#24. How to live a long, happy and healthy life, with Chantal Pierce

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@jack_insitubody

@mack_insitu

@om_sweet_om_milton

Hi everyone, my name is Chantelle Pierce, and I own Om Sweet Om yoga in Milton. Uhm? Yeah, I'm. Leave at Kings Point and have lived in the area for the last seven years. So it's seven years, yeah. So what initially brought you to be allodial or the South Coast area? The South Coast area. Sorry, I'm pretty nervous. Just pretend you were talking to us, OK Grace, UM, the South Coast area was actually from living overseas for a long time, and then that came to an end. So I ended up having to come back to Australia. And then I ran into someone who I used to nanny for in Canada. Yep, and they had a house in Mollymook conveniently empty. So I moved, moved to the South Coast. Nice. So, where were you overseas? So I was in the Rocky Mountains in Banff, Alberta, for a long time in Canada and then lived in Revel Stoke for quite a while.

Long time and that's really where I guess I. I started to get into yoga more than where I grew up was rural, so we didn't have any. Yoga instructors out on the farm come. Yeah, sorry, it was mainly in Canada where my yoga journey was really. Began, So what took you over there? Uh, it was. It was through. Uh, I guess that as I finished school, I was actually. Enrolling on the army, I broke my ankle so that I couldn't do the physical. OK, so that resulted in me not being able to go into the military.

After kind of, I finished my visa and then from there. I decided to go up and live with my brother and the Sunshine Coast, and I met a bunch of Canadian backpackers. And they were terrific, and it's so many similarities. So I decided to go to Canada and spend a bit of time there and stayed for like 5-5 years. Wow, and it was your first yoga session in Canada. No, a lady who used to teach out of our was like a bit of gym in the town closest to where I grew up. Corey Young and I did go to one or two of hers, but I was like 15. It was quite a few kinds of older ladies doing some stretching. I went with another girlfriend who was also 15. I didn't understand what was going on.

You know it was one of those moments where you just kind of giggle at one another, and then someone farted, and that was the end of it. That was the yoga experience. Yeah, and then the next time I tried, it was in Canada. I purely went to it because I thought yoga was stretching, and it was from going to, you know, I was doing a lot of snowboarding, a lot of hiking in the summer. Uhm? And I never really stretched other than like the quick, you know, short, slight stretch at the end, or jump in the hot tub or something like that. And so it ended up being. Away you understand the gym was offering it that I went to it and I was like, well, this is an hour that I have to stretch for like I can't get out of it. I signed up and went to my first class there in Banff at the gym. Many of the teachers who were teaching at the gym taught at the leading yoga studio in Banff. So I went to my first class at the GM and something.

I'll never forget. Uhm, attending that first class, I was like, oh, there's something more happening here like I'm not just stretching, there was like this real awareness which I hadn't had before. And then after that class, I went and talked to the teacher, and she was like, I also teach down. And you know the yoga studio. So then I pretty much just went to the yoga studio the next day, and that was that. Was it? I was hooked. How regular where you are going? I've become a little bit of an asana junkie, which I think many people associate the practice of yoga just with doing the physical poses. And I was addicted to kind of that, that feeling that it gave me without a complete understanding initially of why I was having that. So I was going. Somedays, I'd go three times a day. Wow, and I usually practice six days a week. Yeah, yeah, so it's pretty. Dedicated the style that I did start it was. It was quite a traditional form, so it was a more substantial or Mysore practice, a very traditional lineage from India. And it's just a set series of poses, so there are 41 poses that you move through. You come into them, breathe, hold the pose, and then move into the next. And then there's a vinyasa element in it as well. So that's really where the vinyasa or flow practice that you always see was derived from was from that. So I'm happy that I had that experience because I think. A lot of people when they first come to yoga. They kind of get thrown into this fast dynamic, like here there everywhere. Not a great deal of focus on breathing, and it can feel quite overwhelming. Yeah, it feels like I don't know what that was, but I don't want to go back to it. Yeah, so I'm super grateful that I had a.

Gradual introduction and, uh. Good introduction into breathing, which is a huge part of yoga. So you're in bent for how many years? He was there for three, 3 1/2, so you moved to revel yeah and then I moved to Revel Stoke. You, therefore, say, two or three years as well? So do you continue practising that much? Yes, Yep, so I did go a little bit between the job I was working for was a. It was a heliski lodge, so I worked. It was two weeks on one week off. So on my one week off, I would sometimes still travel up to Banff and crash on a friend's couch. I was passionate about the studio that I practised at because. Like it up.

I think living overseas and not having that family connection felt like a family. Yeah, it felt like a real. It had a massive sense of community and connection and it. It felt like a home away from home, and that inspired the name on Sweet Home. So it was I would try and get back to Banff, but there were also a few studios in Revel Stoke side practice there and by that stage at all had kind of started developing just. I was practising by myself. So yeah, it has become quite an ingrained embodied experience that you could. Do you know my map became a yoga studio essentially? Yeah yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so I want to dive into that a little bit, but let's keep moving forward. So you've moved back to Australia. Move back to Australia. Yep, it wasn't by choice, so I found that a little difficult. It was to do with Visa. They changed a lot of the ways that the visas were operating. So I end up coming back to Australia and. I initially went back to go to where I grew up, which was relatively quite isolated.

I just well then wasn't enjoying it, and then I. As I said, I bumped into a friend when I was up in Sydney for the weekend. And he could say that I wasn't. He wasn't in a great place, and he offered. He offered for me to rent one of their houses in mollymawk and then take care of the cleaning for their Airbnb. So it's a pretty good deal, and I hadn't been to this part of the coast because we're further South. If we went to the beach, it was kind of Bermagui or Tathra area, so I think that further, I said being out was Batemans Bay. Uhm yes. So then I got. I got Mom to drive me over here, and I just come with a backpack. And moved into this house, which you'd think in Mollymook. It's like this amazing. I mean, you drive through Mollymook now, and they're pretty amazing. A lot of the houses, but no, this was just a little beach shack, so it was freezing. Buy swap Sell was a fantastic way of starting everything and getting some things. So yeah, I just have my backpack yoga mat. I didn't have a car, and that was difficult originally. Yeah, like seven years ago, there wasn't. There. Wasn't a lot of ways to get around. No, I'm yeah. So it's. I ended up getting a car, and you could get around. Yeah, you didn't know anybody here when you first moved here, so I didn't know anybody when I first moved here. Yeah, yeah, so. It was a pretty significant change, but I think from travelling and kind of living abroad you. You have a pretty big open mind, and I think the practice of yoga, although I hadn't realized it at that stage like, had created that that openness to just trying new things.

I guess that was going to lead into my next question, so you've moved here. Did the yoga continue as frequently as it was when you were in Canada? Yeah, so I did still have a daily practice. It wasn't kind of three times a day. I think when you've got a class to go to. I've always been one of those people. If I've committed to something like if I've locked myself in, I'm not going to let the people down, so I think it's a little bit more when it comes to self-practice or home practice or anything that you do. You've got to have that commitment to yourself, so it was more once, once a day of training from home. And I had two audio recordings from my teacher in Canada, and that, you know, I knew them off by heart. By that, towards the end, because I just would do those and then my practice as well. So yeah, it was still very much a big part of.

How long was it before you? You moved here, and then how long until you opened up a gym yoga studio. So I moved here in March, and then I'd actually. Uhm, you know a big part of a kind of moving here by myself was. And not by choice of leaving Canada like my mental health deteriorated, so the yoga practice was a huge aspect that kept me. Positive and. And a big part of it was kind of continuing that connection to my teacher and to that community that had formed over there. And the teacher that I had was offering yoga teacher training. And at that stage, I'd been practising for like.

Yeah, the last five, five or six years with her and. It was in India, which I'd always wanted to go to, and I also think from practising or initiating the practice in a very traditional form. It was it just felt like the right thing to do. Uhm, so I signed up. She was offering that. February. Like the following February. So I signed up for that and then. I went over to India and completed my take to training. So it was kind of. It was two months after total, and then it was six weeks of yoga teacher training. Daily, a massive kind of justice. That was it, like it was, even, you know, she took our phones office at the beginning, and we got to have our phones. I think on a Sunday, but it was. It was pretty much just like eat, breathe and live yoga. Yeah, and when I say that like there's a whole philosophy behind yoga-like there's a whole. You know the sister science of yoga, oh Vader like there's. There's a lot more richness to it than just the physical practice, so that was kind of just immersed in it for that whole time in the motherland of yoga. So it was a. Transformative experience for me, and it did shift that mind state. You know I was severely depressed before I went and. And I think anything that you can dedicate that much time to will have a positive effect, but it, you know, as soon as I got back, I was like, I need to share this so that it can have that same effect on people who may not even know that it's possible.

So I pretty much got back, and I went and found a place where I could open the studio, and that was it. I didn't look back. I started. You know, ripping up? Carpet tiles and painting walls and. Figuring it all out along the way and dumb. And then opened on Sweet Arm in June of And as I said, I called it on sweet home because of that connection to the studio that was practising and to that community inbound phone with the intention that the studio would create a community and a sense of connection for everyone. And especially for me, because I think that's why I was missing from moving here and not knowing anyone. Yeah, yeah, wow, that's amazing.

So let's dive into the yoga, like the practice itself and everything behind it and all that sort of stuff. So a couple of questions have popped up for me. You tell the story. Uhm, when you were in Canada, your snowboard and doing all that sort of stuff, then you started practising yoga. Did you find your snowboarding and hiking? All that sort of stuff got a lot better and more accessible, like with that more mind-body connection. Yeah, I remember. In one of the classes, that teacher had mentioned. You know that doing yoga it's something to do with that, your cardio health. It would increase your cardio. I've never been a considerable runner or anything like that, so I was like, oh, that's a good bonus, and I didn't believe her until around. We're in the Rocky Mountains, so there are all these fantastic kinds of 10-hour hikes that you can do to the top of the mountains. And it's beautiful, and I remember kind of, you know I was there for several years, so you do repeat a few and.

I could see that improvement in kind of inmate like cardio, health and like even in just that body awareness and variety of you know, really pressing down through the heels so that I'm lifting and using more

of like my glute muscles rather than relying on the type of slumping forward. This bad posture, as I know, press up and walk and then same with definitely like in the mountain snowboarding it was just. The concept of understanding that. It's all linked with the breath. It's connected with the movement. It's like they're not separate. It's a one, so it is, you know, even just simple tasks like pushing a shopping trolley, or like you know, carrying bags and that everything you would just much more aware about your posture. If you were breathing and then just kind of also. A lot more in the moment rather than I think, you know, incredibly how fast-paced. I feel that the older I'm getting, the more things are on my calendar and schedule, and it's just it can feel super overwhelming, and it feels like you're never in that moment because you're always like we've got to do that next. And I've got that, and I've got that. Or you're thinking about. Or did I turn the oven off? Ever done that? So it also brought into that? That practice of kind of being? At the moment, and just being like, well, I'm here, I'm in my body, I'm carrying my groceries. Yeah, it's a beautiful day, yeah. Yes, I often say, especially on these podcasts and declines and lots of stuff. Your heart doesn't care what you're doing, so if you're training, like if it's yoga and you're concentrating on your breath, and you're doing a 90-minute session, that's still 90 minutes of. Breathing and focusing and doing all that sort of stuff, so you don't have to be going out. Going for a jog, you don't have to be doing that. You can just be doing a yoga session, concentrating on your breathing, moving, and it still gives you the same effect. Yeah, it's going to be beating no matter what you do. So as long as you find something that you do, you enjoy. Yeah, it's going to improve, and that is awesome. And again, with that mind-body connection. It's, I'll say, is obviously as a coach all the time.

You get somebody to lift up a barbell and push him over their head, and they just have no concept of what their lower bodies are doing because they're concentrating on—pushing overhead so. From my experience, I've found yoga very connecting with everything as well, so it sort of helps you just. When you're doing one task, it's some kind of. You're not just focusing on tasks. You concentrate on your whole body and how it's doing the homework as well. Uhm? I forgot where I was going with that. That's fine. So I guess. Uhm? Well, let's go into some sort of common mistakes that you see beginners making. So many people listening to this might not have done yoga or have tried it and didn't get that connection because you had such a good teacher. Somebody going into yoga or have done it a little bit and not getting that connection. What advice or tips or just mindset can you give them to sort of flow into it a little bit better and get that more profound connection with it? The first thing and like? Even you know if I meet someone and they're like oh, what do you do? I'm like, I teach yoga. The first thing that people say is, ah, I'm not flexible enough. I could never do that. So first, I just want to say it's got nothing to do with how flexible you are. The second thing is like it's really.

The foundation of the practice is all to do with breathing, and the yogis understood that the breath is what could then you know, they use the word control, but it was this concept of the breath. I was able to master our minds so that when we do get overwhelmed, or we have all these like thoughts and feelings arising, we can have an anchor point to come back to at any given moment. So the breath is. It is the focus, and if you can find a teacher that like I bang on about the breath a lot, but it's because it is really what we need to be focusing on, which will create that mind-body connection. Uhm? And I think the big thing is that. That people feel what yoga is that it is really. It's just about the physical poses. Which the physical postures or like that word arsenal that Sanskrit word? It means to sit like it means seat. So the intention behind moving our body is to sit in stillness and observe our mind. So it's like this amazing. Like when you understand that it's like this lightbulb moment that. Anyone and everyone can do it because it's so based around the breath and around understanding what's happening. In our mind, and then like finding this beautiful harmony within so that we don't get as affected.

The turbulence that constantly happens in life, and so it's really about coming with openness and knowing that you don't have to be flexible. You don't have to be any like age, shape, size. Anything you can show off, and as long as you like, consciously focusing on your inhales and your excel, you are practising yoga-like, even if it's not an actual pose. Yeah, that that is the idea behind the practice. Yeah, and I feel like, especially these days, many people will only do something if they're going to get benefit out of it. Like you know, we had somebody ask us the other day, you know what the use of CrossFit is? As in, is it going to get me big muscles, or is it going to lose me? Wait, and that sort of stuff, and it's like. Yoga. It's almost you get so much benefit out of it.

Because you just connecting with your body and you separating everything else, your goals, the intentions of that sort of stuff, and you get that mind-body connection and. A lot of people go, Oh yeah, whatever but. How long is your beta run full? Well yeah, some of the scriptures date back over the years old. Yeah, and what other? Plus, what other way of exercise or exercise routine is that old like? There's a reason why it's so old and still being practised around the world. So yeah, it's just one of those like I guess the proof is in how long it's been around. Yeah, and I think we could transition that straight into like what? What are you starting to see now with some of the yoga trends and stuff out there that you know sort of targeting towards those people that you know you've got to be doing yoga and this way you'll lose your weight like fat and all that sort of stuff, so I guess what do you see is happening? And what advice can you give to people so seeing those and going on, I need to do that type of yoga?

It's I mean like all kind of like everything fashion and in the sporting industry there are trends and yoga has directions as well. So when I began practising it was a lot of like this very. And I think it's kind of been like this for the last year—easy years like this power. Fast Vinyasa re practice is amazing. You know it is like a moving meditation if you are breathing. If you're not breathing, if you kind of like or if what I mean by breathing is like actually using the diaphragm too. Too bright, so there's this full diaphragmatic breath that's occurring with every movement. The focus has been moved more to the action rather than the breath leading the campaign, so it's more the movement leaves the breath, which takes a little while to. But basically, we want to layer the training on top of the breath so. That's where it's kind of. It's shifted to more this. Exercise regime or this kind of like the way that you can sweat and get into all these funky poses and these advanced you know our centres have started to come up with like these ways of you know. It is progressing into having goals. Yeah, like goals to work towards, which again is not really what the practice was about. Yeah, so it's shifted a lot from. From I guess the traditional meaning behind it into more of like a. Goal orientation about. You know you can lose weight, and you sweat, and you can get these crazy poses that are Instagram worthy. So that's a little bit the direction that it's kind of moved, moved towards, and I think a big thing that I see is.

Is people don't breathe like they were just breathing this really short, shallow breath from the top of the chest. They're not relaxing. You know this full diaphragmatic breath. And if they're not doing that, they're kind of they're missing the huge chunk of what yoga is.

So it's definitely. It's coming to light—more of just an exercise regime than a mindfulness practice. And especially, it's been exciting going back and teaching kind of post. Maybe not post. Perhaps that's too optimistic, but you know, with now not having to wear a mask in class, yeah, and still just seeing people like are hesitant in breathing. Hence, it's creating that space where people do feel comfortable to use their breath to relax, like our nervous system is so dependent on the way that we breathe that if we're. Only just take this kind of. Uhm, short, shallow breaths like that's going to, you know, step into that fight or flight kind of heightened pump the adrenaline through the body. It's it does not have the effects that we want. In yoga, we want those nice big diaphragmatic breaths so that we can drop more into that parasympathetic side of the nervous system. We can start to actually simmer things down because the rest of our lives is this. Go go go. So it's really. A big part is connecting into the breath and getting people to just. Just slow it down a little. Our Austin practice has become as fast as our time in like off the man like it's become just a thing that we do in our schedule. Yeah, rather than an experience that we have so it needs to come back to that.

I think that the whole bread thing goes into pretty much anytime you move your body, even when you're not like I don't know how many times I see it as a coach or just a one on one. It's like breathing through the movement, like whether you're lifting weights, doing CrossFit, powerlifting, even bodybuilding, like connecting the breath to the exercise helps so much, especially with just the contraction of the muscle and the extension. Just bringing them breath into that. It's not something people don't think about, but it's just that more connection you got to the muscles. No matter what you're trying to do. Get you a whole lot more benefit. Uhm, so I think that breath goes into anything you're doing. So you sort of talked about breathing properly into the diaphragm and all that sort of stuff. Is there a way you can sort of explaining that everybody listening where they're sitting there now listen to these podcasts? Is there something that they can just do or like? Yeah, for sure so. A great way to practice this is kind of lying down. Thinking about the belly like a balloon, you may have had this practice kind of discussion or. Uhm? I talked to you before, but you want to like a great way to feel that connection by placing their hands onto the belly and starting just to feel the belly expand as you breathe in. And then as you breathe, like a balloon, inflating, and then as you breathe out, you start to feel the balloon deflating. So there's this movement of our belly, and I think that's another thing you see is people come into the yoga class and start to draw the belly in and up. It's like we need to relax the stomach to start to get that full belly breath. So placing the hand on the abdomen is an excellent way of feeling that, and then we want to start to feel it also into the side of the ribs. We can handle, you know, the ribs have such a. Uhm? They kind of lift and open up such a part in our breathing so that the diaphragm can create its movement as we breathe.

So we need to we can feel the rib cage actually kind of opening and closing slightly as we breathe or expanding and condensing. So you can also sort of feel that as you think into the belly and then as you feel the breath extend into the ribs. There's this kind of movement. A bit slowly rising up and then falling back down, and then finally, once you've kind of got that section, you can start to feel it up around the tops of the collarbones so that as you inhale, you now feel the belly expand. The ribs expand outwards and then a slight lift of the collarbones, and then as you exhale, it's kind of like this beautiful movement or wave of the breath flowing back down the collarbone, soften the ribs slightly condense, and then at the bottom of the breath at the belly like. It starts to drawback towards the spine barely, so there's that kind of deflating of a balloon. And a great way of doing this and stepping into more of that. Switching into that parasympathetic is maybe focusing on extending the breath to a slow four as you breathe in, and then seven as you breathe out so. Anytime that we can extend the exhale or create that prolonged X hell, we're going to start to kind of relax the body a little bit. So even if it's just a few extra counts or into four and out to six, you'll feel that effect. Even if you just do it five times, you'll start to feel that kind of relaxing effect of the practice. Yeah, nice and anybody listening that's tried that. Let us know how you went. And it's funny how you were sort of describing the belly and then the side ribs. And then the collarbone and all that sort of stuff. That's exactly how I teach powerlifters to brace. Yeah, so it's like it's just like I think I said this to you a couple of weeks ago, like strength and flexibility.

All that sort of stuff and the breath. It's all one like. You can't have strength without flexibility and connection, and you can't have power without vice versa. So sort of just funny how it just. Does tie all in together, and you can't sort of just. Focus on one where you can to get that better, but then you've got to bring the strength back up with it as well, and strength isn't. You know how much he lived. It's how well you can control the movement. Yeah, so there's strength in the breath and holding your breath to that point is strengthening breath. Uhm? I guess let's sort of switch the directions of it unless you've got any more questions on yoga or anything like that. Not at this point. Yeah, I love talking yoga so go for it.

I will come back to it if you do, but I just wanted to go into business. I guess a little bit.

For me as well, I had a gym. I know, you know, you sort of jump in thinking this is going to be easy. I'm going to be able to do it. I'm going to be able to train all day, and you know it's going to be OK. And then you sort of jump into it, and you never ready, and you do all these other things that.

He didn't think he'd be doing. So what sort of advice would you have? I guess for yourself going into their business, what would you tell yourself if you could wind that time? Yeah, I am so proud of the younger me, and I'm so grateful for that. Because like I look back, I don't even know how I did those initial few six months. I think I was teaching 22 classes a week. Exhausted! Living a big part of it is having and initially when you start to like. You know you need to be the primary person teaching and doing all of this because you don't. You don't have the finances to pay someone. I initially didn't know anyone, so I didn't even know if other yogis would want to come and teach. So a big part of it. Thing rewinding that clock is if I, you know. I was just so passionate and wanted to help people like it had helped me so. I wish that I had a little more support in terms of not having to extend myself as much. It led to a little bit of a pattern of the kind. Go go go and then almost a little bit of like a crash and a burnout phase. And then you know you have to get the enthusiasm and go again. So it was a little bit more of a rollercoaster of a ride rather than. Hopefully, just like a smooth plateau, but I don't think there's such a thing with a small business. So like I said, I'm super grateful for that. I just had that drive to get through those months and then. And I did have some other teachers come on board, which helps you know there are so many different yoga methods.

You know, that's another big thing that I would suggest to people, even if you go and practice one class. Try one class, and you're like, I don't know. Try another like just try different things. Some amazing methods focus on more of this kind of breathing and mindfulness-awareness. UM, such as yin yoga. There are ones that focus purely on kind of resetting the nervous systems, such as medicine. There's more of these like. Functional movement classes like there's just such a variety out there. One of my teachers used to talk about it like a yoga forest. There are so many different styles and methods and teachers and ways that people interpret it so. Uhm, definitely trying different styles. Uhm, yeah, and I think it helped to have other teachers. And then, from that point realizing that I needed a way of having more teachers on board permanently. So I started my teacher training program to let me know, kind of past that. Pass that on to, then teach teachers to become a yoga teacher and then offer that. Offer that out so. That's been a huge thing. Like if you just need other people who want to be part of what you're doing. Yeah, and then once you have that, it just feels a lot more. The whole intention behind it was to create community. So as soon as I started having. More people who wanted to be part of that then that's like what really? It fills up your cup and then keeps it going. Yeah, whereas sometimes you can feel you know it was a tranquil week. I still have got a pay bill. I'm exhausted. It would be much easier to go and get a nine-to-five job or something with a consistent paycheck that you know.

I think everybody every business I guess yeah, yeah yeah, even just. I reckon it can breakdown and hours you have a good hour then about it. Yeah, and then you have someone who likes to do a session with you or a class. You know you can see that shift that occurs. This is why I'm doing it like it brings that back to like This is why I am doing what I'm doing rather than. You know, whatever it may be. So initially, when you first opened your studio, did you have any friends at that point? Like how did you get people to know about you and the studio? I guess I had a few like I had a few people, so I'd worked in the hospital like I was working. Uh, I was doing a few shifts at pilgrims, and then I was also doing. I was just housekeeping at Bannisters. Yeah, so I had met some people through that, but not really like you know, I kind of like I said when I first moved here, it was pretty. I wasn't in a great mental state, so I was just doing my work going home, doing my yoga, and that was like my, you know, I wasn't a giant social butterfly at all so. Eventually, like I just printed off heaps of Flyers and again as I would go around, and kind of drop Flyers at different places and say hey, this is, you know, I'm Chantelle. This is what I do. Love you to come along, so people did start coming on. I think it was exciting that there was. Uhm, like actual space in Milton, that was just. Offering yoga and then I also offered meditation and a few other things so. Yeah, it was. That's how people kind of just started coming. And then. It flowed on.

The best thing is people come in and experience it and then obviously share that with others, and it eventually starts to trickle out so. And like I said, I was. I have so much passion for the practice because it's had such a profound impact on my life. You know, I sometimes over give yeah, which leads to that. Depletion is my kind of cop, but I'm getting better at that. Yeah, I feel like that's important when you start a small business is. You have to have some sort of strong connection with what you're doing, especially when it gets exhausting. Otherwise, it's just so easy to give up. I guess absolutely, and you know, there were even over the last few years like. Aw man, it's been a tough time. For everyone collectively and then, let alone like small business owners and that type of thing, it's just. Yeah, there's been a lot of moments where it's like. You know it would be much easier to do something else, but then yeah, you have those moments where a student will reach out and say. How do the classes affect them? And it just yeah, you know that you're doing the right thing, so you just you persist, and you find a way, and you keep going. Uhm, so I guess let's continue with that coming out of lockdowns and all that sort of stuff over the last couple of years. Have you noticed any different trends or anything like that? Because I know some kind of like, we've gone pretty much all online? We have a couple in person, but we're training people from all around Australia type thing, and I feel like the lockdowns and everything sort of just made that a bit more apparent that you could do that. Yeah, and that sort of stuff. Have you noticed any type of changes? Or I guess yeah, coming out of there, I think.

Much yoga has switched her, similar to training sessions, and everything has switched her to more of an online platform for delivering it. This is great, and you know, we offered zoom classes during this lockdown. It was also a beautiful way to stay connected with our community and still provide them something. Think for yoga. There is something significant about it. You know, for me, definitely of you know that connection in that community and coming together and being in space and moving and breathing in that synchronicity with one another like there's a. It's something quite magical that happens when you've got that. I don't want to sound weird, but it's almost like that energy of a room. I'm sure that you've had it in in Sessions where you've got the music on your own moving and breathing together, and it just. It feels uplifting, so I think that that's what many people you know from students are like. Oh, it's just not. It's not quite the same, but. I do know that within terms of trends for what's happened with the yoga community is. A lot of training has now just gone online, so 200-hour teacher training programs so that you can become a teacher. It's all shifted to just this online platform, which I think has some great value. I've just done some further study I try to. Do the additional analysis at least once a year. I think it's you know things are constantly changing and. And I think it's essential to stay on top of it. Of actually seeing what's coming up and how things are shifting and being informed and educated, as you know, I want to give. Yes, I'm teaching a room of, say, 20 students, but I want it to be as individualized as possible so that everyone gets something from it.

So it's a real fun fine art of fee number to do that and. I have just done some excellent online training. It was amazing. It was well delivered, but for me, there's just. You know from experience both in-person and online pieces of movement, and this is just like in you know, training or further education kind of platform. There's something so unique about connecting with other people and. When you do these different moving pieces as you really, it's almost like you're going back through.

You know you're applying the philosophy of yoga into what's happening in your life, or you're having this—this very personalized experience. So I think when you share that in person with one another. There's an amazing experience to be had. Online it was great, like he got to meet people on zoom, but we never really had that other than the initial kind of meeting. Great, it was very much just like with logon would do the work. You'd log off. You do your homework, and then you'd log on and see each other, so there wasn't much of like that. You didn't get to connect like during the lunch break. You would sit down and. And have this just to chat and get to know one another or more on a personal level.

You know, for someone who runs a training program and then people who are learning to teach people purely online. I say. A little bit of it's going to be hard for those teachers to translate that to an in-person experience then, so I see that as being a little bit of a. A funding concept, you know, the yoga world. It's great like Yoga studios are pretty much just likeable too. To pre-record to create content to set it all up, and then it's kind of like pressing play. Uhm? But I think for the people who are signing up, there's something. Valuable about being able to have that in-person experience then and teach people. As people in the room rather than then kind of teaching scenarios. Yeah, yeah. I think I think that's. Opened up, you know, health and wellness to a broader. In a community like now, you can do yoga or PT session from anywhere you want, and more and more people are getting into it, which is awesome. But then you still. Made that higher level of coaching? Yeah, and that one on one or personalized top. Yeah, but it's sort of like a final. I guess you get more and more people to come in at the top, and then they're funnelling down into a more personalized session. And I found that as well. 'cause with the information out there now like there's so much more information. Like, assign this to another guest we had the other day. Like you go back.

TEN YEARS AGO, when I was PT, you'd never talk to a client about breath or sleep or anything like that. It's just like, yeah, let's get in the gym and workout. But now it's we both for almost the first thing we go over our clients is how are you sleeping? How do you breathe? How much water do you drink? All that sort of stuff before we even get to the workouts. Uhm, so I feel like a lot more people are getting more educated on what's more important and, you know, coming in at the top of the funnel and then going down to a personalized session and again, like with the coaching thing. There's a lot more—opportunities for coaches. Now to learn and you know. Build on their knowledge base, yeah, but again, the same thing.

There's just that missing connection of communicating with people, and you sort of need that in person. Sort of interaction to be out of coach it. Yeah, I guess it would be people out there that could coach it just by zooming lots of stuff, but it's tough to learn. Yeah, even when we're talking, sometimes we're just talking through a microphone. We're getting no back and forth. Yes, it's very hard to communicate what we want to communicate because it's just a microphone. We're talking, and a huge part of you as you progress as a teacher. You know, the first class I remember teaching my first class and have it all planned and like you know we're going to do this amazing pose, and I'd like really. So set on how it was going to go like it. You know I've been practising it the whole sequence like I knew it we were doing it. And I think I had kind of five students who showed up someone one lady was pregnant. Someone had never done yoga. Uh, another one of the students had just recently had a hip replacement. And then we also had a lady who didn't understand a great deal of English. In one class in one class? Yeah, yeah. My first class was like OK, OK, so pretty much I just closed my book. Yeah yeah, that was useless, and then it was just teaching too. Students in the room and kind of and then like that informed a lot of my, you know, not to say that I like I love. Planning my classes like there's so much joy that I get out of that. And you know my playlist, and I'm looking at the body and how I want to prep it to open up and how I want to use strength and flex. And like all of these little like poses that go into it and then how much philosophy I want to thread through because I want people like I'm not there to entertain people and there to educate people, so I'm not there to kind of get on my mountain show all these fancy things that I can do.

I'm there for people to have that experience, so it's this. You know you need to take your time to plan your class and do that, but from that point. I like having all of these. You know what I wanted to teach and my intention behind the class, but also having this kind of openness to showing up and seeing who arrives. And then having the flexibility to be able to kind of. To teach to those people so. It's big. It's a big part of having to. You know you might learn how to teach these things from the I think there are apps you can get now that like planned new yoga sequence like it's yeah like you don't have to be a rocket science. You can get an app or like Google stuff, but I think that's what something is really. You can get from having a very. In-depth training, or like a great teacher and something that you're progressing as you teach, is also learning how to teach more to the individual rather than just like a blanket approach. Yeah, so that everyone has a unique experience, but yeah, that first class was like, OK, it was a lot of kind of the mind was like working overtime to figure out how I could accommodate all of those people in one class. Yeah, 100%, and that comes from experience, yeah? And I guess that comes about the industry as well. Like yeah, there are so many apps now where you can just get an app, and it will tell you if you want to work your chest. It will give you a chest workout, yeah, or you know nutrition apps? How much nutrition? Yeah, these things, yeah. And a lot of coaches would see that and go well. There's no room for coaches anymore, and I think that's the opposite. I think there's a need and room for better coaches. Yeah, and again experienced coaches that know how to teach, not entertain during the classes. For one on ones, yeah.

Cool, any other thoughts on that? I forgot alias that I wanted to ask when you were talking about practising three times a day was traditionally how many times a day would people practice yoga-like. Is that an average amount, or is that a lot? I'm not sure, like according to a lot of. The scriptures are like the philosophy of yoga. So the Syrian namaskar, which it is that sounds great. Rd Surya his son, and the number is to bow down to or to honour. So it was an honouring of the Sun. So it's usually practised in more of like the morning early morning or as the Sun rose is when you would practice. A man, then? As far as I can understand, it was probably more like a once, once a day kind of practice and then some lineages. Don't practice on Sundays. So yeah, again, kind of that that six-day a week, but only once a day. Yeah, yeah. Whereas when I was practising it was, you know, there were morning classes. There were lunchtime classes and evening classes, so some days I would depend on work schedule and snow conditions and that type of thing. I would end up going to to all three UM and and that was just because. Such a big part of it was what I thought the arsenal was kind of, you know, and there were points where. I would become. A slight competitive or sort of, you know it was. It was driven from the ego initially, and kind of like this more goal-orientated like just wanted to get the pose, and I thought that that was the idea of it and it. I ended up injuring my knee. Badly, and then the UN. I could do yin yoga in practice, which I ended up like, I love you now and. Since I did my training in because of, you know, but I would never have done that class like that was one that I used to avoid doing because it's pretty much just sitting and well. It's all seated work. And coming into poses and using lots of props and supporting the body, and just focusing on the breath and being in stillness. And for me, I was like. So boring, and I remember when I first had to go. Because you know, my knee was busted. It was just like—the number of thoughts that come up. I was just like this is overwhelming, and that's why there was such a big focus on the breath to kind of. Navigate that and then also navigate like it was. It's almost like taking a tiny microscope and type of scanning through your body and realizing little areas that you're holding tension without even knowing like your shoulders might be really up or in your jaw. It was just such a reflective practice that you kind of start to. Find awareness within stillness.

Yeah, it was pretty sure. Traditionally it's a once a day thing. I got a little addicted and then learned my lesson, injured myself and had to kind of reign it back a little. Yeah, imagine if everyone started their day like that now and like even just that whole-body scan thing. Yeah, before they like had their coffee got on social media. I feel like mindsets would be a lot different, or mental health would be a lot different if we carried that through. Like what happened? Why do we stop? Yeah. Doing that in the morning, it's crazy. Yeah, it's one of my yoga teachers who used to say as we would save. A lot of money on. I think she used to say therapy mainly. Yeah, if we practised yoga daily. Just because you know, we have this awareness of kind of the thoughts of rising and then kind of looking at them. But looking at them from. From, you know, almost the observer, like we're not allowing ourselves to be attached to them or to build them into stories. We're just seeing them as a thought and then kind of like moving to the next one like it's just like clouds in the sky. Yeah, yeah, it's not kind of getting stuck in our head and then going into that kind of down that rabbit hole. But more just, you know, taking a step back. And there is this so many. Beautiful practices that. We teach a great deal like through teacher training, but even just the practice of sadhana, which again is a traditional Sanskrit word. Kind of language in which a lot of the text and yoga practice originated, and that word can mean conscious spiritual action or practice.

It's starting your day, and they say that you should start your day with sadness, so it's kind of waking up, and the first thing you do pretty much sets the rhythm for your day so. Choosing to get on your phone and start scrolling, then that's going to like you're already in that kind of rat race of a constant bombardment, right? Whereas if you start your day by maybe like? Getting up and you know, come to my teacher. As a tiny little alter in a house, social light lighted candles and set an intention for the day. You don't have to do that. You might just get up, and you might just pause for a moment and like. Place your feet onto the floor when you get out of bed, feel that feed's connection, and feel it flowing up into the body. And you know, start your day that way. There are many minor aspects of threading these traditional practices and bringing them into a modern context.

Big. Shift and, I guess, create more fulfilment in our day-to-day lives rather than just waiting until we get a holiday or a weekend. Yeah, we enjoy ourselves. Yeah, but instead just kind of threading these little teachings into every moment. Yeah, it doesn't have to be like a 90 minute, no, no. And again, that's, you know, we associate the practice with like this 60-minute thing or these physical poses. But like I said, one conscious inhale and exhale. That's that's yoga. Yeah, it's better than not doing it at all. Yeah, yeah. No. Uhm, I guess we could wrap it up. We've been going over for a little over an hour. What're any final thoughts that you could give to someone? That's thinking about yoga. Or again, he has thought about it. Just one tip to sort of. Get him in there and think about what they should be doing.

I think. Like, find a. Find someone that just oozes passion for it and. And also, as I said, if one type doesn't like fit with you, it might even be. I've had some beautiful teachers, but sometimes the sound of their voices is not relaxing. It's not meant to pay. Sorry like actually just Cape. Going back and trying it and trying it and. And even you know the simple act of like sitting if you're sitting and just closing down your eyes and trying to take a big inhale and sweep the arms up overhead. And then as you exhale, taking the arms back down but allowing that movement to extend for the count of the breath. So really trying to let the breath determine the movement and just noticing what effect that has, like what kind of like a little switch gets. Flicked there, and you have this connection of mind, body and breath and. It can only go further when you start to have that like, so it's just these little steps, and it's just about consistency in trying different things. Again, it doesn't have to be a 60-minute practice; it can just be starting your day. With more. Oven intention or conscious kind of way? Yeah? Or just connecting into your breath, so don't be scared to. To give it a go and to find someone who. Who has a great deal of passion behind it? Why they're doing it, and that's where you'll find the gold. Suppose you find someone who's just there to show you how to do, hands down. It may not, you know.

It may not be a long-lasting relationship with the practice of yoga. So, in saying that, where can people find you? Yes, sorry. I'm we are on Kirby Rd. Uhm, we're just next to where the Helle pad is on the left-hand side at 21 Columbia Rd. Uhm, socials on socials. I'm sweet; I'm Milton. Pretty sure. Uhm, yeah, and we've got an online timetable on sweethomeyoga.com. So you can look us up and book into any of our classes. And yeah, reach out if you have any questions. I love talking yoga. I think I was more comfortable talking yoga than talking about myself. Yeah, I feel like it's—the same thing at the moment. Yeah, I was about to say that if anybody has any questions or is just starting on your yoga or breathing journey and wants to know more, reach out. That's the best thing you can do. Ask the questions, increase your knowledge base.