Finding Purpose Through Yoga in Bali with Kimberley Utama

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.

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0:33 This is your host, Michael Henry. And welcome to another episode. In this episode, we have a guest, a new guest actually, who I've been trying to get on the podcast for I don't even know how long, but it's a long time. Kimberly Uttama is in the house. Kimberly, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me, Michael.

0:51 Of course. So Kimberly and I have known each other probably a couple of years now. I don't know exactly. I think we might have met at the restaurant Seeds of Life. I think officially with Byron years ago, a long time, but basically we crossed paths and eventually we started working together on trainings and things like that. And Kimberly's also going to be one of the teachers at the In Movement space in New Kooning, which is opening later this spring, which is really

1:18 exciting. So we wanted to have her on the podcast to learn a little bit more about her. So yeah, really excited to have you here. Yeah, I'm excited to be here finally. Yeah, exactly, I think. It has been a few years in the in the making. It has been waiting.

1:31 It has been, yeah. It's been a long time, but yeah, I'm excited to have you here. I think we'll just kind of jump into, yeah, just learning a little bit more about you. I think most people, I don't say most people, but some people probably don't know who you are yet.

1:43 So let's kind of go from that place, like who are you and where are you from? And your accent sounds like this, but there's more to it. So yeah, tell me a little bit about yourself. Such a great question. Who am I? The constant question?

1:59 Yeah. So I'm Kimberly and here in Bali like half baloney S Australian. I've been here in Bali 16 years. So you grew up in Australia? I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, right? Yeah. And you're half Bolognese. Half Bolognese.

2:14 OK. My father's from Bali, my mother is Australian, right? And yeah, I knew that I wanted to have a connection with Bali and that's what brought me back here so 17 years ago. And here I am, all this, all these years later. Let's start with explaining your last name. Explaining my last name, I actually have a lot of names. Oh, you do?

2:36 I do have a lot of names. I have a lot of Bali names. OK. Well, maybe give me your full name. Let's just see what happens there. OK, you're ready. I'm ready. Travel roll. Yeah. Agusti, IU, Kimberly, Kuana Utama. And now my my married name is Sample. So.

2:55 Wow, OK. A lot of names, a lot of Bali names, Western names and now, yeah, my married name. Great. So thank you for that little introduction. And so what's your experience with yoga? I mean, you know, you're a yoga teacher. There's no surprise there.

3:08 But like, when did yoga first like, kind of come into your life? Living in Melbourne, you know, living in the West, working 9:00 to 5:00, working in sales, working in accounting, doing the grind, working in hospitality, Yoga was something like that. One of my friends said, you got to come along and experience this thing.

3:30 And I remember my very first yoga class laying in Shavasana and, and just crying. It was like a meeting of myself in that moment. And it was a slow falling in love. It wasn't a like all in yoga addiction. It was like, OK, I'm curious, like what is this thing that is allowing me to see more of who I am that I couldn't see back then?

4:01 I think a lot of my my youth and growing up in Australia and being predominantly mixed race growing up in a Western culture, I had a lot of questions around who am I? You know, that question that you just asked me of just not really knowing and yoga was that that place where I could really start to understand more of who I was beyond all of the expectations of society. So I started to ask those Upanishad type questions within yourself.

4:34 Yeah. And having those moments of like realization that I'm so much more than than all the other things that I'd placed on me. So, yeah, I mean, yoga for sure has changed my life 100%. I know. I think every yoga teacher probably say it says that, but I, you know, I feel it. I don't know who I would be if yoga hadn't been in my life, but yet here we are.

4:59 And it has. And it's definitely shaped who I am, you know, how I parent how how I teach, obviously, but just how I interact with the world. Yeah. So then how old were you approximately when you got first introduced to it? 20 in my 20s Yeah, 2021.

5:17 OK. And then you obviously practice for a while. Then I practice for a while. It was a dabble. It wasn't an everyday thing. It was, you know, when I could, how about the space? I would get to the mat and I was kind of living these two lives, you know, this kind of going out, wild party, carefree, lost, climbing the corporate ladder life.

5:38 And then I would step in and, and head to a studio and head to a class like 2 * a week, 3 * a week. So it kind of started like that. But it wasn't until I moved here to Bali that I really dived in where it was like it became an everyday thing. And this is where I've done all of my trainings, you know, here in Bali, I have also trained in India. But this is where really the seeds started to be planted. This is where I really developed my own personal yoga practice. So you said you wanted to

6:07 reconnect with some of your Bolognese roots. So when you moved here, how was that whole process? You were you married then. You didn't have kids then. Nope, I wasn't married, had no children, moved here, Yeah, was actually brought over here to do a job on the Gillies Gilly Islands. And yeah, I ended up here in Bali and was working in real estate, so kind of back into that corporate rat race. Well, I don't even know it's Bali. And then, yeah, I mean, I met my

6:40 husband and practising yoga and then starting to meet the different teachers, the people that have influenced me on the pass here in Bali. So when did you do your first? Training. My first teacher training was done at Radiantly Alive with Daniel Aaron.

6:57 He was, yeah, an amazing yoga teacher. He was the former owner of Radiantly Alive and that was back in 2015. And then straight after that I had also another great teacher actually at Yoga Barn, Les Leventhal. And he was also doing a training literally 2 months after. So I did 2200 hours within like a three month period going through the very different teachers. But I was like, all in and I, I kind of knew from that moment like this is, yeah, like this is

7:30 there's something here, there's wisdom here. There's medicine for me here. Like I got to keep going. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl so. Right. So what did you do before you said corporate finance something, real estate was it?

7:42 Here in Bali. Well known before when you were in Melbourne. Yeah. So in Melbourne I was doing sales, I was also doing hospitality. So a lot of yeah, clubs and hosting and all of that stuff. So then taking some of maybe there was a transmission of some of some of those skills into the yoga place, which kind of resulted in more of like, I'm going to, you know, take some of that masculine energy and really go for it kind of thing. I guess so.

8:08 I mean I think I've always had a desire to support and help people. I started doing like natural medicine at university and then deferred. I've done a diploma in counselling, so I have a background in, in, in the fields of, you know, healing modalities and yoga to me was just that embodiment of what I other skills I had learnt. That was more like talk therapy, right? So then you basically went from doing the practice for yourself and then, you know, really

8:40 exploring the, the teaching side of it, really going all in. And then you obviously started teaching. Yeah, here's the thing. I did my first training with no desire to become a yoga teacher. It was a gift that was given to me. It was a scholarship.

8:53 I 100% had no intention to become a yoga teacher. All I knew is that I'd loved yoga and I needed to do more of it. And then from that experience, yeah, I also received that gift from my other teacher to come and do that. And again, after both trainings, I never had that clear intention.

9:11 OK, now I'm going to teach. But the universe has plans. And my teacher Les was come and assist, come and support me. So within two months of finishing both of those trainings, I was back in teacher training that container as an assistant, like supporting him in trainings at Yoga Barn, at Reading, the Live in Australia. And so I've spent more hours in my in my yoga teaching career in teacher trainings than I have in studio classes or privates or anything like that.

9:41 Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah. The majority of my experience is usually in trainings and things like this with you and many others. Cool. And then obviously you, I mean, when I got to like meet you and know you, you were, you're teaching classes quite a bit. So obviously there was a transitional point where you really started to get into the public classes and stuff like that.

9:59 And how was that for you? Great. Yeah, I mean, I love, you know, it's, it's very different Public classes is it's a great place. You know, Bali is so transient. We have so many people coming. There's a great community here of people that live here. And then there's also so many people that come to do the trainings and then they go off and then they come back. So having a public presence is a great way to reconnect to all the people that come back into

10:23 Bali. But for sure, my heart is in teacher trainings, you know, that depth, that immersive experience, the journey. It's yeah, it's amazing to to watch the transformation, to be a part of that. Yeah, yeah, I can relate. I mean, it's mostly what I'm familiar with as well. But just having that extra time to be with people and building that connection, that relationship, the support, you know, being able to share with them and these types of things, it's just yeah, really, really

10:52 cool. OK, so let's think about you're going to be one of the teachers at the in movement space, which is really exciting. So all this experience and all this story that's kind of coming through with it. And obviously you've cultivated a certain way in which you teach. So thinking into that a little bit more, I mean, we could ask the question, like, what are three words to describe your teaching style?

11:14 Or it could just be like, what do you think is your unique way of like, what's what's unique about you? Like if I come to your class like what's, what's your thing, you know? I love that. I definitely feel that I'm evolving as we all are, but I think the foundations of my classes and what I really value when I teach is it's flow. You know, I am a vinyasa flow teacher. That's my heart's there.

11:40 But I would say like integrated vinyasa, you know, 3 words. I love to bring in Swad Vyas, self inquiry, self reflection, moments of devotion and spirituality, which I really feel connects me back to Bali. Like there's just a, you feel it in the land, you feel it here. Like there's just, it's a big part of who I am. Like that ritual devotion.

12:02 So that's sort of that essence. That element is definitely what I love to infuse in the classes as well as flow. There's always theming. And it's also, you know, for me, I feel like it's, it is more than Arsenal. I don't just teach Arsenal. Like there will always be Pranayama's in there for sure. Some Koreas, if there's space and time meditation when I teach on trainings, I've got like 2 hours in studio classes. It's like, OK, he's, he's 90 minutes. What can you do?

12:26 It's like, Oh my gosh, right. But you know, ultimately, you know, an integrated practice, an embodied practice 1 where you know, people can connect to that state of flow and moving meditation, you know, dropping into presence.

12:42 I think that's more than three. That's OK. That's great. I mean, I heard flow, I heard spot, yeah, yeah, which is self reflection or self study. And the other one was devotion. Yeah. So those are great. And I assume that through the practice, obviously the flow, there's a certain feeling which I know a lot of people really resonate with flow.

13:03 And just like that, you know, some people are very flowy people and some people are more like static. Like I like the holds and the strength building. And there obviously can be a combination of those two. So I know that that's a huge desire for a lot of people.

13:15 Then for like that, say the Svadhyaya self study, self reflection, that would probably come through as like prompts questions. How would you? How do you infuse that a little bit for within your class? Yeah, I think the the prompts the questions.

13:29 Every class has a theme or an intention, so depending on what you know the story is within the class. It's just bringing a little more self-awareness on how students can connect to their expression of whatever the intentional theme is. So it may be a question of asking whatever it may be, you know, building of resilience or connecting to such a connecting to truth or whatever it may be.

13:56 It's just usually in the quiet moments, whether it's in meditation or even throughout the class, where I might just sprinkle in moments of self reflection to keep coming back to that inner expression, to that inner experience beyond the physical expression. Yeah, of course.

14:12 That's great. And then the devotional aspect is there. I don't know a way that you would say that that kind of infuses in or is it just kind of embodied mostly I. Think it's more embodied. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, amazing. I mean, I've been to a couple of your classes and I can definitely feel and resonate with those words. Very much so.

14:31 So then coming into this, because you've been teaching at Radiantly Live for a long time. Yeah. And that's, I think since ended, or at least it's coming to an end. Yearly I just had my my final class. You just had your final class?

14:44 Yeah, last week. Oh, how did that feel? It felt big. It felt like a really big chapter. I yeah, I felt heartfelt and just a beautiful ending. You know, it's where a lot of seeds were had begun and I just really acknowledged and looked around within the community a lot of faces that have been coming regularly for 8-9 years to my classes.

15:10 And it was just, it was beautiful, but it felt like a the perfect timing. Yeah. So you must have been because you did your training there and that was however 1516 years ago. And you've basically been sitting there not quite maybe that long, but pretty close to that. So that's a long, that's a long chapter. Yeah.

15:28 Yeah, it is. It's a long time. And so now, I mean, I'm excited for you to be part of the in movement. I think that's really cool. I even forgot what the question was, but it had something to do with like, what are you excited about for being a part of this this new movement, this new style, this new, this new group of facilitators, this, you know, mission vision, It's all kind of like unfolding as we're even talking now.

15:52 So like, yeah, how do you feel about that? I'm super pumped. Yeah, yeah, I'm pumped. I'm excited, I, I really feel that Ubud is looking for that place and, and that space where, you know, teachers can come together. One of the things I'm most excited about is that it is owned and run by yoga teachers, which is, can be a little rare in, in this, in this town.

16:18 And I, and I really appreciate that. Like I'm really excited to be working alongside, yeah, amazing teachers, the vision, all of that. I, I feel so ready for, for new things. And it's going to be amazing, yeah. Yeah, it's funny, when you said that, I was like, oh, yeah.

16:35 It's like, I've never really thought of it that way, but, you know, it makes me think of like, myself and like physiotherapy. I've worked for many different places. And you know, often some of these businesses or clinics are being run by some sort of corporate organization or place or people in an office basically trying to crunch numbers and figure things out. But one of the most or one of the last places I worked before I ended up moving here was a

17:01 private company that was created and started by a speech pathologist who was a clinician who someone who understood what it was like to be with the patients, be in the room. And I was just like, I love working with this woman because she gets it. Because she gets it.

17:16 Yeah. And I think that's going to be reflected within the space, you know, completely, not only just within the community and the teachers, but within the space. So I'm really excited for that. What's going to be built? And then at the same time, it also makes me think about how yoga teachers, I don't want to say this blanketly, but they're not the most organized people. And things can be a little bit, you know, in the. Yeah, I think I'm one of the

17:40 majority. I'm pretty organized. Yeah, you are definitely very organized and so is Leia, basically speaking about Paul and Bayonner. So maybe, maybe it's a a male thing. I mean, I'm pretty organized, but anyway, I think it's pretty funny. So it's kind of like the there's a lot of benefit there with obviously having the the people that have been on the ground kind of in the trenches is an expression to say like we've, you know, we've been doing it for a long time. We know what it's like.

18:04 We know what has work, what hasn't worked, what we want to try to make work. And obviously there's, you know, a business side of it, but it's being LED more heart, heart centered versus let's say money centered. I think that's really cool. Yeah.

18:17 Yeah, 100%. And they're and they're all a part of the community, you know, beyond the yoga, you know, where wood is a small community. So I'm excited to to continue that. And the community part is something that actually Leia mentioned a lot about, she was really excited about and me as well.

18:37 It's creating more of that community sense, especially in the area, which is new Kooning, which if you know you're listening, you don't know where that is. It's basically South of the monkey forest and it's, I don't even know how to describe it, but to me it has a little bit more of like a homey feel it. So does it has its own energy.

18:54 It has its own vibration. I love it. It's it's own little pocket of a wood. Yeah. Yeah. The gardens, the restaurants, the places. It's quiet. It's Yeah, It's beautiful. It's a cool little spot for sure. They even have, I see a lot of kids, probably families, you know, there's a big soccer field, there's like little events and things going on. So I don't know.

19:16 So there's something about that community thing that just feels, just feels nice, you know, it's just a nice. Obviously there's a lot of people that come in trans, they come through travelling. They're here for a couple days, couple weeks, couple months and there's like a certain travelling transient energy. But I actually think that those people do like to fly into community, right, Which is why people like the home stays and they want to like be a part of

19:39 the thing that's like grounded and, you know, established here Exactly. So I think that's really cool. What are you currently exploring or refining for you and your own practice? Things that are like really interesting to you right now? What is interesting for me, I mean, I feel like over the last, you know, I did all my trainings in vinyasa, a lot of my trainings, MY22 hundreds and my three hundreds were in vinyasa, in flow.

20:09 And then I went to India and I did a 300 in, in Koreas, which is like Kundalini and Koreas and subtle body practices which I loved. And I I feel like more within my own practice, like yes I love arsena and yes you'll probably find a few peak poses in my classes.

20:27 But ultimately within my own practice, I'm more tapping into the subtler practices. So long meditation practices. Yeah, more, more of the breath work, more of the career practices. I've spent so much time in the Art Center in the body. It's still in the body, but I'm, I'm going more into into those practices at the moment.

20:47 That's where my heart and focus is. So that's for your own personal. That's for my own, yeah. Personal practice, yeah. And if it hasn't already, do you think that will potentially bleed into 100% some of your public yeah offerings to some degree, Yeah, A. 100%.

21:05 So then do you have any other things that you want to explore, potentially create in addition to just, you know, teaching yoga classes? I know that you do teacher trainings and you said that you love that experience in that space, you know, moving away from rating they live.

21:21 I know that you and you and I work with East West together amongst other team members. But I don't know, I'm just kind of like thinking, is there something else that you might be like potentially leaning towards, like teasing out some secret thoughts that you might have on where you might want to go or what you might even do? I mean, yes, of course.

21:38 I feel like creating space is the very first thing. So that's what I've done. You know, I've been so busy doing so many trainings and classes. So I've created that space. It's been a week, but there's definitely things that I am working on and creating in wanting to share. But ultimately it is in that education space. So creating new trainings to be offering for teachers. You know, I've done a lot of 200 hour and 300 hour trainings. And at the moment that's yeah,

22:08 one of the things I'm working towards is a is 100 hour to to support teachers. Oh, cool. A continuation. Oh. That sounds right up my alley. I like. It this is the first little share you got that I. Teased it out. I feel so special, lucky and all the listeners as well. I want to ask more questions about it but I'm thinking I probably should respect your space especially. It's only been a week and I think, I think more time and more spaces allow things to kind

22:36 of marinate and stuff like that. So yeah, I appreciate you, yeah, sharing what you did. I kind of like to also let things organically happen before speaking about them. I'm kind of 1 words, less words and more action, right?

22:47 Yeah, OK, that's good. But what about manifestation? How do you feel about that? I love it. Yeah. There's a manifestation part of, I mean, obviously there's action there, and I hope people understand that element. But the energy you're kind of putting into that, which might be words, so maybe this is helping. Yeah, because now I know about it, which might help with the creational process or supporting the creational process. OK, I like it.

23:11 Cool. Paul, let's see, is there anything else that comes to mind, anything else unique or that you'd love to share with people? And yeah, I don't know, just thinking if there's anything else that comes to mind that you'd love to share, something that's important to you or meaningful for you.

23:25 I mean, I think I just always love to come back to the power of yoga and, you know, not only how much it's impacted me, but how much I see it impacting and changing people's lives, students lives. You know, one of the things that I often hear is that people don't go to yoga because they have an idea or perception of like a certain type of person.

23:47 You know, only unless you're super bendy or super Fiat or certain age can you go. And I think I just want to like just highlight that it, you know, yoga is for everyone and the importance of just just showing up as you are and letting the practice meet you where you are.

24:03 Like that's really something that I'm saying all the time because I, I see that and I hear that and I know that, you know, there's a lot of people that don't think they're welcome in that space. And yet you just never know when you go because yoga really is a journey.

24:19 I'm not only into the self, but it can lead you to your greatest expression of who you are. Like, I've just see it, seen it transform so much, not just myself, but in so many people. Yeah. I mean, I could go on and on. When it comes to yoga, we could be here a while.

24:36 Well, maybe we'll have you back on again. We'll just have to wait another three to four years, but. No, we can. We can schedule it. In. We'll schedule it in. Yeah, the podcast will be eventually the studio that I'm in right now, which if you didn't already know, this is in my house and eventually it will actually be on location.

24:52 So you can catch me before I teach. Yeah, yeah. There you go. I think you can't run away from me. Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. Yeah. I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for coming in, spending the time. I know you've got a lot going on, especially with three kids and obviously the integration and space for more, but I'm excited to be working more alongside of you and we're together.

25:14 And if there's if there's nothing else, I think we can kind of wrap it up. What do you think? Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you for having. Me, of course. My pleasure and thank you everyone for tuning in this week. And if you have any questions you want to tune in, of course, you can reach out to us.

25:26 But maybe there's a way if someone is like, I actually want to connect with Kimberly, what was the best way to do that? For sure. You can find me on Instagram. Kimberly, you tell me. Yoga. Yeah. Also, I love answering questions. I am an open book so if there's anything that anyone wants to know, just reach out and maybe we can bring it up in the next in the next session.

25:42 Yeah, perfect. Cool. We'll make sure to add that in the show notes so it's easy to find you otherwise. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone, and we'll speak to you next week. Take care for now.