and through the perpetrators, they find these children and they save them. That learning about the way that the Tim Tebow is using our technology right now, because our world is rapidly shifting with AI. And my personal opinion with AI is we don't get to say no. It's ha it's coming. What we get to do is decide, are we gonna use it for to make our world better or are we gonna use it to make our world worse? And Tim Debo is using it to make the world better. He's using it to save kids. And when I think about how important it is for those kids to know that they're worthy, that someone cares about them, that they matter. Because I've been on that journey too of discovering my own worthiness. And when I really shift in to understanding how much I matter, when I show up in the world and I speak my truth and I help people and I I am me, my true authentic light. I see the world transform. And so I know that whenever we stand up for those kids that are being trafficked, whenever Tim Tebow does the incredible work that he's doing to take care of the vult most vulnerable kids in our world, I know that they're gonna be able to show up and know that they're worthy and our world is gonna transform. And that's the world that I wanna live in. Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I was in our I had a meeting right before we got on camera. And one of the things we were discussing is that so another one of our members is in the dance studios rehearsals. She was talking about how much people hack into the recital videos, they hack into the pictures, and they take those images of the kids. And run them through AI and turn them into pornography, into inappropriate images. And I also know that they do that with school photos because you know every year they take a picture of the kids, sometimes even twice a year at schools. They have that huge database of our children, and people will take those images and put them through AI and make them into pornography. And even that, I mean, we could not even know. that our child has been taken and put out there and changed into a pornographic image. I mean, it it it could be even my own kids have had this happen. It could be. And we don't recognize how many kids are trafficked, how many people are hurt by this, because even in our leadership group, I wanna say like seventy-five percent of the people in our group and and at one point there was like 80 people or more. had some form of, you know, child exploitation. they were abused sexually, abused physically, abused mentally, emotionally, like it's rampant. Anna Casey: It is. It really is. And yeah, it affects us in so many ways. It's in our backyards. We think that it's a problem that is away from us because it's it's heavy. It's uncomfortable to think about the sickness that's required to do these things to children. So we don't want to think about it. And we think that it's far away. that's somewhere else. No, it's in our backyards. so Yes, I've I've I'm really grateful that I've had the experience to learn as much as I have from the T Bow Tim Tebow Foundation and to really make a difference and stand up for those kids. And like you said, all of our children are potentially being affected by it. So we all get to make it important. Jenni Awesome: Yeah, we do. And parents may not recognize this, but there was a huge like if your kid has access to the phone, to the tablet, they could have people preying on them right now. Because I know that there were lots of conversations through Roblox. People would go in there and pretend to be kids or I think my son's playing Marvel Rivals right now. Like it i I get it. They're superheroes. They're very scantily clad. However He was sitting there and he changed his voice to a girl. I'm like, why am I hearing a girl downstairs? And him and my daughter were down there. And he's like, it's a voice changer. I'm like, wait a minute. So this Anna Casey: Wow. Jenni Awesome: system has a voice changer. You can pretend to be a girl to everyone else out there in the world. He's like, Yeah. I'm like, do you recognize that people are preying on you guys by doing this? And it's built into the system that you can do it. Anna Casey: Yeah, and young children don't have the capacity to discern how much they can or can or should or shouldn't trust someone, right? And so it's so important for parents to be aware of the technology that their kids are using. I think you heard the story we talked to a woman in Canada who had all the protections on her child's phone, tablets. They were on it. And she ended Jenni Awesome: Mm-hmm. Anna Casey: up being contacted, being being manipulated by someone who got on her tablet at school because the the school didn't have the proper protections on the tablets. and she was abducted and trafficked across the border from Canada to the US. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. Anna Casey: It's it's it's an like a really important topic right now. I know where I live in Tennessee, like the number of trafficked children has doubled over the past few years. Like it is on the rise and like I said, we get to choose how this technology is going to be used. We can use the technology to save the kids, we can make it important, we can pay attention to how to protect these kids, we can donate to protecting the kids, or we can just act like it's not our problem. Jenni Awesome: Yeah, I had someone 'cause I live next to the Kingston and Bainbridge Island ferries, or the Bremerton Ferry, and someone said that, yeah, I see a kid trafficked there a couple of times a week. You don't say anything about it. You don't speak up, you just you you can nonchalantly say that, yeah, I see it happening all the time. Like there are things that we can do and and our group, we decided to support the Tim Tebow Foundation, for the great work that he's doing. And then I believe our Canadian friends are supporting not in my backyard as well for the great work that they're doing up there. So Anna Casey: I think it's called Not in My City. Jenni Awesome: not in my city. That's right. Not in my city. Anna Casey: Yeah. Jenni Awesome: Yeah. so Anna, I know that was a heavy topic and I know you're Anna Casey: Hmm. Jenni Awesome: short on time, but anything you'd like to leave us with before we end? Anna Casey: Thank you very much, Jenny, for the opportunity to talk to you today. I've really enjoyed it. I I think what I'd like to leave you with is you and your audience like knowing how much you matter. when you really when you ground into and understand how important it is the way that you show up, the way that you spend your money, the way that you use your voice, the way that you stand up for that kid that you see being trafficked. Like Jenni Awesome: Yeah, right. Anna Casey: It really matters. Every single one of us matters so much and we have the power to transform ourselves and to transform our world. Jenni Awesome: Yes, we do. All right. Well, thank you for coming Anna Casey: Yes, we do. Jenni Awesome: on today, Anna. And thank you for listening to the Jennifer Awesome podcast. We'll see you next time. Anna Casey: Bye everybody.