What Is Empowerment Flow Yoga? with Byron de Marsé

0:00 Hey there, Before we get started on this week's episode, I would love to ask for your support by reviewing this podcast. We want to share yoga with as many people as possible and this free resource. This podcast is one of the ways that we can do that. And the best way that you can help support us is by giving us a review.

0:16 So if you go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever podcast platform you use, Scroll down until you find that star review and then give us some love. Thank you so much, and let's get started with this week's episode. To be given permission. Like I don't care if you do the yoga class. In fact, I'm inspired when you don't do it. OK, you can write if you want to write, You Can Dance. There's all these different ways that you can experience this class and I want you to step

0:46 into that today however you need to. OK, that is going to for some people, a lot of people, the feedback is it. It just unlocks. It unlocks different pathways of thinking, different pathways of feeling, and this is where the clarity comes in either at least you know, I don't know how to bridge that gap any more than that, but just then the different pathways that are opening up from the permissions or stimulating new possibilities. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga

1:23 Podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast. Is for you. We talk all things yoga related for teachers in order to supplement and complement and even support after a 200 hour yoga teacher training. Or if you've never done a training before, this podcast is all about just learning more about yoga in an authentic way. Together with Paul Tioto and Byron De Marseille, we put together this podcast to provide you with a free resource to learn more about yoga.

1:53 Whether you want to share yoga or teach yoga or just practice yoga, this podcast is talking all things yoga related. And we're trying to talk from the teacher's perspective and also the student's perspective to make sure we get a full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it's evolved in the modern world. Welcome to our podcast.

2:11 Welcome back to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast, Michael here, your host. With the most and then Byron across the table here. Hi, Byron. Thank you for having me on. So if you're just tuning into this episode, this is the third part of a three-part series about empowerment flow, a new style of yoga class that has been kind of buzzing over the last, I don't even know, a year and a half, probably about a year and a half.

2:39 So yeah, the first two episodes. So if you go back to episodes talking about empowerment flow and kind of the foundation of what it sits on, which is talking a lot about permissions, which allows people to feel more empowered of to make choices, permissions to make choices for themselves, which can also be scary. So tune into that episode if you haven't already, Then the second episode which would be the previous one, talking more about the philosophy around yoga and

3:04 how the philosophies of yoga like the Upanishads, the chakras and the Koshas Koshas can be applied into an empowerment yoga flow style class to help people possibly go into further depths of self inquiry, you know, finding certain truths or clarity for themselves. And today's episode is to kind of just talk about like what are some of the possibilities of this empowerment flow, like why people take it?

3:30 Why do people like it? Why is there a buzz around it? Why is this new style obviously kind of why we, why are we even talking about it kind of thing. So Byron's here to kind of help guide some of that as one of the, if not the person who has basically been playing around with this for the last year and a half with this class to see what is possible and kind of changing things and introducing different little tactics to the style to just kind of not necessarily perfect it, but just

3:57 to see what is possible for the students experiences. So yeah, in your experience over the last year and a half, Byron, what are some of the things or what what would you say is possible for people or what why would someone want to take a class like this? I mean in the introduction you, you nailed it and you you said permission for choices, you said finding clarity. So just just going into like what I'm thinking about right now is I'm thinking about the

4:32 origins of this being basically a branch of the, the permissions that Brian cast was instilling in power yoga. And I don't remember if we talked about this on the previous two podcasts. I don't. Think I think you might have mentioned, but either way, just pretend you didn't. OK, so the permissions is, yeah, we did say permissions. I don't know how, how deep I went into it, but Brian Kest came from learning Ashtanga yoga in India, which is a very strict style of yoga.

5:03 And then his, you know, he came back and taught. I think he taught the first Ashtanga class in the US If I'm wrong about that, yeah, sue me. You know, whatever, but you know, but his first job was actually teaching people with eating disorders, so you couldn't apply this really strict style. So.

5:22 So he modified it and started to become more gentle with his language, with the options and basically the permissions. So it's all about listening to yourself. So I look at empowerment Yoga like a an extension of that, an evolution of that style. It's kind of like taking Ashtanga Yoga, flipping it upside down, completely different when I say different, though exactly the same in reverse. It's kind of like instead of follow exactly everything I do, how about don't follow anything

5:57 I do, Possibly just follow the structure of the prompting and maybe follow the sequence too. When you feel like it and when you feel like not following it, don't follow it. So the dialogue that happens through the class is essentially energy. So when you have a thought, there's energy behind that thought.

6:23 When you speak out loud, you put more energy behind a thought. And then when you write something down and if you're speaking it, that's a third step action. So it's bringing in a lot of, let's call it energy into or potential energy into a a moment into a a potential truth.

6:48 So people are just constantly like weighing, you know, the, the pros and the cons of of something that's happening in their life if they're following it. Some people choose not to write anything down, so they're more in meditation mode. It basically meets you with wherever you are, Like if you have the capacity to do yoga and process your emotions and occasionally write stuff down, great, go for all of it. Some people, they'd rather just process emotions and go through the physical practice as well

7:22 and not write anything down. But if you think about writing, it's integration immediately. So what I'm thinking about this episode right now that we're doing is this is an integration episode. It's all about how do we make this practice meaningful? In other words, how do we take it into our life and make a difference in our own lives, potentially other people's lives.

7:46 And that's by integrating it. So some people are integrating it immediately. They're writing things down or drawing and being artistic. Other people are in their own energy, not writing anything down and, you know, using the day to integrate the information.

8:05 But I wrote I'm writing down things, you know, as I'm thinking I'm like choice. So there's this. Making a choice is ultimately what this, this whole thing's about. Like can we make a choice moving forward with our day, with our life.

8:21 So it's about making decisions at the end of the, at the end of the day and alignment with what is true for you, what needs to be happening. Some people are going through big things in their life. There's actual big decisions looming. Other people, it's simple stuff like what am I going to, am I going to ask that person out on a date or not? You know, it could be as simple as that. But everyone's dealing with with certain things in their life that they want to have more

8:54 clarity on. And you brought that word in, clarity, and that's really what it is. It's to bring more clarity in so that you can make better decisions in your life and come from a place of alignment. Yeah. And I think that's my yeah, just off the top of my noggin type of answer.

9:12 Right, right. So it's it's helping people to get clarity on decisions that are important in their life at that particular moment or that particular time. Because I mean, you know, let's just say you take a class one week and you take a class next week, it might be a completely different experience, right? Whether it be it could be related to the same topic or thing that's being processed, especially if it's a bigger decision.

9:39 Or it could just be something completely different because you know what's important for one person and one, you know, seven days later it could be, could be completely different. So the potential possibilities are ultimately endless, because at any point in time, something is important to everybody.

9:56 Right, absolutely. And not to overlook the the it's not just in a forward way thinking way like in order to forwardly think forwardly think, I mean in order to plan ahead sometimes you need to go back a little bit and see where there might need some rewiring. So what I come back to is the permissions. We're not really in a society.

10:26 Most people are not in a society where permissions are granted. Like as if you could do pretty much anything you want. For example, if you go to a school classroom, you sit down. There's rules, right? Raise your hand. If you want to talk, you get in trouble.

10:42 There's several rules we can all relate to that Anybody who went to school, most families have some sort of structure with permissions as well. You're grounded, you know, if you do anything out of, you know, naughty, and then you're basically at the mercy of your parents or whoever raised you.

10:58 Their permission, their permissions, right, they're in. They're unique to them. They could be similarities and overlap based off of the way they were raised and the way they see the other kids being raised. But ultimately, like, that's unique as well.

11:12 So we're all kind of in this what's OK, what's not OK kind of thing all the time. And so to be given permission. Like, I don't care if you do the yoga class. In fact, I'm inspired when you don't do it. OK, you can write if you want to write.

11:28 You Can Dance. There's all these different ways that you can experience this class and I want you to step into that today however you need to. OK, that is going to for some people, a lot of people, the feedback is it, It just unlocks. It unlocks more.

11:49 Different pathways of thinking, different pathways of feeling, and this is where the clarity comes in. Either at least you know, I don't know how to bridge that gap any more than that. But just then the different pathways that are opening up from the permissions or stimulating new possibilities, You mentioned potential possibilities too, so the new possibilities are now coming through. They're thinking about new possibilities. They're possibly writing them

12:19 down, integrating them right away. And then we're speaking out loud. And I don't know if we've gone into that much, but the speaking out loud is a big part of the practice and it's not for me to hear. It's not like a therapist thing.

12:32 It's all about you hearing your own voice. It's you talking to yourself. There just happens to be other people in the room, and some people really own that. They don't. They don't care if anybody's in the room or not. Other people are shy.

12:48 And that's OK because there's lots of different tools to still get what you need out of this, to move forward and still integrate, to have better choices and decisions in your life. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. I'm starting to think about like the word authenticity and how that might play a role in this.

13:06 Like, would you say that elements of going through this process or this experience which unfolds possibilities, those possibilities might be, I mean, they're coming from within, right? And things that are coming from within, whether it be just like ideas, thoughts, feelings from the past or, you know, things that they want to move towards, whatever kind of thing that's going on in their life.

13:32 How would you say, if at all, is that related to possibly becoming more authentic with your own needs, desires, truths, these types of things? Do you do you feel like that's relatable? So reframe that question like how to be more authentic. Yeah, Like, would you say that authenticity isn't an element that people are able to unfold a little bit for themselves in this experience?

13:55 Absolutely. I mean, I don't think everybody knows how to be authentic or really what that means, because they haven't been authentic in a long time. So I'm not sure how relatable that will be for certain people, but to some degree, yes, we're all going to find some sort of authenticity there today in that room.

14:17 Some people are just really authentic all the way through, through and through. And other people that they might just take a step towards being more authentic. Maybe most of the class, they're even distracted and like what is happening and they don't know how to even tap into their own, you know, their own self. But maybe they do for 5 minutes and that's a big deal to them. In fact, I've noticed from the feedback that's a bigger deal to somebody to do that for 5

14:42 minutes who's never done it, then somebody who can do it for 90 minutes and they do it over and over again every week. So, So yeah, authenticity is definitely, it's an opportunity to authentically, let's say, own and explore your own, own, own your own intelligence. So like at the baseline level of the human technology being our body suit, this physical body, like we have so much intelligence in here and I'm sure a lot of our listeners are like, yes, they already know

15:25 that. But on a cellular level, on mitochondrial level, where energy production is happening all the time and we're replicating new energy and new cells, all that, I mean, our bodies are just so sophisticated. And then all of a sudden we start to get up here in our minds and and it gets a bit like confusing. What is life about and what am I supposed to do with my life? And then I watched this movie and what's what love is supposed to be like?

15:49 And and so all of a sudden you're given this permission. So the way I I've dissected it, at least for my own personal understanding, is that we are out of touch with a lot of things. But the biggest thing we're out of touch with is our physical freedom.

16:08 Our physical freedom has been stolen immediately in our first few years of being alive on this planet. So we we may have like more like freedom of speech. We may have freedom of thought because you can keep your thoughts inside and some people are pretty, you know, they found ways to be very creative in their mind.

16:26 And we, we see that through inventions, amazing creations all over the world, technology, for example. Even there's a lot of those that have even tapped in emotionally for freedom. You know, maybe I would say women have done that more than men.

16:43 And I don't mean that. And like, women have their own things that they've kind of been, let's say, more suppressed in. But going back to the physical part about it, it's like when we were born, If you just imagine being born, most people when they're born, they come out and they're just crying, just waving, like kind of stretching their arms or whatever they do, kind of just kind of wiggling around. You can just imagine.

17:10 And then all of a sudden, what do they do? They take the baby, they wrap it up, they go kind of clean it and bring it back to the mother, put in the mother's hands. And in this moment, you're fully free. You're fully free to to evolve naturally.

17:26 And you probably get to stay that way for a little bit of time, but not much longer after that. You're going to be put in some sort of situation where you're told not to do something, whether it's in a preschool or maybe it's even just don't cry. For example, not crying is a very big one. Do we, do we keep the baby?

17:48 We let it cry it out? Do we not let it cry out? Do we hold them every time they cry? What do we do? OK, so that that that moment leading into our childhood development of the school system and however you're treating that school system, we're being, we're being stripped of our physical freedom.

18:09 And so that element of this practice is, is a huge part of it, because you could take this part out of it and it'd still be powerful. You could still get a lot out of it without the physical part. But the physical puts it over the top it it reclaims like a reclamation of something that we are familiar with. But it's so long ago that it's it's really almost feels foreign.

18:35 It's familiar, though. So there's something about it that feels right. So that's kind of my breakdown of the the juicy stuff. So it's interesting that you bring in the the baby, the childhood development aspect and the word discipline came up to my in my brain like discipline.

18:53 Like obviously there's some disciplinary or like helping guide a human's experience to create like call it bumper or what do you call it when you go on a? Little bumper cars. Yeah, but they have like walls so that you don't go off the track.

19:06 It's like, you know, play within the track, but then also don't go off the track. So there's walls kind of thing. So I don't know why I'm saying this, but for whatever reason, the word discipline came to mind. Like, you know, for when a baby's born and they're just having this physical freedom to just do whatever, then it could be a little bit chaotic or primitive, if you will, versus being guided a little bit with some, you know, parental or not

19:29 necessarily institutional. But, you know, there's a level of discipline that's helping to guide people in a particular direction. But what I'm hearing you say and also what I've experienced, I'm sure you as well as many listeners have experienced. If there's not so much a bumper walls, it's more so of like a tight grip, right?

19:46 Where it's like this is the way, you know, this is the path. So there's not as much physical freedom as it seems per SE. So the disciplinary stuff is obviously somewhat important to kind of, you know, guide us right in a direction.

20:01 But what I also felt myself is that there wasn't as much choice. It's kind of like, you know, you have to go to school and you go to this and you do this and then it's the next thing and it's, you know, we just college or university and then it's, you know, all these things and from this time to this time you can do these things and.

20:18 You know, obviously all that structure has its importance in certain elements of society. But I think what you alluded to in the one of the last comments was that this experience with empowerment flow allows people to remember what it's like to not have all of those walls just kind of like closing, not closing in, but just being so close to you that you can kind of almost like peek your head over the walls and be like, wow, look at all the other things that are possible.

20:45 So it's a beautiful It's a beautiful analogy. I like the way you put it. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things you can go in for a while and it's not the same for everybody. So but it does kind of go back to the exploring the world through those curious eyes and not being told too much about letting yourself figure it out instead of, you know, when did somebody intervene and just tell us the answer, their answer of yes, no, do this, don't do this.

21:21 This is good. This is bad. And wait a second. I'm in the parent. I'm the parent for a minute and like, OK, now I'm, I'm annoyed or like I'm just overwhelmed. I've got a lot to do. I'm like, baby's crying all the time. I've got a 7 year old, shut up, You know, just like I can't take this anymore. Like now you're in time out.

21:41 What did I do? You know, did I ask the wrong question? You know, so there's there's just a lot of it. And it's not like, you know, I'm not like I even know the answer of how to raise children the the right way. Or I'm trying to tell that's not what this is about. It's really just about once.

21:59 We're adults Now we can. Now we do have we do know there's certain things we're like, oh, wait, unhappiness. Oh, wait, loneliness. Oh, wait, anger, sadness, bliss, peace, joy. I'm familiar with these numbness. Do I feel free?

22:18 What's love? Did I have my broke, my heart broken? So these are things you can kind of help navigate. They can help navigate you through through life. And that's the feedback. That's the feedback that doesn't lie. Like, am I happy? OK.

22:34 If the answer is no, then let's go in there, right? Let's see what's going on. Yeah, Let's see what kind of options are available. Yeah, it's interesting. So the the choice piece makes me think of like kind of making you almost remember that when you make a choice, it's not always going to be like met with like a penalty or like that's the wrong choice because like kind of this, like societal upbringing of institutions and parents. It's like sometimes if you make

23:06 a choice from your own authentic decision, right. Because you you just feel like that's what you want to do, Call it intuition, call it desire or whatever, and then it may be met. Often is met with that's not correct or that's not allowed or something like this, which obviously develops a fear of making the wrong choice.

23:26 And therefore, which is probably why people have a hard time with, you know, a certain level of freedom because now they're like, oh, I've free to make the choice, great, but what if I make the wrong choice, right? And it's like, what if I choose the wrong thing? And it's like, well, there isn't. I mean the answer is there is no wrong thing in this. In this class you know you can choose almost anything you want. And the why too.

23:47 So like, if they're that's really where it comes from. It's like, OK is it? If it is no, then why? And that's naturally like the progression of a child asking a question of like why, why not or why why so mom, dad, whoever.

24:01 And then that that can be also where because purple Dragons don't exist, you know, you know or you know because I said so it's like and then all of a sudden like there is no understanding and the child is now just doesn't isn't given that freedom to understand something in their own world.

24:23 So that's a big one because if you don't understand something, at least for me if I don't understand something, I have a hard time moving on and applying it into my life. I just don't trust it or believe it. So yeah, I think it's taking it into multiple layers and multiple steps. And this isn't anything that we talk about in the class, You know, it's all just relatable.

24:49 It's like, hey, what if you could wish for anything in your life? What would you wish for? For example, I could ask you that in class and you know, you could write it down, say it out loud and and work with that. And then there's, there could be several incoming prompts from that that that just shed more and more layers.

25:10 And for some people the understanding comes quick. Other people it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I need more time with that question. And so it's really important in this practice to allow allow yourself to not do it perfectly. In other words, like you're not supposed to hear every single question.

25:36 Like, imagine a movie. Like you might miss a couple things. You know, in a movie you still get it. You still get the resolution at the end. Usually it's like, do you recall every page of a book that you read? Sometimes you don't. I'd be surprised if you remembered all of them. I mean, I definitely don't.

25:56 I'm just leaving a room that maybe somebody out there's a savant and they do, right. So that's kind of how the class is. It's like there's a lot happening. There's a lot of information. If you're able to kind of surrender to, there's a lot in a lot to take away from this. But it's not from me.

26:12 It's not from the facilitator. It's really within you and your willingness to try then, then yeah, then every those, those the people, which is most people that that do it that way. Profound, profound. And we always have that part of class that comes up that's about moving forward.

26:32 It's like, OK, let's move forward now. Whatever's happened today up to this point, let's move forward with that. Let's work with that now. These last 30 minutes are all about moving and integrating, moving it into your life, moving it in to make a difference, maybe, maybe making decisions. What's now, what's real, what's true. Let's go with that.

26:56 So I've heard you say before that some people will, you know, go to the class, they'll come to you and they'll be like, I don't know if I did it right. Did I do it right? Like, I I kind of liked it. But I also like, I don't know if I did it right kind of thing, which kind of goes back to the conversation of like, you know, not realizing that there is no right way to do it. It's like just being there is the right, like, that's it. That's all you need to do.

27:20 But, like, that kind of mindset is I think a pretty common one for people to be like, especially going to yoga class. It's like, you know, the physical practice of yoga. You know, I mean, your ego knows that you've done it right.

27:32 If you're following the alignment and you know, the physical sequence and it's like, OK, I'm obviously doing it right because I'm watching other people and other people are doing it and I'm doing what they're doing. So it's like, I'm part of this, but with an empowerment flow.

27:46 It's like you can't necessarily look to your neighbor and be like, am I doing it right, 'cause my neighbor's doing something on my left differently than the neighbor on my right versus the person in front of me? So it's like. Who do I?

27:55 Follow and then the answer is yourself. Yeah, with that kind of feedback, you set the permissions the next time and every time they're after to say you can't do this right or wrong. In fact, everything's right except let's make a couple rules, OK? Respect everybody in the room.

28:18 Respect the space. And if there's any other rules that you need to implement because of the space you're in that's obviously needed, go for it. Like, don't write on the walls. This isn't. No crayons on the wall. Don't take off your clothes.

28:33 Yeah, don't do any like. Unless that's OK and. Inversions or anything crazy that you can't do that might put anybody at risk, including yourself and others. But outside of that, it's like this isn't an experience about right or wrong. You can't do it wrong, OK?

28:47 It's not about the physical also to practice being perfect in alignment. It's not about writing the right things. It's not about saying the right things. It's not about moving the body in the right way. It's, you know, breathing the right way. It's just like which is it's hard like it's talking about it as a really helpful for hopefully people to kind of just realize especially because if we just keep mentioning in different ways different perspectives that it's just not a typical class.

29:10 It's a very new perspective or style of approaching a yoga class which can allow for what I've heard you say and we've talked about is you know what is yoga really all about, right in the in the Western world or most of the world I'd say is yoga's about the the physical aspect, right.

29:31 But if you go into the depths of what you know yoga is or yoga philosophy is, it's more than just that, right. And my feelings around this empowerment flow experience is that it allows you instead of like focusing so much on the Asanet, actually you get to go a little bit deeper, a little bit further with this experience versus, you know, just like a vinyasa or a Hoffa yoga class and stuff like that.

30:00 And it's really very much focused on the physical. And, you know, there's a possibility of this like a cool experience in like shavasana or, you know, maybe like yen. You might have some, like really deep experiences and stuff like this. Not to take anything away from other styles of yoga, but I think the essence of not intentionally but the essence of the empowerment flow is to allow the possibility for people to go farther or whatever step their

30:23 next step might be, or whatever, you know cloud is in the way to be removed for example, if that makes sense. Maybe we could dive in, in these last minutes of, yeah, so you mentioned the kind of the more ancient or traditional whatever word you used yoga. So, like, maybe let's let's just try it. Let's see what happens if we go into the history of yoga. Not like, chronologically, exactly, but like what might have to use your imagination if you're listening at home. But like, if we go way back in

31:01 time and where does yoga come from? What is happening in yoga? OK, well, you got to go to the root words of yoga. You got to go to Upanishads, which we talked about in a previous episode. Those are deep philosophical questions about life.

31:22 A lot of it's connecting humans to nature. It's about meditation. Like, what are what are we doing here? Kind of things. OK? And then you have to use your imagination like the mind, adapting the mind to yoga to the mind, mind to yoga. So like, way back then the mind was different. Way less kinds of stimulation happening, ability to stay connected for longer periods of time, to sit and meditate, to go inwards, to untether, unravel, untangle, dissolve, release, surrender, bound energy more

32:06 easily through those focused sessions. Then poses eventually came in because they found that like, wow, these poses really helped to to help that energy move the breath control the prana. Wow, that really lends to even more energy control. Wow, OK, bandas, all this stuff and then philosophy really just is there.

32:36 A lot of the philosophy is about lifestyle. Like oh wait, if you don't think negative thoughts for example, I mean, I'm just taking the low hanging fruit here, then you're more likely to, you know, have a more peaceful disposition.

32:55 I'm just saying something. But but you know, lifestyle choices. So like if I know how to preserve my energy and conserve my energy. If I know how to do a good deed, you know whether it's karmically. If I know how to, let's say non attachment is a big one. If I know that, like, material possessions are really not me, and I can find a philosophical understanding of that, like, oh OK, this is going to lend also, OK, wow. Now here we are with all this

33:25 built up, you know, and now we're going forward into the modern mind and eventually as we're evolving and evolving, especially in the last 100, gosh, it's 2024 right now. So nineteen, 2400 years ago. Whoa, what a crazy difference.

33:41 That's like my grandfather's like era. And yeah, I mean you, you guys all have somebody you might know from like the 50s, forties, thirties, 20s. So you can kind of think about that. So the modern mind is just, we've just grown so fast, so quick. So how do we, how do we evolve yoga to the modern mind so they can still have that sense of energy control. And this is, this is it right now. This is to me, this is like the way to do it. We tried structures for a while,

34:18 like structure was it. It seemed to work really well for certain. Ashtanga yoga, you know, even vinyasa kind of has its own structure to it. Hatha yoga, physical entrance into meditation let's discipline. You know, Hatha yoga actually means discipline through physical force.

34:35 People always say it means sun and moon. But it also has an interpretation where a lot of people say, I've read this, I don't know which one's there, if there's an absolute truth or not, but discipline through physical force is hatha yoga. OK, so you're kind of forcing yourself in a way to hold these poses not with force, but you're kind of, like uncomfortable. Like, OK, let's What's our tipping point here? Let's breathe in these uncomfortable moments. And then something about that

35:04 leads you to be able to meditate better. Cool. So now here comes empowerment flow into the situation and it's like, you want to sit and meditate is are you already at that point where that's what you need today? Great meditate.

35:18 Are you an artist? Amazing. Here's some crowns and some colored pencils. Draw. Cool. Are you a writer today? Maybe. You've always wanted to be a writer. Here you go. Here's a few pieces of paper. Go ahead and start writing that book you've always wanted to write. Let's see what comes out of you today. Maybe no plan.

35:38 You want to dance? Dance. You want to shake? Shake. You want to do yoga? Do yoga. Endless possibilities. Permission. Settings. Freedom. Here you go. Here's a lot of stimulating information. Questions, prompts, music, soundtrack and let's see what happens.

35:58 So it's in a way to me it's like it's all it ties back into the original and and the Upanishads as you. If you listen to the previous episodes, you'll see like, oh there's ancient philosophy already in here. It's just like it's for the modern mind.

36:13 So we're trying to set these permissions. We are setting this permission so that people feel safe and they can trust, they can trust themselves ultimately and to some degree trust the people in the room that do not like judge them, right. So that's an art to be able to to kind of guide and facilitate that experience.

36:39 But but it is a needed, a needed thing. So that word needs is what comes up from all that. Like what is needed now in the yoga world? Do we need to all face the same direction and follow the teacher? Like Simon Says, do we need that? Do we need to keep doing that?

36:56 Which is very similar to the environment of what a lot of us had throughout our school years? Right. Don't talk during class. Like, sit up, you know, pay attention, don't fall asleep. What do we need right now? And I'm not going to sit here and say I absolutely know the answer, but I know that things are changing and shifting and we're in this energy age right now.

37:20 I think Tesla said that but it seems true like there's a lot of awareness around energy. At least I'm I'm around it and let's let's own that. Let's acknowledge that we are this vessel of energy and that even your scientific brain is energy too. For the people who are like energy what's on energy? No.

37:44 Yeah. You are also working with your analytical mind. Great. Use that today. There's lots of ways for an analytical, logical person to come to this class and have a breakthrough experience. And there's also opportunities for somebody who's not grounded at all and just in the spirit realm to have an amazing breakthrough experience as well.

38:07 And I think that's what really makes this special and unique. So I don't know if I really tied that from the ancient to the modern super well, but it's worth. I think it's just worth your own inquiry into it to be like, what is needed, just like the class. I'm doing it right now.

38:25 I'm just like, how about you go in there, full permission to go in there and and think about like, where did yoga come from? What's it been like the last 50 years? What's it been like the last 100 years? Use your imagination to go further than that.

38:39 And then what do we need now? To have our full embodied, let's say, union? You know where you feel more connected in life, Yeah. That's good. I mean it's it's, I mean what I'm hearing is just the evolution, like things things change all the time.

39:03 Like, especially nowadays, like not to bring in AI too much, but like the the the speed in which artificial intelligence is changing is like some would say scary, some would say exciting. But the change and and and the adaptation of the evolution of how we as a species, as a society needs to adapt to those changes. And then yoga is no different.

39:24 I mean if if things that don't change and evolve, they'd get left behind. Oh, I'd like to say one more thing about that too, that you just made me think of is that if we were to go into what we might consider the evolution and where we are right now, yoga might turn into something that isn't needed But is common sense. Like just think about pop music and think about pop in general and the norm and media and, you know, all these things that typically yogis are, you know,

40:06 yeah, we'll take a little bit. But like, we kind of recognize it's not a whole lot of it's not super healthy, but like, yeah, pop music, fine. But like media, for example, like OK, only so much. And if you were to create a style of yoga based off of like the trends of where we are now, it would be, I don't know what that would look like, but I would say it's lacking honesty and it's be kind of the opposite. It wouldn't be about authenticity. It would be geared towards an

40:36 emotional experience. Yes, because we have emotions, we're humans and and that's something that everybody's wanting to experience and and it may not we may be too scared to do that through our our freedom, but music does it.

40:53 So yeah, you could definitely create like this theatrical experience through music that could be pretty profound that has nothing to do with honesty at all and that would be very popular style of yoga. I mean, it's already happening out there too. And I just, I'm just bringing this up because this style of yoga is more of the the contrast. Let's go back in time, in a way.

41:22 Let's go back in time and also forward in time at the same time. Instead of just dismissing the roots of truth, the roots of authenticity, I like how you brought that up earlier. Truth. Authenticity. Permission to be yourself, going into choices and needs and like what is actually like, what the heck's going on with you today, Not yesterday, not tomorrow.

41:45 Instead of just like, hey, follow this thing and like you'll you'll have an amazing experience, you know? Yeah, I mean, I've tried it. If you haven't tried it, you got to try it. I mean, you don't know if you don't try polarizing. You know this.

42:05 Like we said, it's a newer style of yoga. It's a newer experience. It's a newer class, which obviously if you're in Bali, great, you know, you can come try it with Iron or Alyssa, possibly. And there are other teachers around the world that have started that and through through the training and through education of kind of this exploratory experience.

42:29 So yeah, so I'm thinking like, for people who are like, OK, cool, like I'm in, this is interesting. You know, what do I do? What can I do? Like, what's, how can I get involved? How can I be a part of this? How can I learn more?

42:43 What would you say to someone like that, regardless of their, you know, geographical location? Yeah. So if you're feeling called to this kind of work, so many people are that experience it. And I'd say the people that feel called to it are mostly yoga teachers, that they've kind of seen this before in a way. They never seen it like a vision. What I mean is in their imagination, they're like, I've always like, envisioned something like this, like something happening on it, and

43:11 they're like, this is it. I want to do this also a recognition that it differentiates their teaching and it makes them like not just the vinyasa teacher anymore or hatha or whatever. They're like, oh wow, I can move into this and I'll, I'll be, I'll have a completely different thing and it's calling to me. So the people who are called to this right now in Bali, there's trainings, so you can come take a training in Bali. That being said, there's definitely going to be some online opportunities.

43:42 For now, the online opportunities are not finished. So we still have to work on those to be to have a program online. And I would suggest going to my Instagram handle Byron Yoga and check out the link tree because on the link tree will always be updated with like new things that are going on but also mentorships.

44:10 Like there's been a couple of people that are so-called to this work that I I work with them personally and give them you know, based off of where they're at. You know, depending on the level, yeah, send me a message, you know, if there's something you're really passionate about and we'll figure out a May, we can figure out a way to make that work. Yeah, Let's say for now that's, that's kind of where we're at. Yeah, I mean it's it's early days, you know, like yoga's been around for a while and then all

44:38 lots of styles of yoga have been around for a while. Like, what's the most besides, like, you know, beer, yoga and stuff like that. Like, I don't know. Yin maybe. Like what do you mean? Like what's? What's been like the most recent style of yoga that's kind of started and then, you know, turned into something that people practice regularly, like Yin Yin's only been around since like the 90s, I think.

45:01 Well, there are. There are some, like other things out there that we just don't have knowledge about. Exactly. That's kind of my point is like it's it's it's like a baby. It's it's early and it's like you know if you if you're if you're called to this like you said or if it sounds compelling or interesting or like this is an an alignment, it feels like it might be an alignment like it's in the early stages. So it's like yeah get involved and you know you can be a part of it.

45:25 It's a lot, it's a lot of community based and you know support and you know having run one of these trainings already you know the group is very supporting of each other because the experience is so profound. It's like how do we help to support each other so that we can support the people that attend these classes because it can be so profound.

45:43 So it's it does create a like yoga typically does, at least in most cases. A sense of community development as well, which I think is really powerful. Yeah, May 30th, that's the next one. May 30th through April 9th and then October 30th through November 9th. Those are the next two in person trainings that are in Bali days. Yeah, that are in Bali.

46:06 Yeah, yeah, check it out. I I think like you nailed it with the community. You there has to be support. There has to be a wave of people out there doing this for it to really catch momentum. And there is. There is. I think you know, it appeals on a workshop level immediately. It's a common sense thing for this to be a workshop. I get to teach it as a class once a week, and if you have an inn at a studio where they trust you, you could also do this once a week.

46:48 It'll up level your teaching like nobody's business. All your other classes will be effortless. Yeah, it it will really check a lot of the boxes of growth that accelerate your skill level. But yeah, I just wanted to mention that because the workshops, it's, you know, workshops tend to be like 3 hours.

47:10 And like you could do this for three hours for sure, but you could also do it in one hour and be very efficient and remove a lot of the stimulation and just keep it more basic. So there's a lot of possibilities. You could take this into a school, you know, and play music that's suitable for the level of school, you know, grade that they're at. And yeah, and just give them permission. And like here we're going to do some yoga and like, give them some questions, a piece of paper

47:39 and crowns and just, yeah, here we go. Let's That would be really interesting to see that with youth. Yeah. So many people take this class, and that's what comes up for them. They're like, I work with children or I want to do this with my children.

47:52 Right. And I'm like, Yep, That's because children have less barriers and less. You know, they might, they do have barriers, but they'd have less of them. So you can just crack that code a little, you know, quicker with children.

48:08 Then yeah, You can just get right into honesty. And if they buy into that, like, wow, that's incredible. Then you're not showing up in your, you know, 20s, thirties, 40s, fifties, 60s going to this class. Like what? Wow.

48:22 I where was this when I was younger? So I think the children movement is, it's a no brainer. It's just who's going to take it to the children? You know, that's where I'm. I'm really trying to call that in right now. Yeah.

48:36 That's great. Cool. Well, thank you. I'll just repeat that I think may end of May through to the beginning of April is the next empowerment flow training and then in the fall, October, November. So those dates will be posted in the show notes and probably anywhere on you know Byron's Instagram handle also ongoing pro we have it there and then the website. So yeah, if you're interested, just kind of like have a fish around look around, send in some

49:03 questions we'd love to take in your inquiries if you are interested in it because we collectively as a team, as a school want to you know, not necessarily lure, but we want to attract the people who are called to this experience.

49:19 If if it's, you know, been able to digest for you and if you're curious and you want to know more than please reach out because we want, we want this to grow in a way that can help spread positively, you know, whether it be with children or just other adults and just kind of making an impact on the world. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah, and I do.

49:37 Sorry, because I missed one thing. Retreats, right. Retreats are huge with this. I mean, people are constantly like, can you just like, can we just go to some country and like leave here and could just do this every day for a week? And I'm like, that would be great, but I'm pretty busy, so, right.

49:55 But for someone to learn this and then just go do retreats with this style? Oh my gosh, who doesn't want to do that? Amazing. Cool. Well, thank you, Byron. You're welcome. And thank you everyone to tuning in and listening. This is the third episode of Empowerment Flow, so if this was exciting, yeah, reach out about the the trainings or just questions.

50:19 Or if you're in Bali, come take the class Saturdays, 11:00 AM at Yoga barn in Ubud. If you're in another country and you're nearby, fly in, take a class. It's quite the experience. So hopefully you got us an insight onto what it was, what it's like.

50:34 But of course, talking about it, there's nothing like the actual experiencing it itself. So hopefully, hopefully we're able to translate some of that through the microphone as best as we could over the last three episodes.

50:45 Otherwise, thank you so much for listening. Byron, any final thoughts before we let our audience go? I'd just like to think, yeah, just thank the viewers, the listeners, thank you for having me on. And no, I think that's it. Just, yeah, really excited.

51:01 Amazing. All right. Thank you so much. And we'll speak to you next week. Take care. All right. Before you go, let me just tell you about the going proyoga.com platform. So right now you can go to goingproyoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment, queuing, sequencing, yoga, anatomy. So that if you've done a 200 hour teacher training and you want to continue to learn, ractice and grow, this latform is definitely for you.

51:28 So I definitely suggest checking it outgoingroyogacom right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.