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Molly Chanson - Yoga Wise · Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman

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Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the New Dimension. Vox
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Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from their experience and offer tools to
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help us navigate our rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Fermont. Welcome
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to Vox Novus, the New Voice. May yoga practices free you from the
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past, embrace unconditional love for yourself and others, and align you with your
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authentic self. My guest this week on Vox Novus, Molly Chanson is a
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writer, teacher, and yoga instructor who shares the physical and ethical practices of
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yoga as a way to heal, overcome difficulty, and live a fulfilled life.
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Molly holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a master's
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degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In twenty nineteen, Molly completed
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her two hundred hour Yoga teacher training at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and
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continues to train toward her five hundred hour certification. Molly is founder of The
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Practice, an online yoga membership that offers yoga, writing and spiritual teachings based
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on the philosophies of yoga as a path for resilience, healing and transformation.
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Her website has Molly Chanson dot com, and she joins me this week to
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share her path and new book, Yoga Wise, three hundred and sixty five
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days of yoga inspired teachings to transform your life. Please join me in welcoming
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to vox Nobus. Molly chants and welcome Molly. Hi Victor, thank you,
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Thank you so much for joining us. Molly, Please share with our
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listeners your path and how you embraced the practice of yoga in your life.
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I started doing yoga when I was fifteen, and my mom had done yoga
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her whole life, and she started teaching me some poses in our living room.
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So that was my introduction to yoga. She was my first teacher.
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And there weren't studios or it wasn't the practice that we see today. But
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I kept doing yoga. I really enjoyed it, and and then I let
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it go for a while. I got married and had kids and babies,
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and the practice kind of fell to the background because there were other things happening
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in my life. When I was in my late thirties, I started doing
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yoga again. I really felt like everything was kind of I was losing myself.
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I was married, I had my kids, I had my career,
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but I was unsettled. I was unhappy or discontent and probably depressed and anxious
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and all those things that can happen in our lives. So despite everything kind
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of being put together in its place, like, I had followed this life
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path that I thought would fulfill me and sustain me, and that wasn't happening.
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And so I started doing yoga again really as a form of exercise and
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just kind of to calm down, knowing that I had done it before and
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it was a mind body practice and I thought that might help. And when
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I did that and started back up again with a regular yoga practice, I
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really became aware of how busy my mind was, and not just busy,
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but how negative it was. I was really had a really critical voice that
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I became aware of, and I thought, this is odd and this can't
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be healthy, and kind of what's going on. So I just kept showing
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up to yoga and to my mat and it was a place where I was
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experiencing myself and my emotions, not just the body, but other parts of
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myself. And so this is when Yoga became a spiritual practice for me,
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and I started realizing that it was more than a form of exercise and even
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more than a way to sort of calm down, but there was something else
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happening. So that's when I really dove into training and study and became a
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yoga instructor and a writer and all that stuff came with that. And you
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trained at Krypolo in Massachusetts. I've had the pleasure of visiting that beautiful facility.
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What was your experience like at Krypolllo. Yes, Krypollo. So I
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interestingly, my mom gave me a catalog from Kripolo when I was in high
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school, and she always wanted to go there and always talked about it.
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And the first time I went to Kripollo, I was forty years old,
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and I had always dragged that catalog around with me, always kind of hoping
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I would make it there because I live in Wisconsin. So when I finally
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stepped foot at Kripolo for the first time, I was there for a month
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to do my two hundred hour yoga teacher training. And you know, I
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described Kroppollo as a place that it's like a constant walking and meditation. I
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mean everything there is intentional. Everything there is sacred, from the meals they
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serve to the rooms that you stay in the grounds of course, the instruction
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and the classes, and it's just this living space that embodies all eight limbs
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of yoga, the yamas, the niyamas. There's permission, there's choice,
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there's different levels of classes, there's space to be there's cleanliness. I just
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it is exactly what I thought, but you know, also different and probably
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a little more than I expected. Did you find it to be also a
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healing experience for you? Absolutely? Yes, yes. Many of our listeners
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practice different forms of yoga. Please share your understanding of yoga. My understanding
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of yoga really comes from the sutras and patangales eight limbs. So yoga to
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me is as much an ethical practice as it is a physical body and breath
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practice. And because I am trained in Kripalu Yoga and that's my foundation and
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my training, that means I practice compassionate yoga. So for me, yoga
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is a practice where we listen to our bodies, we listen to our hearts,
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we practice self observation without judgment, which is what Swami Kripalu that kPa
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is named for always said, and so this is my idea of yoga is
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a loving, compassionate practice for ourselves and for the world. And that active
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compassion, as you said, is for the self also for the self.
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Also yes, yes, And I think when we heal ourselves, we heal
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all our relationships and everything around us, and especially the relationship with ourselves.
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Anyway, Yes, yes, it starts. It starts there. And you
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know, I think that we have trouble with this um healing ourself because we
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think of it as being selfish or indulgent. Um. You know, for
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me, my experience as a woman has been to um to really serve others
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and be there for others like family and children and and even in career and
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UM. But it starts with us. It starts with healing ourselves so that
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we're able to to give to others how we want to. And for many
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of us, that's the hardest lesson to learn, isn't it? It very
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much is Yes. I remember growing up as a child, my father became
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ill when I was eight years old, and I became part of his caretaking
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team with my mother, and for the first time in my life, I
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felt that he loved me, and it wired in my young mind that if
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you take care of others, you will be loved, which set a pattern
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for me in life, which it had to work on very hard my forties
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and fifties to change. Yes, yes, that all makes sense. Yes.
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Now, your first book was entitled Fallen Star, A Return to Self
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through the Eight Limbs of Yoga. What inspired this book? And please go
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more into the eight Limbs of Yoga? Sure? So I started writing Fallen
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Star before I knew it was going to be a book. I was writing
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as a way to make sense of my experience. I was getting divorced,
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I was getting sober, and I really felt like my life was falling apart.
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So I started writing as a way to make sense of that and cope
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with that. And at the same time, I was doing my yoga practice.
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So the writing and the yoga were happening at the same time on my
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path to healing and overcoming these experiences. And I started to notice how yoga
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was tied in with the eight limbs. And this was the first time I
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learned about the eight limbs. So I started reading books and learning about potentiallys
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eight limbs of yoga. So the eight limbs are a path to enlightenment,
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but honestly, I like to say a path to contentment or a path to
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an easeful life. Enlightenment might sound a little daunting to some. So the
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eight limbs of yoga include asana, which is the physical practice, but there's
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eight totals, so that's just one of them. So they have the eight
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limbs are the yamas and niamas, which are ethical practices and observances, and
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then there's asana and pranayama, which is the physical poses and the breath.
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Pratyahara is presence, Darana is focus, Diana is meditation, and Samadhi is
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the eighth limb, which is enlightenment. In my personal experience, embracing yoga
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in my early forties launched a series of life changing and enhancing synchronicities. Have
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you found that the following the path of yoga opens one to synchronicity? Absolutely?
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When we become more aware, we are noticing more. So yoga draws
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us, you know, we create this state of awareness on the body and
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with the breath, and it draws us in and always in life, obviously
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we're drawn outward into relationships and people and jobs and stimulation, and our senses
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are really focused on what's happening around us and in the outside world. So
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a yoga practice, when we're practicing the postures and looking at the breath and
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we're on our mat, we're drawn inside and as we're doing this, we're
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increasing prana. So in yoga, prana is the breath, it's also the
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life force and this energy that's coming from within. So when we're practicing yoga,
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we're cultivating in prana. We're raising that energy from within us, and
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in doing that, we enhance our creative abilities. We increase our intuition,
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We're able to notice our gut more and our instinct and so when we become
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more aware of ourselves with an inner focus instead of an external focus, we're
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able to witness synchronicities, and we're able to witness miracles, and these things
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are always happening, but when we're so focused on the external and everything outside
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of us, it's harder to see all that. So yes, I think
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a yoga practice welcomes in a deeper awareness of synchronicity, and then we're able
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to follow that energy. It's funny that the path that I started in my
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late thirties and early forties. Once I said yes to the path, another
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synchronicity would come, and another opportunity would come. And each opportunity I saw
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three choices. I could either dismiss it out of hand, say yes,
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that's interesting, but not right now, perhaps later. Or I could say
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yes with a big capital why and embrace it immediately, and then the next
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yes would come, and the next yes would come. Did you find the
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same thing? Yes, so one thing comes and we, like you say,
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we might make the choice to follow that energy. Or I love that
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you have three options because a lot of times we live in two of like
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it's yes or it's no, and there's infinite options always. But to have
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that third one of maybe it's just not right now is great. And yes,
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as soon as we follow one path, were brought to the next one
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and the next one, and life just keeps opening for me. That same
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thing has happened with my books, with my teaching, with other things in
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motherhood relationships, like everything just kind of I'm open. You're more open to
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what's arriving instead of too focused on how you want things to be, and
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therefore you kind of eliminate those other possibilities that might be there. And the
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other thing that's interesting to me personally is that my path, as I said,
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began my late thirties early forties, and you also started in that same
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age group, right, Do a lot of people do that? Yes,
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you know when I was thirty eight when this started happening to me, and
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I do think there's this time in our lives where that's not uncommon. I
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think that I think when I was younger, maybe I just wasn't open or
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able to embrace yoga as a path of healing or a path towards enlightenment.
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And so I hear that from a lot of people. And I had a
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colleague at the time. She was a business partner of mine, and we
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didn't have a yoga relationship, but during this time I learned that she had
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a spiritual practice and she said, oh, thirty eight is this is your
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year of awakening. This is the age that we go through this spiritual transformation.
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So you're right on track, and it made me feel a little better
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about everything that was happening. Absolutely, we have a lot of listeners who
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were in that age group in their late thirties early forties. Many women what
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advice would you give them about embracing another path? Oh, I think I
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think embrace it, try to embrace it, try to accept it. I
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think that sometimes when at that age we can have I at least had this
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idea of what my life should look like again focused on the external. And
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when bumps come along or things come up that we don't expect or that we
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don't want to be happening, it's really easy to think that everything's going wrong,
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or that we are doing something wrong, or that we have done something
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wrong, and this is a punishment that is coming to us because of our
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actions. And this is where the healing of the self really comes in to
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help us and transform us. So when things are happening that are not as
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you expected, or they're bad things or tragic things or losses that are coming
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in, to kind of shift your perspective and look at that as like this
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might be leading me in a different direction. And I don't know why or
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the outcome, but I'm going to work on accepting that this is happening and
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that it possibly probably I believe, is leading you to a new place that
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is better than what you expected originally. Trust that in your voice, yes,
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what inspired your new book, Yoga Wise, three and sixty five days
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of Yoga inspired Teachings to Transform your life. Yoga Wise is a culmination of
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the last seven years of my writing, my personal experience in life as a
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wife, mother, woman, and it's also obviously my study of yoga philosophy.
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So it's really a product of my experience and my practices along the way,
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not only yoga, but also my recovery practices, my knowledge of therapy
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and things that I did, my writing practice. All of this kind of
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came together to create Yoga Wise. And I also believe that, in addition
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to me do the work and the writing and bringing it all together in a
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way that's accessible to everybody, it also was divinely inspired. I really talking
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about synchronicities. I really experienced I was given a lot of space and time
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in a unique way so that I had time to write the book despite everything
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else going on in my life, and I was given a lot of internal
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guidance. Writing became a really spiritual practice, and I know that it wasn't
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just me doing all of that. Absolutely, do you ever have the sense
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when you're writing, especially spiritual work, that you're being inspired that it's actually
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coming through you rather than from you. Absolutely, yes, yes, and
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so it's a channeling almost way. It's a yes, well you know it's
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I haven't called it that, but but it is that. I mean,
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I think that when that happens, it might be hard for some of us
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to admit because it feels a little freaky or something. But yes, when
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I was writing Yoga Eyes, it really I was in a different state of
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awareness than if it was just me thinking I'm going to write this book.
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How would you describe your connection to spirit, to the one that you see
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that as the one? I think it is a lot from my heart space.
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So that connection for me happens in a very It starts with my body.
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It starts in my body and in my heart. And so when I
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experience that inner voice or sensations from my heart space, when I experienced the
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breath that helps me, those physical things helped me to connect to my higher
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self and my idea of a higher power or something greater than me around me.
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So I think it's a little bit of both. For me, I
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think that there's this higher self inside of us, but that's also that greater
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thing around us. In yoga wise, you organize the daily practices into chapters
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based upon yoga, philosophy, psychology, and recovery. Please share with us
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a little of each of these aspects. So I have many tools that I
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have picked up along the way in my healing journey, many tools in my
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tool kit now, and each of these has great value to me, and
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that's why they are all in the book. They all played a very big
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role and still do in how I overcame difficult situations and how I live my
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life today. And they're all still part of my life today. So the
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therapy was really big for me when I was going through going through divorce,
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going through addiction and recovery, and even just going through relationships. I learned
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I had never I had never had a therapist or a professional help like that
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prior to being thirty eight years old. And I learned a lot about communication
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and relationships and just aspects of that from a psychology perspective, and that was
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very helpful. Of course, my yoga practice was monumental in my healing and
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is part of my life today in terms of practicing self compassion and practicing service
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and observing observing the body and tuning into intuition and having that practice with myself
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and therefore with the greatness around me. And then recovery. I use the
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I use the twelve steps in my recovery, and there's also a fellowship in
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recovery, and so all of these things. The great thing that I think
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came, and one of the motivations for writing Yoga Wise, was that as
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I was using all these tools and doing all these things in order to heal,
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they all have a lot in common. So the eight limbs of yoga
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and the twelve steps of recovery have a lot of similarities. And they might
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be in a different order, or they might be called something different, but
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the practice is the same. So I really found that to be fascinating,
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and that's why my book is organized that way. And the subtitle is three
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hundred and sixty five Days of Yoga inspired Teachings to transform your life. Please
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explain to our listeners wading to those represent the three hundred and sixty five days
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are organized according to the twelve months, so it's three hundred and sixty five
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days of teachings. Each day might be Each day is one reading one page,
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so it's short, a few paragraphs. The idea is to read one
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page a day for the whole year, and there might be a lesson from
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yoga philosophy, there might be a yoga posture to practice, there might be
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a meditation, there might be a journal exercise. So each day there's a
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different practice. And in addition to being one page a day, which I
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wanted to do in order to be easy and consistent and accessible to anyone's schedule
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because it only takes a few minutes. But the other part of the book
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is that it's organized into twelve themes, and each of those themes go with
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the twelve months. So we stay on a theme for about thirty days or
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so, it's not exact, and then we move on to the next and
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they all go in order, so they build on each other. You start
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with saucha, which is cleansing, and then the book goes from there.
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My guest is Molly Chance in her book Yoga Wise, three hundred and sixty
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five days of Yoga inspired Teachings to tram form your life. Molly, please
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tell our listeners where they can get the book and find out more about you.
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My website is Molly Chantsen dot com and the books are available there and
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you can find out more about where I am and my yoga teaching, and
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I'm happy to hear from anyone. And you also offer an online class,
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Is that correct? I do? I have an online class called The Practice
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and that's all on the website as well. And we'll be back with more
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of Molly after these words on the Home Times Radio Network, The Cutting Edge
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of Conscious Radio HOMETIMES Radio IOMFM. Home Times Magazine is one of the leading
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online content providers of positivity, wellness and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
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their net proceeds are finnled to support worldwide charity initiatives via Humanity Healing International.
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Through their commitment to creating community and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift
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humanity on a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle back
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on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week Molly Chance in her book Yoga Eyes
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three hundred and sixty five days of Yoga inspired Teachings to transform your life.
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Molly, most of us who practice yoga also practice pranayama or breathwork, but
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you will also share forms that may not be as familiar. Please tell us
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about socha and I'm going to say this wrong, Apari Graha, you said
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it right. Thank you. These are the two of the yamas and niyamas,
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which are the first two of the eight limbs of yoga. So saucha
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is one of the five niyamas, of which are the five observants or rituals.
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And saucha means cleansing and cleansing has to do with physical cleansing like every
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morning waking up and washing our face or brushing our teeth, things that we
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would think of as hygiene. And it also has to do with emotional cleansing
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or cleansing of our environment. So that would be your space around you,
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if you have a closet jammed full of stuff and it gives you a lot
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of stress every time you open the door. And it also can be emotional
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meaning are you know, are we full of junk from the past? Do
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we have regret or resentment or anger or sadness or emotions that we haven't dealt
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with? So anything that dealt with we want to cleanse and clear out and
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that open space for what is present today. So that's saucha. A parigraha,
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there are some similarities here, but a pari Graha is one of the
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five yamas and it means non attached or ungrasping. So non attachment is the
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practice of, you know, not being defined by our things or not letting
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our things define us rather as a good way to look at it. So
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if we're attached to something, you know, it can add this heaviness to
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us. And then that's where saucho or cleansing comes in. So we want
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to try to understand that our physical things, or our attachments, maybe it's
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attachment to an experience or a person, all of these things really are holding
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us back and keeping us stuck, and a pari graha or letting go might
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be the most challenging for many of us. What are the secrets of learning
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to let go? Well, we don't like change, so and letting go
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is always difficult. Yes, accepting that change is inevitable. Yoga teaches that
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the one thing that's constant is in permanence. So everything is always going to
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be changing, whether that's ourselves, growing relationships, changing people, aging,
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loss children, growing up. You know, life is constantly unfolding and changing.
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So one secret I would say is to not expect that an experience is
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going to last forever, or that an experience is going to be the same
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from one time to the next. So an example I use in yoga wise
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that's pretty tangible and maybe relatable is I went to a restaurant and I had
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the most amazing meal I had ever had, and it was delicious, and
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I just went on and on and enjoyed every bite. And a month later,
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I had a friend in town and I said, oh, my gosh,
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we have to go to this restaurant and we have to get this meal
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and it's amazing and you'll love it. And so we went back and I
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ordered the same thing and I started eating it, and it was not as
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enjoyable. It was not as delicious. I don't think anything was wrong with
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the food, or maybe it was, or maybe it was slightly different,
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but I experienced this profound disappointment in the fact that I had brought my friend
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along and tried to duplicate this experience that I had had the first time,
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and it just wasn't the same. And so we can apply this example that's
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pretty simple to a lot of things where we have a good experience and we
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attached to that and we want it to be that way forever. And it's
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just not always going to happen, and then you know, we close ourselves
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off to the next great experience or the new thing that's going to happen because
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we're so attached to something that we're afraid if we lose it or it doesn't
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happen again, that we're never going to feel that way again. I can
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relate to that in a different way. My thirties and forties, I had
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put on a lot of weight, and I came to the realization that the
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weight that I put on was not because I was hungry, but because I
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was building armor. I was protecting myself from being hurt. And when I
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came to that realization, I was able to then work on letting it go.
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That's really tough for a lot of people, isn't it. It's very
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tough. Yes, it's very tough. And our experiences are always pointing us
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to something that we need to acknowledge or learn, or like your example,
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something that learning something about ourselves so that we can let go. Is part
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of that practice of letting go is to kind of look at things and say,
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what is this here to teach me? Absolutely, that's part of recovery
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too. Isn't it. Yes? Yes, how may our listeners embrace yoga
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as a healing path? Yoga is more than a physical exercise practice. So
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the first thing I would say to embrace yoga as a healing path is that
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it starts in the body. There is a physical component to yoga, but
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the eight limbs, I would say to look at the eight limbs of yoga,
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and both of my books are excellent for giving a really accessible overview of
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the limbs and how they can be applied to life challenges or situations. So
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yoga is a combination of ethical practices, and physical practices and self awareness practices.
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And so when you do all of those practices, when it's not just
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a form of exercise, it does become a healing path. And in the
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course of doing the practices, can we focus on specific chakras and allow energy
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to flow if there's a blockage? Yes, So when we are tuned into
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the body and and if you are familiar with the chakras or it's going to
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happen anyway, whether you're familiar with the exact teaching or science behind it.
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But as we are doing a yoga practice, we might notice that there's a
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certain area of the body that feels tight or stuck or built up. So
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I've noticed it before in my throat. It can be physical pain, like
31:22
if there's low back pain. A lot of my clients have low back pain.
31:27
It can sometimes be something in the gut that just feels a little You
31:30
might feel nauseous or just kind of not open in an area. So anytime
31:36
you sense that there's a block somewhere in the body, and again that can
31:41
be something that feels like pain or just discomfort. That is an area of
31:47
energy that wants to move is making itself known so that it can be tended
31:52
to and unstuck. And give us a couple of examples. For example,
31:57
you had mentioned if something you had an issue with your back, how would
32:02
you focus the energy to get that energy unstuck. The best way to focus
32:08
energy on a certain area of the body is with the breath. So as
32:13
soon as you if you're you could be in a posture, or it could
32:19
just be while you're seated, but as soon as you start to notice heightened
32:22
sensation or an uncomfortable sensation in the body, starting to take some deep breaths
32:30
and focusing your attention on that area of the body is the best way to
32:36
start to alleviate some of that. So it seems really simple, but the
32:40
breath really starts to it calms the nervous system, and then it starts to
32:45
move energy inside our body. And so that's the first thing and the simplest
32:52
thing to kind of do immediately is to tune into that. And you also
32:57
might be getting messages at that point of something else that's there. So even
33:01
though you have pain in your low back and you start to breathe, and
33:07
you probably have to do this more than one time, but once you start
33:10
to breathe and focus on that area, you might notice that there's an emotion
33:15
that comes up, or a message or some sort of piece of information that
33:20
you weren't aware of. It might be that you actually feel sad about something,
33:25
or you're angry at someone, or you know there's some other emotional thing
33:30
happening. So the body and our emotions are so connected, and yoga creates
33:36
this thread between the physical body and the emotional body. And so when we
33:40
can tune into that area and use the breath in order to hold our attention
33:45
and keep us from being distracted and really focus, there's lots of other things
33:49
that might come up around that pain or discomfort. Let's share one more with
33:53
the listeners. Let's talk about the root chakra and the sense of feeling ungrounded.
34:00
Yes, So in my yoga practices, often wet we start standing or
34:06
we start seated, and in both cases it's really important to ground ourselves and
34:13
especially if there's some imbalance in the root chakra. So if you're seated in
34:19
a chair, or you're seated on the floor, or you're standing, to
34:22
feel that surface beneath you and start with a few breaths right there. So
34:28
if it's different for a lot of people, it's difficult to tune into where
34:31
is my root chakra? Where am I supposed to be feeling this? And
34:35
a really easy way to target that area is through the soles of the feet
34:39
or through your seat. And so when you're seated or when you're standing,
34:44
to just breathe and feel that connection with the earth and that surface beneath you
34:50
if you're sitting or standing, and that's a really great way to tune into
34:52
that chakra. What is the yoga of presence? So when we're present,
35:01
we're not guided by the past or the future, which means we're not in
35:07
this experience of perception. Yoga has the intention to point us to what is
35:15
true. And so as human beings, you know, we are guided by
35:22
our mind, and the mind is constantly in a state of story. So
35:25
the mind is always focused on something that happened in the past or something that
35:30
is going to happen in the future, and the mind has trouble being in
35:34
a present state of awareness. And this is where a yoga practice, when
35:37
we're focused on the postures and the body, we're focused on the breath and
35:43
how that feels moving through our body. That is bringing us to a state
35:47
of present awareness. And if you've noticed, maybe you've had the experience when
35:52
you're practicing yoga and you're focusing on your breath and you're trying to move through
35:57
the postures along with the breath, it's very difficult for you to also be
36:01
in a narrative or in a story about something and you might not even know
36:07
it's happening, but after a while you think, oh, I haven't thought
36:08
of that thing that's been bothering me for a while, or that thing that
36:12
I'm worried about. So being present in our yoga practice and presence is one
36:17
of the eight limbs, and it's so essential because we look at everything.
36:24
Our view is sort of muddied, I say, by our perception, so
36:30
we can perceive a relationship as good or bad. We have all these labels.
36:32
We think of ourselves in terms of our roles and our identity, and
36:37
really all of that takes us away from what is true right now, what
36:42
is in this moment, right now, what is here for me? And
36:45
so practicing the yoga of presence would be what is happening right now? And
36:52
can I give myself a little break from my human perception because it's not always
36:57
accurate being in the moment. Yes, I had a wonderful spiritual teacher who
37:02
used to share that there should be an eleventh commandment, thou shalt have purpose.
37:08
How many of the practices you share in yoga wise help us find or
37:14
renew our purpose or purposes? Yes, so, dharma, dharma is our
37:21
soul's purpose. And dharma is not one of the eight limbs of yoga,
37:27
but it is in the ancient yoga texts called the Vedas. It's also the
37:32
focus of the Hindu text the Bagavat Gita. And I like what your teacher
37:38
is saying when we are seeking our purpose, we're following our energy. So
37:45
this can be acceptance of a moment. Maybe we get ill, maybe a
37:51
person we love gets ill and we have to focus on getting through that illness
37:58
or caretaking the other person. This could be a career shift, it could
38:02
be a life event. For me, it was motherhood. Motherhood was a
38:07
big dharma moment for me. So dharma is our purpose. And a lot
38:12
of times we think of purpose as a vocation or a career, and it
38:16
certainly can be that, but dharma and purpose is also what is happening in
38:22
the moment that needs my energy and my attention. And once we accept that,
38:28
our sense of purpose brings us contentment, it brings us fulfillment. And
38:32
this is a way to end our suffering. And yoga is a path with
38:37
the intention of ending suffering. So the final chapter and Yoga Eyes I dedicated
38:43
to dharma, and it's all about what is your soul's purpose? What does
38:47
this mean? Is it a big deal like it sounds like, and it
38:52
is and it isn't is the answer. But the final chapter is dharma,
38:55
and all the chapters before the twelfth chapter to lead up to that practice.
39:01
And if we transform our dharma, are we also transforming our karma. Dharma
39:08
and karma are similar, So yeah, So dharma has to do with choices.
39:15
So the choices we make are going to affect our dharma. So I
39:22
can use my own experience in recovery as an example, but I do believe
39:27
that being in recovery is part of my dharma. But I had to make
39:31
that choice to get sober and do what had to be done and stay in
39:37
recovery. So our choices affect Deepak Chopra has this wonderful quote. He says,
39:44
your choice changes the future, and and it's so true. So when
39:49
we are making these choices and we're focused on, you know, accepting what
39:54
is happening right now. For me, it was accepting that I was addicted
40:00
and I had to do something about it. And we make that choice,
40:01
and that does transform our dharma. Does that heal our karma in terms of
40:07
our past, our past lives? I think it definitely heals our future.
40:12
So I think that making those choices that are in pursuit of our dharma do
40:16
heal our future and change ourself, our relationships and everything ahead of that.
40:22
Our new book is entitled Yoga Wise three hundred and sixty five days of Yoga
40:28
inspired teachings to transform your life. We'll be back with more of Molly Jansen
40:34
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Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week is Molly Chance and her book
43:36
Yoga Wise, three hundred and sixty five days of yoga inspired teachings to transform
43:43
your life. Molly, how may these practices enable us to rewrite our stories?
43:52
When we look at ourselves, we become familiar with our wants, our
43:57
desires, our longings. This might be a very unfamiliar practice for a lot
44:01
of us to really tune in and ask ourselves what we want. Often we
44:07
are doing things for the sake of others, or maybe for validation from someone
44:14
in our family or someone else, or we're doing something for external validation or
44:20
for financial gain or to kind of heal these parts of ourselves and we're focused
44:25
on something external that we think will do that or just acceptance really can also
44:31
be one of our motivations. So when we are looking at ourselves and getting
44:37
familiar with this is what I want, or even just as simple as this
44:42
is something I like to do. I like to garden, I like to
44:44
cook. When we stop following some of these external things like maybe what society
44:50
wants from us or what others want from us, we tune in and we
44:54
connect with our own heart through yoga. And when we connect with our own
44:59
heart, we learned that it's okay to answer that we are rewriting our story.
45:05
He had talked about a pari graha before, or letting go. Is
45:08
there an aspect of surrender in this that is letting go of preconceived notions about
45:15
ourselves and our self worth. Absolutely so, letting go can be letting go
45:21
over rolls or identity that we believe define us. And this is a big
45:28
one. This was a big one for me. Allowing someone else to define
45:31
who we are, or allowing an experience to define us. Something can happen
45:38
that appears to be bad or really is tragic things are People talk to us
45:45
and things are done to us, especially when it comes to abuse or trauma
45:50
that are out of our control, and we can allow these things to define
45:55
who we are, and of course we need to do the he and work
46:00
to move through those things. But letting go of this idea that an experience
46:06
or a person defines us at all, or that we're defined even by our
46:10
job. We could lose our job and think, without this job, you
46:15
know who am I? Or without this marriage, who am I? And
46:17
so when we experience loss in our life, it's really hard to let go
46:22
because we have an attachment to that person or that thing or that career as
46:27
being a defining part of who we are. And that's where we're writing our
46:32
story and letting go and surrender all come in. How may all of these
46:38
practices lead us to personal satia or truth? Personal satia is permission to be
46:45
who we are. So it does have to do with letting go regardless of
46:51
others, validation, regardless of outcome, regardless of what something looks like on
46:58
the outside. As you're answering your own personal truth and using that as your
47:04
guide, I would say that's the ultimate path to feeling fulfilled and content truly
47:10
from within and letting go of the myth that we've created about ourselves. Yes,
47:19
yes, so that's a story. So often in yoga eyes, the
47:22
chapter on rewriting stories is all about what are the stories that I have about
47:29
myself and always kind of always kind of observing those as they can change.
47:34
So a story we had about ourselves last year might be different this year.
47:39
We don't have to keep holding on to these same stories all the time,
47:45
and so it's beneficial to always kind of check those stories and look at them
47:50
and say, is this true today? So the big question is unconditional love,
47:57
especially for self achievable? Yes, a big and a great question.
48:04
I have not figured out how to get rid of my critical voice. So
48:08
as much progress as I think I have made, I think that that critical
48:15
voice in our heads is kind of part of how our mind works and probably
48:20
part of being human. But through yoga I am now able to practice more
48:25
self compassion and I'm able to practice discernment. So knowing that my mind is
48:35
functioning this way, knowing that that critical voice may or may not be true,
48:39
just kind of being aware of when it comes up, so you know,
48:44
an example, like if we're driving and we accidentally cut someone off or
48:51
do something we're not supposed to be doing, or something we feel bad about
48:54
right away. For me, when I make a mistake, that voice comes
48:58
up and it's just like telling me all these things about myself. And being
49:04
aware of that voice and that that's happening is the first step to this practice
49:08
of unconditional love for ourselves. That we're allowed to make mistakes. It doesn't
49:14
make us a bad person. We're going to make mistakes, and you know
49:19
we can come back from those without letting it define the rest of our day
49:23
or the rest of our life if it's a bigger mistake. The yoga of
49:29
forgiveness, yes, self forgiveness. Self forgiveness is a really big one.
49:36
Yes, yes, absolutely. And how made these practices promote unity of body,
49:42
mind, and spirit. You brought up satya, the practice of truth,
49:46
and this is a great way to think about yoga or yoke to yoke,
49:52
which is the Sanskrit translation of yoga. And so when we're thinking about
49:58
linking my body and spirit, we're not being governed by the mind alone.
50:05
And we've been talking about this, but the mind in story or the mind
50:09
creating a thought and then we planing to that thought, We go to it,
50:15
we go to the story. We have a whole narrative, and then
50:17
we're kind of just lost in this narrative mind or this story. And like
50:22
I said earlier, it may or may not be true. So using the
50:28
breath and becoming present that step of am I in story? Am I in
50:32
the past? Am I in the future, or am I present? And
50:36
a practice to be present is to start to watch the breath. So taking
50:42
a few breaths, that advice of like if you're stress, take a deep
50:45
breath. You know it's true, and it does work. When we start
50:49
to notice our breath. When we start to breathe a little more deeply and
50:52
we experience the breath as air entering the nose, moving through the body,
50:58
we're present and more present and in the breath we're not in this We're not
51:04
in this story. So in this way, the mind, body and spirit
51:07
are all kind of working together. Because we can be noticing the mind making
51:12
thoughts. We can choose not to run with that thought. We can choose
51:15
not to get lost in the story. We're just watching the mind behave as
51:19
it does. We're coming into presence. We're bringing our attention back to the
51:23
breath. Okay, the mind is making a thought, I'm going to take
51:27
another breath and notice my breath. And then in doing that through presence,
51:30
the eight limbs teach that once we get present, we get present first,
51:35
and then we continue our focus on the breath. And then with presence and
51:38
focus, we're able to enter a state of meditation. And when we're meditating,
51:44
we're opening ourselves up to spirit or higher guidance or our higher self.
51:49
So we truly are yoga or yoking together body, mind and spirit. Yes,
51:54
there are many forms of pramiyana. I love the alternate nostril breathing.
51:59
What's your favorite? Oh, I love alternate nostril breathing. I love alternate
52:02
nostril breathing. It's my go to. And I learned another one when I
52:09
was at my praniama training Nick Cripollo, and that is alternate nostril breathing with
52:16
a little pause at the top. And so this was it's sort of like
52:21
alternate nostril breathing, but I call it like a step up. And so
52:24
if you want to try it, you do the same practice. Alternate nostril
52:29
breathing, but at the top of the inhale, just a little beat or
52:32
a little pause before exhaling, And for some reason it just feels really calming
52:38
to me. And I can't remember the sanscrit name, but we also practiced
52:43
bellows breath, Yes, bastrika, where the stomach is expanded as you inhale.
52:50
Yes, that was a lot of fun through that that helped you to
52:53
calm down. It does help you to calm down. And that's the place
52:57
where I think I probably was holding and tightening in my stomach. Maybe we
53:02
do it all the time, maybe as a woman, maybe maybe it doesn't
53:07
matter. But the permission to just let my belly go with the breath,
53:12
I love it absolutely. What would you like readers to take away from me
53:15
Yoga Wise three hundred and sixty five days of yoga inspired teachings to transform your
53:22
life. I would love people to understand that yoga is a life practice.
53:29
Yoga is not a posture practice or a form of exercise. Of course,
53:34
those things are beneficial, and I think no matter what brings you to yoga,
53:37
for me, it was, you know, I wanted a way to
53:40
exercise, but I didn't want to run. I think. I think,
53:45
no matter what brings you to your mat to answer that and then to be
53:50
open and curious about what else is there, because there are many other aspects
53:54
of yoga besides the physical practice, and you're still practicing yoga. So I
54:00
always tell my students and my readers that if you have an injury or you
54:07
have a limitation in your physical body, people come to me and they can't
54:10
be on their knees or they can't get sit down and stand up and move
54:15
around, and then they think yoga is not accessible to them, or yoga
54:19
isn't a practice that they can do, and it's not true. So yoga
54:22
is something for everyone. It doesn't matter if you've never done yoga before,
54:28
how old you are, your religion, any belief system you follow. Yoga
54:34
is a practice that is available to anyone, and it's something that you can
54:37
weave into your life regardless of where you're at. So let go of that
54:44
story that maybe yoga isn't for you. What's next for Molly Chanson? Right
54:50
now, I'm doing many yoga and book events with the launch of Yoga Eyes,
54:54
so that's taking up a lot of my time. I do have a
54:58
full time job, during the week, and I have two boys who are
55:01
going to be in seventh and eighth grade, and then it's on too high
55:06
school. So I have a lot of energy in my household and I'm following
55:10
that energy. I do have plans to write another book. I'm going to
55:15
let you know, I'm going to let myself be guided and open to when
55:19
that time is right. But right now I'm enjoying watching Yoga Wise on this
55:23
path and following that. Her name is Molly Chanson. Her book is called
55:30
Yoga Wise, three hundred and sixty five Days of Yoga inspired Teachings to Transform
55:36
your life. Molly, please tell our listeners one more time where they can
55:39
find your book and more about you. If you go to Molly Chantsen dot
55:44
com, you will find my book and my yoga practices and my email to
55:50
contact me anytime, and also you offer a class online. I also offer
55:54
a class online called The Practice, and that is also at Molly Chanson dot
55:59
com. Molly, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your path,
56:02
your wisdom, and especially your open hearted love. Thank you Victor so
56:07
much. I've enjoyed it, and thank you for joining us on vax Nobus
56:12
I'm Victor, the voice Ferman of a wonderful week.