December 1, 2025 • 29 mins
Come and listen to our Host, Gia-Raquel Rose for our “End of Year, Beginning of Me” Podcast Series.
A powerfully themed mini-series helping women close the year with clarity and step into the next one with grounded self-love and vision.
Gia-Raquel Rose, owner of Airs Above Yoga, LLC and a real estate sales associate in Tewksbury, New Jersey has had a love for horses stemming from early childhood. Growing up in “horse country” afforded her the privilege of beginning to ride from the tender age of four. It was a childhood illness, which brought her riding aspirations to an abrupt halt. It took twenty years before she was able to reunite with her long lost passion for horses and their ability to heal. In that time, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communication from Arcadia University and became a twice two hundred hour certified yoga instructor in both Hatha and Vinyasa. It was the loss of her mother, Rose, to breast cancer, which ultimately shifted her trajectory from the corporate world to the internal work for which yoga, as a practice, is renowned.
We return from a short break with a gentle, grounded guide to giving yourself grace. A closing yoga sequence—bridge, fish, reclined twist, happy baby—becomes a map from effort to ease, and a practice of forgiveness during a busy gratitude season.
• why November themes of gratitude and grace matter
• how breaks, balance, and self-forgiveness strengthen practice
• why closing sequences shift the nervous system
• bridge pose as heart and hip opener for release
• fish pose to clear the throat and speak truth
• reclined twists to rebalance energy and reduce tension
• happy baby to reconnect with simple joy
• meeting your body where it is, not where it was
• carrying lessons off the mat into daily cycles
For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
It's Divas that Care Radio.
Stories, strategies, and ideasto inspire positive change.
Welcome to Divas That Care, anetwork of women committed to
making our world a better placefor everyone.
This is a global movement forwomen, by women, engaged in a
collaborative effort to create abetter world for future
generations.
(00:20):
To find out more about themovement, visit divasletcare.com
after the show.
Right now, though, stay tunedfor another jaunt of
inspiration.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
Namaste and welcome to the Divas That Care Network.
I'm your host, G.
Raquel Rose, owner of Airs AboveYoga, and you are listening to
Above the Ground Podcast.
If this is your first timetuning in, our network is in its
15th year and listened to inover 30 countries.
I want to personally thank youfor sharing the gift of your
(00:52):
time with me.
As always, it is my honor tohold space with you.
And as you may have noticed, Ihave taken a little bit of a
hiatus as some life things hadcome up in flux, we'll say in
flux, all about trying tomaintain balance and all good
things, nothing, nothing bad,but just taking some time to
make those adjustments, which Ithink we all need to give
(01:15):
ourselves that gift of grace,especially as we embark on the
holiday seasons, which areupcoming.
That being said, November seemsto be some sort of theme for
this podcast, and maybe for meat life in general, Scorpio
season, depending on it's myrising, depending on how you
want to look at it.
But what I want to touch on isthat I tried to launch this
(01:37):
podcast many years ago.
Well, not many, a couple ofyears ago now.
And then I took almost a yearhiatus.
And when I came back to it, itwas again in November.
Um, and now I had a much shorterhiatus uh because I really
wanted to make sure that Imaintained the commitment not
only to myself, but to anyonewho took the time and so
generously gave it to me andlistened and hopefully took some
(01:59):
benefit from the things that Ishare and speak about.
And so as we're coming backagain in November, third times
of charm is what I'm gonna say.
Um, and just talk a little bitabout this season of I'm gonna,
it's typically a season ofgratitude, right?
November is associated withThanksgiving for those of us in
(02:20):
the United States.
Um, and it's it's my favoriteholiday because it's um, well,
it's my favorite holiday morefor the food aspect.
I'll be completely honest withyou, uh, for someone who has
given up uh grain in mass, uhstuffing is my favorite
carbohydrate, my favorite guiltypleasure.
Um, and so the Thanksgivingtable has always been all of my
(02:40):
favorite foods and always justbrought, you know, happiness and
just being with family and beingwith friends and loved ones and
not necessarily, while I loveChristmas and whatever holidays
you may celebrate, that may notbe a part of my personal
routine, but that may share someparallels for any and all
denominations around that givingtime of year.
(03:01):
Uh, it does seem to take on alife of its own where it gets a
little bit more about the givingand the shopping and the
prepping, and a little bit lessabout the just being with the
ones that you love and enjoyingtime with them.
And so I've always likesgiving alittle bit better because it's a
little bit less pressure,focused on you know, food,
warmth, and family in my mind.
(03:22):
And then it all goes downhill onBlack Friday because I've always
I've always kind of abhorred thefact that um they they pirated
the idea of thanks to to sellwares at low prices to drive
people from their families intotheir wallets.
And that's just a personalsoapbox message that I will now
(03:42):
stand off.
Um, but to that end, talking alittle bit about forgiveness and
a little bit about um releasingand letting go.
And, you know, this as fate andluck and you know destiny would
have it, you know, when it comesto taking these brief hiatuses
and giving yourself you'reforgiving yourself, essentially,
right?
Um, and as this episode isdedicated to our asanas, I
(04:06):
wanted to talk about thesequence of postures that close
a practice.
Um, and every instructor isdifferent, every class is
different, different umalignments in yoga all can be
all can have differentvariations.
But the way that I was taughtand the way that I believe is a
(04:28):
lovely way to settle into yourmat as you start to enter
Shivasana.
I believe last time I broughtthis podcast back to life above
the ground, aptly named, um, itwas with Shivasana, it was
beginning at the end.
And so we're kind of doing thatagain a little bit
tongue-in-cheek, but this timetalking about the the the
forgiveness aspect and therelease aspect.
(04:49):
And um forgiveness of self is ahuge, huge theme, I think,
throughout not just yoga, butthe spiritual journey in and of
itself, because in essence, wetalk we can often find
difficulty forgiving others whohave potentially wronged us.
We can also often find ourselvesengaged in in anger, rage, hate,
(05:10):
all of these very negative, lowby lower vibrational emotions
that draw us into our ego andout of our upper, upper
connection or divine connectionto our highest self.
And and so having forgivenessultimately for another, but but
ultimately for yourself.
Um, sometimes it's harder toforgive yourself than to forgive
(05:32):
someone who wronged you,depending on the slight, uh,
right.
But just that idea of, you know,I knew that I had to take this
time and I didn't want to takethis time.
And for the past month, I'vekind of beat myself up for not
being able to get to this and toget to you.
And um saying on the phone tosomeone said, you know, I just I
have to give myself some grace.
(05:53):
I have to give myself somegrace.
And I think that in this seasonof gratitude, sometimes it's
easier to give yourself gracethan to forgive yourself.
And I think that that's a goodplace to start.
I think that that is going to bethe title of this episode, Give
Yourself Grace.
And I think that it's very, veryimportant when we talk about
(06:16):
releasing and letting go, whenyou go through an asana
practice, especially the morerigorous the practice, the more
challenging the practice, themore you need that time to go
from the kind of switching,switching eastern denominational
language, um, going from the yinto the yang, right?
Or the yang to the yin in thiscase, um, and going from that
(06:38):
masculine aspect of the heatedpostures and the the workout, if
you will, in air quotes, um, ofthe practice to the stillness of
the practice ultimately inShvasana.
And that transition is so, soimportant.
So we all know, you know, thatthat cue from the yoga
instructor to come back to yourmat, to come back to the floor,
to gracefully make your way downonto your mat.
(07:00):
Um, and it and you know, Idefinitely use the term
gracefully when I when I saythat, because sometimes it's a
flop, sometimes it's lessgraceful than you want it to be.
Sometimes you're exhausted andyou just fall onto your mat,
hopefully not out of a balancedposture, but you just, you know,
you let go and it's not pretty.
Um and oftentimes theforgiveness and letting go is
not necessarily pretty.
It can be an ugly, uglytransition when you have to face
(07:23):
yourself and the part ofyourself that maybe you, your
shadow side, that part that youdon't love or that part that
deserves love, I should say,even more than what you choose
to withhold from it.
And so when you do decide tocome back down onto your mat,
there is a somewhat, I'll callit a somewhat traditional
sequence, but the sequence thatI always kind of go through in
(07:45):
some variation of itself beginswith the bridge pose.
And it's a heart opener and it'sa hip opener.
And I know I've talked about itat length before, so we're not
going to go into too much detailother than it is a laying down
posture where you put pressureon the upper shoulders and neck
(08:08):
area and the back of the head.
So you do want to be mindful.
I've always said with a neckinjury, when you're in bridge
pose, you want to make very,very sure that you don't start
to roll your head side to sideonce you elevate your hips.
Um, you know, a lot of peopleare familiar with it from like a
gym mentality or a workoutmentality of a glute upper press
kind of a situation.
But essentially, you can do arestorative bridge where you
(08:29):
rest your hips and your pelvis,your sacrum technically on top
of a block or some stacked abolster potentially or stacked
blocks.
Um, and the idea here is thatafter you've gone through the
practice, this begins to bringthat blood flow up towards your
head.
And for people that don't have ashoulder stand practice,
(08:50):
traditionally in some,especially vinyasa classes,
shoulder stand is practiced atthe end of the class, and it is
it is just before bridge,generally speaking.
Um I suppose you could go viceversa and prepare for shoulder
stand by doing bridge.
Um, that is another way to goabout it because some people
have have that prep work, um,but I don't practice shoulder
(09:13):
stand anymore due to my neckinjury, and I certainly don't
lead a class into shoulderstand.
So I just want to acknowledgeshoulder stand for the wonderful
pose that it is.
It used to be one of my favoritepostures pre-cervical vertebrae
injury.
Um, but for now I'm going to usebridge posture as the as it as
the as the posture that umreplaces uh shoulder stand for
(09:38):
anyone who's coming out of theirout of their challenging aspect
of the practice and into thatsubtle restorative releasing
aspect.
So bridge does a couple things.
Again, it opens our heart, itopens our hips.
So that opens all of thoseplaces where we hang on to
things, especially for women.
And again, I won't, I won't,we're not talking gender, but
for the female body, carryingthings in our heart, we tend to
(09:59):
round our shoulders, we tend totend to hunch over our hips if
we carry tension or tightness,or we've had any sort of
unfortunate, but has to be saidsexual traumas, we store those
in our sacrum, um, in our solarjust below our solar plexus in
our sacral chakra area, which isjust you know in the pelvic
bowl.
And so getting that area openand free, opening your heart
(10:20):
center, that is a way to startto release.
Um, and you may find people thatyou know have experience of
emotional release if they're newto the practice and they find
themselves in in that it is avulnerable position, right?
Um we are on we are extendingour bellies up towards the sky,
our pelvis up towards the sky.
(10:40):
And when you come out of bridge,you want to make sure that you
gently roll down vertebrae byvertebrae to the best of your
ability, and then ending gentlyon the sacrum and tailbone.
So knees for this posture arestacked over the heels, and a
lot of times people bring theirheels too close into their
buttocks.
So make sure that you keep yourheels out a little bit so that
(11:00):
you have that lovely angle ofknee over angle.
Um, and then just on the we'regoing backwards again.
So when you raise up into it,you draw the lower abdominals
and engage the inner thighstowards each other and press
those hips up towards theceiling.
You can roll the shoulders open,extend the arms, and interlace
the fingers underneath your hipsif you have the mobility in your
shoulders, or you can just allowyour shoulders to tuck under or
(11:22):
ground into the floor, pressingthe palms down for a little bit
of extra stability and support.
There are lots of variations tothis posture, but it is
generally one of the go-totransitions between being
upright and coming down ontoyour mat.
When you finish exiting frombridge posture, what I generally
like to do is having that harpopener.
(11:45):
And again, the same counterpointto shoulder stand is fish pose.
And we've talked about fish poseas well.
But fish pose again, heartopener, throat chakra opener.
So when we're talking aboutreleasing, while you are able
always to release things fromyour body, your body will store
the trauma and tension, but youare always able to use the body
to release that stored traumaintention as well.
(12:07):
Sometimes it needs to come fromthe voice, sometimes you need to
air your release, sometimes youneed to, even if it's not to the
other person, even if it's toyou, even if it's to yourself,
you just need to say it, speakit out loud and let it go that
way.
And so fish pose will bewonderful to open that throat
chakra and really open throughthe neck, open through the
(12:27):
shoulders, and kind of is thecounterpose for the bridge
posture.
And so for fish pose, you takeyour, I prefer, there are a
couple ways to do it.
You can press your elbows in atyour sides.
And again, I've gone reallyin-depth for these postures
before, so I'm not gonna gosuper down the rabbit hole, but
you can bring your elbows intoyour sides, pressing them right
(12:48):
at the base of the rib cage andlengthening up through the heart
center.
Fingertips can point up towardsthe sky, and then you just
lengthen.
Same thing as bridge.
You can place a block betweenthe shoulder blades or a
bolster.
Blocks can be a little bitsquare into the sides of the
shoulder blades there.
You just want to make sure thatyou don't feel any tension in
your head or neck as you pivotup through the chin and rest
(13:10):
just the crown of the head onthe mat.
To make it a little more active,you can also take the palms of
the hands to the floorunderneath the tailbone,
creating this diamond shape thatI've that I've put on the screen
for those of you who are notwatching, and tuck that diamond
just around your tailbone, drawthe lower abdominals in and
gently lift the legs.
So that's going to take you alittle more back and a little
(13:32):
bit more into the yang aspect.
And so for a restorative bridge,you can just open through the
heart center, lengthen throughthe chest, release open through
that throat chakra, and begin tolet some of that blockage flow
freely.
Um I think it's very, veryimportant always, and especially
when you're thinking aboutbringing energy from bridge pose
(13:54):
through the upper chakras.
Literally, it's coming onthrough the legs.
It's coming, you've done thisstanding practice, right?
You've done the seated practice,all that energy, all that
strength that you're building upin your legs, you're bringing
that energy from your legs downthrough your pelvic bowl,
through the body, through thetorso, and then into the heart
space and into the shoulders.
And when you go from bridge tofish pose, you're then allowing
(14:17):
that same energy to track allthe way up through the throat
and then reconnect back with theearth through the crown of the
head.
So the two postures from anenergetic physical perspective,
and I know I said energeticphysical, but I meant exactly
what I said.
Um, even though it's a physicalrelease, there's energy flowing
through your body, and thatconnection back to the earth
through the mat, through thecrown of the head kind of brings
(14:38):
it all full circle.
And if we're talking aboutforgiveness, release, closer,
and moving on, what is it if notif not a circle or a cycle of
life?
So from the bridge, I'm sorry,from the fish posture, when
you're coming out of it, you doneed to lift up through the
crown of the head, tuck the chinin gently, and make sure that
you press into the elbows,release the hands if you've had
(14:58):
them underneath, but make surethat you're really pressing up
and so that you have protectionthrough the back of the neck as
you come back to that neutralposition on the mat laying flat
on your back.
From there, everyone's favoritethe crowd pleaser, recline
spinal twist.
And there are so many variationsof reclined spinal twist.
Um, and I often practicereclined spinal twists as a
(15:19):
warm-up as well.
Um, but the general the generalrule of thumb there is to have
the spine in alignment, which alot of people look more like a C
from the yoga instructor'sperspective when they practice
reclined spinal twists.
So make sure that you do havethe idea of bringing the knees
to one side of the mat and thehips to the opposite side.
(15:41):
It's a good way to kind ofposition.
And the little cue that I liketo give is whichever direction
your knees are facing, lift upthat shoulder and draw it over a
little bit in the direction ofthe knees.
That generally tends tostraighten the spine out a
little bit.
And then from there, whetheryour knees are stacked, whether
you have one extended down, oneleg extended down, one leg
(16:02):
extended perpendicular, whetheryou have one foot on a thigh and
you're grabbing to get a littlebit of extra through the IT
band.
There's so many variationsthrough the legs here that I may
focus the yoga video on thisspecifically to or towards that
uh recline spinal twist legvariation aspect because there's
so many fun ways that you can dothat, and they target different
(16:24):
areas of the lower back, and youcan that generally get a nice
happy, happy crack, if you will,again with the air quotes when
you're in a reclined spinaltwist.
The nice thing is to then rollopen, breathe through the upper
body and chest, really come fromthat expansive place.
And I think that that is um abeautiful way to again, I always
talk about twisting as wringingout the towel, right?
(16:46):
Like you're you're and I that'snot I did not coin that.
I believe it was my yogainstructor, Stephanie Papas,
that did that did give us thatkind of wringing out the body
sensation when we're talkingabout twisting of any kind.
But with reclined spinal twist,again, we're talking about that
energy that we've createdthroughout a practice.
And I think that as you comeinto that recline spinal twist
(17:08):
from the two prostors, we'retalking about that reconnection
of the energy from the floorthrough the feet up through the
crown of the head, throughbridge and fish.
And if you talk about the ideaof ringing it out, for me, it's
almost as the recline spinaltwist begins to disperse the
energy throughout the body.
So we've brought, we've heatedit, we've created it through the
(17:28):
asana practice.
We come down onto the mat and weneed to, we've we we're filled
with it.
So we need to direct it,essentially, is how I like to
look at this closing sequence.
And so directing it from thelegs up through the crown of the
head, bring the energy upthrough your chakras.
Then from there, as you twistit, you're beginning to
(17:51):
rebalance it through your chakrasystem, disperse it laterally
from side to side, back throughthe legs, and in a balanced and
even way that starts to bring itfrom that heated energy into a
cooler, more unified energy thatyour body can kind of then
absorb better and take thegoodness from better.
(18:14):
And again, twists always releasetoxins, so there's an element of
that that moves through it aswell.
But think of it as a rebalance.
And so obviously, what goes upmust come down.
What you do in one direction inyoga, you must do in the other.
Bridge and fish are both uhsymmetrical, uh kind of parallel
front to back, if you will,whereas your reclined spinal
(18:36):
twist is side to side orlateral, so you do need to swap
from one side to the next.
And then finally, the crowdpleaser for many, and one of the
least favorite for people who donot like to be super vulnerable,
happy baby pose.
So after recline spinal twistand before Shivasana, spoiler
alert, I always come into happybaby pose.
(18:57):
And for those who areunfamiliar, happy baby pose is
where you are in the middle ofyour mat, spine completely in
contact with the floor, with youknow, as as less of a curve of
the lower back in contact withthe floor as you can manage
comfortably.
And then you draw your kneesinto the chest and then bring
your knees out towards yourarmpits.
(19:17):
Soles of the feet, knees are ata 90-degree angle, and the soles
of the feet are kind of walkingon the ceiling, and then you're
grabbing the backs of thethighs, the ankles, the big
toes, um, whichever iscomfortable for you when rocking
side to side.
And this is probably, you know,it's it's a it's a crowd
pleaser, it's a yoga, yoga classfavorite.
And again, this kind of justcelebrates all of that hard work
(19:39):
that you just did.
Um, it's a deep, deep hamstringopener, and it all everybody
knows what it mimics why it'saptly named the happy baby
posture.
Every note, everybody has animage in their mind of a baby
kind of rocking side to side,grabbing their feet.
Um, and it just kind of bringsthat whole cycle full circle, I
think, um, where you're comingback to the joy and reminding
(20:01):
yourself at the end of thatcycle of forgiveness, of
closure, of moving on, and ofrelease, there is joy.
Hopefully, hopefully, that cyclehas to have joy.
And I believe that happy baby isthe yoga asana that brings you
from the effort to the release,to the transmutation and that
twist of the energy, and theninto the joy.
(20:24):
And then the joy too must cometo an end at some point, and the
cycle begins again, and that'swhen you enter your shavasana.
So I know that I've kind of gonethrough the postures in a
relatively speedy way, but I didwant to talk a little bit more
about how this relates to theidea of the idea of the cycle,
(20:46):
the idea of it is it is insertsituation here, right?
This cycle of life goes throughebbs and flows and situations
that are going to require you toa cultivate self-awareness, but
b start to understand your ownrole in in the cycle of
(21:08):
creation, and that thesesituations, if they find
themselves repeating for you,may very well have a lesson in
them that you need to completeand learn.
And then ideally, if that's thecase, you will come to that
final, you know, that big badboss in a video game or that
final exam at the end of yourstudies, where you you nail it
(21:29):
and you get to move on to thenext study or the next course or
the next you know stage in thevideo game of life, if you will.
And I think that the the endingsequence, and again, I should
preface that not all yogateachers end a class this way,
but it is I've certainly seen itmany times.
I think it's a relatively go-toum way to wind down.
(21:52):
And I believe that it mimicsthis idea of having like the
situation is the practice,right?
So I'm gonna build on thismetaphor.
The situation is the practice,and then the practice itself has
that aspect.
The situation itself is gonnacome to that very the
challenging part, right?
Like it it presents itself, yougo through it just like the
(22:13):
asana class, you hopefully tryto find balance and some balance
postures, you work through somecore, like there's work, there's
effort, every situation in life,whether it's work, whether it's
relationships, whether it'swhether it's you with yourself,
raising children, you know,every every kind of aspect of
our existences has these cyclesin them.
(22:34):
And and you don't necessarilyknow where you are in each cycle
as it as it comes to that, butyou are at a point, and then the
cycle renews.
And there are big cycles andsmall cycles, and you'll see
that this thread will runthrough, uh, this theme will run
through.
And so for the yoga aspect ofit, being able to honor and
(22:57):
acknowledge the release part andthe forgiveness part.
And I know that, you know, whenI first started with yoga, and I
know a lot of people who didstart, um, they start very type
A, and yoga is almost like aself-competition, right?
Where it's like, oh, I wanna forme, it was like I want to get my
heels down and downward-facingdog, right?
That was like a big thing forme.
Or I wanted this, you know, I Ihurt my shoulder trying to grab
(23:20):
my leg behind my head.
I got there, but I but it wasn'treally worth what I did, right?
Because I was young and I justwanted to do the pretty yoga
pose, right?
Um, and and as you, as with withwith age comes wisdom, one can
only hope, right?
Um, and so I no longer forcemyself into postures like that.
I know the consequences.
(23:40):
I've lived them firsthand.
And so giving yourself thatgrace and you know, that
forgiveness aspect of, you know,your body is never the same in
each yoga class through each,through each phase of life,
through each phase of a class,of a week, of a of a month.
I mean, we're women if we arestill experiencing our cycles,
you know, each yoga class everyweek, if you go every week, is
(24:02):
gonna feel different, right?
Your body's gonna be differentevery day.
And meaning yourself where youare and forgiving yourself for
not being the same body that youwere a week ago.
I remember, I think it was fromthe Disney movie Pocahontas,
where I think the quote is younever step in the same river
twice, right?
Well, your body is never thesame body twice.
(24:22):
It is a it is an evolution.
Um, and that's where thatself-forgiveness comes in.
And that that idea ofself-awareness has to come
first.
And I think the the difficultpostures in asana bring you to
that self-awareness.
Your limitations in asana, nomatter what they may be on any
given day, are ever changing,but just like that river, right?
They're ever-changing, but theyalso will bring you to that
(24:45):
self-awareness.
They'll smack you in the facewith it sometimes if you don't
listen.
Um, and then from thatself-awareness, ultimately you
have to reach acceptance andforgiveness, and then you can
release the expectation, releasethe attachment, um, and let the
energy that you've justcultivated move through you,
rebalance you, bring you joy,and bring you back to center,
(25:07):
bring you back to stasis andshavasana.
And so I know that I went prettypretty deep on that metaphor,
but I do believe that thatclosing sequence is is so thick
with meaning that we oftentimestake for granted, or that maybe,
maybe as a yoga nerd, quoteunquote, or yoga geek like I may
(25:29):
be, maybe it's just me uhovertaking things.
But I do believe that you knowart imitates life, right?
And yoga is, I believe, a formof art, a form of creativity
with the body.
Um much like a much much likeart that is impermanent, right?
There's art that is permanentthat we can appreciate and it
lasts long be long after thecreator, right?
(25:51):
And then there are there is artthat is beautiful for its
impermanence, like a sunset, um,and and is alive in beauty and
form in and of itself.
And I believe that your body,everybody's body, even if it's
not the societal standard ornorm, is beautiful and as
transient as the sunset.
And so I just want you to giveyourself that grace.
(26:14):
Um, meet yourself where you are,forgive yourself for, you know,
holding on to things that nolonger serve you.
Forgive yourself for, you know,beating yourself up when you
didn't get get on your Zoom torecord your podcast three weeks
or four weeks prior.
Give yourself the grace, nomatter what you are beating
yourself up for, no matter whatyou are, what expectation you
(26:37):
created for yourself that youare not meeting, let it go,
release it, forgive yourself forit, and and then come into happy
baby pose.
And I think that, you know, thataspect of remembering the joy is
so crucial for all of us becausewe forget and we get so hung up
(26:59):
and we get so caught up in ourown daily dramas and again the
the hard part of the cycle thatI think we oftentimes forget the
joy.
And we've we as much asforgiveness is important, as
much as you know we have theseexpectations and this drive and
this ambition potentially, maybewe don't, but for people that do
(27:21):
and that you know set theseimpossible standards, whether
they're beauty standards,whether they're physical
standards, whether they're uhachievement based with success
and finance or goal-based withschool and education, no matter
what the drive is, there stillhas to be joy, or what is the
point at the end of the day,right?
Um, so always remember that.
(27:42):
Always think of when you really,when you're really when you're
really getting stuck in it, whenyou're in the weeds, when you're
in the thick of it, think happybaby.
And if you have to, if you're ina place where and you if you're
in pants and you're in a placewhere you can comfortably sneak
into happy baby, just remindyourself, not only are you
grounding yourself in thatpractice, but just remind
(28:03):
yourself that what at one pointyou were a very happy baby on
the floor with not a care in theworld, and that you can be that
in a moment at any given pointin time, as long as it's safe.
I'm not telling you to do thisin the middle of a street, um,
but as long as you're in a safespace, um, if you need a
reminder, then you know whenthere is darkness, happy baby.
(28:30):
And on that note, I just want totell you how much I appreciate
each and every one of you forsharing this space with me and
ask that you please feel free toshare the same with your loved
ones.
For more goodness, follow me onall the socials at Above the
Ground Podcast or visit mywebsite, airsaboveyoga.com.
And as always, don't forget tocheck out my other episodes and
(28:51):
all of my amazing sisters atdivas that care.com.
You can find us on Spotify,Odyssey, Apple, Amazon,
iHeartRadio, or anywhere elsewhere you might feel guided.
Again, my name is Gia RaquelRose, owner of Airsabove Yoga,
and you are listening to Abovethe Ground Podcast, where every
day is a good one.
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
Thanks for listening.
This show was brought to you byDivas That Care.
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so you don't miss a thing.
It's Divas that Care Radio.
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Welcome to Divas That Care, anetwork of women committed to
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This is a global movement forwomen, by women, engaged in a
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(00:20):
To find out more about themovement, visit divasletcare.com
after the show.
Right now, though, stay tunedfor another jaunt of
inspiration.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
Namaste and welcome to the Divas That Care Network.
I'm your host, G.
Raquel Rose, owner of Airs AboveYoga, and you are listening to
Above the Ground Podcast.
If this is your first timetuning in, our network is in its
15th year and listened to inover 30 countries.
I want to personally thank youfor sharing the gift of your
(00:52):
time with me.
As always, it is my honor tohold space with you.
And as you may have noticed, Ihave taken a little bit of a
hiatus as some life things hadcome up in flux, we'll say in
flux, all about trying tomaintain balance and all good
things, nothing, nothing bad,but just taking some time to
make those adjustments, which Ithink we all need to give
(01:15):
ourselves that gift of grace,especially as we embark on the
holiday seasons, which areupcoming.
That being said, November seemsto be some sort of theme for
this podcast, and maybe for meat life in general, Scorpio
season, depending on it's myrising, depending on how you
want to look at it.
But what I want to touch on isthat I tried to launch this
(01:37):
podcast many years ago.
Well, not many, a couple ofyears ago now.
And then I took almost a yearhiatus.
And when I came back to it, itwas again in November.
Um, and now I had a much shorterhiatus uh because I really
wanted to make sure that Imaintained the commitment not
only to myself, but to anyonewho took the time and so
generously gave it to me andlistened and hopefully took some
(01:59):
benefit from the things that Ishare and speak about.
And so as we're coming backagain in November, third times
of charm is what I'm gonna say.
Um, and just talk a little bitabout this season of I'm gonna,
it's typically a season ofgratitude, right?
November is associated withThanksgiving for those of us in
(02:20):
the United States.
Um, and it's it's my favoriteholiday because it's um, well,
it's my favorite holiday morefor the food aspect.
I'll be completely honest withyou, uh, for someone who has
given up uh grain in mass, uhstuffing is my favorite
carbohydrate, my favorite guiltypleasure.
Um, and so the Thanksgivingtable has always been all of my
(02:40):
favorite foods and always justbrought, you know, happiness and
just being with family and beingwith friends and loved ones and
not necessarily, while I loveChristmas and whatever holidays
you may celebrate, that may notbe a part of my personal
routine, but that may share someparallels for any and all
denominations around that givingtime of year.
(03:01):
Uh, it does seem to take on alife of its own where it gets a
little bit more about the givingand the shopping and the
prepping, and a little bit lessabout the just being with the
ones that you love and enjoyingtime with them.
And so I've always likesgiving alittle bit better because it's a
little bit less pressure,focused on you know, food,
warmth, and family in my mind.
(03:22):
And then it all goes downhill onBlack Friday because I've always
I've always kind of abhorred thefact that um they they pirated
the idea of thanks to to sellwares at low prices to drive
people from their families intotheir wallets.
And that's just a personalsoapbox message that I will now
(03:42):
stand off.
Um, but to that end, talking alittle bit about forgiveness and
a little bit about um releasingand letting go.
And, you know, this as fate andluck and you know destiny would
have it, you know, when it comesto taking these brief hiatuses
and giving yourself you'reforgiving yourself, essentially,
right?
Um, and as this episode isdedicated to our asanas, I
(04:06):
wanted to talk about thesequence of postures that close
a practice.
Um, and every instructor isdifferent, every class is
different, different umalignments in yoga all can be
all can have differentvariations.
But the way that I was taughtand the way that I believe is a
(04:28):
lovely way to settle into yourmat as you start to enter
Shivasana.
I believe last time I broughtthis podcast back to life above
the ground, aptly named, um, itwas with Shivasana, it was
beginning at the end.
And so we're kind of doing thatagain a little bit
tongue-in-cheek, but this timetalking about the the the
forgiveness aspect and therelease aspect.
(04:49):
And um forgiveness of self is ahuge, huge theme, I think,
throughout not just yoga, butthe spiritual journey in and of
itself, because in essence, wetalk we can often find
difficulty forgiving others whohave potentially wronged us.
We can also often find ourselvesengaged in in anger, rage, hate,
(05:10):
all of these very negative, lowby lower vibrational emotions
that draw us into our ego andout of our upper, upper
connection or divine connectionto our highest self.
And and so having forgivenessultimately for another, but but
ultimately for yourself.
Um, sometimes it's harder toforgive yourself than to forgive
(05:32):
someone who wronged you,depending on the slight, uh,
right.
But just that idea of, you know,I knew that I had to take this
time and I didn't want to takethis time.
And for the past month, I'vekind of beat myself up for not
being able to get to this and toget to you.
And um saying on the phone tosomeone said, you know, I just I
have to give myself some grace.
(05:53):
I have to give myself somegrace.
And I think that in this seasonof gratitude, sometimes it's
easier to give yourself gracethan to forgive yourself.
And I think that that's a goodplace to start.
I think that that is going to bethe title of this episode, Give
Yourself Grace.
And I think that it's very, veryimportant when we talk about
(06:16):
releasing and letting go, whenyou go through an asana
practice, especially the morerigorous the practice, the more
challenging the practice, themore you need that time to go
from the kind of switching,switching eastern denominational
language, um, going from the yinto the yang, right?
Or the yang to the yin in thiscase, um, and going from that
(06:38):
masculine aspect of the heatedpostures and the the workout, if
you will, in air quotes, um, ofthe practice to the stillness of
the practice ultimately inShvasana.
And that transition is so, soimportant.
So we all know, you know, thatthat cue from the yoga
instructor to come back to yourmat, to come back to the floor,
to gracefully make your way downonto your mat.
(07:00):
Um, and it and you know, Idefinitely use the term
gracefully when I when I saythat, because sometimes it's a
flop, sometimes it's lessgraceful than you want it to be.
Sometimes you're exhausted andyou just fall onto your mat,
hopefully not out of a balancedposture, but you just, you know,
you let go and it's not pretty.
Um and oftentimes theforgiveness and letting go is
not necessarily pretty.
It can be an ugly, uglytransition when you have to face
(07:23):
yourself and the part ofyourself that maybe you, your
shadow side, that part that youdon't love or that part that
deserves love, I should say,even more than what you choose
to withhold from it.
And so when you do decide tocome back down onto your mat,
there is a somewhat, I'll callit a somewhat traditional
sequence, but the sequence thatI always kind of go through in
(07:45):
some variation of itself beginswith the bridge pose.
And it's a heart opener and it'sa hip opener.
And I know I've talked about itat length before, so we're not
going to go into too much detailother than it is a laying down
posture where you put pressureon the upper shoulders and neck
(08:08):
area and the back of the head.
So you do want to be mindful.
I've always said with a neckinjury, when you're in bridge
pose, you want to make very,very sure that you don't start
to roll your head side to sideonce you elevate your hips.
Um, you know, a lot of peopleare familiar with it from like a
gym mentality or a workoutmentality of a glute upper press
kind of a situation.
But essentially, you can do arestorative bridge where you
(08:29):
rest your hips and your pelvis,your sacrum technically on top
of a block or some stacked abolster potentially or stacked
blocks.
Um, and the idea here is thatafter you've gone through the
practice, this begins to bringthat blood flow up towards your
head.
And for people that don't have ashoulder stand practice,
(08:50):
traditionally in some,especially vinyasa classes,
shoulder stand is practiced atthe end of the class, and it is
it is just before bridge,generally speaking.
Um I suppose you could go viceversa and prepare for shoulder
stand by doing bridge.
Um, that is another way to goabout it because some people
have have that prep work, um,but I don't practice shoulder
(09:13):
stand anymore due to my neckinjury, and I certainly don't
lead a class into shoulderstand.
So I just want to acknowledgeshoulder stand for the wonderful
pose that it is.
It used to be one of my favoritepostures pre-cervical vertebrae
injury.
Um, but for now I'm going to usebridge posture as the as it as
the as the posture that umreplaces uh shoulder stand for
(09:38):
anyone who's coming out of theirout of their challenging aspect
of the practice and into thatsubtle restorative releasing
aspect.
So bridge does a couple things.
Again, it opens our heart, itopens our hips.
So that opens all of thoseplaces where we hang on to
things, especially for women.
And again, I won't, I won't,we're not talking gender, but
for the female body, carryingthings in our heart, we tend to
(09:59):
round our shoulders, we tend totend to hunch over our hips if
we carry tension or tightness,or we've had any sort of
unfortunate, but has to be saidsexual traumas, we store those
in our sacrum, um, in our solarjust below our solar plexus in
our sacral chakra area, which isjust you know in the pelvic
bowl.
And so getting that area openand free, opening your heart
(10:20):
center, that is a way to startto release.
Um, and you may find people thatyou know have experience of
emotional release if they're newto the practice and they find
themselves in in that it is avulnerable position, right?
Um we are on we are extendingour bellies up towards the sky,
our pelvis up towards the sky.
(10:40):
And when you come out of bridge,you want to make sure that you
gently roll down vertebrae byvertebrae to the best of your
ability, and then ending gentlyon the sacrum and tailbone.
So knees for this posture arestacked over the heels, and a
lot of times people bring theirheels too close into their
buttocks.
So make sure that you keep yourheels out a little bit so that
(11:00):
you have that lovely angle ofknee over angle.
Um, and then just on the we'regoing backwards again.
So when you raise up into it,you draw the lower abdominals
and engage the inner thighstowards each other and press
those hips up towards theceiling.
You can roll the shoulders open,extend the arms, and interlace
the fingers underneath your hipsif you have the mobility in your
shoulders, or you can just allowyour shoulders to tuck under or
(11:22):
ground into the floor, pressingthe palms down for a little bit
of extra stability and support.
There are lots of variations tothis posture, but it is
generally one of the go-totransitions between being
upright and coming down ontoyour mat.
When you finish exiting frombridge posture, what I generally
like to do is having that harpopener.
(11:45):
And again, the same counterpointto shoulder stand is fish pose.
And we've talked about fish poseas well.
But fish pose again, heartopener, throat chakra opener.
So when we're talking aboutreleasing, while you are able
always to release things fromyour body, your body will store
the trauma and tension, but youare always able to use the body
to release that stored traumaintention as well.
(12:07):
Sometimes it needs to come fromthe voice, sometimes you need to
air your release, sometimes youneed to, even if it's not to the
other person, even if it's toyou, even if it's to yourself,
you just need to say it, speakit out loud and let it go that
way.
And so fish pose will bewonderful to open that throat
chakra and really open throughthe neck, open through the
(12:27):
shoulders, and kind of is thecounterpose for the bridge
posture.
And so for fish pose, you takeyour, I prefer, there are a
couple ways to do it.
You can press your elbows in atyour sides.
And again, I've gone reallyin-depth for these postures
before, so I'm not gonna gosuper down the rabbit hole, but
you can bring your elbows intoyour sides, pressing them right
(12:48):
at the base of the rib cage andlengthening up through the heart
center.
Fingertips can point up towardsthe sky, and then you just
lengthen.
Same thing as bridge.
You can place a block betweenthe shoulder blades or a
bolster.
Blocks can be a little bitsquare into the sides of the
shoulder blades there.
You just want to make sure thatyou don't feel any tension in
your head or neck as you pivotup through the chin and rest
(13:10):
just the crown of the head onthe mat.
To make it a little more active,you can also take the palms of
the hands to the floorunderneath the tailbone,
creating this diamond shape thatI've that I've put on the screen
for those of you who are notwatching, and tuck that diamond
just around your tailbone, drawthe lower abdominals in and
gently lift the legs.
So that's going to take you alittle more back and a little
(13:32):
bit more into the yang aspect.
And so for a restorative bridge,you can just open through the
heart center, lengthen throughthe chest, release open through
that throat chakra, and begin tolet some of that blockage flow
freely.
Um I think it's very, veryimportant always, and especially
when you're thinking aboutbringing energy from bridge pose
(13:54):
through the upper chakras.
Literally, it's coming onthrough the legs.
It's coming, you've done thisstanding practice, right?
You've done the seated practice,all that energy, all that
strength that you're building upin your legs, you're bringing
that energy from your legs downthrough your pelvic bowl,
through the body, through thetorso, and then into the heart
space and into the shoulders.
And when you go from bridge tofish pose, you're then allowing
(14:17):
that same energy to track allthe way up through the throat
and then reconnect back with theearth through the crown of the
head.
So the two postures from anenergetic physical perspective,
and I know I said energeticphysical, but I meant exactly
what I said.
Um, even though it's a physicalrelease, there's energy flowing
through your body, and thatconnection back to the earth
through the mat, through thecrown of the head kind of brings
(14:38):
it all full circle.
And if we're talking aboutforgiveness, release, closer,
and moving on, what is it if notif not a circle or a cycle of
life?
So from the bridge, I'm sorry,from the fish posture, when
you're coming out of it, you doneed to lift up through the
crown of the head, tuck the chinin gently, and make sure that
you press into the elbows,release the hands if you've had
(14:58):
them underneath, but make surethat you're really pressing up
and so that you have protectionthrough the back of the neck as
you come back to that neutralposition on the mat laying flat
on your back.
From there, everyone's favoritethe crowd pleaser, recline
spinal twist.
And there are so many variationsof reclined spinal twist.
Um, and I often practicereclined spinal twists as a
(15:19):
warm-up as well.
Um, but the general the generalrule of thumb there is to have
the spine in alignment, which alot of people look more like a C
from the yoga instructor'sperspective when they practice
reclined spinal twists.
So make sure that you do havethe idea of bringing the knees
to one side of the mat and thehips to the opposite side.
(15:41):
It's a good way to kind ofposition.
And the little cue that I liketo give is whichever direction
your knees are facing, lift upthat shoulder and draw it over a
little bit in the direction ofthe knees.
That generally tends tostraighten the spine out a
little bit.
And then from there, whetheryour knees are stacked, whether
you have one extended down, oneleg extended down, one leg
(16:02):
extended perpendicular, whetheryou have one foot on a thigh and
you're grabbing to get a littlebit of extra through the IT
band.
There's so many variationsthrough the legs here that I may
focus the yoga video on thisspecifically to or towards that
uh recline spinal twist legvariation aspect because there's
so many fun ways that you can dothat, and they target different
(16:24):
areas of the lower back, and youcan that generally get a nice
happy, happy crack, if you will,again with the air quotes when
you're in a reclined spinaltwist.
The nice thing is to then rollopen, breathe through the upper
body and chest, really come fromthat expansive place.
And I think that that is um abeautiful way to again, I always
talk about twisting as wringingout the towel, right?
(16:46):
Like you're you're and I that'snot I did not coin that.
I believe it was my yogainstructor, Stephanie Papas,
that did that did give us thatkind of wringing out the body
sensation when we're talkingabout twisting of any kind.
But with reclined spinal twist,again, we're talking about that
energy that we've createdthroughout a practice.
And I think that as you comeinto that recline spinal twist
(17:08):
from the two prostors, we'retalking about that reconnection
of the energy from the floorthrough the feet up through the
crown of the head, throughbridge and fish.
And if you talk about the ideaof ringing it out, for me, it's
almost as the recline spinaltwist begins to disperse the
energy throughout the body.
So we've brought, we've heatedit, we've created it through the
(17:28):
asana practice.
We come down onto the mat and weneed to, we've we we're filled
with it.
So we need to direct it,essentially, is how I like to
look at this closing sequence.
And so directing it from thelegs up through the crown of the
head, bring the energy upthrough your chakras.
Then from there, as you twistit, you're beginning to
(17:51):
rebalance it through your chakrasystem, disperse it laterally
from side to side, back throughthe legs, and in a balanced and
even way that starts to bring itfrom that heated energy into a
cooler, more unified energy thatyour body can kind of then
absorb better and take thegoodness from better.
(18:14):
And again, twists always releasetoxins, so there's an element of
that that moves through it aswell.
But think of it as a rebalance.
And so obviously, what goes upmust come down.
What you do in one direction inyoga, you must do in the other.
Bridge and fish are both uhsymmetrical, uh kind of parallel
front to back, if you will,whereas your reclined spinal
(18:36):
twist is side to side orlateral, so you do need to swap
from one side to the next.
And then finally, the crowdpleaser for many, and one of the
least favorite for people who donot like to be super vulnerable,
happy baby pose.
So after recline spinal twistand before Shivasana, spoiler
alert, I always come into happybaby pose.
(18:57):
And for those who areunfamiliar, happy baby pose is
where you are in the middle ofyour mat, spine completely in
contact with the floor, with youknow, as as less of a curve of
the lower back in contact withthe floor as you can manage
comfortably.
And then you draw your kneesinto the chest and then bring
your knees out towards yourarmpits.
(19:17):
Soles of the feet, knees are ata 90-degree angle, and the soles
of the feet are kind of walkingon the ceiling, and then you're
grabbing the backs of thethighs, the ankles, the big
toes, um, whichever iscomfortable for you when rocking
side to side.
And this is probably, you know,it's it's a it's a crowd
pleaser, it's a yoga, yoga classfavorite.
And again, this kind of justcelebrates all of that hard work
(19:39):
that you just did.
Um, it's a deep, deep hamstringopener, and it all everybody
knows what it mimics why it'saptly named the happy baby
posture.
Every note, everybody has animage in their mind of a baby
kind of rocking side to side,grabbing their feet.
Um, and it just kind of bringsthat whole cycle full circle, I
think, um, where you're comingback to the joy and reminding
(20:01):
yourself at the end of thatcycle of forgiveness, of
closure, of moving on, and ofrelease, there is joy.
Hopefully, hopefully, that cyclehas to have joy.
And I believe that happy baby isthe yoga asana that brings you
from the effort to the release,to the transmutation and that
twist of the energy, and theninto the joy.
(20:24):
And then the joy too must cometo an end at some point, and the
cycle begins again, and that'swhen you enter your shavasana.
So I know that I've kind of gonethrough the postures in a
relatively speedy way, but I didwant to talk a little bit more
about how this relates to theidea of the idea of the cycle,
(20:46):
the idea of it is it is insertsituation here, right?
This cycle of life goes throughebbs and flows and situations
that are going to require you toa cultivate self-awareness, but
b start to understand your ownrole in in the cycle of
(21:08):
creation, and that thesesituations, if they find
themselves repeating for you,may very well have a lesson in
them that you need to completeand learn.
And then ideally, if that's thecase, you will come to that
final, you know, that big badboss in a video game or that
final exam at the end of yourstudies, where you you nail it
(21:29):
and you get to move on to thenext study or the next course or
the next you know stage in thevideo game of life, if you will.
And I think that the the endingsequence, and again, I should
preface that not all yogateachers end a class this way,
but it is I've certainly seen itmany times.
I think it's a relatively go-toum way to wind down.
(21:52):
And I believe that it mimicsthis idea of having like the
situation is the practice,right?
So I'm gonna build on thismetaphor.
The situation is the practice,and then the practice itself has
that aspect.
The situation itself is gonnacome to that very the
challenging part, right?
Like it it presents itself, yougo through it just like the
(22:13):
asana class, you hopefully tryto find balance and some balance
postures, you work through somecore, like there's work, there's
effort, every situation in life,whether it's work, whether it's
relationships, whether it'swhether it's you with yourself,
raising children, you know,every every kind of aspect of
our existences has these cyclesin them.
(22:34):
And and you don't necessarilyknow where you are in each cycle
as it as it comes to that, butyou are at a point, and then the
cycle renews.
And there are big cycles andsmall cycles, and you'll see
that this thread will runthrough, uh, this theme will run
through.
And so for the yoga aspect ofit, being able to honor and
(22:57):
acknowledge the release part andthe forgiveness part.
And I know that, you know, whenI first started with yoga, and I
know a lot of people who didstart, um, they start very type
A, and yoga is almost like aself-competition, right?
Where it's like, oh, I wanna forme, it was like I want to get my
heels down and downward-facingdog, right?
That was like a big thing forme.
Or I wanted this, you know, I Ihurt my shoulder trying to grab
(23:20):
my leg behind my head.
I got there, but I but it wasn'treally worth what I did, right?
Because I was young and I justwanted to do the pretty yoga
pose, right?
Um, and and as you, as with withwith age comes wisdom, one can
only hope, right?
Um, and so I no longer forcemyself into postures like that.
I know the consequences.
(23:40):
I've lived them firsthand.
And so giving yourself thatgrace and you know, that
forgiveness aspect of, you know,your body is never the same in
each yoga class through each,through each phase of life,
through each phase of a class,of a week, of a of a month.
I mean, we're women if we arestill experiencing our cycles,
you know, each yoga class everyweek, if you go every week, is
(24:02):
gonna feel different, right?
Your body's gonna be differentevery day.
And meaning yourself where youare and forgiving yourself for
not being the same body that youwere a week ago.
I remember, I think it was fromthe Disney movie Pocahontas,
where I think the quote is younever step in the same river
twice, right?
Well, your body is never thesame body twice.
(24:22):
It is a it is an evolution.
Um, and that's where thatself-forgiveness comes in.
And that that idea ofself-awareness has to come
first.
And I think the the difficultpostures in asana bring you to
that self-awareness.
Your limitations in asana, nomatter what they may be on any
given day, are ever changing,but just like that river, right?
They're ever-changing, but theyalso will bring you to that
(24:45):
self-awareness.
They'll smack you in the facewith it sometimes if you don't
listen.
Um, and then from thatself-awareness, ultimately you
have to reach acceptance andforgiveness, and then you can
release the expectation, releasethe attachment, um, and let the
energy that you've justcultivated move through you,
rebalance you, bring you joy,and bring you back to center,
(25:07):
bring you back to stasis andshavasana.
And so I know that I went prettypretty deep on that metaphor,
but I do believe that thatclosing sequence is is so thick
with meaning that we oftentimestake for granted, or that maybe,
maybe as a yoga nerd, quoteunquote, or yoga geek like I may
(25:29):
be, maybe it's just me uhovertaking things.
But I do believe that you knowart imitates life, right?
And yoga is, I believe, a formof art, a form of creativity
with the body.
Um much like a much much likeart that is impermanent, right?
There's art that is permanentthat we can appreciate and it
lasts long be long after thecreator, right?
(25:51):
And then there are there is artthat is beautiful for its
impermanence, like a sunset, um,and and is alive in beauty and
form in and of itself.
And I believe that your body,everybody's body, even if it's
not the societal standard ornorm, is beautiful and as
transient as the sunset.
And so I just want you to giveyourself that grace.
(26:14):
Um, meet yourself where you are,forgive yourself for, you know,
holding on to things that nolonger serve you.
Forgive yourself for, you know,beating yourself up when you
didn't get get on your Zoom torecord your podcast three weeks
or four weeks prior.
Give yourself the grace, nomatter what you are beating
yourself up for, no matter whatyou are, what expectation you
(26:37):
created for yourself that youare not meeting, let it go,
release it, forgive yourself forit, and and then come into happy
baby pose.
And I think that, you know, thataspect of remembering the joy is
so crucial for all of us becausewe forget and we get so hung up
(26:59):
and we get so caught up in ourown daily dramas and again the
the hard part of the cycle thatI think we oftentimes forget the
joy.
And we've we as much asforgiveness is important, as
much as you know we have theseexpectations and this drive and
this ambition potentially, maybewe don't, but for people that do
(27:21):
and that you know set theseimpossible standards, whether
they're beauty standards,whether they're physical
standards, whether they're uhachievement based with success
and finance or goal-based withschool and education, no matter
what the drive is, there stillhas to be joy, or what is the
point at the end of the day,right?
Um, so always remember that.
(27:42):
Always think of when you really,when you're really when you're
really getting stuck in it, whenyou're in the weeds, when you're
in the thick of it, think happybaby.
And if you have to, if you're ina place where and you if you're
in pants and you're in a placewhere you can comfortably sneak
into happy baby, just remindyourself, not only are you
grounding yourself in thatpractice, but just remind
(28:03):
yourself that what at one pointyou were a very happy baby on
the floor with not a care in theworld, and that you can be that
in a moment at any given pointin time, as long as it's safe.
I'm not telling you to do thisin the middle of a street, um,
but as long as you're in a safespace, um, if you need a
reminder, then you know whenthere is darkness, happy baby.
(28:30):
And on that note, I just want totell you how much I appreciate
each and every one of you forsharing this space with me and
ask that you please feel free toshare the same with your loved
ones.
For more goodness, follow me onall the socials at Above the
Ground Podcast or visit mywebsite, airsaboveyoga.com.
And as always, don't forget tocheck out my other episodes and
(28:51):
all of my amazing sisters atdivas that care.com.
You can find us on Spotify,Odyssey, Apple, Amazon,
iHeartRadio, or anywhere elsewhere you might feel guided.
Again, my name is Gia RaquelRose, owner of Airsabove Yoga,
and you are listening to Abovethe Ground Podcast, where every
day is a good one.
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
Thanks for listening.
This show was brought to you byDivas That Care.
Connect with us on Facebook, onInstagram, and of course on
divas that care.com, where youcan subscribe to our newsletter
so you don't miss a thing.
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