Speaker 1: Does meditating feel like a chore, another to do list
Speaker 1: item to check off, or perhaps it's even fallen off
Speaker 1: the list entirely. If you sense that meditating regularly would
Speaker 1: benefit you, but you struggle to find a sustainable place
Speaker 1: for it in your schedule, I can help. There are
Speaker 1: reasons people struggle with creating and maintaining a meditation practice,
Speaker 1: and it isn't because meditation isn't right for them. In
Speaker 1: my free guide the top five reasons you can't seem
Speaker 1: to stick with a meditation practice and how to build
Speaker 1: one that lasts, I teach you why it can be
Speaker 1: a struggle to build a meditation practice that lasts, and
Speaker 1: the small fixes that can have a big impact when
Speaker 1: it comes to getting you where you want to be
Speaker 1: with meditating regularly. Go to oneufeed dot net and sign
Speaker 1: up for this free guide right on our homepage.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, love is the most powerful force, and it's the
Speaker 2: uniting force, and that's what we're hoping to be able
Speaker 2: to do with our mission.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the one you feed Throughout. Great thinkers have
Speaker 3: recognized the importance of the thoughts we have quotes like
Speaker 3: garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think
Speaker 3: ring true, and yet for many of us, our thoughts
Speaker 3: don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self pity, jealousy,
Speaker 3: or fear. We see what we don't have instead of
Speaker 3: what we do. We think things that hold us back
Speaker 3: and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking.
Speaker 3: Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort
Speaker 3: to make a life worth living. This podcast is about
Speaker 3: how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction,
Speaker 3: how they feed their good wolf. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3: Our guests on this episode are the founders of the
Speaker 3: Holistic Life Foundation, Smith Atman Smith and Andre Gonzalez. They
Speaker 3: talk about their new book, let Your Light Shine, How
Speaker 3: Mindfulness Can Empower children and rebuild Communities. In the book,
Speaker 3: they describe how they have spent the last twenty years
Speaker 3: teaching yoga, meditation, and breath work to thousands of at
Speaker 3: risk kids in Baltimore schools, helping them to develop deep
Speaker 3: reserves of patience, empathy, resolve, and when needed, the righteous
Speaker 3: anger that fuels deep structural change. Their work has received
Speaker 3: wide national attention due to the remarkable results. The schools
Speaker 3: that have participated in their programs have seen suspension rates
Speaker 3: plummet and graduation rates go through the roof.
Speaker 1: Andy, Ali and Atman, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having us, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you guys for being here. We're going to
Speaker 1: be discussing your book called Let Your Light Shine, how
Speaker 1: mindfulness can empower children and rebuild communities, and we'll also
Speaker 1: be talking about your great work with the Holistic Life Foundation,
Speaker 1: which is an organization that you you guys founded probably
Speaker 1: over twenty years ago. But before we do, we'll start
Speaker 1: like we always do, with the parable. In the parable,
Speaker 1: there's a grandparent they're talking with their grandchild and they say,
Speaker 1: in life, there are two wolves inside of us that
Speaker 1: are always a battle. One is a good wolf, which
Speaker 1: represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and the
Speaker 1: other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed
Speaker 1: and hatred and fear. And the grandchild stops. They think
Speaker 1: about it for a second. They look up at their
Speaker 1: grandparent and they say, well, well, which one wins? And
Speaker 1: the grandparent says, the one you feed. So I'd like
Speaker 1: to start off by asking you what that parable means
Speaker 1: to you guys, in your life and in the work
Speaker 1: that you do.
Speaker 4: I know. One thing that jumps right out to me
Speaker 4: is like it sounds like yoga in its traditional form,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. It's like your ego versus
Speaker 4: your universal consciousness, you know what I mean. Like you
Speaker 4: have a choice of where you put your conscious awareness
Speaker 4: and where you put your energy. So it's like, can
Speaker 4: be that higher of operational stuff for that low of
Speaker 4: our rational stuff. I mean, it's all just energy, but
Speaker 4: it's a matter of where you put your awareness and
Speaker 4: your effort, so you can either feed your connection to
Speaker 4: your universal consciousness or the separate nature of your ego to.
Speaker 5: Build off of that. It also reminds me of something
Speaker 5: I teach. Your uncle Will used to always talk about,
Speaker 5: like sanskaras or habit patterns. What they say is like
Speaker 5: when you do something over and over again, it tightens
Speaker 5: its yoke on your individual consciousness, and that's what you're
Speaker 5: prone to do. But the more that you catch those
Speaker 5: habit patterns before they actually form or thought constructs, before
Speaker 5: they actually form into actual action, they loosen their yoke
Speaker 5: or grip on your individual consciousness. So if it's you know,
Speaker 5: those bad wolves that you know is feeding you know
Speaker 5: your ego, and you know it's detrimental to your consciousness, health,
Speaker 5: enlightenment and all that stuff. You kind of want to
Speaker 5: like let them slide or let them go and bring
Speaker 5: about more positive habit patterns. And the more you do that,
Speaker 5: the more that those habits and will form, and you
Speaker 5: know those things our teacher used to always say, those
Speaker 5: negative habits will fall off like a scab. So you know,
Speaker 5: to me, that is what pops in my mind when
Speaker 5: you talk about the good wolf and the bad wolf
Speaker 5: is sanscers.
Speaker 2: The same thing with me when the same thing with
Speaker 2: the Domina said sandscarves immediately popped into my head as well.
Speaker 2: But just to throw another kind of viewpoint out why
Speaker 2: I was talking about, I was like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to say the same thing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about also how sometimes when we've discussed
Speaker 2: the concept of neuroplasticity with people, we talk about how
Speaker 2: we can rewire our brain and certain things that go
Speaker 2: on in our lives, and that concept similar kind of
Speaker 2: brought that out in my head to where you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times we'll show a picture in our
Speaker 2: slide show and it's a picture of you know, like
Speaker 2: a brain that's nervous or looks stressed out, looks overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: And if you keep feeding that part of your life,
Speaker 2: you know, feeding you know, whenever you face adversity or
Speaker 2: you're going through something intense that you get stressed out,
Speaker 2: then you're feeding that side of your brain, and your
Speaker 2: brain gets better at getting stressed out. Whereas if we
Speaker 2: were faced with adversity or something's going on with your life,
Speaker 2: you use a breath, you slow your body down, you
Speaker 2: become what present. Then you're training your brain to be
Speaker 2: more like that. So instead of constantly triggering the sympathetic
Speaker 2: part of our autonomic nervous system, and you can be
Speaker 2: more that parasympathetic state. So similarity to the parable. I
Speaker 2: think it reminds me of that how whichever one you
Speaker 2: see is going to get stronger.
Speaker 1: I love this idea of some scars. It sounds like
Speaker 1: we pronounce that word slightly differently. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's a difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, doesn't really matter,
Speaker 1: but that idea of when we do a behavior or
Speaker 1: a thought, one of the things that happens is it
Speaker 1: makes it easier or more likely to do that behavior
Speaker 1: or thought in the future. And that's just such a
Speaker 1: fundamental concept to realize, like, oh, we are creating in essence,
Speaker 1: the choices that are available to us almost narrow the
Speaker 1: more we do something. And you mentioned if we can
Speaker 1: catch something early, it unwinds pretty easy. When we're trying
Speaker 1: to unwind something that's got thirty years of habit energy
Speaker 1: behind it. It's not that it can't be unwound, because
Speaker 1: of course it can, but it is slightly more challenging.
Speaker 1: And so I always find that helpful to think of.
Speaker 1: You know, as I'm thinking about how I'm going to
Speaker 1: spend my time in what I'm going to do, is
Speaker 1: like for exercise, not only am I getting the benefit
Speaker 1: of the exercise today and what it does for my mental, emotional,
Speaker 1: physical help, but I'm also making it easier to do
Speaker 1: it the next time and the next time. And so
Speaker 1: I love that you guys brought that up. And then
Speaker 1: obviously Ali the core idea, right, it's choice, right, you
Speaker 1: hear the parable, you immediately get it. Our thoughts, our behaviors,
Speaker 1: our actions, our speech, they all matter. We have a
Speaker 1: choice in them. So what I'd like to talk about
Speaker 1: now is just get a little background on you guys
Speaker 1: and the work that you do. And I want to
Speaker 1: start by asking one of you to talk about a
Speaker 1: particular statistic and what you guys did is and you'll
Speaker 1: flesh this out more, but you basically began in Baltimore
Speaker 1: or twenty years however long, it's been trying to find
Speaker 1: the most troubled children and see if by using yoga
Speaker 1: and meditation you could improve their lives. Now you use
Speaker 1: different words with them and all that, but that was
Speaker 1: the core idea. And there was a statistic that jumped
Speaker 1: out to me that just really caught my attention, and
Speaker 1: it was one around suspension rates in a school where
Speaker 1: you guys were using. I think you might have called
Speaker 1: it your Mindful Moment program. I wonder if you could
Speaker 1: describe that program and then share some of those stats,
Speaker 1: because to me right away, I'm like, Holy mackerel, that's incredible.
Speaker 5: I mean, I can describe the program, the Moment program.
Speaker 5: Like you said, we have like an alternative to suspension
Speaker 5: room when kids are in crisis, and it goes from
Speaker 5: elementary school all the way to high school where in
Speaker 5: each of those institutions, and you know, like I said,
Speaker 5: when kids are in crisis, when they're in high school,
Speaker 5: they can self refer, but when they're in middle school
Speaker 5: and elementary school, the teacher or administrator has to refer
Speaker 5: them to the room. We have staff from the Holistic
Speaker 5: Life Foundation staffing the room when they come in there.
Speaker 5: You know, we're not counseled, so we can't tell them
Speaker 5: what to do, you know, when they are in crisis,
Speaker 5: but we can actively listen and mirror what they're saying
Speaker 5: their problem. Is to empower them. You know, like a
Speaker 5: lot of kids are talked to all the time or
Speaker 5: talk at and they are not ever listened to, So
Speaker 5: that right there is empowering and healing to trauma. Then
Speaker 5: we teach the kids about stress, stresses and house streets
Speaker 5: plays out in their body, whether you know they clench
Speaker 5: their fists, clench their jaw, fold their arms, so they
Speaker 5: know what to look out for when they are about
Speaker 5: to act out. We also talk about, like I said,
Speaker 5: there's stresses, whether it's a teacher, classmate. And then you know,
Speaker 5: after we have them identify those things, we teach them
Speaker 5: a breath or meditation to help them you know, self regulate.
Speaker 5: You know, they're not looking for anybody else. The practices
Speaker 5: are within We teach in a way of reciprocal teaching
Speaker 5: model where you know, they know how to use the
Speaker 5: practices and what they're good for. And then you know,
Speaker 5: we ask them after the end of like the fifteen
Speaker 5: minute session with us next time that this situation happens,
Speaker 5: whether you're having that interaction with that student, that teacher,
Speaker 5: whether you're noticing how the stress plays out in your body,
Speaker 5: clenching your fist, clenching your jaw, shifting your weight, folding
Speaker 5: your arms. Do you think that you can, you know,
Speaker 5: use this practice to help yourself self regulate so you
Speaker 5: don't have to come back here. And they are like, yeah,
Speaker 5: we'll do it, We'll do it. And then you know,
Speaker 5: at the end, we have a tea machine in the
Speaker 5: room and you know, kids love tea, and you know,
Speaker 5: we give them some tea and then they go back
Speaker 5: to class. And you know, one of the most beautiful
Speaker 5: things about that practice is at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 5: the number of visits in that room is skyrocket like
Speaker 5: it's through the roof, you know, the amount of kids
Speaker 5: that come through there. But because we teach kids how
Speaker 5: to self regulate, how to identify their stressors, and how
Speaker 5: to identify how stress plays out in their body, and
Speaker 5: then the practices they can do to help bring themselves
Speaker 5: back to homeostasis. You know, the numbers dwindle next to
Speaker 5: nothing during the course of the year, and in the
Speaker 5: epicenter of where the Freddie Gray riots happened, you know,
Speaker 5: there hasn't been a suspension in maybe like eight years,
Speaker 5: and schools that we go into they eventually get rid
Speaker 5: of the in school suspension room because it's not needed anymore. So,
Speaker 5: you know, it's teachers and principles love it because it
Speaker 5: helps with a classroom environment, school culture, helps increase test scores, attendance,
Speaker 5: helps decrease suspensions and referral numbers. So we're expanding the
Speaker 5: program to six new cities this upcoming year through the
Speaker 5: Clinton Global Initiative because we do get such great stats.
Speaker 4: And just a couple of things about that program real quick.
Speaker 4: I think one thing we make sure when we won't
Speaker 4: go to the schools, we're very intentional about the way
Speaker 4: we talk about the room, so it's not seen as
Speaker 4: a room for bad kids. It's more like a resource
Speaker 4: for everyone at the school because everybody's struggling for different reasons,
Speaker 4: and no one wants to go to the room if
Speaker 4: they see it for kids with behavior issues, like it's
Speaker 4: got to be a room for stress, a room for anxiety,
Speaker 4: or room for it, you know, if you just can't focus.
Speaker 4: So it's like a resource to all the kids in
Speaker 4: the school. And I think one of the main things
Speaker 4: we were trying to do was change the dynamic from
Speaker 4: punitive to empowering. Like kids usually being used to get
Speaker 4: punished for things, and that's just the way they live
Speaker 4: their lives. But we make it empowering because, like was
Speaker 4: talking about, they come to the room, they learn to
Speaker 4: self regulate, and then they start to do that self
Speaker 4: regulation in the classroom and they don't need to come
Speaker 4: to the room, so like those things that might have
Speaker 4: triggered them, and then in September they're like, I need
Speaker 4: to go to the mindful Moment room. In April it
Speaker 4: might be oh wait, look I feel myself getting triggered.
Speaker 4: Oh they taught me this breathing exercise. I can recenter myself,
Speaker 4: and then they resent themselves in the classroom. So you know,
Speaker 4: it's a huge part of it. And it's funny that
Speaker 4: school that I was talking about with the zero suspensions
Speaker 4: forever for as long as we had the program there,
Speaker 4: there were no suspensions. And I remember going to get
Speaker 4: data from the principal and vice principle for a grant
Speaker 4: that our development director was putting together, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just need suspension data and this and that, and
Speaker 4: they were like, Ali, we don't have any suspensions here, Like,
Speaker 4: you know why that is right? I don't know y'all
Speaker 4: fudge the numbers, Like I don't. I don't understand how
Speaker 4: y'all don't have zero suspend. How y'all have zero spend.
Speaker 4: She's like, no, we don't fudge the numbers. Like we're
Speaker 4: about to suspend a kid, we send them to you all,
Speaker 4: like we send them to the Mindful Moment room. They
Speaker 4: re center themselves and they're ready to go back to class.
Speaker 4: And if the kids that are like repeat offenders, of
Speaker 4: the kids who kind of like constantly showing up in
Speaker 4: the room, we had an after school program at that
Speaker 4: school as well, called Holistic Me, and the kids that
Speaker 4: just needed a little more support, she would pull them
Speaker 4: out of whatever program they were in and put them
Speaker 4: in our after school program and then it would just
Speaker 4: help them. And there were literally no suspensions there in
Speaker 4: the entire time and running that program.
Speaker 5: You know, it's great what we do for the students,
Speaker 5: but you know, we also have an aspect of the
Speaker 5: program where we help support teachers and administrators during their
Speaker 5: planning periods. We'll send our staff to their rooms to
Speaker 5: work with the teachers and teach them practices to help them,
Speaker 5: you know, get rid of secondary trauma and you know,
Speaker 5: be more present for their students. And you know that
Speaker 5: helps prevent and burnout and gives them a new air
Speaker 5: of energy, you know, about their craft and you know
Speaker 5: a lot of people lose that through you know, accumulating
Speaker 5: that secondary trauma. And that's one thing that we've noticed
Speaker 5: that you know, it's been like teachers at schools where
Speaker 5: they are ready to retire, and when we bring the
Speaker 5: practice to the school, they get a new energy about
Speaker 5: them and you know, they have a new light because
Speaker 5: they're not only is there a classroom environment improving and
Speaker 5: the kids are born receptive, but you know they aren't
Speaker 5: accumulating that secondary trauma. They learn the practices to be
Speaker 5: able to get rid of that and you know, once again,
Speaker 5: just be present. And then also with the principle, we
Speaker 5: always take time to work with the principal as well
Speaker 5: to have a personal practice because they're overwhelmed. Teachers are
Speaker 5: overwhelmed because you know that to wear so many hats,
Speaker 5: but the principals wear even more hats than the teachers.
Speaker 5: And Richie Davidson did a study on, you know, the
Speaker 5: effectiveness of having a personal practice and being around folks
Speaker 5: and influencing them through your energy. And that's one thing
Speaker 5: that we've noticed in the schools that we're at. The
Speaker 5: secretaries in the schools thank us for having the practice
Speaker 5: with the principal because of the principals stressed out. The
Speaker 5: teachers are stressed out, the secretary is are stressed out.
Speaker 5: But when they do have a personal practice, the positive,
Speaker 5: calm present vibe reverberates out into the school in every
Speaker 5: single facet.
Speaker 1: So you've given some descriptions of a couple different programs.
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell me just broadly, you know, what
Speaker 1: the Holistic Life what all you do, and maybe tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about the origin of it.
Speaker 4: I'll start with the origin and somebody can talk about
Speaker 4: what we do if y'all want to do it that way.
Speaker 2: So sounds good.
Speaker 4: The origin of the Holistic Life Foundation was I'd say
Speaker 4: our godfather, who was our teacher, our dad and our
Speaker 4: mom just in a lot of different ways they got
Speaker 4: into the practice of yoga. Our godfather got into it
Speaker 4: in like the early sixties. Him and my dad were
Speaker 4: like black panthers. They were into like making change, and
Speaker 4: then they saw that like certain types of change weren't sustainable,
Speaker 4: like revolution wasn't really a sustainable thing. They got violent,
Speaker 4: they got bloody, evolution took too long. So they would
Speaker 4: always talk about an involution, changing your inner life to
Speaker 4: change the world around you. And he was walking past
Speaker 4: the books or saw this guy with a big goofy
Speaker 4: grin and a big nose and a mustache, and was like,
Speaker 4: who is this guy? And it was Mayor Baba. So
Speaker 4: he grabbed the Mayor Baba book and read it and
Speaker 4: went back the next day and bought every single yoga
Speaker 4: book from this bookstore. And from that moment on, the
Speaker 4: yoga was the primary motivation of his entire existence, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, learning it, absorbing it, teaching it,
Speaker 4: and just helping people with the practice and empowering people
Speaker 4: with the practice. He got our dad into it. Well,
Speaker 4: my dad had a prostate issue and my mom you know,
Speaker 4: she was had her own spiritual practice mostly around prayer,
Speaker 4: but she got into like the arivated cooking, like that
Speaker 4: was her thing. And when me and not more born,
Speaker 4: you know, our dad was like, well, if I'm meditating,
Speaker 4: you guys are meditating. So he got us into transcendental
Speaker 4: meditation early. It's not something I remember ever not being
Speaker 4: around like meditation as a kid. It was just like
Speaker 4: that was a part of our lives, getting up before
Speaker 4: school meditating and then going and watch on this little
Speaker 4: teeny black and white TV in the kitchen, watching the
Speaker 4: school be doing Widdy Woodpecker and then going off to
Speaker 4: school every morning, like that was our life. They put
Speaker 4: us in a self realization fellow church, the Divine Life
Speaker 4: Church of Absolute Moanism was what it called when we
Speaker 4: started going there, and then it became the Divine Life
Speaker 4: Church of Absolute Oneness, so based on creat yoga, really
Speaker 4: dope place to kind of see other people meditating and
Speaker 4: people into the practice. Because where we were in West Baltimore,
Speaker 4: like no one was into we had to hide our
Speaker 4: meditation practice. Mat Malus just say we were like closet meditators,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Like we didn't really want
Speaker 4: to share that with people because it was just weird
Speaker 4: back then, you know what I mean. Now coolest kids
Speaker 4: on the block being vegan and meditating and then the yoga,
Speaker 4: but back then it was just in the early eighties,
Speaker 4: like nobody was into that. So it was just like
Speaker 4: something that we hid from people. And then, you know,
Speaker 4: fast forward, we got out of our practice when our
Speaker 4: parents separated. We got out of the vegan lifestyle when
Speaker 4: our parents separated and got divorced, and then we got
Speaker 4: back into it as we were finishing up college and
Speaker 4: you know, Uncle Will was excited. We always tease him
Speaker 4: and say he was like Yoda sit in the Dagoba
Speaker 4: swamp waiting for Luke to show up. And we showed
Speaker 4: up and we were like, we want to learn this stuff,
Speaker 4: and he taught us and it just became a part
Speaker 4: of our lives. So I think we went deep into
Speaker 4: the practice. And at the same time, our dad, when
Speaker 4: we were finishing up school, told us don't go get jobs.
Speaker 4: He was like, don't go get a job. You guys
Speaker 4: need to start a business. You guys need to work
Speaker 4: for yourselves, and you'll be a lot happier, you won't
Speaker 4: have to deal with racism. In the corporate arena, you'll
Speaker 4: be able to make decisions, you'll be able to hire
Speaker 4: people that might not get hired, and you'll have a
Speaker 4: lot more flexibility and you'll be a lot happier. And
Speaker 4: that was when we started the Holistic Life Foundation. So
Speaker 4: it was like the combination of the yoga from Uncle Will,
Speaker 4: the business and entrepreneurship from our dad was like the
Speaker 4: perfect storm for us to start the Holistic Life Foundation.
Speaker 4: And our mom supported us. She was the one that
Speaker 4: had all the school connections and made sure we didn't
Speaker 4: starve when we were early starting off the Holistic Life
Speaker 4: Foundation too. She was an integral part of it as well.
Speaker 1: Maybe we could pause here for a second before we
Speaker 1: go into what all you do, and I'd love to
Speaker 1: have one of you describe what you mean when you
Speaker 1: say yoga, because as we know, yoga has for many,
Speaker 1: many many people, it means one thing. It means you
Speaker 1: do a series of poses on a matware or by yourself.
Speaker 1: But it's all a physical thing. And maybe there is
Speaker 1: some element of being present or breathing that's part of it,
Speaker 1: but it's primarily the physical thing. And you guys are
Speaker 1: talking about a yoga that is far more to use
Speaker 1: your title of your business holistic than that, right, So,
Speaker 1: could someone just share in a sentence or two kind
Speaker 1: of what you mean when you guys use the word yoga,
Speaker 1: and then I'd love to hear about the programs that
Speaker 1: you guys do.
Speaker 5: I mean, I can say what yoga is since it
Speaker 5: only take a second that and it can dive deeper
Speaker 5: on you know, what we do to us, yoga is
Speaker 5: basically like how Patent Jali described it as, like the
Speaker 5: eight limbs. You know, things that you should do, things
Speaker 5: that you shouldn't do, the yamas and the yamas, then
Speaker 5: the postures, then also the breeding practices like you were saying,
Speaker 5: and then you know meditation. Meditation is really important that
Speaker 5: a lot of people just skip. I mean that's like,
Speaker 5: you know, top four levels of Patent Joali's eight Limbs
Speaker 5: of Yoga. And you know, a lot of people think
Speaker 5: that it's something that you do when you roll out
Speaker 5: of matt but you know, our teacher used to always say,
Speaker 5: it's not something that you do with something that you are.
Speaker 5: So it's figuring out how to take the practice off
Speaker 5: the bat and actually into your life excellent.
Speaker 4: And I think just real quick, I think union is
Speaker 4: what yoga means. So it's like the science of uniting
Speaker 4: your consciousness with that universal consciousness. Because when we're in
Speaker 4: our ego, we live that separate kind of limiting lifestyle,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, where we like we put
Speaker 4: the limits on ourselves. But when you can unite your
Speaker 4: consciousness with that universal consciousness, then you get into that
Speaker 4: omnisition omnipotenomena present universal nature of yourself that you actually are.
Speaker 2: So I'll jump in now about some of self h
Speaker 2: Love does love don't you like? Yeah, Ali hit it
Speaker 2: on the head basically about you know, the foundation coming
Speaker 2: from his mom's and his dad and Uncle Will and
Speaker 2: you know, imagine three guys in college that just want
Speaker 2: to help. We see a lot of suffering goaling in
Speaker 2: the world, and we don't see a lot of people
Speaker 2: doing anything about it. You know, they get back in
Speaker 2: contact with Uncle Will and I first meet him. I
Speaker 2: think that's when we really got into our practice and
Speaker 2: we had an opportunity to provide some of the techniques
Speaker 2: that we were doing for ourselves with a group of kings. So,
Speaker 2: you know, fast forward twenty years later. Now the main
Speaker 2: thing we try to do is provide evidence base, trial inform,
Speaker 2: curricula practices, services to individuals all over the nation, all
Speaker 2: of the world, all age groups. We get eyelighted for
Speaker 2: a lot of the stuff we do with youth, but
Speaker 2: we do you know, drug rehab centers, metal health facilities,
Speaker 2: homeless shelters, Eaverly Holmes, corporations, basically anywhere we can go
Speaker 2: and remind people some of these practices and techniques like
Speaker 2: at was talking about, beyond just the movement, we do
Speaker 2: do movement as well and actually try to make people
Speaker 2: understand that misconception of yoga sometimes where all they think
Speaker 2: the yoga is is the bending and stretching and like
Speaker 2: putting yourself on a pretzel. So we do do some
Speaker 2: form of movement, some form of breath work, and then
Speaker 2: we get into the meditation practices and the goal is
Speaker 2: to provide people with tools for their toolbox, because some
Speaker 2: people certain techniques will resonate in war with them than others.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I remember there's a talk once where they were like,
Speaker 2: these guys have saved all these people's lives, and we
Speaker 2: always correct them like whoa, whoa, Like we haven't saved
Speaker 2: anybody's lives. All we do is we remind people that
Speaker 2: these techniques so they can help themselves, you know, So
Speaker 2: we don't save anyone's lives. We're just like, hey, don't
Speaker 2: forget when you're faced with something, you can use this
Speaker 2: breath or maybe you can use this meditation. They get
Speaker 2: yourself back to the center to be present. And then
Speaker 2: as they start doing that more, I think that's when
Speaker 2: they really start getting that self realization right, separate from
Speaker 2: the ego and really remembering who they really are, their
Speaker 2: real self, that capital s self that we're talking about.
Speaker 2: I think once sad starts happen, answering their lives just
Speaker 2: to completely transform and they see the world through different eyes,
Speaker 2: hear the world through different ears, and everything is united.
Speaker 2: Like all said, that union right where all those divisions
Speaker 2: that are brought upon us, you know, through the material
Speaker 2: world and the illusions of this material world, and even
Speaker 2: being taught you know, in the systems that we're at it,
Speaker 2: everything is always defined to make it something separate, when
Speaker 2: really the main point of yoga is union. And I
Speaker 2: think that, you know, with the holistic life foundation, that
Speaker 2: ends up coming off in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 2: We're very particular in the way that we speak in
Speaker 2: schools where we you know, we don't go to two deeps.
Speaker 2: We're more surface level, more awareness practices when we're in schools.
Speaker 2: But when it comes to our actual practices Ali Appman
Speaker 2: and Eyes, I think that we're Yogis and we're into
Speaker 2: the connection with that capital as the real universe it self. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: love is the most powerful force and it's the uniting force,
Speaker 2: and that's what we're hoping to be able to do
Speaker 2: with our mission.
Speaker 4: Can I just say something real quick about h and
Speaker 4: just like on Boots on the ground, what HLF does
Speaker 4: is like we do a lot of Tier one, Tier two,
Speaker 4: and Tier three interventions in K through twelve schools where
Speaker 4: we're helping kids get the practices early and then move
Speaker 4: on through their lives. Our after school program is called
Speaker 4: Holistic Me where we just gives kids a little more
Speaker 4: support enrichment programs. Holistic Roots is our mentoring program for
Speaker 4: kids who graduate out of our after school program, where
Speaker 4: it's more around still the enrichment activities, but more around
Speaker 4: life skills, whether it's job writings, college readiness, whatever it is.
Speaker 4: And then kids go into our workforce development program so
Speaker 4: we can train them to come and work for us.
Speaker 4: I think throughout the entire lifespan of Holistic Life Foundation,
Speaker 4: we probably had somewhere between forty and fifty of our
Speaker 4: former students working for the Holistic Life Foundation. We do
Speaker 4: work in the community as well, so that's detention centers,
Speaker 4: mental crisis facilities, senior centers, head starts, homeless shelters, drug
Speaker 4: treatment centers, everywhere along those lines. The only thing we
Speaker 4: do is we do a lot of trainings. Mindfless and
Speaker 4: yoga have become very, very popular, but I think people
Speaker 4: want to just go to a weekend retreat or read
Speaker 4: a curriculum and be able to just go and start
Speaker 4: throwing it out there. I think one thing that the
Speaker 4: Holistic Life Foundation does is we help to develop authentic teachers,
Speaker 4: and that's where the real change is going to come
Speaker 4: from people being the practice and not just doing the
Speaker 4: practice being able to embody it. So a lot of
Speaker 4: what we do is around training people to facilitate the
Speaker 4: programs in a way that's going to help people heal
Speaker 4: from their trauma, deal with the mental health outcomes that
Speaker 4: are kind of plaguing people these days, and just live
Speaker 4: a more peaceful, love centered and connected life.
Speaker 1: As you're talking. I'm sort of struck by a couple
Speaker 1: of ideas. I mean, the first is, you guys described
Speaker 1: your own practice where you're after union with that capital
Speaker 1: s self, right, And all of our mystical traditions talk
Speaker 1: about this in different ways, right. You know, in Buddhism
Speaker 1: we'd actually say you're kind of getting in touch with
Speaker 1: Buddha nature, you're losing your egoic self, right, lots of
Speaker 1: different words for it.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: And that's a path of high degree of rigor and intensity.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: There are some people who have those experiences very quickly,
Speaker 1: very easily, but for most of us, it's going to
Speaker 1: take a lot of practice.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: So we've got that on one hand, right, But on
Speaker 1: the other extreme, what you are doing is introducing some
Speaker 1: of these practices and tools for people who have no
Speaker 1: interest in that path, but are simply looking for a
Speaker 1: way to not get suspended, to get better grades, to
Speaker 1: not get in fights after school, to choose a path
Speaker 1: besides a gang. I mean, there's lots of different things,
Speaker 1: and I'm struck by how these similar practices can be
Speaker 1: useful regardless of what degree you want to go into them.
Speaker 1: The reason I'm hitting this point is I think it's
Speaker 1: important for anybody who's listening. Also, when we think about
Speaker 1: our spiritual practice, we often are given this idea that
Speaker 1: we have to be these intense devoted people to our
Speaker 1: spiritual practice, and for some people that I do think
Speaker 1: is the right path. But there's also a way of saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've just got a few more tools
Speaker 1: in my toolkit that helped me to be a little
Speaker 1: bit better person. And I don't ever have to take
Speaker 1: it further than that if I don't want to, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I think your work shines a light on
Speaker 1: those two. You know, those are both extremes, and then
Speaker 1: there's a million places in between those two.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I think a lot of the things you
Speaker 4: said resonated, and I could hear Uncle Will talking in
Speaker 4: our head, like, you know, the path is going to
Speaker 4: be what you make it. Your inner journey is going
Speaker 4: to be what you make it. I mean, he would
Speaker 4: always talk about making your journey a fun journey, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, like having fun with your spiritual practice,
Speaker 4: because you can go into it thinking it's going to
Speaker 4: be hard, and like you know, like dreading going into
Speaker 4: your practice, but like I enjoyed my practice. I mean
Speaker 4: I have fun with it. He would always talk about
Speaker 4: whatever you call that light inside of you, and whether
Speaker 4: it's God, whether it's Brah Mom, whether it's whatever you
Speaker 4: call that light inside of a universal light, whatever you
Speaker 4: call it, that you're like, let your light shine, whatever
Speaker 4: you call that light. He would always say, talk to
Speaker 4: that light like you talk to me like you talk
Speaker 4: to your best friend. You know what I mean. Don't
Speaker 4: go in there like very meek or shy or begging
Speaker 4: for anything, because like that abundance and that union is
Speaker 4: your birthright. It is while we're put here. So you
Speaker 4: don't have to go in there begging for anything, and
Speaker 4: like really have fun with it and go in there
Speaker 4: with a playful attitude, not like you know, again that
Speaker 4: very meek where you're like, please give me that, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like you gotta go in there.
Speaker 4: Even the guy we talk about a Cherry Peter or
Speaker 4: swamiy Sean caranand in our book, and he would always say,
Speaker 4: like I can hear his voice. He would always say
Speaker 4: that a true yogi is very demanding, Like you're going
Speaker 4: in there and you're demanding the things because these are
Speaker 4: the things that are your birthright. You're not begging or
Speaker 4: asking for anything. So I think that's it. And I
Speaker 4: think one of the other things that Uncle Will helped
Speaker 4: us with was he would always talk about that sharp
Speaker 4: edge short versus the broad path, and he's like, if
Speaker 4: you guys were true yogi's, you would walk that sharp
Speaker 4: edged sword where it's like, you know, if you're walking
Speaker 4: on a sword, it's going to hurt the entire time,
Speaker 4: and there's not much room for error and you can
Speaker 4: fall off at any point. But if you walk that
Speaker 4: broad path, you know, you could be over here, you
Speaker 4: could be over there, you could be somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 4: As long as you're walking towards that light, then you're
Speaker 4: actually going in the right direction. I remember there was
Speaker 4: a point where we would hang out with Uncle Will.
Speaker 4: We'd drink beer. We would drink it's mostly Hoinikens and
Speaker 4: Crown Royal. We would drink with Uncle Will. And there
Speaker 4: was a long period of time where I was like,
Speaker 4: I felt like if I was going to be yoga,
Speaker 4: I had to stop drinking. So like I stopped for
Speaker 4: a while and I remember like him's looking at me.
Speaker 4: We were sitting over there talking. He cracks up in
Speaker 4: a Heineken slides in front of me. It's like, ah,
Speaker 4: you're done with that? And I was like, what do
Speaker 4: you mean. He was like, well, like the people that
Speaker 4: you're trying, Like how many spiritual conversations if you had
Speaker 4: out of the bar, And I was like a ton
Speaker 4: of them. He was like, yeah, So why does that
Speaker 4: have to be something that you stop? Like you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. It's a way you connect with people.
Speaker 4: It's a way you draw people in. So like, that
Speaker 4: doesn't have to be something that you give up. Like
Speaker 4: from time to time you may decide you want to
Speaker 4: step away from it, and it might fall off at
Speaker 4: some point, it might not. But like if that's something
Speaker 4: that you enjoy doing and you're moving in the direction
Speaker 4: of the light while you're doing it, he was like
Speaker 4: And he would always talk about it. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, we're over here, we're having all these drinks,
Speaker 4: but like we're talking about the light the entire time.
Speaker 4: Like most of our practice with Uncle Will throughout probably
Speaker 4: the last like ten to fifteen years we practiced with him,
Speaker 4: had nothing to do with the yoga mat. It was
Speaker 4: like us and Heineke and Crownroys sitting around like the
Speaker 4: island in his kitchen and us learning from him that way,
Speaker 4: and it was like more about practices that we can
Speaker 4: incorporate into our lives throughout the twenty Like if we
Speaker 4: did two hours on our mat, it's how we spend
Speaker 4: those other twenty two hours in our day. Like, that's
Speaker 4: what he was teaching us during that time, and that
Speaker 4: was more impactful And that's a bigger part of our
Speaker 4: practice than our mat based practice probably is right now.
Speaker 4: But I think that having the fun and living your
Speaker 4: life the way that he was, Like, if you guys
Speaker 4: were meant to be some other way, you probably would
Speaker 4: have been born in a monastery or like in the
Speaker 4: woods somewhere. He's like, you guys are born in West Baltimore.
Speaker 4: So that's where you got to operate from and you
Speaker 4: got to spread the light from there.
Speaker 1: All the alcoholics and addicts in the audience are suddenly
Speaker 1: like I am in the Holistic Life Foundation. Where do
Speaker 1: I sign them through as a recovering alcoholic and addict? Myself?
Speaker 1: We have a bunch of people in that camp. But
Speaker 1: I think this point of you know, how do you
Speaker 1: make your practice fun is a really important idea. You know,
Speaker 1: how do we keep it alive?
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: And one of the challenges I've faced as I've gone
Speaker 1: down my spiritual path is that all of a sudden
Speaker 1: a practice will get really really dry for me because
Speaker 1: certain spiritual teachers will say to me, Okay, now you're
Speaker 1: at it right, this is it? Like you stay in
Speaker 1: it now, you know? And then other people and my
Speaker 1: own mind will say, you know, maybe you just need
Speaker 1: something different, maybe you need to spice this up a
Speaker 1: little bit. And I've found that an ongoing challenge as
Speaker 1: I've navigated my own spiritual paths for thirty years is
Speaker 1: kind of what to do when it gets dry?
Speaker 5: Like that?
Speaker 1: Do I keep going deeper? Do I pivot? And I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any answer to that. I couldn't answer
Speaker 1: that question for anybody else, like what do you do?
Speaker 1: But I do in my life see it as part
Speaker 1: of figuring out that spiritual path and also kind of
Speaker 1: what you said, how broad do I want the path
Speaker 1: to be for myself? Or how narrow do I want
Speaker 1: it to be? Right? How focused and dedicated am I?
Speaker 1: And in the last thirty years or so, it varies. Right,
Speaker 1: there's times where my path is very broad and there
Speaker 1: are times where it narrows and it narrows and it narrows,
Speaker 1: and I'm very focused. And to me, that's kind of
Speaker 1: what this journey we talk about is kind of about.
Speaker 1: There's no set answer, right, we have to figure it
Speaker 1: out ourselves with the help of other people, with the
Speaker 1: discernment of community around us.
Speaker 5: When you just said that, it made me just like
Speaker 5: really appreciate our teachers so much because you know, he said,
Speaker 5: he's going to give us a toolbox of different practices
Speaker 5: because you know, something that may serve you today, it
Speaker 5: may not serve you tomorrow like you were just saying.
Speaker 5: And you know, we have certain physical practices that we do,
Speaker 5: like when we do hit the mat like the sunrise,
Speaker 5: you know, the Five Tibetans or the Fountain of Youth practices,
Speaker 5: you know, certain Koreas like soid Korea, stretch polls, stomach retraction,
Speaker 5: just our go toos. But then we have limitless meditations
Speaker 5: that you know, we dive into from time to time
Speaker 5: just in regards to what we need for that day.
Speaker 5: Or it might be different matras that Ali's son he
Speaker 5: calls the cheat calls, because there's a matra for any
Speaker 5: and everything that you want in your life, you know,
Speaker 5: it's tapping you into latent energy around you and in
Speaker 5: your body that bring about certain results, certain maudras. It's
Speaker 5: so many different things that you can practically apply into
Speaker 5: your life. If you don't have the time two hours,
Speaker 5: like Ali was saying, to roll out of mat if
Speaker 5: you only have twenty minutes, you may just want to
Speaker 5: do you know, the physical practice, the sunrise and the rights,
Speaker 5: and then you know, during the course of the day
Speaker 5: you may do your matras, or you may do certain
Speaker 5: breathing practices, or you know whatever. So you know, I
Speaker 5: think that that's one of the reasons why and the
Speaker 5: reason why we appreciate our teacher, and the reason why
Speaker 5: we teach how we teach is giving people a toolbox,
Speaker 5: because you never know if a practice will get boring,
Speaker 5: you'll have enough to be able to pull out your
Speaker 5: toolbox to invigorate your interest in the practice and keep
Speaker 5: you going.
Speaker 1: One of the things I was struck by as I
Speaker 1: was reading your book is people often talk about the
Speaker 1: four types of yoga. Right you guys can expound upon it,
Speaker 1: but the way it's often been taught to me is
Speaker 1: that those different paths align to different people's personalities. Right
Speaker 1: like you just might be a person who you know,
Speaker 1: worshiping a devotion, you know, or you might be a
Speaker 1: person where you know, really acts of service. But what
Speaker 1: I found interested in your guys practice is you're not
Speaker 1: picking one of those paths, right, You're actually incorporating to
Speaker 1: some degree all four of them. I think, say a
Speaker 1: little bit about that, about what those four are and
Speaker 1: how you think about, you know, maybe staying on one
Speaker 1: versus blending.
Speaker 5: All of them.
Speaker 4: So I'd say that with Uncle Will, it was kind
Speaker 4: of lumped into groups. There was like the physical practice,
Speaker 4: which was like the hatha, the Kundalini and the Korea
Speaker 4: like that was always a big part of it. There
Speaker 4: was Demontra yoga which had its own part. There was
Speaker 4: Janana yoga that had its own part, and then there
Speaker 4: was like the karma yoga of course, and bachta yoga.
Speaker 4: I think those are the major ones that we did
Speaker 4: with Uncle Will. And then it was like those those
Speaker 4: weird energetic practices that he would pull out a left field.
Speaker 4: Every once in a while. He would always have this
Speaker 4: running joke where we would go over something and we
Speaker 4: would we would get to the end of it even
Speaker 4: be like, well, no, I got something else. For you,
Speaker 4: and you will not get out of this course until
Speaker 4: you learn. Then you throw something else at us, and
Speaker 4: we think we were finishing that up, and even like
Speaker 4: you will not get out of this course until you learn.
Speaker 4: So it was like always a different form. And his
Speaker 4: thing was he wanted us to be able to walk
Speaker 4: into a room and be able to teach anybody. And
Speaker 4: it was all about people are gonna need different things.
Speaker 4: Like we might walk into a school and there's a
Speaker 4: bunch of like rambunctious third graders that bouncing off the walls.
Speaker 4: They might need to do some austins to burn off
Speaker 4: some of the energy. That we do some breath work
Speaker 4: and then they can stop for centering themselves. We might
Speaker 4: be at a retreat center and people are looking for
Speaker 4: like a deep spiritual connection. That's a whole other set
Speaker 4: of practices. So I think he really wanted us to
Speaker 4: be able to relate to any and everyone. You know,
Speaker 4: Like we've been around a lot of like really good
Speaker 4: yoga teachers, but I feel like I can speak for
Speaker 4: Attman and Andy on this one. I've never been around anyone
Speaker 4: that was deeply connected to the practices. He was like
Speaker 4: he would always say that he was a conduit of
Speaker 4: the practice, because like there'd be times we'd be at
Speaker 4: his place and like it would be flowing through him.
Speaker 4: He wouldn't be talking, it would just be like flowing
Speaker 4: through him. And then he would even have to stop
Speaker 4: being like, damn, did y'all hear that? Like where did
Speaker 4: that come from? Like where he'd be even shocked. Then
Speaker 4: it came out of him where it was just like
Speaker 4: you know, like he was just like totally there. And
Speaker 4: I think one of the most important things about him
Speaker 4: was he would always say, it's in the book a
Speaker 4: lot about being a scientist and experimenting. He would like,
Speaker 4: don't go out there and teach these practices until you've
Speaker 4: experimented on yourself and you've proved to yourself that they work.
Speaker 4: There might be practices that I'm working on now that
Speaker 4: you know, I have to prove to myself that they
Speaker 4: work before I go out and share them with anyone else.
Speaker 4: I think that's a good way that he kind of
Speaker 4: brought us through as teachers to make sure that we're
Speaker 4: not teaching from a place of theory. We're teaching from
Speaker 4: a place of experience and wisdom, where it's like coming
Speaker 4: from us and we know like the pitfalls of it.
Speaker 4: We know how to get over this obstacle in the practice.
Speaker 4: And you know, there might be something that we've experienced
Speaker 4: that we can share with someone else that to make
Speaker 4: their journey with the practice a little easier. So it
Speaker 4: is all about getting a little bit of this and
Speaker 4: a little bit of that, a little bit of this
Speaker 4: and a little bit of that, and being able to
Speaker 4: adjust with what the universe throws at you. Because, like
Speaker 4: you were saying, like some practices do get a little
Speaker 4: dry to you. There might be a time where you know,
Speaker 4: your practice gets in that zone, Like you're in that
Speaker 4: zone with your practice, the universe throws you a curveball
Speaker 4: and then like that practice doesn't work anymore. You got
Speaker 4: to adjust your practice to what the universe is putting
Speaker 4: in front of you right there. So, I think being
Speaker 4: teachers but also being practitioners, he wanted us to be
Speaker 4: well prepared for when he transitioned, that we had enough
Speaker 4: to kind of sustain ourselves and to help the people
Speaker 4: around us sustain themselves too.
Speaker 1: I got to swing back to something you guys said earlier,
Speaker 1: were talking about the physical poses. You said, I know
Speaker 1: them as sun salutations. I think you call it something
Speaker 1: slightly different. But after that you said another thing I
Speaker 1: don't remember, which I didn't know, and then you said
Speaker 1: the five Tibetans. And I have no idea what either
Speaker 1: of those things meant. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: the one that I can't think of. But what are
Speaker 1: the five Tibetans.
Speaker 5: I think that you're talking about the five Tibetans than
Speaker 5: the Fountain of.
Speaker 1: Youth practice, Now those are the ones that's.
Speaker 5: The same thing. Yeah, okay, it's like Tibetan yoga. It's
Speaker 5: a series of five practices that is a full physical
Speaker 5: body workout. But then you know it makes you more
Speaker 5: youthful just because it makes your energy centers or chakras
Speaker 5: spend the proper speed proper direction. A lot of times
Speaker 5: when we have ailments in our body energetically, in the
Speaker 5: Yogic philosophy, they say that your chakras are either spending
Speaker 5: the wrong direction or not spinning the right speed. But
Speaker 5: this practice, like I said, not only the full physical
Speaker 5: body practice, but it gets your chakras or energy centers
Speaker 5: spending the proper speed and proper direction. So it's just
Speaker 5: five different practices that you build up to doing twenty
Speaker 5: one of them each at a time. But it's one
Speaker 5: of our staples in our after school program, the Sunrise
Speaker 5: and the Five Rights, because you know, our teacher used
Speaker 5: to always say, you got to keep your physical vehicle
Speaker 5: in shape. You know what I mean. You don't want
Speaker 5: to be given your physical vehicle to break down on you.
Speaker 5: So you know, those are the practices that help sustain
Speaker 5: and heal up all your systems of your body. So
Speaker 5: those two are two of the foundations of our physical
Speaker 5: practice that we teach and we do.
Speaker 4: So our dad got out of his practice when our
Speaker 4: parents divorced, Like he'd stop practicing for a really long time.
Speaker 4: And I want to say the Fountain of Youth or
Speaker 4: the Five Rights, will five Tibetans what got him back
Speaker 4: in his practice because he like overheard us talking and
Speaker 4: he was like, it makes you look young again?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 4: And you know he's our dad would always talk about
Speaker 4: like tongue in cheek, but seriously, he's like, I think
Speaker 4: I'm the most handsome man on the planet. He was
Speaker 4: like that type of dude. And the Five Tibetans were
Speaker 4: what got him back into the practice, and like he
Speaker 4: really really got back into him and he actually did
Speaker 4: look younger when he got back into the practice. He's
Speaker 4: a famous basketball coach in high school basketball, and he
Speaker 4: had all these like yearbooks and pictures and the pictures
Speaker 4: of him in the eighties when he was coaching basketball.
Speaker 4: He looked older then than he did in like the
Speaker 4: mid two thousands when he was getting into these practices.
Speaker 4: So it was just like that was what got him
Speaker 4: back into it, and once that worked, he was all
Speaker 4: back in with his mantras and his meditation. Like towards
Speaker 4: the end of his physical life, like he would practice
Speaker 4: for maybe like some ridiculous like five hours a day.
Speaker 4: He would like get up in the morning and he
Speaker 4: would go and he would do like all of his
Speaker 4: internal exercise. He would do all of his hathe he
Speaker 4: would do his kundalini, he would do his kreas, he
Speaker 4: would do his breath work, he would do his meditations,
Speaker 4: do his mantras. And then I think that was why
Speaker 4: he loved being retired so much, because he could just
Speaker 4: do whatever the hell he wanted and just practice y'all
Speaker 4: all day.
Speaker 5: And to add to his story about our dad getting
Speaker 5: totally engulfed in the five rights, you know, he worked
Speaker 5: at the school that Ali was talking about the high school,
Speaker 5: Southern High School for over what forty or fifty years,
Speaker 5: and everybody knew him in that school. And then when
Speaker 5: he retired, he eventually went to go come out of
Speaker 5: retirement and went to go coach at University of Maryland
Speaker 5: Eastern Shore. And one day he went back to the
Speaker 5: school just to check up on some of his fellow
Speaker 5: teachers and students and you know all that stuff. And
Speaker 5: he was sitting in the office and you know, he
Speaker 5: knew all of the secretaries and all the principals, and
Speaker 5: you know, he's sitting in there and he looked so
Speaker 5: much more youthful, so much more jack like he's lifting weights.
Speaker 5: That he was sitting in the office for maybe like
Speaker 5: an hour, and then one of the secretaries was like,
Speaker 5: can I help you, sir, And he's like, sir, man,
Speaker 5: I'm smitty. You know, you don't know me. He's like whole.
Speaker 5: They were like totally blown away at you know how
Speaker 5: you know, his wrinkles kind of went away, and you know,
Speaker 5: his physical stature, you know, got stronger, and you know
Speaker 5: all that stuff. So you know, that is why we
Speaker 5: know that it works, because he did it every single
Speaker 5: day and got youthful, and besides, you know, I'm like
Speaker 5: one hundred and five and I don't psychnologis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, I think, you know, if
Speaker 1: the HLF doesn't work out, you guys could probably do
Speaker 1: an entire brand around the Five Tibetans and being younger
Speaker 1: and sell it on Instagram. He probably do pretty well
Speaker 1: because everybody wants to look younger, and you know, not
Speaker 1: everybody wants to put five hours a day or can
Speaker 1: put five hours a day into it. So I'm interested
Speaker 1: to look into the Five Tibetans. So as I look
Speaker 1: at your guys practices, I think we've sort of hit
Speaker 1: on them a little bit here, but I kind of
Speaker 1: want to just go through them in a slight bit
Speaker 1: more detail. We've covered the physical now, right, and again
Speaker 1: most people are going to know yoga from the physical sense,
Speaker 1: the asinas and different ways of moving and posing. You've
Speaker 1: talked about breath work. Say a little bit about breath work.
Speaker 1: And there's something you said in there that I actually
Speaker 1: really have never actually heard anyone say, but is true
Speaker 1: and was really helpful to me. Is it's called breath
Speaker 1: work for a reason because sometimes it is work and
Speaker 1: that's what I've noticed about some of these breathing practices.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is a lot of effort. Like this
Speaker 1: actually in the beginning anyway, takes a certain amount of effort.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel natural right away. So say a little
Speaker 1: bit about the role of breath work, and maybe share
Speaker 1: one practice that is a little bit beyond say, you know,
Speaker 1: breathing in for account of four, holding for account of four,
Speaker 1: breathing out for you know, like box breathing. Give us
Speaker 1: something a little bit different than that, that's still a
Speaker 1: fairly foundational practice.
Speaker 4: A little bit on the breath work. Pranyama is like
Speaker 4: the breath work. And I think the way the uncle
Speaker 4: will talk it to us was like this science of breathing,
Speaker 4: and not just physically breathing, but energetically breathing too, So
Speaker 4: like you're bringing in air when you breathe. Your body's
Speaker 4: using the oxygen, but you're all so bring it in
Speaker 4: like that pronic energy every time you breathe in, and
Speaker 4: your body needs to absorb it. So it's like and
Speaker 4: it's called a lot of different things. It's called chi,
Speaker 4: it's called holy spirit's called life force, it's called a
Speaker 4: lot of different things, and a lot of different religions
Speaker 4: and spiritual practices, but there's always something about the breath
Speaker 4: when you do look at religions and spiritual practices. You
Speaker 4: breathe it in, you're pulling it in, and then all
Speaker 4: proniama practices have a retention which gives your body a
Speaker 4: chance to absorb all that energy. So when you retain
Speaker 4: the breath and hold on to it, it's given your
Speaker 4: body a chance to absorb that pronic energy. And then
Speaker 4: when you're exhaling, you're pushing out all that stale or
Speaker 4: low vibrational energy with the breath. And it's very intentional.
Speaker 4: Uncle Will would always say, you know, when you start
Speaker 4: to get sick because you're low on your vital energy,
Speaker 4: you're low on that pronic energy. So if you take
Speaker 4: the time to really kind of intentionally take some long,
Speaker 4: deep breaths and take the time to retain them and
Speaker 4: hold them to allow your body to absorb that pronic energy,
Speaker 4: then you'll start to heal yourself up from the inside out.
Speaker 4: And there's tons of practices. They are work, but there
Speaker 4: are a lot of fun like you feel yourself vibrating
Speaker 4: differently when you have a pronyama practice, like you'll notice
Speaker 4: stillness when you get deep into your practice. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like you're moving at a different pace than the
Speaker 4: rest of the world around you. Everyone else is at
Speaker 4: that hurried, frantic pace, and you're kind of moving in
Speaker 4: a slow motion, but like not really slow motion, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. Like you're kind of floating through
Speaker 4: with more awareness and more stillness than everybody else is
Speaker 4: in that cluttered, frantic, flustered state. So beautiful practice to
Speaker 4: have is a prani ama practice.
Speaker 1: I sometime in the last year did a type of breathing.
Speaker 1: It's not whole tropic breathwork, but it's something similar, and
Speaker 1: it's intended to put you into a slightly different state
Speaker 1: of consciousness. I could not believe how altered my state
Speaker 1: of consciousness was by breathing. Honestly, when I started. When
Speaker 1: I was hearing about I was like, that's not going
Speaker 1: to work on me, like you know, like it's just
Speaker 1: no and felt like I was on another planet. I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. And so to me, I suddenly was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: you know, there's more to breath work here than just
Speaker 1: taking a couple of deep breasts to calm yourself.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's a lot of what Andy was
Speaker 4: talking about, like the surface level versus the more spiritual
Speaker 4: or esoteric side of things. So like you know, when
Speaker 4: we're in the schools, we are going to teach something
Speaker 4: like the box breath or something like, we're all about
Speaker 4: the physiological neurological benefits of it, keeping it very surface
Speaker 4: level to help people deal with stress, suspensions like you
Speaker 4: were talking about self regulation, healing trauma. But then when
Speaker 4: you get into it and you dig a little deeper,
Speaker 4: you are going to get to those places where you
Speaker 4: are getting more of a spiritual benefit from them. You're
Speaker 4: also getting those you know, the physiology, cool, the neurological
Speaker 4: things are going to happen, but you're also getting those
Speaker 4: more spiritual benefits. Like I'm sure Opmanan you know exactly
Speaker 4: what I'm talking about. There's a practice to Uncle Will
Speaker 4: used to lead us through where you would feel like
Speaker 4: you were out in the cosmos, like were on you
Speaker 4: were in a whole nother universe somewhere, you know, and
Speaker 4: then he would slowly start to come back. So I
Speaker 4: think there's more to it, and hopefully, you know, when
Speaker 4: people get introduced to the service level practices, they want
Speaker 4: more but if that's where they decide to stop cool,
Speaker 4: you know, they're less stressed there, they're happier, they're more peaceful,
Speaker 4: they have a place inside of themselves where they can
Speaker 4: go and find some stillness. All those things are good.
Speaker 4: But you know, like then you can take it a
Speaker 4: little deeper and you can get into the more spiritual
Speaker 4: side of things and really explore what the inner universe
Speaker 4: has to offer. I remember we stafted, like it was
Speaker 4: hard to get Uncle Will to leave the house. Like
Speaker 4: he would come out of the house for funerals for
Speaker 4: his friends. He would come to Holistic Life Foundation fundraisers
Speaker 4: because we always through a huge party and he could
Speaker 4: have a good time. And he would come with us
Speaker 4: to go to North Carolina and to go up into
Speaker 4: the mountains when we do workforce development retreat and do
Speaker 4: some training. Other than that, if you try to get
Speaker 4: in the house, he was like, well, what the hell
Speaker 4: I got to lead a house for There's a whole
Speaker 4: universe inside of me to explore, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So he was all about exploring that inner universe and
Speaker 4: then like sharing what he had learned and kind of
Speaker 4: like and he would say it with such like such
Speaker 4: a big bright smile on his face that like it
Speaker 4: would make us want to explore more too. It was like, well,
Speaker 4: maybe I need to not go out tonight, and maybe
Speaker 4: I need to do some extra breathing and meditation, because
Speaker 4: he shouldn't be this happy from just sitting in the house,
Speaker 4: but he was, and he wanted to do more of
Speaker 4: it like that. I think that was a big part
Speaker 4: of the reason that he wanted us to go out
Speaker 4: and teach and he didn't want to was because he
Speaker 4: didn't want the attention. He would tell us like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's cool that he's transitioned now and he's on another
Speaker 4: vibration that we can talk about him, because even when
Speaker 4: he was around, he wouldn't want us to talk about
Speaker 4: and he was like, I don't want people knowing about me.
Speaker 4: I just want to chill in the house. I want
Speaker 4: to study, I want to practice, I want to teach. Y'all, Like,
Speaker 4: y'all go teach these people. I don't want to do this.
Speaker 4: So it was like he really wanted to explore that
Speaker 4: inner universe and it was like it was so much
Speaker 4: fun and then like when you really get into it,
Speaker 4: like it is That's why I think I have so
Speaker 4: much fun My practice is because there's always new vibrations
Speaker 4: and there's always a new adventure. There's always new things
Speaker 4: to look into, so it's like it is a lot
Speaker 4: of fun. It is a huge adventure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember, Uncle Will, you used to always say,
Speaker 2: our life starts with our first breath and ends with
Speaker 2: our last breath, So it's got to be kind of important.
Speaker 2: It's definitely the foundation of everything that we teach with
Speaker 2: the Holistic Life Foundation. But I wanted to go a
Speaker 2: little deeper too, So I'm glad Ali had kind of
Speaker 2: did that segue where he said, yeah, you know, we
Speaker 2: going to school is it's more that service levels stuff.
Speaker 2: We'll do some belly breathing, diaphragmic breathing, box breath in counts,
Speaker 2: stuff like that. So one of the coolest things I've
Speaker 2: ever read, and I think it's always nice for listeners,
Speaker 2: for people who might be getting into this practice and
Speaker 2: who want to go a little deeper to hear this story,
Speaker 2: because when I read this in the book, I thought
Speaker 2: it was the coolest thing ever about Prana Yapa because
Speaker 2: a lot of times when you see proana Yama places,
Speaker 2: people just think of breath control and they're just thinking
Speaker 2: about bringing into oxygen and not understanding that the real
Speaker 2: concept is bringing in that prana. And like Alli said
Speaker 2: that real retention, you want to hold that prana in
Speaker 2: in your body and let it like vibrate throughout your
Speaker 2: entire being and like charge.
Speaker 4: Up and heal you up.
Speaker 2: And there was a study they did in this one
Speaker 2: book where they's doing an experiment in there, like a
Speaker 2: box that they put a candle in and they pulled
Speaker 2: all the oxygen out of the box and the candle
Speaker 2: goes out. And then they put a monkey in the
Speaker 2: box and they pulled all the oxygen out, and after
Speaker 2: a while, the monkey passes out. And then they put
Speaker 2: a yogi in the box, and the yogi's even playing
Speaker 2: a dammar roof, so he's playing a drum. And they
Speaker 2: said that they greazed him up because they thought that
Speaker 2: he was breathing through his pores, and they said that
Speaker 2: they start pulling the oxygen out, and forty minutes into it,
Speaker 2: the yogis still drumming away and they can don't understand
Speaker 2: how he's doing because there's no oxygen, and he's trying
Speaker 2: to explain to them that it's the prawn of it's
Speaker 2: keeping him in the state. And they said that there
Speaker 2: was a quarter on his head and the quarter was
Speaker 2: bouncing on his head because of all the prana retention
Speaker 2: that he had in his body.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: Now I've never gotten to that state, but I always
Speaker 2: thought that was one of the coolest things I've ever
Speaker 2: read in my entire life. And I think it also
Speaker 2: just goes just things like what you were talking about,
Speaker 2: Eric Cole. Sometimes the breaths aren't easy. I remember when
Speaker 2: Uncle Will was first teaching us just right ular diaphragmic breathing.
Speaker 2: When we go around the nation and show people out
Speaker 2: just how to do a regular belly breath, most people
Speaker 2: feel like it's awkward, like it's uncomfortable to them because
Speaker 2: they haven't been breathing it right way. And I think
Speaker 2: it's such an amazing journey for people to start going
Speaker 2: on and slowly start strengthening your diet frame, increasing your
Speaker 2: lung capacity and trying these different techniques and pushing yourself
Speaker 2: to seat where you can really go to and it'll
Speaker 2: blow people's minds when they start doing more and more
Speaker 2: these breathing techniques. Not only the stillness that they're able
Speaker 2: to get and access that feeling like you were saying it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you feel like you're like on another planet in
Speaker 2: another universe sometimes after doing the techniques, and also just
Speaker 2: the difference in their physical being and the transformation that occurs,
Speaker 2: because it really does just transform most completely. The more
Speaker 2: and more we start using these techniques and practicing with
Speaker 2: them excellent.
Speaker 1: So let's have you talk a little bit about mantra
Speaker 1: meditation kind of what it is, how you do it
Speaker 1: relatively brief rely again because we're kind of running out
Speaker 1: of time, and we're going to actually lead a mantra
Speaker 1: meditation in the post show conversation and I'll tell listeners
Speaker 1: how to get access to that here.
Speaker 4: Uncle Will would always talk to us about Mantra is
Speaker 4: not just a word that you repeat over and over again.
Speaker 4: There's sounds that have like a divine vibration, combinations of
Speaker 4: sounds that have a divine vibration. So like people would
Speaker 4: say my mantra for the week would be good vibes,
Speaker 4: only like that's an affirmation, that's not a mantra. So
Speaker 4: it's two different things. Like mantras are very specific vibrations
Speaker 4: that change your vibration. So like you might want to
Speaker 4: manifest something you might want to attract something. You might
Speaker 4: want to heal yourself. You might want to bring whatever,
Speaker 4: like bring beauty into your life. You might want to
Speaker 4: heal someone, send out something for the souls in the
Speaker 4: universe that are suffering. Like there's all different types of mantras,
Speaker 4: but they're all like a vibration, Like you'll feel it,
Speaker 4: like you'll start off saying them, and then it'll be
Speaker 4: a point where you can kind of just tune into
Speaker 4: the vibration, like you're kind of filling with the radio
Speaker 4: dial and you tune into that energy. So it's more
Speaker 4: like you're listening to them and you're not saying them.
Speaker 4: And you know, sometimes I'll use them my meditation, but
Speaker 4: most of my mantra practices like out in the world.
Speaker 4: So like when I'm walking my dog in the morning,
Speaker 4: we got a three mile rock that we do, so
Speaker 4: we have mantras we do. I have mantras I do then,
Speaker 4: and I'm mentally vibrating. I don't say him out loud.
Speaker 4: I don't want to be that weird guy looking like
Speaker 4: I'm walking around talking to myself, So I just like
Speaker 4: Sam in my head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if your dog starts speaking mantras, that would be special.
Speaker 1: There's another business idea for you.
Speaker 4: If I could figure that out with her, I'll be
Speaker 4: like the guy with the with the little frog with
Speaker 4: the Hello, my baby Hello, like a wb fraud.
Speaker 1: Absolutely we taking over the world.
Speaker 4: And then like another thing I talk about in the book,
Speaker 4: But I definitely have a Pandora station perfectly tuned for
Speaker 4: my mantra practice because Kreton isn't isn't like my cup
Speaker 4: of tea, Like that music isn't what I feel. Hip
Speaker 4: hop is what I was born and raised with. So
Speaker 4: it was like, I can't do it with the words
Speaker 4: because it'll just throw me off. And I started paying
Speaker 4: attention to the artists and their words. But like, I
Speaker 4: have a Pandora channel that I've perfectly curated with hip
Speaker 4: hop instrumentals that go along with my mantra practice. So again,
Speaker 4: having fun with your practice. If you do like Kreton, cool,
Speaker 4: use that music. If you like classical music, if you
Speaker 4: like jazz, if you like k pop, you know, whatever
Speaker 4: it is, whatever type of music feeds your soul, Like
Speaker 4: that's what you can do your mantra practice too, and
Speaker 4: you can do it anytime. It's something you can use
Speaker 4: no matter where you are no matter what you're doing.
Speaker 4: If you want to charge it up a little bit,
Speaker 4: you can. You can grab a mala and do the
Speaker 4: practice with your mala like the prayer beads whatever people have,
Speaker 4: And then it's kind of cool because the mala or
Speaker 4: the prayer beads absorb the energy of that mantra, so
Speaker 4: you still get that energy when you're wearing the mala
Speaker 4: or wearing those prayer beads around, like it's still vibrating
Speaker 4: at that level. So yeah, mantra yoga. It's probably Uncle
Speaker 4: Will's favorite former yoga, I dare to say, because he
Speaker 4: was a singer and we could just practice and you
Speaker 4: could just kind of set the vibration of the room
Speaker 4: just through sound. It's a beautiful one to practice and have.
Speaker 4: And he taught us so many mantras that it's cool.
Speaker 4: Like I have friends like when they're suffering with someone
Speaker 4: something's bothering him, I'll send him a mantra and like, damn,
Speaker 4: you got a mantra for everything. I'm like, yeah, Uncle
Speaker 4: Will taught us a ton of these, Like why wouldn't
Speaker 4: I pay attention to them and memorize them and learn
Speaker 4: them and practice them? So I know the vibration of them,
Speaker 4: because like, like i'mmost saying, my oldest son, Osama, you
Speaker 4: would always say, like if life was a video game,
Speaker 4: mantras are the cheat code, So why not use the
Speaker 4: cheat code?
Speaker 5: Yeah, And like I said earlier, like there's a matra
Speaker 5: for any and everything. There's matras to send you know,
Speaker 5: healing energy and loving energy to all the suffering souls
Speaker 5: in the universe. There's matras to put a protective shield
Speaker 5: over you, Matras to remove your obstacles, Matras to improve
Speaker 5: your luck, matras that I even do. That he taught
Speaker 5: us that kind of increased the healing factor in your food, tea,
Speaker 5: and medicine that you create, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So anything in life there is a matra to be
Speaker 5: able to tap you into your energy inside of you
Speaker 5: and the energy surrounding you that will bring about your
Speaker 5: desired results. And like he was really into the Bible also,
Speaker 5: like he grew up you know, in the church and
Speaker 5: you know all that stuff. But then he transitioned into yoga.
Speaker 5: And one thing he used to say, He's like, man,
Speaker 5: they talked about matras in the Bible. You know, he
Speaker 5: was like, I don't remember exactly where it is in
Speaker 5: the Bible. But he would say, thus, say it to amen,
Speaker 5: the true and faithful witness of the beginning creation. And
Speaker 5: you know there's a delineation of that Amen or om
Speaker 5: or shalom or all men in every single you know religion.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know what I mean. Like, so one
Speaker 5: thing that was always taught to us as truth is
Speaker 5: one people called by various names. It's just packaged a
Speaker 5: little different. But that's how important matras truly are. It's
Speaker 5: a delineation of that in every single language. And they
Speaker 5: say that they bought the Yogi's kind of are preserved
Speaker 5: and learned these matras was when they were in that
Speaker 5: highest stage of meditation. They would hear these certain vibrations
Speaker 5: on that side when they are connected to the universal
Speaker 5: consciousness and bring them back to the physical realm, you know.
Speaker 5: So that's how they were learned. And you know they
Speaker 5: were preserved by you know, passing them down, whether it
Speaker 5: being you know, singing it, writing it down, you know whatever,
Speaker 5: just passing it down through lineage.
Speaker 1: Excellent. And then let's just talk about meditation for a second.
Speaker 1: You know, meditation. I was saying to you guys before
Speaker 1: the show, most of the meditation teachers we have had
Speaker 1: on are talking about meditation from primarily a Buddhist perspective,
Speaker 1: and there's some variety in there, but there's very common.
Speaker 1: You know, you're paying attention to the breath, or your
Speaker 1: paying attention to an object, or you might be doing
Speaker 1: open awareness where you're just noticing whatever comes into consciousness.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you guys give us a meditation
Speaker 1: technique that is different than that that you guys have
Speaker 1: found to be valuable in your own lives.
Speaker 5: Aley, do you want to teach the Hong Sol?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Okay, So this is one that we learned in Sunday
Speaker 4: School at the Divine Life Church. It's a lot of
Speaker 4: the meditations that we learned there were for your third eye.
Speaker 4: They were third eye meditations. They were called subjective meditation.
Speaker 4: But this one also has a mantra in it. You
Speaker 4: want to actually lead the meditation for a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to do one in the post show conversation,
Speaker 1: so let's describe it real quick as we're just about
Speaker 1: to the post show conversation.
Speaker 4: Gotcha, So, I think most meditations in yoga are about
Speaker 4: experiencing your true self it's not like an awareness practice.
Speaker 4: It's more of an experience practice. It's not about thinking
Speaker 4: about anything, because the vibration of meditation is higher than
Speaker 4: the vibration of thought. So it's about really experiencing those
Speaker 4: higher vibrations of yourself. Whether it's a chakra, whether it's
Speaker 4: your universal light, whether it's when we're expanding your consciousness.
Speaker 4: It's like all these different ways to experience different aspects
Speaker 4: of your true self. Uncle Will and we talk about
Speaker 4: this in the book too. It's like the kind of
Speaker 4: the opposite of prayer. When you're praying, you're asking God
Speaker 4: or the universe or whoever you're talking to. You're asking
Speaker 4: for something, and when you're meditating, you're stilling yourself and
Speaker 4: what that God or the universe inside of you is
Speaker 4: saying back. So it's more of a you experiencing that universal, omniscient, omnipotent,
Speaker 4: omnipresent self and kind of and then that's the whole
Speaker 4: the title of our book, Let Your Light Shine. It's
Speaker 4: like tapping into your light and then letting it shine
Speaker 4: when you're not meditating throughout the rest of your day.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Well, I think that's a great place to wrap
Speaker 1: up by using the title of your book, Let your
Speaker 1: Light Shine right and you, guys are absolutely fantastic examples
Speaker 1: of that of taking a practice that is often done individually,
Speaker 1: and I think sometimes in our spiritual practice we can
Speaker 1: get lost in ourselves. How I feel, how is this
Speaker 1: helping me? How is this doing that? And I feel
Speaker 1: like a genuine spiritual practice has to flow outwards. Also,
Speaker 1: Let your Light Shine and Guys are just an absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful example of that.
Speaker 5: You were talking about. You were interested in finding out
Speaker 5: about how to do the five Rights or the five Tibetans.
Speaker 5: If you or your listeners go to Involution dot Love,
Speaker 5: there is a spiritual strategic plan on there where it
Speaker 5: has that practice of Sunrise and a whole bunch of
Speaker 5: other deeper dives into spiritual practices. So if you are interested,
Speaker 5: check it out, and you know, download it.
Speaker 1: We'll put links in the in the show notes to
Speaker 1: that we're going to continue in the post show conversation
Speaker 1: where we are going to be led in a mantra meditation.
Speaker 1: So listeners, if you'd like access to the post show conversation.
Speaker 1: A special episode I do each week called Teaching Song,
Speaker 1: Poem ad Free Episodes and the Joy of supporting something
Speaker 1: that gives you real value. Go to one you Feed
Speaker 1: dot net slash join. I loved reading the book. I
Speaker 1: love talking with each of you guys, and yeah, Ali
Speaker 1: Andy Hotman, thank.
Speaker 4: You, thank you, thanks for having us.
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