Join Dr. David's riveting discussion with renowned Yoga expert, Fiji McAlpine, on the transformative power of Yoga and its instrumental role in total wellness. Explore the insightful journey of Fiji who turned adversity into purpose through the healing practice of Yoga. The episode brims with enriching discussions on the importance of developing a holistic idea of wellness, fostering inner communication, and reinvesting in our physical existence.
Discover the barriers faced by newcomers to Yoga and delve into overcoming them irrespective of financial capabilities, time constraints, or physical flexibility. The episode also shares insights on making Yoga affordable, dealing with time scarcity excuses, and the shifting gender dynamics in Yogic practices.
Further, learn about Yoga's true essence as a lifestyle, far beyond the commonly seen Asana practices. Recognize Yoga's foundation as a 'union', connecting mind and body, fostering wellness in all life aspects. Hear a compelling explanation on the mind-body interaction, a unique feature of Yoga practice, and the inward journey of self-awareness it triggers.
Unearth the transformative power of yoga in dealing with our cerebral, modern-day lifestyle. Learn how it enhances self-perception, fostering inner security and confidence while teaching self-compassion. Also, explore the benefits of combining conscious movement and controlled breathwork, resulting in powerful healing.
Finally, Fiji shares her practical advice for anyone aspiring to embark on the Yogic path, including simple starting points to incorporate Yoga into one's routine. Enrich your understanding of Yoga, its immense physical and emotional benefits, and how it encourages mental resilience in this enlightening episode.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good afternoon. This is Dr. David back with the Fresh Start with Dr. David podcast.
I welcome you back to this podcast. As you know, this podcast is all about solutions,
fresh starts, restarts, reboots, resets, rejuvenation, rewiring,
rebuilding, remanifesting, all those kind of things.
(00:22):
So it's all about doing things over or doing things anew.
And I'm so glad to be back. Sorry that I've been absent for a minute.
I've been really, really busy. As some of you guys know, I was recently involved
in an auto accident and that has been crazy.
It is crazy when a driver comes off an interstate, another interstate onto the
(00:44):
interstate that you on and flies across four lanes of traffic and hits you going
40 miles, I mean, 70 miles an hour, but it happens. Welcome to Atlanta.
So anyway, I've still been recovering from that, but I am am rebooting from that.
And that brings us to our topic for today. So I'm really, really, really excited.
As you guys know, you guys and gals know, I'm a huge believer in the mind-body connection.
(01:10):
I really, really believe that. And I know just from medical school and my study
of neuroscience and neurology, that the mind is perfectly connected with the body.
The mind is connected to every part of the body, every cell.
And the better we understand and work with and work within those connections
(01:35):
and enhance and amplify them or tone them down, sometimes if needed,
the better outcomes that we're going to have in terms of achieving our goals,
maintaining health and wellness, growing spiritually,
psychically, emotionally.
And somatically. So with that, I am so, so excited to have my special guest,
expert yoga virtuoso, Fiji McAlpine.
(02:01):
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, absolutely.
So let me just start off by saying there's an energy like, you know,
it's weird. There's an energy that's just connected to your name.
So that's a really cool thing. just saying your name has a certain amount of
energy to it. Do you hear that often?
(02:22):
I do. And it's really funny. One of the first questions that I get from people
is, is that your real name?
It seems too perfect as a yoga teacher.
And yes, it actually is my name. I was named Fiji from the get-go.
I didn't appreciate my name very much as a child because it was so different.
And I got teased quite a bit.
(02:43):
But now as an adult, I do love it. It's unique.
I've never ever met another CG and it definitely matches, I think,
what I'm doing in the world.
Awesome. So that's really cool because what you experienced as a deficit during
childhood is now a point of prosperity and abundance.
As an adult. So, it's funny how those coins flip sometimes.
(03:05):
Yeah, I grew into my name, is what I always say. Yeah, absolutely.
So, I'm going to share a little bit with you guys and gals about this yoga virtuoso
and expert that we have today.
I'm so excited to have her here, and I'm really, really excited about the topic
of yoga because it's something that I'm fairly ignorant about.
Out. So it's a learning point for me.
(03:27):
And so many people, there's a huge, huge interest in yoga these days.
And so let me share a little bit about her. So Fiji has appeared in the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Huffington Post,
BuzzFeed, Outside Magazine.
She's a yoga virtuoso who turned personal adversity into a global movement.
(03:50):
After a debilitating back injury at the age of 21, Fiji discovered the transformative
power of yoga, not just a remedy for physical pain.
Yoga became her lifeline out of anorexia, a struggle intensified by the societal
pressures of California's culture.
And as you know, California kind of has a reputation for being associated with
(04:12):
physical perfection and beauty and things like that.
And Beverly Hills and places like that are kind of synonymous with with that
in Hollywood and kind of LA culture.
In 2002, Fiji stumbled into teaching yoga when an instructor was a no-show.
That accident ignited a passion within her for teaching that led to her becoming
(04:33):
the director of development at Do Yoga With Me, a platform with a noble cause,
making yoga accessible to everyone and anyone, anywhere.
So the platform, her platform has more more than 1,000-plus videos of yoga classes.
Over 300,000 registered users, and has become a sanctuary for those recovering
(04:58):
from eating disorders and I'm guessing other things too.
Fiji is also an international retreat leader and a certified yoga teacher trainer
mentored by the indomitable Mary Profonteng.
Her journey of self-discovery even empowered her to make the courageous decision
(05:19):
to leave an unhealthy marriage and align her life fully with her values.
For Fiji, yoga isn't just a physical practice. It's a dress rehearsal for life.
She's not just teaching yoga.
She's teaching people how to become better versions of themselves.
(05:39):
And with that, I'm so excited.
Like I said, I love how that last sentence rings.
You're teaching people how to become better versions of themselves.
Tell us a little bit about your journey. I read a little bit about it,
about your back injury at a young age, young adulthood, but tell us a little bit more about it.
(06:00):
Yeah, for sure. And actually, I was quite interested when you started our conversation
today by sharing that you've just been in a car accident. Yeah.
So maybe this is a great, maybe this is the universe bringing you a healing
tool that would help for you as well.
Absolutely. Yeah. So I was kind of like you, actually, when I was first introduced
to yoga. I had never done yoga before.
(06:21):
It wasn't actually even something that was on my radar or that I was looking into.
It was prescribed to me by a physio. So I had a pretty, pretty serious back injury.
I was young to have such a significant injury and I was in chronic pain.
It was 24 hours a day, every day of the week. And I was just anything that I
(06:41):
could do to find relief from the pain.
And so I'd been seeing a physio for a little over a month and we weren't really
making much progress, even though we tried quite a few modalities.
And he finally said, you know, I just have this feeling that yoga may provide some relief for you.
It's worth a shot. And so he recommended a class and I went.
(07:02):
And for about 10 minutes after the yoga practice, my back felt better.
And when you're in chronic pain, I'm sure people out there can really identify with this.
When you're in chronic pain and you get any amount of relief,
you're going to stick with that.
You're going to be like, okay, let's do more of that. So what I ended up doing
(07:23):
was just coming back to the class for the pain relief.
And then over the course of maybe six months, I started to actually really enjoy
the yoga practice and learning about yoga and getting more aware of my body
and all of the benefits that come from yoga,
which are, you know, my mind was more calm. I felt less anxious.
(07:45):
I felt more grounded in my body. I was doing things I never thought were possible
before as well, as far as some of the poses were going.
So it was a really interesting experience. And then I kind of had this moment
where I stopped and was like, oh, where's my back pain?
Like, I don't really know when it fully went away because healing is like that.
(08:05):
It's sort of a gradual thing.
As long as you're consistent and you're showing up and you're engaging in the
process, it just happens over time. And so eventually I stopped feeling back pain.
And by that point in time, I was really, I think, invested in the practice of yoga itself. Wow.
Wow. That's amazing. And can you share the story?
(08:27):
Were you in an auto accident too, or was it some other kind of thing that led
to the back injury? No, it's kind of a funny story. It was not an auto accident.
I was actually in university at the time and trying to just find a part time
job that would work around school classes. And I got hired.
I got hired as a coach for a cheerleading squad.
(08:50):
And I didn't know anything about cheerleading. Oh, wow.
(09:23):
Kind of almost threw herself off the top of the pyramid and I caught her,
but my knees didn't bend.
So I caught this young girl, my back just went backwards and I took all of that
weight and sort of like a whiplashy type of a movement into my lower back and
just caused this huge strain and injury.
And it was like probably a good six months of recovery and being,
(09:46):
you know, I was around 20, 21 at the time.
So my body was pretty resilient and still was debilitating.
Yeah. Oh, my God, that that's unreal.
I mean, it's it's one thing, you know, I turned 50 last year.
It's one thing when you have neck aches and back aches and things when you're
50. But when you're 21, that's scary.
Yeah. Yeah. So it was quite the motivator. And it was one of those things,
(10:08):
though, like you pointed out before, often when there are challenges that pop up in our life,
things that in the moment seem like a really negative or bad experience and
we want to label it that way. Right.
With a little bit of perspective and a little bit of time, we can look back
and go, oh, my God, I'm so happy that that happened.
And it's so weird to say I'm so happy that I got that back injury because I
(10:31):
don't know if I would have ever stumbled upon yoga in that same way or with
that same amount of intensity that I did at that point in time,
which is when I really needed it.
And it didn't just heal my back injury, as you read in the bio as well.
At that point in my life, I was struggling with an eating disorder.
And lo and behold, what I think I really healed from in yoga wasn't just my back.
(10:54):
It was this healing of my perception of myself and learning how to take care
of myself again and appreciate my body and take care of my body in a really mindful way.
So I ended up learning a lesson that saved my life.
From yoga. So, you know, these things that seem like they're setbacks originally
usually have a bigger lesson to them. That is so true. That is so true.
(11:19):
And I know from clients that I've had with eating disorders,
you know, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and there are a few newer ones that are around too.
There are a couple that I don't really even, I don't even know if I know the names for them.
Obviously, I know about body dysmorphic disorder, but the first thing When you
(11:39):
mentioned, which is something I didn't know, that your back injury occurred from cheerleading.
When I think of cheerleading and when I think of gymnastics,
that's the first thing that I think of is people who are very,
very focused on achieving a goal.
And then the second thing that I think of is eating disorders.
(12:02):
That's the first two things that pop in my mind. People who are intent on achieving
a goal that few people achieve and then eating disorders is the second one.
Yes. Yeah. And as I shared too, at that point in time, I was living in California.
I now live in British Columbia, which is much more aligned with my soul and my values.
(12:23):
But at the time, I was in Southern California. And it's really difficult when
you're surrounded by, you know, societal norms and societal pressure that is
really superficial and is looking at just those,
like you said, those very nearsighted things of like things being a certain
way, things looking a certain way, those high expectations that are often unachievable and not healthy.
(12:48):
And when you're young and developing, it's really hard to stand on your own
two feet and what you believe in and not just be sort of pushed into the current
of sort of modern day expectations and I think that that's really where things
are shifting right now and I hope you're seeing it as well as a doctor,
which is there's more of an awareness
(13:10):
of what wellness is and there's more
of a shift right now into a holistic sense of
wellness and as you pointed out really beautifully is
there is there is no place in our body that our
mind is not connected and our mind and
our our body is responding to our mind and our mind is also responding to our
(13:32):
body that if it's true that it goes one way it's also true that it goes the
other way and that's really why yoga is is a powerful tool in overall wellness
because it works in the subtle body realm,
which is kind of that convergence point of our physical body anatomy and our
mental, psychological, and emotional body anatomy.
(13:53):
It works in that sweet spot in the middle that's impacting both ways.
No, absolutely. And to me, that just kind of goes back to the concept that the
greater greater communication there is, the better the outcome is going to be
no matter what you're talking about.
Yes. Yeah. And when we, the great thing about yoga as well is that it enhances
(14:15):
sensitivity and proprioception.
So proprioception is pretty easy to understand, which is like understanding
where my body is in space and having better awareness and connection there.
And that's really great for a lot of physical things. Like it's going to help
you as you're not to fall as often because you have better balance and all of these great benefits.
(14:36):
You're less likely to be injured, especially if you're an active person when
you have better proprioception.
But the other part that it's highlighting is it's increasing our sensitivity.
So the more connected you are with your mind and your body, the more sensitive
you are to when things go out of alignment.
My threshold and sensitivity of noticing when something is off is really attuned.
(15:01):
And that's so important, especially when you are working with your healthcare
professionals, to be able to go in and say, I can tell something's off inside
of me. Let's figure out what that is.
Rather than being so disconnected from the body that things end up getting so
far along in progression that we end up in the place of having disease and symptoms.
So this really is, I think, a way of people learning to listen to their body
(15:26):
and that wisdom that we all have within us that's trying to guide us when we reinvest.
I like what you say, too, about the idea of rebooting, restarting,
and renewal is we reinvest our awareness in our physical experience.
Wow. I love that. You need to coin that phrase. Say that one more time.
(15:47):
Well, hopefully we have it recorded. Yeah. Yeah. But that was brilliant the way that you said that.
Reinvest in our focus is, I believe, what you said. And I love that because,
which is the opposite of distraction.
So, you know, reinvesting over and over in your focus is just like reinvesting
into a mutual fund or, you know, sleep or anything else or nutrition.
(16:11):
And one of the things that I love, the word, I'm a big word person.
Anybody who's checked out my self-improvement books will see that.
I'm really big on the words people use in the context.
And I love how you use the word atonement, because when you break down the word
atonement, it comes to at-one-ment, right?
That's what atonement is. It's being at one. And in order to be at one,
(16:36):
you've got to have a connection with all the parts of who you are. I love that.
One of the big things, so obviously, I've got a ton ton of questions.
And I've even had some people to reach out to me who I mentioned that we were
going to do an episode and they had some questions.
But one of the big things that I have, so I have a lot of clients who come to me who need a reboot.
(16:56):
I have a lot of clients who have chronic pain. I also have a lot of clients
who need focus and they need direction and things like that.
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to show up for the first activity,
the first yoga session, things like that.
And when you think about all of your, you know, 500,000 plus to a million users,
(17:20):
et cetera, and you think about all the videos and all the classes that you've
done, what are some of the factors that you think influencing people actually
taking that first jump in the water and going to the first yoga class or doing
the first first yoga exercise?
Yeah, you know, it always is that hurdle and that's just one of the reasons.
(17:40):
Diogo is me, which is where my classes mostly live. One of the reasons that
we started that platform is that we saw that there were barriers to people showing
up and receiving the benefits of yoga.
And knowing how much yoga has benefited my life, once you have something that
(18:01):
truly changes your life for the better, you can't help but want to share that gift with everybody.
Like, it's like something burning inside of you.
The minute you've transformed because of something or something has brought
you great release, you just want so bad for other people to experience it.
So the idea of creating this platform was like, how can we remove the barriers?
(18:22):
So one of the barriers is money.
Yoga is really expensive now. an average yoga class here where I'm teaching
in British Columbia is around like $22 to $27 for a single class. That is crazy.
And so removing the financial barrier is the first thing.
Then the next barrier is what most of your clients are going to tell you is, I don't have time.
(18:46):
And hey, I can resonate with you guys on this one.
I have two kids, I'm a single mom. I work full time.
I teach classes. I feel like I don't have time lots of days also.
But the cool thing is, is that each of us is given the same amount of time every day.
Each of us gets 24 hours and we just do have to take the responsibility of deciding
(19:11):
where it is we're investing and in what.
And you can get so much benefit from just taking 20 minutes a day to be mindful
in your movement and mindful in your breath and kind of focused in your energy.
I just tell people, like one of my favorite phrases in my classes is millimeter
(19:31):
miracles. Wait, say that again? Millimeter miracles.
So in yoga, on our mat, we have these little millimeter miracles.
Sure, you might not be able to do the full pose today. I'm not asking for that,
but can you make a millimeter shift towards it? And most people can.
So it's like, what is that little sweet spot for each person?
(19:53):
Can you carve out 10 minutes?
Okay, let's start there. Can you carve out 20? Okay, let's start there.
What's realistic and what's going to start you walking towards that goal of wellness?
Something that you can actually commit to because we really see the biggest
benefits when we have that consistency.
So we've got to show up to the first class, but then we kind of have to keep
(20:16):
it going. So what is realistic in your commitment?
So remove the barrier of finances so that people can accept Seth Yoga,
and then also removing that barrier of I don't have time.
So we have classes that are anywhere from 10 minutes, all the way up to 90 minutes.
So and everything in between. So we want to make sure that like,
we can meet everyone's need there as well.
(20:38):
And then the other part of it too, is access.
Not everyone lives somewhere where there are 10 yoga studios within a 20 kilometer
radius, like where I live, there's yoga studios everywhere.
But I've been to lots of the places where there's no yoga studios anywhere nearby.
So it brings yoga straight to you and at the level that you're ready to engage with it.
(21:00):
And yoga is so great because it doesn't matter what your fitness level is.
Yoga meets you exactly where you are and you get to progress from there.
It doesn't matter how flexible you are. Like I have so many people,
sometimes doctors too, who are like, oh, you know, I know yoga is great,
but I'm just not flexible enough to do yoga. And I laugh because that's why you do yoga.
(21:21):
It's like, if you're flexible, maybe you don't need to do it.
So it's this great thing of what are the barriers that exist that are real?
And what are the barriers that are existing inside my own mind that are not real?
You know, the funny thing, too, is so, you know, we talked to you talked about time.
You talked about money and those two barriers. So when I think about yoga,
(21:44):
I mean, obviously, I remember when I first heard about yoga,
it was probably when I was in college in the 90s.
But I know one of my favorite movies is a movie starring Tom Cruise.
It's called The Minority Report.
It's a science fiction movie. And there's a scene in that movie where he's in
(22:06):
a car and he goes past this yoga class and this lady's in this position and
they all notice him drive by and it just kind of catches everybody off guard.
And the irony is that she's holding this position the whole time that this happens.
But usually I believe I could be wrong, but I think when most people think about
(22:27):
yoga, I can't, I tried to picture it and I just said, okay, what's the first
thing that pops in your mind when you think about yoga?
And it's kind of like, you know, one of the yoga poses that a female is in.
Whenever I think about the word yoga, never does a guy come up in my mind.
And even in like, for instance, television and movie caricatures where they
(22:49):
talk about yoga or they have somebody in yoga, usually there's like,
you know, 90% women and maybe one guy or something like that.
What do you think the barriers or what have you seen as some of the barriers
to getting more men to try yoga for the first time?
That's a really great question. And this is also a really great moment to illuminate
(23:10):
the fact that what we think is reality is often what we see on the movies or,
you know, that we perceive in our common culture.
But is it really true is what we want to ask ourselves.
So I love that, you know, like that is the iconic, you know, like image.
And right now, especially because young women and just people in beautiful bodies
(23:32):
and all of that kind of thing.
So you get this image of what you think yoga has to be. But actually,
really traditionally, before yoga came to the West, it was predominantly male.
Oh, I did not know that.
Yeah, all of the first teachers, all of the gurus from India are male teachers. Wow.
And so the first major influencers who came to North America were male teachers
(23:58):
who brought the practice over here.
And then it was around the 70s that women started really engaging in this practice.
And sort of making it their own here in the West.
And then it kind of, at some point in time, started to...
Now, that being said, when some of the major figures were still alive and teaching
(24:18):
here, like Iyengar Yoga or Patabi Joyce with the Shanga Yoga,
you did see a lot more men still as teachers and practitioners.
And then there has been a little bit of a shift where women are really taking this on.
And I think there's a few reasons for this. But one of them,
I believe, why it's so popular with women in the West is women in the West are
(24:39):
experiencing higher levels of stress than almost anywhere else in the world.
And we're seeing the physical repercussions of this.
We're seeing, you know, the decline in women's health here.
We're seeing inflammation. We're seeing, you know, cardiac issues and menopausal
symptoms that are happening because of these high levels of cortisol. all.
But I think that in many ways, yoga has become a self-medicating tool. Women are intuitive.
(25:04):
And when they've experienced the stress relief benefits of yoga,
I think this is something where it's like, wow, this is something that can help
me remain well and healthy and sane.
So I think that there's something really that women are open to with this.
And there's maybe some difference as well, again, it can be more of that Western
(25:26):
mindset of not wanting to be a novice.
So I think that men are more reluctant to try that first yoga class because
it is something new and it's something unfamiliar.
And they might go in and they might feel like they're not good at it.
So one of the things that I often suggest for men is, listen,
everyone benefits from yoga, Everyone feels better afterwards.
(25:49):
And if, you know, there is that feeling of not being good enough,
you can always try your first practice at home.
Right. So you can always, you know, this is where online yoga can be so beneficial
because you can do that first practice at home in the privacy of your own home.
(26:10):
You've got the ability to just, you know, put on a class. No one's watching
you. You're just kind of getting to know the basics yourself.
And that's a really great way of just having that first experience.
I think part of it is just getting honest with yourself and saying,
what is, what's my resistance here?
Right. You know, and then once you identify what that resistance is,
(26:30):
the path forward becomes more clear.
Why am I reluctant? Oh, I'm, I'm, if I'm honest, I'm reluctant about feeling
like, you know, I don't know what I'm doing or whatever.
Not looking like I'm good at it. So I think that's a big part of it.
And I think then the other misconception that I already brought up before is
men innately tend to be a little bit more stiff.
And when we think about yoga, we're thinking about flexibility and people being really bendy.
(26:54):
But not all yoga classes are about that. Yoga is also about creating strength,
and men are incredibly strong.
And so I teach classes that are male and female. male.
And in the poses that require a lot of strength and stability,
men thrive, and they do really well.
And then when we get the more flexible part, then women might find that part easier.
(27:18):
But actually, we're always working towards our reflection. So men are gaining
more from the flexibility poses, because that's where they need to gain.
And women are gaining more in the strengthening poses, because that's where we need to gain.
So yoga is helping us to bring more balance back into our body.
Nice. I love that. I love that. And that's a great segue to my next question,
(27:43):
which kind of feels for me like a dumb question to ask, but it's a really obvious
one that I think a lot of people really want to know is,
what is the definition of yoga? What exactly is it?
Yoga? This is a really great question to ask because the word yoga is used really incorrectly.
(28:03):
So when we've been talking about
yoga in this conversation, we're thinking about what happens on the mat.
You're talking about the poses and all that kind of thing. So yoga is actually more of a lifestyle.
Yoga is a way of being. Yoga actually translates from Sanskrit into union. union.
(28:24):
So it's a sense of unity, which is really great for you as a doctor who has
the understanding of the mind-body connection and that nothing is disconnected
from anything else in us. Everything is connected.
So we have to look at the relationship.
Whenever we're looking at some part of our body, we should always be looking
at how it's related to other parts of our body and our behavior and our mind.
(28:47):
So yoga means union. It means connection.
It means oneness, that we are whole, resourceful, right?
So that's what yoga is. What we're doing on the mat is actually called the asana practice.
And it's one of the eight limbs of yoga. So one of the tools that we have in a yogic lifestyle.
(29:08):
So you've got your asana practice, which has its different benefits,
different tools help us with different things.
Another limb of yoga, which is often used with the asana practice is pranayama.
And more people are becoming aware of that word now because of the popularization
of breath work and the science that's coming out behind the fact that when we
(29:33):
breathe correctly, we have better health outcomes.
And does all this come from.
You know, the yogis? Is that where it all comes from?
Yeah, well, these things do. So, yoga has been around for thousands of years.
Okay. And the different tools that we've used have been around for thousands of years.
(29:53):
And the beautiful thing about yoga, like everything else, like medicine and
everything else that humans have created for their own benefit and evolution,
is that it's evolving. Right.
And so we're allowing these sort of ancient and ageless traditions and teaching
to meet us where we are in this modern world, which our bodies aren't actually
(30:16):
really designed very well for,
and use these tools to help us, again, restore balance,
to have more wellness, and to
remember that wellness isn't just what's happening in your physical body.
Wellness is again this whole holistic thing
it's this unity thing wellness is
what's happening in my body it's what's happening in
(30:37):
my mind and the quality of my thoughts in my
emotional awareness intelligence and regulation wellness is also in my relationships
in the way that i'm living you know in the world in consideration with other
people and things around me so wellness is this big bubble that's around us
and again it makes us interconnected with others and the world around us.
(31:00):
So, I love looking at it from those different sides.
Nice, nice. I love that. I love the word connection, and I love the word union.
And I had no idea until today that yoga meant union.
So, that's a nice, nice insight.
So, let's say somebody's been resistant to trying yoga, and they decide to try
(31:25):
it either from home or they go to a local yoga studio or some kind of event or thing like that.
One of the things that you as a virtuoso and an expert and other people who do yoga.
Consistently say is it builds the connection between the mind and the body.
(31:47):
For me, you know, being a cerebral person, being an analytical person,
person trying to understand, you know, kind of that abstract concept.
But, you know, you're an expert.
So, tell me a little bit about, is that something that shows up the first time
you do yoga or is it that six-month point that you kind of referenced before?
(32:08):
But that mind-body connection, that inner oomph or je ne sais quoi or whatever
it is, tell me a little bit about that.
Well, I mean, you definitely feel it after your first practice,
just because you're feeling parts of your body you haven't been feeling probably before that.
Right. But what you're speaking to really that that continual feedback loop
(32:31):
where we're becoming more aware of what already exists. Right.
So that's the thing that I always I always love to point out to people is there
is nothing that you're not.
It's just that we forget sometimes. Right. Right. So we are already very connected
as individuals and we are already very aware, but we've just chosen to point
(32:52):
our attention somewhere else. Right.
So the information of the body is there all the time.
It's just that we're choosing to point our attention into that cerebral realm.
And I really love that you pointed to that is one of the reasons that I think
that yoga is gained such popularity in the last 20 years is because the same
thing that's happened in the last 20 years is we are being pulled more into
(33:16):
the cerebral way of living.
And our body is trying to get a little bit of balance and yoga is very embodied.
It's very physical. It's very grounding. So, almost out of desperation,
when people experience yoga, they're like, oh my God, okay, we need a little bit of that.
I need that in order to survive in this cerebral way of living that the modern world is asking us to.
(33:39):
So, it's again, our own inner instinct to cultivate balance. balance.
So, that awareness that we already have, that's already there,
it's already functioning, is simply, it's almost more like an illumination or
revelation of something that's already happening.
We're just turning the flashlight from sort of that cerebral realm back down
(34:02):
into the body to become aware of what's happening.
And I think that it happens quite quickly.
The great thing about being a teacher is that I get to watch yoga work its magic on people.
So I get to have that person who comes into their first class.
And I kind of, you know, like, I'm like the mad scientist in the corner, twiddling my fingers.
I can't wait to see what happens here, where they start coming,
(34:26):
and then the changes start happening.
And it is usually around, I'd say, like the six-month mark, where people have
kind of been coming up two or three times a week, you know, more consistently,
where they come up to me and they say almost the same thing every time, which is, man,
I'm really feeling a lot better since I started doing yoga.
(34:46):
And not just better in my body, but like other things are better too.
You know, my relationships are better. You know, my, you know,
my work seems better. My stress levels are better. I'm sleeping better.
Like they just make all of these connections to things seem a little more harmonious
and easy in all aspects of life.
And again, it's this idea of unity that nothing's disconnected.
(35:09):
You can't shift something just in your body and it's not going to impact your
mind Or vice versa, right?
And I love how you actually spoke to about things like PTSD and depression and anxiety.
If you shift something in your body, you will be shifting something in your mind.
And ultimately, it's probably going to be a powerful and positive shift when
(35:34):
you're doing something that's a healing modality.
So I see people who don't come to yoga to alleviate their depression,
but I do see that their depression is alleviated through the practice of yoga.
They don't come to turn their anxiety down, but by practicing yoga and being
more grounded in their body, their anxiety ends up going down.
(35:55):
So it's this thing again, you know, we're coming back to the same thing of everything
is connected. When we shift something here, it's going to have a little bit of an impact over here.
And it's just asking the questions of what can I do now that would have a positive shift?
What little millimeter can I do today?
And yoga, the cool thing too is people's self-perception changes when they start practicing yoga.
(36:20):
And I think that is the most powerful thing that can happen to any human.
When your beliefs about yourself change. change.
When you go from feeling insecure to feeling inner security,
from feeling weak to going, oh my gosh, I just did that pose. I must be strong.
(36:40):
From going, I'm so inflexible. And then now you're doing something that requires
flexibility and you go, well, I thought I was inflexible, but now I'm flexible.
So it's this ability to see yourself differently and your your ability to believe
in your ability to change.
I like that. Tell me, so one thing that I've been curious about,
(37:02):
what is the connection between yoga and all those other fancy words that you
used that I won't even try to pronounce and self-compassion?
So how does self-compassion come into the work that you do and the way that
you help people transform?
Yeah, well, self-compassion is really huge. So when you step onto your mat,
(37:26):
you learn really quickly that you're either going to be compassionate to yourself
or you're harming yourself.
And often there's that saying that sometimes we need to learn what love is not to learn what love is.
And so sometimes people step onto their mat and they just try to push themselves
so hard and they just try to force and muscle the poses to kind of, it's that ego.
(37:48):
It's like, no, I want you to look the best. It's got to be perfect.
You know, and when you take that approach in yoga or in life,
you end up hurting yourself.
And then once you end up hurting yourself, then you go, OK, that didn't work.
Let's try a different way. And then that's when people actually start to do the real yoga.
And really, you have to listen to your body because you get the you get the feedback right away.
(38:12):
Right. And so when you step onto your mat, you're getting the feedback.
You're learning to listen. And you start to be guided by sensation instead of expectation.
Nice. I love that. And that's what compassion is to me is, can I be guided by
the feeling in this moment of what I feel is right and most beneficial instead
(38:32):
of that overriding ego and which voice is.
Guided by sensation instead of expectation. I love that. That is brilliant. Yeah.
I love that. That's what yoga teaches us.
Yeah. And that really is, that is, that's probably in a nutshell,
the most, one of the most important gifts that we get from the practice of yoga.
(38:54):
And what I love is it is so accessible to everybody.
And it is, it is something we can all fit in a little bit every day and something
we can experiment with and try and have benefits, not just in the body,
but in our mind and the way that we feel, the way we treat ourselves.
And we, I'm ensuring you know this as well, the moment we start to have self-compassion,
(39:15):
Again, everything is connected.
We can't just have compassion with ourselves and not have compassion with others.
So it impacts our relationships as well.
True. So that's a great segue to some of the things I really,
really want to ask you about.
During this episode. So one of the things, obviously, you know,
(39:38):
most people realize that, you know, movement and breath work are a part of yoga.
And there's a kind of an alchemy between those two.
Tell me a little bit about the chemistry of that, of the breath and the motion together. together?
Yeah. So, well, both are mindfulness practices.
(40:01):
So, the asana practice of yoga, the moving of your body, you're being guided
to move in a way that is on purpose for a purpose. Okay.
So, I use doctors as an example a lot of time when I'm using metaphor to teach.
And I say, you know, we move our hands throughout the day unconsciously all the time.
(40:24):
And when our body moves unconsciously, it's not usually doing anything very impressive, right?
Right. However, when a human being decides to move their body consciously,
that's when we unlock some really powerful and potent things.
That's when we focus the mind. So, say, if you've got to go onto the table and
(40:45):
get open-heart surgery, do you want your surgeon to be moving his hand consciously
or unconsciously? Right. Okay.
Consciously. So we again realize,
okay, there's consciousness and movement that amplifies the impact.
So yoga allows us to move our body in a conscious way so that there's purpose to every movement.
(41:05):
And in that, it focuses the mind and it allows the mind to be present in what
we're doing while we're doing it.
So that in itself is something that is really nourishing for the nervous system.
Because as you have described, we're pulled in all these cerebral directions
where attention is feeling very frazzled.
(41:25):
So this comes back to something where it's more focused and it's more amplified.
So that's the sort of the alchemy in the physical movement.
The breath is really what turns yoga practice or asana practice from just an
aerobics class or some other movement type of a thing into something that's
(41:45):
more powerful because our breath is what is helping us to switch from the sympathetic
to the parasympathetic nervous system. stuff.
And in yoga, we're working with wanting to do release of deep tension.
When we're holding deep tension, it's not healthy for our body.
It's like a body armor that restricts our movement and it restricts the flow of energy.
(42:07):
It restricts circulation, all kinds of things. We want to release some of that deeply held tension.
But in order to go into release, you have to be in the parasympathetic nervous system.
You can't release that deep tension when you're still in the grips of the conscious
mind that is trying to solve the problem from the outside.
(42:27):
So that sort of sympathetic, you know, charging at the problem, we have to switch.
So how you switch, it's really easy. I'm sure you know this,
and many people know this too, is the minute you slow your breath down.
And you begin to breathe into the lower lobes of your lung, you toggle over
into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is that sort of rest and digest
(42:49):
releasing type of state of mind that we need to be in to let go of that tension.
So slowing down into that low,
slow breathing is one of the most important tools that we learn in yoga.
And it's something you can do on your mat, but you can can also do it when you're in your car.
You can do it when you get frustrated by a situation that's arising.
(43:11):
You can just take a moment and actually drop into that slow,
low breathing and slip over into that parasympathetic so that you're less reactive,
sort of more calm and responsive within yourself.
And it's really easy when you think about why this happens is,
you know, when we were cavemen and we were being chased by some big animal breathing
(43:33):
quickly, the body needs to be in that sympathetic response, that fight or flight.
But if we're breathing really slow and really steady, the brain is going,
oh, we mustn't be getting chased right now.
There mustn't be any threats or this person wouldn't be breathing so slowly.
So it's just, you know, leaning into those modalities that our body already
(43:53):
has so that we can sort of unlock the magic of how do I let go of these things that are not serving me?
Well, okay, we got to get into into that calm place first.
So is that part of what allows yoga to help enable people to overcome eating disorders?
I would say yes, and a lot of other things as well.
(44:14):
So again, we're working down into that area of being calm,
less boundary, less gripping and less holding, which is where people are when
they're in any of those disorders that involve anxiety.
So this also is what makes it really powerful for PTSD.
And, you know, a lot of programs have popped up in the last 10 years,
(44:36):
helping people who are coming back from military service and doing different
breathing exercises or yoga practices is that help them with PTSD.
And there's so much success there. Mindfulness is such a great tool in overcoming
that because it's, again, slowing down the rapid pace that anxiety creates in
the mind and the rapid pace that it causes in our heart.
(44:59):
So it helps us to sort of untangle any of those disorders that have anxiety
involved in them. Wow. Nice.
Tell me a little bit about the connection between focus, hyperfocus, and pain. pain. Yeah.
(45:19):
So as many people who've experienced pain kind of know, when you're experiencing
pain, there is a tool and a benefit in that, in that your awareness is in the present moment. Yes.
Right. So you cannot really think about much else other than that experience.
So when we're playing with sensation on the mat, and I really invite people
(45:44):
to be curious about that, But when you go on the mat, you're going to rub up
against the resistance.
Right. And that's part of the practice. And that's actually what's going to help you grow.
Because yoga allows you to rewire the way that you're meeting resistance.
Right. So it goes back to that fight or flight. When I meet resistance on the
mat, do I bully through it and push my way in?
(46:07):
Or do I soften and pause and allow myself to release a little bit?
So we've been taught mostly when you meet resistance to just ignore it,
mind over matter, blast through it, instead of mind into matter.
Let's listen. How can I soften? How can I get to the source?
(46:27):
So as a doctor, when someone comes in with incredible pain, do you want to just
give them a pill to make the pain go away?
Or do you want to know more about why is it showing up in the first place?
And how can we get to the root of that?
And how can we actually alleviate the pain, but also prevent it from coming back?
(46:48):
Where is the imbalance coming from that's causing the pain in the first place?
So pain is a fantastic teacher. It holds your awareness in the moment so that
that you're able to engage with the resistance differently.
And then once you listen to the signal of pain itself, it should take you like
a little, you know, trail of breadcrumbs to the source of why the pain showed up in the first place.
(47:13):
It's again, the body, the body's amazing. It's sending you that signal because
it's saying, hey, you need to look over here.
This is a distress signal. This is a flare going up saying that there is an
inferno going on down down over here and you're not looking at it and it's going
to take you down if you don't course correct.
So pain is a great indicator that we have some work to do.
(47:36):
And I love that there are finally doctors out there who are saying,
we need to listen to some of this stuff because some doctors are kind of like
of the mind of, if the smoke alarm is going off,
let's just take the batteries out. Right, right.
So that we don't have to listen to that annoying noise anymore.
Right. instead of saying, let's look at what's causing the smoke to go off.
(48:00):
If there's a fire building somewhere, we might want to address that.
That is a perfect analogy.
And that's really what it is. And we need more doctors like you who are saying,
okay, like, let's listen. Let's listen to this pain signal.
Use it to our advantage to help us heal and to prevent something worse from coming at us.
You know, when I was reading about some of the work that you do,
(48:23):
and I was reading about the concept of rewiring the brain through yoga and meditation,
One of the first things that popped in my head was when I
took neurology and we had to learn all these different tracks of the nervous
system and how these nerves and these tracks of nerves travel from the brain
(48:45):
through the spinal cord to different parts of the body and how some of them
switch over from one side.
So they start in the left side of the brain, but they go to a body part on the
right side and some do that and some stay on the same side and all these different tracks.
And I remember all these diagrams and they would, for whatever reason,
(49:06):
they use the color blue to represent them in the textbooks that we used.
And they'd look like a whole bunch of confusing railroad tracks.
But the funny thing about it, though, is when you think about the brain and
you think about the body parts and you think about yoga and meditation,
it kind of makes sense because.
(49:27):
You're activating, if you're doing all these novel poses that you don't normally
do and stretching things and becoming more flexible and more precise and accurate
and things like that in your movements,
then you're tapping into all those tracks that we studied in neurology in the
brain and through the spinal cord.
It's so cool when science finally catches up to thousands of years.
(49:52):
That is true. That is true. And we need that because, you know,
like a lot of people, they just they need to see it to understand it.
But just because we can't see something doesn't mean it's not already in existence.
Absolutely. So the yogis called those channels nadis. Okay.
And they were drawn out in a very similar way. Exactly what you said,
which is all of these confusing overlapping tracks that are going through the entire body.
(50:17):
Right. And so what they just what they asserted was that these are channels of energy.
And energy is just another way of saying information.
Yeah. I know a lot of people get kind of woo-woo about, oh, we're moving prana, we're moving energy.
Well, guess what? Energy is a form of information, so is light.
Light is illuminating information that we need to see.
Absolutely. So this is, it's information.
(50:39):
It's information that our nervous system is telling us about different parts
of our body that's very needed.
So if we're increasing that information flow, let's talk about,
we could word it that way if it makes people more comfortable,
you're increasing your flow of information.
Sometimes that flow might get stagnant for some reason
or might get blocked for some other reason and that wouldn't be
(51:00):
good we want to make sure that those channels are constantly
flowing so that every part of our body is
informed by every other part so that we can be a self-healing mechanism we're
designed to self-heal which is remarkable right incredible talk about renewal
it's just absolutely amazing that we can my back has no pain today wow in in
(51:21):
the moment of my deepest back pain,
I never would think that it would have ever gone away, but the body can heal.
So we just want to find ways to help the body do what it already knows how to do.
And that brings us to kind of the final thing that I wanted to cover before we wrap up today.
And I love it because as you've gained, I'm a big person on words because I
(51:48):
think words express intention.
And there's a reason why you use one word instead of another,
right? There's a reason why you might use the word drive instead of the word motivation.
Or there's a reason why you might use the word desire instead of passion,
right? And the reason why is because there's a certain intention and conception
associated with each one of those words.
(52:08):
But one of the big things that I liked about the work that you do is kind of
like the resilience roadmap and building mental fortitude.
And it's always been kind of my mantra with my clients that the more resilience
and fortitude that you have, the more successful you're going to be.
(52:29):
Because by having fortitude, you're going to push through a lot of other things,
a lot of things in life that a lot of other people would just give up and quit.
And it's that fortitude to keep going, even though there are adversities and
challenges and obstacles,
that builds those mental muscles that you need to be successful and resilient
(52:50):
in an ever-changing and ever-competitive world.
Yeah, I know. And I love words as well. And my cueing is really focused on a
very certain type of vocabulary when I'm teaching.
And it's one of the things my classes are known for is the vocabulary that I use while I'm teaching.
And for that reason, because words carry an energy.
(53:15):
Words will make you, like the difference between saying stretch your right leg
and lengthen your your right leg.
One sounds harsh, one sounds doable and soft.
So everything has an energy. So being aware, it's all like how we're manifesting
and presenting ourselves or representing ourselves, what we're representing.
(53:38):
So being mindful of my words is huge as well.
And the idea of fortitude and resilience, I mean, that is exactly what you are
learning as well, when you step into so many of these practices,
which is, okay, I'm meeting this moment, there's resistance in it.
I want to stop, but can I go one millimeter further or can I hold for 10 more seconds?
(54:00):
And when you are creating the evidence, and that's so much of what our brain
just is looking for all the time.
It's creating the evidence that I'm capable of doing this thing that I didn't
think I could do, or it didn't necessarily feel like I wanted to in the moment.
So it's allowing you to realize that, yeah, when you meet resistance or when
(54:20):
things get a little bit hard, do I just give up? Do I buckle?
Or do I see if I have that inner strength?
Can I tap into something in that moment that allows me to stay with it?
But also with that finite line of self-compassion.
So this is where it's yes and, it's both parts. It's I'm resilient and strong.
(54:40):
And sometimes the greatest feat of strength is knowing when to take a moment to rest.
Now, that is true. And so many people don't get a chance or do that on a regular
basis these days. It's all go, go, go, go, go.
Yeah. Yeah. And yoga is great because it's an ebb and flow between effort and surrender.
And I think that's really what builds strength. And you know,
(55:02):
this is a doctor actually, and I've described this to people before.
If your muscle, people think, oh, you know, I've got to engage my muscle to make it stronger.
And you do for sure. You need to engage your muscle to make it stronger.
You need to ask it to do things slightly beyond its comfort zone for it to develop that strength.
And at the same time, the muscle can't be turned on 24 hours a Because if a
(55:24):
muscle is turned on 24 hours a day, it never has time to rest and then rebuild
into the stronger muscle that it's going to be tomorrow.
So it's in allowing yourself to challenge your capacity slightly,
one millimeter more than I
did yesterday, and then give yourself the opportunity to rest and rebuild.
Yeah, which should grow capacity, right?
(55:48):
Yeah, totally. Totally bandwidth.
I love that. I love that. Oh, my God. This has been such a treat.
I mean, I'm going to I'm going to have to get I'm going to have to study a little
bit more about yoga just to understand because I never knew that it was all
these different things that you've said, all these different names.
I never knew that yoga stood for union.
I never knew about these other things about yoga.
(56:09):
And it's funny because so many people come to me for hypnosis or hypnotherapy.
And it's not uncommon for me to get an appointment request for somebody saying,
OK, I've got PTSD, major depressive disorder, dissociative identity disorder,
generalized anxiety disorder,
borderline personality disorder.
(56:31):
What else? OCD. can I fix all of that with one hypnosis session?
And I'm like, the short answer is no.
And, you know, people have so many misconceptions about hypnosis from,
you know, like shows and circuses and things like that, even though people like,
you know, the father of psychiatry, Dr.
(56:52):
Sigmund Freud used hypnosis. And so did Dr. Milton Erickson and a lot of other
psychiatrists and other.
You know, professionals. But I think the same thing is true about yoga.
I think a lot of people have misconceptions about it.
And I think that people like you shine a light on something that's transformative
that anybody can do at any time
(57:13):
to make those small shifts that lead to a better version of ourselves.
Yeah. And it really is something I do want to invite everyone to to just try a little bit.
I've never, ever encountered anyone who said, you know, I tried yoga for a few
weeks and I don't like it.
Most people are like, I was really reluctant and I finally tried it.
(57:35):
Oh, yeah, I get why it is beneficial.
It would be really great for you because you don't have any experience with
yoga to do this with your listeners and say, hey, I'm going to jump in and jump on the site.
Diyogasme.com has, like you said, we've got like a thousand classes.
We are a social purpose company. So like we always have 50% of our classes for free.
(58:00):
We want to make sure that there is, and they're every level.
So from very beginner to very advanced and everything in between,
we've got like 30 teachers.
So you'll find somebody who resonates with you.
We have classes that are 10 minutes long, up to 90 minutes long, all different styles.
We've got sleep meditations that are really great. If that's your starting point,
(58:20):
again, like I want to meet people where they are, you know, physical practice sounds daunting today.
Well, let's do a sleep meditation or let's do a five minute,
you know, seated meditation or relaxation class.
So just try, just hop on there and try.
And we're, we also created a code for your listeners.
I think it'll be in the show notes. That's just a link that gives people additional
(58:42):
access because we have the 50% of our classes are free, but then we have subscribers
who help support the company so we can maintain those free classes and they
get some special... Nice.
So, we're going to give your listeners one of those premium subscriptions as
well if they're interested. Awesome. Thank you so much. Awesome.
You know, and that's the thing. You know, one of the things that I didn't really
(59:04):
– we didn't really get a chance to touch on today.
But I know I have a partnership with a local school district here called the
Clayton County Public School System.
And, yeah, and we did a – they did a career fair, which was really,
really cool, a couple of weeks ago.
And, you know, I, you know, I spoke to kindergartners and first graders,
(59:25):
and it was just, you know, which was, you know, very interesting.
They're so motivated. They want to do everything.
They're so active. But, you know, there have been, you know, as you know,
our country's in a mental health crisis, and this is the first time in our history
as a nation that surveys have said that 90% of Americans feel like we're in a mental health crisis.
(59:49):
And, you know, just some recent trials in the news and things like that have
highlighted the fact that the suicide rate is so high among young people,
youth, adolescents, and young adults these days.
And one of the first things that popped in my head yesterday when I was kind
of thinking about this episode today is everything moves so fast.
(01:00:15):
If we had things like yoga in schools and classrooms and things like that,
that would help people slow things down and kind of look at things from a different
perspective. And have tools.
You know, what's really funny is before I became a yoga teacher full-time back
in 2005, I was a third grade teacher in an interstate school in California.
(01:00:39):
And I made the newspaper because I brought yoga into the classroom and it was so taboo at the time.
They were like, what is going on here? Right.
(01:01:20):
The other educational tools that we give them, that would be very helpful right
now and might help us change the tide.
Absolutely. Get us out of this mental health crisis.
Epidemic that we're in in this country. I really do think that arts like yoga are what we need.
This has been such a treat today, having you, Fiji. I've learned so much.
(01:01:42):
I know my listeners have been asking for a yoga expert and virtuoso to be on here.
So, I feel like it's such a treat and such an honor to have you today.
Tell us all how people can get in touch with you, how they can and learn more
about you, your website, your Facebook, your Instagram, your presences.
How can people learn from you?
(01:02:04):
Oh, that's so great. And I absolutely love engaging with people.
So please do not feel shy to reach directly out to me.
I'm really easy to find because of my name. So it's cgmattelbine.com is my personal website.
All of my classes, I've got over 180 yoga classes on doyogawithme.com,
which will be the place you can go to find all those resources.
(01:02:28):
And I'm just on Instagram and Facebook. I'm C.G. McAlpine.
So if people want to reach out to me in any of those places,
I am happy to answer questions to offer guidance to people as well who are interested
in starting this journey.
If you're starting from scratch or if you've been doing it for a while and you
want some advice, please reach out on any of the fronts that we've talked about today.
(01:02:49):
Awesome. Awesome. And I mean, you know, I'm thinking you need a book.
I've had a lot of people suggest that I might have to start working on it.
Absolutely. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that would be a good thing.
So, hey, thank you so much for being a guest today.
This has been a really, really, really, really special treat.
(01:03:09):
Like I said, a lot of listeners have been asking for this, and I was happy that
we were able to get in contact and arrange this.
And I'm just so glad that you were able to share some information about yoga
and kind of let us know what it is and what it isn't and all those kind of things.
If you were to leave the listeners with one last message or one last kind of
(01:03:31):
mantra about the work that you
do and the difference that you make in people's lives, what would it be?
I think it is the simplicity when we're all looking at making a shift or a change to begin, begin.
So we always have the excuse of not having enough time or it's not the right
(01:03:51):
time or something's not right.
But when you know something in your heart is something that you need to do,
there needs to be a shift and a change to begin, begin.
Just do that first First little step and then see where it takes you and then take the next step.
Love it. Small steps, small calculated steps of bravery. Yeah,
(01:04:12):
that's awesome. Millimeter miracle.
Oh, my God. I love that. I love that. Hey, thank you so much for being a guest today.
Oh, thanks so much. You guys, thanks for tuning in again.
Everybody's been asking for a yoga expert and virtuoso. We got one today, Fiji McAlpine.
Visit her website. Check her out on Facebook, Instagram, and all those places and try a yoga class.
(01:04:35):
Try something different. When things aren't working, you got to try something
different. And with that, it's a wrap for today. I will see you guys soon. Take care.
Good afternoon. This is Dr. David back with the Fresh Start with Dr. David podcast.
I welcome you back to this podcast. As you know, this podcast is all about solutions,
fresh starts, restarts, reboots, resets, rejuvenation, rewiring,
rebuilding, remanifesting, all those kind of things.
(00:22):
So it's all about doing things over or doing things anew.
And I'm so glad to be back. Sorry that I've been absent for a minute.
I've been really, really busy. As some of you guys know, I was recently involved
in an auto accident and that has been crazy.
It is crazy when a driver comes off an interstate, another interstate onto the
(00:44):
interstate that you on and flies across four lanes of traffic and hits you going
40 miles, I mean, 70 miles an hour, but it happens. Welcome to Atlanta.
So anyway, I've still been recovering from that, but I am am rebooting from that.
And that brings us to our topic for today. So I'm really, really, really excited.
As you guys know, you guys and gals know, I'm a huge believer in the mind-body connection.
(01:10):
I really, really believe that. And I know just from medical school and my study
of neuroscience and neurology, that the mind is perfectly connected with the body.
The mind is connected to every part of the body, every cell.
And the better we understand and work with and work within those connections
(01:35):
and enhance and amplify them or tone them down, sometimes if needed,
the better outcomes that we're going to have in terms of achieving our goals,
maintaining health and wellness, growing spiritually,
psychically, emotionally.
And somatically. So with that, I am so, so excited to have my special guest,
expert yoga virtuoso, Fiji McAlpine.
(02:01):
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, absolutely.
So let me just start off by saying there's an energy like, you know,
it's weird. There's an energy that's just connected to your name.
So that's a really cool thing. just saying your name has a certain amount of
energy to it. Do you hear that often?
(02:22):
I do. And it's really funny. One of the first questions that I get from people
is, is that your real name?
It seems too perfect as a yoga teacher.
And yes, it actually is my name. I was named Fiji from the get-go.
I didn't appreciate my name very much as a child because it was so different.
And I got teased quite a bit.
(02:43):
But now as an adult, I do love it. It's unique.
I've never ever met another CG and it definitely matches, I think,
what I'm doing in the world.
Awesome. So that's really cool because what you experienced as a deficit during
childhood is now a point of prosperity and abundance.
As an adult. So, it's funny how those coins flip sometimes.
(03:05):
Yeah, I grew into my name, is what I always say. Yeah, absolutely.
So, I'm going to share a little bit with you guys and gals about this yoga virtuoso
and expert that we have today.
I'm so excited to have her here, and I'm really, really excited about the topic
of yoga because it's something that I'm fairly ignorant about.
Out. So it's a learning point for me.
(03:27):
And so many people, there's a huge, huge interest in yoga these days.
And so let me share a little bit about her. So Fiji has appeared in the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Huffington Post,
BuzzFeed, Outside Magazine.
She's a yoga virtuoso who turned personal adversity into a global movement.
(03:50):
After a debilitating back injury at the age of 21, Fiji discovered the transformative
power of yoga, not just a remedy for physical pain.
Yoga became her lifeline out of anorexia, a struggle intensified by the societal
pressures of California's culture.
And as you know, California kind of has a reputation for being associated with
(04:12):
physical perfection and beauty and things like that.
And Beverly Hills and places like that are kind of synonymous with with that
in Hollywood and kind of LA culture.
In 2002, Fiji stumbled into teaching yoga when an instructor was a no-show.
That accident ignited a passion within her for teaching that led to her becoming
(04:33):
the director of development at Do Yoga With Me, a platform with a noble cause,
making yoga accessible to everyone and anyone, anywhere.
So the platform, her platform has more more than 1,000-plus videos of yoga classes.
Over 300,000 registered users, and has become a sanctuary for those recovering
(04:58):
from eating disorders and I'm guessing other things too.
Fiji is also an international retreat leader and a certified yoga teacher trainer
mentored by the indomitable Mary Profonteng.
Her journey of self-discovery even empowered her to make the courageous decision
(05:19):
to leave an unhealthy marriage and align her life fully with her values.
For Fiji, yoga isn't just a physical practice. It's a dress rehearsal for life.
She's not just teaching yoga.
She's teaching people how to become better versions of themselves.
(05:39):
And with that, I'm so excited.
Like I said, I love how that last sentence rings.
You're teaching people how to become better versions of themselves.
Tell us a little bit about your journey. I read a little bit about it,
about your back injury at a young age, young adulthood, but tell us a little bit more about it.
(06:00):
Yeah, for sure. And actually, I was quite interested when you started our conversation
today by sharing that you've just been in a car accident. Yeah.
So maybe this is a great, maybe this is the universe bringing you a healing
tool that would help for you as well.
Absolutely. Yeah. So I was kind of like you, actually, when I was first introduced
to yoga. I had never done yoga before.
(06:21):
It wasn't actually even something that was on my radar or that I was looking into.
It was prescribed to me by a physio. So I had a pretty, pretty serious back injury.
I was young to have such a significant injury and I was in chronic pain.
It was 24 hours a day, every day of the week. And I was just anything that I
(06:41):
could do to find relief from the pain.
And so I'd been seeing a physio for a little over a month and we weren't really
making much progress, even though we tried quite a few modalities.
And he finally said, you know, I just have this feeling that yoga may provide some relief for you.
It's worth a shot. And so he recommended a class and I went.
(07:02):
And for about 10 minutes after the yoga practice, my back felt better.
And when you're in chronic pain, I'm sure people out there can really identify with this.
When you're in chronic pain and you get any amount of relief,
you're going to stick with that.
You're going to be like, okay, let's do more of that. So what I ended up doing
(07:23):
was just coming back to the class for the pain relief.
And then over the course of maybe six months, I started to actually really enjoy
the yoga practice and learning about yoga and getting more aware of my body
and all of the benefits that come from yoga,
which are, you know, my mind was more calm. I felt less anxious.
(07:45):
I felt more grounded in my body. I was doing things I never thought were possible
before as well, as far as some of the poses were going.
So it was a really interesting experience. And then I kind of had this moment
where I stopped and was like, oh, where's my back pain?
Like, I don't really know when it fully went away because healing is like that.
(08:05):
It's sort of a gradual thing.
As long as you're consistent and you're showing up and you're engaging in the
process, it just happens over time. And so eventually I stopped feeling back pain.
And by that point in time, I was really, I think, invested in the practice of yoga itself. Wow.
Wow. That's amazing. And can you share the story?
(08:27):
Were you in an auto accident too, or was it some other kind of thing that led
to the back injury? No, it's kind of a funny story. It was not an auto accident.
I was actually in university at the time and trying to just find a part time
job that would work around school classes. And I got hired.
I got hired as a coach for a cheerleading squad.
(08:50):
And I didn't know anything about cheerleading. Oh, wow.
(09:23):
Kind of almost threw herself off the top of the pyramid and I caught her,
but my knees didn't bend.
So I caught this young girl, my back just went backwards and I took all of that
weight and sort of like a whiplashy type of a movement into my lower back and
just caused this huge strain and injury.
And it was like probably a good six months of recovery and being,
(09:46):
you know, I was around 20, 21 at the time.
So my body was pretty resilient and still was debilitating.
Yeah. Oh, my God, that that's unreal.
I mean, it's it's one thing, you know, I turned 50 last year.
It's one thing when you have neck aches and back aches and things when you're
50. But when you're 21, that's scary.
Yeah. Yeah. So it was quite the motivator. And it was one of those things,
(10:08):
though, like you pointed out before, often when there are challenges that pop up in our life,
things that in the moment seem like a really negative or bad experience and
we want to label it that way. Right.
With a little bit of perspective and a little bit of time, we can look back
and go, oh, my God, I'm so happy that that happened.
And it's so weird to say I'm so happy that I got that back injury because I
(10:31):
don't know if I would have ever stumbled upon yoga in that same way or with
that same amount of intensity that I did at that point in time,
which is when I really needed it.
And it didn't just heal my back injury, as you read in the bio as well.
At that point in my life, I was struggling with an eating disorder.
And lo and behold, what I think I really healed from in yoga wasn't just my back.
(10:54):
It was this healing of my perception of myself and learning how to take care
of myself again and appreciate my body and take care of my body in a really mindful way.
So I ended up learning a lesson that saved my life.
From yoga. So, you know, these things that seem like they're setbacks originally
usually have a bigger lesson to them. That is so true. That is so true.
(11:19):
And I know from clients that I've had with eating disorders,
you know, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and there are a few newer ones that are around too.
There are a couple that I don't really even, I don't even know if I know the names for them.
Obviously, I know about body dysmorphic disorder, but the first thing When you
(11:39):
mentioned, which is something I didn't know, that your back injury occurred from cheerleading.
When I think of cheerleading and when I think of gymnastics,
that's the first thing that I think of is people who are very,
very focused on achieving a goal.
And then the second thing that I think of is eating disorders.
(12:02):
That's the first two things that pop in my mind. People who are intent on achieving
a goal that few people achieve and then eating disorders is the second one.
Yes. Yeah. And as I shared too, at that point in time, I was living in California.
I now live in British Columbia, which is much more aligned with my soul and my values.
(12:23):
But at the time, I was in Southern California. And it's really difficult when
you're surrounded by, you know, societal norms and societal pressure that is
really superficial and is looking at just those,
like you said, those very nearsighted things of like things being a certain
way, things looking a certain way, those high expectations that are often unachievable and not healthy.
(12:48):
And when you're young and developing, it's really hard to stand on your own
two feet and what you believe in and not just be sort of pushed into the current
of sort of modern day expectations and I think that that's really where things
are shifting right now and I hope you're seeing it as well as a doctor,
which is there's more of an awareness
(13:10):
of what wellness is and there's more
of a shift right now into a holistic sense of
wellness and as you pointed out really beautifully is
there is there is no place in our body that our
mind is not connected and our mind and
our our body is responding to our mind and our mind is also responding to our
(13:32):
body that if it's true that it goes one way it's also true that it goes the
other way and that's really why yoga is is a powerful tool in overall wellness
because it works in the subtle body realm,
which is kind of that convergence point of our physical body anatomy and our
mental, psychological, and emotional body anatomy.
(13:53):
It works in that sweet spot in the middle that's impacting both ways.
No, absolutely. And to me, that just kind of goes back to the concept that the
greater greater communication there is, the better the outcome is going to be
no matter what you're talking about.
Yes. Yeah. And when we, the great thing about yoga as well is that it enhances
(14:15):
sensitivity and proprioception.
So proprioception is pretty easy to understand, which is like understanding
where my body is in space and having better awareness and connection there.
And that's really great for a lot of physical things. Like it's going to help
you as you're not to fall as often because you have better balance and all of these great benefits.
(14:36):
You're less likely to be injured, especially if you're an active person when
you have better proprioception.
But the other part that it's highlighting is it's increasing our sensitivity.
So the more connected you are with your mind and your body, the more sensitive
you are to when things go out of alignment.
My threshold and sensitivity of noticing when something is off is really attuned.
(15:01):
And that's so important, especially when you are working with your healthcare
professionals, to be able to go in and say, I can tell something's off inside
of me. Let's figure out what that is.
Rather than being so disconnected from the body that things end up getting so
far along in progression that we end up in the place of having disease and symptoms.
So this really is, I think, a way of people learning to listen to their body
(15:26):
and that wisdom that we all have within us that's trying to guide us when we reinvest.
I like what you say, too, about the idea of rebooting, restarting,
and renewal is we reinvest our awareness in our physical experience.
Wow. I love that. You need to coin that phrase. Say that one more time.
(15:47):
Well, hopefully we have it recorded. Yeah. Yeah. But that was brilliant the way that you said that.
Reinvest in our focus is, I believe, what you said. And I love that because,
which is the opposite of distraction.
So, you know, reinvesting over and over in your focus is just like reinvesting
into a mutual fund or, you know, sleep or anything else or nutrition.
(16:11):
And one of the things that I love, the word, I'm a big word person.
Anybody who's checked out my self-improvement books will see that.
I'm really big on the words people use in the context.
And I love how you use the word atonement, because when you break down the word
atonement, it comes to at-one-ment, right?
That's what atonement is. It's being at one. And in order to be at one,
(16:36):
you've got to have a connection with all the parts of who you are. I love that.
One of the big things, so obviously, I've got a ton ton of questions.
And I've even had some people to reach out to me who I mentioned that we were
going to do an episode and they had some questions.
But one of the big things that I have, so I have a lot of clients who come to me who need a reboot.
(16:56):
I have a lot of clients who have chronic pain. I also have a lot of clients
who need focus and they need direction and things like that.
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to show up for the first activity,
the first yoga session, things like that.
And when you think about all of your, you know, 500,000 plus to a million users,
(17:20):
et cetera, and you think about all the videos and all the classes that you've
done, what are some of the factors that you think influencing people actually
taking that first jump in the water and going to the first yoga class or doing
the first first yoga exercise?
Yeah, you know, it always is that hurdle and that's just one of the reasons.
(17:40):
Diogo is me, which is where my classes mostly live. One of the reasons that
we started that platform is that we saw that there were barriers to people showing
up and receiving the benefits of yoga.
And knowing how much yoga has benefited my life, once you have something that
(18:01):
truly changes your life for the better, you can't help but want to share that gift with everybody.
Like, it's like something burning inside of you.
The minute you've transformed because of something or something has brought
you great release, you just want so bad for other people to experience it.
So the idea of creating this platform was like, how can we remove the barriers?
(18:22):
So one of the barriers is money.
Yoga is really expensive now. an average yoga class here where I'm teaching
in British Columbia is around like $22 to $27 for a single class. That is crazy.
And so removing the financial barrier is the first thing.
Then the next barrier is what most of your clients are going to tell you is, I don't have time.
(18:46):
And hey, I can resonate with you guys on this one.
I have two kids, I'm a single mom. I work full time.
I teach classes. I feel like I don't have time lots of days also.
But the cool thing is, is that each of us is given the same amount of time every day.
Each of us gets 24 hours and we just do have to take the responsibility of deciding
(19:11):
where it is we're investing and in what.
And you can get so much benefit from just taking 20 minutes a day to be mindful
in your movement and mindful in your breath and kind of focused in your energy.
I just tell people, like one of my favorite phrases in my classes is millimeter
(19:31):
miracles. Wait, say that again? Millimeter miracles.
So in yoga, on our mat, we have these little millimeter miracles.
Sure, you might not be able to do the full pose today. I'm not asking for that,
but can you make a millimeter shift towards it? And most people can.
So it's like, what is that little sweet spot for each person?
(19:53):
Can you carve out 10 minutes?
Okay, let's start there. Can you carve out 20? Okay, let's start there.
What's realistic and what's going to start you walking towards that goal of wellness?
Something that you can actually commit to because we really see the biggest
benefits when we have that consistency.
So we've got to show up to the first class, but then we kind of have to keep
(20:16):
it going. So what is realistic in your commitment?
So remove the barrier of finances so that people can accept Seth Yoga,
and then also removing that barrier of I don't have time.
So we have classes that are anywhere from 10 minutes, all the way up to 90 minutes.
So and everything in between. So we want to make sure that like,
we can meet everyone's need there as well.
(20:38):
And then the other part of it too, is access.
Not everyone lives somewhere where there are 10 yoga studios within a 20 kilometer
radius, like where I live, there's yoga studios everywhere.
But I've been to lots of the places where there's no yoga studios anywhere nearby.
So it brings yoga straight to you and at the level that you're ready to engage with it.
(21:00):
And yoga is so great because it doesn't matter what your fitness level is.
Yoga meets you exactly where you are and you get to progress from there.
It doesn't matter how flexible you are. Like I have so many people,
sometimes doctors too, who are like, oh, you know, I know yoga is great,
but I'm just not flexible enough to do yoga. And I laugh because that's why you do yoga.
(21:21):
It's like, if you're flexible, maybe you don't need to do it.
So it's this great thing of what are the barriers that exist that are real?
And what are the barriers that are existing inside my own mind that are not real?
You know, the funny thing, too, is so, you know, we talked to you talked about time.
You talked about money and those two barriers. So when I think about yoga,
(21:44):
I mean, obviously, I remember when I first heard about yoga,
it was probably when I was in college in the 90s.
But I know one of my favorite movies is a movie starring Tom Cruise.
It's called The Minority Report.
It's a science fiction movie. And there's a scene in that movie where he's in
(22:06):
a car and he goes past this yoga class and this lady's in this position and
they all notice him drive by and it just kind of catches everybody off guard.
And the irony is that she's holding this position the whole time that this happens.
But usually I believe I could be wrong, but I think when most people think about
(22:27):
yoga, I can't, I tried to picture it and I just said, okay, what's the first
thing that pops in your mind when you think about yoga?
And it's kind of like, you know, one of the yoga poses that a female is in.
Whenever I think about the word yoga, never does a guy come up in my mind.
And even in like, for instance, television and movie caricatures where they
(22:49):
talk about yoga or they have somebody in yoga, usually there's like,
you know, 90% women and maybe one guy or something like that.
What do you think the barriers or what have you seen as some of the barriers
to getting more men to try yoga for the first time?
That's a really great question. And this is also a really great moment to illuminate
(23:10):
the fact that what we think is reality is often what we see on the movies or,
you know, that we perceive in our common culture.
But is it really true is what we want to ask ourselves.
So I love that, you know, like that is the iconic, you know, like image.
And right now, especially because young women and just people in beautiful bodies
(23:32):
and all of that kind of thing.
So you get this image of what you think yoga has to be. But actually,
really traditionally, before yoga came to the West, it was predominantly male.
Oh, I did not know that.
Yeah, all of the first teachers, all of the gurus from India are male teachers. Wow.
And so the first major influencers who came to North America were male teachers
(23:58):
who brought the practice over here.
And then it was around the 70s that women started really engaging in this practice.
And sort of making it their own here in the West.
And then it kind of, at some point in time, started to...
Now, that being said, when some of the major figures were still alive and teaching
(24:18):
here, like Iyengar Yoga or Patabi Joyce with the Shanga Yoga,
you did see a lot more men still as teachers and practitioners.
And then there has been a little bit of a shift where women are really taking this on.
And I think there's a few reasons for this. But one of them,
I believe, why it's so popular with women in the West is women in the West are
(24:39):
experiencing higher levels of stress than almost anywhere else in the world.
And we're seeing the physical repercussions of this.
We're seeing, you know, the decline in women's health here.
We're seeing inflammation. We're seeing, you know, cardiac issues and menopausal
symptoms that are happening because of these high levels of cortisol. all.
But I think that in many ways, yoga has become a self-medicating tool. Women are intuitive.
(25:04):
And when they've experienced the stress relief benefits of yoga,
I think this is something where it's like, wow, this is something that can help
me remain well and healthy and sane.
So I think that there's something really that women are open to with this.
And there's maybe some difference as well, again, it can be more of that Western
(25:26):
mindset of not wanting to be a novice.
So I think that men are more reluctant to try that first yoga class because
it is something new and it's something unfamiliar.
And they might go in and they might feel like they're not good at it.
So one of the things that I often suggest for men is, listen,
everyone benefits from yoga, Everyone feels better afterwards.
(25:49):
And if, you know, there is that feeling of not being good enough,
you can always try your first practice at home.
Right. So you can always, you know, this is where online yoga can be so beneficial
because you can do that first practice at home in the privacy of your own home.
(26:10):
You've got the ability to just, you know, put on a class. No one's watching
you. You're just kind of getting to know the basics yourself.
And that's a really great way of just having that first experience.
I think part of it is just getting honest with yourself and saying,
what is, what's my resistance here?
Right. You know, and then once you identify what that resistance is,
(26:30):
the path forward becomes more clear.
Why am I reluctant? Oh, I'm, I'm, if I'm honest, I'm reluctant about feeling
like, you know, I don't know what I'm doing or whatever.
Not looking like I'm good at it. So I think that's a big part of it.
And I think then the other misconception that I already brought up before is
men innately tend to be a little bit more stiff.
And when we think about yoga, we're thinking about flexibility and people being really bendy.
(26:54):
But not all yoga classes are about that. Yoga is also about creating strength,
and men are incredibly strong.
And so I teach classes that are male and female. male.
And in the poses that require a lot of strength and stability,
men thrive, and they do really well.
And then when we get the more flexible part, then women might find that part easier.
(27:18):
But actually, we're always working towards our reflection. So men are gaining
more from the flexibility poses, because that's where they need to gain.
And women are gaining more in the strengthening poses, because that's where we need to gain.
So yoga is helping us to bring more balance back into our body.
Nice. I love that. I love that. And that's a great segue to my next question,
(27:43):
which kind of feels for me like a dumb question to ask, but it's a really obvious
one that I think a lot of people really want to know is,
what is the definition of yoga? What exactly is it?
Yoga? This is a really great question to ask because the word yoga is used really incorrectly.
(28:03):
So when we've been talking about
yoga in this conversation, we're thinking about what happens on the mat.
You're talking about the poses and all that kind of thing. So yoga is actually more of a lifestyle.
Yoga is a way of being. Yoga actually translates from Sanskrit into union. union.
(28:24):
So it's a sense of unity, which is really great for you as a doctor who has
the understanding of the mind-body connection and that nothing is disconnected
from anything else in us. Everything is connected.
So we have to look at the relationship.
Whenever we're looking at some part of our body, we should always be looking
at how it's related to other parts of our body and our behavior and our mind.
(28:47):
So yoga means union. It means connection.
It means oneness, that we are whole, resourceful, right?
So that's what yoga is. What we're doing on the mat is actually called the asana practice.
And it's one of the eight limbs of yoga. So one of the tools that we have in a yogic lifestyle.
(29:08):
So you've got your asana practice, which has its different benefits,
different tools help us with different things.
Another limb of yoga, which is often used with the asana practice is pranayama.
And more people are becoming aware of that word now because of the popularization
of breath work and the science that's coming out behind the fact that when we
(29:33):
breathe correctly, we have better health outcomes.
And does all this come from.
You know, the yogis? Is that where it all comes from?
Yeah, well, these things do. So, yoga has been around for thousands of years.
Okay. And the different tools that we've used have been around for thousands of years.
(29:53):
And the beautiful thing about yoga, like everything else, like medicine and
everything else that humans have created for their own benefit and evolution,
is that it's evolving. Right.
And so we're allowing these sort of ancient and ageless traditions and teaching
to meet us where we are in this modern world, which our bodies aren't actually
(30:16):
really designed very well for,
and use these tools to help us, again, restore balance,
to have more wellness, and to
remember that wellness isn't just what's happening in your physical body.
Wellness is again this whole holistic thing
it's this unity thing wellness is
what's happening in my body it's what's happening in
(30:37):
my mind and the quality of my thoughts in my
emotional awareness intelligence and regulation wellness is also in my relationships
in the way that i'm living you know in the world in consideration with other
people and things around me so wellness is this big bubble that's around us
and again it makes us interconnected with others and the world around us.
(31:00):
So, I love looking at it from those different sides.
Nice, nice. I love that. I love the word connection, and I love the word union.
And I had no idea until today that yoga meant union.
So, that's a nice, nice insight.
So, let's say somebody's been resistant to trying yoga, and they decide to try
(31:25):
it either from home or they go to a local yoga studio or some kind of event or thing like that.
One of the things that you as a virtuoso and an expert and other people who do yoga.
Consistently say is it builds the connection between the mind and the body.
(31:47):
For me, you know, being a cerebral person, being an analytical person,
person trying to understand, you know, kind of that abstract concept.
But, you know, you're an expert.
So, tell me a little bit about, is that something that shows up the first time
you do yoga or is it that six-month point that you kind of referenced before?
(32:08):
But that mind-body connection, that inner oomph or je ne sais quoi or whatever
it is, tell me a little bit about that.
Well, I mean, you definitely feel it after your first practice,
just because you're feeling parts of your body you haven't been feeling probably before that.
Right. But what you're speaking to really that that continual feedback loop
(32:31):
where we're becoming more aware of what already exists. Right.
So that's the thing that I always I always love to point out to people is there
is nothing that you're not.
It's just that we forget sometimes. Right. Right. So we are already very connected
as individuals and we are already very aware, but we've just chosen to point
(32:52):
our attention somewhere else. Right.
So the information of the body is there all the time.
It's just that we're choosing to point our attention into that cerebral realm.
And I really love that you pointed to that is one of the reasons that I think
that yoga is gained such popularity in the last 20 years is because the same
thing that's happened in the last 20 years is we are being pulled more into
(33:16):
the cerebral way of living.
And our body is trying to get a little bit of balance and yoga is very embodied.
It's very physical. It's very grounding. So, almost out of desperation,
when people experience yoga, they're like, oh my God, okay, we need a little bit of that.
I need that in order to survive in this cerebral way of living that the modern world is asking us to.
(33:39):
So, it's again, our own inner instinct to cultivate balance. balance.
So, that awareness that we already have, that's already there,
it's already functioning, is simply, it's almost more like an illumination or
revelation of something that's already happening.
We're just turning the flashlight from sort of that cerebral realm back down
(34:02):
into the body to become aware of what's happening.
And I think that it happens quite quickly.
The great thing about being a teacher is that I get to watch yoga work its magic on people.
So I get to have that person who comes into their first class.
And I kind of, you know, like, I'm like the mad scientist in the corner, twiddling my fingers.
I can't wait to see what happens here, where they start coming,
(34:26):
and then the changes start happening.
And it is usually around, I'd say, like the six-month mark, where people have
kind of been coming up two or three times a week, you know, more consistently,
where they come up to me and they say almost the same thing every time, which is, man,
I'm really feeling a lot better since I started doing yoga.
(34:46):
And not just better in my body, but like other things are better too.
You know, my relationships are better. You know, my, you know,
my work seems better. My stress levels are better. I'm sleeping better.
Like they just make all of these connections to things seem a little more harmonious
and easy in all aspects of life.
And again, it's this idea of unity that nothing's disconnected.
(35:09):
You can't shift something just in your body and it's not going to impact your
mind Or vice versa, right?
And I love how you actually spoke to about things like PTSD and depression and anxiety.
If you shift something in your body, you will be shifting something in your mind.
And ultimately, it's probably going to be a powerful and positive shift when
(35:34):
you're doing something that's a healing modality.
So I see people who don't come to yoga to alleviate their depression,
but I do see that their depression is alleviated through the practice of yoga.
They don't come to turn their anxiety down, but by practicing yoga and being
more grounded in their body, their anxiety ends up going down.
(35:55):
So it's this thing again, you know, we're coming back to the same thing of everything
is connected. When we shift something here, it's going to have a little bit of an impact over here.
And it's just asking the questions of what can I do now that would have a positive shift?
What little millimeter can I do today?
And yoga, the cool thing too is people's self-perception changes when they start practicing yoga.
(36:20):
And I think that is the most powerful thing that can happen to any human.
When your beliefs about yourself change. change.
When you go from feeling insecure to feeling inner security,
from feeling weak to going, oh my gosh, I just did that pose. I must be strong.
(36:40):
From going, I'm so inflexible. And then now you're doing something that requires
flexibility and you go, well, I thought I was inflexible, but now I'm flexible.
So it's this ability to see yourself differently and your your ability to believe
in your ability to change.
I like that. Tell me, so one thing that I've been curious about,
(37:02):
what is the connection between yoga and all those other fancy words that you
used that I won't even try to pronounce and self-compassion?
So how does self-compassion come into the work that you do and the way that
you help people transform?
Yeah, well, self-compassion is really huge. So when you step onto your mat,
(37:26):
you learn really quickly that you're either going to be compassionate to yourself
or you're harming yourself.
And often there's that saying that sometimes we need to learn what love is not to learn what love is.
And so sometimes people step onto their mat and they just try to push themselves
so hard and they just try to force and muscle the poses to kind of, it's that ego.
(37:48):
It's like, no, I want you to look the best. It's got to be perfect.
You know, and when you take that approach in yoga or in life,
you end up hurting yourself.
And then once you end up hurting yourself, then you go, OK, that didn't work.
Let's try a different way. And then that's when people actually start to do the real yoga.
And really, you have to listen to your body because you get the you get the feedback right away.
(38:12):
Right. And so when you step onto your mat, you're getting the feedback.
You're learning to listen. And you start to be guided by sensation instead of expectation.
Nice. I love that. And that's what compassion is to me is, can I be guided by
the feeling in this moment of what I feel is right and most beneficial instead
(38:32):
of that overriding ego and which voice is.
Guided by sensation instead of expectation. I love that. That is brilliant. Yeah.
I love that. That's what yoga teaches us.
Yeah. And that really is, that is, that's probably in a nutshell,
the most, one of the most important gifts that we get from the practice of yoga.
(38:54):
And what I love is it is so accessible to everybody.
And it is, it is something we can all fit in a little bit every day and something
we can experiment with and try and have benefits, not just in the body,
but in our mind and the way that we feel, the way we treat ourselves.
And we, I'm ensuring you know this as well, the moment we start to have self-compassion,
(39:15):
Again, everything is connected.
We can't just have compassion with ourselves and not have compassion with others.
So it impacts our relationships as well.
True. So that's a great segue to some of the things I really,
really want to ask you about.
During this episode. So one of the things, obviously, you know,
(39:38):
most people realize that, you know, movement and breath work are a part of yoga.
And there's a kind of an alchemy between those two.
Tell me a little bit about the chemistry of that, of the breath and the motion together. together?
Yeah. So, well, both are mindfulness practices.
(40:01):
So, the asana practice of yoga, the moving of your body, you're being guided
to move in a way that is on purpose for a purpose. Okay.
So, I use doctors as an example a lot of time when I'm using metaphor to teach.
And I say, you know, we move our hands throughout the day unconsciously all the time.
(40:24):
And when our body moves unconsciously, it's not usually doing anything very impressive, right?
Right. However, when a human being decides to move their body consciously,
that's when we unlock some really powerful and potent things.
That's when we focus the mind. So, say, if you've got to go onto the table and
(40:45):
get open-heart surgery, do you want your surgeon to be moving his hand consciously
or unconsciously? Right. Okay.
Consciously. So we again realize,
okay, there's consciousness and movement that amplifies the impact.
So yoga allows us to move our body in a conscious way so that there's purpose to every movement.
(41:05):
And in that, it focuses the mind and it allows the mind to be present in what
we're doing while we're doing it.
So that in itself is something that is really nourishing for the nervous system.
Because as you have described, we're pulled in all these cerebral directions
where attention is feeling very frazzled.
(41:25):
So this comes back to something where it's more focused and it's more amplified.
So that's the sort of the alchemy in the physical movement.
The breath is really what turns yoga practice or asana practice from just an
aerobics class or some other movement type of a thing into something that's
(41:45):
more powerful because our breath is what is helping us to switch from the sympathetic
to the parasympathetic nervous system. stuff.
And in yoga, we're working with wanting to do release of deep tension.
When we're holding deep tension, it's not healthy for our body.
It's like a body armor that restricts our movement and it restricts the flow of energy.
(42:07):
It restricts circulation, all kinds of things. We want to release some of that deeply held tension.
But in order to go into release, you have to be in the parasympathetic nervous system.
You can't release that deep tension when you're still in the grips of the conscious
mind that is trying to solve the problem from the outside.
(42:27):
So that sort of sympathetic, you know, charging at the problem, we have to switch.
So how you switch, it's really easy. I'm sure you know this,
and many people know this too, is the minute you slow your breath down.
And you begin to breathe into the lower lobes of your lung, you toggle over
into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is that sort of rest and digest
(42:49):
releasing type of state of mind that we need to be in to let go of that tension.
So slowing down into that low,
slow breathing is one of the most important tools that we learn in yoga.
And it's something you can do on your mat, but you can can also do it when you're in your car.
You can do it when you get frustrated by a situation that's arising.
(43:11):
You can just take a moment and actually drop into that slow,
low breathing and slip over into that parasympathetic so that you're less reactive,
sort of more calm and responsive within yourself.
And it's really easy when you think about why this happens is,
you know, when we were cavemen and we were being chased by some big animal breathing
(43:33):
quickly, the body needs to be in that sympathetic response, that fight or flight.
But if we're breathing really slow and really steady, the brain is going,
oh, we mustn't be getting chased right now.
There mustn't be any threats or this person wouldn't be breathing so slowly.
So it's just, you know, leaning into those modalities that our body already
(43:53):
has so that we can sort of unlock the magic of how do I let go of these things that are not serving me?
Well, okay, we got to get into into that calm place first.
So is that part of what allows yoga to help enable people to overcome eating disorders?
I would say yes, and a lot of other things as well.
(44:14):
So again, we're working down into that area of being calm,
less boundary, less gripping and less holding, which is where people are when
they're in any of those disorders that involve anxiety.
So this also is what makes it really powerful for PTSD.
And, you know, a lot of programs have popped up in the last 10 years,
(44:36):
helping people who are coming back from military service and doing different
breathing exercises or yoga practices is that help them with PTSD.
And there's so much success there. Mindfulness is such a great tool in overcoming
that because it's, again, slowing down the rapid pace that anxiety creates in
the mind and the rapid pace that it causes in our heart.
(44:59):
So it helps us to sort of untangle any of those disorders that have anxiety
involved in them. Wow. Nice.
Tell me a little bit about the connection between focus, hyperfocus, and pain. pain. Yeah.
(45:19):
So as many people who've experienced pain kind of know, when you're experiencing
pain, there is a tool and a benefit in that, in that your awareness is in the present moment. Yes.
Right. So you cannot really think about much else other than that experience.
So when we're playing with sensation on the mat, and I really invite people
(45:44):
to be curious about that, But when you go on the mat, you're going to rub up
against the resistance.
Right. And that's part of the practice. And that's actually what's going to help you grow.
Because yoga allows you to rewire the way that you're meeting resistance.
Right. So it goes back to that fight or flight. When I meet resistance on the
mat, do I bully through it and push my way in?
(46:07):
Or do I soften and pause and allow myself to release a little bit?
So we've been taught mostly when you meet resistance to just ignore it,
mind over matter, blast through it, instead of mind into matter.
Let's listen. How can I soften? How can I get to the source?
(46:27):
So as a doctor, when someone comes in with incredible pain, do you want to just
give them a pill to make the pain go away?
Or do you want to know more about why is it showing up in the first place?
And how can we get to the root of that?
And how can we actually alleviate the pain, but also prevent it from coming back?
(46:48):
Where is the imbalance coming from that's causing the pain in the first place?
So pain is a fantastic teacher. It holds your awareness in the moment so that
that you're able to engage with the resistance differently.
And then once you listen to the signal of pain itself, it should take you like
a little, you know, trail of breadcrumbs to the source of why the pain showed up in the first place.
(47:13):
It's again, the body, the body's amazing. It's sending you that signal because
it's saying, hey, you need to look over here.
This is a distress signal. This is a flare going up saying that there is an
inferno going on down down over here and you're not looking at it and it's going
to take you down if you don't course correct.
So pain is a great indicator that we have some work to do.
(47:36):
And I love that there are finally doctors out there who are saying,
we need to listen to some of this stuff because some doctors are kind of like
of the mind of, if the smoke alarm is going off,
let's just take the batteries out. Right, right.
So that we don't have to listen to that annoying noise anymore.
Right. instead of saying, let's look at what's causing the smoke to go off.
(48:00):
If there's a fire building somewhere, we might want to address that.
That is a perfect analogy.
And that's really what it is. And we need more doctors like you who are saying,
okay, like, let's listen. Let's listen to this pain signal.
Use it to our advantage to help us heal and to prevent something worse from coming at us.
You know, when I was reading about some of the work that you do,
(48:23):
and I was reading about the concept of rewiring the brain through yoga and meditation,
One of the first things that popped in my head was when I
took neurology and we had to learn all these different tracks of the nervous
system and how these nerves and these tracks of nerves travel from the brain
(48:45):
through the spinal cord to different parts of the body and how some of them
switch over from one side.
So they start in the left side of the brain, but they go to a body part on the
right side and some do that and some stay on the same side and all these different tracks.
And I remember all these diagrams and they would, for whatever reason,
(49:06):
they use the color blue to represent them in the textbooks that we used.
And they'd look like a whole bunch of confusing railroad tracks.
But the funny thing about it, though, is when you think about the brain and
you think about the body parts and you think about yoga and meditation,
it kind of makes sense because.
(49:27):
You're activating, if you're doing all these novel poses that you don't normally
do and stretching things and becoming more flexible and more precise and accurate
and things like that in your movements,
then you're tapping into all those tracks that we studied in neurology in the
brain and through the spinal cord.
It's so cool when science finally catches up to thousands of years.
(49:52):
That is true. That is true. And we need that because, you know,
like a lot of people, they just they need to see it to understand it.
But just because we can't see something doesn't mean it's not already in existence.
Absolutely. So the yogis called those channels nadis. Okay.
And they were drawn out in a very similar way. Exactly what you said,
which is all of these confusing overlapping tracks that are going through the entire body.
(50:17):
Right. And so what they just what they asserted was that these are channels of energy.
And energy is just another way of saying information.
Yeah. I know a lot of people get kind of woo-woo about, oh, we're moving prana, we're moving energy.
Well, guess what? Energy is a form of information, so is light.
Light is illuminating information that we need to see.
Absolutely. So this is, it's information.
(50:39):
It's information that our nervous system is telling us about different parts
of our body that's very needed.
So if we're increasing that information flow, let's talk about,
we could word it that way if it makes people more comfortable,
you're increasing your flow of information.
Sometimes that flow might get stagnant for some reason
or might get blocked for some other reason and that wouldn't be
(51:00):
good we want to make sure that those channels are constantly
flowing so that every part of our body is
informed by every other part so that we can be a self-healing mechanism we're
designed to self-heal which is remarkable right incredible talk about renewal
it's just absolutely amazing that we can my back has no pain today wow in in
(51:21):
the moment of my deepest back pain,
I never would think that it would have ever gone away, but the body can heal.
So we just want to find ways to help the body do what it already knows how to do.
And that brings us to kind of the final thing that I wanted to cover before we wrap up today.
And I love it because as you've gained, I'm a big person on words because I
(51:48):
think words express intention.
And there's a reason why you use one word instead of another,
right? There's a reason why you might use the word drive instead of the word motivation.
Or there's a reason why you might use the word desire instead of passion,
right? And the reason why is because there's a certain intention and conception
associated with each one of those words.
(52:08):
But one of the big things that I liked about the work that you do is kind of
like the resilience roadmap and building mental fortitude.
And it's always been kind of my mantra with my clients that the more resilience
and fortitude that you have, the more successful you're going to be.
(52:29):
Because by having fortitude, you're going to push through a lot of other things,
a lot of things in life that a lot of other people would just give up and quit.
And it's that fortitude to keep going, even though there are adversities and
challenges and obstacles,
that builds those mental muscles that you need to be successful and resilient
(52:50):
in an ever-changing and ever-competitive world.
Yeah, I know. And I love words as well. And my cueing is really focused on a
very certain type of vocabulary when I'm teaching.
And it's one of the things my classes are known for is the vocabulary that I use while I'm teaching.
And for that reason, because words carry an energy.
(53:15):
Words will make you, like the difference between saying stretch your right leg
and lengthen your your right leg.
One sounds harsh, one sounds doable and soft.
So everything has an energy. So being aware, it's all like how we're manifesting
and presenting ourselves or representing ourselves, what we're representing.
(53:38):
So being mindful of my words is huge as well.
And the idea of fortitude and resilience, I mean, that is exactly what you are
learning as well, when you step into so many of these practices,
which is, okay, I'm meeting this moment, there's resistance in it.
I want to stop, but can I go one millimeter further or can I hold for 10 more seconds?
(54:00):
And when you are creating the evidence, and that's so much of what our brain
just is looking for all the time.
It's creating the evidence that I'm capable of doing this thing that I didn't
think I could do, or it didn't necessarily feel like I wanted to in the moment.
So it's allowing you to realize that, yeah, when you meet resistance or when
(54:20):
things get a little bit hard, do I just give up? Do I buckle?
Or do I see if I have that inner strength?
Can I tap into something in that moment that allows me to stay with it?
But also with that finite line of self-compassion.
So this is where it's yes and, it's both parts. It's I'm resilient and strong.
(54:40):
And sometimes the greatest feat of strength is knowing when to take a moment to rest.
Now, that is true. And so many people don't get a chance or do that on a regular
basis these days. It's all go, go, go, go, go.
Yeah. Yeah. And yoga is great because it's an ebb and flow between effort and surrender.
And I think that's really what builds strength. And you know,
(55:02):
this is a doctor actually, and I've described this to people before.
If your muscle, people think, oh, you know, I've got to engage my muscle to make it stronger.
And you do for sure. You need to engage your muscle to make it stronger.
You need to ask it to do things slightly beyond its comfort zone for it to develop that strength.
And at the same time, the muscle can't be turned on 24 hours a Because if a
(55:24):
muscle is turned on 24 hours a day, it never has time to rest and then rebuild
into the stronger muscle that it's going to be tomorrow.
So it's in allowing yourself to challenge your capacity slightly,
one millimeter more than I
did yesterday, and then give yourself the opportunity to rest and rebuild.
Yeah, which should grow capacity, right?
(55:48):
Yeah, totally. Totally bandwidth.
I love that. I love that. Oh, my God. This has been such a treat.
I mean, I'm going to I'm going to have to get I'm going to have to study a little
bit more about yoga just to understand because I never knew that it was all
these different things that you've said, all these different names.
I never knew that yoga stood for union.
I never knew about these other things about yoga.
(56:09):
And it's funny because so many people come to me for hypnosis or hypnotherapy.
And it's not uncommon for me to get an appointment request for somebody saying,
OK, I've got PTSD, major depressive disorder, dissociative identity disorder,
generalized anxiety disorder,
borderline personality disorder.
(56:31):
What else? OCD. can I fix all of that with one hypnosis session?
And I'm like, the short answer is no.
And, you know, people have so many misconceptions about hypnosis from,
you know, like shows and circuses and things like that, even though people like,
you know, the father of psychiatry, Dr.
(56:52):
Sigmund Freud used hypnosis. And so did Dr. Milton Erickson and a lot of other
psychiatrists and other.
You know, professionals. But I think the same thing is true about yoga.
I think a lot of people have misconceptions about it.
And I think that people like you shine a light on something that's transformative
that anybody can do at any time
(57:13):
to make those small shifts that lead to a better version of ourselves.
Yeah. And it really is something I do want to invite everyone to to just try a little bit.
I've never, ever encountered anyone who said, you know, I tried yoga for a few
weeks and I don't like it.
Most people are like, I was really reluctant and I finally tried it.
(57:35):
Oh, yeah, I get why it is beneficial.
It would be really great for you because you don't have any experience with
yoga to do this with your listeners and say, hey, I'm going to jump in and jump on the site.
Diyogasme.com has, like you said, we've got like a thousand classes.
We are a social purpose company. So like we always have 50% of our classes for free.
(58:00):
We want to make sure that there is, and they're every level.
So from very beginner to very advanced and everything in between,
we've got like 30 teachers.
So you'll find somebody who resonates with you.
We have classes that are 10 minutes long, up to 90 minutes long, all different styles.
We've got sleep meditations that are really great. If that's your starting point,
(58:20):
again, like I want to meet people where they are, you know, physical practice sounds daunting today.
Well, let's do a sleep meditation or let's do a five minute,
you know, seated meditation or relaxation class.
So just try, just hop on there and try.
And we're, we also created a code for your listeners.
I think it'll be in the show notes. That's just a link that gives people additional
(58:42):
access because we have the 50% of our classes are free, but then we have subscribers
who help support the company so we can maintain those free classes and they
get some special... Nice.
So, we're going to give your listeners one of those premium subscriptions as
well if they're interested. Awesome. Thank you so much. Awesome.
You know, and that's the thing. You know, one of the things that I didn't really
(59:04):
– we didn't really get a chance to touch on today.
But I know I have a partnership with a local school district here called the
Clayton County Public School System.
And, yeah, and we did a – they did a career fair, which was really,
really cool, a couple of weeks ago.
And, you know, I, you know, I spoke to kindergartners and first graders,
(59:25):
and it was just, you know, which was, you know, very interesting.
They're so motivated. They want to do everything.
They're so active. But, you know, there have been, you know, as you know,
our country's in a mental health crisis, and this is the first time in our history
as a nation that surveys have said that 90% of Americans feel like we're in a mental health crisis.
(59:49):
And, you know, just some recent trials in the news and things like that have
highlighted the fact that the suicide rate is so high among young people,
youth, adolescents, and young adults these days.
And one of the first things that popped in my head yesterday when I was kind
of thinking about this episode today is everything moves so fast.
(01:00:15):
If we had things like yoga in schools and classrooms and things like that,
that would help people slow things down and kind of look at things from a different
perspective. And have tools.
You know, what's really funny is before I became a yoga teacher full-time back
in 2005, I was a third grade teacher in an interstate school in California.
(01:00:39):
And I made the newspaper because I brought yoga into the classroom and it was so taboo at the time.
They were like, what is going on here? Right.
(01:01:20):
The other educational tools that we give them, that would be very helpful right
now and might help us change the tide.
Absolutely. Get us out of this mental health crisis.
Epidemic that we're in in this country. I really do think that arts like yoga are what we need.
This has been such a treat today, having you, Fiji. I've learned so much.
(01:01:42):
I know my listeners have been asking for a yoga expert and virtuoso to be on here.
So, I feel like it's such a treat and such an honor to have you today.
Tell us all how people can get in touch with you, how they can and learn more
about you, your website, your Facebook, your Instagram, your presences.
How can people learn from you?
(01:02:04):
Oh, that's so great. And I absolutely love engaging with people.
So please do not feel shy to reach directly out to me.
I'm really easy to find because of my name. So it's cgmattelbine.com is my personal website.
All of my classes, I've got over 180 yoga classes on doyogawithme.com,
which will be the place you can go to find all those resources.
(01:02:28):
And I'm just on Instagram and Facebook. I'm C.G. McAlpine.
So if people want to reach out to me in any of those places,
I am happy to answer questions to offer guidance to people as well who are interested
in starting this journey.
If you're starting from scratch or if you've been doing it for a while and you
want some advice, please reach out on any of the fronts that we've talked about today.
(01:02:49):
Awesome. Awesome. And I mean, you know, I'm thinking you need a book.
I've had a lot of people suggest that I might have to start working on it.
Absolutely. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that would be a good thing.
So, hey, thank you so much for being a guest today.
This has been a really, really, really, really special treat.
(01:03:09):
Like I said, a lot of listeners have been asking for this, and I was happy that
we were able to get in contact and arrange this.
And I'm just so glad that you were able to share some information about yoga
and kind of let us know what it is and what it isn't and all those kind of things.
If you were to leave the listeners with one last message or one last kind of
(01:03:31):
mantra about the work that you
do and the difference that you make in people's lives, what would it be?
I think it is the simplicity when we're all looking at making a shift or a change to begin, begin.
So we always have the excuse of not having enough time or it's not the right
(01:03:51):
time or something's not right.
But when you know something in your heart is something that you need to do,
there needs to be a shift and a change to begin, begin.
Just do that first First little step and then see where it takes you and then take the next step.
Love it. Small steps, small calculated steps of bravery. Yeah,
(01:04:12):
that's awesome. Millimeter miracle.
Oh, my God. I love that. I love that. Hey, thank you so much for being a guest today.
Oh, thanks so much. You guys, thanks for tuning in again.
Everybody's been asking for a yoga expert and virtuoso. We got one today, Fiji McAlpine.
Visit her website. Check her out on Facebook, Instagram, and all those places and try a yoga class.
(01:04:35):
Try something different. When things aren't working, you got to try something
different. And with that, it's a wrap for today. I will see you guys soon. Take care.
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