Harmony Within: Nurturing Mental Health Through Yoga Philosophy with Dr. Brendan

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. The lesson seems to be actually direct that towards yourself.

0:33 Because you're a person, so don't steal from yourself. And if you are giving too much to other people, you're giving. Whether it's money or whether it's time or attention, you're actually stealing from your own internal resources that you need to to live like. You got to have boundaries, so don't steal from yourself. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you.

1:01 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.

1:22 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 students perspective to make sure we get a full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it's evolved in the modern world. Welcome to our podcast Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast. This episode is episode three of a series with Doctor Brendan Doherty who is a clinical

1:49 psychiatrist, and the previous two episodes we were talking about the integration between mental health and yoga. The practice of yoga. Not just the awesome of practice, but also the philosophy. In fact, today's episode and the last episode was all about integrating the idea of yoga philosophy and how it relates back to mental health and our day-to-day practices, our day-to-day activities and the things that we do and how we can infuse a little bit more of that yoga philosophy and ultimately

2:18 understand how it relates to our overall mental health and well-being. So without further ado, let's dive right into the conversation with Doctor Brandon. All right, welcome back. Here we are, Brendan, welcome back. Thank you, Michael.

2:32 Pleasure to be here again. Yeah, yeah. So this is episode three of a three. Wait, we're gonna do four parts, maybe even more. We'll see how it goes. But the third episode where Brendan has been with us on the podcast and I've been with Brendan to talk about the integration between mental health and yoga in a nutshell. So two episodes ago we basically talked about the foundations of that what is mental health and more or less kind of deconstructing that, which is

2:59 actually a really good foundational episode. So if you haven't listened to that suggest, go back and listen to that. And then the previous one we did, we started to talk about yoga philosophy and integrating yoga philosophy and not even necessarily integrating a bit more. So breaking it down in such a way to relate it back to how this influences your mental health or impacts your mental health or overall well-being rather, so that that episode is also good.

3:29 And today I think we're just gonna continue that. We'll probably continue talking a little bit more about the yamas and yamas and just breaking it down. What do you think? Seemed to work really well, so why mess with the the recipe? Yeah, right, it's it's bringing East West, it's bringing modern, ancient philosophy together.

3:45 And it it was really nice to riff off that. Yeah, I agree. I I feel like I learned quite a bit from you and the things that you shared so. Same. Here I'm keen to continue that. So in the last episode we talked about Ahemsa Satya.

4:00 So Ahemsa is non violence, Satya is truthfulness and purity. And then we also talked about Saucha which is cleanliness. So Saucha is one of the Niyamas and the other two are one of are two of the Yamas. So Yamas are more about self restraint or self reflection, and the niyamas are more about the observances of the world around you, the things around you. So, Brendan, is there one in particular that you, without even thinking too much about it, something that you might remember from one of the

4:33 philosophies that you'd like to start with, even if you don't know what it is? Oh man. Just take a take a guess, take a word. Before the episode you said on Staley and I was like what does non stealing have to do with mental health?

4:49 Well perfect, let's try that one. Let's challenge ourselves So non stealing Astea. Astea is the third, third Yama of the yoga philosophy and it represents non stealing. So I'll read what I have here which extends beyond physical theft.

5:06 So not actually about physical theft to include not coveting others properties or qualities. This encourages contentment and reduces feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction. So my interpretation of Estea and non stealing could be related to a couple things. So one of the first things is time, so stealing of time of others, stealing of time.

5:36 With regards to respect, respecting your own time, So I'm, I'm using time as the component here, but that's the one that relates the most for me. But the words that have us written here as well as coveting properties or qualities, other people's properties or qualities, so obviously there's the physical things.

5:53 We don't want to steal people's physical things, but then also stealing people's time, including ourselves. And to me that's a matter of disrespect and you know punctuality to some degree as well. Who Paul, who's usually regularly on the podcast, we call him punctual Paul. So he's very much practicing the Astea, very much so when it comes to time and he values the respectfulness of time, which is great, great quality to I think harness not only for the relationships around you but

6:26 also for yourself. Just like I think for me, I don't particularly think of it in this way about protecting my own time. I think it more about protecting my own energy, which is actually a different philosophy. Brahmacharia, which maybe we'll talk about that one afterwards.

6:45 The Brahmacharia is basically be the right use of energy or the the conservation of energy or the the withholding of energy. You can, you know deconstruct it in different ways, but it's basically saying energy preservation.

6:59 How do you how do you want to use your energy and and preserve your energy. So coming into a state I would interconnect those two and because of the non stealing, how do I want to use my energy or how do I use my use my time and I think of things like time vampires.

7:14 I don't know if that term is familiar, but that's the thing that comes up for me is or or attention. Vampires cause time and attention are basically one in the same and in the world that we live in. Oxygen uses. Oxygen Oxygen users.

7:28 No, it's not quite right. But people who suck oxygen out of the room? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Yeah. So in the world that we live in, with attention being the greatest currency, it seems online and everything is, you know, instant gratification and all these types of things, I'm very conscious of my own energy.

7:53 Or I try to be and do I allow things to steal my own time? And I'm not saying like other people, but yes, you know, am I going to create certain boundaries, for example, to be able to respect my own time? Am I going to be on any types of technologies or games or apps or things social media that is also going to be taking away a certain amount of time and energy for me. So again this might crossover.

8:21 Maybe we can talk about the two of those because they seem to be at least mostly related for me. I really do. They are definitely different. I'm sure if the Jeff was here he would deconstruct them significantly differently.

8:32 But that being said, you know we're novices over here with the philosophy, so we're just going to do it as we do and bring it back into the mental health well-being state so. So I write a couple notes. Anything down that you want to jump into with regards to a stay and non stealing?

8:47 Yeah. Obviously I gave myself away by saying at the start, why does it have anything to do with mental health? And here I'm going to talk about it, why it does have something to mental health. And I'm also going to go right back and again disclaim mental health is not a game. And this is a podcast and if you do need help, please seek it. This is not therapy, but it is hopefully topic that's going to resonate and you can use in your life to to improve your mental health and to to thrive.

9:21 So just that little disclaimer again around please seek help if you're struggling. If any of this is triggering, please don't take it as medical advice and please seek the help that you need. Thank you. That said, and now I'm going to move slowly towards the topic here. As a psychiatrist, we kind of talked about this a little bit. We spend so much time looking at mental illness and bringing people from states of mental illness to health. We don't spend as much time

9:57 looking at going from a state of normal health to thriving or really having a a really great mental health. And that's what we're trying to do. And I'm quite interested in that topic. You know, I think treating mental illness or mental conditions, however you want to put it, is super important and we can take lessons from that into thriving.

10:18 But if you look at the way mental illness is treated at the moment, it's it's more about, you know, therapy unfortunately, particularly in the United States, a lot of medication where it's probably not needed. And like, again, those things are great needed. In fact, I've just posted about it this morning, how important therapy is and how important it can be for anyone. But what we're getting into here is this territory of. It's a lot more murky what it is

10:48 to bring ourselves into real, like integral practices, to make you really function and do well in life, to really thrive. And that's what came up for me here in terms of a style. This is like a this is a positive psychology practice.

11:05 Like this is really something to give yourself full integrity and a nice frame of mind about which to go through the world. And you, you mentioned this in one of the previous philosophies, but I see this is really important to not judge people, but to be aware of it. And the more you can have awareness in yourself and it's like having a little second mind where you're going through life and you're, you know, you're reacting to thoughts and pulses of emotion.

11:33 But somewhere behind that you've got this little part of your brain which is just aware of these concepts. And so non stealing, yes, it gives talk about like property, but bigger it's more about, yeah it seems like it's more about energy, time and attention. And we all go into periods where we need where we receive and that's really important and some people have difficulty doing that.

12:04 Just as a quick side note, I remember someone saying to me once they're two types of people, there's fountains and there's drains. That's a really simplistic, reductionist way to put it. But when you hear that, you kind of know it. Like some people give and give and give and other people take and take and take.

12:21 Now everyone needs to take at times. You need to be supported. You need to be, you know, listened to, held, whatever it is you need, might need some physical resources, whatever it is. But there's a there comes a time when you kind of, you know, you get enough of that and you need to also be a fountain as well.

12:43 We live in a reciprocal society world. And so it's the awareness. It's not saying don't be a drain because it's OK to be a drain sometimes, but you also do need to be a fountain sometimes. So having that frame of mind about don't steal, like don't steal an excess amount of people's energy, attention or time, like, just be aware of that. I think that's really important.

13:05 Like it. It's not something that we're going to be. We're going to piss people off. We'll have different limits of that. But and and also don't steal from yourself like all of these of these philosophies we are. We are tempted to say it's about how you treat other people, but the lesson seems to be actually direct that towards yourself because you're a person, so don't steal from yourself. And if you are giving too much to other people, you're giving whether it's money or whether

13:35 it's time or attention, you're actually stealing from your own internal resources that you need to to live. Like you got to have boundaries, so don't steal from yourself. So that's what comes up for me. Yeah. And and these things is what's going to take you from being like AI don't know if you to to an average performer to a great performer and and the people that seem in my eyes, and this is anecdotal but the people that seem to do really, really well

14:04 in life have a really healthy balance. They are not afraid to give to themselves and look after themselves. They invest money into good food, say things that help them sleep, things that they enjoy. But they also are extremely generous with what they do in their time. They'll they'll share knowledge.

14:25 They'll help people out when they're a bad spot. They'll take the time to do what they need to do to be good in the world and and that balance of doing both really helps people to thrive so. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The balance piece, becoming aware of your state of being around this particular topic. Are you more of a fountain?

14:46 Are you more of a dream? And like you said, we kind of want to be both in different times. Moderation, they say moderation and everything, even moderation. So yeah, I mean it's I think of different people who in my life are more takers and they feel like they drain me sometimes.

15:05 And you know, that's that's their world to for them to sort out. And then for me, I see it as how do I want to respond in those situations, which the word that comes up for me is boundaries. How do I establish boundaries so that yes I'm happy to give when someone is ready to take up to a certain point and then I need to either have already pre set a boundary or eventually bring the boundary into the game if you will, so that I do not get completely drained myself.

15:37 Because then eventually, not even eventually. But it's my responsibility to maintain that level of call it energy, time, resources. And if someone who is you know in their own world and they're not. I don't the word take is seems very like, you know a negative thing almost to some degree. But someone who is in the receiving mode, we can say, right, they're just receiving.

16:04 They're receiving, you can say taking, but they're receiving a lot. Eventually it gets to a point where if you can set the boundary they they might actually that that boundary might actually help them to switch to a fountain. Do you know what I mean?

16:19 But if we don't actually set these boundaries, if we don't establish awareness of this conversation and not necessarily say like, hey man, you're taking all my energy, like when are you going to start giving back? Like that's not what I mean, but I mean the best way to teach or not even to teach.

16:37 But the best way to support people is through example, not by telling them and saying hey, you should do this and unsolicited advice that doesn't work, but if you can be the example then that will have somewhat of a ripple effect.

16:49 I would say so. Have you gotten, have you got a like a a tangible example of that? Sorry, it's such a good point when it comes to mind. I mean, this year in 2024 has been my year of creating boundaries. So I have lots of.

17:03 I have lots of examples narrowing down to 1. And how that actually helps someone to become a fountain, as you said, or like make someone realize that they might need to reel it in. Yeah, so let's see. I have a couple examples that relate to work.

17:25 So teacher trainings where I'm asked to teach in a lot of trainings for different schools, which I've been doing a good job of setting boundaries on how many of those I do this year to make sure that I, I don't completely drain my resources.

17:40 And also there's I did, I still notice that's with some people that I do work with or some schools that I do work with. There is a little bit more of like the, the taking energy, like we want to get the most out of this person, we want to get the most for our money and all this type of stuff, which I totally understand because on the other end, I like to do the same as an entrepreneur. I want to try to get the most of out of the budget that I have, right.

18:00 So I can understand that. So as a more specific example, let's just say one of the schools that I agreed to, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to teach during that period because I had a lot going on. But I was like, you know what?

18:14 I'm going to make the conscious choice and say yes to do it, even though I'm not sure if it's the best thing for me because I might be overworked at that time. But, you know, I have the relationship here. So I made the conscious choice to say yes to it.

18:29 And then that school messaged me and said, hey, we're going to cancel the training so you can free up those dates. And I was like, sweet, perfect. That's exactly what I wanted. So that's what I did. And I I set a plan. I'm going to take some time off and go do this the next day, not even 24 hours later. The next day they got back to me saying, hey, we changed our mind and we're going to have the training again. Are you available for those dates? Right.

18:57 So to me, that's a little bit of stealing of my energy, my time, my whatever, you want to put it. Like, just my energy with this conversation, right. And they just assumed, like, oh, he'll probably just say yes. And I said no, said no.

19:10 Actually, I made other plans, right? And they were a little surprised, but I was also like, yeah, I'm just not available anymore, so. You're nodded out Beck and Cole. No, I'm not. Yeah. So that set a particular boundary that I think they were a little like, oh, OK.

19:27 So that I think there's a certain amount of respect that came from that as well, which actually made me feel very good, even though, you know, I'm not going to get paid for that job, obviously, because I'm not going to do it.

19:38 But part of me is just like, no, the the boundary, the energy, the the respect. It's almost like the principle in the matter here is more important to me. Like I don't want to be bounced around, you know what I mean? Didn't seem like the most professional thing to switch from one day to the next, which I understand.

19:52 These things happen, you know, I do it as well, but I'm also willing to take the consequences. And they had to take the consequences, which is sorry I'm not available anymore. And next time, it's very likely that they're going to keep that in mind when they're coming back to you with that ambivalence, you know, going back and forth, right. I mean, I hope so.

20:12 If they learn from that, they'll be like, OK, when this guy's like he's there, but he's, he's, he's not going to, you know, not going to stuff around with him. So if he says yes, let's go through it. If he says no, then, you know, let's respect that. Exactly.

20:26 I feel like it earned a little bit more respect towards me. And they acknowledged that afterwards and they, you know, apologize for bouncing around. And I was like, yeah, you know, it is what it is kind of thing. But I could see that prior to this year where I've been exercising this skill.

20:43 Sometimes it's hard to set that boundary and say no and make those changes because you don't want to ruin that relationship or you don't know what the consequences might be if I set that boundary and I say no, which I completely understand.

20:56 But to me, and now I started to switch my brain on what are the consequences of myself? What types of consequences, consequences am I going to have to deal with myself if I don't set that boundary, which would be, you know, my energy might be completely depleted. I didn't really want to do it in the 1st place and I said yes. So maybe I'm, you know, I have a little bit of internal conflict with myself.

21:17 There's like a little resentment between me and me kind of thing, right. So I understand the difficulty of setting boundaries and that's why it's been my goal for 2024 is to really practice it. And anytime I see moments like this one, this example, where it comes to my attention, then I practice this, call it a staya, call it Brahmacharya.

21:38 Awareness of the present moment of what do I want to do here? Do I want to allow this transaction to be happening, to be playing around with my energy, my time? Or am I going to set a firm boundary and make sure it's understood what I want, what I don't want?

21:56 And it's actually very empowering when you do that. Yeah, scary at first, but it's very empowering eventually. And then and then it's almost feels like great to do it and continue to do it because then you're kind of exercising that giving and then also that taking, yeah, to some degree.

22:10 The more I think about it, like at least half of this concept is boundaries with yourself and with others. Like I am not going to be played around like this, you know, my time is worth more than that, and it's then allowing others to. It's not about, like, being punitive or being, like necessarily even training them.

22:30 It seems like it's more like just respecting yourself. And when you do that, then they will respect you. Who'd have thought? I don't know if this is related or not, but I just want to bring it up because I think it's funny. OK, I'm raising my hand.

22:44 I'm an overthinker, but that's why I'm what I am, I suppose. So this morning and other times I've noticed you do very minimal text messages. Like sometimes I'm like, why doesn't he write a bit more like, I don't get any kind of, you know, there's no emojis, There's no a long explanation.

23:09 I'm kind of like sometimes I'm like, is he grumpy or is he, you know, is he just trying to just set a boundary here or something? And then I think about that and now that I know you more I'm like we haven't talked about it.

23:25 Like Michael just has this thing like he doesn't like to fuck around on phones. Like you're gonna hopefully you're gonna correct me if I'm wrong here. But I kind of worked it out. That's like this is Michael's boundary with himself because he does.

23:39 He's he's recognized that he doesn't like to spend time writing messages and he just gets the point across. And me being a little bit oversensitive sometimes to like what other people and like needing to put in emojis or over explain or whatever, I realize that's me.

23:54 Like that's just my assumed response to it. And actually you doing those little basic text messages frees me up to just do the basic text message back, a yes or a no or a a quick explanation and then whatever response you have to that is then your your responsibility and it's actually great. So that's also an example I think of not stealing. You're not stealing from yourself over explaining or worrying about my emotions and then it allows me to just have my response and then I'm not

24:27 going to steal. Well then I'm then it gives me the chance to just to simply answer back to you without getting over involved in the the nuances of the conversation. I think I've explained that right anyway. Yeah, I mean, you're you're exactly right.

24:44 I don't, I've been, I mean just said a whole bunch of words that didn't make sense. But part of my goal to set boundaries is also with my phone. Not just boundaries with people and schools and things, I mean the, you know, other relations, but my relationship with my phone, my relationship with social media, these types of things. I mean, shit, I'm 40.

25:07 I was turned 40 last Week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks ago, depending on when this gets released. And I remember a time when I had phones and text messages were exactly that basic like yes, no coming gap, be there shortly. BRB, this type of crap, right?

25:22 No emojis existed. Right. You didn't have the time to, like, punch in because it wasn't a smartphone, it was like a button phone, right? So I remember that in two. Kids. Yeah, part of me is just like it was simpler times with messages and just getting a text message at those times it's just like, wow, I got a text and that's like, there's value in this information. I take it and then I I I roll with it. But now texts are not special anymore. You get texts thousands of texts

25:48 a day seems like for some people. So then now they need to be colored up a little bit with emojis and more and all these types of things which I can appreciate in certain moments. I definitely try to do that. But I don't know about you, but being and working with a lot of schools, I'm, I'm in a lot of groups and I will get a lot of messages every single day. So every day I find myself filtering through messages and oftentimes I won't even respond

26:11 to a lot of them because I'm just like, there's so much. What's a priority for me if I don't respond to this what will happen type of thing or like what's the energy exchange happening here. And as a a physical therapist I got a lot of people who find me and message me and ask me about their injuries all the freaking time.

26:29 You get emails text messages and like look I love being of service and I love helping people and I will do that but not at the expense of my own energy and my own resources. There'll be to a certain point that I will give and then I will have to set that and this is my responsibility to set the boundary to say no, I that's that's as far as I go where I don't have time or you know, these types of things.

26:54 And again it's hard to do that right especially if you're a people pleaser. If you want people to like you, if you're teaching yoga and you want to just say yes to everything because you want to you know, get yourself in the door. Like I get it.

27:05 I've done all of those things and I've gone so far on the fountain of giving that I needed to eventually turn the cheek a little bit and not necessarily be a drain but create a a boundary between those two. So my behaviors with regards to phones and social media and texts and just conversations about work has has been improved, I would say because of my awareness and my presence around the idea of time, attention, resources and the importance of what's best for me

27:38 without disrespecting others. That's what I'd say. Yeah, love it. That's really such an important concept. So, so folks, we've gone from non stealing to text messages here. Yeah, basically covered a lot of a lot of ground.

27:53 Yeah. So let's just kind of like touch over Brahmacharya. Yeah, which is the 4th Niyama. We kind of mentioned to it the right use of energy, energy preservation. We've kind of touched on it, but let's just like I'll just read the little blurb and see if anything else comes up. So traditionally associated with celibacy, so withholding sexual acts, but more broadly interpreted as the property proper management of sexual and all energies. So practicing Brahmataria can

28:25 prevent burnout and promote energetic balance. So similar to the previous conversation, But I would say, yeah, not talking so much about energy, I mean we could talk about sexual energy. I mean, we have a podcast where we talk about this with Eric where we just talk about pornographic stuff and how that can drain your energy for the sexual energy between people, like actual humans, not screens and pixels, right? So I don't remember what episode that is, but we could. I can reference it in the show

29:03 notes for the Going Pro Yoga Podcast, but otherwise burnout is the word that comes up for me with Brahmacharya, which is again coming back to these boundaries that I was talking about before without recognizing and becoming aware of this time and energy and resources that can lead and will eventually lead to what we would consider burnout.

29:24 And that's a poor use of your energy, a poor use of your resources. So I think the, the, the words that seem to resonate more for me is the right use of energy or your energy preservation. So this might be about interacting with people and creating these boundaries, but it also might just be within yourself, like the boundaries for yourself. Like if I have a big work day and I come home at lunchtime and I know I have a big afternoon, am I going to use my energy in an appropriate way by eating

29:54 some food, sitting down and meditating, resting, You know, not looking at my phone, not doing any work, and actually giving myself time to recharge so that the second-half of the day I can actually show up and be of service?

30:07 Or am I going to come home, eat some food, watch Netflix while I'm eating some food and cooking, then start to lay on the couch and scroll for a little bit before I have to put in my second shift for the day, right? Those are two different choices. The first one, which would probably actually help to serve me better, and the and the second one, which I might think in the in the moment, oh, this is gonna be good, 'cause I actually get to do what I want,

30:31 'cause it's my break time, right? I can go on my phone, I can scroll a lot of stuff, which, hey, I I do it occasionally, right? But I always, I always try to bring myself back to the awareness of what do I need in these moments.

30:43 And if I don't have a lot of things going on where I need to, you know, preserve my energy, then, you know, maybe scrolling is like what I want to do. And I'm not going to judge myself for it. Because again, we don't want to judge ourselves. We just want to be aware.

30:56 But if I know that I have a busy week and I got a lot going on from morning to night, and I can be aware of this this road that I'm looking at, then it would. It would be smart of me to be able to find moments where I can preserve my energy or recharge my energy or make great use of my energy.

31:19 So I might actually, if there's a 20 minute window, I might actually take that 20 minute window and close my eyes, sit in stillness and breathe, right. So in those extreme cases where I have a lot of things going on, I'm like super sharp and focused to be like the only way that I can show up in these moments is by taking those moments outside of the work and using it so that I can show up for those moments of work.

31:44 So hopefully that makes sense, does. And also I think it's important to know that for me with those, this example is it's a temporary thing, right? I'm not going to operate like this where I'm working full days and then I'm doing meditation for 20 minutes and then I'm, you know, doing it again. And and just kind of revolving in this wheel, which, you know, some high level people probably do that. They work all day long.

32:07 They meditate the exercise. They work all day long. They meditate the exercise. And they just keep going, keep going, keep going. Sounds like a production machine. Yeah, that might lead to burnout. Or not. I'm not sure. Maybe they can.

32:17 Relax a little. Speak for themselves, but for me, I I I'm happy to put in a shift quote UN quote, like I'll put in a lot of work, so long as I I find moments where I can actually make sure to fill up my cup a little bit or at least, you know, a little bit energy. My battery charge, plug it in, and then if I have moments where I'm working and there's space in between there's like some some breathing room, then yeah, maybe I'll scroll on my phone at lunchtime or maybe I'll take

32:45 these breaks. But if I know that I need to show up, then I will show up and I'll actually be conscious and present in the decisions I make to make the right use of my energy. And that's what I think about with with that. Oh man, yeah.

32:59 It's this idea of awareness. It's like, I wanna repeat to you folks, we're not telling you what to do. This is like we're not 2 white guys here telling you what to do. But and we're not and we're not saying like all these things feel like on some level they're judgments. Like you know you must do this to look after your energy. It's not that.

33:21 It's awareness. And the more you're aware of yourself and you sit with different ideas, trial and error. I've talked about on my podcast incremental change. Just trying things. It's really important to actually just give things a go, but be be aware, don't judge, just see what it is.

33:39 And so these things that Michael's talking about is just things to like, consider like he's saying like if you want to be the scroller, come home or before bed, do it. Just be aware of what you're doing. Like I use my phone sometimes just before I go to bed.

33:56 All the sleep gurus say don't do it, but sometimes I just want to use my phone, like I've got to reply to people or I want to look at what the score in the English Premier League was or whatever it is. I know that that's not great for me, but sometimes it's just what I want to do and sometimes that keeps me up and other times it doesn't.

34:18 I fall right to sleep. So I kind of do it with a little bit of consciousness at least, or at least I know what I'm doing so that next time, if that if I'm awake every time, then I can. You know, my girlfriend tells me that you're always been a pain and I try to adopt A different behavior. So this is, yeah, this is really about awareness and a couple of points I wanted to touch on the the sexual energy thing because I think that's a it's a really interesting topic. I am definitely not an expert in

34:47 this, so I just want to preface what I'm saying. But again, it's an area where people might want to try different things and there are different various movements like you know, no FAP or you know people don't, you know, obviously it's there doesn't seem to be anything good about looking at porn. So if there was a recommendation, don't do that. But in terms of like masturbation, like some people are really hard line and say don't masturbate because particularly for men there is

35:18 some sort of leak of testosterone and there is a leak of kind of sexual energy. And people who are into this will tell you their subjective experience about this and really go for it. And then there's another school of thought that says you should learn to, like, play with yourself and learn what feels good.

35:36 But how you do that is probably really important. Specifically, try not to deal with porn. But again, this stuff is just about like, I am not, I'm not recommending one or the other, and I know even there's like some data. I remember learning in Med school that I think if you you need to have some sort of sexual, like release of as a man, orgasm reduces your chance of prostate. So if you're holding in your, you know, you cum the whole time, then it might increase.

36:06 But I think that is a really small association. It's not the only thing you're going to think about when it comes to this. So I'm just bringing all this up to say this is an energetic thing and it's a subtle change. And again, it's about awareness. Think about like, if you want, if you're interested in it, read up on it.

36:23 Try a few things. Be safe. Don't listen to what I'm saying. But then give it a go. And then you might find that that works for you, might find that it doesn't. Might improve your sex life, it might reduce it. It might improve your energy, it might reduce it. So that's just what kind of came to mind about the the sexual energy thing and the celibacy, because that was the original, you know, as you said, meaning of this. How do you say it, Brianna?

36:47 Brahmacharya. I was very far off. That's OK. Brahmacharya, I'll blame that on the doctor writing. There you go. The other point that was I learned about in the last few years, it's been quite effective for me in terms of thinking about how I use my time, definitely is that, you know, the traditional thing is that money is very important, but many people will say time is more important than money.

37:17 Well, yes, but it's not the whole story. What's more important than time is energy. Because, you know, you could say that you have more time, but if you don't have energy to use that time, then what's the point of the time anyway? And then some people would go one step further and say attention is actually more important than energy because when you get attention on yourself, like that's the ultimate way that you're going to, you know, develop or you're going to help someone else.

37:50 So you kind of got to have the energy, but ultimately what's the point of it's the attention. And if your attention's split, then you can't use your energy, your time and your money appropriately. So that's kind of like the cascade down that just sort of like some modern wisdom that I've come across in recent years that's reframed the way that I think about these things. That's great.

38:11 OK, so brahmacharya one more time, Brandon. Brianna, you know. Brianna, let's do one more. Let's do one more for this episode. Today, I kind of want to do tapas. Which Spanish kind of dish? Not quite OK, not quite. Tapas is referring to discipline or austerity.

38:36 So the practice of disciplined use of our energy tapas can foster resilience, encourage personal growth and help in achieving long term goals which are vital for your overall well-being and mental health. So I believe we mentioned this in the first episode of the Series A few episodes ago, talking about what happens in a yoga teacher training, which is basically you're put in this pressure cooker of a situation.

39:05 Three weeks, you know, studying for, studying and learning from morning to evening for the first week feels great. Second week like you're getting tired, you're at the the point where you're starting to become fatigued. Stress levels start to increase a little bit because of you know fatigue and possibly energy levels are decry decreasing.

39:26 So we would call that tapas or purification through heat. So we also mentioned in that episode where you could actually be doing physical exercise in the moment of like an hour, two hours, and you're actually bringing a certain amount of stress to your body or challenge, which allows your energy to shift and to fluctuate in such a way to adapt to that challenge possibly. So in a yoga teacher training, it's a similar thing. So Tapas is when you're going

39:54 through the process of actually learning intensely and this is kind of what people this is what happens when we go through school and like the institutional structure of like elementary school, high school and stuff like that.

40:06 Whether the discipline is there or not is. You know up for grabs depending on the school and the teachers and the parents support. That being said, the practice of discipline and actually pushing through when things are challenging and actually trying to figure out and resolve or problem solving is part of the tapas and that disciplinary practice, which again Paul is a huge advocate for disciplinary action in in bettering yourself and trying to improve yourself

40:36 and not to go too much into another one. But if I started talk talking about SVAD Yaya, SVAD Yaya, which is about self study. OK. So I'm just going to, I'm going to mention self study and I'm going to talk about the two because I think they have an intersection there and this involves introspection in the study of self-awareness and can lead to greater emotional intelligence. OK.

41:01 So it says talking about, you know, studying for yourself, learning about yourself, improving for yourself, which again this, this, this stuff all kind of crosses over with different elements of what we've already talked about in this episode and previous episodes. But I would say that self study or or the awareness of self and the awareness of your call it your needs or your limitations or your not your boundaries but your your thresholds of let's say physical thresholds and

41:30 where you're feeling challenged, mental cognitive thresholds and where you might feel challenged, emotional thresholds and where you might feel challenged. And again it's coming back to the awareness of in the presence of those moments and then deciding if you're present enough.

41:49 What do I want to do with this challenge in this thing? Do I want to push through or do I want to stop in withdraw? Both are fine, right? Again, we don't want to judge. We want to be aware of our choice and make a conscious choice. And if the moment is right and the energy's there and it's like this is the right time to push, then you push. If this is the right time to withdraw, then you withdraw. And I think in a balance between those two, like in everything we've talked about, moderation

42:16 is still really important because I think some people tend to be more of the pushers and they'll just continue to push, push, push. No matter what challenge. I see a challenge. I'm going to push through it. You're going to challenge me, Let's do it right.

42:28 And then other people have a hard time with being challenged and they tend to withdraw when conflict is presented. Conflict being physical challenge or or mental challenge or emotional challenge. And I won't say that either them right or wrong. I would say again, it's a balance of becoming aware of when is a good time for me to push myself and when is a good time for me to take care of myself, right. And if we just use this in the, in the context of a yoga class, and I'm practicing as a

42:55 practitioner and the class is really challenging and I'm like my body feels good today and I feel like I can really push myself. And I could, you know, hold plank a little bit longer. I can go for these peak poses that the teacher's leading me through.

43:07 And then maybe there's other days where I'm just like I still want to practice, but I don't think I can. I'm, I'm not going to push myself all the way through because maybe physically it's going to reach my limit and you know, that could lead to a possible injury or something like this. And then also, it'd probably be better for me to actually make the conscious choice to say like actually, no, this is enough for me today.

43:29 So for me talking about this, I tend to come across different types of people when it comes to physical therapy, which is there's this is a small pocket of people. But the people who come to see me and they want my help and I give them my help and my recommendations and what to do, and they will do everything I say to the T, probably more.

43:51 So I actually tend to have to pull them back. They're the the thing that I they need for me is for me to pull them back and say, you know, OK, do do a little bit less on my prescription is usually less. Instead of me saying, oh, I'm going to give you like 5-6 things, I might say, hey, let's just focus on these two or three things for two weeks, nothing more.

44:09 And then I'd have to like, remind them, OK, don't go too much. Like less is more, less is more, less is more. And then there's the other type of person who there's a lot more of these in my world is people who come for my help. I give them my recommendations and how they can resolve their their issues and they need to be pushed right. They need more of the discipline, they need the accountability, they need the the text message with the emojis and all the stuff to get them

44:33 motivated maybe, which I don't do that. But those are the two types of people that I kind of see and this kind of I would say intersex a little bit as well. And what I, and I know you're going to say some stuff, Brendan. But my question to the audience is like, are you more of a pushing through all the time or are you more of a withdrawing back all the time Or do you find yourself actually balanced in between the two?

44:57 And if you're not really Sure, Start to become aware, start to become present of that and maybe you'll start to find some clarity on what that is for yourself. Nice. And can I just clarify, 'cause I feel like I'm a bit confused about what Tapas is.

45:13 Sure. You said it's like the idea of discipline and austerity. Does that sort of coming from a warrior mentality. Is that something? Is that saying that we all need to have a part of us that just gets on with it, or is it? Is it more subtle than that?

45:36 I would say that it has more to do with potential energy that exists that can be accessed and tapped and might. When I say tapped, I mean like tap, like a like a faucet. But the only way that we can do that is by actually pushing through the boundary or the wall to get it open, which is.

45:57 The David Goggins approach then? To some degree, yeah. But in a healthier way. No offense, but in a healthier way, where it's like, am I going to stay? It's kind of like the comfort level. Am I going to stay within my comfort level or am I going to push myself slightly outside of my comfort level to release potential possibilities, to release potential energy, to challenge myself, to have self-discipline, to improve myself, which is why I connected it back to Svad Yaya, which is

46:23 the self study a little bit, yeah. Or am I just the person that stays in my boundary, stays in my comfort and doesn't want to exit and, you know, withdraws anytime there's some resilience, some resistance or these types of things. So that's that was the question to the audience. But ultimately, yeah.

46:39 Also touching on the idea of whether it's, you know, when people use these terms like more of a masculine or feminine trait. Not like it's got nothing to do with sex, but that, you know, people sometimes talk about these things in those terms. It's that, kind of.

46:53 Yeah, you could, you could use it like that as well. I would say because of the the, the the disciplinary is more of action, pushing through has direction and that's how I would describe masculine traits, masculine energy versus feminine energy which would be more of self introspection.

47:12 Self, you know, say self-awareness, but not even that, but just withdrawal or self love to some degree, yeah. I mean, you know, there's nuances in between these words, so don't hold me too strongly to that, but that's the way I would view it. Yeah, it's and that word tapas refers to hate, doesn't it? Yes, that's the derivation.

47:32 Purification through heat, yeah. What comes to mind is, you know, you kind of already touched on them, but particularly in the yoga world and when people come to Bali, they get into this idea of it's almost like you don't. You just need to listen to your intuition and stuff will come to you Like it's it's it's around that manifestation language. It's around that softness.

48:01 It's that that state of mind where the more that you back off and just do little and do what feels good, the more will be will come to you. And look, I think there is some truth to that, but there is the other side to that.

48:25 And if you go to other parts of the world, like in a hustle culture somewhere like, I don't know, New York or something, that if you just sit back on the straight corner and expect people to come to you, that that ain't gonna happen.

48:40 Or if you come from a disadvantaged background, that's not going to happen. Like, you can't just sit and go with the flow and stuff's going to change for you. But if you have some sort of level of like resources or drive already, sometimes it's useful to take your foot off the pedal.

49:04 And when you push too much, it's kind of like trying to force something again. This is, again, like a broken record. It's about awareness and trying both things at certain times in your life. So coming back to the topic of tapas, you know, discipline, authority, hate, drive. To me what I hear is that this is the opposite of that. This is where you're saying that actually there's sometimes when you just got to do the thing that you want to do, you got to, I'm going to use the term man up

49:35 or woman up, whatever you want to say. Then you don't want to do them up. Do the thing that you don't. Well, or you might. I think I actually meant that because like, you want to, I don't know, make you want you want to, you know, you want to be fitter. And in order to be fitter, often you don't feel like going to the gym or going for a walk or a run. But you've decided that you want to be healthier. So just letting go in with the flow and listening to your feelings is not always the

50:08 thing. Sometimes you literally have to get off the couch and go for the walk. Luckily that usually when you start to do that it becomes easier and more enjoyable. But. And that's the purification process. That's once you start to use the energy, which is the heat.

50:21 Once the energy starts to get released, that's when the purification, the clarity starts to come through, so on. I like that. And that really relates to the idea that motivation comes after action. Like you can't just sit back and hope the motivation will always come to you. There is a time to do that.

50:38 But if you're sitting around doing nothing, then sometimes that motivation is never going to come. So you got to start to do the thing for the thing to happen and to get motivation around it. And that is what I'm hearing in this, in this idea of tapas. So again, to, to rephrase, it's another awareness thing. Sometimes you got to be disciplined, you got to push. Other times it's time to back off. Be aware of it, try different things, see what works for you. Yeah, exactly.

51:09 And this makes me think of like in the yoga teaching world, You know, whether you're teaching yoga or not and you're thinking, I do want to do it, but getting up there and doing it is stressful. Or it's nerve wracking. Great. This is the tappest moment.

51:25 Get up there and do it. Be nervous, be uncomfortable. Do it anyway because the purification will come afterwards. We can call purification just clarity or or understanding a little bit more, learning from the release of that heat, that energy.

51:39 So you got, you get up there, you get nervous. You know, you teach a class, maybe you say some things that you weren't happy with because you're also a perfectionist and you're like, oh, you know, but at the end of the day, people are happy. They seem to be content.

51:51 They got to move their body. You said something nice about gratitude or whatever. You got through it. You got through it. You taught the class, You did the thing that you wanted to do, but you also didn't want to do. You got nervous about it. You release this heat, this energy, you can relax, and then the next time you do it, guess what? It's going to probably be easier and easier and easier the more you do it.

52:12 So this is the purification process of doing things that, whether you want to do them or not, are, say, unfamiliar. And there's a certain amount of energy that gets released. Call it energy through heat, call it nervousness, whatever it is, anxiety. But stepping through that, there's a certain process that kind of happens in the body that basically starts to release that energy.

52:33 And yeah, the community and all that stuff comes through. And this is a great place to this is a A. You've just exactly described how maybe it is perceived in the yoga world. And then I'll bring in two concepts from the mental health world that exactly mirror that.

52:52 And and one is that idea of hermetic stress, which is a little bit of stress to put your body through it to, to make you feel better. And things that stress us are actually good for us as long as they don't. It's not it's not too much like kind of like the what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Like I'm not suggesting get into that stage. But if that that's why people recommend things like you know doing some exercise, doing the thing that you don't want to do get into an ice bath, something

53:24 that's hard, something that's difficult that you don't like. And when you do that, it's not easy to start off and once you do it, you feel freaking great afterwards. Like there's a whole neuroscience behind this, but it's important to to do things that are a bit challenging so you got to get in there and do it.

53:39 So that idea of a hormetic stress is really important. Another idea is around what's called the Yorks Dodson curve and that relates on one axis its performance and the other axis it's anxiety. So on the let me see, it's an upside down U-shaped curve and as anxiety increases what should say be on the X axis, then on the Y axis I hopefully I got this right is performance. So we perform best when we're under a little bit of pressure. So if we've got no pressure at

54:19 all, we don't give a crap and we don't do any work because we just like what's the point? Like we're just chilling. No need. So. But if we get put under a little bit of pressure. So for some people this would be say like an exam environment or people are watching them or you know, it's important to them for some reason they value that thing.

54:35 They feel that anxiety and they perform better than they would if they didn't have any anxiety. But there comes a point when you overdo it, it's too it's too much. Like, you know, you've never performed in front of 30 people before or you know, you're you're so worried about something that if you fuck up, it's going to be the end of the world or whatever it is or or you know, your boss puts you under too much pressure. Like you if you don't do this,

54:59 you're going to get fired. Whatever. So there there comes a point where too much anxiety reduces your performance. So that's the idea of the Yorks Dodson curve. So, but I think it really relates beautifully to this idea that sometimes you got to put yourself under pressure, you got to be able to discipline, you got to do it and those hard things are are are going to make you feel better. So if you can get through it and do it and perform well, then what a release, you know,

55:25 releasing all that dopamine you're you have that sense of achievement. You've you've done something you didn't think you could do and it's beautiful. Yeah. So that's kind of like the the purification and other terms? Which would help with your overall well-being. Sure would.

55:40 In your mental health, Yeah. It would probably just open up possibilities, I would say, and release. Yeah, possibilities or awareness of possibilities When you do something that you don't want to do and then you do it and then you realize, wow, that wasn't that bad.

55:53 Or that was a little bad. But I'm gonna do it better next time because I'm gonna. I learned this and I learned that. Yeah, because once you do the thing, it no longer causes you as much anxiety. So you can do it again and again and then you have a bigger challenge and then you just keep levelling up.

56:08 So nice. Awesome. Great. OK, cool. So I think we're we're pretty much good for going through the, I mean there's obviously a few more yoga philosophies that we didn't go through but you know I think what would be good is for the audience to possibly just start to interpret it yourself.

56:33 So we went through most of them. The ones that we haven't gone through are Santosha, which is contentment. So I'll just read what I have here. So encourages finding happiness in the present moment and in one's current circumstances. Cultivating Santosha can combat feelings of lack and lead to a more stable and positive mood.

56:53 So very simply, just thinking about your present moment state of being and what are you focusing on? Maybe is it the is it the lack of or is it the gratitude for? And then just think about how that might help your mental health. I mean, gratitude is basically the word here for santosh and contentment.

57:14 So I don't actually think we need to break this one down too much anyway. I'm sure we could, but a lot of people have gratitude journals and gratitude practices. So that that in itself I think, is the well-being practice, the mental health practice, I would say.

57:26 Can I make one comment on that course? Do what? Do what? Michael says, yeah, so do that thing. And that's because, well, if people want to relate it to a mental health thing, typically anxiety is a state of worrying too much about the future. And typically depression is a state of worrying too much about the past.

57:44 And that's, you know, just a representation of the state of minds that we can get it be in all the time. But the place you want to be in is the present, because you're not going to be so prone to anxiety or depression in that case. Exactly.

58:00 They're really all about just cultivating more presence. That's really what all this is about. The more present you can be, which seems like such a cliche of a thing to say, but it's so simple yet so profound, right? The philosophy teachers that we have, that I that I engage with, that I talk to, what makes them so special is their level of presence is so high that the things that come out of their mouth are so authentic and true to them in those moments that

58:30 it's it's it's magnetizing to the point where it's like this person is real in front of me. They're a real person. They're so present with me. They're listening to me. I feel seen and heard. I feel like this is a connection. It's amazing versus a lack of presence in any of the context of what we've been talking about in the last two episodes is going to interfere with everything that you do, right? It's gonna take something away stealing or draining energy or disrespecting whatever it is.

59:01 All these elements are going to have somewhat of a negative impact. But the more we can practice presence or awareness of self-awareness of presence, which is really, I mean, the simplest way to do it is just to breathe. Yeah, True.

59:20 So if we can cultivate more of our breath, we're basically doing everything we did in the last two episodes. No matter what you're doing in your life, find moments to find stillness and breath, and then from that you'll probably be able to cultivate more presence. Now if you're thinking like, Oh yeah, but I breathe a couple times, it doesn't seem to do anything well, you need to keep practicing because if we practice a little bit and then we get away from the practice,

59:44 then you know, that muscle's not necessarily going to be flexed. It's not going to be growing and strong. And I asked my I asked this question to to the Jeff and other teachers as well, like how do I, how do I maintain a certain level of presence? How do I maintain a certain level of being that is attractive to people, that is going to make good decisions, that's going to be a good entrepreneur, that's going to be a good brother, that's going to be a good partner, you know, these types of things.

1:00:10 And the answer is always just presence. Just cultivate more present so that you're present in those moments for those people, for yourself, for those things, for the work And the practice is that maybe it's the yoga practice, maybe it's the physical awesomeness, maybe it's your meditation practice. But I would say very, very simply, just connecting with your breath as regularly as you can consciously, right? And then you'll actually be able to make these conscious choices, whether it be I want to

1:00:40 consciously scroll, I'm making that choice, I want to consciously say yes to this teacher training thing that I don't really want to do, but I'm going to consciously make the choice as opposed to just the defaults. Like, oh, I don't want them to be disappointed and I want people, please, that's not a conscious choice.

1:00:57 That's not a present moment choice. So I would say a very simply, if you already aren't doing this, which I assume most people are, but even still, we can do better, right? Myself included. Brandon, I'm sure as well can agree he's nodding his head.

1:01:11 So the more we can practice that breath awareness, that connection to our self, the the practice of meditation, whatever it is, practice that you have and then keep coming back to that and just giving that a bit of a flex a little bit every day, maybe on your lunch break, maybe it's the morning practice, maybe it's the evening practice. You do that consistently that's going to be able to bleed into all the things that you do, whether it be any of these philosophies, these well beings,

1:01:33 these mental health practices. And that's what's going to help to improve quality of life, I'd say. Totally, yeah. Very simple practice. But it's life changing. Yeah. And and you said presence comes down to presence and I'll say and and awareness. So presence of awareness and awareness of presence. Yeah, I mean, even before each one of these episodes, we take a moment and what do we do?

1:02:01 Oh, I don't even admit want to admit to this, but yes, yeah. We we we become present. Yeah, we do. We sit. We breathe. We take a moment, We set the intention. You know, we. We say whatever we say, it doesn't really matter. The point is, is we're we're cultivating presents to be in this room, to be of service to people like you who are listening to us, and we want to show up for you. And if we're present, we can show up for you, right? And this is the same thing

1:02:26 whether it be yoga teaching, whether it be for your job, for your partner, your friends, right? If you're going to show up for them, you need to be present, can't be distracted. Or you could be, but it wouldn't probably translate as well. Not gonna be as good.

1:02:38 Yeah. And again, it's not about judging ourselves when we're not present. It's trying to improve our level of presence and just noticing and that's all. And then just getting a little bit better at it every time. That's all it is.

1:02:52 That's life, basically. Not to oversimplify it, but OK. Cool. Any other thoughts, Brandon? Otherwise, I think we should wrap this up. No, that's great. Let's wrap it up. Cool. All right. So thank you for your insights, Brendan, on that different elements of the philosophy. It's good to talk about these types of things, but I think we're going to move on for next episode in a way where we're going to talk about actually I'm not 100% sure what it's going to be.

1:03:21 Do you know? We're going to talk about some of the, like the pitfalls, like when there's a couple of areas we could focus on, but like some, you know, where things can go wrong in yoga and yoga teacher training. Like, we're all about the benefits of it.

1:03:35 But it's kind of good to discuss, particularly in the area of mental health, what what are the risks as well. The edginess, Yeah, the edginess. So not even, I would say also just teaching classes or providing offerings or facilitation and just being aware of some of those things possibly.

1:03:52 Yeah, cool. All right. So that's what we're going to, we're going to dive into next week. So tune in for that. Otherwise, thank you so much for listening. And as always, if you have any questions you want to reach out, we'll have our contact information in the show notes.

1:04:05 Otherwise, hope you have a beautiful day 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 latform is definitely for you.

1:04:30 So I definitely suggest checking it outgoingroyogacom right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.