Chakras and Koshas Explained 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. Yoga has always been a rebellious practice, not a conformist practice. It's for the it's reserved for the people who are outliers of society.

0:38 They're they question society. This is this is where the Upanishads, they teach us that, like, wait a second, I am connected in nature. How am I? I'm not going to take your word for it. I really want to feel for myself. How am I really connected? What is the similarities?

0:55 What is eternal within a human? What is eternal? What lives forever? Does something, you know? So, so to go back to the original, just don't take anybody else's word for anything like this is the essence of empowerment. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you.

1:23 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.

1:45 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. Make sure we go full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it evolves in the modern world. Welcome to our podcast Welcome back to the Going Pro Yoga podcasts in this new series, Episode 2 of about empowerment flow.

2:10 So if you're just tuning in and haven't listened to the last episode, I suggest going back to understand some of the foundations of what this empowerment flow style of teaching is. We had Byron and Alyssa talking about basically the permissions and the evolution of human needs and how basically providing people with the realization of choice can help to develop more empowerment within the individual. So this class experience, which is a very experimental type of style of yoga that is not

2:41 necessarily based on pure structure but more freedom of choice. So it's a very unique class. And for this episode we're going to dive in a little bit deeper about how, you know certain elements of the class can incorporate things like the chakras and the koshas.

2:57 So Byron is back with us in the house today. Byron, how are you? I am. He is, he is indeed. And Alyssa couldn't join us today, but that's OK. But we're excited to dive into this. So, Byron, with regards to this conversation, where would you like to start?

3:15 I would like to start by saying, first of all, I appreciate this platform because we can get nerdy and we can really get into the details of stuff that, yeah, the the average person might just be like, yeah, it's not, it's too much for them, you know. So thank you.

3:32 Thank you for allowing this opportunity. Of course, of course. After that, OK, so if we set the foundation with permissions, which is what the last episode was about. So once. OK, so now we've got everything set. People feeling more safe hopefully and more themselves, more permission to be themselves, however that looks.

4:00 And now it's time and you're doing that, you know with your your introduction your language maybe integrating breathwork different ways. You know, I don't want to give away all the the possibilities there, but you can use your imagination. You're you're helping set the foundation of the class. So then what do we do from there? It's kind of like, OK, so it's an inquiry, it's a dialogue with yourself and the way that we go through the dialogue is energetically.

4:34 And I say that word slowly because that's what I want to dive into. We're going to talk about energy, and yoga has systems of energy already built into the philosophy. You have chakras, you have koshas, You have original Vedic scripts of Upanishads.

5:00 And a lot of people probably are wanting to learn about these things, but they're not quite sure how to do it. Where to go first? Is there one book? Is there 20 books? Do I need the like something like the Bible? Yeah, there's it's kind of a, it might be a difficult or daunting, you know, thing to unpack. Right.

5:25 So it almost feels intimidating. Somewhat. Yeah, right. I think so. So. People, when they hear chakras and they're like, oh, that sounds like a really complex thing or kosher. It's a lot of shocks. I just, I'm still working on my down dog.

5:37 Yeah, yeah. What's that? Inhale and exhale? No. But to be completely honest with you, it gives more context to why we do certain things in yoga. Why do we breathe or focus on the breath? Why do we focus on the retention of the breath in between breaths? And it all has to do with energy. And so in order to talk about energy, there needs to be language systems, OK.

6:09 And so a few of those language systems I just mentioned chakras is one of them. OK. So if you don't know anything about chakras, great, that's fine. I'll just talk to you. There are many different chakra systems. I have no idea how many actually, but some people follow a four chakra system, A12 chakra system.

6:30 I think there's a 120 chakra system, but the most popular one is 7. And this is the one that's that's being used a lot, but it's been used a lot in yoga before. And you I I'm seeing it more and more now. I don't know if that's coincidence or irony or real, but I'm seeing it a lot.

6:51 So you have these energy centers in your body and that's what chakras are. Chakra means wheel, OK. So you have these energy centers in your body. OK, cool. I think that's pretty much like, OK, I'm with you now what are they do like what is the point of them? OK, well, the key to the whole chakra thing is that they relate to human nature.

7:17 And if you look at human nature, like what is human nature? I'm sure everybody would break that down differently. But the way I'm just doing it right now, maybe somebody's thinking this on the podcast. Well, human nature is to love, OK? Is that one of the human nature qualities? Where does love live?

7:35 In the body. Oh heart chakra. Maybe that starts to line up and makes sense. OK, so you have out of these seven, each one of the seven represent different natural human qualities. And this isn't like a a lecture on like what are each of those qualities? But just survival is one.

8:00 For example, humans need survival just to feel a foundational sense of trust on this, that they belong here on the earth. What helps you feel like you belong here, Michael? Staying alive. Staying alive? Yeah, so. Food. Water.

8:18 Yeah, Shelter. Exactly. Safety. Security. Yeah. And I start thinking of Maslow's hierarchy of needs like, oh, OK, that's another system to talk about energy, by the way. So there is some overlap, but one of them is exactly right. Like most people feel much safer when they have food, water, They know where they're going to sleep. They're have a job that can help certain people. You might go as far to say as like having my battery charged on my cell phone gives me a

8:52 basic level of of feeling safe that could influence energy in your body. OK, so this is one of the seven and you know you have, they go all the way up to the divine spiritual connection to Source or God or whatever you want to call that as well. So they, they kind of work in that fashion, but just know that they each represent something important, something very, very important to you, the archetype of the human, OK. And then how do we talk to them?

9:30 Because everything I'm saying right now out of my mouth is bringing a certain awareness to the things I'm saying. So I just mentioned chakras, more energy, more of your attention went to thinking about chakras. Attention is essentially an energy in yoga.

9:43 That's we talk, we talk a lot about that. So just by thinking about it, you're bringing an energy to chakras. OK, cool. How do we do that in the yoga class? Oh, we use and direct our language to them. We we ask questions that provoke thought and feeling and basically trying to use the whole holistic quote, UN quote, you know, human system, which is like your mind, your body, your spirit. Engage with all of it.

10:17 Your creativity, your logic, you know, So that's, that's the chalker system. And you know, like if I asked you what you're grateful for, I'll give you a little, like, I'll give you one. So if I ask you what you're grateful for, you might have to think about it first.

10:39 Oh, OK And then you start to think, oh, OK, I'm grateful for I've got a a loving partner. Gosh, I'm really grateful for her. OK. And now you start to think about that and you might generate a feeling from that. And where would that feeling happen? That's one way to look at these chakras. Where would that feeling happen?

11:01 Now, you might get some varying answers, but where would that happen for you, Michael? The heart. The heart. Or I could say the gut would be the next possible answer. OK, so there you go. You have heart chakra and if you're saying gut, potentially sacral chakra, but at least you said, you know, you said heart 1st. And the heart's all about relating to others relations, relationship to not just people but animals and plants in the world, but definitely people.

11:37 So that's why I think a lot of us feel like oh it's just so heart opening to see a baby. It's just, you know, smiling and just so pure consciousness and and gratitude tends to evoke that same quality. So just by asking somebody, what are you grateful for? OK, I think we're all familiar with that As yoga teachers, as yoga teachers, we've all asked that question. We've all all been asked that question. Most of us have seen the benefits of of finding our answer there.

12:06 But to know in a system what you're talking to that way you you can start to think of this. This is like a tree of lights, like a Christmas tree or something. You're lighting up the the chakras like one at a time. Like what are you speaking to? Is there balance?

12:25 Are you always speaking to the same one and is that bad? No. But to know what you're doing is key for everything you know. That's what we teach in our 101200 hour training. Like basic foundational teaching is teach to what you know and let's learn some foundation.

12:44 It's your job, You know, like you're the anatomy guy, right? So these are your hip flexors. Back bends happen more easily when these are warmed up. Let's warm up the hip flexors. Then people do their back bends in the right order.

12:58 It's the same thing. So you could probably ask, what are you grateful for any time to somebody? And it's nice, but if they feel like they can trust where they're going to sleep, what they're going to eat, drink, have that cell phone battery charged, and then you pop that question on them, it's going to be probably more effective.

13:21 That's a little insight into how the the system of that works. And I hope that doesn't sound too crazy because it's kind of fun actually. Once you understand it, it's like an experiment and you can hop in anytime. I have another thing I'll bring up though.

13:42 Yeah, I mean, I think the I'm, I'm fascinated with it because I'm curious to know where you're going to go because I know about the chakras as well. So I'm, I was exploring to see what your next move was going to be. But yeah, when it comes to just the chakras, I was very much like, I didn't, I mean I did my training like years ago and I didn't know anything about chakras until like the last like 6 months. I mean I knew them, but I didn't know them. You know, I didn't experience

14:06 them. I didn't actually like, meditate on them. And I've meditated, you know, focusing on the chakras myself just to kind of like stimulate those areas and move that area of the body and just try to like, you know, play around with it in no particular order sometimes. But it's just like, you know, root to like the third eye to, like the heart to, like, you know, the solar plexus and just jumping around and just like seeing what happens, right. And it is kind of fun, right?

14:27 As nerdy as it sounds like you said at the beginning, like it's, you know, why not? It was just playing around with it and it was really interesting. And now I'm becoming more intrigued because I actually felt, you know, like and energizing happening from actually doing that very, very, very, very powerful meditation actually so. One way to to parallel it is to look at the colours. Well, the chalkers have colours, OK, but that's not actually what I wanted to say.

14:54 I wanted to say that just think about what we know as colours. You know what the colour red is. Stop signs are red. We've learned that red is danger. We've learned that that means stop and a traffic light. We've learned that it means you might get pulled over more often by the police if your car is that color.

15:13 At least I learned that that's true, right? And yeah, I don't know if it's true or not, but that's definitely something a lot of people were told. And you know, going to green, Green's the color of money. I've heard it's envy. And green is also sexual.

15:28 And these are just the colors. I'm not even talking about chakras at all. I'm just talking about systems we've learned through the earthly material world we live in, and we've accepted it through society. It means go with the stoplight. That's what this is.

15:44 It's just a system that not everybody's learned and this one is actually lining up with human needs. And because society has done a number on us, if you live in society, you're probably listening to this. So it's done a number on you and in a different way than it's done a number on me. Maybe some similarities depends on what kind of upbringing we had raised in a city, a small town with support, without support.

16:14 Told we were loved, not told we were loved. School system, private system, Catholic system. You know, all of this is is definitely playing a part in our belief structures so that whenever it comes time to to let's say, learn about this or move energy in your body or open a chakra, it does become a different individual journey.

16:41 So you can't just take somebody else's word for it. You, you, you start to really, you know, do a meditation for one of these and notice how you feel. Yeah, you just start to implement it into your own life. And then I would go into the Upanishads because that's super fascinating. That's where I'm at in my journey right now. This is great because I don't know anything about them, and if I learned about them, I don't remember. So you're going to get genuine

17:06 questions of curiosity. OK, great. So I would say Empowerment Flow is inspired by the Upanishads more than it is any other system in yoga. The Chakra system is how we are communicating. The chakras are like the emotional aspects of life, Not just the emotional, but just like how do you feel?

17:35 Do you feel balanced? You know, no. OK, let's go into the chakras. We'll help you do that. Upanishads are more about deep, deep connection of belonging on this planet with potential purpose. But it has to do with those types of things.

17:56 So Upanishads, there's 108 of them and some of us know that as a spiritual number. It's because of the Upanishads. They're ancient Vedic scripts before Hindu, Hinduism was structured. But they are kind of the original Hindu scripts. You could say that too.

18:19 It's why people trace yoga back to Hinduism. Not the only reason why, but it's a reason why. And they have to do with tying us, connecting us as humans to nature. Basically deep questions. And there's I think 6 foundational questions within one of the Upanishads. There's X amount of Upanishads like like I said 108 scriptures. So to go into it is a vast years and years. You know if you want to go in through it like deep, deep, deep.

18:57 But like one of them for example is what is a living being and to just have deep thought into what is a living being, what is meditation, why do we do it? That is another one. So I bring up the Upanishads because it is a contemplative practice, empowerment flow where you don't need to.

19:26 Like if you unpack the Upanishads, you'll be greater person for it, I'm sure, but you don't have to unpack the the whole Upanishads. But just to know that yoga comes from deep questions. That's what the value is to me. And then here we have a practice that's all designed around dialogue with yourself and prompting systems that have to do with getting into your truth. So the permissions are set, Be yourself, yadda yadda, this is what you can do.

19:58 Here's a couple things you shouldn't do, but making people feel as welcome as they possibly can. And then? You know what you're talking to when you speak intentionally, you're intentionally speaking to their energetic body. Chakras are a good way to just understand that there's other systems that work pretty well too. I'm pretty sure that this is the Yogic 1. And then just to know that, like there's a, for example, there's a journaling aspect of the

20:32 practice and you can provoke deep thought by asking a deep question. You can also throw people off. So you want to we're trying to meet people with the, like I mentioned, the modern healing arts. So I want you to give like a really simple question too, like, hey, how are you today? Something like that, Like what's present for you today? That's a good question for for me. I like to be asked that what's what's going on with you today, Byron?

20:58 Oh, well, I got this going on, this going on. But if you just get to write it down, just kind of jot it down, you have a starting point. And then, yeah, maybe you have something. You ask this a little bit more, like, what are you grateful for today?

21:11 Oh, OK, We're going to go into the heart today. And then you, you just give them something more, something vast, something nerdy, right? And you carefully craft it. It can be an Upanishad or not. But I like last week I taught this class and I asked who or what do you belong to?

21:36 And that's just what came up for me. I don't know where it came from. That's just something I thought about my theme of the class I wanted to do openness. I wanted to talk about being open, which means we're going to talk about acceptance of self or, you know, resistance to change. Yeah, basically like all things when it comes to being open minded, open hearted.

22:03 And I just want to, I thought that'd be a good question to ask like what do you belong to? Who do I belong to? And I don't know, I mean to me that just makes me think nobody or God or you know like am I even open to being some someones or some things? I don't even know if I'm open to that. You know, it's like a.

22:25 So anyways, I just wanted to bring up the Upanishads. Like, it's a way to get people really deeply yoked into philosophy. Yeah, that's one. That's another way. And then when you say philosophy, not just this, I mean yoga, you could say yoga philosophy, but just the philosophy of life, like just contemplation and that type of thing, right, 'cause, you know, from the sounds of the setup or at least the the energy in which you're invoking in the theme of a class or to some effect,

22:56 you're kind of just giving people opportunity to just feel things, feel things or allow energy to move into a certain area of thought or feeling in their body, you know, for example, the grateful what? What are you grateful for?

23:11 And then it starts to kind of feel that in their heart that's going to have a certain effect on their overall system, which will allow them an opportunity possibly to explore, like you said, a more deep or thoughtful question that requires a little bit more attention because now they have energy present for delivery to that possible question.

23:29 Yeah, that's the that's the least. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone, but to me that's what I'm hearing a little about. It's the logic. You're basically moving energy a little bit, like, you know, just a little bit at a time to simple stuff. But then as that energy moves, you give the energy an opportunity to like, explore something unique. Absolutely.

23:47 And but most importantly, it's bringing in yoga. It's getting away from, hey, it's about poses and sweating and just turning on loud music. And that's what some people's reality is. And they even fall in love with yoga that way. And maybe it's sustainable for I don't know how long. But most people need more, and that more comes from their life outside of that yoga class.

24:13 More connection, more love for their job, better relationships, making better decisions. You know, we live in a world where we need to apply yoga philosophy, or at least a philosophy. You know, there's there's other philosophies out there too. But with this being in the the yoga arena we use, it's already built in.

24:40 So let's actually teach about what is yoga. It's to contemplate deep questions originally and to to just give a little bit tiny bit more on that. It's a rebellious practice. Yoga has always been a rebellious practice, not a conformist practice.

25:02 It's for the it's reserved for the people who are outliers of society. They're they question society. This is this is where the Upanishads, they teach us that. Like, wait a second. I am connected in nature. How am I? I'm not going to take your word for it. I really want to feel for myself. How am I really connected?

25:18 What is the similarities? Hmm. What is eternal within a human? What is eternal? What lives forever? Does something, you know? So, so to go back to the original, you know, you know, just don't take anybody else's word for anything like this is the essence of empowerment flow, right?

25:46 Use the chakra system to to speak directly to people. Meet them where they're at. Use your playground of the three-dimensional reality we call Earth and your daily experience to do this. Because you don't have to teach a yoga class to practice it. You're just we're doing it all the time. Practice on your mom.

26:07 Hey, mom. What are you grateful for? Oh, wait, wait, Mom. Hey first Mom. You know what? Thank you. Thank you. Let me just stop for a second. Thank you so much for doing that for me. I really appreciate you. And I love you.

26:19 What are you grateful for today, Mom? Oh, now I just buffered her, you know, and you start to just work with people in your own life experience, and then it helps you to become a more effective communicator in your yoga classes. It's what we're doing anyways in our yoga classes. It's just bringing more attention to the details. Yeah, more specifically.

26:46 And cutting out the nonsense a bit too, like the things that we just say and we don't know why we're saying them. Why am I saying that? Because I'm just regurgitating it, Or is that my own thought? Or do I even believe what I just said? Was that helpful?

26:58 Next time I'm going to say it like this, and then you try again and you start to learn a little bit more. The Koshas are another one. I'll just mention one more Koshas. So Koshas are like the layers of the body and we know these, some of them, we have a physical body that's, I'll just say the first one on the Maya Kosha.

27:20 It means food, body. We are what we eat. So every what, 21 days? This is your science, you know, arena. But what, 21 days we regenerate new cells, something like this, you don't even know. I don't even know. I've heard, I heard like 7 years, seven years. Yeah, your your body completely rejuvenates all new cells after 7 after.

27:43 Seven years. There's something about 21 days. I don't know what it is. But that's probably. The point is, yeah, I've heard that too. The point is, is that the koshas are just layers of the body. And by bringing in these certain layers, people start to see themselves differently. Oh, you have a physical body?

28:05 Yeah, I do. I'm of course I I get. OK, I am what I eat OK Yeah. Ha ha. Wait. I am kind of what? I I get that, OK. I have calories. And like I've learned, most people have an understanding of that to some degree. You have a mind, OK You have a breath or energy body. That one takes a little more knowing for you to explain it. But we have a breath.

28:28 Everybody knows that. You have a wisdom and you have ananda or bliss, which is just an interpretation of what you are at without all that other stuff covering it up. You were just a what you might consider like an ecstatic baby without all the baggage, without any, you know, mental stress or physical stress or body judgement issues and whatever, whatever we bring into our you know, like daily life these days. Like without all that, you're just a freaking blissed out baby, you know?

29:04 And that would be like the fifth layer. So yeah, just knowing a little bit about yoga philosophy, implementing that into an empowerment flow class and you don't even have to say anything about chakras to do it, you know? It's like you don't have to know Sanskrit to teach a really good warrior.

29:24 One you know, turn your back foot flat. Turn your back toes in a little bit towards like 10:00, Push through the outer edge of your foot. Good. Now draw your opposite hip back and reach up. Keep breathing. I didn't say anything about Sanskrit.

29:39 Just like if I said, hey, what are you grateful for? I don't have to say. That's your heart, Chakra. Michael. Yeah, I could see how people would be put off by, you know, they come to a class and they're talking about chalkers. Like, you know, there's always, I don't know what the ratio is, but I don't want to say like 1-1 in every 10 people or the minimum were probably like, oh, chakras. You just lose them.

30:04 Yeah, they're not interested in it, yeah. But you could. I mean you you can. Some people love it. You could weave. It together too but. You know, I mean, I hear what you're saying. You don't need to use, like, you don't need to say that it's a chakra.

30:17 It's kind of like, you know, when you're telling people to step into Warrior One, you don't be like, OK, you're stepping into Warrior One using your quadriceps muscle, and now you're stretching your psoas muscle on the left.

30:27 I mean, like, you could say that shit, but people are gonna be like, I don't know what the fuck that means. It's too confusing, right? Which like a step back. This is gonna open up the front of your hip. Your front leg is gonna be working hard, but you know, the left leg is gonna be stretching and opening up.

30:42 Breathe into that, right. You don't have to say anything about the words. Exactly. So that's another way of looking at it. Cool. So basically if I were to piece this together for the there there's it's. This is almost like infusing more art into the class using like ancient little systems of the Upanishads, the Chakras.

31:05 The Maya koshas is it called Maya Koshas. Koshas. Whatever. Yeah, Koshas. Maya Koshas is the body one, right? Mana, Maya Koshas, Ananda. Maya Koshas. They're all Kosh something. Koshas. Right, right, right. Cool. So yeah, so basically using those two to make the class more fruitful, which provides people, would you say like, because I mean the first part of the, the, the first episode is all about just giving people permission to for choice, right. So when you blend in these other

31:32 little practices of moving energy, if you want to call it that way with the chakras and stuff like that or contemplation, what do you would you say that that does for the person's experience? It increases their level of readiness and trust of themselves to go to the next steps, which is to be honest with themselves, to look at things that might have potentially been labeled as scary or not ready to look at yet.

32:01 Yeah, and it just brings a cohesion. Coherence is something that I've been big on lately. It's like the mind and the heart. Coherence like to not be disconnected from each other, which I think so many of us are until we're not.

32:20 And we have that something that brings us into that moment of coherence. And we're like it's like I can use my intelligence and feel and live from my heart. And those are those beautiful moments that we're trying to create a an opportunity for people to do that so that they can really, like you said fruitful.

32:42 Exactly. Like it can be a more effective experience for them like a meaningful and not just like oh gosh you know that class was whatever. I don't even remember the class but gosh we got my abs are really sore and my legs are sore and I had a great I'm glad I went no, no, this one's different.

33:01 This is different. The value is in way beyond the what that's the exact thing we're trying to to reverse is the the whole yoga is just a physical thing. You know, we're trying to go and we're just a mind thing. You know we're trying to give people the opportunity to engage with whatever religion they have, whatever spirit they have, whatever. If it's even if it's atheism like bring that in in there too. And like keep a keep your critical eye, but leave a sliver of an opening.

33:37 And as long as that sliver of an opening is there, there's going to be some sort of take away or realization, I think for anybody as long as. And then that's that's because of the communication tactics, the permissions. As long as you're setting the permissions A critic can't.

34:00 A skeptic or whatever that is, you know, critics, same thing. They can't really completely shut you down if you know how to use your words. They may come in already, but like I hate this person. Like they may have their their idea of like I I don't want to like this experience like so and so made me come. That's usually the worst.

34:20 It's like if somebody's like dragging them there. Those are the least open minded people sometimes. Like I didn't really want to try it, but here they are. But if they are there, there's a good chance that just by welcoming them and focusing on that Episode One stuff, they're going to have a take away something.

34:41 Something's going to be meaningful. Maybe. Whether they know it or not. Is that what you mean? I mean, I'm thinking of my friend here in Bali, closer to like I'm thinking of my friend in Bali. He's everybody knows this guy.

34:56 He's a celebrity. I won't say his name, but he came, he's came to the class, he's come to the Class 2 times and the last time he came he brought somebody with him. And he's one of those people who doesn't really his way of bonding with you is kind of like bully you or punk you a little bit, you know, it's just like how he was raised.

35:21 And I know, yeah, I mean I so instead of being like oh that was an amazing class, he's like he's like shit Byron, like what the fuck was that? But when you, when you listen to him deeply behind his immediate reaction, he's actually like, you know what? There was a moment in that class. He's like, I keep thinking about it. I ran into him, you know, recently. He's like, I keep thinking about this moment that happened. He's like, I was just there with

35:47 my boys. He's like, you know, back in my like early 20s. And he's like, I just keep thinking about it just just like as if, like, it really impacted him ever. All of his other words around it were like, what is that? You know, it's not my favorite kind of yoga. You know, it's not for me.

36:06 But that take away was there. And that kind of brings up like what we're dealing with on this level of teaching yoga as people are bringing in all those protection patterns and strategies of, you know, how do they connect, how do they bond?

36:23 What are they OK with saying to you, what are they afraid to say? So I don't know. I could ramble on and on about that. But it's it's it's just really interesting to to see the feedback. And the feedback is usually pretty astounding. Astounding.

36:41 It's ridiculous. It's like it's like usually a suit. It's polarizing as well. So usually you have people who every class out of 50 or 67 * 70 people, that's as many as we can fit in the room. They'll usually be about 5 people that are called to do this and they've never seen it. They know that it's the new IT needs to be where yoga's going and they are called to do it.

37:11 They don't. Some of them aren't even teachers or yoga teachers. They might be school teachers. They might be sharing circle holders. They would like to relate. They have a they have a a need to make a difference in the world.

37:24 And then there's always a couple people that are like, you can tell it's like they're just not ready for that experience yet. Their eyes are open. They're looking around the room. They're not sure what to do. Should they leave?

37:33 Should they stay? They're not even like, sure how to connect to themselves. And yeah, for people like that, like, sometimes it's surprising and they'll come back. Most of the time. Those people are like, OK, it's probably better to go to what you were expecting, you know, Which is what I assume you see on Instagram and going through a sequence where somebody tells you what to do and you lay down in shavasana for 5 minutes at the end and and you see a little

38:02 progress with something and that's enough to get you to come back a second time. Yep. And there's usually a few reviews that are written afterwards. To me, it's like, Oh my gosh, long paragraphs of of kind of life changing stuff like that.

38:18 They didn't talk to me after class, but it's coming in later. Then you have some people who are or like, you know what, I want to give you some feedback. Like that was a lot going on. Like, I'm not sure if I did it right.

38:34 Did I do it right? Like, 'cause I didn't hear everything you said? And I'm like, yeah, that's that's where I used to be at. So I can relate to those people. But yeah, just to give some context as to, like, that's what comes in, you know, did I do it right?

38:50 Like, well, that's kind of what we're doing it on purpose. Here's a lot of information or at least a lot of stimulation. And some people haven't really been that in that state of feeling open in a long time. So it's it's going to be overwhelming, especially if you have an inner voice that's telling you it's like, I got to, I got to do this right.

39:14 Oh gosh, that's a lot of pressure. So I just tell those people like, hey, you know what? Come again to the class and just give yourself permission, Permission to like, don't do the class. Like what do you like to do? You like to write.

39:29 You don't want to write. Well, put pressure on them. They probably thought they had to write. You know, you don't have to write anything down. You can just take the class and just think or feel or don't think or don't feel. Take a nap.

39:41 Take a nap. Meditate. So I find that those people don't really listen to the intro. They're just kind of like already checked out. They're not. They're already kind of in disconnect mode probably. So they don't take it seriously. So then, when it comes time to practice and they do see people having these experiences and they aren't, in their opinion, having a big experience or meaningful experience. Then they just start to judge themselves and they start to think like, man, this, I'm not

40:07 meant to do this. Or what's wrong with me? Am I broken? That's kind of the, I think, the root of all. That's just like it's something wrong with me. Right. Yeah, I mean, if you don't get the intro, if you're not paying attention at the intro, yeah, the class would seem very If you're expecting a vinyasa yoga class, you'd be like, what the Hell's going on in this class? If you miss the intro, if you don't get this set up and you just walk into this class

40:32 randomly. Or if they just sit there and it just goes over their head, right? Or they're not paying attention. Their attention's there, but because of our conditioning, you sat in a school, right? We all face the same way. Went to college, bigger, more, more seats still face the same way.

40:53 I started going to yoga classes. Most of them, we face the same way. Here we are in another situation where we all face the same way towards the person who we call the teacher or the leader or the whatever. It's just conditioning. We think the same experience will repeat itself over and over until something kind of shocks us out of that and we're like, oh wait, there's way more possibilities and that's scary. And they're like they don't, people don't know how to what to do with that if they haven't

41:21 done that work on themselves yet. And whatever that work is could be different based off of what I view as chakras. Yeah. So that's some deep stuff. And you know, if you're listening to this, like, I'd love to go deep with you on this. But yeah, you can also be very simple. Very simple.

41:47 So stimulating, adding energy, contemplation, evoking a connection of, you know, some people call it mind and body, but you can call it brain and heart, right? So that there is kind of like what you know you said this a little while back, but just overall the experience of allowing people permission to feel, which isn't going to allow them to actually like be a little bit more on their body and then also use logic and and reason and thought.

42:16 In combining those two Bowers. At least something that I think I learned from Tony Robbins one, one day is like when you allow yourself to feel and you you make choice from emotion and combining your logic, rational thoughts, then you make wise decisions. But if you only you know, you only react from you know the heart or you only react from emotion, then the decision is not going to be balanced or that you know the effort afterwards is not going to be balanced.

42:42 If you only act from logic, you only act from the mind, from rationale, from science, Then again, you're missing that aspect of emotional like you just need to have that as well in order for it to to consider all aspects or all perspectives of what's important. Because emotion's important and logic is important, but independent of each other.

43:02 Like solo, they're not actually as powerful as if you put them together. Then you make extremely good choices in life or you get more clarity in this class. Allowing people the opportunity to do what a lot of people don't have is an opportunity to feel right.

43:17 Because a lot of people more and more so in their brains, whether it be logic school like you said with everyone facing the same direction, it's just like learn, learn, learn math science, math science, math, science. And then having an opportunity to apply some of that feeling or permission to feel and then stimulating that through, whether it be the chakras deep contemplating upon a shot cut type questions, you know what, what? Who knows what's going to happen

43:41 for the person, right. So it sounds like a very powerful experience for some people, yeah. I know there's opportunity for it. And also like knowing the key often times is to let people know that it's OK not to feel too that way.

43:57 They're not sitting there. Like, why don't I feel it's really hard for some people to get to that point of feeling. You know, there's just been so long for them, especially if they're around other people. So sometimes what'll do it for them is to just let them know, hey, you don't have to feel anything. And then they're like, that's the thing that actually gets in there.

44:18 And when I hear you talk about Tony Robbins, what I hear you talking about is yoga philosophy. Yeah. It's there. It's already there. The heart, the mind making those pure intentions, those sun culpas. So I mean, anything that you have as far as wisdom, like you just shared anybody who has wisdom, you bring it into this experience. And it's already also yoga.

44:44 It's already there whether you've learned it or not. That's that's the really cool part. Yeah. And then you get to honor the ancient yogic traditions that have just been so effective for so many for so long. And I think we can just help pull our cultures like back together and just connect our cultures more, you know, instead of like, you know, and I'm getting a little opinionated, but just with like some sort of like self help book, which I'm all for and I've read many but

45:19 just like, oh, this self help book. I mean, I guarantee that self help book also relates to yoga, right? So having a system, more than just literature put together by an author, a human, you know. Anyways, yeah it. Can be very powerful.

45:36 Yeah, it sounds really fun. Yeah, it is fun. Yeah, I'm glad that you like it. And I know, I know Alyssa likes it as well. You guys basically see it as like a yeah, like an art. I mean, yoga is an art, but this is even more artistic, I'd say, because of the creativity aspect and what you want to do. And there's so much more room for a possibility beyond, just like awesomeness, because it extends beyond just one of the coaches, if you will.

46:00 And and FYI like learning how to do this is it makes any other yoga teaching class, like any other class experience so much easier, right? Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's it's like storytelling for the body. It is, yeah, it is. It's interesting you bring that up because this whole thing started with a storytelling kind of manifestation in a way. Like that word was brought to my attention. I knew that like, I wanted to do a training that had to do with something deeper and how can you

46:40 do what is it, you know, what's actually helpful? Oh, well, maybe I can help people do storytelling. How would I do that? What would that look like? And then after a couple of years, and I remember even one of our good friends and graduates, you know, she teaches, she's she actually said that specific word to me.

47:00 Byron, you should do a storytelling training. And then somebody in Boboot actually did a storytelling seminar, but she wasn't a yoga teacher, right? So there's and then I've seen it pop up a little bit here and there. It's exactly what I look at this like it's storytelling with ancient yogic philosophy, though. So that would that actually would be a super cool element is the mythical stories that go along with the yoga poses, really dial those in, bring that

47:31 into empowerment. That would be cool. I'd love to see that, Yeah. Very interesting. I'd love to see the Jeff. Oh my God. Teaching empowerment you You'd probably be really good at it, actually. He'd be amazing at it. He just would be very like not say as much.

47:48 Probably not. Yeah, I love the Jeff. All right, cool. So this is really helpful and and just opening up doors and also possibly like contemplating questions of like how do I use this do I want to use this like you know it's I'm curious to know more or this is too much for me. Like I'm just thinking of what some people might be feeling in this moment because you know where this, these episodes are stacking on with regards to something that is unfamiliar to a typical yoga class.

48:12 So it's. I could see it being either intimidating or exciting, right? Yeah, I'm trying to, like, give enough of information that I find I think is valuable without giving too much information away because there are trainings in May and October and it's truly something that you have to experience yourself. It's like your favorite band that you're like you or and let's say you'd like to see them in concert and then you're trying to, like talk about their

48:43 music, Be like, hey, this song is so good. Like this is they just have like, you know, poetry and emotional opportunity. Oh my gosh, I go on a roller coaster with the music. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Then you hear the song or especially in person live and you're like, I get it. So that's kind of how this is too. So we want to, like, talk about it, but we don't want to give it all away either.

49:08 Yeah. Yeah, it's got to be experienced. There's no question. You could talk about it all day long, but there's nothing like It's not the same. You have to experience it. Yeah, totally. So if you're curious, then yeah, come to Bali and take a class. Yeah, but there's also more going to be more opportunities. I'm recording every one of them, so they'll at least be on audio. Oh, great.

49:26 Cool, nice. And then, yeah, you mentioned I think in the previous episode that that there's a training that starts May 30th, 2024. It's 100 hour training, learning about the empowerment flow and how you can implement this and you're already teaching style for yoga or possibly other elements instead of life that could be used as well.

49:46 Yep, Deep dive. Cool, awesome. And then I think we have one more episode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cool. So we got a final episode within this series and the topic of conversation is TBD. TBDI mean there's a few ways we could go with it, OK?

50:05 Well, stay tuned. We're going to, we're going to keep it going for one more episode and we're going to expand more on this conversation of empowerment flow, which is very, very exciting. Thank you, Byron. Empowerment flow the more you know.

50:19 I see the rainbow just going across the screen and thank you everyone for listening and tuning in this week. If you have questions, as always, you can reach out to either of us or you can send us an e-mail at podcast@goingproyoga.com. Thank you.

50:34 And we'll speak to you next week. 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, practice and grow, this platform is definitely for you.

50:57 So I definitely suggest checking it out, going proyoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.