...and Maybe Yoga

Episode guest rambler: Kyczy Hawk

“Stepping into the suffering: you got to feel the ‘feels’… you don’t get there without feeling your way through and I don’t think you can leapfrog over it. Some of us need help and, some of us, need extra help. So, whatever tools you need to feel the feelings to the degree you’re able to, it will help you to heal.” - Kyczy Hawk

We continue our chat around the campfire with our dear friend Kyczy Hawk and speak about inclusivity in yoga, addressing trauma and why yoga works.

Episode guest rambler: Kyczy Hawk

“The path to healing is messy. The process is universal, but the experience is personal. We each have our own individual history so that influences the process. We have our own memories, our own stories of challenges and successes. This past, this reservoir of memories and skills maps out our own individual path of healing.

Just as you may experience discomfort during physical therapy to heal from an injury or a surgery, so to, in working through fear or other emotional challenges, you have to turn into the discomfort, turn into the pain in order to heal.” … “Only when a person is grounded, feeling secure and supported, can turn into the discomfort of investigation, move through and become whole again.”

Kyczy Hawk introduces herself as a woman in recovery, author, yoga teacher, and the founder of S.O.A.R. (a program designed to assist yoga teachers in bringing the messages of yoga and recovery to treatment centers and institutions).

Episode guest rambler: Alice Liao

‘It takes a lot of time and self-reflection that includes some suffering, tears, and soul searching to get you to where you are today. It doesn’t come easy but it’s a fight we all have within. It’s about finding out what we want to fight for.’

We don’t stand in isolation, our actions inform and are informed by others around us so our learning is amplified when we consider the interconnectedness of life. In this short episode we return to complete our conversation with Alice Liao and discuss how, as lifelong learners, we can be open to reflection, learning, and growth at all times.

Episode guest rambler: Alice Liao

We need to learn that no matter what our reality is, we have a choice, to be the person you hope to be, to follow your bliss, to change your reality: it’s all a choice. Change, is a slow and gradual process, the hard work is in making those choices, we just need to learn and teach ourselves to be present in those moments: it may come down to how you choose to breathe in a moment, how you frame your attitude - every moment is a choice and when we make choices we inform Life of our intention, of our direction… then, slowly, choice by choice, breath by breath, day-in and day-out, we change our reality… then, just maybe, we return to our true self.

We’re born into the world with a lightness of being; spend some moments observing how a toddler interacts with the physical and mental space they inhabit and notice such lightness. That lightness is available to all of us but we have to unburden ourselves of all the baggage weighing us down. Through body and mind alignment we can slowly rediscover ourselves and find alignment of the self, in this way we are of service, we live our purpose and truly become a force in the world…

It’s easy to elide over the transitions. As we breathe, we focus on the inhales and the exhales, but we ignore the pause between them. In life, we mark milestones, but we gloss over the days and weeks that lead us to these pivotal moments. Through giving real awareness and intent to the transitions in life and on the yoga mat we can allow ourselves to be lead to unexpected places and deep introspection and when in real introspection, you have a body, but you are not the body. You have a mind, but you are not the mind. This body, mind and all that is unfolded before you in this liminal place are an expression of the soul, not its prison.

Amor fati, or the love of one’s fate, can sometimes feel like an overwhelming concept considering the tangled journeys our lives take. Is it that we must accept everything that comes our way and abandon our expectations, or is it our intention that really matters?

How the work on the yoga mat can help us to become less attached to expectations and discover a new appreciation for our calling, our duty, our dharma, and ultimately our life’s work.

You never thought you’d say that you missed the crowded yoga studio! Dave and Paul discuss the shared energy in a yoga studio compared to the vibe of an online class. Whether in person or virtually, there is a different quality to an experience when it’s shared. But what do we learn from developing a home practice?

Whether in the studio or at home, live or on-demand, we work to focus on breath and—if we’re lucky—find a state of flow. Can we use the same techniques in moments of difficulty off the mat?

In the summer of 2020, only a few months into the covid pandemic and lockdowns, Paul and Dave faced up to the challenge of Yoga Teacher Training, diving into an intensive course and finding themselves part of a global community transforming aspirations into inspirational experiences, and in the process, becoming close friends sharing longings for a more ethical, fair, inclusive future.

Fast forward a few months, newly qualified teachers in a world transformed by uncertainties and in so much need of healing, they decided to share their journey of becomings and the search for the intangible.

And here you join us on their journey… our journey.