Speaker 1: So many people that are suffering, that feel like they're isolated,
Speaker 1: they feel stressed out, they feel angry, they feel depressed,
Speaker 1: that feel sad, to feel like the life is hopeless
Speaker 1: and helpless, and it's because they don't have a connection
Speaker 1: to their true self. I mean, like in the universe,
Speaker 1: like I teach you, wouldn't I teach you. Literally wouldn't
Speaker 1: leave the house because we would ask him like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to go out and do something with us.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, Wow, I need to leave the house.
Speaker 1: There's a whole universe inside of me to explore. So
Speaker 1: it was like, that's what people are missing. Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the Psychology Podcast. Today we welcome Ali Smith,
Speaker 1: Atman Smith and Andrea's Gonzales on the podcast. Brothers Ali
Speaker 1: and Atman met Andreas at the University of Maryland College
Speaker 1: Park during the last semester. The trios spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time reading books on spirituality, philosophy, history, politics, and
Speaker 1: other related topics. At the same time, they began their
Speaker 1: yoga practice and developed it under the guidance of Ali
Speaker 1: and Atman's godfather. Months of hard work and planning ensued
Speaker 1: before they finally co founded the Holistic Life Foundation. Together,
Speaker 1: they tell their story of how yoga and mindfulness have
Speaker 1: transformed countless communities in their amazing book called Let Your
Speaker 1: Light Shine. I love that title so much. In this episode,
Speaker 1: I talked to Ali Andreas and Atman about mindfulness and education.
Speaker 1: For twenty years, they've been teaching yoga and wellness to
Speaker 1: underserved kids, resulting in a decrease in suspensions and fights
Speaker 1: and an increase in attendance and grades. But it's not
Speaker 1: just about the numbers for these gentlemen. What matters even
Speaker 1: more is changing the school's culture to become a loving
Speaker 1: and empathetic space for all by teaching stillness and introspection.
Speaker 1: I had so much fun chatting with these guys. They
Speaker 1: are so compassionate, caring, and freaking cool. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to hang out with them more. I know after listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast, you're going to want to hang out
Speaker 1: with them more as well. So, without further ado, I
Speaker 1: bring you Ali Andres and Adminton. Hey guys, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad to have you here on Psychology Podcast. How y'all
Speaker 1: do and it's you know, don't all talk at once?
Speaker 1: It's great to play here. Thanks for having us Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us. It's really an
Speaker 1: honor to be on here, definitely is. It's an honor
Speaker 1: for me. It's not honor for me, you know. I
Speaker 1: read your book let Your Light Shine, How mindfulness can
Speaker 1: empower children and rebuild communities, and I like, page after
Speaker 1: a page it like filled me up with hope, filled
Speaker 1: me up with like hope for humanity. We need this
Speaker 1: way of thinking so much more in our society right now.
Speaker 1: I thought we could kind of just start with going
Speaker 1: one by one, you know, and each one of you
Speaker 1: just kind of just introduce yourselves to our audience. And
Speaker 1: while you got into this at all, I mean, we
Speaker 1: can just start random hero. So Ali Smith, tell me
Speaker 1: about yourself. So I'm Ali. I'm from Baltimore. I got
Speaker 1: into this stuff because my dad decided that me and
Speaker 1: my brother were going to get into it. We didn't
Speaker 1: really have a choice. He was a coach, He was
Speaker 1: a tough dude, he was a disciplinarian. But he was
Speaker 1: also the one that taught us to meditate. So when
Speaker 1: we were kids, he forced us to learn how to meditate,
Speaker 1: like he was practicing TM at the Transcendental Meditation. Uh.
Speaker 1: So we that was what we practiced at home. We
Speaker 1: joined a church that was a self realization fellowship church
Speaker 1: and it was the Divine Life Church of Absolute Moanism
Speaker 1: and became the Divine Life Church Absolute Oneness. So we
Speaker 1: meditated in church. We did subjective meditation there, create yoga stuff,
Speaker 1: and then got out of our practice when our parents
Speaker 1: got divorced. But our godfather, who we've known since we
Speaker 1: were born, I was one of those people that got
Speaker 1: into yoga in the sixties and uh never got out
Speaker 1: of it, and decided that we went to him asking
Speaker 1: to teach us. He said yeah, and then we just
Speaker 1: started soaking up from there. So I think it was
Speaker 1: like all these different moments in my life that were
Speaker 1: kind of leading towards doing something with contemporary practice yoga, meditation,
Speaker 1: breath work and sharing it with people that's strong. So wait,
Speaker 1: who's Uncle Will? Is that? Uncle Will? Yeah? That's our godfather.
Speaker 1: His will join it was uncle Will, right, yeah, Uncle Will, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's our godfather. I want to make sure I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of the right person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the you're
Speaker 1: he You're hear say Uncle Will a lot, probably during
Speaker 1: the time we're talking with than when we hang and
Speaker 1: we come hang in person, talk about uncle a lot.
Speaker 1: He was one of our he's one of our favorite people.
Speaker 1: He was our teacher, he's one of our best friends.
Speaker 1: He was our homie, like he was a mentor, Like
Speaker 1: there was a lot that our relationship was with him.
Speaker 1: I love it so much. And then let's let's go
Speaker 1: to Atman Smith. Tell us about yourself, well, Atman Smith
Speaker 1: from Baltimore, And just to build off of what Ali
Speaker 1: was saying, one of the main foundations of what we
Speaker 1: do is the yoga and meditation, but it's about being
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur as well. You know, our father pushed all
Speaker 1: three of us, Andy, and you know Ali and myself.
Speaker 1: Me and Ali are brothers, and he's a brother from
Speaker 1: another and you know, after college, you know, our dad
Speaker 1: told us if we move into our childhood house in
Speaker 1: West Baltimore, in the middle of the hood, in the
Speaker 1: epicenter where all the Freddie Gray stuff happened, that he
Speaker 1: would financially take care of us if we became entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: You know, he saw a lot of his older relatives,
Speaker 1: you know, give their heart and soul to their career
Speaker 1: and then at the end of it, their jobs just
Speaker 1: kicked them to the curb and you know, didn't honor
Speaker 1: a lot of agreements, that a lot of benefits, and
Speaker 1: you know a lot of other things, and you know,
Speaker 1: whenever they wanted to, they could just fire his relatives.
Speaker 1: So he knew that he didn't want us to go
Speaker 1: that route. And one thing he used to always stress
Speaker 1: to us is that you know, you want to be
Speaker 1: the check and not earn the check. And you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't know how we were going to become entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: We just knew that, you know, we wanted to work
Speaker 1: for ourselves. We wanted to help the planet. And you know,
Speaker 1: our dad wasn't too excited that, you know, we wanted
Speaker 1: to go the nonprofit route when we became entrepreneurs. But
Speaker 1: you know that's what materialized out of our minds and
Speaker 1: hearts was, you know, creating a nonprofit to be able
Speaker 1: to help It started off as underserved communities. Now you know,
Speaker 1: we help anybody and everybody. And you know the reason
Speaker 1: why we got into that. We saw this commercial where
Speaker 1: there was this guy named Matthew LESCo and you know,
Speaker 1: he had a whole bunch of questions on him, like
Speaker 1: a mad science and we were in my creb looking
Speaker 1: reading books and you know, looking at documentaries and there
Speaker 1: was a commercial on and it was him and he
Speaker 1: was like, do you want the government to pay for
Speaker 1: you to write a book? To do this? To do that?
Speaker 1: We looked at each other like, holy shit, that's what
Speaker 1: we're going to do. We're gonna get the government to
Speaker 1: pay for us to save the planet. And you know,
Speaker 1: in our mind, you know, that's what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: We were going to save the planet. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's kind of it. We've been doing our part to
Speaker 1: try to ease the chaos and the trauma that's going
Speaker 1: on in the world through our work. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think the other cool part about what we do
Speaker 1: is we create jobs for folks like you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people that may not have opportunities to work
Speaker 1: legal nine to five and earn you know, financial gain,
Speaker 1: financial independence. They do that with us. You know, we
Speaker 1: teach them about financial literacy, teach them professionalism and a
Speaker 1: lot of other things that go into making a successful employee.
Speaker 1: And you know, we provide those people with financial independence
Speaker 1: and they're able to support themselves, support their families, and
Speaker 1: inspire their peers to come work force as well. So
Speaker 1: inspiring let's go over to Andy Gonzales and and yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you say pretty good. Good for you. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: try it. Yeah, so I'm under the Gonstalees. Everyone calls
Speaker 1: me Andy. I met Ali and Iman, the Smith's brothers
Speaker 1: in college, so I didn't have a practice like they
Speaker 1: did earlier on in my life when I was younger.
Speaker 1: You know, I came from a Puerto Rican family, so
Speaker 1: you know, love and family that that is really really
Speaker 1: big in you know, our culture and our household. So
Speaker 1: I did have that basis, and I think that that's
Speaker 1: what really echoes through as I grew up longer and longer,
Speaker 1: as I got older and older. You know, that love
Speaker 1: was always something that was around us. And I think
Speaker 1: that's something we really focus on with Holistic Life Foundation
Speaker 1: or just all the work that we do when we're
Speaker 1: going out and try to share these techniques. And a
Speaker 1: big reason I got into the practice was because, you know,
Speaker 1: I was hanging out with alian Ama and like they
Speaker 1: had said, you know, to echo what they said kind of,
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of suffering in the world and
Speaker 1: we wanted to do something about it. You know. We
Speaker 1: we are into comics and superheroes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So for us, it was easy for us to kind
Speaker 1: of envision us being these three guys that are go
Speaker 1: out there and save the world. And you know, we
Speaker 1: learned early on that it takes way more than just
Speaker 1: three guys to pull this off. And we were lucky
Speaker 1: and blessed to have the support and resources that we did,
Speaker 1: and people always kind of had our backs and believe
Speaker 1: in us, even though you know, for years and years
Speaker 1: and years there were a lot of doubters and haters
Speaker 1: looking at us, like, man, when are you going to
Speaker 1: get a real job or when are you going to
Speaker 1: really do something? Because we're just our minds were set
Speaker 1: on we're going to try to help people help themselves.
Speaker 1: And I think that's ultimately what we are. As you know,
Speaker 1: our teacher used to he didn't like us calling him
Speaker 1: a teacher. He'd always said that he's a reminder and
Speaker 1: all of us know everything already, we just kind of
Speaker 1: forgot it right. And if we can start getting people
Speaker 1: to remember that light within them, like the books and
Speaker 1: letting it shine, you know, that real infinite self of
Speaker 1: who they are and seeing themselves and anything and everything
Speaker 1: around them, that their life changes, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: a transformation that occurs, and it makes you see the
Speaker 1: world differently and treat people differently, treat the environment differently,
Speaker 1: and understanding that we're all interconnected and that we're all
Speaker 1: one and if we can remind people this and hopefully
Speaker 1: it'll make it easier for us to unite and be
Speaker 1: this one entity that we all truly are. So it's
Speaker 1: been a crazy ride. I don't think when we met
Speaker 1: and we were hanging out in college we were party
Speaker 1: animals that we would have taken it to where we
Speaker 1: are now, you know what I mean, Like, the transformation
Speaker 1: occurred within us and we're like, man, we got to
Speaker 1: get this to everybody. And you know, we always say
Speaker 1: to people, you know, we didn't make any of these
Speaker 1: techniques up. You know, these are things that have been
Speaker 1: around for thousands and thousands of years. We just listened
Speaker 1: to our teacher and we became scientists. And when we
Speaker 1: were introduced to a practice, we did an experiment, we
Speaker 1: did it on ourselves. We did the practice, we saw
Speaker 1: the results, and we were like, damn, this does this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep doing this. And then we try to
Speaker 1: find another practice and we keep doing that and doing
Speaker 1: that and doing it until we found enough techniques that
Speaker 1: we thought, hey, these are the ones that we were
Speaker 1: going to focus on spreading to the world. And twenty
Speaker 1: years later, here we are hanging out with you. You You know.
Speaker 1: The crazy thing is that that transformation was real And
Speaker 1: Andy said transformation, like it was such a drastic transformation
Speaker 1: that we did a ted X talk at Columbia University
Speaker 1: and afterwards like, we feel like a little happy hour
Speaker 1: at a bar. And like all the friends that we
Speaker 1: used to party with at college, a lot of them
Speaker 1: that were in New York, they came and they hung
Speaker 1: with us. They were like, so, what are you guys doing, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we started this nonprofit. We teach meditation and yoga. The
Speaker 1: kids they were like, well, shit, what are y'all really doing.
Speaker 1: We were like no, they were like, that's what we
Speaker 1: really do. We pulled up the website on our phone
Speaker 1: and they thought we had created a fit. Like they
Speaker 1: were just like everyone was totally blown away from where
Speaker 1: the people they knew at our senior year in university
Speaker 1: around College Park had slowed things down enough to be
Speaker 1: able to start a nonprofit, and then not only a nonprofit,
Speaker 1: but a nonprofit. They taught yoga and meditation at that point.
Speaker 1: The kids with the only is at that point, they
Speaker 1: were blown away by that when I thought we would
Speaker 1: totally bullshit them. Okay, I have some thoughts of that.
Speaker 1: First of all, I really want to party with you guys.
Speaker 1: Someday we're going to make that happen. We're going to
Speaker 1: make that happen. And second of all, I resonate with
Speaker 1: that at such a deep level when I went back
Speaker 1: to some of my high school reunions. So something you
Speaker 1: don't you all probably don't know about me. I was.
Speaker 1: I was in special education as a kid for an
Speaker 1: an auditory learning disability I had. They thought I was
Speaker 1: dumb for for a lot of my childhood. So you
Speaker 1: know when I when I talked to some people for
Speaker 1: these reunions and I'm like, yeah, I got a PhD
Speaker 1: from Yale, They're like what that's awesome. They're like you
Speaker 1: what you I was like yeah, me, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know the one you bullied, remember me, the one
Speaker 1: you beat up in the bathroom at Pengwin Elementary School.
Speaker 1: So yeah. So it's just, uh, it's wonderful to give
Speaker 1: back in that way as well and be able to
Speaker 1: help those I think all all of us. All, I'm
Speaker 1: counting five, all five of us? Did I count right?
Speaker 1: Believe in wanting to take our prior experiences using a
Speaker 1: launch pad to to make sure that, like a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't fall through the same kind of cracks
Speaker 1: that maybe we fell through. I think that, like these days,
Speaker 1: there's different paths to go. I feel like some people
Speaker 1: kind of just stay in that victimhood sort of mindset
Speaker 1: their whole lives, Like they stay in that sort of
Speaker 1: way of thinking of like, you know, that was my
Speaker 1: past and I'm still there, you know, and like there's
Speaker 1: no way out. And I feel like you all are
Speaker 1: kind of taking a different strategy, which is like trying
Speaker 1: to give these kids hope, you know, that they don't
Speaker 1: have to stay in that their whole lives. Is that
Speaker 1: Is that fair to say? Yeah? I think that's totally true.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know they're so like ib and I
Speaker 1: grew up meditating. We meditate to a lot. I was
Speaker 1: in like the fourth grade and he was in the
Speaker 1: second grade, and then didn't meditate again until I guess
Speaker 1: like our junior year of college. And I know, not
Speaker 1: having a practice suck, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: like there was so much going on mentally, and like
Speaker 1: just the life emotional rollercoaster that it is, and like
Speaker 1: just everything that was going on, and like I think
Speaker 1: getting back to my practice, I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: so that's what's been missing for all this time, and
Speaker 1: I think we wanted to give that to as many
Speaker 1: people as possible. It was like when our teacher got
Speaker 1: was when we were in our teacher's hands, like Uncle
Speaker 1: Will's hands, like later on when we were finishing up college,
Speaker 1: like it's kind of like starting over. Like as I
Speaker 1: started practicing more, some of us started to come back
Speaker 1: to me. Like when we first sat down with him,
Speaker 1: it was like hitting the reseup button and trying to
Speaker 1: learn all these practices from the beginning, and it was
Speaker 1: like such a profound change that it was like, man,
Speaker 1: we got chans practice with everybody, like as many people
Speaker 1: as possible, because like, this is what people are missing
Speaker 1: in their lives. So many people that are suffering that
Speaker 1: feel like they're isolated, they feel stressed out, they feel angry,
Speaker 1: they feel depressed, that feel sad, to feel like their
Speaker 1: life is hopeless and helpless, and it's because they don't
Speaker 1: have a connection to their true self. I mean like
Speaker 1: in the universe, like our teacher wouldn't Our teacher literally
Speaker 1: wouldn't leave the house because we would ask him like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to go out and do something, but
Speaker 1: it'd be like, well, I need to leave the house.
Speaker 1: There's a whole universe inside of me to explore. So
Speaker 1: it was like, that's what people are missing, Like you're
Speaker 1: connected to everything, but you don't know how to get there,
Speaker 1: and you don't know that it's there. So I think
Speaker 1: that's what we want to give kids because a lot
Speaker 1: of kids we work with in these traditionally and like
Speaker 1: historically underserved communities, like if they were only connected to
Speaker 1: their physical environment, it would be a miserable, hopeless and
Speaker 1: helpless situation with a lot of fear, with a lot
Speaker 1: of anxiety, with a lot of anger. And why not
Speaker 1: give them something bigger to connect to? So the ones
Speaker 1: they can connect to something bigger than their neighborhood, then
Speaker 1: they can start to dream on a bigger scale and
Speaker 1: do different things with their lives and have a lot
Speaker 1: more peaceful and loving existence. I don't think I could
Speaker 1: have said that any better. Yeah, And going back to
Speaker 1: you were saying about you know, kids getting caught in
Speaker 1: you know, past experiences and you know, stuff like that
Speaker 1: that kind of blocks their forward progress in life. You know,
Speaker 1: there's this quote that our teacher used to always tell us.
Speaker 1: He used to say that the past brings up fear
Speaker 1: and anger, the future brings out anxiety. Focus on the
Speaker 1: now because that's all there really is. And I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways, one of the things that
Speaker 1: the kids learn and we learn through the practice is
Speaker 1: you know, being in that present moment. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard for anyone to ever really always be in
Speaker 1: that present moment, but it's just all about having the
Speaker 1: awareness we need. You get caught up in past thoughts,
Speaker 1: whether it's a week ago, a month ago, a year ago,
Speaker 1: a decade ago, that kind of puts you and we
Speaker 1: call it shitsville, you know what I mean, gets you
Speaker 1: in a depressed mood, angry mood, jealous mood, which doesn't
Speaker 1: do you any good at all. Or if you're worried
Speaker 1: about the future, you know, worried about you know, am
Speaker 1: I in the right career? Am I? You know, doing
Speaker 1: the best that I can be instead of just focus
Speaker 1: focusing on right now and excelling in whatever way you
Speaker 1: can in this present moment, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that the practices does for
Speaker 1: people is it allows them to be in that present
Speaker 1: moment and let them know when they slip and they're
Speaker 1: in the future or the past, and gives you techniques
Speaker 1: to get back, push for set on your mind and
Speaker 1: get back to that present moment. And then also, you know,
Speaker 1: physical practices sometimes, you know, people go through trauma get
Speaker 1: stored in the body, and their bodies not a safe space.
Speaker 1: You know. The physical practices that we teach helps release
Speaker 1: that trauma, makes their body a safe space. Then we
Speaker 1: go into the breathing, which kind of slows your mind
Speaker 1: down so you can actually get the most benefit out
Speaker 1: of meditating and connecting to that universal center that Ali
Speaker 1: was talking about. Yeah, I read somewhere that you guys
Speaker 1: want to create an oasis in the school. Can you
Speaker 1: kind of unpack what that means a little bit? And
Speaker 1: the way I see it, A big part of that
Speaker 1: is giving these kids tools to deal with the adversity
Speaker 1: in their lives as opposed to shrinking away from it
Speaker 1: and getting disconnected from themselves. But yeah, is that along
Speaker 1: those lines, Yeah, definitely, I mean me just imagine when
Speaker 1: you were in school. And I know when I like
Speaker 1: reflecting when I was in school, it's a long ass day, right,
Speaker 1: you know. They put you in there from the morning
Speaker 1: to the end, and you're supposed to stare at the
Speaker 1: teacher after teacher, learn lesson after lesson, and that can
Speaker 1: be overwhelming. And a lot of times if at the
Speaker 1: administration and the teachers, the people in the building don't
Speaker 1: understand what's going on at home, then they're they're totally
Speaker 1: just just just not analyzing the situations seriously. So when
Speaker 1: Johnny comes to school, he hasn't eaten, he hasn't slept,
Speaker 1: he lives in an environment at home that's just so overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and then you expect him to sit there and stare
Speaker 1: at this board and listen to you. And then when
Speaker 1: he falls asleep or he's not paying attention or whatever,
Speaker 1: then he gets punished. It's like like, damn, this is
Speaker 1: how do you think this is right? You know? So
Speaker 1: what we wanted to do was to create, like you said,
Speaker 1: an oasis in the school that allows the students and
Speaker 1: the staff to go there when they need you to
Speaker 1: take a break, to take a moment for themselves, you know,
Speaker 1: and and the goal is to make it feel completely
Speaker 1: different than the rest of the school. So when we
Speaker 1: put these rooms together where we have the you know,
Speaker 1: the Himalayan salt, so we have the oils diffusing, we
Speaker 1: have cushions and zafoods and little chairs and these posters
Speaker 1: and water fountains and just just so when you walk
Speaker 1: even walk by the room, you're like, what is going
Speaker 1: on in there? And you want to be able to
Speaker 1: kind of feel that essence of being a piece of
Speaker 1: tranquility when you walk into that room, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately that's what we were trying to do.
Speaker 1: We were trying to create that space. And then when
Speaker 1: they come in and they do come into the room,
Speaker 1: that's when we can give them tools and techniques to
Speaker 1: deal with that adversity you were talking about that allows
Speaker 1: them to find that same piece and tranquility within themselves
Speaker 1: wherever they're at. Right So, you know, give them the
Speaker 1: space and the school, get them start understanding, hey, you
Speaker 1: can access this. You know, like i' must say, if
Speaker 1: you stop focusing on the past in the future and
Speaker 1: you're in this present moment, you're gonna notice you can
Speaker 1: really appreciate every single second of your life and then
Speaker 1: understanding that they are going through so much, we're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got you. How about next time you're faced with
Speaker 1: this adversity, try this breathing technique and it'll pull you
Speaker 1: back to center. Or try this meditation and it'll get
Speaker 1: you back to being present and in this moment. And
Speaker 1: you know, that's the goal, is to keep kind of
Speaker 1: putting that into their heads and letting them know that
Speaker 1: they're capable of self regulation, They're capable of bringing themselves
Speaker 1: back to center whenever they need to. And and it's
Speaker 1: tough because you know, if no one ever told you that,
Speaker 1: then you just assume that man, life sucks and and
Speaker 1: I can't deal with this shit type stuff, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, it's so easy to think that way.
Speaker 1: But what we try to do is create that that feeling.
Speaker 1: And really also, you know that that program that we have,
Speaker 1: it's called our Mindful Moment program, it really focuses on
Speaker 1: removing punitive practices. So there's a viral article that went
Speaker 1: out for why I was like school changes attention to meditation,
Speaker 1: and that was our program where instead of punishing the
Speaker 1: kid for what's going on in their lives or in
Speaker 1: the moment, you can send them to the room and
Speaker 1: we can give them tools and techniques that will help
Speaker 1: them at that moment for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1: One thing about that program the coolest I think the
Speaker 1: coolest thing about that program is like you know, you
Speaker 1: see the kids changing, You see the schools start to
Speaker 1: change when you look at the cold hard numbers. Like
Speaker 1: the program works no matter where we set it up.
Speaker 1: There's a school in the center of where the epigrade
Speaker 1: at these pretty gray uprisings happen, like where they haven't
Speaker 1: had suspension for like seven or eight years. There there's
Speaker 1: another school called Fort Worthington. The year before we got there,
Speaker 1: I think they had like one hundred and fifty something suspensions.
Speaker 1: After year one that number was down to around fifty seven,
Speaker 1: I think, and after year two the suspension numbers down
Speaker 1: to thirteen. And no matter where we go, like we
Speaker 1: go around and we train people to be able to
Speaker 1: do this program. So like if anybody wanted a program
Speaker 1: set up, we could show how to set it up
Speaker 1: the right way, showing the paperwork everything, the referral rules,
Speaker 1: how to track the data, and it will work on
Speaker 1: reducing suspension numbers. It's helped with act scores, it's helped
Speaker 1: with tendance, it's helped producing fights at schools. But I
Speaker 1: think the coolest thing is the energy of the school changes.
Speaker 1: The first place we started this program the school called
Speaker 1: Patterson High School with Vance Benton, doctor Vance Benton now,
Speaker 1: who's like our brother. He's a real good dude. He
Speaker 1: set us up with the program. We knew we were
Speaker 1: in the right place. And we walked in the in
Speaker 1: the in to his principle and in the principal's office,
Speaker 1: into his office and he mentioned he said a Yoda quote,
Speaker 1: and we're huge Star Wars, huge Star Wars fans. It
Speaker 1: was like, right, we're in the right place. So this
Speaker 1: is our school. And we went there. The program went well,
Speaker 1: and then it was just like you know, the all
Speaker 1: the numbers got better. But he noticed one thing that
Speaker 1: he went to another school and he could feel the
Speaker 1: friction and the tension and the anger in the air.
Speaker 1: And then he went back to his school and that
Speaker 1: he could feel the calmness at his school and he
Speaker 1: was like, huh, maybe there's more to this program than
Speaker 1: just these numbers. Like energetically, my school feels a lot
Speaker 1: different than the schools where this program isn't. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember another story that he told us, just an observation,
Speaker 1: like things don't happen overnight. But you know, we changed
Speaker 1: the school culture with being having that program implemented in school.
Speaker 1: But he said, we have a number of staff staffing
Speaker 1: the room all during the school day, but sometimes they
Speaker 1: have to go out and work with some of the
Speaker 1: teachers or the administrators or entire classes. So you know,
Speaker 1: on very rare occasions, the room is empty and it's locked,
Speaker 1: and kids can't go in there even if they're in
Speaker 1: crisis because we don't have anybody staffing it. He said
Speaker 1: that one day when he was coming into the school,
Speaker 1: he saw a kid who was in crisis just walk
Speaker 1: to the door. It was locked, So we sat down
Speaker 1: and just started doing his breathing and meditating and you know,
Speaker 1: getting himself back to homeostasis. You know, that's the beauty
Speaker 1: of the practices. You know, it allows kids to learn
Speaker 1: the tools to be able to self regulate. And one
Speaker 1: thing he was like, man, you know that definitely wouldn't
Speaker 1: happen in my school, like three years ago, because like
Speaker 1: three years ago, if somebody saw kids sitting down with
Speaker 1: his eyes closed, they might have just kicked him in
Speaker 1: the head or punched him or something. But now because
Speaker 1: there is a culture of everybody knowing what that is,
Speaker 1: it's just regular. It's just normal. Part of our day
Speaker 1: is that, you know, people do have these contemplative practices
Speaker 1: interwoven into our school. And like Ali was saying, there's
Speaker 1: so many different ways that this program and Andy was
Speaker 1: saying too, that this program helps the school climate. It
Speaker 1: helps teachers that you know have burnout. We had this
Speaker 1: one teacher that hated our program, and we knew he
Speaker 1: did in year one because every time we would go
Speaker 1: into the administer the principal's office, it would be a
Speaker 1: whole group of teachers talking, him being one of the
Speaker 1: main ones, and then when we get up there, they
Speaker 1: would all be silent. We're like, man, we know you're
Speaker 1: talking about us. But eventually, you know, we have a
Speaker 1: besides the room, we have a mindful in this practice
Speaker 1: that's played over the loud speaker at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the day and at the end of the day. And
Speaker 1: he was one of the teachers where you know, they
Speaker 1: weren't really engaged in that practice. There was supposed to
Speaker 1: be a school wide practice and he actually used to
Speaker 1: turn the volume down, and you know he would just
Speaker 1: be like, man, I don't pay attention to that. And
Speaker 1: then Andy went in there one day and he actually
Speaker 1: led the class through the practices, even though you know,
Speaker 1: the teacher wasn't really feeling it. He allowed Andy to
Speaker 1: do that, and you know, when the students started disrespecting
Speaker 1: the teacher, Andy had the teacher's back and was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: y'all learning I think it was they were learning CAD
Speaker 1: stuff right here, and you know, he was telling me,
Speaker 1: He's like, man, you're all learning a skill that is
Speaker 1: going to help the employability of your life. You know, like,
Speaker 1: you all need to take this serious. This guy as
Speaker 1: a wealth of information. Y'all need to give them respect.
Speaker 1: And you know, just reasoning with these kids about why
Speaker 1: they should respect their teacher, it kind of shifted the
Speaker 1: energy in his classroom, and the teacher, you know, felt
Speaker 1: like he was respected and actually seen and it made
Speaker 1: him start actually doing the practice and participating. And that
Speaker 1: dude went from he would tell us I can't wait
Speaker 1: to retire. I'm getting out of here this year. I
Speaker 1: can't stand these kids to ten years later he's still
Speaker 1: teaching because he has a contemplative practice. And you know
Speaker 1: he went from wearing all black clothes to wearing like
Speaker 1: floral print shirts and giving us huge hugs. And you know,
Speaker 1: so the program not only helps the students, but it
Speaker 1: helps the teachers and administrators as well. Wow, and that
Speaker 1: works both ways as well, So the teachers having more
Speaker 1: respect for the students even though maybe the trouble students.
Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about the reciprocal teaching model, could
Speaker 1: you kind of talk elucidate a little more on what
Speaker 1: that means. When our teacher taught us, when we went
Speaker 1: to him and asked when we were the first time
Speaker 1: went to Uncle Will, we were like, hey, can you
Speaker 1: teach us this yoga stuff? He was like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to devots. I'm only teaching teachers. He believed in
Speaker 1: teaching people to be able to share the practice with others.
Speaker 1: It was all about former black panther. He was about empowerment.
Speaker 1: We wanted to empower us with the practice so that
Speaker 1: we could use each other people. And I think that
Speaker 1: informed the way that we taught. We didn't even know
Speaker 1: it was reciprocal teaching until our buddy, Until our buddy
Speaker 1: Heather actually told us that we were doing using reciprocal teaching.
Speaker 1: So then we started using the term reciprocal teaching. But
Speaker 1: it was like what we knew, Like, hey, like we
Speaker 1: need empower these kids with the practice. We need to
Speaker 1: show them how to do this they can share with
Speaker 1: other people. So we would bring the kids to the
Speaker 1: front and they would lead the practice. So like when
Speaker 1: people come visit our after school program, they wouldn't see
Speaker 1: any of the three of us up there leading the practice.
Speaker 1: It would be little kids up there leading the bending,
Speaker 1: the stretching, the breathing, the meditations. They'd be leading all
Speaker 1: of it, and they would be killing it and then
Speaker 1: they would go home. Actually, we didn't even know if
Speaker 1: they were doing this until parents started coming up to us.
Speaker 1: Like one little kid, one little girl's mom came in
Speaker 1: and said, I didn't even I thought y'all were doing yoga.
Speaker 1: I didn't know y'all were doing breathing the meditation because
Speaker 1: one day I came home all stressed out. My daughter
Speaker 1: sat me down and said, Ma, you need to breathe
Speaker 1: and meditate with me because she looked stressed out, and
Speaker 1: she helped us. She breathe and meditated. There was another
Speaker 1: little girl whose grandmother's stomach was upset. She told her
Speaker 1: to a breathing exercise instead of the stomach and the
Speaker 1: list of stories goes on. So it was like we
Speaker 1: wanted to empower the kids with to practice. So like
Speaker 1: when we always say, if we can go to school
Speaker 1: with two hundred kids, that's awesome. If we can turn
Speaker 1: those two hundred kids into two hundred teachers, then we
Speaker 1: make a huge impact and the ripples go out. Definitely. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's some profound stuff. Another phrase is is involution? What's
Speaker 1: that involution? All right? So you know our teacher, you know,
Speaker 1: like Ali said, he was a black panther and you
Speaker 1: know they went to revolution, and you know one thing
Speaker 1: that he would say is, you know, violence begets violence.
Speaker 1: You know, the only way that you can really make
Speaker 1: a true change in society is going within yourself and involving.
Speaker 1: Like our book says, let your light shine. And the
Speaker 1: only way to do that is with these practices, tapping
Speaker 1: into that universal center that's the same as my universal center,
Speaker 1: that's the same as yours. And it's like once you start,
Speaker 1: like Ali always says, start your day in the light,
Speaker 1: in your day and the light. That's what involution is about,
Speaker 1: is trying to be in your light as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Then it makes it that much easier to kind of
Speaker 1: think on a higher vibration. And that's what the evolution
Speaker 1: is about, is going in ways and then dealing with
Speaker 1: the world from that inner views. Yeah, because you really
Speaker 1: can't change the outside world, but for so much, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you made people to rearrange
Speaker 1: your house to like, you know what I mean, put
Speaker 1: a guard in your lawn. There's not huge shifts that
Speaker 1: you can make on the outside. But if enough people
Speaker 1: should like move from their higher self, then you can
Speaker 1: change the whole world I mean, So that's what that
Speaker 1: evolution is about. They also say that evolution took too long,
Speaker 1: like for us to evolve would take a long, long
Speaker 1: long time, Like the revolutions were violent. So if everybody
Speaker 1: went inward and had an evolution and worked from their
Speaker 1: light instead of from their ego, then the world would
Speaker 1: be a much better place. This is really so important.
Speaker 1: There's obviously there are systemic injustices, right, there's systemic racism.
Speaker 1: Someone could listen to what you're saying and say, like,
Speaker 1: well shouldn't we A lot of people create this false dichotomy, right, that.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, shouldn't we just focus on all of
Speaker 1: that first and not worry you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: privilege to worry about involution. This is not my belief,
Speaker 1: is not my mo But I'm just I'm just saying, Like, someone,
Speaker 1: what do you say to someone who thinks in such
Speaker 1: black and white terms the way they say that to you?
Speaker 1: How do you respond to that? Like that's the most
Speaker 1: important thing going on when in your human existence is
Speaker 1: touching your universal self? You know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: you can do all this you mean, I know you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like I feel like that. I
Speaker 1: feel you, brother, I feel you brother. Like what else
Speaker 1: are we here for? Like that, We're here to express
Speaker 1: our universal self, whether it takes what we do at
Speaker 1: this time or in ten lifetimes or one hundred lifetimes,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like that's the goal of
Speaker 1: being a human. Like you experience the highs and lows
Speaker 1: of being a human. You experience all the fields, you
Speaker 1: experience everything that there is to offer with gratifying your senses,
Speaker 1: and none of it makes you happy, Like you end
Speaker 1: up miserable trying to go outward. But like the whole
Speaker 1: thing is about touching your true self, experiencing it, let
Speaker 1: it shine not just on your meditation cushion on your mat,
Speaker 1: but like out into the world, so you can inspire
Speaker 1: yourself and inspire other people. So all that stuff is
Speaker 1: important because we are humans. Like, you can't ignore it.
Speaker 1: It's not going to go anywhere. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: the most important thing is is touching your true self
Speaker 1: and like touching the light and ship experience the experiencing it,
Speaker 1: let the shine. In society nowadays, it's like it's so
Speaker 1: common for everyone to be focused on that external you know,
Speaker 1: on the outside, and it's almost like we've been brainwashed
Speaker 1: to think these things, Like and then when I was younger,
Speaker 1: to me, God was in the clouds, he wasn't even attainable, right,
Speaker 1: He's like out so outside and far away from me
Speaker 1: that and the only way I could have a relationship
Speaker 1: was through a certain person with him, Like I needed
Speaker 1: a middleman to be able to get me to communicate
Speaker 1: with these type of things. And when you start really
Speaker 1: seeing the world for what it is and beyond this
Speaker 1: external stuff and you start going inward, that's where the
Speaker 1: real stuff is, That's where the truth is, that's that's
Speaker 1: like your real self, you know. And it's amazing to
Speaker 1: me how often people are so focused on like Ali
Speaker 1: was saying, on the material, on the senses, on the ego,
Speaker 1: and those are parts of you, but that's not your
Speaker 1: real real thing, you know. Uncle. We used to always say,
Speaker 1: like all this out here is illusion, you know, and
Speaker 1: we need to keep removing the veils of the illusion
Speaker 1: that we're seeing, to identify with what we really really
Speaker 1: are and who we really are, and work on that
Speaker 1: part of ourselves, you know, because the light within us
Speaker 1: is in everything that there is, in all existence, and
Speaker 1: it's just muddled by ignorance, you know, and not ignorance
Speaker 1: like calling someone dumb, but ignoring the truth of who
Speaker 1: you really are, of your real, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent self.
Speaker 1: And when one realizes that and they start to learn
Speaker 1: to love themselves more, that helps them learn to love
Speaker 1: other people more. And if you can work on that,
Speaker 1: like I always you know, lately, I've been thinking a
Speaker 1: lot about this, like, you know, Wow, it'd be great
Speaker 1: to solve all these issues and problems with this external world.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the way we need to go to
Speaker 1: make stuff better. But if everyone just learned to love
Speaker 1: and take care of themselves, wouldn't that make the world
Speaker 1: better too? Right? You know, like if everyone focused on
Speaker 1: being the best version of themselves, then you're solving all
Speaker 1: the issues on the outside world because now there's not
Speaker 1: as many douchebags and assholes. Because you're working on yourself
Speaker 1: and you're seeing yourself in everyone and everything and it's
Speaker 1: just all love. Then it's so good. I also love
Speaker 1: your vocabulary because it's uh that I used when I
Speaker 1: was a kid. I used to call people douchebags and
Speaker 1: and if you were cool, you were my homie, you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of you you're bringing backwards from my nineties youth. So,
Speaker 1: and we were meant to hang. I'm telling you that
Speaker 1: we were meant to hang. Yes, I believe that's true.
Speaker 1: I believe that's true. We all have a we have
Speaker 1: a mutual friend. We should give a shout out to
Speaker 1: Sharon Salsburg here we love you. Do you remember the
Speaker 1: Rings of the Roof thing too? Do you remember that from? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Do you remember that Sharon Salsburg? So he's doing the
Speaker 1: mix it too. I don't think that she definitely has
Speaker 1: the most infectious laugh that you know we've ever been around.
Speaker 1: If she starts giggling, it will like tickle you, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It'll make you just giggle and
Speaker 1: put you into that light inside of yourself. That's you know,
Speaker 1: she's she's one of our favorite people on the planet.
Speaker 1: I remember one thing about it, like when we first started,
Speaker 1: like when people started paying attention to us and we
Speaker 1: started going to all these conferences like around the country.
Speaker 1: We hear all these people who were like supposedly these
Speaker 1: profound spiritual teachers speak and we were so like underwhelmed
Speaker 1: with most of them. We were like this is like
Speaker 1: this isn't But Sharon was the first person we saw
Speaker 1: that it spoke. We saw at the Yoga Service Conference
Speaker 1: at the Omega Institute, and I'll never forget it, Like
Speaker 1: we were looking at each other like holy shit, like
Speaker 1: this lady is amazing. Like she was the first person
Speaker 1: actually talked about love, she talked about connection. The way
Speaker 1: she taught was very fact like Avian said, her laugh
Speaker 1: was infectious. The way she taught was amazing, and it
Speaker 1: was just like from that very first moment we saw
Speaker 1: her speak, we were like, this lady is amazing. It'll
Speaker 1: be amazing to learn from her. At that point, we
Speaker 1: weren't even thinking about teaching with teaching with her like,
Speaker 1: but then like she approaches like she Yeah, she's opened
Speaker 1: up a lot of doors for us. But I think,
Speaker 1: just uh, she's one of the most profound teachers that
Speaker 1: we've ever come in contact with. And it's cool to
Speaker 1: teach with her because every time I feel like, every
Speaker 1: time I teach with her, I become a better teacher myself.
Speaker 1: Just seeing the way did she tells stories, the way
Speaker 1: that she interacts with everyone, the way that she engages,
Speaker 1: the way she shares about her practice. I just see
Speaker 1: such a great confluence between the work she does and
Speaker 1: her conceptualization of love and what you all are bringing
Speaker 1: into the world and the light, the light you're shining
Speaker 1: is so it's so cool that connection there. There's someone
Speaker 1: else that I wanted to bring up and see if
Speaker 1: you know her. I'm a big fan of Ronda McGee's work,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if you've come across her work
Speaker 1: at all, the inner work of racial justice, that's another one.
Speaker 1: She's a homie too, man, I want to be a homie.
Speaker 1: You guys, you went about homies too now, but you're
Speaker 1: part of the fan. I mean, that's I mean, unbelievable
Speaker 1: squad we have here, Ronda, Sharon, you three. That's we
Speaker 1: could could do her whole, a whole TV show on that.
Speaker 1: But I'm so glad, you know, Ronna, she's been on
Speaker 1: this podcast and she's become a friend of mine and
Speaker 1: just I see a very complimentary between her her view
Speaker 1: of kind of that light shines outward from within, right
Speaker 1: as opposed to well blaming everything on the outside world. Right.
Speaker 1: Whenever we are at a conference with her, we always
Speaker 1: get a chance to sit down just hang with her.
Speaker 1: And she's another one of those people that are just
Speaker 1: so real and the work she's doing is so neat
Speaker 1: in the world. And yeah, and she's you know, it's
Speaker 1: few and far between when you meet those authentic, genuine
Speaker 1: people with big hearts who really care, who are brilliant too,
Speaker 1: you know, like geniuses, and they just just profound. So
Speaker 1: whenever we get a chance to hang with her, we
Speaker 1: always sit down and chat. And she's awesome, she really is.
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, there's another quality to you three that
Speaker 1: I really like that I think is sorely lacking in
Speaker 1: the world today. I think all of your qualities are
Speaker 1: that seeing today are sorely lacking. But one that I
Speaker 1: want to call out in particular is fun. You three
Speaker 1: seem like a lot of fun. And I noticed in
Speaker 1: your book you say we want students to have fun,
Speaker 1: and I think that's actually really profound. You know, like
Speaker 1: you don't you don't hear that much from education books.
Speaker 1: They're all so serious, you know, they're like, like our
Speaker 1: learning theory is about playing action. It's like show the
Speaker 1: fuck up, Like, like, what does it mean to actually
Speaker 1: let the kids enjoy school? Would that be such a
Speaker 1: terrible thing? Yeah, you talk about it. The teachers that
Speaker 1: mean something to you in your lifetime that you know,
Speaker 1: there's lots of teachers that you've forgotten, but those teachers
Speaker 1: that actually you know they taught you stuff, but you
Speaker 1: have fun in their class, those are the ones that
Speaker 1: have a lasting impression in your mind. And you know,
Speaker 1: our teacher always told us, man, if your class ain't laughing,
Speaker 1: then you ain't doing shit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So we try to infuse humor into everything that we do,
Speaker 1: just to lighten up the mood. That's an easy way
Speaker 1: to get people in to their light. And then you know,
Speaker 1: dive deep into the rabbit hole of this thing we
Speaker 1: call contemplatar practices. Yes, you all are interested in yoga, right,
Speaker 1: and you're interested in applying a lot of yoga principles.
Speaker 1: You know, there's like this stereotype of like the yo
Speaker 1: When I think yoga, you think like white blonde girl
Speaker 1: like in yoga pants. Like, I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I should be editing out what I'm saying
Speaker 1: right now when I'm just trying to keep it real. No,
Speaker 1: that's truth, man, I keep it real, Keep it real, Okay, good, good.
Speaker 1: I tend to do that on my podcast, so I'll
Speaker 1: be consistent and keep it real. What I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say is there's like a societal sort of stereotype of
Speaker 1: the yoga practitioner in America. In America, now it's not
Speaker 1: all the original roots of the point of yoga, right,
Speaker 1: but you tend to think of like, you know, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, like we're doing this to you know, you
Speaker 1: are greatness. You are believing yourself, you know. But I
Speaker 1: think in a lot of ways you you three are
Speaker 1: not white blonde yoga chicks and yoga pants. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't That's not what I'm perceiving right now, you know,
Speaker 1: So like yeah, you and you three are interested in yoga.
Speaker 1: So but my point is like maybe maybe you three,
Speaker 1: maybe it's important to expand This is my point. This
Speaker 1: is my point. Stay with me, folks, stay with me.
Speaker 1: Maybe we can expand our notion of yoga beyond this
Speaker 1: kind of superficial stereotype that we have in our society,
Speaker 1: kind of even get to maybe the roots of what
Speaker 1: the point of yoga was in the first place. That
Speaker 1: was my point. I mean, honestly, I think if we
Speaker 1: would have gone that yoga studio Lululemon yoga pant route,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have been into the practice. I know, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But we learned from again learn
Speaker 1: meditation as a little kid from my dad got deep,
Speaker 1: deep deep into the practice with Uncle Will from and
Speaker 1: lived in East Baltimore. Like I mean he didn't it didn't,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it didn't do much more in
Speaker 1: Baltimore than Uncle Will. So I mean, like what the
Speaker 1: dumbbar you know. I mean, like went the University of
Speaker 1: maryl Eastern Shore. He was like a very very Baltimore dude,
Speaker 1: and like that's who we learned from. Actually, The crazy
Speaker 1: thing was, we didn't even realize how white the yoga
Speaker 1: world was until we went to the Garrison Institute for
Speaker 1: a conference, like because you know, we had we learned
Speaker 1: from them. We taught in Baltimore City, which is the
Speaker 1: second most segregated city behind Milwaukee, so it was like
Speaker 1: we were teaching black kids. And then we go to
Speaker 1: the Garrison Institute and we walk in and everybody else
Speaker 1: there was white, and we were like, what, Like, this
Speaker 1: is what yoga is Like. It definitely threw us for
Speaker 1: And then we started as we started looking more and
Speaker 1: looking at Yoga Journal and all these other things, we
Speaker 1: saw how white the yoga world was. But it was
Speaker 1: a shock to us that that's what it looked like,
Speaker 1: because that wasn't our experience with it. Like even when
Speaker 1: me and Iven went to the church we grew up in,
Speaker 1: there were other kids of color that were in that
Speaker 1: church meditating with us. So it wasn't like it just
Speaker 1: it just seemed weird. But it's definitely something that's a
Speaker 1: practice for everyone. It's not for one group, it's not
Speaker 1: for just somebody like price wise, it maybe just for
Speaker 1: one group, but like we I think that's one things
Speaker 1: that we want to do is make it accessible to everyone.
Speaker 1: Like we don't the programs we do in schools, the
Speaker 1: schools pay for. It's always free to the kids and
Speaker 1: the families. So we want everyone to be able to
Speaker 1: use these practice. Everybody is dealing with stress and anxiety
Speaker 1: and like all these things that are part of the
Speaker 1: human experience, and yoga is a beautiful practice to help
Speaker 1: you kind of mitigate a lot of those problems, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and get some stillness. Like I
Speaker 1: think the two biggest things that the kids we work
Speaker 1: with get out of the practice are stillness and connection.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of them don't have a place for
Speaker 1: peace in their lives, whether it's in their mind, whether
Speaker 1: it's in their home, whether it's in their school and
Speaker 1: their community. There's no there's no peace anywhere. And they
Speaker 1: don't have the money to go to a yoga class
Speaker 1: or go on a retreat. They don't have the money
Speaker 1: for that. So we show them how to get to
Speaker 1: that place of peace within them that's always there and
Speaker 1: they can always retreat to. And that connection. Like we
Speaker 1: learned that kids weren't connected to themselves at all, and
Speaker 1: they didn't love themselves at all, So it was just
Speaker 1: like a it's always good to see that light bulb
Speaker 1: go off, and kids shift the way that they see
Speaker 1: themselves in the world when they connect to themselves. And
Speaker 1: then once they connected themselves and love themselves, then it
Speaker 1: starts to spill outward, like seem to become more compassionate, empathetic,
Speaker 1: more loving towards their friends. They're less violent, they're less impulsive.
Speaker 1: All these things are going on just from that connection
Speaker 1: and that place of inner peace. So the practices are
Speaker 1: for everybody, and we're growing. And I think I think
Speaker 1: another thing is like kids seeing us teaching the practices
Speaker 1: and our teachers teaching the practices makes them shift the
Speaker 1: way that they feel about yoga, because I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of them probably would think that it was a
Speaker 1: practice for middle aged white ladies, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like that's what that's what they would think. But I
Speaker 1: think seeing us in there doing it, like a lot
Speaker 1: of the kids now, like the kids that we were
Speaker 1: working with, Like when you ask them what they wanted
Speaker 1: to be like, they would say, I want to be
Speaker 1: a yoga teacher. I want to help people like you
Speaker 1: all do. And I don't think that's something they would
Speaker 1: feel as accessible if they didn't see people looking like
Speaker 1: them teaching and doing the practice. Dude, I really think
Speaker 1: it's cool how we're kind of breaking down that image
Speaker 1: and that stereotype with a lot of you know, because
Speaker 1: we're bringing you know, people to places that you wouldn't
Speaker 1: see people like us leading the exercises. I remember once
Speaker 1: being at the Omega Institute, we had like a lot
Speaker 1: of our younger students with us. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you Fellas you all remember this, but remember like we
Speaker 1: walk in and like security came up to us and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, ho, what are you all doing here?
Speaker 1: Like one of our young guns had like had like
Speaker 1: gold he had gold fronts send remember that Qualmate and
Speaker 1: gold fronts, and he had like he took around here
Speaker 1: like he's like, oh no, we're the yoga instructors and
Speaker 1: you can tell the security guys like what like But again,
Speaker 1: you know, like that we can do that, you know,
Speaker 1: we can break down that idea that it's just supposed
Speaker 1: to be you know, middle aged white women or blonde
Speaker 1: white women that teach U yoga stuff that no we
Speaker 1: have you know because the majority of our staff from
Speaker 1: minorities that we're coming in and we look nothing like
Speaker 1: what everyone else does. And then when we come in
Speaker 1: and we even do it different, you know, so like
Speaker 1: they are more a lot a lot of times. That's
Speaker 1: why I don't think it wouldn't have would have worked
Speaker 1: if we went to those type of classes, because it's
Speaker 1: always like, okay, and here is what what we're going
Speaker 1: to do, and they're like they want they expect like
Speaker 1: this white robed guru image type stuff. And now we
Speaker 1: come in with our superhero T shirts and we are
Speaker 1: who we are. We keep it rude, ourselves beard not dreadlocks.
Speaker 1: There you go, right, yeah, right right, that's what people
Speaker 1: expect a beard, but they don't expect dreadlocks. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, you know, I think it's so great
Speaker 1: that we can do that, that we can change and
Speaker 1: it's still tough sometimes. You know, I think we're not
Speaker 1: the only ones that are surprised. They're surprised to you
Speaker 1: because you know, countless times Ali Atman and I have
Speaker 1: gone to a conference, will be the keynote, our picture
Speaker 1: will be on the back behind the person checking people
Speaker 1: in as you know, speakers, and we'll walk up and
Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh yeah, almost be the band, Like
Speaker 1: we have no instruments on this is you know, there's
Speaker 1: used to seeing it and we would we play along
Speaker 1: with you would love it. We have so much fun.
Speaker 1: So we're an Aboriginal folk band, is what we say
Speaker 1: when people make this this comment. Who plays the bull roar?
Speaker 1: Is it Atman Ali and Otman plays the digiti? Dude,
Speaker 1: I'm on vocals. So that's what we'll tell them. And
Speaker 1: then when we get on stage and we start in
Speaker 1: the meditation, you can see the person like in the
Speaker 1: crowd like, oh, I can't believe that. I would probably
Speaker 1: mess with them. I'd probably mess with them even more
Speaker 1: than that though. I'd probably be like, yeah, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: the rappers here, you know, we're here to sit you know,
Speaker 1: sing like you know, you know, like say some really
Speaker 1: vulgar lyrics we do, Yeah we do, yeah, yeah, like
Speaker 1: something like that, you know, like yeah, yeah, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: you know, because sometimes when people have the stereotypes, I
Speaker 1: just like to mess with it, right and just like
Speaker 1: all the way, you know. But no, that's wonderful. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I love from your book is you
Speaker 1: talk about how love and empathy need to be consistent
Speaker 1: and reliable. That's I feel like that's a big principle
Speaker 1: with a lot of the work you do. Can you
Speaker 1: kind of expand on that a little bit? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I think it started. I don't even think we realized
Speaker 1: how important it was. I think it was two things.
Speaker 1: One we just talked about the other day. But like
Speaker 1: when we after we finished, like we we started with
Speaker 1: a group of fifth graders Winds Hills Elementary School and
Speaker 1: then one of them I'll actually keep for us now
Speaker 1: to this day. And this was like two thousand and
Speaker 1: two when he was twenty years ago, he was a
Speaker 1: fifth grader. Now he works for us. But he was like, all,
Speaker 1: it's nice to know you, guys, nice to know you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in your life forever. And you just
Speaker 1: got this confused look on his face, like you guys mean,
Speaker 1: but we literally have been because he still works for
Speaker 1: us to this day. So, like we definitely believe that
Speaker 1: consistency is key, like because a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: have consistency, especially consistent like people who are present and
Speaker 1: like treat him with love and respect, they don't really
Speaker 1: have that in their lives. So we always felt that
Speaker 1: that was important. So like we were there all the
Speaker 1: time and we were working with our students. We tried
Speaker 1: to when we have a staff person at a school,
Speaker 1: we try to keep that person consistent year to year
Speaker 1: so they can build that bomb with the kids. And
Speaker 1: actually we were in Madison earlier this week and the
Speaker 1: first time we ever left Baltimore to not have the
Speaker 1: after school program was when we did a three day
Speaker 1: program up in up at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School up
Speaker 1: in Madison. And when we got back that that next Monday,
Speaker 1: the kids were like, oh, you guys got locked up. Huh,
Speaker 1: Like what do you mean we got locked up? You know,
Speaker 1: like they were like, I mean, why else would you
Speaker 1: guys not be here day after school program? Like you
Speaker 1: guys are here every day. So it was just like
Speaker 1: that would be the only thing that the reason they
Speaker 1: would see we weren't there, and they knew we loved
Speaker 1: them and cared about them so much that they would
Speaker 1: expect it. But consistency is the key, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: like it it helps those kids to break that Like
Speaker 1: a lot of kids have walls built up because they
Speaker 1: don't have people who are consistent, Like they may have
Speaker 1: a teacher that cared about them, you know, if teachers
Speaker 1: get burnt out. They might transfer where they go to
Speaker 1: the next grade. The next teacher might not, or they
Speaker 1: might have a mentor a mentoring program that might be
Speaker 1: around for a little while, and they might might disappear.
Speaker 1: But I mean we're with our kids, like they're kids
Speaker 1: that go from our elementary school, I mean our after
Speaker 1: school program, to our mentoring program, to a workforce develpment
Speaker 1: program and then work for us. So there's just kids
Speaker 1: that we've known pretty much their entire lives that are
Speaker 1: working for us now. And even the kids that don't
Speaker 1: work for us, some of them have worked for us
Speaker 1: and they're doing other things now. Others still stay in
Speaker 1: contact with us, so they know that we're Like even
Speaker 1: our cell phone numbers, I'm the same SOULFHO numbers since
Speaker 1: like nineteen ninety seven, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: so like they know how to find us, they know
Speaker 1: how to track us down. So it's like they know
Speaker 1: that they're going to get consistency from us, and it's important.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's important in relationships and love too. I
Speaker 1: know you mentioned love. Love is I mean we always
Speaker 1: said it's the most powerful force in the universe. And
Speaker 1: our teacher every time I hear love, I can always
Speaker 1: see him being saying like v E lov E the
Speaker 1: way he would say and he would just for us.
Speaker 1: It's a big thing of who we are is you know,
Speaker 1: seeing the light, knowing that there's that light within you,
Speaker 1: seeing it in everyone else, and then loving them because
Speaker 1: they're just you. And I think that that's something we
Speaker 1: really embody and people say to us sometimes when the
Speaker 1: three of us walk into a room or a conference,
Speaker 1: that they can feel the love like exuding from us,
Speaker 1: permeating out of our beings. And we used to say,
Speaker 1: you know, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying
Speaker 1: to make love zombies. You know that we're trying to
Speaker 1: infect all the chapter right so that they can go
Speaker 1: out and infect more people. And we can keep just
Speaker 1: spreading this love throughout the world. And the more and
Speaker 1: more love happens, the easier it is to see it,
Speaker 1: to witness it, to be engulfed by it. One phrase
Speaker 1: Uncle East always say. He's like, you know, the world
Speaker 1: is like an ocean of love, and you can you
Speaker 1: can dip your toe in it, you can take a
Speaker 1: sip of it, or you can just dive right in.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're the type that we just dive
Speaker 1: right in. I love that so much. I think we
Speaker 1: probably should end on that note. So it's such a
Speaker 1: beautiful tone, unless any any of you want to add
Speaker 1: to that. I bet, I bet, yeah, no, okay, so
Speaker 1: let's look good. Then let's end on that. And I
Speaker 1: just want to thank you all so much for coming
Speaker 1: to my podcast. I liked you guys instantly, and uh,
Speaker 1: I love you your soul and I love your way
Speaker 1: of being in this world. It's just incredible. It's it resonates.
Speaker 1: It's such a great frequency. So I just want to
Speaker 1: encourage you to keep doing the work you're doing and
Speaker 1: let me know how I can help. Yeah, man, awesome,
Speaker 1: you awesome to be here, bro, for real. It's likewise
Speaker 1: what you said right away, just you know, when we
Speaker 1: were just before setting up, just laughing and talking like
Speaker 1: this dude is super cool. We gotta hang when we
Speaker 1: are around you. We will make sure we link up
Speaker 1: and we're going to pot too. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: this episode of the Psychology Podcast. If you'd like to
Speaker 1: react in some way to something you heard, I encourage
Speaker 1: you to join in the discussion at thus Psychology podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. We're on our YouTube page, The Psychology Podcast.
Speaker 1: We also put up some videos of some episodes on
Speaker 1: our YouTube page as well, so you'll want to check
Speaker 1: that out. Thanks for being such a great supporter of
Speaker 1: the show, and tune in next time for more on
Speaker 1: the mind, brain, behavior, and creativity.