Nick Sanders 0:00
All right. All right, guys, today I am with Emily cloth. Emily and I met. I don't even know how many years has it been, it's been a bunch of years, a
Unknown Speaker 0:08
decade or more.
Nick Sanders 0:09
Gotta be getting close. Yeah, it's gotta be in close. So I believe we connected through Great Lakes, CrossFit. I think that's where we first met. And then we've done some physical therapy things together. So different work things together over the years. But recently, she has gotten done more with yoga, and she started an online yoga company. And so we wanted to chat a little bit more about her journey with CrossFit into into yoga, where that's taken her why she's gone that way. And some of the benefits that she's seen combining kind of the two aspects of training, so should be should be a fun episode. Emily, thanks for joining us.
Unknown Speaker 0:46
Thank you for having me.
Nick Sanders 0:48
Did I miss anything in the introduction?
Unknown Speaker 0:51
I don't think so. No, yeah. CrossFit to yoga, weird transition that's working out? Well,
Nick Sanders 0:57
it is kind of a weird transition. So give us the quick synopsis of how that how that journey took place. Like how do you go from CrossFit into wanting to do yoga?
Unknown Speaker 1:08
Yeah, so I did CrossFit for going on eight years. And I worked a job at the time that I had to work more hours, my job actually had changed. And they were asking me to work more hours, so I wasn't able to get into the gym as often. And then the gym actually closed. And that was great lakes, CrossFit. And because CrossFit was such a humongous part of my life, it was where I spent every single evening. It's where I spend my weekends I competed, I was a coach, when that kind of went away, and it was hard for me to find another gym that I connected to, I felt like very, very lost. It was kind of an identity thing that was gone. And then, you know, CrossFit, obviously, when you're working out that often at that intensity, you got a lot of endorphins and things like that, and it was just gone. And I didn't know what to do with myself. And so I did nothing. I just like froze for maybe to a year and a half even it was a long time.
Nick Sanders 2:18
I'm super, like, you know, I've done several of these podcasts now. And this idea of the gym being part of your identity as it just comes up so often. Yeah, and I think it just speaks to the community and how fitness kind of pulls people together. Because for gyms, it's different exercise styles. It's, you know, it's there's obviously benefits and advantages, disadvantages to everything, but that sense of community. It's a pretty consistent theme when I when I talk to people, it's pretty Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 2:50
that's pretty cool. Yeah, it was. Your outfit was definitely one of the loves of my life for sure.
Nick Sanders 2:57
So the other love of your life, Stefan, your husband, how did he not get you into jujitsu at that time?
Unknown Speaker 3:04
Oh, I want nothing to do with jujitsu. Nothing. He always wants me to do jujitsu with him. And it's just that No.
Nick Sanders 3:18
So yeah, I mean, for those of you that, that obviously don't know her husband, he's very big into Jiu Jitsu. And when you talk about culture and identity and kind of love for what you're doing, he exudes that when it comes to Jiu Jitsu, like, it's one of these.
Unknown Speaker 3:36
Like, he's so passionate, it's his favorite. It's absolutely his favorite thing to do. And he would love to share it with me, he would just love and I want nothing to do with being that close to people like the whole touching thing. Interesting. That's a hard no for me.
Nick Sanders 3:57
So how do you find you know, how do you go from again, this CrossFit high intensity endorphin kind of seeking fitness model to yoga? How's that transition happen?
Unknown Speaker 4:08
So yes, so I spent, I don't know, it was probably at least a year and a half of just feeling super lost. I was gaining a ton of weight because I wasn't working out at all, when I was still probably eating the same as I was working out five days a week. And I was just feeling really, really awful. And I had done yoga a bunch of times, you know, just randomly mostly for the brunch aspect with my girlfriends afterwards. But I just decided that I needed to figure out how to get back inside of my body. Like I had to reconnect with myself. I had to figure out how to move my body because so important. I mean, we're humans and we need to be moving. So I decided to just show up at a yoga class and it was a yen class. So yen classes are very much where you find a pose and then you just say Get into it. They're mostly stretching, they're very restorative. And at the end of that class we're allowing in Shavasana. And shavasana is the very last pose. And a lot of times it's the hardest pose. That's my favorite part. Yeah, it's people see their favorite or they hate it, like people that can't have anybody who can't sit still, they just want to get up out of it. And I get,
Nick Sanders 5:23
I get so annoyed when people leave a yoga class, right? Like Asha Boston is happening, like, enjoy the mental clarity that you're about to have. And chill and let your brain work for 10 minutes or whatever. It's not 10 minutes, couple minutes, right?
Unknown Speaker 5:37
I generally try to do between three and five minutes of awesome is that so? Yeah, not quite done. But if it was 10, it would be wonderful. I mean, 10 is great. But I was
Nick Sanders 5:47
you either fall asleep, you either fall asleep, or your mind is just so clear that whatever you've been thinking about, like it's just boom, boom, it's sharp. At least that's been my experience. Anyway.
Unknown Speaker 5:58
Yeah, there's been moments that I've been laying in Shavasana. And it feels like almost like I've sunk into the floor. And I almost like it's almost asleep state, but you're still awake. That can be such a cool experience. But the particular one that I'm talking about the the first class back this year in class that kind of brought me back into my body, I was just laying there and savasana like crying, just like tears rolling down my cheeks. And I was like, I should be here. This is I belong here in yoga classes. Now, it was just like this weird clarity moment. And so I started showing up then to mostly to these hidden classes for a couple of weeks. And then it's like, well, I'm going to dip my toe into some of the more vinyasa style classes, which are a lot more physical, physically demanding. And I started loving those, and I was terrible at it. But I just kept going. And then the pandemic started and the gym or not the gym, the studio that I had been going to, they pivoted to online really well. And I lost my job at the same time. And so it was like, all I had to do was yoga. I leaned hard into it, you know, I just every day I would do at least one class, maybe sometimes two. And I just kept feeling better and better and better in my body and my heart in my mind. And feeling those kinds of connections. And by the end of the summer, so 2020 By the end of the summer, the woman who owns the studio told me that she was starting a yoga teacher training and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. And I was like, well,
Unknown Speaker 7:42
I'll have a job. So it sounds good. timings, right. And I went for it.
Nick Sanders 7:49
What, what does yoga teacher training? What does that entail?
Unknown Speaker 7:53
Oh, gosh, it's amazing. So it was nine months, I believe it was 200 hours. But it starts all with the asana which are the poses. So you learn an entire sequence of poses, they call this the skeleton sequence in Baptist style, Baron back to case was kind of the father of the style of yoga. And so you learn, I don't know, there's probably at least 100 If not more different poses. And you learn all the ins and outs, how to modify them, what body parts, you're using one of the benefits of each one. And then how to kind of move from one post to the next, you learn all of the all because there's so much but a lot of the theory behind it a lot of the history behind it, you start to learn some of the like Ayurveda. So, our Veda is we're all made up of earth, air, fire and water. And so you start to learn about how your body's kind of composed and what you need to balance things. What else did we learn? We practiced a lot, we did a lot of yoga, a lot of anatomy.
Nick Sanders 9:12
Yeah. How did you? You know, when I, when I talked to people about yoga, I think one of the hurdles is that, you know, you hear something like that, like we're composed of water and wood and wind and like, in when I first learned about yoga, or I was in exercise science, and that's kind of when I got introduced to it from a formal level in college. It was kind of like, this is woowoo like, I just didn't like I didn't like it like it was you know, I'm here learning about exercise physiology, and then you're going to tell me this. Now, when I, you know, initially I was really turned off by that, and I kind of avoided yoga. And now that I've had a chance to kind of like, you know, I'm not 20 anymore, and I can think for myself. When I look back I'm like Yeah, they're saying this but you in my like, I can flip it in my head real quick. As far as you know, Yin is restorative and relaxing of well, it's it's the parasympathetic nervous system, right? We're taking deep breaths, we're sinking into the we're letting it stretch. And so I have a, what's called Western understanding of what they're saying that Western anatomy didn't exist when, when they founded yoga, right? But I can I can make sense of it. How did you take that? As far as like, you get into this training? What's your initial impression of that? And then how do you know you're coming from this fitness world? Like, Was it weird? Was it hard to adapt? You know, how'd you it was
Unknown Speaker 10:43
weird. It was weird. But then the proof started to be, you know, in the pudding, or the sauce or whatever. So yeah, I definitely came in there. And I was like, Oh, look at me, I've got the best planks. I'm the strongest person here. I can hold this thing forever. But then we started talking about the more woowoo stuff. And I was like, Oh, I don't, I don't know anything. This is wild stuff. And when we started to learn, like the iron VEDA, and we started to learn what your dosha is, and that's so people are either pitta, vata, or Kapha. So you're either So, and this is getting way out there. But my husband and I are complete opposites, Stefan and I, he is a vata and vitaes are made out of water and or air and space, VITAS move around a lot. They are kind of like, they don't sleep very well, there's all these different things. And I had Stefan take this quiz, and he fit it perfectly. And I was like, okay, that's you. And then I did myself, I'm a Pitta. So pittas are made out of fire and water. And if you think about the elements starts to kind of make sense, but where I've got a fiery personality, I get mad really easily, but I sleep really well. My skin is hot, I sweat a lot, stuff like that. So then we started to look at ways to like balance those things, because everybody's made out of everything, but you have to balance what you are. And when I started doing those things, I started noticing changes in myself. And so that was kind of where that changeover happened, where I was like, oh, yoga is a physical practice, and the planks and all that are wonderful, but there's so much more to it. That, you know, my, my physical practice can be even better if I take care of myself in certain ways, eating certain foods. You know, in the summertime, I need to cool myself off more, because I'll get myself being a warmer person. That'll get me super heated up, but I get more angry easily. So I don't know, stuff like that. And I'm still just at the very beginning of it. As far as the woowoo stuff is concerned.
Nick Sanders 12:56
I hate to say I hate to say woowoo because I don't want to like it's not meant to be offensive. It's just a different language than I'm trained in. Right. Like, to me, like I can't, when you say okay, it's a made of wood and water doesn't make you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't, doesn't relate? Yeah. And I can't help but then try to figure out okay, what's the neurologic connection to that? Right? Like, if you did, like, if you compare that to a person, the test you took to see which I can't remember the names, but if you Yeah. Do they correlate with like a personality test? Like different type a type B personalities are introverted, extroverted? Or they are they LinkedIn all the Do you see those connections?
Unknown Speaker 13:44
Maybe a little bit? Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. So people who are koffice, they're made of water and earth. And so that's somebody who likes to sleep a lot. They prefer a union class, they usually have bigger features. Like, they might have bigger eyes or teeth or something. They might be taller, bigger boned. And then those people are definitely usually more calm. They usually don't have anxiety. They're usually you know, some of those were personality traits. And then people who are pittas, like me tend to be more outgoing, more outspoken. And then people thought as like Stefan, tend to have a little bit more anxiety. They're more excited about things are ready to go get after it. So yeah, there are some connections there.
Nick Sanders 14:35
So yeah, to me, I immediately go Alright, well, parasympathetic nervous system and an autonomic nervous system, our background kind of base thing. You got your parasympathetic, which is Rest Digest, those people are calmer. They're a little more laid back there. Anxiety is not as high. And then you got your sympathetic, which is your fight or flight mode. And people that are kind of predominantly in that sympathetic state all the time. They're always up right. They're always up here. Their personalities faster they get anxious quicker, because they're their systems higher, right? And the connections there the similarities, there are just to me. People looked at it from two different dimensions of kind of analyzing the human. But to me, it feels like the modern in I don't know if this is this is Eastern medicine, I mean, where I don't know the origination of it, but so yeah, so you look at where Eastern medicine kind of came into it now Western medicine kind of back around to it, they kind of end up in the same place. They do very different words, very different terminology, different language, but a lot of similarities. And anytime, in my mind, anytime two different groups, kind of find the same conclusions, there's, there's something to that, right, like attacted very differently, different science, complete different science and theology, but kinda sorta got to the same place.
Unknown Speaker 16:03
And taking different approaches to heal it to.
Nick Sanders 16:06
Yes, so speak to that, what do you mean by that.
Unknown Speaker 16:10
Um, so with our VEDA, a lot of times, you're going to try to, like eat different foods. So for somebody who's Nevada, you know, they're going to want to eat grounding foods. So like root vegetables and things like that are very, very good for them. So that would be kind of one way of healing or also somebody who's like a Pitta or Avada, they want to work out in a way that's opposite to what they want. So you know, where I want that strong, I want that CrossFit, I want to be high energy, I want to be sweating a lot, I want it to be fast. I like spin classes, what I really need is more of that Yin, you know, really sinking into my body and taking things slower, where somebody who all they want to do is just lay on their back and stare at the ceiling and shavasana they should probably take a Vinyasa class and get a little bit sweaty, so you kind of need to balance things out by doing the opposite. And then you'll become a more whole balanced person, ideally.
Nick Sanders 17:12
Yeah, so the food piece is a little different for me, but like from a workout perspective, makes total sense. Somewhere in my history of writing random articles, we talked about, like the sympathetic driven person tends to trend towards high intensity classes, right? Because they like it. They like that high energy. So they're the person you find that across the gym. And then the person that's more chilled, relaxed, you find them in events that are more relaxed, but really, we probably need to stimulate our body the other direction. Right? And again, we're speaking the exact same, we're getting to the same endpoint. It's just different language to get there. Yeah, the grounding root vegetable thing. Does that get into like the concept of grounding? Like these Earth mats and getting the Earth's energy and all that kind of stuff? barefoot? Yeah. Is that you? Were That? That? Okay. Interesting.
Unknown Speaker 18:03
Yeah. Yeah. I,
Nick Sanders 18:04
I've, I've, what I want to say, I've kind of peruse that world, I don't understand it. But I think there's some things that obviously make sense there. Yeah, we know that, like you feel good vitamin D synthesis. And you know, you need the sun. And so there's definitely we're connected to the environment and how we, we heal and develop, you know, different vitamins, minerals, but as far as like plugging a mat into my outlet, so that I can convert the Earth's energy through this grounding mat. I don't know, what do you think? Have you
Unknown Speaker 18:39
seen, I mean, a grounding mat that you're plugging, I don't know, to me that feels a little bit like somebody selling somebody something. But I do think that there are benefits to literally walking outside in your bare feet and standing with your feet planted in the grass and feeling the energy of the earth connecting to or, you know, spending time walking in nature, spending time in the woods, you know, taking your headphones off, not listening to a podcast, but actually being there. Yeah, I think that's, that's healing. That's medicine in a lot of ways. Yeah. And whether it's like the actual energies, you know, it's all still pretty new to me also. But I feel it. I've not known anybody to change their entire life because they take walks in the woods every day. But maybe they have also I don't know,
Nick Sanders 19:30
I'm sure I'm sure it does exist. Yeah. You know, and I can only speak to personal experience here but like, you give me a few days of just doing nothing but fly fishing. And my outlook on life is different for that that window of time, right because it whether it's an energy or it's, you know, I was able to get out of my sympathetic state or you know, however you want to say it, like there's something to just kind of being a part of just relaxing and listen to nature. and all that kind of stuff, it calms your brain somehow or another.
Unknown Speaker 20:03
Yeah. But as a society, we just don't do it enough at all.
Nick Sanders 20:08
No, no, because it doesn't. It's like, you're not gonna make money, right? Like, you're not gonna make money to the average person. And even in the fitness industry, right? It's all about aesthetics and weight loss and putting on more muscle. So where does this idea of, you know, the parasympathetic system kicking in or grounding, however you want to phrase it? How's it fit in to that? Marketing that we've all been told? Right? It's all more and more and more and more and more where that conversations last? Yeah. And I know that you you've done some, I don't know, are you still doing any of the like, the actual health coaching side are you pretty much transition that to towards yoga?
Unknown Speaker 20:50
Right now I'm really focusing on the yoga side of things. I definitely want to bring my nutrition coaching and back into it at some point. But for right now, I'm just trying to map I mean, can you ever master yoga? No. But I'm just trying to master the basics. Focus. Yeah, focus on that. Yeah.
Nick Sanders 21:09
Yeah. I was just curious if you, if you, and maybe this comes up, even with your yoga stuff? I mean, have you ever you have these conversations with clients? And is that a part of your system at all?
Unknown Speaker 21:20
Like, not currently? No, no, I've done a lot. My a lot of my nutrition coaching was more CrossFit based where I was working on, you know, enhancing performance, or helping people to, you know, dial down their macros to figure out exactly how much they should be eating to support their workouts or to lose some weight or whatever their goals were. But I haven't tapped into the outside of it. No,
Nick Sanders 21:48
yeah. It's pretty interesting. I feel like the more I learned about nutrition, it's almost like there's two camps of this, like performance world and build, build, build, build, build. And then there's this longevity world, which is like caloric restriction and turn off insulin for a while, all this kind of stuff. And I think it's about right, it's going to be a balance again, I've we need growth, periods of growth, and we need periods where we're not growing. But it's again, it's just one of those interesting things.
Unknown Speaker 22:16
One of the things that I found to be super interesting with yoga, and doing yoga is I've been a lifelong Dieter, you know, my mom taught me how to diet when I was probably in middle school. And ever since then, I've tried every single diet that there there is on earth. And since really doing a lot of like practicing daily. My desire to diet or to eat in a certain way has, like, I don't even think about it anymore. I am continually just like, Does this feel good? Is this what my body needs? It's asking more of the questions of, you know, what feels good. What do I need? Am I hungry? Is this the food that's going to satisfy me right now? And then it's more intuitive based, I guess you could say, rather than finding, or feeling like I need to follow a strict program. And I've honestly never felt more connected to like how I eat or better about it. Which is interesting to me.
Nick Sanders 23:15
Why do you think yoga triggered that?
Unknown Speaker 23:20
I think because when you're practicing yoga, you have to listen to your body so much. And then you also you're you're both checking in and checking out in a certain like you're in a certain pose, and it's difficult. So you're thinking to yourself, do I need to back off of this pose right now? Or do I need to work a little bit harder to get into it deeper. And it's that continual checking in with yourself to know what you need in the moment that you take that off the mat, and it becomes more intuitive such second nature with other things.
Nick Sanders 23:57
Interesting. So you're, I mean, almost taking that as like a mental brain training kind of a thing? Mm hmm.
Unknown Speaker 24:05
Yeah. Which is what I found yoga to do is the things that you learn on the mat, like speaking nicely to yourself, you know, if you're trying to hold some kind of a balancing pose, if you sit there and curse yourself out and tell yourself that you're a loser, you can't do it. Well, you just you definitely can't, you know, you'll fall all over the place. But if you try to hold the same pose on the other leg, a minute and a half later, and you say nice things to yourself, like, you can do this, you've got that it's okay that you're wobbling, you know, whatever. It changes everything. And then you might bring that back later on in the day when something's happening. And you catch yourself saying, You can't do that you suck, you know? And instead, you remember that, oh, no, in my practice, when I made that change over I did better. And I see it happen. thing all the time says, yeah, the practice on the mat I see showing up off the mat all the time,
Nick Sanders 25:05
the mental game all comes back down to the mental game. But then it's all tied, you know, the mental games all tangled into the physiology of what's happening in your brain at that moment, too. So, right? The more Yeah, it just the deeper you get into understanding the psychology and physiology and just fascinating slash, and it's fast. All of a sudden, you're like me, as much as I think I know, I don't really know much anything.
Unknown Speaker 25:31
Every day, every day, the more you know, more I know, the more I'm like, I don't know anything at all.
Nick Sanders 25:39
Which is so cool. You know, it is it's a there was an old Eric Cressey quote that I think I was just getting out of PT school or something like that. But it was something along the lines of, you know, when you find something out, and you realize you've been doing it wrong, like there's this incident, like, Oh, you're upset that you've been doing something wrong, but there's also this like idea that you've grown right. And so if you're still doing this, I think the quote was something along the lines of you're still doing what you're doing five years ago, then that means you haven't grown right, you haven't learned anything. So just getting used to that idea of you're gonna learn new stuff. Gotta be upset with the fact that you don't know anything.
Unknown Speaker 26:17
Yeah, yeah. And actually, this week, in my, my, my digital yoga studio, I'm studying powerlessness and the power that the ego has your ego to keep you powerless. Because the ego tells you that you already know stuff that you're already there. But the truth is, is that you can never be there because like we just said, there's so much whatever it is, there's so much there's so much deeper, there's so much to know, there's so much to try. And so your ego can really keep you stuck in a place of non growth not growing, which leaves you powerless.
Nick Sanders 26:53
So, you mentioned you're, you're doing this as part of your online program, what? How are you incorporating this mental side into the online? Like, how does that.
Unknown Speaker 27:05
So that's kind of interesting for me, because I've lots of yoga teachers come into yoga, and they want to teach, you know, they always have quotes at the beginning of class or some kind of a theme that they're talking about. And that's actually something that I've personally struggled with. Because I've come into this from the physical aspects where I've wanted to build strength and flexibility and teach people to do that, because that's what I know from my past. So more recently, in in my digital studio, I'm trying to connect the poses and the flows that we're doing to, you know, bettering yourself in some way. And actually, I've been using a book called The Yamas, and the knee Yamas, which is kind of a book of restraints, so like, things that you should not do. And then also things that you should do to kind of have a well balanced, well rounded life. And so this month I'm studying in my Digital Studio is it's called a Ahimsa and that means non violence. And so you find non violence in a lot of different ways. Through balance, self love, becoming more powerful, letting go of powerlessness, letting go the ego, because all of those things, I mean, violence for like non violence, like hitting people, but you know, violence is speaking to yourself in a tone that you don't deserve or acting in a certain way that brings down the, the, the feeling in a room, you know, sometimes if you aren't practicing self love, and you know, your people are angry at themselves, or whatever, and you bring that home, and then you're not nice to your kids, or you kick the dog or whatever. And so just studying all those things, this month, and then each month, there'll be a different Yama or Neoma that I'm gonna be studying.
Nick Sanders 29:15
As far as in so you're focusing on that with with the Pro. Program was not the word but with the class structure. Yeah. Yeah. That's I'm trying to think Are there any other like, I feel yoga is kind of front of mind of connecting that mind body connection with within the practice, right, within a single session. Are there any other fitness like, you know, in CrossFit, you got kind of the hero workouts where you kind of take that moment of reflection. But that's a it's not so much an internal assessment.
Unknown Speaker 29:49
Now, I mean, I anytime that I've ever run in my life, I pray to God that it ends soon, but I don't think that's quite the same.
Nick Sanders 29:58
I will say You know, there's mental connection to movement and exercise like I was doing running and I kind of, you know, I did my past, I ran a decent amount, you know, moderate distance kind of stuff, and a couple half marathons. And I always kind of enjoyed that like struggle piece. And then probably, let's call it six months ago, right, I start getting kind of like, where I'm running pretty consistently again. And I started to realize, like, I was kind of wimpy about how quick I wanted to stop. Like, I just didn't have that kind of kick, the want to push through kind of discomfort a little bit. And so I wonder how much of that's trained, right, like, and then how much does it carry over? Like you're saying, how much does that carry over into your real life? Like, you know, you've been getting pushed hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, and then you don't have that desire to kind of kick it up a level.
Unknown Speaker 30:53
Right. But I think
Nick Sanders 30:54
it's interesting that I mean, I think there's, I think that's some of the Wim Hof stuff with like the ice, right? It's a mental test. I think endurance events are a mental test. And like you're saying, I think it's interesting that yoga kind of puts it at the, like, you can kind of think about it with these other endeavors. But yoga puts it right in your face, like we're going to, we're going to talk about it and assess it through the class. I don't know that I've a, like I've done. I don't know, a smattering of yoga classes. I don't know that I've thought of times people talk, like you're saying, there's some story or some topic of the class. But I don't know, it's been so intro introspective, where you're thinking about yourself.
Unknown Speaker 31:39
Yeah, what, and it can be hard. I mean, throughout a practice, you know, we think about mindfulness and coming back to your intention, or whatever that you said at the beginning of practice. So, and we call it a practice, right. So, you know, throughout the 45 minutes, hour, or however long it is that you're in a yoga class, you're practicing. So if if your intention was to only be kind to yourself throughout the entire practice, then it's the point is to notice the moments that you're not and bring it back, or whatever the intention that the teacher sets is to notice and then bring it back to that intention. So it is that practice piece, which you could do with running or anything else, right? If you set an intention at the beginning of it. By the end, what did you get out of it? You take take a look back and say,
Nick Sanders 32:37
I find myself going, why can I not do any of this? That's my practice. That's my yoga experience. Right? Like, why am I so bad at this?
Unknown Speaker 32:50
Or or thing? Sure.
Nick Sanders 32:56
And then I find myself going, Why am I sweating so much? I'm not even moving. Like that's the other. That's the other part.
Unknown Speaker 33:02
That's Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I am, Oh, God. No, no, go ahead.
Nick Sanders 33:14
I interrupted you.
Unknown Speaker 33:15
That's okay. It's gone. It's gone.
Nick Sanders 33:19
So why online? Like why? I mean, I think there's, there's advantages and disadvantages online. Why? Why did you decide to go that route?
Unknown Speaker 33:28
Yeah, I'm not exclusively online, I do teach in person, five times a week. So I do teach in person. At some point, I may end up opening a studio that is dream of mine. I think current climate just makes it difficult as a new teacher to open anything. But beyond that. I, because of my experience, with COVID, shutting everything down and me taking my practice online. That's really where I found my love for yoga. And it's what kept me consistently doing it every single day. So I don't you know, my online studio isn't something that I think people should only be doing. I think that, you know, anybody who practices yoga should also be taking in person classes, because there's magic in those classes. But if you want to have a consistent practice, if you want to really dig in if you really want to see what you're made of, than doing it every day is a discipline that I want to help people with. So online can just bring it home it can make it happen at any point in time and that's why I wanted to do it online.
Nick Sanders 34:44
That's very interesting. And, you know, I've I've honestly not done any virtual yoga. I think my experience and this is where your personal bias always plays in. When I first was introduced to yoga, it was in it was in college, right And we were in like a gym, an aerobic studio kind of setting. And it was kind of woowoo, we didn't really do much. And I was like, This is dumb, right? It was everything I thought it was everything that like kind of those negative connotations that I kind of brought to the class. And then it was every one of those things. And then when I, when I went to my first like I went to a yoga studio put in was in that setting was in that atmosphere, with, you know, just being in that group, and all of a sudden, it was like, Oh, this is why this is why people do yoga, right? Because you could kind of whether it's, you know, the energy of the room or whatever, but you were immersed in it. And it was, it was a different feeling altogether. And so my initial response to like, online yoga is like you're missing that whole environmental piece, like it's being in that room. And whether it's the movements or the sounds, or I don't know, the temperature. It's interesting.
Unknown Speaker 36:00
Yeah, there are apps, there's 100%. And sometimes in a yoga class, everybody's breath syncs up. And it sounds like there's an ocean coming through the room. And it's one of the most powerful, exciting things like I have goosebumps talking about it. And you definitely do miss that, when you do that at home, which is why I would never want people to stop practicing in person. But when you are at home, you can take it to more a meditative spot. You know, you there is nobody else in the room. It's all about you. It's 100% about you, and just showing up on your mat for yourself is the discipline, showing up for yourself period is something that most people don't do at all. So whether it's five minutes of movement, or 60 minutes of movement, by yourself at home is just a commitment that will change. I believe it'll change people's lives. Yeah,
Nick Sanders 36:55
use that word discipline. And that was kind of the when you were talking about the ability to do it every day and check in with yourself every day. That it reminded me of just that discipline aspect of of that. And you know, I talked with Phil waggle all the time at CrossFit CLE and he did the Murph everyday thing. And so the Murph workouts every day, he did Murph every day for a year.
Unknown Speaker 37:22
Oh my god. Right. So
Nick Sanders 37:24
if you're not familiar with MERV, it's wearing a 20 pound vest, run a mile 300 bodyweight squats, 200 Push Ups 100 Pull Ups run another mile. And so he did at least at least one Murph every day for an entire year. And when I first like, he first told me he was going to do this, I'm like, this is stupid, right? You're, why are you doing this? And the conversation began, they come about about discipline, right? Like, can I do I have the discipline to do it every day make time to do it every day. And when you talk with him, like the things he learned from that, you know, there's you can, you can just tell that there was a lot of value to that to him. And I don't think everybody should or needs to do a Murph every day. But I like what you're saying. Right? Like it's a restorative, it's a meditative kind of state that you can kind of visit every day. That's, that's super interesting. It's something that I probably need to check in on myself.
Unknown Speaker 38:21
Yeah, yeah. Whether it's showing up for five minutes to just do a forward fold. You showed up for yourself for five minutes and did a forward fold. Like that's a great thing that you might not have done otherwise. And then, obviously, there's more physical benefits, the longer you do a practice, but then there's also the mental like, sometimes it's sitting down and just doing a meditation, which is so difficult. And something that I want to learn more about meditation, but yeah, all of it is meditative. Even doing the Murph I'm sure is meditative in some ways.
Nick Sanders 38:59
Yeah, he would, he would talk about that. And, and I think there's a lot of meditation is something that I think I will explore at some point. You know, when you listen to podcasts, like, what's his name? Ferriss, Tim Ferriss. It's one of the biggest things he when he talks, all these successful people meditations, one of the things that they all do, like it's a consistent practice for all of these, these highly successful people. And I'm currently have the mindset like, I want to do something while I'm checking out a little bit like I'll tie flies or I'll do some stretching kind of stuff or whatever. But that's something I think I need to explore personally, as far as sitting still for a long time is challenging.
Unknown Speaker 39:45
Oh, abs 100% challenging. It's one of the most challenging things,
Nick Sanders 39:51
which is why people skip shavasana totally
Unknown Speaker 39:53
100% Or they do crazy things. I mean, I see people all the time. I'm like, What are you doing right? They were laying down, like people do handstands, they'll just start doing it during Shavasana. They'll roll around on I mean, people do all kinds of stuff. And it's fine. Like, if that's what they want to do. I'm not mad at it. I'm just, but it's so hard is the point to like, just sit and be?
Nick Sanders 40:22
Yeah, it's a it's a challenge. I saw a thing from, you know, you know, poor Tao. You know that name. He's out of Israel. He's like a capillary movement expert, and he's got this. African, it's like the movement can pick up the name of it anymore. Anyway, doesn't matter. But he's all about movement. Right? Yeah. I mean, when you talk about watching somebody move, it's incredible. And then I think it was last year, I saw a thing where he's now trying to sit and stare at a ceiling for 30 minutes. Because it's, and he said something along the lines of it's the hardest mental challenge I've had is just to sit and stare at the ceiling.
Unknown Speaker 40:56
So hard. So hard, is the hardest thing.
Nick Sanders 41:02
And I think we're conditioned to avoid that. Right? Like, oh, yeah, but I think it's different from, you know, checking out and watching Netflix for 30 minutes is not the same as kind of just being still with your own thoughts for 30 minutes. Like, it's not the same checkout.
Unknown Speaker 41:21
Not even a little Yeah,
Nick Sanders 41:23
I don't know how, how that's explainable or point of need a psychologist or somebody a heck of a lot smarter than myself to figure that one out. But there's something different. You where your mind
Unknown Speaker 41:33
is busy, your mind is busy, when you're watching Netflix, or when you're checking your phone, or when you're reading something or whatever, even if you're not moving. Right, it's a distraction, your own intrusive thoughts. And, you know, we always say, and I say when I'm teaching yoga is like, you know, if you, if a thought comes in, notice it, and then let it go. Tell it that I'll be we'll be we'll be back. But right now, I'm not thinking about you. And it can't be done. I mean, they keep coming, you know, then the next slot, and then the next thought, but the point is, is to to notice it and say we'll be back later, I'm doing this right now.
Nick Sanders 42:15
Right. It's not that it's bad that those things come in. Right. But if you know what to do with them, right, then that that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. All right. So this was fun. I want to I want to start to wrap up. What do you think? What are the goals for your online program? Like, where do you want to see it go? And what do you think's going to be happening? You know, if we had this conversation again, next year, what do you think will be different? Or what do you hope that's happening this time next year?
Unknown Speaker 42:42
Yeah, I really want it to become more of a community. I host my studio on Patreon. And so there's opportunities for people to talk to me through comments, and then also to other students. I'm going to be I did my very first live online class last week. So I definitely want to be doing more of those and bringing the people that are taking my recorded classes and bringing them together. I'd like to be doing more workshop kinds of things. I really like visioning, and doing vision boards. I'm big on goal setting, and self improvement and reading books and stuff like that. So I want to bring all that kind of stuff. Even if I do book club, I want it to really feel like a studio that you would go to. But just online, I wanted to have all the elements and aspects of things that people love about an actual yoga studio,
Nick Sanders 43:41
right? And kind of as we started, right, that that feeling of community, that feeling of culture and belonging to it's got to be successful, it has to have that I think if it's from a fitness standpoint, has to. That's awesome. I'm super excited to see where this all leads you. i So we've, I've known you and Stefan for some time, and you've always been so passionate about health and fitness and wellness. And so I'm excited to see you go down this journey. And wherever, wherever it ends up, it ends up but it's really cool to, to kind of see you taking that challenge. I think you I've
Unknown Speaker 44:17
never felt more aligned in my life. Like I definitely feel like I'm doing the right thing. It's just making it happen, keeping one foot in front of the other. Because that's the hard part.
Nick Sanders 44:28
It really is. And we've talked about this. And other times, like just that challenge of you're putting in all this work and then you got to kind of just trust the process and whether it's a business or it's your own personal health journey, right, like trusting the process is tough when you don't when you don't see that like instantaneous change, which we all want, but it's just a journey together. Practice.
Unknown Speaker 44:53
You got to show up every day for it. Keep doing it.
Nick Sanders 44:58
Well, hey, that's awesome. I think that's a good place to wrap up. Emily, where can people find more about you and your online program?
Unknown Speaker 45:07
Yeah, so my website and my social media handle is eat play be well. So eat play, be well.com or at play be well on Instagram. Those are the best ways to find me. I send out a newsletter once a week that includes Well, it's a newsletter on Wednesdays and then I also send out a mantra on Mondays. Just giving people a little bit of food for thought something to take you through the week, hopefully some self improvement.
Unknown Speaker 45:37
Awesome. Yeah, very cool.
Nick Sanders 45:39
Check it out on Instagram. There's all kinds of great content on there. We'll post all that stuff in the on the website and in the show notes. So alright, Emily, thanks. This was fun.
Unknown Speaker 45:51
All right. All right. Take care.
Nick Sanders 45:55
Thanks for watching and supporting the channel. We hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Let us know in the comments below what you liked what you disliked what you'd like to hear more of and any questions we can help answer. We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you on the next one.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
