Speaker 1: Wind Down with Jana Kramer and I'mheart Radio Podcast. So
Speaker 1: excited to have doctor Chelsea Jackson Roberts on the show.
Speaker 1: She has a blog called Chelsea loves Yoga dot com,
Speaker 1: so she's been a part of the Peloton family within
Speaker 1: their yoga community for two decades. She incorporates hip hop,
Speaker 1: electronic R and B a saana. She's an expert in
Speaker 1: slow flow restorative yoga. She prides herself in creating classes
Speaker 1: that leave her students with a strong sense of belonging
Speaker 1: and accomplishment. Chelsea earned teaching credentials and later completed her MAA,
Speaker 1: followed by her PhD from the Division of Educational Studies
Speaker 1: at Emory University. Really excited to talk to her as
Speaker 1: I have been told to do yoga a time or two.
Speaker 1: Let's get her on. So I'm really excited to talk
Speaker 1: to you because whenever I go to therapy, my therapist
Speaker 1: is always like, she wants me to do yoga so bad.
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is one of the things.
Speaker 1: She's given me. Everything in my toolbox and I've done
Speaker 1: every single one of them, but yoga.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I when I was reading your breakdown, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is A. I don't know if my therapist set
Speaker 1: this up or like what she's doing right now, but
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting and I'm curious to kind of get
Speaker 1: your I obviously you're you know the Star Peloton yoga,
Speaker 1: you know instructor, and I I want to write like
Speaker 1: there's a there's every part of me that goes I
Speaker 1: want to try it. I have tried it in the
Speaker 1: past and just for me personally, and I'm not like
Speaker 1: trying to uh. I don't want to be rude or
Speaker 1: anything like that. I was just like I got bored
Speaker 1: and then I'm just like I can just because I
Speaker 1: stretch after I work out. I liked the hot yoga
Speaker 1: because I felt like at least I was burning. But
Speaker 1: when I'm doing yoga, I go I just feel like
Speaker 1: I'm wasting time and I don't have time to waste
Speaker 1: because I've got two kids, got one on the way,
Speaker 1: I'm and so I struggle with with it. But I've
Speaker 1: heard so many amazing things about yoga m hm that
Speaker 1: I'm like, I really want to try, but it's like,
Speaker 1: how do I block my well, I've got a million
Speaker 1: things I need to do. I'd rather go for a run,
Speaker 1: burn more calories or lift or something like, please tell
Speaker 1: me that my way of thinking is awful and I
Speaker 1: need to stop.
Speaker 2: Not at all, not at all, It's not awful. You
Speaker 2: do not need to stop. I think that the first
Speaker 2: part is that you're acknowledging that there's something that is
Speaker 2: that you haven't a version there. It's just like I
Speaker 2: heard everything that you just said. You said, so it
Speaker 2: feels like a waste of your time. It's like and
Speaker 2: the way that I started practicing yoga was because of
Speaker 2: hot yoga, Like that was I was a hot yoga girl,
Speaker 2: went multiple times a day like that was my jam,
Speaker 2: and it made sense to me. And then it wasn't
Speaker 2: until I started to branch out into some other classes,
Speaker 2: specifically ones that really centered a meditation, and I too
Speaker 2: thought it was the most boring things in the world,
Speaker 2: and I didn't understand why people did it, but I
Speaker 2: saw the result of it. You know, when you meet
Speaker 2: that person, they're not necessarily like this fake happy like this,
Speaker 2: like and even like even preaching like positive mindset, like
Speaker 2: no shade to that, Like, they're not even that. It's
Speaker 2: just like you can just tell that they're like really
Speaker 2: anchored and who they were and I was drawn to that,
Speaker 2: and I met people who coincidentally or maybe not coincidentally,
Speaker 2: they also practiced yoga, they also practiced meditation, and so
Speaker 2: it just made me more curious. I think about other
Speaker 2: things that do not capture my interests, like what you
Speaker 2: were saying about, like I'm gonna get bored. Like in
Speaker 2: most of the time, it is something that is a challenge,
Speaker 2: but it's only this internal challenge, Like it is challenging
Speaker 2: to be still to sit with myself, to know that
Speaker 2: I'm dedicating an hour or even thirty minutes can be
Speaker 2: critical in my day, and it's only to center and
Speaker 2: listen and to feel everything that I've been experiencing. No,
Speaker 2: I gotta go, Like I was terrified that if I
Speaker 2: took too much of a pause, if I took too
Speaker 2: long of a shavasena, I felt like I was going
Speaker 2: to go to this deep dark place and I wasn't
Speaker 2: going to be able to come back out of. Like
Speaker 2: you know, when you have experienced the people who are
Speaker 2: listening may have experienced like crying and shavasena like that
Speaker 2: is normal. That is like one of the most natural
Speaker 2: responses to facing confronting everything that our body has been holding.
Speaker 2: So imagine if that's coming out of us, now, what
Speaker 2: have we been burying inside of us? We aren't really
Speaker 2: resisting being still and listening.
Speaker 1: To Yeah, I could definitely relate to a piece that
Speaker 1: because I remember when I was going on my back
Speaker 1: into church and face journey. I used to like when
Speaker 1: they would do the worship songs, I would be fighting
Speaker 1: back tears and I remember, you know, telling my girlfriend
Speaker 1: kat I, go, why do I always I just feel
Speaker 1: like I want to crash because you're holding something back
Speaker 1: from you. You gotta release whatever that is in you.
Speaker 1: And I could see how that could relate in you know,
Speaker 1: do that pause in that silence.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that anything that again centers our body,
Speaker 2: our emotions, our experiences, our feelings. I think that anything
Speaker 2: that makes us listen to ourselves is going to tap
Speaker 2: into that part of us, that part in yoga we
Speaker 2: call it kundalini, the part of us that has lied dormant.
Speaker 2: And I always imagine this big experience like this snake
Speaker 2: was going to be I have like this explosion. It
Speaker 2: is as simple as that cry at the end of
Speaker 2: Shivasna and being honest that you've been holding a lot
Speaker 2: like as a mother, as a parent, as a person,
Speaker 2: as a human like all of that, and so same thing.
Speaker 2: That's one of the reasons why I do gospel yoga
Speaker 2: on Sundays is because not because I'm trying to convert
Speaker 2: any body to be anything that they're not or anything different,
Speaker 2: but instead that also happened to me when I first
Speaker 2: heard a gospel choir and I just cried, and I
Speaker 2: was just like, why is this happening? And so the
Speaker 2: same thing can happen with yoga. Care time is one
Speaker 2: of the traditional songs that you hear. There are music
Speaker 2: that you hear in traditional yoga and meditation spaces. I
Speaker 2: have no idea what they're saying a lot of the times,
Speaker 2: like I know what certain words are, but there's a
Speaker 2: resonance that goes beyond language, that goes beyond the barriers
Speaker 2: that actually can was disconnected, and I think music in
Speaker 2: particular is a way for us to find that commonality.
Speaker 2: And also it can be quite emotional for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting too on the meditation side, because again,
Speaker 1: you know, my therapist was always like yoga, meditation, like
Speaker 1: and goodbye. And so when I met my fiance, you know,
Speaker 1: he's he would be like I like to do like
Speaker 1: a five to ten minute meditation. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's cool. And one day he asked me to
Speaker 1: do it, and I was like, uh sure, Like okay.
Speaker 1: It was the best five minutes ever. I felt recentered,
Speaker 1: I felt balanced, I felt like I had I had
Speaker 1: more energy. And so now when he asked me, I
Speaker 1: get more excited about it, where I'm like, hey, you
Speaker 1: want to do that like five minute ten minute meditations?
Speaker 2: About started off with five minutes with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's almost like he knew that I couldn't handle thirty.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, he sounds like he's a great meditation teacher, because
Speaker 2: I think that that is the who doesn't want to meditate.
Speaker 2: I think that we are definitely in the era like
Speaker 2: the soft life, like the wanting the things to like
Speaker 2: the presentation on TikTok, like get ready with Me, it
Speaker 2: just looks so immaculate. I live for all the satirical
Speaker 2: like you know, like get ready with me after three
Speaker 2: hours of sleep, and you know it's like that. And
Speaker 2: I think that the more that people are honest with
Speaker 2: the journey that it took for them to lead up
Speaker 2: to a meditation, that may last thirty minutes even but
Speaker 2: it's not always as beautiful, like I'm not just walking
Speaker 2: floating around our space. You know, it's hard, it's there
Speaker 2: are those days that I don't want to sit down
Speaker 2: at all, and I think that, Yeah, the way that
Speaker 2: we see it portrayed is that it's just it should
Speaker 2: be easy. It's not. It's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So walk me through what would be your advice
Speaker 1: to get me started into your class's yoga mindset?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that you started off really great and
Speaker 2: strong by just getting a sneak peek into it for
Speaker 2: five minutes, just like any workout, because meditation is a workout,
Speaker 2: please believe it. I don't want to overwhelm myself, burn
Speaker 2: myself out. Go wait, train, go get on the bike,
Speaker 2: go run to the point where I'm just like I
Speaker 2: can't do this for the next ten days. And so
Speaker 2: the first thing I say is start with that five minutes.
Speaker 2: Start with a deep breath that lasts for thirty seconds,
Speaker 2: like so that you don't overwhelm yourself and tell yourself
Speaker 2: that this is too hard. Right, So that's number one.
Speaker 2: Number two is tap into the curiosity that led you
Speaker 2: to say that you wanted to try meditation in the
Speaker 2: first place, and just know that it doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be perfect, just simply showing up to say I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have my cushion, I'm gonna try my best to close
Speaker 2: my eyes. Like you're already setting your intention for it
Speaker 2: and the next time you come back, maybe it'll last
Speaker 2: a little bit longer. And for me, I just like
Speaker 2: to integrate it. I'm all about practicality, Like if it's
Speaker 2: not practical again, I'm a new mom and I'm realizing
Speaker 2: how thank you and thank you for paving the way.
Speaker 2: I know the Witch's meeting for the first time, but
Speaker 2: now that I'm here, I look at parents in general,
Speaker 2: where I'm just like, y'all were doing yoga well before
Speaker 2: you know, I even knew what yoga was. And so
Speaker 2: that's a part of the meditation to integrate it into
Speaker 2: your life in a way that's so practical that it
Speaker 2: just makes sense that, oh what I need to have
Speaker 2: this tough conversation with someone that I've been dreading having
Speaker 2: that I go to the meditation that I did the
Speaker 2: day before. Right, it's not supposed to be in isolation
Speaker 2: where it's just like, uh, I'm doing yoga. This is
Speaker 2: yoga for thirty minutes. No, the yoga begins when you
Speaker 2: step off of the mat or when you're just trying
Speaker 2: to get to the class and someone cuts you off
Speaker 2: in traffic like you wanted to make sense. And so
Speaker 2: when you think about this is a waste of my
Speaker 2: time in the thirty minutes, And I'm talking about myself
Speaker 2: because that's who I was and still am sometimes honestly
Speaker 2: to where it's like, But I know that in the
Speaker 2: long run, whatever I'm learning about myself, about my body,
Speaker 2: about my relationship to challenge to celebration, like whatever that
Speaker 2: relationship is, it's going to be all the more I'm
Speaker 2: going to be all the more aware when I encounter
Speaker 2: it out into the world.
Speaker 1: Right. I mean, I've never wanted to do yoga so much, Right,
Speaker 1: I mean I want to do it right. I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I let me go to my peloton app
Speaker 1: right now and right because now I just we all
Speaker 1: need that pause.
Speaker 2: We do yeah. And I say, for the folks who
Speaker 2: you know you asked about my class, I always want
Speaker 2: to say, what makes it unique is the music for me?
Speaker 2: And what I like people to know that I've been
Speaker 2: waiting for you, whether you are into trap yoga, whether
Speaker 2: you're into country, I've done it all metal yoga, like
Speaker 2: whatever it may be. I want you to understand that
Speaker 2: we've been waiting for you. So if you are that
Speaker 2: person who's just like, yeah, this is so boring, I
Speaker 2: try doing that to a little UZI Bert and tell
Speaker 2: me if.
Speaker 1: If you can challenge, challenge accepted, let's do it. I'm
Speaker 1: going to slide into your DMS and be like, all right, girl,
Speaker 1: you got me see you next week. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: because I could do yo goa pregnant, which is great
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of things I can't do right now.
Speaker 1: I'm not running as much and so so this would
Speaker 1: be a nice moment for myself to have me and a.
Speaker 2: Lot of folks who you know are used to those
Speaker 2: intense workouts. You can use it for a recovery day
Speaker 2: and still be mindful, like so mindful that you're listening
Speaker 2: to your body that you come back even stronger to
Speaker 2: your workout the next day, like yoga and meditation, like
Speaker 2: it makes sense, like once you get into it, and
Speaker 2: I'm not here to like again to convert anybody to
Speaker 2: doing anything they don't want to do, but for me,
Speaker 2: it has been a life, life changing tool to help
Speaker 2: me navigate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you know a lot of our listeners
Speaker 1: to deal with anxiety depression, and we talk about that
Speaker 1: a lot on the show. So I think this is
Speaker 1: something and I think that's another reason why my therapist
Speaker 1: has always pushed me, or I should say push. She's
Speaker 1: always encouraged me to try and I just haven't been
Speaker 1: open to it. But you know, now, just recognizing and
Speaker 1: seeing what meditation has done, how Okay, I need to
Speaker 1: incorporate more because this is what my body is actually needing,
Speaker 1: as opposed to me stressing out about making sure I
Speaker 1: hit my three to five miles. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: that's not what my body actually wants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And sometimes that is the hard part about
Speaker 2: doing yoga because you're just like, I don't want to
Speaker 2: hear that. I want to hear that I need to
Speaker 2: go run this marathon right now, and maybe this is
Speaker 2: the year that I need to rest. And yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2: It's a hard lesson.
Speaker 1: And that's when the emotions will come rest. Well, girl,
Speaker 1: congratulations with your new babes, and I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: check it out. I'm going to let you know because
Speaker 1: I will try it, I promise, and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to it. So thank you for coming on you. Thanks,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Bye Chelsea nye mm hmm