Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woke f Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody. I want to first thank
Speaker 1: you all for rocking with us for our reflection on
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, sadly the year of hate. But as
Speaker 1: we wind down this year and this week, on this
Speaker 1: New Year's Eve, I want to leave you all with
Speaker 1: a much more hopeful conversation which I am so fortunate
Speaker 1: to have been able to have with my mother, Yogi
Speaker 1: and owner of Essence of Yoga Studios on Long Island,
Speaker 1: Shirley Newton. As many of you know, if you've been
Speaker 1: listening to me and rocking with me on woke f
Speaker 1: for the Power several years, on different stations and in
Speaker 1: different places, you know how my mother has always been
Speaker 1: my spiritual guide. I feel so fortunate and I tell
Speaker 1: her on a regular basis that I am that our
Speaker 1: souls chose each other. And it's because you know, I
Speaker 1: chose the profession that isn't for the week, that is
Speaker 1: not for the faint of heart, that is about getting
Speaker 1: to the truth, regardless of how ugly, how sad, how
Speaker 1: cruel it is. But at the same time, it is
Speaker 1: incredibly important that as we go through our journey. Wherever
Speaker 1: we are in our journey of consciousness, of getting woke,
Speaker 1: that we also find balance, that we also create space
Speaker 1: for our trauma, for our healing, for mindfulness, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: for rest. So back in April, I invited my mother,
Speaker 1: who was very reluctant about joining woke f to come
Speaker 1: on to talk about just that. You know, she would
Speaker 1: tell me after she'd listen to a show or watch
Speaker 1: me on the news, that I needed to learn how
Speaker 1: to let go, that the work that I was doing
Speaker 1: was important and it was necessary, but that I could
Speaker 1: not take on the weight of the world on a
Speaker 1: cellular level and allow it to consume me, allow it
Speaker 1: to cloud my vision to hope and possibility and to joy.
Speaker 1: And so in this conversation we talk about the power
Speaker 1: of yoga, of what it means to stretch, to breathe,
Speaker 1: and to create space in our bodies, which allows us
Speaker 1: then to create space in our minds. You know, over
Speaker 1: the past two years, at the beginning of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I finally, you know, after years of pressure from my
Speaker 1: mother and my sister, who is also a trained yogi,
Speaker 1: began a meditation practice, a daily meditation practice, and I've
Speaker 1: talked about this many times, and the fact is it
Speaker 1: changed me doesn't mean that I'm any less angry. It
Speaker 1: just means that I have found a way to realign
Speaker 1: and get back in tune. That also that I have
Speaker 1: been able to use my rage as another form of meditation.
Speaker 1: But that once it leaves my body, once it enters
Speaker 1: the air waves, I let it go. And I think
Speaker 1: that that is the really big lesson that I've learned
Speaker 1: over the past several years of living through Folks. You know,
Speaker 1: we've been through a lot of trauma. It's not just
Speaker 1: the pandemic we live through the Trump administration. There's the
Speaker 1: possibility of another Trump administration. We've been going through a lot,
Speaker 1: and I think that the most important thing is is
Speaker 1: to understand it, to reckon with it, to have conversations
Speaker 1: about it, to develop tactics in which to battle against it,
Speaker 1: but then at the end of each and every day,
Speaker 1: to let it go, to breathe it out. We can
Speaker 1: recognize that in many ways the world is is terrifying
Speaker 1: right now, from climate change, to white supremacy, to our
Speaker 1: addiction to capitalism and greed. In a lot of the
Speaker 1: directions that we look in there are bad things happening,
Speaker 1: we can acknowledge that we can work to fight against
Speaker 1: it and still let it go. You Know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've learned with my meditation practice, and
Speaker 1: my mother will talk about with the yoga, is that
Speaker 1: practicing yoga while you move through poses and breath is
Speaker 1: really about being grounded in the present. My mother, when
Speaker 1: she teaches a classes, she will joke with her yogis
Speaker 1: that are in practice and say, you know, don't anticipate
Speaker 1: the next pose right because they all think, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get it, because they're so indoctrinated into
Speaker 1: perfection that they want to get ahead of where she
Speaker 1: is in her guided practice, And a lot of times
Speaker 1: she will seek to throw people off and go into
Speaker 1: a completely different pose because she wants to eliminate that
Speaker 1: anticipation that if you were just present and listening and
Speaker 1: breathing and stretching right, then what comes next doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: You'll get there. And that's a really profound lesson with
Speaker 1: the uncertain times that we find ourselves in that I
Speaker 1: don't think any of us ever could have anticipated or
Speaker 1: saw coming. I mean, I love to say that I
Speaker 1: knew what would happen when Donald Trump was elected. I
Speaker 1: said it on election night, but I could not have
Speaker 1: really truly anticipated the depths of criminality and hate and
Speaker 1: cruelty that would become ingrained in our body politic. We
Speaker 1: have no idea when the clock strikes midnight tonight, what
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two will bring us. Many of us are
Speaker 1: hoping for a reprieve, a break from the anxiety and
Speaker 1: the stress of the last couple of years. All we have,
Speaker 1: dear friends, is right now, That's what we have. That's
Speaker 1: what we can be certain of, and that shouldn't send
Speaker 1: us running for the hills. It should allow us to
Speaker 1: honor and embrace each moment as a gift, because it
Speaker 1: truly is. By the time you hear this, more Americans
Speaker 1: will have perished to COVID, More Americans will have died
Speaker 1: at the hands of police violence, domestic violence, poverty. There
Speaker 1: may be more disastrous storms that will have hit the
Speaker 1: headlines and change people's lives forever. What we know for
Speaker 1: sure is that in this moment, we are breathing. So
Speaker 1: make that breath deep, Hold it, feel your organs working
Speaker 1: and churning, your blood flowing, and exhale it out. Feel
Speaker 1: your feet, grounding, if your bare feet, into the floor,
Speaker 1: into the soil, into the ground. Just sit still and
Speaker 1: listen to the sounds of your home or the outdoors,
Speaker 1: the wind, and take it in. If there is no
Speaker 1: other lesson that we've gotten, that we've taken in over
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, it's to slow down. It's
Speaker 1: to not be in such a hurry to rush through
Speaker 1: your life. What are we rushing towards the end? Take
Speaker 1: the time today, of all days, on New Year's Eve,
Speaker 1: if not every day, but take the time today to
Speaker 1: take a couple of really nice, big, full, deep breaths,
Speaker 1: the breaths that allow us to remember that we are alive.
Speaker 1: Close your eyes, see and feel with your other senses,
Speaker 1: take in the space around you. Slow down, Breathe in,
Speaker 1: breathe out. The world has sadly seen darker times than
Speaker 1: the ones we are in now. That doesn't make the
Speaker 1: experience variance anymore any less. It's just a fact. But
Speaker 1: we win no prizes by rushing to the future, by
Speaker 1: holding on to the anger and to the hate, by
Speaker 1: not giving ourselves grace and the ability to rest, the
Speaker 1: ability to experience joy, to laugh, to take in music,
Speaker 1: to dance, to paint, to observe, or to sit. I
Speaker 1: don't know what twenty twenty two has to offer us,
Speaker 1: but I know that we can walk in to this
Speaker 1: new year with clear eyes and a grounding and a
Speaker 1: shared desire that whatever it is that comes our way,
Speaker 1: that we are going to center joy, that on top
Speaker 1: of our rage, our righteous rage, will be revolutionary joy.
Speaker 1: That we will not allow those who want to exist
Speaker 1: in a place of hate to rob us of that.
Speaker 1: My mother says it all the time. She texts me
Speaker 1: all the time, don't let them steal your joy. You're
Speaker 1: doing good work. Keep going, but you can do so
Speaker 1: in your breath, with a smile on your face. Be
Speaker 1: a happy warrior. That doesn't mean that we dismiss what
Speaker 1: is in front of us. It doesn't mean that we
Speaker 1: don't remember what is behind us. Just means that we
Speaker 1: are choosing to move forward in a consciousness that isn't
Speaker 1: just rooted in pain. Those are just some of the
Speaker 1: many lessons that I have been fortunate to learn throughout
Speaker 1: my many, many, many many years with my mother, who
Speaker 1: in this conversation, I hope as you close out this year,
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you plan to do for your
Speaker 1: New Year's if it's saging your space, if it is
Speaker 1: connecting safely, God willing with friends and family, if it's
Speaker 1: creating a big meal or going out or whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you're doing or that you plan to do,
Speaker 1: that you take a moment to just sit still, that
Speaker 1: you take a moment to pat yourself, to hug yourself,
Speaker 1: to congratulate yourself. Regardless of what shape you think you
Speaker 1: should have ended the year in, how much you should
Speaker 1: have had by the end, the fact that you made
Speaker 1: it here means that you made it period, and that
Speaker 1: is something to be proud of. Friends. I am so
Speaker 1: excited to bring it to you my very special feel
Speaker 1: Good Friday guest, which is my mother, Shirley Newton, who
Speaker 1: is the owner and founder of Essence of Yoga Studio
Speaker 1: on Long Island, also now virtually thanks to COVID. You
Speaker 1: guys know that if I talk about my mother, probably
Speaker 1: I am either in the midst of a meltdown or
Speaker 1: she has just coached me out of one. So I
Speaker 1: figure why not bring her on to speak to you
Speaker 1: all directly. Hello Mother, Hello Danielle, No, not so, Mom,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about your journey in yoga.
Speaker 1: Many people right now are seeking out different forms of
Speaker 1: self care because of the anxiety, the trauma of living
Speaker 1: through this pandemic, the uprisings, all of these things, and
Speaker 1: they're looking for a way to get involved in yoga
Speaker 1: or better connect. So tell us a bit about your
Speaker 1: own journey. It's a long journey. Do you have all
Speaker 1: the time you can? You can give us an a
Speaker 1: bridge and a bridge version the reader's digest version of
Speaker 1: ye my journey to Yoga. Well, how I started practicing yoga?
Speaker 1: Always been into fitness in some form. I've always been
Speaker 1: on the move because you know, the whole premise here
Speaker 1: we have to move. Mobility is really important to maintain
Speaker 1: a healthy lifestyle. So I've always been into some type
Speaker 1: of fitness step. I was a spin instructor for many
Speaker 1: years before I opened the studio. And how I started yoga, actually,
Speaker 1: I must say it wasn't you would think that I
Speaker 1: started this, but actually Danielle's sister Nicole was one in
Speaker 1: our family that started yoga when she was a teenager
Speaker 1: and she said, Mom, you know, I think you should
Speaker 1: try it. But I was always into more of the
Speaker 1: hardcore movement, so I was teaching spinning, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was in my thirties then, and my hip started
Speaker 1: wearing out and I would get on bed and couldn't
Speaker 1: stand on one leg because of the wear and tear
Speaker 1: of the continuous motion of spinning. One of the teachers said,
Speaker 1: why don't you try yoga class, and Nicole Kip said,
Speaker 1: Mommy used to try the yoga too, And I did it.
Speaker 1: I tried it and that was it. I fell in love.
Speaker 1: And most, I would say, most of us now probably
Speaker 1: start a yoga practice from the physical perspective. But if
Speaker 1: you continuously, if you consistently work with it through the
Speaker 1: physical part of it, the journey becomes a completely different journey.
Speaker 1: It's more so, instead of thinking of your yoga practice
Speaker 1: as a workout, because that's the way that I thought
Speaker 1: of it, it actually is a working inward because we're
Speaker 1: made of all these layers. You know, when we show
Speaker 1: up in a room with different people, we show up
Speaker 1: at different people of who we are. And you ask
Speaker 1: yourself one day, I wonder if anyone, if all the
Speaker 1: people that I knew, was in one room, who would
Speaker 1: I be. Because we pretend to be different people, we
Speaker 1: have different personalities with our families, with our friends, with
Speaker 1: our work coworkers. We are different. So what yoga really
Speaker 1: teaches you to do is penetrate those layers, the layers below,
Speaker 1: layer below, layer layer above, layer above layer, And what
Speaker 1: are we looking for or true self or true authentic self?
Speaker 1: And that's what the physical part of it. Once you
Speaker 1: take off the peelow of the layers of the eagle
Speaker 1: and get into the different layers of your being, not
Speaker 1: just the physical part of it, but the energetic, the
Speaker 1: spiritual part of it. We're trying to find our true
Speaker 1: authentic self. And basically that's the journey of yoga. There's
Speaker 1: no perfection, it is and that is why they quality
Speaker 1: a practice. We're always practicing, practicing, practicing. And one of
Speaker 1: the famous yoga goora, I think it was Yoga Budging,
Speaker 1: that says, practice practice and it will come, so you
Speaker 1: will find your true self. I love that, And I
Speaker 1: love one of the things that you always say before
Speaker 1: we start a yoga practice, which is like, there's no
Speaker 1: judgment on your yoga mat And I think that we're often,
Speaker 1: even within our context of social media likes and cliques
Speaker 1: and all of these things, we're conditioned to believe that
Speaker 1: we should be in competition with one another. And I
Speaker 1: think that the beauty of yoga and of starting into
Speaker 1: this practice is this idea that it is a practice
Speaker 1: that you shouldn't have any judgment of yourself, but people do.
Speaker 1: And so what is some advice that you give to people?
Speaker 1: Because I hear this from my friends that say, well,
Speaker 1: I don't like to do yoga, I'm not good at it, right,
Speaker 1: And I always think that that's such a bizarre thing
Speaker 1: to say, like, if you're not quote unquote good at something,
Speaker 1: how do you get good? But what do you say
Speaker 1: to people that come in and they are concerned with
Speaker 1: other people looking at them, or they're concerned with, you know,
Speaker 1: their value of how they're presenting on their maps. And
Speaker 1: that's a really good question because I get that a lot,
Speaker 1: and I get that a lot of times from clients
Speaker 1: that may want to start with me to do a
Speaker 1: private lesson and a couple of privates. And one of
Speaker 1: my first questions to them when I meet them before
Speaker 1: we start, why are you choosing to do a private
Speaker 1: as opposed to going into a group class? Why what
Speaker 1: is the reason for that? And most of the time
Speaker 1: is that they're self conscious. They think that someone is
Speaker 1: going to be looking at them on their map. They're
Speaker 1: not flexible enough, I said, But that is the true
Speaker 1: reason why you come to yoga. It's not because you're
Speaker 1: flexible why you come there. That's just the physical part
Speaker 1: of it. Come to yoga if you're coming from that
Speaker 1: physical perspective to gain flexibility. So if you're not flexible enough,
Speaker 1: that's the reason why you would do that. And one
Speaker 1: of the great things about yoga when you truly get
Speaker 1: into your practice and when you unroll your mat. And
Speaker 1: I've seen that so many times where students will they
Speaker 1: will come into the studio and someone will be next
Speaker 1: to them practicing and they didn't realize they knew that
Speaker 1: person until the end of class, because once you unroll
Speaker 1: your matt, you are in that space, and if you're practicing,
Speaker 1: you are so connected and you're starting that journey inward
Speaker 1: that you don't see the peripheral stuff that's going on.
Speaker 1: And you start off with that, eliminating all that physical
Speaker 1: distraction and begin the journey inward so that you can
Speaker 1: then begin to eliminate the distractions in your head, the
Speaker 1: stories that you're starting to tell yourself while you're sitting
Speaker 1: there and connecting, starting to connect with your breath, and
Speaker 1: that's when the true journey really begins. It's not so
Speaker 1: much the physical, the physical aspect of yoga, the postures
Speaker 1: that you're getting into, whether you're taking hot yoga, vinyasa
Speaker 1: or hota yoga class, whichever option you're choosing to do.
Speaker 1: It's about breaking through the physical layer so that we
Speaker 1: can release all the toxicity that's going on around us,
Speaker 1: like for example, the pandemic and all the stress that
Speaker 1: everyone is speaking right now, because we need all of us.
Speaker 1: We need to create a sentuary within ourselves. And that's
Speaker 1: the journey of yoga. You are trying to find your
Speaker 1: true authentic self. And when you begin the physical practice,
Speaker 1: the sweating, the movement of your muscles and joints, and
Speaker 1: you clear out those blockages that we talk about in yoga,
Speaker 1: not necessarily physical blockage times and feel it as physical blockages,
Speaker 1: but you know energetic blockages that you have within you,
Speaker 1: the issues I and I say this to my students
Speaker 1: a lot. We come to release the issues from our tissues.
Speaker 1: That's my thing. That's say it again, mom, that's my
Speaker 1: favorite past. The issues from our tissues. And that's when
Speaker 1: we work in and when you're feeling that discomfort, learn
Speaker 1: you learn this from your yoga mat to take it
Speaker 1: out into your daily life. Sit in the discomfort, don't
Speaker 1: run away from it, Sit, feel it, taste it, and
Speaker 1: then we get the breakthrough and then you can move
Speaker 1: through from the physical layer to the energetic layer and
Speaker 1: the spiritual layer. And why at the end, what are
Speaker 1: we looking for or true self? I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of people And you tell me if this is
Speaker 1: true with the students that you've seen throughout the years,
Speaker 1: which is that people are afraid I think of their
Speaker 1: authentic selves and people are afraid of quiet. I know
Speaker 1: that I was before the pandemic. You used to tell
Speaker 1: me that I was on a hamster wheel all the
Speaker 1: time and that I needed I needed to stop doing
Speaker 1: such aggressive cardio and really needed to breathe and sit.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that people are afraid of the quiet?
Speaker 1: And what do you say to people who are afraid
Speaker 1: of the quiet? So what do we do when we're afraid?
Speaker 1: We try to run away and physically run away, emotionally runaway,
Speaker 1: spiritually runaway because we don't want to face what the
Speaker 1: quiet is going to bring to us. So when you're
Speaker 1: in a yoga class or one of the most challenging
Speaker 1: poses I find for students is say Shavasna, which is
Speaker 1: the rest pose. When you have to lay there for
Speaker 1: five or ten minutes in stillness. It becomes really uncomfortable
Speaker 1: for some students because when you sit there, there's no
Speaker 1: place for you to go. You have to be still.
Speaker 1: And when the stillness comes, then like everything reveals itself
Speaker 1: to you. Maybe you are dealing with something and you
Speaker 1: really do not want to face it, but when you're
Speaker 1: still with yourself on your yoga mat, it reveals itself
Speaker 1: to h to you. There's no place for you to run,
Speaker 1: so you have to face it. So it's important, and
Speaker 1: I say to my students it's important when you're in
Speaker 1: a pose and you're starting to feel a little bit
Speaker 1: of discomfort, as long as you're not feeling pain, but
Speaker 1: it's discomfort. And what I qual it I put little
Speaker 1: words on it. I qual it heighten awareness. When your
Speaker 1: awareness of the sensations in your body is heightened, Sit
Speaker 1: in it, feel it because you're going to learn this
Speaker 1: technique on your yoga mat that you don't get out
Speaker 1: of her pose just because I'm feeling some burning sensation here,
Speaker 1: not pain. If you're feeling pain, get out of it,
Speaker 1: that's important. But when you're feeling that discomfort, sit in
Speaker 1: it because this is where you're going to learn the
Speaker 1: tools on your yoga mat to take in your daily life.
Speaker 1: So when you're feeling uncomfortably in an uncomfortable situation with
Speaker 1: a cowork or the family member, set face set because
Speaker 1: it communicate. It's really important because it's hard. Yeah, mart
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it just means which hard do you want
Speaker 1: to deal with? Ignoring your feelings is hard too, because
Speaker 1: it's going to manifest someplace else. Yes, So ask yourself
Speaker 1: which of the heart do I want to deal with?
Speaker 1: Do I want to deal with the hard communication and
Speaker 1: the hard sensations that I'm feeling right now in my
Speaker 1: muscles so that I can build strength and release physical
Speaker 1: toxic it? Do I want to deal with that hard?
Speaker 1: Or do I just want to run away and be
Speaker 1: a hamster on that wheel with no tools to help me?
Speaker 1: How do you deal and stress? We all know how
Speaker 1: stress reads ABOc on your immune system, and that's what
Speaker 1: we're all trying to do to reduce the stress hormones.
Speaker 1: So sleep is another key important part of our well
Speaker 1: being and our wellness, so sleep, movement, movement, and I
Speaker 1: think it is so underestimated about movement, physical movement, mental movement,
Speaker 1: spiritual movement really important because if we don't move our
Speaker 1: physical body, all the systems eventually starts breaking down. So
Speaker 1: you're either going to pay attention take care of your
Speaker 1: wellness so that if you don't, you know, you will
Speaker 1: be forced to take care of your illnets or for
Speaker 1: your illness. So take the time, make time to take
Speaker 1: care of your wellness so you're not forced to take
Speaker 1: care to make time for your illness. And there's a
Speaker 1: quote out there like that, it's really really important that
Speaker 1: we move. And there is no perfection in yoga. There's
Speaker 1: no perfect pose because there's always another level, so we're all.
Speaker 1: I approach my practice and I share this with my students,
Speaker 1: Always approach my practice as a beginner, so that you
Speaker 1: have this open space that you can just receive because
Speaker 1: there's so much for us to learn about ourselves. And
Speaker 1: we may get stock and those energetic layers, and you know,
Speaker 1: set and examine and assess why am I stuck here?
Speaker 1: What lessons do I need to learn so that I
Speaker 1: can move on? One of the things mom is I
Speaker 1: think that for me, and I always offered this on
Speaker 1: the show, I've been sharing more of my journey into
Speaker 1: wellness right into fullness over the past year, and I
Speaker 1: think that for a lot of ambitious people, you get
Speaker 1: sucked into what we refer to as grind culture, right
Speaker 1: where you are just continually grinding. We talk about the
Speaker 1: hamster wheel, where you're continually moving, but when you're talking
Speaker 1: about movement, you're talking about purposeful, connected, mindful movement as
Speaker 1: opposed to just busying yourself with moving. So I just
Speaker 1: want you to talk about the like just a little
Speaker 1: bit of the difference between moving to be busy and
Speaker 1: mindful movement. Yeah, so moving to be busy, it's like
Speaker 1: trying to use that constant. My calendar is fall. I
Speaker 1: don't have time for this. I don't have time to
Speaker 1: take care of myself. So everyone has to work, and
Speaker 1: you know, because you work to make the money so
Speaker 1: that you can take the yoga class or whatever. Ill
Speaker 1: unless you're but there's a thing called balance, and you
Speaker 1: can't have a take a look at your calendar and
Speaker 1: if there's no empty spaces there, then something is missing.
Speaker 1: Our whole life is built around balance. So one of
Speaker 1: the things I was having a conversation with the students
Speaker 1: because we have a twenty one day challenge of yoga
Speaker 1: going on right now, and I say to them, ask yourself.
Speaker 1: If you're saying that I can't do this because I
Speaker 1: don't have time, I can't go to a yoga class,
Speaker 1: I can't take care of myself because I don't have time.
Speaker 1: If you approach it with that mindset, you're setting yourself
Speaker 1: up for failure. You have to approach your well being
Speaker 1: as I must make time for wellness, must make time
Speaker 1: to take care of myself, not if I have time,
Speaker 1: I will unroll my map and take a yoga class.
Speaker 1: It is something that you must approach that I will
Speaker 1: make time for, not because I'll do it because I
Speaker 1: have time. You have to create the time. And another
Speaker 1: important thing I say to my students also think about
Speaker 1: this for just ask yourself. With the challenge that we're doing,
Speaker 1: close your eyes here for a moment. And I did
Speaker 1: this in class last night, and ask yourself, have I
Speaker 1: worked for someone for twenty one days out of any
Speaker 1: given month in my whole life? Have I ever done that?
Speaker 1: And I said, just sit for a moment and just
Speaker 1: ponder on that. Have I worked for a corporation? Have
Speaker 1: I worked for someone else for twenty one days in
Speaker 1: any given month out of my lifetime? And they all
Speaker 1: everyone had a smile, and I said, now ask yourself.
Speaker 1: Think if you're being your whole being here as a corporation,
Speaker 1: and you are the CEO of this corporation, and you
Speaker 1: want to have a sustainable corporation, right, a sustainable lifestyle
Speaker 1: to get through all the different stages of your life.
Speaker 1: So if you do, if your corporation is not sustainable,
Speaker 1: then what will your life be. So you go to work,
Speaker 1: to work for someone else corporation so their business is sustainable,
Speaker 1: but you must do that for yourself. You have yourself
Speaker 1: a priority. You are the CEO of this corporation. Your physical,
Speaker 1: your emotional, and your spiritual being is your corporation. You
Speaker 1: are the CEO, and you must allow this corporation to
Speaker 1: be sustainable. Treat it well so it's sustainable through all
Speaker 1: the stages of your life when your twenties, your thirties,
Speaker 1: your forties, your fifties, your sixthies, like cheese in So
Speaker 1: you know, I think that that's so important, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've learned most from you,
Speaker 1: so many different lessons obviously throughout like my entire life,
Speaker 1: but making yourself a priority. And I will tell people
Speaker 1: a story about the fact that I used to grow
Speaker 1: up eating dinner at eight or nine o'clock at night
Speaker 1: because and people were like, well, come over for sleepovers
Speaker 1: and be like, why y'all eating dinner at nine o'clock
Speaker 1: at night? And it was because my mother was a
Speaker 1: teaching a spin class or our step class, or you know,
Speaker 1: she needed to go to the gym after her work day,
Speaker 1: and so that's what she did. And it was always
Speaker 1: recognizing and I think that and I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: you to say this especially for you know, for caregivers,
Speaker 1: for parents who either have children or they are carrying
Speaker 1: caretakers for their elderly parents. You know, you always made
Speaker 1: yourself a priority so that Nicole and I could grow
Speaker 1: up seeing ourselves as a priority. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are still stuck in martyrdom where they feel like they
Speaker 1: have to sacrifice themselves for their kids or for their parents.
Speaker 1: So can you speak to that about like the importance
Speaker 1: of making yourself a priority even when you have kids
Speaker 1: and elderly parents, both of which you have found yourself.
Speaker 1: You know in that you cared for you know, my grandparents.
Speaker 1: You cared for Nicole and I and like and other
Speaker 1: stranger friends and things like that. How did you manage that? So?
Speaker 1: Did you know? How? Mother has all these sayings, all
Speaker 1: of them that I share with my students and I
Speaker 1: share with my family. Remember this you cannot pour from
Speaker 1: an empty cop Okay we say it on woke af
Speaker 1: and I credit you all the time. Another analogy that
Speaker 1: you can use. And I say this to my students
Speaker 1: that I keep say in that because this is what
Speaker 1: I do is to help people understand the importance of
Speaker 1: their well being. And one of the things that we
Speaker 1: should realize, like when you're caring for your family and
Speaker 1: you're getting you, you will have some inappropriate outburse or
Speaker 1: you're just lashing out at the kids or your spouse
Speaker 1: or your partner or family member and they're looking at you.
Speaker 1: Where's this coming from? And I will tell you a
Speaker 1: little secret. That is coming from built up resentment. Because
Speaker 1: you have given so much of yourself and you have
Speaker 1: not taken anything back. So it is really important to
Speaker 1: refill your cup. I say to my students, think of this,
Speaker 1: Like every Friday morning, I do a restorative you old
Speaker 1: class and I call it this is a class that
Speaker 1: you come back to to redeposit in the ATM machine,
Speaker 1: because think of your being, like everyone is taken, your
Speaker 1: taken withdrawing from your ATM machine, the physical being, the
Speaker 1: well being, your spiritual being, your emotional being. You give
Speaker 1: it to your job, to your family members and your friends,
Speaker 1: and they keep depleting you all week of that energy.
Speaker 1: When do you take the time to make a redeposit
Speaker 1: in your bank? And that is what the resort of
Speaker 1: yoga class is all about on a Friday morning, is
Speaker 1: redepositing in your energy bank so that you can pour
Speaker 1: from that up that's fall. I love that, and I
Speaker 1: mean that's I think that that's probably one of the
Speaker 1: best pott It's so good. The resentment and the anger,
Speaker 1: the outburst is coming from the depletion of your energy bank,
Speaker 1: and you cannot be depleted and continue to give. So
Speaker 1: for mothers out there, I did it. Always made myself
Speaker 1: a priority because if you don't take care of your
Speaker 1: well being, you won't have enough to take care of
Speaker 1: the ones that you really truly need to take care of.
Speaker 1: And when you love yourself to take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: it energetically radiates out to your family members, to your
Speaker 1: co workers. Taking care of yourself first, making yourself a priority.
Speaker 1: Your children will learn that how important it is from
Speaker 1: mom or dad to take care of themselves so they
Speaker 1: are sustainable to take care of me. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: that what is so incredibly important and valuable is that
Speaker 1: martyrdom doesn't lead you anywhere, and all you are teaching.
Speaker 1: All you are teaching your kids, your you know, if
Speaker 1: you are a caregiver to other people's children, all you
Speaker 1: are teaching them is that they come last, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's all. That's all that you are teaching. And if
Speaker 1: you want to raise you know, healthy people, right because
Speaker 1: these are children that will turn into adults. If you
Speaker 1: want to raise healthy people, then you have to model
Speaker 1: healthy behavior and that and that and a healthy lifestyle,
Speaker 1: and that means putting yourself first. Another question for you,
Speaker 1: mom is that you know everyone knows, um okay, f
Speaker 1: that last year was a very traumatic year. Uh for
Speaker 1: you know, I went through a divorce, You went through
Speaker 1: a brain tumor, and the family was able, you know,
Speaker 1: through the grace of God, to be able to be
Speaker 1: together for five months of the most critical heightened time
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. How did yoga and meditation help you
Speaker 1: on your healing journey after your after your surgery, even
Speaker 1: during thing is that I had a lot of support.
Speaker 1: I had just loving kindness support. I had a soft
Speaker 1: place to land with my daughters, with you and Nicole
Speaker 1: and my husband and the rest of the family. Just
Speaker 1: a it's really important to have connection. And what that did.
Speaker 1: And I will tell I say this all the time
Speaker 1: that I don't know the universe had a plan. I
Speaker 1: had one of my students that told me that, you know,
Speaker 1: you actually started the pandemic because the universe took you
Speaker 1: down and the whole brain tumor on March fifth, and
Speaker 1: the world shut down after that. So she said to me,
Speaker 1: you know, mother Yobi MOhm, you got taken down and
Speaker 1: then the universe came down. But the important thing here
Speaker 1: is that I had a lot of support, and you
Speaker 1: know I did. I do meditation twice a day. I
Speaker 1: do it while I'm walking, I do it before I
Speaker 1: go to bed. I do it the first thing I
Speaker 1: wake up, even if it's five minutes. You don't need
Speaker 1: an hour of meditation. You can do one minute of deep,
Speaker 1: deep breathing just to reconnect with yourself. Movement was also
Speaker 1: very important, and even if you're immobile at some point,
Speaker 1: which I was, you know when I just got out
Speaker 1: of the surgery, movement of your breath, yep, it's considered
Speaker 1: movement because you're moving the energy. You're moving your lungs,
Speaker 1: so breathing deeply and most of us in the population
Speaker 1: tends to breathe from your chest. That is one of
Speaker 1: the things. Even if you're not doing physical arm or
Speaker 1: legs or muscle movement, moving your breath moves the internal organs.
Speaker 1: You are still using your lungs, so breathing deeply, take
Speaker 1: a minute time yourself and take one moment of nice
Speaker 1: deep inhale to help you. So again I had a
Speaker 1: soft place to land. I was really grateful, and you know,
Speaker 1: I can't the gratitude that I have that my whole
Speaker 1: family was with me for five months of recovery and
Speaker 1: the moment I got home and got out of the
Speaker 1: hospital and you know, we did the deep breathing that
Speaker 1: was part of yours. I started back with my movement
Speaker 1: like two days out, doing restorative yoga. So there's so
Speaker 1: many different forms. Whatever you're yearning for, physical, emotional, and spiritually,
Speaker 1: there's something there for you. Someday we may need a physical,
Speaker 1: energetic movement, but another day we may need a little
Speaker 1: bit more restorative yoga because we need to heal, and
Speaker 1: maybe physical healing, but spiritual and emotional healing. So there's
Speaker 1: a balance. So, yes, we know that we have to hustle.
Speaker 1: But I am telling you, and I almost said to you,
Speaker 1: yogis please, Yeah, you could call that, take the time,
Speaker 1: stop the hustle and take care of yourself, self care,
Speaker 1: do it now, do it for yourself. My So it's
Speaker 1: just so everyone knows. People ask all the time like oh, Danielle,
Speaker 1: like you seem to know so much, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't. I just I just parrot the things my
Speaker 1: mother has told me over the over my entire life.
Speaker 1: M mom. Last question for you is, you know, again,
Speaker 1: this time has been really trying on people. People are
Speaker 1: going through you know, COVID, a fatigue, the emotional disconnect
Speaker 1: that folks have been having, you know, not with the
Speaker 1: inability to see family members, the inability to gather in groups.
Speaker 1: It's been hard. It's been emotionally taxing for people. What
Speaker 1: advice do you give to folks to help them deal
Speaker 1: with this trauma? Because that's what we're all experiencing, is
Speaker 1: this collective trauma of what it is like to create
Speaker 1: a new normal while we're living in this pandemic. So
Speaker 1: what can you offer to people as as some advice
Speaker 1: to maintain their emotional and spiritual well being. What I've
Speaker 1: gained learned with COVID, what COVID brought to me is
Speaker 1: that the only thing that is consistent is change, yep, change.
Speaker 1: So we must adapt to whatever it is that's going
Speaker 1: on and try to live our best life because nothing
Speaker 1: is permanent and the only thing that is consistent again
Speaker 1: is changed, and so we must change. What I've learned
Speaker 1: is that a simpler lifestyle is more grounding for me.
Speaker 1: Being home and make your home a sanctuary, make it
Speaker 1: someplace that you want to be in, you know, introduce
Speaker 1: your plans. Yes, somebody became a plant mother during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: My my, oh she's a black grandmother because she now
Speaker 1: has an entire fourest in her house, like I do.
Speaker 1: You know, go back to eating together, eating meals together.
Speaker 1: That's very important in my family that when we are
Speaker 1: together in the same house. We eat meals together. We
Speaker 1: sit at the table and eat together, have conversations and talk.
Speaker 1: Put away you know, the phones, the technology, and just
Speaker 1: take time and make meals together. And those are the things.
Speaker 1: And just what are you taking away from this pandemic?
Speaker 1: And I believe you know the universe is bringing us
Speaker 1: down because we were all scattered all over the place,
Speaker 1: running from one appointment to the next, on the grind
Speaker 1: on that hamster wheel. And what this pandemic has done
Speaker 1: for us, if you really go deep within your soup
Speaker 1: and think about it, it is grounding us, grounding us,
Speaker 1: taking us down, and say stop listen, feel feel what
Speaker 1: is going on within you and around you. Let's stop listen.
Speaker 1: So we we had many, many, many, many signs and
Speaker 1: that we did not pay attention to. And this is
Speaker 1: my own personal feeling, an analogy on. We had hurricanes,
Speaker 1: we had floods, we had fires. So to me, it's
Speaker 1: like universe is speaking to us and we're not truly listening.
Speaker 1: And until we get the message there, the universe is
Speaker 1: still going to pilot on on us. So here we
Speaker 1: are in the pandemic. What have you learned from this?
Speaker 1: What can we take away from this. Yes, it's brought
Speaker 1: us some really uncomfortable situation, uncomfortable situations to be in.
Speaker 1: But what lesson. There's a lesson here for all of
Speaker 1: us to care about each other, to care about ourselves.
Speaker 1: And another thing I'd like to leave with everyone, and
Speaker 1: this is um had been reading it in like a
Speaker 1: passage in my in my yoga classes. Is one of
Speaker 1: the yoga Guru's yoga budget. It said, let us all
Speaker 1: be a forklift for each other. When someone leaves your present,
Speaker 1: let them feel like they were uplifted and not like
Speaker 1: the energy was sucked out of them. So let's all
Speaker 1: try to be a forklift for our siblings, for our partners,
Speaker 1: for family members, for our friends, for co workers. And
Speaker 1: if we keep lifting each other up, yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: we vibrate on the same on the same level, and
Speaker 1: waveler be a forklift, yeah for each other. Mother Shirley Newton,
Speaker 1: owner of Essence of Yoga Studio. Guys, if you want
Speaker 1: to take virtual classes with my mother, I highly highly
Speaker 1: recommend you check out Essence of Yoga Studio dot com.
Speaker 1: If you use the Mind Body app Mind Body app,
Speaker 1: you can find Essence of Yoga Studio on there. As well. Mother,
Speaker 1: surely last word, oh, one last word, to remember to
Speaker 1: make time for your wellness so you will not be
Speaker 1: forced to make time for your illness. That is it.
Speaker 1: Remember that, make time for your wellness so you won't
Speaker 1: be forced to make time for your illness. Take care
Speaker 1: of self care necessary. Thank you, namaste, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe and brilliant
Speaker 1: new Year, and we will see you back here, live
Speaker 1: and filled with passion, ready to hit the ground running
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. Be well, dear friends. Power to
Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck. See in twenty twenty two.