31 | Exploring Spirituality through the Body with Movement Teacher Linnea Solvieg - Settling Is Bullshit

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
There is so much to be had through the experience of the body, where a lot of those things that feel more either esoteric or more complicated or tricky like enlightenment.

(00:15):
You know, like that was like really big.
I think are more like chewable and digestible.
That seems more like just like a palatable way to begin the process is through body.
Welcome to Settling is Bullshit, a sweary podcast about claiming your joy.

(00:38):
If you are an adult human craving healthier boundaries, a greater sense of purpose or an increased capacity to feel at ease in your own skin, then you are in the right place, my friend.
I'm your host Cate Blouke and I'm here to offer you practical tools and playful encouragement to help you step forward and be your most awesome self.
My hope is that each episode will leave you feeling a bit more empowered to make brave choices and claim your joy.

(01:05):
Hello, my friend.
I am so excited to share today's episode with you is with a delightful human that I thoroughly enjoy.
Our guest today is Linnea Solveig.
She is a yoga instructor, a movement instructor, an artist and a charming and delightful person.

(01:27):
I've been taking yoga classes from Linnea for the last two years or so and really enjoy the way that she thinks about and approaches supporting people in being in our bodies.
And we had a really nice conversation about all sorts of things as I am want to do and ended up talking quite a bit about spirituality and presence and how to be in our own skin and to use that as a vehicle for connecting with ourselves, with other people, with the universe and everything.

(02:01):
And how to find joy in being in our bodies and also how to sit with discomfort in our bodies and in our lives because that is one of the many things that being a human with a body entails.
So please get cozy, take good care of yourself and enjoy this conversation.

(02:27):
How would you introduce yourself?
That's a good question.
I guess I'm an artist and movement teacher.
Yeah, an artist and a mover.
An artist and a mover?
Why a mover and a shaker?
Yeah.
Why a movement teacher as opposed to a yoga instructor?
That's a good question.
I think because I, well, I have taught other things other than yoga, but I do think that like I tend to kind of, I tend to be more of a yoga instructor.

(02:57):
You kind of push the boundaries of what I'm teaching in like what a yoga class.
And I'm pulling from more than just the yoga lineage.
Right.
I think that's probably a lot of it is like what I'm teaching.
There's a lot of just like a lot of other things other than the yoga tradition going in there.

(03:18):
So background, weird anatomy stuff, body, mind centering.
Ooh, body, mind centering.
You've done it.
I don't know it.
I know.
Because right, because you're here because you are my favorite yoga instructor of all time.
Because your classes are fun.
And I'm a runner and we get to like stretch a lot.

(03:41):
But I will say that, yeah, your classes are a little bit different from the more traditional yoga classes I've been in.
So what is the mind body center?
What did you just say?
So BMC, body, mind centering is a movement modality.
And I mean, invented is probably not the correct word, but kind of codified by a woman named Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, I believe is her name.

(04:10):
And that's going to be the miracle of the hour is me remembering a name.
Because that's not how I roll.
So that was a big moment.
And I think she comes from like the osteopathy lineage, which is like, where else than like, you know, chiropractors came from that and just like lots of bones.

(04:31):
And she talks a lot about like developmental and it's a lot of like experiential exploration of anatomy.
Experiential exploration of anatomy.
Oh my God.
And a lot of it can do with how like you personally developed from the time that you were in the womb.
So it's very developmental and like, it's pretty cool.

(04:54):
So there's that and then there's dance background and like all my dance teachers growing up were all, you know, they were either yoga teachers or BMC teachers or Alexander Technique teachers or Feldenkrais teachers.
And so pretty much since the time I was 10, I've just been absorbing like, I was probably one of the few 16 year olds that I knew who had spent like hours in a dance class trying to find their public floor.

(05:19):
Yeah.
I mean, I know I wasn't in dance classes at age 16, but I don't think I was even introduced to the concept of public floor until my friends started getting pregnant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like, just the different kinds of movement experience.
Like, yeah, even in middle school, I had a teacher who was doing something called like laban technique.

(05:42):
And I don't even know what it was, but we're like star fishing on the floor and like rolling and we're supposed to be in ballet class, but she was like having a day where I think she was like, I'm tired of 14 year olds to play.
Let's lay on the floor.
Just, you know, when you have a bunch of like funky dance teachers and then not, you know, turn into one of the like ladies who are into bodies.

(06:04):
Yeah.
I've turned into one because I've just, I just from a young age acquired.
Yeah.
So what has your relationship with your body?
Has it been a very embodied person your whole life?
Yes and no.
Okay.
I think that my innate way of being is very physical.
Like, sometimes when people are like, oh, I just laid in bed and thought all day.

(06:29):
Okay.
I can't actually, like that sounds hard.
Yeah.
And also like, I can't, like I actually can't think without being embodied a lot of the time.
So I actually have a really hard time processing things without being connected to my body.
Oh no, should we be doing this on a walk?
I mean, I've got, I've been clutching your crystals.

(06:52):
I touched your cat a lot.
I might wiggle.
Great.
Full permission.
I'm, but I've grown up in our society.
So I found ways.
I understand.
I understand.
So yes and no, I think it was always, I grew up feeling pretty like welcome to be in my body,
you know, and shuffled into dance class was really helpful.

(07:15):
And, but I think that like, I was able to do both also, like you cannot be, have a huge sense of connection to physical body and not be embodied, which is kind of.
Ooh, tell me more about that.
I agree.
I just like, I have a felt sense of agreement with what you just said, but I also don't understand it.
Um, I mean, growing up being a dancer, I had a big sense of like my proprioception.

(07:39):
I knew where my body was in space.
I had a lot of control over my body.
I feel like really subtle, like a muscular engagement or so I was able to have a sense of my body.
I think we think that disembodiment can be like a lack of control over body or it could be a like just not actually even knowing one's body.

(08:03):
But I think when your body is actually like, you can know your body and be able to control it.
And also it's not a very safe place to be.
Yeah.
And growing up as a dancer, it turned out that my body was not a very safe place to be, but it's also the safest place to be because I also loved moving.
So both things, both things were both true at the same time.

(08:25):
So yes, always been a very embodied person.
But also what brought me to yoga was that the embodiment was so encouraged to be an internal experience and not an experience in order to satisfy other people's desires, whether it's like choreography or like do a pose this way.

(08:48):
And so it immediately when I got injured in my early twenties and I was dancing a lot like I went away to boarding school for dance class.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then I immediately started like joined some companies and was dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing.
It was life.
Yeah.
And I got really injured and there was a good way to get out.
Yeah.
It was a good way to get out.
And yoga, but I was like, I can't not move.

(09:11):
I couldn't, that sounded horrible and yoga seemed like a good place to move more safely.
Although I got myself in some wild yoga classes and some wild poses that probably weren't good for the injured.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And listening to you, I'm just thinking about that's probably part of the reason that I like your classes so much is and the classes that I have always tended to gravitate towards are the ones that are really about having the internal experience of your body.

(09:39):
And I'm just thinking about like when I was teaching English, I'm going to back my way into an analogy here.
You know, my students would show up and like be so frustrated because they like didn't like writing is hard.
But we're like, we use English all the time.
Like we speak this language.
Why is writing so hard?
And it's a totally different thing.
And the analogy is that like, we use our bodies all the time.
We walk around, we pick things up, we survive, you know, but that doesn't actually mean that like we are particularly in tune with what's going on in our bodies.

(10:09):
I remember I took one of your classes and like discovered that I stand on the balls of my feet, which I had no idea was like the way that I put my weight on my feet and like no wonder my feet hurt, right?
I don't distribute it evenly.
And we get into these like patterns of movement and motion and behavior.

(10:31):
And it's so helpful to have the opportunity to pause and notice what the fuck is happening.
And but when I first started doing yoga in Austin, it made me so angry.
And because, well, because I was bad at it, right, because I didn't have a wish.
I mean, it was partly that and it was partly the like, I ended up in a lot of like what felt like performative classes where it's like, let me, I was in classes with people that wanted to show off how good they were at yoga.

(11:03):
And that was really alienating for me as someone who felt like I was really bad at it.
Yeah.
So the studios that I have tended to gravitate towards are the ones that don't have mirrors on the wall.
Yeah.
And the instructors that are like, hey, wherever you're at in your body is great. Here's all the different ways you can do this thing.
Yeah.
And like, I just want everybody to feel like invited to have an experience with their body.

(11:29):
Yeah. Yeah, there is no prerequisite other than have body.
Oh, period.
Yeah.
The amount of folks who when I say, oh, I'm a yoga instructor who will say, oh, I can't do yoga because I'm not flexible is.
I mean, like, unless somebody as actively doing a yoga, like has a yoga practice, that's usually what there's usually, oh, I can't do it because fill in the blank.

(11:53):
Right.
And then some people are like, I can't do it because I don't want to.
Yeah, that's reasonable.
Right.
And some people are pretty on the nose.
Like I have had friends in the past who are like, why I don't want a spiritual practice.
And they're like, I do Pilates.
I don't want any spiritual stuff.
And I'm like, fair.
I'm glad you got the program.
Yeah, so is yoga inherently spiritual practice?

(12:15):
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
How so?
Because it's not yoga unless it's a spiritual practice.
Okay.
Yeah, no, that's like, okay.
Yeah, explain it to me like I'm five.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, and I will try my best.
But I'm so the practice of yoga is there's asana, which we do a lot together, which is the poses.

(12:38):
Right.
And then that's like one of many limbs of then breathing pranayama and then yamas and niyamas,
which are like the ethical code of yoga and then going through different states of like
enlightenment, basically.
So inherently it's a tool to find yourself and find depending on, you know, what words

(13:07):
are you comfortable with, which for me, I'm getting more comfortable with like finding
the God within, which is not like somebody who doesn't really have big religious dogma
or hangovers.
It's easy for me to kind of insert like spirit, God names.
Right.
So it's finding, you know, your internal God and you are also that then connects you to

(13:35):
everything.
So, yeah, that's the spiritual.
That's great.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, nobody sat me down and was like, hey, well, and that's taken yoga in the West.
Yeah.
It's really separate from the actual lineages of yoga.
Not I mean, there's so many wonderful teachers all around the West, United States, the Portland,

(14:00):
you know, who are, I think, really doing their best to bring the whole package in with them.
But it's hard because people mostly want to exercise.
Right.
But it's also, you know, I think there is so much to be had through the experience of
the body, where a lot of those things that feel more either esoteric or more complicated

(14:27):
or tricky like enlightenment, you know, like that's really big.
I think are more like chewable and digestible, at least for people like me who can't even
think about like being in bed and thinking for a morning because I'm like, I gotta move.
That seems more like just like a palatable way to begin the process is through body.

(14:51):
Yeah.
And it's there.
It's all there because we're not separate from it.
You know, like Descartes and his whole mind is different from the body.
And but you know, I just had a therapist once who was like, fuck Descartes.
And I know I want, I need to, I really, I really want a T-Cart that says that.
Fuck Descartes.
I feel that way all the time.
And we have, you know, we have to, because our language doesn't allow it, but like, you

(15:13):
know how we talk about the mind and the body.
Right.
As if they're different.
As if they're different.
And it's helpful to talk about that way.
Yeah.
And then also, I'm like, they're just not different.
Yeah.
They're just really like very connected quite literally the body houses the, like it's
not different.
And I think, I just kind of like, and I think, and I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like

(15:34):
brain short circuited because I'm like, now I'm doing it.
And now I'm in the black hole.
But there's this primacy of brain, right?
Mind over matter.
Like, no.
Boo.
Boo.
Like let's all just like power through and ignore what our bodies are telling us and
think our way through things and just not pay attention to the signals that our body

(15:56):
is sending us.
I do sometimes wish someone who's listening, can you please invent a translator for my
body and my brain so they can talk to each other better because like, I know there's
stuff that my body is trying to tell me and my poor little brain doesn't understand it.
And that's like, I feel like that's my journey of adulthood.

(16:17):
Oh.
And now I want to know so much about that because I only listened to my, no, that's
not true.
Yeah.
Okay.
Have you, is there an example of something you finally figured out?
Like, you finally were like decoded what that meant.
It was like tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
And then I mean, I think like a little while ago, I recorded some episodes about the nervous

(16:41):
system with a body wisdom coach.
And we were talking about the ways in which like nervous system activation works.
And that is a like bodily experience.
And Mayor use a really helpful analogy of like levels of activation as sort of like

(17:02):
green, yellow, orange, red.
And I realized in the conversation, you know, I spent so much of my life in the like yellow,
orange activation zone.
So like all of the like anxiety and the tension and the stress and thinking that was normal.

(17:23):
Right.
That like that's my like norm.
Like this is just what living feels like.
Right.
And not knowing the difference between a like nervous system that is regulated and like
able to downshift versus just sort of like being in this elevated state all the time.

(17:45):
And they think that like contemporary culture and modern society and all of these things
that we have not evolved to deal with, we have not evolved to deal with TikTok.
Like over stimulation and then just like constant everything always all the time.
Yeah.
No, that that resonates.
Yeah.
I mean, I find it extraordinarily challenging to exist in the modern world.

(18:14):
And stay like really like authentically chill and calm.
And I think like I'm so lucky that my job is to be in the practice of movement and breathing
and community because I just kind of get more chances to kind of not have to deal with this

(18:39):
world.
Yeah.
But it's not.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's possible when you're also trying to like pay rent and like hear
cars.
Honestly, like the level of just hearing like or hearing lights, like my body hasn't evolved
even cope with the like sound of the computer making its little high pitched hum.

(19:01):
Oh.
And then you just I mean, and you deal with it.
And it's like that.
Right.
And I think that's a rare chance like I am removed from lights and sounds and actually
on the earth and maybe no shoes.
Like the piece that can be had is so vastly different than the piece of just like having

(19:23):
a nice day walking down the street with your coffee.
And they're both great.
Right.
But they're vastly very different.
Yeah.
And I think the other now I'm realizing like the other example like, you know, when I don't
feel particularly great whether like this happened to me yesterday, like I kind of was
feeling like a little bit of an upset tummy and a headache.
Like I wish that like my body could just be like, it's because you ate this.

(19:46):
Right.
Or like you need to drink more water.
I mean, I did.
I was hydrated.
It wasn't that.
That's usually my go to it's like a headache.
Like did I drink enough water?
No.
Okay.
But yeah, I think that what is lovely about yoga classes is the way in which you can
get to come together with other humans to then have an internal experience together.

(20:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I will not do it on my own.
I tried.
I've tried to do you do live streaming classes and I've tried to do those and then I just
think can't I need the accountability of like going to a space and like in the last year
or two especially have been really kind of leaning into what it means to gather with

(20:35):
other people and what it means to have ritual and ceremony and that sense of spirituality
and spiritual practices that aren't necessarily like religious or God oriented, but there
really is something to gathering with a group of humans to do a thing together.
Yeah.
And the gathering together of the sangha and yoga at Sangha, which is the community of

(21:01):
support that we're creating together is a big part of the yoga practice, which is something
that other movement practices and other gathering ritual is so lovely.
And there's something so special about our little Sangha that we practice in is that

(21:23):
like everybody can have such a different experience.
Yeah.
All at the same time, where I think other things that can be more dogmatic that are kind of
rooted around gathering and there's an expectation that everybody's experience is going to be
similar, which is never true.
Right.

(21:44):
It's never true even if there's two people in a room at the same time.
There's experience.
Right.
Because we all live in our own heads.
And we all had different things for breakfast and we all have different like stressors or
pets that are at home making noise.
Yeah.
There's so many things.
I didn't realize what I was going to say just about the, I wanted to follow up with your

(22:04):
connecting to body.
And just like, I think that the reason I like yoga as a practice is because one of the ways
you'd help you figure out like, oh, am I, why am I thirsty?
Why am I weird and grumpy?
Or, you know, like, why am I feeling funky?
So it helps that identification process of like, what the fuck is going on with me?

(22:27):
And of course, there's tons of different ways in which you might employ different practices
to help support you.
And sometimes there's just things that aren't optimal.
Like you just have a headache or you're just like, things aren't right.
And so then yoga then gives you not the tools to fix it necessarily.
Well, sometimes you can like fix the thing.

(22:51):
But more importantly, it gives you like, it helps train us with the comfort level of still
being in your body, even if it's uncomfortable.
And that's a big, that's a big part of the yoga practice is being able to like sit in
discomfort, which is why meditation is a really big part of yoga.

(23:12):
And you don't see very much meditation on yoga studio schedule because actually nobody
really wants to sit in discomfort.
Everybody wants to kind of move and fix the things.
Yeah.
And, you know, that's, I mean, that's because we don't have that much time.
We also got to go and hustle this, and hustle that.
And that makes sense.

(23:32):
We don't have a lot of time.
And if it's like, sit in the discomfort, or am I going to try to fix the weird shoulder
feeling I have, people might like sustainability, like why is you might need to fix the weird
shoulder thing you have to get through the next week.
And that's fine.
And that's part of like yoga's householder.
There's like, there's yogis, neither, which we are not, because we're not devoting our

(23:57):
whole lives to the yoga practice where householders were trying to live a life and also practice.
And so that's, we go at the pace we go.
Right.
You gotta make the choices you gotta make.
Yeah.
But I do like that it gives the option that you may not be fixed, which I think a lot
of healing modalities are promising that you'll get better, because that's the only way a

(24:21):
lot of us to convince ourselves to engage in self exploration is usually the motivation
it's us to get there is when we feel bad.
Yes.
I was just thinking about that this morning is that like usually we have to be like sufficiently
in pain or uncomfortable to like do something different.
Yeah.
I don't usually schedule massage with my massage therapist unless I'm in pain.

(24:45):
Then part of that's just like time and money and all those things.
But so it's like we kind of like are we have to be pushed to this threshold of like extreme
discomfort to find a practice that works for us, whether it's yoga or acupuncture, meditation
or walking or running.
Fucking core exercises.
Yeah.
And then rolling.

(25:06):
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Like my knee.
No, I hate it so much, but like my knee's been hurting and I just had my 42nd birthday
and I'm like, if I want to keep running, I need to do something differently because I'm
going to hurt myself.
What a great sense of self-awareness.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, I've been doing this whole like podcast and therapy and like coaching

(25:31):
thing for a while and I'm pretty good at being like, oh, okay.
But I've known I needed to do core exercises and use my fucking foam roller for a while
and it's not until something starts hurting that I'm like, no, really I do.
And I have done core exercises twice in the last week.
This is damn.
New years is here.
We'll see.
I mean, and that's the fun thing about a practice is you just keep doing it.

(26:00):
You keep doing it and that's cool.
And then you stop doing it.
Generally most people's practices is then they stop doing it, but then they come back
to it and that in the big scope of things is just keep doing it.
But that's also what keeps people away.
Yeah.
It is the shame of having not done it.
Yeah.
Which is so interesting.

(26:20):
I mean, I see that so regularly.
I won't see a student for a while and it could be like a few weeks or a few years and they
come back just being like, oh, it's good to see you.
And it's like, I know I haven't been here for so long.
It's like they almost expect to be shamed.
Yeah.
As if you are keeping mental attendance of all of the people that you teach dropping

(26:45):
yoga classes to.
But they came back and I recognized them.
And that's like that.
So it's like big scope of things is it's like you come back.
And I don't know, I think that expectation to be really regimented, although that is
there is some fruits to be had from that.
Sure.
Every way of being.

(27:05):
But that's, I just can't get on board and like really promoting that in our society as
a teacher.
Like I feel like we've got enough of that that even if it is like that heat building that
does come with like a traditional practice that comes with like the dedication, then
I just, I can't promote that comfortably when I feel like everybody's already feeling like

(27:29):
the shoulds and the shoulds and the ought tos are suffocating so many people that then people
are just not going to come back.
Yeah.
Because you know, it's like one of those things that's so wrapped up in like guilt for so many
people to have not been.
And then, and then I just, yeah.
Yeah.

(27:49):
So what if your, you don't want to promote that sort of like fiery attitude, what do
you want to promote?
I mean, well, the joy of being alive.
Yes.
All the snaps.
Okay.
Joy of being alive.
Yeah.
And I, you know, it doesn't always have to be joyful, but I honestly just feel that it's

(28:14):
so extraordinarily fun that like everybody who gets to go to a class together gets to
like, we get, like as adults, we get to put on our stretchy pants and they're comfy and
then we get to roll around on the floor and like giggle and laugh and like pretend we're

(28:34):
animals, you know, and then like have a like sense of our spinal cords and like, like I
really love feeling the specificity of my anatomy, which I know is like really icky
to some people.
I'm actually not allowed to show my sweetheart dissection video or something more because

(28:56):
I will watch like anatomy dissections because I'm like, isn't that beautiful?
Interesting.
I just think the human body is so like just so extraordinarily, I just love, I love it.
I love it.
Like I just think it like when I think about like my organs being connected and wrapped
in tissue and I'm just like so into it and that to me is really joyful.

(29:20):
It is pretty visceral.
So I try to keep it at a minimum because not everybody can get down with like that amount
of like the sense of their insides.
Yeah.
But I do, I do enjoy in your classes the way that you bring that together using metaphor
often, right?
One of my favorite parts is when you sort of like invite us to imagine our brain just

(29:45):
kind of like pouring out the left side of our head.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like, and then giving you the sense of whimsy, I think comes from just if it gets too dry
or too specific, it can either get icky or confusing if you haven't studied it.
So then you just have to get poetic.

(30:07):
One of my anatomy teachers was she was saying that most yoga teachers know enough anatomy
to be dangerous, which true, I'm sure I've been that person again.
But she was like, was saying that if you're not really sure what you're talking about,
like you can be poetic.
Yeah.
Like it's good.
It's actually helpful to be poetic because A, you're not like spreading wild amounts

(30:31):
of misinformation because everybody knows your brain isn't pouring out of the ear.
And also like that's like imagery works for people in a way that if you are walking through
life and you don't actually know, like if you're thirsty, then you're not going to
be able to like necessarily identify like how you're so as is like pulling on your lumbar

(30:54):
spine.
You know, like that's a big expectation.
But you might be able to like feel like how if you're like pelvis is doing guilty dog
pelvis and never guilty cat, how it like feels different in your.
Okay.
Yeah.
I was about to say like how do I know if my so as is pulling on my lumbar spine?

(31:16):
I sort of, I think I know where those things are at my body.
And you know, we'll talk about it sometime, but then sometimes they just do the movements.
And then, but, but sometimes you just need to actually give like an imagined feeling
to your lumbar, your low back.
You know what I would say?
Lumbar spine.
Just like how if your low back like had a little smiley face, like does it a grumpy

(31:37):
face or a smiley face or like and on the right side, like does the right side or texture,
you know, I talk a lot about texture.
So like is, you know, is the right side of your low back crunchy or fluffy or is it long
or short, you know, so you start to like find ways into the body that aren't so just like

(32:01):
pedantic.
Right.
Right.
Cause like, so you were saying that and I'm like, okay, my low, my low back's pretty good.
It's usually my shoulders that are cranky.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have long described my body parts as like anthropomorphize having feelings and opinions
and often it's like cranky.
Yeah.

(32:22):
That's helpful.
Yeah.
And my, my left shoulder is kind of Zen, but my right shoulder is the grumpy face today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I wouldn't have noticed that if we weren't talking about it.
I know.
And that's why we need to gather and think about it.
Cause you can't.
Yeah.
But then then thinking about relationships and bodies, like I think that like also the

(32:45):
body is just a cool tool to figure out relationship because everything's connected.
You know, so your right shoulder is not separate from your left shoulder, even though one's
the cranky one and one's the not so cranky one.
They also have a relationship and everything in between is also being affected.

(33:06):
Oh my God.
And it's so complicated.
I remember seeing a chiropractor years and years ago who was like, yeah, what's going
on in your neck is probably contributing to why you are congested all the time.
And I was like, what are you talking about?
Like how is that even possible?
And then, you know, my knee problems are because my hips are weak.

(33:29):
Like I don't understand, like so I don't understand why I will accept that that is a reality.
Like people who've told me and people who do understand anatomy, like have tried to explain
it to me.
It doesn't stick in my brain.
But yeah, it's a system.
It's a system.
And it's that's so applicable to everything else.
Like when you think about our ecology, you know, the one thing goes one way, everything

(33:54):
else gets pulled with it.
And obviously, like our interpersonal communities, one person walks in and is grumpy and they're
the grumpy shoulder.
Everybody feels it like and everybody reacts differently.
One person spirals, one person leaves, one person starts like making sure they're okay

(34:15):
and that like our bodies are doing the same way thing.
Yeah.
And I find figuring out how to cope with that in my body is a lot easier than trying to
figure out how to cope with it in the external world.
Yeah.
For us.
So interesting.
Yeah.
I think I have focused more on the external world at the like cost of focusing on my body.

(34:38):
And you know, to be compassionate to myself around that, I think that was because for
me growing up like my body was very much a source of shame and low self-worth.
And so I didn't want to be connected to my body.
And an important piece of, you know, cultivating self-love and self-worth has been that journey
of like getting back into my body and doing all of the work to accept it for how it is

(35:06):
and it's squishy bits and, you know, all of that.
And I really love going to yoga classes with folks of all shapes and sizes.
Yeah.
It's so important to me to do the best possible job, which is always evolving.
And I hope that I'm always getting better at it.

(35:28):
I'm pretty sure because it's a big learning curve from coming from like a 200 hour teacher
training and a background in dance and how to be able-bodied young person inviting everybody
into the space authentically.
You know, I've had my hiccups where truly 10, that happened 10 years ago and I still

(35:53):
am like, I wake up in 3 a.m. and I'm like, oh shit, why did I say that?
Because that's just how it goes.
But that is the biggest passion of mine is to welcome as many people as possible.
And that like, I mean, it doesn't mean every class is suitable for every person.

(36:14):
And that's okay.
But every class is open for people to try it out.
And that's also how I tell people they can get up and leave.
Like autonomy in a group practice, like which is kind of extending from the, oh, we're not
all supposed to have the same experience, like trying to teach people that they have

(36:35):
autonomy even in like a group experience, especially when it comes to bodies because
I think we're on so many over and like subtle ways are told that like in somewhere or another
we got to conform or just get out.
We don't belong.
And I haven't really come across anybody who has escaped that.

(37:00):
Yeah.
No, no, and I listened to you.
I was like, yeah, like in school, like you are supposed to all have the same experience.
And if you're like doing whatever that is not the thing, like you get disciplined, right?
And I know for me, that was one of the really liberating things.
And one of the small group practices that I took with you was this idea that like you

(37:22):
gave me permission to just do whatever I needed to do when I go to a yoga class.
That like if I don't want to do the thing that everybody is doing, that I didn't have
to.
And it like, it blew my mind and I needed that permission from a yoga instructor.
Sometimes we need permission to do it, to not have permission.
Yeah.

(37:42):
Yeah.
To not need permission.
Yeah.
And that's been so liberating for me as someone who spends a lot, we were talking about astrology
before we hit record and like as an Aquarius rising, spends a lot of time in my head and
circling back to what we were just saying about like I'm very conscious of what is going
on in the room and in the world around me.

(38:03):
Like I would get so stuck in my head of like, oh, the teacher is going to, like I'm going
to hurt their feelings if I don't do the thing or they're going to be mad at me or
like everybody else in the class is going to like think some sort of this that or the
other.
Yeah.
And like, oh my God, that's so much pressure to put on myself.
And honestly, like, yes, there are people in yoga classes that annoy me, but it's usually

(38:24):
sound related more than anything.
Yeah.
Other than that, I don't care what you're doing.
Yeah.
And that takes, it's a weird funky line to be the holder of space as someone who really,
I do want to give people the permission to like be the weird noise person and also like
to know that that might like really agitate the crap out of other people.

(38:47):
And it's a weird, especially as I get, like as I encourage people to be even more and
more of their individuals, like it opens the door for all sorts of things.
And sometimes it can be really positive and sometimes people's needs are crossover and
their needs are different and they start to bump up against each other.

(39:10):
And I wish teaching at fame, the place I teach art for adults with cognitive disability,
it's actually, I think has been a really helpful place for me to practice how differently
people with really opposing needs can exist in the same classroom.

(39:31):
And I think there, because they're a community of people with often like really strong like
needs or aversions or sounds or like impulses and everything's just a little amplified with
that community.
Humans like the rest of us, but it's usually a little bit turned out the volume.
Sometimes literally.
But it works.

(39:51):
Everybody handles their shit.
And sometimes they don't.
And I think that when then we go into kind of a room full of people who are generally
pretty good at kind of conforming to expectations without having the expectations even necessarily
like said, but like we'll all face forward.
We'll all put our mats in the same row, we'll all be quiet.

(40:16):
And those expectations are in somewhat like a community agreement.
There's like the ones like, oh, I'm not going to touch my neighbor because that could really
freak him out.
And like, I believe in that.
Yeah.
And then so there's like some community agreements that are good and then some which are, I think,
a little bit more fluid and sometimes part of the practice, although nobody wants to

(40:39):
hear this, including myself, is like trying to figure out like how to cope with the people
who are agitating you if there's the person who's agitating you next to you.
Yeah, no, but I think like back to that idea of it, yoga being a spiritual practice and
like how all of this just amplifies out into a metaphor for existence in the world.

(40:59):
That's an important skill to cultivate.
There are going to be people in the world that agitate us.
Right.
And sometimes we have the autonomy to like excuse ourselves and sometimes we don't.
And it's, I mean, I have the self-awareness to like be able to notice the like loud breather
driving me bananas and laugh at myself a little bit about it because it doesn't actually

(41:21):
matter.
Right.
Right.
But it does agitate me.
And I do think that, yeah, just kind of circling back to things we were talking about earlier
about like most of us don't want to be, we just don't want to be uncomfortable.
No.
I've had that a lot lately that like modern life is just this like accelerated march towards

(41:42):
how can we be the least uncomfortable possible ever.
Yeah.
Right.
And that we're losing the capacity to be uncomfortable and maybe that's not a good thing.
Actually, no, I'm going to take the maybe out.
I don't think that's a good thing.
Like I don't.
I wonder.
I mean, I think that it's, I feel like our desire to be comfortable is coming also from

(42:04):
how deeply uncomfortable everything is.
Right.
In that nervous system of sense.
So maybe we can like have a, we now have the technology to have like noise machines and
like the coziest softest fleece instead of like a hard, rough one in or, you know, whatever
it is.
Right.
Those are cozy things, but those are also like, I feel like almost band-aids on like

(42:28):
the fact that we're getting maybe more afraid or maybe we're always like this.
I don't know.
I just get a little bit like, how things better.
Yeah.
I mean, no, no, no.
It's like it's constantly shifting.
Yeah.
Maybe we're always doing that.
I think that there was, I mean, I don't know a ton about like religion, but I feel like

(42:48):
there was like more like spiritual discomfort in some ways in the past where it's like,
well, and that's why some religions really like took off because then there was like
a promise of some sort of comfort in the afterlife.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know a ton about history either, but I can, I feel pretty confident having

(43:09):
now watched many different farming shows about farming in the Victorian area and the Edwardian
era and the Tudor era.
Like it used to be really real hard and real uncomfortable.
Yeah.
I mean, people didn't bathe very often and had fleas, you know, like there was a lot
of stuff that was really uncomfortable just differently.

(43:29):
Yeah.
They didn't hear the buzzing sound of their computer.
Right.
And they could see the stars at night because there wasn't so much light pollution.
Right.
Although if I had to choose between buzzing sound of a computer or fleas, I'll say computer.
Yeah, no shame.
Right?
That's the thing.
I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not a fleaist.
Like sometimes I'm like, oh, whatever in a period of time would have been neat, except

(43:54):
like I exist in a female body and there isn't a time that doing that was better.
And I don't like being hot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I have so many lovely conversations and then I often I'm just like, oh, and this
is the conversation that two people who both have houses and like, yeah, access to our

(44:20):
essential needs get to have about like, well, these days people just, you know, fill in
the blank and I'm like, oh, well, these days people, you know, they're like, oh, well,
these days people in our situation, right, which I, I mean, not to like bring it down.
But I'm like, oh, so that always kind of just like helps me be like, maybe it's always a

(44:41):
variety pack for us humans.
But being, I mean, nobody wants to be uncomfortable.
Right.
Nobody wants to be uncomfortable.
But actually I have some friends who like someone that don't wear socks in the winter
and they're just clomping around in their clogs.
But it's like my outdoor friends who like to they get a little so thrilled from being
uncomfortable.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(45:02):
I mean, I am a long distance runner.
So like, yeah, running 13 miles isn't comfortable.
Like it's not.
But I, I don't know.
I'm just on my like little it's especially because like post holidays and like Amazon
trucks being everywhere and I'm just like, you're in AI and like kids these days and
don't know how to have conversations and they don't know how to stand in line.

(45:26):
And I mean, I fucking hate standing in line.
So it's just funny to me because I do, I do think like something I have often said to
sponsors and in recovery meetings is that like long term sobriety is all about learning
how to tolerate discomfort.
But I also think what I'm saying is that like being a human in the world is about learning

(45:50):
how to tolerate discomfort.
Yeah.
And yoga, there's a lot of talking about kind of distancing for yourself from your senses,
which in the past has kind of graded against me because it kind of like it's like sometimes
as taught in this very it feels very like rigid and like like the sensual world is a

(46:12):
little like like detached from it.
It should be like separating from it.
Oh, so I'm not allowed to want my like cozy fleeces.
Yeah, or just like not getting attached to it.
And I don't know, I haven't always, I haven't really even explored that a whole lot because
it just rubs against like kind of other cultural like, like, ooh, the sensual world is bad

(46:37):
and simple or you know, other things I picked up from other places where I'm like, I'm
not interested in that.
But I think how did a teacher once talk about that like the separation from our senses is
more of taking a pause and some people won't teach it this way, but it really resonated
with me of like, there's a pause between the like the thing that we think is going to make

(47:00):
us comfortable and the result.
There's just a space in between the aversion or the desire.
Yeah.
And so we're going to have aversion and desires unless you're really going for a specific
kind of practice in life where you're really trying to separate from that, which some people
are, but I'm not trying to live a big like human life.

(47:27):
But the pause between like I want, I don't want to just hang out there, which is hella
uncomfortable before you grab or push away.
That resonated with me a lot.
And again, I have other teachers who teach that relationship a little bit differently,
our relationship to our senses, but that really resonated with me because I think it's totally

(47:52):
reasonable that we're going to want and not want things really ferociously to stay cozy
or okay.
Yeah, but we could also, I think sometimes we get so frenetic with our immediate desire
to give ourselves that comfort that like we're actually not pausing and maybe knowing why

(48:16):
or and then not that we always need to know the why or the full narrative, but I think
that there's that frenzy, which is then fueling all those Amazon trucks that are making explode.
Right.
So it's kind of frenzy to kind of just pacify or keep it bay, which I mean, my biggest interest

(48:39):
at this moment is basically how we're all just frenzy of fear that's basically all
just motivated by our fear of death.
And that's pretty much what I've been thinking about a lot.
And that's the most uncomfortable thing and the most human thing, I think.

(49:02):
Is the fear of death.
Is the fear of death.
Well, the relationship of death, I don't think it's human to be fearful of death, but I
think it's culturally very big and that we're really afraid and don't want to talk about
it.
And there is, like the minute I think we have like the freesan of our mortality, everybody's
like freaking out.
They're like, I got to go eat a snack.

(49:23):
I got to go take a nap.
I got to go to the gym or I turn on the TV, just anything to escape the reality of our
mortality.
And that's where our spiritual practice is really fucking helpful.
Because ultimately, no matter what it is, I think the root of most spiritual practices

(49:43):
is to help us find peace in our mortality so that we can more fully live in our lives
and be present.
And that's why we're all like, oh, I can't do yoga.
I'm not flexible.
And then if you start spiraling, I'm not flexible, then I can't touch my toes.
And if I can't touch my toes, then I might fall over when I'm old.

(50:04):
And it's just like, oh my god, I'm gonna die.
Right.
And I don't think people are consciously...
Yeah.
I'm listening to you thinking about it.
Because I do occasionally have the thought of like, if I died, I'm like, I've lived a
pretty good life.
That's great.
Yeah.
So that thought does occur to me.

(50:25):
So I don't consciously identify with being afraid of death.
However, as someone who has spent a lot of my adult life single, I do often have the
like, I'm gonna die alone and that feels terrible.
And when I get into that headspace is then when I want to fix it, right?
Like I want to like do whatever.

(50:48):
And what you were saying earlier that like sort of frenetic and frenzied desire to not
be with whatever the discomfort is, is certainly true for addicts and alcoholics, right?
Like that's what's going on is like, we don't like how we feel.
And so we throw alcohol and drugs at it.
But I think it's endemic of, again, humans and modern culture and instant gratification

(51:09):
and like having so much access to so many ways to change the way we feel.
And mindfulness and yoga is a mindfulness practice to me at least is all about cultivating
our capacity to pause, to be in that pause, to like find the pause.

(51:31):
And it really for me has certainly been a like long unfolding practice of being able
to like create that space for myself and not be so reactive.
But it's hard and it takes a long time.
It just always take the whole time.
We might not actually figure it out.

(51:51):
We just can either engage with it or ignore it.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
I just turned 40.
So I'm into the next phase.
Yeah.
Feeling it, loving it.
And also just kind of, I don't know.
I think this idea of then someday figuring it out, like yes, things are getting easier

(52:12):
and better, but I also I'm letting go of the like going to have it all figured out because
that's another kind of instant gratification, right?
Yeah.
It's like being motivated by then like having succeeded at it instead of just the continual
practice of being.
Yeah.
I know I've heard you talk about this in classes a lot of just like our bodies are going to

(52:35):
keep changing.
We're going to be able to do poses and then we're not going to be able to do poses like
that.
There's not going to be an ultimate achievement that we're going to get to.
And oh my God, like in some ways that's so fucking annoying.
Yeah.
It's so normal to be like, but I want to be able to.

(52:57):
Yeah.
I mean, it's way easier to sell how you're going to be young and perfect forever because
everybody wants that.
But it's actually like the biggest like collective thing that we all share is that we're not
going to.
Yeah.
Like if we get the chance to age, then we're going to age.
Right.

(53:17):
Yeah.
Like I was just thinking about that.
And you know, it's like bless her heart.
Like younger me, I wouldn't go back there.
No.
Like I like who I keep turning into.
Yeah.
You know.
Me too.
Oh, you can't pay me.
Like it'd be nice if my body didn't ache in ways that it does now.

(53:38):
And then my family, I just entered the like kind of sometimes needing to wear glasses.
But mostly mostly for I focus reasons, like I'm not at the like have to wear glasses phase.
But like I get to embrace that and be like glasses are cute, like whatever.
Yeah.
You know, but yeah, I don't, I don't actually want to go backwards.
And I don't want to be young forever because like bless y'all's hearts.

(54:01):
If any of y'all are listening, but the twenties were just silly.
Like I don't.
They were hard.
They were hard.
And talk about discomfort, you move through some discomfort and then, then you do change.
You do grow and there is, there is some relief sometimes.
I mean, and that's like, you know, it's like just because of all these practices help us
with discomfort.

(54:22):
It doesn't mean that sometimes there isn't relief and that's really nice.
Like there is relief and there is like ease to be found.
Yeah.
And I think it doesn't, it doesn't have to be huge or everything or all the time.
But I do, I do also feel like sometimes we're, we are all just working so hard to like change

(54:42):
and fix it and find the relief that actually we overlook the relief that's there.
Yeah.
Which is usually just so, so simple that it's really hard to, well, you come to a lot of
my yin classes and the amount of people who are like, I can't do yin because I can't possibly
be still and fair.
Like that is just not, that's out of some people's range of nervousness.

(55:06):
Yeah.
And me 10 years ago wouldn't have been able to do that either.
But now I'm like, oh, I just get to like hug a pillow on the floor for like five minutes.
Great.
Sure do.
But I, because, because I won't do it at home by myself.
And I know my body really likes it.
And I'm now in my forties and I'm like, okay, body, instead of trying to like push and shove

(55:28):
and force you to do things, I'm going to listen.
I'm like, what do you need, buddy?
What would be helpful to you?
I will get the accountability to make sure that you can get that because I'm not actually
capable of doing it by myself in my living room.
No.
And it's, well, and then you just like, because sometimes a body will ask for weird ass shit
too, you know?

(55:49):
Like sometimes if you're really listening, you're actually like, maybe the teacher is
being like, time to do a lunch, but your body's like, I have to be doing some weird little
fetal position and kind of like shaking on one side.
And so it is kind of like funky to listen to your body sometimes because it sometimes
wants to do funky things.

(56:09):
And that is really exciting to me.
And that my practice really looked like me kind of rolling around and like doing strange
contractions on the floor for a long time to heal some stuff.
But that's why I'm, you've got a raccoon shirt on right now.
And that's how I imagine my practice, which is why I'm a movement teacher sometimes instead

(56:30):
of just a yoga teacher is because I'm a scavenger and I feel like I'm a raccoon just like squirreling
around grabbing all the different, like, I'm like, ooh, that's a tasty morsel.
That's a tasty morsel.
And like putting it, I guess my raccoons are recipes.
Because it's putting it in a pouch.
Putting it in a pouch.
And then, and so, but then like the more little morsels you have, then you have a bigger buffeted

(56:54):
shoes from when you are then on the floor with the pillow.
Yeah.
I don't know how we got there, but I love it though.
I mean, I feel like that's why I have gravitated towards particular teachers.
I think for many people, it's less about the specific like, we are going to do these poses

(57:15):
in this class at this pace than it is about how the person who is holding the space is
is holding the space and showing up and like some approaches are good fits for some people
and not for others, you know.
And this feels like a lovely, I want to briefly segue into creativity.

(57:36):
And that just makes me think about like, anytime we're doing creative projects, it's so easy
to be like trapped in the, it's supposed to be like this or these people do it that way
and I can't do it like that.
So I'm not good enough.
Nonsense.
And I really have been trying to embrace personally this idea of just like, what if we all treated

(58:02):
ourselves like what we're doing is what we're supposed to be doing.
I mean, yeah, and it's simply is just what we're doing anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah, but just that like, we're all little scavengers that have scavenged different things
and are going to put together different combinations and we're not supposed to try to do it like
that person.

(58:23):
No, like because we're us.
Yeah.
Yeah, the supposed to thing is so, it's so prevalent and it's pervasive everywhere.
It's everywhere and it really gets in the way of, it gets in the way of people thinking
freely and so we all know then like that why that's not exactly promoted or encouraged.

(58:48):
Because that's the dangerous is to have people be thinking outside of the box.
Yeah.
But beside that, it's scary because it requires a huge amount of trust in yourself to trust
that how you put together all your little morsels to make your thing, whether your thing
is a painting or a movement practice or your life, the amount of self trust it takes to

(59:15):
like stand behind that then and not compare it to other people or not like compare it
to expectations or just like weird shoulds that got baked into our like, I don't know,
our genetics or whatever is going on is really hard for some people.

(59:39):
I'm luckily, I think I got a little bit of a free pass.
I grew up with a pretty untraditional household with a pretty groovy mom.
And also sometimes I'm just like, I don't really understand karma, but I think I'm
working with a lot of like past live stuff that I'm grateful for.

(01:00:00):
But the shoulds are pretty minimal compared to some people, which it does feel that I'm
like, or maybe it's a strategy, who knows.
But I do feel like I have a little bit of extra juice to then share with people.
And yeah, hey guys, we can just do what we want.
My own, my bestest friends, when I met her, I think I was 18 when we met.

(01:00:23):
And she would look at me whenever we were going to hang out and do things.
She's like, we're adults, we can do whatever we want.
And I know we don't usually feel that way, but I still try to like feel that way.
Sometimes I'm like, I'm going to do whatever I want.
I love that.
And but it is kind of true.
And of course, like we don't do some things, those of us who have a sense of value is more

(01:00:44):
or less respectful.
We can do whatever we want that is not harmful to others.
And we don't want that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's just so freeing.
If I'd walked into one of my yoga classes or creative practice, like painting classes,
if I was younger, I would have been the person walking out because I would have been like,
this is not enough structure and who is this crackpot who's not even coming over and showing

(01:01:10):
you exactly where my foot should go.
I just would have been so furious with myself now as a teacher.
The supposed tos.
The supposed tos.
This is how teachers are supposed to show up.
This is what yoga class is supposed to be.
This is what an art class is supposed to be.
They're supposed to tell me.
Because if you don't have a lot of self trust or maybe self worth, then it really is imperative

(01:01:32):
that the guides around you are giving you gold stars.
Yeah.
And I just, that is, I mean, I think most people teach what they need.
So I have always felt really passionate about not being, I'm not holding the gold star pack.
I don't even know somebody who grew up going to Montessori preschool.

(01:01:54):
I love a good, like, I love a good completed task and a good job.
Yeah.
It was very motivating.
But it's not, I don't believe the pathway to then just finding satisfaction within yourself.
Then you're always looking at for outside.
Right.
I mean, I am a big fan of gold stars and you talk about gold stars.

(01:02:16):
But I think it's like the, I'm an adult, I can do what I want is like, oh, I'm the one
that has to give myself gold stars now.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
When we can get to a place of like, I am the arbiter of the gold stars.
I want that t-shirt too.
Yeah.
Like, we're the, we are the arbiters of the gold stars and we're also the arbiters of

(01:02:37):
our own joy.
Yeah.
Right.
And, and like, I have encountered that like being a joyful person in the world pisses people
off.
Yeah.
To, which I was really surprised about the more I've been leaning into it and really
coming up against resistance and coming up against people who are kind of miserable

(01:02:57):
and then want to spread the misery.
Yeah, I'm joyful and I just want to spread the joy.
And I think, I mean, it's very threatening to be faced with someone who is the arbiter
of their own joy because it does then mean that that person, the person who's feeling
threatened and is not feeling good, that means that they're the arbiter of their joy and

(01:03:20):
they haven't chosen it or finding access to it.
So that's hugely threatening.
Yeah.
And I think what's coming for me is just like a very strict headmistress in their head that's
like, no, slapping the ruler.
Like, there will be no joy here.
Like, oh, I think it's really feels maybe either out of the realm of possibility or just

(01:03:42):
like too much hard work to then just to take some of that joy because, because nobody's
going to give it to you.
Yeah.
And that is, well, that's why practices are helpful.
That's why.
That's why rituals or community.
That's why having the like goofy lady at the front of the room just to be like, roll

(01:04:03):
about round and breathe is really helpful because you chose to go.
Right.
Just to go to the practice or the ritual or the thing.
And then you don't have to like fix everything.
You don't have to be an arbiter of your own joy and gold stars by the end of an hour and
15 class.
And at least like you have, there is some structure around choosing to do something.

(01:04:29):
Generally that amount of like action or choice is empowering.
It might not give you immediate joy or bliss, but empowerment is.
Yeah.
Having the capacity to choose to do something is like so, so expansive.
There's so much possibility there.

(01:04:49):
Like choice is hope, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think about joy, not so much as like the instant moments, but as a way of like moving
through the world.
And one of my favorite sayings that I picked up in 12 Step Recovery is this idea that like
self-esteem is built on esteemable actions.

(01:05:11):
And so that like every class that I go to, regardless of like how it goes or whatever
mood I'm in or how stretchy I am is like a gold star in the gold star bank.
Yeah.
And it can be, I think for many of us can be so easy to focus on the like not enoughness
or the like, oh, well I couldn't do this or didn't do that or I haven't been all week.

(01:05:33):
And so I don't get credit.
But I think so much of like, I don't know, my philosophy on life comes down to the like
glass half full.
What did I do well?
Like, how can I be nice to myself?
Like what is good even when things are hard?
And then all of that is a practice that we just get to keep showing up to.

(01:05:56):
Yeah.
I mean, people keep saying that like those practices of taking note of gratitude comes
to mind like researchers.
Yeah.
There's a ton of research on like the actual benefit of if you.
Yeah.
Like, those are the things that are giving you joy or that you feel grateful for.

(01:06:17):
Not take note of the things that you feel guilty about or stress.
Yeah.
Like just that taking note of does seem to be really helpful for people.
Yeah.
It is statistically proven to improve overall well-being.
Yeah.
And it's effortful.
It's really hard.
Yeah.

(01:06:37):
And so having someone at least just or just having community around then being if not
grateful just like taking note of being taking note of being like baseline that is really
helpful because that's just like what's just one step away from taking note of being grateful.

(01:06:58):
And at the very end like I mean sometimes people are like pissed and mad they came to
me okay but generally or like same with like sitting down and painting like gosh is it hard
to sit down and make a painting but then even if it's kind of bad afterwards it's like
oh I'm so glad it's that that nonstop continual gold store log.
Yeah.
It's like oh you put in your time you get you get a little boost from that.

(01:07:22):
Yeah.
What do you mean I mean as we sort of like wind down and curious like what do you mean
by taking note of being?
What would your invitation around that be?
It means starting to separate a little bit from past narrative future planning I think

(01:07:43):
for me at least and then I think what I mean when I say that is very much connected to
the earth so take note of being is very a physicalized experience whether it's bone
and muscle tissue that you're feeling or like breath or the floor underneath you but

(01:08:05):
like essentially I think I'm trying to like follow the string that takes us right to the
earth whether it's like oh we're in we're in a building that is set up on the earth
but that's more just kind of orientation to then feeling like that we're part of the
earth because just like your grumpy shoulder isn't like a separate entity from the rest

(01:08:27):
of your body like my belief is that we are not separate in any way from absolutely everything
else like we're just like one image in the fabric or the tapestry of this universe that
we're in and I feel that on a really physical level and taking note of that like actually
taking a pause and not just conceptualizing it but finding ways to feel that connection

(01:08:54):
is it's everything because then because that's what we came from and that's where we're
going back to and that's what we're part of and this feeling of your what my individual
string your individual string inside the fabric I think is really what I mean of taking note
of being is really just feeling one's place amongst everything because we're always in

(01:09:19):
community even if we're isolated we are just one string in the tapestry whether we feel
it or not is like the practices we choose and the ways we choose to focus on yeah I'm
having this like delightful image of like a two-dimensional like tapestry like little
cartoon versions of us on the same and it's just it's just a treat so thank you for that

(01:09:42):
visual image and thank you for like such a lovely sprawling conversation we sprawled
we did which is I mean appropriate right who needs a call we'll go lateral yeah so
one of my favorite things to ask I mean we've touched on this a little bit but in this moment
in this moment of being part of the tapestry what brings you joy oh gosh I truly I mean

(01:10:09):
I've said it again and again moving moving and also being as close to the natural world
as possible hugging a tree like sniffing moss taking off my shoes outside touching cats
fur having dogs like do their little like snooze thing with their little whiskers and

(01:10:31):
wet noses just the physical sensations that come with connection to earth it gives me
the most joy and my mini trampoline also okay I now I'm gonna go sniff some moss because
I have no idea what moss smells like but I have hooked trees because I live in Portland

(01:10:52):
yeah and it's a thing mini trampoline I yeah my sweetheart gave me a mini trampoline for
my birthday and now I jump on it for 10 minutes every morning amazing yep it's amazing it's
so fun is there any like strategy to the jumping or is it just jumping no just jumping which

(01:11:12):
is part of what gives me joy because there's no oh my god you literally jump for joy every
morning I literally jump for joy every morning I do oh my god you might need to acquire one
of these you do there's so fun it's so fun just I mean everything's moving everything's
changing so what gives me joy is like feeling that and movement usually feels that's part

(01:11:37):
of what leaves me into the tapestry because the taprocy is not stagnant it's everything's
moving everything's changing and that's really alarming for most humans everything's changing
ah anxiety right but actually like when I'm moving and I'm changing and I feel really
connected to that then I feel even more connected to being part of the tapestry I love that

(01:12:00):
and just the tapestry-ness of it right everything's moving really changing but you're not you're
always a part of it yeah like you're not gonna fall off no you're not gonna fall out you're
not gonna like lose your string like and just you're there and it's the no yeah so yeah
it's just you really just can't I mean I mean that might be claustrophobic to some but you
can't escape it you're stuck in the tapestry you're stuck in the tapestry of life like

(01:12:23):
it or not oh I love it awesome Linnea how can people find you oh well they can come
take my yoga classes if they're in Portland they can find me what go to LinneaSolveig.com
and you can find my schedule there you can find me can find me on Instagram if they want
to see my art at Love Helmet and if they want to see kind of a combo meal of the tapestry

(01:12:46):
Linneasolveig amazing and I'll put those links in the show notes thank you so much Linnea
friend thanks for having me thank you so much for listening if you enjoyed this episode
please help me grow the podcast by subscribing leaving a review and sharing it with anyone

(01:13:08):
you think would benefit from hearing it too your support means the world to me if you'd
like to get updates about new episodes posts and offerings please visit settlingisbullshit.com
to subscribe to my newsletter you can also find information there about working with
me one-on-one to build your most amazing life until next time remember that I believe in
you and that you are fucking awesome.

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31 | Exploring Spirituality through the Body with Movement Teacher Linnea Solvieg

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}31 | Exploring Spirituality through the Body with Movement Teacher Linnea Solvieg