Latest / Skin Anarchy / Embarking on a Transformative Yoga Journey with Rachel Brathen, NYT Bestselling Author and Founder of Yoga Girl

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Embarking on a Transformative Yoga Journey with Rachel Brathen, NYT Bestselling Author and Founder of Yoga Girl · Skin Anarchy

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is our brand new series that is focused on mindset and mindfulness, and I'm really excited to be bringing this to you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it is brand new, but we've had a few guests on, and the guests we have today is absolutely phenomenal.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot wait to introduce you guys to her.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: You might know her uh as a New York Times bestselling author or the founder and CEO of Yoga Girl.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so without further ado, I'm gonna introduce you guys to uh to Rachel Bratton.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Rachel.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to host you.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I want to get started with learning all about you, you know, and and where your journey began with um mindfulness and uh, you know, your yoga practice and everything.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: If you could walk us down memory lane.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course, for sure.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I was born and raised in Sweden, and I lived in Sweden until I was about 18 years old, and I had kind of a troubled teen years.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people do.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, who has a great who has a great teen experience?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: But mine was particularly just kind of dark and heavy, and I was depressed and just didn't know what to do with my life.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I had a lot of physical pain I've had my whole life.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had scoliosis when I was young and a car accident.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: I just was in physical pain and kind of mental, emotional pain.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I ended up at a meditation retreat when I was 17 and a half, almost 18 years old, out of the blue.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'd never meditated ever in my life.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was just not feeling well and looking for something to help.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that really was the beginning of me changing my life.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It led to me moving away from Sweden.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I ended up in Costa Rica, and that's where I found the yoga practice, which of course meditation is a huge part of yoga.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's when I was really young and uh, you know, started practicing yoga and it changed my life, the way yoga has changed so many people's lives across the world.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I I I hear you on, you know, having a hard start.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of us have, you know, definitely um experienced that and can align with that.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I I want to ask you, you know, what was it about yoga that first drew you in?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, when uh what didn't you know that this is a route you want to be engaged in and something you want to learn?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think for me it started really with the body.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that's for a lot of people, that's the doorway into the practice.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh yeah, many, many people know now that yoga is more than what we think of as yoga in the West, you know, where it's just a class with postures on a mat.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yoga is a whole life science, it's it's ancient, it teaches us so much around how to live our lives, and it's just it's it's a life journey, really.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, the doorway in was through the body.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I had just always felt so deeply uncomfortable in my own body.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I ever had an experience of actually being able to be fully present and hold that presence in my body.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was more thinking about my body from the outside, kind of judging it in the mirror or um complaining because I was in pain, or I felt like something wasn't right with my body.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't thin enough or beautiful enough.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I had never actually experienced just presence, which is not, you know, good or bad, but just this completely neutral place of just being embodied.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And my really my first experience of that was on the yoga map.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I mean I can I can imagine like, you know, I know I think a lot of people go through this where you hit a point where you're just like, I feel like I'm on like a treadmill going nowhere, you know, and I I've been there and I think for me, I also meditate, but like for me, it's just I'm Indian, so like my mother kind of like put that into us growing up, and I and I feel like even when even having that, like growing up in that, even still, I I think hitting my adulthood, it was like, you know, you have to like be you have to make yourself almost, you know, start meditating and practicing these principles and like getting into it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: So like I think one of my questions for you is like, you know, when you were really beginning this journey, what were some of the, you know, the hard points and the hurdles that you had to get through?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, was meditation easy for you?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Was it something you naturally felt like, okay, you know, I'm getting into it?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know a lot of people struggle with that.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I think a lot of us or most of us, we struggle with this very loud, critical voice in the back of our heads, kind of dictating our days and narrating almost our lives, and we judge other people and we judge ourselves, and we can be very self-critical, and all of that mental chatter, which is, you know, for most of the day, it's just chatter on repeat, it's really exhausting to listen to.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in the beginning of our meditation practice, it can almost amplify that that we try to sit down.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want peace now, I want some sort of silence.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: We hear all these great things about meditation and finding calm.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then we sit down and that voice gets even louder.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's almost like when the ego feels a little bit threatened, something else is entering the space, it gets even louder and tries to cling even more.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I really, really struggled with that, just realizing that I have this brain that never shuts off and it's just talking gibberish to me all day.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really tiring and exhausting to listen to all the time.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a really hard time turning it off.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important for people to keep that in mind, just like with the physical poses that we practice on the mat, the more we practice, the easier it gets.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like the first down dog for a lot of people is so heavy and challenging.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then we do 10, and then we do a hundred, and then we do a thousand down dogs, and eventually it becomes kind of pleasant and restful and it feels good.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And with meditation, I really think we should approach it the same way.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: We need to practice sitting down, connecting with the breath, dropping into the body to be able to find those little gaps of silence.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then the more we practice, the more disciplined we are, the longer those stretches of silence and peace are going to become.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: We have to train that just the same way we train a muscle or we practice a pose.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: That makes so much sense.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I I would love to hear about like, you know, maybe like well, I want to learn all about Yoga Girls to start with, but like to also like dive into like some of your tricks and tips that you could offer the audience, you know, um, about how to get started.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I want to start with if you could tell us about what started Yoga Girl, you know, um, the journey behind it.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Yoga Girl started off as an Instagram account.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this was really early in the Instagram days, the good old days when we were still, you know, posting just like our breakfast, and it was all very innocent, and they had those funny little filters with borders around the pictures, and it was just a small time to be on the internet.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I was just practicing yoga every day and teaching yoga, and yoga was my life.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I just randomly picked that as a name for an Instagram account, and it grew very quickly and started gaining traction, and I ended up building this beautiful community there who wanted to learn about the practice or who were already practicing and wanted to feel inspired or share their practice with someone.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And and I ended up starting, yeah, taking that community and then putting it on a platform called yogagirl.com, where we have thousands of classes and both yoga meditation, but also other practices like tea ritual and nature-based practices.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we do a lot of journaling and a lot of feeling our feelings, and it's just become this hub for self-care practices, basically.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: I love that though.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you put that out there.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I uh I think you like started one of the first ever, right?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, first online yoga platforms, one of the first ever one eight.com.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was one of the first ones.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Not I don't think we were the first one, but we were the biggest.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: We I crowdfunded that to start 108.com.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the biggest Kickstarter project of all time that related to yoga.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that was really fun.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: That so many people wanted to be a part of that community.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then it grew and eventually we transformed it into yogagirl.com.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what that that's amazing that you brought that to us.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for doing that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think this is like Yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's just so important, you know, the world that we live in.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, we've I've you know, all I think we've all grown up in this world.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think the older you get, you kind of become a little bit more aware of it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, even as like children, we're always surrounded by so much busyness and like just a hectic lifestyle and to create spaces for mindfulness, for, you know, kind of like you said, for the practice of meditation, you know, whatever that might be, and just a support network that's absolutely huge.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: So truly applaud you for creating that and bringing that, you know, to the light.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just so important.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I I want to ask you, you know, Rachel, and this was one of the questions I had earlier was, you know, what are some of the things that you've maybe heard from, you know, um, some of your followers or people that you've interacted with, or even yourself when it comes to the initial phases of getting into meditation and getting into yoga, like what are some things that might be be hurdles, but you know, getting around them and still finding a way to practice and to really get into it and build habits for the long run.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of us, we struggle with finding the time the way we do.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's funny how, you know, if we have busy things going on at work or family, we always find the time for that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: But whenever it comes to taking care of ourselves, it's so easy that we end up on the bottom of our list of priorities.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we can't find the time for yoga practice or for meditation.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or so I think a lot of it comes from deciding that we want to start prioritizing our well-being.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that took a long time for me to actually integrate.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I used to always feel a little bit of guilt around that, you know, who am I to put this time toward myself?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm always looking at other people.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as mothers, we do this a lot.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: If we have kids at home, it's really hard to redirect that awareness toward ourselves.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: So the moment we realize just that the better we feel inside, and not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually, the better humans we can be upon this earth.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually look at it as self-care is a service.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's a service to me, to ourselves, of course, but it's also a service to our families, to our communities, and to the world as a whole, because we can't give from an empty cup and we can't really be of service and make a change if we're not feeling good inside.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we're beginning to prioritize ourselves from just a purely a place without guilt, you know, that we are so worthy of this of feeling good in our bodies.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then when it comes to just the practice, I think it's I always say I would rather see someone do 10 minutes a day than an hour and a half big practice once a week.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason that is, is I really think those small moments that we do every single day that we repeat very often, I think they make a bigger impact in the long run than that once a week getting to a big class somewhere with a great teacher.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, having that little practice of rolling out the mat, and maybe just okay, I do five minutes here.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: I do one single pose today, or I sit in meditation for five minutes with a timer on, or I do 15 minutes of gentle stretches or something.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: We have a little frame for ourselves of the space we have, but we do it every day, and that every day that that discipline really is there.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we can give ourselves five minutes, 10 minutes, 15.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we really can.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And eventually I think that starts to grow because the challenge is finding the rhythm and sticking to the rhythm.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, well, I did 10 minutes instead of five today.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then oh, I have a little more space.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how would it feel to extend that?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or what else can I do in my body in this moment?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden we might find ourselves with a 30-minute practice every day, or at least a moment to anchor back in when life is hectic, when we're going through stuff, we have that little anchor in the everyday that's non-negotiable, the same way we brush our teeth every day, you know.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's so that's so true.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love that you the way you worded that, because I think that's where a lot of us get stuck, right?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Is exactly that is like, you know, well, okay, I have to make time and I have to, you know, make this time for the self-care and the self-awareness.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think I have the time in my schedule.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's like, I think an ongoing battle for so many of us, you know, on a day-to-day.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like you said, you know, I think there's a lot of value in understanding, you know, exactly what you were explaining, which is this start slow, you know, and it's okay to start slow.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I think like, you know, that's another thing is like I think people might also get frustrated with like meditation, for example.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard a lot of my colleagues or my friends, for example, say, you know, oh, Ecta, I can't meditate.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, what do you mean you can't meditate?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and they're like, no, well, I really can't.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I can't quiet my mind, or I can't get into it, and it's not my thing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I've always wondered is like, you know, um, how long it does it take for someone to get to a point where they actually feel like they're meditating, if you know what I mean.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, have you had I've have you had anyone approach you with that, like that comment of, you know, I can't do it.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I mean, absolutely.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important to to recognize the fact that if we are in a frazzled state, if we are in a dysregulated state, if we are in a state of fight or flight, you know, if we're in that place of just barely feeling like we have our feet on the ground.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people move through life that way, maybe without being fully aware of it.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's gonna be near impossible to just go, well, sit down and quiet your mind.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's it's it's gonna be such a big step to actually get to that place.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, in those instances, I always I love to recommend more of a dynamic meditation.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of forms of meditation where we don't just sit down and close our eyes and and try to get to that quiet place, or where we actually get to move our bodies and move some energy through the body and maybe meet our nervous system in the place where it's at before we go into that quiet place, if that makes sense.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, something like uh shaking meditation, for example.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love to recommend.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have yet to meet a single person who didn't benefit from a shaking meditation, and it's so simple, you know, you just stand up.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's free to do in a very private place.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I love to do it when the house is quiet so I can make some noise and without, you know, feeling like I'm disturbing anyone.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you just shake your body.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Shaking is this innate response that the body has to big events, it's a primal thing.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: The body knows how to shake innately.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And when we start shaking just with purpose, we can think of it as we're kind of shaking off the day, or we're shaking off our thoughts, or we're shaking off that heavy thing that we've been going through.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: We just shake our legs, our arms, our hips, our shoulders, we let everything shake.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we get to a point where the body kind of takes over, and then the shaking happens almost on its own.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I find for a lot of people, the first thing that happens is we have some sort of remote emotional release when we start to shake.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: We might cry, we might be able to release some anger, we might feel, you know, it's just you can actually feel some of that tension leaving the body, and sometimes that comes with a big release that also is emotional.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then from there, being able to just sit down, eyes closed, and just feel what it's like to be there in that moment.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel a lot of people have it.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's easier to arrive at that quiet place if we get to shake something out of our system versus just sitting down, you know, and having that be that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've never tried it.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: I need to try shaking yoga.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've never tried that.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have some classes on on yogagirl.com, but literally you don't even need instruction.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can put on some music if you want and just stand up.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And five minutes of shaking, it's a really good reset in the middle of the day, too.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: It really, it's a really cool practice to have.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's so cool.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: I I like that.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that was what one of my big questions for you was this idea of like incorporating it more, you know what I mean, into our daily life.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: But that sounds like a wonderful way to incorporate it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, honestly, I think it's also um this.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I want your advice because I think a lot of people have been um kind of exposed to this word um through the culture that's developed over the years, you know, around yoga, around meditation, and that's uh breath and your breathing.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I would love for you to shed some light on that and what that means when people say, you know, focus on your breath or you know, use that as your guiding light when you're meditating or focusing on any any yoga poses, you know, you want to focus more so on your breathing.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could explain that to, you know, that would be helpful because I think a lot of times we don't understand what that means.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: I actually think I've held my breath a few times because I was so focused on breathing.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um no, that happens.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: That happens.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: It happens when we're struggling, it happens when we're stressed.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, the breath is one of those amazing functions of the body that just happens all on its own.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't have to think, we don't have to tell our bodies, okay, inhale now, exhale now, and then do that for the rest of our lives.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: The body just knows how to breathe.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it is one of those things that we can really benefit from learning how to engage with and learning how to observe, I think, more than anything, just noticing when the breath starts to get really shallow.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I am scrolling on Instagram and all I get is this terrible news about what's happening in the world.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: What happens with my breath in that moment?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I try to do those little check-ins throughout the day.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: When I find I'm kind of losing presence or I go into fear or anxiety, my first little check-in is, okay, well, where's my breath right now?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes it's up in my throat.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe I have my shoulders up by my ears, my breathing is really shallow and kind of tight.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then just by noticing that, my body will take a deeper breath and kind of pull that breath into the bottom of my belly.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to tell my body to do that.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the body really wants to take deep, relaxing breaths to soothe our nervous system, to take in energy.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: It really is our life force.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's of course the essence of our lives.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact that we can really just use it as a little gauge for how am I doing right now?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when we are relaxed, when we feel safe, we automatically take deeper, deep belly breaths than we do when we feel scared or fearful.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And in the actual yoga practice on the mat, you know, it it may really make sense because we have the expansion and then we have the contraction.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And usually with an expansion and a lift, we have this big inhale, and it sort of mimics what happens inside of the body as we breathe in fresh air.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's this big widening, this opening, this inviting in.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then with exhale, you know, on the mat, we often have this contraction or a fold forward or turning inward.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And same thing there, there's a release and a letting go as we breathe all of that breath back out.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And after a while, just the more we practice, I think we don't have to overthink, just trying to get the breath perfect, especially in the beginning.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just focus on returning to those poses again and again.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then with time, the breath will start to make sense.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And with time and practice, we won't have to think about it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it becomes this kind of natural, natural thing because it really does mimic the flow of how we move from pos to pose.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: That makes sense.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that makes sense because I think that's yeah, I've I've definitely struggled with that.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then the way you described it helps me as well because um a lot of times it like almost adds pressure, you know, to if I am trying to meditate, like that pressure comes on me if I focus too much about you know my breathing.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, am I really following my breath?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Am I really, you know, doing this properly or not?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that becomes a concern.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I think we're supposed to be doing the exact opposite of that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I asked you.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, but it's funny how that kind of ego comes in through the back door.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can take any spiritual practice and then make it into make it into thought, you know, doing this right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't also have to be, you know, if we if if we find that the breath is challenging just to sit down and meditation and focus on the breath, there's other techniques we can do, like practicing with a mantra could be really helpful, something that we repeat to ourselves in our minds, or um, even you know, listening to music instead or having someone guide the meditation.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: For some people, that's really, really helpful versus just sitting down.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so there's other techniques we can try to use to quiet the mind.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't have to be this big focus on just what the breath is doing.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Counting the breath, I think, can also be helpful instead of how deep is the breath or when am I breathing, just the count of the breath can help us.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's just to kind of anchor the mind to something.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the breath is always there, so it's a good place to start.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: No, that makes sense.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually want to I want to shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit more about yoga because yoga also is another, um, I mean, I think they're so intertwined, right?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like meditation and yoga, at least, you know, the way I've been exposed to it.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: But like with yoga, I know, you know, I remember being in college and all of my friends were just getting into it, you know, and it was like a a big thing and everyone was like, oh yeah, I have I'm going to the yoga studio or or whatnot.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I remember it becoming this like thing where people were going from like zero to a hundred.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I was always like a bit confused because I was always like, I'm gonna stay in the beginning stage of things, you know, like I'm gonna stay there and I'm gonna stay in my comfort zone for a while.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I think um, especially when like hot yoga became this like viral trend and all these trends came up.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know if you remember, but like people were just going in, you know, and I and I want to get your advice because if there's anyone listening out there that maybe hasn't practiced Yoga before, or they're just getting started.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: What are some things to be mindful of, you know, in terms of how we should start our yoga, you know, just trying to incorporate it into our daily lives, especially because it is a more physical thing, you know, we don't want to stretch any muscles out, you know, and sprain anything.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: So any advice you have for that.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those amazing things that we can do at home.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, all you don't even really need a yoga mat.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you can do it in your pajamas, you don't need fancy yoga pants from Lululemon, like you don't need anything really truly to practice yoga.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: But when we start, I think it is a good thing if we can find a teacher that we enjoy practicing with, a teacher that we kind of vibe with a little bit, um, especially in the beginning, just to get some helpful tips and some guidance around the postures and the poses.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And this is even more important, I think, if we ever, if we had an injury or, you know, if we're pregnant, if we're going through something where we need a little bit more support for the body, it's good to have a teacher there.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's easier to take our practice home and just do it on our own and by ourselves.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: But something that a yoga practice in a studio really gives you also is the sense of community, which is so beautiful around studio practices that you get to know people who are enjoying the same thing, who are, you know, maybe beginning in that same place as you are, and eventually having someone there to kind of hold us accountable a little bit to get to practice, people to talk to.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's really an important thing.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: We are so isolated and so much happens now, just online or just at home.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think if we have a studio nearby, just going there for the sense of community and to get some guidance is so worth it.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this whole thing about, you know, the poses that maybe we see on social media or this idea, like you say, hot yoga and everything looks so advanced and it's so hard and it's so difficult.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think one of the things that you realize as you become more advanced in your practice is that the things that we do in the very beginning are the most challenging.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: We come back to them in the end.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the hardest thing is not figure out how to contort your body into this crazy pose.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like the hardest thing is to steady your mind.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: The hardest thing is to be there with your breath, the hardest thing is to just cultivate that sense of presence.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's easy to kind of skip over that and go into, well, let me learn how to do a handstand, or you know, let me uh do all of this stuff because I want to lose weight or I want to get flexible, I want to change my body somehow, where the essence of the practice really is in those foundational first poses that we learn and in the breath and our ability to really be here.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's the advanced thing.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, someone lying in Shavasana is can be much more advanced in their practice and have way more years of experience than someone who does something seemingly very, you know, photographable and that looks very advanced.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: But all the advanced stuff that really matter, I mean, it happens on the inside and it doesn't really look like much, but it's it's that's where the work is, I think, anyway.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because those that's not where the where the gold is, you know.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: No, that does definitely answered my question because that was that was exactly you know it is that I think we are so used to social media in some of the wrong ways.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, social media is a beautiful, powerful tool, but I think a lot of times you do, you know, you see the beautiful aesthetic poses and the way people are dressed, the way people are kind of conducting themselves in their practice.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that kind of seeps into our subconscious, and we want to, you know, kind of be look and feel exactly like they do, you know, on their Instagram account or their TikTok account.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I it just it becomes, I don't know, from what I've noticed, it becomes less of like an internal, like an inner journey that you're having with yourself, and it becomes more of this thing that we want to put out there for the whole world world to see.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I there's nothing wrong with that, but I just that's why I asked you is like if you are a beginner, if you are somebody that's getting started, like you know, what to focus on, because it's so easy to get caught up, you know.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it is.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, and a good teacher should be able to help us with that.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I always say the best teacher isn't necessarily the teacher with the most certifications or the teacher that has the most Instagram followers, for sure not, um, but a teacher that we just feel safe with, like someone we could envision having a cup of tea with, someone, someone who's pleasant to listen to, like someone whose classes we actually enjoy so that we're likely to go back.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's good, I think, to try many different forms of yoga too, because someone who has never practiced before and they end up maybe in a hot yoga class or a bikram class or something, they might never return because it's just that wasn't for them.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean that yoga isn't for them.
• 27:01
  unknown: Yeah.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: To try many variations.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's yin yoga and restorative yoga, so helpful to help soothe not just our bodies but our minds.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's so many different levels in each kind of practice as well, and there's just so much to try.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you're, you know, you really advocate for that because I think that's, you know, whenever I think of mindfulness, I always like a part of me kind of gets like, you know, in the new age and the way things are emerging, I get a little stuck because I I feel like there's a lot of buzz rather than like education, you know what I mean, that's going around.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I I wish people would gravitate more towards like your platform, for example, is such a great, you know, tool for all of us because you know, when you're not, when you don't know what to do or you haven't grown up in a culture where these things are talked about, you know, openly, it's very, very difficult to in to get involved, to bring it into your life, you know.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think one of the things that I found to be so extraordinary that you do and that you offer through Yoga Girl is you have all of these different avenues through which I think you're bringing mindfulness into people's lives.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I would love to like understand, you know, some more of them because when you talked about yoga and meditation here, but for example, on your website, it's that there's a portion of it where you can talk about um like sacred spaces.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you say living with intention.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to learn more about that.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, living with intention and the whole sacred space of your home.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: And uh if you could explain that.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's a part of uh it's just collections and and courses that I offer on the site are and yoga is a part of everything, but for me, also I have in the past few years just expanded in my my own self-care.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just yoga for me anymore.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have more tools that I use in my day-to-day that I want to share.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I have courses centered around around those things.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: So sacred spaces is just basically how we can create sacred spaces in our homes to house the many practices that we might return to for our self-care.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: So whether that is, you know, that shaking meditation, or if it's sitting down to journal, or if it's meditation, yoga, maybe something completely different, um, I sit and tea ritual almost every day.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's definitely something I want to do in my sacred space at home and not in the kitchen or you know, somewhere where a kid might jump in and kind of disturb me.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I really think that the things, the sacred practices that we have, the rooms that we choose to do them in, they will hold some of that sacred energy.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the next time we enter that room, it's going to be easier to drop into that practice because the energy is still there.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is challenging to go into a space where maybe we watch movies at night or where all the cooking happens, or you know, like an office space or something where we do something else and then change the energy into something more sacred and more grounded.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: So having a little nook, I always recommend it.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: It can literally be like a little tiny corner of a studio apartment.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be that we have a whole studio in our house somewhere or a whole floor dedicated to something like that, but like a little corner, a little nook where we can build an altar if we like that sort of thing, that we keep really clean, where we air it out, we have fresh air every day, and we return to those tools that we want to have ready for those practices, whether it's that's where we do a lot of yoga mat, or that's where we practice self-massage, or that's where we do our therapy, maybe with a therapist every single week.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Or there are so many practices, I think, that that we need sacred spaces for.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the same way we need a kitchen and a bathroom, at least for me in my house, I need a sacred corner to return to.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I love that.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: I love the idea.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna actually do that for my own uh home, especially like when you're traveling and stuff.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like you really need that, you know.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think a lot of us, um a lot of people that tune in are um, you know, they're they're living very busy lives, you know, with their careers.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um that's one of the big questions I do have as a follow-up to that is, you know, as you're on the go, or if you're you're constantly, you know, just moving around because of work or whatever, like, you know, maybe creating that, right?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, on the go, that could be really helpful.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I need to try that.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's so easy to do, like building a little altar.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And people sometimes feel like that's like a daunting idea or a word, or it sounds religious or something, but really an altar is just a sacred space where we can sit down and pray or meditate or write.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I will always bring like a little meaning altar kit when I travel, and that could be like a little cloth that I put down as a base, and then it's like a candle and maybe a little crystal and my journal and pen, and that's it.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so small that I carve out a little corner of my hotel rooms just to have that, and then I know when I get back from whatever, that space is there waiting for me, even if it's just to sit down and take three deep breaths before I jump in the shower or something.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we really can create that everywhere we go.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: That is such that is so solid.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like we could all benefit from that.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I I definitely I'm going to try it, I'm telling you.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's just so hard.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just, I mean, listening to you explain it made me just it kind of made me, you know, my ears perk up because when you're around and you're in your, you know, for example, right now I'm traveling and I'm kind of like stuck in an apartment and I it's hard to like look around and find that sacred space.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's hard, it's hard to find that one corner, like you said, where you can say, this is my time for myself, this is where I go.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it becomes part of that habit forming.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like we don't realize that these things are really fine-tuning our everyday experience with what we're trying to accomplish or bring into our lives.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you were explaining that, I'm like, yeah, that could be so helpful, especially if you're if you're a beginner, if you don't know where to, you know what I mean?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like how to like get this to stick as a everyday practice that you do, and you know, whether it's meditation or yoga or any of the things that you explained, I think that could be such a powerful tool.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm definitely gonna be doing it.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because really, we want to get to a place where this becomes like automatic, right?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's when it's not a struggle anymore.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we have so many of those things in our day today, like brushing our teeth, or maybe we have a cup of coffee in the afternoon around the same time, but we always do.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things that we have that just recur and we don't think about them, but we just do them.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: But then somehow when it comes to well-being, it feels like, oh, it's harder and it's you know, this big thing I have to do and take so much time.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: It really is about the about those tiny, tiny moments and then just repeating them.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I actually I want to ask you because I think obviously you've been doing this for such a long time.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I think um, well, the from my understanding, once you've really practiced meditation and yoga for a long time, you're in the flow of it.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: But have you ever had moments where you felt like I feel like I'm not feeling the same way I usually do in my practice?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, maybe there was like a day or a week where you felt like kind of off balance.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, have you had those moments?
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, of course.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I I continue to have those moments all the time.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think you know, it's important that we're kind to ourselves and that we approach these self-care practices really from a lens of self-love and not from a lens of um discipline is good, but discipline can sometimes be too harsh.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Discipline is not always for every season of life.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if we are going through something, maybe we are mourning something, we're going through a pandemic, maybe we have a loss of some kind, we're injured, you know, stuff is gonna happen.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's important that we're able to actually shift and maybe change our expectations around what that self-care looks like.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's not gonna be every day of our lives for the rest of our lives that we benefit from a super intense hardcore vinyasa style yoga practice where we sweat like crazy and it's like, oh, you know, no, there's gonna be seasons in our lives where what we really benefit from maybe is to just going to bed a little bit earlier or taking a nap in the middle of the day, uh, going for a walk out in nature, or sitting down to have a really good cry, I think is one of the most overlooked self-care practices that we have.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, emotional release, like something along the lines of that, like all those things are self-care, and that we have a toolbox with resources that can help us so that we can choose what actually helps us meet the needs that we have in that moment.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not always gonna be the same thing.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I mean I was pregnant, I'm four months, four months postpartum now, and I had a really actually kind of hard pregnancy.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's my second, second one.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was ginormous, I had so much pelvic pain, and it was just like month five or six, I I had a really hard time moving.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I had to adapt, you know, my yoga practice couldn't look like what I wanted it to look like.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: And in the beginning, that was a big struggle.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what am I gonna do all these months?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't can't touch my toes, can't bend over, can't do any of these things that I that I think I need to do to feel good.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um but instead of just going, okay, well, I'm gonna skip that and just sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix, it's like, okay, how can I adapt?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do instead?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I ended up actually in pregnancy cultivating another practice where I would just walk down to the lake.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I live close to a lake here, um, and I would take a plunge, even if it was raining, even if it was late at night, even no matter what was going on, and now it's really cold and four months post-partum, and I still do the same thing, except it's a cold plunge now.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: It became this ritual that really stuck with me.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so instead of my asana practice on the mat, I would go down and dip.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that became just so valuable, but it was not something that I thought I would ever count as a self-care practice, and now I I still do it, and it's really the most amazing thing.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: So to be a lead, I think it's really important.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm sorry to hear that your pregnancy was was rough though.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's that can't be easy.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you know, that's really interesting what you said, because I have been an avid listener of Abraham Hicks for like many, many years now.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um one of the most fundamental principles I took away from Esther when she was, you know, when she speaks is this idea of like what you said about like taking a nap during the day, like that has always resonated with me a lot.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, kind of, you know, talking about what you just discussed here, I think we don't give ourselves that permission.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we don't like we it like I in the beginning, I asked you, like, you know, how do we start meditating?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why I was curious because I think we have this preconceived notion, you know, in our minds of like, well, this is what it's supposed to look like, you know.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: But then when it comes down to it, it's like we ignore the fact or or the part where it says, no, you have to focus on what makes you feel better, you know?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um sometimes we can get so wrapped up in this idea of what the practice should be or whatever that it it just these ideas don't come to us, you know, um, like what you said, you know, taking a cold plunge or or shifting a little bit, you know, it from our comfort zone and and changing.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: I that's a very, very uh novel idea to a lot of people, you know, that might have even been doing this for a few years.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and I mean I think the actual, you know, the the most important part of the self-care is that we check in with ourselves.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where meditation and having a practice like that can be really helpful because we get to know ourselves better and we we can catch those shifts and changes that happen on the inside a little bit quicker, I think, before we go into reacting or you know, we have a little bit more space to to to know what's happening on the inside.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that practice of just checking in like, how am I doing?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: What do I need right now?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's the most important part.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we just get on the mat every day, no matter what, or do the same thing repetitively, but that we check in what do I need?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: And some days the answer might not be, I need this practice, it might be something completely different.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: But what matters is that we that we listen to what that inner voice actually says.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: I could talk to you for literally hours.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I I just love what you are bringing to the world.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I'm a huge fan, and I I think for everyone listening out there, if you guys are you're looking for a place to start and you're looking for that, you know, initial guidance, especially, um, check out Yoga Girl, you know, check out yoga girl.com.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: It does have the tools, you know, to get started and then to keep going, you know, and I really, really encourage you to bring this into your lives, you know, like Rachel explained here.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just it's it's a matter of however many minutes you can carve out in a day, you know, whatever that is for you, just at least try it.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because, yeah, I mean, from my experience at least, I mean, I won't lie, you know, I'm no expert like you, Rachel, but I I, you know, the little bit I do and the days I do practice my meditation, you know, and and any yoga that I do perform, I do feel better, you know, on those days.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: I won't lie.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a notable difference.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's because, you know, as we've talked about in this episode, it's just you, you're finally carving out that me time, you know, instead of just saying, Yes, I'm going to do self-care and I'm going to do all this, but then we never get around to it, that kind of thing.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I I'm just a huge advocate for um, you know, doing whatever really does bring that peace of mind to you and that self-care into your life every day.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: But thank you so much, Rachel.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: This has been such an honor to host you.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: I am such a fan for life, for everything that you do and and your wonderful platform.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for having me.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and for everyone listening, if you have any questions um for for Rachel, I will definitely pass them along to her team.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions or comments about your um, you know, yoga practice and your meditation practice, please let us know.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: Time in.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, let's keep the conversation going.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: But um, for now, I'm going to leave you and I'll be back next time.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 41:19
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