WEBVTT - Yoke AF 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.880 Welcome to Woke a F with me Danielle Moody. If 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.240 you've ever listened to me before, and if you have not, welcome, 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.520 then you know that I'm all about getting you woke 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.480 and keeping you woke. This week, I want to get 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.520 you yoke. What does yoke mean? Queer body positive yoga 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.680 instructor Jessamine Stanley writes all about it in her new 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.360 book Yoke, My Yoga of Self Acceptance, and she joined 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.360 me on Woke a F Daily to talk all about 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.640 it and hopefully introduce the concept to your life. You 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.640 can get early access to conversations just like this and 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.279 over a hundred more exclusive interviews by supporting me on 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.040 Patreon at patreon dot com slash woke AF. I hope 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.879 you enjoy my chat with Jessimin Stanley and find the 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:59.360 yoke in your life. How do you explain what yoke means? 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.280 What is it like to practice that love and acceptance 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.600 every day? Like? How do you start your day so 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:15.120 that you are grounded in the right space? My goodness? Well, okay, 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.119 thank you so much for happing. And what I will 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:24.319 say in response to what is yoke? Yoke is like 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:30.039 my American millennial translation of the word yoga yoga meaning 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:35.600 you mean bringing together, and yoke is that it's just 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.000 a union. It's bringing together all the different pieces of 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:44.120 yourself and whether that be good or bad or really 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:50.440 I think more specifically and more necessarily the ugly seeing 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.480 every single piece of yourself and not trying to fix 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.880 it or make it different or try to be good 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:04.000 or not trying to to categorize anything, really just saying 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.320 this is who I am, and I'm going to accept 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.120 every single piece of myself. And that is what I 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:15.120 have felt that my yoga practice, honestly has always been. 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.880 But I think that yoga, when it's talking about in 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:23.440 the mainstream, is always categorized as fitness at this point, 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.840 and whenever we talk about it, it's always like yoga 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:32.720 poses and sequences and like it's not about this connection 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.760 to the truth of yourself and really needing to accept 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.000 every single facet of yourself. And I think of yoking 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:44.160 as a moment by moment journey that is always evolving, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:50.480 and that with time just becomes more complex and more decadent, honestly, 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:56.680 but just becomes more the journey becomes more intense. And 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.360 I think that on a daily basis. There are many 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:07.120 different types of practices that I that are a part 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.120 of how I am able to show up. And honestly, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.080 my yoga practice in and of itself is really how 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.480 I'm able to show up in this world. It's how 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:23.120 I'm able to be present, especially when the going gets tough, 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:28.480 and how I'm able to deal with the constant rocking, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.960 the fact that, as Octavia says, God has changed, that 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.600 there's always change coming. Really being present to that. And 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.920 it's kind of different every day, and I'm really bad 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.120 at keeping the same schedule every single day. I have 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.280 to be able to just let my ship flow with 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.280 whatever is happening in my day on that particular day today, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:57.120 for instance, So I'm transitioning to living full time in 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.880 an RV with my partner, and so we are in 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.720 this big period of just like we're in flux in 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.480 a lot of different ways. And so this morning I 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:11.600 drove to my office in Durham from staying in a 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.120 kind of remote place in southern Virginia, and so and 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.719 so I needed to wake up really early and just 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.760 actually like plug in immediately. And a huge thing for 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.760 me with that is just being able to feel water 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.000 and feel a connection to the natural world, and that 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.599 might mean drinking water. For me today, it especially meant 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.440 bathing in water and just really feeling I was blessed 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.320 to be able to bathe outside today and so being 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.040 able to just be in nature and remember that like 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.400 this is what I am. I'm a creature of this earth. 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.040 I'm not above this earth. I am of the mud, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.800 I am of the water, the grass. That being able 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.120 to actually remember that and not just be like a 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.320 robot it would be in a box, Holliday, that feels pretty. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.200 That's not important for me today. You know. I can 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.320 tell you that so many lessons that I have learned 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.080 deeply over the course of this pandemic, but really about 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:22.880 myself has been understanding when I feel out of flow. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.239 And what has happened is that I have finally learned 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.880 like what works for me to get into alignment, which 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:35.280 has been a daily meditation practice and daily walking that 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.159 takes me out, you know, walking on the piers because 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.760 I need to be by water and be outside and 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.400 whether that is for you know, the luxury of two 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.520 hours or if it's for twenty minutes, like I need 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.520 that connection. I used to joke and tell people that 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.520 I was a plant, right, Like, if you can see 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:56.719 in the background, you see all of my plants. I 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.360 was like, I'm a plant, right, like I need light, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:04.599 and I need the water and the air. Right. That's 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.839 it's so bad, is that it's like we are plants literally, 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.760 just like how a tree grows, just like how a 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.560 flower blooms. That is the human experience and we need exactly. 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.320 They are incredible teachers, legit nothing. I always think about 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.680 my plants as being like they are showing me how 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.800 to live. They're showing me how to weather the storm, 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.640 how to get what I need when I need it, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.120 and how to keep quiet stick, stick to the ground, 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.839 keep quiet anyway, please continue. I also one of the 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.080 reasons why I had been following you and had been 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.800 introduced to you and your work also was this sense 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.800 of feeling so out of whack. Right. I came from 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.720 the school of physical fitness, where I was taught to 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:56.000 beat my body into submission, right instead of loving my body. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.560 And I've been talking about this un woke app as 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.760 we are, you know, going on this journey of what 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.200 it means to live consciously, right, not just for the 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.520 politics of rage, which is where my work stems from. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.840 But also what does it mean to be in a 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.080 state of rest and alignment? But what does it really 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.720 mean to love yourself? And for me, exercise, right, the 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.680 practice of yoga, the practice of any type of exercise, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.880 had always been about submission, submission into the pose, submission 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.720 into the work. And I want to know for you, like, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.800 when did it become apparent that it was about the breath, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.360 that it was about the flow, and that it wasn't 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.760 about the contortion, right, the contortion in our real lives, right, 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.280 like in our everyday lives being contorted as black women 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.720 into other people's boxes and images. But then also the 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.400 contorting of yourself in this practice of yoga that became 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.440 so glamorized for the complexity of the poses as opposed 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:04.520 to the simplicity of the breath. M this is a 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.640 word that you were serving for real? Like I literally, well, okay, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.760 so short answer is that not right off the back, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.280 not at all, Like I definitely did not understand my 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.800 yoga practice as being something that I was experiencing on 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.520 a spiritual level at all in the beginning. I very 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.560 much understood it as a physical practice, and I think 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.960 that that allowed me to feel as though sharing the 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.560 yoga postures and the way that I practiced them, that 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.480 that was the way that I wanted to share my 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.440 yoga practice was like, yeah, this is I like yoga. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:51.439 I like moving my body. But even after my teacher training, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:58.160 I would say that I still was not that invested 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:04.840 in the connection to the breath. But at some point, 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.280 I don't even know that it was like an exact 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:12.240 moment of clarity, but at some point I realized that 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.240 the breathing is really all that was necessary From the beginning, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:22.000 the breathing was all that mattered, and ultimately each posture 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.160 is just an invitation to breathe more it's it's just 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.320 another way to breathe. It doesn't even matter what the 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.360 posture is ultimately like, because you can be in as 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.160 long as you are alive, you are assuming a posture. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.640 So if you are breathing and you're practicing a posture, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.520 you're practicing like it's not it's all the same. And 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:48.480 so this came definitely after years of practice, and it's 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.520 something that I would say I am still awakening a 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.320 truth that I am still awakening too at to this day, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:02.360 and I think that there's so much in the way 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:07.240 that we as black women are told that we are 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.280 allowed to show up in this world. And I think 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:15.880 that we are often told that our value and our 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.880 merit only extends as far as it matters to another 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:29.760 human being. It's not about actually accepting or respecting or 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.800 even seeing yourself as as a individual light. It's all 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.679 about how you can be used by someone else. And 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.160 I have I mean, I would say that I am 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:48.880 still awakening to the ways in which I am through 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:55.520 my own practice and through what I share with others, 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:02.120 am still playing into that over and over again. And 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.160 I think that is my yoga, that is my posture, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:12.200 that is that's where the breath it is necessary, that 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.520 that is the work of this life, is to have 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.240 that experience and to grow from there. And I don't 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:23.760 think that. I think the part of acceptance is not 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.320 looking for the final destination and not looking for not 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.480 looking for a right answer, just saying this is just 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.240 what it is, and this is where I am. I 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:41.960 think that it's so weird to have a yoga practice that, honestly, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.200 I feel like the yoga that I was sold in 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.120 the beginning was very much like the white man's yoga 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:53.360 very much like this way of understanding spirituality that had 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:58.800 been co signed by white supremacy. And it's very interesting 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:05.200 how the durability of the truth of yoga that it 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:09.240 would it would be able to survive even that that 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:18.559 ultimately you are still You're still being offered an opportunity 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.480 to accept every single part of it, even when it 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.760 is shrouded in something else, even when it's been made 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.199 to look like something else, it's still the truth is 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:38.319 still there. And yeah, how do you come back the 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:45.760 commercialization of yoga, right, the commodification, the capitalist aspect of it, 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:52.480 while staying grounded in the essential purpose of it? Right 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:59.800 like you are extraordinary in one in your ability to 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.600 make something so expansive right that I feel like capitalism 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.680 and the mainstream has very much narrowed right like yoga 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.400 in a lot of ways. I think the beauty of 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:16.120 what you bring in your perspective and your ideology of 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.920 yoga is more expansive. But how do you balance that 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.679 with you know, the need to live right like, you know, 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.160 the more success you have, right, the more that you 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:34.160 also have to feed into this structure that is unbalanced 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.560 in a lot of ways. So how do you stay 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:45.000 grounded in that. I don't. I don't think it. I don't. 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.920 I don't. I try as much as I can, I 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.679 try not to combat anything. Honestly, I don't want to 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.240 combat because I don't think that. I think the commodification 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.080 of yoga is just it's false. It has nothing to 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.760 do with what yoga actually is. And and I think 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.400 that it fizzles out. It will it's a trend that 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.319 will be gone, and that we worry about it because 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.920 it's not real. I think that it is very, very 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:19.680 hard though, this line of like wanting to wanting to 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.880 make money so you can eat, and also at the 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.640 same time not wanting to be a part of some 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:33.600 fakeshit And I think that just accepting that that complicated 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.640 line is even there, and not trying to rest on 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.480 one side or the other, just accepting, like, this is 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.400 where the hard spot is. That to me is the yoga, 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.800 It is the reason for living the practice at all, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.280 and so that feels like a worthwhile expression of it, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.080 to be in acceptance of this hard thing that does 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.600 not make sense. But I think that like for me, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.680 just trying to try to find a final answer or 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:06.320 trying to corral in a one particular direction. It just 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:12.240 ends up not it doesn't create a sense of fulfillment 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:17.760 at all. But I think that it's so interesting to 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.000 me now because there was this point some years ago 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.480 where I thought about not posting on social media anymore 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.440 because I felt like, I feel like social media asks 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.920 the opposite of what yoga does. Social media says, look 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:38.760 outside yourself for answers, always show me exactly, show me 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.320 and care what other people think, and yoga is literally 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.280 the exact opposite. It is like, look within yourself only 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.440 if you can get away from other people and do 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.960 not really be Actually it's not really get away from 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:53.960 other people, but we can. I don't want to get 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:59.800 in the weeds. But I think that for me, it 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.880 ultimately comes down to the impact that it can have 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.360 on the lives of other people to see someone being 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:14.040 honest and authentic and actually living their truth and not 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:23.000 trying to share any one particular idea, being problematic, being contradictory, 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.800 like doing all of these things. It's so it's like 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:32.160 anti capitalists ultimately like to just be complicated and to 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:37.120 say that that is enough, because capitalism really is at 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:42.520 its best when we believe that we need something from 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.920 someone or something else. And so if you say, not 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.400 only do I not need anything from anyone else, but 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.160 I am complicated. I rest at the center of all 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:57.760 these different intersections that can inspire other people to accept 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.360 themselves as well. And that me feels like what the 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:06.320 world is really it's more people just being messy and 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.240 being problematic and doing saying the wrong thing and being 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.280 open about the fact that they've said the wrong thing. 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.760 Because now we're coming into this time where like now 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.800 that people are finally more comfortable using the word racism 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:25.080 and talking about it, there's this desire to like point 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.800 a finger at everybody other than yourself and be like, well, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.560 everyone else is fucking up, but like look at look 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:36.360 at and I'm like, you are doing just the same shit. 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.200 It's literally everybody else. Like you have all the same 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.680 companies just like everybody else, and being able to just 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.120 there's so much power in that, and there's so much 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:51.320 opportunity for healing. And I think that all of that 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.040 that's what yoga really is. So when we talk about 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:59.320 like the commodification and talking about like trends and honestly 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:04.200 people work shipping handstands and like being obsessed with leggings 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.600 and coconut water. All of these things are just not 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:12.560 like which I love someone literally I love, but I 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:17.240 love it. I could talk for hours about leggings. Sand 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.159 is an incredible substance on which to practice yoga, like 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.639 I feel it. But at the same time, it's like 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.359 all of that is just kind of like it's window dressing. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.760 It will, it will pass the time. But the reality 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.720 is that we have this incredible opportunity as a society 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.840 to heal, and we can do that through our individual 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.560 yoga practices, and I just I think there's a lot 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:44.119 of opportunity there. Can you talk to us about the 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:52.760 healing properties that yoga provides as intertwined with marijuana and 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.560 the understanding too. I mean, this is like a multilayered 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.160 question because I find that the more obviously, the more 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.120 places that we'd finally becomes legal and decriminalized, the more 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:11.000 I talk to black people, varied black people about you know, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.280 how they have smoked weed and how it has differed 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.320 now right then when we were younger, that it is 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.480 actually more of It's not so much an escape. It 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.640 is really about a healing and connection and a slowing down, right, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.120 And like removing ourselves from the grind and these things. 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.000 And so I do I want you to talk about 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:37.159 the spiritualness and the connectedness of your practice with marijuana, 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.800 which some find like some you know, like with anything else, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.000 will find issue with. But I believe that there is 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.399 a true there there. How did that come about for you? Yeah? 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:54.600 I mean, I definitely Okay. So the thing about yoga 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.320 and weed is that they have literally always gone together. Honestly, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.879 weed has gone with every single spiritual practice, like indigenous 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.399 spiritual practice in for time and memoriam, because human beings 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.119 use this plant to be able to cleanse from the 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:17.080 inside out so that you are balancing and regulating your 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.160 stem and you're also I think if it's like sweeping 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:26.480 out the cobwebs, it's like there's so much that happens 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:31.119 in our life that is painful and it's difficult, and 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.360 that we don't need to hang onto. And cannabis creates 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.879 a world where you don't have to you don't have 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.720 to hang onto things that are unnecessary, and it is 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.000 a deeply spiritual practice and something again that like has 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.679 literally always been used in tandem with one another. But 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.320 I did not know that when I first started practicing yoga, 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.720 or when I first started smoking weed, and like, I 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:58.800 felt a lot of shame about smoking weed, like in 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.920 I mean on a very deep level. And even now 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.920 I think that that's so much of my own advocacy. 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.840 It's coming from a place of wanting to accept from 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.280 myself that I don't need to feel shame about using cannabis. 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.800 And I think that the way that they work together 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:24.359 is that specifically, thinking about yoga, like when you're practicing, 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:29.520 when you're doing a really hard physical yoga practice, there 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.040 it is so easy to be distracted by how hard 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.960 the practice is, and cannabis makes it much easier to 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:41.760 endure the difficulty of whatever the posture is, whatever the seriences. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.040 It makes it where you can just be present, you 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.280 just get into it. It's like, yeah, this is hard 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.080 and it sucks and that's okay. And honestly, that is 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:54.399 so much of why black people have used cannabis for 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.160 so long, as to be able to just deal with 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.240 this world that we live in that does not want 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.480 us to be whole and to be fully to be free, 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:08.560 and it's an extension of that just being able to say, 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.639 you know what, this is hard and it is a lot, 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:13.840 but I can do it and I can bear it. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.720 And I think the same can be said for like 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.440 understanding the practice is something that is more than physical 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.919 when you think about your mental body and your emotional 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.679 body being able to have that same application saying like, 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:30.040 you know what, this is a lot right now. There's 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.480 a lot going on for me mentally, and it's okay. 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:36.400 There doesn't need to be less. It's okay that there's 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.320 a lot and I can hold it and I can 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:42.479 handle it. So like I had not known that, I 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.000 didn't know about the thousands of years old relationship that 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.959 yoga and we'd have. I didn't know about spirituality, and 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.280 we'd just always haven't been linked. But when I first 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:56.080 started practicing yoga, it was when I first started practicing 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.040 yoga regularly, it was around the same time that I 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:03.920 started smoking weed regularly, and I would just like always 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.200 hot box my car right before going into the studio, 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.440 and I just had so much I mean, talk about stigma. 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:12.560 I was like, I don't want up in here smell. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:18.919 I'm like everybody knows I'm walking in Like, let me 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:21.680 breathe myself real quick, like made somebody doesn't know, No 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:24.600 everybody knows, and but I got to this place of like, 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.960 I just don't care because I feel so good. It 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:32.520 just makes me feel. It makes the practice. So there's 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.320 a level of opening that can happen when you are 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.840 not clinging on to things that you don't need to 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:42.439 cling on too. And I mean maybe this is just 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.480 me as virgo rising, like always wanting to have a 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.560 list and check it twice, but like being able to 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:50.879 let go of that list and just be in the 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:55.520 present moment. Game changer, complete game changer. Yeah, I would 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.200 a great funny. I'm a Virgo rising as well. Oh 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:04.080 I would. I'm like very interesting. But no, I agree. 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:06.960 I think that there is so much to the letting go. 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:10.320 And I've been having this conversation, you know, as we 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.800 came off of Juneteenth, as we had just had you know, 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:19.560 America's you know independence, whatever that means, this practice of 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.080 understanding what it means to be free, right, like what 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:27.960 freedom actually means, and you know, and for black people 0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:31.040 in particular, Like I was talking about how our ancestors 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:37.639 in bondage created ritual understood themselves as free even while shackled. 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:40.479 And so what does it mean to like live in 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:43.760 this oppressive system, this state that doesn't want to see us, 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:46.320 that doesn't want us to be free. What does freedom 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:48.800 look like? It doesn't look like getting permission from other 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:52.600 people to exist. It looks like deciding that I'm going 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:55.399 to show up as who I am right And like 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:59.560 that's it. Literally, it means saying that I was free 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:02.679 the day out for that I am free, that that 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:06.399 is inside of me. There is a light that shines 0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:09.399 so bright. Nobody can hold that. It doesn't matter if 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:12.280 I am a physical bondage, nobody can hold that. And 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:16.879 I feel so much gratitude to our ancestors for enduring 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:19.960 and exhibiting the way that they have exactly what it 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:23.080 is to be free. That no matter what happens, no 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:26.359 matter who tries to someone can think that they hold 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:28.520 a bill of sale on your name, but they don't 0:25:28.520 --> 0:25:31.160 own you. They don't own you, they don't know anything. 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:36.240 That there is a power inside of each of us 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:41.640 that again capitalism, white supremacy, they prop off of us. 0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:44.119 Not believing this, So like that's the whole point is 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:46.919 that you do not feel this way. But there is 0:25:47.040 --> 0:25:51.879 a light that shines so bright it cannot be held, 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:55.280 It cannot be contained by anyone else, and just being 0:25:55.320 --> 0:25:59.200 able to remember that is the most important thing because 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:02.440 there's i think for everybody a moment coming in your 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:06.199 life where you feel like you are not free, like 0:26:06.359 --> 0:26:09.800 you are not like you are in chained, enslaved, that 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:14.639 you are not able to be express yourself fully, and 0:26:15.480 --> 0:26:22.720 ultimately it's the mind that is holding that. And if 0:26:22.720 --> 0:26:27.920 you can say, I know I'm free, I know I'm here, 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:30.720 i know I'm present, But it does take I mean, 0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:35.800 it's something cannabis helps dramatically. It makes it makes such 0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:38.679 a difference. And it's always very interesting to me whenever 0:26:38.760 --> 0:26:42.679 people are anti weed, when they are not comfortable talking 0:26:42.680 --> 0:26:45.439 about it, because I'm like, yeah, I can see that 0:26:45.560 --> 0:26:48.200 all of these things are related. Like if you don't 0:26:48.240 --> 0:26:53.160 feel like you're free and you don't smoke weed, that's 0:26:53.200 --> 0:26:56.880 why these things are connected to one another. So it's 0:26:56.880 --> 0:27:00.679 all okay everything. I think that it just makes the 0:27:00.960 --> 0:27:04.800 makes the advocacy more important. It makes the work of 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:09.879 each of us so much more important. Yeah, and oh yeah, 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:15.280 I'm curious what your son and moon's signs are. My 0:27:16.359 --> 0:27:21.640 son is a Scorpio and I'm a Leo. Absolutely, I 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:24.960 love that. Oh, I love that. Oh you better come grout. 0:27:25.280 --> 0:27:28.879