February 22, 2025 • 44 mins
SHOW #77! Season 3, Episode 8: Welcome to the disSOLViNG fear podcast!
IN THIS EPISODE, I talk with Jurian Hughes, international retreat leader at jurianhughes.com
Jurian is offering a ton of upcoming 2025 yoga retreats in Switzerland, Mexico, Kenya, Scotland, and Italy! Jurian is a yoga teacher, a "let your yoga dance" facilitator, and a very active retreat leader in amazing places all over the world.
We talk about being adaptable in these modern times we live in. We also talk about being entrepreneurial and finding joy in life's challenges, as the world changes and as we evolve and grow personally.
Tune into stories about how Jurian discovered yoga, and the importance of retreats, "staycations" and new hobbies and routines! We chat about ways to stay flexible (versus stuck) and cultivate a growth mindset (versus a stuck, fixed outlook on life).
When it comes to getting comfortable with discomfort, change, and innovation, Jurian is an expert. She shares stories about starting projects from scratch even when they were new and messy, and how eventually our new pursuits become second nature after a while!
Share this podcast with anyone who is curious about
- yoga
- chakras
- doing new things
- breathing practices
- facing fear and doubt
- changing their life and trying new adventures
Learn about the Chakras and Kripalu Yoga Center
Learn More about Jurian Hughes and her retreats and online classes at
Subscribe to the monthly newsletter and receive exclusive invitations to free monthly Zoom Group life coaching! You can also schedule 1:1 coaching focused solely on you and your personal growth.
Thank you for being HERE at disSOLViNG fear.
Fear doesn't run the show, YOU do!
Much Love, Alissa
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you have big dreams and plansbut you get distracted by fear
and doubt, TuneIn because we canall live a more fearless and
free life starting today. Fear doesn't run the show.
You do, and fear doesn't run this show.
Welcome to the Dissolving Fear podcast.
I'm your host Alyssa, and I'm a high school teacher, life poach,
(00:21):
and inspirational speaker. I love sharing inspiring guest
interviews and helpful tools that can help us all release
anxiety and enjoy our lives. Follow this podcast.
You'll love the results. Loving life is what we're all
about here on the podcast and atmissalyssa.com.
Enjoy the show. So Jurian Hughes, welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast. Thank you, Miss Alyssa.
You're 1 adventurous yoga teacher, retreat leader, writer,
and you just came back from a yoga retreat in the Galapagos
Islands. I'll let you talk about it.
I can mention where you're goinglike Switzerland, Mexico, Kenya,
Scotland, Italy for yoga and dance retreats and always at
(01:10):
Kapala Yoga Center in one of my favorite places on earth,
Lennox, Massachusetts, Agrapala Yoga Center.
But tell us a little bit about yourself.
And thank you so much for takingthe time to interview today.
It's an honor to have you here. Oh, it's a pleasure.
Thank you for the invitation. You know what's better than
talking about what you love withsomebody else that loves what
(01:32):
you love for a little bit? I feel incredibly lucky to,
after many years of challenge, to have found my way to creating
a life that feels so much largely made-up of stuff that I
really love to do, and that is yoga and dance.
(01:56):
That's working with the voice, that's using play and using all
sorts of tools of Wellness to really help people feel, as you
said, more alive, loving their, loving their lives, practicing
self-care, thriving. And that's what I do in all of
(02:17):
my retreats. Yeah, it really does seem like
you are living your dreams rightnow.
Do you want to tell us anything about your journey through life
and how you ended up traveling, teaching yoga for a living and
really living your best life andsharing your talents and yoga
classes all over the world? Sure, I'd love to.
(02:40):
I spent the first half of my life, a large piece of my life
dedicated to another calling, which was to be a theatre
actress. And that really that calling ran
the show for decades. And then there came a time
around the age of 40 that I justfelt like, wow, I think I'm done
(03:03):
with that. I had no idea what was next.
I just knew that I was done withthat chapter and I entered this
kind of void time. And in that void time, which was
painful and confusing, I found Kripalu.
And I found myself there one weekend about 20 years ago,
(03:29):
dancing, doing yoga, crying a lot through the weekend,
laughing a lot. And then I went home and I told
my friends about it. Next thing I knew, I had signed
up for my Let Your Yoga dance teacher training, then my yoga
teacher training. And then I had signed up to be a
volunteer, a yoga intern for twoyears, living in the building.
(03:55):
And it was, it meant me leaving the most lucrative job I'd ever
had in my life, which was also one of the least happy making
jobs I'd ever had in my life. I was doing high stress
corporate producing, event producing.
And yeah, I found myself in thiswhole new life felt like a very
(04:21):
impractical decision, but also an absolutely essential right
decision. And that was a really
interesting place to be at 40, you know, as someone who grew up
really concerned about what willpeople think, what will my
(04:42):
parents think of the fact that, oh, my God, I had this wonderful
college education and I'm at theage of 40, I'm going to go be a
yoga teacher in the Berkshires. And yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't
necessarily, like I said, the most practical at first glance,
but I just kept following that inner guide about what's right
(05:07):
and what makes me happy. And after many years, I feel
like I have found my way to a a place where I'm really thriving
and I'm actually able to back off of the pieces that don't
feel as joyous. I'm doing a little less work at
(05:28):
this point in time and that's amazing.
That's awesome. You know, I assumed that you had
been teaching yoga since you were 20 or 30, and you can start
anything at any point in your life.
You started teaching yoga at 40 and now you've been doing it for
20 years. When I did my yoga teacher
(05:50):
training at Kripalo, it was 2005and I think you were there.
You must have been new though onstaff.
I think yeah, I I probably had just arrived.
Wow. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I loved your latest newsletter.
It was like, is it survival of the fittest or the survival of
(06:11):
the most joyful? Survival of the joyous, yeah.
And that really spoke to a realization that I had when I
was in Galapagos recently, leading a couple of retreats and
reading of hearing about Darwin,who said survival of a species
(06:35):
is not the the species that survive are not the strongest or
the most intelligent. They are the most adaptable and
I thought that's what we need tobe right now in these very
challenging times. I'm someone who really has
dedicated the last 20 years of my life to embodying joy.
(06:57):
That's what brought me down thispath and that's what's kept me
on this path, and that's what has kept me thriving, is really
seeking an embodied experience of joy.
And the idea that even in these challenging times, for maybe
(07:18):
particularly in these challenging times, how can I
adapt as a human to continue to cultivate joy even though the
world feels crazier and more unpredictable?
I think that's my job and to hopefully through my own
(07:39):
practice guide and help and inspire others to do the same.
I loved your newsletter because I'm an educator and we talked a
lot about Carol Dweck's growth mindset.
Growth mindset versus fixed mindset.
You can look at yourself as thisis my fixed set of skills.
(07:59):
I can't really build on my talents.
I am what I am. Or you can think about yourself
in this growth mindset perspective.
So flexible versus stuck thinking or growth mindset
versus fixed mindset. And so I really loved your
newsletter because we do have tobe flexible or else we will feel
stuck. Yeah, no, that's, I love that,
(08:20):
that that's beautiful. And I think that really is such,
I mean that that feels like it meets this modern world.
People are not. Most people are not finding one
career at the beginning of theirlives and sticking to that any
longer. Many of us are finding two or
(08:42):
three or more careers throughoutour lives.
Yeah, and sometimes it's 'cause we have to be adaptable to the
change and be flexible. And sometimes it's just 'cause
we're growing, you know? Like I think about what I crave
and what I love doing professionally.
It's evolved over the years because we evolve and grow.
Yeah, yeah, agreed. So how long have you lived in
(09:06):
Pittsfield Lennox? Is it ever since like your 40s
when you left your job and started teaching at Kripalu?
I used to go to Kripalo when I went to Penn State University.
That's when I discovered it. I would take the car up or I'd
fly into Albany and I'd take theBerkshire shuttle with a cute
little English guy and we would go.
(09:26):
I'd go to your yoga classes. And I was just there this past
summer and I went to your yoga class and I saw Beck in concert
at Tanglewood. And it was an amazing summer,
just this past summer. So tell us, how did you first
discover yoga? And for Paulo, I know you
touched on this a little bit, but how did it make you feel?
Because I remember my first class at the YMCA as a teenager.
(09:50):
I still remember. What was it about your class
where you were like, this is forme?
Because if everybody's listening, hears you talk about
yoga, maybe they'll try it. Even if they're just making up
some breathing and stretching ontheir bedroom floor.
There's something about it I encourage everyone to try.
Tell us about when you discovered it.
(10:13):
Well, my the first time I discovered it was before you
were born in elementary school. Yes, before you were born
sometime back in the 70s when yoga was a cool thing that you
could find on public television.I had a very hip health teacher,
school nurse who introduced it to our first grade class, I
(10:35):
think. And then I didn't I didn't do
much with it for for decades. It was actually in my 30s.
I was living in New York. It was AI was a an actress.
Life was stressful. I was going through some big
changes in my personal life and I had a therapist who for years
(10:58):
kept saying have you tried yoga?You should try yoga.
And I was resistant at first, but when I finally did, Oh my
God, it was such a game changer.New York Sports Club was the 1st
place I went and I was someone who was a doer.
I loved getting into the gym anddoing a workout, but this was
(11:23):
something different. This was this was something that
left me feeling peaceful and feeling sort of a a sense of
expansion at the end of class. And I started noticing that wow,
this was carrying over into the rest of my day.
And I kept going more and more. And finally, somewhere in the
(11:45):
maybe the year or two of doing that, I felt like I really
needed more. And I pulled Kripalu out of my
memory banks from Graduate School and I did what you did.
I got on a bus and I made my wayto Kripalu and change.
One weekend changed my life. I, I just found particularly, I
(12:11):
have to say, with that style of yoga there, it was permissive.
There was rolling around on the floor like you said, there was
breathing and suddenly I was notin my head, I was in my body.
And even though I hadn't been inmy body like that for a long
time, yoga was really a place where I just found that it it
(12:34):
improved my mood immensely. The breathing, the feel, the
choosing to feel my body was revolutionary.
Tell us about your recent yoga retreat in the Galapagos
Islands. What were some highlights of
your trip? What did you guys do?
(12:55):
Oh my God, I my favorite thing that I do in my life now is lead
retreats, whether those are retreats at Kripalu or retreats
around the world. I have to say in particular, I
love leading yoga retreats around the world and it's a
wonderful, it's just such a wonderful way to to see the
world. You're on vacation, you're with
(13:18):
a group of like minded souls, you're exploring a new place and
you have this context of yoga and the teachings of yoga that
create this beautiful container so that it's more than a
vacation. It's somehow it is a retreat.
(13:39):
It's a way of shifting perspective.
This last retreat, Oh my God, tortoises, gigantic land
tortoises that are, I'm not kidding you.
They're like the size of a refrigerator.
They're stepping into another land.
And then at the end of the day, after you've been exploring,
(14:01):
you've been on a boat, you've been snorkeling, you've been
seeing animals you've never seenbefore in your life, We go back
to our beautiful retreat center.And, you know, we, we talk about
a theme for the day that's related to yoga, that's related
to where we are, that's related to what we're doing.
(14:21):
And then we do an embodied practice.
And you do that for a week. And at the end of that, I tend
to feel pretty darn good. Yeah.
Yeah. That is so beautiful because
sometimes we think like life as we know it is all there is.
And you know, when we're at different ages, we can really
(14:44):
have a tunnel vision perspective.
If you're 5, all you know is your home life.
And then in our 20s, thirties, 40s, I think no matter what age
you are, retreats are so important.
Yeah, whatever we can do. And sometimes we can't always
afford to go across the globe, but maybe there's something
(15:05):
going on in your your own town or an hour's drive away or
someplace like Kripalo, if that's not too far.
But I agree, what can we do to shift our perspective to get
back into that place of the flexible mind, as you said, the
growth mind changing our routines, you know, cooking
(15:31):
something different for dinner, going to work through a new on a
new route, Yes, starting a new hobby, whatever we can do to
shift out of that stuck place like you said.
Yes, yes, I took a free Cooking Matters cooking class.
(15:53):
It was absolutely free. Every week they gave us
groceries. You can go places with the Girl
Scouts if you're a parent or, you know, if you're a scout, you
can go to France. And there's so many things.
So I think sometimes we think, oh, that's too expensive and we
think certain adventures aren't for us or, you know, certain
experiences, new experiences. But there are so many ways that
(16:16):
we can make ourselves open to new experiences for sure.
Yeah, I have to say that I, you know, I teach about this a lot
because a lot of the, the teaching that I do brings in my
past as a, as an actress and think of the world of theatre
improvisation. I bring a lot of those tools
(16:38):
into my yoga teaching because really the two worlds are so
connected. They're both about how do I say
yes to any moment in time and how do I train myself to become
a little bit more comfortable with my own discomfort.
And one of the best ways to do that, to exercise those muscles
(17:00):
of, of risk taking, of continuing to expand, to stay
flexible in my mind, is to do something that feels a little
bit out of our comfort zone. Yeah.
Yeah, doesn't have to be jumpingout of an airplane, which I also
highly recommend. Is that coming up in one of your
(17:24):
retreats? Oh God, that would be amazing.
Air Yoga. Well, your Instagram account is
just beautiful. I love how you document your
travels with the most adorable and lovely pictures.
I'll link your account in the show notes for everyone to check
it out. When did you first start being
(17:47):
an entrepreneur hosting yoga retreats outside of the US and
starting your online classes? Because you have live stream
yoga classes on your website andthen you have videos on demand.
When did you branch out from just teaching in person at
Kripalo? Yeah, well, I started lead.
(18:08):
I LED my first retreat in Jamaica in 2013, and that was
because a lovely young woman whowas a volunteer at Kripalu came
up to me after class and said, have you ever LED a retreat?
You should leave retreats. And I said, oh, no.
I was stuck in my mindset of like, oh, no, I don't do that.
(18:31):
That's too scary. I can't take on that
responsibility. I don't know how to do that.
And she said, no, no, no, I'll help you.
I have just the right place for you.
And she said, I'll help you. And she just sort of held my
hand. She'd never done this before
either, but she helped me put together a postcard and she
connected me to a, a woman who was trying to start leading
(18:53):
retreats herself. And it was a lot of work, but I
kept at it and it got easier. And at some point in time, I
took a big jump and I, I connected to a yoga retreat
organizer who's really helped meto up level.
And now I go to really lovely places and she helps me choose
(19:17):
the best ones and she helps handle all of the logistics so I
don't have to do those pieces that I, I don't really love to
do as much. And yeah, that was a that was a
big step for me. Likewise, teaching online felt
like a big step. And for many, like many, it was
(19:37):
right at the beginning of COVID.And I was actually on retreat in
Costa Rica as the pandemic was raising its ugly head.
And I got back just in time, back to the United States.
But I had this intuition when I was in Costa Rica.
I said I think when I go home I should.
(20:00):
Tried teaching online and it felt like again it was just this
very strong inner voice that said this is the right thing to
do. So even though I had no idea how
to do it, I got home and five days later I I LED my first
online class and it was a bit ofa mess.
It was not perfect but I just threw myself in and said I'm
(20:25):
going to figure this out. I got a little help and just
stuck with it until it became easier, became natural and now I
love it. I love that.
I feel like there's two lessons from your story.
Like 1 is we don't even realize how flexible we can be.
(20:45):
I remember being in an in personyoga class during COVID and they
had little online students, cutelittle old couple at home and
they were on the computer and then we had like the tripod and
the videos going and we we can like impress ourselves with how
flexible we can really be. Yeah.
(21:07):
And boy, if the pandemic didn't show us that.
I mean, think about how many newthings we all learned, the
learning curves during that time, Yeah, can really serve us.
And then we can always let otherpeople help us.
If that girl helped you plan your retreats, be open.
(21:27):
Like getting some help. Yeah.
Ask for help. Welcome help.
Accept help. Yeah, agreed.
Yeah, and the signs can come outof nowhere.
I remember I coached behavior students in public schools for
years. So I was sitting on the floor of
a kindergarten classroom, crisscross applesauce, and we
(21:48):
were watching a video about a baseball coach and his little
baseball player. And this girl, this little
kindergartner, she didn't know why I was with her every day,
But while we were watching the video of the baseball coach, she
looked up at me and she's like, you're my coach.
And that's, that's exactly what my job description was, to help
(22:11):
coach the kids with behavior issues.
And so anyway, that was a sign for me that I could move into
coaching adults because I was sitting there literally watching
the movie about the baseball with my little buddy, thinking
to myself, I wonder if I could coach adults part time,
virtually, whatever. And then that's when she looked
up at me and she's like, you're a coach, aren't you?
(22:32):
Isn't that great? So with your online classes and
in person retreats, you're an entrepreneur, Is it difficult to
run a business? Did you have any fear and doubt
when you first became a boss babe?
Because this podcast is all about overcoming fear and doubt
and expanding yourself. And in your case, you expanded
your services. So I think a lot of people, we
(22:54):
don't level up and explore and expand because it's intimidating
to some degree. So any advice there about like
overcoming fear and doubt and really taking one step toward
your ideas and your passion? That's such a beautiful mission
that you have there. I think accepting that fear and
(23:16):
doubt is inevitable is important.
It's natural. And that goes back to that yoga
teaching of just getting more comfortable with my own
discomfort. And so accepting.
Even though I've been teaching yoga for 20 years, I still often
(23:36):
when I get up in front of a class, I'll feel my heart
pounding and I'll, I'll feel there, you know?
There's some days where it's just the easiest thing in the
world. But to be perfectly honest,
there's still other days where it feels like, oh gosh, am I
ready for this today? Do I have something inspiring to
say? What I've realized is it's
(23:57):
absolutely natural to have thosedays where I feel a little
emotional or shaky or a little scared and just saying it's OK,
Jeremy, so that it's one of those days.
Yeah. Your heart is pounding.
Yup. Your palms are warm.
Yup. I feel, I feel those butterflies
in my belly. OK, just keep going.
(24:20):
And in in theater, we would say,what's your intention?
In yoga, we might say, you know,be present right here.
What is my goal right now? And my goal is to serve those
people that are in front of me. And the more I do the next thing
that I need to do, and I just let that discomfort sort of be
(24:42):
there in the background, the more I find myself, you know, a
few minutes in saying, oh, I'm having a great time.
I just have to get through that initial discomfort.
Yeah, and sometimes we have to get through the discomfort to be
true to ourselves and to do whatwe really want to be doing.
(25:05):
You talk about this on your website.
Truth has a specific vibration. How can we connect more to our
truth and to our joy, in your opinion?
Oh, well, there's so many thingsI have to say about that.
But what comes to mind first is get in the body.
(25:29):
You know, I think that so often many of us live, you know, just
from the neck up and we get, we get stuck in that stuck way of
seeing because we're living in our heads if we can get in the
body. And This is why yoga is so
helpful, why breathing is so helpful immediately if we do,
(25:52):
you know, even if you're thinking, oh, I don't know about
yoga, I'm not flexible, it doesn't matter.
It's just really about getting in your body and out of your
head. That's what yoga does.
And you start just focusing on your breath, and suddenly you're
in your body. You start focusing on your
sensations and you're in your body.
(26:15):
And the minute you get out of your head and into your body,
you're immediately more open to the possibility of that that
vibration of truth and joy. Yes, after this episode I'm
publishing an episode about the horse breath.
Have you done that a while? Is that that?
(26:35):
Yes, I love the horse breath. I mean, I do that a lot in my
yoga classes. Yeah, I mean, if anyone's
driving right now while you're listening to the podcast, like
take a deep breath right now. I love listening to podcasts and
breathing when I'm driving around in my car.
I have like, you know, certain little practices.
(26:57):
Box breathing horse. Breath.
Yes, yes, yeah, I do. Kapalabhati breath or skull
polishing breath When I'm getting tired, if I'm doing a
long drive, breathing in throughthe nose and nice big breath in,
nice easy breath in and a short,sharp, strong exhalation through
the nose gets me awake and alert.
(27:19):
Yeah. So in Through the Nose, we're
going to do a Kapalabati breathing tutorial real fast.
So in through the nose. And then when you exhale through
the nose, you pull in your tummy, right?
Like you pull your belly button kind of in and.
Up. Yeah, exactly.
So it's a forceful exhalation like.
(27:40):
Inhale and exhale quickly, in and out.
It can be, yes, can also be slow, but but the important
thing is that very strong exhalation through the nose,
like you're blowing a bug out through your nose.
It's always good if you've blownyour nose first too, Yeah.
So for everyone listening, when I do it, Kapalabhati breathing,
skull polishing breath, I focus on the exhale.
(28:03):
So I'm pulling in my belly button and I'm exhaling through
my nose. And then you will naturally
inhale back through your nose. So it's kind of like, and the
exhale, you're just pushing out all of that stale air, making
room for the fresh air. And that's what works so well to
keep you alert while you're driving, because you're getting
(28:26):
rid of all that stale air and exhaling it.
Yeah, crazy to get gets rid of stuck emotional stagnant energy
too. And I find that's a really good
one. If I'm nervous about something,
that's a great one to sort of like fire up my my third chakra,
my solar plexus, my center of strength.
(28:47):
And it releases some anxiety andleaves me feeling a little more
powerful. Yeah, breath is powerful.
I'm like a physical meditator, so I get in a meditation when
I'm working out or when I'm doing yoga.
So sometimes sitting and just meditating, it might not work
for you. You might want to do yoga as you
(29:07):
meditate. Yoga is just meditation and
motion. Amen.
Well, tell us a little bit aboutLet Your Yoga Dance.
I've taken some of your dance classes.
Tell us about that. Oh, let your yoga Dance is the
practice that brought me to Kripalu, that really made me
leave my life behind in New York.
(29:30):
It is, we say. It's where joy and fun meet,
deep and sacred. And it's a wonderful practice
that carries people through the chakras.
We start with Earth and we move water and then we move like
fire. We move air, sound, light and
ether. It's a somewhat guided and also
(29:51):
somewhat self-guided practice. Sometimes we connect to others,
sometimes we close our eyes and go deep inside.
Sometimes it's wild and raucous.It's it's really taking the
philosophy of yoga and taking itoff of the mat and into an open
space and letting our bodies often do whatever that that
(30:15):
prana, that energy guides you todo in relationship to the music
that you're hearing. Yeah.
I mean. Probably the best way to get
keep our energy flowing and openall of our energy channels and
all of our chakras in your opinion?
I don't know. I definitely think it's a great
one. I mean it, it is for me.
(30:36):
It's really helpful. I have to say, let your yoga
dance is probably the most joyous practice of for opening
chakras that I have found. Yoga, you know, on a mat is
probably a little more balancing, a little more
(30:58):
peaceful, I I would say, but also really powerful and moving
energy. But I think any time where
we're, as you were talking aboutworking out, I mean, working out
can be an amazing way to open upour chakras depending how we're
working out. If we're breathing and we're
present and we're mindful about how we're moving, I think it can
(31:19):
be tremendously helpful. Yeah.
And for those of you who are newto chakras and you're wondering
what we're talking about chakras, you can Google it,
obviously. But they're kind of like energy
centers. And sometimes just depending on
our life experiences and our temperament, they can get
(31:40):
blocked. So, you know, I think with with
me, I kind of went through life with my throat chakra a little
bit locked, not expressing my opinions and preferences.
And so sometimes you can just realize this, you know, out of
(32:02):
nowhere, realize that you feel alittle blocked somehow
emotionally. Or sometimes when you're working
out, dancing, doing yoga, you might have an aha moment like,
Oh my gosh, I make it easy for people to love me.
I'm a people pleaser or whateverthe case may be.
So like, it's a physical chakra.But also you can have more of an
(32:24):
aha moment where you realize where you've been shutting down
or blocked in some way. Yeah, chakras are amazingly
helpful, I think, to just as a way of seeing how our physical
bodies are connected to our energy bodies, to our mental
emotional bodies. They're like big processing
(32:47):
centers inside us. And the amazing thing I love
about them is we discover that if you do have an aha moment,
there are so many different waysto address it.
You can address it with doing specific yoga postures, for
instance. You can help it by doing a
(33:08):
particular breath technique. You could help it by using an
affirmation or a mantra. They're really so you can go in
through the body or through the breath or through the mind and
they're wonderfully accessible. They're actually very, I think,
very common sense at their foundation, really easy to use
(33:31):
and once you get a handle on them.
I'm doing a whole weekend on thechakras coming up at Kripalu in
April, and we do yoga postures and breathing techniques and a
little bit of off the mat yoga as well.
We use that affirmations and sound.
You were talking about the throat.
That's a big one for me. That's a one of my great
(33:56):
passions is working with Yoga ofthe voice because I think for so
many people not to make any generalizations, but I am going
to make a generalization. But especially I think women
find that we have inherited a kind of stuckness in the throat.
(34:18):
And just as you were saying, real, making that realization
and maybe making a mental shift,becoming aware of, oh, wow, this
pattern that I've, I've held in my life.
I don't, I don't express my preferences.
I don't ask for what I need. I, you know, I'm careful about,
(34:40):
you know, saying things that won't offend and making another
choice is huge. Yeah.
I also say to people, you know, to open up that that voice, that
throat chakra, just sing. Just start singing.
Doesn't matter what you sing. Sing in your car, sing in your
(35:00):
shower. But using the voice starts to
change all that. Being a teacher starts to change
that. I bet you found that being a
coach starts to change that. Yeah, ask your Alexa to play
some music. Ask your Siri to play some
music. And being a teacher helped me be
a more assertive parent. My kids are 9 and 13.
(35:23):
I was pushover spoiled the kids.My kids are wonderful and
perfectly well balanced, but I think teaching really helped me
up my parenting game and have better boundaries and standards
with my kids because it's good for them to give them structure.
And so teaching really helped mefind my voice and then also use
(35:46):
it to design the life I want so that my kids aren't running the
show, so that we all feel more in charge.
That's what happens when we findour voice and connect with all
of our power is we improve our lives.
And so the basic idea is in our energy system, we have a lot of
personal power. This is healing energy, healing
(36:07):
power that needs to flow. So just like with acupuncture,
you think about opening your energy channels or EFT is very
popular right now, Emotional freedom technique.
You tap on different spots on your body to open up the energy,
let it flow. Yeah, agreed.
(36:28):
Good for you and good for your kids too.
Yeah, we teach EFT in schools, emotional freedom technique and
tapping on little energy points on your body to let your energy
flow and then release some anxiety.
Yeah, and that's the same. It's interesting.
It's all, you know, we humans keep finding different ways to
(36:49):
the same end. I mean, yoga, same thing.
Chinese medicine, same thing. Everybody's looking for that
flow of energy. We feel better, we function
better, yeah. I was looking at a couple posts
that you had about your chakra retreat coming up, and when I
looked at all the colors of the chakra system, it just reminded
(37:11):
me of like a very academic graph, the Maslow's hierarchy of
needs. You know, like the base chakras
are for like stability and security.
And then we move up to self-expression and creativity.
And so that is, it's not just a bunch of woo woo chakra stuff
(37:31):
like we all these are basic human needs to live our best
lives. Yes, agreed.
Yes, the need to open up our security and our communication
and let our emotions flow, let our creativity and ideas flow.
Well, the last question that I had here is to ask you to talk a
(37:52):
little bit about Yoga of Voice and Yoga of yes.
So you were talking a little bitabout Yoga of voice and you can
walk us through a little Yoga ofvoice activity or just tell us
what it's about as well as the Yoga of yes.
Well, they're related and yet different.
(38:14):
Yoga of voice is really about using a combination of yoga
techniques and tools, as well aspieces from my theatre
background. So a lot of vocal breathing
techniques, tools of self-expression, bringing those
into a yoga practice. Sometimes that's a traditional
(38:36):
yoga practice, sometimes that's a less traditional yoga
practice, but where we're sounding and we're breathing or
we're chanting, we're singing. And the goal is to really free
in particular that that 5th chakra, that throat chakra,
which is all about self-expression, which is about
(38:58):
truth, the ability to speak our own truth.
And it's really fired up by the third chakra of which is the
fire center our, our power and our, our self assertion.
And that practice, yoga of voiceis really great for folks who
are wanting to cultivate more confidence, more sense of
(39:22):
freedom, of self-expression, aretrying to take themselves to the
the place of just feeling a little bit more like if they get
to take up a little bit more space in their world and in
their lives. Yoga of yes is similar, but a
little different. That also brings in tools and
(39:43):
techniques of my from my theaterbackground.
And it's really about using principles to tap into our our
inner intuition and moving from a place of less resistance in
our lives. It's really helpful when we're
in a sort of stuck, stagnant place and we're trying to get
going back into the river of life.
(40:07):
Yeah, when I think about yoga ofyes, I think about something my
friend just said. Is it a hell yes or is it a hell
no? You know, like if it feels like
a yes to you, then we know it's a yes.
And if it if it just hits weird,it feels off it's off Believe
(40:27):
it. Don't allow it into your life.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and then when I think of
yoga, of voice, I think of playing go Fish with my
elementary school students because I I was a behavior coach
for five years. So one thing I did with the kids
is Go fish because they connect to their voice.
(40:49):
They have to ask what they want.They have to tell their little
friend, hey, do you have an octopus?
And then you know that everyone has their hands of cards.
And then the little friend has to be like, no, go fish.
And they they kind of tell each other what to do.
They tell each other what they need.
Like goldfish is therapeutic. That's fantastic.
(41:11):
And I think, you know, you're just an example that we never
stop learning and growing and needing that cathartic play
therapy. That's what a lot of your
retreats are about, like the ad tricks, connecting to our
playful side, expressing ourselves.
And we need that at any age. Agreed.
(41:31):
Probably more so as we get older.
You know, we tend to, we start as we get older, we get more
responsible, we start to sort ofleave that play behind.
And it's essential for us as adults, it's essential to keep
that energy of the flexible mind.
(41:52):
As you were saying, that's why you let your yoga dance is so
wonderful. Put on a piece of music, get up
and move your body, and just in that playful, easy, uninhibited
way is a wonderful way to cultivate that playfulness.
Yeah, I don't know if you know, but kids these days, they have
little one wheels. It's like a skateboard with a
(42:14):
battery in it that you charge and then you stand on it and you
can hoverboard like around the house.
And my kids have these their favorite thing to do.
Like last winter, my cat hated it.
It was their favorite thing was like turn on the music and then
jump on their little hoverboardsand like hover around the.
House. Oh wow, it sounds either really
(42:36):
fun or really disastrous. That's great.
Yes, we can all use a little more play in our lives.
Well, Jurian, thank you so much for being here at Dissolving
Fear today. Do you have any last words of
wisdom or inspiration to share with us here on the podcast?
(42:57):
And please let everyone know where we can find you online.
Thank you, Alyssa. It's been such a joy.
If I could say one. Let's see my one piece of advice
every day. Do something that brings you
joy, whether that's. You know, for me, that means
(43:18):
turn on a piece of music and move my body.
That can mean sing, if that for you means, you know, set 10
minutes aside and, you know, getquiet.
That's a beautiful thing to do too.
But do something every day that that brings you joy.
And where can you find me next? Next thing I have on my plate is
(43:42):
at Kripalu. I'll be there April 4th through
the 6th for a chakra immersion weekend.
It is accessible for everyone, whether you are Yogi or not,
whether you've done no yoga or alittle yoga or a lot of yoga.
It's very accessible and very fun and I think pretty profound.
(44:03):
And if you're looking for me from the comfort of your own
home, you can always find me online.
I teach yoga online on Wednesdaymornings.
You can find me recorded at Juryand hughes.com.
I have a content library of over350 yoga classes you can find
there, as well as some Vimeo on Demand.
(44:25):
Well, thank you so much for being here.
Such a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me Alyssa,
lovely to talk to you. Well, that completes our
episode. If this podcast content felt
true for you, please leave a rating and review on Apple
Podcasts. Follow the podcast today and
keep exploring your favorite ways to dissolve fear and make
(44:47):
some room for your best life to unfold in fun and miraculous
ways. Believe in yourself, take care
of yourself, and thank you for being here.
If you have big dreams and plansbut you get distracted by fear
and doubt, TuneIn because we canall live a more fearless and
free life starting today. Fear doesn't run the show.
You do, and fear doesn't run this show.
Welcome to the Dissolving Fear podcast.
I'm your host Alyssa, and I'm a high school teacher, life poach,
(00:21):
and inspirational speaker. I love sharing inspiring guest
interviews and helpful tools that can help us all release
anxiety and enjoy our lives. Follow this podcast.
You'll love the results. Loving life is what we're all
about here on the podcast and atmissalyssa.com.
Enjoy the show. So Jurian Hughes, welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast. Thank you, Miss Alyssa.
You're 1 adventurous yoga teacher, retreat leader, writer,
and you just came back from a yoga retreat in the Galapagos
Islands. I'll let you talk about it.
I can mention where you're goinglike Switzerland, Mexico, Kenya,
Scotland, Italy for yoga and dance retreats and always at
(01:10):
Kapala Yoga Center in one of my favorite places on earth,
Lennox, Massachusetts, Agrapala Yoga Center.
But tell us a little bit about yourself.
And thank you so much for takingthe time to interview today.
It's an honor to have you here. Oh, it's a pleasure.
Thank you for the invitation. You know what's better than
talking about what you love withsomebody else that loves what
(01:32):
you love for a little bit? I feel incredibly lucky to,
after many years of challenge, to have found my way to creating
a life that feels so much largely made-up of stuff that I
really love to do, and that is yoga and dance.
(01:56):
That's working with the voice, that's using play and using all
sorts of tools of Wellness to really help people feel, as you
said, more alive, loving their, loving their lives, practicing
self-care, thriving. And that's what I do in all of
(02:17):
my retreats. Yeah, it really does seem like
you are living your dreams rightnow.
Do you want to tell us anything about your journey through life
and how you ended up traveling, teaching yoga for a living and
really living your best life andsharing your talents and yoga
classes all over the world? Sure, I'd love to.
(02:40):
I spent the first half of my life, a large piece of my life
dedicated to another calling, which was to be a theatre
actress. And that really that calling ran
the show for decades. And then there came a time
around the age of 40 that I justfelt like, wow, I think I'm done
(03:03):
with that. I had no idea what was next.
I just knew that I was done withthat chapter and I entered this
kind of void time. And in that void time, which was
painful and confusing, I found Kripalu.
And I found myself there one weekend about 20 years ago,
(03:29):
dancing, doing yoga, crying a lot through the weekend,
laughing a lot. And then I went home and I told
my friends about it. Next thing I knew, I had signed
up for my Let Your Yoga dance teacher training, then my yoga
teacher training. And then I had signed up to be a
volunteer, a yoga intern for twoyears, living in the building.
(03:55):
And it was, it meant me leaving the most lucrative job I'd ever
had in my life, which was also one of the least happy making
jobs I'd ever had in my life. I was doing high stress
corporate producing, event producing.
And yeah, I found myself in thiswhole new life felt like a very
(04:21):
impractical decision, but also an absolutely essential right
decision. And that was a really
interesting place to be at 40, you know, as someone who grew up
really concerned about what willpeople think, what will my
(04:42):
parents think of the fact that, oh, my God, I had this wonderful
college education and I'm at theage of 40, I'm going to go be a
yoga teacher in the Berkshires. And yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't
necessarily, like I said, the most practical at first glance,
but I just kept following that inner guide about what's right
(05:07):
and what makes me happy. And after many years, I feel
like I have found my way to a a place where I'm really thriving
and I'm actually able to back off of the pieces that don't
feel as joyous. I'm doing a little less work at
(05:28):
this point in time and that's amazing.
That's awesome. You know, I assumed that you had
been teaching yoga since you were 20 or 30, and you can start
anything at any point in your life.
You started teaching yoga at 40 and now you've been doing it for
20 years. When I did my yoga teacher
(05:50):
training at Kripalo, it was 2005and I think you were there.
You must have been new though onstaff.
I think yeah, I I probably had just arrived.
Wow. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I loved your latest newsletter.
It was like, is it survival of the fittest or the survival of
(06:11):
the most joyful? Survival of the joyous, yeah.
And that really spoke to a realization that I had when I
was in Galapagos recently, leading a couple of retreats and
reading of hearing about Darwin,who said survival of a species
(06:35):
is not the the species that survive are not the strongest or
the most intelligent. They are the most adaptable and
I thought that's what we need tobe right now in these very
challenging times. I'm someone who really has
dedicated the last 20 years of my life to embodying joy.
(06:57):
That's what brought me down thispath and that's what's kept me
on this path, and that's what has kept me thriving, is really
seeking an embodied experience of joy.
And the idea that even in these challenging times, for maybe
(07:18):
particularly in these challenging times, how can I
adapt as a human to continue to cultivate joy even though the
world feels crazier and more unpredictable?
I think that's my job and to hopefully through my own
(07:39):
practice guide and help and inspire others to do the same.
I loved your newsletter because I'm an educator and we talked a
lot about Carol Dweck's growth mindset.
Growth mindset versus fixed mindset.
You can look at yourself as thisis my fixed set of skills.
(07:59):
I can't really build on my talents.
I am what I am. Or you can think about yourself
in this growth mindset perspective.
So flexible versus stuck thinking or growth mindset
versus fixed mindset. And so I really loved your
newsletter because we do have tobe flexible or else we will feel
stuck. Yeah, no, that's, I love that,
(08:20):
that that's beautiful. And I think that really is such,
I mean that that feels like it meets this modern world.
People are not. Most people are not finding one
career at the beginning of theirlives and sticking to that any
longer. Many of us are finding two or
(08:42):
three or more careers throughoutour lives.
Yeah, and sometimes it's 'cause we have to be adaptable to the
change and be flexible. And sometimes it's just 'cause
we're growing, you know? Like I think about what I crave
and what I love doing professionally.
It's evolved over the years because we evolve and grow.
Yeah, yeah, agreed. So how long have you lived in
(09:06):
Pittsfield Lennox? Is it ever since like your 40s
when you left your job and started teaching at Kripalu?
I used to go to Kripalo when I went to Penn State University.
That's when I discovered it. I would take the car up or I'd
fly into Albany and I'd take theBerkshire shuttle with a cute
little English guy and we would go.
(09:26):
I'd go to your yoga classes. And I was just there this past
summer and I went to your yoga class and I saw Beck in concert
at Tanglewood. And it was an amazing summer,
just this past summer. So tell us, how did you first
discover yoga? And for Paulo, I know you
touched on this a little bit, but how did it make you feel?
Because I remember my first class at the YMCA as a teenager.
(09:50):
I still remember. What was it about your class
where you were like, this is forme?
Because if everybody's listening, hears you talk about
yoga, maybe they'll try it. Even if they're just making up
some breathing and stretching ontheir bedroom floor.
There's something about it I encourage everyone to try.
Tell us about when you discovered it.
(10:13):
Well, my the first time I discovered it was before you
were born in elementary school. Yes, before you were born
sometime back in the 70s when yoga was a cool thing that you
could find on public television.I had a very hip health teacher,
school nurse who introduced it to our first grade class, I
(10:35):
think. And then I didn't I didn't do
much with it for for decades. It was actually in my 30s.
I was living in New York. It was AI was a an actress.
Life was stressful. I was going through some big
changes in my personal life and I had a therapist who for years
(10:58):
kept saying have you tried yoga?You should try yoga.
And I was resistant at first, but when I finally did, Oh my
God, it was such a game changer.New York Sports Club was the 1st
place I went and I was someone who was a doer.
I loved getting into the gym anddoing a workout, but this was
(11:23):
something different. This was this was something that
left me feeling peaceful and feeling sort of a a sense of
expansion at the end of class. And I started noticing that wow,
this was carrying over into the rest of my day.
And I kept going more and more. And finally, somewhere in the
(11:45):
maybe the year or two of doing that, I felt like I really
needed more. And I pulled Kripalu out of my
memory banks from Graduate School and I did what you did.
I got on a bus and I made my wayto Kripalu and change.
One weekend changed my life. I, I just found particularly, I
(12:11):
have to say, with that style of yoga there, it was permissive.
There was rolling around on the floor like you said, there was
breathing and suddenly I was notin my head, I was in my body.
And even though I hadn't been inmy body like that for a long
time, yoga was really a place where I just found that it it
(12:34):
improved my mood immensely. The breathing, the feel, the
choosing to feel my body was revolutionary.
Tell us about your recent yoga retreat in the Galapagos
Islands. What were some highlights of
your trip? What did you guys do?
(12:55):
Oh my God, I my favorite thing that I do in my life now is lead
retreats, whether those are retreats at Kripalu or retreats
around the world. I have to say in particular, I
love leading yoga retreats around the world and it's a
wonderful, it's just such a wonderful way to to see the
world. You're on vacation, you're with
(13:18):
a group of like minded souls, you're exploring a new place and
you have this context of yoga and the teachings of yoga that
create this beautiful container so that it's more than a
vacation. It's somehow it is a retreat.
(13:39):
It's a way of shifting perspective.
This last retreat, Oh my God, tortoises, gigantic land
tortoises that are, I'm not kidding you.
They're like the size of a refrigerator.
They're stepping into another land.
And then at the end of the day, after you've been exploring,
(14:01):
you've been on a boat, you've been snorkeling, you've been
seeing animals you've never seenbefore in your life, We go back
to our beautiful retreat center.And, you know, we, we talk about
a theme for the day that's related to yoga, that's related
to where we are, that's related to what we're doing.
(14:21):
And then we do an embodied practice.
And you do that for a week. And at the end of that, I tend
to feel pretty darn good. Yeah.
Yeah. That is so beautiful because
sometimes we think like life as we know it is all there is.
And you know, when we're at different ages, we can really
(14:44):
have a tunnel vision perspective.
If you're 5, all you know is your home life.
And then in our 20s, thirties, 40s, I think no matter what age
you are, retreats are so important.
Yeah, whatever we can do. And sometimes we can't always
afford to go across the globe, but maybe there's something
(15:05):
going on in your your own town or an hour's drive away or
someplace like Kripalo, if that's not too far.
But I agree, what can we do to shift our perspective to get
back into that place of the flexible mind, as you said, the
growth mind changing our routines, you know, cooking
(15:31):
something different for dinner, going to work through a new on a
new route, Yes, starting a new hobby, whatever we can do to
shift out of that stuck place like you said.
Yes, yes, I took a free Cooking Matters cooking class.
(15:53):
It was absolutely free. Every week they gave us
groceries. You can go places with the Girl
Scouts if you're a parent or, you know, if you're a scout, you
can go to France. And there's so many things.
So I think sometimes we think, oh, that's too expensive and we
think certain adventures aren't for us or, you know, certain
experiences, new experiences. But there are so many ways that
(16:16):
we can make ourselves open to new experiences for sure.
Yeah, I have to say that I, you know, I teach about this a lot
because a lot of the, the teaching that I do brings in my
past as a, as an actress and think of the world of theatre
improvisation. I bring a lot of those tools
(16:38):
into my yoga teaching because really the two worlds are so
connected. They're both about how do I say
yes to any moment in time and how do I train myself to become
a little bit more comfortable with my own discomfort.
And one of the best ways to do that, to exercise those muscles
(17:00):
of, of risk taking, of continuing to expand, to stay
flexible in my mind, is to do something that feels a little
bit out of our comfort zone. Yeah.
Yeah, doesn't have to be jumpingout of an airplane, which I also
highly recommend. Is that coming up in one of your
(17:24):
retreats? Oh God, that would be amazing.
Air Yoga. Well, your Instagram account is
just beautiful. I love how you document your
travels with the most adorable and lovely pictures.
I'll link your account in the show notes for everyone to check
it out. When did you first start being
(17:47):
an entrepreneur hosting yoga retreats outside of the US and
starting your online classes? Because you have live stream
yoga classes on your website andthen you have videos on demand.
When did you branch out from just teaching in person at
Kripalo? Yeah, well, I started lead.
(18:08):
I LED my first retreat in Jamaica in 2013, and that was
because a lovely young woman whowas a volunteer at Kripalu came
up to me after class and said, have you ever LED a retreat?
You should leave retreats. And I said, oh, no.
I was stuck in my mindset of like, oh, no, I don't do that.
(18:31):
That's too scary. I can't take on that
responsibility. I don't know how to do that.
And she said, no, no, no, I'll help you.
I have just the right place for you.
And she said, I'll help you. And she just sort of held my
hand. She'd never done this before
either, but she helped me put together a postcard and she
connected me to a, a woman who was trying to start leading
(18:53):
retreats herself. And it was a lot of work, but I
kept at it and it got easier. And at some point in time, I
took a big jump and I, I connected to a yoga retreat
organizer who's really helped meto up level.
And now I go to really lovely places and she helps me choose
(19:17):
the best ones and she helps handle all of the logistics so I
don't have to do those pieces that I, I don't really love to
do as much. And yeah, that was a that was a
big step for me. Likewise, teaching online felt
like a big step. And for many, like many, it was
(19:37):
right at the beginning of COVID.And I was actually on retreat in
Costa Rica as the pandemic was raising its ugly head.
And I got back just in time, back to the United States.
But I had this intuition when I was in Costa Rica.
I said I think when I go home I should.
(20:00):
Tried teaching online and it felt like again it was just this
very strong inner voice that said this is the right thing to
do. So even though I had no idea how
to do it, I got home and five days later I I LED my first
online class and it was a bit ofa mess.
It was not perfect but I just threw myself in and said I'm
(20:25):
going to figure this out. I got a little help and just
stuck with it until it became easier, became natural and now I
love it. I love that.
I feel like there's two lessons from your story.
Like 1 is we don't even realize how flexible we can be.
(20:45):
I remember being in an in personyoga class during COVID and they
had little online students, cutelittle old couple at home and
they were on the computer and then we had like the tripod and
the videos going and we we can like impress ourselves with how
flexible we can really be. Yeah.
(21:07):
And boy, if the pandemic didn't show us that.
I mean, think about how many newthings we all learned, the
learning curves during that time, Yeah, can really serve us.
And then we can always let otherpeople help us.
If that girl helped you plan your retreats, be open.
(21:27):
Like getting some help. Yeah.
Ask for help. Welcome help.
Accept help. Yeah, agreed.
Yeah, and the signs can come outof nowhere.
I remember I coached behavior students in public schools for
years. So I was sitting on the floor of
a kindergarten classroom, crisscross applesauce, and we
(21:48):
were watching a video about a baseball coach and his little
baseball player. And this girl, this little
kindergartner, she didn't know why I was with her every day,
But while we were watching the video of the baseball coach, she
looked up at me and she's like, you're my coach.
And that's, that's exactly what my job description was, to help
(22:11):
coach the kids with behavior issues.
And so anyway, that was a sign for me that I could move into
coaching adults because I was sitting there literally watching
the movie about the baseball with my little buddy, thinking
to myself, I wonder if I could coach adults part time,
virtually, whatever. And then that's when she looked
up at me and she's like, you're a coach, aren't you?
(22:32):
Isn't that great? So with your online classes and
in person retreats, you're an entrepreneur, Is it difficult to
run a business? Did you have any fear and doubt
when you first became a boss babe?
Because this podcast is all about overcoming fear and doubt
and expanding yourself. And in your case, you expanded
your services. So I think a lot of people, we
(22:54):
don't level up and explore and expand because it's intimidating
to some degree. So any advice there about like
overcoming fear and doubt and really taking one step toward
your ideas and your passion? That's such a beautiful mission
that you have there. I think accepting that fear and
(23:16):
doubt is inevitable is important.
It's natural. And that goes back to that yoga
teaching of just getting more comfortable with my own
discomfort. And so accepting.
Even though I've been teaching yoga for 20 years, I still often
(23:36):
when I get up in front of a class, I'll feel my heart
pounding and I'll, I'll feel there, you know?
There's some days where it's just the easiest thing in the
world. But to be perfectly honest,
there's still other days where it feels like, oh gosh, am I
ready for this today? Do I have something inspiring to
say? What I've realized is it's
(23:57):
absolutely natural to have thosedays where I feel a little
emotional or shaky or a little scared and just saying it's OK,
Jeremy, so that it's one of those days.
Yeah. Your heart is pounding.
Yup. Your palms are warm.
Yup. I feel, I feel those butterflies
in my belly. OK, just keep going.
(24:20):
And in in theater, we would say,what's your intention?
In yoga, we might say, you know,be present right here.
What is my goal right now? And my goal is to serve those
people that are in front of me. And the more I do the next thing
that I need to do, and I just let that discomfort sort of be
(24:42):
there in the background, the more I find myself, you know, a
few minutes in saying, oh, I'm having a great time.
I just have to get through that initial discomfort.
Yeah, and sometimes we have to get through the discomfort to be
true to ourselves and to do whatwe really want to be doing.
(25:05):
You talk about this on your website.
Truth has a specific vibration. How can we connect more to our
truth and to our joy, in your opinion?
Oh, well, there's so many thingsI have to say about that.
But what comes to mind first is get in the body.
(25:29):
You know, I think that so often many of us live, you know, just
from the neck up and we get, we get stuck in that stuck way of
seeing because we're living in our heads if we can get in the
body. And This is why yoga is so
helpful, why breathing is so helpful immediately if we do,
(25:52):
you know, even if you're thinking, oh, I don't know about
yoga, I'm not flexible, it doesn't matter.
It's just really about getting in your body and out of your
head. That's what yoga does.
And you start just focusing on your breath, and suddenly you're
in your body. You start focusing on your
sensations and you're in your body.
(26:15):
And the minute you get out of your head and into your body,
you're immediately more open to the possibility of that that
vibration of truth and joy. Yes, after this episode I'm
publishing an episode about the horse breath.
Have you done that a while? Is that that?
(26:35):
Yes, I love the horse breath. I mean, I do that a lot in my
yoga classes. Yeah, I mean, if anyone's
driving right now while you're listening to the podcast, like
take a deep breath right now. I love listening to podcasts and
breathing when I'm driving around in my car.
I have like, you know, certain little practices.
(26:57):
Box breathing horse. Breath.
Yes, yes, yeah, I do. Kapalabhati breath or skull
polishing breath When I'm getting tired, if I'm doing a
long drive, breathing in throughthe nose and nice big breath in,
nice easy breath in and a short,sharp, strong exhalation through
the nose gets me awake and alert.
(27:19):
Yeah. So in Through the Nose, we're
going to do a Kapalabati breathing tutorial real fast.
So in through the nose. And then when you exhale through
the nose, you pull in your tummy, right?
Like you pull your belly button kind of in and.
Up. Yeah, exactly.
So it's a forceful exhalation like.
(27:40):
Inhale and exhale quickly, in and out.
It can be, yes, can also be slow, but but the important
thing is that very strong exhalation through the nose,
like you're blowing a bug out through your nose.
It's always good if you've blownyour nose first too, Yeah.
So for everyone listening, when I do it, Kapalabhati breathing,
skull polishing breath, I focus on the exhale.
(28:03):
So I'm pulling in my belly button and I'm exhaling through
my nose. And then you will naturally
inhale back through your nose. So it's kind of like, and the
exhale, you're just pushing out all of that stale air, making
room for the fresh air. And that's what works so well to
keep you alert while you're driving, because you're getting
(28:26):
rid of all that stale air and exhaling it.
Yeah, crazy to get gets rid of stuck emotional stagnant energy
too. And I find that's a really good
one. If I'm nervous about something,
that's a great one to sort of like fire up my my third chakra,
my solar plexus, my center of strength.
(28:47):
And it releases some anxiety andleaves me feeling a little more
powerful. Yeah, breath is powerful.
I'm like a physical meditator, so I get in a meditation when
I'm working out or when I'm doing yoga.
So sometimes sitting and just meditating, it might not work
for you. You might want to do yoga as you
(29:07):
meditate. Yoga is just meditation and
motion. Amen.
Well, tell us a little bit aboutLet Your Yoga Dance.
I've taken some of your dance classes.
Tell us about that. Oh, let your yoga Dance is the
practice that brought me to Kripalu, that really made me
leave my life behind in New York.
(29:30):
It is, we say. It's where joy and fun meet,
deep and sacred. And it's a wonderful practice
that carries people through the chakras.
We start with Earth and we move water and then we move like
fire. We move air, sound, light and
ether. It's a somewhat guided and also
(29:51):
somewhat self-guided practice. Sometimes we connect to others,
sometimes we close our eyes and go deep inside.
Sometimes it's wild and raucous.It's it's really taking the
philosophy of yoga and taking itoff of the mat and into an open
space and letting our bodies often do whatever that that
(30:15):
prana, that energy guides you todo in relationship to the music
that you're hearing. Yeah.
I mean. Probably the best way to get
keep our energy flowing and openall of our energy channels and
all of our chakras in your opinion?
I don't know. I definitely think it's a great
one. I mean it, it is for me.
(30:36):
It's really helpful. I have to say, let your yoga
dance is probably the most joyous practice of for opening
chakras that I have found. Yoga, you know, on a mat is
probably a little more balancing, a little more
(30:58):
peaceful, I I would say, but also really powerful and moving
energy. But I think any time where
we're, as you were talking aboutworking out, I mean, working out
can be an amazing way to open upour chakras depending how we're
working out. If we're breathing and we're
present and we're mindful about how we're moving, I think it can
(31:19):
be tremendously helpful. Yeah.
And for those of you who are newto chakras and you're wondering
what we're talking about chakras, you can Google it,
obviously. But they're kind of like energy
centers. And sometimes just depending on
our life experiences and our temperament, they can get
(31:40):
blocked. So, you know, I think with with
me, I kind of went through life with my throat chakra a little
bit locked, not expressing my opinions and preferences.
And so sometimes you can just realize this, you know, out of
(32:02):
nowhere, realize that you feel alittle blocked somehow
emotionally. Or sometimes when you're working
out, dancing, doing yoga, you might have an aha moment like,
Oh my gosh, I make it easy for people to love me.
I'm a people pleaser or whateverthe case may be.
So like, it's a physical chakra.But also you can have more of an
(32:24):
aha moment where you realize where you've been shutting down
or blocked in some way. Yeah, chakras are amazingly
helpful, I think, to just as a way of seeing how our physical
bodies are connected to our energy bodies, to our mental
emotional bodies. They're like big processing
(32:47):
centers inside us. And the amazing thing I love
about them is we discover that if you do have an aha moment,
there are so many different waysto address it.
You can address it with doing specific yoga postures, for
instance. You can help it by doing a
(33:08):
particular breath technique. You could help it by using an
affirmation or a mantra. They're really so you can go in
through the body or through the breath or through the mind and
they're wonderfully accessible. They're actually very, I think,
very common sense at their foundation, really easy to use
(33:31):
and once you get a handle on them.
I'm doing a whole weekend on thechakras coming up at Kripalu in
April, and we do yoga postures and breathing techniques and a
little bit of off the mat yoga as well.
We use that affirmations and sound.
You were talking about the throat.
That's a big one for me. That's a one of my great
(33:56):
passions is working with Yoga ofthe voice because I think for so
many people not to make any generalizations, but I am going
to make a generalization. But especially I think women
find that we have inherited a kind of stuckness in the throat.
(34:18):
And just as you were saying, real, making that realization
and maybe making a mental shift,becoming aware of, oh, wow, this
pattern that I've, I've held in my life.
I don't, I don't express my preferences.
I don't ask for what I need. I, you know, I'm careful about,
(34:40):
you know, saying things that won't offend and making another
choice is huge. Yeah.
I also say to people, you know, to open up that that voice, that
throat chakra, just sing. Just start singing.
Doesn't matter what you sing. Sing in your car, sing in your
(35:00):
shower. But using the voice starts to
change all that. Being a teacher starts to change
that. I bet you found that being a
coach starts to change that. Yeah, ask your Alexa to play
some music. Ask your Siri to play some
music. And being a teacher helped me be
a more assertive parent. My kids are 9 and 13.
(35:23):
I was pushover spoiled the kids.My kids are wonderful and
perfectly well balanced, but I think teaching really helped me
up my parenting game and have better boundaries and standards
with my kids because it's good for them to give them structure.
And so teaching really helped mefind my voice and then also use
(35:46):
it to design the life I want so that my kids aren't running the
show, so that we all feel more in charge.
That's what happens when we findour voice and connect with all
of our power is we improve our lives.
And so the basic idea is in our energy system, we have a lot of
personal power. This is healing energy, healing
(36:07):
power that needs to flow. So just like with acupuncture,
you think about opening your energy channels or EFT is very
popular right now, Emotional freedom technique.
You tap on different spots on your body to open up the energy,
let it flow. Yeah, agreed.
(36:28):
Good for you and good for your kids too.
Yeah, we teach EFT in schools, emotional freedom technique and
tapping on little energy points on your body to let your energy
flow and then release some anxiety.
Yeah, and that's the same. It's interesting.
It's all, you know, we humans keep finding different ways to
(36:49):
the same end. I mean, yoga, same thing.
Chinese medicine, same thing. Everybody's looking for that
flow of energy. We feel better, we function
better, yeah. I was looking at a couple posts
that you had about your chakra retreat coming up, and when I
looked at all the colors of the chakra system, it just reminded
(37:11):
me of like a very academic graph, the Maslow's hierarchy of
needs. You know, like the base chakras
are for like stability and security.
And then we move up to self-expression and creativity.
And so that is, it's not just a bunch of woo woo chakra stuff
(37:31):
like we all these are basic human needs to live our best
lives. Yes, agreed.
Yes, the need to open up our security and our communication
and let our emotions flow, let our creativity and ideas flow.
Well, the last question that I had here is to ask you to talk a
(37:52):
little bit about Yoga of Voice and Yoga of yes.
So you were talking a little bitabout Yoga of voice and you can
walk us through a little Yoga ofvoice activity or just tell us
what it's about as well as the Yoga of yes.
Well, they're related and yet different.
(38:14):
Yoga of voice is really about using a combination of yoga
techniques and tools, as well aspieces from my theatre
background. So a lot of vocal breathing
techniques, tools of self-expression, bringing those
into a yoga practice. Sometimes that's a traditional
(38:36):
yoga practice, sometimes that's a less traditional yoga
practice, but where we're sounding and we're breathing or
we're chanting, we're singing. And the goal is to really free
in particular that that 5th chakra, that throat chakra,
which is all about self-expression, which is about
(38:58):
truth, the ability to speak our own truth.
And it's really fired up by the third chakra of which is the
fire center our, our power and our, our self assertion.
And that practice, yoga of voiceis really great for folks who
are wanting to cultivate more confidence, more sense of
(39:22):
freedom, of self-expression, aretrying to take themselves to the
the place of just feeling a little bit more like if they get
to take up a little bit more space in their world and in
their lives. Yoga of yes is similar, but a
little different. That also brings in tools and
(39:43):
techniques of my from my theaterbackground.
And it's really about using principles to tap into our our
inner intuition and moving from a place of less resistance in
our lives. It's really helpful when we're
in a sort of stuck, stagnant place and we're trying to get
going back into the river of life.
(40:07):
Yeah, when I think about yoga ofyes, I think about something my
friend just said. Is it a hell yes or is it a hell
no? You know, like if it feels like
a yes to you, then we know it's a yes.
And if it if it just hits weird,it feels off it's off Believe
(40:27):
it. Don't allow it into your life.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and then when I think of
yoga, of voice, I think of playing go Fish with my
elementary school students because I I was a behavior coach
for five years. So one thing I did with the kids
is Go fish because they connect to their voice.
(40:49):
They have to ask what they want.They have to tell their little
friend, hey, do you have an octopus?
And then you know that everyone has their hands of cards.
And then the little friend has to be like, no, go fish.
And they they kind of tell each other what to do.
They tell each other what they need.
Like goldfish is therapeutic. That's fantastic.
(41:11):
And I think, you know, you're just an example that we never
stop learning and growing and needing that cathartic play
therapy. That's what a lot of your
retreats are about, like the ad tricks, connecting to our
playful side, expressing ourselves.
And we need that at any age. Agreed.
(41:31):
Probably more so as we get older.
You know, we tend to, we start as we get older, we get more
responsible, we start to sort ofleave that play behind.
And it's essential for us as adults, it's essential to keep
that energy of the flexible mind.
(41:52):
As you were saying, that's why you let your yoga dance is so
wonderful. Put on a piece of music, get up
and move your body, and just in that playful, easy, uninhibited
way is a wonderful way to cultivate that playfulness.
Yeah, I don't know if you know, but kids these days, they have
little one wheels. It's like a skateboard with a
(42:14):
battery in it that you charge and then you stand on it and you
can hoverboard like around the house.
And my kids have these their favorite thing to do.
Like last winter, my cat hated it.
It was their favorite thing was like turn on the music and then
jump on their little hoverboardsand like hover around the.
House. Oh wow, it sounds either really
(42:36):
fun or really disastrous. That's great.
Yes, we can all use a little more play in our lives.
Well, Jurian, thank you so much for being here at Dissolving
Fear today. Do you have any last words of
wisdom or inspiration to share with us here on the podcast?
(42:57):
And please let everyone know where we can find you online.
Thank you, Alyssa. It's been such a joy.
If I could say one. Let's see my one piece of advice
every day. Do something that brings you
joy, whether that's. You know, for me, that means
(43:18):
turn on a piece of music and move my body.
That can mean sing, if that for you means, you know, set 10
minutes aside and, you know, getquiet.
That's a beautiful thing to do too.
But do something every day that that brings you joy.
And where can you find me next? Next thing I have on my plate is
(43:42):
at Kripalu. I'll be there April 4th through
the 6th for a chakra immersion weekend.
It is accessible for everyone, whether you are Yogi or not,
whether you've done no yoga or alittle yoga or a lot of yoga.
It's very accessible and very fun and I think pretty profound.
(44:03):
And if you're looking for me from the comfort of your own
home, you can always find me online.
I teach yoga online on Wednesdaymornings.
You can find me recorded at Juryand hughes.com.
I have a content library of over350 yoga classes you can find
there, as well as some Vimeo on Demand.
(44:25):
Well, thank you so much for being here.
Such a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me Alyssa,
lovely to talk to you. Well, that completes our
episode. If this podcast content felt
true for you, please leave a rating and review on Apple
Podcasts. Follow the podcast today and
keep exploring your favorite ways to dissolve fear and make
(44:47):
some room for your best life to unfold in fun and miraculous
ways. Believe in yourself, take care
of yourself, and thank you for being here.
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