How Language Shapes Your Mindset and Your Yoga Teaching with Byron de Marsé

0:00 This is a continuation episode of the last two, where we talked about what we talked about First Law of Attraction. And then we talked about inspiration through movement physiology in your body, these types of things. And to recap, it all came from breakthrough, challenge of Tony Robbins, which happened a few weeks ago now at this point and ultimately, it was about the things that would affect how you feel affect your patterns, your routines, and how you can kind

0:27 of shift that. So if you're, you know, Roger you're in a situation where you At change, and it's kind of difficult to do that changing habits, or forming new habits or routines. One of the first things to do is changing your physiology. And that's kind of the episode.

0:40 We talk about creating inspiration, moving your body. So listen to that one first and then you go back to the law of attraction one because in the alot of Attraction, we talked about a little bit of what you focus on can also change how you feel. And then the third one which is what we're talking about today is the language or the meaning of words that are spoken. And kind of how that affects your your feelings as well. Welcome to the going pro yoga

1:05 podcast, nugget series. My name is Michael Henry and I'm Byron de Marseille and he's short episodes. We're going to be answering some of the most common questions in the yoga industry so that you can walk away with the answers in a short period of time. That's right.

1:18 Michael with each topic, that we choose will be discussing it from two different perspectives, the teacher, and the student. I'll be approaching these questions as a physiotherapist or physical therapist with over 10 years experience.

1:30 Eating some of the most common and complex injuries. And my guidance will be from the perspective of having taught 7000 classes, roughly 10,000 hours over 10 years. Welcome to our podcast. So, my notes that I have from the from Tony Robbins ultimately, is that language creates, meaning and emotion, sorry.

1:51 Meaning equals emotion So I heard you say this earlier buyer in that language or words don't necessarily always have to have meaning to them, right. But they certainly can so language can create meaning and meaning can mean emotion and emotion is ultimately life. So the quality of our life is how we feel and if how we feel and there's meaning behind language that we use, then they're kind of all interconnected, which is the same thing with the physiology,

2:15 moving your body and then what you focus on. So this is just a third kind of pillar of this conversation about your patterns, your feelings, and those Things. So how do you describe yourself with your words would be an example? Like how would you describe yourself? How do I describe myself?

2:33 What words would you use? Well, if I'm just being more humble that might be reserved, but I'll just be bold. I'm I'm very highly verbally skilled. I have a huge Heart Care for others deeply when a lot of people don't understand why. And I have a very light sense of humor. I know how to turn my switch on and off and on up another level if I need to.

3:03 And I'm a Really good friend. I hope I can go on. I mean, but then I'll just sound like a gloating Pig and I'll stay off, right? And then, you know, and how people feel about the way you feel about yourself, shouldn't really matter because if that's how you feel about yourself if it's perceived as cocky or you know conceited or any that stuff but at the end of the day you're just very confident in who you are and this is who you believed to be in.

3:32 This is who you identify with as long as it doesn't. I mean another the things that you said, our result, You stepping on anybody. It's just you just being confident in what you have to offer. It's like expressing gratitude for what you are and who you are and who you identify yourself? With sure I would also go back and say communication may be rather than highly skilled with words just communication in general, right.

3:54 Which is why I'm excited to talk about language. Yeah yeah absolutely. So I think to kind of Create a little bit of a foundation around this topic is just like, ultimately like what you believe to be true, can be affected by the words that you use, right? This is, you know, coming back to the conversation of saying, positive things, positive affirmations, those types of things.

4:14 So that's language, right? That can ultimately affect your beliefs and part of Shifting old belief patterns, and limiting beliefs, and all these types of things. Usually, it's associated with words of affirmation. But if you listen to the last two episodes, you'd understand that it's not as easy. He's just saying, words, you need to do the other things first, which is change your physiology actually. Feel it in your body.

4:36 But since we've already talked about that, now, we're talking about the words themselves. Mmm. Yeah. They're interconnected. Absolutely. You know, how you speak or how the words you receive from someone? The language is the communication that leads you to feel a certain way, whether it's inspired or completely the opposite and turned off completely.

4:54 And I think the interesting thing for me, the most interesting to bring up is that we all have a different It responds to words and music and you name it colors favorites, blah blah blah preferences. So when it comes to language the the same thing is true. If I say the word fuck you I says two words but you know fuck then that's going to turn some people off. Some people are going to connect with it. Being this guy said the f word that's cool. It's edgy you know like I could

5:26 get down with that, I use the f word, probably lost a few listeners when he said that, I know, but I I've gotten to that point where you know but I'm just being authentically human I got to that point. I just don't care.

5:36 Right. But yeah you just you know song that you play and it makes some people cry it reminds them of high school prom you play another song and I that same song a different person in the same yoga class has a reaction where they're like I just hate this song.

5:51 It's this I've heard it so much. I just hate it. I'm over. And so words we respond to words the same exact way. I believe that. You know, I'm constantly dealing with this when I teach yoga classes and I'm sure our listeners are too but being sensitive to it is another thing.

6:13 So being sensitive to it and reading the room. And if you're in a one-on-one conversation, applies to, I'm paying attention to their behavior as well, because their behavior indicates if they're listening or absorbing or reacting or closing off. So you'll get a read on the person on what, how you're affecting them.

6:36 And so I think that's why this is ultimately, an important conversation is to know how powerful your words are doesn't mean that you should necessarily Reserve yourself in some cases. That's probably true, right? And for some people more true but in other cases might be the opposite of my need to push more and be more of yourself or more, you know, you help you, hold back, you've done so for so long.

7:01 On Can freight of what other people people think of you. Yeah, your censored. Yeah, people pleasing and he's these words and who am I? If I am not a people pleaser so it gets into that deeper conversation of, what am I, you know, really doing? You know, like it should I be offending? Should I not?

7:20 How far should I go to the edge of this language thing? Yeah, do I do I say things for myself or do I try to like, ask for, what's important to me, or do I make sure that I don't offend anyone? Else or I don't, you know, disrupt anyone else. Because that's what people-pleasing ultimately is they sacrifice themselves for others first. Usually.

7:38 Yeah and you know, if you were to ask me how I lead a yoga class would, you know, I'm just going to pretend you did it Byron. So tell me how do you lead a yoga class? Yeah so I go in there and I read the room and I try to verbally guide the class in a way where they can follow without me needing to even be in the room possibly you know just by listening The queuing is very articulate and hyper queuing sometimes if you don't speak English very well, you can't even understand it.

8:10 You can understand it. It's very specific, you know, English language cueing. And now that I teach International students every day, I'm I'm more aware of that so I you know, I find ways to make it easier for them to follow mmm. But I noticed something happens to students when they are guided and You you start to notice a relaxation, you start to say things a certain way and this is what I value when I teach my flavor of teaching yoga is I want you to relax even while doing and I don't mean sleep.

8:45 But I mean like I want you to be nervous system relaxed for the majority of the class even when we're doing difficult stuff and how can I contribute to help you do? That is where I'm at. Where how can I actually influence that in a positive way, right?

9:01 I, i find I respond very positively to voice, that's calm and energy, a presence that I feel protected and safe like their knowledgeable, they know what they're doing. So I portray these same things when I teach and I took a class today, that was awesome. Super awesome.

9:21 And it was less sensitive to those types of things, but it was still cool, you know? It was different and I had a great experience. So So yeah, that's just a little tidbit on kind of how I view language at least with regards to teaching yoga, right? And how, how your language affects externally those types of things.

9:42 Yep. And and I wanted to bring up the other side of how language affects ourselves what we say, you know? Self-talk, as they say, or negative self-talk or I mean, it could be, it could be, you know, thinking thoughts about yourself, but realistically there are We've all talked to ourselves over.

10:02 There, were by ourselves. We're in a car, we're playing a sport and we get down on ourselves and sometimes there's words associated with it. There's a language associated with, like Michael. You should know better, Michael do better, do better, like, you can be better than this, you know, these types of things. And even not as specific as that, there are certain ways that, you know, you might say.

10:23 Like all, I don't believe that's not me or Isaac. I can't do that or, you know, that's not something. That's, that's not who I am. Like those are definitely words that can probably resonate with almost everyone because at some point in time, we believe those things to be true or are incapable of our capabilities. And what's happening is our subconscious is hearing those words.

10:46 And now we're affecting you know like we would in a yoga class our words are affecting the people around us and they're either being heard and they're you know maybe there's some triggering or something going on when we say it and even to ourselves like we're hearing it as well.

10:58 Our subconscious is hearing it and it's kind of reinforcing. Maybe that belief that you know you can't do it or that you don't have the capabilities of doing it. So I just wanted to mention that the language piece is also can be introduced introspectively, affectingly mantras and things like that. Yeah this is why the Mala bead necklace has 108 beads to repeat the same Mantra 108 times B the strengthen the bond that you have with it.

11:28 So the more frequently you'll come back to this frequency that you Created here. So it feels great while you're doing it. Yes, but even it'll last longer if you repeat the Mantra more Macho more and more more often. Yeah. In going back to the neural Pathways, which we mentioned a couple times in the last two episodes were mentioning is, it's a similar way you're creating neural Pathways where you're hearing in your you're saying these words in such a way that it eventually.

11:53 If you do it often enough it eventually becomes true right? You know in addition to the physiology what you focus on and so on. Yeah. And then just kind of Backtracking a little bit to the initial like language and words have power and also it's important to note that how we say things is going to influence that it's not just the word itself in.

12:15 Yes, like I mentioned we all have a different reaction response to a word but you know if I say wake up, Michael wake up, where I say, wake up. Michael intonation, tone. Michael. You Michael, you're a great friend pitch, Michael. You're a really great friend.

12:33 You know, it's just these things are going to also happening the communication when you when you peel off the layers, it is communication without the words or do mean things. I remember one time I was in a conversation with a girl and we're in Ubud which those of you have been here.

12:49 No. But if you don't who booed is filled with language, sensitive people, very sensitive to language. So if you say something that might, it's a meant to kind of, you know, it Normally trigger somebody somewhere else. It will trigger them here.

13:05 Probably people are a little bit more vulnerable here. Yes, the reason why is because Ubud is a center or a place for healing sure. It definitely is part of the faith, I believe like a lot of people's journey into the in their spiritual path. This comes up.

13:19 Yeah, at some point and I think you can move through it as well and be less sensitive to language if you want to be. However, I found myself in a conversation telling an old College story about how I was in a fraternity.

13:31 Erna t for a couple of years. And in this fraternity, you know, these guys, I just didn't like the, I wasn't a frat boy, in my mind, you know, I just didn't enjoy the forest activities and all this crap that we would have to do every single day. There was great, things about it. So in this conversation, I referred to these guys as bastards.

13:54 Yeah, this is my word of choice that I use these. No, you know, actually, I use douchebag I just remembered it's not bastard. There's bagging is something along those lines. I said douche bags which I get that. You know, I know what a douchebag is but I know what an asshole is to, you know.

14:10 I mean these it's me it's like you're going to choose a word here like the literal meaning of douchebag. Yes. Right. I understand and some words are acceptable in some or not which means to our French. Oh does it so even less harmless, right? Yeah.

14:22 More harmless as shoulder bag basically. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I called I called him shower bags and this stopped her in her tracks with the conversation. She was Not able to hear my story. Which I said the word douche bags for entertainment value, more than anything, just to keep the story interesting because that is, you know, I've let go of any resentment of these situations, but this was my life experience.

14:45 I was sharing it in Through My Lens as a man. Not through her lens, I'm sharing it my way, and here she is confronted in the moment. I said the word douche bag is. She now has to stop me and say we have to stop saying that word and hey, I'm going to sit here and And tell you like I'm not saying she's wrong because I don't believe she's wrong, but I do believe she could have heard my story.

15:09 And when about this whole thing differently, if she was sensitive to that word, but I've heard her also used words. So there was really didn't line up with consistency and it might have been a whole nother thing at play.

15:22 In fact, it was and I mean she's just extremely she continued to have a pattern of attacking certain men in this group. We were In and learning. It was a learning training. It was a training and I saw her do it other people, too, hmm.

15:38 And that's what had nothing to do with you or had nothing to do with the words, you're using per se. No, it was like opportunity to assert. Well, it came from me, you know. It came from a man which affected the way she received it, right?

15:50 And yeah. From there, it really made an impression on me and I'm like, why why do people, why are they more sensitive here in general? Why would somebody be more sensitive to language? And like I get it, I get it there. There's definitely, there's probably a meaning well if it's actually the words themselves like if it was actually douchebag, it sounds like in this situation it was mostly just because you were a man talking about something and she wanted to kind of overstep a

16:14 little bit. Whereas, if it's actually about the words themselves, I think whatever meaning we have associated with, that word is going to affect that as well, because like, there's certain words that have negative connotations to them, but they're not really negative words. They're just words, but it's depends on what that word means to you.

16:30 And I'm trying to think Give an example here but like what would be a word? That's has a negative connotation like maybe ego or constant and ego and I'm just going straight out. I don't worry. Yeah. For the any of those hard hard-core one, right? The obviously, there's the words that are off-limits and as interesting as it is to talk about the words that are off-limits.

16:53 I think it's more interesting to talk about the setting of when they're influencing you in a really good way. Hmm. So in a yoga class, If you're saying something about a bolster lets you could use a lot of examples. Let's choose this one, grab your bolster, sit on it, that's real simple.

17:13 Or you can say, you can choose to use a bolster or you can choose to just sit on the ground. And choose is the word that I was basically replaced with the nothing and then I put shoes in there, right? And so now you're giving someone that moment where they're like, oh wow I can choose I can do it or not, right?

17:32 Just by one word, it's a bit of an empowerment. Yeah. Our Summit. And instead of choose, you could just say put the block underneath you which is more of a command and it's not as permissive, it's not wrong, right? Or better. It's just if you want to guide people in a certain way, if that's what you value.

17:50 Then use And language, allow allow the breath to come in, you know, stay away from words like contraction unless you're talking about a contraction of a muscle. And I don't want think, people don't want people just Contracting, their hearts and likes closing down just because they hear a word, I see it in Warrior Two all the time because I like to hold people there for a while sometimes and as soon as I mention like something about itching, the nose or something,

18:19 like cuz I might call somebody. Out for other people, which their nose as soon as I say it, you know, it's just because it's in it's in their mind, right then. And I'm just like, ah, shit. I did that. They didn't even have that thought until I put it in there in their mind. And now I'm just saying what everyone else is like shit. My nose as well as.

18:36 Yeah, but guiding meditation is, is wow. If you teach meditation, this information is so useful. It's basically everything. When you're guiding somebody to relax into themselves to become introspective, Of, and there are people who respond to a more commanding presence.

18:56 Not this, the Ethereal floaty voice and kind of close your eyes and disappear, but discipline yourself. Close your eyes, sit, breathe, don't look around. Keep your eyes closed. Is that what Bryan? Kest sounds like know. He sounds like he's very much in that energy though. Okay, it sounds much different than that. He's got it.

19:20 He's got an accident. You know, right? Yeah. There's a moat. So there's emotion behind it, but I want you to close your eyes right now and imagine that the world is about to end. And this is the last day on the planet and this is you're going to have to save somebody. I just made that up but that's more of his into his in this plank pose is going to help save them. Right.

19:42 So I think I really like this topic and obviously we can talk about it for a while. I think some of the key like little summary points is just like talking about language and meaning it's not necessarily the words themselves, right?

19:54 We kind of talked about that. It's like the way that you say at the tone the intonation the pitch who it's coming from the volume. Yeah. Who it's coming from. There's all these things that can affect the meaning in that moment.

20:07 And at the end of the day, I mean this keeps coming back to the same. Same thing and it's just shifting the energy with with a different way of doing it. And that's through the language. We talk about shifting energy through your physiology, in your body, shifting your energy through what you want to attract, what you focus on those types of things. And then this is just another way of Shifting your energy through words of yourself towards yourself or the the words that you hear from other

20:29 people or the ones that you share for other people to hear me. It always comes back to energy, doesn't it? It does cool. So if there's nothing else, I'm This is a big topic for you so I mean I could rattle on this for hours.

20:45 It's just it's just so interesting for me and I even will have in the future soon. Some verbal sequencing, the art of language the art of language workshops and trainings. So it's just something I'm passionate about and they go hand in hand, like I said earlier, shifting your energy and language, right? They do have done wisely And Timely together. You Can really control command the room. No, I'm saying, yeah, absolutely. And and I think if that is of

21:21 interest because what you and I spent a lot of time doing Byron is putting together the way to use language as a teacher for yoga, creating a priority queuing system. So maybe not as sophisticated as creative as where you're going with, what that? But if this is something that's of interest to you like you could easily just start to participate in that by, you know, you can go to the going pro yoga. And just create an account for free and you can start to see what this priority queuing

21:49 system is. And it's just helping with language using very simple language. I mean, obviously again the delivery the tone and all those things are still important. But at least, this is giving you the words that are going to make it a little bit simpler for you to, you know, with with leading poses or cueing into poses or queuing actions into poses. And that's just kind of the bare, minimum the words, it's obviously starts with the words to some degree, but it needs to be carried with more than that.

22:13 So it's something that we wanted To share with, with our audience that if you do want to explore a little more of that, you can easily just go to going pro yoga.com, create a free account and check out that priority queuing system.

22:23 It's simple to check out. So yeah. And if you're sitting here kind of like, hmm, like I do that, I don't really think about language that much right. But I want to, how do I do that? I suggest finding a 10 different ways to say the same thing. You know, if you're saying a yogic, you like step. Or step to the front of your mat. How can you float to the front of your mat? How can you spring to the front of the mat? How can you slingshot your feet to the front of the mat? There's so many ways you can

22:56 explain how to do IQ the feet. Do I q–, the hands Dua and and it becomes a game where like, the last podcast you change your neural pathways through language and you kind of start to Define your skill more in that in that art.

23:13 So if your yoga teacher, Then wow you know what? A great way you're working and getting better at the same time. Yeah allows the creativity in the style to come through. When you get to explore the words that most resonate with you. Right?

23:27 Absolutely. Yeah, that's fantastic. Cool. Awesome. Well, I got nothing else. You I got so much. Okay, bro. Okay. Well, you know what, we'll do. Another one that hurts my feelings say that differently. Please. Okay, you know what, why don't we do?

23:41 One more episode will stop this recording and then we'll make everyone have to wait. Another A week. This is pants. All right, I guess that's what it's going to be. We'll just keep this conversation going and you guys just had a weight.

23:53 That's the way it's gonna be. Yeah. All right, well, thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you soon. As usual have an amazing day. Hey, one more thing I couldn't be just more proud of what we've put together for yoga teachers. I mean, this one-of-a-kind teaching platform, essentially a toolbox.

24:13 So the teachers can be more confident and give them a structure to be better teachers. And I'm helping others on a global scale doing this. I mean, dude, The Blood Sweat and Tears we put into it, no one will ever see, but I'm so excited about, I'm pretty excited about it as well actually, even though you can't really tell my voice.

24:34 Now it's super cool. And I think it's because I feel tired from putting it together to be honest. But nonetheless it's something that I use as a new teacher and it's helped me so much with that structure, you know, to have something to follow along to know what Say and I mean you can go in the details of what's involved with like our little priority queuing system and these sequencing chunks but at the end of the day, what's the result?

24:56 The result is just you're going to be a better teacher by using this platform. You're going to be more confident by using this platform you're going to learn how to be more effective more safe with your career as a yoga teacher assuming that. That's what you want to do.

25:09 Yeah, it just blows me away that it doesn't exist already. I know in, at least in a way that I can find and that's put together in a simple way. I know. No yoga has been around for so long. People have tried so many times but to have the level of experience that you, I Paul all have and then to sit and put in that work to actually tailor it not to hire other people to do it mean it's customized to be as authentic as possible.

25:33 So it's a now I get more serious because I'm like, I know how well, this is gonna work, right? Well, it's made by yoga teachers for yoga teachers. Who I like that, right? That's what it is. Yeah, it's true. It's a supportive Community. It's what we're trying.

25:47 Trying to put together. Absolutely, and it's hot. How would someone do it? Well, honestly, the easiest way to get started by just even checking it out because you just go to going pro yoga.com and you can create an account for free and just explore it. You can see what exists already in a limited capacity and if it's something that you're like, damn this is pretty cool. I want more of this than there are more options for that as well, but ultimately, you can

26:09 just do that going pro yoga.com create an account for free.