Sense of Soul - Jai Dev Singh Life Force Academy

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Today we have on Sense of Soul Podcast Jai Dev Singh, world-renowned Kundalini yoga teacher, Ayurvedic specialist, and founder of Life - Force Academy, a yoga, meditation, and wellness company that helps people connect to their inner confidence and genuine purpose. He is a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist and formerly served as the Clinical Director at the California College of Ayurveda as well as the director of the college's Pancha Karma Center and Ayurvedic Spa. Jai Dev lives in northern California with his wife, Simrit Kaur singer and songwriter, and their son. He is also the podcast host of the Jai Dev Show. Where he chats with yogis or spiritual teachers. Deep conversations into the essence of life, uncovering the truths of being human that every single person can relate to. As mental health disorders are at an all-time high, many people are consistently burdened by feelings of anxiety and depression. Life-Force Academy provides practical and simple tools to care for your mind, body, and energy system through dynamic virtual courses, global webcast events, immersive retreat experiences and more.   Free Kundalini Class with Jai Dev https://activate.jaidevsingh.com/opt-in-jds-kundalini-the-essential-training-3-22/ Visit his website and take the quiz and start your trial for only $1! https://teachings.jaidevsingh.com/life-force-academy-home/ Follow him on IG   Visit our website to learn more about us www.mysenseofsoul.com Join our Sense of Soul Patreon!! Our community of seekers and lightworkers who get exclusive workshops, live events like SOS Sacred Circles, ad free episodes and more. You can also listen to Mande’s mini series about her two NDE’s and Shanna’s Untangled mini series. Sign up today and help support our podcast. https://www.patreon.com/senseofsoul NEW!! SENSE OF SOUL’S NETWORK OF LIGHTWORKERS! Go check out our Affliates page, adding new amazing programs each month. Check it out! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sense-of-soul-affiliates-page  

Welcome to the Sense of Soul podcast. We are your hosts, Shanna and Mandy. Grab your coffee, open your mind, heart and soul. It's time to awaken. Today we have with us Jaidev Singh. He is the world renowned Kundalini yoga teacher, Ayurvedic specialist and the founder of the Life Force Academy and podcast host of the Jai Dev show. It's such an honor to have him with us today. We can't wait to be students and learn from him. Shanna and Mandy, cool. It's nice to see you both. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for joining us. You know, you were one of the first Facebooks that I discovered in my journey. And it could have been because of your lovely, amazing wife, Simrit, which we definitely will have to talk about. She's a beautiful singer.

She's a beautiful person. You were such a lucky man. And I can't wait to hear how you guys met and how you started on your journey. And I also have a lot of questions about how you came to, is it Sikhism? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Well, I grew up in a Jewish family in South Carolina and it was from, for the most part, a lovely upbringing, but teenage years were difficult. And I think because in those years where you're really, really looking to find your sense of identity.

And that was a struggle for me growing up in the part of South Carolina that I grew up where I was not like, I don't think I fit anywhere. You know, trying to figure it out. And eventually, though, I developed some really challenging health problems and digestive challenges that had me kind of in and out of the hospital. And that sent me on a path to try to figure out how to heal myself because nobody could tell me what was going on for quite some time. And at first, they were even giving me painkillers, which made it worse because it turns out what I really had going on was a duodenal ulcer. So three, I had three large ulcers in the first part of the small intestines, which is called the duodenum. And eventually after

many months of going to different doctors, they, they just did the procedure where they put the camera down your, you know, they stick the camera down your throat and take pictures of your digestive system. And that's how they eventually diagnosed me. And, and so, so once we knew what they were, they were able to prescribe medicines, of course, that took care of the symptoms. However, I had to keep taking that the that medication, otherwise, they would come right back. So that sent me on a path to really try to figure out how do I really heal myself, so I don't need this stuff. And this was in my teenage years. And by the time I graduated high school, and was going to college, I was really on a path of searching for that.

But that also coincided with a deeper spiritual path that they were kind of one in the same. Because although I had a relatively nice upbringing, still, I was dissatisfied spiritually. And the first year that I had moved to middle Tennessee near Nashville to go to the university there to study production in the recording industry actually because music has always been you know central to my life my real love and and so I was endeavoring to go down that path and I took I met a guy and he invited me. He said, my yoga teacher's coming to teach here. He lived in Knoxville, his teacher, which was three hours away.

And so there was going to be a yoga class. This kid I met in his backyard at his house across from the campus. So I went to that. And, you know, we were there waiting, the teacher wasn't showing up, maybe like 45 minutes after it was supposed to start, finally, this car rolls up, and this guy gets out looks real, to me at that time looks like like a total trip. And he had some other people with them. And then they said, and they were musicians, actually, and they sat down, and it was just, you know, on the grass in the lawn. And it was a kundalini yoga class. And at that point in time, in the southeast, there wasn't, there wasn't really yoga studios,

you could, it was hard to find yoga. I didn't really even know what yoga was, I knew it had something to do with stretching. And I knew it had something to do with stretching and I knew it had something to do with spirituality that's the extent of what I knew about it and so I remember the night before in my dorm room I was trying to stretch it reminds me of my son now who's 16 because we take martial arts together and he's and I think when you're a teenager you're growing kind of weird and so when I remember trying to stretch in my dorm room I couldn't even touch my knees let alone my toes and I think back like why couldn't I even touch my knees but I think our bodies are just a little strange during that period and and because I was real nervous to take the class I was like will I be good enough you know will I be able to do it and I don't even remember what we did in the class I remember I don't even remember how if I liked the class. I remember, I don't even remember how, if I liked it or not, but he did another class the same day in the park in Nashville. And I went to that too.

So I must've liked it. And, and then I remember, I felt like I was floating for like days afterwards when I walked around, I felt just so good and light in my body and my mind was crystal clear. And so I really, it had, it had quite an impact on me and I kept doing it. And as much as I could, as much as he would come around. And then within probably a year, he was like, you know what you should be because he couldn't come that often. And I, he knew I was really into it. And he said, you should just teach this stuff. And that was on. So I would start teaching on the campus, just to other kids that were going to the university and bunches of people would show up on the lawn there. And, you know, fast forward 20 something years, and I'm still doing it. Wow. Okay, I have to ask him being 45 minutes late. Is that just like

yogi time? Because that particular yogi's time i wouldn't want to be 45 minutes late yeah i've gone to one with a friend kelly of mine down in congress park here and same thing they're they're pretty late so maybe they're just so peaceful they're chilling in the car listening to some good jams taking their their time. Those are the yoga classes in the park. Yeah. What a beautiful story. And I thought a lot about my son while you were talking about it

because he's 22. His hamstrings are so tight. Even though he's an athlete, he can barely touch his toes. He's on his spiritual journey. He's getting ready to hang up his cleats. I just hope he can you know find his journey through something as amazing as you because for me it took you know death and rehabs to get me on mine

so hey jai you know what i was going to ask you i saw that you really loved the moon and i did too but you know to some people it just really sticks out and it seems like it's something that you really really are connected to you know the night sky yes particularly the vedic astrology is what i pay attention to which is a astrology that comes it's you know deeply interwoven into the yogic system of course one of the huge parts of of that is the moon because one of the things that is always changing on a daily basis is the moon. Whereas the big planets like Saturn and Jupiter, they move very slowly relative, whereas the moon is changing, changing its position really every day. And so to get a good

sense of what's going on in our lives, and to have a sense of feeling like this today, well, you can often get pretty good insights by just paying attention to the lunar cycles. And so yeah, I love the moon. And of course, you always think that people who kind of discredit astrology, well, astrology, I always feel like it's as much of an art as it is a science. But we know the moon affects the tides in the ocean. That's a fact. And we know that our bodies are mostly made up of water. That's a fact. So why wouldn't the moon?

We know that police departments and hospitals track the moon because they know if there's a full moon, they're going to have more activity. And when there's a new moon, they're going to have less. So it makes sense to pay attention to it. I love the moon. I feel like the moon's been my teacher lately, especially. What do you mean? How so?

Well, I had a few episodes with the moon this month. One was with the wanting crescent moon and one was with the wax this month. One was with the, uh, wanting crescent moon. And one was with the waxing crescent, which is in the triple goddess, the maiden and the Chrome. And I've always been very connected to the full moon. But when I sat with the wanting moon one morning, it was cold. You could see my breath. She spoke to me and she, she really used like everything I was experiencing to teach me. She was like, you can't always see your breath, right? You can right now, but you can't always,

but you know that it's there. And it's the same with me. You know, you can't see but you know that it's there and it's the same with me you know you can't see all of me but I'm here and I am still the moon that you love so much and to not discredit that new moon energy and to sit with it and that's what I did that is what I received it was very beautiful it was a lot deeper than that too but then a few days later, saw the crown moon. And she was in the sky with the sun and they were equal. And I looked up and

all of a sudden I'm like, here we go again. This very thin moon in the sky. And I sat there and all of a sudden I realized one cannot be without the other. Dark cannot be without the other dark cannot be without light you know masculine can't be without feminine creation can't even happen or exist without both and then all of a sudden this dove just like flew over my head one and it was so white and beautiful

I felt so very connected to um divine wisdom that. Nature, she is always communicating. And if we open our minds to that, and we open our hearts to that, I think, I think any of us can, can experience things of that nature. So that's lovely. I always find I always, I'm always endeavoring to, to have my awareness in that place where I can experience the communications that are happening all the time. So that's, that's so beautiful. Yeah. Okay. So I have to know, can you touch your toes now? Oh yeah. I can touch my toes. Can you touch your nose to your toes? I cannot. All right. So let's tell our listeners about Kundalini Yoga and how it could be beneficial. Yeah, well, Kundalini Yoga, it's when people think in their minds yoga,

probably if the imagery they see, especially if you're not very familiar with yoga it's a little different than what kundalini yoga looks like and in other ways the same all the different forms of yoga are ultimately endeavoring to do the same thing and that's to cause a person to have a good vitality in the body a centered clear aware clear, aware, and relaxed mind, and thus have the ability to experience more and more the unfolding of our authentic self. Kundalini, the word in and of itself, refers to what's often talked about or described as like a dormant power that's at the center of every person. And in fact, at the center of every living being, but particularly what we're talking about in this case is human beings. And so in the center of every person, we have an untapped potentiality.

And to be very short, Kundalini Yoga is the art and the science of unlocking and awakening that untapped potentiality. What does that look like? It looks like a greater sense of fulfillment, a greater sense of purpose, a greater force of creativity that's flowing through our lives, and an expanded sense of awareness and so so generally speaking that's what kundalini energy is all about however what it also related to is one sense of identity like where i started out in my journey and we're all trying to figure out you know what am i all about who am i and so the that process of discovering one's identity is no joke, because there's a part of us that is temporary in nature, our bodies are not going to last forever. And certain parts of our personalities are not going to last forever. Even we go through little mini deaths and rebirths all

the time in our life, uh our our kids if we have kids they were babies and they become toddlers and so you have the death of the baby and the birth of the toddler so to speak and then our our young kids they become teenagers and every one of those processes are like a little death and rebirth not only for that that child but also for their parents and so there's a grieving that that can take place for all these little transformations, or we go through a major relationship breakup. And that'll totally transform our identity, especially if it was a long relationship, and then that relationship ends, and maybe you never would have guessed it would end. And then it ends, or maybe and that can

totally transform our sense of what we thought we were and so yoga takes it to another level of course because there's a part of us that is that is non-dying there's a part of us that that is infinite in nature is the idea that's the exploration to see if we can discover that and then there's a part of us that is temporary, that will have to be shed. And so the much, much deeper exploration of our identity is to, can you find out, can you experience the part of yourself that doesn't ever die? And that's on a deeper level, what the Kundalini process is all about. So it's all of that on the very simple level of energizing the cells of your body with greater vitality and energy to get the, to get the, the sense of lightness of being in your

body and mind to give the mind a type of relaxed and expansive intuitive awareness. And thus more and more with little baby steps, you'll start to experience your true identity. And that's kundalini. Wow, that's beautiful. That's good. You know, I love the different, you know, avenues that yoga has. Because I love the curtain. For me, just the vibrations, you know, in chanting mantra is so powerful for me, which actually helped me much with my digestive issues. Cool. Yeah. And, but Kundalini is a yoga that uses a lot of breath work.

It does use a lot of breath work. Yeah. And it uses a lot of, well, it really, the one thing that makes Kundalini yoga unique, it does use a lot of pranayama which is breath work and but it uses a lot of physical exercise breath work often mantra practice like like you're saying chanting and meditation uh i uh meditation exercises but it's really using all of that simultaneously together, which gives it kind of its power and what makes it so effective in working in such a short amount of time as well. And for this day and age where most people do not have much time, time seemingly has seemed to speed up where the average attention span of human beings has

gone down down down down down over the last 10 to 20 years rather dramatically so that that is indicative of in a certain relative way time speeding up of course time isn't isn't objectively speeding up but subjectivelyively based on this highly connected information age we're all working to deal with, which puts a tremendous amount of stress on the nervous system, the body and the mind. Kundalini yoga is an excellent practice that is in a certain way designed for this period of time. So I think that's one of the major benefits of Kundalini yoga is it being so effective in a relative short amount of time and it's strong enough that it can really help deal with the tremendous stress we're all dealing with on our endocrine systems, nervous systems

right now. And yes, and the breathing part is a big part of it. So what do you think about like goat yoga? I mean, when when when do we take when have we taken in a little too far i don't know nothing about you know goat yoga but is that like a colorado no i've seen it on the internet i actually i was actually driving out to like castle rock up in our mountains um like two days ago and I saw it going on. Oh, you saw it going on in person. Wow. Yeah. I pulled over, pulled over and I was like laughing. I'm like, first of all, I could never experience it because I'm allergic to goats, but they're just such strange animals, how they like to climb on things and the way they like prance and hop. Like they're funny to watch,

but it was very entertaining to pull over and watch. Yeah. Animals are amazing. I mean, as soon as my hands didn't go towards my dog, it knows that Reiki's coming and he'll turn over and move different ways for me to give him Reiki. And he also knows this, you know, when I'm meditating, he'll come and sit down next to me. And I think that he really enjoys that. You can sense like this peace that comes over this very hyper freaking dog. So it's amazing. And I was on your website earlier.

I had taken your test to figure out my Ayurvedic body. Your Ayurvedic body mind type. Yeah. I really would love, you know what? We've never had anybody on our podcast. We have like well over 200 episodes. know what we've never had anybody on our podcast we have like well over 200 episodes and so we've never had anyone on to talk about ayurvedic and then the doshas go with that because i received my first body was a kapha and then pita was my secondary and then i had a third one so all right i'll break it down for you I'll try to do it in a real simple way. Okay cool. So you can think of it like this is everybody's made up of all the

elements and in Ayurveda and yoga are two sides of the same coin. Ayurveda is the healing side of yoga yoga is in a certain way the spiritual side of Ayurveda they're really they're two limbs up from the same tree and that's what's so beautiful about these systems in side of Ayurveda. They're really, they're two limbs up from the same tree. And that's what's so beautiful about these systems in India is Ayurveda is also the traditional medical system of India. And still to this day is used all over the place. So it's not, this is not new age stuff. I always kind of push back against that because this stuff has been around for a long, long

time. against that because this stuff has been around for a long long time ayurveda probably good 5 000 years and it's still working because it's the principles of nature so it's not like that ever goes out of trend and so according to yoga and ayurveda that everything is made up of five primary elements we know the four earth water fire and. And then there's a fifth one called space, which is the Sanskrit term for that is akash, which is space is like the medium through which all life travels. So for instance, think of your body. Your body is, so earth, it would be the more structure part of the body, like the things you can touch and feel, which gives you mass and solidity.

So earth is really the principle of solidity and stability. Anything that gives you solidity and stability is earth element. So we don't mean just literally earth or dirt or something like that. But you have to, they're principles of nature. Water, think in your body, all the fluids of the body. So it's not, water is not just H2O. It's anything that gives fluidity and moisture. So put some saliva in your mouth.

There's water element. You have the fluid environment of your eyes. There's a watery that holds the enzymatic, the enzymes, hydrochloric acids, and this type of break it down, and then it's going to go into your intestines. And there's going to be further enzymatic secretions that break that apple down, so that you can then assimilate the nutrients of that apple into your bloodstream, and then eliminate out the parts of the apple that aren't useful to the human body. That's called healthy digestion. So it's fire. Anytime you feel warmth in your body, that's also fire element. So your blood that's circulating around through your limbs and circulating nutrients to your tissues, and it's giving warmth. If you're having cold

hands and feet, then we could use a little more circulation of your warmth. This is fire element. Anything that gives heat and warmth is fire element. And then you go to air, anything that moves mobility is the principle of air. So your nervous system is ruled by, for instance, by the air element. You have a thought in the mind, the brain and its electrical currents, then trigger your body. All of a sudden you're walking or you're talking or you're doing something. Anything that moves is air element, or you could take a deep breath in air element, air element. And then final is space. And this is spaces, the channels through which everything flows. So you have the channels of your circulatory system. In the woman, there's the

channels of lactation, and there's the digestive channel. The main channel, they say, in Ayurveda and Sanskrit, they call it the Mahavahasrota, the great channel which begins at the mouth and then ends where you eliminate. But then there's all these other mini channels. So really what the human body can be thought of is earth, water, fire, and air moving through channels of space in a very kind of poetic and simple way. Now there's three main body types because every one of us, each of us are made up of all five elements. All things in nature are made up of earth, water, fire, air, and space, but we all have different combinations of them. So if you're, for instance, a predominantly kapha person, well, kapha is the combination of earth and water. So that means that that person has, relative to the other three you have kapha which is earth and water on the other side you

have vata which is air and ether and in the middle you have fire which is pitta and so for instance i'm predominantly a pitta person so i predominantly fire and i'm secondarily a kapha person so secondarily earth and water and so if you are predominantly a kapha person, that means you're predominantly earth and water and secondarily fire, if the quiz was accurate. The quizzes are often accurate, and sometimes not so much for a couple of different reasons, but they always get you started with some insights. So what does that mean? And why is that useful? So for instance, if a person has a predominant amount of vata in their constitution, they'll tend to be more petite type person, less, less muscle mass, less fat tissue, they're going to have more narrow features, like longer, more oval shaped faces, thinner nose bridge, thinner lips. But they'll also be very more enthusiastic people like light, like air and space. They'll be light. They'll be very creative. They're often really fun to be around. But on the other side, they can tend

towards worrying and anxiousness and overwhelmed because these are the less desirable expressions of the air element. On the other side, you have the kapha person, which is kind of the total opposite, which is more rounder face, thicker lips, thicker skin, thicker hair, wider nose bridge, shorter extremities, whereas the vata person has longer extremities, longer fingers, longer toes. And the kapha person is going to have shorter fingers, shorter toes, shorter neck. A Vata person will have a longer neck, makes their head seem almost lighter somehow. And a Kapha person will just be more stockier person, generally speaking. And so that's more earth and water. And so that kapha person will be a person that will have much more ability to not get too stressed out. They can be very content. They're the people that it's easier to gain weight. Vata people, it's hard to put weight on. In the middle, you have fiery people like pitta people. So more moderate features, whereas the other two is like you had longer and shorter, thicker and thinner.

In the middle, it's more moderate features, but there's often for pitta people, a more intense nature. Deeper set eyes. They have an intensity about them. They can have redder skin. Pitta people, fire energy gives intelligence and good sense of leadership. And on the other side of it, they can be angry. They can tend towards anger. They can tend towards the more hotter emotions, such as resentment, anger, jealousy, this type of thing. So if I'm a Pitta person, I'm not going to try to not be a Pitta person, because that's impossible. This is how my architecture is. So therefore, I need to make sure I don't get overheated. I make sure I am getting the more desirable expressions of fire element, such as intelligence, warmth, warm heartedness, radiance, good glow, brightness of the eyes, luster of the skin, versus like overly red skin, inflammatory responses in the body and the mind,

and the emotional body, all of that inflammatory fire stuff. So it gives good insight. So when you understand your body type, number one, if you're out of balance right now, which we all are in some way or another, it gives you the wisdom on how to get back into balance. Because if there's too much fire, then you're going to use the foods and the herbs and so forth to decrease that fire. If there's too much earth and water, you're going to apply the opposite qualities through food, diet, and yogic practices and decrease the kapha so that you decrease the excess earth and water so things aren't too muddy and you're not getting too lethargic or too complacent and you feel motivated enough. Or if it's on the vata side and things are too anxious

and you're feeling worrying, worrying, worrying and overwhelmed, then we need to add stability. We need to add more earth and water because you already have so much air and ether. We need more earth and water. And then that's going to help the nervous system relax, going to give you a little more sense of contentment, stability, and everything's going to work better. And so that's what it is. You can go take that quiz on our website. And then I have, there's a whole free training that that then unpacks it for you and then for people who really love it you can take the whole course and the course isn't designed for practitioners it's designed for families or for people who have families that want to learn this for their life not go into medical practice but to integrate

this into everyday life for everyday people ayurveda for the people wow wow yeah that's incredible so i had 41 kaffa 34 is it pita and then um 23 percent vata i would say you know and and looking at you because you can someone trained you can tell a good bit, just looking at a person, it seems pretty accurate. I think the Pitta may, maybe, I think Pitta Kapha seems about right for you. Kapha Pitta, Pitta Kapha, we could explore more and then we could dial it in. But mostly, you know, and when you take the training, it really impacts it to where like these little differences of percentages aren't going to matter that much, because really what it teaches you to do is just how to pay attention to what your body and mind are communicating to you and then you learn how to antidote anything that's challenging or problematic and and then how to amplify the things that are working quite well wow that's cool

it's intriguing and it's another just beautiful way to bring awareness to your body and to your emotions. I mean, immediately when you said fire, it was like, oh, that's got to of ways. But yeah, like I think you're exactly right. It gives the language to the body and a language to the mind and to the emotions. And in a certain way, it's kind of like a poetic language too. So when you can put language around these things, it really helps us to kind of identify, understand, and then also evolve and grow. That's what I was thinking. It's like a recipe or some ingredients to help you optimize something. And isn't that what Ayurveda, doesn't it mean science or something like that? Well, Ayurveda means life and Veda is like knowledge or science sometimes. Science of life. It's really the art and science of life. I'm loving the nutrition piece of it

and like figuring out like what's weighing you down, what's making you heavy, how you can feed the other piece that needs some more attention. Like that's a beautiful piece. Well, think of it like this. When the springtime comes around, at the time we're recording this,

we're moving out of the winter and towards the spring. And so all winter long, it's been cold and then mother nature she comes in and turns up the heat a little bit and the rains come and that makes the soils moist and then you get the green sprouts that are coming so the springtime is the earth and water time of the year the kapha time of the year then in the summer long day short nights hot it's the pitta water time of the year, the kapha time of the year. Then in the summer, long day, short nights, hot, it's the pitta, fiery time of the year, three seasons in Ayurveda. And then fall, winter. So early fall is part of summer and late fall is part of winter because it's three seasons based on the three main harvests of the year. This is the principles of nature. And so

then you go winter and that's the air and ether time of the year, because that's when everything is dying. That's when everything is getting lighter. And so these are bioenergies of life in your body. You have three primary qualities of cellular activity. You have anabolism, which is the production of growth in the body. So when people take anabolic steroids, it makes them bigger and stronger. So you have anabolism, that is kapha, that is earth and water that's promoting growth,

then you have the opposite of that is catabolism, which is a purification of the tissues. And that is catabolism is like air and ether vata. And then the balance of those two of a person's anabolism and catabolism creates your metabolism, which is fire. So that's why fire is in the middle there. Earth and water on one side, air and ether on the other side. In the middle, you have fire. And to whatever, we're metabolic organisms, the human body and mind.

And so if our fire is too low, we're going to get diseased. If the fire is too hot, it're going to get dis-eased. If the fire is too hot, it's going to create dis-ease. And so in all these cases, it's about finding balance. So we move with the seasons and then you blend your body type with the seasons. So if I'm a kapha person in the kapha season, I have to be really mindful of that to not let the kapha overflow too much because I'm not going to feel good. Or if you're a hot person in the hot season, that's when you become really mindful. So these are all the principles of nature. And then it goes in times of the life, little chubby babies, kapha time of the life, you know, squeeze their cheeks, they're sweet. And then they come into the teenage years,

and they're a little less sweet, they're getting towards the pitta time of life. And pitta time is the middle age of life then we become elderly elders then they're in the winter time of our life the vata time of life so these are bioenergies that that govern nature and so ayurveda is just pointing it out and saying get in alignment with mother nature and things are going to flow it's like you didn't realize your boat was going upstream this whole time just turn it around it's a lot of you know and it goes back to what shanna was saying that the moon was her teacher i mean truly it's about mother earth being the teacher of it all and if this is so very similar to like daoism i took like class about daoism and the different

elements it's very similar. Isn't that amazing? There's always so many connections. Absolutely Taoism. Different parts of the world, but of course they're interwoven in connection. It's a different language of saying, you know, Lao Tzu is calling it the Tao.

It's the same thing. You know where my mind went? My mind started like floating around the world and thinking about how like there's people that live in certain areas, like in the the desert that aren't going to be able to feed certain parts of them because of the lack of water and like throughout like time how you know how it had to have been such a struggle for people to find that balance because of the space and the places they lived in and that's where my mind went sure and though also the wisdom that comes out of those cultures because desert cultures and and see all the indigenous cultures, they knew all this stuff. So this is one of the values of the Indian system is very well preserved. And so even though it was difficult to preserve it, because first you had the tyrannical Mughal empires coming in, destroying the Ayurvedic schools, destroying the yogic

institutes. And then you had the British and still it survived. It survived through teacher to student relationships is how it was preserved. And so, but in all the indigenous populations, they have versions of all of this all over the world. So in the Sahara desert, they'll drink hot mint tea, even in the hot, hot desert, because they understand how to keep the hot tea is going to help you perspire and cool you off. But they're using something like mint, which is one of the herbs that will help you sweat, but will also cool your blood. You know, there's a lot of wisdom that comes from all over the world. And this is just kind of tapping into that. So if you have like a pit bull, who's like very fiery, and, and, you know, they're known to like be very vicious, like, can you use this kind of practice with animals as well? Sure. I mean, you have to would need to know, like, what kind of herbs are okay for animals. And you can look at different breeds of dogs, and definitely pit bulls are pitta dogs, or like border collies, you you know that are so

intense about the ball that they want to catch and they're like you ever done fetch with a border collie they're so intense about their balls i have a lab who also likes his balls but he then he gets distracted he loves to fetch but he gets distracted because he wants to eat the acorns that have fallen and so all of a sudden, where did blue go? I was throwing the ball and now I just, these labs have more kapha. He wants to eat. So here's a lot of Ayurveda

that's really important to know. So if you're kapha, so it's like increases like. And so kapha people or dogs, animals, the kapha people are the ones that need to, would benefit the most from getting up early in the morning, well before the sun rises, exercise, and they're the least likely to do it. Vata people are the ones who would benefit most from having a steady routine, a good circadian rhythm, eat lunch at the same time, eat dinner. They would benefit the most

from it, they're the least likely to do it, their air element, they want a snack, they want, you know, eat three solid meals and don't eat between the meals. And, you know, maybe lay off the salads and alfalfa sprouts so much, especially in the cold months. But they're the ones that want it light creases, like pitta people are the ones that would be best to stay away from the hot sauce, but it's the fiery Pitta guy that's like, pass me the hot sauce. Whatever you don't want or don't want to do, that's what your body needs to do. Well, no, not necessarily. The principle in Ayurveda is when you're in balance, you will desire the things that will keep you in balance. But when you're out of balance, you'll desire the things that will keep you out of balance. And we have a

common like attracts like I got it. So there's some certain like innate tendencies that are good to disrupt when they're unhealthy tendencies. And so it's the part of the process of yoga and Ayurveda is discovering what all that is. What are the tendencies that I have that are actually not helpful? Like the way this one right here, coffee all day long. You know, it's all about context. So coffee all day long, the person is going to be handle that better. The Vata person, it's going to dry them up, pit the people, it'll aggravate them some, but you know, a little bit, it's shouldn't be rules to become a slave to, but guidelines to serve you. I love that. So not rules to enslave you, but guidelines to serve you.

Yeah. You're just going to rebel against rules. So I wanted to ask you again about the sick community, the sick community. You said it right the first time I mean I usually speak too but the proper pronunciation is like yeah yeah but you know I mean because I read before that it was like one of the youngest religions but what I find is so odd about that is that it comes from maybe stemming from one of the oldest because it seems very Hindu in many ways. It is. Yeah, well, the way we end up contextualizing these things in our modern world is a little oversimplified because, yes, the Sikh dharmas, I like to call it, or in India they'll call it Sikhi. Isms, I try to stay away from, although it's fine communication because that's what religions are. don't think of it so much of as a religion although many people do but just for me I just don't think in that context but it blossomed out of the great Vedic traditions of which also the

Hindu tradition came out of and this but it's also very much influenced by the Sufi tradition of Islam the mystical Islam it It emerged out of northern India and what is also now Pakistan. So it started with a great poet sage of North India named Guru Nanak, who lived about 500, just over 550 years ago. And like all these great spiritual traditions, this was a person who was extremely luminous, illuminated, but he never lectured, he never preached. All he did was traveled around with his close disciple, which was a musician, and he sang. And Grunanik himself was a musician. They played the instrument called the rabab which is a loot type of instrument and he

never gave any formal teachings everything we know we have from guru nanak he came through song and and that we have a lot from good or nanak but it's all poetry and it's beautiful and now if you go to northern india or anywhere in india and actually all over the world you'll find sikh people that all emerge from this but yes absolutely a fruits that blossomed out of the great ancient traditions of the Vedas on one hand it's you know 550 years old on the other hand it has roots that go thousands of years back yeah definitely not new age and I just you know I'm also curious to know if you kept any of your, your Jewish roots. I mean, like, cause like lately I've been kind of really into like the Gnostic

gospels and I've been looking into the Kabbalah and, you know, just find, well, again, like we just said, there's so many things that are so connected among all of the, you know, religions and cultures around the world. Well, yeah, absolutely. You know, it kind of took me getting away from it and discovering and really getting more deeply into spirituality, finding it on my own, to then realize it was there all along. And particularly in Kabbalah, I really, I really love. But yeah, the Jewish tradition is beautiful. I don't really practice so much Judaism, but I have, you know, tremendous love for it and appreciation. And I come from a Jewish family. So how can you not? It's in my,

I grew up, you know, going to the synagogue a couple of times a week, going to Hebrew school multiple times a week, all through my childhood. So, you know, you can't get away from it. And I don't care to get away from it. I'm not trying to, I think it's wonderful and I really appreciate that part of my culture like that yeah so I'm curious to know what kind of practices you have right now with with the world the way it is well you know I have my meditation and yoga practices I do but I think more and more the main primary practice I have, and part of the reason of doing yoga and meditation is to continually endeavor to increase the compassionate, the love of the compassionate heart. And what I mean by that is, this is what in the Buddhist tantras,

they call Burichitta, whichitta, which has two primary qualities. On one hand, it's boundless compassion, and on the other hand, it's wisdom, because we need both. And they describe it like two wings of the same bird. we'll have empathy or compassion for those whom we have a some sort of positive relationship with such as our either our beloved family members and friends and folks we adore and then often we're not reserving empathy or compassion for those who we disagree with and are triggered by and maybe find repulsive. So the practice there, though, is to actually expand the generosity of one's heart. And the same way you would feel compassion and love for an ailing friend or your ailing mother or your ailing lab, whatever it may be, that you can take that same feeling of love and kindness. And then to practice, it's like anything else, it takes practice, you have to strengthen it,

like you would strengthen any muscle. And you would extend that not only towards those whom you find have positive relationships with, but also and it's difficult, those you have what you could say negative relationships with adversarial energy relationships with, but also, and it's difficult, those you have what you could say negative relationships with, adversarial energy relationships with, whether they're people you personally know, those usually have the most emotional triggers, or it's some politician that you find repulsive, or some leader of some country who's creating war on other. And that doesn't mean that you support that person in hideous activity. It means that you are able to recognize that they too are suffering. If anyone is going to harm someone else, that means they are suffering and they are acting out of suffering. And it is deserving of compassion.

But that's why bodhicitta is not just compassion, it's wisdom and compassion. Because compassion without wisdom, you can create codependencies. But with wisdom, you create good boundary and you understand. And so what we're talking about is an internal process in the sanctuary of our own heart and mind, how we're developing a more loving relationship towards living beings. So there's three categories of living beings. There's those whom we adore. There's those who we find repulsive. And then there's those that are neutrals. And the more difficult one can be the neutrals because there's no emotional energy there to work with. Your enemies or your adversarial energies in your life, that's energy you can work with. And so that's why folks like,

or somebody like Dalai Lama, he does compassion meditation for the leadership of the Chinese government all the time. And those who actually tortured his beloved teachers, he hasn't been able to visit his homeland since the 1940s or 1950s, I can't remember. So the neutrals, this kind of just vast ocean of living beings, that's also part of it. And that's what we do. And part of what we work with in meditation practices and Kundalini yoga practices is endeavoring to expand that part of ourselves. Because if you have genuine compassion towards not only your beloveds, but also adversarial energies in your life and neutrals, you're a pretty blissful person, actually. You're a pretty happy person. And so that's where my main focus is.

You know, I just have to say, listening to you is so easy. I don't know what other words. I mean, you are such a great teacher. Like I'm able to hear it, process it and absorb it. I mean, what a great teacher you are. Thank you. Yeah. I'm soaking it all in. You're very calming. Your energy is amazing. And like Mandy said, you give some space for processing. Yeah. Thank you. You're amazing. You're a gift to this world. Thank you. Thank you so much for saying all that. Yeah. Tell us about the Life Force Academy. Thank you so much for saying all that. Yeah. Tell us about the Life Force Academy. I was just going to say, we'll definitely make sure we send you ladies membership to Life Force Academy. Life Force Academy is a cool thing. It's developed over years, we have now

members in over 60 countries around the world. And it's basically so people can, you know, use these practices in a very easy, fresh, inspired way, not just the practices, but also the concepts, the ideas, the teaching part of it. And whether it's quick practices, I just need a 15 minute tune up, you know, in the beginning of my day, or the meditation to have a good, deep, restful sleep, or I'm feeling nervous and overwhelmed, and I need the meditation to relax the nervous system, and to ease the worrying mind, or I want to take a full yoga class, which is I recommend, because then you're going to get all of it. And you're going to get not only that full exercises, meditations, a complete practice, but it's also going to practice with on the canvas of these

teachings to where, okay, we're talking about love, and we're talking about compassion. So then it gives a little more of a bigger context for when you're doing the spinal work, and you're doing the shoulder shrugs, and you're using the rhythm breathing. We have some developed ideas of why we're doing it and what it's doing and how it's working. And so all of that is in the Life Force Academy, libraries of complete yoga classes, quick practices, community, live streams. I teach every week in the Life Force Academy and then everything's on demand. So it's a pretty cool thing. We really love it. How many people are part of this Life Force Academy? Well, I don't know the exact numbers. There's many thousands. Wow. Because

we also have courses on Ayurveda, courses on Kundalini Yoga. And these are more in-depth, deep dive studies. And they're, you know, more in depth, deep dive studies and they're not just intellectual studies, but experiences that are going to take you through that. So we have our general membership, which is just a dollar to try it out for two weeks. And then it's just $25 a month. Then you have access to everything. There's always new things coming out every week, you know, so for the cost of, you know, in most yoga studios, one class these days, you have access to the whole thing for $25 per month after the dollar trial. Then the courses are the standalone courses you can purchase. And those are going to take more down

deep dives in different areas of study. That is amazing. Hey, do you know sean johnson i don't know and the wild lotus fan i don't think so oh you need to know him hey yes yeah they're amazing we had him on we did a really good episode with them if you want to listen to his he actually released a few songs on our podcast but yeah his music really really touches me and it's one of the reasons why i i love that cartoon yoga so much because i can really feel it through him i just yeah you gotta look him up you'll love him and speaking of um of music and and and beautiful people how did you meet your wife uh we met well not too long after the story I was telling you when I started teaching Kundalini yoga, because I had left the recording industry

path that I was on because after I got so deep into yoga practice, I was finding myself not going to class anymore. So I moved to Charleston South Carolina where I thought well I would study religious studies in the College of Charleston and I moved there because also I found that the director the head of the department of religious studies at the College of Charleston had written a book on Kundalini. And however, I quickly found that studying spirituality in the context of academic religious programs was not my cup of tea. Yeah. And I didn't last very long at that school. I only went for maybe a couple semesters. But that's where I met Sim It was in Charleston. She was

also a student at college of Charleston at that time. And yeah, we were, you know, young in our early twenties and I moved out to California to study Ayurveda is actually where that, and I thrive doing that. Awesome. She came out later on. And how many kids do you guys have? We have a 16 year old, one boy. 16. Well, you have been absolutely wonderful. Can you tell our listeners where they can take that quiz? Cause you know, for some reason,

us silly humans love these quizzes. Yes. Well, if you just go to lifeforce.yoga, if you type that into your URL, that'll take you to our website, life force yoga. And you can see life force Academy. You can take the Ayurveda quiz. That's the URL is you just type that into your browser, life force.yoga.

And, and that'll take you right to our website. Okay. So is your wife, is she water? Does water put out fire? Do you guys balance each other out? Uh, well, she's, uh, she's more, we're both fiery, actually. Fiery. Yeah. Me and my husband are both fiery too. Yeah. Pros and cons. So everything that you offer, the listeners can find in one place. That's amazing. And I'm telling

you guys, I'm telling the listeners right now for $25 a month. Are you kidding me? You can't even take a yoga class at the local, you know, studio for that. And I like your Instagram. Oh, thanks. I have fun with it. I do it myself. We also have a life force Academy has, you know, we've doing a lot, but thanks. Yeah. I'd like, you know, being in touch. I was just making sure yeah you go to lifeforce.yoga at the very top it says learn your ayurveda body type take the quiz at the very top there's so many free trainings the yoga class the perfect health is the free training on ayurveda bright and beautiful dharma business school dharma war

there's all sorts of great we do do live immersion. And over in early June, there'll be an immersion that for 200, we get have about 200 people in person, but that'll sell out pretty quick. But then virtual version of that. And these are, I think the coolest things we do. So what we always recommend folks to do is like get with a buddy and get an Airbnb or, you know, create a space in your house where you can just for, you know, four or five days in a row, do the immersion. Life changing. You can do it. This isn't Zoom room stuff. It's a real amazing production.

It's transporting. You have a good sound system and a good screen and it'll take you on a journey. So I'm going to ask you one more question before we wrap it up. If you could say something to your 16 year old self that was sitting there feeling like you didn't fit in, like, I feel like so many teens are struggling with right now. What would you say to yourself? Well, I don't know. The problem with that is I was so arrogant as a 16 year old. I wouldn't have listened to anything. You knew everything, didn't you?

I would say just wait, man. It's all good. You know, you don't even because, you know, I always felt like I could always feel even when I was younger. And again, you know, I couldn't really find the right scene to fit in. I really felt like me, but then I always had this sense that, that I had a brilliance. There was something important about me. And, and I think that's innate to everyone. Not that we all have access to feel it at all times, but that every human being is crucially important. And at the nucleus of all of us is an, is a supreme intelligence and a supreme love. And so I don't know what I would say, but the first,

the word, when you asked me the words that popped out which says just wait you'll see and you'll see how this is all going to play out and i love that yeah that was actually my blog this morning and i posted it on my social media too is i don't say it quite as eloquently as you i said fuck happy because i shannon i've talked about this before but we we tend to forget that happiness is is just like every other emotion. It's not permanent. And I feel like a lot of these teens get stuck thinking that something's wrong with them

if they're not feeling it all the time. And to remember that it's just a wave and nothing's permanent. And to remember, let it pass and then just wait for the next miracle or emotion to come. This too shall pass. Yeah.

And now it's time for break that shit down. Yeah. Just keep going, everybody. Just, and try to have fun. Even when things are really rough, try to find a way to have fun. And that's why i like yoga practices and that's why i like what we do at life force academy because based on that it's like there is sometimes that are going to be smooth and easy and other times that are going to be hard difficult and constricted sometimes there's expansion the tide is coming in sometimes there's contraction and the tide is going out that'll always be the the case, no matter what. So what we need to do is

have the vitality and the energy. So no matter what's happening in life, externally, internally, that we are able effectively, genuinely to keep track of our joy, keep track of our joy, we still have the ability to smile, the ability to have fun. And because we have a lightness of being that we've been able to cultivate over time, baby steps, baby steps, baby steps, be easy on ourselves. Nothing's going to happen real quick. Nothing substantive is going to happen real quick, but little baby steps are fantastic because when you take little baby steps, just do it for a little while and you'll look back and you can't believe how far you've gone. Oh my gosh. I love

it. Speaking of fun listeners, collect your four to five friends, get an Airbnb. I don't know, get a teepee and go out in a field, you know, put a blanket in your basement, whatever it is and plan to be part of what is the name of it again? Life Force Academy immersion. Immersion. Sounds fun to me. It was so nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Thanks for being with us today. We hope you will come back next week. If you like what you hear, don't forget to rate, like, and subscribe.

Thank you. We rise to lift you up. Thanks for listening.