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How I Learned To Stop Running with Jennifer Kenney-Smith · The Trauma Therapist

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Speaker 1: Trauma Theverist Podcast. Plus listeners can listen to episodes early
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Speaker 1: and ad free right now. Become a Plus listener by
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Speaker 1: going to Apple Podcasts searching for the Trauma Theverist podcast
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Speaker 1: and signing up today. Welcome to the Trauma Nevers Podcast,
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Speaker 1: a show about the incredible people dedicated to helping those
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Speaker 1: who experienced trauma. My name is got macpherson and my
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Speaker 1: mission is to raise awareness of trauma and to inspire
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Speaker 1: each of us to help those around us. Jennifer right,
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Speaker 1: all right, here we go, So five or three, two
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Speaker 1: and one, our folks, welcome back to the podcast. Very
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Speaker 1: excited to introduce my guest, Jennifer Kenny Smith.
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Speaker 2: Jennifer, welcome, Thank you, Super excited to be here.
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Speaker 1: So. Jennifer is a transformative leader and holistic healer as
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Speaker 1: a certified yoga teacher, iobatic pratitioner and transformational life coach
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Speaker 1: rounded jks yoga and coaching to guide others on their
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Speaker 1: journey of self discovery and healing. Her unique approach integrates
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Speaker 1: ancient wisdom and modern strategies, earning her accolades such as
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Speaker 1: the Woman in Leadership Impact Award of twenty twenty two
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Speaker 1: and Best of ashburn Virginia Award in twenty twenty three.
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Speaker 1: Her mission is to help individuals and leaders align their
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Speaker 1: lives with their core values and achieve profound personal transformation.
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Speaker 1: Yes I need that. Yes, So before we go in here,
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Speaker 1: share with the listeners where you're from originally and where
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Speaker 1: you are.
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Speaker 2: Currently perfect Born in Boston, Massachusetts, My family relocated to
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Speaker 2: Maryland when I was nine because of a job changed
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Speaker 2: for My father left. The whole family lost, the friends,
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Speaker 2: had to start all over again, which was I didn't
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Speaker 2: know until recently how hard that was on a child.
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Speaker 2: I was doing money wound work and realized it was
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Speaker 2: from that point when it was scary. My dad lost
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Speaker 2: his job, money was tight, we had to move like
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Speaker 2: all the fear, which I didn't know until just recently.
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Speaker 2: But today I live in Northern Virginia and Ashburne, Virginia
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Speaker 2: Tech specifically pretty close to Washington, d C.
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Speaker 1: Awesome. All right, so let's dive in here. How did
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Speaker 1: this journey start for you?
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Speaker 2: A good question. So I was in corporate America, crushing it,
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Speaker 2: if you will, loving the climbing the corporate ladder. I
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Speaker 2: absolutely loved what I did, but found after leaving my
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Speaker 2: ex husband, pretty toxic marriage, pretty toxic separation and divorce.
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Speaker 2: I dove headfirst into the accolades, accomplishments and found my
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Speaker 2: worth through my work, which anyone on a spiritual journey
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Speaker 2: knows that's not where we find our worth, but that
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Speaker 2: that worked for me. I was a single mom, traveling
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Speaker 2: and doing the things I needed to do to show
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Speaker 2: for my family.
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Speaker 1: How long it was?
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Speaker 2: This so I resigned from corporate in about a year
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Speaker 2: and a half ago, but this would have been I
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Speaker 2: was separated in twenty twelve. Okay, so I start having
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Speaker 2: panic attacks. I mean leader. I have a sales team,
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Speaker 2: and during one of the sales meetings, my leader was
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Speaker 2: unhappy with some choices I had made to support my
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Speaker 2: team for the greater good of the team, and we
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Speaker 2: had an altercation which included a slam door, a lot
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Speaker 2: of yelling, a threat to my role and my security.
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Speaker 2: It took me everything to get out of the room
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Speaker 2: without crying, and grabbed all my things for my desk
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Speaker 2: and I left and I thought I will quit, and
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Speaker 2: I went to therapy because I started having these panic attacks.
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Speaker 2: I'm unsure, I'm insecure, I don't feel safe, and she
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Speaker 2: tells me I should go to yoga, so I couldn't
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Speaker 2: learn how to breathe. I was a kid boxer and
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Speaker 2: a runner at the time, because if I could beat
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Speaker 2: the crap out of my body, I was good. So
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Speaker 2: I thought she was crazy. And I could only think
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Speaker 2: of yoga as laying on a mat and maybe chanting,
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Speaker 2: and I thought, this is absurd. I'll go just to
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Speaker 2: prove to her it doesn't work. I go to yoga
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Speaker 2: by divine intervention, I sign up for the Vinyasa power flow.
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Speaker 2: I know nothing, and the beautiful teacher was It's a
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Speaker 2: man who played classic rock and literally mopped me up
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Speaker 2: on the floor with his sequence up and down and
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Speaker 2: over here and you know just about flips and circuolay.
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Speaker 2: And as an athletic woman, I could hardly keep up.
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Speaker 2: The room was hot, the door was behind me through
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Speaker 2: down dog. I thought I'll just leave, I'll get but
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Speaker 2: I couldn't get over all the bodies, so I had
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Speaker 2: to stay. And for the first time in my life,
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Speaker 2: I stopped run. I stopped running, and I got to
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Speaker 2: find myself on a yoga mat, face down, child's pose, crying,
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Speaker 2: crying everything and anything that had been repressed or pressed
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Speaker 2: and contained in this false identity of a performer without
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Speaker 2: having any connection to who I truly was, the lifelong running.
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Speaker 1: Wow, what is an intense, amazing story. I mean, you
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Speaker 1: painted such a picture of a woman who right finds
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Speaker 1: her strength in what I think a lot of us
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Speaker 1: are brought up to believe we should find strength and
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Speaker 1: worth an identity in yea and things. Wow, what an
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Speaker 1: what an incredible yoga experience?
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Speaker 2: Yeah Jesus, so yeah, let's all do yoga right.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know it's it's so amaz to you know,
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Speaker 1: you come on, you, we've never met before. You come
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Speaker 1: and within thirty seconds your you've created this story and
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Speaker 1: this picture of really what health is, what spirituality in
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Speaker 1: the sense is even beyond health, what nurturing is recognizing that.
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Speaker 1: So you go to this yoga experience, you can't run out.
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Speaker 1: For the first time, I love that I stopped running.
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Speaker 1: What happened after that?
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Speaker 2: So I went back to finish that story. They were
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Speaker 2: sweet enough this yoga studio to give you these little
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Speaker 2: white towels that I fell into. The towel that just
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Speaker 2: collected everything that was pouring out of me, and I
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Speaker 2: stayed long enough for the whole room to exit. Because
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Speaker 2: I just couldn't. There was so much shame. I don't
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Speaker 2: even know what was happening, cracked open hearts, just hemorrhaging. Right,
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Speaker 2: I couldn't leave with the room full. So I waited
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Speaker 2: and I cleaned up my mat and went home. And
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Speaker 2: I couldn't even tell you that I had any concept
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Speaker 2: of what was beginning this transformation. So I went back.
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Speaker 2: I went back every single day for the entire summer.
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Speaker 2: And at the end of the summer, there was a
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Speaker 2: sign at the end of the hallway and it said,
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Speaker 2: as if there's like lights from heaving on it, it
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Speaker 2: says yoga teacher training there two hundred hour And I thought,
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Speaker 2: I I can actually learn this and teach this. And
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Speaker 2: if I could no longer having panic attacks, no longer
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Speaker 2: having high functioning anxiety, no longer feeling blue low and these,
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Speaker 2: well that stopped, all of it stopped.
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Speaker 1: It was.
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Speaker 2: Incredible. Here's what I know. The body keeps the score.
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Speaker 2: We understand this. So when there's emotional trauma, micro trauma,
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Speaker 2: acroro traumas, it doesn't matter. It's inside of us, it's dormant,
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Speaker 2: but it's still manifesting into this inflammation, into disordered dysregulation,
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Speaker 2: whatever words we're going to call it, it's we're not well,
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Speaker 2: and we know it because we're showing up with the
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Speaker 2: facade of everything is awesome. You know, we put it
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Speaker 2: on Facebook, on Instagram, but deep down inside we're going
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Speaker 2: to sleep, and if we're ever quiet enough to hear
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Speaker 2: the call and the cry of the soul, we know
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Speaker 2: we're not good. So I decide, I'm going to do
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Speaker 2: this yoga teacher training. I'm going to wounded healer at
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Speaker 2: the time, not knowing, but I'm going to help everybody
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Speaker 2: else heal themselves because look what I've done to me,
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Speaker 2: and it was quick, it was rapid. Now I've been
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Speaker 2: studying spirituality probably my whole life. I mean, I had
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Speaker 2: cries out to God as a little girl, take me home.
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Speaker 2: You know, we learn, as I'm a Christian woman, we
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Speaker 2: learn that God calls his children home. I'm a child.
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Speaker 2: I was in a dysfunctional home. I was full of pain,
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Speaker 2: lots of anger in the house, lots of disorder, and
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Speaker 2: I'm like, cases, take me home. I Am not supposed
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Speaker 2: to be here crying out to the moon and the stars.
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Speaker 2: And that He's like, sisters, say you were here for
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Speaker 2: the long, long journey. So I enroll in teacher training.
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Speaker 2: I quickly moved through that. I enjoy it. I got
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Speaker 2: hired right away, I started teaching right away, and I
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Speaker 2: find a whole new place to express, expand to teach,
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Speaker 2: to connect. And one thing I decided as a teacher
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Speaker 2: was on the mat. I remember moving through these rigorous flows.
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Speaker 2: The harder the better for me, because I could, I
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Speaker 2: could cry, I could purge, I could move, and my
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Speaker 2: body felt different. I felt awake in a way that
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Speaker 2: no other elixir was giving me. You know, you don't
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Speaker 2: feel like that with a bottle of wine. You really
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Speaker 2: felt pretty low at that or there wasn't enough winning
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Speaker 2: at work that made me feel this joyful. But at
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Speaker 2: the end of the class, I remember pulling out a
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Speaker 2: shabasana and waiting for someone to meet my eyes to
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Speaker 2: say I see you, I got you like that whatever.
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Speaker 2: That that was beautiful. Not the sequence, not the chevet,
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Speaker 2: the asinus, but the experience. And everybody was packing up
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Speaker 2: and rolling up their mats, taking their water, and they're gone.
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Speaker 2: They weren't connected, they weren't in a metaphysical experience with me.
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Speaker 2: So Loo and I thought, when I get to teach.
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Speaker 2: When I get to that place, I will ensure I
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Speaker 2: see everybody, I will witness them, I will hold the space.
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Speaker 2: I will connect with them when they're walking out. And
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Speaker 2: we did, and this beautiful thing happened that they started
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Speaker 2: seeing each other, that there was a communing happening before class.
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Speaker 2: Not just roll out the mat, get down in the
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Speaker 2: opening sequence, but hey, I see you, this incredible connection.
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Speaker 2: We just want to be seen, we want to be validated,
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Speaker 2: we want to be affirmed, we want to be loved.
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Speaker 2: And if I could to curate that in a safe,
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Speaker 2: sacred space while life is happening outside of those doors,
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Speaker 2: and they get to come in and shift and process
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Speaker 2: and move and breathe and celebrate in joy, we're winning,
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Speaker 2: the collective starts to heal. So that was how the
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Speaker 2: yoga journey really started for me.
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Speaker 1: That is incredible. How did what happened to the panic
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Speaker 1: attacks and the insecurity How to talk a little bit
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Speaker 1: more specifically about how that kind of dissipated.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question. I had to do a
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Speaker 2: reverse blueprint to figure it out so I could actually
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Speaker 2: learn how to teach from that perspective. What I believe
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Speaker 2: has happened and what I believe has happened to a
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Speaker 2: lot of us is throughout life, when life presents these circumstances,
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Speaker 2: these trials, these traumas, that they can feel like an
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Speaker 2: abandonment or an isolation, or an assault physical and energetic right,
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Speaker 2: these great assaults to the soul. They feel like heart right,
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Speaker 2: they feel like grief, they feel like pain and suffering.
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Speaker 2: And there's a time and a place where it's happening
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Speaker 2: to us. But then there's a time and a place
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Speaker 2: where we're old enough to speak our voice, to speak
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Speaker 2: our truth. Don't touch me, don't do that. I'm not
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Speaker 2: okay with that, to practice boundaries. But if we haven't
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Speaker 2: learned our inherent worth and we don't know how to
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Speaker 2: move into that opening rather than staying in that contraction,
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Speaker 2: if we don't have that, we continue down that same
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Speaker 2: pattern of woe. Is me that victim mentality. Life is hard,
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Speaker 2: the struggle is real. I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy,
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Speaker 2: I'm not lovable. I live there for so long. What
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Speaker 2: I believe happened on that yoga mat was that continuation
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Speaker 2: of opening. I couldn't stay in a fetal position. I
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Speaker 2: was forced to open from construction. So this ascension happening,
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Speaker 2: and then you can't stay in that pain when you
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Speaker 2: start to feel the joy. And the way yoga poses
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Speaker 2: work is there is the twisting or the compression, but
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Speaker 2: then there's the opening. So if you think about holding
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Speaker 2: something long enough that the pain starts to come up
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Speaker 2: and the discomfort the challenge, and they teach you to
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Speaker 2: not react. I can't cry about it. I mean I could,
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Speaker 2: but instead I become reliant on my breath, start to
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Speaker 2: embody that there is a spirit, there's a soul, there
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Speaker 2: is a worth, there was love in me inside of
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Speaker 2: the body at an energetic level, that I am more
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Speaker 2: than the body. So the expansion started happening by the practice.
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Speaker 2: So we start to find the inherent worth. You start
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Speaker 2: to find the times where you quit on yourself, where
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Speaker 2: you lacked the integrity to stand in that truth and
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Speaker 2: say no more. I can, Yes, we can. We are
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Speaker 2: totally capable and confident beyond all recognition because we are
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Speaker 2: gifted with that breath of life. So I believe feeling
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Speaker 2: the energy shift in the body, eradicating the pain every
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Speaker 2: time I cried, every time I let go, every time
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Speaker 2: I found a new way in a new peak, pose
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Speaker 2: a new way to go. Hell freaking yes, I am here,
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Speaker 2: we are let's go. So the body shifts physically, the
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Speaker 2: body shifts energetically, the whole self shifts emotionally, and we
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Speaker 2: start to feel, maybe for the first time, a relationship
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Speaker 2: with self. So what was this abandonment of others? Who do?
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Speaker 2: I think we're assigned to us to hopefully care for us,
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Speaker 2: and maybe they couldn't. Maybe they didn't. So then we
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Speaker 2: abandon self. We stop speaking up, we stop asking for help,
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Speaker 2: and we stop searching for the purpose, for the meaning,
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Speaker 2: and we look externally. Somebody else validate me, somebody else,
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Speaker 2: you know, honor me. And that's not their job, it's
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Speaker 2: our job. So on that match, swimming through all that pain,
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Speaker 2: eradicating it, finally to speak into the truth of I
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Speaker 2: am here, Oh wait here, I am wait? Who am I?
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Speaker 2: Who am I? Without all the pain? Spiritual ascensioning happening
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Speaker 2: in real time. And I think there's a violation and
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Speaker 2: an abandonment of God of consciousness in us because we forgot.
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Speaker 2: We've lost ourselves based on trauma, based on pain, based
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Speaker 2: on I can't do this anymore. It hurts too much.
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Speaker 2: Completely walk away from the self more than the body.
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Speaker 2: And then oh, by the way, God wasn't there either,
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Speaker 2: or was he? Of course God is always there, so
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Speaker 2: the reclamation and it doesn't happen so much as a
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Speaker 2: spiritual identity in that quick succession. For me, first it
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Speaker 2: was the body. We'reclaiming who I am in the body,
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Speaker 2: and then starting to make new choices. I want to
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Speaker 2: start to honor, to have a devotion, to have a
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Speaker 2: sacred union. I no longer want to hurt myself or
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Speaker 2: abandon myself, or violate myself, or to abuse myself. I mean,
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Speaker 2: it was straight up nothing short of abuse my life
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Speaker 2: from others. And then to me, it hurt myself. I
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Speaker 2: betrayed myself. I had none integrity. I was emotionally bankrupt
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Speaker 2: and morally corrupt until I got on that yoga mat.
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Speaker 1: Jesus damn.
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Speaker 2: Yoga.
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Speaker 1: Let me remind everyone I'm speaking with Jennifer Kenney Smith.
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Speaker 1: All right, so you were very powerful. I mean, you
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Speaker 1: have this powerful energy and you've dialed in your transformation
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Speaker 1: and you're able to just talk about it in such
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Speaker 1: an incredible way. I'm like ready to go get on
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Speaker 1: a yoga mat, but we're gonna have to talk about
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Speaker 1: this after this, But so, okay, how did you come
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Speaker 1: to found JKS Yoga and coaching? How did that come about?
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Speaker 2: Thank you? So the journey continued, this hyper expansion. So
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Speaker 2: I'm teaching yoga. I'm in absolute love. I'm still working
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Speaker 2: full time in my corporate career, which I don't I
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Speaker 2: don't know if I loved it anymore, but I still
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Speaker 2: was very good at it. I've still found a lot
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Speaker 2: of my recognition, my standard of success still there. And
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Speaker 2: the pandemic comes about and closes the doors of the
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Speaker 2: yoga studio. My clients asked, could I teach yoga? And
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Speaker 2: I'm like, no, I'm in the pandemic too. I don't
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Speaker 2: know what's happening. I am terrified. I'm going to the
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Speaker 2: grocery store with a mask and goggles and gloves too.
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Speaker 2: I don't know what to do. So they pushed me
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Speaker 2: enough that I taught on Zoom awkward, awful. I didn't know.
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Speaker 2: I didn't know how my body would be look on camera.
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Speaker 2: And I worked through it because people kept showing up.
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Speaker 2: We had I I taught ninety classes on Zoom for free,
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Speaker 2: just to get us through the first ninety days, and
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Speaker 2: there was an outpouring of connection. Then I thought, this
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Speaker 2: is June. Could I find space outdoors to bring us
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Speaker 2: back together. And we have a bunch of wineries in
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Speaker 2: northern Virginia. So I started teaching pop up yoga a wineries,
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Speaker 2: which was phenomenal open space and they didn't mean six
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Speaker 2: feet was still the rule and we but we weren't
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Speaker 2: capped on numbers. So I think we had fifty something
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Speaker 2: people show up to their first out for yoga vet
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Speaker 2: and they were buzzing. So we need to be together community.
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Speaker 2: We have got to show up to be together. I
18:23
Speaker 2: think isolation is it's a terrible place to live and be.
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Speaker 2: And I think that if we can find a way
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Speaker 2: to this is why the yoga community is super special.
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Speaker 2: Meditation yoga to go out, don't do it alone. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I'm not assume yoga is okay, but can you can
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Speaker 2: you reach out and find a community to do it
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Speaker 2: in person? So I'm teaching yoga online. I'm still working
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Speaker 2: and because of the work I worked for a company
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Speaker 2: that was going public. We had a ton of expectation.
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Speaker 2: There's a lot of pressure. There was a lot of hiring,
18:53
Speaker 2: there was a lot of firing. It was very fast.
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Speaker 2: It was a lot of hours, fourteen sixteen hours sitting
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Speaker 2: in this room on the assume, and my body started
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Speaker 2: to feel pretty awful. I'm saying things to myself like
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Speaker 2: I'm freaking exhausted. I feel inflamed. I remember putting in
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Speaker 2: my notes in my phone. I don't feel like I'm
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Speaker 2: in my own body. It was puffy, it was, and
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Speaker 2: I don't know if I really gained any weight. It
19:19
Speaker 2: was just sitting not moving enough. So I started researching
19:25
Speaker 2: for guides teachers to heal inflammation. That was the word
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Speaker 2: that kept coming up for me. The sister of yoga,
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Speaker 2: the medicinal side of yoga is our Veda. It's called
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Speaker 2: from Sanskrit. The translation is life knowledge, the knowledge of life,
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Speaker 2: and the belief is from five thousand years of wisdom.
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Speaker 2: If we can prevent disease, we can truly thrive. Also
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Speaker 2: the Circadian rhythm, How can we honor the earth with
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Speaker 2: our bodies, with our spirit, with the physical, emotional and
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Speaker 2: spiritual parts of us? How can we get into tum
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Speaker 2: in alignment with all that's around us and use it
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Speaker 2: as resources and resourcefulness. So I start studying our Veda
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Speaker 2: and do my first ravedic detox and I lose seventeen
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Speaker 2: pounds of inflammation. And yes, I tell you what, I
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Speaker 2: am transforming physically, also spiritually and emotionally because I'm now
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Speaker 2: in a deep honoring of this devotion, the physical yoga
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Speaker 2: and the spiritual yoga. I felt incredible. But this is
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Speaker 2: now like a tuning up, this ascension. What we get
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Speaker 2: is the gift of when we remove the toxins from
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Speaker 2: the body, we get full prana. Prana gets to move
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Speaker 2: to and through us in all parts of our body,
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Speaker 2: so we have higher frequency. We are really limited in
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Speaker 2: the energy source of no more exhaustion, no more feeling bad.
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Speaker 2: I found I'm in down dog teaching. I step to
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Speaker 2: the front and I rise up to high crescent and
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Speaker 2: I just about go through my wall because it's this
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Speaker 2: lightness feels of the gross body, the physical body. It
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Speaker 2: feels heavy. There's muscle, there's bones, there's ligaments, there's plasma,
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Speaker 2: there's all the stuff. But when you move into lightness,
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Speaker 2: light is in structure, but also energetic lightness hoove different.
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Speaker 2: So begin the healing process physically and energetically through the
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Speaker 2: study of our Veda. End up studying with this beautiful
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Speaker 2: woman for two years to really learn how to tune
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Speaker 2: it up, heal it up, and we combined yoga and
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Speaker 2: our a Veda to be in a mastermind how to
21:35
Speaker 2: deeply heal from the inside, how to eradicate those old wounds,
21:40
Speaker 2: that trauma. When we start to realize I can heal
21:43
Speaker 2: because I'm worthy of it and calling on the ascension
21:46
Speaker 2: of we are worthy of this life to be joyful,
21:49
Speaker 2: to be expansive. It doesn't have to be pain and suffering.
21:52
Speaker 2: Sure things will happen and things can be tough, but
21:54
Speaker 2: it's not a life sentence. So merge those together and
21:58
Speaker 2: created this incredible code program and one other piece to
22:02
Speaker 2: that same season of that pandemic. I started studying under
22:07
Speaker 2: Tony Robbins for life coaching, changing the patterns of the brain,
22:13
Speaker 2: changing how stories have been encoded on us, whether from
22:16
Speaker 2: culture or the patriarch, or religion or family. I come
22:22
Speaker 2: from a deep line of alcoholics, the entire bloodline on
22:27
Speaker 2: both sides. I stopped drinking this past year and a half.
22:30
Speaker 2: Now I think, yeah, a year and maybe eight months.
22:34
Speaker 2: I just can't be a part of numbing out to
22:38
Speaker 2: not feel because now I know if I move through it.
22:42
Speaker 2: I moved through it so learning from Tony that their
22:47
Speaker 2: stories are not just what happened to us, but the
22:50
Speaker 2: meaning we put to it, the way we let it
22:53
Speaker 2: define us, and to start moving away from the caged life.
22:59
Speaker 2: You know, there's so many times we have the thing
23:02
Speaker 2: that happened and then we feel a certain way about
23:04
Speaker 2: what happened and we don't know that the cage is.
23:07
Speaker 2: The door's freaking open and we literally have the key
23:10
Speaker 2: in our pocket. But we're like, it's almost easier to
23:14
Speaker 2: stay in that easeful although sounds like it's pretty shitty,
23:17
Speaker 2: but it's easier than doing the work because we're like, well,
23:20
Speaker 2: if I open the cage, then I got to go
23:21
Speaker 2: do the things, do the things. It's not hard, it's
23:27
Speaker 2: just making that next step. And it can be a
23:29
Speaker 2: KUIs and it can be small incremental changes or it
23:31
Speaker 2: can be huge quantum leaps. But there's nothing worse than
23:34
Speaker 2: staying and suffering when you know on the other side
23:37
Speaker 2: is joy, is health as well, and as this connection
23:40
Speaker 2: is love, contribution and the collective being together. So merge
23:46
Speaker 2: all that together, shake it up. That's my coaching, that's
23:51
Speaker 2: what I do.
23:51
Speaker 1: So you do this looking at your website, which is
23:56
Speaker 1: jks yoga dot com. You have masterclass, you have a coaching,
24:02
Speaker 1: you do this in retreat. Do you just work with women?
24:06
Speaker 2: No? No, I was called this year. I'd been working
24:11
Speaker 2: with women, and I love working with women because I
24:13
Speaker 2: see myself in so many of them. But this year,
24:17
Speaker 2: this past March, I was at an event and I
24:20
Speaker 2: had this calling, kind of polling of put up a post.
24:23
Speaker 2: And I put up a post on LinkedIn, which was
24:25
Speaker 2: my background in my corporate career, and that's mostly men
24:28
Speaker 2: I worked with. It was twenty percent women in that
24:30
Speaker 2: industry I came from. And I hadn't posted the yoga
24:33
Speaker 2: that's so female, My following so many women, So I thought,
24:39
Speaker 2: what am I going to put on there that men
24:41
Speaker 2: will relate to? And I just put up a post
24:42
Speaker 2: of why I left corporate and why there was a
24:46
Speaker 2: lot of stuff happening that led up to that, and
24:49
Speaker 2: I was building this on the side too. I just
24:51
Speaker 2: totally felt called. It feels very much in alignment to
24:54
Speaker 2: my purpose and my assignment, my ordained assignment by God.
24:59
Speaker 2: Here's what I'm here to do. And I put up
25:01
Speaker 2: a post and I got more comments and more dms
25:07
Speaker 2: from executive men CEOs founders.
25:12
Speaker 1: Well, this was on Instagram or it was.
25:14
Speaker 2: On LinkedIn Okay asking to do a discovery call, and
25:20
Speaker 2: it was pretty much the synopsis which came up with
25:22
Speaker 2: my latest tagline, I help people end their midlife crisis
25:25
Speaker 2: and jumpstart their midlife awakening. And they were like, I
25:29
Speaker 2: think I might be in a midlife crisis, and what
25:32
Speaker 2: you're doing sounds like I'd rather do that awakening than
25:36
Speaker 2: this crisis from someone in the middle of an affair.
25:40
Speaker 2: And he doesn't know why. Someone who is running a
25:43
Speaker 2: major organization but has diabetes and some other autoimmune doesn't
25:48
Speaker 2: know why. And as I start to unpack, tell me
25:51
Speaker 2: about the relationship with your parents, both of them alcoholic families,
25:55
Speaker 2: or major childhood trauma just completely suppressed. Doesn't understand that
26:00
Speaker 2: was the driver behind the identity of them wanting to
26:03
Speaker 2: be an overachiever, high performer, because the facade, just like
26:08
Speaker 2: I knew, made us feel good, made us feel important
26:11
Speaker 2: and special. It's it's all that we want. But when
26:14
Speaker 2: we're searching in all the wrong places, not coming home
26:18
Speaker 2: to ourselves, to our creator, we will keep looking for it.
26:22
Speaker 2: And it's the it's the big myth, it's the lie,
26:27
Speaker 2: dirty little liar out there that it's something outside of
26:30
Speaker 2: us where the antidote. We hold the keys to the
26:36
Speaker 2: pain being released, but we have to sit long enough
26:39
Speaker 2: for ourselves and make that decision. I'm going to do
26:42
Speaker 2: the work because I know on the other side of
26:44
Speaker 2: this pain and this facade is my worthiness, is my
26:48
Speaker 2: truth here I am. So the men started showing up
26:53
Speaker 2: and it blew my mind. So I created a course
26:55
Speaker 2: for the men which is similar, but it's we still
26:58
Speaker 2: hold the container, the sacred space. And even so, I
27:01
Speaker 2: am now working with another company similar to me. They
27:05
Speaker 2: offer plant journeys.
27:07
Speaker 1: Mine journeys, okays, psychedelic journeys yep, yep.
27:12
Speaker 2: So they have a concierge business and I met them
27:16
Speaker 2: through a potential client of mine and we did a
27:20
Speaker 2: call and I ended up saying, I love what you're doing.
27:23
Speaker 2: I don't offer that, but I'm curious, would you ever
27:26
Speaker 2: consider having longer integration for your clients where I can
27:31
Speaker 2: teach them these ancient healing modalities, So every day they
27:35
Speaker 2: have a daily ritual, they get to keep coming back
27:38
Speaker 2: to themselves, honoring and shifting in a way that is
27:42
Speaker 2: is kind and mindful for themselves, not just going on
27:45
Speaker 2: a retreat, not just waiting for the next event, not
27:49
Speaker 2: having to go to Peru or Costa Rica like here
27:52
Speaker 2: wherever they live, they can do this every single day
27:54
Speaker 2: and they're like, that's interesting. What would you offer? I
27:57
Speaker 2: share with them on my program is couple of weeks
28:00
Speaker 2: go by, we end up meeting in person. We then
28:03
Speaker 2: made a CEO I do, and then I bring him
28:05
Speaker 2: into this conversation and said, and who he does plant
28:08
Speaker 2: journeys for his accelerated ascension. It's very much a spiritual
28:12
Speaker 2: journey for him, and say we present it. We have
28:15
Speaker 2: two similar but very unique and different offerings. Would you
28:20
Speaker 2: see the benefit of us collaborating together and offering all
28:24
Speaker 2: of it and like a year long journey. So this
28:27
Speaker 2: is in the works right now. We haven't made it
28:29
Speaker 2: public yet, but what I'm finding is how men are
28:33
Speaker 2: working through their own trauma, their own healing, their own
28:37
Speaker 2: spiritual awakening and awareness and ascension. A lot of them
28:40
Speaker 2: are finding relief and healing through plant medicine. So there's
28:46
Speaker 2: a lot of ways you can go inward. And what
28:50
Speaker 2: my hope is is that we have an offering that
28:52
Speaker 2: you have a safe space and a place to be
28:56
Speaker 2: in communing connection with all of these beautiful modalities, so
29:00
Speaker 2: you will never alone, you never feel isolated, You're no
29:03
Speaker 2: longer living in that self abandonment. And to pull that
29:06
Speaker 2: all together with a beautiful offering which will be coming
29:09
Speaker 2: out soon, and I'll be sure to let you know
29:10
Speaker 2: what we're ready to announce that.
29:12
Speaker 1: You have an incredible way of articulating what I think
29:19
Speaker 1: a lot of us are experiencing, which is a lack
29:26
Speaker 1: of worth while trying to find that worth externally, right.
29:33
Speaker 1: We spend so much time doing that, and the way
29:38
Speaker 1: you describe it and talk about it and share your
29:42
Speaker 1: own journey is very powerful. Jennifer, what's the best way
29:47
Speaker 1: for people to get in contact with you? Before you
29:49
Speaker 1: went into that? So who would you say? Who are
29:54
Speaker 1: you speaking to?
29:58
Speaker 2: Speaking to anybody or female and any line of work. Honestly,
30:02
Speaker 2: that feels so that there is something more that feels
30:06
Speaker 2: at the core of them, that this polarity of I
30:10
Speaker 2: know there's more, and I know I've heard it, whether
30:12
Speaker 2: it was in scripture, to church or on a podcast,
30:15
Speaker 2: and I've heard the stories of those who have found
30:17
Speaker 2: that ascension, that that worthiness and they're showing up in
30:20
Speaker 2: the way, but deep down inside I don't know if
30:23
Speaker 2: I'm worthy. I know I am, but I don't know how.
30:26
Speaker 2: I don't know how to find that expansion. For me,
30:29
Speaker 2: it was hands and knees, literally crying my guts out,
30:32
Speaker 2: waiting for something somebody to show up. And it didn't
30:35
Speaker 2: happen that way. Honestly, it wasn't until I got on
30:39
Speaker 2: that yoga mat. So anyone that is searching for that
30:42
Speaker 2: meaning and fulfillment and the identity shift of it doesn't
30:46
Speaker 2: have to just be the job. It doesn't have to
30:48
Speaker 2: just be the family. It's you were so incredibly worthy,
30:52
Speaker 2: and I want to say I love you. I don't
30:55
Speaker 2: even know you, but I don't even care, because I
30:56
Speaker 2: know if your heart is open enough that we all
30:59
Speaker 2: want to feel that love and connection. I want to
31:04
Speaker 2: encourage you to write it down, claim it and name
31:07
Speaker 2: it and call in the teachers, the guides, the healers,
31:12
Speaker 2: and show up and just trust the process and know
31:16
Speaker 2: by the breath inside of your lungs is the example
31:19
Speaker 2: that you were worthy to be here because you were
31:21
Speaker 2: given another breath today in yoga we look it's really
31:25
Speaker 2: from the Praniama form, which is really the breath practice.
31:28
Speaker 2: We are instructed and taught that we have so many
31:30
Speaker 2: breaths in this lifetime. You get twenty five thousand breaths
31:35
Speaker 2: to day. If you get that next breath, can we
31:39
Speaker 2: honor that this is a sacred experience and that the
31:43
Speaker 2: suffering can end with you. That you can absolutely change
31:47
Speaker 2: the trajectory of your life, is your children's life, is
31:50
Speaker 2: the people that you touch when you make that decision,
31:52
Speaker 2: I'm going to start to allow people into my life
31:57
Speaker 2: and begin this healing journey.
32:01
Speaker 1: HEO love it. Thank you, Jennifer. How do people reach you?
32:06
Speaker 1: What's the best way?
32:07
Speaker 2: So jks yoga and coaching on Instagram. I'm also Jennifer
32:11
Speaker 2: Kenny Smith on LinkedIn. Jks yoga is the website jks
32:16
Speaker 2: yoga dot com. Anyway, they all have this DMS on
32:20
Speaker 2: there and they can reach out to me that way.
32:21
Speaker 2: It is me that responds. It is not a bot
32:24
Speaker 2: or my VA, it is me. I am extremely passionate
32:28
Speaker 2: about the conversation and your story. Your story is so
32:34
Speaker 2: special and sacred and it would be my honor to
32:37
Speaker 2: hear it and to meet you.
32:39
Speaker 1: Awesome. We'll have this linked up at the show notes
32:42
Speaker 1: page at the Traumaps podcast dot com. Jennifer come on,
32:46
Speaker 1: you are so friggin inspiring. I love it. I'm glad
32:51
Speaker 1: I met you, love to have you back at a
32:54
Speaker 1: later time, and love the work you're doing. Thank you
32:57
Speaker 1: for being here.
32:58
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for holding this fake, for doing
33:00
Speaker 2: your work. I'd love to witness you, and thank you
33:02
Speaker 2: for bringing teachers on here so we can all learn
33:06
Speaker 2: from the work that you're offering. Thank you, Thank you
33:08
Speaker 2: all right,