Tara Eschenroeder: Reclaiming Childlike Wonder | Integral Yoga Podcast 121

so I wanted to start by just asking you about this weekend it's a program you know about rewilding so I'm very curious what is rewilding that's a great question and the first thing that comes to me is so often we think of the word well I'll ask you when you hear the word wild what do you think of wild mhm okay wild I mean it's I've never considered that before like wild is wild right like crazy comes to mind but not it's not crazy it's just it's free it's open um boisterous yeah nature natural yeah absolutely anything
else no it's good for now yeah yeah and all of that absolutely wild and here's the end the way that for example all of these trees outside right now are changing their clothes for the season and they're growing right before our eyes we can't see it but it's happening the way that a lightning bug lights up half of its body to communicate with the other lightning bugs and the way that a spider right like what they weave overnight and there's no instructions and all of these things they're silent right and and a lot of these
things also are slow right and they they'll go unnoticed if we don't have the courage to pause and pay attention and that's such an act of rebellion in the society that we live in to to pause and to notice and yeah and also like think of The Spider and the trees right like this is consciousness as well it's not something that we read about in a book or learn in school it's this deep knowing that lives inside of all of us right like even our breath right like I yes there's pranam practices that you know we can guide
each other through different ways of breathing but you know we we go to sleep every single night trusting that our breath is going to continue our heartbeat is another reminder right These Quiet Miracles that are seeking no attention and this too is wild right so this weekend my intention is to offer invitations through journaling through Asa through discussion through different exercises both together in community and also um I like to call it playwork to take with you um I'll be taking us into the woods as well I heard you say nature right
this incredible teacher always of what is true and what is wild um and offering different tools that people can if it resonates with them take and put in their own tool boxes to to take with them um yeah so what's the re aspect re Wilder good question good question so we're born singing we're born breathing right and I'm watching I I heard you say you have a one-year-old right and I watch my 2 and a half-year-old niece and the way that she knows right and even like these basic things like hunger or thirst right we get so
bombarded with distractions whether it is our device whether it is our to-do list whether it is plans um that and that's not always a bad thing too I want to be very clear about that so over the years there are these layers upon layers upon layers that build that not take a away from but maybe we forget right what's what's here this internal Compass this ability to know so it's not something that we seek outside of ourselves right sometimes by going outside it helps us to reconnect with with this re this remembering right
reing remembering reclaiming yeah it's it's not something that that doesn't already exist inside of us so it's tapping back into that so you do you notice for yourself that there's a process that happens where yeah it's hard to put to words really like some of what we're talking about but there's like a movement away from this natural wild knowing part of yourself connected to maybe being a child and what you notice in them so there's like a movement away from that and then maybe you bring yourself back sounds like
right or maybe many of us do this but curious like is this a a practice that you have kind of bringing yourself back yeah that's a great question and I would say absolutely right I think of playing the guitar for example you know we we want to learn a song and what do we need to do in order to learn that song Right pick up the guitar over and over again so yes this absolutely is a practice to get back in touch with what we what it is that we already know um so for example there's an exercise that I will return to every day inside of
myself um where essentially tuning into what feels like a yes to my body what feels this like open expansive feeling this warm inclusive feeling and then what feels like a know this more Contracting feeling this shrinking kind of feeling constriction um and so even playing with with this yes and this no maybe you know I can't decide what to have for dinner right so give myself a couple of different options and maybe I don't know whether I want to take a nap or go for a walk right so practice by playing also right we forget the importance of of
play and I mean you look at kids as well going back to that that childhood knowing and so much of what they learn is through play and but and yes absolutely practice every single day you know maybe that also could look like part of your how you start your day um every single day I go outside without a device for minimum 1 hour right so that is also part of this practice before I'm bombarded with screens and messaging and um responding which is a blessing in and of itself too right but from that place of remembering
from that place of being attuned to my own self and my own Center and my own knowing do you think it's all play that's such a good question H I think it could be yeah as simple as a choice right exactly I think it's easy to forget and take life maybe a little bit too seriously but yeah what if it was yeah all play right I'm curious like for you like is there anything that happens a change that happens if you like remember that or see do you ever view life like that I don't know like I'm just this character that I'm moving
about oh my gosh yes absolutely yeah I whenever I'm like in a group of people and there's kids I usually gravitate towards the kids cuz I just feel like they're so much easier to understand and let's go play I was at my neighbor's house the other day and there I think he's four years old he showed up with a hula hoopie and he was like we're going to play a game I was like okay bye you know um yeah I feel that that's another remembering too you know I haven't I haven't met many human beings that I that weren't kids at some
point right so we all we all know how to do this I mean like think back to maybe like playing make believe right whether it was we were pretending to be a yoga instructor or an astronaut or you know whatever whatever it was right we we all know how to use our imaginations and yeah and to play and yeah it life feels a little bit more fun when we approach it from that way yeah yeah I wonder if it's worth investigating how that changed right like the play was there as a child like the interest was totally just to be playing all the time and then
at some point that went away that shifted um and then now there might be interest in getting back so in order to get back maybe I need to understand what happened there to begin with yeah and I imagine that that is probably different for every single person and also want to name too that that could involve trauma for some people too so providing a very safe gentle and nurturing space to explore where that shift may have happened and why that shift may have happened and make it a safe spa or in make it a Invitational space to to explore once
again yeah you know you mentioned I think the courage to slow down right uh and I love that it's really interesting too that you combine courage with that um because I think it does take courage you know and it's almost as if um the speed I think the speed is like really important consideration um and might be actually what's between me and that freedom that wild playful Place uh and so it might be less about the actual stuff and more about I started to operate really fast so that I didn't because in a way maybe I'm afraid of reality mhm of
really seeing what's there and so the distraction Keeps Me Maybe keeps me safe or an illusion of safety from really taking the time to see what's here absolutely yes I agree 1,000% it truly takes courage to pause in the midst of a world that's begging for us to be distracted because when we pause yeah we see what's here and maybe that's uncomfortable right maybe it's really beautiful maybe it's it's the truth of what we've been ignoring for a good portion of our life and we start thinking well what if it's too late
right and and then going to use nature as an example once more is always showing us that it's right on time you know you don't see these trees like asking permission for or like which color they their leads should turn or when you know which which month nature is just going to be nature right and also speaking to the speed right looking at nature and things that happen quickly right thinking of well I'll ask you again what do you like when you think of things that happen quickly in nature what do you think of what
comes to mind first thing that came to mind was a river I mean to be honest I actually don't like to separate human from nature right there with you so humans come to mind yeahh y definitely yeah we are we are absolutely one and this is intrinsically connected right so when when Nature moves quickly like thinking of thing and humans right both that's you're already like picking up what I'm putting down so when Nature moves quickly things like Rivers rushing like Rapids or maybe lightning striking or um an eruption or a tsunami or a
hurricane right so these things that happen quickly what does it [Music] cause yeah I don't know if it's every time but damage comes to mind and sometimes it's necessary you know like sometimes wildfires for example that aren't created like by humans you know like sometimes it is necessary in order for rebuilding absolutely and there is destruction before the rebuilding process you know and then we think of things in nature that happen slowly like thinking of the trees growing outside and the farm down by the road and Fields
of wild flowers you know it takes time and these are the things that are sustained over you know I live in Appalachia and these are some of the oldest mountains on planet Earth you know and just the millions of years that it took for those Mountains to form and they are still standing You know despite everything so so yeah exactly what you're saying we are not separate from nature so what happens when we slow down right what happens when we open towards that which is asking to give us life just like the trees know how to grow
towards the sun right and then what happens when we don't give ourselves permission to ever slow down right and sometimes it's also as humans I don't know about you but some of the biggest wakeup calls have happened for me when I refused to slow down and I didn't listen to my body and maybe I landed in the hospital right like that definitely elicited a change right sometimes necessary yeah I know that you're very um passionate about meditation I think and lead a lot of guide in meditations um and it's just it's occurring to me
when we're talking about this that so much of this has to do with the mind like it's the speed is I think most of the time happening in the mind and so there's the power of meditation of you know what I do is I tell my mind you have permission to rest you know and when I lead God in meditations I often say that and say you know um you know give the Mind permission to rest or you know or the mind is working so hard all the time right so first like give the give the mind a pat on the back like good job you're working for me all the time
having opinions figuring things out you know for a few minutes you know you don't need to have an opinion about anything MH and that what's so I think what you're getting at is like something happens there there's something like when I actually do that slow down rest the mind there's something happening there maybe growth comes to mind but it's very important I think yeah absolutely and want to name I'm curious what is what is do you have a daily meditation practice M mhm what does that look like for you um well every morning I do my
pranama and then right into meditation so silent meditation with myself yeah yeah beautiful practice yeah and I feel like a lot of people who don't have an established practice like yourself they hear meditation and they think that it needs to look a certain way and be a certain amount of time and I feel that that's also something that do as humans right we forget the importance of my mom reminds me often she says little by little again and again little by little again and again right so people who might be showing up for an experience
like this weekend also maybe they have an established practice maybe they don't right and I want to make very clear that my own practice started years ago um because of a teacher well okay that's a whole another story but it started with like 30 seconds yeah literally you know and and building from there you know you don't see an acorn and then overnight it becomes an oak tree right but really I think what you're talking about is this tendency to judge the self and that can show up in meditation as much as anywhere else like I'm not
good at this I am not doing this right you know I'm not doing it for long enough like all this stuff to me that's the obstacle the Obstacle of experiencing what really my heart my being wants to experience is this taking myself this personality very seriously that that's what's getting in the way absolutely and there's a word that you said that is so impactful every time I hear it and that word was permission right when you were talking about giving your mind hey buddy you've working so hard you have permission to just take a break right
and and that makes me think too of how we as humans in this permission we're the only beings on this planet that don't give ourselves permission to be exactly what we are right we are the only beings on this planet that try to convince ourselves that we need to be something that we're not this is such a good good point that I think really deserves a lot of Investigation actually what you're saying here we're the only beings that do not give ourselves permission to essentially just be yeah we're the only beings on
this planet that try to convince ourselves to be something that we already are you know you don't see a tree trying to be a mountain right you don't don't see a rock trying to fly right you don't see a cat trying to be a hippopotamus right like or and on top of that shaming themselves and feeling guilt because they're not so I'm very interested in why this is happening for humans and yeah we were talking before we started about community and community means so much to me right like and I think we're living in community whether or not we want to
be like we just are in community I also think that there's a shadow side to community right that's connected to what we're talking about right now and it doesn't have to be this way it depends on what the community is like so the community itself can be promoting what you're talking about this remembering this knowing of I am what I am and I'm going to be what I am and how could I ever even conceive of anything different right but a community could also be you need to prove something you need to compare yourself with other
people and that is the force I think that actually allows that to happen that which is really unnatural right because we want to belong so out of this desire to belong I'm going to give up give away this experience of knowing that I don't need to prove anything to anyone yeah and that's that's a big thing to give up there's a theory that changed I mean these are big words but changed my life that I learned years ago from one of my mentors and it comes from a psychologist by the name of Robert blle have you heard of Robert blle he
has a theory of the loyal Soldier and the long black bag and essentially what what you're sharing with we will do anything within our power to belong because our hind brain is telling us if we don't we're going to get eaten by a saber-tooth tiger right so that makes so much sense and in this theory he talks about it starts I mean very young like you know even before we have memories even perhaps um and for example maybe little four-year-old Johnny is parading around the kitchen naked and caregiver says hey Johnny it's time to go to the
grocery store get in the car so caregiver goes to get in the car and just like trusts Johnny's coming to the car and looks in the backseat of the car and Johnny's sitting there naked right ready to go to the grocery store and caregiver says oh my gosh Johnny we do not leave the house naked don't ever do that again so in that moment Johnny learns never be my free wild self outside of these walls ever again and puts that in the bag right and so then fast forward to adolescence where if we're not liked by our peers we might as
well be a goner right so what do we do you know we alter our physical state we alter the way that we speak we alter the way that we present our face right and so authenticity in the bag right and just by the time we reach maybe our late 20s early 30s maybe mid-30s like we're carrying around this long black heavy laden bag that we've just filled with putting pieces and parts of ourselves in that we're hiding so that we are chosen so that we belong right because when we were cave humans if we didn't we were you know we were in pretty big trouble
um so then you start getting curious why does this feel so heavy right and and then we have a choice remember you saying this word before we we have a choice we can take a look at what we've been carrying around for so much of our lives and pieces and parts of ourselves that we've stuffed away right that are intrinsically connected with the truth of ourselves right so there might be some shame around that there might be some feeling of it's too late right but it's it's never too late right we are we are right on time
and I feel this is an importance with timing as well you know think of a uh a butterfly that is well before it's a butterfly right it's it becomes bug soup after the caterpillar goes in the crysalis and if anything or anyone were to try to break that open before the butterfly is ready it's you know it's going to be a goner right so just we as humans you know we we arrive at a point of being ready for something exactly when we're meant to and it's because of every decision that was made and every choice that was taken before that that
made us ready that got us to that point of being right on time yeah I think this last point that you're bringing up is extremely important it makes me think of acceptance right like cuz I can see this big black bag like the analogy right that I've been carrying around and how heavy it is and I can have a glimpse of the possibilities right and the and the freedom um but what you said about you know and your mom I think like a little bit for right like that that's okay you know like to start there a little bit but I I wonder if the
little bit will even happen if I don't allow it to be okay that I have this heavy bag you know if I am ashamed of this bag I've been carrying around um then I'm not going to be able to make any progress even the little bit right yeah I hear you and what I thought of when you said this big heavy bag of all these things that were at one time very much alive and have become this very heavy thing is compost right think of these things nice so alive at one point and now all of this that you experienced whether whatever it is right this is
what is going to inform the future version of you and that is the most powerful compost that's even good that's even better than acceptance that's like purpose this can be used both and it's true both yeah acceptance and purpose both exactly thank you every past version of myself that be behaved the way that I did to bring me that much closer to the truth of myself and I wonder if this ability to slow down and and be and see reality if one of the things that it might be common to see if we do this is that this situation that we're in is
pretty unbelievable it's pretty incredible that my experience is that that's objective reality it's challenging there's pain there's suffering for sure there's a lot of dark things but it is incredible and it feels appropriate for me to be grateful that I'm having this experience at all that's the message when I started the practice of really stopping slowing down and meditating I wasn't expecting it but this gratitude just came and the Gratitude itself I think is an incredible um I don't know fuel is the right word
but towards growth and allowing for like if I'm grateful for this experience that I'm having then I can work with whatever is here you know yeah absolutely and a word that comes to me when when you say that what that was a beautiful share is praise right and when we put ourselves in the way of that which brings us joy right praise and also presence right like how can we feel that sense of gratitude in the midst of everything that being a human entails right sometimes it's really fun sometimes it's really not you know like
the pendulum doesn't just swing in One Direction um but yeah that unshakable presence that comes with practices like meditation right and the gratitude that can be felt I mean even if you're having a bad day like go talk to a flower and tell it how beautiful it is and try to be in a bad mood right yeah presence and praise yeah I think you're really on it with the speed hon hly like that's so important and it but it does take courage it I mean change takes courage oh absolutely yeah to change how I'm operating
internally that takes courage because it's comfortable the speed that I'm operating at right go go go that's comfortable so to stop that what something needs to come through that's strong enough to stop that yeah yeah and that could be for Generations that it's you know been go go go go go it's not just in your lifetime you know so that's rewiring not only your own brain and your own nervous system but you know probably a lot more years than than you even know and um yeah and I I feel you personally too my Baseline energy is
pretty high so this uh yeah this practice of slowing down and of noticing and also take me back to the play when I am energetic not feeling guilty about it or like I need to quiet myself like letting myself have fun and be sparkly and yeah it's it's both of it right and that there's even there's there's a pre and another word that comes to me now is intention right so like when I am moving slowly what is my intention when I am picking up the pace what is my my intention and is this lifegiving or is this something that's just going to
taste good for a few minutes is this something that's going to support the version of myself that I desire to be does that make sense yeah of course there's always that play or there's often that play between um this is like almost a law of nature I feel like the shortterm gratification versus the long-term Health yep yeah exactly the same mentors I was talking about before gave me a check-in that also has been continues to be so helpful and it's yeah it's holding holding something and and being with it pausing with it and asking myself okay
is this lifegiving or is this seductive and not seductive in like a sexual way but like is this is just is this like a shiny Sparkle like this is just going to serve me for a second but actually take me away from how it is that I want to feel in my Baseline every day or is this something that's more lifegiving yeah that's that's going to serve me and that's going to serve what's beyond me as well yeah I've been thinking a lot about time recently and that's like I that's that play here too because the the right the
the time now can be very short right where I'm enjoying that cookie whatever it is you know but then the amount of time where maybe I'm not going to feel so good afterwards right could be longer so but then there's the power of the present moment which isn't really concerned very much about the future AB so it's almost like this relationship between my present self and My Future Self and what's what's that like like does my present self have the back of my future self yeah what is my future self going to think right now me for uhuh totally
and I love that you used cookie too like that's not necessarily going to be like a seductive thing you know maybe it's like in the past I've just mindlessly eaten cookies and I am going to savor this cookie and experience this cookie right is it going to make me feel as good eating an apple I don't know right but yeah and that takes me back to this word intention what is my intention behind eating the cookie yeah and if the intention is just to have some pleasure yeah that's okay too I think that's very lifegiving yeah
that's something that we as humans also I mean depends on the human and there are a lot of humans that don't give themselves permission to experience pleasure and so much of that is rooted in the present moment I I mean I don't know about you but whenever still every single time I drive home and I see the mountains and I mean sometimes I'm brought to tears right like the pleasure that I am overcome with and knowing this is my home right and I wouldn't experience that if I wasn't being present with what was right in front of my face
right and luckily thankfully I think being present is very pleasurable oh agreed you know in our world in the yoga world I don't know that might be overlooked sometimes right like we can be honest about that like we it's okay to have an interest in being present because it feels really good to be present right yeah AB it feels much better than to not be even when life is hard like even if you're going through something really scary right like there there's still I don't know if pleasure is the right word but maybe gratitude to be
found in those moments of presence as well yeah I think it is I'm curious what you like when I'm in meditation and I'm am really slowed down where there are no thoughts even if it's for a short period of time that that is blissful I know that that experience is blissful yeah I agreed I mean the the morning time the way that I start my days and that minimum of 1 hour outside device free is one of the most important parts of my entire day and I can be going through some really challenging life stuff and still that time outside is my
Solace it is my sanctuary and I truly believe it's because I'm fully present I'm not distracted with something in my ears or in my hand like I am here and my mind can wander and that's kind of the fun part too where's it going to go this morning right mhm yeah there's a power in that structure creating that structure for yourself too like it's not even a question yeah this is what I'm doing for an hour in the morning right yeah it's it's interesting because there's this play between kind of the spontaneous uh Treasures
found and the ongoing practice sodna structure yeah that that I have and I get like that Joy of Discovery is phenomenal to discover something new like whenever you discovered this that like I this works for me to be outside for an hour like that was discovered at some point at one day that was new and it could have just been one day but you chose to make it into something more than that yeah a word that's coming to me hearing you say that is devotion right and I feel like there is we can be disciplined and we can be devoted right and there
not one is better than the other right but when we when we're disciplined you know I think more well I'll ask you again what do you like what do you think of when you hear the word discipline what kind of energy is behind that it's funny I I really like discipline yeah same but at the same time there is some negativity that is present in that word like a harshness yeah maybe more like rigidity yeah yeah and then what about devotion what comes to you when you hear the word devotion just love connection with something higher
appreciation yeah absolutely so when we Infuse these practices with discipline and devotion right again what what is my intention behind this right the the discipline is helping us to continue to show up for these practices and why am i showing up from these PL practices right they're they're rooted in love they create this foundation for for my days so that I can show up in this way it makes me think of like a a boundary right like this is this is me creating a healthy boundary with myself this is non-negotiable time that I'm going to
take in the morning and I am going to claim this space for myself right and there's a diff difference between a wall and a boundary right like if I'm leading a retreat in the African bush I'm definitely not going to go off for an hour by myself in the morning because I want to live right so so this is this is a healthy boundary I know this is going to serve me so that I and because of that I am going to remain devoted to this to this boundary which takes discipline mhm yeah yeah yeah there's something really
comforting in that mhm right and why do we go back to these places of Stillness of awareness you know when I'm outside I I am moving right however however we tap into that presence right and and how that reconnects us with that internal Compass right bringing it back to to the wild right I don't know about you but when I'm outside in the morning and I'm not distracted with anything and there's lot bears run around my neighborhood like squirrels right like every leaf that I hear like tree branch my senses are so much more enlivened as well right
and and that is wild right this is this is how we were made David White is um I'm are you familiar yeah feeling might be um poetry is definitely a love language of mine and um and he says to to be courageous is to remain close to the way that we were [Music] made yeah I wonder what um play words have with that like to remain close to the way I was made are is there language there you know like in that deepest place I don't think there is language actually language is fun and it's great but I also want to remember that it's
engaging in it takes me a little like one step even at least from that place yeah that which is ineffable right no words it can only be felt it can only be experienced I like that you ask questions about what comes to you when you hear a certain word um because I think it's extremely important to understand that as far as I can tell each of us have a unique relationship with words and often when we communicate with each other we pretend as if that's not the case mhm right like we pretend that like your understanding of compassion is
the same as my understanding of compassion and it's not it never is right exactly the same yeah and in the language that we speak I mean there are so many others too right right so it's like just to be honest about that I think they can allow for better communication yeah agreed one th% you know uh I want to go back to something you mentioned regarding um generation right and like feeling that like maybe Tendencies ways of being have been passed down um are a part of something that's larger than simply the time of my life MH is that your
experience like that you now are in a way I kind of look at it like this sometimes like it's um it's like a relay race and uh there's a baton being passed yeah you know every generation passes the Baton onto them so right now perhaps we're the ones with the Baton and at some point we'll be giving the the Baton to someone else yeah and how do we want that to look and are we realizing also that maybe this is a baton that I don't want to pass right and going back to the the idea of of this internal wild and this internal
knowing and so these are well-worn grooves that are passed down from generation to generation and I'm also like want to say like this is my experience I don't have any I don't have all the answers right I'm not saying this is this is how it is however my experience in in being of witness to these well-worn grooves and getting that much more in touch with my own internal Compass what feels yes what feels expansive warm loving what feels no constrictive Contracting right when I am of witness to these generational habits and
patterns I have noticed how my body responds right and there have been certain situations and scenarios where I might be in a group setting with family and my body responds a certain way right maybe it is that warm expansive feeling maybe it is more that constrictive Contracting feeling and then this is information for me to is this something that I want to contribute in perpetuating or is this something that I want to contribute in evolving right and doing a new way and giving this energy a new job right and and that's a that's
not easy especially if it's Generations you know and and I'm very fortunate to come from a family that and we've we can we can have these these conversations um from open-minded acceptance It's Not Easy you know it's it definitely shakes things up however if we as humans ignore that feeling of okay this this doesn't feel right to me but I'm going to keep doing this anyways this is passing the Baton of something that doesn't feel right you know if this is something that's that's feeling really rooted and warm and expansive to
me this is passing the Baton of something that that I do want to perpetuate forward and yeah and this is also something that we get to choose and it takes a whole lot of Courage when it's something that's been going on for Generations that doesn't feel right to us anymore a lot of Courage yeah yeah does that answer your question yeah I mean a lot of courage to simply be honest with myself about what what's happening right now mhm yeah what is what is here right now because I think that awareness I believe that that
awareness of what is the curios Curiosity and then the awareness of what is happening presently that that is making progress of sorts absolutely I don't even need to figure it out more than that I I can just trust in the awareness itself yes and a word that you just said curiosity right something that I've noticed is when there is a curiosity that just will not leave me alone this is something to pay attention to and it's a going Deeper Than Words kind of thing it's like okay I still hear you here I still feel you like
where are you coming from and it's it's Deeper Than Words it it goes far beyond words but when there is an aable curiosity about something pay attention yeah and hopefully there's I mean I could say for myself think that there's I can't even help it there's an insatable curiosity about the truth right maybe we all have that I I don't know but that's fun isn't that fun coming from these beings with opinions right what is truth Yeah Yeah well yeah and on a certain level it doesn't even it doesn't matter if other
people agree with me or not you know like just to connect with what I feel is true is enough yeah that's plenty absolutely yeah yeah and to be in in a community also bringing it back to community there's are you familiar with Mark Neo in his writings yeah he says may we share the evidence of our Journeys and not our conclusions H and when we can glean Clarity on what it is our journey has been is now and continues to be and when we can share that openly from a place of not needing to please or convince anyone yeah feel
like that has a little bit something to do with truth definitely yeah there's an even an Effectiveness right of that um but going back Community again you know just I'd love to hear just to give a timetable right Helen happened what was it a month ago two months ago just about a month ago a month ago um and that's where you live you live in in Asheville right and you said I asked you what you learned about from this experience and you said Community right the power of community yes so yeah what have you learned about Community yeah and the
lessons have been so multiple and they continue to come and yes Community just continues to show up and I'm I I don't know where I'd be without my community and community in Asheville and Community Beyond as well and the way that even a literal hurricane can destroy multiple towns and I mean people who have lost everything you know they're still showing up and asking what what can I do how can I contribute how can I help you and the intrinsic good that I have seen and been reminded of with within people in Asheville and and Beyond as well
people just Desiring to help I mean and and to the point where I you know I can send links and VMO addresses and you know I'm like I pray like I you know I'm running out of of ways to to share because I mean people just the outpouring of the desire to help and to lift up and yeah just I mean even myself and my own personal experience you know when the storm hit I was alone in my little I call it my treeh house where I live and you know at first I was like I'm I'll be be fine you know like I can get through this on my own and then it
was it didn't take very long to until my one my best friend lives across the street and then my it feels weird to call them my landlords they're like surrogate parents and you know we all just became this unit and very quickly you know so this um yeah I'll be fine I can get through this on my own very very quickly changed and like no this is this is not not this is not something to do alone and um yeah so in the very microcosm of the event just the way that and as soon as as soon as we could go outside you know people just coming out
like are you okay are you okay are you okay and and um then we had the blackout you know so we couldn't call we couldn't text um for a very long time and um just the I mean hundreds of messages that came in when service came back on to you know just people wanting to help other people and it continues you know it's it's been we're about a month out and we still have a long way to go with recovery and yeah I just had a friend a dear friend messaged me today with a beautiful song that she wrote about the storm and
following a message saying that my myself and my friend want to come and and do a benefit show somewhere like where do you have any ideas you know and it's just yeah continues um and yeah Community is is also something that that we get to choose going back to choice and this entire experience has only deepened my knowing this wild knowing inside of me of why I chose those mountains and that Community to be my home and part of my family cuz yeah this community is is global as well and goodness I need it yeah have you wondered at all
about it perhaps being possible to tap into having this kind of experience with other people in community outside of an emergency situation absolutely yes yeah and I see that and I feel that every time I come here I see that and I feel that at Floyd Yoga Jam I see that and feel that every time I'm honored to lead Retreat um and I see that and I feel that in Asheville you know outside of emergency situations too every time my parents come and visit they're just like wow everyone is so nice here and so giving and just wants
to make your day better and yes so I 1,00% agree that that can happen outside of emergency situations yes thank you so much I hope this weekend is uh very fruitful for you and all the participants and I think it will be um I want to ask if people are interested in connecting you with more finding out about what you're doing um what's the best way for them to do that thank you so much for asking that question um so on the socials great abiding yoga and if you great abiding yoga great abiding yoga yes so my grandmother before we got off the phone
or on birthday cards she used to always sign with great Abiding Love so great abiding yoga that's where that came from nice and um yeah if you add A.C to that that's my website and I have a newsletter that goes out monthly so signing up for my newsletter which is on my website is is a really good way to stay in touch and up to date do you teach online or just in person I do I teach both all of the above yes I travel all over the world and um lead Retreat and I teach and uh some brave souls also call me their life coach I do uh life
coaching and both Yoga online and then I teach in Asheville as well in person and um all over the country at a handful of festivals so yeah what's it like being a life coach oh my gosh it's so much fun it's so much freaking fun like I just I cannot even believe I get to call what I get to call work my work and it requires unshakable presence you know because it's listening to the intonations of the voice it's watching the body language it's feeling for shifts of energy and oh my goodness I love it so much yeah I'm
glad you found that and you found us so grateful thank you for this conversation apprciate you