May 13, 2025 • 47 mins
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Think yoga is just about touching your toes or striking the perfect pose for Instagram? Think again.
In this episode of the Deepen Your Practice challenge, Dee and I dive into the two most visible – yet often misunderstood – limbs of yoga: asana (physical postures) and pranayama (breathwork). While these are the most recognized aspects of yoga in the West, their true purpose goes far beyond flexibility or aesthetics.
Many people believe they can’t do yoga because they’re “not flexible enough” or their body doesn’t match the images they see online. But the truth? Yoga is for every body. Whether you're in a wheelchair, using props, or flowing through advanced poses, the practice meets you exactly where you are.
We share the inspiring story of B.K.S. Iyengar, who was once rejected from yoga classes due to his physical limitations. His response? He innovated props—like blocks and straps—to make yoga accessible to all. Today, props are a testament to the truth that accessibility is not a compromise; it's the heart of yoga.
Inside this episode:
- How sun salutations awaken energy and prepare the body for deeper practice
- Why heart-openers are essential in counterbalancing tech-induced posture
- What balancing poses teach us about humility, presence, and play
- The power of strength-based flows to build integrated body-mind resilience
- How asana becomes a mirror for our mental patterns, reactions, and emotions
- Why pranayama may be the most underutilized wellness tool in the West
We explore breath techniques like Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing), Kapalabhati (skull-shining breath), and Brahmari (bee breath), uncovering how they help regulate the nervous system, support mental clarity, and balance the brain hemispheres. With research showing that most Americans only use 10% of their lung capacity, it's time to reclaim the power of your breath.
This episode is a reminder that the essence of yoga is presence—a conscious connection to body, breath, and spirit. Whether you're showing up with a dozen props or flowing freely, this practice is for you.
✨ Join us as we continue to explore the Eight Limbs of Yoga—powerful tools for modern life, rooted in ancient wisdom. Because the answers we’re searching for? They’re already within us.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened Podcast, a high
vibe toolbox designed to helpyou connect to your body, mind
and spirit.
I'm your host, gianna Girusso,and I'm here to share tools,
conversations and insights tohelp you on your journey of
self-discovery.
This podcast is all aboutexploring what it means to live
a conscious, connected andnearly enlightened life, because
the truth is, the answersaren't outside of us, they
(00:22):
already lie within.
Let's dive in.
I'm joined again by d.
We're moving on into week threeof our deepen your practice
challenge and this is a littlepodcast support hello hello, yes
, podcast support.
I love that I know and I lovethat we're doing this, because
(00:42):
it's kind of like a living.
It'll stay forever.
It's like a living breathingthing, Diving into the eight
limbs of yoga.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It's basically like a chat, a training in in a
podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, a little mini training in a podcast, a little
mini education, so knowledge.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yes, spreading that knowledge.
So week three, we're talkingabout asana and pranayama, and
this is basically like the meatand potatoes of yoga.
This is like what we hear aboutin modern day classes.
These are basically I don'twant to say the only limbs that
we talk about, but I think thatthese are at the forefront of
what we talk about in modernWestern yoga.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And this, this is like.
So, when we talk about yoga,this is the reason why people
are like oh, I can't do that.
I can't do yoga, I can'tpractice.
My body's not flexible, I can'tdo that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, good point.
Yeah, it's not about touchingyour toes.
One of my biggest things, Ithink, as a teacher, is like
yoga is for every body, everybody, I mean I think I've
mentioned before on this podcastor to you, I can't remember,
but my first student ever was ina wheelchair, is in a
wheelchair.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, my gosh.
No, I don't think you've talkedabout this before.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, so, um, it was a learning experience for me,
but it was.
I mean, I would delivervegetables to her every week.
And then I told her I wastaking a month off because I was
going to be doing my teachertraining.
And when I came back and sawher for the first time after
training, she handed me anIyengar book and it was for
(02:33):
people who were in wheelchairs.
And she was like when can westart?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Oh my gosh, I have the goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, so it was.
You know, it really was, Ithink, a beautiful way for her
both her and I to give andreceive this like beautiful gift
, and it was awesome.
Like it took a few months, butonce I was able to, you know,
invite her down onto the mat, itjust things just continued to
(03:01):
improve.
You know, her scoliosisimproved.
It was a really wonderfulexperience that I had and I
think when people think that youhave to be able to touch your
toes or you have to be able tobe flexible, I mean I will
outright admit that I am not theyoga teacher that stands on the
head and does all these crazyinversions.
That's just not me, you know.
(03:23):
I think for me it's a lot aboutstrength, balance and
flexibility, which is what wewere posting on today.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, and I don't know if you saw my post today too,
but I saw this really great postof a yoga teacher and she was
using a folding chair for herstudent as a prop and basically,
uh, the premise of the the postwas like, okay, this is yoga,
(03:51):
without these props, these, thisflexible person who has an
advanced practice.
But this is also yoga.
The person who had he had twoblocks, he had a blanket, he had
a chair, um, and that too islike the advanced practice.
Actually, one of our challengeparticipants posted today that
she was like a little bitnervous about this part of the
challenge because she has someback issues and she's not
(04:13):
flexible and this isn't like thebulk of her practice, um, but
that's okay right.
It just goes to like there is ayoga for everybody.
You just have to find whatworks for you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly yeah, I often say those exact words in my, in
my classes too is like findwhat feels good and like stay
there and do that.
You know, find what feels goodfor you on the mat and off the
mat.
And that's the premise of thiswhole challenge that we're doing
, and I think it would.
You know, we have to includeasana because it is one of the
(04:52):
limbs, of the eight limbs ofyoga.
So we do have to include it.
But that doesn't mean I meantoday, today, my, my, my pose
was I was using a strap.
I am a big proponent of propsin my classes and I, I, even I
wanted to.
I didn't do this on purpose,but I, I actually, when I was
making that video, when I firstwas like editing it to post it,
(05:15):
I took out the part where I wasfalling over and I was like no,
absolutely not.
Like I have to include thatbecause that's yoga, like I have
to include that, because that'syoga.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yes, I love that.
Yeah, in my post from the otherday I have like a little.
You can't really see it becauseit's sped up, but I have a
little wobble and like almostfall over too, and that is part
of the practice.
And when I teach eitherstanding balances or arm
balances in my classes, that'swhat I talk about all the time
too.
It's like this is your playtime, this like fall out.
(05:49):
This is a controlled place tolike fall out, laugh, like, but
also see where your mind goes.
Because if it's go, if it, ifyou're falling out, you're
wiggling, you're wobbling.
Your first instinct is to putyourself down.
Negative self talk or like,like, get nasty, nasty.
Like, notice that that's greatinformation to have.
Like, how can we disrupt thatpattern?
(06:11):
How can we change that?
For it to be fun yeah, pro poseis a big one, like everyone's.
Like, oh, I'm gonna fall flaton my face.
It's like okay, well, you're ina controlled space to do so.
Like, put a block out in front,put it out in front, try it.
Yeah, fall like.
If you, if you fall, like laugh.
Or yeah, like mutter that swearunder your breath, or like
scream it loud, like yeah,that's so true.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I one of my students that I have is we do just that
we like laugh about.
I'm like, okay, we're going totry crow pose, we're going to
get into crow pose today, andshe's like, oh well, get me my
bolster over here please,because I'm gonna fall on my
face, and so we just you knowit's.
But as we continue to say here,like the practice, the more you
practice, the more you cancontinue to practice, and the
(06:57):
best way possible for you andyour body and I think the
challenge of the poses offersthe practitioner the opportunity
to explore and control allaspects of their emotions, just
like you were sayingconcentration, intent, faith and
unity between the physical andthe spiritual energies of your
body right, it's a tool, and Iwanted to go back actually
something about iangar, which Ibring up in my classes a lot,
(07:19):
because I actually don't useprops a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
When I first started started teaching, I did, and
then I came through like newphilosophy and now I don't use
props as much, but I see theirvalue in it for people who need
them and I love to tell myclasses like, if you need a
block, use a and bks.
Iangar is like the reason whywe have yoga props and I love
(07:46):
telling his story.
Um, he was kicked out of everyyoga class.
He was like not flexible, hewasn't good at it, and his he
came from a long line of like,basically like sages and gurus,
and he was basically like, oh mygod, I'm failure.
And so he went home and hestarted.
(08:08):
He started using cinder blocksand cinder blocks were the first
yoga props.
So that's what he used to bringthe ground closer to him, to
start to lengthen the hamstrings.
And this is what I say topeople who are like, oh, I can't
do yoga.
It's like well, this is why youneed yoga, because eventually,
yeah, you use those props, buteventually the hamstrings start
(08:28):
to open a little bit more.
Maybe you lengthen your psoas alittle bit more, you start to
let go of tension anddysfunction in the body and then
all of a sudden, bam, you don'tneed the blocks anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, totally, and it's definitely to like, I think
, to warm up those muscles, like, for example, like when I was
doing today with dancer I loveto practice with a band and then
when I actually do release theband or whatever and just use my
hand and my foot, it feelsreally good because I have, it's
like muscle memory.
Yeah, and you made that spaceExactly, exactly, yeah, so it's,
(09:03):
and I think, as you werementioning before, like all of
these postures and the asanasand the ones that might see
quote-unquote, difficult to somepeople, you know it's the
postures and the practice ofasana help us to it like fosters
a quieting of the mind, whichis, I think, what we're to flow
(09:24):
into, is like moving intobreathwork, because that's the
entire point of this limb ofyoga.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, it's, and I also say this like so.
Yoga was created 5,000 yearsago, basically for like 12 year
old boys, so like the point ofthe practice was to get them to
meditate and they needed to sitand meditate for six to eight
hours.
So how the fuck do you get 12year old boys to sit quietly for
(09:53):
eight hours?
Like it seems like animpossible task, but the point
of the practice was to move thatphysical energy out so that you
had the space to sit andmeditate.
I mean, there's lots of,there's lots of benefits to
asana, like most of the posesthey have not just like a body
(10:14):
benefit, but there's also likean internal body benefit where
it benefits like an organ systemor, yeah, there even.
Yeah, it's so multifaceted, butit this is why it's really a
science of well-being, becauseit was thoroughly thought out.
Like the, the limbs of yogaflow into one another.
(10:34):
It was, it's, it's a flawlessdesign.
It truly is yes um, so that thatis basically asana.
And so day 11, which was a fewdays ago um, we're like a few
days behind on the podcast, Iguess but, um, we did sun
(10:55):
salutations and that is like um,like a warm-up it's.
You know, it was intended to doat the top of the day to warm
up the body, to wake up the body, and again, it had like
specific um, it had like aspecific purpose and I talked
about in my poses, like I andthis is like maybe a challenge
(11:17):
for me so maybe next week in myclasses, if you're listening and
you go to bend or botega, likeget ready for this, um, but
maybe, like next week, I playwith some traditional sun
salutations in class yeah, Ithink that that's.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I mean I, I, I would challenge you to do that.
You know, I think it's that's.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You're gonna just be living the experience that we're
going through the challengeright now yeah, yeah, um, cause
usually like I just I'm more oflike a creative flower and I
like, uh, one of my, so maybeit's not super flawless, but one
of my I.
One of my only gripes with yogais that it's a very masculine
(11:58):
practice because, like I said,it was created 5,000 years ago
intended for men.
Now it's funny moving into,like, the modern world.
Like most of your yoga class,most of my yoga classes, are
predominantly women.
Yeah, so I like to bring inmore of like the feminine energy
to the flow.
So the way I flow is veryspecific.
(12:20):
It kind of like I use a lot ofdramatic arm movement.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You're also Italian, so that, just well, the arms and
the hands are just theextension of the heart chakra.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So like yes, um, yeah , so I bring in a lot more
feminine um aspects.
Like yoga is very up down, leftright, it's very linear.
So I like to bring more of likethat feminine flow and a lot of
my flows.
They are reminiscent of kind oflike a dance, because I feel
(12:54):
like that really helps youconnect one with your breath and
two with your body and itreally becomes a dance and it's
a way to tune out and to justbreathe and be in the moment
with the breath, with themovement, and it's really a
space to let go and that's why Iactually offer so the way my
classes go.
I basically have three flows andthey start to get like
(13:18):
progressively harder, but I setlike a solid foundation so that
you I'll walk you through once,nice and slow, and then I'll
walk you through a couple oftimes with the breath, and then
I leave space for students toflow on their own and whether
that's to continue what I taughtor it's to do your own thing,
(13:41):
and I think that that's a reallyimportant space in class and it
really helps to find that I sayit all the time it's like a
moving meditation.
It becomes just like you canclose your eyes and you can just
flow and breathe and like thethoughts fall away and it really
(14:01):
is just like like a great tool.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, I think it is.
I think I think once you havethe found it would be.
I'm excited to see how it goesIf you do do that, because I
think once, even like forexample, in my, in my teachings,
(14:27):
like I had one student who waslike can you audio message me
the sun salutation so that whenI'm traveling I can just put it
on and follow your words and doit myself.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Even though she wasn't going to have like a
class and she didn't have accessto virtual classes, like she
could just put this audio onbecause she knew the basis.
It's like this base foundation.
She knew the basis, it's likethis base foundation.
So, whether you're adding indramatic arm arms to each side
or right, you know, here andthere that can be your own thing
(14:54):
, but if you have this base,this sun salutation base, you
can just you can explore andmake it your own.
And that's like where I feellike as female teachers, we can
bring more of that in and spiceit up a little bit.
But I think it's going to beinteresting if you spice it up
with with the tradition.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I know I'll keep you posted on this.
Next Monday is going to bespicy.
So it's funny I actually used.
So the flow that we posted, letme get it.
Whenever we did.
I guess it was when we did so.
It was a couple of days ago, itwas two days ago.
(15:36):
The flow that I did is actuallywhat I've been teaching this
week, so that's kind of been fun.
Yeah, so if you come to classthis week you'll know what we'll
be doing.
Go check out my reel If youwant a little sneak peek.
(16:01):
And then day 12, we moved intoheart opening poses, and I love
heart opening poses just becausemodern technology is creating
pathologies that we didn't seebefore and yoga being a practice
of longevity, it reallysupports us in undoing those
things.
So I love heart opener posesfor this reason.
(16:23):
Because we spend so much timehunched over technology I mean
literally the both of us arehunched over technology right
now.
But yeah, we spend so much timelike hunched over technology.
Steering wheels just likenormal posture stuff, life stuff
just kind of like rolls theshoulders and it kind of makes
us like shrink in the chest.
(16:44):
So I think that heart openingposes are really like the
counter pose to life.
And I teach twice a week.
I teach like this therapeuticflow class, where it's like a
mixture of yin, restorativemeditation, breath work.
It's a really slow moving classand we start every single class
(17:05):
with a heart restorative, heartopener.
So either over blocks or abolster or, if you don't have
those kind of props, just throwa bunch of blankets and pillows,
get them between your shoulderblades and lie over them.
I love restorative heart openingposes.
I just I think there's there'sso much benefit there and like I
(17:25):
always tell my classes, if youdon't want to be that hunched
over little old lady like thisis what we're doing.
We're doing heart opening poses.
We're gonna keep that niceposture, we're gonna open up the
pecs.
We're doing.
We're doing heart opening poses.
We're going to keep that niceposture, we're going to open up
the pecs, we're going to resetthe upper spine.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, it does feel really good, I think, and this
is where see you do use props,yeah, I do.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
There's a time and a place.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
There is, and I think one of my favorite ways to use
a band is like putting it thatmy favorite ways to use a band
is like putting it, um, behindyour head, like behind the neck,
um, and then you bring it downbehind your back and cross it in
the front.
I do think I have a reel onthis, I'll have, maybe I'll
repost it Um, but it helps youkind of fasten the band around
(18:10):
your upper body so that you youcan't curve your shoulders and
you can't bring them in, becauseit keeps your chest open.
And I've taught an entire classwith that band in that in
fastens that way.
To specifically work on postureoh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So my gosh, I love that I'llhave to repost it or send it to
(18:33):
you so you can see how to do it,but I'll even do it while I'm
like chopping vegetables.
I think that's what the realwas like.
I do it in my house.
I've been cleaning my house.
I'll put that on because I can.
I can feel sometimes and evento like.
This is where emotions rightwith us and I come back in.
For me, personally, I know ifI'm like not feeling well, if I
have a lot of anxiety or feelingdepressed, like I will litter,
(18:56):
my shoulders will go in.
Yep, absolutely so it's.
You know how, as you weresaying, how can you counteract
that and bring open up yourheart, open your chest to life,
not just on the mat?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
to life.
Yes, and it can be, becausewe're not used to like leading
with our chest like that it canbe.
It can feel super vulnerableand in in my more restorative
classes like I love to useblankets here because the weight
on the chest or just feelinglike we're like a little bit
covered up, it just like, itjust feels nice, it feels like a
(19:32):
warm hug.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, and then we moved into day 13, which is
today balancing poses, which Ihad a lot of fun with.
I love balancing poses, whetherthey're standing or arm
balances.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I'm not great at inversions either, but I love to
teach them and sprinkle them inbecause they are fun and I
think it really helps us to nottake yoga so fucking seriously
yeah, oh my gosh, yeah, totallyand like we were saying in the
beginning of this, like if youcan involve laughter in the
classes and you know it'smedicinal, so any any time that
(20:12):
I'm working through a class withstudents and there's a balance,
sometimes what I'll do is we'llgo through it and I'll say like
, okay, I'll demonstrate.
And then like let's just havesome time where you guys play
around with it, literally withthose words, and I have some
students who don't even try,which that's fine, that's your
own thing.
I have other students who arelike in it and falling all over
the place and all this stuff andI think that's you know, it
(20:35):
allows the students to reallyand the practitioners to really
make it their own.
So if you can laugh, it justmakes it a little bit easier.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yes, that's like.
That's like laughing yoga, likehave you ever seen those videos
?
I think it's big in Japan, butthey basically just get together
, come in a circle and like theyjust laugh their ass off.
And there is so much healing inthat, like what is better than
like being with people you love,like friends, family, whoever
it is, and having one of thoselaugh moments where you your
(21:06):
belly hurts like you can'tcontain yourself it?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
loosens you up.
I actually one of my studentswho became one of my best
friends, she, she was like youneed to teach a laughing yoga
class.
And I was like I need I'm sorry, I need to teach a what.
And I looked into it and I justused.
So what I did is that I had agroup of people who were like
close friends and we did it.
It was hysterical, but it likeyou could feel any kind of grief
(21:33):
or anything you're goingthrough.
Fall off with that and thenguess what?
Your asana is going to be somuch easier for you to get into
because your body is not holdingso much tension.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh, my gosh.
I love that you have to do thatagain, maybe virtually, and I
want to take it.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's funny, it's like the silly.
It's silly is what it is.
So, like in the same way,you're saying like you know,
have fun with it, it doesn'tneed to be so serious, or like
if we're in I one thing I lovedoing as a teacher is like
you're in a pose, if you're inwarrior one or you're in
whatever, and you like tell ajoke or whatever like to make
(22:12):
people like relax a little bit.
You know, it's like sometimeswe're in, like you're saying
like this very masculine waywhere we feel like all the poses
need to be rigid and this in acertain way and that angle and
blah, blah and yes, that isimportant.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And like soften your jaw, jaw, relax, relax your
shoulders, like this is yes, Ialways like I'm always gripping
in my the front of my neck, likethere's just so many places
where it's like, if I really payattention to it, it's like,
(22:48):
okay, I'm in this pose, but holyshit, I'm holding on to all
this tension yeah, it'sincredible and you don't even
realize it and like, even whenyou get into, for example, and
you're ending your class,whether you have students in
Savasana or however you end yourclass, you know, it's always
incredible to me when I'm alwayslike, okay, relax this, relax
that.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And even myself I'm like, oh my gosh, my jaw, like
just touching my own face as Isay that.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So when I first started practicing yoga, I would
do this crazy thing in hardposes where I would pull, which
is funny.
It's kind of faith yoga.
So maybe I was onto something,but I would pull my lips over my
teeth and I would like fight onmy lips so hard why, I don't
know.
It's just like where I held mytension and it's something that
(23:41):
I learned to catch and now I trynot to do it as much.
But if you look at old like I,there was a picture of me from
I'll have to try and find it andpost it but there was a picture
of me from electric forest likeway back in the day.
So it's like that's a big musicfestival and they had like this
(24:01):
awesome yoga class to livemusic every day and my friend
Michaela and I went she's beenon the podcast before um, but we
went to yoga and she took acouple of photos of me during
yoga and I'm just doing thatface.
There's like two differentpictures and that was the big
like seeing.
(24:21):
It was like what am I doing?
And then I started noticing it.
It's like this weird like holdof tension thing that I would do
in hard poses.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's incredible, but that's what doing this helps you
understand your body and theway and where you're holding it.
That's the magic of asana.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
It is.
And then that moves us into day14, which is working on
strength building flow.
And I love this because wethink of yoga as a flexible,
because we think of yoga as aflexible, like stretchy, kind of
practice.
But really the practice ismeant to be fire building, it's
(25:02):
meant to be strength building.
And some of the poses arefucking hard.
And they were meant to be hard.
They were meant to bring upthat muscle shake.
They were meant to bring youand I say this in my yoga class
a lot the yoga poses are hardBecause they were meant to bring
you to those deep, dark placesof your mind.
So you can practice letting thatgo and I use this example in my
(25:24):
classes a lot and goddess pose,because that is a strong,
sometimes uncomfortable posebecause it's a hip opener.
You're squatting down like ifyou've ever done wall sits.
This is basically like yoga'swall sit, only without the wall.
I mean you could do it with thewall.
That would be a great, a greatway to go deeper.
(25:44):
But yeah, so I teach that inthe middle of my flows and, like
I said the first time, througha flow I take everyone through
nice and slow.
So we'll hold goddess for eightto ten breaths and people.
You know that.
That makes you want to come out.
It makes you like I know myteacher.
I got this from my teacher inarizona, anton mackie, which
(26:05):
like someday I'm gonna get himon this damn podcast.
But there was a time when Ifirst moved to arizona that
between both sides of the flowleft side, right side we were
holding goddess for like fiveminutes.
His class is very fast movingand it's like definitely a flow
(26:26):
class, but he would take thetime to stop and let us simmer
simmer in it, sit in it and thatmakes your mind go to like some
crazy places, like it can bringup some crazy things, it you
really meet your self-doubt,like that's for me, like when
negative self-talk comes up,that's when I want to bail and
(26:48):
give up.
Um, so it's the.
It's really a great tool tohelp to focus the mind.
Like where does be the observer?
Where does your mind go whenthe poses are bringing up heat,
when they're, when it's hot inthe room?
Like where does your mind goand how can you practice keeping
(27:08):
it in center or not justkeeping it in center, but just
coming back, just letting it goand coming back?
I'm snapping over here.
So I love.
I love a good strength buildingflow and anyone who's listening
, who has come to my powerclasses, is like, yes, because
my classes.
I am known as the hard yogateacher.
Yeah, around around RhodeIsland lately and it's funny
(27:33):
because people used to think myclasses were easy and now that
I've kind of like honed in on myteaching, people are always
challenged in a delicious way,like it's not I'm going to push
you outside of your comfort zone, but it's going to be hard.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, you're evolving , yes, and I think it's.
It's probably one of thefoundations too.
I think you know people youknow, even if you're not quote
unquote as flexible as you wantto be or as you think you might
need to be, this is where youcan also to really, I feel like,
get a good.
(28:11):
I don't I want to say workout,but I also want to say, just
like the form, like this, thegiving some love to your muscles
where it's needed.
And I think one point I wouldlove to point out, because I
think that I've done this evenas just like not even as a
teacher just as someone whopractices yoga, I think I think
(28:35):
sometimes we, as we're flowingand stuff, can have the I don't
want to say, I want to say thislike sink into our joints rather
than building the muscle Like Iused to do that.
I used to do that, and so Ithink that that, as you were,
like you were just saying, likeevolving as a teacher, as a
(28:56):
practitioner and now as ateacher too, making sure, okay,
having my eyes half the time,I'm not even demonstrating, I'm
speaking, I'm cuing, I'mwatching people's where their,
their legs are and, yes, like Iwas saying before, like the way
you are positioned with yourfeet and your arms and your,
your, you know your core, it allit really does matter.
(29:17):
But I think that that's where Ifeel like evolving as a teacher
.
I've come to this place whereit's like really making sure I'm
watching where people are, youknow, maybe sinking a little bit
too forward, like that.
That's to me is saying like,okay, like I need to cue better
to understand that how do yousay it and not how do you say it
in English Anatomy, anatomy ofthe body to be able to say the
(29:44):
muscles, the bones, where you'regoing and how, so people feel
engaged.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So that their muscles are engaged.
Yes, that's, I say it in myclass all the time this is a
full body experience.
Like there's a differencebetween putting your hands up
and having your hands being likelike limb hands and really
engaging the hands, opening upthe fingers Like you're like
shooting firecrackers from yourfingers.
Like there is a difference.
(30:10):
And going back to why it'sbeneficial physically, like we
are literally because of moderntechnology, we are literally
losing the ability to open ourhands wide.
We see more cases of carpaltunnel and all kinds of wrist
dysfunction, and this is thereason.
It's because we're losing theability to open up our hands.
(30:30):
And and so I talk about this inmy yoga class all the time like
you can throw your arms up andthey can not be engaged and they
can be like limp noodles upthere, or you can really engage
from fingertips to toes and feelthat full body experience,
because it's easy to rest inyour bones, it's easy to rest in
the flexibility.
It's easy to fake it and notengage the muscles, but like
(30:52):
you're and I say this in myclasses too you're just cheating
yourself, like I yes, I know Ican tell if you're faking it or
not, but like it doesn't matterto me.
Like this is your experience,like what are you getting out of
this?
So if you're half-assing itlike, why are you even here?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And that's my spicy yoga teacher and I definitely
bring that to the yoga sphereLike, yeah, I'm a little on the
spicier side.
I'm going to push you and Ithink that's why, like, I've had
a couple instances where peoplecome to my class and like they
don't like me because like I'mgoing to push you and I'm going
to hold up that mirror for youand show you those places that
(31:33):
you don't like and that youdon't want to look at.
But nine times out of 10, ifthe student sticks with it and
comes back, they end up lovingme, loving my classes, and not
only does their practice expandexponentially, but, like they,
they literally have atransformation.
Like you can see it, peoplelook different, and I'm not
(31:53):
talking about losing weight.
It's like a glow that peoplehave about them.
That is different.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
It's amazing what a deep breath will do to the body.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Literally.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I think so much of us are just suffering from having
poor posture and no deep breath.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yes, and so many of us, and I think this is coming
up in.
So stay tuned for email fromday 15, because this is what we
talk about in day 15.
A lot of us in modern cultureare we spend too much time
sitting and it again it'screating pathologies that didn't
(32:34):
exist before or that weren't ascommon because people were more
active.
Like we see more hip and lowback dysfunction.
That's what so many people cometo yoga for.
Oh my, my chiropractor saidthis would be good for me.
My PT said this would be goodfor me.
My doctor recommended I come toyoga to loosen up my hips.
It's like I hear that 30 timesa day, probably, and it's
(32:59):
because we're coming from a verysedentary sedentary.
I can't say that word, so I'mjust going to make it up, but I
hope everyone knows what I'mtalking about.
Um, we come from a verysedentary lifestyle.
We said a lot.
I just make up my own English.
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Sedentary.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I have to, I have to spell it out.
It's so.
It's such a hard word.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Why?
Why, my brain is in spanish, soI can't really I mean, that's
amazing, I wish not the woman toask.
Anyone who knows me will tellyou that I do not have very my
expansive vocabulary anyways,but okay, said in terry.
Said in terry, I'm saying itphonetically, so anyone that was
(33:44):
wondering.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Thank you um, it's an adjective and it means tending
to spend much time seated,somewhat inactive yeah, no, no
and well, I think it's just.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, there's so much difference at our bodies as you
were, you know.
That's why there's that wholebig thing about doing 10 K steps
a day.
Why?
Because we've always beenwalking like five K a day.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
I know and honestly, like six to 10,000 steps when
you really like think about it,it doesn't seem like that much.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
No, it's.
It's really not like if you'renot sitting in a desk, it's
really not.
I'm like my sister alwayslaughs at me.
She's like I don't know whyyou're counting your steps,
because you live on a farm andyou're on your feet literally
all day, like, and so I?
But I got it.
I got one of those like funtracker things to like check
(34:43):
myself and I was was like oh,okay, like I'm losing my mind
because you know, I don't knowyou do have days when, and if
you do have days where you justsit and rot, like, that's okay
too.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yes, oh my God, yes, that's so healing and for me,
like I'm a projector in humandesign, so like sometimes I need
that time to literally have abrain break and not do anything.
Integrate, integrate, yes, Imean yes.
We talk about asana likeshavasana is the most important
of all the poses and you're justlying there and you know I
(35:14):
always end my classes sayingthat, like, this is the most
important asana, right here yeah, I actually start a lot of my
classes in Shavasana as well.
I love that.
I've done that a couple oftimes.
We always start in child's pose.
Um, because, like for the last,like I would say almost a year
now I've been on and you'veprobably seen it in my reels,
(35:37):
but I've been on this kick of awarm-up.
Um, that's like child's pose,child's pose, the tabletop,
tabletop to bear bear to highplank, lower down, inhale to
cobra, exhale it back to child'spose.
It feels so good in the bodyand again bringing those like
(35:57):
circular emotions and notthinking about linear, but
really like undulating andmoving the spine it is.
It is like such a great way tostart a class.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Love that.
It looks nice and juicy.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
It feels so good in your body.
And so, yeah, for the last likeyear I've been starting all of
my classes with some variationof that Like, sometimes we throw
a camel in there, sometimes Ithink you did that in your post
yesterday.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it um
, so yeah, that's hip opener,and then that moves us to day 16
.
So we're like officiallyhalfway through this challenge,
which is fucking wild.
It feels good.
It feels so good and it's beenso validating and not that this
(36:51):
is why we did this, but it feelsso validating that so many
people have come to me and said,like these emails are
incredible, like I'm learningnew things, I'm being reminded
of things that I forgot.
So I think it's just been likea really awesome journey and I
know we've said this a bunch Idon't know if we've said it on
(37:11):
here, but we've said it to eachother Like this challenge it
turned out was like for us.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And it's so awesome that other people are benefiting
from it too.
Yes, well, I think, yeah, forsure.
I think we're learning a lot,even just like I'll say this
really quickly on the back endlearning a lot, but also on,
like, actual knowledge andwisdom that we're sharing with
people.
I think, you know, it'sbringing, as we mentioned all
these things that, yes, we knew,but it's like bringing
everything back up to thesurface and allowing us,
(37:43):
allowing that to simmer here andbring it back into not just our
practices and our teachings andour classes, but just into our
everyday life.
You know, it's accountability,like I do want to be someone who
practices what they preach.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yes, absolutely.
I mean there is.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And that's what I would love.
You know, that's I think youwere saying, like that's who
we're evolving to be, and if wecan take people along with us,
like come on in, like what is itfrom?
Like get in losers, we're going, whatever.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
And that moves us into Pranayama breathwork, life
force, energy.
Oh, I think Dee cut out on us.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Hopefully she comes back back sorry, I don't know
what the that moves us intopranayama life force energy.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
We might have cut out a little bit.
I don't know how this audio isgoing to be, but we'll see again
.
This is a work in progress andit's a learning experience for
me we're flowing we're flowing,we're breathing, um, but breath
work is such an important partof the practice and when I first
started teaching yoga as a babyyoga teacher, I came across
(39:11):
this study, um, and now it's alittle bit outdated, so I'd love
to see, like an update on thisstudy, but it was done in about
2010, I want to say.
But that study said and it wasthrough the American heart and
lung association, so that studysaid that the average American
only uses about 10% of theirlung capacity in an entire
(39:32):
lifetime, and that absolutelyblew me away.
Like we're taking short,stagnant breaths and this is a
lot of times, just contributingto, like, anxiety dysfunction,
um, dysregulation, anxietydysfunction, dysregulation,
disease, like yeah, you name itLike the breath is so important
(39:52):
I mean, it is literally what'skeeping us alive Like if you
don't have the breath, you willcease to exist.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It's the first thing we do when we're born and it's
the last thing we do before wedie.
And you can eat.
You can live without eating orwater for a few days, but you
can't live without your breath.
And I think that when we learnto breathe in like a conscious
way, you know half of us aren'teven breathing correctly.
(40:20):
I know I mean doing it theopposite way.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, and we talk about mouth breathing and how it
is literally causingdysfunction and development of
the jaw and how it cancontribute to tooth decay.
It's just there's.
So the breath is so importantand learning to breathe in and
out of your nose is a huge pieceof health.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
It's huge.
I even like, as you know, as amother like I, my son was having
this thing where he wassleeping with his mouth open and
this might be crunchy to somepeople, but it concerned me
because their his brain is stilldeveloping and when he's not
breathing like, his nervoussystem can't be fully, like,
(41:11):
detoxed and regenerated.
This is for anyone, not justhim, anyone.
If he's breathing through hismouth, he's not taking a deep
breath.
So I was like you know, Ibrought him to a chiropractor
and all these things to to see,and you know I think we're doing
a good job.
But that's why people likeyou'll see that the new crazy is
with mouth taping.
(41:32):
Yeah, because, but I will tellyou this, like the people who
have spoken to that do that arelike I've never slept better in
my life.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
My anxiety is half of what it was I so being sick,
being congested, is one of theworst things for me, because I
cannot stand breathing throughmy mouth, Like now that I know
and I'm conscious of it I'vebeen practicing this for about
13 years.
It's like breathing through mymouth makes me insane and there
are certain breathworktechniques that, yeah, you do a
little bit of mouth breathing,but I'm talking like on a whole,
(42:11):
as a majority, like for most ofyour day, you should be
breathing in and out of yournose.
There are so many benefits tobreathing in and out of your
nose.
It moistens the air that webreathe, it filters the air that
we breathe before it gets tothe lungs.
Like there are so many benefitsof breathing through the nose,
so I think that taps it.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh sorry, oh no, no, go ahead.
I was gonna say it taps backinto tapas.
So it's like you're creatingthis purification of your body.
Amen, that's what I feel likewhen you start to understand and
connect all these things.
You said, like, as you begansaying that this is a flawless
(42:52):
design, like it really was, likethey all.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It's like this beautiful puzzle and you just
can put all the pieces intogether and they all fit so
beautifully and this is hownearlyened was born because I
feel like yoga as a whole is acollection of tools and it's
like, basically in thisbeautifully packaged little
toolbox and it's like here yougo, here's the tools to get you
(43:16):
through the hard shit, here'sthe tools to get you through the
good shit.
Like this is the tools for lifeand learning all of these
techniques really has been likebuilding my own personal toolbox
and like once I had these toolsand techniques under my belt,
like I wanted to share them like.
And that brings us into thetypes of breath work.
(43:40):
So we're going into naughtyShodana, alternate nostril
breathing.
This is one of my favoritebreathwork techniques for
anxiety.
It also helps to balance theright and left hemisphere of the
brain.
Like they knew this 5,000 yearsago.
It blows my mind, but NadiShodhana is a great way to relax
the central nervous system.
It's a great breathwork to dobefore bed.
(44:04):
It's also a detoxifyingpractice.
Any of the breath works are andyeah, so naughty should on an
alternate nostril breathing is afavorite one for me and like
way back when I was a baby yogateacher, I actually used to
start all of my classes with itand I maybe need to bring that
back too.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I love that.
I love that.
Yeah, I think it's great.
You can throw it in anywhere to, like you know, even if you get
into and you're done with thefire, the physical asana in your
class and you want to just haveyou know students go through
that.
I think that that's.
I love doing that too.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Recently I just taught sitali breath, which is
like you make like the hot dogwith your tongue and you breathe
through it and that's like acooling breath.
So I thought that that wassuper fun and like again, a way
to bring something silly intoyoga.
That's like beneficial but likeeveryone's gonna laugh at
themselves doing that because itfeels so silly, yeah.
(45:01):
And then we're going into day18 kapalabhati, skull shining
breath, and this is're goinginto day 18.
Kapala Bhatti skull shiningbreath and this is an energizing
breath.
It's a way to bring some likefire in.
It's also great.
So this time of year in NewEngland we're like in the thick
of spring.
There's I told you like at thetop of this podcast before we
started recording, but it iswe're full of pollen here and
(45:28):
this is actually a great breathto do for um allergy season
because it helps to just likeclear out the nose and the
sinuses keep the pathways clearand functioning properly.
Yes, and then that brings us tothe last day of this little
section of asana and breath work, which is Brahmari, or like be
(45:53):
buzz breath or be breath, andthis is really great for
focusing the mind, for calminganxiety.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
System regulation.
I love this one yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
And again, a silly little fun thing to do, like a
great thing to teach childrenbecause they kind of do it
naturally.
So, yeah, I just I love thesebreathwork techniques, and so
stay tuned for our posts onthose.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah, those will be fun to do More.
Yeah, like be fun.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yes, and I think that wraps us up for week three.
You have anything to add, or?
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Um, I just am super happy.
I just feel really grateful foreveryone that has signed up and
is participating.
Whether you're doing it loudlyon social media or you're doing
it in the quiet of your own home, I think I'm just, I'm just
really I don't know.
I'm just really grateful foryou, gianna, for doing this
alongside with me, and foreveryone that's involved,
(46:59):
because you know it's it's, itcreates community, and I think
that it's a ripple.
It just creates a ripple and Ithink that it just feels really
good.
So, thank you to everyone who'slistening, who's participating,
who's going to participate orwho just is here for the
knowledge and the conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yes, or even if you're just listening to the
podcast.
These are great tools, like Isaid, tools to just have in your
back pocket, yeah, and whenyou're ready for them, you know
where to find us, yeah.
Well, thank you so much fortuning into today's episode of
the Nearly Enlightened podcast.
If this conversation resonatedwith you, I would love it if you
(47:36):
shared it, leave a review, orif you reach out and let me know
your thoughts on it.
And if you're looking for moreways to deepen your connection
to body, mind and spirit, checkout my meditate to elevate my
guided meditation portal, orvisit nearly enlightenedcom for
more resources.
Until next time, stay curious,stay connected and remember the
answers already lie within.
Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened Podcast, a high
vibe toolbox designed to helpyou connect to your body, mind
and spirit.
I'm your host, gianna Girusso,and I'm here to share tools,
conversations and insights tohelp you on your journey of
self-discovery.
This podcast is all aboutexploring what it means to live
a conscious, connected andnearly enlightened life, because
the truth is, the answersaren't outside of us, they
(00:22):
already lie within.
Let's dive in.
I'm joined again by d.
We're moving on into week threeof our deepen your practice
challenge and this is a littlepodcast support hello hello, yes
, podcast support.
I love that I know and I lovethat we're doing this, because
(00:42):
it's kind of like a living.
It'll stay forever.
It's like a living breathingthing, Diving into the eight
limbs of yoga.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It's basically like a chat, a training in in a
podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, a little mini training in a podcast, a little
mini education, so knowledge.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yes, spreading that knowledge.
So week three, we're talkingabout asana and pranayama, and
this is basically like the meatand potatoes of yoga.
This is like what we hear aboutin modern day classes.
These are basically I don'twant to say the only limbs that
we talk about, but I think thatthese are at the forefront of
what we talk about in modernWestern yoga.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And this, this is like.
So, when we talk about yoga,this is the reason why people
are like oh, I can't do that.
I can't do yoga, I can'tpractice.
My body's not flexible, I can'tdo that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, good point.
Yeah, it's not about touchingyour toes.
One of my biggest things, Ithink, as a teacher, is like
yoga is for every body, everybody, I mean I think I've
mentioned before on this podcastor to you, I can't remember,
but my first student ever was ina wheelchair, is in a
wheelchair.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, my gosh.
No, I don't think you've talkedabout this before.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, so, um, it was a learning experience for me,
but it was.
I mean, I would delivervegetables to her every week.
And then I told her I wastaking a month off because I was
going to be doing my teachertraining.
And when I came back and sawher for the first time after
training, she handed me anIyengar book and it was for
(02:33):
people who were in wheelchairs.
And she was like when can westart?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Oh my gosh, I have the goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, so it was.
You know, it really was, Ithink, a beautiful way for her
both her and I to give andreceive this like beautiful gift
, and it was awesome.
Like it took a few months, butonce I was able to, you know,
invite her down onto the mat, itjust things just continued to
(03:01):
improve.
You know, her scoliosisimproved.
It was a really wonderfulexperience that I had and I
think when people think that youhave to be able to touch your
toes or you have to be able tobe flexible, I mean I will
outright admit that I am not theyoga teacher that stands on the
head and does all these crazyinversions.
That's just not me, you know.
(03:23):
I think for me it's a lot aboutstrength, balance and
flexibility, which is what wewere posting on today.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, and I don't know if you saw my post today too,
but I saw this really great postof a yoga teacher and she was
using a folding chair for herstudent as a prop and basically,
uh, the premise of the the postwas like, okay, this is yoga,
(03:51):
without these props, these, thisflexible person who has an
advanced practice.
But this is also yoga.
The person who had he had twoblocks, he had a blanket, he had
a chair, um, and that too islike the advanced practice.
Actually, one of our challengeparticipants posted today that
she was like a little bitnervous about this part of the
challenge because she has someback issues and she's not
(04:13):
flexible and this isn't like thebulk of her practice, um, but
that's okay right.
It just goes to like there is ayoga for everybody.
You just have to find whatworks for you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly yeah, I often say those exact words in my, in
my classes too is like findwhat feels good and like stay
there and do that.
You know, find what feels goodfor you on the mat and off the
mat.
And that's the premise of thiswhole challenge that we're doing
, and I think it would.
You know, we have to includeasana because it is one of the
(04:52):
limbs, of the eight limbs ofyoga.
So we do have to include it.
But that doesn't mean I meantoday, today, my, my, my pose
was I was using a strap.
I am a big proponent of propsin my classes and I, I, even I
wanted to.
I didn't do this on purpose,but I, I actually, when I was
making that video, when I firstwas like editing it to post it,
(05:15):
I took out the part where I wasfalling over and I was like no,
absolutely not.
Like I have to include thatbecause that's yoga, like I have
to include that, because that'syoga.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yes, I love that.
Yeah, in my post from the otherday I have like a little.
You can't really see it becauseit's sped up, but I have a
little wobble and like almostfall over too, and that is part
of the practice.
And when I teach eitherstanding balances or arm
balances in my classes, that'swhat I talk about all the time
too.
It's like this is your playtime, this like fall out.
(05:49):
This is a controlled place tolike fall out, laugh, like, but
also see where your mind goes.
Because if it's go, if it, ifyou're falling out, you're
wiggling, you're wobbling.
Your first instinct is to putyourself down.
Negative self talk or like,like, get nasty, nasty.
Like, notice that that's greatinformation to have.
Like, how can we disrupt thatpattern?
(06:11):
How can we change that?
For it to be fun yeah, pro poseis a big one, like everyone's.
Like, oh, I'm gonna fall flaton my face.
It's like okay, well, you're ina controlled space to do so.
Like, put a block out in front,put it out in front, try it.
Yeah, fall like.
If you, if you fall, like laugh.
Or yeah, like mutter that swearunder your breath, or like
scream it loud, like yeah,that's so true.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I one of my students that I have is we do just that
we like laugh about.
I'm like, okay, we're going totry crow pose, we're going to
get into crow pose today, andshe's like, oh well, get me my
bolster over here please,because I'm gonna fall on my
face, and so we just you knowit's.
But as we continue to say here,like the practice, the more you
practice, the more you cancontinue to practice, and the
(06:57):
best way possible for you andyour body and I think the
challenge of the poses offersthe practitioner the opportunity
to explore and control allaspects of their emotions, just
like you were sayingconcentration, intent, faith and
unity between the physical andthe spiritual energies of your
body right, it's a tool, and Iwanted to go back actually
something about iangar, which Ibring up in my classes a lot,
(07:19):
because I actually don't useprops a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
When I first started started teaching, I did, and
then I came through like newphilosophy and now I don't use
props as much, but I see theirvalue in it for people who need
them and I love to tell myclasses like, if you need a
block, use a and bks.
Iangar is like the reason whywe have yoga props and I love
(07:46):
telling his story.
Um, he was kicked out of everyyoga class.
He was like not flexible, hewasn't good at it, and his he
came from a long line of like,basically like sages and gurus,
and he was basically like, oh mygod, I'm failure.
And so he went home and hestarted.
(08:08):
He started using cinder blocksand cinder blocks were the first
yoga props.
So that's what he used to bringthe ground closer to him, to
start to lengthen the hamstrings.
And this is what I say topeople who are like, oh, I can't
do yoga.
It's like well, this is why youneed yoga, because eventually,
yeah, you use those props, buteventually the hamstrings start
(08:28):
to open a little bit more.
Maybe you lengthen your psoas alittle bit more, you start to
let go of tension anddysfunction in the body and then
all of a sudden, bam, you don'tneed the blocks anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, totally, and it's definitely to like, I think
, to warm up those muscles, like, for example, like when I was
doing today with dancer I loveto practice with a band and then
when I actually do release theband or whatever and just use my
hand and my foot, it feelsreally good because I have, it's
like muscle memory.
Yeah, and you made that spaceExactly, exactly, yeah, so it's,
(09:03):
and I think, as you werementioning before, like all of
these postures and the asanasand the ones that might see
quote-unquote, difficult to somepeople, you know it's the
postures and the practice ofasana help us to it like fosters
a quieting of the mind, whichis, I think, what we're to flow
(09:24):
into, is like moving intobreathwork, because that's the
entire point of this limb ofyoga.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, it's, and I also say this like so.
Yoga was created 5,000 yearsago, basically for like 12 year
old boys, so like the point ofthe practice was to get them to
meditate and they needed to sitand meditate for six to eight
hours.
So how the fuck do you get 12year old boys to sit quietly for
(09:53):
eight hours?
Like it seems like animpossible task, but the point
of the practice was to move thatphysical energy out so that you
had the space to sit andmeditate.
I mean, there's lots of,there's lots of benefits to
asana, like most of the posesthey have not just like a body
(10:14):
benefit, but there's also likean internal body benefit where
it benefits like an organ systemor, yeah, there even.
Yeah, it's so multifaceted, butit this is why it's really a
science of well-being, becauseit was thoroughly thought out.
Like the, the limbs of yogaflow into one another.
(10:34):
It was, it's, it's a flawlessdesign.
It truly is yes um, so that thatis basically asana.
And so day 11, which was a fewdays ago um, we're like a few
days behind on the podcast, Iguess but, um, we did sun
(10:55):
salutations and that is like um,like a warm-up it's.
You know, it was intended to doat the top of the day to warm
up the body, to wake up the body, and again, it had like
specific um, it had like aspecific purpose and I talked
about in my poses, like I andthis is like maybe a challenge
(11:17):
for me so maybe next week in myclasses, if you're listening and
you go to bend or botega, likeget ready for this, um, but
maybe, like next week, I playwith some traditional sun
salutations in class yeah, Ithink that that's.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I mean I, I, I would challenge you to do that.
You know, I think it's that's.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You're gonna just be living the experience that we're
going through the challengeright now yeah, yeah, um, cause
usually like I just I'm more oflike a creative flower and I
like, uh, one of my, so maybeit's not super flawless, but one
of my I.
One of my only gripes with yogais that it's a very masculine
(11:58):
practice because, like I said,it was created 5,000 years ago
intended for men.
Now it's funny moving into,like, the modern world.
Like most of your yoga class,most of my yoga classes, are
predominantly women.
Yeah, so I like to bring inmore of like the feminine energy
to the flow.
So the way I flow is veryspecific.
(12:20):
It kind of like I use a lot ofdramatic arm movement.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You're also Italian, so that, just well, the arms and
the hands are just theextension of the heart chakra.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So like yes, um, yeah , so I bring in a lot more
feminine um aspects.
Like yoga is very up down, leftright, it's very linear.
So I like to bring more of likethat feminine flow and a lot of
my flows.
They are reminiscent of kind oflike a dance, because I feel
(12:54):
like that really helps youconnect one with your breath and
two with your body and itreally becomes a dance and it's
a way to tune out and to justbreathe and be in the moment
with the breath, with themovement, and it's really a
space to let go and that's why Iactually offer so the way my
classes go.
I basically have three flows andthey start to get like
(13:18):
progressively harder, but I setlike a solid foundation so that
you I'll walk you through once,nice and slow, and then I'll
walk you through a couple oftimes with the breath, and then
I leave space for students toflow on their own and whether
that's to continue what I taughtor it's to do your own thing,
(13:41):
and I think that that's a reallyimportant space in class and it
really helps to find that I sayit all the time it's like a
moving meditation.
It becomes just like you canclose your eyes and you can just
flow and breathe and like thethoughts fall away and it really
(14:01):
is just like like a great tool.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, I think it is.
I think I think once you havethe found it would be.
I'm excited to see how it goesIf you do do that, because I
think once, even like forexample, in my, in my teachings,
(14:27):
like I had one student who waslike can you audio message me
the sun salutation so that whenI'm traveling I can just put it
on and follow your words and doit myself.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Even though she wasn't going to have like a
class and she didn't have accessto virtual classes, like she
could just put this audio onbecause she knew the basis.
It's like this base foundation.
She knew the basis, it's likethis base foundation.
So, whether you're adding indramatic arm arms to each side
or right, you know, here andthere that can be your own thing
(14:54):
, but if you have this base,this sun salutation base, you
can just you can explore andmake it your own.
And that's like where I feellike as female teachers, we can
bring more of that in and spiceit up a little bit.
But I think it's going to beinteresting if you spice it up
with with the tradition.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I know I'll keep you posted on this.
Next Monday is going to bespicy.
So it's funny I actually used.
So the flow that we posted, letme get it.
Whenever we did.
I guess it was when we did so.
It was a couple of days ago, itwas two days ago.
(15:36):
The flow that I did is actuallywhat I've been teaching this
week, so that's kind of been fun.
Yeah, so if you come to classthis week you'll know what we'll
be doing.
Go check out my reel If youwant a little sneak peek.
(16:01):
And then day 12, we moved intoheart opening poses, and I love
heart opening poses just becausemodern technology is creating
pathologies that we didn't seebefore and yoga being a practice
of longevity, it reallysupports us in undoing those
things.
So I love heart opener posesfor this reason.
(16:23):
Because we spend so much timehunched over technology I mean
literally the both of us arehunched over technology right
now.
But yeah, we spend so much timelike hunched over technology.
Steering wheels just likenormal posture stuff, life stuff
just kind of like rolls theshoulders and it kind of makes
us like shrink in the chest.
(16:44):
So I think that heart openingposes are really like the
counter pose to life.
And I teach twice a week.
I teach like this therapeuticflow class, where it's like a
mixture of yin, restorativemeditation, breath work.
It's a really slow moving classand we start every single class
(17:05):
with a heart restorative, heartopener.
So either over blocks or abolster or, if you don't have
those kind of props, just throwa bunch of blankets and pillows,
get them between your shoulderblades and lie over them.
I love restorative heart openingposes.
I just I think there's there'sso much benefit there and like I
(17:25):
always tell my classes, if youdon't want to be that hunched
over little old lady like thisis what we're doing.
We're doing heart opening poses.
We're gonna keep that niceposture, we're gonna open up the
pecs.
We're doing.
We're doing heart opening poses.
We're going to keep that niceposture, we're going to open up
the pecs, we're going to resetthe upper spine.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, it does feel really good, I think, and this
is where see you do use props,yeah, I do.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
There's a time and a place.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
There is, and I think one of my favorite ways to use
a band is like putting it thatmy favorite ways to use a band
is like putting it, um, behindyour head, like behind the neck,
um, and then you bring it downbehind your back and cross it in
the front.
I do think I have a reel onthis, I'll have, maybe I'll
repost it Um, but it helps youkind of fasten the band around
(18:10):
your upper body so that you youcan't curve your shoulders and
you can't bring them in, becauseit keeps your chest open.
And I've taught an entire classwith that band in that in
fastens that way.
To specifically work on postureoh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So my gosh, I love that I'llhave to repost it or send it to
(18:33):
you so you can see how to do it,but I'll even do it while I'm
like chopping vegetables.
I think that's what the realwas like.
I do it in my house.
I've been cleaning my house.
I'll put that on because I can.
I can feel sometimes and evento like.
This is where emotions rightwith us and I come back in.
For me, personally, I know ifI'm like not feeling well, if I
have a lot of anxiety or feelingdepressed, like I will litter,
(18:56):
my shoulders will go in.
Yep, absolutely so it's.
You know how, as you weresaying, how can you counteract
that and bring open up yourheart, open your chest to life,
not just on the mat?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
to life.
Yes, and it can be, becausewe're not used to like leading
with our chest like that it canbe.
It can feel super vulnerableand in in my more restorative
classes like I love to useblankets here because the weight
on the chest or just feelinglike we're like a little bit
covered up, it just like, itjust feels nice, it feels like a
(19:32):
warm hug.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, and then we moved into day 13, which is
today balancing poses, which Ihad a lot of fun with.
I love balancing poses, whetherthey're standing or arm
balances.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I'm not great at inversions either, but I love to
teach them and sprinkle them inbecause they are fun and I
think it really helps us to nottake yoga so fucking seriously
yeah, oh my gosh, yeah, totallyand like we were saying in the
beginning of this, like if youcan involve laughter in the
classes and you know it'smedicinal, so any any time that
(20:12):
I'm working through a class withstudents and there's a balance,
sometimes what I'll do is we'llgo through it and I'll say like
, okay, I'll demonstrate.
And then like let's just havesome time where you guys play
around with it, literally withthose words, and I have some
students who don't even try,which that's fine, that's your
own thing.
I have other students who arelike in it and falling all over
the place and all this stuff andI think that's you know, it
(20:35):
allows the students to reallyand the practitioners to really
make it their own.
So if you can laugh, it justmakes it a little bit easier.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yes, that's like.
That's like laughing yoga, likehave you ever seen those videos
?
I think it's big in Japan, butthey basically just get together
, come in a circle and like theyjust laugh their ass off.
And there is so much healing inthat, like what is better than
like being with people you love,like friends, family, whoever
it is, and having one of thoselaugh moments where you your
(21:06):
belly hurts like you can'tcontain yourself it?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
loosens you up.
I actually one of my studentswho became one of my best
friends, she, she was like youneed to teach a laughing yoga
class.
And I was like I need I'm sorry, I need to teach a what.
And I looked into it and I justused.
So what I did is that I had agroup of people who were like
close friends and we did it.
It was hysterical, but it likeyou could feel any kind of grief
(21:33):
or anything you're goingthrough.
Fall off with that and thenguess what?
Your asana is going to be somuch easier for you to get into
because your body is not holdingso much tension.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh, my gosh.
I love that you have to do thatagain, maybe virtually, and I
want to take it.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's funny, it's like the silly.
It's silly is what it is.
So, like in the same way,you're saying like you know,
have fun with it, it doesn'tneed to be so serious, or like
if we're in I one thing I lovedoing as a teacher is like
you're in a pose, if you're inwarrior one or you're in
whatever, and you like tell ajoke or whatever like to make
(22:12):
people like relax a little bit.
You know, it's like sometimeswe're in, like you're saying
like this very masculine waywhere we feel like all the poses
need to be rigid and this in acertain way and that angle and
blah, blah and yes, that isimportant.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And like soften your jaw, jaw, relax, relax your
shoulders, like this is yes, Ialways like I'm always gripping
in my the front of my neck, likethere's just so many places
where it's like, if I really payattention to it, it's like,
(22:48):
okay, I'm in this pose, but holyshit, I'm holding on to all
this tension yeah, it'sincredible and you don't even
realize it and like, even whenyou get into, for example, and
you're ending your class,whether you have students in
Savasana or however you end yourclass, you know, it's always
incredible to me when I'm alwayslike, okay, relax this, relax
that.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And even myself I'm like, oh my gosh, my jaw, like
just touching my own face as Isay that.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So when I first started practicing yoga, I would
do this crazy thing in hardposes where I would pull, which
is funny.
It's kind of faith yoga.
So maybe I was onto something,but I would pull my lips over my
teeth and I would like fight onmy lips so hard why, I don't
know.
It's just like where I held mytension and it's something that
(23:41):
I learned to catch and now I trynot to do it as much.
But if you look at old like I,there was a picture of me from
I'll have to try and find it andpost it but there was a picture
of me from electric forest likeway back in the day.
So it's like that's a big musicfestival and they had like this
(24:01):
awesome yoga class to livemusic every day and my friend
Michaela and I went she's beenon the podcast before um, but we
went to yoga and she took acouple of photos of me during
yoga and I'm just doing thatface.
There's like two differentpictures and that was the big
like seeing.
(24:21):
It was like what am I doing?
And then I started noticing it.
It's like this weird like holdof tension thing that I would do
in hard poses.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's incredible, but that's what doing this helps you
understand your body and theway and where you're holding it.
That's the magic of asana.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
It is.
And then that moves us into day14, which is working on
strength building flow.
And I love this because wethink of yoga as a flexible,
because we think of yoga as aflexible, like stretchy, kind of
practice.
But really the practice ismeant to be fire building, it's
(25:02):
meant to be strength building.
And some of the poses arefucking hard.
And they were meant to be hard.
They were meant to bring upthat muscle shake.
They were meant to bring youand I say this in my yoga class
a lot the yoga poses are hardBecause they were meant to bring
you to those deep, dark placesof your mind.
So you can practice letting thatgo and I use this example in my
(25:24):
classes a lot and goddess pose,because that is a strong,
sometimes uncomfortable posebecause it's a hip opener.
You're squatting down like ifyou've ever done wall sits.
This is basically like yoga'swall sit, only without the wall.
I mean you could do it with thewall.
That would be a great, a greatway to go deeper.
(25:44):
But yeah, so I teach that inthe middle of my flows and, like
I said the first time, througha flow I take everyone through
nice and slow.
So we'll hold goddess for eightto ten breaths and people.
You know that.
That makes you want to come out.
It makes you like I know myteacher.
I got this from my teacher inarizona, anton mackie, which
(26:05):
like someday I'm gonna get himon this damn podcast.
But there was a time when Ifirst moved to arizona that
between both sides of the flowleft side, right side we were
holding goddess for like fiveminutes.
His class is very fast movingand it's like definitely a flow
(26:26):
class, but he would take thetime to stop and let us simmer
simmer in it, sit in it and thatmakes your mind go to like some
crazy places, like it can bringup some crazy things, it you
really meet your self-doubt,like that's for me, like when
negative self-talk comes up,that's when I want to bail and
(26:48):
give up.
Um, so it's the.
It's really a great tool tohelp to focus the mind.
Like where does be the observer?
Where does your mind go whenthe poses are bringing up heat,
when they're, when it's hot inthe room?
Like where does your mind goand how can you practice keeping
(27:08):
it in center or not justkeeping it in center, but just
coming back, just letting it goand coming back?
I'm snapping over here.
So I love.
I love a good strength buildingflow and anyone who's listening
, who has come to my powerclasses, is like, yes, because
my classes.
I am known as the hard yogateacher.
Yeah, around around RhodeIsland lately and it's funny
(27:33):
because people used to think myclasses were easy and now that
I've kind of like honed in on myteaching, people are always
challenged in a delicious way,like it's not I'm going to push
you outside of your comfort zone, but it's going to be hard.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, you're evolving , yes, and I think it's.
It's probably one of thefoundations too.
I think you know people youknow, even if you're not quote
unquote as flexible as you wantto be or as you think you might
need to be, this is where youcan also to really, I feel like,
get a good.
(28:11):
I don't I want to say workout,but I also want to say, just
like the form, like this, thegiving some love to your muscles
where it's needed.
And I think one point I wouldlove to point out, because I
think that I've done this evenas just like not even as a
teacher just as someone whopractices yoga, I think I think
(28:35):
sometimes we, as we're flowingand stuff, can have the I don't
want to say, I want to say thislike sink into our joints rather
than building the muscle Like Iused to do that.
I used to do that, and so Ithink that that, as you were,
like you were just saying, likeevolving as a teacher, as a
(28:56):
practitioner and now as ateacher too, making sure, okay,
having my eyes half the time,I'm not even demonstrating, I'm
speaking, I'm cuing, I'mwatching people's where their,
their legs are and, yes, like Iwas saying before, like the way
you are positioned with yourfeet and your arms and your,
your, you know your core, it allit really does matter.
(29:17):
But I think that that's where Ifeel like evolving as a teacher
.
I've come to this place whereit's like really making sure I'm
watching where people are, youknow, maybe sinking a little bit
too forward, like that.
That's to me is saying like,okay, like I need to cue better
to understand that how do yousay it and not how do you say it
in English Anatomy, anatomy ofthe body to be able to say the
(29:44):
muscles, the bones, where you'regoing and how, so people feel
engaged.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So that their muscles are engaged.
Yes, that's, I say it in myclass all the time this is a
full body experience.
Like there's a differencebetween putting your hands up
and having your hands being likelike limb hands and really
engaging the hands, opening upthe fingers Like you're like
shooting firecrackers from yourfingers.
Like there is a difference.
(30:10):
And going back to why it'sbeneficial physically, like we
are literally because of moderntechnology, we are literally
losing the ability to open ourhands wide.
We see more cases of carpaltunnel and all kinds of wrist
dysfunction, and this is thereason.
It's because we're losing theability to open up our hands.
(30:30):
And and so I talk about this inmy yoga class all the time like
you can throw your arms up andthey can not be engaged and they
can be like limp noodles upthere, or you can really engage
from fingertips to toes and feelthat full body experience,
because it's easy to rest inyour bones, it's easy to rest in
the flexibility.
It's easy to fake it and notengage the muscles, but like
(30:52):
you're and I say this in myclasses too you're just cheating
yourself, like I yes, I know Ican tell if you're faking it or
not, but like it doesn't matterto me.
Like this is your experience,like what are you getting out of
this?
So if you're half-assing itlike, why are you even here?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And that's my spicy yoga teacher and I definitely
bring that to the yoga sphereLike, yeah, I'm a little on the
spicier side.
I'm going to push you and Ithink that's why, like, I've had
a couple instances where peoplecome to my class and like they
don't like me because like I'mgoing to push you and I'm going
to hold up that mirror for youand show you those places that
(31:33):
you don't like and that youdon't want to look at.
But nine times out of 10, ifthe student sticks with it and
comes back, they end up lovingme, loving my classes, and not
only does their practice expandexponentially, but, like they,
they literally have atransformation.
Like you can see it, peoplelook different, and I'm not
(31:53):
talking about losing weight.
It's like a glow that peoplehave about them.
That is different.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
It's amazing what a deep breath will do to the body.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Literally.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I think so much of us are just suffering from having
poor posture and no deep breath.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yes, and so many of us, and I think this is coming
up in.
So stay tuned for email fromday 15, because this is what we
talk about in day 15.
A lot of us in modern cultureare we spend too much time
sitting and it again it'screating pathologies that didn't
(32:34):
exist before or that weren't ascommon because people were more
active.
Like we see more hip and lowback dysfunction.
That's what so many people cometo yoga for.
Oh my, my chiropractor saidthis would be good for me.
My PT said this would be goodfor me.
My doctor recommended I come toyoga to loosen up my hips.
It's like I hear that 30 timesa day, probably, and it's
(32:59):
because we're coming from a verysedentary sedentary.
I can't say that word, so I'mjust going to make it up, but I
hope everyone knows what I'mtalking about.
Um, we come from a verysedentary lifestyle.
We said a lot.
I just make up my own English.
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Sedentary.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I have to, I have to spell it out.
It's so.
It's such a hard word.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Why?
Why, my brain is in spanish, soI can't really I mean, that's
amazing, I wish not the woman toask.
Anyone who knows me will tellyou that I do not have very my
expansive vocabulary anyways,but okay, said in terry.
Said in terry, I'm saying itphonetically, so anyone that was
(33:44):
wondering.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Thank you um, it's an adjective and it means tending
to spend much time seated,somewhat inactive yeah, no, no
and well, I think it's just.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, there's so much difference at our bodies as you
were, you know.
That's why there's that wholebig thing about doing 10 K steps
a day.
Why?
Because we've always beenwalking like five K a day.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
I know and honestly, like six to 10,000 steps when
you really like think about it,it doesn't seem like that much.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
No, it's.
It's really not like if you'renot sitting in a desk, it's
really not.
I'm like my sister alwayslaughs at me.
She's like I don't know whyyou're counting your steps,
because you live on a farm andyou're on your feet literally
all day, like, and so I?
But I got it.
I got one of those like funtracker things to like check
(34:43):
myself and I was was like oh,okay, like I'm losing my mind
because you know, I don't knowyou do have days when, and if
you do have days where you justsit and rot, like, that's okay
too.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yes, oh my God, yes, that's so healing and for me,
like I'm a projector in humandesign, so like sometimes I need
that time to literally have abrain break and not do anything.
Integrate, integrate, yes, Imean yes.
We talk about asana likeshavasana is the most important
of all the poses and you're justlying there and you know I
(35:14):
always end my classes sayingthat, like, this is the most
important asana, right here yeah, I actually start a lot of my
classes in Shavasana as well.
I love that.
I've done that a couple oftimes.
We always start in child's pose.
Um, because, like for the last,like I would say almost a year
now I've been on and you'veprobably seen it in my reels,
(35:37):
but I've been on this kick of awarm-up.
Um, that's like child's pose,child's pose, the tabletop,
tabletop to bear bear to highplank, lower down, inhale to
cobra, exhale it back to child'spose.
It feels so good in the bodyand again bringing those like
(35:57):
circular emotions and notthinking about linear, but
really like undulating andmoving the spine it is.
It is like such a great way tostart a class.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Love that.
It looks nice and juicy.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
It feels so good in your body.
And so, yeah, for the last likeyear I've been starting all of
my classes with some variationof that Like, sometimes we throw
a camel in there, sometimes Ithink you did that in your post
yesterday.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it um
, so yeah, that's hip opener,and then that moves us to day 16
.
So we're like officiallyhalfway through this challenge,
which is fucking wild.
It feels good.
It feels so good and it's beenso validating and not that this
(36:51):
is why we did this, but it feelsso validating that so many
people have come to me and said,like these emails are
incredible, like I'm learningnew things, I'm being reminded
of things that I forgot.
So I think it's just been likea really awesome journey and I
know we've said this a bunch Idon't know if we've said it on
(37:11):
here, but we've said it to eachother Like this challenge it
turned out was like for us.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And it's so awesome that other people are benefiting
from it too.
Yes, well, I think, yeah, forsure.
I think we're learning a lot,even just like I'll say this
really quickly on the back endlearning a lot, but also on,
like, actual knowledge andwisdom that we're sharing with
people.
I think, you know, it'sbringing, as we mentioned all
these things that, yes, we knew,but it's like bringing
everything back up to thesurface and allowing us,
(37:43):
allowing that to simmer here andbring it back into not just our
practices and our teachings andour classes, but just into our
everyday life.
You know, it's accountability,like I do want to be someone who
practices what they preach.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yes, absolutely.
I mean there is.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And that's what I would love.
You know, that's I think youwere saying, like that's who
we're evolving to be, and if wecan take people along with us,
like come on in, like what is itfrom?
Like get in losers, we're going, whatever.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
And that moves us into Pranayama breathwork, life
force, energy.
Oh, I think Dee cut out on us.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Hopefully she comes back back sorry, I don't know
what the that moves us intopranayama life force energy.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
We might have cut out a little bit.
I don't know how this audio isgoing to be, but we'll see again
.
This is a work in progress andit's a learning experience for
me we're flowing we're flowing,we're breathing, um, but breath
work is such an important partof the practice and when I first
started teaching yoga as a babyyoga teacher, I came across
(39:11):
this study, um, and now it's alittle bit outdated, so I'd love
to see, like an update on thisstudy, but it was done in about
2010, I want to say.
But that study said and it wasthrough the American heart and
lung association, so that studysaid that the average American
only uses about 10% of theirlung capacity in an entire
(39:32):
lifetime, and that absolutelyblew me away.
Like we're taking short,stagnant breaths and this is a
lot of times, just contributingto, like, anxiety dysfunction,
um, dysregulation, anxietydysfunction, dysregulation,
disease, like yeah, you name itLike the breath is so important
(39:52):
I mean, it is literally what'skeeping us alive Like if you
don't have the breath, you willcease to exist.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It's the first thing we do when we're born and it's
the last thing we do before wedie.
And you can eat.
You can live without eating orwater for a few days, but you
can't live without your breath.
And I think that when we learnto breathe in like a conscious
way, you know half of us aren'teven breathing correctly.
(40:20):
I know I mean doing it theopposite way.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, and we talk about mouth breathing and how it
is literally causingdysfunction and development of
the jaw and how it cancontribute to tooth decay.
It's just there's.
So the breath is so importantand learning to breathe in and
out of your nose is a huge pieceof health.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
It's huge.
I even like, as you know, as amother like I, my son was having
this thing where he wassleeping with his mouth open and
this might be crunchy to somepeople, but it concerned me
because their his brain is stilldeveloping and when he's not
breathing like, his nervoussystem can't be fully, like,
(41:11):
detoxed and regenerated.
This is for anyone, not justhim, anyone.
If he's breathing through hismouth, he's not taking a deep
breath.
So I was like you know, Ibrought him to a chiropractor
and all these things to to see,and you know I think we're doing
a good job.
But that's why people likeyou'll see that the new crazy is
with mouth taping.
(41:32):
Yeah, because, but I will tellyou this, like the people who
have spoken to that do that arelike I've never slept better in
my life.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
My anxiety is half of what it was I so being sick,
being congested, is one of theworst things for me, because I
cannot stand breathing throughmy mouth, Like now that I know
and I'm conscious of it I'vebeen practicing this for about
13 years.
It's like breathing through mymouth makes me insane and there
are certain breathworktechniques that, yeah, you do a
little bit of mouth breathing,but I'm talking like on a whole,
(42:11):
as a majority, like for most ofyour day, you should be
breathing in and out of yournose.
There are so many benefits tobreathing in and out of your
nose.
It moistens the air that webreathe, it filters the air that
we breathe before it gets tothe lungs.
Like there are so many benefitsof breathing through the nose,
so I think that taps it.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh sorry, oh no, no, go ahead.
I was gonna say it taps backinto tapas.
So it's like you're creatingthis purification of your body.
Amen, that's what I feel likewhen you start to understand and
connect all these things.
You said, like, as you begansaying that this is a flawless
(42:52):
design, like it really was, likethey all.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It's like this beautiful puzzle and you just
can put all the pieces intogether and they all fit so
beautifully and this is hownearlyened was born because I
feel like yoga as a whole is acollection of tools and it's
like, basically in thisbeautifully packaged little
toolbox and it's like here yougo, here's the tools to get you
(43:16):
through the hard shit, here'sthe tools to get you through the
good shit.
Like this is the tools for lifeand learning all of these
techniques really has been likebuilding my own personal toolbox
and like once I had these toolsand techniques under my belt,
like I wanted to share them like.
And that brings us into thetypes of breath work.
(43:40):
So we're going into naughtyShodana, alternate nostril
breathing.
This is one of my favoritebreathwork techniques for
anxiety.
It also helps to balance theright and left hemisphere of the
brain.
Like they knew this 5,000 yearsago.
It blows my mind, but NadiShodhana is a great way to relax
the central nervous system.
It's a great breathwork to dobefore bed.
(44:04):
It's also a detoxifyingpractice.
Any of the breath works are andyeah, so naughty should on an
alternate nostril breathing is afavorite one for me and like
way back when I was a baby yogateacher, I actually used to
start all of my classes with itand I maybe need to bring that
back too.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I love that.
I love that.
Yeah, I think it's great.
You can throw it in anywhere to, like you know, even if you get
into and you're done with thefire, the physical asana in your
class and you want to just haveyou know students go through
that.
I think that that's.
I love doing that too.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Recently I just taught sitali breath, which is
like you make like the hot dogwith your tongue and you breathe
through it and that's like acooling breath.
So I thought that that wassuper fun and like again, a way
to bring something silly intoyoga.
That's like beneficial but likeeveryone's gonna laugh at
themselves doing that because itfeels so silly, yeah.
(45:01):
And then we're going into day18 kapalabhati, skull shining
breath, and this is're goinginto day 18.
Kapala Bhatti skull shiningbreath and this is an energizing
breath.
It's a way to bring some likefire in.
It's also great.
So this time of year in NewEngland we're like in the thick
of spring.
There's I told you like at thetop of this podcast before we
started recording, but it iswe're full of pollen here and
(45:28):
this is actually a great breathto do for um allergy season
because it helps to just likeclear out the nose and the
sinuses keep the pathways clearand functioning properly.
Yes, and then that brings us tothe last day of this little
section of asana and breath work, which is Brahmari, or like be
(45:53):
buzz breath or be breath, andthis is really great for
focusing the mind, for calminganxiety.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
System regulation.
I love this one yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
And again, a silly little fun thing to do, like a
great thing to teach childrenbecause they kind of do it
naturally.
So, yeah, I just I love thesebreathwork techniques, and so
stay tuned for our posts onthose.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah, those will be fun to do More.
Yeah, like be fun.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yes, and I think that wraps us up for week three.
You have anything to add, or?
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Um, I just am super happy.
I just feel really grateful foreveryone that has signed up and
is participating.
Whether you're doing it loudlyon social media or you're doing
it in the quiet of your own home, I think I'm just, I'm just
really I don't know.
I'm just really grateful foryou, gianna, for doing this
alongside with me, and foreveryone that's involved,
(46:59):
because you know it's it's, itcreates community, and I think
that it's a ripple.
It just creates a ripple and Ithink that it just feels really
good.
So, thank you to everyone who'slistening, who's participating,
who's going to participate orwho just is here for the
knowledge and the conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yes, or even if you're just listening to the
podcast.
These are great tools, like Isaid, tools to just have in your
back pocket, yeah, and whenyou're ready for them, you know
where to find us, yeah.
Well, thank you so much fortuning into today's episode of
the Nearly Enlightened podcast.
If this conversation resonatedwith you, I would love it if you
(47:36):
shared it, leave a review, orif you reach out and let me know
your thoughts on it.
And if you're looking for moreways to deepen your connection
to body, mind and spirit, checkout my meditate to elevate my
guided meditation portal, orvisit nearly enlightenedcom for
more resources.
Until next time, stay curious,stay connected and remember the
answers already lie within.
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