Teaching Yoga to an Empty Room: Praise and Criticism with Megan Cowley

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. Who am I showing up to? Who am I showing up for?

0:32 Why am I teaching yoga? I'm teaching yoga to serve someone. I'm not teaching yoga to serve myself, but I'm teaching yoga for someone to serve. And if I'm not serving anyone, what am I doing? That was the first thought. Well, then I'm serving myself because I'm serving myself because I want to teach yoga.

0:59 So if I stopped showing up to these classes because there was no one there, then I'm telling myself, well I'm, I'm, I'm not going to serve anyone anymore. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you.

1:18 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.

1:39 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.

1:55 Welcome to our podcast. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to the Going Pro Yoga podcast. Michael Henry here, your host and always excited. I feel like I say it every time, but I'm excited again to have another special guest joining us who's been on the podcast before. Megan Cowley.

2:15 Hello, Megan, how are you? Hello, Michael. Hello, everybody. Who is listening? I am. Yeah. I'm good. I'm feeling alive. I am alive. So yeah. It's good to connect to that feeling. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, so Megan's been on the podcast before episode 111. What a lucky number you got there, which was basically sharing.

2:39 It was a very spontaneous episode. So if you didn't want to go back and listen to that one, Megan just kind of walked into the podcast studio and we just said, hey, let's just jump on and start recording. So she was actually this was got six maybe almost 6:00 or so, maybe even longer that eight months ago I.

2:54 Think it was eight months. Yeah, eight or some months ago, maybe nine months ago and going kind of entering into the space of teaching yoga, as in like you had already done a training and you were kind of playing with the idea.

3:06 And this episode is mostly about continuing that conversation or kind of like updating on how those things have been going for you over the last eight to nine months or so, mostly as a a way of inspiring the audience to learn a little bit more about what it's like to go through the process.

3:24 Call it the path of a teacher, path of a new yoga teacher, which we've had several episodes about this. And we'll probably continue to have more to inspire those and to provide any kind of call it tricks or just like lessons learned that people can kind of feel a little bit more equipped in order to take a step forward. And if they want to make yoga teaching a career or at least some part of their life, then, yeah, hopefully we can inspire that.

3:54 So I'm excited for you to be here and to share a little bit more about your story. And just in case someone's like, OK, well, I didn't listen to that other episode. So who is this Megan person and why does she have such a sexy voice? Is the microphone a sweater?

4:08 Yeah. Is it? Yeah. How come I don't sound sexy then? I don't know. Yeah, well, it's not the microphone then. So. So, Megan, you're from the UK? I am. I'm from Yorkshire, the north of England. I lived in Manchester for seven years before flying the nest. You could call it taking the leap, jumping into the unknown, all them beautiful words and coming to Bali. And you came to Bali to do?

4:40 Well, I came to Bali just as a stepping stone almost to find myself in Australia and Melbourne because I was told that was probably something an English person would probably want to do, is go and do the Australian life.

4:56 I was like, OK, Melbourne, Manchester, very similar sounding cities. So I was like, yeah, let's let's go for it. And Bali was just that in between place. I hadn't really heard about it. I hadn't really thought about it, didn't really know anything about Bali apart from it would split up my flight so it wasn't so long. Certainly split it up, didn't it? Yeah, yeah, really, really did in the end. Yeah.

5:26 And I came, I came here with a friend and we did the usual things. I think reflecting on it, thinking back, I was a very different person back then. And I'd done yoga a little bit in England, especially, you know, a few years ago. England's yoga scene where I was wasn't exactly the most prevalent Zen experience.

5:51 It would be like some church hall with some person, a yoga teacher teaching, but it didn't really have the magic or the pizzazz that I was looking for. And I would do yoga with my mom as well. She was the one who, Yeah, she tells me I was born, born through breathing, as in like yoga breathing. She that's how she birthed me into the world. And I feel like that's kind of lingered in my life. But I haven't had the opportunity or didn't have the opportunity to connect with it

6:25 until I came to Bali and I came to Yoga Balm, came to Byron's class, sat down. I remember exactly where I was SAT, 6th row in third one from the left. I don't know why I know that. Well, I do know why I know that because it was a profound moment for me.

6:46 I did this yoga class and by the end of it I was in shavasana and I sat up to, to to close the practice and I like fell in love, fell in love with yoga, I think is how I describe it. I thought. You're going to see you fell in love with Byron, but. No, plenty of other women.

7:05 Women have done that. I don't need to. I don't need to waste my time. So then what happened after that? Well I went through the infatuation and honeymoon stage of loving anything which was to obsessively go to each strong slow flow class that I could possibly do. My friend, she, she went off and did other things because she was like, I don't want to do yoga everyday. And I was like, I have to do this. I don't know why, but I'm, I have to, I have to practice yoga as much as I can.

7:44 So I did and then I had this ticket booked and I genuinely, if I could have not gone to Melbourne at that point, I would have just cancelled. But because of like, I think we'd bought our tickets together or something. So it meant that I had to go. So I was like, OK, I'll go.

8:03 But before that I I went to one of Byron's first empowerment training, empowerment classes. Actually, I went to that and I had this whole experience that was pretty like psychedelic, I would call it. It was a whole shredding of life, a rebirth in a way. I didn't like using that terminology, but it truly did feel like it.

8:30 And afterwards I felt like empowered, surprisingly, since the class is called Empowerment. Success. Well, yeah, it was a success and I just really was like, wow, I've got AI had such a clarity that I I needed to move into this new stage of my life. And that stage was somehow committing to yoga and and bringing it into my life more.

8:50 So I booked onto a training with you guys going pro trainings in Bali. Next one is in August. Yep, end of August. That's a plug for you. You should join and then you could be on this podcast like me. But yeah, I, I, I booked on the training and I was like, it was in four months time or five months time. I was like, well, this is going to be a reason for me to come back.

9:18 This is something an anchor that I can work towards. So yeah, I went to Melbourne, did some really weird things. I want to say really weird. I mean, I do mean that that kind of weird stuff is all, but I actually just went and picked up junk. It was called 1800.

9:35 Got junk. If you're in Melbourne, it's a good place to collect you're junk. But I went all around, all around Victoria, sorry the the state or region, picking up people's rubbish basically with a load of dudes. Was that like a job?

9:51 It was a job. I was the only woman apart from actually my friend, she was part of the team for a while. But yeah, I was the only woman on the in the team and some dude would come pick me up and we'd drive around and we'd pick up like trash and or people's furniture that they didn't want anymore. And I still had inside my mind this like real the anchor. The anchor was still there, this like sense of a spiritual being that was wanting to come out of

10:19 me. But the environment that I was in was like the most unspiritual space that I could probably find. And I remember reading Michael Singers Living Untethered at the time and which is a mind blowing book for me. It really revolute.

10:36 It just like blew my mind reading it. Yeah, I'd I'd read it out to like the Truckees, the guys driving me, because that was a Navy. They would call it the Navy is the one who sits and just like does nothing while we're driving.

10:51 And then the Truckee guy or I don't know, the driver, he would drive me around to all these different places and I'd just be reading out loud, living untethered to them. Or, or like, I remember a few times, just like arming, I was just like, I got really into like running to arm and I was just doing all this weird stuff because I, I think there was a part of me that just really wanted to, I knew where I wanted to be and that wasn't the place. So I was trying to find ways to

11:17 to bring it into my life but probably in really weird. Where do I I? Didn't know that. I didn't know that you did all that. So how long were you there for before you came back? Five months. Five months. Yeah, yeah, it was an interesting time for me.

11:32 It's probably when I felt the most homesick and experienced quite a lot of sadness. In a way. It was a really beautiful time for me, don't get me wrong. But it when you get shown a part of life, a, a way of living that really fits the bill and then you shift back into kind of old ways. It doesn't feel as when you know, when you feel that lovely feeling, that like gooey feeling and then you, you like get out of the gooey feeling.

12:07 It doesn't feel as nice. Yeah, it's like, you can't forget now. It's like, once you know, it's like, oh crap, now I know. Yeah. It's like learning about what's in certain foods that you love and then you're like, oh shit, in a different way.

12:19 Exactly. Yeah, you can't unlearn it. No, when I was finding I was connecting with friends and stuff, but it was all via like drinking basically and and and partying and I love that side of me. But when I was in Bali, I was connecting with people, making friends with people via yoga and like, kirtans and static dance, and it just seemed way more, way more me.

12:44 So it was a little bit of a weird time for me, actually, just that kind of land of, of not really knowing where I was or what I was doing and being really far away from everyone and everything. And yeah, but it was, it was nice. Yeah.

13:03 Did you have plans to come back here or like what, what kind of vision did you have when you were there in Melbourne? Did you think like, oh, I'm going to go back to the UK, I'm going to go back to Bali, I'm going to stay here, I'm going to move on somewhere else? Wasn't I was not going to go back to England. That was a that was a strong firm. No England.

13:22 I didn't really know what I was going to do. There was a part of me that was like with these, with this junk collecting group. I wonder if anyone would listen to this. No, I don't think they would. If they do. Hello, Miss you.

13:38 But there was a part of me that was like, yeah, I'll come back. And because it was a good way of making money, I was like, yeah, I'll come back and I'll teach you all yoga to start the day. We'll do like a vinyasa, you know, because there's a lot of heavy lifting. It was an intense, intense physical job. So they needed yoga.

13:54 So I was thinking, you know, something like that kind of ingest those and wasn't really going to happen. Maybe it would. But yeah, I I left all my stuff in Melbourne at the house I was staying at, Packed my bag. And if I went to to Bali to do this training with the full intention of coming back to Melbourne, whether I went to a different part of Australia I didn't know, but but all my stuff was left in the room. So let me see if I understand correctly. So you hadn't done the training

14:28 yet? No, no. I. Thought you had already done it. No, I booked it a book to to to come back to. I see. So you did have an intention to come back to Bali? Yeah, to do the training. Yeah. OK. I understand the timeline a bit more.

14:40 Now, but then I was going to. So you got, you had your yoga experience. You're like, oh, yoga's cool. But I got this thing that I'm going to go do. Yeah, but I'll come back because I want to explore that yoga thing that felt an alignment that, you know, you were pretty certain of that. Yeah.

14:52 I see. So you had that whole experience, came back to Bali. Yeah. Did the training. Yeah, loved it. Yeah, really, really enjoyed it. I was a bit anxious at the start before beginning because I had that weird mentality that you had to look a certain way, you had to be really experienced in yoga, You had to be able to do all these crazy handstand balancing poses. And I am not that person.

15:28 I might be more of that person now in a way, but I'm really not that person. And I, it was like quite a limiting belief that I had. I remember the day that, you know, we went to do the opening circle and stuff. I had like, I was a little bit anxious and I don't normally get anxious. I'm pretty chilled out human being. But yeah, I was like, Oh my God, like what, what am I doing? And I think that's a lesson in, you know, if I was more aware of my feelings, which back then I,

15:55 I was semi aware, but not as much as I, you know, since then I've gone deep into the inner what a. Inner knowing. Inner knowing. Inner awareness. And that's another thing that once you go into that, you cannot go back. That's why a lot of people don't want to look in.

16:14 Yeah, exactly. But it's great. It's really, it's really great. But yeah, I I could TuneIn now and think that, well, that that kind of anxious feeling I had was because I was about to start something beautiful. And it wasn't really that I didn't look the power or anything like that. It was that the body was getting ready to fully immerse itself into this crazy new life I was about to begin. I was already in the middle of beginning. So yeah.

16:44 So then you did the training you had. Sounds like an overall pretty good experience, yeah. Learned a few things, yeah. Learned how to do chaturanga, maybe no blank down dog. Few things had some inspiring moments and and then after the training, how did you feel?

17:02 Oh. I felt great. I was on cloud nine. I loved it. I felt so I'd like I'd learnt so much and I actually went on, did hands on adjustment training and then I did the advanced sequencing training and I just like binged all the trainings, which was good. But by the end of that I was like, I don't want to be in another closing circle or opening circle for a very long time.

17:29 Yeah, I think you were good at that point. Yeah, yeah, I'd had, I'd had my fill of education, but it was nice to go back into that kind of like educational environment. I yeah, I like it. And then so you had kind of gone through this process of like you knew you that you wanted yoga to be a part of your life, but you might not have known exactly how, but you might have started to spark the idea of like, maybe I do want to teach, which was probably why you took the hands

17:56 on training because that's very much that's for us people who want to teach. So we want to help facilitate those those skills and build the confidence to actually go into that direction. So then after you finish with all these trainings where you're like, OK, I'm going to go for it. Or were you like, what?

18:12 What's what's next for me? Like, where were you at after that, 'cause this is common, right? A lot of people will just stay in school, so to speak. They'll stay in training. They'll just keep learning and learning and learning. And they'll avoid taking the steps to actually start teaching to some degree because they're worried about certain things, I'm sure, whether it be just their skill set and whether they're good enough.

18:31 And how am I going to make this a financial success so that I can actually like survive and these types of things. So like, how does any of that resonate? Like where? Where is your head at at that point? So this might sound quite dramatic, but I would call the period of my life between finishing the trainings and which was maybe March 2020 something to March, just March it.

19:03 Was March last year 2020? Three. Yeah, March to March to January for me. I would call it the dark night of the Soul, and that sounds dramatic, but it was because I was very lost and I was lost in the way that I had all these resources in my hands.

19:27 I had the knowledge that I could go and teach yoga. I knew I should go and teach yoga, but I was paralyzed by the idea of teaching yoga. And for a while, I don't know what I was doing, to be honest. I was in this house in the middle of the rice fields. And I feel like time just like flew by. And at first it was fine because I was in Bali and I was able to like do yoga and stuff.

20:02 But then it got to a point of like, really feeling like. Disappointed in myself because I felt like I'd, I'd waited too long to teach. So then I didn't think I could teach. I didn't think I was capable of teaching. And I remember actually like ringing up my dad and saying like this was when I was in the like the lowest point of, of this, like paralyzation of what do I do with my life situation. I remember ringing my dad up and being like dad. I think he would be really

20:35 disappointed in me right now because I, I didn't feel like I was doing anything or I was capable of anything. I really like. I really paralyzed myself by the not doing. It was very interesting. And he because he's a great, great father.

20:52 He said the only words I needed to hear, which was Megan, get a grip and then some loving things. Obviously I love my dad. If you're listening, Dad love you and you, Mum, and the rest of my family. Anyone else you want to throw in there just in case you shared this episode? Shout out to my grandma as well and my granddad. Although probably your grandma will probably listen. To yeah 100% no swearing.

21:20 No swearing this time. I'm on best behaviour. Yeah, it was, it was, it was an interesting time. Dark night. The soul felt very disappointed in myself, felt paralysed by by everything, the choice of life and and all this stuff. And it took me being vulnerable, speaking out loud, telling the person, you know, one of the people in my life who cares about me the most and I care the most about what they think. Telling them that, yeah, I, I think you'd be disappointed in me right now.

21:51 And that really, like, hit home for me, made me realize that I don't need to have all these skills, have all this training I've invested all this time. Why am I not doing it? And so many people would tell me you're a natural yoga teacher.

22:09 I would come to your class, all this lovely stuff. And I was just like, sat on it. Very, very strange. But I'm sure a lot of people could probably relate to that, that feeling. Maybe they're in it right now. Yeah. So that that was me.

22:25 And luckily the thing that brought me out of that was a friend of a friend who's now my friend, 'cause that's how it works. She opened up a retreat, a boutique retreat called Shanty, and it was a beautiful small space, very just opened. So it's brand new with a really lovely bamboo shower. And she asked me if I wanted to teach yoga there. And I was like, yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it.

22:56 Because I realized that this was my opportunity and it wasn't super big, so I wasn't going to like, I don't know, embarrass myself in front of loads of people or anything. It was an intimate experience and it, it felt perfect for what I needed. And it was also very nourishing the space itself. And Shannon, the the, the woman who owns the retreat, she was also very nurturing.

23:22 And she had this. She has this beautiful ethos of you shine, we shine. We all shine together. That is not the quote, by the way, but it's something very similar. And it's very beautiful. You grow, I grow, We all grow together.

23:38 And very comforting. Yeah. And I think that's exactly what I needed was someone to just give me a multiple people to just give me that little push. So I started teaching there. Sometimes it was just Shannon, sometimes it was two or three other people, but I found my love again. And that spark that came out and, and the words that seem to channel through through me inspired me as well. And I'm sure they maybe inspired the people doing the yoga, maybe, I would hope.

24:15 But it was a really transformative time for me. It made me realize my capabilities. Your gifts. My gifts. We all have gifts. We do, don't we? Yes, but it was, yeah, it was exactly what I needed. So I'm eternally grateful and I hope that people out there who who are embarking on a new yoga experience are surrounded by like minded individuals that will be able to give them opportunities like that because. We're finding finding communities because I mean, the yoga community, generally

24:50 speaking, if they are doing the work of what a Yogi is, they'll have the same ethos mentality to some degree like Shannon did. That is like, yeah, it's not about judging. And to this effect, it's more so like, let's kind of grow together and provide opportunity and learn from and these types of things. So if you don't have a community like that and you're like, oh, well, I don't know.

25:14 You know, I feel like I'm by myself. I'm the only people that I connect with like that are the people from my training. But they live all over the world and like, you know, what do I do there? There's yogi's everywhere, right?

25:24 No matter where you are, there's finding them might be a bit of a challenge, but if they're, you know, hanging out in at Shalas or taking classes and just meeting and networking and you know, it does take time. But in a lot of the conversations that I've had with people and a lot of the teachers or the newer teachers that have had experiences, it's because they just, they kept with it and they stayed involved.

25:44 They stayed connected. And you know, they didn't necessarily try to force anything per SE. They just tried to somewhat stay connected to the yoga, stay connected to their practice, stay connected to possibly the community if it exists, or at least finding the community.

26:01 And then, yeah, opportunities seem to just show up. And that's the thing, when you know you're on the right path, opportunities come way more easily. And I think when I was in that position of not knowing what I was doing, I kind of wasn't like taking the steps to allow for the opportunities to arise. It was like I was just sad still and not moving because for an opportunity to come, you must be moving towards something, even if it's just in the mind, a

26:36 mindset. This is what I want. But if you're stagnant and if you're, you know, paralyzed for one of a better word, you actually aren't letting in that energy flow for, for anyone to pick up on that vibrational resonance for someone to to connect to.

26:56 And I found as soon as I stepped out into the, the yoga world in this very small, beautiful way with Shannon and, and Shanty, I realized the opportunities that came from that, which was teaching another space and picking up other things and realizing that this is exactly what I want to do and I am on the right path. And that point of time where I was procrastinating basically was, was exactly what I needed to do. Because, you know, what we do in life is exactly what we're supposed to do.

27:38 And I wouldn't go back and force myself to teach yoga faster or anything like that. I think it was divine timing, if you believe in that, or it was just some kind of timing. Right. Yeah, everything's a stepping stone to the next thing, right? You know, if you're listening to this podcast, maybe this is a stepping stone for you.

28:00 Maybe it's not. Maybe it's maybe it's going to push you and nudge you or maybe it's going to make you just think about your next step, which might be something else. And the other thing as well is not to like kind of go the other way. But sometimes you know you're not sure if teaching yoga or the yoga thing is for you.

28:16 Right. But the only way you know is you got to do it. And then, you know, we've had, we have a mutual friend, Sarah, who did the training and she wasn't sure if she wanted to teach. And then she decided that she wanted to teach and she started teaching and she had done a bunch of training.

28:31 It's kind of similar story. Started to get into the teaching. And then she realized, I actually don't like this. It's not for me, right? But she wouldn't have known that if she didn't actually try to do it. And it's, it was probably very liberating for her to be able to be like, oh, OK, well, now I know. And now I know that.

28:47 So now I can kind of move that energy and put it aside and then, you know, focus on other things or like move in a different space. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of the things that she learned in her trainings were transferable into what she's doing now, which is helping people in a different way. But I think it's important to acknowledge that, you know, if you love yoga and yoga's a part of your life, I assume so because you're listening to this

29:07 podcast, going pro Yoga, and you think teaching yoga is part of that thing. Well, try it and let's find out, right? And maybe it's smaller opportunities, finding little things where you feel comfortable enough to kind of put yourself out there and then, you know, giving it a little bit of a time.

29:24 You know, don't just teach one class and be like, OK, that's no good because sometimes the first class might not be the best class. Often times it isn't, but giving it a chance. And yeah, maybe there's maybe there's gonna be some fruits that grow from that and or maybe it's gonna be fruits that are not related to teaching.

29:42 But either way, there's gonna be clarity on the other side. But the only way you know is by taking some sort of step. Yeah, for sure. And it's that idea of like, what is yoga? We're all yoga teachers at the end of the day. If we're bringing a union of, of people, of souls, of love, of movement, of whatever it is like yoga is union. That's the definition.

30:06 And I was thinking into that a little bit more and I was reminded of a phrase, the phrase emptiness, dancing. Emptiness Dancing is a book by Adyashanti. But if you look at the phrase and you kind of split it out in regards to yoga. So yoga to me if I was you didn't ask me this, but if I was to define yoga.

30:27 Can you define yoga for me, Megan? Thank you. If I was to define yoga, I would say it's emptiness dancing. It's a balance of the emptiness, which is the masculine, the nothingness. And then the dancing, which is the feminine, the flowing, the everything. And together they create a union, emptiness dancing, which is like the universal energy of of the masculine and the feminine, the yin and the Yang.

30:57 Yeah. And it's. That's that's just a little phrase that I've been playing with which I quite like. It's quite poetic. I like poet poetic things, yeah. So now you're teaching in like 3 places, no? Yes, 3 studios I'm teaching.

31:16 So opportunities continue to show themselves, but you also probably put yourself out there a little bit and, you know, networked and, you know, put the energy into into knowing and having known or having gone through the process of knowing.

31:29 OK, like I obviously really like this. You probably got a bit of a boost of fuel to be like, OK, cool, what else can I do? You know, and I'm sure you had some level of call it mentorship or someone who could kind of like you could lean on to support.

31:44 And I think this is something that came up in a few other episodes with other teachers that it's, and when you're doing it by yourself, it's really easy to get in your own head and to kind of self sabotage and you're not good enough.

31:54 And you know, but also, you know, you've been listening to this podcast and just talking to other people that like we all kind of go through these ups and downs when it comes to this type of stuff. And you know, you're human.

32:04 We're all human, so. Are we there? It's, it's well, we're having a human experience, that's for sure. And yeah, just being able to know that there's other people and it's very easy to just kind of get in our own way. But just even having a conversation, sharing a few things, whether if it whether it's with someone who's not in yoga or not, like your dad or your mom or whoever, and just being able to lean on them to some degree. But then also having someone

32:33 that you can kind of talk to and source information from from what, what have you done? And you know, that's kind of what this this podcast is about. In this episode specifically, it's just like learning about it so that you can, you know, feel a little bit more energized to to move forward again, so.

32:50 No path is perfect either and I think some people think that they have to have this perfect A to B destination type mapped out. And like speaking from my experience, I, I didn't have a map, but I've still found my way. And it has definitely been from the help of friends, friends in the yoga community that I've been lucky enough to be a part of.

33:15 And also just friends. Actually, most of them have been from I've ever met them at a yoga class or they're yoga teachers, like my second yoga class job. A dear friend of mine who has also been on this podcast, Alyssa, shout out to you. Alyssa.

33:35 Sorry, quite goofy. That's OK, I know it is completely. Fine, I love. I love the authenticity. Yeah, yeah, Alyssa is an incredible human being and yoga teacher who has definitely been my beacon. Beacon and shining light.

33:55 Inspiration, semi mentor, but also ally and balanced companion. And what's the word when you're like in battle with somebody? In battle. Companion comrade. Comrade. She's my comrade. Not that life's a battle, but it kind of is a bit of a battle. There's a bow in the inner and and in the outer. But yeah, she's truly, she's truly helped me. And she was working at a a yoga studio in Chengdu. And she was like, yeah, you should just come and talk to the the owner, see what happens, see

34:31 what happens. Yeah, that little push. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, I will. So I went in, talked to her and she's from England and I think, oh. That. Was it? Yeah, she was I, I think I only said two sentences, to be honest. She was like, you're hired, take this job. I said, oh, wow, do you not want to like, no, I am like trained in or anything.

34:53 She's like, no, you got it. Nice. Yeah. And that gave me confidence as well, obviously. Yeah, that's great. And just in case people are wondering, Alyssa wasn't that far ahead. Alyssa was six months ahead of me is 6 months. More or less.

35:10 Six months. Yeah, yeah. So just, you know, thinking of, you know, if you're listening to this and being like, oh, who's who's my person? They don't need to be like five years in, 10 years in, you know, just like who's in the space, who's someone who has a similar desire or similar connection of the connection to yoga.

35:28 You know, maybe it's teaching yoga or maybe it's not even teaching like yoga asana. Maybe it's something else, meditation or something else and you know, just having that person there that understands the yoga, so to speak, can be, can be that beacon for you. So I'm glad that Alyssa was there for you for that. Yeah, blessed, because I'm pretty sure they said in the training as well.

35:53 I remember them saying something about you, you need a mentor. Everyone needs a mentor, someone to look up to. Yes. And we desire to have these gurus and these big time yoga people to be our mentors. Like I remember like looking at Byron and Paul and being like, you know, I'd really love these guys to be my mentors.

36:13 And they are. Don't get me wrong, they are, and they've supported me in so many ways that I appreciate. But someone like Alyssa, she is someone who's on my level. You know, we're on a equal playing fields, so we can support each other in a way different way to Paul or Byron or someone higher. You know, everyone's equal and we're all. Yeah, yeah, more experienced.

36:41 More time, yeah. The the, the perspective in which these people are approaching the work or the the job, so to speak, is coming from a different lens. You know, Paul and Byron had already gone through the first few years of the, you know, the struggles, the UPS and the downs and not that they can't relate to that anymore, but it's harder for them to relate to it because it's been years, right?

37:05 So they are old because they have now they have the they have the lessons that came from it and they share those lessons. But to be able to embody the feeling of what that stuff is like is going to, you know, it's going to shift and evolve over time. So that's exactly what a couple other people have actually said on the as well on the podcast is like having a mentor has been really supportive, someone who has a bit accountability, but then also someone that can

37:27 relate to the struggles who is just slightly ahead. You know what, the six months, a year, two years is a great person to strive for and also a great person to possibly be able to have an opportunity to like sub their class for example.

37:44 Right, which is how collaborate with. Collaborate in different ways. So creating that bit of a community sense and knowing that you don't have to do it by yourself is actually one of the things about yoga that I think is beautiful. You know, there's a lot of jobs and careers out there. It's like, you know, independent. I got to do it all on my own and like, you know, this is a professional job and I'm the professional and like I'm the success and I'm in competition

38:06 with all the other people in the same space. And some people might have that mentality when it comes to yoga teaching, like, oh, I'm in competition to get, you know, the job and the studio space. But it's like, but we're all serving the world in a similar way.

38:19 Yeah. And I think if that person has that mentality, then they probably need to do a little bit more yoga maybe. Possibly. Maybe. Or maybe that's just the step that they're at until they get to the next one. Still need to do more yoga there to get to the next step possibly. Yeah, I guess where I would go next with my journey is that at the beginning it was really good. Like, I mean, it's been really good the whole way through. But for the beginning part, it

38:47 was really good. And there was a big there was, you know, I started off with two people and, and it was great because that's all I wanted to teach to and then and then more people and then you get some people who came back again and that felt really, really good. And then I got a, a different studio job and, and I started to build up people there, starting with like two people. And then I got to like 12 at one point and I was like, wow, this feels good.

39:16 I like this, I like serving people. But then, and I think this is a natural journey for yoga teachers. So This is why I'm sharing it 'cause it's quite a big part is there is this place that you can come to or you start at where you go to your studio where you're teaching and you're ready to teach yoga.

39:41 You're ready to serve the people. And then no one shows up and you've just got this empty studio with empty yoga mats and you're, you're just there and you're like, oh, well, I guess I'm not teaching yoga today in the physical sense. And that for me is an interesting, an interesting thing for me to digest, actually. Because it in my experience, and this is happened to me recently, so I've been teaching yoga for six months. And for that, for the most part

40:14 of them six months, I hadn't actually had this experience. I'd always have one or two people minimum and then more. But yeah, for this, I don't know what happened. Part of me thinks that maybe I was cursed, but I know that's not true. But I I just had like this run of no people showing up like multiple times, which is fine because it's taught me a lesson and we love lessons and evolving. But do we?

40:47 Yeah. No, we do we do. I think we do. Do we? Sometimes we're not ready for lessons, but yes, occasionally we do like them. But I was ready. I was definitely ready for this lesson. And the lesson is who am I showing up to?

41:02 Who am I showing up for? Why am I teaching yoga? I'm teaching yoga to serve someone. I'm not teaching yoga to serve myself, but I'm teaching yoga for someone to serve. And if I'm not serving anyone, what am I doing? That was the first thought.

41:24 Well, then I'm serving myself because I'm serving myself because I want to teach yoga. So if I stop showing up to these classes because there was no one there, then I'm telling myself, well, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to serve anyone anymore.

41:39 Does that make sense? It's like what, giving up, giving up what you want to do, your passion because no one's there to watch you. Do I need to be watched? Do I need, do I really need to be seen and witnessed to validate my human experience and the things that I want to do, which is teaching yoga? Do I actually need to be witnessed in that? Well, one answer would be yes, I do. I need to be seen because that's a part of my way of being is is to be witnessed and to witness

42:15 others. But then I actually thought about it and I was like, oh, wait, I can just witness myself being dedicated, being consistent, being here. And I ended up using as an opportunity because if there's no one in the yoga studio, that means you have a whole yoga studio to yourself, so you can do anything.

42:35 Probably yoga. So good choice. Yeah. So even though there's like a sprinkle of disappointment and a little dabble of sadness and some other feelings that aren't so positive that I had to work through, I think All in all, knowing that I continued to show up 8:00 AM Monday morning, whatever it was always early classes for some reason. But yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm keep on going. I'm going to keep on going.

43:12 I'm not going to turn around just because no one's watching. That's great. Yeah. It's really good the, the experience of when, when someone doesn't show up is interesting versus when people show up and they, you know, they, they bring praise and gratitude or you, you notice that they had enjoyed the class.

43:32 There's a certain dynamic of energy that shifts towards the yoga teacher, whether there's people in the class or not. And the interesting part about this, and this is something that, you know, I'm sure Vijeth or Akshay, one of the philosophical gurus that we've had on the podcast can speak to, is that regardless of the information that comes or the energy that comes to us, it's like, how do we respond to it?

43:54 Because like, do we thrive off of the praise and the beauty and the love and Oh my God, this class was so beautiful, so transformative. And the thing that you said and the music and the playlist and my body feels so good, right?

44:06 As the yoga teachers, are we going to dislike sip that up and, and build up on that ego? And just like, yes, this is what I want. This is why I want to teach yoga is because of this feeling that I'm accumulating, right? Versus then all of a sudden in another situation, you know, maybe you don't teach so well or someone gives you some not so positive feedback and then how is that going to be received?

44:25 Is that going to just completely flat line you or is it that you're just being of service and the experience in which people get from what you do is going to fluctuate? You know, and the more people that are present, some people are going to love it, some people are not going to like it.

44:40 And it doesn't mean anything besides that that was their experience. And I think that as teachers, if we depend on the experience of the students to be positive, then we think, oh, that's a reflection on who we are as a teacher or how good we are as a facilitator.

45:05 And we can't control what other people's experiences are. I mean, obviously we, you know, we want to do our work and be prepared and to do our best, but also we need to do our best and show up and also recognize that what happens and whatever feedback we get afterwards, positive or negative or neutral, we need to stay neutral and be like, you know, there's a lot of praise. Then you just say humbly, thank you. I'm glad that you had a good class and come, come back again next time if you'd like to

45:30 right? Or someone says, hey, you know, I didn't really like that class said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You could also say thank you for the feedback. I appreciate that. You know, I'd love for you to come back again and maybe we can try one more time, something like this.

45:42 Yeah. Thing as neutral as possible to try to not have too much of this fluctuation up and down, which might, you know, derail the experience. And then all of a sudden that starts to feed into the, oh, I'm not good enough And, you know, no one's showing up or this person didn't have a good experience.

45:57 And you know, there's a lot of nuances on how that can torment different people for different reasons depending on our life experience and any types of emotional tensions or stresses that we might be holding onto in our body.

46:09 But I think it's good to talk about it, to acknowledge that, yeah, if you're just doing it for you, you're doing it in the sense of you're not necessarily doing it for you, you're doing it for everybody. But like we said before the podcast, everybody in US are all the same yoga in the union.

46:25 So if no one shows up, that's OK, you're there exactly so you can show up for yourself. So I liked how you said that. And then there's also if one person shows up, you might be expecting to have loads of people. Well, loads being like 9 is my kind of loads one day loads more for now. Yeah, yeah, you might, you might show up and there's one person and you're like one person to teach. I mean, I, I don't do that.

46:58 I mean, there's a part of me that does anyway. And you're like, well, it's. Kind of like, oh, what's the point? What is the point of this one person? Like, I want a whole class. Like, where's where's my 30 people who are going to come to me afterwards and be like, you're so good.

47:16 Yeah. And you do the class and then you realize at the end, like for me, for an example, I had this girl. She came. It was normally a usually, it was usually a busy class, but for some reason, it was just one person who came.

47:30 This is in the midst of my curse. I'm going to stop calling it likes. It's not energetically good, but we'll go with it. Yeah. And she showed up and she was, she was ready to do some yoga. And I was like, oh, it looks like it's just you and me today. Like, let's let's just go for it. And I taught this class and it was actually really beautiful. And at the end of the class, she was in Shabas. And I was like, let's, let's do our thanks. I like to thanks the earth at

47:57 the end and yoga and stuff. And she just like, didn't move. And I was like, oh, my God, is she dead? But she wasn't, she was just having an emotional release and it was a really big one. And she was crying. And the yoga had helped to get to this point where she was able to feel her emotions. And it was interesting because earlier that day I also went to practice my own yoga class and I, I felt some like held on emotions and I was in shavasana and, and I started crying and it was something I really needed to

48:30 do. And I was looking at this girl who was experiencing a similar thing to me of just like needing to release. And I was so grateful that I was able to give her the space to be able to, to, to let go of whatever she was holding onto. And if I hadn't shown up that day because I was like, well, no one's coming to my yoga classes anymore, I'm not going to do it. She wouldn't have had that experience. Same with me.

49:00 If, if my yoga teacher didn't show up for me that day, I wouldn't have been able to really feel into my feelings. And, and even when no one shows up to your yoga class, if I was to take, take that internally and really allow it to mess up my day and, and be grumpy and have this sad face on and, and be like, everything's miserable. I'm just going to go to bed now.

49:26 You are, you're wasting an opportunity to brighten someone's day, even if it's in the smallest way. So if when you leave the studio, you know, I've not taught anyone nor I've taught one person and you walk outside. If you can stabilize yourself and realize that it's not connected to yourself worth and you have shown up to yourself and you have shown up to the universe, you can go out there with a smile and maybe you walk past someone who's got like a

49:55 really lovely outfit or something. They've dropped their shopping and you can be in this open space and their capacity still to be able to serve because serving isn't limited to the yoga studio. And I think that's a lot of yoga teachers, you know, they want to serve the serve somebody. And if you have that open space and that positive mental attitude, even if something hasn't going any way, you can still make someone's day by being there, being able, you know, like nice T-shirt,

50:30 Michael. Thank you Has. That made you day I. Mean it's contributed to it, but I try not to take the the positive and make it fluctuate too much on my being because if you were to say the opposite and then it would fluctuate me the other way then.

50:45 I don't like your T-shirt. I mean, I feel neutral about it. OK. Yeah, it's pretty average. So exactly. So whatever you say, positive or negative, I'm just like, OK, cool. Thank you. Yeah. It's a good way to be, I guess if I was just to conclude that it's like don't let anything eat you up too much.

51:03 Because if you stay open and try and find a positive outlook on on anything that's happening really there's, there's still ways to serve people that aren't just in a yoga studio. Exactly. Yeah. And there was someone else, whether we released this episode first or the next or the one with Andre.

51:26 I don't know if you know Andre, but he he told me that, you know, sometimes people wouldn't show up and he would just take that opportunity to do his own practice and to serve himself, you know, and to prepare and to get ready for the next time.

51:38 And, you know, so yeah, to each their own and how they handle that experience. So hopefully someone gets a little bit out of this to know that, you know, it's an inevitability to some degree. Maybe not every teacher has had this experience, but you know, for a lot of teachers, they will experience the no show and then needing to go through that internal dialogue of what it all means.

51:57 And it really doesn't mean anything. So just, you know, move on from it. And if you do want to be there for people when you want to do the yoga, then just keep doing the yoga, right? And, and I think that's really all that needs to be said about that. But I also just to keep it real, think, you know, you might show up and no one's there and, and you use it to to do your own practice.

52:19 But there's nothing wrong with of being like, well, it's 8:00 AM. It's really early on a Monday morning. I'm actually just going to go back to. Bed or just shavasana right in the shala. Yeah, like you don't have to make, you know, it's still making something of it, even if it's not like, of course, doing yoga just to be real.

52:41 Yeah, I've done that, yeah. Wonderful. OK, I think let's wrap this up. We're almost on an hour now. Wow. I know balls rolling. Thank you so much for sharing your insights, your story, a lot of great things I think that people can definitely relate to.

52:58 So I appreciate you coming in and sharing all of that stuff. I'm sure we'll have you in again at some point. And just a little inside scoop to the audience. Megan's actually behind the scenes with some of the the social stuff. Yeah.

53:13 So, yeah, I mean, if anybody has any questions or they want to connect with you, Megan, because that sometimes will happen, Well, first of all, you can they can connect through going pro yoga because you'll probably be the one to receive some of that.

53:24 Yeah, also myself. But then also you have your own Instagram. Is that the best way for people to connect with you? Yes, and you would find me at at Meg Cowley. That's spelt M e.g. Cowley. Yeah, Meg Cowley. We'll make sure to put that in the show notes if anybody wants to connect with you and reach out.

53:46 And maybe they're like, I like this Meg chick. Maybe she'll be my more mentor. Yeah, I'll happily be someone's mentor. That would be very fun. Yeah, why not? I know lots of teachers that are looking for support and inspiration, so it would be nice to, I mean, if that's something that you're interested in.

54:04 Yeah, maybe. I mean, I like to keep it real. So if you like that kind of thing, some authentic. I mean, wisdoms, I think they're, if they're listening to this podcast, they must like authenticity because that's what we're all about. That's true.

54:18 I feel like we, yeah, we're luckily surrounded by authentic people. Yeah, the deal with all the AI, the artificial, the not. Real. I do love AI though. Yeah, me too. Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't have both. Yeah. Use the artificial, but then also maintain the real. Shout out to chat GT Shout out.

54:41 Well chat TPT if it was listening would probably respond. Yeah, yeah, she would. She would they. Would she would. It I actually call it she, they. She I don't know, maybe we should ask chat TPP if they have any pronouns or.

54:53 Yeah, we should. Might be different. Keep it respectful. I don't wanna say the wrong thing, right? Yeah. Well, this has been a real pleasure, Michael. I very much enjoyed it. And I'd just like to say thank you because without your support as well, I don't think I'd be where I am. So I think it's important to voice our gratitudes and appreciations for the people that have got to got us to where we are.

55:21 Because as much as it's me, it's been other people who have inspired me as well. And one of them is you. So thanks. Thank you for Shane. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, happy to be here of service. That's kind of why I'm doing this thing. Yeah, yeah.

55:36 And being of service is great. It is OK. Any final words? Any final thoughts? Just now that you're at the beginning of something beautiful, and in the middle of something even more beautiful, and perhaps at the end of something that needed to be dissipated into the unknown. That's good, we can quote that.

56:14 Yeah. Thank you someone. 'S going to put that on their Instagram as a meme I'm sure I. Don't know where that came from. But yeah, that's good. I like it. Awesome. Thanks again, Megan. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you everyone for tuning in and listening this week. And as always, just reach out if you have any questions, feedback, concerns, and otherwise, we'll speak to you next week.

56:32 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, practice and grow, this platform is definitely for you.

56:55 So I definitely suggest checking it out. Going proyoga.com right now? You can try it out for free for seven days.