Opening And The First Yoga Circle

SPEAKER_01 1:04

All right. Well, I appreciate you being here, whether you're on live with me or catching this as a replay. It has been a minute since I got into YouTube land and just felt really compelled to share again. I've been reminded of when I first started teaching yoga and the first time I led what we call the circle. And the circle is in the teacher trainings. This was in San Francisco back in 2004 or five. And my teacher at the time said, go in there and tell them a story. We used to call them mulabanda stories. And these were moments in time when you found your inner strength and were able to speak from the heart and share an intimate story of growth, perseverance, resilience, something like that. And it was done in that circle environment, and other people then got to witness your transformation, your win, or whatever it was. And at the time I didn't know what to talk about. It was like two minutes before I was supposed to go in there. And he said, Go on in there and share, share Mullabam story. So I went in there, I was about 24, 25 years old, and I sat down. I did what we do, which is we take three deep breaths, and I shared a story. It was just very present with me. I went through. And after the circle, one of the women in the group said, Thank you so much. Came to me privately. Thank you so much for sharing that. I wasn't feeling like I was in the right place. And that experience that you just shared really resonated with me. And then she shared a story about her life. So my point in telling you all of this is that in the beginning, as it is very much right now, there is this desire I think that a lot of us have to share our life's experiences and for them to have a deeper meaning and to connect with other people in this place that feels soulful. And oftentimes we're we're connecting with others, but it's not necessarily feeling like there's a deeper connection. And so all of that to say that I've I've taught in yoga teacher trainings for a really long time. And in 2020, there was a halt. As there was in a lot of our lives, this was a time when things were confusing and there was a lot of information coming out that was hard to swallow. It was hard to understand what was going on with the pandemic, with the virus. There was a lot of political unrest. And given I was the leader of a yoga,

Pandemic Curiosity And Community Backlash

SPEAKER_01 4:20

an international yoga company, I was compelled to dig deep. I was super, super curious. We were living in Mexico at the time. And so I was off-grid. I was in a different environment. I wasn't living in the States. And there was a lot that seemed concerning and just, you know, kind of like, huh, what is that about? And so as I kept digging deeper and finding little bits of what I perceived to be truth in different communities and different online groups, I started to speak out on it. I I had a few, few, many conversations with people in what they call the truth community. And my community, the yoga community at the time, really didn't what's the word? Approve. It didn't feel like they wanted to go in that direction. Whereas I felt like that was the next right move for me. Now, in retrospect, a lot happened. A lot of what we could call negative repercussions occurred from that desire to figure out what the heck was going on and to speak with people that were outside the yoga community, but were deeply invested in what I perceived at the time to be loving consciousness. And I took a big hit. I took a big hit. The yoga community decided to go in another direction. I at the time felt like that was that was okay, you know, that everything is happening for the good. And that that was just a part of the journey. That was that was the part that I was going to play. And so there's been this whole kind of five-year cycle where I've been very quiet, I've been very introspective, and digging deep into my own practice, trying to figure out, you know, it's it's interesting when there is a backlash in a relationship and it feels it feels unsettling in many ways, but there is this kind of question that pops up along the way, and it is, am I who I thought I was? When other people perceive us to be different than we perceive ourselves to be. So maybe you have good intentions, but whatever it is in the community or in the relationship, there's a question of that. And what I've learned throughout this entire experience is that am I who I think myself to be? Am I who I perceive myself to be? Is the question that's really, really important. It's important because we spend a lot of time defining ourselves based on what other people think about us. And it can be certainly unsettling as it was for me when others perceive you to be going in the wrong direction, or they have very strong opinions about some actions that you might be taking or words that you might be saying, and they question your innocence. And innocence is a complete idea. Now, not to say that everybody's actions are always innocent, but we've got to dig a little deeper and look to see what are people's intentions and to trust them based on their intentions. Now, if their intention is loving consciousness in the world to be the best version of themselves that they can be, then there really isn't much up for discussion. And what I find so compelling about what's happening, I see now in one of the communities that I was involved in is that we have such a responsibility to listen to our own internal guidance system. And I think what happens is that we set that aside way too often. We set it aside because we feel like someone else is more experienced, or someone else maybe is more passionate about something, or more, you know, loud about something. And so we kind of let certain things occur where your internal guidance system is giving you feedback and you're kind of like, you're brushing it aside, you're kind of like letting it just be over there because it's too difficult. It's too difficult to stand in the truth. But what happens is that it becomes inevitable because more important than trusting other people's guidance system is trusting your own. And so during this time, it's been very interesting to revisit that for myself because a lot of healing needs to occur when we face any kind of betrayal in life. And betrayal is a part of it. Everybody has had experiences where they felt let down by somebody, they felt like a relationship was going in a certain direction, and then it shifted. And over time, we have these kind of we question ourselves, I think, a lot more than we need to, because it all comes down to the simple fact that you're innocent and that if your heart is in the right place, then whatever somebody else perceives or says about you is about them. And it's so much easier to say that than to actually follow through with that and to believe that and to have that as an anchor in your own experience. So let me see what's happening here.

Identity, Innocence, And Intentions

SPEAKER_01 10:18

So that is kind of a roundabout way of saying that life is full of opportunities for us to grow. And this circle that we're now creating in YouTube called Miraculous Mondays will start kind of slow. You know, we're just kind of getting into the shallow end again. I will over time invite people into this conversation and we can dig deep into some of the things that are on our hearts because I think that that is what is missing so much in our world. And we go online and we maybe you're a part of an extended family or community, you've got a friend group, but a lot of times those conversations, like I said in the beginning, are not really feeding the aspect of ourselves that that we need to be nurturing right now. I think there's been a lot of pain. I think there's been a lot of confusion. And at this point, it's about healing. So this circle is an opportunity to kind of come, to bring questions, to look around at some of the repetitive patterns, the repetitive experiences that we might be having in life that don't feel cozy, that feel difficult, that feel frustrating. And the fact that they continue to repeat is an indicator that something needs to shift. And we often think that that something needs to shift in the external. Somebody needs to do something, someone needs to say something, that needs to change, that political system needs to change, or you need to change houses or change jobs. But really, what I would like to invite us to consider is that what wants to shift, what needs to really shift is our perception of ourselves. The yoga practice is about self-realization. And the ultimate question that all of us are here to answer in this life has to do with self-identification. Who are you? Who are you is the ultimate question, right? Know thyself, to thine own self be true. There's been a lot of those one-liners throughout our history that remind us that who we believe ourselves to be is so important. And that is really our ultimate goal here in this life. And so, in the Itz Yoga system that I've been practicing and teaching for the last 20 years speaks about the inner teacher and the inner critic. And the inner teacher speaks to us in a voice that is kind and loving. And the inner critic, as you can imagine, speaks to us in the opposite way. It's the one that says you're never doing good enough. Or it's the voice in our heads that tells us to do something, to say something, to go in a certain direction, and then gives us a guilt trip around doing that. So, what I'd like to do is to offer the space for us to dig a little deeper and to decide in a very conscious way which version of ourselves we want to embody. And it's not to say that that's easy, that we're not going to kind of fall into egoic patterns or get frustrated or feel guilt or shame or all of those things. It's not to say that that's not going to happen again, but it is to say that we're a choice. And the more conscious we become, and the more that we decide that we want to be the best versions of ourselves, that we want to identify with the aspect of ourselves that is wise, that is centered, that is, in quote, the teacher, then it becomes a lot easier to move in that direction. And that's really the essence, I think, of what I would like these conversations to be about. I have talked a lot in my in my practice in my career, if you will, that only love is real. And at times I've gotten a lot of positive feedback for that, and at other times I've gotten negative feedback for that. Because only love is real is a very powerful statement. It it can be a little like, hmm, it can cause a pause. It's like, yeah, well, what about that? That's real, and that's obviously not love. And this statement brings me so much comfort, and it's really the vantage point from which I I decide every single day that I want to live my life from, that only love is real. So it begs the question: well, then what happens when I see things or I experience things, I experience things that don't feel like love? And and here's what I would like to offer to this this budding community, that our vantage point, only love is real. If that is our vantage point, then the lens with which we see anything that is not love is loving. Whatever is lacking from a relationship is what I'm unwilling to bring to it. So if I see something unloving, or if I'm experiencing something unloving, or if someone says something really negative, or if someone does something that's out of integrity, if only love is real, then whatever that that thing was is not real. It might seem real, but the idea of real, what we're really talking about here, is eternal, is lasting, is sustainable. And so there's only so far out of bounds we can actually go before we get that inclination that we need to change direction. So it's not real in that it can't last forever. If I shift my perception around it, which we call a miracle, then I see that if it's not love, then likely it is a call for love. And so often instead of giving something negative love, we give it more negativity, we give it more judgment, we give it more guilt. And so it's really an opportunity for us to up level in the way in which we relate to others, in the way in which we relate to our experiences, and the way that we relate to our processing system. If the vantage point is only love is real, then it gives me this opportunity then to process and to see what's occurring

Launching Miraculous Mondays Circle

SPEAKER_01 17:20

from a loving place, from a place of this is happening for me and not to me, from a place of curiosity, from a place of desire to learn, rather than to call something wrong and then put a lot of direction, a lot of energy in that direction. So I just kind of wanted to give that little back end to this idea that only love is real, because it gives me so much comfort and potentially anyone who would like to subscribe to that idea, even for a moment, that only love is real. It gives you an opportunity to really stand and anchor yourselves in this level of centering. Like I want to be centered. And so, what do I want to be centered in? Where do I want my feet to be? How do I want to walk through my days and nights on planet Earth? In loving consciousness or in that there's only two options, right? We're either in love or we're in fear. And so, if only love is real, then fear is the illusion. It's posing itself to be real, it wants to manifest itself, it wants to distract us, it wants to keep us from realizing our true potential. So I'm offering, let me have a quick peek here. I am offering our yoga off the mat, a course that is really powerful. There are six tools in here that really help to give clarity and direction in relationships. They help to kind of unpack some of the busyness that can occur in between our ears and our minds. A lot of times we lump all of these kind of ideas together. So we get confused about things that we want, things that we need. We get confused about our expectations, about our purpose. And so in this container, in this online course, there is these, there are these mini videos that allow us to kind of break down the differences between those things that we desire, things that we need. It helps us to up level our operating system so that we can have healthier relationships. And everything in life is a relationship. So whether it's a relationship with a human or it's a relationship with your home, it's a relationship with time, with money, with food. With your work. So clarity and direction is such an important factor. It's such an important piece to the whole puzzle. If we don't have clarity and direction, then it can feel really unsettling. And so when things occur that do not feel like love, it's difficult to anchor into that vantage point that only love is actually real anyway. So that is one of the tools that is in the yoga off the mat training. And what we're doing right now is I put a little link in the show notes here. And the first few people that join are going to get a really deep discount just for the first month so that you can get into the portal. We meet twice a month in a private space where we're going to really dig deep into your stuff, the things that are on your heart, more than this kind of container, which is a broader kind of opportunity for us to kind of dig into these spiritual themes that really allow us to live a more fun life. You know, it's not fun to be in fear. It's not fun to be in judgment. It's not fun to feel at the effect of other people's behaviors, of other people's thoughts and feelings. It is so important for us to really ground ourselves in the understanding and the self-identification that we are innocent, that our operating system, our coding, we are coded for greatness. We are intelligent beings, we were created to create. And

Only Love Is Real: Core Lens

SPEAKER_01 21:40

too often we use our creative power to miscreate, to create from fear consciousness. And we might not even realize we're doing that. Most of the time we don't, because it is subconscious patterning. So this is really why I think so many people right now have this desire to kind of learn the things in life that maybe we didn't learn, like clarifying your boundaries. What are the things that you need, you know, besides shelter, water, food? What are the things that you need from a spiritual perspective? Do you need to be fully self-expressed? Do you need open communication? Do you need time in the morning to ground yourself in the reality of love? And when we give ourselves the gift of higher education, not necessarily higher like college or university, but higher in terms of consciousness, to get a little clearer around the things that are showing up in our experience, it gives us a sense of abundance, of creation, of like you're creating from a higher place. You are literally manifesting your reality. So whatever you see in the external that you don't like, it's not going to work to go bang at the screen and to try and change it from the outside in. And I've done this, I think most of us have done this numerous times in our lives, where we want to change something in our lives. So we go and try and change the people or the circumstances, when really what's more effective is and not necessarily difficult but different, is to change our perception, to change what we are projecting onto that screen. And when we take responsibility for our life, when we take responsibility for the things that are occurring, for the relationships that are doing great, for the relationships that have fallen apart, when we look at our piece in it, our part of the puzzle, it gives us something that's so priceless. It gives us the opportunity to change it. If we are at the effect and we do not take responsibility for the things in our lives that we are unhappy with, then we pay a very high price for that. And the price is that we can't change it. Now, the second tool in yoga off the mat is also a real game changer. It's called core belief. And this is, I think it's like two or three little videos where we go through a practice or a framework from cognitive behavioral therapy that allows us to see what are the core beliefs, the core, not necessarily the effects or the behaviors that come, although we do look at those. We go a little bit deeper and look to see what are those first initial imprints that occurred from the time that we incarnated in our mother's womb till two years old. We are like sponges. So what is it that we received and how did those how did those form and how are those shaping us now in our adult lives? So we take some time to kind of go through those three core beliefs to look at different environments that those beliefs stem from. We look at the physical manifestations of carrying those beliefs over a certain amount of time into our adult life, and then we look at what are the behaviors that that happen when we're running those programs. So the best part about this tool is that it gives us awareness. Now, once we have the awareness of what is running our subconscious patterning, what are those those core beliefs that can seem kind of deep and hidden? Then we have an opportunity to recode. And so there's a bonus to this core belief tool where we actually go in and recode. So if there is this negative core belief that's running, we look at that, we say, okay, well, when you're running those programs, what does that feel like? And if you're feeling like that and thinking like that, then what are your behaviors in the world? Right? Then we choose another higher level. It's like we flip it, we take a 180-degree turn and we go, okay, well, what is actually the truth? You know, and the truth is you were created in love, you were created as an extension of loving consciousness. And so that is what you are. It might not be who you think you are, it might not be who you've become. You know, we become like these adapted personalities. We've had to, we've had to put on different shields and different personality traits so that we could manage in the world. But at a certain level, as adults, we get to decide if that's working for us and if that's how we want to continue. And again, it brings us back to choice that we are at choice and we have the power within to change the direction and change the patterns and change the way in which we're operating. Super, super powerful. Another tool, and I not to say that any of them are more important than the others, but one of the themes that we talk a lot about in Miraculous Mondays, and we talk a lot about in this work is forgiveness. Now, forgiveness is the key to happiness. Forgiveness gives us everything that we want. Forgiveness is really the purpose of all spiritual practices, and it's not forgiveness in the sense that most of us might have learned growing up or might still kind of subscribe to. Forgiveness in the sense of condoning or forgiving someone else because you know you're such a a spiritual person. It's it's not like that. Forgiveness is about soul lessons, it's about looking at the resentments, the regrets, the grievances that have occurred in relationships and looking to see again what your part in it is. When you are willing to see your part in it, then you get to change it. You get to extract what we call the soul lesson. And soul lessons are spiritual characteristics that you are on a very intimate level wanting to experience. And so the upset that we feel and the frustration that we feel or the anxiety we feel is because we're not living in our soul's purpose, we're not expressing the characteristics of our souls. So, like things, characteristics, words like strength, independence, clarity,

Fear As Illusion And Centering

SPEAKER_01 29:03

even words like being fierce, direct, having healthy boundaries, these are things that at a soulful level we've contracted to learn. And so the reason that we so often are having resentments in our lives or regret or repetitive behaviors is because we haven't learned the lesson from forgiveness. Forgiveness is to give yourself forward motion, it's to get out of the cycle of what the yogis call samsara or suffering. And essentially, forgiveness leads us to the vibration of gratitude when we learn to be grateful for the things in our lives that have caused us suffering. That is ultimate freedom. The yogis, the yoga prayer is may all beings everywhere be happy and free. And I find sometimes that a lot of adults these days really don't want that, or at least they're not aware that they want that, or they think that they just can't have that. Freedom requires a level of responsibility. The yogis call freedom moksha. What we need to get off the wheel of suffering is moksha, is freedom. And freedom comes from forgiveness, and forgiveness is simply the willingness to see things differently. Happiness is interesting too, because earlier I stated that forgiveness, forgiveness is the key to happiness. Happiness is your natural state. Happiness is this kind of bubbly, effervescent feeling that all is well. And wherever we put our focus expands. So if we are focusing on all of the hard things, on all of the upset, then we are robbing ourselves from the opportunity of having that effervescent kind of experience in life where things bubble, things occur, where miracles are occurring naturally, where synchronicities are occurring, needs are being met without you having to go chase them. They're just kind of occurring because you've aligned yourself, your you've aligned your desire to happiness and freedom. So the third tool in yoga off the mat is is really powerful. And this is all inside what we're calling the

Introducing Yoga Off The Mat Course

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Miraculous Living Club. And it's a club that has tools and practices in there for us to decode ourselves, for us to decide what's working. It's like emptying your purse, putting it all out on the table, and deciding what is it that I really want to take with me? And the stuff that I've just had in my purse for whatever, however long, am I willing to let that go? Because it all comes down to willingness. Willingness is everything. If there is a little bit of willingness in your heart to shift, to change, to see the innocence in others, that is an upgrade. It's an energetic upgrade. Your vibration will automatically shift and you will feel lighter, you will feel freer and you will feel happy. And that's such an important experience, I think. That so many, many of us set aside in this life in the name of being intelligent or in the name of doing good in the world. We set aside our own freedom and happiness and we try and fix it again on the external. If we want peace in the world, modern peace is not so much about being an activist anymore, and I've been that. It's not so much about yelling at the top of your lungs about the wrongs of the world. I've done that. Inner peace is the way. If you want peace in the world, create peace in your own inner world, in your own universe, in the relationships that you're having on a day-to-day, in every interaction you have with another human, creating and deciding that peace is your natural state of being, and that you are realigning to that because you are again as you were created to be. The fourth tool in the Yoga Off the Mat program is called inner family. And inner family is an opportunity for us to look at the masculine energy within, the feminine energy within, and the child energy within. It allows us to see how our adapted personalities have been driving our behaviors, how the adapted versions of these energies have taken a hold of our operating system. So to realign, it's basically a framework to say, okay, well, this is adapted feminine energy, sad, lethargic, depressed, and this is authentic, spirit-based, grounded feminine energy. And what does that look like? That is joyful, intuitive, loving, nurtured, etc. And we do the same for the masculine and the child energies. So it's it's kind of a fun opportunity to look at the different energies that we have within, all of us have them, but to fine-tune some of the ways that we may have been kind of like you know, surviving. You know, there's a lot of defensiveness, there can be a lot of overwhelm in this life, there can be loneliness. And all of those, if we recall that we're at choice and we're willing to take responsibility for our experiences, then we get to do the subtle work, the shifts in perception to stabilize us in our authentic nature, in our authentic feminine energy, in our authentic masculine energy, and in our authentic childlike energy. Where there's playfulness and curiosity, that's actually really healthy for us to embody and to embrace. The fifth tool is about cost, it's called cost payoff. It's a decision-making tool and it teaches us how to make decisions from a win-win standpoint. A lot of times in decision making, it's difficult to do so because we feel if if we go in one direction, we're going to lose something else. And from my experience, the universe operates in win-win. There is structure, there is light, there is dark, there, there are, you know, there's day, there's night. And it's important for us to revisit the way that we're making decisions. Are we invested in loss? Do we feel that loss is real? If only love is real, then loss is not real. It's an illusion that we are invested in. So how do we make decisions and take our perceived costs, the things that we feel like we might be missing out if we go in this direction? How do we bring that into the equation so that we can really feel that we are winning? And when we win, everybody wins. It's not I win and you lose. That's the old paradigm that we're shifting here. It's when we heal, we're not healed alone. So decision making can be, I know for myself it can be really, it used to be so much harder than it is now because I was constantly going back and forth in my mind trying to make the best decision for myself and whoever it would affect. And it kept me in this loop of projection of like, well, if this happens, then that will happen. And if that happens, then this will happen. When truth be told, we really don't know. And to be open to living in the question while doing our best to dig into the questions from a higher perspective. A lot of this work is about moving from our subconscious mind to our conscious mind, where healing can occur, and then to surrender to the subconscious mind, to the higher self, because it's just an aspect of you that hasn't fallen asleep.

Responsibility And Perception Shifts

SPEAKER_01 37:20

It's the aspect of you that is fully realized, that knows what it is, that knows that only love is real, that knows that your success in life is inevitable. We are the ones that need to realign to that superconscious aspect of self so that that intelligence can inform our day-to-day decisions, can inform our actions, can inform our conversations, and can basically direct all of the different aspects of our life. It's like we think we need to know all the answers when really what we need to do is tune into that aspect of self that already has all the answers, that can see, that has the broadest perspective, that can see all of the moving parts. And when we channel in that intelligence and we call forth that intelligence into our human experience, we literally become next level, we become invincible. There is this intrinsic aspect of knowing that is different than having knowledge. When you know, when you have wisdom, when you sit in your seat of wisdom, the yogis call that padmasana. We do all of this movement, we twist and we turn and we reach and we pull and we stretch. All designed so that we can learn how to sit comfortably in our seat of wisdom and to realign that central nervous system to that which is fully connected to loving consciousness. Super powerful. So that is the cost payoff tool, giving us some real insight on how to make decisions from a win-win perspective. And then the last tool that we offer in this program is called theater of the mind. And theater of the mind is is one of my favorites. It's saving the best for less, but it is an opportunity for us to look at what is factual and what is fiction. So, what are the facts? The facts are, you know, I'm a woman, I'm a mother, I'm a business owner, I'm a wife. These are facts. And then we look at that fact, and then we broaden, we go back into that superconscious mind that we were just speaking to, and we go, okay, what is how does that perceive this fact? Okay. And then that's like a little meditation. And then we go into the mind stuff, the conscious mind, and we go, oh, well, I think being a woman means this. These are the fictions. These are the stories that we tell ourselves. I think that being a mother means this: that I have to sacrifice myself, or I don't get to have what I want, or I can't, you know, eat the things I want, or shower when I want, or I have to wake up, or you know, it's like all of the stories that we tell ourselves. These are the fictions that we have invested our our beautiful energy into. And so theater of the mind is like watching this entire projection of your reality. And then having the discernment to see what is fact, what is fiction, and which you know, side of the coin do I do I want to invest my energy into. A lot of times, you know, it's it's so powerful in relationships and memories become compounded over time. So sometimes we can think about a relationship and go, oh, you know, and the memory of it. It's like we make up all these stories, and then this happened, and then and that happened, and then this is what that meant, and da-da-da, and this is how the mind works, right? This is how the conscious mind works. But the truth of it is if you distill it down to the fact, it's like, oh, you

Core Beliefs And Recode Practice

SPEAKER_01 41:10

know, this person said this. And that's it. The rest of it is storytelling, it's the fiction. It's like you're writing a novel. And when we have the discernment here to differentiate between fact and fiction, it really is, it's so healing. It's so healing. And not only does this tool kind of give us that discernment and that perspective of what's what, it shows us what the superconscious has in store for us. Like if I could align to the highest vision of what it is to be a woman or a business owner or a mother or whatever fact that we decide to dig into. It's quite beautiful. It's very inspiring, it's very encouraging. And you know it's superconscious and next level because there is this, I've said it before, this effervescent feeling that that arises, this feeling of, huh, I didn't see it from that perspective. And that reminds us that we are more than our thoughts, that there is an aspect of self that is all-knowing, that is is deeply connected and extended from that loving consciousness. And we have, you know, with our autonomy, a choice to make. So I'm really happy to be with you and to kind of put forward this little mini video. And I'm trusting that it was useful and helpful for you to kind of get curious again around what's in store for you and how you could approach this year from some different patterning and to kind of up-level your thinking and to uh subscribe to this idea that only love is real as a new vantage point for 2026. Wishing you all of the best, and I look forward to hearing from you guys in the comments. Feel free to reach out to me and check out the link here in the show notes for more information on the tools that I just described and ways to engage with this growing community. Much love. Bye for now.