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greetings hello good day wherever you are in the world thank you so much for joining us this is true Hope cast the

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official true hope Canada podcast my name is Simon and I am your host if you are unfamiliar with true hope Canada we

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are a mind and body based supplement company that is dedicated first and foremost to promoting brain and body

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Health through noninvasive nutritional means now more than ever people are

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looking for ways to support their brain health and this is a huge part of what we are always doing at trueu Hope Canada

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and for more information about us you can go to trueu Hope canada.com we've got a beautiful new website you can check out and we are on all the usual

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social media sites so you can go and check us out there as well um it is my

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absolute pleasure today to introduce today's guest yoga teacher and holistic

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nutritionist Nicole Samson Nicole first started practicing yoga in 2010 when she

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was encouraged to explore the practice um while working for Lululemon as she Dove deeper into the practice Nicole

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found what a gift this practice could be on her path of self-discovery this led Nicole to take

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her first two 200 hours of teacher training in 2014 and she has since taken

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um teacher training every one to two years Nicole is currently working on her 300 hour training with claraa Roberts um

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with plans to be a 500 hour practitioner by the end of 2021

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that is a lot of hours that's just amazing and as the importance of her study of yoga grew and other holistic

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Sciences like ieda this Drew Nicole towards the study of holistic nutrition

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and in April of 2020 Nicole graduated from the holistic nutrition program at Pacific room College which is the most

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comprehensive on-site program of holistic nutrition in Canada it's a quite remarkable institution we spoken

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about it many times on the show she plans to combine these two modalities yoga and holistic nutrition to show

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others how how they can care for themselves with movement and food alongside yoga Nicole spent the last 10

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years working in her community building um and leadership development Nicole

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begin brings her strength in positivity and com as a compassionate leader in everything that she does and in her

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spare time you can find Nicole hiking with her amazing partner Liam and their

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pretty new dog Angus hi Nicole thank you so much for joining us today how are you hi Simon

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thank you so much for having me here I'm doing great that's awesome now I've got to disclose something Nicole is one of

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my favorite people on the planet I could say the same about you

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Simon thank you that's that's nice yeah we are very close friends and you can take my word for it that Nicole is a

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incredibly special person with and her heart and her love for what she does is quite remarkable continues to surprise

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me all the time um so Nicole would you be so kind us to give us a little bit of

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an introduction into your journey into becoming a practitioner and a teacher yeah definitely I you definitely

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gave me a great intro there with my bio I feel bad that it was quite long so thank you for reading that the long bio

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is good yeah obviously got a lot of stuff going on it's great yeah and I was thinking about recently my very first

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introduction to yoga and it must have been when I was in high school and we had like a yoga DVD my house it was mebe

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my sisters and my moms and I did a class and it was very slow and at that point I was like I'm not into this yoga like I

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played team sports growing up baseball and basketball so I was into more High paac movement so that first introduction

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I was like no yoga is not for me it's a bit too slow a bit too boring at that

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point I kind of was rided off and then um it was a little bit after high school

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as Simon had mentioned there that I started working for the company L lemon who um was making clothes for yoga so

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that was a big part of working for the company it's an encouragement to start practicing yoga and what was so great is

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they offered us um the opportunity to look at a variety of different styles so

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they really encouraged you to find the style that was best for you and and it

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was kind of years into starting to practice that I was I found this one

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studio and I found this practice that was was quite vigorous um and it really

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intrigued me having played more um higher intensity sports that having a

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challenging practice was really exciting to me it was something that I could work towards postures that I had never done

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before in my body it kind of motivated me to um learn more about the practice

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and then alongside that vigorous practice is was this introduction to some breathing Tech techniques and

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meditation so um it was the sa for practice Studio out of Edmonton Alberta

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that really drew me in at the beginning and showed me that there was more to this practice than my first intro of

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very slow Yoga DVD that I had um first practice and from there um it was also

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at a time in my life where I had thought I really wanted to support people and

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help them by going into nursing and being in that um more Western model of Health

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Care and in there I was really seeing how we care for people in the kind of

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last stage of intervention so when people are quite sick and they need the

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surgery they need the Pharmaceuticals um I know there's a time and place for Western medicine and it does amazing

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things but what I felt was really missing there was more conversation about what people could do for

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themselves how they could help themselves and I was really seeing that with yoga how I could keep my body

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physically fit and I was introducing this practice of meditation in where I

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was looking a bit deeper into my own experience and so from there I was kind

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of hooked and I was like I want to find out more about this um and I went on to do my first teacher

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training um as a way that I was curious for my myself as to how this practice

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could continue to support me and being that I saw is a way that I could help

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people sooner so instead of being in that Western model of Last Resort health

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care I could be in this practice in this area of health promotion where we're showing people how to care for

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themselves at any stage of their life and continue to keep themselves healthy

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so that's kind of how I first got started in becoming a teacher and as you

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had mentioned Simon I have done a teacher training every like one to two years since then and that I feel like is

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important to note because this is a thousand year old system that we're

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learning about this yoga practice so there's so much to learn so much to

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explore within the practice and also being in a teacher training is such a

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magical experience it's not only taking you out

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of your everyday life where you have your job your responsibilities your family all these things that a lot of

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people hopefully you enjoyed to do and you have a lot expected of you and you get to go away and kind of be on Retreat

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where you're just solely focused on yourself and caring for yourself with this practice focusing more

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intentionally on what you're putting in your body and you're moving yourself from all those other responsibilities so

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that you can just be in this experience for you so I

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think that's what's so great about the yoga practice and what continues to bring me back into learning about it

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taking trainings studying myself and then bringing this practice to other

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people yeah I love that and I I think it's such an important point is that

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know anyone who really gets into yoga is certainly exploring the practice of yoga

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and the moves and the breath work and everything that kind of comes with that but also what people I I think are doing

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are exploring themselves and really getting connected with who they are and

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you know what this incredible body can do and what the mind can do Once the mind and body are are are connected with

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you know conscious breath conscious work conscious is thinking and the things that you're mentioning about like our

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work and our significant external distractions always ends up depleting us

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so using yoga to explore that as a really ancient magical practice that is

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definitely coming um let's call it back into society into our Western cultures a little bit more but yeah like and side

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by side with that is the fact that we are exploring ourselves again we are explor exploring what it is to to be a a

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spiritual energetic being and that is yeah it's one of the best things that I've ever learned about about what what

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yoga is definitely much more than going to you know a yoga studio and and

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getting the M getting on the mat and then you know trying to stretch as much as I possibly can it's so much deeper than that and um yeah it's yeah that's a

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really yeah that's a really cool um amazing thing that people can do as a as a self-discovery practice yeah there is

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there is a few things you said there that I wanted to touch on um is I was listening to one of my teachers recently

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um she has a podcast as well where she talks a lot about yoga and she was saying she said it so beautifully that

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often yoga teachers are trying to um work themselves out of a job because we

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want students to come in and get this introduction and then have them get to

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the point where they're comfortable exploring it on their own so very much that path to self-discovery learning

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more about ourselves is we um it's so great to find a teacher that you really

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resonate with and who is going to be sharing this material in a way that works best for you and then it gets to

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the point where you take it on yourself that's wonderful yeah just and

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just as any really good therapy um that really supports you community is a

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massive factor of that so whether you are going to you know a a space where you've got other people

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there who are doing yoga with you I think it's so wonderful when you join up with a with a community of people who are doing something to benefit

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themselves and the people around them and you know energy feeds off energy so yeah not only are you when you

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start engaging in a yoga practice you're benefiting yourself but you're going to you're going to ex exceed that benefit

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by you know working and being with other people who are also kind of making that self-commitment to the themselves

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yeah absolutely and that was kind of another piece that you touched on is that there's so many different paths to

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way the way people can get introduced to yoga so oftentimes in our Western culture here in North America people get

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introduced to the physical poses first and that's great for people to join in

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that way and then eventually they get into more of the philosophy and um the eight limbs of

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Ashtanga yoga or such a amazing resource to us because they talk about the

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physical practice as one of this one of the eight limbs but the before that we

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look at the qualities of how we interact with our environment and how we interact with ourselves so some of those things

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are um a truthfulness so being true to yourself being true to others they are

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um cleanliness with your environment with your yourself your

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contentment um amazing principles the yamas and yamas of yoga so that's such a

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great way to explore this practice in its whole in its entirety and it's

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there's so many different ways that people can start with it and then it is endless where it takes you yeah that's

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lovely I think um there was something you said at the beginning about your experience when you were first introduce

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to yoga with your sister and your mom um who are probably going to listen to this and I want to say hi to because

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they're both awesome thank you yeah but um yeah it's

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so interesting that you know when we are at this kind of like young age let's just call it like in our 20s when we a

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lot of people are doing a lot more you know go go go high energy Sports and

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activities and movements and then the idea of go being on a a yoga mat and

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doing something that's a lot more let's call it slow and maybe deliberate and

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conscious is is not quite the um it's not quite in line with you know what a high energy 20-year-old is is going to

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want to do so in your experience like how how um how have you seen that

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transition kind of work in um in a way that you know it's wonderful that people

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have got all this incredible energy and they want to do all these wonderful things and use their bodies but as you

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as we today it's so important that we rest and restore and replenish and balance using something like yoga or

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meditation how have you seen that that transition work for for that kind of that group that I'm talking

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about yeah that's such a great question and I think that's what's so amazing

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about the yoga practice and and where we are right now in the west as well too is

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we have so many different styles of yoga now that have been born out of this one

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system you know we have one teacher that has it their students and then their students start teaching other students

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and from there we now developed all these different styles of practice so I think there is really a practice for

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everyone at different stages of their life so often we see that younger stages

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of our life we are more energetic our body is maybe lighter maybe more

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flexible that a higher energy practice could really benefit and then later in

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our life as we get older we get a little bit weaker we get slower the slower practices could really benefit us and we

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can even look into different seasons too and see how the winter and the Darkness

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and the heaviness of it the slower practice can really benefit us and then as we move into spring which I feel like

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here in Victoria it's so sunny today and I'm so feeling that the spring is coming even though it's a bit too early but and

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when we get into the spring we can start bringing in those more vigorous practices and start moving the body

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helping to move the digestion and kind of bring that heat and um and then even different times of

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the day we can look at like maybe in the morning you can do a more vigorous practice in the evening you can do a

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slower practice so there is a practice for everybody at every stage every

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season every hour of the day I think it's like there's so much out there that

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we can access and at the same time it's so interesting especially in our Western

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World here that's very I think what you really spoke to high intensity there's a

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lot going on there can be increased levels of stress and pressure within our jobs and our

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responsibilities that the slowing down can be such a great counter to that

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lifestyle and it can be really uncomfortable at first the slower movement I think that's what I

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experienced initially was the slower movement was uncomfortable but it was it could be

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really beneficial for me so I think there's like a a balance there between

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matching our energy at the certain time and then also the counter so if we are

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very energetic how can we find that balance in a slower practice uh finding

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our meditation and and sitting there in the quiet longer and how that can actually benefit and balance out

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the heat the intensity that we have in other areas of their life so it's so

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interesting because I feel like I can be quite an energetic higher intensity

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individual and I like those practices and the slower practices like a yin yoga

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where you could be holding poses for like eight to 10 minutes at a time I often find them in those practices being

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like what's next what's next and then it's like oh this is so good for me I

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can I can be in this and like how much do I need this right now when I have the desire to move away from it yeah I think

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that's I think that's so great because one of the biggest things yoga can do is

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is bring Consciousness and awareness to kind of like where you are and your and your pres present moment and your

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practice and what you do with your body and how you use your resources um is really important and you

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know your age season your energy levels your stress levels

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all these things you you can become hyper aware of when you when you're really using your conscious mind and the

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yoga practice and what you want to bring to the mat will change depending

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depending on all of those circumstances so yeah it's really a great way to kind of holistically look at kind of like

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where you are where you want to be and yoga's got so many incredible options

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for all of those different circumstances mhm yeah and just on that

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point too um it can often be intimidating for people to go into a studio when they're

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first starting and know what type of practice to join into and I feel like

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the best teachers are going to give options to everybody in the room so even

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if you go into a practice and you thought more vigorous is good for you today and then you get in there and

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you're like absolutely not you can do what feels best for you in that moment

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too like I'm so happy if people come into my class and it's planned on being

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a more vigorous practice and many people are into that and are moving with it and

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then one person lays down and they just listen to the practice and they just breathe with us they're still in the

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practice and they're still getting the benefits from it one of my great teachers too Clara often suggest that

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you do some practices lying in shabas of the whole time and just visualize

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yourself doing the poses and see how much benefit you can still get from that

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so I just thought that that was so important to offer to people too is that if you start to do a practice and then

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feel like that's not the right practice for you in that moment you can change it you can switch it up right in there and

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do what's best for you yeah I on my yoga journey I certainly had that like some

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of my first experiences was going into a class with a lot of people and my let's

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call it old personality of you know being quite you know play competitive Sports my whole life and you know I

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definitely ran on a lot more ego than I do now so I'm sat so I'm sat in this room with a bunch of different people

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and you obviously you you're going to engage in that environment depending on that environment with a lot lots of

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other people who have very varied levels of of competence when it comes to yoga

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but you know I'm trying to do my best and I'm trying to do exactly what the teacher's telling me and doing all these

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things and then when you become conscious of the fact that you know you're probably straining yourself and

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you're not really breathing because you're trying to hold this that really that that whole journey when I first

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started going to classes and I and I really started to figure out that I was getting that it wasn't really me it

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wasn't really me that like kind of egotistical frustrated individual like trying to do everything with a with a I

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suppose with a competitive nature that was just never really benefiting me but now like going in going to a a yoga

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class it's it's not necessarily about doing exactly the sequence of what the teacher

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is doing but being able to put yourself in a position where you can actually feel what your body needs in that moment and yeah if it if it's to um lie down in

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in trasa for 40 minutes then that's your thing like go for that and I I think for a lot of people to lie down still with

21:26

their own with their own thoughts and their own mind and own breath like that is one of the most difficult Yoga practices that you can engage in totally

21:35

yeah and that's such a good point I think for a lot of people who don't know a lot about yoga their first

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introduction is seeing a super bendy often white female body on like things

21:49

like the yoga journal or on Instagram and they have a lot of fear around the

21:55

yoga and yeah a lot of ego around like I want want to look like that I want to be able to do that and they could push them

22:03

themselves into harm getting into the practice and trying to go too far too

22:08

soon so it is um sometimes challenging to really bring in

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um that the practice is whatever it needs to be for you today A lot of times

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people want to get really stuck on how it should look and like you said Simon it's all about how it feels in the body

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and I think the more that you tap into how it feels the stronger you get and

22:35

the better you can move into increasing flexibility as well so it's there's

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definitely I think a time period there that some people take where they have to

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move from like how should it look to how it feels but I feel like over in the

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west here we're placing more emphasis on that and we're showing many different

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bodies now doing the yoga and looking at how does the shape look in different

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bodies and I think it's so important to remind people too that everyone's coming into the practice especially like in a

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yoga studio however many bodies in one space doing the one practice that the teacher's offering everyone's coming in

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with like different injuries different energy levels different states of like emotion coming

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in with so many different things that it's a crazy expectation that everyone's going to be doing the same pose and it's

23:35

going to look the same way that's completely unrealistic because everyone's coming in with all these

23:42

different experiences so I think really empowering people to honor that honor

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your energy level honoring whether your body is sore or it's feeling open and

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energetic and honor what's coming up in your mind too it's very much like a Mind

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Body Soul practice Yeah that's really great and I think yeah that's yeah it's just um

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everybody everybody's journey in in most things is is worldly different and um hopefully that people are are able to

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experience especially like having a good teacher having a good instructor to to kind of navigate the class and you know

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talk about those type of expectations and be really clear with the type of movement that's happening I think I've

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had some amazing yoga teachers but also had some really bad ones um so yeah that's obviously a big part to play how

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um how have you seen yoga support mental health in people great

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question yeah actually I'm sure there's so many things

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that I can offer and share over the years but one thing sticking out to me is last week actually someone came to my

24:54

class and um when she realized I was the teacher she said I just want to share

25:00

with you how my day has been and um she shared that she actually had a panic attack that morning and had planned on

25:07

going to a yoga class but just couldn't get herself there because of this panic attack and throughout the course of the

25:13

day she was able to get into a more relaxed State more calm and then come to

25:20

the class that evening because she still knew the benefit of the yoga practice for her mental health and for helping to

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de increase her anxiety and her stress and she was able to come at a time when

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she was able to based on how she was feeling and and that rang so um close to

25:42

home for me because in the last year I've really experienced a high increase in my anxiety and I had my first panic

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attack this past summer was something I never experienced before and really took

25:55

me like out of my body into this wild um

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instability and uncertainty and I mean what actually worked for me in that moment was going

26:08

into the water and bringing myself back into my body through like the water moving my hands through the water and

26:15

that was kind of a a meditation and uh a practice for me there is being able to

26:22

move my body and start to feel my breath moving through um

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and take my awareness out of these uncontrollable thoughts and stress and

26:36

bring them back into my physical body and my breath and I think the yoga practice can be so beneficial for that

26:43

and the poses itself because they can take your awareness into your physical

26:49

body so that you can shift away from that fear that anger that depression

26:56

that sadness and you can bring bring your awareness into your physical body because the mind can only focus on one

27:01

thing at a time so if it we're bringing it into the physical body and just moving in an intentional way through

27:08

these shapes then it takes us out of that experience if we do the breath work then again we bring our mind to focusing

27:15

on the breath moving in and out our inhale and our exhale and then if it's

27:20

comfortable to do so and we can bring our awareness into those thoughts so in

27:26

our meditation if we can be in a bit of that discomfort then we can look at

27:32

those emotions look at those experiences a little bit deeper maybe recognize where they're coming from and then be

27:39

able to let them go and let them fade away and come back into the Stillness

27:45

and and the quiet it's the meditation practice I think can be so beneficial

27:51

for this and being in a little bit of that discomfort I think that there's a

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Time in place when people are able to sit in that and a time in place when people aren't because of what's going on

28:04

with their mental health but if we can come to this practice of

28:10

meditation I think it's so beautiful to sit in the discomfort and emotions that

28:16

we're experiencing because there's a lot of ways in our life that we can distract ourselves we can watch TV we can play

28:23

games we can go on social media and there's a lot of good that can come from

28:28

so those things but if we're using it as a way to just distract ourselves from the challenges we're having instead of

28:35

facing them then it just leads to more struggles more problems and coming to

28:42

that meditation practice can really allow us to and I

28:47

can just speak for myself too here can really allow myself to be in that discomfort be in for me a

28:56

lot it's like the fear that anxiety the stress if I can be in that and start to

29:04

name where it's coming from or what's causing it and then have these tools

29:10

like yoga that can balance me out it can find that state of calm that state of

29:17

peace that state of joy and happiness then it gets easier to

29:23

experience that anxiety because it it comes back still you know I think that

29:29

I've gotten a lot better in the past few months since I had that panic attack

29:35

this summer um but it's a working progress it's something that I'm going to be

29:40

working on every day and I get better and better

29:46

and find more ease and more peace often

29:51

times quicker but it's all a practice Yeah it's all a practice

29:58

without question and there's such a big difference between you know if know one person experiences anxiety or or a panic

30:06

attack and their um automatic Behavior would be to to distract themselves or to

30:13

do something different in regards to kind of ignoring the feelings that are coming up

30:20

quite strongly within the body and the mind although on the other hand somebody who's experiencing anxiety or a panic

30:26

attack and they use some of these tools whether that's meditation or um yoga or

30:31

you know changing your environment using nature for example how rather than like

30:36

suppressing and ignoring and distracting yourself you're able to bring awareness to those feelings and the thoughts and

30:43

the things that have made made made you feel that way and begin to digest and

30:48

eliminate some of those things it's a very different neurological process that

30:54

happens and you know you're using lots of different um brain and body chemistry

30:59

when it comes to going down One path or the other and just having a tool like

31:06

yoga or a space to meditate or to do some of these you know other things can

31:12

be so remarkable and life-changing for for those people who do and a lot of

31:18

people experience anxiety and depressions and all sorts of other things mental health

31:24

related physically related but just having a talk tool like yoga or meditation is just could be really

31:31

inspiring and can really help people um help themselves yeah in my experience it's so

31:37

important to have your tool belt where you have your list of things that you can rely on in those situations that

31:45

really take you out of yourself and get you caught up in your mind um and I

31:51

think just another thing to speak about the meditation is we often get this

31:57

introdu as you go in and you just get quiet and you go in and you just clear out

32:04

everything and it's super easy you just go and you sit and your silent and for

32:09

someone who has a lot of thoughts running in your in their mind like myself kind of hearing that like we're

32:18

looking to achieve this state of quiet and peace can be really

32:23

intimidating and I had one great teacher claa I'll probably speak a lot about her

32:28

um and you kind of mentioned the beginning I'm doing my 300 hour teacher training with her this year is she talks

32:35

about it in a way where we're like kind of turning on the TV so we go in and we sit in our meditation we turn on the TV

32:41

and we're like okay what's coming up for me today and you're able to just sit there and recognize the thoughts that

32:47

come in see if those thoughts are serving you and practice being able to

32:52

let them go and that's kind of my meditation practice I sit and I'm like okay what coming up for me today and

32:59

there may be brief moments of the silence and the space and that's so

33:05

great but oftentimes it's just another thought one after another that comes in

33:10

and that's so great to create the space to sit with them

33:16

yeah we don't really get taught how to sit and analyze kind of what's going on our head I think we think and we believe

33:24

that thoughts just continuously like happen to us we don't have any control over them I mean a lot of them a lot of

33:31

the thoughts we do have are like you know sporadic neurons firing that you know a lot of the things we think about

33:37

don't really mean anything but those things that continuously come up to people that make us feel emotions that

33:43

we're not that we don't really want to experience on a regular basis yet

33:48

sitting and becoming aware of those and again like you know sitting down and doing a meditation is a tool but also

33:54

how do you sit and you know where are you putting your focus you just sitting down and letting things fire or you you

34:01

know you sitting back and you say like watching the watching the show and then how can you could potentially like start

34:08

assessing some of these thoughts because I think a lot of people who experience

34:13

anx I know a lot of anxieties that I've had in my life and I and I really sit down and start using some some ways to

34:20

analyze those thoughts most of them that make me feel anxious don't have any validity to them and these thoughts are

34:26

just random things far in my head and then once I can actually analyze that I can kind of put them to the side and

34:32

digest them and and eliminate them rather than just suppressing them until they kind of pop up again and yeah as we

34:40

mentioned before that is a very very different process to um feeling feeling anxious feelings and thoughts and then

34:47

you know just like turning on a turning on Netflix and distracting yourself so

34:52

you know you don't have to think about those things anymore it's very different process MH M yeah and I think it's just

34:59

this conversation is reminding me that it's so good for us to talk about our

35:05

experience within yoga because I think that's what was challenging for me at the beginning is I was you know getting

35:12

from these teachers and this books how you know it's kind of supposed to be

35:19

kind of the path and what has been life-changing for me is talking to other

35:24

yoga teachers about my experience in the practice so it was so great in our teacher

35:31

training this past year one of our modules talking about meditation and so many of us being like yeah I sit a lot

35:37

of times and it's like chaotic it's like thought thought thought thought thought it's so busy and hearing other teachers

35:43

be like my meditation is so busy was like oh thank goodness like I'm not

35:49

alone in that and similarity with our physical postures is being able to be

35:55

like oh this one pose is so hard hard for me and another teacher being like or another student anyone being like Oh

36:03

yeah same or like here's what works best for me and like us being able to talk about our bodies and how they move I

36:10

think it's so great to yes like take this practice on yourself and figure out

36:15

what works best for you in the practice but talk to other people about your experiences so that you can I think for

36:23

a lot of these things see that you're not alone in your experiences and be able to seek out support for from others

36:30

too yeah that communitybased aspect of something that is so

36:35

so impactful and helpful because the things that you

36:41

experience every everyone I think most people can relate to the emotions of frustration and anger and rage that we

36:47

have like internally and we usually because of know Society we don't usually Express those things we kind of hide it

36:54

and we suppress it a little bit but being able to talk about the thoughts that lead to emotions like frustration anger and

36:59

rage really allows you to okay listen I'm human these things happen but you

37:05

know I can I can start to do things to actively help help myself to maybe

37:11

reduce those things and really assess what's actually making me feel angry and frustrated and probably comes to the

37:16

realization that you actually have a lot more control and responsibility over that emotional state and you know that

37:23

takes work that takes practice that takes real conscious effort but there are things things that we can do and

37:29

there are people that can support us on the way because we shouldn't be trying to make any significant change without

37:35

using the wonderful support systems that exist all around us whether that's family and friends or a yoga Community

37:42

um yeah it's really powerful stuff I'd love to talk about some of the research

37:48

done on using yoga for different mental health disorders I think if you to type

37:53

in yoga into Pub Med or green green Med or some of these other research based uh

38:00

databases you find so much actual science because the science is really um

38:06

catching up with the with the real health benefits that come from doing a practice like

38:12

yoga yeah and um it's so interesting too

38:17

A lot of times when um our like Western science needs that evidence and needs

38:23

the proof with some of these ancient traditional Sciences as as well and these practices and and sometimes it's

38:30

really beneficial for people to get that concrete data based on um a clinical

38:36

trial or something like that so that you know those people that are really

38:41

focused on seeing the evidence it can give them the reassurance that this can

38:47

be a beneficial practice and there is like the you you know the clinical

38:52

trials there is is um getting people there is some res search there um that I

38:58

was looking at specifically for um healthcare workers and getting them into

39:04

a regular yoga practice and how that decrease their Stress and Anxiety in the

39:09

work that they're doing in the healthcare setting and so there's amazing research

39:15

and evidence like that and then we have thousands of years of people practicing this practice and seeing the results

39:22

there in increased mood decreased stress increas in in um good sleep and

39:31

increased in energy reduced fatigue there is the evidence there in

39:38

um just seeing from people doing the practice and sharing their experiences

39:44

so yes you're so right Simon there is going into these great um databases you

39:50

can be able to search yoga for mental health yoga specifically for depression yoga for things like Alzheimer's yoga

39:58

for all these conditions and and find definitely so much research now as people are wanting to gather people for

40:06

a period of time get them to do the practice and measure um with specific

40:11

studies to get their experience and at the same time we can

40:17

look at this evidence from thousands of years of practice and see the results there too of how this is Shifting

40:23

people's moods and supporting their mental health yeah so such an important thing to remember that these these

40:30

practices these ancient practices have been used for thousands of years and that is without question scientific

40:35

evidence that these things have strong powerful um healing mechanisms to them

40:43

um yeah it's amazing I'd love to talk about how nutrition fits into all of this so you you you and I have both done

40:50

the the holistic nutrition diploma at Pacific Rim college and um quite a

40:55

remarkable place and Inc course changed my life without question I'm I'm sure it did the same with you um

41:03

how does how does that holistic nutrition practice um slip into and complement the

41:09

yoga yeah absolutely um I so again like this

41:14

practice being so old they knew from the beginning that

41:20

nutrition was an amazing Focus for the yoga practice and

41:26

how it could benefit doing these shapes being able to sit comfortably um I kind of referenced at

41:33

the beginning of our conversation the yamas and Nas and talking about so the nas are the practices within the body

41:41

and what you're doing for yourself and one of the nas Tapas talks about the

41:47

removal of impurities in our physical and mental systems through the maintenance of such correct habits as

41:54

sleep exercise nutrition work and relaxation so this is from the yoga sutras that I was reading of poten and

42:01

so they talk right about nutrition right there in one of this is one of like the first text on yoga the yoga sutras so

42:08

right away they're talking about how do we put the right food in to support the

42:13

physical body and then we can also look at one of the sister Sciences of yoga

42:19

ayurveda Simon and I both studied a little bit of that within the holistic nutrition diploma and ayurveda is such a

42:26

great system that talks about um figuring out your individual

42:33

Constitution and then looking at the qualities of food whether they're hot cold light heavy um damp dry looking at

42:43

the taste the sweet sour salty and looking at the seasons and being able to

42:50

choose the right Foods For Your Right Constitution and then how that can

42:55

benefit your yoga practice so I think it's similar to talking about the right

43:02

practice for the right time of day the right season is that we know our food

43:09

can be used the same way so if we are eating a really heavy meal right before

43:16

our practice then our body is working on digest digesting that food and so we

43:22

can't be then shifting our energy to move the body into these different

43:28

shapes to do the breath work to be able to sit in meditation because our body's

43:33

working on this other huge process of digestion so it was so cool for me

43:39

to be introduced to the yoga practice and then start to look more at the food

43:44

that I was putting in my body and how that was affecting my ability to move my

43:51

body being able to put in light Foods before I practice and then being able to

43:57

like add the really nourishing heavier Foods after my practice once I um moved my body and

44:08

then needed to replenish so there's so much to say about nutrition but I think

44:14

with ayurveda is such a great system if people want to explore that more because

44:19

it is that sister science of yoga so they are so closely related in how one

44:26

benefits the other and looking at and figuring out your original Constitution and looking at your current

44:33

Constitution and see what is needed for you at this time and then you can even

44:39

look at Yoga practices that will complement your Constitution too yeah that's amazing I think that

44:45

yeah I mean the whole nutrition piece is huge and without question all these things really complement each other

44:51

everything's connected and yeah you wouldn't want to you wouldn't want to be going into um a yoga studio and doing

44:57

know an hour practice know just after a massive triple burger or something like that yeah but obvious yeah yeah it's

45:05

about yeah and I think that just with the with the yoga and the meditation and the nutrition piece it's all about

45:11

becoming conscious and once you stop becoming conscious of your mind and your body you're going to be able to be aware of like what it what it needs just like

45:17

if you're going on to the yoga mat and you sit and you feel your body and you feel okay my legs are legs are feeling

45:23

really tight today maybe I should put some awareness and focus on that area of my body you're going to be do that with

45:28

nutrition and your body is so incredibly smart whether you know it needs vitamins minerals antioxidants you know it's

45:34

going to it's going to going to tell you what what it needs and if you're really really connected you can use like um

45:42

looking in the eyes looking in the tongues looking at like pulse diagnosis with traditional Chinese medicine these are all all messages that you can you

45:49

know you can learn to do yourself and and go and and study and you can go to

45:54

different amazing practitioners that can help help you along with that do you have some like good resources that

46:01

people can can check out whether that's books or YouTube channels maybe other podcasts that people can check out if

46:07

they're looking for maybe like an introduction to yoga absolutely yeah I would

46:14

say first it'd be so great if people are brand new to yoga really curious about

46:20

it and want to try there's so many videos on YouTube that are free you can

46:25

kind of explore in there different styles of yoga whether it's Yin a slower

46:30

practice a viasa a more vigorous an ash changa even more vigorous challenging um

46:37

more restorative slow flow you can just kind of put in those keywords of different styles of yoga and find a

46:45

whole bunch of classes that are free so you can really start to explore the practice without if you're not sure yet

46:53

where you want to invest your money in because I think it's all about finding a teacher that really resonates with you

47:01

too um but of course I would recommend my teacher Clara Roberts us she has an

47:07

online platform it's called practice with Clara and she has so many videos online you do like a monthly

47:13

subscription I think it's about $15 um and you get access to she

47:19

probably has hundreds of classes on there now and they range from like five minutes Mantra meditation breath work

47:27

to hour and 15 minute classes so there's such a range that she has on there that

47:33

you can practice and from various styles of slow flow to more vigorous Lots there

47:39

and then as far as books go there's so many books too I'm kind of

47:45

looking over at my shelf where I have a lot of books right now and seeing what are some great ones um and one of my

47:53

first books that I read was called the heart of Yol yoga and this is by Des um

48:01

which he is the the son of Krishna macharia one of our fathers of yoga and

48:06

this book is such a great summary of a lot of different concepts of yoga so if

48:11

you want to dig more into the philosophy you want to learn more about the origins you want to explore more beyond the

48:18

physical practice the heart of yoga is a really great

48:24

book and yeah that's great I mean yeah so as you say you could type in yoga for

48:29

beginners in YouTube and you're going to get you're going to get 10,000 videos yeah that's a great point two you can

48:35

kind of like look at your experience level for beginners intermediate

48:41

advanc there's so much on there yeah and there's going to be something for everybody without question it's you it's

48:47

a really wonderful really wonderful example of how technology can really really work for us um that's great I'll

48:54

make sure that we leave um the links to your to to claraa and links to that

49:01

book as well in the show note so people can connect with with them how can people connect with

49:06

you yes thank you for asking so I'm currently teaching at the F yoga Den in

49:12

Victoria BC and what's so great about the food yoga Den right now is we also

49:17

have an online platform so if people aren't local to Victoria BC they can still practice with me online in the

49:24

comfort of your home so you can go to the firm yoga.com there's

49:29

online classes and then if you are local to Victoria BC then you can come in and

49:34

attend classes with me that's awesome and we'll we'll make sure that that that link is shared as well but that's um

49:42

that's it for our time together Nicole we could talk all day especially about the nutrition pie I find that super

49:48

fascinating and I'm going to do my best to get an i practitioner on the show to discuss that a little bit further but

49:56

amazing yeah but thank you so much for joining us thank you so much for having me Simon this was so fun thank you I'm

50:03

glad you had fun yeah I think that I honestly think that um yoga and teaching it to our youth and

50:11

to our young adults can without question um give give give people the tools that

50:18

they need to help navigate what is very often a very stressful World in which we engage in

50:25

very stressful emotions and having tools and a lot of that is very unavoidable so having tools like

50:32

meditation and yoga on hand and to be able to do that kind of quickly at home rather than

50:38

having to book a class and go to a class but having these tools that we can just engage in very very quickly and do them

50:44

at a level where we are know really restoring and healing ourselves I honestly think if we start teaching that

50:50

to our youth so much chronic adult illnesses will just will plummet it will

50:57

really decrease and it will just you know help uh help create a uh a society

51:02

that's a lot more connected to themselves and therefore connect to to our community so I really appreciate you coming on and sharing some wonderful

51:09

things with us I've been excited about this show this episode for a while and you didn't disappoint thanks Simon yeah well um

51:16

thank you so much for listening everybody this is true Hope cast the official true hope Canada podcast we'll leave all the show notes and everything

51:22

we've spoken about today um in the description so thank you so much we'll see next week goodbye

51:28

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