June 22, 2020 • 20 mins
A yoga teacher learns to get comfortable with the discomfort of knowing that we live in an unpredictable, uncontrollable world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm Danny Shapiro and this is the Way We Live Now.
Today is day four, since many of us have been
thankful for the miracle that is frozen pizza, and day
fifty of this podcast. I've been a student of yoga
for a very long time and have studied with a
great many teachers all over the country, all over the world.
(00:28):
I've been thinking about yoga teachers during the pandemic. Many
are conducting virtual zoom classes and offering their insights on
social media. But it's got to be hard. Today. My
guest is one of my favorite yoga teachers and human
beings anywhere, Ali Hamilton's Ali, thank you so much for
(00:52):
joining me to talk about the way we live now. Oh,
thank you for having me. I'd like to begin by
you're telling me, telling us where you are right now,
Like paint a picture for us of where you're sitting
as we're having this conversation, what you're looking at, what's
around you. So right now I'm in the studio UM.
(01:14):
I have a yoga and well on this website called
yogis ahenonomenous dot com. And I'm in the studio UM
where I film and where I edit classes and process
them and pick clumbnails and do my accounting. That's where
I am. So I'm looking at um yoga mats and
blocks and strops and computers and lights and um and
(01:39):
where is the studio located in Santa Monica. I'm wondering
when for you the pandemic really registered as this is happening,
this is here, This is huge, and this is going
to affect me and everyone I love, I think for
everyone probably. The date was March thirteen. I was supposed
(02:02):
to take my kids camping for the weekend. Um and
you know it just I had been the day before
putting a tent up in my living room because I've
never done that be so I practice run, yeah, and
just trying to make sure that when we were at
Joshua Tree, I was going to be able to actually
(02:22):
put a tent up. And then the morning of, you know,
the school was canceled. Everything just started to have a
very strange tone to it. There were emails coming from
both of my my kids schools and the teachers who
(02:42):
had organized this. It was an eighth grade camping trip
that I was going to take the kids on, and
they were you know, emailing and saying, um, you know,
just so you know, there isn't a lot of running
water at the campsite, so washing hands might not be
so easy. You know, you just should kind of know
going into this, like we're not really sure what's happening.
(03:05):
And it just became a no for me by the
end of you know, I just looked at my kids
and said, you know, I something feels really off about this.
You know, you're talking about that feeling in your gut,
and I'm thinking you were a yoga teacher, and you
um are more in touch with the signals that your
(03:28):
body sends, you know, the sort of mind body connection
then a lot of people walking around generally I am,
now it's been it's been. Yeah, I've been practicing, you know,
coming up on thirty years. So I certainly had times
in my life where I was not in tune with
(03:49):
with those signals. But these days, yeah, if it feels
like a no, I'm you know, it's a no. I
just especially with my kids in the next I did
not nothing felt like a yes for me. So yeah, well,
and it's interesting too because it's not an intellectual no,
it's a visceral no. And I think there's a lot
(04:11):
that people have been experiencing during this time of needing
to check in with our instincts, what feels right, what
doesn't feel right, And um, I guess I'm really only
trying to point out that you've had a lot of
practice in doing that. Yeah, I mean, I think that
part of what's happened for so many people throughout you know,
(04:34):
these last few months is the we're inundated with information.
You know, if we're talking about COVID nineteen, there's been
a lot of contradictory information. It's been hard to you know,
even if you're paying attention and you're absorbing the news. Ultimately,
you know, you have to make decisions for yourself and
your family about what feels right. And um, you know
(04:58):
what sheltering in place means you and how careful you're being. Um.
I know people who are sort of like on the
high end of the spectrum and people who are walking
around as if everything is normal, and there's you know,
there's everything in between. And so I think a lot
of it is having to do with what what feels
(05:21):
right for you. Um. And I've certainly seen a lot
of that in Los Angeles, you know, we we live
in Santa Monica and even just going outside. You know,
we're wearing masks. I mean, and if I'm walking the dog,
I have a mask on, um, but not everybody does.
You know, you're supposed to, but not everybody does. And
(05:42):
so it's just it's like everything in life. You know,
you you have this information that's coming in and then
you're trying to interpret and figure out, Okay, well, what
what am I making of this information? And and what
feels right for me? How am I going to respond
to it as a yoga teacher. What has this pure
rate of time since mid March been like for you?
(06:04):
It's been, um, it's been really challenging. I um. So
I have a subscription site, so I've got you know,
subscribers from all over the world. And when I am teaching,
I'm teaching, you know, I know that a class that
I'm teaching in Santa Monica, somebody might be taking it
in the south of France or Thailand or you know,
(06:26):
And so I'm I'm when I'm writing, if I'm on
social media, or if I'm sending out a newsletter, it's
that's where it's going. You know, I don't know exactly
where who's receiving UM. A lot of the subscribers are
here in the United States, but I'm I'm always trying
to speak to everyone if I'm writing something, you know,
(06:47):
and what's been happening. I mean, none of us could
have everes just been you know, it's I've never seen
a year like this, and I know we're all sort
of in that scene boat. But I think through the
yoga lens, what's been happening is this high level of
uncertainty everywhere UM that everyone is dealing with at the
(07:11):
same time. And you know, I know you've been practicing
for years and years, so this won't be new to you.
But I think a big part of the practice is
sort of opening to the reality that everything is always
uncertain UM and changing all the time, and that you know,
it's very easy for us to get into this frame
(07:32):
of mind where we feel like we have our plans
and our deadlines and our schedules, and you know, these
things that we do, like, oh, Monday and Wednesday, I
go to my favorite yoga class and I put my
math down in the same spot, and you know, Tuesday morning,
I do my grocery shopping and Thursday I meet my
friend for coffee. You know, we have all these things
that we that we plan, and I think those things
(07:56):
make us feel a little bit more like we're in control.
You know, we have UM say UM over our fate
and our destiny, and I think that that's all that's
always UM a bit of an illusion, right that we
all know on any day our plans can be totally
(08:16):
turned upside down. Certainly you had a year like that
the year before. You know, it's it's just it's easy
for us to kind of lull ourselves from remembering that
we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. And
I think the difference with UM the coronavirus is that
(08:36):
this was it was a worldwide experience in uncertainty, a
collective experience, and we're all going through that because I
think for us, for individuals, things happen. Someone gets sick
suddenly and everything changes in a day, or we lose
someone and everything changes, right Like, we have that perspective
(08:57):
shift where we've you've lost someone and they're gone, and
it's we can't believe it, and yet you know there's
somebody buying tuespaste somewhere right now. You know it's and
it seems hard to understand, like, how is the world
going on while I'm sustaining this incredible loss um. But
(09:18):
we we sort of had that collective experience, which is
I think really unusual. And what I think what I
experienced from people that I'm speaking to, like the subscribers
around the world, was this feeling of like intense vulnerability.
I think all the things that we normally count on
(09:38):
to feel like we are in control, we are less vulnerable.
We do have some say over what happens, we're kind
of like pulled from us all at once. And I
think that a lot of people were feeling intense discomfort
having to sit in that reality that we're not driving
this bus and we're not in control. You know, you
(10:00):
don't get to tell the ocean what to do. We
don't get to tell this virus what to do. You know,
these things happen, um, and we are you know, we
are at the mercy of of of this uncertainty that
exists just being a human being. And I think part
of the practice is like, you know, opening to that
(10:21):
reality and trying not to take it for granted. You know, oh, um,
you know today's Monday, and I know this is going
to happen, to kind of remind yourself that there's no
such thing as a regular day and that anything could
change at any time, and you don't want to, um,
(10:42):
forget to appreciate what a gift it is just to
wake up in the morning, even if the world is
on fire. You know, we're here together and we have
an opportunity to do better and to talk to each
other and to care more and to try to right
the things that are not right, UM, and that that's
a gift, you know, and to try not to that's
(11:03):
such a huge part of the practice is to try
to stay in that awareness that we're lucky to be here,
you know, and to have a chance. And I always
talk about what is happening, you know, in the world,
because to me, that's the point of practicing is we're
gonna you know, you're looking at what's in front of
(11:23):
you and you're trying to figure out, Okay, what comes
up for me in the face of this, and how
am I going to respond? And so I had been
doing these UM live talks and meditations every Friday before
this all happened, and then once it happened, I felt
really um daunted and humbled and intimidated. Uh, you know,
(11:50):
how am I going to have a conversation this Friday
about like a global pandemic? You know, I don't have
a frame of reference for this. I don't have any
brilliant words for the you know, I'm swimming in this
like shock as well. And um, thankfully, you know, I
found over the years the best way to teaches us
(12:12):
to be really honest and really open, and that's what
I what I was doing. And I think talking about
the vulnerability and the fact that like you can't go
to a yoga class and put your bat down in
your spot, you know right now, you can't do that,
and you can't just you can't go meet your friend
(12:32):
for coffee at your favorite place right now. And the
resistance you know that people were feeling, and the fear
and the you know, um, anxiety, all these emotions are
so big and this is the point of practicing, is
to have some tools to calm the nervous system. So
that's what I was trying to do with the toxic
(12:54):
meditations on Friday. And I have this page, um, and
I you know, and I was doing it on all
the different social media places I could just free like,
here's a breathing exercise, you know, um, here's a meditation,
here is a way that here's a grounding exercise. Just
feel the sills of your feet on the floor. If
(13:15):
you feel like you're spinning, you know, just feel your breath,
like where are you feeling your breath and your body
right now? Just trying to help people land in the
moment for a minute and calm the nervous system. And
so I just kind of had that as my goal. Uh,
you know, like let me just try to offer some
tools here to to help everybody just take a deep
(13:37):
breath and try to ground themselves so that we can
you know, figure out together what is the next right move.
That's where I was for several weeks and then George
Floyd happened. My heart just broke. It just broke, and
I I think that's what we're seeing you know around us,
(14:00):
um in the country and across the world. It's just
this absolute kind of global heartbreak and outrage like no,
you know, this is just not okay and we have
to do better. Um. But personally, as a teacher, I
was like, oh wow, okay, so now how how do
(14:23):
you practice and teach in the face of this unbelievable
level of heartbreak. And whether I'm teaching a class or
I'm writing a blog post orm writing, you know, I'm
always trying to talk about how do we apply this
yoga practice to our lives? You know? And there may
(14:44):
be people listening who don't practice yoga, and that's completely fine.
But for me, my my passion is how do you
take this practice, um and use it for your regular
daily life, your yoga practice. The whole point of getting
on your map for ninety minutes is to figure out
what's happening within me um. You know, are there places
(15:08):
that need healing? Is there are there places in here
where I'm numbing or denying or running or you know
not things that I just don't want to deal. Can
I bring those things to the surface and actually work
through them so that when I get off my map,
I can be the most loving, empathetic, you know, tuned
(15:30):
in version of myself. It seems to me that and
I've thought a lot about this too, that in the
pandemic and in the slowing down, whether it's people who
practice yoga or have any kind of spiritual practice or
or or belief system, that it sustains them. The slowing
(15:50):
down is its own form of like almost forcing self inquiry.
And then the death of George Floyd. Oh, you know,
there was this sense that it cracked everybody open. Who
we meaning you know, sort of humanity around the globe,
(16:11):
were in a place where we were available and present
to be cracked open. We weren't just jumping, you know,
to our to our next meeting or plan as you
were talking about. I guess the last question I have
for you is what do you do for yourself that
is allowing you to fill up so that you have
(16:34):
the oxygen to give others and and what's bringing you
hope right now? For sure? For me it I get
on my map and I just try to, you know,
allow whatever I'm feeling to to come to the surface.
And you know, I filmed the class last week and
(16:54):
I start, I started, I was in frog pose, and
I just tears were just I just was crying, and
I just I did. I thought in the moment I
might not post this, but I posted it because I thought,
you know, this is what it is. You kind of
have to let yourself feel whatever it is that you're
feeling um in order to figure out how to act.
And so for me, I've been on my mat and
(17:16):
I've been meditating, and those are the things that really
that really helped me. And I've also been reading and
listening to Ted talks and watching films and really trying
to educate myself. I've also been much more engaged with,
(17:37):
like my local government. This has been a real awakening
for me as a human being and a teacher and
you know, just a mother and a person in the
world to understand that, you know, we have a lot
of power in our democracy if we don't go to sleep.
You know, I I've been and I will openly say
(17:58):
this to you or anyone. I've never missed a presidential election.
Every four years, I'm there. But there are all these
local elections and if you write to your mayor, they
right back. You know, there are council members. And I
wrote to the A. G. S Office in New Jersey
because I was upset, and they wrote back. So for me,
I'm trying to like learn and that is actually helping
(18:21):
me a lot to stay sane and to feel like
I'm at least trying to learn how to be part
of the solution. You know, that's giving me a lot
of comfort, and I think that's also filling my tank
in addition to all the practices I've always you know,
I do all the time, and the yoga and meditating
is that part of it. She's just educating myself. That's great, Alie.
(18:45):
This has been such an illuminating conversation. And um, I
look forward to the next time that we can unroll
our mats together. Me too, Me too. I look forward
to that a lot. Thank you so much, Thank you,
(19:07):
thanks for listening to the Way We Live Now. Tell
us the way you're living now. We want to hear
call us on. You might want to get a pen
for this nine O nine three that's nine O nine
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(19:28):
can join our Facebook group at facebook dot com slash
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creating a community here and we would love for you
to join us. You can find me on Instagram at
Danny Ryder. The Way We Live Now is a production
of I Heart Radio. It's produced by a Lowe Brulante.
Bethan Macaluso is executive producer. Special thanks to Tristan McNeil
(19:51):
and Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
I'm Danny Shapiro and this is the Way We Live Now.
Today is day four, since many of us have been
thankful for the miracle that is frozen pizza, and day
fifty of this podcast. I've been a student of yoga
for a very long time and have studied with a
great many teachers all over the country, all over the world.
(00:28):
I've been thinking about yoga teachers during the pandemic. Many
are conducting virtual zoom classes and offering their insights on
social media. But it's got to be hard. Today. My
guest is one of my favorite yoga teachers and human
beings anywhere, Ali Hamilton's Ali, thank you so much for
(00:52):
joining me to talk about the way we live now. Oh,
thank you for having me. I'd like to begin by
you're telling me, telling us where you are right now,
Like paint a picture for us of where you're sitting
as we're having this conversation, what you're looking at, what's
around you. So right now I'm in the studio UM.
(01:14):
I have a yoga and well on this website called
yogis ahenonomenous dot com. And I'm in the studio UM
where I film and where I edit classes and process
them and pick clumbnails and do my accounting. That's where
I am. So I'm looking at um yoga mats and
blocks and strops and computers and lights and um and
(01:39):
where is the studio located in Santa Monica. I'm wondering
when for you the pandemic really registered as this is happening,
this is here, This is huge, and this is going
to affect me and everyone I love, I think for
everyone probably. The date was March thirteen. I was supposed
(02:02):
to take my kids camping for the weekend. Um and
you know it just I had been the day before
putting a tent up in my living room because I've
never done that be so I practice run, yeah, and
just trying to make sure that when we were at
Joshua Tree, I was going to be able to actually
(02:22):
put a tent up. And then the morning of, you know,
the school was canceled. Everything just started to have a
very strange tone to it. There were emails coming from
both of my my kids schools and the teachers who
(02:42):
had organized this. It was an eighth grade camping trip
that I was going to take the kids on, and
they were you know, emailing and saying, um, you know,
just so you know, there isn't a lot of running
water at the campsite, so washing hands might not be
so easy. You know, you just should kind of know
going into this, like we're not really sure what's happening.
(03:05):
And it just became a no for me by the
end of you know, I just looked at my kids
and said, you know, I something feels really off about this.
You know, you're talking about that feeling in your gut,
and I'm thinking you were a yoga teacher, and you
um are more in touch with the signals that your
(03:28):
body sends, you know, the sort of mind body connection
then a lot of people walking around generally I am,
now it's been it's been. Yeah, I've been practicing, you know,
coming up on thirty years. So I certainly had times
in my life where I was not in tune with
(03:49):
with those signals. But these days, yeah, if it feels
like a no, I'm you know, it's a no. I
just especially with my kids in the next I did
not nothing felt like a yes for me. So yeah, well,
and it's interesting too because it's not an intellectual no,
it's a visceral no. And I think there's a lot
(04:11):
that people have been experiencing during this time of needing
to check in with our instincts, what feels right, what
doesn't feel right, And um, I guess I'm really only
trying to point out that you've had a lot of
practice in doing that. Yeah, I mean, I think that
part of what's happened for so many people throughout you know,
(04:34):
these last few months is the we're inundated with information.
You know, if we're talking about COVID nineteen, there's been
a lot of contradictory information. It's been hard to you know,
even if you're paying attention and you're absorbing the news. Ultimately,
you know, you have to make decisions for yourself and
your family about what feels right. And um, you know
(04:58):
what sheltering in place means you and how careful you're being. Um.
I know people who are sort of like on the
high end of the spectrum and people who are walking
around as if everything is normal, and there's you know,
there's everything in between. And so I think a lot
of it is having to do with what what feels
(05:21):
right for you. Um. And I've certainly seen a lot
of that in Los Angeles, you know, we we live
in Santa Monica and even just going outside. You know,
we're wearing masks. I mean, and if I'm walking the dog,
I have a mask on, um, but not everybody does.
You know, you're supposed to, but not everybody does. And
(05:42):
so it's just it's like everything in life. You know,
you you have this information that's coming in and then
you're trying to interpret and figure out, Okay, well, what
what am I making of this information? And and what
feels right for me? How am I going to respond
to it as a yoga teacher. What has this pure
rate of time since mid March been like for you?
(06:04):
It's been, um, it's been really challenging. I um. So
I have a subscription site, so I've got you know,
subscribers from all over the world. And when I am teaching,
I'm teaching, you know, I know that a class that
I'm teaching in Santa Monica, somebody might be taking it
in the south of France or Thailand or you know,
(06:26):
And so I'm I'm when I'm writing, if I'm on
social media, or if I'm sending out a newsletter, it's
that's where it's going. You know, I don't know exactly
where who's receiving UM. A lot of the subscribers are
here in the United States, but I'm I'm always trying
to speak to everyone if I'm writing something, you know,
(06:47):
and what's been happening. I mean, none of us could
have everes just been you know, it's I've never seen
a year like this, and I know we're all sort
of in that scene boat. But I think through the
yoga lens, what's been happening is this high level of
uncertainty everywhere UM that everyone is dealing with at the
(07:11):
same time. And you know, I know you've been practicing
for years and years, so this won't be new to you.
But I think a big part of the practice is
sort of opening to the reality that everything is always
uncertain UM and changing all the time, and that you know,
it's very easy for us to get into this frame
(07:32):
of mind where we feel like we have our plans
and our deadlines and our schedules, and you know, these
things that we do, like, oh, Monday and Wednesday, I
go to my favorite yoga class and I put my
math down in the same spot, and you know, Tuesday morning,
I do my grocery shopping and Thursday I meet my
friend for coffee. You know, we have all these things
that we that we plan, and I think those things
(07:56):
make us feel a little bit more like we're in control.
You know, we have UM say UM over our fate
and our destiny, and I think that that's all that's
always UM a bit of an illusion, right that we
all know on any day our plans can be totally
(08:16):
turned upside down. Certainly you had a year like that
the year before. You know, it's it's just it's easy
for us to kind of lull ourselves from remembering that
we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. And
I think the difference with UM the coronavirus is that
(08:36):
this was it was a worldwide experience in uncertainty, a
collective experience, and we're all going through that because I
think for us, for individuals, things happen. Someone gets sick
suddenly and everything changes in a day, or we lose
someone and everything changes, right Like, we have that perspective
(08:57):
shift where we've you've lost someone and they're gone, and
it's we can't believe it, and yet you know there's
somebody buying tuespaste somewhere right now. You know it's and
it seems hard to understand, like, how is the world
going on while I'm sustaining this incredible loss um. But
(09:18):
we we sort of had that collective experience, which is
I think really unusual. And what I think what I
experienced from people that I'm speaking to, like the subscribers
around the world, was this feeling of like intense vulnerability.
I think all the things that we normally count on
(09:38):
to feel like we are in control, we are less vulnerable.
We do have some say over what happens, we're kind
of like pulled from us all at once. And I
think that a lot of people were feeling intense discomfort
having to sit in that reality that we're not driving
this bus and we're not in control. You know, you
(10:00):
don't get to tell the ocean what to do. We
don't get to tell this virus what to do. You know,
these things happen, um, and we are you know, we
are at the mercy of of of this uncertainty that
exists just being a human being. And I think part
of the practice is like, you know, opening to that
(10:21):
reality and trying not to take it for granted. You know, oh, um,
you know today's Monday, and I know this is going
to happen, to kind of remind yourself that there's no
such thing as a regular day and that anything could
change at any time, and you don't want to, um,
(10:42):
forget to appreciate what a gift it is just to
wake up in the morning, even if the world is
on fire. You know, we're here together and we have
an opportunity to do better and to talk to each
other and to care more and to try to right
the things that are not right, UM, and that that's
a gift, you know, and to try not to that's
(11:03):
such a huge part of the practice is to try
to stay in that awareness that we're lucky to be here,
you know, and to have a chance. And I always
talk about what is happening, you know, in the world,
because to me, that's the point of practicing is we're
gonna you know, you're looking at what's in front of
(11:23):
you and you're trying to figure out, Okay, what comes
up for me in the face of this, and how
am I going to respond? And so I had been
doing these UM live talks and meditations every Friday before
this all happened, and then once it happened, I felt
really um daunted and humbled and intimidated. Uh, you know,
(11:50):
how am I going to have a conversation this Friday
about like a global pandemic? You know, I don't have
a frame of reference for this. I don't have any
brilliant words for the you know, I'm swimming in this
like shock as well. And um, thankfully, you know, I
found over the years the best way to teaches us
(12:12):
to be really honest and really open, and that's what
I what I was doing. And I think talking about
the vulnerability and the fact that like you can't go
to a yoga class and put your bat down in
your spot, you know right now, you can't do that,
and you can't just you can't go meet your friend
(12:32):
for coffee at your favorite place right now. And the
resistance you know that people were feeling, and the fear
and the you know, um, anxiety, all these emotions are
so big and this is the point of practicing, is
to have some tools to calm the nervous system. So
that's what I was trying to do with the toxic
(12:54):
meditations on Friday. And I have this page, um, and
I you know, and I was doing it on all
the different social media places I could just free like,
here's a breathing exercise, you know, um, here's a meditation,
here is a way that here's a grounding exercise. Just
feel the sills of your feet on the floor. If
(13:15):
you feel like you're spinning, you know, just feel your breath,
like where are you feeling your breath and your body
right now? Just trying to help people land in the
moment for a minute and calm the nervous system. And
so I just kind of had that as my goal. Uh,
you know, like let me just try to offer some
tools here to to help everybody just take a deep
(13:37):
breath and try to ground themselves so that we can
you know, figure out together what is the next right move.
That's where I was for several weeks and then George
Floyd happened. My heart just broke. It just broke, and
I I think that's what we're seeing you know around us,
(14:00):
um in the country and across the world. It's just
this absolute kind of global heartbreak and outrage like no,
you know, this is just not okay and we have
to do better. Um. But personally, as a teacher, I
was like, oh wow, okay, so now how how do
(14:23):
you practice and teach in the face of this unbelievable
level of heartbreak. And whether I'm teaching a class or
I'm writing a blog post orm writing, you know, I'm
always trying to talk about how do we apply this
yoga practice to our lives? You know? And there may
(14:44):
be people listening who don't practice yoga, and that's completely fine.
But for me, my my passion is how do you
take this practice, um and use it for your regular
daily life, your yoga practice. The whole point of getting
on your map for ninety minutes is to figure out
what's happening within me um. You know, are there places
(15:08):
that need healing? Is there are there places in here
where I'm numbing or denying or running or you know
not things that I just don't want to deal. Can
I bring those things to the surface and actually work
through them so that when I get off my map,
I can be the most loving, empathetic, you know, tuned
(15:30):
in version of myself. It seems to me that and
I've thought a lot about this too, that in the
pandemic and in the slowing down, whether it's people who
practice yoga or have any kind of spiritual practice or
or or belief system, that it sustains them. The slowing
(15:50):
down is its own form of like almost forcing self inquiry.
And then the death of George Floyd. Oh, you know,
there was this sense that it cracked everybody open. Who
we meaning you know, sort of humanity around the globe,
(16:11):
were in a place where we were available and present
to be cracked open. We weren't just jumping, you know,
to our to our next meeting or plan as you
were talking about. I guess the last question I have
for you is what do you do for yourself that
is allowing you to fill up so that you have
(16:34):
the oxygen to give others and and what's bringing you
hope right now? For sure? For me it I get
on my map and I just try to, you know,
allow whatever I'm feeling to to come to the surface.
And you know, I filmed the class last week and
(16:54):
I start, I started, I was in frog pose, and
I just tears were just I just was crying, and
I just I did. I thought in the moment I
might not post this, but I posted it because I thought,
you know, this is what it is. You kind of
have to let yourself feel whatever it is that you're
feeling um in order to figure out how to act.
And so for me, I've been on my mat and
(17:16):
I've been meditating, and those are the things that really
that really helped me. And I've also been reading and
listening to Ted talks and watching films and really trying
to educate myself. I've also been much more engaged with,
(17:37):
like my local government. This has been a real awakening
for me as a human being and a teacher and
you know, just a mother and a person in the
world to understand that, you know, we have a lot
of power in our democracy if we don't go to sleep.
You know, I I've been and I will openly say
(17:58):
this to you or anyone. I've never missed a presidential election.
Every four years, I'm there. But there are all these
local elections and if you write to your mayor, they
right back. You know, there are council members. And I
wrote to the A. G. S Office in New Jersey
because I was upset, and they wrote back. So for me,
I'm trying to like learn and that is actually helping
(18:21):
me a lot to stay sane and to feel like
I'm at least trying to learn how to be part
of the solution. You know, that's giving me a lot
of comfort, and I think that's also filling my tank
in addition to all the practices I've always you know,
I do all the time, and the yoga and meditating
is that part of it. She's just educating myself. That's great, Alie.
(18:45):
This has been such an illuminating conversation. And um, I
look forward to the next time that we can unroll
our mats together. Me too, Me too. I look forward
to that a lot. Thank you so much, Thank you,
(19:07):
thanks for listening to the Way We Live Now. Tell
us the way you're living now. We want to hear
call us on. You might want to get a pen
for this nine O nine three that's nine O nine
seven eight nine nine five and record your story and
we might just use it on the pod. Also, you
(19:28):
can join our Facebook group at facebook dot com slash
groups slash the Way We Live Now Pod. We are
creating a community here and we would love for you
to join us. You can find me on Instagram at
Danny Ryder. The Way We Live Now is a production
of I Heart Radio. It's produced by a Lowe Brulante.
Bethan Macaluso is executive producer. Special thanks to Tristan McNeil
(19:51):
and Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
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