Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 224. Rosie Acosta, Yoga & Meditation Teacher

Transcript

224. Rosie Acosta, Yoga & Meditation Teacher · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Love was something that it's a verb, right, It's something
0:03
Speaker 1: that you do, but it's also something that you are.
0:06
Speaker 1: Are you capable of unconditionally loving others? And are you
0:12
Speaker 1: capable of unconditionally loving yourself? What is going on? Emily
0:33
Speaker 1: and Badi Here?
0:34
Speaker 2: You are listening to episode two hundred and twenty four
0:37
Speaker 2: of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast. Reconnect with everyone from
0:41
Speaker 2: your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about
0:44
Speaker 2: their highest hies, toughest moments, and everything in between. We
0:48
Speaker 2: all go through hurdles in life, and my goal through
0:51
Speaker 2: these discussions is to empower you to better navigate yours
0:54
Speaker 2: and move with intention so that you can stride towards
0:57
Speaker 2: your own big potential and of course, have some fun
1:01
Speaker 2: along the way. For episode two twenty four, I am
1:05
Speaker 2: chatting with Rosie Acosta. She is an international speaker, a
1:09
Speaker 2: yoga and meditation teacher, and also host of the radically
1:14
Speaker 2: loved podcast. In today's episode, Rosie opens up about growing
1:18
Speaker 2: up in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles, getting in
1:23
Speaker 2: trouble with the law, navigating the repercussions of that, which
1:27
Speaker 2: eventually led her to embracing a mindfulness practice. Rosie opens
1:34
Speaker 2: up about how she was able to stick with meditation,
1:37
Speaker 2: getting past the hurdles that many of us face with
1:41
Speaker 2: a brand new practice to make it really work for
1:44
Speaker 2: her with patients. She says that the practice eventually helped
1:47
Speaker 2: her find a greater sense of self and happiness, plus
1:51
Speaker 2: a new career path. She also chats with me about
1:55
Speaker 2: her new chapter creating content for Headspace in honor of
1:59
Speaker 2: Hispanic Heritage Month, and offers up some helpful tips for
2:03
Speaker 2: anyone else who feels like they struggle with sticking with mindfulness.
2:09
Speaker 3: Rosie's energy is electric.
2:11
Speaker 2: I know that you are going to love her story,
2:14
Speaker 2: and I'm grateful that we were able to make this happen,
2:18
Speaker 2: especially as I noted during Hispanic Heritage Month, a huge
2:23
Speaker 2: shout out to the hurdlers that I met over the
2:25
Speaker 2: weekend in Chicago, plus the good people at Tracksmith for
2:29
Speaker 2: having me at their Chicago Marathon pop up.
2:32
Speaker 3: I had a blast with all of you.
2:34
Speaker 2: A lot of questions coming into my DMS about what
2:38
Speaker 2: I may be doing surrounding at New York Marathon. Trust me,
2:43
Speaker 2: I've got information coming for you soon, so stay tuned.
2:47
Speaker 2: Make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social
2:50
Speaker 2: it's at Curdle podcast. I myself am over at Emily
2:53
Speaker 2: a Body and speaking of dms, I get a lot
2:57
Speaker 2: of dms that ask questions that I answer regularly in
3:02
Speaker 2: the weekly Hurdle newsletter. If you don't subscribe yet, I
3:05
Speaker 2: highly encourage you to do so. This way you'll get
3:09
Speaker 2: a lot of the same motivation inspiration stuff that you
3:12
Speaker 2: love from the show, plus gear picks other highlights, things
3:15
Speaker 2: that I'm reading and listening to directly in your inbox
3:19
Speaker 2: every single Friday. To link to subscribe is in the
3:24
Speaker 2: show notes. Last little bit of housekeeping here. If you
3:27
Speaker 2: haven't taken the time just yet to rate and review
3:29
Speaker 2: the show and you consider yourself a hurdler and need
3:33
Speaker 2: you to do me this solid, head on in to
3:35
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or wherever else you may be listening to
3:39
Speaker 2: this and give the.
3:41
Speaker 3: Show five stars, rate and review it.
3:43
Speaker 2: It means a lot to me and it helps other
3:45
Speaker 2: people find this goodness.
3:49
Speaker 3: I think that is it for now.
3:51
Speaker 2: With that, let's get to hurdling.
4:09
Speaker 3: Today.
4:10
Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Rosie a Costa. She is
4:13
Speaker 2: Headspace's newest meditation teacher. How are you doing today?
4:18
Speaker 1: Rosie, I'm doing so good. I'm so glad, as I
4:21
Speaker 1: said earlier, to get to do this with you, because
4:23
Speaker 1: I know you've got a lot of big events. I'm
4:26
Speaker 1: a runner, so I'm like, I'm knowing what is happening
4:29
Speaker 1: right now. Like the schedule of your life is very
4:33
Speaker 1: inspiring to me.
4:35
Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate those kind words.
4:38
Speaker 2: This is certainly a This is like busy season for
4:42
Speaker 2: someone like me, Like I get the opportunity not only
4:45
Speaker 2: to do what I love, which is run, and do
4:48
Speaker 2: it for long periods of time, but then I also
4:51
Speaker 2: get to talk to other people about doing this thing
4:54
Speaker 2: that I love and that they love, and then I
4:56
Speaker 2: get to travel around and see lots of people do
4:59
Speaker 2: the thing.
4:59
Speaker 3: So I feel very fortunate. But this is not about me.
5:03
Speaker 1: This is about to keep trying. I'm gonna keep trying to.
5:06
Speaker 3: Like you are.
5:08
Speaker 2: This is what I get chatting with a fellow podcast host.
5:11
Speaker 2: You want to tell the hurdlers a little bit about
5:12
Speaker 2: your show?
5:14
Speaker 1: Sure, yes, I have a podcast that I've been doing
5:19
Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen. It's called The Red and I did
5:22
Speaker 1: take breaks in between, by the way, not consistently since
5:25
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. But that's how long I've been I don't know,
5:28
Speaker 1: like doing the show. I guess it's called the Radically
5:31
Speaker 1: Loved Podcast, and we, yeah, we talk about all types
5:36
Speaker 1: of different things. Initially it started as a just like
5:40
Speaker 1: an author based interview show, and then it just sort
5:45
Speaker 1: of turned into this, yeah, like wellness show, and I
5:50
Speaker 1: just use it as an excuse to talk to awesome
5:53
Speaker 1: people like yourself.
5:54
Speaker 2: Figuring out a way to talk to people and learn
5:57
Speaker 2: from people and create a career.
6:00
Speaker 3: Out of it.
6:00
Speaker 2: It's truly one of the most beautiful opportunities within my being.
6:05
Speaker 3: So I relate, I really relate.
6:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm into it, and it's been, you know, a
6:10
Speaker 1: really interesting learning process just with regard to I guess
6:17
Speaker 1: really like the type of content that we're putting out
6:21
Speaker 1: there for me. I just when I first launched the podcast,
6:25
Speaker 1: I thought that like I'd have thousands of downloads. I'm like,
6:30
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm gonna put this out and everybody's
6:32
Speaker 1: gonna want to listen to this. And literally it was
6:35
Speaker 1: two people. It was me and my boyfriend to at
6:39
Speaker 1: the time, who was producing the episodes, and I was
6:43
Speaker 1: just like, oh, like this is in a way. It
6:46
Speaker 1: gave me the safety cushion that I needed to really
6:50
Speaker 1: relax and let myself just be who I was without
6:55
Speaker 1: being worried. In fact, some of the first episodes you
6:57
Speaker 1: hear me say like, nobody's listening to this, so it's fun,
7:00
Speaker 1: you know, and we would just have these really honest
7:02
Speaker 1: and vulnerable conversations and it really helped, I think, shape
7:07
Speaker 1: the show because after a while, obviously more people started
7:11
Speaker 1: listening to it and it started to gain a little
7:14
Speaker 1: bit of traction. And so, yeah, but I really I
7:18
Speaker 1: love that my initial introduction was kind of like a
7:22
Speaker 1: fall flat on my face experience, you know. Yeah.
7:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and your note about it feeling super intimate, that is,
7:32
Speaker 2: without a doubt, my favorite part of podcasting. I had
7:36
Speaker 2: Rad Lopez from Peloton in the studio yesterday and we
7:40
Speaker 2: really got into it. Not to throw him under the
7:43
Speaker 2: bus or anything, but he cried with me. We were
7:46
Speaker 2: really digging in and at the end, when the mic
7:50
Speaker 2: turned off, I looked at him and I said, how
7:52
Speaker 2: does all of that make you feel? And I gave
7:55
Speaker 2: him like a moment to really digest and remember that
7:59
Speaker 2: you and I having this conversation, it does feel like
8:02
Speaker 2: really beautiful and an opportunity for us to get to
8:04
Speaker 2: know each other, and that's exactly what it is. But
8:06
Speaker 2: it's also a means of communication that then broadcasts to
8:11
Speaker 2: so many others. And again that's what I kind of
8:13
Speaker 2: dig about podcasting. I think it's a fun way for
8:15
Speaker 2: us to be our authentic selves.
8:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I love that. I'm like, tell me more.
8:22
Speaker 2: Speaking of being our authentic selves, Rosie, I want to
8:25
Speaker 2: know a little bit about you and your authentic self.
8:28
Speaker 2: I know that one doesn't get to be in forces
8:33
Speaker 2: in khoots with a company like Headspace just by being
8:38
Speaker 2: so stellar of a human. So talk to us a
8:40
Speaker 2: little bit about your journey. Talk to us about how
8:43
Speaker 2: long you have been working in the meditation space.
8:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's funny. I'm like, it doesn't just happen
8:51
Speaker 1: like that. I guess it doesn't nowadays, Right, you have
8:54
Speaker 1: to really sort of create and pave your own way up.
9:00
Speaker 1: In East Los Angeles in the early nineties, during probably
9:04
Speaker 1: one of the most violent times in the history of
9:06
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, we grew immigrant family Mexican American. My family
9:14
Speaker 1: was a big family that lived in a small two
9:18
Speaker 1: bedroom apartment in this housing project in East LA and
9:23
Speaker 1: our neighborhood got basically over time, overrun with you know,
9:29
Speaker 1: the disenfranchised youth that was being sort of left to
9:33
Speaker 1: their own devices because everyone's parents were working two jobs.
9:37
Speaker 1: So what happens is that you know, people start, kids
9:41
Speaker 1: start to get in trouble. So, yeah, our neighborhood got
9:45
Speaker 1: overrun by gang violence and uh, just domestic abuse. Like
9:52
Speaker 1: it was just really chaotic. So, I mean there was
9:56
Speaker 1: drive by shootings and you know, people getting stabbed, and
10:00
Speaker 1: it was just very very chaotic. But it was the
10:06
Speaker 1: same circumstances that everybody I knew was growing up around.
10:10
Speaker 1: So it wasn't abnormal. It was very much part of
10:15
Speaker 1: the status quo of the time. And so by the
10:19
Speaker 1: time I was a teenager, I was you know, getting
10:23
Speaker 1: in trouble with the lie, I was experimenting with drugs.
10:28
Speaker 1: I was drinking and just hanging out with the wrong crowd,
10:34
Speaker 1: which some were my relatives, right, I mean, it just
10:37
Speaker 1: you're it's such a strongly linked tribe, this sort of
10:44
Speaker 1: pack mentality when you're in situations like that, because that's
10:47
Speaker 1: really all the support that you have. Most of the time,
10:50
Speaker 1: parents aren't really involved, right because they're not there. So
10:57
Speaker 1: so I was a teenager, I was you know, I
11:00
Speaker 1: I got arrested a handful of times, you know, just
11:05
Speaker 1: kind of silly things.
11:07
Speaker 3: And then what's a silly thing.
11:10
Speaker 1: Well, one was I was tagging. It's my way of
11:19
Speaker 1: doing art. I was just tagging on the side of
11:22
Speaker 1: a business and we got you know, the cops came
11:25
Speaker 1: and the I d'd everybody, and I was the thing
11:28
Speaker 1: about me was that I didn't look like my other friends.
11:32
Speaker 1: You know, I was like the sort of goth kid.
11:35
Speaker 1: You know, I was the wearing the docs and the
11:38
Speaker 1: or the chucks, you know, all black. That was my
11:41
Speaker 1: way of not having to affiliate with a gang. I
11:43
Speaker 1: guess it was my way of protecting myself so that
11:46
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be You have to think about your safety
11:49
Speaker 1: a lot of the times when you're growing up in
11:51
Speaker 1: environments like that, right, So I always seemed to sort
11:55
Speaker 1: of get off or get let go. And so that
11:58
Speaker 1: was one of the times. Another time I was caught
12:03
Speaker 1: like fighting on the street in a little brawl of sorts.
12:08
Speaker 1: And the third time, I like, it makes me sound
12:12
Speaker 1: so every time I talk about it, I'm like, like,
12:14
Speaker 1: this is this what happened? You know, I talk about
12:18
Speaker 1: it on my book, you know, and it's so funny.
12:19
Speaker 1: Every time I talk about it in public, it always
12:22
Speaker 1: gives me pause. Yeah, I got arrested for trying to
12:25
Speaker 1: steal a cop car. So once that happened, I did
12:30
Speaker 1: get arrested, I did get booked, and I think that
12:34
Speaker 1: was the moment where I realized the booking officer I'll
12:37
Speaker 1: never forget this that was booking me basically looked at
12:41
Speaker 1: me and was very sort of I don't know, just
12:49
Speaker 1: mocking in a way and sort of being pompous and
12:53
Speaker 1: basically said to me, welcome to life in the system.
12:57
Speaker 1: And that did not sit well with me at all.
13:02
Speaker 1: And I think that was the moment where I felt
13:04
Speaker 1: this energy of I knew that I didn't really fit
13:08
Speaker 1: into the crowd that I was hanging out with, but
13:11
Speaker 1: I also didn't know where else to fit in. There
13:13
Speaker 1: was no modeled behavior, no sort of yeah like role
13:19
Speaker 1: models to look up to. It was just basically the
13:23
Speaker 1: people I was around. Right, So I ended up getting
13:27
Speaker 1: probation for six months, and it was like the most
13:33
Speaker 1: strict probation in the world, especially to a fifteen year
13:37
Speaker 1: old girl that you know, likes to go out past
13:41
Speaker 1: six o'clock. I had a curfew, I had community service,
13:44
Speaker 1: I had to go to anger management. I had all
13:46
Speaker 1: of these things I needed to do, and at the time,
13:50
Speaker 1: I was suffering from debilitating panic attacks. I would get
13:54
Speaker 1: these random bouts of panic, and the interesting thing is
13:59
Speaker 1: nobody knew why that was happening, and I'm like, oh,
14:03
Speaker 1: it could have been the fact that she was experiencing.
14:06
Speaker 1: You know, she's seen people get stabbed and then there
14:09
Speaker 1: was this drive by shooting and these people getting beat
14:13
Speaker 1: up in front of her. You know, just the things
14:14
Speaker 1: that you would think now hindsight, obviously those types of
14:19
Speaker 1: things can be caused for PTSD, and so all of
14:23
Speaker 1: the signs were there, and I was really having a
14:29
Speaker 1: hard time and trying to really figure out what I
14:31
Speaker 1: wanted to do. You know, I really felt like I
14:36
Speaker 1: was at a crossroads at that time. I was either
14:38
Speaker 1: going to conform to what society expected of me and
14:42
Speaker 1: become just another statistic or I would go against the
14:48
Speaker 1: grain and do something else. I didn't know what that
14:53
Speaker 1: something else was. And I think a lot of the times,
14:55
Speaker 1: even now, whenever I work with people or I talk
14:58
Speaker 1: to people, it's like I was like to remember that
15:01
Speaker 1: moment where I didn't know what the other was. But
15:07
Speaker 1: I knew that this choice was not an option. And
15:11
Speaker 1: I think that for some people it's like just having
15:13
Speaker 1: that comfort of knowing, even though I don't know where
15:16
Speaker 1: I want to go, I know that this isn't it.
15:19
Speaker 1: So it's almost the confidence of knowing. Maybe I don't
15:22
Speaker 1: know what I want, but I definitely know what I
15:25
Speaker 1: don't want. And so it was during that time that
15:29
Speaker 1: my mom, my mom's friend had been familiar with meditation
15:34
Speaker 1: and yoga and had heard that meditation was really great
15:39
Speaker 1: for stress and anxiety, and gave my mom these pamphlets,
15:43
Speaker 1: and my mom showed up basically and left them on
15:46
Speaker 1: the counter or on the bed, I can't remember exactly where,
15:49
Speaker 1: but that was how we communicated because we had a
15:51
Speaker 1: really tenuous relationship. She was a single mom at the time.
15:56
Speaker 1: And I just opened this pam about this book about meditation,
16:03
Speaker 1: and I was really into New ag things too. I
16:07
Speaker 1: was like, give me all the horoscopes and the astrology
16:10
Speaker 1: and everything. So I was able to feel that New
16:17
Speaker 1: agey quality to it, and it just opened the door.
16:22
Speaker 1: I started to read more about meditation and I started
16:28
Speaker 1: to learn about mindfulness, and it took some time. It
16:32
Speaker 1: didn't just happen overnight, but I started to meditate and
16:37
Speaker 1: it started to really change my life. I think it
16:41
Speaker 1: was the first time I had ever experienced being in
16:46
Speaker 1: my body and feeling my breath where I felt like
16:54
Speaker 1: it was home and like this was where I needed
16:57
Speaker 1: to be. Most of the time, the association to my
17:00
Speaker 1: body were a fight or flight right. The only time
17:05
Speaker 1: I ever felt intensity was when I was in fear,
17:09
Speaker 1: which was a lot of the time. So that was
17:12
Speaker 1: my foray, you know. That's how I got into into meditation.
17:17
Speaker 1: And once I started to meditate more h and as
17:21
Speaker 1: the time went on, I got more into learning about
17:23
Speaker 1: mental health and wellness and nutrition, and I started to
17:28
Speaker 1: see how everything around me started was affecting me, not
17:31
Speaker 1: just affecting me, but affecting everybody in my environment, my family,
17:37
Speaker 1: and so my life began to change over a certain
17:43
Speaker 1: amount of a period of time, and I wanted to
17:47
Speaker 1: learn how to bring this to people like the people
17:50
Speaker 1: that I grew up with, you know, Like, how do
17:52
Speaker 1: I bring this thing that's really helping me in my
17:57
Speaker 1: path and on my journey to people Like, Yeah, the
18:02
Speaker 1: people that I grew up with are friends of mine
18:04
Speaker 1: that I had known for a long time that were
18:05
Speaker 1: really struggling with the same issues that I was.
18:09
Speaker 2: It's so interesting to hear you talk so positively about
18:13
Speaker 2: your introductory experiences into meditation, because oftentimes I feel as
18:19
Speaker 2: though that isn't an experience that's commonly shared.
18:23
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, yeah, no, it wasn't like, Oh, I opened
18:26
Speaker 1: a book on meditation and then it went no, no, no, no, no,
18:29
Speaker 1: let me let me, let me explain this. Okay, I'm
18:32
Speaker 1: just giving you the broad strokes, right, Like, my first
18:35
Speaker 1: forays into meditation were not awesome. First of all, me
18:40
Speaker 1: closing my eyes was not going to happen because that
18:43
Speaker 1: was really an unsafe space for me. Right, That did
18:47
Speaker 1: not feel good. And so all of these instructions of
18:53
Speaker 1: focusing on an object, I'm like, yo, I'm on the
18:56
Speaker 1: floor in this nasty ass apartment and there's like crumbs
19:00
Speaker 1: on the floor, and my shit's all over the place,
19:04
Speaker 1: like there's clothes and just this it's gnarly here. This
19:09
Speaker 1: is just not the vibe, you know. So it was, Yeah, like,
19:13
Speaker 1: my first forays were not awesome, but I did keep
19:20
Speaker 1: showing up like that was more of the the anchor
19:25
Speaker 1: for me was the consistency it was the Okay, even
19:28
Speaker 1: though I think I'm pretty much doing this wrong. In fact,
19:32
Speaker 1: I can guarantee you that I'm doing this wrong. I
19:35
Speaker 1: continue to show up and I would get these short bouts,
19:40
Speaker 1: very short, fleeting bouts of peace. And I think it
19:44
Speaker 1: was those short moments of the spaces between thoughts that
19:49
Speaker 1: would get me to feel something where I felt like, Okay,
19:55
Speaker 1: maybe this isn't working, but there's something about it that
19:58
Speaker 1: does feel good. Yeah.
20:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that good feeling is one that held you in.
20:09
Speaker 2: But isn't the thing that keeps everybody else coming back
20:14
Speaker 2: for more? Beyond that feeling? What do you think about
20:17
Speaker 2: the practice kept you returning? What do you think about
20:22
Speaker 2: this time period? How much should you start doing at once?
20:26
Speaker 1: I would just do like five minutes, I think right
20:29
Speaker 1: at most.
20:29
Speaker 2: Right, So what do you think about that five minutes?
20:33
Speaker 2: Like was so intriguing to you that you kept coming back.
20:36
Speaker 1: I think mostly for me, it was just the ability
20:40
Speaker 1: to be still. It was just the being in one
20:46
Speaker 1: place because I was very much involved in what we
20:52
Speaker 1: all are, you know, thinking about the past or projecting
20:55
Speaker 1: into the future and living in the state of the unknown.
20:59
Speaker 1: Am I going to go to jail? Am I not
21:00
Speaker 1: going to go to jail? Like what is my life
21:02
Speaker 1: going to look like? I think those were just those
21:06
Speaker 1: brief moments where I could just breathe and not have
21:11
Speaker 1: to do anything else, even if it was just for
21:16
Speaker 1: those short five minutes, Like it was just that little
21:20
Speaker 1: bit of time to sort of regain my composure to
21:25
Speaker 1: go back into the world. And even at the time,
21:29
Speaker 1: Emily like, I didn't even give it that much thought.
21:33
Speaker 1: It wasn't even that in depth for me. It was
21:36
Speaker 1: just something that I began to do consistently that felt like, Okay,
21:44
Speaker 1: this is something that I'm doing. Nobody knows, I'm not
21:47
Speaker 1: telling This isn't something I can post, right, We didn't
21:49
Speaker 1: have any of that. This isn't something that I could
21:52
Speaker 1: tell everybody, especially not my friends and especially not my
21:57
Speaker 1: family that was like devout Catholic, right, So because it
22:01
Speaker 1: just seemed a little out there, right, So it was
22:06
Speaker 1: maybe just an opportunity for me to do something that
22:09
Speaker 1: I decided to do that felt good.
22:13
Speaker 2: Would you say that there was anything else in your
22:15
Speaker 2: life up until this point that kind of fell into
22:18
Speaker 2: the same bucket.
22:22
Speaker 1: I think mostly for me, it was just I felt
22:26
Speaker 1: like a lot of that time was spent during those
22:32
Speaker 1: later teenage years were spent like bobbing and weaving from trouble.
22:40
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of kids, like the ones
22:43
Speaker 1: that I grew up with, you know, we live in
22:46
Speaker 1: this environment and grow up in this state, especially growing
22:49
Speaker 1: up in a big city. You know, it's like you're
22:51
Speaker 1: constantly dodging and weaving danger and opst goals. And so
23:04
Speaker 1: I think that for the most part, when you grow
23:07
Speaker 1: up having that innate quality about yourself, you know, you
23:14
Speaker 1: don't really get a lot of opportunities to feel safe
23:19
Speaker 1: or be still right.
23:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really appreciate also what you said about knowing
23:27
Speaker 2: that you didn't feel safe in the space to sit
23:31
Speaker 2: there with your eyes closed. You had this kind of
23:36
Speaker 2: wisdom beyond where you were at, to meet yourself where
23:40
Speaker 2: you were at, so that you could do something for
23:44
Speaker 2: yourself despite that thing maybe not looking how it had
23:48
Speaker 2: been instilled in.
23:49
Speaker 3: You that it quote unquote should look.
23:51
Speaker 2: And so I would then turn that observation around to
23:55
Speaker 2: you and ask you what other best practice tip or
24:00
Speaker 2: maybe suggestions you would provide for someone who's trying to
24:04
Speaker 2: make the act of meditation more accessible for them.
24:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, God, I am such a big fan
24:13
Speaker 1: of just telling people to meet themselves where they are,
24:18
Speaker 1: Like so many people try to do meditation. I'm doing
24:23
Speaker 1: air quotes, right, And that I think is the part
24:28
Speaker 1: that it drives me a little mad. Right, So, because
24:32
Speaker 1: I feel that most people, if we give ourselves the
24:36
Speaker 1: permission to really land where we are, it then creates
24:41
Speaker 1: the space that we need for our happiness and our wellness. Right.
24:48
Speaker 1: It gives ourselves the opportunity to say, Okay, like here
24:52
Speaker 1: i am, I'm going to create I'm going to make
24:54
Speaker 1: this time to meditate or to start this pre that
25:00
Speaker 1: I'm not really done, I'm not good at and I'm
25:08
Speaker 1: gonna just do what I can, right. I think that
25:11
Speaker 1: that takes the pressure off of people, because meditation can
25:14
Speaker 1: sometimes be intimidating. And the other thing is that I
25:17
Speaker 1: think we don't talk about how hard it is to
25:21
Speaker 1: sit still, you know, for a lot of people. And
25:25
Speaker 1: I think that that's one of the biggest you know,
25:32
Speaker 1: obstacles that we have to move through. Just as people
25:36
Speaker 1: in the modern day living in the year twenty twenty two,
25:40
Speaker 1: you know, we're not monks living at the monastery where
25:44
Speaker 1: we could just go and be safe and be fed
25:46
Speaker 1: and you know, kind of live this life. You know,
25:50
Speaker 1: we live in a world that has really intense things
25:55
Speaker 1: happening all around us. We have relationships, we have careers,
25:58
Speaker 1: we have goals, we have dreams, we have failures, like
26:03
Speaker 1: we have all of these things that we grapple with
26:06
Speaker 1: just as being human. And so when you think about
26:09
Speaker 1: your life as a whole, and then you're being instructed,
26:13
Speaker 1: oh now go sit with all that, like, go have
26:16
Speaker 1: a seat and be still. For some people, maybe that's
26:19
Speaker 1: their place where they can get that solace experience. For me,
26:23
Speaker 1: even now twenty plus years later, it is I still
26:28
Speaker 1: need to move. Like a lot of my meditation and
26:31
Speaker 1: mindfulness practice is running. It's moving, it's going for a
26:37
Speaker 1: walk and then sitting. Then I can sit still, you know,
26:40
Speaker 1: cause it's like my body needs to have the expression
26:46
Speaker 1: of all of the busyness that's happening in my mind
26:50
Speaker 1: right or else I can't be still. So I think
26:54
Speaker 1: people need to know that it is a lot to
26:57
Speaker 1: ask of you to sit and be still, and it's
27:00
Speaker 1: okay that it is a lot, and you shouldn't feel
27:03
Speaker 1: bad for feeling like, man, you're asking me to do
27:07
Speaker 1: a lot. Because I've heard teachers say it's like just sit.
27:10
Speaker 1: I mean, I've said it before. Okay, so I'm guilty
27:12
Speaker 1: of it. I will call myself out. I will be
27:15
Speaker 1: the person that's like, you have a thousand and four
27:18
Speaker 1: hundred and forty minutes in a day, you can take
27:20
Speaker 1: five minutes to sit and be still. It's like, okay, yeah,
27:25
Speaker 1: that's great, I can, but it's gonna be really stressful
27:30
Speaker 1: for me. Right, So it's like, okay, take five minutes.
27:33
Speaker 1: What does your mindfulness practice look like. Maybe it is
27:37
Speaker 1: connecting with a loved one, connecting with yourself. Maybe it
27:41
Speaker 1: is going for a run. Maybe it is, you know,
27:44
Speaker 1: painting or journaling, or just sitting outside for five minutes,
27:49
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it may be, like, create this practice
27:53
Speaker 1: where you can be fully present and fully engaged with
27:56
Speaker 1: the part of yourself that is needing to be knowledged.
28:01
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Now, what I hear you saying, or at
28:06
Speaker 2: least alluding to, also, is that getting involved in meditation,
28:12
Speaker 2: developing a regular meditation practice empowered you to perhaps identify
28:19
Speaker 2: some of the things in your life at the time
28:22
Speaker 2: that didn't really feel so good. So what happens after
28:26
Speaker 2: you pick up your regular meditation practice and get a
28:30
Speaker 2: little bit more comfortable with it.
28:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, that it took Wow, I would say it took
28:35
Speaker 1: a good four to five years for it to really
28:39
Speaker 1: start to take root into my life that I started
28:43
Speaker 1: to see the actual changes, you know, I was. Yeah,
28:47
Speaker 1: So I started meditating when I was about fifteen sixteen,
28:51
Speaker 1: on and off throughout until I graduated high school. And
28:58
Speaker 1: it was then I was on a medication for anxiety
29:02
Speaker 1: at that time. And so that's earlier I had mentioned
29:05
Speaker 1: that I was I was really overweight for my frame,
29:10
Speaker 1: and I also was on the McDonald's diet, so that
29:12
Speaker 1: was not helpful, right, So, and when you're a teenager, right,
29:16
Speaker 1: you eat how you eat, and so for us, that's
29:19
Speaker 1: what we did. So I was really going through this
29:25
Speaker 1: sort of shift in my yeah, personal space, Like there
29:31
Speaker 1: was just some shift that happened when I I just
29:35
Speaker 1: didn't feel good in my body, you know. And because
29:38
Speaker 1: I was having that time to be still with myself,
29:41
Speaker 1: I was finding that there was a negative person living
29:47
Speaker 1: in my brain that just was kind of a Debbie
29:50
Speaker 1: Downer all the time, and she was just not she
29:54
Speaker 1: was just not interested in making me feel good. And
29:58
Speaker 1: I started to, yeah, learn more about changing. I was
30:04
Speaker 1: always really like against any of the normal things that
30:08
Speaker 1: you do, you know, all the dieting and the sort
30:12
Speaker 1: of forcing yourself depriving yourself of doing things like I
30:17
Speaker 1: did it, but it was always it always felt wrong,
30:22
Speaker 1: like didn't feel good to me. It felt like I
30:25
Speaker 1: was just not treating myself well. So it took a
30:29
Speaker 1: couple of years for me to start learning about healthy eating.
30:35
Speaker 1: And there was a trainer that a trainer friend of
30:37
Speaker 1: mine that was really into he was getting into Chinese medicine,
30:43
Speaker 1: acupuncture and you know, all these different Eastern modalities, and
30:47
Speaker 1: he would talk to me about organic foods and how
30:50
Speaker 1: this is something that's really good for you and it's
30:53
Speaker 1: really helpful, and how important it is for your mental
30:57
Speaker 1: well being. And it was sort of all happening in
30:59
Speaker 1: conjuncture with the meditation practice and moving my body, and
31:04
Speaker 1: so little by little I started to see the differences.
31:08
Speaker 1: I started to make different choices. I stopped eating fast food.
31:11
Speaker 1: I learned how to cook my own food, and I
31:14
Speaker 1: would go to the you know, grocery store and get
31:17
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables and try and figure out how to
31:21
Speaker 1: cook for myself, and little and I started to see
31:25
Speaker 1: the difference right away. You know, my body started to change,
31:28
Speaker 1: my mind was changing, my energy was changing, and I
31:33
Speaker 1: started and then of course everybody notices, right, everybody starts noticing.
31:37
Speaker 1: At this time, I was working as a receptionist at
31:41
Speaker 1: a hair salon, and I everybody that I worked with
31:47
Speaker 1: was like, what do you do? What are you doing?
31:49
Speaker 1: Like what's the secret? Like what is happening? You know?
31:54
Speaker 3: And how do you feel about that attention?
31:56
Speaker 1: At the time, I didn't enjoy it at all. Yeah,
32:01
Speaker 1: it wasn't because innately, doesn't it make you feel like, well,
32:05
Speaker 1: what was wrong with me before?
32:07
Speaker 4: Right?
32:07
Speaker 3: Yeah?
32:07
Speaker 1: Like, oh my god, what are you doing? You look right?
32:10
Speaker 1: I know that you've been through this transformation before as well.
32:13
Speaker 1: It's like that initial what are you doing? Like, tell
32:18
Speaker 1: me what you're doing? And as much as you want
32:20
Speaker 1: to share, it makes you feel yeah, like why didn't
32:24
Speaker 1: you say anything before? And what was so wrong with
32:27
Speaker 1: the way that I looked before?
32:30
Speaker 3: Yeah?
32:30
Speaker 2: Right? So, And I also appreciate the, as I'll call
32:34
Speaker 2: it the waterfall effect, that you're articulating the concept that Okay,
32:40
Speaker 2: if I do this one thing that feels good for
32:43
Speaker 2: me and my body, and I know that's good for me,
32:45
Speaker 2: that we feel more excited about the opportunity to do
32:48
Speaker 2: other things that are really good for us. I do
32:52
Speaker 2: think that it takes a certain level of responsibility and
32:55
Speaker 2: awareness as well to not take that a little too
33:01
Speaker 2: far at times. Right, But when it starts to cascade
33:05
Speaker 2: into a series of really beautiful and beneficial habits, it's
33:09
Speaker 2: a really beautiful thing.
33:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. But I think that you said
33:14
Speaker 1: something so key too, it's like when we take it
33:16
Speaker 1: too far? Because I definitely took it too far, you know.
33:19
Speaker 1: I think that when you're in that experience and you're
33:21
Speaker 1: getting that positive, like the positive feedback from people, you
33:27
Speaker 1: can't help but get in your head about it. It's like, oh,
33:30
Speaker 1: how do I keep this? Then it's like I don't
33:33
Speaker 1: want the feedback from you, but then how do I
33:34
Speaker 1: keep getting it right?
33:36
Speaker 3: What did taking it too far look like? For you?
33:39
Speaker 1: Oh? I was? I started throwing up my food. I was,
33:43
Speaker 1: you know, becoming a ballimic.
33:46
Speaker 4: You know.
33:47
Speaker 1: It was part of this and at the time, as
33:50
Speaker 1: I got older, it became part of this culture of
33:53
Speaker 1: working in the beauty industry, right, because you need to
33:55
Speaker 1: look a certain way and you need to be a
33:58
Speaker 1: certain way, and at the time for me this again,
34:05
Speaker 1: I think that anytime we are doing something that's harming ourselves,
34:10
Speaker 1: there's like a higher vantage point that we can see
34:14
Speaker 1: what's happening. And oftentimes it's an observation and an awareness
34:20
Speaker 1: that we have where we can really either make a
34:29
Speaker 1: different decision because we have the higher vantage point of
34:31
Speaker 1: seeing what's happening, or we're just observing this like self
34:39
Speaker 1: like destruction that is happening. Yeah, So that it was
34:43
Speaker 1: interesting as you're saying it, when as we're talking about
34:45
Speaker 1: the feedback, people would, you know, ask me like, oh,
34:50
Speaker 1: what are you doing, and I'm like, oh, you know,
34:52
Speaker 1: I do yoga and I go throw up like that
34:55
Speaker 1: My that's my health plan, you know. And I'm not
35:00
Speaker 1: trying to sound cavalier about having eating disorder. I think
35:05
Speaker 1: it's a very serious issue. And I was fortunate at
35:08
Speaker 1: the time to have the right people in my circle,
35:14
Speaker 1: and I did go to therapy and I did do
35:16
Speaker 1: a lot of work around it. And so the reason
35:22
Speaker 1: why I say it in the way that I do
35:24
Speaker 1: because I knew what I was doing. And I think
35:30
Speaker 1: that for me having my meditation practice as my anchor
35:36
Speaker 1: point where I could then reflect on what was happening
35:41
Speaker 1: really helped keep my focus on that north star. That
35:48
Speaker 1: for me was to just keep going like there was
35:50
Speaker 1: nowhere to go. It's like, I know, I don't even
35:52
Speaker 1: know where I'm going, but I'm just going to keep going.
36:00
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Speaker 2: entire store today. In this realization that the goal is
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Speaker 2: to keep going, you want to keep moving forward, how
39:29
Speaker 2: do you break the not so good habit? How do
39:32
Speaker 2: you break away from your disordered eating behaviors?
39:37
Speaker 1: Well, at the time, I was, as I said, working
39:40
Speaker 1: with a therapist, and to me, it wasn't like I
39:45
Speaker 1: know that there are different grades of severity for people
39:49
Speaker 1: from my understanding and my knowledge, so I can only
39:52
Speaker 1: speak to my experience. It didn't. It didn't actually take
39:57
Speaker 1: that long for me to unrob what was beneath the
40:02
Speaker 1: disordered eating. There was a lot of childhood trauma. As
40:06
Speaker 1: I had mentioned earlier, there was just a lot of
40:10
Speaker 1: undealt with emotion and experiences that I think really began
40:16
Speaker 1: to come to the surface as I learned more about
40:21
Speaker 1: mental health and again, you know, different practices like yoga
40:27
Speaker 1: and mindfulness and the neuroscience of how meditation helps, and
40:36
Speaker 1: you know, just the more I learned, the more things
40:40
Speaker 1: made sense to me. And I think I was always
40:42
Speaker 1: the type of person that felt that knowledge is power,
40:48
Speaker 1: and so I just wanted to know more. And I've
40:51
Speaker 1: always innately been such a curious person. So for me,
40:56
Speaker 1: I think it didn't really take very long to to
41:01
Speaker 1: be able to break out of it. You know, I
41:03
Speaker 1: would say it took maybe about a year and a
41:05
Speaker 1: half to two years maybe to really work through what
41:11
Speaker 1: was happening, you know, and the ability of the ability
41:15
Speaker 1: to be honest with myself and to be honest with
41:19
Speaker 1: the people around me too, was Yeah, it was a
41:24
Speaker 1: huge component in that recovery process for me for sure,
41:27
Speaker 1: And that's.
41:28
Speaker 2: Really commendable and admirable to get to a place where
41:32
Speaker 2: you develop such a sense of understanding on the importance
41:38
Speaker 2: of doing that right, on the importance of opening up
41:40
Speaker 2: to others and being honest with others so that you
41:43
Speaker 2: can move forward yourself. You said before that you knew
41:49
Speaker 2: that you wanted to keep going, but didn't know what
41:51
Speaker 2: you wanted to go toward. When do you figure out
41:55
Speaker 2: what's beyond working as a receptionist at the salon?
42:00
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, this is the good stuff. I thought
42:03
Speaker 1: you were gonna ask now, and I'm like, girl, I
42:05
Speaker 1: still don't know, Like, who are we kidding? Come on,
42:07
Speaker 1: let's be honest. So after my stint at the salon,
42:15
Speaker 1: we actually I was at this point managing a salon
42:19
Speaker 1: in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It was the basis
42:23
Speaker 1: of a reality TV show. So we had done that
42:26
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. That was interesting. After that
42:30
Speaker 1: came to a close, I just I was really and
42:36
Speaker 1: I'd run a couple of marathons at that point. I
42:40
Speaker 1: had already done one yoga teacher training, so I knew
42:44
Speaker 1: that wellness was where I wanted to go. I just
42:47
Speaker 1: didn't know how I was going to get there. And
42:49
Speaker 1: it sort of happened during the two thousand and eight
42:55
Speaker 1: recession time the salon ended up closing and I was
43:00
Speaker 1: pretty much left with like no job, and I was like, oh,
43:07
Speaker 1: we're in a recession, this is the perfect time to
43:09
Speaker 1: go into business for myself, you know. And I kind
43:16
Speaker 1: of started, but not really. I ended up getting this
43:20
Speaker 1: opportunity to work with a celebrity fitness trainer at the time,
43:26
Speaker 1: and that is really where I began to really shape
43:31
Speaker 1: this idea of creating a platform or a way to
43:37
Speaker 1: work with people, you know, because at this point my
43:39
Speaker 1: life had really showed me that I wanted to create
43:43
Speaker 1: a life in wellness and I didn't at that point
43:47
Speaker 1: really care what that looked like. I mean, I was like,
43:49
Speaker 1: do I need to go back to school and become
43:51
Speaker 1: a psychologist? Like how what does this look like? And
43:57
Speaker 1: I didn't know, you know, at the time, I'm like, well,
44:00
Speaker 1: I had gone to college for business marketing and I
44:06
Speaker 1: wanted to get into nutrition, and so I did a
44:10
Speaker 1: couple of nutrition certifications, and you know, I was just
44:14
Speaker 1: kind of doing the small steps while at the same
44:17
Speaker 1: time having a full time job to really begin to
44:20
Speaker 1: shape this new life, and working with my boss at
44:26
Speaker 1: the time gave me really great experience with regard to
44:32
Speaker 1: sort of building a business, and so did working at
44:35
Speaker 1: the salon, and it just really showed me like what
44:39
Speaker 1: was possible, right, It showed me like, oh, this is
44:42
Speaker 1: you just need commitment, an idea, and some good support.
44:46
Speaker 1: I mean that's really all you need, you know.
44:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean you also need to figure out
44:51
Speaker 2: where the money's coming from.
44:52
Speaker 3: Right.
44:53
Speaker 2: So for you at the time, where was the money
44:56
Speaker 2: coming from as you started to build this business acumen?
45:00
Speaker 1: So I was on fun employment for after I got
45:04
Speaker 1: let go from the salon, So that was you know,
45:07
Speaker 1: my sort of like income at the time. But then
45:10
Speaker 1: I started to do donation based yoga classes at my house.
45:16
Speaker 1: So I'd literally have people in.
45:17
Speaker 4: My kitchen, in our kitchen and like in the little
45:24
Speaker 4: back area, and I would just invite people in our neighborhood,
45:29
Speaker 4: neighborhood like you know, yoga free yoga donation base.
45:33
Speaker 1: So I would do that, and I had acquired a
45:35
Speaker 1: couple of private clients and stuff, and so I was
45:40
Speaker 1: doing that right before I started working for the Trainer.
45:43
Speaker 1: When I was working for the Trainer, I obviously had
45:46
Speaker 1: at that point was working full time, so I had,
45:49
Speaker 1: you know, a pretty steady income at that point. But
45:52
Speaker 1: it's yeah, like those moments where I, you know, have
45:55
Speaker 1: two dollars and eleven cents in my bank account and
45:57
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, how am I going to
45:59
Speaker 1: buy groceries wild?
46:00
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, totally, totally.
46:04
Speaker 2: And so you work with the trainer, you gain a
46:06
Speaker 2: new sense of a little bit of inspiration here and
46:10
Speaker 2: you think to yourself, I'm gonna take over the world or.
46:16
Speaker 1: Something like that. For me at the time, it was
46:19
Speaker 1: really my heart and focus has always been on how
46:24
Speaker 1: do I bring this to my people? You know, It's
46:26
Speaker 1: like how do I bring this to At the time,
46:29
Speaker 1: I was working, so I could afford to do a
46:32
Speaker 1: yoga teacher training. I could afford to do certification courses
46:38
Speaker 1: because I was working, you know. But actually one of
46:41
Speaker 1: the certifications that I did for yoga, like as I
46:45
Speaker 1: progressed in my training, because I'm like a five hundred
46:49
Speaker 1: hour plus yoga teacher trainer, right so I can train
46:53
Speaker 1: people to become teachers. So one of those certifications was
46:58
Speaker 1: done as a karma yo. So I was working, like
47:02
Speaker 1: donating my time. I'd go work full time. After work,
47:05
Speaker 1: I'd go and I'd clean the studio and you know,
47:08
Speaker 1: do whatever else. The studio needed at the time in
47:11
Speaker 1: order to do the training, so you know, you gotta
47:14
Speaker 1: hustle a little bit. There's there's that desire right to
47:18
Speaker 1: to really want something, and I think that during that
47:26
Speaker 1: that process of time, you know, you you really start
47:29
Speaker 1: to I don't know, like shape what it is that
47:33
Speaker 1: you're wanting and why you're doing what you're doing. You know,
47:36
Speaker 1: I I aspired, you know, I had all these like
47:40
Speaker 1: at that point, you know, I'd see these like beautiful
47:42
Speaker 1: yoga teachers with like long wavy hair, you know, doing
47:47
Speaker 1: all these like fun, cool, fancy, flowery poses, and I'm like,
47:54
Speaker 1: I want to do that or I want to be
47:56
Speaker 1: that way. I want to I want to be like them,
47:59
Speaker 1: you know. But you know, knowing like that, that's not
48:03
Speaker 1: who I am and that's not me, and it's just
48:06
Speaker 1: something fun to aspire to. I would always revert back to, Okay,
48:11
Speaker 1: how do I do this? But for my people, like
48:13
Speaker 1: if I was going to teach my aunt how to
48:16
Speaker 1: create a mindfulness or a meditation practice, like how would
48:20
Speaker 1: I tell her to do this? You know? The issue
48:23
Speaker 1: for me is I wanted to make I wanted to
48:28
Speaker 1: make yoga and meditation and mindfulness accessible to everyone, you know,
48:33
Speaker 1: and at the time, there wasn't there wasn't a lot
48:37
Speaker 1: of diverse teachers, you know, to look up to. I
48:40
Speaker 1: mean there was, I mean we're talking like early two thousands,
48:46
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, two thousand and six, seven eight,
48:49
Speaker 1: you know, it was very much dominated by, you know,
48:54
Speaker 1: people that didn't look like me, white people, white women,
48:57
Speaker 1: you know. And so to me, that is not an issue.
49:01
Speaker 1: But when I'm trying to bring these practices to people
49:09
Speaker 1: like me or people that I grew up with, you know,
49:12
Speaker 1: they they see it as a leisure sport for people
49:17
Speaker 1: that have money. Right. So it's like, I remember trying
49:21
Speaker 1: to talk to my dad about meditation and he was like,
49:25
Speaker 1: meditations for rich people, and I'm like, what, Like, what
49:29
Speaker 1: are you talking about? You know, meditation is for everyone,
49:32
Speaker 1: you know. And I went into this whole PowerPoint presentation
49:38
Speaker 1: with him about how important it is for him and
49:41
Speaker 1: for everybody to do that. And I think that that's
49:44
Speaker 1: really in me having that conversation, it created radically loved
49:49
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm like, no, this is about community,
49:53
Speaker 1: this is about connecting, this is about everyone. This is
49:57
Speaker 1: about making things accessible so that we can all have
50:03
Speaker 1: better mental health, better wellness, more support you know, less stress,
50:09
Speaker 1: more positivity, happiness, all of the things you.
50:13
Speaker 3: Know, right, right?
50:14
Speaker 2: I when you just said radically love the name of
50:18
Speaker 2: the book that you wrote, you are radically Loved, a
50:21
Speaker 2: healing journey to self love. Your podcast called the Radically
50:24
Speaker 2: Loved Podcast. Do you feel as though that title, that
50:30
Speaker 2: phrase truly came from feeling as though coming of age
50:35
Speaker 2: that you were without that, that you weren't radically loved?
50:39
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think that for sure. I always felt that
50:42
Speaker 1: love was conditional and it never felt like something that
50:48
Speaker 1: was just given. It always felt like it needed to
50:53
Speaker 1: be earned. I mean, even up growing up Catholic, right,
50:57
Speaker 1: it was God will love you as long as you
51:01
Speaker 1: abide by the rules.
51:02
Speaker 4: Right.
51:03
Speaker 1: If you don't abide by the rules, then you're not
51:06
Speaker 1: going to be loved. Right. It's like, you can do
51:09
Speaker 1: this as long as you do your chores, or we
51:13
Speaker 1: can go here as long as It's just everything was
51:15
Speaker 1: so conditional, and so I I just didn't understand there
51:21
Speaker 1: were so many paradoxes growing up, because I'm like, how
51:25
Speaker 1: is it that God only punishes people when they're bad?
51:32
Speaker 1: But then all these people go to church and there's
51:35
Speaker 1: all these bad things that still happen to everybody. I
51:38
Speaker 1: could and this with me as a five year old
51:40
Speaker 1: child having these conversations, right, like, what is wrong? I
51:44
Speaker 1: don't understand. It doesn't make sense to me. Something does
51:48
Speaker 1: not equate. So I think that having that understanding of
51:56
Speaker 1: and and why I loved yoga so much, right, yo
52:00
Speaker 1: is the study of paradoxes. You know. I really loved
52:03
Speaker 1: learning about the dichotomy between action and result. Right, It's
52:10
Speaker 1: like I have it, there is an action and then
52:13
Speaker 1: there's a result. So for me, radical love love was
52:18
Speaker 1: something that it's a verb, right, It's something that you do,
52:21
Speaker 1: but it's also something that you are to be. Radical
52:25
Speaker 1: to me was to have the love be unconditional. Are
52:31
Speaker 1: you capable of unconditionally loving others? And are you capable
52:38
Speaker 1: of unconditionally loving yourself? Yeah?
52:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a such a beautiful sentiment, right.
52:45
Speaker 2: I lately have been revisiting this concept of love and
52:50
Speaker 2: thinking about if you want love, then you have to
52:54
Speaker 2: be love and you have to provide that love to
52:57
Speaker 2: your point unconditionally, the way that you should not be
53:01
Speaker 2: impacted by the way that people love you, but rather
53:04
Speaker 2: you have the choice to show up how you are
53:07
Speaker 2: as your authentic self and what is meant for you will.
53:11
Speaker 3: Come back to you.
53:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that now today spoiler alert. I mean,
53:18
Speaker 2: you have worked with everyone from elite Olympic athletes and
53:22
Speaker 2: NBA NFL players. You've done so many events, so many workshops.
53:28
Speaker 2: Your latest venture now working with Headspace. How does it
53:31
Speaker 2: feel now when you reflect on the journey that you
53:34
Speaker 2: just talked about, thinking about how far you've come and
53:38
Speaker 2: where you're at I mean headspaces.
53:40
Speaker 1: I've been such a fangirl of Headspace since I have
53:44
Speaker 1: twenty twelve like it, so it's been ten years in
53:47
Speaker 1: the making. I mean just everything that Headspace stands for
53:52
Speaker 1: and was created, you know, it was created with the
53:56
Speaker 1: mission in mind to help improve the health and happiness
53:59
Speaker 1: of the world. I mean, to me, I'm just like,
54:02
Speaker 1: how could I not get on board with this? And
54:05
Speaker 1: I love Andy Punningcombe's story and and his books, Like
54:10
Speaker 1: I just I was such a fan and so yes,
54:15
Speaker 1: like I recently joined the Headspace team in honor of
54:20
Speaker 1: Hispanic Heritage Month, and we're we're having we're doing these
54:23
Speaker 1: two special meditations. One is honoring our identity and the
54:28
Speaker 1: other is connecting to community and so for me, the
54:32
Speaker 1: fact that Headspace has not only been an innovator in
54:38
Speaker 1: the space of mindfulness, but also the accessibility and bringing
54:43
Speaker 1: mindfulness to UH to everyone. I was so excited that
54:49
Speaker 1: they wanted to create this initiative to bring meditation to
54:56
Speaker 1: you know, different communities and you know, focus on health
55:00
Speaker 1: equity and providing you know, culturally competent resources like that
55:05
Speaker 1: to me was something that really spoke to me and
55:07
Speaker 1: definitely aligned with my ethos. So when I was approached
55:13
Speaker 1: with the opportunity, I was you know, I was trying
55:15
Speaker 1: to not show how exactly excited I was, but I
55:19
Speaker 1: was like, wond I'm like, dude, this is like a dream.
55:22
Speaker 1: I just duded you, by the way.
55:23
Speaker 2: I'm like, dude, no, I get it, And like I
55:26
Speaker 2: totally hear you, Like you're excited.
55:27
Speaker 3: But you don't want to let on that you're literally
55:29
Speaker 3: over the mood.
55:30
Speaker 2: I have one hundred, one hundred percent been there this Also,
55:34
Speaker 2: you know, you're talking about how great it feels to
55:36
Speaker 2: be able to give back to your community. I know
55:38
Speaker 2: a few times in our conversation you said the term
55:42
Speaker 2: my people.
55:43
Speaker 3: Who is your person?
55:45
Speaker 1: Oh, everyone's my people? All you people listening to this,
55:49
Speaker 1: You're my people, That's what I'm saying. It's like my people.
55:52
Speaker 1: I'm not. I mean, obviously I'm Hispanic, you know, the LATINX,
55:57
Speaker 1: Latin all of my my you know, Spanish speaking non
56:02
Speaker 1: Spanish speaking people, like I'm talking culturally, you know. But
56:08
Speaker 1: to me when I say my people, just the same
56:12
Speaker 1: as when I talk on my podcast, like my people
56:15
Speaker 1: is you everyone? My people? Like it's for everyone, you know.
56:20
Speaker 1: Even the meditations I created for Headspace, like I very
56:24
Speaker 1: specifically say these are for everyone, like everyone is welcome.
56:28
Speaker 1: And I think that that was my main intention behind
56:32
Speaker 1: everything that I do, right it is how could we
56:34
Speaker 1: include everyone that feels like they don't have a place now,
56:37
Speaker 1: specifically to you know, for Hispanic heritage month, Yeah, Like,
56:42
Speaker 1: there are certain elements that I think are very important
56:46
Speaker 1: to address with regard to the Hispanic community, the LATINX community,
56:52
Speaker 1: and I look, I love all the diversity and inclusion
56:57
Speaker 1: that big companies are folksing on. I think specifically for
57:04
Speaker 1: the Hispanic population, mental health has been the lowest on
57:11
Speaker 1: the list of priorities, and I feel like just with
57:15
Speaker 1: the times and the last couple of years, what we've
57:18
Speaker 1: been through collectively, I think it's so smart to be
57:22
Speaker 1: focusing on, yeah, creating resources and initiatives and making meditation
57:32
Speaker 1: and mindfulness more accessible to everyone. You know, I speak Spanish,
57:37
Speaker 1: and so for me, I'm like, I want there to
57:39
Speaker 1: be more meditations and Spanish, you know. I want to
57:42
Speaker 1: be able to share these meditations with, you know, my
57:46
Speaker 1: little Abualita who's like ninety years old, which she, by
57:50
Speaker 1: the way, still doesn't really know what I do for
57:51
Speaker 1: a living, but it doesn't matter, you know. I want
57:55
Speaker 1: to be able to share with her. And I think,
57:57
Speaker 1: you know, I think all of these are are really
57:59
Speaker 1: important things to focus on.
58:02
Speaker 2: Someone comes to your Instagram, they see a self love practitioner,
58:07
Speaker 2: a meditation t shirt, a mindfulness instructor, and you've got
58:12
Speaker 2: something like fifty thousand followers. When you look in the mirror,
58:16
Speaker 2: what is it that you see looking back at you?
58:24
Speaker 1: I really just see a person like all those other
58:31
Speaker 1: followers on there. I mean, I think, to me, the
58:37
Speaker 1: platforms like social media are so fascinating. I'm a people
58:41
Speaker 1: to people person, you know, so social media is really
58:43
Speaker 1: difficult for me because I love to be in a space.
58:47
Speaker 1: I mean, you were just that bold, right, Like I've
58:48
Speaker 1: spoken at that conference a couple of times, and it's
58:51
Speaker 1: like being around humans to me, is is king? You know?
58:57
Speaker 1: That is the or a queen? Should I say? Queen
59:01
Speaker 1: is queen? I love being around humans? So I don't know,
59:08
Speaker 1: you know, I look in the mirror and I just
59:10
Speaker 1: I see I see somebody who is kind, and I
59:16
Speaker 1: hope that she h I hope that she continues to
59:21
Speaker 1: pursue that that that compass. You know, do I know
59:27
Speaker 1: where I'm going?
59:28
Speaker 4: No?
59:28
Speaker 1: I don't uh what you were saying earlier. I'm like,
59:32
Speaker 1: are you asking now or before? Because I still am
59:35
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out.
59:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I hear that.
59:39
Speaker 1: All right?
59:40
Speaker 2: Winding down here, Rosie, right now, you have an opportunity
59:42
Speaker 2: to offer yourself a piece of advice, looking back on
59:47
Speaker 2: the dark time in your life, bobbing and weaving, You're
59:50
Speaker 2: all over the place, knowing what you know.
59:53
Speaker 3: Now, what do you tell yourself in that Hurtle moment?
59:56
Speaker 1: Oh? I would just say, don't get discouraged and just
1:00:06
Speaker 1: keep going.
1:00:07
Speaker 3: Keep going, keep going. Rosie.
1:00:09
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that we were able to connect for
1:00:12
Speaker 2: this chat, and I'm happy that we got to have
1:00:14
Speaker 2: you on the show.
1:00:15
Speaker 3: How do the Hurdlers follow along with you. How to
1:00:17
Speaker 3: keep up with you? Give me all of your details.
1:00:20
Speaker 1: Yes, well, you can follow me anywhere and everywhere. It's
1:00:24
Speaker 1: Rosia Costa on Instagram, or you can just go to
1:00:27
Speaker 1: radicallylove dot com. If you haven't downloaded the Headspace app,
1:00:32
Speaker 1: definitely download it and check it out. There's so many
1:00:35
Speaker 1: practices on there, from managing stress to improving sleep, increasing positivity,
1:00:41
Speaker 1: helping with focus. I mean, there's so many, so many
1:00:44
Speaker 1: tools there. And you can also search for my name
1:00:48
Speaker 1: in the search box and do my meditations on the
1:00:51
Speaker 1: Headspace app.
1:00:52
Speaker 3: Love it.
1:00:53
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emila Body and at Hurdle Podcast Another
1:00:56
Speaker 2: Hurdle Conquered.
1:00:58
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.