Challenging the Norms: A Journey into Yoga’s Heart | Episode 109 with Michelle Jacobi

(1) Challenging the Norms: A Journey into Yoga's Heart | Episode 109 with Michelle Jacobi - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwNRzFroo10

Transcript:
(00:02) [Music] Michelle thanks so much for being here I wanted to ask you if you could share about how you found yoga to begin with I um I'm naturally curious uh it was uh way before yoga was so mainstream as it is now um it was for hippies and healthy people and [Music] uh I was a dancer in New York um and I um a Avid philosophy student as well so I had been reading books um by George foyin particularly and what appealed to me about the yoga practice was the background the philosophy of it and um so I was coming in as a dancer who who
(01:00) mooved I was professional and um and I I wasn't there for the physical aspect I was just going to just wanted to see what happens in a yoga class and it was on the upper west side at of uh New York the Uptown integral yoga studio and physically into the class and I mean you know all walks of life in there all ages everybody you know it's like New York everybody's in the room and my first downward dog whoa you know you think you can really handle yourself physically and and I was surprised that I was challenged but more
(01:43) than that there was something that happened from the own in to every quality in that room you know the shag carpet the kind of smell of the ears of everybody in there and um and uh it was ramananda who who taught who um um taught the class not Swami ramananda um ramananda one of my first teachers and then I went home didn't really think much about it till the next day and something really clicked and I knew I had to go back and I hadn't stopped practicing since uh it was a period that um it was middle to late when you're dancing
(02:34) professionally age-wise and I was getting injured a lot for no apparent reason which you know I I thought I I didn't know why I was getting injured particularly right before in a very important um audition and I just thought I it's it's it's me inside something's going on and um and in the yoga class it invites you to look at that and that's what I did and um I was convinced that it's all everything's connected it's all connected and I I like to say to my students years later
(03:12) when I started teaching because I practiced for a number of years before I took the integral yoga TTS and um I always tell my uh my students tell my students the story too and say you know well I never really got injured after that first yoga class so you know um that's a very broad statement but you know nothing like what was happening before I was practicing so I was hooked and um and I love the integral yoga system it works you know we're all the whole canvas is connected all of our koshas and um yeah
(04:00) that's it in a you know that's a little green of bit for someone who uh doesn't know what the koshas are how would you briefly describe prous um I'm not the body not the Mind Immortal self I am that little Mantra um our physical body is as nurtured by everything that we take in um a foodwise our mental body um and intellect full body by our environment and how we digest those feelings and and and um impulses in our environment or or antagonists in our environment environment and that becomes our impulses how we digest those and
(04:49) um and then at the core is who we naturally all are all of us you know that get to come to life as a human being as um pure Bliss evenness contentedness and um and the koshes can work from outside in and it can be from inside the deep inside out it's not a one-way Street you can work you can work at it both ways and you're saying that they're they're all connected so even you know being in touch with this very core of who what I am this eternal Bliss can have an effect on the health of my physical body
(05:41) absolutely absolutely and that's yeah I feel like I got from from that from that very first class and that and that that's why maybe you were getting injured could it be yes beforehand because there wasn't this deeper connection with yourself happening yeah I felt like I was sabotaging myself MH yeah how does that work because you didn't really want to be doing that or or what what was going on you mean like on the kind of the subconscious level on a subconscious level you know uh I just kind of figured it out uh I
(06:24) kind of figured it figured out who I was um you know W without going through hundreds of thousands of dollars of psychotherapy and hours of that and I'm not being sarcastic or discounting that I feel it's very important I'm a yoga therapist now actually but in the end you know you can be guided of course we all need to be guided but in the end it's us we have to figure it out you know and you figured something out in that first yoga class or continued to figure well there something clicked and
(07:02) the click was important enough for me to continue to go back and I never stopped practicing after that and that was 9 three maybe something like that oh which would be 30 years ago yeah can you like remember the click can you feel that click like what it I'm very interested in that right like when all of a sudden Clarity emerges in life and it's just so clear oh yes yeah was the next day you know when you're little Little Voices inner voices talking to you where you just feel like you said Clarity things just felt more clear it
(07:53) also felt you know you know there's also what's nice uh uh what's wonderful about yoga and live and us coming back is community and sure there there's community in the dance world too you know and working on production and things like that but a community of people all in a room with not a defined project to work on their project is themselves and you're all working on it in this room together I never experienced that before and so you know I'm just thinking aloud right now you know maybe that was part
(08:28) of it too um and I wanted to go back to that you know and this is I fast forwarding to hear this is what I love about teaching as my students come into the room and opening the class and looking at them and and I know where they are you know because I was there and the reasons the reason why those are the ones coming into the room you know to practice in a group and you know it's it's creating a you know compliments to the teacher too I mean he created a safe place a safe space and open space and um and you know
(09:11) you you don't come back if you don't feel that and and this is what I you know I I I hold on to that this is always going to be a safe space for Anybody Everybody anything that they're going through yeah isn't it interesting that like within a space a yoga class people can have such different experiences like someone can be taking the class and then looking around and comparing themselves to others I think this often happens probably with beginners more right and oh everyone else knows what's going on
(09:54) they're doing it right I'm not doing it right um and that kind of that creates a separation but then also it can be what you're talking about where you can feel connected and together and a sense of community in the class so it's kind of fascinating it's like here's this thing a class and it can potentially mean very different things to the individuals experiencing it within absolutely absolutely so you're saying your job kind of as a teacher the way that you see it is to create a sense of safety
(10:30) maybe also non-competition would you say so that people feel more relaxed and have the ability to to have a more full experience oh absolutely absolutely and my classes are very small I can take care of you know all the levels in the room and that's you know that's it's really easy for me to do that and I I don't feel in here in particularly in this community that there's any sense of competition or anybody has to be somewhere I just think they want to be here to be and not do which is circling back to my first
(11:09) yoga class I just wanted to be and not do yeah yeah speak more about that because I'm wondering if that like can that ex expand Beyond just the mat right like is that is that what we want all the time in our lives is just to be being and not doing we do and uh I think you know this about me I I took a year off to do that I decided to give myself that uh that was 2022 last year and that was my motivation to go on my little island you know no plan no do just be what's it like to commune with nature my land my my my time markers
(12:00) um um time posts of the day were sunrise and sunset anything in the middle or before after that you know but for seven months and seven days I watched sunrise and sunset every day without an agenda No Agenda really so what did you discover how much I missed reading you weren't you weren't allowing yourself to read in the day oh absolutely absolutely oh you're saying okay you had more time for reading okay yeah oh yeah yeah yeah um uh um you know I'm sure most adults and parents like yourself you know you're like gosh I
(12:40) would just love time for me open a book and I read I I counted up the books I read in 2022 I read 45 and I read 33 on my Island and um but it wasn't you know it it wasn't wasn't a a competition with myself or a challenge it was just I just wanted to really really um see what I would pick up what was interesting to me and um you know Abby this that built seven months on that island I think it's going to feed me the rest of my life it's just I feel like I got strong yeah was really good was really good can you say more
(13:28) about that you know how did you get strong well you you don't know your resilience until you know you're faced with the tough stuff and tough stuff's been happening since and I feel like you know I have the tools universe is not going to throw anything at me that I can't handle and um where at things where I thought you know that this could cause some nervous tension I feeling more grace yeah and now you've re-engaged or should say okay you live in Paris right and you um and you own a yoga studio in Paris
(14:20) right um so you took time off and now you came back to you're back in Paris re re-engaged with this type of life and is it is it very different now your experience than the way it was before you took that time off well as you know so much life happened just before I took my time off I mean the the the timing was probably awkward but that was my window of opportunity to leave we had two years of covid so um um as having a yoga studio in that time that was really hard and my life moved to online and then when people were starting to come back
(15:05) to yoga it was you know really really reluctant songa coming back and um teaching for two years online exhausted me it did didn't like it and uh in 2022 I I I just looked at the little template of my life uh my age my mom's age uh I lost my dad during covid um my dog's age and I was like this is my window of opportunity to take a sabatical and I also teach at the at a university the University of South Florida and my colleagues you know they you know University teachers professors they all have sabatical how
(15:53) come I haven't had one you know I have to give it to myself because I'm a I'm a a teaching instructor I'm not a professor uh so and I'm older than all of them and and I thought what am I doing I've been teaching since I've been working since I was 16 years old never had a break you know I'm I'm taking it off now not because I want to retire I'm I'm going to work forever but I need to know how to take breaks and um so you know it's it's you you cross your fingers and toes and and
(16:31) hope dog family everybody's going to be okay while you take off and everybody was and my senior students you know I I I have yoga therapy students and you know I took a deep breath and said you do your practices at home every day stay healthy I will be back I didn't lose anybody so you know it was a 2022 was a perfect year for me to leave you know now um my mom needs needs more care and I'm full on for that and I just came back from a funeral in Italy I lost my mother-in-law and and my family needs me
(17:10) right now and I can do it and do you think you can do it at a higher level because of the time that you gave yourself inde do yeah I do so is in a way is it that is it possible that a sense of of being can kind of infiltrate the doing that's I wonder about right like the action and inaction and in action and action type type of thing so it's like you see yourself doing but it it's more it's more yogic right it's it's in in a relaxed accepting way right but and if you want to go back to kosha and the physical kosher if you you
(18:01) know look at our bodies as a high performance machine you know that like let's say you know because you're in car culture you know if you had an Exquisite racing car you would only put the best in that car to make it run well and then when it is running well you know you it's a combination of oh I took care of it and this is what the machine is supposed to do you know if you want to translate that metaphor to to us because you know some of us take better care of our cars and stuff than we do ourselves yeah what do you think that
(18:47) is I don't know what do you think it [Laughter] [Music] is honestly I I kind of feel that it's a cultural problem more than anything it's that um often in society it's what I've observed is that it it's very socially acceptable to be hard on yourself okay I'll give an example we we both left tennis so I'll give a tennis example um I play with this this group sometimes and everyone is just so hard on themselves right like almost no one really like celebrates much when they hit a really
(19:40) great shot you know uh but when they when they mess up it's h you know and just in the language it's very very common and acceptable to be hard self-critical on yourself and I think that that extends to you know what we feed ourselves what we put in the body um and there's there's also so there's that and then there's also you know an emphasis on the short term right like the I want I want to taste the junk food now I you know just those short-term gratifications when if I slow down step back look at
(20:28) everything I see the implications of that and then I can possibly create more of a long-term strategy uh for for my vehicle for my car you know and that's what giving ourselves breaks um does what we'll do will do for us is is the slowing down you know not everybody is into yoga but there are ways to to live consciously but at the end of the day um this culture knows how to take a break to pause um for example the school system uh all the way till till 18 years of age the the kids they're they go to school six weeks and then two weeks off
(21:29) and some other's two months off so every six weeks they have two weeks off every six weeks they have two weeks off wow now for a some parents you know it it's ideal for their families a lot of families have you know like um a family home out in the country and and maybe mom or dad you know can take turns and with the kids and you know because if you're working you know two parent working family how do you do that um when you've got a small business like this you know how do how do I structure
(22:06) that you know because just before my mother-in-law died there was a two week off period so as two weeks off uh I you know I I know that there's not going to be any income coming in and then I took a break uh so you know and all small business enterprises you know where that's the drop back that but as far as a global mental health I see it's good I see it's good yeah what's more important than that what's more important than that and long lunches you know they they start their workday a little later as opposed to us
(22:55) standards um and they work much later like like um usually at evening class starts at 7:30 where I would like to start at 600 so I could go home but they work until 7 but they take a two hour lunch that's two hours lunch and uh you know and you can have a glass of wine and they still get things done uh so okay it's not perfect but um but you have a permission to slow down here yeah yeah that's one of my favorite aspects of yoga I would say it's the opportunity to slow down right I do feel that this is extremely
(23:46) important like we talk about all the different problems in the world you know that there are and I wonder if the speed is at the center of of it that that normally the the issues are happening because I'm moving so fast and I don't give myself the time to relax and investigate what do I really want to be doing with my time even just like asking a question what do I want to be doing with my time it's like everything's in a in a mad rush you know I I mean I was totally caught in that before I found yoga I would say um
(24:28) I didn't have permission to be any other way just go go go go go there's no time to ask those deeper questions or to give yourself permission just to sit on the couch and just stare and daydream or put up or put off something till tomorrow I would never put off something till tomorrow in New York I was five job jacobe I was working every day of the week and you get it done today and and it it took even quite a few years of living here before I decided that I could I could move this until tomorrow and it'll be fine and I
(25:09) love that it's one of my favorite things to do [Laughter] now that's great I wonder if the if the emphasis is is on the future as opposed to the present in a way it's like it's in the look looking forward that um I'm being really hard on myself now I'm doing all these things maybe I don't want to be doing in order to get to a place this is what I have to do in order to get to the top of that mountain whatever it is as opposed to like yes you know I want to work towards something I enjoy the process of working
(25:48) towards something but I also know that that's an unknown and that the present moment is extremely important um therefore I W to I want to experience life now I don't want to wait right right and then you know young people could could look at me and say well you know you're older you um you did you you did the fast life when you were younger because you know that's a competitive time and and you need to do that and I honor that I get that you know I'm not going to say to somebody that's you know um that needs to get
(26:26) their game on you know ah take a t take a little break it's think it's knowing how to knowing how to step back and allowing yourself to just step back and look at the picture a little more deeply I mean that's what what I would say to my younger self as well instead of go go go go go is just breathe more breathing step back look at look at the whole picture a little more deeply yeah yeah with more clarity yeah I wonder you know if I do that you know the answer can be very different depending you know on where
(27:27) I'm at like is very individualized know someone who's maybe been very um you know lazy uh is capable a lot more they just need to start doing something you know someone else who's been go go go go they need to take that break and know hold on one second save it for tomorrow so it really it depends on the person and where you're at and what you're saying is to just wherever you're at take that moment to stop and think what do what what do I need one of my favorite things is to see myself in the third person I
(28:04) don't know if you ever do this of like you know what does Michelle need you ever do that I do yeah you find it to be effective I do I do I do yeah very much yeah give me an example of of what what does Ari need Obi um sorry yeah it's okay uh ask is Ari that just that just people get that one confused a lot um yeah I mean I think just asking the question is so powerful it's just like a very it's a shift it's from being in it to being out of it and it's a little even uncomfortable I think it becomes
(28:54) more comfortable but at the start it's uncomfortable to to see myself like what is what does AI need right I'm not used to looking at myself like that in that way um but the answer that comes like straight away in this moment is balance what he needs is balance you know needs to be out in nature and uh exercising the body and doing his Yoga practices um and he needs time with friends to be socialized Ing and he needs good food and the right amount of food and he needs meditation you know and purpose he needs some some kind
(29:39) of project personal project that he's really passionate about to work on how about you exactly all all the above and when you especially you know but all of it and when you're working on your personal project and you get in the zone and you just go go oh how did I step away from this for a while you know and that speaks to to what you said about ones that can't motivate themselves and you can get kind of into a lazy Funk and and when you step back and and and see with more clarity what you're doing or how
(30:18) you got into that funk and then get back into what your Zone was it's like life saving you know know I I just think that's so that's so that capacity for everyone is so important to be honest I think Honesty is is the the most important aspect of that can I be honest with myself like okay I'm off I'm not feeling good right now how do I get back into the zone right like I can I can be honest with myself or I can be pretending that you know nothing's wrong or that I'm doing I'm doing fine I'm doing great
(31:03) you know trying to convince myself um to is it honesty that is most important in directing ourselves you know yeah yeah yeah what's your personal project now um first thing that uh that comes to mind is uh is being a dad that is a a personal project I think in a lot of ways it was my book for a long time and that was the one where where I really saw the benefit of having a personal project I never really had something I cared about so so much but to be to be constructing crafting building something working on it day in day out and it's
(32:02) it's mine it's no one else's um I love it and uh and I have this new project too uh that I'm pretty lit up about it's it's very fresh it's new it's I'm even a little hesitant to talk about it uh but since you ask I'll I'll mention it I'm creating a an archives for my family where I'm interviewing individual uh members and everyone can have access to it I was actually inspired by the loss of my grandma the past year and I just wanted so much just in the way that I I put on
(32:38) a podcast that I could put on a conversation that she was having with someone where she's being asked about you know the story of her life and her life perspective and and and all of that um so I just got motivated and now I've been interviewing all my family members and creating this archives for us it's been a lot of fun oh that's the greatest gift you can give to your family and the future generations and your kids kids and their kids they're just going to so appreciate that yeah and I'm starting I'm gonna
(33:09) start to do it for other families this is this is like so it's a thing that that that yeah it's a thing I I want it to start with my family but with knowing that this is going to expand yeah oh oh wow a that's really cool that's really cool and your your book was that I looked at my list your book was the second book I read in 2022 was a number two position like I like the number two number two in 2022 yeah no I I I admire that getting that out because I'm I'm still in the oh I just love to write stage
(33:51) and I still don't know what form this is yet and what's the rush and I'm putting it off till tomorrow it's not always good um but I I really enjoy writing and I I just still don't know um if it's going to be like little essays or if it's a short story form what what I love to do when I read is just I admire all the possibilities out there then I get kind of lost in the possibilities and anyway I'm thinking out loud I should um I should be working on my project yeah I mean so often right it's
(34:33) like that thing that I don't really want to do if once I start doing it right I mean it's even often with yoga or going to the gym or meditation you know it's there's change is hard I think like out of whatever I'm doing now it's comfortable and once I'm there once you start it's like oh how could there have been any doubt you know yeah and and I all I need is the tiniest prompt and that's what I'm hoping that this this podcast and I've watched a few of your podcasts um with the others and
(35:08) that's what I feel so useful about podcasts that I'm just hoping some listener um hears a little something just a little prompt that was boom gets them to do something because uh um just before I left for Italy I got one of those prompts I was sitting at my computer and um and it came in from LinkedIn and I was like oh and all I wanted to do was sit there and write and this whole piece was like in my head you know from start to finish and um you know it'll be there again but prompts are great prompts are great
(35:50) yeah that's how we can it's like the universe talking to us it can be through other people or whatever exactly exactly I want to ask you about you know your experience living in different countries um and what prompted you to you know move out of the US to to begin with and what you've learned about you know similarities of people in different cultures and differences it it really wasn't that a courageous step for me because um my mom is German I was born in Germany and we immigrated together to
(36:34) the US when I was 2 my dad was a um in the Navy so even in the young young family life we would go back and forth a lot to Europe um I actually spoke German before I spoke English but I was raised mostly in the US and then we were for a while in Germany and a while in the south of France uh so I hit um there's an interesting age and I I interview other 20-some about this age too something happens at age 26 really want to figure out what that is but everybody I've interviewed they just do this big life shift at
(37:16) around age 26 and it hit me then that I really want to know more about my birth culture and I talked to my mom about it and she said she would she would help support me um and she came over to Germany with me I got a home and then I was on my own and I uh it took a little while I did a lot of teaching as was a dancer and um what prompted me to leave New York was um I I that was probably about the first bit where yoga would have been really helpful for me I the only thing I would ever change about my life is that
(38:02) I wish I would have gone into my first yoga class sooner definitely um but I was having a tough time after dancing with a couple companies to continue to find work as a dancer I didn't know if I should be doing this anymore and I went to Germany and then I got a contract with a really good theater there and when you dance and at at back then um um in Europe you are well it's still to this day um dancers are a very highly regarded respected profession you know it's your your culture is important here and I had a
(38:44) really good contract I had paid vacation it was just like the best job I ever ever had whereas in New York you know in that period too you know you tell someone you're a dancer first responses they wonder what kind wink wink nod nod and things like that you know it's just it's just this divorce of of an awareness uh culture culture awareness cultural awareness um and two years in Germany was enough for me and I really wanted to be back in New York for a multitude of reasons and um but I found my German
(39:26) resum then really helped me back in New York and that's when I moved into musical theater and I choreographed shows and and I worked on Off Broadway quite a bit never got to Broadway though but that's fine I was a working choreographer and that was important for me and that lasted um then then about the period where I discovered yoga I got very strong too and I danced in one more company before I did a little swan song and um during the swans song period I felt like I wanted to go back to Europe so this time I was going to try
(40:05) France and I'm still here nice so what do you think about just culture in general similarities and differences oh we need the world needs artists period full stuff you know that's that saves us that's our Humanity you know in all in paint Music Theater dance you know H that's where my heart is and um you know we need art if I could just get that over to the difficult pockets of the world right now and and just open hearts that way you know that's that's what I like to send out you know do you think that everyone
(41:03) has an artist inside of them a creative Spirit yes absolutely absolutely and that it's wise to dive into what that is feeds your [Music] soul and then so certain cultures maybe promote that certain cultures certain families right probably promote that more than others right some look at that as a a waste of time not practical others look at it like it's the most important thing there is well um um you can find an art like you know for example in medicine and surgeries you know families would want their children to take a more you know a
(41:53) a very upper White Collar approach to to to um making sure their their future is secure um there's a way to bring art into anything and I feel like most creative successful lawyers um use art um when I oh this was another interesting memory before my teacher training in in New York um I wanted to go back to school and I was juggling between um back to school for medicine to go to Med medical school or go back and get a master's in arts but anyway I really wanted to go back to school I had a number of doctor and friends in the
(42:43) medical profession and they said Michelle we all want to do what you're doing don't go to medical school yeah this I I I'll I'll never forget that and um I applied master's program in Iowa and then while I was waiting to hear the response it was the third time that iyi asked me to do the teacher training because every year they would ask me and I would say no yoga is what I do for me I don't want to teach it I teach enough things you know it's my this is my thing and they said you it
(43:28) becomes more your thing when you know more about it you you don't have to teach it's an immersion and they were absolutely right so I went in I got immersed I loved it and basically a couple weeks after I graduated I was teaching is I mean that's how fast it goes you know unbeknown to however you know that was going to work for me um so I I instead of doing the m Ms I came here to Paris I was teaching workshops here in in dance not in yoga yet and um and I looked at apartments and that's when I fell in
(44:13) love so yeah I wound up not going back to school until 2012 and for yoga therapy it's not a master's but I did go back to school so yeah yeah I had a similar experience when I took my first uh yoga teacher training and there's a part of me that wishes it was we could communicate and I think we're we're working on this actually but communicate um more clearly that it is imersion it it's you don't need to become a teacher necessarily afterwards you may want to become a teacher and you'll be able to
(44:53) if you want to or you might just choose to continue on with your own practice um yeah I love that you said that because that's how I felt too and I think a lot more people would take yoga teacher trainings if they just looked at it like that too like I don't need a make and I wonder about this too if we get ahead of ourselves trying to make decisions that are really for our future self instead of our present self exactly and not everybody is cut out to be a teacher but we're all cut out to be immersed in something you know fully
(45:26) presently you know to receive to get knowledge and and then I just feel like you know U um natural teachers are natural teachers you know we shouldn't put that pressure on people yeah we just called it yoga immersion I don't know yeah I thought a lot about this so we we'll keep working on it yeah when did you do your TT uh my first T was in um 2013 yeah yeah life changer right there in yoga Ville yeah no my first my first yoga home was actually Calo oh I even heard there until a few years after that yeah
(46:21) uhhuh yeah I was at kpo before yoga Villa as well but but I why iyi Uptown was my definite entry into yoga and then I was just super curious about everything and I uh yeah so integral yoga was your your entry point that's my that's why I call it my yoga home because that's my entry point if I didn't have that I I I wouldn't be here for sure I mean I've studied a lot borry go ahead yeah what do you specifically appreciate about integral yoga um wow there's just so much how it it meets you where you
(47:08) are um well for me um I think at my heart I'm a baky girl and there's such a Baki element to it and not everybody is a you know that they'll go in more through dananana you explain for someone who maybe doesn't know what Baki is What's bakti um a devotional aspect of it um I really I really uh feel um a reverence to something a higher power um you know I I I I like you know like as Nan say she always she calls it love and that's my favorite word too because other words can can just get become so
(48:03) polarized and and and integral yoga is anything but polarized it Embraces everything and at the core of it is is love and that's not a word I shy away from and I just feel um that that love connects to something that always takes care of me to put it very simply you mentioned that before kind of like being taken care of that life is not going to give you anything that you can't handle yeah being taken care of I I wonder is is this like a a discovery like that you that you've had like maybe it was always
(48:56) there but was there a part of you that might maybe doubted that or had some fear and then at some point you had an experience where you understood felt that I'm being taken care of by a higher Force yeah I think that came from reading reading and practicing yeah one of my favorite texts is babag Gita um um upanishads you know you can't you can't just go in there and read it once and go H you have to sit with it and uh yeah I would say I would say reading and practicing yeah and and oh oh and the biggy
(49:51) biggie being with being in nature being in nature you know know I'm an also an outside person you know California I miss it a lot uh nature tells you everything just go outside and pay attention it's all there animals animals teach you yeah what do you learn from animals oh my God present moment absolute absolute absolute present moment their eyes that you know it well depending on the animal you know of course my favorite is dog will always be and just the love in the eyes of a dog you know and the and the and just this awe
(50:48) of us that we just completely do not deserve yeah I said the other day I was like is there anything greater than the relationship between man and dog no yeah that and that that Joy of that present moment joy and how they know us better than we know ourselves you know they pay attention to all of the nuances the patterns the you know for example um my dog even if I wanted to or needed to skip a meditation after I got up she won't let me you know she wakes me up runs over to the meditation cushion sits sits there
(51:43) and it's like this is what we do first then it's the kitchen and then while I making the coffee she has this routine of bringing the toys because because when I do she thinks creas are hysterically funny so when I do my creas it gets her all lit up and she brings the toys so before I get the coffee done I have to do my morning Crea so I've got my meditation in I got my creas in then I can have my coffee then she but and it's it's it's you know that they that's the routine and that's their
(52:23) joy and they just ground you with that it's really sweet it's really sweet they tell you everything with their eyes when they need to go outside when they're hungry what time it is you know they teach us to pay attention yeah because they're paying attention so well that's what it's like what does it take to do that you know what what comes to me is that it takes an acceptance of what the situation is you know like they're not trying to fight against the fact that they can't speak and use language to you know to
(53:02) communicate with us instead it's just like what can I do to get the point across that I want to go out for a walk right now then they figure it out that they and they figured it out she figured out how to bat the cell phone out of my hand and I'm the yoga teacher she's the yoga teacher if it's too much here and she's been you're not paying attention to me she jumps here's my cell phone and knocks it out of my hand wow she she hates that thing she's confident huh that's amazing she just did it uh
(53:45) just home just before coming here yeah that's what we really need the dogs to start do it she should got to teach the other dogs to do that knock the cell phones out of our hands exactly and then in in the computer she'll put her you know her head between me and the screen is you know they follow our our eyes yeah know but so if I tell her okay this is my writing time I'll need to do this she'll put her head right here but her her floppy ear will cover you know this part of the keyboard so I have to
(54:18) move the ear but things like that I'm just going to treasure the rest of my life H yeah that is the treasure right there Michelle thank you so much I really appreciate this time together everything that you me too OB I'm so happy we ended on dogs yeah this was perfect huh thanks for listening if you've enjoyed this content and than others might as well please feel free to share and subscribe