Manders Mindset
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
115: A Holistic Approach to Fertility Through Yoga & Meditation with Ashley Holmes
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This episode dives into the transformative power of mindfulness, yoga, and holistic approaches to fertility. The guest, a yoga teacher and fertility coach, shares her personal journey through infertility and how integrating ancient wisdom, meditation, and breathwork reshaped her life. The conversation provides actionable insights on balancing the mind, body, and spirit to overcome challenges, find inner peace, and support overall well-being.
Listeners will learn about the importance of shifting mindsets, addressing energetic blockages, and the role of practices like yoga and meditation in creating harmony. This episode is perfect for anyone navigating fertility struggles or seeking tools to bring greater alignment and calm to their lives.
Key Points:
- [2:10] - Growing up on a Canadian farm and early life influences.
- [6:45] - Moving to New Zealand at 18 and experiencing a cultural shift.
- [15:30] - The first introduction to yoga and its initial impact.
- [21:12] - Transitioning from a "victim mindset" to empowerment through yoga during infertility.
- [34:50] - The role of energetic blockages, particularly in the root and sacral chakras, in fertility struggles.
- [43:30] - How mindfulness practices, such as meditation and yoga, contribute to emotional and physical health.
- [52:15] - The importance of introducing mindfulness and yoga practices to children and schools.
To Connect with Amanda:
~ linktree.com/thebreathinggoddess
~ Instagram @thebreathinggoddess
~ TikTok @thebreathinggoddess
~ Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
~ Follow Manders Mindset on Instagram HERE!
~ Explore Amanda’s NEW podcast: Breathwork Magic(Available on all major platforms or you can listen on Apple!)
To Connect with Ashley:
Instagram
Facebook
Ashley's Holistic Fertility Facebook Group
If this episode resonated with you, don’t forget to rate, follow, and review the podcast. Sharing this episode can help spread the message of mindfulness and healing to those who need it most. Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for more conversations that inspire growth and wellness.
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of Amanda's Mindset, where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life. I'm your host, Amanda Busa, and I am here today with Ashley Holmes, and she is a holistic fertility coach dedicated to empower women on their fertility journey through the integration of mind, body and spirit, and I am so excited to be here with her today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to be here as well, and I'm looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker 2:So can you take us down memory lane a little bit? Tell us about your foundation bringing childhood family dynamic.
Speaker 3:I was the youngest of three, so I was the little one, I was the baby, and so I think that says a lot in itself of how I was raised. But it's also interesting how my path sort of found me, because, being the youngest, when I was 18, I moved from Canada to New Zealand as a nanny on exchange and had no experience with children previously, and then began working with children and then was struggling to have my own children, and so the irony was there of I love them, now I want to have them. Why can't I have them? And so really our path always leads us where we're meant to be, and so it's funny, in a way, to look back and connect the dots and to understand that everything unfolds for a reason and to really trust the journey. And to understand that everything unfolds for a reason and to really to trust the journey and to trust the process.
Speaker 2:Now you were the youngest. Did you have brother, sister?
Speaker 3:Yeah, older brother and older sister.
Speaker 2:How much older were they than you?
Speaker 3:My sister was four years older than me and my brother was seven years older than me, so a lot, quite a time gap.
Speaker 2:Were you close with them?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but there was that age gap.
Speaker 3:So, in a way, you always feel like you're left behind and you always want to catch up, and I see that with my own kids as well. Right, my twins are 11 and my young one is six, so you know he thinks he's 11 too. He wants to be doing everything that the 11-year-olds are doing.
Speaker 2:And your parents. What did your parents do for work when you were growing up?
Speaker 3:So I lived on a farm in Canada and initially my dad farmed and then when I was born, he started a seed company. So he sold seed worldwide and traveled all over the place and my mom, primarily, was home with us. So back in the days before, everybody was working all of the time.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. And now you said when you were 18, you left and went to New Zealand. Yes, was this something you had thought about, or did this just? How did this come about?
Speaker 3:I had applied to do something else and I hadn't been accepted, and then I was determined that I was going somewhere and doing something. And so then, also being Canadian and living in the coldest part of, or one of the coldest parts of the country, I wanted to go somewhere where I could have summer, back to summer and completely miss winter for a whole year. It was fantastic.
Speaker 2:I understand. I am in Massachusetts, so I understand. Yeah, I'll just say that I understand, wow, okay. So I want to backtrack a tad. I want to go into schooling a little bit. How was grade school, high school and all of that for you? Were you into school, into your academics?
Speaker 3:Yes, I was into my academics. I definitely excelled at writing and English more so than math, and so I did come back and go to school. But it was good I didn't take one year, I took two years, especially on the first year, and then I met all these Europeans as well. I went to Europe the next year, came home and saved some money and went to Europe, and glad I did it then, because now I have three children and I've not gone very far.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh. So you went to New Zealand when you were 18. Now, how was that experience?
Speaker 3:It was amazing. It was very much a culture shock. Initially. It was like stepping back in time because this was in 2000. So New Zealand, really, you know it's not like it is nowadays, with the internet and everything at the touch of our fingertips. It was very much like the movies, the music, the. Everything was just like stepping back in time and it was really actually quite refreshing to be stepping back in time right and to get away from the way that north america is and to experience, you know, christmas in new zealand for the first time, which is summer, which doesn't feel like christmas when you're used to growing up in the snow and the cold and you know it's like a lunch and go to the beach. It's just not a big deal. Like all the holidays are in North America. There's months and months of preparation and lead up and build up and all the rest of it.
Speaker 2:And you said you were a nanny and it was the first time you were woken with kids yes, I was a nanny so that was a learning curve, but it was a good learning curve.
Speaker 3:It was a sweet learning curve. I feel like I really fell in love with kids from that experience and just found so much joy and their pure innocence and their spontaneity and their ability to just be present, say whatever comes out of their mouth in the moment.
Speaker 2:That's so true. I've worked at quite a few daycares throughout my life and I love that too. They can just say what's on their mind. You know they don't really. They don't hold back because they have not been through so much of society's conditioning that like gets us to not, you know, to not say what we're truly thinking or feeling yes, absolutely 100.
Speaker 3:You know it's unfiltered and I love that, it's just pure and real and raw. And you know they can only experience one emotion at the moment. So if they're sad and if they're mad and if they're happy and something and bouncing up and down with excitement, you know it, there's no mask.
Speaker 2:Now. So when did yoga come into play for you? How did you discover that? How did you get down that realm?
Speaker 3:I actually did my first yoga class ever in New Zealand when I was 18. But a few years later my husband was like like what do you mean? You fall asleep at the end.
Speaker 3:I'm like I don't know I just fall asleep. It's great. He's like. You're not meant to fall asleep, are you? And this was me being naive and having no idea really what yoga was all about, while getting my foot in the door, and then later, when I returned to Canada and my twins were quite small, was when I started landing on my yoga mat more regularly. And you know, a $5 karma class initially got me hooked, but it was purely the energetics that kept me coming back, that made me dive deeper and begin to explore and study and really understand that I'm more than this physical body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you said you did yoga for the first time in New Zealand and it wasn't when you went, when you were 18.
Speaker 3:I went to New Zealand several times. I was very drawn to the place and kept going back. Okay. So I went three times and the last time was on a one-way ticket and met my husband on that flight. So I I didn't come home for a long time. You know, we lived there. We got married, you know no, but I met him. I met his sister because her partner at the time worked on the farm where I nannied, so very specific. And then I met him at her wedding when I went back on my one-way tickets and it all the rest is history. So they say, oh my God.
Speaker 2:That's so cute. Oh my gosh, I love that. Wow. So how long after you went to New Zealand the first time and then you went back, you did yoga there for the first time. Like when, approximately was that that?
Speaker 3:was probably 2000.
Speaker 2:Mentioned. You kind of just were on the mat, you didn't. We talked, and now we talked about this prior to like even recording, and now we talked about this prior to even recording. I remember about doing yoga, but not doing yoga in a certain way Like those different ways to approach yoga.
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely, I needed to get my toes more than just wet and so grateful every single day for a deeper understanding, to practice it in the way that I truly feel that it's meant to be practiced, and to understand the lasting effect and the impact that has on your entire state of being and your health and your wellness, and the way that you can show up for yourself day in and day out. And I think everybody should do yoga. In my opinion, and I feel like there is a yoga practice for every person and they just need to find that for themselves, and there's different ages and stages where certain practices might suit us best or for what we're experiencing in our lives or for what we're experiencing in our lives.
Speaker 2:Now, you mentioned you got back into yoga when your twins were born and you were doing it more mindfully.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I kept showing up and initially it was the hot yoga that drew me in the happy yoga. And you know the same poses, the the same, you know rinse and repeat, uh, every time. And that led me to do hot yoga teacher training. But that in and of itself was great, but that's not really what led to my own inner personal transformation and spiritual awakening. It really was studying with a former monk after that and really deeply embodying these practices and understanding the ancient wisdom behind them.
Speaker 2:Okay, and now? When and where did you study with the monk?
Speaker 3:Locally here where I live in cambridge, british columbia, and now I'm studying still with his guru in india. So I I am a forever student and a forever learner, because I feel like there's so much that I want to keep discovering and keep learning, and in doing so I'm able to help other people even more. It's really understanding our mind and the consciousness of our mind, from where we're struggling and where we're suffering, which so many people worldwide are, whether it's infertility or it's something else. We're all going to face obstacles and often we don't have the resources within us to navigate those with much ease.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what would you say is the first step to discovering some resources?
Speaker 3:I think the first step is to be curious, to be open-minded and to see what else is available to us, because all of these modalities are available to us and they all offer so much healing and possibility for us to be able to tap into. If you're feeling stuck and you're frustrated with where you're at and you can notice that you keep repeating the same cycles over and things keep showing up for you, then perhaps it's time to choose a different path and a different way forward.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense. So now can you take us down a little bit about your fertility journey, your pregnancy journey and that process?
Speaker 3:Definitely.
Speaker 3:Over a decade ago, back in Canada, my husband and I were trying to conceive and it wasn't happening, and I was in denial because I was still in my late 20s and thought you know, I'm young, I'm healthy that point in time, thinking the only way that we would be able to was to go to a fertility clinic.
Speaker 3:And, yes, we were blessed with twins eventually. But the emotional and mental toll that took on me meant that it wasn't something I was ever willing to go and do ever again. And so I walked away from that experience, thinking I couldn't have more children on my own and didn't have any answers for my unexplained infertility from the doctors. And I feel like I found my own answers. I was able to find those when I found the monk, and when the student is ready, the teacher appears. You know I didn't land on my yoga mat with that goal in mind, but that is what helped to heal me and to bring life, more life, into our family in a way that felt in alignment with mind, body and spirit okay, and now were you doing yoga the the first time around when you were trying to get pregnant?
Speaker 2:no, I was not, not at all at all. Oh, wow, okay, okay, that's something to notice, you know, like that? No, just that you didn't have, even though you were going to the fertility clinic like you weren't doing any of the yoga. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:I wasn't doing any of the yoga.
Speaker 3:I was going to the gym, but I wasn't doing the yoga, and I think that there is really not enough to be said for how we live our lives, how we think we need to be healthy, and it's all yang and there's no yin, there's no balance.
Speaker 3:We're bringing the same masculine energy into everything we're doing, including trying to conceive, and it is not the easiest route to get there, because we need to have balance, we need to embrace the divine and the feminine within us, and we need to realize that the way to achieve our goals is in the present moment and to stop focusing so much on the baby and to focus on the inner work that we can be doing, and to shift that locus of control from external to internal, because I was outsourcing all of my power to the medical experts and thinking if they can't help me, then we're not going to have any children, and it's simply not the truth, and so that was my own discovery and my own learning, and so I really just want to empower women to know that, to focus on what you can do for yourself on this journey and to really surrender and let go of the rest.
Speaker 3:You know, some things you have control over and other things you don't. But there's a lot within us that we can, and it starts in our mind no, that's so true.
Speaker 2:I love how you said. It starts in our mind. It makes a lot of sense, you know. That's so fascinating to me, though, that you had such a different experience from one to the other.
Speaker 3:I will dive even deeper into that of the mindset. The first time around was very much a victim mindset, very much a lot of stress, a lot of struggle, which led to a high-risk pregnancy, an emergency C-section, a longer postpartum recovery and, on the flip side, when I conceived, naturally I was in the middle of prana meditation training. I had a Buddha baby in my belly. I was able to go hiking when my water broke, I was able to have a VBAC and be back at baby and me yoga 10 days later. So I was deemed geriatric at the time and yet it was a night and day difference and I felt a thousand times better wow, I really like how you mentioned as well about the yin and the yang.
Speaker 2:You know like it's got to be both with everything. You know we can't approach it all with just this masculine energy. You know like it's great and it helps with the goals, but there's got to be that fluidity, like the feminine, like you know what I mean, like the and even, as you mentioned goals, you know like the masculine, with this structure in this routine, and like this is how it has to be. And you know like, even like when you mentioned like if medical said, like this it's not going to happen, like not necessarily. You know what I mean. Like the case.
Speaker 3:No, I truly believe that nothing is set in stone.
Speaker 3:It just makes you be conscious and aware of the thoughts that you think and the things that you say and the vibration and the energy that you're putting out into the world.
Speaker 3:And to be aware and conscious of that because you're either consciously or unconsciously creating your reality. And that was a big light bulb moment for me on my mind and I was like wait a minute. It gave me so much pause of realizing that I had unconsciously been creating the reality that I didn't desire. But that also meant I could consciously create the reality I did desire. And that was a big wake up call to me to be conscious, to be aware, to stay present as much as possible yes, we all have, you know, thoughts that arise throughout the day but to pay attention and to notice and catch myself when I was thinking about thoughts that didn't serve me and to consciously choose and know that a thought can just be a thought and I don't need to amplify it with an emotion and a feeling behind it and have that energetically land in my body and stay stuck in that place.
Speaker 2:I like that. You said that a thought can just be a thought. Okay, so what did you?
Speaker 3:I began to learn through meditation that I can be a witness to my thoughts. I can just allow them to pass, I don't need to attach to them, and it really just gives you this space in which to see yourself, to see your life, to have a different perspective of not just like binoculars on, but really it is bird's eye view of everything that is unfolding in front of you.
Speaker 2:So now, when you started to realize that a thought can just be a thought, what did you start to do differently with these thoughts that you'd have, especially if they were negative?
Speaker 3:I began to notice, especially when I was going unconscious during my day. So it would be doing laundry. I don't know why, but my thoughts would always be negative and thoughts would be doing laundry. I don't know why, but my thoughts would always be negative and thoughts would be looping. It was beginning to realize these habits and patterns and to stop, to pause, to ask myself is that the truth or is that just the story that I have been telling myself for the past however many weeks?
Speaker 3:And to rewire that thought and to choose a different thought that serves me better in the moment, and realize that I'm stuck, I'm on the soup again. This is, you know, the hamster that keeps going round and around, and that I can get off that hamster wheel and choose a different thought pattern, choose something else. You know, I truly believe that in every moment, we always have a choice and it's up to us what we choose, and we can be doing that consciously or unconsciously. I would prefer to be doing as many things day in and day out as I can, consciously, versus unconsciously.
Speaker 2:Now, you mentioned meditation a few times and how that's helped you with pausing. Do you have any tips for anybody when it comes to meditating.
Speaker 3:I have so many tips for everybody, because I truly feel like we don't always allow ourselves to experience it, because we have an expectation of what it's supposed to be like look like, feel like, and therefore we think that we're not doing it right and we give up. And so to realize for one that it is a practice, it is something we can cultivate, that taking a conscious breath right now, in through your nose and out through your nose, is a meditation in and of itself. Let go of all of the expectations of having to do it perfectly or having to empty the mind. You're not going to empty your mind. You're going to be aware of the thoughts that are drifting through your mind. But to know that we have 60 to 80 thoughts a day and that the majority of those often are negative, so you can give yourself some grace when you realize that that perhaps all of these expectations that you have upon yourself are really hindering you and you're just beating yourself up for no reason.
Speaker 3:And the best meditation that anybody can do and I recommend is a yoga nidra meditation, which is like a yogic sleep, and so 20 minutes of yoga nidra is equivalent to four hours of sleep. So if you're a stressed entrepreneur, you're trying to conceive, you're sleep deprived because you're a new mom. That is the perfect reset for your nervous system, and your subconscious mind is going to take what it needs from the practice and apply it to you. Practice and apply it to you, and so it works on all five sheaths of your body, and so it is my favorite and the one that I recommend the most, because anybody can do it. You cannot do it wrong.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into fertility coaching? When did you go down that route?
Speaker 3:I decided to go down that route during the pandemic, when I was at home with my little one and knowing that he truly wouldn't be here if I hadn't embodied all of this, and so I just had this intuitive inner calling to follow this nudge and to offer this to women, because I know that so many women are struggling and I know also this is not what the medical world is offering.
Speaker 3:Alongside of it, and without addressing or taking a holistic approach, you're not dealing with the whole person. And you can do and address the physical as much as you want, but if you're leaving the rest, you're not bringing everything to the table, and so a holistic approach has zero side effects and only positive benefits. So I know that every single person that I work with is better off than when they first met me, and so that gives me so much peace, knowing that they are, in a way, better place, even if there isn't a baby yet, than when they started, because often they're finding me feeling very depleted, very drained, very frustrated, very hopeless and not knowing what else, but knowing there has to be something else available to them because what they've tried isn't working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I love how you mentioned it's more than just the physical, you know like, and in so many health instances, like doctors and medical professionals are looking at the physical ailments and it's none of this. Other aspects, you know, and I think there's so much more to that. You know like they want to throw a pill at everything and it's like it doesn't, even if it helps. There are so many side effects to things like that.
Speaker 2:You know like we even talked off air before, like I don't have any kids and I haven't tried to get pregnant, so I don't know if I'm photolone up, but it's like I dealt with migraines and everybody's solution was all these different medications and at one point I was fainting from them, like in public places, and it was like pretty traumatizing. Like I was at a public mall and luckily I was with people I knew, but I fainted and had no recollection of it. And it wasn't until I changed my diet and started moving more. I was walking daily, I was meditating. I don't have these migraines anymore. I haven't had them in over a year and it's like I went through over six different medications, you know, and experienced an immense amount of different side effects. You know, and that's from something as simple as migraines.
Speaker 3:Amount of different side effects, you know, and that's from something as simple as migraines. It's always the option to medicate will always be there. But I really truly want people to get to the root cause, because even if you get pregnant once, it doesn't mean you're not going to suffer with secondary infertility. You haven't actually addressed the root, even if you've medicated your way there For unexplained infertility. You haven't actually addressed the root, even if you've medicated your way there for unexplained infertility.
Speaker 3:Yet I found my own answers because I understood that it was one, my mindset and the energy that I was bringing to it. It was my energetic blockages and things that I had not healed from in my past, and that I was actually the creator of my reality, and so if I was struggling and suffering, I had to take responsibility for that and learn how to deal with and navigate the uncomfortable. Sometimes it is the inner calling on this fertility journey is to dive deeper and to understand our bodies better and to understand ourselves better, because often we're out of tune and under touch with our cycles and our nourishment and our stress and all of these things really truly matter. I was completely disconnected the first time around in mind, body and spirit and I was trying to help myself, but I couldn't find what I was looking for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think that's a big key is, like you mentioned, understanding ourselves better, when I think getting to the root of that is going to help with everything, no matter what it is you're trying to do, if you understand yourself better, like the root cause of it. You mentioned energetic blockages. Do you mind delving into like some of what you noticed was an energetic blockage for you?
Speaker 3:Definitely so. Your energetic body is comprised of your chakras, and so a lot of the work I do is with the root chakra and with the sacral chakra, because at your root, that is your safety, your security, and so, even though I'm saying these things and you may be thinking, I feel safe, I feel secure, you know, with your partner, with where you live, perhaps your job stability, those types of things. Perhaps your nervous system doesn't feel that way and you can do everything under the sun, but if your nervous system is not feeling safe and secure, then it's going to be very hard for you to achieve what you desire in your life. Working with the nervous system is your reproductive organs are housed in your sacral chakra, and this is where your emotions and your creativity and your sensuality and those energies are housed as well. If you are struggling to conceive, these energies are not in balance, because if they were in balance, then you would be conceiving without an issue.
Speaker 3:It's not just this, there's the nourishment piece to it as well, and this isn't a one-size-fits-all or a one-quick-easy answer. It isn't. But when you address all of these things and you look at all of these aspects of yourself, when you address all of these things and you look at all of these aspects of yourself, then you really start to come back to and remember your wholeness, because so many people fill out their forms saying I feel broken, I need fixing. And it's looking at the narrative within your mind and the conversation that you're having internally with yourself as you're going through this, because most people aren't having a positive self-esteem when they're going through this because this is affecting them negatively. It's affecting how they feel as a woman, as a wife, as a daughter, and the list goes on and on, and so there's all sorts of stress and pressure that we're putting on ourselves that we're putting on ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3:How would you say breathing ties into that? Breathing ties into that in a big way, because when we're stressed we're only breathing shallowly, we're not breathing into our belly and, as much as society says, we are supposed to walk around all day with our belly button pulled to our spine. We are not. We are meant to breathe into and fully and completely into our bellies and they are not meant to be sucked in and tucked in tight to our spine the whole entire day, the whole entire waking hours, right, and the way that we're living isn't often in alignment with what serves us best. And so when we're not breathing fully, deeply, completely, when we're not exhaling all this stagnant energy that is stuck inside of us, then it's not helping us, it's hindering us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think so many people don't even realize that they are not even breathing fully, that they are holding their breath.
Speaker 3:I know for myself.
Speaker 3:I thought I was when I actually wasn't, so I had done my hot yoga training, still was not breathing properly.
Speaker 3:I didn't feel like I actually took my first breath till I was 36 years old, when I was pregnant, outside in a labyrinth, barefoot and we were doing asylum practice and I was pregnant and I couldn't keep up. I couldn't keep pace and I had to slow down and I had to listen to my body and I had to become my own Indian teacher because I couldn't go from external guidance anymore, I had to take my own internal guidance. And that's truly when I feel like I took my first conscious breath, because I finally listened to myself. And as much and as many times in yoga classes as the teachers say move with your breath, follow your breath and all the rest of it, I thought I was and I never was. It was all mechanical, it was all coming from a place of ego, and so I think it's so important to understand and find out and discover these things for yourself, because often the ego saying yeah, I'm doing it and you're checking the box, but you may not be doing it.
Speaker 2:So how can people know if they're not really doing it?
Speaker 3:I would say Are they in tune and are they listening? And are they moving and listening to their body, or is it coming from outside of them? And can you relax the effort into ease when you're breathing? Right? This shouldn't be forced. This shouldn't be unless you're doing a specific pranayama practice. This should be easeful, it should be natural. It should be like a ribbon floating in the breeze. This shouldn't be something that is either forceful or very faint, either right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think every person needs to truly find that for themselves and discover that for themselves and to realize what their capacity is, because often, even if you do box breathing and you're breathing in for four and you're holding it for four, and you're exhaling for four and you're holding it for four, you can probably do more and build up to more than what you even think is possible.
Speaker 2:By like mastering your own mind, by like mastering the internal.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. I think so often, even in yoga poses, you're thinking in your mind I've done this a million times and then you only go so far and you don't even see Perhaps you could go further, or if perhaps more is available to you, because you just unconsciously do it the same way, to the same degree that you've always done it. And so it's really important to not always do the same side first and to notice how you sit cross-legged the same way all the time and how you fold your arms and how you just unconsciously go about your day and all the things that you do, and begin to notice and begin to bring more alignment into your whole state of being more alignment into your whole state of being.
Speaker 2:Can you share with us some of the ancient wisdom practice you were chatting about earlier? You mentioned ancient wisdom practices a few times.
Speaker 3:Definitely there's many, but a lot of what I offer and what I teach it comes from the Vedas, and so the sister science to yoga is Ayurveda.
Speaker 3:So Ayurveda is the science of life and the natural feeling of the mind and body together. So I offer that to my clients so that they understand their inborn constitution and they can work with their body and instead of doing the fads, trends, diets that don't necessarily serve them. There's a lot of information out there. It's not all there, shane, I promise you that, especially when you don't understand and aren't working with your specific constitution, and so there's a lot of alignment that needs to happen. When you understand your constitution, you know you do breathing practices that are in alignment with that, you eat according and as best suited to that as possible, because that's what your body needs to feel its optimal best, and it includes things like daily rituals and self-massage and so many things that we overlook and don't prioritize as important but truly are. Our digestion is a huge key. Digestion is a huge key. Our tongue is a huge key in the state of health that is happening internally inside of us.
Speaker 2:So now, when someone comes, a client comes and works with you, what do you first take them through.
Speaker 3:And what is the first step? The first step is to write down and look at where they're at, to assess where they're at when they're coming to me and then to create the path forward. And so it's taking simple, mindful steps forward to implement these things. The shifts and changes are noticed quite quickly, quite astronomically, of brain fog clearing that comes with having so much on their plate and so much in their mind from appointments and acupuncture and all of these things that they're trying to do to actually be in a better state and place of being. And food tasting better is a big one that people have said because our palate has adjusted to all of these things that have been added to our foods and once we actually start to eat the foods that are better suited for us, then our taste buds reawaken. It's like your whole body is reawakening to what serves it best.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have heard of a man named Jay.
Speaker 2:Shetty. Yes, I have heard of a man named Jay Shetty, so he's got a podcast called On Purpose. He ends it with two segments and I incorporated his two segments into my podcast. First segment is called the Many Sides to Us and there's five questions. They need to be answered with one word each. Cool, okay. First question is what is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time would use to describe you as?
Speaker 3:Compassionate.
Speaker 2:What is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you as Loving? What is one word you'd use to describe yourself Peaceful? What is one word that if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset would use to describe you as Rain Authenticity? Second segment is the final five, and these can be answered in up to a sentence. What?
Speaker 3:is the best advice you've heard or received From my mentor. You're not only the problem, but you're also the answer to the solution. So, anything you're facing, you're not only the problem, but you're also the answer.
Speaker 2:So it's within you. Okay, what is the worst advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:To do your business a certain way, because that's how everybody else is doing it.
Speaker 2:Okay, what is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
Speaker 3:I do not value television and media at all.
Speaker 2:If you could describe what you would want your legacy to be, as if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 3:As if someone was reading it. What would you want it to say?
Speaker 2:I would want it to say happiness, health and healing is in our own hands, always. If you could create one law in the world, that everyone had to follow.
Speaker 3:what would it be? And I want to know why be, and I want to know why I would actually make it a law that schools need to teach yoga and meditation, because I feel like a lot of the behavior issues that are prevalent could be helped by children learning these things at a younger age in a way that is developmentally appropriate for them.
Speaker 2:I really like that answer. No, I so agree. I think even the meditation could really help. Teenagers now have such mental health issues. We're seeing such a rise in it Not that it hasn't always been a thing, but I don't have kids, but my younger sister is 18 and, like when she was going through high school, like some of the mental health stuff is crazy, you know, and it's not talked about. There's not yoga, there's not meditation, there's nothing. There is nothing, even of the sort.
Speaker 3:I really feel like resources need to be given to parents and to children and that we truly need to look at the way that we're living. But we have to lead by example. You know I don't value TV and media because I've stopped paying attention to them and putting energy into things that are draining and depleting and don't uplift and elevate me. And how many people are just zoned out and not present and mindful in their day? And where has that gone? And where's the connection that should be happening within our homes?
Speaker 2:What do you think the first step is to getting somewhere with all of that?
Speaker 3:I think for myself, one of those steps has been that I volunteered at my kids' local school to do yoga with the kids in the classes because that's something that I can do and I'm happy to do and I want to do because I know that and have been told and thanked and had such gratitude from these kids because it's not something that's in their world and I don't in any way, shape or form, make my kids do these things. But they'll hop into a yoga pose or they'll say, oh, if and when they feel like it in all sorts of random places and I love it. But I don't ever want it to be something that is forced or isn't coming from them, because it's not going to be long lasting and it's not going to have the effect that it could and should and I would want it to have.
Speaker 2:That's awesome that you're offering it in schools. I love that. I really do. That's amazing. You know, the first time I ever actually did yoga myself, I was in high school, I was a freshman and it was actually in PE. They had the yoga studio in the town randomly came and put on yoga for PE for everybody that day.
Speaker 2:Like, gym wasn't an option, we just did a yoga class and I loved it. I loved it so much. It was the and it's funny because I've reconnected with the owner recently it was the only time they ever did that. She's never she. Yeah, it was like a real that I happened to get to do it, but it was so amazing, you know. Like, even if it's not something that's like an all the time thing, and even, like you mentioned, not forcing it, like I think having the option is really beneficial. You know, like, granted that there were boys and there were plenty, it was mainly the guys that didn't really enjoy it, that didn't necessarily want to do it, but it's like having that as an option to do was so beneficial, you know.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I've done it outside when I can, and like barefoot on the grass, to be able to bring that to a kid who probably really needs it, because to get to that state in place so quickly is just, you know, and to know that there's so much more going on for them internally than just these poses and just moving through these forms and shapes. And that is a gift to see and be able to give that. Because when I used to teach in person and not all online, you know, you could see in Shavasana sometimes people would take almost the entire time before they were able to relax, before they were actually able to let go. And I think we just need to be conscious and aware of the stressed out lives we're living and take these moments and prioritize these moments for ourselves, because we can't continually stay in this chronic state of stress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's so true. Do you got any suggestions? Do you got any suggestions? Just, personally, I'm curious, like for the world in general to get mindfulness practices offered to younger people. Like I'm just I'm curious, it's something that I really think would really benefit.
Speaker 3:I think my kids have had some great teachers over the year who have incorporated things like that during the day.
Speaker 3:You know, my kids before I even knew and had practiced much kundalini yoga.
Speaker 3:They were doing satana ma, satana ma with their teacher and I was very impressed when I came to find out and to understand that obviously she practiced that and she brought it into the classroom but she didn't make it a big thing. But I think that the little mindful moments that you can take to perhaps turn out the lights to, you know, depending on the age of the kids, to have one hand on their heart, one hand on their belly, to say something that they actually meaningfully are grateful for in the moment, to actually connect them to the body, to ground them, I think there can be so much energy right, and it can just be all up here and all in our heads. So if we can bring that down and help to ground kids more and sometimes kids may not have the best home life, they may not have that grounding support at home. So if they can have sort of an anchor at school or people that they know that they can go to, for that is really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is so true. I like how you mentioned that we don't know what the kids are going home to. You know, and that's something like. As I mentioned, I worked at day cares and, granted, I was never like an actual teacher, but that's something we talked about with the little kids, like you, don't know exactly what home life is like, so giving them the option to have mindfulness relaxation, like times for that, I think, is key. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you speaking with me.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I've enjoyed this conversation and I feel like we have really touched on so many important aspects.
Speaker 2:I know we really did. And where can listeners connect with you?
Speaker 3:You can connect with me and you are more than welcome to join my Holistic Fertility Coach Facebook group to save sacred space, to land in and be in and ask questions and be supported by people who are in the same space and place as you, because no one should be suffering alone and know that you're not alone and there are many people that are willing and able to help you and, whether it's with your mind or your body or your spirit, to really take that time, day in and day out, to consciously do something for your mind, body and spirit. And what that looks like for you can be absolutely personalized, but I think, to put that at the forefront, Awesome, and I will link that in the show notes.
Speaker 2:And do you have any final words for the listeners? No pressure, I do just like to give it back to the guest.
Speaker 3:I would just love to say that one of my favorite quotes and really, if you find me on any social media, you will see that my logo is a baby coming out of a lotus flower and it really stems from the quote no mud, no lotus that my logo is a baby coming out of a lotus flower and it really stems from the quote no mud, no lotus. And so if you're in the dark, if you're in the thick of it and you think there's no light, to just know that everything is unfolding as it is meant to and that you are exactly where you are meant to be, even if it doesn't feel like it in this moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Thank you, amanda, and thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Amanda's Mind. In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm booting for you and you got this, as always. If you enjoyed the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a 5 star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset. Shift away from shifting your life. Thanks guys, until next time.
