Today's chat is with my mom! Last time we spoke on the podcast, we recorded the episode: My Mom on Moving Through Overwhelm, Panic, & Life Transitions. What's interesting is that we were both, on our own individual journeys, going through some tumultuous life transitions at that time. Fast forward to where we are now respectively feeling more settled; still in a place of growth and learning of course with ups and downs and good days and learning days. What's different is that we have both really doubled down on our spiritual and personal development work, we have set more boundaries in our lives, and try each and everyday to live lives that are more aligned with our core essence.
In today's episode, we discuss:
Book recommendations:
Bria Wannamaker, RP.
@betterboundariespodcast
www.briawannamaker.com
Support the show, buy COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
As always, please remember that these podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical healthcare or mental healthcare. Podcasts are available as an educational and entertainment resource and are not advice, recommendations, or suggestions. Please seek out the necessary professional services if you require assistance.
Today's chat is with my mom! Last time we spoke on the podcast, we recorded the episode: My Mom on Moving Through Overwhelm, Panic, & Life Transitions. What's interesting is that we were both, on our own individual journeys, going through some tumultuous life transitions at that time. Fast forward to where we are now respectively feeling more settled; still in a place of growth and learning of course with ups and downs and good days and learning days. What's different is that we have both really doubled down on our spiritual and personal development work, we have set more boundaries in our lives, and try each and everyday to live lives that are more aligned with our core essence.
In today's episode, we discuss:
Book recommendations:
Bria Wannamaker, RP.
@betterboundariespodcast
www.briawannamaker.com
Support the show, buy COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
As always, please remember that these podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical healthcare or mental healthcare. Podcasts are available as an educational and entertainment resource and are not advice, recommendations, or suggestions. Please seek out the necessary professional services if you require assistance.
really. Breathing in the moment and not thinking about the future or the past. So meditative in that sense
Welcome back to another episode of the Better Boundaries Podcast. Today I'm here with a very special guest. My mother and we are going to talk all things life transitions, Wellness, yoga, Ayurveda. Last time she was on the podcast, we talked about feeling overwhelmed. And just like not feeling settled in life transitions. And I've seen her come so far in the last little while and be developing so many different interests and stuff. So welcome mummy dearest, thanks for having me Okay. So yeah, tell us about the transitions you've been through within the past year, Cuz I think you've had a lot of them. And I'm sure people wanna know too, how you navigated them and coped with them. Yeah. So I actually have been contemplating myself, like writing things down in a journal because it would make for, you know, possibly a good book, some help. For other people but basically you know I retired in June and I I was so ready to retire. I really wanted to and I think after I retired after the the summer the the novelty September came and went and it was good and then I started having some health issues and some just some emotional turmoil from retirement and and. That I found it the slowing down part, having time to myself just, I mean as a teacher you go, go, go, go, go constantly and so not having that daily routine was
really challenging.
So with some health issues that I had. I saw an Ayurvedic practitioner
which opened my eyes to a whole new lifestyle routine and it was. She was a friend of my sister's and and helped heal what my health condition that I was going through
opened me up to. Yoga as well. I mean, I've always, I've always done yoga for my life. Went to yoga, stopped, went back to it, done that over the period of of my life, really my adult life. So I and I knew it in the back of my mind that it's something that I had always wanted, thought I wanted to do, was to be a yoga teacher. So. I started practicing again and I decided to enroll in yoga teacher training, so I have that coming up. I start that next month, which I'm very excited about. So I have some required reading that I've been doing, just also with retirement and having more time to myself
and studying Ayurveda. In a sense really, I feel like my life. There's many things. My life has been turned upside down. It really has. It's changed in so many ways. My
Ayurveda has opened my eyes up in many, many ways.
Spiritual, emotional, physical. And so I'm I'm just really on a new path. I'm on a new path in in life and.
I see. I know. Bria, you out. You told me when I was saying all this is, you know, at first it was difficult when I first retired. And I know you said moments. Give yourself time. It's a new chapter, right? Oh my gosh, we like I'll try and jump into something new and be like this should be fine. This this should be fine, you know, because we think that we've planned for it. We're looking forward to it. Whether it's like a new home, a new baby, a new job, a trip, retirement, whatever it is. We think like, oh, I've mentally prepared for this. Oh, you know, people in my life support this. I'm set. But. Mentally it, and not even just mentally, but I think it takes time for our body and our brain to adjust to a new way of living and new habits. And you said something important earlier, routine, new routine. And it's really cool that. Not cool, but like that you had the health issue flare up and then you said like getting into Ayurveda. Helped me to build a routine, which is so cool because like that's what you needed. Like you being a school teacher, you are in strict routine for 31 years, like that is a Monday to Friday. Strict routine, not only for yourself, but you're holding other people accountable for sticking to a routine as well. Like you literally at school have bells that ring to give you time, like a timed routine, and then you went to not having that at all. So that's not like a massive. Shift and and then also for anyone who doesn't know what Ayurveda is, can
you explain like a little bit about it? Because I heard it on a podcast once and I thought it was a type of yoga practice until you started doing it and I was like, oh, it's more than that. Well, I follow SBA Ayurvedic guidelines.
And I'd love to give a shout out to my practitioner, but I'd want to ask for her permission 1st. And she has a website and everything and it's quite amazing.
So what is it? Well, it's guided, it has guidelines, so it's
All in all, it's really balancing your body balancing. Yourself, yourself, your spiritual, emotional, physical, really through diet and through routine. So for example, going to bed, going to bed is very important.
So I go to bed before 10 asleep, try to be asleep by it before 10, usually wind down in in bed before that
up. About half hour to an hour before sunrise. I try to. Doesn't happen all the time
and there's certain things. The first thing I eat, eat when I get up in the morning, specific things. And then my diet has been completely altered. Not to say that I don't indulge. On different occasions go out for lunch with friends or my mom or my daughter or whatever have treats you know because it is about joy and if there's no joy and you know in those simple things that you do like to eat like the the you know cake or the you know whatever it is that it's your pleasure. I will try have that but I for the most when I first started it I was pretty rigid because I had the health issue and I wanted to see results and. And so I since I've become better, I I've been still pretty strict, but having more chances to indulge in and live life and have that joy with with whatever food brings me pleasure. But the food is really wholesome food, so it's no processed food cooking at certain times of the day. So having your your meals at specific times. So what I think is neat about it too is because I've seen you like allow actually more variety of foods than you have in like past years with different diets. So that's been really cool to be like instead of like restricting things like adding in different things, adding in certain spices and adding
in different grains and like you said, Whole Foods. So I think that's cool that it's more about like balancing by adding in and like meeting goals such as sleeping for X amount of hours versus
the old kind of. Western model of health now of like, I'm going to take this away from myself in order to be healthy or in order to be more pure, in order to cleanse or detox or whatever. This model is like, no, you can have, you can have the things, you can have more, just have more of the good stuff, Make sure that the good stuff, the nourishing stuff is available to yourself. So that's very cool too. Yeah. So I have breakfast. By by 9:00 o'clock breakfast, so that time period and there's reasons for this so so then from 11/11/30 till 1 is really your lunch time should be by that during that time. And then supper time is usually from 5:00 to 6:30 about that seven at the latest really and has all to do and your lunch is your biggest meal. Because your digestive fire in the afternoon is higher, right? So in the evening when you're gearing down, your body is gearing down for rest and overnight your liver has to process everything. Your body's digesting the food, right? So I won't go into too much detail because I mean I'm just learning about it and I'm not good at the whole. I mean I would have, I would want to read it to you, but anyways, people can read more about it if they. You know, need more information and I can actually send you some links with with resources and what not. But but there's reasons behind that being I know that
for the the digestive part, right when you go to bed at night, your body's working at digesting and healing your body so you need to have less food in it. So the big meal of the day is at lunch. I think that's neat too, like just based on the sleep thing and like. Sleep being restorative, like you can literally feel it in your brain when you've had a good sleep or not. And I just want to advise people too. Like. Because I know that a lot of people who have struggled with eating disorders and whatnot might still be listening to the podcast just based on subscribing from when it was the Better Bodies podcast. And so like I don't follow Ayurveda and I have like, I've got it out with you before. Like I remember I was very feisty on the phone one time when you're like. Like, I don't know. It was like late. And I was like, OK, like late at night, like 10 or something. I was like, OK, I'm going to go eat something or whatever. You're like, oh, have you not eaten yet? And I'm just like, no, because my work schedule doesn't ******* allow for me to eat at 7:00 PM right now. So if I would eat something at midnight, I will eat something at midnight. And so I think, well, I have to say I know that it's something. That is really hard and I don't, I don't like to say this because I would love if so many people could, would give it a try like Ayurveda practice and I and it's saying this, you know, I want to say it, but I don't want to say it because I evade it. You do have to have time. I mean because life gets busy. If you're working and you can eat at those times and you've got meetings, you've got work, right? I mean, I have that gift, right? I have that gift of time to be honest. I mean, I mean I still like I I do do a little bit of work on the side eye tutor. So you know, after tutoring I try to get home so I can do my have my supper at my certain time. But at the same time not to
be so rigid and stress yourself up because that's something else that we don't want to do anything in a rushed way because that can create,
see what happens. What I've learned through your bed is that
skipping meals and going to bed late, those things can overheat your liver. So I mean, I was in the before this, I was
skipping lunch last summer. Skipping lunch, You know, maybe not have very much for breakfast, maybe coffee and you know something at 10:00 o'clock and then skip lunch and eat later. So that's what I've learned, that skipping meals in the bed, the whole routine out of whack, those things can overheat your liver, which in turn part of what caused. Not necessarily saying that's the culprit, but part of what caused and. And in Western world we all have overheated livers basically based on our diet and our lifestyles and routines and so. That's just a tidbit of of the reasoning without going into too much more detail. So, but to do so so I've learned through it like not to rush, like so Oh my gosh, I I haven't eaten yet. And it's 1:00 o'clock, so it's like, oh, okay. So give yourself time. You know it's not it's it's about not rushing and not, you know, being that rigid still trying. It's interesting. Yeah. Because like there's a. There's this biology of belief that there's a number of different people who work in this area about how our beliefs affect our biology. So there is. I know Doctor Bruce Lipton has a book about it. I know Gabor Matte. In his book When the Body Says No talks about and like has some excerpts from Bruce Lipton and some other people like Doctor Joe Despenza and some other folks talk about like how our beliefs affect our actual like Physiology, biology, and even our genes and. Like our epigenetics and for what genes we signal based on what we're going through in our environment, the way we react to the stressors in our environment signal different genes to be activated. So therefore what we believe about ourselves and our ability to handle different stressors and react to different stressors or respond to them in certain ways can actually like affect how we're. Feeling and so when you say like, it's in the importance of not rushing. To me, that's what that is. Is like okay. Do I, should I be so rigid
that I have to get this meal in at. By 7:00 o'clock? Or should I just not rush? Because I know the stress of that and the belief that it's going to do something bad to my body is going to be worse and going to be harder on myself. And I was actually just talking to my therapist about this the other day and like, because I have had like pretty bad eczema on my hands and we were talking about the hand washing and like of the obsessive, like. Cleanliness that I have and like, really washing them. And then because I got the eczema, then it made me want to wash them even more because I was like, oh, I want to make sure like there's cuts on them. I want to make sure to keep it clean and like not make it worse. But then by cleaning it you're washing off your skin's natural oils and just breaking down the microbiome or, I don't know, whatever natural protector stuff your skin has. So it's like a vicious cycle. And so I told my therapist the other day, I was like, I've actually started adopting this idea of the biology of belief and that telling myself while I'm washing them, it's like, okay, once is good enough, they're they're clean enough, you can't get any cleaner. And the stress of like stressing about the germs and bacteria and what could happen that stress is actually worse on your whole entire system than them like potentially being dirty, if that makes sense. Like just stressing and worrying and panicking about it is worse than maybe the germ that is on. Yes, yes, because according to. Now you're vade my practitioner that that stress that rushing overheats your liver as well.
So I mean, I've lived my life so you know that I have like as as a educator, as you know, as a parent rushing at the door in the morning, you know, living life daily things and so. Hence, it's good to have that mindfulness now and to be aware of that now, like, oh, you know, just so down and really And and that kind of actually is a good segue into the book. Okay. Yes, let's talk with this. Let's let's shift gears. I want to hear about this. I mean, I could do a whole session on Ayurveda. No, I clearly and I love that it's like helped support you through this transition. That's The thing is like, it was kind of like you were this
like snail crab, whatever without a shell for a moment. Like out of your home, like when you lost that identity of like teaching and and having like something 40 plus hours a week. Every week. So then the Ayurveda supported you through that transition. And then so action to connection with people every day, yeah. And I've made, I've made those, I've made tried to make connections in different other activities that I've been getting out to do as well. So, you know, doing different activities with friends, seeking those opportunities like bowling and pickleball and you know. So different things.
So I've tried, you know, been doing that, which is great, that connection, that's what you were saying there about, which made me think of connection, how important that is. And also with my Ayurvedic practitioner, she has, she had it in the winter like winter workshops if you were, you know, working with her, she had little workshops. For a month and would provide you with more knowledge and information about Ayurveda in general. We do some yoga together because they are linked. If you research your Ayurveda, it's it comes from it's an Indian tradition from like tradition from India and yoga is a big part of that, right. That's where it originated. I think like the community piece is really big because.
During COVID, people were talking about, like how we were missing that. Was it third spot? Like you're supposed to have like a a home base, a work base, and then like a third kind of thing. And that's supposed to make us feel, like, really great or whatever, like having a third place to go? I don't know if like in the old days it was like you go hang out at the bar or like that was your third place or or like the ladies do their book club or whatever. But it sounds like, yeah, like you were able to find your kind of third space. And yeah, before I want to move on to your book, so tell me what you've learned so far without opening it. So basically, I guess you have. You're preparing for the yoga teacher training. This was, and this was a required reading in the book. A required reading. Sorry to interrupt you the required reading in the course before it starts next at the end of May. It's a book written and I'm sure many people have heard of tech, not Han. So he is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and it was on the required list. It's called pieces every breath and practice for our busy lives. Very easy read and
so without opening it. So the rushing around part with what you said, you know. You know, making lunch. Oh, I got to eat my lunch or make my lunch really quick here, so I, you know, eat it within that time frame. After reading this book, it made me more mindful.
So each task you do in your daily routine to really focus in the present moment, he talks about that even, like from waking up in the morning, you know, standing up and washing your face. Brushing your teeth. He talks about those mundane daily tasks and to be really mindful, you know, in that moment of, oh, I'm, it was registering, he's interesting. He said, you know, I'm a man in my 80s, I think he said he was 80. I'm brushing, brushing my teeth. I love brushing my teeth. I'm really happy when I'm just in that moment of brushing my teeth because I'm thinking how lucky I am that I have all my teeth. So finding happiness. And being present in every moment, really. So make it so going back to making lunch rather than rushing through that task. And then, you know, I've got to get this eaten by this certain time so I can go on to the next job or whatever. It's like being present and still peeling those carrots,
thought hang the and broccoli and zucchini and you know, being present in that moment and really. Breathing in the moment and not thinking about the future or the past. So meditative in that sense really that that's and he he is a a Buddhist monk
and that and that way in this book that's how he defines 11 type of meditation I guess. I mean I'm not. A Buddhist and I'm not I'm not expert on anything that not even not aggravate anything I'm talking about so I don't want I don't want anything no but just but we still wanna hear from your perspective don't so that's that's what I'm getting out of it to bring my mind back So because we do we really are doing a task and. I mean, I I shouldn't say we. This is what I do. This is what we all do. We're 100% I agree with that. We're all thinking about. So I'm trying to finish up this task. I've got to check something off my list. Oh, but gotta do this next. Oh I gotta have that ready for tomorrow. So putting all that aside really be in that moment. And he says that's really because we're all seeking happiness right. And. If we can be in that moment, rather than thinking of worrying about what we need to do next, or maybe our fears about something we're doing later, or something that happened yesterday, then we are actually achieving, in that moment, happiness. That's true. Simply brushing our teeth or peeling our carrots or whatever. In that moment, we're not thinking about anything else but that moment. And that's meditative. And that's finding happiness. That's that's what I'm getting, is what I'm reading. And so what's interesting about that is
the present moment piece is it is truly living in the unknown where anything is actually possible.
However, we are always, you know, orienting our emotions and our thoughts to either the past and ruminating over things that we're worried about might happen again, or fearful of, or orienting our thoughts and feelings to the future about what could possibly happen and things that haven't happened yet. But when we're in the present, and I guess so, we do that naturally because we have been primed for thousands and thousands and thousands of years to be on the lookout from past threats and stressors and plan for the future. You know, as as a species, our brains are primed for like those two things. And now we are at a point where there's the opportunity. To be able to thrive and the thriving happens in the present moment where the unknown is versus being fearful of the uncertainty of it. And I guess like that part of being totally present. I was like laughing the other day. I was like, haha, I sent a text to someone and I was like. Goddess funny or like something like that or the universe is always so funny. You're always like joking with me because in the morning I had a little bit of time and I didn't know what to stick in it. Like if I wanted to do in this little tiny time block if I want to put. Like stretching there, do a little workout, do a little meditation. But I ended up like having coffee and writing out my To Do List for the whole entire day. So I completely blocked out everything like right down to the minute that I was doing that day on my To Do List. And as soon as I got to work it flipped on its head and nothing on my list was could possibly be in order. Ever again for the rest of the day. Like, the whole entire, like 12 hours that I had planned out. And so I was. And like that was a waste of my time in the morning trying to plan in advance where everything was going to go and trying to not plan control,
trying to control where everything was going to go. And so I just like chuckled in that moment. I was like, haha, like, you're funny because like the God, the universe, whoever you believe in, has like told me before, like. Like, you can't control this. Like, you don't get to pick where things go. And they've said to me before, like, don't you feel better when you're in the moment? Like, doesn't this feel nice and easy and flowy and and it does. And so like, that was just like a funny little reminder inside joke where they were like, I told you, like I told you, you can't do this control every of every day. Yeah. So I totally resonate with you saying like the present is, is where it's at. Well it's, I mean it's it's something that I struggle with trying still of course. I mean it's we're going to, I mean until it becomes a habit, right. But it's the journey I'm on right now and yeah, so that's. I think I've explained yeah, you nailed it. I loved this. There's the book at the back has some. So I'll just different things like beginning to eat your food even and finishing your meal and washing dishes. Little, little, little, for example, I can read as you're drinking tea. So for example, this is something you could say. This cup of tea in my 2 hands, mindfulness held perfectly. My mind and body dwell in the very here and now. So that's something. Yeah, I like that. That's cool. That kind of reminds me of even like setting intentions before before you go to do things
or while you're doing something like. Your intention for that moment, like, yeah, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to enjoy this cup of tea and I'm going to feel it warming my two hands and or I'm going to sit for the next two minutes and like pet my dog,
whatever it is. Like that's kind of neat that really vocalizing it I think helps us so much. Yeah, like I I went out and weeded in my garden, just I had an area that I really wanted to get working on this morning. And I just did it for maybe 15 minutes. And while I was there and it was gently raining, which was helping with pulling the weeds up, and I came back in and I felt like it was really meditative for me because I was so focused on the weeds. Yes. And I was like, wow, my mind was totally on the weeding. And nothing else. And I felt, yeah, nurtured. I felt really nurtured in the nature just by doing no, I'm feeling the dirt it it was. I'm gonna have my gloves on. But just literally grounded. Yeah, it was it was very grounding. So. That's so you're so right. I'm trying to think of like, and I have done that actually in session with clients before. Like have them come up with a list of things where they feel the most content or present or happy when they're doing them. So they'll come up with a list of things that they they think just makes them happy. But then when we get down to the nitty gritty of it. It's because you're fully present in those moments and there was nothing else that could take up your body, your mind, your heart, anything like your. And I've been trying to say to myself lately, make sure that your head heart. Gut and feet are all in the exact same place at the same time because
those different pieces of us are like floating around like minds over here, the hearts over here, the guts not feeling so good. It's somewhere else and the feet are all over the place. So I try and say head, heart, gut and feet all in the one spot. And yeah, that's what I find like that. Those are the memories that we have. I was actually just thinking this morning of when like being a child, I was probably like 8 and we went to that P/E I trip and that was like such a great memory, I think because we were all very present. Like I just remember like when I was that age, there weren't tablets, like I didn't take a tablet in the car. I remember showing off my reading skills to Nan and Papa in the car and I remember like reading every sign or something when we like got there. Like know when you drive a new place and you're seeing signs you haven't seen before. Like, so I remember reading signs and I remember doing like the end of Green Gables stuff and just like being everyone being very present and like having conversations. Like I remember having conversations with you guys. And like, that to me was the important part. It wasn't like, oh, I remember we did ice cream and we went to an amusement park and we did this and this. And I got to play my tablet in the car. It was like, no, all of me was engaged. Like, head heart feet got. What's that? Connections with your family? Yeah, Wow. Huge. And then with, like, the other thing I felt with it too was like. Having the ability to like, observe and explore, like feeling safe with because it was for me, it would have been one child with three caregivers. So I felt safe enough to like. I felt like I was like observing and exploring and
looking around and stuff like that, you know, And I just don't feel like we give ourselves enough of those times these days.
And it sounds like your garden experience was one of them. Yeah, I I was fully present in that moment. When I came back in, I realized it, cuz then I started thinking about something else. And I'm like, hey, I don't think I've thought about anything else. For the last little bit I was out there and very immersed in. That's so nice. That's good. Yeah. So, you know, a little bit of that. Every day while we've got the rain this week will help my garden but also help with my mindfulness, my mindfulness and and and my my happiness. I'm creating or or that's not creating. I well, I'm happy in that moment in the garden, right? Well in that moment as I'm
a form of meditation, the meditative part in the garden, yeah. I love that. And okay. So there's one more thing I want to say. And then I want to get you to give folks some tips for going through transitions. But wait, don't think of these tips. Just, yeah, I'm going to be in the present moment. I'm not gonna think now while you're asking about the next thing. Yeah, cuz know how you get nervous? Like if you go into a a conference or a meeting and then it's like an icebreaker and they're like, yeah, I'm just gonna say their name and tell about themselves. And you can't even hear anyone else's name because you're thinking about what you're gonna say. Oh, been there many times. Lots of workshops for teachers. Yes. That's exactly it. Yeah. You're like, so you're Carol. I don't know. I didn't hear you went at the beginning and I was at the end, so I have no idea. So the what's interesting to me is how we don't always do things that are necessarily like true to who we are and true to like what our values are and stuff. And so you've always sort of been, I think, which I and I forgot about this like a little hippie, oh, naturale type of gal. But like part of me and maybe it's different parts of you, right? Maybe part of you is like this luxury kind of Martha Stewart home chick and part of you is like a hippie gal. And that's okay because we all have many different parts of us. And I always wonder too about which parts are from ego and masking and not really true to us. At our core and like, what have we moved away from that we need to come back to in order to feel whole again? Or what can we integrate? It doesn't mean you have to give up like the Martha Stewart part. So you can only be hippie or give up the hippie so you can be Martha.
Like, how do you integrate all of the parts of you so that we feel whole? And it sounds it's really cool because it sounds like you've come back to the nutritious eating, back to the yoga you said. Those are things you used to enjoy. And now in retirement things have slowed down enough that you've been able to come back. To them and that is like very cool. What's interesting for me is I have like this scrapbook that I made for a class project in Grade 7 and in it it says my favorite things are food and dancing and. How frequently do I prioritize food and dancing in my adult life? Like, and then another thing too that came to mind when I was doing meditation was when I used to sew those purses of pants from pants you need to cut. Yeah, cut off pants and made them into purses. And it's really cool. Creative, I know. And like, do I dance that much, prioritize indulging in food and like, so anything or create or do crafts? No. But those are things that I have gotten away from that and that we mask and like ego takes over and we say I should like be doing these other things, but there's also other parts of us that need to be acknowledged. So I guess do you have anything to say to help people reconnect with those lost parts of themselves?
It's it's interesting that you said that because I it's that's come up briefly for me and my thoughts about
about and I think that's all about your finding out really who you truly are, right? Like learning about yourself I guess that's what I'm really doing now more so.
I'm hesitating. Hopefully you'll you'll edit this part. I had a thought and it went away.
Yeah, so parts of you that have gone missing or forgotten or have gotten buried in the busyness. How have how can you acknowledge those parts again and find out what's true for you and not just. We're into such a society where we jump on to what so and so is doing. I think I all I can say to that really, is that I think that there's a spiritual awakening for me at this point in my life through what I went through, and I truly believe my practitioner. Had sent. There was an e-mail she sent out yesterday after our session and at the end of it she had mentioned
I hope I'm okay in saying this. I I think don't think she would mind me saying this at all. I mean just because it's something that I've resonated for me and that Ayurveda awakens your own inner wisdom and it really resonated for me because I. I've been feeling that. I've been feeling the transformation in me spiritually, emotionally, in so many different areas of my life. Like so that there's something that has
awakened that inner wisdom to about who I really am searching or or really am meant to be. To my my true self. So I don't know if you know I'm I'm trying to explain the best terms because I'm 100% don't you know I'm I'm on a like a journey, a new journey. So right it hasn't fully like sunk in yet. You understand it. But you haven't like embodied that shift yet. Well it's very interesting that you asked me to do this interview today because I was on the phone sharing and talking about this.
Exact thing last night
with my sister, who is a Buddhist nun, Bria's aunt, a Buddhist ordained Buddhist nun. And I mean obviously she's planted seeds in myself over the years.
Not that I'm I'm a Buddhist, A practicing Buddhist or anything. Or and like. But I was talking to her about this and I had that. I had this realization that my life is turned upside down at this point and that I'm seeing everything in a different light and
and on a spiritual path, I believe now
so.
I love that. I think that's so cool. I think that that is the path of growth and the path of learning and it never stops because and it's like in in a good way and each day it's like you wake up and you're like, okay, what's something new that I can practice for myself today? What's something new that I can discover? What's a new way that I can help the collective build community. It's that's the spiritual path I guess that you're you're talking about and. You know there's a lot of people out there that feel like they're lacking purpose right now. Lots of kids who want to kill themselves and they don't see purpose and they can't see the future and and so I think we have to be the examples in that of there is more than. Than just what's right in front of you, that's that old limbic system fight or flight brain that is tunnel vision. And when we're able to access the higher functioning of the brain and tap into also what's around us energetically, environmentally, spiritually disconnected this to animals in nature and and people and and space then. Yeah, we're able to, like you say, have this awakening and and find like the beauty in each day. Yeah. And something,
something in the book too that they talked about, but also talking with my sister
about like what you said about a purpose. And I mean, yes, I'm looking at. You know, seem to be focused and I don't want to come off as someone that is so hyper focused on myself. I mean that's part of it as I kind of search for who I am and where I'm going and what my purpose is in this stage of life and my spiritual awakening as I say it. But I'm learning. I mean I wish I had should have marked the spot in the book, but
I mean. Talking with my sister, really
being making that connection and with other with other people and helping others out. Being of service to them, making those connections with other people. And I guess maybe in the way the yoga can help other people and that way in my my yoga course I can help others. That's something to be mindful of,
to be aware of as part of a purpose in life, right? I mean I've I've been there in the sense as an educator but in a different way so looking. And I and I have those thoughts in my mind too about oh you know where some where some places I can volunteer at to offer whatever gifts I can in ways. I think it also has to be from a full cup though. Like I get, I get giving back and I yeah. And I know that that is also something that can fill our cup. And that's such a hard balance of not running yourself into the ground too and like also helping out in the like community and collective with something that is aligned for you. Because. And not feeling like you have to be the one who does this or goes in volunteers here because who else is gonna do it if I don't? Well, there are other people who will, you know. Yeah, that's just some. Yeah. Just adding that to is is a thought I have right in my mind. But I mean
that.
Yeah, of course you have to make sure you have a full cup. You have to
before you. Overwhelm yourself with all kinds of things. But for sure, that's. No, I love that. That's good. Thank you. Thank you for coming on. So thanks so much for having me, Bria.