Season 3 : Episode 2: Freedom is found in discipline

How our yoga practice can help us manage the ups and downs of life.

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey everybody, and welcome to theBlack Crownie Yoga Podcast. I am Ashley,
I thank you for joining me today. I'm the founder and CEO of
Black crowny Yoga Magazine and Black CrownieYoga and Pull. And today on the
show, we are talking about howour yoga practice can help us navigate the
ups and downs of life and thecrazy things that life can bring our way.

(00:26):
So as we take a look atour Austina practice and being on the
map on a regular basis, andwhy putting our bodies in these interesting shapes
and asking us to breathe at thesame time, why that's important in the
first place, and how it canactually have a profound effect on you as

(00:48):
an individual, and how you managesituations off the map. So a little
backstory for today. This week hasbeen particularly challenging for me. My son
has been sick and it was alot of ups and downs in shuffling school
schedule, work schedule, all ofthat kind of stuff. And what I

(01:08):
found myself doing was looking for abit of normalcy in order to regulate all
of this chaos. What I feltlike was chaos that I had zero control
over. I could not control whenhe was going to totally feel better.
We had an er visit in there, we had managing getting my daughter to

(01:30):
school as well working still running abusiness, being mindful of my own health,
just taking care of regular family things. So in that I found myself
really really craving returning to my matand returning to my ashtanga yoga practice,

(01:53):
because one of the beautiful things aboutashtanga is the sequences set, meaning that
you show up to the mat andthe postures don't change from a day to
day basis. It's not as thoughyou're going to a public vinyasa class or
another flow class where you are subjectto whatever the teacher puts together for that

(02:15):
day. In astanga in the primaryseries is what I'm referring to. The
sequence does not change. What doeschange, however, is your body's experience
of the sequence and your mind's experienceof the sequence. So for me,
what I needed in this week andwhat I needed for the matt to give

(02:38):
me the opportunity to experience, ifyou will, was that sameness of stepping
on the mat and knowing exactly whatI was doing, not having to make
an immense amount of decisions about wheremy practice was going to go for that
day. I just knew which posesI need to move from one right after

(02:58):
the other. It was really reallynice to be able to just step on
the mat and be intentional about mypractice, but also leave the decision making
portions of my brain kind of offline, especially in the midst of the chaos
of my regular life. So oneof the best ways that yoga itself can

(03:19):
help you out is it allows youto experience these interesting shapes with your body,
putting your body in different places andspaces and pressure on. Can you
breathe? Can you not breathe whenyou're in this deep lunge or this deep
hip opener or something to that effect. Can you still breathe? And can
you find ease and comfort in aposition that your body may not be thrilled

(03:43):
about being in? Then can youfind ease and comfort in your mind and
remember to breathe while you're in thisposition that your body may not love or
that your mind begins to make thisstory up about about why you can't do
it, why it's so hard,how it is adversely affecting you. What
is the next thing that you haveto go and do. Your mind gets

(04:05):
really really noisy when you are workingthrough these postures, and it becomes an
aid in our regular life when we'redriving in our car or trying to get
to work and everything's super busy,super crazy and chaotic and that person cuts
you off in traffic. Now itgives you an opportunity to breathe through that
hard moment as well, because nowas a person, you can go,

(04:28):
oh, I've had practice with this. I've had practice with breathing through these
hard things. I've had practice withbeing in an uncomfortable, uncomfortable position but
still being able to find my breath, or still being able to not let
my mind get away from me inthis moment and make up stories that that
aren't true, that are just wrappedin my mind experience of that moment.

(04:57):
So what I found in my ostrongA practice this week was there was so
much freedom in the discipline of thepractice of showing up and getting to do
the same thing five days out ofthe week this week. The freedom and
not having to make these big,huge, sweeping decisions they were already kind
of taking care of for me.And then once I was done, I

(05:17):
was able to step off my matand tackle the things that I had to
do throughout my day, throughout therest of this week with a clear,
open mind that was not overtaxed asmuch as it it had been prior to
me getting an opportunity to step onmy map. So I encourage you all

(05:40):
to explore yoga from a place ofYes, the pastures can be difficult at
times, right, But the lessonthat we're trying to take a deep dive
in in the space that we're tryingto explore from is if I'm in this
shape, if I'm in this position, can I still find my breath?

(06:00):
Can I still find stillness? CanI find rest and ease in this posture?
Not be laxed in the posture?Right? Not disconnect for the moment?
Well, but where can I findease in that moment in order for
me to move through it as bestI can in addition, not run from
it because it feels so overwhelming andthese super big feelings are coming up,

(06:23):
and I'm attaching a story to whateveris going on right now and allowing that
story to lead as opposed to allowingfor space and breath and the body to
lead me through that particular moment andexperience. So I encourage you to bring

(06:43):
the things that you gather and thefeedback and the data that you get when
you're on your matt. I encourageyou to bring that into your regular life
and help it guide you through someof those tougher moments. Because just because
you're a yoga teacher, just becauseyou're a yoga student, does not mean
that you are exempt from the upsand downs of life. So I encourage

(07:03):
you to keep breathing through and keepfinding discipline in the structure that is your
yoga practice. Whether you step onthe mat and you are there for two
hours or if you're there for tenminutes, it all matters in the grand
scheme of things. So yeah,I hope that this short episode kind of
reframed your thoughts and or your experiencewhen you come to the map and give

(07:30):
yourself the space and the grace thatyou may willing to give to someone else,
but you forget to share with yourself. So yeah, I hope that
this one was helpful. I willsee you all, see you all,
I will talk to you all onthe next podcast. I look forward to
continuing to chop it up with you, and don't forget that you can join

(07:54):
us for yoga teacher training for justforty seven dollars down and forty seven dollars
a month for two hundred hours.If you are ready to kick off your
journey to become a yoga teacher,definitely check that out by going to the
Blackprana dot com. You can alsofind us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok

(08:16):
at Black Prana, and Black PranaYoga Magazine as well. All Right,
y'all, beusy and I'll catch youon the next go round.