How Yoga Changes Your Life

The power of breath, a simple yet transformative element of yoga. This episode of Better Wellness brings you the wisdom of David Delrahim, a wellness visionary who has journeyed deep into the heart of yoga, not just as a physical exercise, but as a profound path to unite body, mind, and soul. David shares the ancient origins of yoga and explains how it's so much more than the poses—it's a practice for life, aiming to achieve self-realization, liberation, and mindfulness.

With host, Roland Perez, David recounts the personal transformation that led him to explore his untapped potential. Join us as David unfolds the story of how yoga transcends the mat, bringing about a sense of freedom and balance that permeates every hour of the day. If you're feeling called to a practice that nourishes every part of your being, let David's journey inspire you to roll out your mat and begin with that first, life-changing breath.

From the producers of PBS's American Health Journal and Innovations in Medicine. Thank you for listening to Better Wellness.

Episode Transcript

Roland Perez (00:04):
Welcome to Better Wellness.
I'm your host, Roland Perez,and we're listening to a podcast
that explores the newestinnovations in true wellness.
As the executive producer ofthe American Health Journal for
more than 25 years, I'veproduced over 500 30-minute
award-winning television showsthat air nationally on PBS with
an audience of over 100 millionviewers.

(00:26):
But Better Wellness is morethan all that not only keeping
your body healthy, butdeveloping a mindset and balance
that prevents illness.
Our guests are experiencedexperts from all over the world
on staying healthy, young andwell.
Our guest for this edition ofBetter Wellness is David

(00:47):
Delrahim, a wellness expert,noted visionary in the area of
wellness.
David has incorporated yogainto his daily wellness regimen
for years and he's going to tellus all the different aspects of
yoga.
So, david, what is yoga?
Let's talk about yoga and let'sstart with the meaning of yoga.

(01:07):
I believe the meaning says itall is to unite.
Uniting the body and mind andthe soul is the unification that
happens.
What we are doing right now, aswe call it yoga.
It is not yoga it's a yogapractice big difference.

(01:32):
But the whole yoga goes backthousands of years ago from
ancient India.
Sarjee Patanjali wrote a bookthat wanted to define what the
core principle of yoga and theyoga practices, and it's in

(01:56):
three different parts.
He said that the yoga is aboutthe journey inward, getting to
our own truth throughself-realization, which is the
harmonization of our body, mindand soul that comes from

(02:21):
balancing.
Number two is liberation, Oneis breaking through the
limitations of life and thethird one is the mindfulness
being present.
So that is the core principleof the yoga.

(02:41):
Why do we call it yoga practice?
Because for one hour we get onthe mat, small real estate and
we practice all of those threethings that I just explained.
We're trying to get better atit.
We practice it, so when weleave the mat we can go ahead

(03:05):
and do it, Exercise the wholething through the other 23 hours
of our day.
Mindfulness, that liberation,that self-realization, all of
these things.
When you get up and roll up your mat after

(03:27):
you've done yoga, what do youget out of it as you continue
the rest of your day?

David Delrahim (03:33):
In this small real estate of mat, there is no
judgment.
You're not judging yourself.
You're moving freely, youbreathe easier, you bring oxygen
, as we say it, but in yoga wecall it prana, which is the life

(03:56):
force that you're bringing in.
I remember my first yogateacher.
We practiced yoga on the matfor eight years and when he came
to the breathing, I always saidthat I'm bringing light into my

(04:18):
body and by closing my eyes andreally connecting with light
and breathing the light insidethe body, I would feel relieved,
rejuvenated and liberated.
So we're taking that and we gothrough the day, but we know

(04:46):
that we are on the yoga mat allthe time.

Roland Perez (04:52):
David, how do I get started?
I really want that kind ofpeace of mind that you get.
I want that, but where do Istart?

David Delrahim (05:01):
Let me share with you how I got turned into
yoga and how I started.
I had a therapist that you know.
She would work on my body everyweek because I had an enormous
amount of pain in my shoulders,upper back and my neck, and when

(05:22):
she would work on my body Iwould feel great for a day.
And after that back to the samething.
And she said David, you need todo yoga if you want to help
yourself, if you want to helpwith your back problem and neck
problem.
And of course you know I hadthis severe challenge with my

(05:43):
posture and I said sure.
So I called in and I startedwith my first teacher the first
session.
She said sit down and I wantyou to breathe, just breathe,
I'm breathing.
And after a few breaths shesaid do you know that you're

(06:08):
only utilizing your lungs forabout maybe 30% of its capacity?
I said that's it.
She said that's it.
So she said your body is reallysuffering for lack of oxygen
because you're not bringing alot of oxygen in and you're not
exhaling the CO2.

(06:29):
So your body is not optimized.
I said so what are we going todo?
She said begin to start bylearning how to breathe.
So that for two weeks that'sall we did.
You know it was two sessions aweek.
So for four sessions she justtaught me about how to be

(06:54):
mindful about breathing.
Then she said let's startmoving our body.
And then we always finishedwith the meditations.
So she taught me how to breathe, she stretched my body, she

(07:14):
started building my musclesstrength, and then it was the
mind that she was teaching mehow to control through
meditations.
And within a few months I trulybelieve that I tapped into the

(07:35):
best thing in my life.
Now my breathing has gottenbetter, I'm sharper, I have more
clarity just because moreoxygen and I'm breathing out my
CO2s.
And as I'm stretching, within afew months I literally found

(07:57):
out that I probably gained abouta couple of inches in height.
I was straight and then my mindgot much calmer.
So you see, it is more thanjust a stretch.
It's perhaps the body stretch,it's the mind stretch and

(08:19):
calming and the connectivitythat I started really realizing
and practicing with my soul andspirituality.

Roland Perez (08:33):
You know, I've been thinking, David when can
you start doing yoga?
What age and how old can you beand still continue doing yoga?

David Delrahim (08:42):
I believe you can start at any time.
It's never too late.
It's just it's never too lateto go after self-realization.
It's never too late toexperience liberation.
It's never too late toexperience mindfulness.

Roland Perez (09:06):
There are yoga classes everywhere the city,
special organizations.
You can google it.
Where's the nearest place to doyoga?

David Delrahim (09:16):
Yoga has become a huge component of wellness.
In many of the hotels that youcheck in nowadays now they have
you, they're offering yogaclasses, or maybe you even find
a yoga match in your room, sothey are definitely connecting

(09:37):
yoga to wellness.
I wish we would go back to theprinciple, the original
principles of the yoga, based onthose three things that I
mentioned Self-realizations,liberations and mindfulness.

(09:59):
And the body movement isessential, but calming the mind
is as essential.
Of course, we have a lot ofdifferent variations of yogas in
modern time and there are a lotof different options of yoga,

(10:23):
but I'm hoping that, no matterwhat, we do not steer away from
the core principles of yoga.

Roland Perez (10:32):
What does yoga physically do to your body,
David?
What transformation happens?
I understand the mind, but whatabout the body?

David Delrahim (10:43):
The transformation of the body
through yoga movement isprofound Better movement, your
joints, the muscles, they getstretched and, which is very
important because as we age themuscles are getting shorter and

(11:05):
shorter and, before we know it,we have no movement.
One of my great memories fromreally receiving the benefit of
yoga I was traveling on a planeand I had a window seat and
there were two other people tomy left and I wanted to use the

(11:30):
restroom and they were sleepingand I didn't want to wake them
up and I didn't want tointerrupt their sleeping, so
just wanted to see whether I canspread my legs to go over these
two without touching them.
And I did.
And then I stood up and I saidwow.

(11:53):
And when I came back to my seatthey were away.
They said when did you leave?
I said well, that was like 10minutes ago.
I said well, how did you?
I said that's yoga.

Roland Perez (12:08):
What's interesting to me is the diversity of
people who practice yoga, likecelebrities, engineers, just
about everyone.
They're all different types,different races, different
genders, but they're all broughttogether on the mat.

David Delrahim (12:24):
Absolutely.
Yoga means to unite.
Yoga is not only your body,mind and soul, but it's to unite
with your fellow human beingsin the same space, and I have
been part of a group that we hada teenager all the way to 80,

(12:49):
85 year old gentleman, and Ibelieve yoga belongs to everyone
.
I find that to be absolutelyessential, for me at least.
I've been doing it for 10 years, even when I'm traveling.

(13:10):
If I cannot find a class, Imake sure I would do it at least
half an hour a day and it helpsme especially during traveling
with the stress with the bodystress with the mind stress,
with the potential lower backissues, because sitting all the

(13:31):
time the knee issues.
It's just a way of life.
Yoga is a way of life.

Roland Perez (13:38):
You mentioned doing it in classes with a lot
of different, diverse types ofpeople, and also you've
mentioned it doing alone in yourhotel room.
Absolutely Do you get more outof it alone than you do with the
class.
Is there a different aura aboutit when you're doing it with
other people or that you'redoing it alone?

David Delrahim (13:58):
I believe it is all up to you.
Where do you find yourself tobe and how calm your mind is.

Roland Perez (14:05):
How does yoga help your quality of life?

David Delrahim (14:10):
By being connected to yourself and being
mindful, you're a calmer person.
You have more gratitude for allthe blessings around you
because you get to see it.
It is there either way, butwith calmer mind and mindfulness

(14:31):
, you get to see it, you get toenjoy it and you have gratitude.

Roland Perez (14:38):
How does yoga help with healing?
And I'm thinking that you meantthe healing of the mind and the
healing of the body, or did youmean just the healing of the
body?

David Delrahim (14:48):
When I'm talking about the healing, I'm looking
at the healing on 360 degrees,all of it the mind, emotions,
energy and spirit.
Our mind drives our emotionsand or vice versa, which one

(15:11):
comes first, I believe, is themind that creates the emotions.
So, by having that imbalanceand stretching our body and
breathing, bringing more pranainto our body, and meditating

(15:32):
and doing that, cleansing, it isa healing exercise.
Now, if you really want toenjoy it, you just have to
follow that exercise that youjust did.
You know, talking in a healingway, thinking in a healing way,

(15:53):
you're creating it for yourself.
Nobody else is doing it.
So again, just thinking in ahealing way, talking in a
healing way, expressing in ahealing way.

Roland Perez (16:12):
And maybe this is the big question how has yoga
changed your life, David?

David Delrahim (16:18):
Yoga has changed my life in a very profound way.
I believe the change that theyexperience.
After doing yoga, I realizedthat I'm striving for alignment.
Alignment is the key word inyoga.
Yes, I was doing, I was goingto the gym before all right, I

(16:39):
was doing meditations, but Ididn't have the alignment.
Yoga helped me structureeverything that I was doing,
putting order to everything thatI was doing, and create an
alignment, and the alignment is,of course, with the body you
know the posture all right.

(16:59):
With the mind, calming it down,all right.
Create an alignment.
It's about balance.
Yoga created balance, or taughtme how to strive to creating
balance in my life.
Now it's become part of yourlife.
Wellness is a lifestyle.

(17:22):
If yoga is a component of wellness, guess
what Yoga is a lifestyle, youknow.
But once you start doing it andyou see the benefit of it,
you're at the point of no return.
You cannot go back to the oldhabits of not doing it.
You know what?
Because the liberation that youwould experience through yoga

(17:48):
practice is profound.
You know what?
Once you experience liberation,you cannot go back to the chain
.

Roland Perez (18:00):
The way to break the chain is with yoga.

David Delrahim (18:03):
You recognize the chain.
You owe it to yourself to breakaway from it and find
liberation.

Roland Perez (18:11):
Do yoga.
Thank you, David, and I hope wecan make yoga a part of
everybody's wellness journey.
And remember Better Wellness isavailable just about everywhere
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So once again, thanks forsupporting Better Wellness.
I'm your host, Roland Perez.
See you next time.