Latest / The MODERN YIN Podcast / How To "Cool TF Down" with Yin Yoga

Transcript

How To "Cool TF Down" with Yin Yoga · The MODERN YIN Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey, hey, Yinning at Life Gang. It's Kimberly Roberts of the
• 0:03
  Soulfully in brand. I'm here to dish out all things
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  about traditional Chinese medicine, yin yoga, reflexology.
• 0:12
  And of course, I'm here to disrupt your mind.
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  So thanks so much for pressing play on today's episode.
• 0:20
  Let's do this. We talk about this heat.
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  I mean, honestly, I love it. But there was a time in my life
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  where the kind of heat that we're experiencing, well, at
• 0:34
  least here in most of the Northern Hemisphere, was just
• 0:39
  not doable for me. Like I suffered so much with the
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  heat, exhaustion, rage, lack of sleep, you name it.
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  Like lack of appetite, everything came with the heat.
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  But now, thanks to some beautiful techniques, including
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  yin yoga, which I'm going to talk about today, I'm now like
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  totally OK with the heat. I mean, I do have AC and I love
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  to sleep with AC. And it's actually, you know, far
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  more beneficial to sleep in a cool environment than it is in a
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  hot. But on a day-to-day basis, I
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  love to just be out in the heat. Now, of course, sunscreen and
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  all, for sure. So let's talk about today about
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  how yin yoga can cool you down, and in more ways than one.
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  Because right away, most people assume when I say, well, yin
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  yoga can help you cool your down, they're like, well, yeah,
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  like you're barely moving and you're low to the ground.
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  So of course, like you're not exerting a lot of physical
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  energy. So yeah, you wouldn't generate a
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  lot of heat. But here's the thing, I've been
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  in some yin yoga poses where I've actually generated a shit
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  ton of heat in my body and it came out on my skin.
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  It came out in my breath, it came out in my eyes, it came out
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  in my liver for sure. But let me tell you, I've had
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  some heated practices. So yen yoga can help you cool
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  down physically, but it can also help you cool down mentally and
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  emotionally. And that's kind of more of what
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  I want to talk about because most of us think on a physical
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  level. Well, yeah, if I'm low to the
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  ground and I'm not really moving and I'm sitting there or I'm
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  laying in a pose and my eyes are closed and I'm breathing and I'm
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  in the moment, like of course my, you know, I'm going to feel
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  cool. But you can also feel pretty
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  heated in those moments too. But what really strikes a chord
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  with me right now is because I'm seeing a lot of patients in my
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  reflexology practice and even some of my students in my live
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  stream classes are commenting like this heat is, is a lot for
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  me. Like I find like I'm flying off
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  the handle a lot sooner and like, you know, the irritation
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  and the frustration over the smallest little things is
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  happening, whereas, you know, that never used to happen
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  before. And I'm like, well, it's, it's
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  an overload of heat. But sometimes the heat is coming
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  from our liver. I mean, if we know that the
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  liver organ system as a whole on a Western approach is all about
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  right detoxification. So we all know it's the major
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  detox organ has over, you know, 600 functions that it does every
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  single day. And then above and beyond that,
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  maybe some other stuff that's happening, especially if you're
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  not in good health. So your liver takes a huge hit
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  all the time. And I mean, in any given moment,
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  you could put your hand on your liver and it'll feel hot.
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  Why? Because it's doing something,
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  it's, it's filtering something, whether it's something we put in
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  our body, whether it's something we put on our skin, maybe it's
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  something we're absorbing from, you know, the world outside.
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  Like even like mentally and emotionally, the thoughts that
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  we have, it's all processed through the liver.
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  Like that organ is always doing something.
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  So it should never feel cold, but sometimes it could feel like
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  it's almost burning. And it can also feel sometimes
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  really tired. This is why we call, you know,
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  that term sluggish liver because sometimes it's just like it's
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  trying to do what it's meant to do, but it's having a hard time
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  doing it. And I really want to emphasize
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  just the connection between our thoughts, our emotions that get
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  produced as a result of those thoughts and how that impacts
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  our liver. Because at the end of the day,
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  at the end of all of that, what ends up happening is your
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  reality. What shows up in your life is a
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  mirror of what you've been thinking, feeling, and the
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  emotions that have been associated.
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  And sometimes when we're overheated physically because
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  of, you know, a lot of heat, which is happening right now,
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  especially in the Northern hemisphere, we have, you know,
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  really volatile weather conditions.
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  And, you know, some days it's like 35 without even the humidx,
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  and then other days it's like, you know, 15.
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  And when you layer on the humidity, and especially
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  depending on where you live, like I live in Ottawa, so we're
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  in kind of a valley. And so we really absorb the
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  humidity a lot. So it's not just the heat, but
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  it's the humidity that slows us down.
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  And it causes the liver to have to function even harder, right?
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  And most of us, sadly, this still astonishes me to this day.
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  But most people are still chronically dehydrated.
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  They don't drink enough water. Like I will see patients on my
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  massage table like five days a week.
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  And I'm working on their feet and a reflexology treatment.
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  And I'm like, have you had any water today?
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  And they're like, yeah, I had like half a glass.
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  And I'm like, and it's like 2:30 in the afternoon.
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  And I'm like, you're dehydrated. And they're like, really?
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  And I'm like, can you not tell? But here's the thing, like when
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  you don't drink enough water, you get dehydrated.
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  This just starts to become your normal state of being.
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  And you don't know any different, but your liver is
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  having to work harder. And let's not make it work
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  harder by dehydrating ourselves, putting crappy processed foods
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  into our body and also crappy, and I'm going to say processed
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  thoughts in our mind. You know, the ones that, you
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  know, like self sabotaging thoughts, the ones where, you
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  know, we don't think we're good enough, we're not worthy, we're
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  not deserving. You know, everybody hates me, no
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  one loves me. I hate the world.
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  Like all of these really negative, toxic thoughts that
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  we, you know, put in our own mind.
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  But then the ones that we also pick up from other people,
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  whether it's family, friends, social media, the news, like
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  let's not even go there talking about the news, how toxic that
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  is for your liver. But you see, all of this has a
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  compound ripple effect. And when your liver is having to
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  work a lot harder than it should be.
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  Here's the thing, and this is in Chinese medicine, in Western
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  medicine, they won't, they won't agree with this statement.
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  But in TCM and traditional Chinese medicine, The thing is,
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  is that your liver is filtering your thoughts.
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  The liver loves like an easy going disposition, you know,
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  like go with the flow kind of mentality.
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  So anytime we create resistance and especially resistance with
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  our thoughts or resistance that we pick up from other people or,
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  you know, the environment around us or the world, the liver has
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  to filter that too. And so instead of 600 functions,
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  it's probably going like close to like 700.
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  I don't know, I don't know the exact number here, but let's
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  just say it's doing a lot more than it's supposed to be.
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  And what I have found in my yen practice, which is really cool
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  because for me, the physical stretch is just a given.
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  I mean, I say that all the time, like it's part of the practice.
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  I know it's there and I know if my hips are super, super tight,
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  I will often make the correlation of like, OK, my hips
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  are like a little bit tighter than they usually are today.
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  What kind of thoughts have I been thinking?
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  Because the liver Meridian channel runs through the inside
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  of the legs and the gallbladder Meridian channel, it's paired
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  organ runs through the outside of the legs and they're
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  connected, right? Gallbladder and liver, they work
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  together and they all, you know that Meridian, those Meridian
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  channels move up through the body, through the hips.
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  So when my hips are super, super tight, unless I, I was doing
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  something like a really hardcore physical exercise, then of
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  course I know my hips are tight because you know what?
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  I just worked out. But say I haven't been working
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  out a lot, but my hips all of a sudden are super tight.
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  I haven't been sitting for like 15 hours a day.
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  So I'm like what's up? And then I know it's my
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  thoughts. And I can tell you because I
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  have such acute emotional awareness, emotional
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  intelligence, I can tap in in literally a hot 2nd where I'm at
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  emotionally. And I know that if I'm on the
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  emotional scale at a lower level, like around anger, for
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  example, then you know what? I know that that is having an
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  effect on my physical body. I know it's having an effect on
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  my mental health. I know it's having an effect
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  obviously emotionally because I'm angry or if it's irritation
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  or frustration, but then I know that that is going to ripple
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  down into my liver and eventually that is going to
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  create some imbalance or some dis ease in that organ because
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  it's all connected. It's all connected in in TCM, we
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  don't separate the physical from the mental and the emotional.
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  So in my, in practice, this is where I really focus less so on
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  the stretch and I focus more on cultivating emotional
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  intelligence. Where am I at?
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  Where am I vibrating at? Because essentially whatever
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  I'm, whatever emotions I'm experiencing, I'm vibrating out
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  at. And that's what the universe is
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  picking up. And then that's what I'm getting
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  back as a mirror to me. So if I'm angry, that means I'm
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  vibrating out of frequency and energy of anger, which means I'm
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  going to attract back to me similar experiences that are
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  just going to make me more angry.
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  Like that's how the universe works.
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  It's just a matchy matchy. And so if my liver, if I'm
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  pissed off, then my liver is pissed off.
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  And then the universe picks up an energy of oh, she's pissed
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  off. Well, let me send her something
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  else to piss her off. And the cycle goes round and
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  around and around like you're spiraling.
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  So the moment you're in the pause and the stillness of a
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  pose, your mind is going to start to move.
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  Thoughts are going to come in. This is just the natural nature
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  of our mind. It's not meant to be quiet.
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  It thinks. And if you can be properly
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  propped up in a pose using your props so that your body is not
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  so physically uncomfortable, then you can.
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  And only then will you be able to tap into the emotions.
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  And then the powerful part comes, the awareness kicks in
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  and it's like, oh, do I? If I say I'm having a negative
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  thought, I'm like, do I really want to continue to think that?
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  Like, how is that going to serve me?
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  And for me, it's even more than that.
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  So if I, if I notice a negative thought coming up in my mind,
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  I'll be like, OK, I'm noticing that.
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  And let's face it, people, we're human.
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  Nobody's up on a pedestal with 100% of the time pure thoughts.
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  It's not possible. So I'm not lesser of a human
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  because I get angry and I want to give you permission to accept
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  that for yourself. It's also OK to be sad or to be
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  worried or to be scared. These are, you know, emotions.
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  In in my previous podcast episode, I talked about shame.
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  Shame, you know, an embarrassment like those are
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  hard ones to digest, but you know what, like we're going to
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  experience and experience them and it's OK.
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  It's just we don't want to build a house in that.
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  That's not what we want our foundation to be.
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  So when you can notice the thoughts and you say, OK, I
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  realize I'm angry right now we're worried or whatever it is.
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  How? And then the next question I
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  asked myself is, well, how is that serving me being worried?
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  Or how is that serving me being angry?
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  And I'll look for responses. Sometimes I don't get the
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  response right off the bat. It's something to contemplate.
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  But then I take it a step further.
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  And for me, it's like, well, how are these thoughts serving other
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  people in my life? How are these thoughts serving
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  my business, my clients, my students?
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  And then I take it up a notch to the highest level and I'm like,
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  how are these thoughts serving the world?
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  Because I'll tell you, if I'm angry all the time, I'm not
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  serving me. I'm not serving you.
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  I'm not serving my students, I'm not serving my clients, I'm not
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  serving my family, my friends, and I'm certainly not serving
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  this world. And I'm here to serve myself,
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  you and everyone. But I know I'm going to have
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  lesser than vibrant thoughts and that's OK.
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  And so I can move in my, in practice through these
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  contemplative thoughts and sometimes the answers will come
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  really clear. I will tell you now that I've
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  been practicing this way for such a long time that I can
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  literally shift my emotional state in like a hot second.
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  I really can because I know that every time I'm either angry,
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  worried, scared, doubtful, I know the ripple compound effect
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  that that is sending out into this world.
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  And it's not what I desire because I'm not just here to
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  live my extraordinary life. I'm here to help you live your
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  extraordinary life. So if I'm not vibing that you're
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  not going to pick up that vibe. So it's a waste of my time and a
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  waste of my energy, and it's even a waste of the universe
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  because the universe is like, you know, I want to send her all
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  the great things. Why is she down low?
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  Move up the vibrational scale, girl.
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  I got things to send you. Good things, fun things, amazing
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  things, extraordinary things. I got you.
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  But if you're going to sit down in the worry and the fear and
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  the anger, all right, well, I'm going to give you back more of
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  that. So I know and I am so committed
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  to my own evolution and my own healing journey.
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  And because I am at that point where I feel I am living my
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  extraordinary life. Do I have everything that I
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  desire? No, I'm still a work in
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  progress. And that's the thing, we all
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  are. But I will tell you that with
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  yin yoga, I have certainly been able to cool down my emotions
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  because for years, especially when I was in my marriage to an
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  alcoholic, I mean, I didn't drink, but I felt like I was the
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  alcoholic because I was just as angry all the time.
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  And I tried to hide it, but it was hard.
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  It even showed on my face, like my face was red all the time.
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  People used to say to me, do you have rosacea?
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  And I'm like, no. And they're like, well, why is
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  your skin so red? And why is it so hot all the
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  time? Well, it's because you know
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  what? I was pissed off and my liver
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  was pissed off. And although I was doing yen at
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  the time, I didn't have the emotional intelligence, the
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  emotional awareness, the resilience that I have now.
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  And, you know, you don't know until you know, And I always say
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  too, that we only ever do the best that we can with the tools
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  that we have in the moment. So, and I talked a lot about
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  that in my previous episode where I talked about shame, all
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  the things that I was, you know, ashamed of and embarrassed of.
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  Well, I was only operating with what I knew at the time.
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  And you know what? We all are.
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  So is there any point to be carrying around all of this
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  heaviness? Because regardless of whether
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  it's sadness, worry or fear or whatever, your liver still
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  filters that. Even though its primary emotion
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  in TCM is anger, it still has to filter everything, all your
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  emotions. So the practice of yen, it's so
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  much more powerful than the physical stretch.
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  Think of it as a stretch for your mind and what you're
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  capable of shifting with it. Because I'll tell you, anything
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  and everything is possible when you get still, when you pause,
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  when you tune inward. And the more you do it, the more
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  you cultivate and develop this emotional awareness that leads
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  you to living an extraordinary life and being able to handle
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  this heat. Because I'll tell you, if your
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  liver hasn't doesn't have to work so hard, you're going to be
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  a lot cooler. You're not going to be so
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  irritated, You're not going to be so overheated, physically,
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  mentally, emotionally. So do yourself a favor, get on
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  the mat, practice some yin. You want to get really precise,
• 21:09
  get on the Soulful Yin app and practice all of the practices
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  that I have for emotional intelligence.
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  Every single emotion. There are practices on my app to
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  help you release anger, fear, worry, sadness, grief, all of
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  it. There's mindset courses, there's
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  downloadable ebooks. There is so much content on
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  there to help you cool down and live your extraordinary life.
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  So come and join us on the app. I will link all the information
• 21:53
  in the show notes and I'll see you next week where I'm going to
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  talk about reflexology and how it's for more than just your
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  beat.