 The sun salutations or sri namaskar are the basis of all yoga asana. It is the ability to move the body in a purposeful way to wake up the blood, to wake up the body heat, in order to move energy. The grandfather of modern-day yoga, Krishmacharya once wrote, Where is the conflict when truth is known? Where is the disease when the mind is clear? Where is death when the breath is controlled? Therefore surrender to yoga. There is also an ancient teaching that says no one is wise by birth for wisdom results from one's efforts. As someone who has practiced yoga for 17 years now, I will tell you the gifts that you will learn about yourself and about the world at large are infinite. When you start to dig deep inside the majesty of your own body. In this episode Shanti and I will be talking about the journey through the sun salutations, the journey through the body, the mysticism of the body and the original conspiracy theorist, the yogis. Hello everybody. I know we're filming this on Saturday, but this is going to be airing on Sunday. So happy Sunday, fun day appropriately enough. This is Sunday is the halfway point of this. Can you believe it's already been 30 days Shanti of the 60-day shadow work challenge? It's insane. It's insane. It's insane. And I'm also loving, you know, checking on the group and it's really good to see how everyone is just so cool with each other. It's lovely. Absolutely. We got guys in the group now Shanti. We have men in there like they're so active in the group of Mark, Steve. Like these guys are like kicking it and killing it in the group and it's just so awesome. I know I feel bad because those of us who run channels, we don't have, you know, we're constantly filming. And so I'm so grateful to Jan and to Sal. We have some really great moderators in there that are some of our viewers that have really, I was telling Sal and Jan last week, like they are the reason why that group is still running because they are really, really taking control of like really helping keeping the chat going. And it's just awesome, guys, make sure if you're not in that signal group and you want some friends and you need support because shadow work can be hard. The work can be very draining sometimes when you're a human being. We're working through your nervous system. And so sometimes it helps to know that you're not alone. And sometimes it helps to know that it's okay to have days where you're sad and it's okay to have days where where you you know, we have expectation, we have reality. And sometimes the expectation is not the reality. And so it's it's it's nice to have friends around the world that can help and hold your hand and just give you virtual hugs. And so it is I think it's appropriate. We're doing this video that have waypoint because we're going to be talking about the loveliest some salutations and the challenge. I was telling Shanti last night, I went through I have I have like the hoodles of books and I went through and found some of my older books that I bought in India years ago. And this is one of them called Help, Healing and Beyond. I will put a link to it in the description box. It was written by Desik Achar, who was Krishmacharya's son. Krishmacharya, who's the man in the picture. He was the man that's responsible for making yoga accessible to people outside of India. And I'm going to read a quote from but I just wanted to show this quick picture, you guys, this really old picture of these students and this kid right here who's in a posture called Kaputasana. Krishmacharya standing on top of this deep back then that is Guruji. That is my teacher. That's my boyfriend's teacher was this little kid right here who's now passed away. But he passed away at like 98, but that was a boy and that's Krishmacharya, his teacher. And that's the back bend I was in where I punched Tim Feldman coming out of that back bend when I got pulled three years ago, the only person I've ever punched coming out of that back bend. But I wanted to go and read this quote. I thought this was beautiful. This is in the introduction where Desik Achar is writing about his father and the many definitions that his father gave for yoga. And one of this, he goes, yoga means arriving at a place we have not been before this. This Krishmacharya interpreted literally human potential is limitless in its capacity for clarity and comprehension and change. And I loved that that human that Krishmacharya believed that human potential is limitless in its capacity for clarity, comprehension and change. It's going into places we have not been before. And I just love that. My teacher used to, you know, the base word of yoga means to you, but if we go deeper into that, in order to find union between everything, there has to be mental focus and mental clarity, which is one of the definitions of meditation is to find that that one pointed focus. And that's and we use the asana. So for those who are very new to the yoga practice, you know, the asana, the postures that you see so famously see are a huge part of the practice, but they're not the meaning of the practice. It's a tool. And I always tell my students, if you're using the postures as a way to feed the ego, you're not doing yoga, but if you're using the postures as a way to know yourself, to work through yourself, to use your body to reveal things to you, that's yoga. And it starts with the sun salutations. Sun salutations are the birthplace of all the yoga asana, of everything. If that is a complete practice in itself, it's just the sun salutations. And that I'll tell you what, it totally is a complete practice. You know, I must say sorry to interrupt you, but just on that point, it was just like in the years gone by as well. You know, if I've been able to only have 20 minutes or half an hour. I would literally go and do 12 sun salutations. And that was it, you know, because it really is an amazing way just to get the energy flowing through the body. It's 12 postures all rolled into one, if you will. So you're getting bending, stretching, twisting, all of these things, you know, flexing, and that's exactly what your body needs. You know, improve your circulation, your breath, of course, is your fuel. Releases the blockages with the bending, twisting, stretching, breathing, especially. The breathing is amazing because the breathing is uplifting, and especially with the sun salutations, because it's one breath, one movement. So it's like, yes. And I want to she's I loved it. You brought in a lot about that because we learn. So this is I'm just pulling this up quickly. This is from one of our manuals in the Ashtanga practice. We start every single whether you're doing primary, serious, I can see whatever series you're doing, you everybody starts with the sun salutations and Shanti's right. And I tell my students that if you only have 15 minutes, you just do the sun salutations. Like that is the bare bones of everything you need. My my original teacher, David Grieg, would say like, if you were going off to a deserted island and you could only bring five yoga postures with you, that's all you could bring. You're not going to be bringing the fancy postures. You're going to bring the foundational postures, because that's where it's juicy. And so we have this in our manuals with with our with our students. And yes. And what I tell my students, so yeah, movement, it's we use the word vinyasa a lot. And what the word vinyasa means is a choreographed movement with breath. So what on purpose movement with breath. So like the first position of Surya Namaskar, a we are bringing the hands together above your head. That's the achum inhale. So you're inhaling as you're lifting the arms up and then you're exhaling to exhale as you fold. And that starts to work with the bundas really, which then gets the blood moving. And the blood is that beautiful expression of your soul and your spirit. And like when you're holding downward facing dog for five breaths, I tell my students all the time, you know, downward facing dog in itself is a variation of a handstand. So you're pressing in. You're starting to really press into the hands and feel the fingers pressing into the floor as the arms grow and protract and the more the body heats up, the more you're going to feel the body unstick. You're going to feel the ribs start to move. You're going to start to feel as the heels are grounding down to the floor. I don't care. I know Shanti doesn't care. If your heels ever touch the floor, it's not about that. It's about the pushing down to allow that energy to move through the hamstrings, to move into the belly. Well, a lot of people don't know. I find in my classes that forward folding any type of forward fold, people often think, oh, my God, it's about the hamstrings. So that's secondary. The main purpose of forward folding is your digestive system is being able to move the colon and allow the blood to flow through. And every time you go upside down, especially in like a downward facing dog, you're actually resting the organs upside down to there's so much intelligence behind just the sun side. I always tell my students, literally, we could probably teach like a three hour workshop just on everything that's happening in this, in this. And so and so, yes, I'm so, I'm so excited. I guess this is something that's real. And this was all your idea, Shanti, was to do this, to do a 21 day sun salutation challenge towards the middle of the challenge, the shadow work challenge. So what gave you this? Shanti, what was like when you wake up, you're like, this would be a really good idea. I love yoga, but, you know, for me, I'm not a purist in anything I do. So anyone will know that about me. It's like God came, you know, when I came down to us, God said to me, gave me this beautiful array of gems and say, how would you like to worship or honor me in this life? And I'm going, only one way, I'm just kidding. So, you know, for me, I really find the best way that I work, have worked in my life. And I've also been extremely hard on myself. I'm very competitive with myself. I come from a family of six. I grew up having to compete for my, for my role in the family. So I would compete, you know? And of course, I grew up playing competitive sport. So it was really great, you know, to, when I started doing yoga many years ago, just to understand how to relax, you know, for me, it was really just about bringing the mind, body complex into alignment. So the breathing with the yoga, for me, is amazing because it's just calming the mind down. It calms everything down. And I love to do things in a structured way. It's like, you know, when I did my teacher training in India, in the Shivananda lineage, you know, and I mean, I was 47 or so when I went to where for my teacher training, I only started doing yoga when I was 45, six, that was when I started doing yoga, you know? So for, then I love to teach beginners and I love to take things and I love to break them down in bite size chunks. It's like, you know, my mission in this life, I was born with this amazing gift where I understand things. I can see it clearly, but very few others could. So it was like, I have to take something very intangible or very abstract and turn it into something tangible. So over the years, I've done that with my son, kids stuff. I've done that with my workshops, you know, my alchemy courses, the whole energy, we don't see energy. We sure as heck feel it though, you know, so it was that yoga for me was the last step of integrating all of that into my body. So for me, yoga was really the integrative, is that the right word? Yes. Practice of everything that I had understood physically. So for me, yoga is really an enjoyment. It is such a beautiful pleasure. It is, it is the stretching. I love to stretch and I know you're not a great Yin fan, but I will definitely say Yin is the complement to Yang. So Yang is the masculine. And if you're only doing masculine style yoga, you're not getting the Yin in as well. Oh, that's not a good word, Sange. We do deep stretches in our Sange, yeah. Exactly. We get really sweaty and then we throw our legs in. We get real hot and sweaty, I like that. And it is, sweating is good. I'm strong, I love a strong practice. But I want to tell you as well with the Yin, the stretching, you're sitting in a position, a stretching position for up to five minutes. Now, I want to tell you, when you're in that position, it's the subtle body. That's really where you learn how to calm your nerves. That's where you learn. It's actually more challenging than Yang in the sense that you have to calm your mind down. It's amazing when you're sitting in a position for such a long time. And I mean, even if it's just a forward bend, I mean, I'm good at forward bends. But let me tell you, when I'm sitting in a forward bend for five minutes, that last minute, especially, I mean, the first three of lists, right? And then I start getting, OK, where? And then you start feeling. And that's it creates this nervial fluid between the joints. It brings in that feminine, gentle, supportive to the body. It really is an amazing practice to do. So I like to combine my practices, which is why I then took my beginner practice that I learned when I was in India. And I actually broke it down into segments of eight weeks. So not only do I bring in the 12 original postures of the yoga practice, the core postures, which is what you learn in your 500 hours. But you're also bringing in, you know, then I was bringing in my teachings, you know, when that aligns to that look, look, look. So it was really amazing, as well as the sound. So I really like to break things down. And I have an idea about things like and when it was like, wow, I want to do this a week of thirty six, a week of seventy two, a week of 108. And as I was doing it in my first thirty six on day three or four, I remember. OK, on day three or four, I remember. Yeah, on day three or four, I remember that that I then got the idea that I actually wanted to do that with my group of students as well, you know, so to do it. And then obviously just looking at the numbers because the number thirty six, you see, if you look at three plus six is nine, seven plus two is nine. And one, one plus eight is nine. Nine is the cycle of completion. OK, it's the end of a cycle. Cycle is being the zero, zero, zero running around. And boom, then the one is the new beginning that has the same. And new a new a new a new maroli numerical value as zero. If you look at it, nine plus seven is 16, six and one is seven. Right. Zero plus seven is seven. So we've got a look. And so but the number three plus six has a different vibration to seven plus two. So three plus six is all about the thirty six. And that's why the first week we bring your intentions to the four. Your prayers, your desires. Do you want a life that has more meaning? Are you trying to resolve relationships? Are you trying to break away from something? Do you want something more structured in your life? Do you are you looking for love? I don't know. Whatever it is that's in your in your space, then you will obviously know what it is. But for the first week of thirty six, there might be more than one thing, you know, set your intention. And because at the beginning of every practice, you set your intention, right, because yoga is a prayer through through your body to the divine. So you set your intention. You then, you know, and then what I found was I'm not on my fourth cycle. I'm I think tomorrow is tomorrow is my last day of thirty six on my fourth cycle. So what happens then is is is I have found that. Let's say I set my intention for something just to figure it out. Right. Often it dissolves within that first practice. I'll get my answers then, you know, but then I found that with things. So I said the intention was OK, cool. That's that's clarified now, brings something more. So then you bring something maybe deeper, something more long term. And you just work with that. And that's your intention. So that's why for the first seven days, we only do thirty six. We're going to shake it up with thirty six. I ask you not to go further than that. There's a method in my madness. So just to be able to, you know, keep it at thirty six. Then I'm going to ask you guys to take a daybreak, one daybreak, OK, between thirty six and seventy two. I just want you to give your body a break because you will find it's quite intense. Not only will you start getting a lot of spiritual clarification, but you find your body gets stronger, firmer, it's like more toned. You feel more energized. I don't know if something happens within the body. You can't explain it unless you experience it. OK, then give yourself one daybreak. Now, then we move on to seventy two, seven days of seventy two. Now, seventy two would be the number where you got to find the balance. So let's say now after thirty six, you. OK, this is what's got to be done. So seventy two is often where physical changes come in. So let's say you want to leave your job. You'll often find you might get fired or retrenched or suddenly you get another job offer or something like that. Or there's an opportunity for you to move out of your relationship with your marriage or I don't know whatever it is. Something comes that you can study something. So you might need to this time make physical changes. And that can often be very scary for people to make the physical changes. Right. So this is what you work with. This is often the time that you can feel a bit raw. Gosh, I had experiences on my third cycle of seventy two, like out of the blue on day five and six, I was on my mat. And suddenly that's when I said I just got the insight that my sister collapsed. I knew what needed to happen. I knew what needed to do. It was just out of the blue. So suddenly it's like things just erupt in that time. So maybe you need to make peace with someone. Maybe you need to apologize. Maybe you actually need to take a step forward. And do something to create the change you've asked for. So that's what seventy two is about. It can often be a little bit a little bit unnerving. But that's why we have the group. And I'll be with you guys. I'll be checking in with you regularly. And you'll be obviously welcome to chat with me about stuff like that as well. So then again, after seventy two, you then take another day break. So give your body a break in all through this time. I suggest you guys journal and especially in the day you take off where everything is just settling in, you know, things kind of like when you just have a moment to give yourself, then you're going to just settle in and things are going to and suddenly while you're journaling, things start coming up. And then, of course, the one eight. And honestly, this is not half as intimidating as it sounds. I want to just say that. OK, some people I know who I've spoken to can take up to two hours to do it. Give yourself time, press the pause button if you need to go to the bathroom. If you need to, you know, take a drink of water, but come back. Try not to break it into separate parts of the day. If you can, if that's all you can do or well and good. But if you're doing it continuously, I'm going to say thirty six takes about 20 minutes round about there. Seventy two will take you about thirty five forty minutes. And then one eight will probably take you maybe 50 minutes to an hour. If you are doing it like after each other, right? But if you, you know, you welcome to take your time this morning, how my body was tired, I had to double the time on my thirty six as what I usually did. So you just want to take it at your pace. And just, of course, now one eight is the number where things kind of get exposed and come into fruition and you get clarity on things and answers arrive. And I have to say it doesn't mean that it's going to arrive then. It could arrive later, a week later, you know, but the whole thing is you've set the intention. You've you've shown up for yourself every day. That's the whole thing is to show up for yourself. This is about commitment. It's about committing to yourself, showing up for yourself in a gentle, loving way. I'm certainly, as I said, I do things in a gentle way with your body. I always believe your body needs to just feel comfortable. Your body must feel it wants to do more. It's ready. You know, it's like we talk about the root chakra. You know, when root chakra is in alignment, it wants to act, wants to act, it wants to act. You know, you must feel ready. That's why I say, stick with the 72 and the 36 for the seven days and let your body feel it's ready to move forward. You know, and then you can take it from there. And as I said, the 108 is lovely for Asian and it's all about, you know, manifesting and just really, you know, the 108 is also it's kind of like your right of passage into the yoga world. And many people I know will do this once a year. They'll do 108 once a year. That's like their thing. Once a year, guys, we doing it for seven days. It's big. OK. And if you can't do it all, please don't beat yourself up. If you can only do six or 12 or 20 or 30, please don't beat yourself up just. Where you're at. It might be necessary for you to be stuck on 15. There's something about 15 that's making you stick there and ask yourself instead of getting frustrated. Oh, I flunked. I didn't do whatever. So put yourself, get your journal, go for a walk, take a breath, calm down. You know, relax and just see what it is that it is. Just hang on. Is there. Apologies for that. There was someone at the door making a heck of a noise. Well, that's OK. Well, at least I was usually about people building outside. So thank God they're not doing it today. But no, I love that. And I want to try. There's a couple things because I looked up while you were saying that we and the opening chant we have an ashtanga yoga we say for every class. I know it like I know it at the back of my hand. I was pulling up some some some clips of it. So I put it in this video when I'm editing because you're talking about the intention. Well, part of the opening chant for the ashtanga yoga, the opening prayer, we do before every single practice, which is in the IE. So the three traditional yogas, guys, the three legitimate lineages of yogas in the world are Shanti's lineage, Shivananda, ashtanga, my lineage and the IE guard lineage. Those are the three that are still the remaining like legitimate lineages that come from these teachers in India. And the ashtanga and the IE guard lineage are the two that are very closely related and the opening chant we do an ashtanga yoga. The first verse when they go to them. Chant it on a Vinday. That is specific to ashtanga where IE guard has a second one. But the second verse, Abhahu Purushakaram Shaka Shaka Dhariram. That is the same as the IE guard. And what that says, basically what that translates to is I go to the jungle doctor to ask for healing. Well, what does that mean? That means that you are you're telling the universe that you are opening yourself up for whatever is to come for whatever needs to happen. Yes, I used to have that said, I go to the jungle doctor every day because that's part of the open. It's not you're literally not going to a jungle doctor, but that's part of what they're saying is you're literally opening up yourself to to receive whatever every person is going to be different. It's very independent. That's what I love about traditional yoga. You know, in a traditional yoga class, we practice in my sort style where we're not leading a class, you know, the classes and being led we have one led class a week where we count the vinyasas. That's it. But in the Mysore room, you know, like AYA is open from like five o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the morning. A student comes in at any point during that time and the teacher works one on one with the student and they do whatever series. That's how we do it in India. And that's what's so powerful, because even though people are working through the same template, the postures are the same. Depending on what series you are, the experience is always different for each individual student. It's always going to be different. And the teacher's job is to help you through the templates. But it's your job. You you have to be the ones to receive the information and have the experience. And I always tell I love you about that up, Shanti, because, you know, if we if we take spiritual spirituality out of the practice of yoga, we just look at it from a physical fitness point of view. Yeah, they're going to be some people that might that are going to be really fit. They're going to be able to move through it. And some people who are going to have to go a little slower. And that's OK. All right. I tell my students all the time, like you can't fail yoga. The only way you can fail you fail you fail yoga yoga is that's you know, and I tell my students all the time, there are a lot of flexible assholes out there. Your ability to execute the postures does not does not determine your value as a human being and your value spiritually. All the postures are all the sun salutations are is an experience. For you to get into and it's going to be different. And for you, it's going to be some days you're going to be on that yoga mat and you're going to feel like a freaking Cirque du Soleil Olympiad. You're going to be like, where is my agent? Sign me up. My body is feeling great today. It's just open and strong. And then the next day you're going to get on your mat and you're going to feel like the freaking 10 man. You're going to be falling all over the place. And so so that's just how it is. And there's no and there's no right or wrong. It's just doing it's just doing it and experiencing it. And I I love you talk about the body changing in the strength because that's something we and Ashutanga yoga. We we we have a lot of extremely. There's a lot of I don't want to say flexibility because it's not about like it's more mobility. We have a lot of leg behind the head stuff. We have a lot of standing up with your leg behind your head, dropping back into a back bend and standing back up again. You know, of course, that's not done on your first day. You build up to that. But we never talk to students about getting more flexible. That will never come out of my or any other Ashutanga teacher. It shouldn't come out of anybody's mouth because flexibility is fleeting. It changes every day. But what we are going to tell you do every day is to get stronger, get stronger because something happens to the psyche. When your body starts to shift and those muscles start to get stronger and you're able to lift yourself up and hold yourself into that downward dog position. There's a shift that happens in the psyche and the body starts to move energy. That's why, like an Ashutanga yoga, we never passively stretch because that can cause injury because the muscles aren't engaged to move the energy. And so when the muscles are engaged, they move the energy and that brings that information forward. And so, yeah, I want everybody watching. I don't care. I know Shanti doesn't care. I don't give a rat's ass whether you can touch your toes or not. Doesn't matter. But what I care about is, are you feeling the friction? Are you getting the information and having the experience that you need in that moment? Because only you can have that. Are you having fun? You know, even if you are going through discomfort because anyone who has started yoga will know it's people have such a weird perception of yoga. I don't know what they think. You sit there and just come and meditate and do a few, whatever. It's very challenging, you know, when you start. And it's, you know, and it's amazing, not the movements or, you know, as you're getting more advanced, but when someone has done with dog, for example, a lot of people have no idea how to support the body in that position. So if you're just going to clunk down into downward dog, you're going to hurt yourself. So it's about really having your hands positioned, your arms, you know, your hips and all of that, your legs, all of that. And it's just, sorry, my breaking up here. Oh, you were, but you're fine now. You're fine. It's my internet answer. Are you listening? Yeah, you're fine now, though. It's just, you know, perfect. Thanks. It's just when you start learning, and I think especially what I found over the years, people who have had abuse at the hands of others, especially when they were a child and helpless and defenseless, they learn not to trust their body. They learn not to trust that they say. They learn not to trust that they're strong. They learn not to trust that they're capable, whatever it is. When I found, when we start working with things like yoga, and suddenly the mind starts aligning, the body starts getting stronger, you start feeling in control. You see, yoga really is a practice of the mind. That's what it is. You know, the physical practice is just, a, an aspect of it. It's one of the legs. And unfortunately, yeah, and I can understand why the yogis in India didn't want yoga coming to the West because they didn't. And I can see now why, why because it's become usually commercialized. People are making tons of money off Lululemon and God knows what all else. You know what, and it really isn't that. It's not a practice where you joke about having beer, yoga, or a cup like that. That's not, that to me is such, it's offensive when people do that. It's offensive. You know, I'm not a purist. That's offensive to me too. When people talk about doing yoga and bars, like it's like a slap across my face. Like it's very offensive. And I love animal death, but I know at AYA we have a lot of Indian students, which I find to be a great honor that they trust us and come to us. And there's a Atlanta magazine that a free magazine that comes around to businesses and they had a cover story of goat yoga. And we had to ask them to not drop the magazine off at our Shala anymore because it offended our Indian students so much that they were making a mockery out of, and they love goats too. They're vegetarians. But the fact that it was making a mockery out of this very sacred practice. And so absolutely, I totally hear you on that, Shanti. And I'm glad we checked. Because that is very offensive. Just call it yoga then. Just call it goat pilates or yoga lighties. Go to, go to lighties or something. Go to lighties. You know, we're going to go to lighties today. I think it's great. I'm honestly, you know, and that's why I say I'm not a purist. I have no, I like to take a bit of this and a bit of that and mix it here and create my own delicious recipe that I call my life. And that involves, that's why I'm certainly not one denomination. I love many denominations of spiritual studies and ways that people worship God. You know, I think it's amazing. I've had, I've lived in Africa. I see other African people do it. I've traveled not hugely, but a bit. So I see how they do it, you know, in other countries. I've had lots of foreign friends. It's amazing to be able to embrace God in so many ways. And I really think, you know, for me, yoga is all about just enjoying my body. That's what it is. I will not forget, and I think I might have mentioned it before in apologies if I have, because it's nothing worse than hearing the same story 20 times over. But I read an article many years ago about a guy that had an accident and he was a quadriplegic. And he expressed such regret at not having enjoyed his body. And for me, that struck a chord that, and I really felt at that stage, I was wasting my body because I know I've got a strong, healthy fit, very genetically healthy body that's in my genes. So I really just, and that's when I started doing pole as well, you know, and the hoop, you know, that hangs from the ceiling. It was just amazing to be able to... We're going to do a pole class together when I come to see you. We're going to put some stripper shoes on. So fun, so fun. I would love to do a pole class with you. It's just, yeah, I still have my pole, I've got to put it up. So I'm just going to have it very erected, and I can do it, I'm just going to get the right guy, right there, we don't have men in this house. I don't think my boyfriend would mind if I took pole classes either, so. You know how that came about? I have to say, I will never forget many years ago while I was still living in Johannesburg, I went to one of my friend's bridal party, and instead of having a normal bridal party, she had a pole dancer. And with one of these portable poles, and I'm going back guys, this was long before pole became a thing. Nowadays it's a thing. This was long before it became a thing. Grandma has been around the block a few times. Anyway, so it was the funnest evening ever. My body was black and blue because that pole, I mean, there were three of us, everyone else was going, no, no, no. And then she had this whole bag with masks on. So you put a mask on, you kind of like, just were just this different confident kind of person. So, and I was up and down this pole. I just said, every woman should have a pole in her bathroom. And not for her husband. I mean, you were while he's gone or whatever. You stand there with your G-string and your cellulite wobbles and whatever, beautiful. Have your music on, twirling around the pole. Do you know that was the most amazing thing? Because then, and then it was a good few years after that when I moved down here and then I looked for a pole class and I was amazed, there was one. And it was a small studio, only three poles, right? So there were only three students at a time. And it was incredible. Do you know the confidence that a woman bulls? Then at the end, I was teaching pole one. So I could teach beginners. I was qualified to teach beginners. And my students, and many of them, it's the first time ever, some little bit overweight, whatever, I said, okay, there's a rule in this class. No granny panties. Everyone has to wear G-strings under their shorts. And it has to be booty shorts. And you have to wear crop top. I don't care what you think you look like in the mirror. If you come to my class. I'm going to pull up, hold on, I pulled it up for Atlanta because you guys, I'm going to go find one of these classes. I don't want to say my address. I tell you, it was amazing, but it is not fun. It is so. You have lots of fun doing it with other girls. I went and I actually gave my, I bought my friend, as well for a birthday. I bought her a month or two, I think. So we used to go together. And I tell you, we had such fun learning. And it builds your confidence. I, as I said, I had my students coming in there, never even, hardly even, and you've got to know, I live in an extremely conservative area as well. Lots of opera cons people, and they brought up very, very conservatively. Hadn't, I mean, the one girl does not change in front of her husband. She goes to the bathroom and she gets dressed there. All at the time, that was the story. And I was like, no, no, no, no. Not, not me. Not while you're here with Auntie Shanti. And I tell you within a month, that was maybe two, maybe a little bit longer. That girl, her whole vibe changed. It's beautiful. You just twirl a bit and it's got nothing to do. I mean, you've got to do a lot of spins. You've got to practice spinning. The first thing you do is spinning. Okay, before you can climb any way up a pole, you've got to spin. You're spinning left and you're doing your kicks and it's quite boring in the beginning. And then you start learning how to climb that pole. Oh boy. And then you can start jumping up and flicking your legs up. That was fun. Ha, ha, ha. So I would hide, it's a little bit of a topic, but there was lots of fun. I did that for four or five years of my life. Look at these classes, naughty and nature, quick and dirty. I'm gonna, listen, I'm gonna talk to my Atlanta girlfriends who have never done this before. And if you guys want, I'll find a location, I'll reach her, I'll call them and I'll see if we can film a class. So if my girlfriends will allow me, of us doing a beginner pole class. So that's, I mean, yeah, I agree because you were talking about- I highly recommend it. And then you were talking about, I'm gonna show you guys the mice or in a second, but you're talking about your body, Shanti. And I will agree, I'm 40 years old now and I feel better at 40 than I did at 30. And I feel like I'm getting younger and I was born with a bunch of health problems. And I give it all to yoga that I love my body. I love wearing a bathing suit now. This is what I was gonna show you guys. This is what a traditional mice or room looks like. This is my Shala in India. So you see how everybody's, and obviously you don't do that on the first day. It takes years to lead up to this. But I wanted to show you guys, like every single person in this room is having their own experience. They're not following a lead club. That's my teacher, Sharad. They're not following a lead, a teacher telling them to do a certain thing. They're following the different series, but they're doing it on their own independently. And just seeing how the human body is capable of bending, even though you don't do this on the first day, over time, to be able to bend like this, you have to be strong. And you have to build that strength and that opening and the blood and the body. And that's one thing I was reading in this book as well that we say in mice or the mice are magic. The mice are magic, because we call our classes mice or. The mice or magic is when you start to do yoga and you see people in the room doing things and you think, oh God, I'll never do that. I'll never do that. And then one day something in your mind goes, wait a minute, maybe I can. There it happened. Yes. And that's in everybody in this room. Even my teacher started off one day as a beginner. As a freaking beginner. I mean, there was one of my best friends with Ekapateshya Shasana. These are some of my videos from India. I was playing around in India, like being able to allow your body to go upside down in the seven different headstands. I mean, that's just something that as we get older in as people, when you're practicing yoga, your body almost kind of gets a little younger too, because you start to be able to do stuff that you didn't think that you could do. You know, and that's here's my friend. That's the lady that, the girl that rescued Robbie, my dog, my friend Denise. You know, and so it's this incredible experience to be able to, I love when teacher stand on you. I just love that. To be able to, this is my friend Harmony, who is a teacher up in Canada. That's one of our students at AYA, when she came down to teach. It's just such an incredible gift that yoga gives you. It's ability to move your body in ways that you, this is, okay, so this was cute. My niece was watching my boyfriend practicing outside and was mimicking him on the inside and he had no idea she was following along with him. It's just such an incredible experience to be able to see your body move in ways that you didn't think it could. And just to give yourself that gift to understand just how powerful you really, truly are. That's my friend, Elizabeth, she's a mother of two. Look at her, you know, like the fact that you work, these people are so hard, including us and all of a sudden the body starts to give you that benefit of working as well. And so, yeah, there's Robbie when he was, that was when Denise first rescued our dog in India. Robbie, when he was a little puppy, little street puppy. So, you know, it's just, so yeah, I'm glad I am anything. And that's why I love the bar so much. I'll show you a po-pic. How about that? Do you get to get a po-pic? Oh, I love it, Shanti. I'll show you another one. I love it. Yeah, let me find another one. I'll just, I'll share. Actually, there's another one. Oh my God, I love it. You see. That should be on your match.com. There was another one. There was a cool one as well. Yeah. Oh, that's really cool. It's lots of fun. It is. Lots of fun. And just go ahead. Go ahead, sorry. There you are. Well, that's what I like about the bar too. You get to explore your body movement all these ways. It's like, and it's all, and that's what we just had. There was a friend of ours that was just in town who is, teaches in Norway and he was talking about too, like, any time, once you understand the principles of yoga, you can incorporate those principles really into any type of exercise, exercise program, because it's allowing the body to experience itself. It's allowing the soul to watch the body experiencing itself. Here's AYA's, AYA's my Ashtanga page, our Shala page. And just to see these, all the students, just to see, like, there's my original teacher, David Greene. There's Guruji right there. To see all of the, to hear the chanting, to hear the beauty of the words of the voice is coming from the body as well. Om Marave Namaham Om Gagaya Namaham Om Purshne Namaham Om Hiranyagarbhaya Namaham Om Marechayay Namaham Om Marechayay Namaham Om Svit... And that meditative movement with voice that also comes through the movement of the body too. And so I just put, I mean, it's just such a gift. I could talk about this stuff all day. Something I wanted to bring up with you too, Shantaya, talking about this last night. That yogis were the original conspiracy theorist. Because you have to, you have to question your reality in order to practice yoga. That's what yoga is. Yoga is questioning reality. Yoga is finding the true through the illusion. On a very simple broad base that's saying that you know that you're, oh, did I lose you Shanti? I'm here, my camera is giving issues at the moment, but I'm here. Oh shoot, where'd you go? We were saying, you know, for people to want to practice yoga they're questioning even themselves. And part of yoga is seeing the truth through the illusion. And that truth is that you are, it's breaking the bondages of your mind. And knowing that you can, it's what Krishmacharya said, it's that your capacity is limitless. The matrix wants to put you in bondage but you go, wait a minute, something's not right. I am limitless. I am. And so that, again, is the beauty. That's what we were saying. The beauty of the practice. And so I really hope that you guys, and it all starts with the damn sun salutations. That's where it starts and that's always where it ends is those sun salutations. Exactly. In order to be able to do postures like this this student here gets where she started. Sun salutations. Sun salutations. She started with the sun salutations. In this practice, before she got to this, she started with the sun salutations. You know, it's, it's, it's, um, this is a, this is a mice room, guys. This is what a mice room actually looks like. And you'll see all the students are practicing at different places and at different, in different levels. And a teacher walks around and works. Usually there's two or three teachers in the room. Todd is the senior teacher. He's the senior most teacher in the southeast actually. And he kind of is a master teacher. All the other teachers walk around and kind of do what he wants them to do with each student. So this student to be able to do this, this is not, she's been practicing for like 10 years. You know, this is where her body and through this, this particular student has had like two kids while doing a practice, while growing. And that is just, I mean, I just, that's my favorite thing about this practice is just the way the people just shock themselves all the time by what they can't, what they thought they could do versus what they can actually do. And one of my favorite quotes is don't believe everything you think. And that's what yoga teaches you is usually you are your biggest critic. Usually your thoughts on yourself are so limitless. But when you get into the practice of yoga, you start to go, wait a minute. I'm, I'm not, I'm not I'm not in bondage. That's my choice to be in bondage and I can also choose not to be in that bondage of thought. And my body can fly because my spirit has the ability to as well. Here's the old Shala. This is the old Shala back in the day. That's my teacher now. This is the picture of the young child in Papua Tafuna, this is him as an old man teaching Shala. And so it's just such a beautiful practice. It's such a beautiful practice, guys. And I hope that I hope that that you guys will join us in this now. So with that being said back to the Sun's Iutation Challenge with that being said, I because the 60 day challenge we have so I have, we're going to be starting the Sun's Iutation 21 days on February 27 Monday, February 27 we did this intentionally because we're building up to every day fast. So everything is done with Shanti is also going to be we talked about that and we'll do other episodes of that we get closer. So we're putting these things in the challenge intentionally at certain dates. Now because it's a 60 day challenge and because we have people from all over the world doing this for the starting February 27 I have other exercises as well for people who aren't ready to do the Sun's Iutation Challenge or you can do both. You know, there are some people who are going to be able to do the Sun's Iutation Bar class depending on it's your experience. So with that being said if you want to partake, I didn't want to overwhelm people in the beginning with sending too much stuff if you would like, oh and Shanti froze, kind of a funny picture, she froze, if you would like to participate in the Sun's Iutation Challenge you have to email me starting today starting with this video video airs, you have a whole week to email me at shadowworkchallengeemail.com this subject line puts Sun's Iutations and I will send you this, I will be sending you this template right here for Shanti's package for the 21 day, the 21 day Syrian on the Scar challenge ok so you guys have to email me at shadowworkchallenge at gmail.com put Sun's Iutations in the subject line and I will forward this over to you so that you have all of this you need in order to prep yourself for the Sun's Iutations, I know Shanti, are you going to be doing a separate signal chat or just be in the original signal chat what do you want to do? look I can, I think what I could maybe do with this just because I'm sure not everyone will do it so I do have a signal group as well where I can post there and post the stuff and it's up to you actually, I don't mind in both groups so I'm just thinking the people that are I would love to have it in the main group just so even people who are maybe there are some people that are a little afraid to do it right now maybe if they see the encouragement from the group they could see it in the main group and see, I know you've made some videos as well Shanti with the Sun's Iutations so I can share those on my community tab as well I have my, now guys if you notice on the Shadow Work challenge up to now every morning I have you guys watching the 15 minute Sun's Iutations that I did a long time ago 5, 3, Namaskar B the reason why I put that in is because I knew we were building up to Shanti's challenge so a lot of you guys have already started to work through the Sun's Iutations so I want to encourage you to try this there is no there's no winner, there's no loser yeah it's such it's just a beautiful way to commit to yourself to challenge yourself in a challenging yet non-threatening way you know it's really something every day for me you know it's so exciting to get a breakthrough, just get breakthroughs you know it's just amazing it's that kind of breakthrough the glass ceiling and then of course with the three day fast after that is just amazing I hope you're all going to join and if you haven't I'm just thinking is there anything else that I needed to still share about I will be probably reminding people every single day this week going forward about the Sun's Iutations challenge but and I'm going to put it in the group signal as well yeah and I'm going to be on your channel on Monday again for Emerald Towels we could talk, we could take a few minutes to speak about it there as well just to remind people we can put the email address in your box too just to get people to sit for the separate templates again I thought about sending it all at the same time with everything but I didn't want to overwhelm people who are new to this so if you want to do the Sun's Iutations challenge send me an email once again just reiterating send me an email at shadowworkchallengeemail.com and put in the subject Sun's Iutations and I will send you the template right away I will start after this airs today I will be at my my laptop checking that email I'm sure we're going to get most everybody's probably going to be emailing for the template and yeah and Shanti posted in the signal group too I will as well and this is going to be exciting guys I'll film myself doing some stuff and I know Shanti is going to be filming it you don't have, I'm going to just let you guys know you don't have to film yourself this is a very private experience listen I practice, it's not where I practice I practice isn't glamorous I practice in my kitchen by the dog bowl usually my pants are on inside out usually my hair looks like Albert Einstein's hair at the end of it it's not glamorous because it's an experience, it's a private experience nobody's watching yet although I will say it's funny one of our friends in the signal group because my Sun's Iutations video I literally filmed at my kitchen and their kids are like can we do the kitchen video send me in my kitchen literally that's where I practice in my kitchen so it's nothing it's nothing fancy now I know Shanti too I kind of talked to you about this off camera I had a subscriber send me an email a couple weeks ago asking if I would vlog myself for the day how I work in my shadow work how I work in while I'm also working and doing my job and so I filmed myself on last Friday I got a lot of positive responses and so I've been asking all of our other channel sponsors if they would consider doing that too because I promise you guys we're not skipping off every morning to an ashram where there's literally lights and calming music playing I mean we're literally doing what we're doing in our houses just like you guys are I squeeze my journaling in when I can it's never as glorious as you think it's going to be sometimes it's better than you think it's going to be but it's just work for all of us so hopefully Shanti we can talk them into doing some vlogging too so you guys can see what it's like behind the scenes so is there anything you want to add circle absolutely I look forward is there anything coming up on Aquarius Rising Africa exciting this week that you want to promote quickly anything new oh she froze you guys yeah you're back I'm back my internet and I'm so sorry this internet is not good yet having such problems with the internet sorry guys it's beyond my control right now trying to be the best no big deal but is there anything coming up for you guys that you want to promote like any sun kids stuff coming up anything on your channels you want to promote quickly before we sign off we've we if you if you check on our channel there's the also those of you interested in doing the sun kids teacher training etc it's all there sun kids workshops they're all available online everything is available now we do have a little video there on our page Aquarius Rising Africa as well as solutions with Aquarius Rising Africa on the latest sun kids little blurb so please go and check it out if you interested in doing anything with kids or just wow it's just such an important and amazing time you know and just to work with our kids it's very very good for the parents as well I'll tell you that much as every parent who's done it knows it's an incredible little journey so anyone you let us in we will I will put all your links down in the description box below so you guys can look that up because I was totally and I'm sorry I'm this last week with the Sophia Co because I got really confused and I was I was in the bathroom a lot to say nice so things were literally okay yeah feel better now yeah it was it was gnarly I was like my boyfriend stayed home the next day because he was like I thought you were gonna die like things a lot you know you're just like yeah but anyway I'm better now I'm so so much better now so I'm sorry last Wednesday the Sophia Code obviously is one of the most amazing books I've ever written so so hopefully I'll be fingers crossed I don't get sick again so I will put everything again down in the description box please make sure you go and check out Shanti's channel if you have any questions about the Sun Salutation Challenge you can either ask them in the comment section below or you can send me your Shanti a private email and we'll walk you through it no big deal everybody is invited to do this there's no qualification even if you're not doing the 60 day shadow work challenge and you want to do this email me do it yeah it's your journey so absolutely I encourage that that's why I say this is not just for people doing the 60 day challenge and this template is amazing because as you can see Shanti's worked really hard on it so even after this is over you can hold on to it and do it again yourself if you want to like on your own time too with having the template and yeah I know Shanti and I can safely say we're not cult leaders you have your own autonomy and so even if you're not doing the 60 day challenge and you want to do this join us like it is you boo it is yeah we're not listen I can't even control my dog at the time I'm not trying to control other human beings so it's I'm here to share with you the knowledge that I've gained over the years as is Shanti when it comes to the physicality hope you not maybe help you not enjoy yourself but other than that it's all on you it's all on you it's your journey so we love you guys and thank you so much and we will both see you tomorrow on a Monday tomorrow Monday yes for the end of the third tablet so it's 9 a.m. for me eastern standard time which is New York City time and what is that for you in South Africa what time on Monday 9 o'clock is then Monday is 4 o'clock 4 p.m. GMT plus 2 I don't know we apparently on cat or something as well I have no idea yeah so four hours I think you're like six hours ahead of me or something so for 4 p.m. for South Africa 9 a.m. for Atlanta Georgia just look on your it's a live show it's always a live show we love having you guys in the chat so look wherever you are located in the world just look compared to eastern time or South Africa time and figure out what that is for you if you cannot catch live shows shanty and morning leave all the shows up on their channel so you can always go back and watch the replay later but we love having you guys in the audience because we love hearing your experiences with these with these topics as well so anyway guys we love you and we will see you we'll see you tomorrow bye everybody not to laugh thanks everyone see you soon