Latest / Finding New Waters / Yoga, Intuition, and the Sacred Work of Tuning In with Andrea Boyd

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Yoga, Intuition, and the Sacred Work of Tuning In with Andrea Boyd · Finding New Waters

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  All the classes I teach, we sing together.
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  People can just listen if they don't want to sing it.
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  But it's it's called the cosmic eraser.
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  But in the book it says if you want to really understand what M
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  means, you're going to have to feel it.
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  You're going to have to hear it. You're going to have to sing it.
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  You know, then you'll get it. You can't just, it's not
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  something you can just, you know, intellectual laws.
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  You have to feel it in your body.
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  And that's one of the major reasons that I love teaching, is
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  to get people to feel. All right.
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  Good morning. Welcome to another edition of
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  Finding New Waters. My name is Bea Reeves.
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  I'm the Director of Business Development here at New Waters
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  Recovery in Raleigh. And today our very special guest
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  is Andrea Boyd, AKA. And Boyd, who is an old friend
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  of mine. We reconnected after 25 years
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  recently through another friend down in Charleston.
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  And I typically don't do this, but I'm going to actually read
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  all that she does just because it's it's a lot.
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  And so, first of all, welcome Anne.
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  Thank you. Thanks.
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  For having me, I'm so glad you're.
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  Here. Excited to be here.
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  I'm excited to have. You, I love talking to you, so
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  it's like this. Is great, I hear you.
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  So here to record. Our conversation.
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  I completely agree. I agree.
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  And we had some good times together.
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  We'll talk about that and meditation and you know, you're
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  a welcome addition to the greater behavioral health
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  treatment Wellness world. So this is a little bit
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  different which which we love. So I'm just going to read kind
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  of what you do and then we'll talk about it kind of bit by bit
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  and just see where it goes. So Andrea is a yoga teacher, a
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  doula, a writer, and an advocate for animal rights, human rights,
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  transformative healing practices, spreading awareness
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  and self anarchy. Want to touch on that?
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  She has taught all over the world and fostered a community
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  in Charleston, SC for the past 20 years.
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  She teaches meditation, birth classes, prenatal classes, and
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  gives teachings that are grounded in life experience and
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  yoga philosophy. She is the author of The Depth
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  of Birth, the resource for parents to be forthright, a book
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  of poetry, yoga teachings, The Beautiful Game has several
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  albums and has hosted a radio show.
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  And I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out, but let's start with
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  the the the term that caught my eye the first time.
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  What? What does self anarchy mean?
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  What a great one to start on it is being able to govern your own
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  body and mind with your intuition, with your wisdom,
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  like your innate wisdom that comes from, you know, like on a
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  cellular level from eons ago to trust that part of yourself that
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  knows. I think sometimes even we feign
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  ignorance like we're we're oh, I don't know if you know, whatever
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  we say something and and it's not really actually true.
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  We know deep down that, you know, we have the knowledge and
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  we're all connected. And so self anarchy is ruling
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  your own, you know, understanding that you're well
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  one, you have your own pharmaceutical laboratory in
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  your body that ultimately we are consciousness, which is
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  chemical. But just being able to say, you
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  know, no to something, even if society would deem it, Oh,
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  you're so different, which is a lot of what spiritual practice I
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  think is about is being able to say no to things that aren't
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  good for you. And being able to say yes to
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  yourself, to your own, you know, just your your light and not
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  being worried about, well, what will people think?
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  And how should I act? And you know, what have I been
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  conditioned to say here? What have I been conditioned to
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  do? But in sell instead, like going
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  deep inside yourself and you know, feeling that sense of self
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  rule like this is what you know, this is what my inner knowledge
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  is telling me to do. And so I'm going to do it.
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  That's so interesting because the.
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  Not waiting for someone else to tell you what to do or how to be
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  or how to act, or what to wear or what you know, etcetera.
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  And people don't have to be in recovery to be familiar with the
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  Serenity Prayer. I'm, you know, intimately
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  familiar with it. I hear it and say it pretty much
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  every day. I do say it twice a day, every
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  day at least, and then sometimes more often than that.
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  But you know, that says God grant me the serenity to accept
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  the things I cannot change, which is kind of, you know, what
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  I've done in the past, the past is over other people, that kind
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  of thing. Courage to change the things I
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  can and then wisdom to know the difference.
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  And I've been taught that wisdom to know the difference is that
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  collective experience of all humankind over in the millennia
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  and that kind of back to what you're talking about on a
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  cellular, cellular level, that we collectively have this wisdom
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  to know the difference. But once you know, in my case,
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  when I'm, you know, living a clean and sober life, then I'm
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  able to use the collective experiences and often mistakes
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  of people in the past to know the difference.
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  Yeah, it's the Faculty of Discrimination, you know, is
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  it's a real gift because we're we're able to decide, you know,
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  you know what, like I don't really want to participate in
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  that or I don't want to, you know.
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  And I'm always telling my son like since he was younger, I
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  have a nine year old little boy and I'm always, you know, even
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  on the playground when he was little, I would say to him, you
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  know, he would kind of turn and look at me for reassurance that
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  like, maybe I don't want to climb this thing this high up.
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  And I would just say listen to your body.
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  Yeah. And if your body is telling you,
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  you know, not to do it, like on a deeper, then then don't do it.
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  And if it's just a matter of like it's new and you haven't
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  yet experienced it and you want to try, then let me, you know,
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  I'm I'm happy to like walk you up the first couple steps.
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  And then usually he would then go if he wanted to on his own.
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  But yeah, it's, it's a, it's the, the wisdom to know the
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  difference of like, what is what's going to be best for me?
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  You know, is it coming from fear or is it coming from love?
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  You know, and am I going to go out and, you know, do whatever
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  that's going to harm my body because I'm afraid to just be
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  with myself and not, you know, or, or my, and am I going to
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  come from love instead? You know, and that's really, I
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  mean, what's so great about your name?
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  I was thinking about how great your name for your podcast is
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  because it's first of all, water is the most receptive element
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  that there is, right? So water, it's and it's, and
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  it's, we're primarily made-up of it, right?
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  And so when we render ourselves receptive, it's like that's when
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  creativity comes. That's when, you know, ideas
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  come, when we're open to possibility, right?
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  And then finding new waters, it's so great 'cause it's like
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  metaphoric for, you know, like you're stepping into a pond or
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  you're walking into the ocean. You know, it's like you're
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  locating yourself or you're finding a new path because the
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  other one wasn't really taking you where you wanted to go.
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  And I think if you're walking down a long road and it's
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  comfortable, well, I'm just going to stay here 'cause, you
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  know, I know this road, I've been down this road.
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  But like, what if I turned left today and I went down the road
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  that, you know, the majority wasn't going down and let's see
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  what happens if I do that. Yeah, that's a great point.
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  And you, I like how you emphasize new and you know, I,
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  I'll speak for myself, but I know I'm not alone.
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  And and you know, we who work at new, new we, we often just say
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  new waters, but it really is new waters.
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  And our medical director, Doctor Hong is the, is the one of us
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  who always does get it right and always refers to it as new
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  waters because that's what it is.
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  And just like you said, I mean, in order for, you know, the Dead
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  Sea is stagnant because nothing flows in and out.
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  It just sits there. And so Yep.
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  And that kind of back to we can only keep what we have by giving
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  it away. It's that constant flow in and
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  out. Yeah, thank you for that.
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  And that's what like, you know, I've been teaching yoga for 22
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  years now and at, at the very beginning of, of an ancient text
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  called the Yoga Sutra, the very first word, like it's always
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  neat to look at the first word of a book and the last word of a
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  book, you know, and like the what it and the bookends, the
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  literal word bookends of, of the story.
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  But the very first word in the Yoga Sutra is now, and it's a
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  Sanskrit word and it says Atta. So it's Atta yoga, Anushasanam.
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  Now yoga, this state of being, the state of awareness, where
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  everything is and where nothing is missing.
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  You're missing nothing. You know that you're full and
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  whole. It's saying that that's
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  happening, Anushas and I'm Anu is like the tiniest little
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  indivisible moment, and asana is your seat.
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  So it's saying in this world, in the tiniest moment, yoga is
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  happening now like it's not going to come at some other
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  time. You know, now is now and now is
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  now and then now is now. You know what?
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  It's just it and so new and now is basically the same word, but
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  new. It's like it's that feeling, you
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  know, at the end of yoga class, every class, probably every
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  class I've ever taught in my entire life, there's what's
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  called shavasana. Some people leave it out.
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  You know, if you go to like a modern, like a yoga class and
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  it's just a lot of yeah, that sometimes they'll just say, OK,
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  great, you know, have a have a great day and then everybody
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  leaves. But it's one of the most
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  important parts of the practice where you lie down on your back
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  in a corpse pose. That's what it's called, corpse
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  seat, and you play dead. And the purpose of it is to #1
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  eradicate a little bit more our fear that we have of losing our
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  body because this is all we know, right?
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  So a new body or the idea of like something new coming up is
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  scary for us. OK.
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  So it's, you know, it's a chance to help eliminate some of the
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  fear of death, of of dying that we all share.
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  And it's also just to it's like at the end of the class, it's
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  you've got a new it's like a new slate.
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  You know, when you come out of it, you come into a fetal
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  position and then you come back and sit up and it's
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  representative of like, OK, I'm new.
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  This is not the same moment. It was.
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  I do not have the same body that I did when I walked in this
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  door, you know, an hour ago. And so it's a recognition of
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  that newness. And, and that is, it's just such
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  an incredible part of the practice that is sometimes left
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  out that I think is the most powerful portion of the class
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  because everything you've done up into that point is like the
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  life of the class. And at the end of your life, you
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  can lay down and you can rest. And if you, you don't feel that
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  you've done, my teacher in India puts it this way.
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  It's like if you, if you get homework and you do your
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  homework, then you're not going to wake up like worried, you
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  know, the next day, like, I mean, if you don't do your
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  homework, you're going to wake up and you're going to be
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  worried. Like, Oh my God, the teacher's
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  going to collect it and I haven't done it.
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  But if you do your homework well, then when the time comes,
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  like you'll be, I've done it, you know, And he says, same as
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  your life. Like if you live your life in
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  such a way that you live it well and it's aligned with your
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  values and with compassion, then when your time to go comes,
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  you're not going to be like, no, wait, wait.
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  You know you're going to be at peace and you're made to lay
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  down and and go off into, you know, the next realm or
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  adventure without feeling like, no, I didn't, you know.
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  Yeah. So that's kind of the new and
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  the now is kind of like a constant rebirth and
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  regeneration and kind of shedding old skin constantly,
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  but always being in now. And you know, there's the famous
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  Eckhart Tolle book the Power of now.
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  And, and we're always at now, whether we like it or not.
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  And the the sooner we can accept that we're, you know, if we're
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  not, if we have 1 foot in yesterday, they say if you have
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  one foot in yesterday and 1 foot in tomorrow, then you're peeing
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  on today and not being present. And I mean, it's true.
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  And it's hard, so hard for me to be present, but it but that is.
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  But when we're present, then it's pretty much impossible to
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  be worried. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the
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  best messages I ever got in a different like kind of realm or
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  state of of consciousness, I guess you could put it.
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  But was this massive message, why do we ever worry?
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  And you know, it's, it's really, it's, it's such a great thing to
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  remind myself of. It will be something that I
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  would want written on my wrist. You know, I always ask people
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  like right now on this day, if you could write something on
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  your wrist, like you need a message to look at, what would
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  it be? And see what they say.
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  Just one word or like 3 words. Hakuna matata.
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  Trust means. No worries.
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  Yeah, seriously though, no worries.
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  And it gets thrown around all the time, but it's like most
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  cliches and sayings exist for a reason and.
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  Of course. Yeah, we need to hear them.
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  You know, there's magic. It's an alchemist principle,
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  There's magic and repetition. So you know, if, if you want to,
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  I mean, it says in the same book I mentioned the Yoga Sutra, if
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  you want to understand the meaning of om, which is the
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  cosmic sound, right? Which is what I sing.
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  And all the classes I teach, we sing together.
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  People can just listen if they don't want to sing it.
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  But it's it's called the cosmic eraser.
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  But in the book it says if you want to really understand what M
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  means, you're going to have to feel it.
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  You're going to have to hear it, you're going to have to sing it,
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  you know, then you'll get it. You can't just, it's not
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  something you can just, you know, intellectualize.
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  You have to feel it in your body.
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  And that's one of the major reasons that I love teaching is
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  to get people to feel, you know, their emotional body, their
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  physical body, their mental body, their astral body, That
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  that rather than, you know, numb ourselves because life can be so
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  hard and challenging. Get go into it, you know, take
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  look what's inside your body, all the feelings, all the
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  tightness, all the things that you're holding onto and, and
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  breathe them out of your system. Like really breathe.
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  The breath is the spirit. You know, it's like, I grew up
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  in a, a Catholic upbringing and they would talk about the Holy
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  Spirit and, and it was just always depicted as like a flame,
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  you know, and, and in the yoga tradition, philosophy, there's
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  the chakra system. The flame is actually in the
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  stomach. It's the navel.
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  It's like where digestion is, is where the heat is.
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  It's where your, your zest is for life.
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  You know, it's like that's where your purpose lays.
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  It's the third chakra, but the breath is up here and it, but
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  it's carried through our whole torso, right?
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  It's like you can feel. So to get people to like
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  understand how the diaphragms working understand their lungs.
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  I mean, I, I unfortunately smoke cigarettes when I was younger
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  and, and I remember my teacher in New York saying because he,
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  he did too. And I think it was like we, we
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  were up in the office one day and somehow smoking came up.
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  And he said smoking is just our, our yearning, our desire to see
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  our breath manifested in front of us.
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  We want to see it because we can't see it.
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  And like we're we want to see everything to believe it.
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  So he said smoking gives people that opportunity to actually see
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  their breath. He said, But if you just were to
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  start to breathe deeper, then you probably wouldn't, you know,
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  have a strong desire maybe for that, that need to see it in
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  front of you because that's the cool part of smoking rice.
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  Like it comes out of your mouth. You're like, oh, yeah, you get
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  to watch it, You know, you get to feel it come through your
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  throat. It's a ritual.
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  So I replaced that ritual with, you know, the yoga and.
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  How did you get? Breathe much better.
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  You grew up in Savannah, went to College of Charleston.
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  We're roughly the same age. I'm a little older, but I just
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  know when I was growing up in Raleigh, I don't really remember
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  anybody doing yoga when I was younger.
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  Maybe. I mean, I've certainly heard of
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  it, but how did you find your way into practicing and teaching
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  and all that? Yeah, it wasn't that big, you
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  know, when I when we were growing up, I found it through.
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  I actually was a dancer since I was five years old to about 15.
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  I think it's when I quit and when I got back to college, I
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  felt I needed some some joy, something joyful to bring back
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  into my life because I always was playing sports and sports
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  and I wasn't going to play sports in college.
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  So it's like what can I do again?
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  I all dance. So I registered for a dance
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  class, but I wasn't going to get in it till the 2nd semester.
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  So I thought, well, I'm not going to be as flexible as I
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  used to be, so I'll take yoga because it's in the schedule.
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  Well, most of the class was seniors, but you know, stars
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  Alond and I got so and so got me into the class.
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  So here I am. I'm one of two freshmans in the
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  yoga class. And actually, it was not asana
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  like the postures that people know and say when they think
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  yoga and it was some philosophy primarily.
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  He just passed away. The teacher actually in the
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  past, I don't know, five years or so someone told me, but I was
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  just so it was like he was talking about stuff that, you
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  know, the, the church, the going to church every week, you know,
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  in school. I went to the Catholic schools
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  and my mom took us every Sunday and it just never was like the
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  the best part was the singing and shaking people's hands and
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  the doughnuts after the rest of it.
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  I was like, I don't know, it sounds, you know, very like male
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  oriented, it sounds, you know, like if you don't do this, then
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  this is your bad. And it just didn't feel good to
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  me, right. It wasn't like what what
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  resonated with me. So when I started to hear him
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  speak about, you know, cosmic awareness and, you know, just
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  kindness, like basically, you know, they're called the Yamas
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  and Niyamas, which is like, you know, the observances towards
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  yourself and observances towards others.
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  I was like, OK, this sounds but it wasn't like if you don't do
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  these, you're, you know, you're bad or like you're Sinner or
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  whatever. You have to go confess to
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  someone. It was just like, you do it.
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  I don't know. So I was like, I love this.
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  And I just kept doing it. I moved to California.
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  There were two teachers in Charleston that were teaching
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  like 1 was at a gym called Lyquest.
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  The other one was at it like out of this house on Folly.
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  And my friend Liz and I would go to classes and then we went, I
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  moved to California and I found a woman out there teaching and I
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  went to hot yoga in San Francisco when I would go into
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  town for work. And then I moved to New York
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  City, and that's where I found my teachers.
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  Who were like, in my opinion, two of the best yoga teacher.
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  They're, they're like a massive reason that it's popular now in
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  the United States. Like without question, they
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  traveled the world teaching and they're they're artist.
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  So she was a dancer too and a musician.
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  He was a musician. He owned this place called the
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  Life Cafe in New York City in the Lower East Side.
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  But they she started teaching. She heard her back.
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  And then this woman who waited tables at the restaurant was
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  like, you know, you should try yoga.
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  Her name is Tara. And so she tried it, my teacher.
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  And then they ended up starting to teach people.
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  And they were like, Oh my God, you know, all the people that
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  came, this is amazing. I feel fantastic.
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  But they were incorporating, you know, just mystical, the the
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  Mystic concepts like and, and that, you know, no one else had
• 21:08
  been doing in yoga and they were pulling in music.
• 21:11
  So they would be playing like David Bowie in their classes or,
• 21:14
  you know, Krishna Das, who's now huge chanting artists.
• 21:18
  And so they were incorporating music and breathing and
• 21:23
  teachings like through weaving throughout the class.
• 21:26
  And no, no one had ever done that before, truly.
• 21:30
  It was always kept kind of compartmentalized and separate.
• 21:33
  So they were like, why not meditate during the class
• 21:35
  instead of just have a separate meditation?
• 21:38
  So they brought it all together. So it was very integral and
• 21:42
  really powerful. And I was 20, like 2 maybe when
• 21:48
  I found them. And it was just mind blowing.
• 21:50
  You know, the subway was like it was in New York City.
• 21:53
  The subway would be like rumbling under the class and we
• 21:56
  would just be booming the sound ohm like 50-60 people in a room.
• 22:00
  And it was like the lights were dim and everyone was like
• 22:03
  sweating. And it was just, I was like,
• 22:05
  this feels like sacred to me. This feels like, you know, I'm
• 22:10
  getting in touch with parts of myself.
• 22:12
  Like it was like, I wish church was like this, you know, but
• 22:18
  that's like, that's what it was for me.
• 22:20
  That's what some other people get from going to, you know, a,
• 22:23
  a service. But it, I wasn't just sitting
• 22:25
  there and listening to someone. I was feeling it.
• 22:28
  And that's my point. It's like to feel, you know, to
• 22:33
  feel yourself like in a way it's different than running or, you
• 22:38
  know, biking, which I love all of that.
• 22:41
  It's just different because you're flipping your body upside
• 22:43
  down and standing on your head or standing on your hands and
• 22:47
  you're squeezing your body in different ways.
• 22:49
  So it's like you're taking care of your organs and it's just in
• 22:54
  your breathing so deeply that it's oxygenating your blood so
• 22:57
  you just feel more alive. Like my teacher would always say
• 23:02
  you're an instrument, right? So it's like you're tuning your
• 23:04
  instrument so that you can play good music, so you can walk
• 23:09
  around the world and, and resonate with people and you're
• 23:13
  not afraid of anybody, you know? And it was like, you know, I was
• 23:21
  a confident kid growing up, but it was like I went to another
• 23:24
  level. Like I was just so it gave me
• 23:26
  such a faith in myself. That's what this practice can
• 23:30
  get. Like you, you know, you
• 23:32
  meditate, so you understand. It's like if you take yourself
• 23:36
  and you close your eyes or open or whatever, but you just take a
• 23:39
  moment to like really focus and go deeper.
• 23:43
  It's like it's such a sense of calm, such a sense of ease, even
• 23:47
  if it's just for the purpose of for a little bit, not looking at
• 23:51
  something you know, else not pulling your attention away from
• 23:55
  yourself. That's the major question is
• 23:58
  who? Who am I, you know, and why am I
• 24:01
  here and what do I have to give? And, you know, how can I like,
• 24:09
  how can I spread joy and peace and, you know, help people feel
• 24:15
  better, you know, which is what you're doing too.
• 24:18
  Well, you just everything you just said, I mean, so thank you
• 24:21
  for that summary of how you found your way into yoga and
• 24:27
  this general kind of Eastern style of Wellness.
• 24:31
  But I, I kept thinking about what you said towards the
• 24:35
  beginning of the conversation about everything you're talking
• 24:37
  about and having that confidence and kind of tuning your
• 24:40
  instrument for when this life as we know it on earth is over.
• 24:45
  We're prepared for it and, and ready to go kind of, and I kind
• 24:50
  of it just, you know, it's, it's sort of a catch 22 and an irony
• 24:55
  or maybe a paradox or something, and something along those lines
• 25:00
  of, yes, preparing and, you know, and, and tuning our
• 25:03
  instrument and being ready for that and not being afraid to
• 25:06
  leave, you know, earth as we know it.
• 25:09
  But at the same time, when and for me, as I've practice
• 25:13
  meditation now for almost 7 years, twice a day and generally
• 25:16
  way healthier, I feel. I totally agree with that.
• 25:20
  But at the same time, I'm like, for the first time in a long
• 25:23
  time, I'm so I love life so much that I definitely probably on
• 25:28
  one hand more afraid of death than I ever was just because I
• 25:32
  actually love life so much. I don't really ever think about
• 25:34
  it. But since we're talking about it
• 25:36
  and the other thing is I just want to be able to tell.
• 25:38
  I think we've talked about it, but the audience, my experience
• 25:41
  with with with yoga is pretty pitiful in that I hurt my back
• 25:48
  and I was about to go on a golf trip with some guys that you and
• 25:51
  I both know. This was about six years ago and
• 25:55
  my sponsor is a yoga instructor and used to own a yoga studio
• 25:59
  that he has since sold. But anyway, I was going on this
• 26:03
  golf trip and I did not play golf for three straight weekends
• 26:07
  and went to yoga every day, five days a week at 5:00 AM for and
• 26:11
  it totally fixed my back and I've never done it again since.
• 26:15
  And so I'm embarrassed to admit that, but I'm admitting it right
• 26:17
  here. No, it's fun.
• 26:19
  It served you well that that's, you know, it's the nature of, of
• 26:24
  just being human. Like we get into things and then
• 26:26
  we fall out of them for a while and then we get back into them
• 26:29
  and, you know, that's, that's like, you know, yeah, but but
• 26:35
  it's, it's out there. And that really that's a beauty
• 26:38
  of, of the yoga's that you can, you know, learn it from a
• 26:43
  teacher. And then you can, you know, if
• 26:44
  you can't make it to a class, you can do it yourself at home.
• 26:49
  Yeah, A lot of times people are like, I can't find a class that
• 26:51
  I like. And I and I just tell them, you
• 26:53
  know, keep, keep going, keep trying, keep looking because
• 26:57
  there's some I said, you know, most often I'm like, it's the
• 27:01
  teacher you're looking for the teacher more than the class, you
• 27:04
  know, because it's got to be someone who resonates with you.
• 27:07
  It's got to be someone who's authentic and, you know,
• 27:10
  actually like taking the seat of a teacher where they're going
• 27:13
  to, it's not going to be like, what do y'all want to do today?
• 27:16
  You know, it's like where, where they're going to guide you and
• 27:20
  they know what they're doing. So yeah, I mean, I have, I've
• 27:25
  had some of the best teachers. I've been really blessed to have
• 27:28
  incredible teachers who, you know, they showed me the two
• 27:33
  that I'm Speaking of in New York City.
• 27:37
  They told me, they showed me a film called Earthlings that
• 27:44
  completely changed my life. Not that it wasn't on my radar
• 27:49
  prior, but when I was younger, I was making, my mom was having me
• 27:53
  make burger patties and I was like squeezing the ketchup and
• 27:57
  mustard in. And I was just like, mom, what
• 27:59
  is this? And it was on a Styrofoam plate.
• 28:02
  Remember those? And there was like blood on the
• 28:04
  Styrofoam plate. And I was just grossed out by
• 28:07
  it. And I was like, you know, what
• 28:08
  is this? And she was like, it's ground
• 28:09
  round. What do you mean?
• 28:10
  I'm like, I know. But like, what is it actually
• 28:12
  though, You know, what am I touching here?
• 28:15
  And so then I vowed I'm like, I'm not eating this stuff
• 28:18
  anymore. Like I don't know what it is.
• 28:19
  She's not telling me. And then, you know, and then I
• 28:23
  gradually started to get rid of, you know, basically in college,
• 28:27
  I was pretty much, well, I was a pescetarian because I was still
• 28:30
  eating sea creatures. But yeah, then they showed me
• 28:34
  this film called Earthlings I'm. And that's like, it's just one
• 28:37
  of the most powerful films. Joaquin Phoenix narrates it and
• 28:41
  it's free on the Internet. You can find it.
• 28:44
  And I just feel like if you live on this planet, you're an
• 28:47
  Earthling, that everybody should watch it at least once.
• 28:49
  It will be 1 of the hardest, if not the hardest things you ever
• 28:52
  see. But it's the truth.
• 28:55
  And The thing is, the truth is very difficult to see sometimes.
• 29:00
  Our, our mutual friend, he watched it for I think 7
• 29:04
  minutes, he said, and then had to turn it off.
• 29:06
  But I'm like, just keep doing it in a little bit so that you can,
• 29:09
  you know, keep seeing it. And she had seen a film and she
• 29:13
  lived in Seattle in the, I guess in the 70s or 80s, she saw a
• 29:18
  film called the Animals Film. And that changed the course of
• 29:20
  her life. So.
• 29:22
  She being one of the person who directed.
• 29:25
  Sharon Yeah, yeah, being my yoga teacher and it and it just, you
• 29:30
  know, it, it taught her to use her voice as a, a platform,
• 29:34
  which, you know, now you can see like in our culture, people are,
• 29:37
  people are doing that and they're, you know, it's not,
• 29:41
  it's not a new thing where people who are speaking the
• 29:44
  truth get, you know, criticized or, you know, people try to
• 29:51
  break them down because there's they're a naysayer, an outlier
• 29:54
  or whatever you want to call them.
• 29:56
  But yeah, it changed the course of my life and, and when I was
• 30:00
  younger, I had a eating disorder and, you know, that healed it
• 30:05
  for me. My relationship with food was,
• 30:07
  you know, it was, it wasn't great, you know, And so when I
• 30:13
  stopped eating animals and fish and buying wool and all this
• 30:18
  stuff that I just like I couldn't participate in.
• 30:21
  And I was just like, I can't have anything to do with that.
• 30:25
  Like it's just not what I want to be a part of.
• 30:27
  I don't want to pay someone else to kill anything.
• 30:30
  I don't want to put it in my body.
• 30:31
  Like my energy was just feeling so clear.
• 30:35
  And, and I just remember being in class like maybe like two
• 30:39
  months after going vegan, just flying.
• 30:41
  Like I felt like I was just like space.
• 30:44
  I mean, it sounds crazy, but space and light.
• 30:46
  Like I didn't feel heavy anymore.
• 30:48
  I wasn't carrying around the heaviness that that was making
• 30:52
  me feel that I didn't even realize that it was making me
• 30:55
  feel sad and making me feel heavy and energetically heavy.
• 31:00
  And so, yeah, it's like it's one of the best gifts I've ever been
• 31:03
  given in my life, aside from my son.
• 31:06
  Of that, those two are the top two things.
• 31:10
  But so, yeah, it's just, you know, another, another way to
• 31:16
  free up ourselves of, you know, anxiety and worry and, you know,
• 31:25
  depression. I think food is what makes up
• 31:27
  our body. So whatever we're eating and
• 31:31
  drinking or not eating and not drinking, you know, is, is
• 31:35
  determines how we feel a lot of the times.
• 31:37
  And so, yeah, I was like, why do I want to participate in that?
• 31:42
  And so, yeah, what a relief. So I, you know, one thing I was
• 31:45
  thinking about is how I know you and I both practice
• 31:49
  Transcendental Meditation. You do other sorts of
• 31:51
  meditation. You're obviously yoga is sort of
• 31:54
  the centerpiece from what I can tell of your, your Wellness.
• 31:59
  And they're both, you know, 5000 year old.
• 32:03
  All this is ancient and it's just interesting that it's 2025,
• 32:08
  hence our technical difficulties and we're sitting here talking
• 32:11
  to each other remotely and which is a miracle.
• 32:14
  But also I feel like these ancient practices that are so
• 32:19
  tried and true are becoming more and more embraced and have over
• 32:21
  the last 50 or 60 years in the West, but especially lately, you
• 32:26
  know, and it's just another irony that with so much
• 32:31
  technology, we're still, we still want to try these things
• 32:35
  that are, are tried and true and are.
• 32:36
  So I don't want to use the word simple, but, but kind of simple
• 32:41
  just because they've they've been around before there was
• 32:43
  anything other than just kind of man and the planet and whatever
• 32:49
  kind of, you know, higher power 1 believed in or believes in
• 32:52
  now. Yeah, it's, it's necessary.
• 33:01
  Like we have to have, we have to have an outlet.
• 33:06
  We have to have like a way back to what is real amidst all of
• 33:12
  the, you know, chatter and excess stuff.
• 33:17
  And, you know, it's, it's like there is a, a deep desire that
• 33:24
  everyone has for stillness. And those of us who, who know it
• 33:30
  and, and don't ignore it like we it, it's an effort, you know,
• 33:34
  but I tell people not to think. Like when you sit down, your
• 33:38
  mind is just going to automatically just stop
• 33:40
  thinking. It's the nature of the mind is
• 33:43
  to think. And so it's like you're, you're
• 33:45
  not, that isn't necessarily well, people will say, well,
• 33:48
  what's the point? And I'm like, make it, make the
• 33:51
  start of it, the point B, just to sit still.
• 33:55
  That's it. Like just make it about
• 33:58
  stillness because stillness is nourishing, because stillness
• 34:01
  everybody needs because you're busy the rest of the day,
• 34:05
  probably, you know, and, and the only time we're still, sometimes
• 34:08
  it's like laying on the couch watching TV or looking at our
• 34:11
  phone or laying in bed hoping me, you know, going to sleep.
• 34:16
  This is a way of stillness where you keep your spine upright so
• 34:19
  that energy can travel, you know, and you can connect to
• 34:24
  yourself as space yourself as vast, you know, as beyond your
• 34:28
  body and mind. And so make it just about that,
• 34:32
  just the goal. Not necessarily like, well, what
• 34:34
  tools, you know, it's like teach me how to meditate.
• 34:37
  And it's like, well, just sit down, find a spot in your house,
• 34:40
  like make it peaceful, you know, put a little picture, put a
• 34:44
  little candle or something. And you go back to that spot,
• 34:47
  you know, and that can help, you know, just maintain a routine as
• 34:52
  if you have the same place and you go and you sit there and you
• 34:55
  close your eyes and you set a little.
• 34:57
  I like to use a kitchen timer instead of my phone.
• 35:00
  And you set it. I'm like start at 3 minutes and
• 35:03
  just three minutes. Like don't start at 10/15/20
• 35:06
  minutes. Like you're not gonna, you're
• 35:08
  gonna feel discouraged, right? So it's like I want to try and
• 35:11
  encourage people little by little.
• 35:12
  So I'm like, start with three minutes and if 3 minutes like
• 35:15
  goes back quick, then put it at 5 minutes and do 5 minutes for
• 35:18
  like 4 months, you know, and see how does that go?
• 35:23
  And just make it a, a make it a practice of nourishing yourself.
• 35:28
  Think of it as that, not you're trying to attain some goal.
• 35:31
  You already are. You're it, you're it already,
• 35:34
  you know, and that is what meditation is about is to
• 35:37
  understand. Oh, I'm it, I have, you know
• 35:41
  what I need and now I just have to connect to it.
• 35:44
  Yeah, I'm, I'm so glad you brought this up when I, when I
• 35:48
  first, when I got sober. One of the part of the 12 steps
• 35:53
  is sought through prayer and meditate, meditation to improve
• 35:58
  our conscious contact with God as we understood him praying
• 36:01
  only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry
• 36:03
  that out. And the meditation, I mean, I
• 36:05
  prayed, you know, as when you know, always, you know, pretty
• 36:09
  much always a foxhole, Santa Claus, give me this, Get Me Out
• 36:13
  of this kind of thing, you know, and in church, you know, I grew
• 36:16
  up going to church and prayed at church, but had no prayer life.
• 36:20
  But I, but at least I, you know, it wasn't totally foreign to me,
• 36:22
  but meditation was. And when I got sober and they
• 36:29
  people, you know, they're suggested right there on the
• 36:31
  wall, you know, the steps to meditate.
• 36:34
  And I remember thinking and saying, how am I going to
• 36:37
  meditate? How can I possibly sit still
• 36:40
  with my mind going blank, which is the, you know, the
• 36:42
  misconception as it is. And with what I, you know, I'm
• 36:45
  so crazy, especially now freshly sober and I'm just thoughts
• 36:49
  racing and people said, you know, you think you're the only
• 36:52
  crazy person in here. Come on.
• 36:54
  Also, why don't you try for 45 seconds?
• 36:57
  And I, so I did. And so I started with 45 seconds
• 37:00
  and I would do that twice a day. And then I moved up to a couple
• 37:03
  of minutes on each end of the day.
• 37:05
  I always did it twice though. And then I started using Apps
• 37:08
  one that was 5 minutes and I used a really good one, the Sam
• 37:11
  Harris Waking up with Sam Harris, which was 10 minutes.
• 37:15
  And then eventually moved on to 20 minutes twice a day, which
• 37:19
  I've been doing now for a little over five years.
• 37:21
  But, but the big thing for me too is just being willing to do
• 37:26
  it because that misconception that it's going to be this Zen
• 37:29
  blank thing. You know what that does happen
• 37:31
  sometimes. But more often than not, I would
• 37:33
  say I sit down to meditate and the thoughts just come and they
• 37:37
  say take it as it comes. That's how they kind of explain
• 37:39
  to do it in TM Transcendental Meditation and just to kind of
• 37:43
  let the thoughts come and go and not because The thing is, if I
• 37:46
  sit there and try to not have any thoughts, then all I'm going
• 37:48
  to do is think about how I don't want to have any thoughts and
• 37:50
  that, you know, and just to kind of let it happen.
• 37:54
  And The funny thing is sometimes when I'm very stressed out, I'm
• 37:58
  worried about, you know, work, relationship, finances, whatever
• 38:02
  it is, I'm going to be late everything and I'll sit down and
• 38:06
  have one of those really Zen, totally blank meditations that
• 38:09
  feel like that. That's what it's all about.
• 38:12
  But then sometimes when I, yeah. But then sometimes when
• 38:14
  everything is going great, I sit down and all I do is think the
• 38:17
  whole time. So I never know.
• 38:18
  But at the very least I'm willing to do it.
• 38:21
  And like you said, we're it. That's the goal.
• 38:23
  It's just it's, you know, it's this, we have this being inside
• 38:27
  of us that we're trying to tap into through meditation.
• 38:29
  That's how I kind of look. At it, Yeah, it's a.
• 38:32
  It's a, in Sanskrit, it's called the Sakshi, which means witness.
• 38:37
  So basically, if you can watch, there's some, there's some force
• 38:41
  inside of you that's watching yourself think, right?
• 38:44
  If you can watch your thoughts, then that's not all you are,
• 38:47
  right? Someone's in there.
• 38:48
  So you drop into the witness consciousness where you're like,
• 38:51
  oh, I'm witnessing, you know, I'm witnessing this body think,
• 38:56
  this brain think. And so let me let me identify
• 39:00
  with that witness consciousness rather than the thoughts that
• 39:03
  are coming through my mind, because these are just patterns,
• 39:06
  you know, not many of our thoughts are new thoughts.
• 39:10
  I mean, there's studies that show, you know, they're mostly
• 39:12
  unoriginal. I can't remember the
• 39:15
  percentages, but yeah. But it's, it's more it's just a
• 39:19
  matter of like, you know, you're going to sit down with yourself,
• 39:22
  no one else. You're going to just breathe.
• 39:25
  And that's why for new people to new people, new to meditation,
• 39:30
  you know, a mantra can be very helpful, you know, so even if
• 39:33
  it's inhale, let exhale go. That was one of the first
• 39:36
  mantras that I used. Inhale, let exhale go.
• 39:39
  So you're repeating it internally to yourself.
• 39:42
  Or you can just say I'm inhaling, I'm exhaling, or just
• 39:47
  inhale, exhale or in and out. Or there's so many mantras, so
• 39:52
  hum, you know, Tatwama see, like, you know, and and TM,
• 39:58
  you're given a specific one. It's it's just you know, it's
• 40:01
  it's great because like, OK, you can't just sit down and be
• 40:05
  completely quiet. Here's a couple words that are
• 40:08
  uplifting that like are actually words that mean you are it.
• 40:12
  You know, you are that. That's what Soham is saying.
• 40:16
  So if you're repeating so hum to yourself.
• 40:18
  That's what you're feeding your body.
• 40:20
  Those are the thought. That's the thought for 5 minutes
• 40:22
  that you're saying I am, that I am, that I am that right over
• 40:26
  and over again. Or inhale, exhale.
• 40:29
  And it's important what we say to ourselves, you know, I mean,
• 40:32
  studies have been done. Like, you know, Doctor Himoto,
• 40:37
  right? That's his name, right?
• 40:38
  Doctor Himoto. He did the studies on water.
• 40:42
  You know, it's like we're primarily made-up of water.
• 40:44
  And it's like they would put different vessels of water in a
• 40:48
  room, you know, in glass jars and and one room they would
• 40:51
  speak poorly to the water. In another room, they would go
• 40:54
  in and say, you're the most beautiful water I've ever seen,
• 40:57
  Like you're so special. Thank you for being here, you
• 41:00
  know, and, and they would talk to it, how we would speak to
• 41:03
  other people, how we would talk to our children, how we would,
• 41:06
  you know, And then they, they go with a microscope and they look
• 41:10
  at this water and the crystals. It's like this water that you've
• 41:14
  been speaking poorly to looks awful.
• 41:16
  You know, it's like it's all discolored and I don't know,
• 41:22
  like it's been a while since I saw it.
• 41:24
  But then the other ones like crystals that are shapes of, you
• 41:27
  know, all these crazy. And so it's like it's taking on
• 41:30
  what you're telling it. It's taking on that shape, you
• 41:34
  know, and it's so, you know, important what we're saying to
• 41:39
  ourselves and. Absolutely.
• 41:43
  I mean, this is all, you know, with the word karma hasn't even
• 41:46
  come up yet in this conversation, but it basically
• 41:48
  has been part of the conversation all day.
• 41:51
  And it's so true. And that, you know, self talk is
• 41:54
  important and being kind of back to the what comes in and you
• 41:58
  know what we put back out there. And like when I do an inventory
• 42:03
  at which I do have this app, I do it every day and kind of like
• 42:07
  chalks up a score of how I behaved that day and how would I
• 42:09
  can be better at tomorrow. And one of the questions that
• 42:13
  asked me is, was I kind and loving towards all?
• 42:15
  And it's usually yes, but not always.
• 42:17
  And if it's not, it's usually over some kind of customer
• 42:20
  service situation or an airline or, you know, something like
• 42:23
  that. But either way, when I am and
• 42:26
  can say yes to that, you know, my day is just so much better.
• 42:30
  And that, but that also tells me what I've been putting out there
• 42:34
  is, is goodness instead of negativity, you know, and there,
• 42:39
  you know, I don't know how true this is, but they say if, you
• 42:41
  know, a certain percentage of the world would all meditated,
• 42:45
  then we would have complete peace.
• 42:48
  That is this infectious thing. This, this these good vibes,
• 42:53
  which to me, you know, seven years ago, I would have laughed
• 42:57
  in my own face and your face and anybody else who, you know, kind
• 43:02
  of presented this stuff to me because I was so cynical.
• 43:05
  And that was over from years and years of, you know, negativity
• 43:09
  and anything that didn't go my way, the only way I knew how to
• 43:11
  handle it was my solution was drugs and alcohol.
• 43:16
  Now my solution to life on life's terms includes meditation
• 43:20
  and prayer and all these things that are healthy and have been
• 43:22
  around since man, you know, first smashed grapes, as they
• 43:26
  say. Yeah.
• 43:30
  I mean, it's you know, yeah, and I and I've seen you, you decided
• 43:38
  to walk down a different Rd. you know, and it's like that takes
• 43:41
  courage. You decided to stop and look at
• 43:44
  yourself and look inside and see like, okay, well, what, what do,
• 43:48
  what can I do to make myself feel better?
• 43:50
  And, and how can I be, you know, a kinder person and, and, and
• 43:54
  it's like, it's incredible. You know what, what now you're,
• 43:57
  you're giving and that's the, that's the karmic effect.
• 44:00
  You know that it ripples out. I mean, karma's it comes from,
• 44:04
  which means action. And it's the Sanskrit root is
• 44:08
  action. So it's basically it's cause and
• 44:10
  effect, you know, so if we want to see, you know, I mean, the,
• 44:15
  the teachings always say if you want an apple, you have to plant
• 44:18
  an apple seed. You know, you can't play it,
• 44:20
  plant a grapefruit seed and get an apple.
• 44:22
  It's like, so if you want to, you want to see compassion and
• 44:24
  kindness in the world, that's what you have to plant, You
• 44:27
  know, that's what you have to. I have a friend, she's always
• 44:30
  saying, 'cause, you know, I, I recently went through divorce
• 44:34
  and, and I would say to her like, you know, I don't want to
• 44:38
  this. I don't want, she'd be like,
• 44:39
  what do you want? You know, what do you want?
• 44:42
  She would remind me, like, say what you want, not what you
• 44:46
  don't want. Because like every time you say
• 44:48
  what you don't want, that's you're perpetuating because
• 44:50
  you're putting it out into the, the world with the atmosphere
• 44:54
  and it's coming through your body.
• 44:55
  Say what you want. So your body listens to that.
• 44:58
  So your mind listens to it. And so it could actually, you
• 45:01
  know, come, come to be make that the the power.
• 45:07
  But yeah, I mean, you've you've now like look how many people
• 45:10
  you're affecting, you know, not just through like your center,
• 45:13
  but other places and now having this podcast.
• 45:17
  And it's like, I'm just so impressed with your dedication.
• 45:22
  And I did know you. I'll be it not well, but through
• 45:25
  friends in college, you know, and it's like and and it's you
• 45:31
  weren't you were. It's like you're you've always
• 45:33
  been fun loving and kind and like, you know, joyful and like
• 45:39
  you want to connect to people that it's like you were social.
• 45:42
  Everybody knows you. Anybody that knows B by the way,
• 45:44
  if y'all are listening like they love, they love them like, Oh,
• 45:47
  BI know BI love B, you know, and it's like, but you're just like,
• 45:54
  you recognize that it wasn't, you know, healthy for you.
• 46:00
  It wasn't good for your soul. It wasn't good for your spirit.
• 46:03
  So you were like, I'm going to do something else.
• 46:05
  And that's what I did when I went vegan and that's what I did
• 46:08
  when I stopped smoking. And that's when I did when I
• 46:11
  quit, I quit drinking too. I mean, you know, on a cage,
• 46:14
  I'll have like a glass of champagne.
• 46:17
  It's like once in a blue moon, but it doesn't always wake up
• 46:20
  feeling like I don't really like I didn't even need that.
• 46:23
  Like you get to a place where, you know, and it just, it's not
• 46:28
  necessary. And I love that.
• 46:29
  Like you're helping people try to get to that place where, you
• 46:32
  know, they can find that sense of courage or peace or whatever
• 46:37
  it is that that we look for in other things, you know,
• 46:41
  substances, clothing, food, etcetera.
• 46:44
  It's like, you know, for me, it's like, is that moment of
• 46:47
  pleasure worth feeling crappy? And the answer would be no.
• 46:52
  And it's like, is that you know, chicken salad worth killing the
• 46:57
  chicken? No, is that night of whatever?
• 47:01
  Is that worth me feeling? I don't even know how people I'm
• 47:06
  like parenting is hard enough. My friends are always saying to
• 47:08
  me, I don't know how you you're a parent and you don't like
• 47:10
  drink wine at night. I'm just like, I don't know how
• 47:13
  y'all do, Like I don't know how you wake up the next morning and
• 47:16
  do all the stuff that like we need to do and feel not 100% I
• 47:21
  guess cuz our bodies get used to it and it, you know, it's like,
• 47:24
  you know, they just, it gets acquainted.
• 47:26
  But yeah, I just think it's, it's like these practices are
• 47:32
  ancient and, and we're, you know, we're discovering that
• 47:37
  like, wow, this, this can we go back to where there wasn't such
• 47:42
  emphasis on the external superficial world where it's
• 47:47
  like cars and this and that. It's like it's all nice and it's
• 47:51
  all fun and it's all here for us to to play with.
• 47:54
  You know, it's the word that's given to the world is in sounds
• 47:57
  here is Lila, and Lila means play.
• 48:00
  So it's like we're all here and it's a play and we're actors and
• 48:04
  some people are taking this role and some are taking that role
• 48:07
  and you know, and we're all fulfilling our karmas.
• 48:10
  But you know, it's, it's ultimately.
• 48:14
  Well, everything you just mentioned in that list of, you
• 48:17
  know, the food and alcohol and yeah, sex, I don't even know if
• 48:21
  you said that. But all these external factors
• 48:23
  that we all on different, you know, varying levels, seek
• 48:28
  external validation through all this stuff.
• 48:30
  But but everything that we talked about before is part of
• 48:33
  it being an inside job, how we can get better from the inside
• 48:36
  out through these ancient practices that have been there
• 48:39
  since the dawn of man. And it's an internal validation.
• 48:43
  You can say that that's what meditation is.
• 48:45
  And it goes back to the very first thing you asked me, which
• 48:47
  was, you know, tell me about this idea of self anarchy.
• 48:52
  And it's like that is a self rule where you are following
• 48:57
  your own, you know, soul and you're listening to your breath
• 49:02
  and you're listening to your heart and you're not letting you
• 49:05
  know all the schisms, like all the conditioning that you have
• 49:12
  accumulated. I mean, a lot of our childhood
• 49:15
  is like accumulating ideas and concepts, you know, and then
• 49:21
  trying to like, when we're older, workout.
• 49:24
  Do I even believe in that? Do I even, you know, like, is
• 49:27
  that even something I want to be doing or be on board with?
• 49:31
  And so, yeah, it's just that willingness to change.
• 49:35
  You know, some people are like, well, I can't, you know, I vote
• 49:38
  like this. This is what I grew up or this
• 49:40
  is what my dad thought, or this is what my mind, you know, and
• 49:42
  it's like just being able to think for ourselves.
• 49:45
  Hey, wait a second. This isn't like such a great
• 49:48
  idea. Maybe we could go a different
• 49:51
  route. You know, we could find new
• 49:54
  water. There you go.
• 49:55
  Well, that is, you know, couldn't think of a better way
• 49:59
  to wrap this up and that was amazing.
• 50:02
  Great, great segue to you know, we both have found new waters
• 50:07
  through different paths, but here we are talking I'm so.
• 50:11
  I could talk to you all day. Well, I knew that I knew I would
• 50:14
  not have a problem talking to you for an hour, so I'm so glad
• 50:18
  we did. That I know I was like, you
• 50:20
  know, whatever you what, any subject you want to discuss,
• 50:24
  I'm, I'm up for it. I'm there for it.
• 50:26
  Well, thank you so much. And before we go, just tell
• 50:28
  everybody, yeah, how do we, how do people find you?
• 50:32
  Oh goodness. Well, currently my website is
• 50:35
  Andrea boydyoga.com and on that website there are the books that
• 50:42
  I wrote that you mentioned before.
• 50:43
  One of them is came from a podcast that I did called the
• 50:46
  depth of birth, which is a phenomenal.
• 50:49
  I I love it. It's like it's such a great book
• 50:52
  and that's why I wrote it and I'm proud of it.
• 50:54
  It's, it's for moms to be, but also just, and, and, you know,
• 50:58
  dads to be, but also just, it's a great thing to read to, for
• 51:03
  people to know about pregnancy and, and all the different
• 51:06
  things going on in the birth world that need attention.
• 51:11
  But yeah, it's informative, educational.
• 51:13
  I also have an album that I recorded with a friend of mine
• 51:17
  and then we're working on one for him.
• 51:19
  I'm always, you know, yeah. Well, hey, you're amazing.
• 51:22
  I'm so glad that we've reconnected it and and this was
• 51:25
  great and I will see you in real life IRL is the kids say
• 51:28
  tomorrow in Charleston. See you tomorrow.
• 51:31
  Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for.
• 51:33
  Doing this podcast, it's great. Thank you so much.
• 51:37
  Awesome. Thank you.
• 51:38
  If you liked what you heard today or just want to know more,
• 51:40
  give us a call on 9196708119 or visit us at
• 51:46
  newwatersrecovery.com. Thank you.