The One You Feed - How to Let Your Light Shine with Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzales

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Ali, Atman, and Andres shared their story of discovering yoga and how they were deeply influenced by their godfather’s profound journey. Their godfather, a former Black Panther, shifted his focus from revolutionary change to inner evolution, finding solace and purpose in yoga during the 1960s. This pivotal shift shaped the foundation of their upbringing, instilling a deep connection to yoga and its transformative power. Their father’s guidance to pursue entrepreneurship led to the formation of the Holistic Life Foundation, cementing their commitment to empowering individuals through yoga and mindfulness. In this episode, discover the profound impact of yoga on personal growth and societal change, illustrating the universal potential for self-discovery and positive transformation. In this episode, you will be able to: Cultivate mindfulness for emotional resilience Empower teachers and leaders with yoga and mindfulness for holistic support Explore the holistic benefits of yoga for overall well-being Harness the transformative power of pranayama for inner balance Embrace mantra meditation for healing and positive manifestation To learn more, click here!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Does meditating feel like a chore, another to-do list item to check off, or perhaps it's even fallen off the list entirely? If you sense that meditating regularly would benefit you, but you struggle to find a sustainable place for it in your schedule, I can help. There are reasons people struggle with creating and maintaining a meditation practice, and it isn't because meditation isn't right for them. In my free guide, The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Seem to Stick with a Meditation Practice and How to Build One That Lasts, I teach you why it can be a struggle to build a meditation practice that lasts and the small fixes that can have a big impact when it comes to getting you where you want to be with meditating regularly. Go to OneYouFeed.net and sign up for this free guide right on our homepage. I'm Jason Alexander.

And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallyknowreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast,

or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The really no really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ultimately, love is the most powerful force and it's the uniting force. And that's what we're hoping to be able to do with our mission. Welcome to The One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like, garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think, ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear.

We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf. Thanks for joining us. Our guests on this episode are the founders of the Holistic Life Foundation,

Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andre Gonzalez. They talk about their new book, Let Your Light Shine, How Mindfulness Can Empower Children and Rebuild Communities. In the book, they describe how they have spent the last 20 years teaching yoga, meditation, and breath work to thousands of at-risk kids in Baltimore schools, helping them to develop deep reserves of patience, empathy, resolve, and when needed, the righteous anger that fuels deep structural change. Their work has received wide national attention due to the remarkable results. The schools that have participated in their programs have seen suspension rates plummet and graduation rates go through the roof. Andy, Ali, and Atman, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Yeah, we appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you guys for being here. We're going to be discussing your book called Let Your Light

Shine, How Mindfulness Can Empower Children and Rebuild rebuild communities. And we'll also be talking about your great work with the Holistic Life Foundation, which is an organization that you guys founded probably over 20 years ago. But before we do, we'll start like we always do with the parable. In the parable, there's a grandparent and they're talking with their grandchild and they say, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandchild stops. They think about it for a second. They look up at their grandparent and they say, well, which one wins? And the grandparent says,

the one you feed. So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you guys in your life and in the work that you do. I know one thing that jumps right out to me is like, it sounds like yoga in its traditional form. You know what I mean? It's like your ego versus your universal consciousness. You know what I mean? Like you have a choice of where you put your conscious awareness and where you put your energy. So it's like, it can be that higher vibrational stuff or that lower vibrational stuff. I mean, it's all just energy, but it's a matter of where you put your awareness and your efforts. So you can either feed your connection to your universal consciousness or the separate nature of your ego. To build off of that, it also

reminds me of something our teacher, Uncle Will, used to always talk about, like sanscaras or habit patterns. What they say is like when you do something over and over again, it their yoke or grip on your individual consciousness. So if it's, you know, those bad wolves that, you know, is feeding, you know, your ego and, you know, is detrimental to your consciousness, health, enlightenment, and all that stuff, you kind of want to like, let them slide or let them go and bring about more positive habit patterns. And the more you do that, the more that those habit patterns will form. And you know, those things our teacher used to always say, those negative habits will fall off like a scab. So, you know, to me, that is what pops to my mind when you talk about the good wolf and the

bad wolf is sanscaras. The same thing with me when the same thing with the obama said sanscaras immediately popped into my head as well but just to throw another kind of viewpoint out while i was talking about i was like i don't want to say the same thing you know what i mean i was thinking about also how sometimes when we discuss the concept of neuroplasticity with people we talk about how we can rewire our brain and certain things that go on in our lives and that concept similar kind of brought that out in my head too, where, you know, a lot of times we'll show a picture in our slideshow and it's a picture of, you know, like a brain that's nervous or looks stressed out, looks overwhelmed. And if you keep feeding that part of your life, you know, feeding, you know, whenever

you face adversity or you're going through something intense that you get stressed out, then you're feeding that side of your brain and your brain gets better at getting stressed out. Whereas if when you were faced with adversity or something's going on with your life, you use a breath, you slow your body down and become more present, then you're training your brain to be more like that. So instead of constantly triggering the sympathetic part of our autonomic nervous system, you can be in more of that parasympathetic. So, similarly to the parable, I think it reminded me of that, how whichever one you feed is going to get stronger. I love this idea of samskaras. It sounds like we pronounce that word slightly differently. I don't know if that's a difference between Hinduism and

Buddhism. It doesn't really matter. But that idea of when we do a behavior or a thought, one of the things that happens is it makes it easier or more likely to do that behavior or thought in the future. And that's just such a fundamental concept to realize like, oh, we are creating, in essence, the choices that are available to us almost narrow the more we do something. And you mentioned if we can catch something early, it unwinds pretty easy. When we're trying to unwind something that's got 30 years of habit energy behind it, it's not that it can't be unwound because of course it can, but it is slightly more challenging. And so I always find that helpful to think of, you know, as I'm thinking about how I'm going to spend my time and what I'm going to do is like for exercise, not only am I getting the benefit of the exercise today and what it does for my mental, emotional, physical health, but I'm also making it easier

to do it the next time and the next time. And so I love that you guys brought that up. And then obviously Holly, the core idea, right? It's choice, right? You hear the parable, you immediately get it. Our thoughts, our behaviors, our actions, our speech, they all matter. We have a choice in them. So what I'd like to talk about now is just get a little background on you guys and the work that you do. And I want to start by asking one of you to talk about a particular statistic. And what you guys did is, and you'll flesh this out more, but you basically began in Baltimore, 20 years, however long it's been, trying to find the most troubled children and see if by using yoga and meditation, you could improve their lives. Now, you use different words with them and all that, but that was the core idea. And there was a statistic that jumped out to me that just really caught my attention. And it was one around suspension rates in a school where you guys were

using, I think you might've called it your mindful moment program. I'm wondering if you could describe that program and then share some of those stats. Because to me, right away, I'm like, holy mackerel, that's incredible. I mean, I can describe the program, the Multiple Moment Program, like you said. We have an alternative to suspension room when kids are in crisis. And it goes from elementary school all the way to high school. We're in each of those institutions. And like I said, when kids are in crisis, when they're in high school, they can self-refer, but when they're in middle school and elementary school, the teacher or administrator or principal has to refer them to the room. We have staff from the Holistic Life Foundation staffing the room. When they come in there, we're not counselors,

so we can't tell them what to do when they are in crisis, but we can actively listen and mirror what they're saying their problem is to empower them. A lot of kids are talked to all the time or talked at and they are not ever listened to. So that right there is empowering and healing to trauma. Then we teach the kids about stress, stresses and how it plays out in their body, whether they clench their fists, clench their jaw, fold their arms, so they know what to look out for when they are about to act out. We also talk about, like I said, their stressors, whether it's a teacher, classmate. And then, you know, after we have them identify those things, we teach them a breath or meditation to help them,

you know, self-regulate. You know, they're not looking for anybody else. The practices are within. We teach in a way of reciprocal teaching model where, you know, self-regulate, you know, they're not looking for anybody else. The practices are within, we teach in a way of reciprocal teaching model where, you know, they know how to use the practices and what they're good for. And then, you know, we ask them after the end of like the 15 minute session with us, next time that this situation happens, whether you're having that interaction with that student, that teacher, whether you're noticing how the stress plays out in your body, clenching your fist, clenching your fist, clenching your jaw, shifting your weight, folding your arms. Do you think that you can,

you know, use this practice to help yourself self-regulate so you don't have to come back here? And they are like, yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it. And then, you know, at the end, we have a tea machine in the room and, you know, kids love tea and, you know, we give them some tea and then they go back to class. And, you know, one of the most beautiful things about that practice is at the beginning of the year, the number of visits in that room is skyrocketed. Like it's through the roof, you know, the amount of kids that come through there, but because we teach kids how to self-regulate, how to identify their stressors and how to identify how stress plays out in their body. And then the practices they can do to help bring themselves back to homeostasis. The numbers dwindle next to nothing during the course of the

year. And in the epicenter of where the Freddie Gray riots happened, there hasn't been a suspension in maybe like eight years. And schools that we go into, they eventually get rid of the in-school suspension room because it's not needed anymore. So, you know, it's teachers and principals love it because it helps with the classroom environment, school culture, helps increase test scores, attendance, helps decrease suspensions and referral numbers. So we're expanding the program to six new cities this upcoming year through the Clinton Global Initiative, because we do get such great stats. And just a couple of things about that program real quick. I think one thing we make sure when we will go to the schools, we're very intentional about the way that we talk about

the room. So it's not seen as a room for bad kids. It's more like a resource for everyone at the school because everybody's struggling for different reasons and no one wants to go to the room if they see it for kids with behavior issues. Like it's got to be a room for stress, a room for anxiety, a room for, you know, if you just can't focus. So it's like a resource to all the kids in the school. And I think one of the main things we were trying to do was change the dynamic from punitive to empowering, like kids usually being used to get punished for things. And that's just the way they live their lives. But we make it empowering because like I was talking about, they come to the room, they learn to self-regulate, and then they start to do that self-regulation in the classroom and they don't need to come to

the room. So like those things that might've triggered them. And then in September, they're like, I need to go to the mindful moment room. In April, it might be, oh, wait, look, I feel myself getting triggered. Oh, they taught me this breathing exercise. I can recenter myself. And then they recenter themselves in the classroom. So, you know, that's a huge part of it. And it's funny that school that I was talking about with the zero suspensions forever, for as long as we had the program, there were no suspensions. And I remember going to get data from the principal and vice principal for a grant that our development director was putting together. And I was like, yeah, I just need suspension data and this and that. And they were like, Ali, we don't have any suspensions here.

He was like, you know why that is, right? And I was like, I don't know. Y'all fudge the numbers? Like, I don't understand how y'all don't have zero suspension. How y'all have zero suspension? She's like, no, we don't fudge the numbers. Like, when we're about to suspend a kid, we send them to you all. Like, we send them to the Mindful Moment room. They recenter themselves, and they're ready to go back to class.

And if the kids that are, like, repeat offenders have the kids who kind of like constantly showing up in the room. We had an afterschool program at that school as well called Holistic Me. And the kids that just needed a little more support, she would pull them out of whatever program they were in and put them in our afterschool program. And then it would just help them. And there were literally no suspensions there in the entire time of running that program. You know, it's great what we do for the students, but, you know, we also have an aspect of the program where we help support teachers and administrators during their planning periods. We'll send our staff to their rooms to work with the teachers and teach them practices to help them, you know, get rid of secondary trauma and, you know, be more present for their students. And,

you know, that helps prevent burnout and gives them a new air of energy, you know, about their craft. And, you know, a lot of people lose that through, you know, accumulating that secondary trauma. And that's one thing that we've noticed that, you know, it's been like teachers at schools where they are ready to retire. And when we bring the practice to the school, they get a new energy about them. And they have a new light because not only is their classroom environment improving and the kids are more receptive, but they aren't accumulating that secondary trauma. They learn the practices to be able to get rid of that and once again, just be present. And then also with the principal, we always take time to work with the principal as well to have a personal practice because they're overwhelmed. Teachers are overwhelmed because they

have to wear so many hats, but the principals wear even more hats than the teachers. And Richie Davidson did a study on the effectiveness of having a personal practice and being around folks and influencing them through your energy. And that's one thing that we've noticed in the schools that we're at. The secretaries in the schools thank us for having the practice with the principal because if the principal is stressed out, the teachers are stressed out, the secretaries are stressed out. But when they do have a personal practice, the positive, calm, present vibe reverberates out into the school in every single facet. So you've given some descriptions of a couple different programs. Why don't you tell me just broadly, you know, what the holistic life, what all you do,

and maybe tell me a little bit about the origin of it. I'll start with the origin and somebody can talk about what we do if y'all want to do it that way. So sounds good. The origin of the Holistic Life Foundation was, I'd say, our godfather, who was our teacher, our dad and our mom, just in a lot of different ways, they got into the practice'd say, our godfather who was our teacher, our dad and our mom, just in a lot of different ways. They got into the practice of yoga. Our godfather got into it in the early 60s. Him and my dad were like Black Panthers. They were into making change. And then they saw that certain types of change weren't sustainable. Revolution wasn't really a sustainable thing. They got violent. They got bloody. Evolution took too long. So they would always

talk about an involution, changing your inner life to change the world around you. And he was walking past the bookstore, saw this guy with a big goofy grin and a big nose and a mustache and was like, who is this guy? And it was Mayor Baba. So he grabbed the Mayor Baba book and read it and went back the next day and bought every single yoga book from this bookstore. And from that moment on, the yoga was the primary motivation of his entire existence. You know what I mean? Learning it, absorbing it, teaching it, and just helping people with the practice and empowering people with the practice. He got our dad into it when my dad had a prostate issue. And our mom, she had her own spiritual practice, mostly around

prayer, but she got into the Ayurvedic cooking. That was her thing. And when me and Atman were born, our dad was like, well, if I'm meditating, you guys are meditating. So he got us into transcendental meditation early. It's not something I remember ever not being around like meditation as a kid. It was just like, that was a part of our lives, getting up before school, meditating, and then going to watch on this little teeny black and white TV in the kitchen, watching Scooby doing Woody Woodpecker and then going off to school every morning. That was our life. They put us in a self-realization fellowship church. The Divine Life Church of Absolute Monism was what it called when we

started going there. And then it became the Divine Life Church of Absolute Oneness. So based on Kriya Yoga, really dope place to kind of see other people meditating and people into the practice. Because where we were in West Baltimore like no one was into it. We had to hide our meditation practice. I'm like to say we're like closet meditators. You know what I mean? Like we didn't really want to share that with people because it was just weird back then. You know what I mean? Now, coolest kids on the block being vegan and meditating and then the yoga. But back then it was just in the early 80s, like nobody was into that. So it's just like something that we hid from people. And then, you know, fast forward, we got out of our practice when our parents separated,

we got out of the vegan lifestyle when our parents separated and got divorced. And then we got back into it as we were finishing up college. And, you know, Uncle Will was excited. We always tease him and say he was like Yoda sitting in the Dagobah swamp waiting for Luke to show up. And we showed up and we were like, we want to learn this stuff. And he taught us and it just became a part of our lives. So I think we went deep into the practice. And at the same time, our dad, when we were finishing up school, told us don't go get jobs. He was like, don't go get a job. You guys need to start a business. You guys need to work for yourselves. You'll be a lot happier. You won't have to deal with racism in the corporate arena. You'll be able to make decisions. You'll be able to hire people that might not get hired.

And you'll have a lot more flexibility and you'll be a lot happier. And that was when we started the Holistic Life Foundation. So it was like the combination of the yoga from Uncle Will, the business and entrepreneurship from our dad was like the perfect storm for us to start the Holistic Life Foundation. And our mom supported us. She was the one that had all the school connections and made sure we didn't starve when we were early starting off the Holistic Life Foundation. And our mom supported us. She was the one that had all the school connections and made sure we didn't starve when we were early starting off the Holistic Life Foundation too. She was an integral part of it as well.

Maybe we could pause here for a second before we go into what all you do. And I'd love to have one of you describe what you mean when you say yoga. Because as we know, yoga has, for many, many, many people, it means one thing. It means you do a series of poses on a mat, you know, somewhere or by yourself.

But it's all a physical thing. And maybe there is some element of being present or breathing that's part of it. But it's primarily the physical thing. And you guys are talking about a yoga that is far more to use your title of your business holistic than that, right? So could someone just share in a sentence or two kind of what you mean when you guys use the word yoga? And then I'd love to hear about the programs that you guys do. I mean, I can say what yoga is, since it only take a second to Andy can dive deeper on, what we do. To us, yoga is basically like how Patanjali described it as like the eight limbs,

things that you should do, things that you shouldn't do, the yamas and niyamas, then the postures, then also the breathing practice, like you were saying. And then meditation. Meditation is really important that a lot of people just skip. And that's like top four levels of Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga. And, you know, a lot of people think that it's something that you do when you roll out of mat. But, you know, our teacher used to always say it's not something that you do. It's something that you are. So it's figuring out how to take the practice off the mat and actually into your life.

Excellent. Yeah. And I think just real quick, I think union is what yoga means. So it's like the science of uniting your consciousness with that universal consciousness. Because when we're in our ego, we live that separate kind of limiting lifestyle you know what i mean where we like we put the limits on ourselves but when you can unite your consciousness with that universal consciousness then you get into that omniscient omnipotent omnipresent universal nature of yourself that that you actually are so i'll jump in now about some of the stuff h love does what would you like

yeah ollie hit it on the head basically about basically about the foundation coming from his moms and his dad and Uncle Will. Imagine three guys in college that just want to help. We see a lot of suffering going on in the world, and we don't see a lot of people doing anything about it. They get back in contact with Uncle Will, and I first meet him. get back in contact with Uncle Will and I first meet him, I think that's when we really got into our practice and we had an opportunity to provide some of the techniques that we were doing for ourselves with a group of kids. So fast forward 20 years later now, the main thing we try to do is provide evidence-based trauma-informed curricula, practices, services to individuals all over the nation, all over the world, all age groups. We get highlighted for a lot of the

stuff we do with youth, but we do drug rehab centers, mental health facilities, homeless shelters, elderly homes, corporations, basically anywhere where we can go and remind people some of these practices and techniques like Atman was talking about beyond just the movement. We do do movement as well and actually try to make people understand that misconception of yoga sometimes where all they think the yoga is, is the bending and stretching and like putting yourself in a pretzel. So we do do some form of movement, some form of breath work, and then we get into the meditation practices. And the goal is just to provide people with tools for their toolbox. Because some people,

certain techniques will resonate more with them than others. I remember there was a talk once where they were like, these guys have saved all these people's lives. And we always correct them like, whoa, whoa. We haven't saved anybody's lives. All we do is we remind people that these techniques so they can help themselves. So we don't save anyone's lives. We're just like, hey, don't forget when you're faced with something, you can use this breath, or maybe you can use this meditation to get yourself back to center, to be present. And then as they start doing that more, I think that's when they really start getting that self realization, right? Separate from the ego and really remembering who they really are, their real self, that capital S self that we're talking about. I think once that starts happening, that's

when their lives just completely transform and they see the world through different eyes, hear the world through different ears, and everything is united. Like Ali said, that union, right, where all those divisions that are brought upon us, you know, through the material world and the illusions of this material world and even being taught, you know, in the systems that we're at that everything is always defined to make it something separate when really the main point of yoga is union. And I think that with the Holistic Life Foundation, that ends up coming off in some way, shape or form. We're very particular in the way that we speak in schools where we don't go too,

too deep. So we're more surface level, more awareness practices when we're in schools. But when it comes to like all our actual practices, Ali Atman and I, I think that we're yogis and we're into the connection with that capital S, the real universal self. Ultimately, love is the most powerful force and it's the uniting force. And that's what we're hoping to be able to do with our mission. Can I just say something real quick about HLF? And just like on boots on the ground, what HLF does is like we do a lot of tier one, tier two, and tier three interventions in K through 12 schools where we're helping kids get the practices early and then move on through their lives.

My afterschool program is called Holistic Me, where we just gives kids a little more support and enrichment programs. Holistic Roots is our mentoring program for kids who graduate out of our afterschool program, where it's more around still the enrichment activities, but more around life skills, whether it's job readiness, college readiness, whatever it is. And then kids go into our workforce development program so we can train them to come and work for us. I think throughout the entire lifespan of Holistic Life Foundation, we probably had somewhere between 40 and 50 of our former students working for the Holistic Life Foundation. We do work in the community as well. So that's detention centers,

mental crisis facilities, senior centers, head starts, homeless shelters, drug treatment centers, everywhere along those lines. The other thing we do is we do a lot of trainings. Mindfulness and yoga have become very, very popular. But I think people want to just go to a weekend retreat or read a curriculum and be able to just go and start throwing it out there. I think one thing that the Holistic Life Foundation does is we help to develop authentic teachers. And that's where the real change is going to come from people being the practice and not just doing the practice, being able to embody it. So a lot of what we do is around training people to facilitate the programs in a way that's going to help people heal from their trauma, deal with the mental health outcomes that are kind of plaguing people these days, and just live a more peaceful, love-centered and connected life. As you're talking, I'm sort of struck by a couple of ideas. I mean, the first is,

you guys described your own practice where you're after union with that capital S self, right? And all of our mystical traditions talk about this in different ways, right? In Buddhism, we'd actually say you're kind of getting in touch with Buddha nature. You're losing your egoic self. Lots of different words for it. That's a path of high degree of rigor and intensity. There are some people who have those experiences very quickly, very easily, but for most of us, it's going to take a lot of practice. We've got that on one hand, but on the other extreme, what you are doing is introducing some of these practices and tools for people who have no interest in that path, but are simply

looking for a way to not get suspended, to get better grades, to not get in fights after school, to choose a path besides a gang. I mean, there's lots of different things. And I'm struck by how these similar practices can be useful, regardless of what degree you want to go into them. The reason I'm hitting this point is I think it's important for anybody who's listening also, when we think about our spiritual practice, we often are given this idea that we have to be these intense, devoted people to our spiritual practice. And for some people that I do think is the right path, but there's also a way of saying, you know what, I've just got a few more tools in my toolkit that helped me to be a little bit better person. And I don't ever have to take it further than

that if I don't want to, you know? And so I think your work shines a light on those two, you know, those are both extremes. And then there's a million places in between those two. Yeah. So I think a lot of the things you said resonated and I could hear uncle Will talking in our head, like, you know, the path is going to be what you make it. Your inner journey is going to be what you make it. I mean, he would always talk about making your journey a fun journey. You know what I mean? Like having fun with your spiritual practice, because you can go into it thinking it's going to be hard and like, you know, like dreading going into your practice. But like, I enjoy my practice. I mean, I have fun with it. He would always talk about whatever you call that light inside of you, whether it's God, whether it's

Brahman, whether it's Allah, whatever you call that light inside of universal light, whatever you call it, that you're like, let your light shine, whatever you call that light. He would always say, talk to that light. Like you talk to me, like you talk to your best friend. You know what I mean? Don't go in there very meek or shy or begging for anything because that abundance and that union is your birthright. It's why we're put here. So you don't have to go in there begging for anything and really have fun with it and go in there with a playful attitude, not like, again, that very meek where you're like, please give me this. You know what I mean? You got to go in there. Even the guy, we talk about a charioteer, Swami Shankarananda in our book, and I can hear his voice. He would always say that a true yogi is very demanding. You're going in there and you're demanding the things because these are the things that are your birthright. You're not begging or asking for anything. I think one of the other things that Uncle Will helped us with was he would always talk about that sharp edged sword versus the broad path.

And he was like, if you guys were true yogis, you would walk that sharp edged sword where it's like, you know, you're walking on a sword. It's going to hurt the entire time and there's not much room for error and you can fall off at any point. But if you walk that broad path, you know, you could be over here. You could be over there. You could be somewhere in the middle. As long as you're walking towards that light, then you're actually going in the right direction. I remember there was a point where we would hang out with Uncle Will. We'd drink beer. We would drink. It was mostly Heinekens and Crown Royal. We would drink with Uncle Will. And there was a long period of time where I was like, I felt like if I was going to be a yogi, I had to a while. And I remember him looking at me. We were sitting over there talking. He cracks open a Heineken, slides in front of me. He's like, all right, you're done with that. And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, well, the people that you're trying, how many spiritual conversations have you had out at a bar? And I was like, a ton of them.

He was like, yeah, so why does that have to be something that you stop? You know what I mean? It's the way you connect with people. It's the way you draw people in. So that doesn't have to be something that you give up. From time to time, you may decide you want to step away from it and it might fall off at some point. It might not. But like, if that's something that you enjoy doing and you're moving in the direction of the light while you're doing it, he was like, and he would always talk about, he was like, yeah, you know, we're over here, we're, we're having all these drinks, but like, we're talking about the light the entire time. Like most of our practice with uncle will throughout probably the last like 10 to 15 years, we practiced with him him had nothing to do with the yoga mat. It was like us and Heineken

and crown Royals sitting around his, like the Island in his kitchen and us learning from him that way. And it was like more about practices that we can incorporate into our lives throughout the 20. Like if we did two hours on our mat, it's how we spend those other 22 hours in our day. Like that's what he was teaching us during that time. And that was more impactful. And that's a bigger part of our practice than our mat-based practice probably is right now. But I think that having the fun and living your life the way that... He was like, if you guys were meant to be some other way, you probably would have been born in a monastery or in the woods somewhere. He's like, you guys are born in West Baltimore. So that's where you got to operate from. And you got to spread the light from there.

All the alcoholics and addicts in the audience are suddenly like, I am joining the Holistic Life Foundation. Where do I sign up? Come on through. We take everybody. As a recovering alcoholic and addict myself, we have a bunch of people in that camp. But I think this point of, you know, how do you make your practice fun is a really important idea. You know, how do we keep it alive? You know, and one of the challenges I faced as I've gone down my spiritual path is that all of a sudden a practice

will get really, really dry for me. Because certain spiritual teachers will say to me, okay, now you're at it, right? This is it. Like you stay in it now, you know? And then other people and my own mind will say, you know, maybe you just need something different. Maybe you need to spice this up a little bit. And I have found that an ongoing challenge as I've navigated my own spiritual path for 30 years is kind of what to do when it gets dry like that. Do I keep going deeper? Do I pivot? And I don't think there's any answer to that. I couldn't answer that question for anybody else. Like, what do you do? But I do in my life, see it as part of figuring out that spiritual path. And also kind of what

you said, how broad do I want the path to be for myself or how narrow do I want it to be? Right. How focused and dedicated am I? And, and last 30 years or so, it varies, right? There's times where my path is very broad. And there are times where it narrows and it narrows and it narrows and I'm very focused. And to me, that's kind of what this journey we talk about is kind of about. There's no set answer, right? We have to figure it out ourselves with the help of other people, with the discernment of community around us. When you just said that, it made me just like really appreciate our teacher

so much because, you know, he said he's going to give us a toolbox of different practices because, you know, something that may serve you today may not serve you tomorrow, like you were just saying. And, you know, we have certain physical practices that we do, like when we do hit the mat, like the sunrise, you know, the five Tibetans or the fountain of youth practices, certain kriyas like sat kriya, like stretch pose, stomach retraction, just our go-tos. But then we have limitless meditations that we dive into from time to time just in regards to what we need for that day. Or it might be different mantras that Ali's son, he calls the cheat codes because there's a mantra for any and everything that you want in your life. It's tapping you into latent energy around you and in your body that bring about certain results,

certain mudras. It's so many different things that you can practically apply into your life if you don't have the time, two hours, like Ali was saying, to roll out of mat. If you only have 20 minutes, you may just want to do the physical practice, the sunrise and the writes. And then during the course of the day, you may do your matras or you may do certain breathing practices or whatever. So I think that that's one of the reasons why and the reason why we appreciate our teacher and the reason why we teach how we teach is giving people a toolbox because you never know if a practice will get boring. You'll have enough to be able to pull out your toolbox to invigorate your interest in the practice and keep you going. Hey y'all. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls. And I'm thrilled to invite you to our January Jumpstart Series for the third year running.

All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kickstart your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. who help you kickstart your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar. You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love. So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. So a little bit of past, present and future, all in one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always an insecurity. It can be something that you love. All to help you start 2025 feeling empowered and ready. Listen to

Therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really Know Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like... Why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk

gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today.

How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really?

That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No really. Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really, No Really, and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. One of the things I was struck by as I was reading your book is people often talk about the four types of yoga, right? You guys can expound upon it, but the way it's often been taught to me is that those different paths align to different people's personalities, right? Like you just might be a person who, you know, worshiping a devotion, you know, or you might be a person where, you know, really acts of service. But what I found interesting in your guys' practice is you're not picking one of those paths, right? You're actually incorporating to some degree all four of them, I think. Say a little bit about that, about what those four are and how you think

about, you know, maybe staying on one versus blending all of them. So I'd say that with Uncle Will, it was kind of lumped into groups. There was like the physical practice, which was like the Hatha, the Kundalini, and the Kriya. That was always a big part of it. There was the mantra yoga, which had its own part. There was Janana yoga that had its own part. And then there was like the karma yoga, of course, and Bhakti yoga. I feel like those are the major ones that we did with Uncle Will. And then it was like those weird energetic practices that he would pull out of left field every once in a while. He would always have this running joke where we would go over something and we would get to the

end of it. And he'd be like, well, no, I got something else for you. And you will not get out of this course until you learn. Then he'd throw something else at us. And we think we were finishing that up. And he'd be like, you will not get out of this course until you learn. So it was like always a different form. And his thing was he wanted us to be able to walk into a room and be able to teach anybody. And it was all about people are going to need different things. Like while might walk into a school and there's a bunch of like rambunctious third graders that bouncing off the walls, they might need to do some asanas to burn off some of that energy that we do some breath work. And then they can stop for

slinnering themselves. We might be at a retreat center and people are looking for like a deep spiritual connection. That's a whole nother set of practices. So I think he really wanted us to be able to relate to any and everyone. You know, like we've been around a lot of like really good yoga teachers, but I feel like I can speak for Atman and Andy on this one. I've never been around anyone that was deeply connected to the practices he was. Like he would always say that he was a conduit of the practice because like there there'd be times we'd be at his place and like, it would be flowing through him. He wouldn't be talking. It would just be like flowing through him. And then he

would even have to stop and like, damn, did y'all hear that? Like, where did that come from? Like where he would be even shocked that it came out of him where it was just like, you know, like he was just like totally there. And I think one of the most important things about him was he would always say it's in the book a lot about being a scientist and experimenting. He would like, don't go out there and teach these practices until you've experimented on yourself and you've proved to yourself that they work. There might be practices that I'm working on now that I have to prove to myself that they work before I go out and share them with anyone else. I think that's a good way that he kind of brought us through as teachers to make sure that we're not teaching from a place of theory. We're teaching

from a place of experience and wisdom where it's like coming from us. And we know like the pitfalls of it. We know how to get over this obstacle in the practice. And, you know, there might be something that we've experienced that we can share with someone else that'll make their journey with the practice a little easier. So it is all about getting a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and being able to adjust with what the universe throws at you. Because like you were saying, some practices do get a little dry to you. There might be a time where your practice gets in that zone. You're in that zone with your practice, the universe throws you a curveball, and then that practice doesn't work anymore. You got to adjust your practice to what the universe is putting in front of you right

there. So I think being teachers, but also being practitioners, he wanted us to be well prepared for when he transitioned that we had enough to kind of sustain ourselves and help the people around us sustain themselves too. I got to swing back to something you guys said earlier. You were talking about the physical poses. You said, I know them as sun salutations. I think you call it something slightly different. But after that, you said another thing I don't remember, which I didn't know. And then you said

the five Tibetans. And I have no idea what either of those things meant. I don't know if you remember the one that I can't think of, but what are the five Tibetans? I think that you're talking about the five Tibetans and the fountain of youth practice. Those are the ones. That's the same thing. It's like a Tibetan yoga. It's a series of five practices that is a full physical body workout, but then it makes you more youthful just because it makes your energy centers or chakras spin the proper speed, proper direction. A lot of times when we have ailments in our body energetically in the yogic philosophy, they say that your chakras are either spinning the wrong direction or not spinning the right speed. But this practice, like I said, not only the full physical body practice, but it gets your chakras or energy centers spinning the proper speed and

proper direction. So it's just five different practices that you build up to doing 21 of them each at a time. But it's one of our staples in our afterschool program, the sunrise and the five rights, because, you know, our teacher used to always say, you got to keep your physical vehicle in shape. You know what I mean? You don't want to be giving your physical vehicle to break down on you. So, you know, those are the practices that help sustain and heal up all your systems of your body. So those two are two of the foundations of our physical practice that we sustain and heal up all your systems of your body. So those two are two of the foundations of our physical practice that we teach and we do. So our dad got out of his practice when our parents divorced, like he'd stopped practicing for a really long time. And I want to say the fountain of youth or the five rights or five

Tibetans are what got him back into his practice because he like overheard us talking and he was like, it makes you look young again. What? And you know, he's, our dad would always talk about like tongue in cheek, but seriously, he was like, I think I'm the most handsome man on the planet. He was like that type of dude. And the five Tibetans were what got him back into the practice. And like, he really, really got back into him. And he actually did look younger when he got back into the practice. He was a famous basketball coach in high school basketball. And he had all these yearbooks and pictures. And the pictures of him in the 80s when he was coaching basketball, he looked older then than he did in the mid-2000s when he was getting into these practices. So it was just like, that was what got him back into it. And once that worked,

he was all back in with his mantras and his meditation. Towards the end of his physical life, he would practice for maybe something ridiculous, like five hours a day. He would get up in the morning, and he would go, and he would do all of his internal exercise. He would do all of his hatha. He would do his kundalini. He would do his kriyas. He would do his breath work. He would do his meditations. He would do his mantras.

And then I think that was why he loved being retired so much, because he could just do whatever the hell he wanted and just practice yoga all day. And to add to his story about our dad getting totally engulfed in the five rights, he worked at the school that Ali was talking about, the high school, Southern High School, for over, what, 40 or 50 years? And everybody knew him in that school. And then when he retired, he eventually went to go come out of retirement and went to go coach at a University of Maryland Eastern Shore. And one day he went back to the school just to check up on some of his fellow teachers and students and all that stuff. And he was sitting in the office and he knew all of the secretaries and all the principals. And he's

sitting in there and he looks so much more youthful, so much more jacked, like he's lifting weights that he was sitting in the office for maybe like an hour. And then one of the secretaries was like, can I help you, sir? And he's like, sir, man, I'm Smitty. You know, you don't know me. They were like totally blown away at, you know, how, you know, his wrinkles kind of went away and, you know, his physical stature, you know, got stronger and, you know, all that stuff. went away and you know his physical stature you know got stronger and you know all that stuff so you know that is why we know that it works because he did it every single day and got youthful and besides you know i'm like uh 105 and i don't it's like now i'm just joking yeah i was gonna say i

think you know if the hlf doesn't work out you guys could probably do an entire brand around the five tibetans and being younger and sell it on instagram you probably do an entire brand around the five Tibetans and being younger and sell it on Instagram. You probably do pretty well because everybody wants to look younger and, you know, not everybody wants to put five hours a day or can put five hours a day into it. So I'm interested to look into the five Tibetans. So as I look at your guys' practices, I think we've sort of hit on them a little bit here, but I kind of want to just go through them in a slight bit more detail. We've covered the physical now, right? And again, most people are going to know yoga from the physical sense, the asanas and different ways of moving and posing. You've talked about breath work. Say a little bit about breath work. And there's something you said in there that I actually really have never actually heard anyone say, but is true and was really helpful to me is it's called breath work for a reason, because sometimes it is work. And that's what I've noticed about some of these breathing practices. I'm like, this is a lot of effort. Like this actually in the beginning anyway, takes a certain amount of effort. It doesn't feel natural right away. So say a little bit about the role of breath work and maybe share one practice that is a little bit beyond say, you know, breathing in for a count of four, holding for a count of four, breathing out for, you know, like box breathing. Give us something a little bit different than that

that's still a fairly foundational practice. A little bit on the breath work. Pranayama is like the breath work. And I think the way that Uncle Will taught it to us, it was like the science of breathing and not just physically breathing, but energetically breathing too. So like you're bringing in air when you breathe, your body's using the oxygen, but you're also bringing in like that pranic energy every time you breathe in and your body needs to absorb it. So it's like, and it's called a lot of different things. It's called chi, it's called Holy Spirit, it's called life force. It's called a lot of different things and a lot of different religions and spiritual practices. But there's always something about the breath when you do look

at religions and spiritual practices. You breathe it in, you're pulling it in, and then all pranayama practices have a retention, which gives your body a chance to absorb all that energy. So when you retain the breath and hold on to it, it's giving your body a chance to absorb that pranic energy. And then when you're exhaling, you're pushing out all that stale or low vibrational energy with the breath. And it's very intentional. Uncle Will would always say, you know, when you start to get sick, it's because you're low on your vital energy, you're low on that pranic energy. So if you take the time to really kind of intentionally take some long, deep breaths and take the time to retain them and hold them to allow your body to absorb that pranic energy, then you'll start to heal yourself up from the inside out. And there's tons of practices. They are work, but they're a lot of fun. Like you feel

yourself vibrating differently when you have a pranayama practice. Like you'll notice stillness when you get deep into your practice. It's kind of like you're moving at a different pace than the rest of the world around you. Everyone else is at that hurried, frantic pace, and you're kind of moving in a slow motion, but not really slow motion. You know what I mean? You're kind of floating through with more awareness and more stillness, and everybody else is in that cluttered, frantic, flustered state. So beautiful practice to have as a pranayama practice. Hey, y'all. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls.

And I'm thrilled to invite you to our January Jumpstart Series for the third year running. All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kickstart your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar. You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love. So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves, and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. It's a little bit of past, present, and future all in

one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always an insecurity. It can be something that you love. All to help you start soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always an insecurity. It can be something that you love. All to help you start 2025 feeling empowered and ready. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really Know Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor.

We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by.

Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really, No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel

might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really, No Really. Yeah, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really? No, really. Yeah, really. No, really. Go to reallynoreally.com.

And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. It's called Really? No, Really? And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I, sometime in the last year year did a type of breathing. It's not holotropic breath work, but it's something similar. And it's intended to put you into a slightly different state of consciousness. I could not believe how

altered my state of consciousness was by breathing. Honestly, when I started it, when I was hearing about it, I was like, that's not going to work on me. Honestly, when I started it, when I was hearing about it, I was like, that's not going to work on me. Like, you know, like it's just no. And felt like I was on another planet. I couldn't believe it. And so to me, I suddenly was like, wow, you know, there's more to breath work here than just taking a couple deep breaths to calm yourself. I feel like that's a lot of what Andy was talking about, like the, um, the surface level versus the more spiritual or esoteric side of things. So like, you know, when we're in the schools, we are going to teach something like the box breath or something like we're all about the physiological neurological benefits of it,

keeping it very surface level to help people deal with stress, suspensions, like you were talking about self regulation, healing trauma. But then when you get into it, and you dig a little deeper, you are going to get to those places where places where you are getting more of a spiritual benefit. You're also getting those, you know, the physiological, the neurological things are going to happen, but you're also getting those more spiritual benefits. Like, I'm sure, Atman, you know exactly what I'm talking about. There's a practice that Uncle Willie used to lead us through where you would feel like you were out in the cosmos, like you were in a whole other universe somewhere, you know, and then you would slowly start to come back. So I think there's more to it. And hopefully, you know, when people get introduced to the surface level practices, they want

more. But if that's where they decide to stop, cool, you know, they're less stressed, they're happier, they're more peaceful. They have a place inside of themselves where they can go and find some stillness. All those things are good. But, you know, like then you can take it a little deeper and you can get into the more spiritual side of things and really explore what the inner universe has to offer.

I remember we used to have like, it was hard to get Uncle Will to leave the house. He would come out of the house for funerals for his friends. He would come to Holistic Life Foundation fundraisers because we always threw a huge party and he'd have a good time. And he would come with us to go to North Carolina to go up into the mountains when we do a workforce development party and he'd have a good time. And he would come with us to go to North Carolina to go up into the mountains

when we do a workforce development retreat and do some training. Other than that, if you try to get him to leave the house, he was like, well, what the hell I got to leave the house for? There's a whole universe inside of me to explore. You know what I mean? So he was all about exploring that inner universe and then like sharing what he had learned and kind of like, and he would say it with such like such a big bright smile on his face that like it would make us want to explore more, too.

And I was like, well, maybe I need to not go out tonight. Maybe I need to do some extra breathing and meditation because he shouldn't be this happy from just sitting in the house. But he was, and he wanted to do more of it. I think that was a big part of the reason that he wanted us to go out and teach and he didn't want to was because he didn't want the attention. to go out and teach and he didn't want to was because he didn't want the attention he'd tell us like you know it's cool that he's transitioned now and he's on another vibration that we can talk about him because even when he was around he wouldn't want us to talk about he's like i don't want people knowing about me i just want to chill in the house i want to study i want to practice i want to teach y'all like y'all go teach these people i don't want to do this so it was like

he really wanted to explore that inner universe and it it was like, it was so much fun. And then like, when you really get into it, like it is, that's why I think I have so much fun with my practices because there's always new vibrations and there's always a new adventure. There's always new things to look into. So it's like, it is a lot of fun. It is a huge adventure. Yeah. I remember Uncle Will used to always say our life starts with our first breath and ends with our last breath. So it's got to be kind of important. It's definitely the foundation of everything that we teach with the Holistic Life Foundation. But I wanted to go a little deeper too. So I'm glad Ali kind of did that segue where he said, yeah, you know, we go into schools, it's more that surface level stuff. We'll

do some belly breathing, diaphragmic breathing, box breathing, counts, stuff like that. One of the coolest things I've ever read. And I think it's always nice for listeners, for people who might be getting into this practice and who want to go a little deeper to hear this story. Because when I read this in a book, I thought it was the coolest thing ever about pranayama. Because a lot of times when you see pranayama places, people just think of breath control. And they're just thinking about bringing in the oxygen and not understanding that the real concept is bringing in that prana. And like Ali said, that real retention, you want to hold that prana in your body and let it vibrate throughout your entire being and charge up and heal you up. And there was a study they did in this one book where

they were doing an experiment and they had a box that they put a candle in and they pulled all the oxygen out of the box and the candle goes out. And then they put a monkey in the box and they pull all the oxygen out. And after a while, the monkey passes out. And then they put a monkey in the box and they pull all the oxygen out and after a while the monkey passes out and then they put a yogi in the box and the yogi's even playing a dambaroo so he's playing the drum and they said that they greased him up because they thought that he was breathing through his pores and they said they start pulling the oxygen out and 40 minutes into it the yogi's still drumming away and they don't understand how he's doing because there's no oxygen and he's trying to explain to them that it's the prana that's keeping him in this state.

And they said that there was a quarter on his head and the quarter was bouncing on his head because of all the prana retention that he had in this body. Wow. Now I've never gotten to that state, but I always thought that was one of the coolest things I have ever read in my entire life. And I think it also just goes, just things like what you were talking about, Eric, how sometimes the breaths aren't easy. I remember when Uncle Will was first teaching us just regular diaphragmic breathing.

When we go around the nation and show people how to do a regular belly breath, most people feel like it's awkward, like it's uncomfortable to them because they haven't been breathing the right way. And I think it's such an amazing journey for people to start going on and slowly start strengthening your diaphragm, increasing your lung capacity and trying these different techniques and pushing yourself to see where you can really go to. And it'll blow people's minds when they start doing more and more of these breathing techniques. Not only the stillness that they will get and access, that feeling like you were saying that sometimes you feel like you're like on another planet or another universe sometimes after doing the techniques. And also just the difference in their physical being and the transformation that occurs because

it really does just transform us completely the more and more we start using these techniques and practicing with it. Excellent. So let's have you talk a little bit about mantra meditation, kind of what it is, how you do it relatively briefly again, because we're kind of running out of time and we're going to actually lead a mantra meditation in the post-show conversation, and I'll tell listeners how to get access to that here. Uncle Will would always talk to us about mantras, not just a word that you repeat over and over

again. They're sounds that have like a divine vibration, combinations of sounds that have a divine vibration. So like people would say my mantra for the week would be good vibes only, like that's an affirmation, it's not a mantra. So it's two different things. Like mantras are very specific vibrations that change your vibration. So like you might want to manifest something. You might want to attract something. You might want to heal yourself. You might want to bring whatever, like bring beauty into your life. You might want to heal someone, send out something for the souls in the universe that are suffering. There's all different types of mantras, but they're all a vibration. You'll start off saying them, and then it'll be a point where you can just tune into the vibration. You're filling with the

radio dial, and you tune into that energy. So it's more like you're listening to them, and you're not saying them. And sometimes I'll use them in meditation, but most of my mantra practice is out in the world. So when I'm walking my dog in the morning, we got a three mile route that we do. So we have mantras we do. Well, I have mantras I do then. And I mentally vibrate. I don't say them out loud. I don't want to be that weird guy looking like I'm walking around talking to myself. So I just like say them in my head. Yeah. If your dog starts speaking mantras, that would be special. There's another business idea for you. If I can figure that out with her. There you go.

I'll be like the guy with the little frog with the hello, my baby. Hello, my WB frog. Absolutely. We taking over the world. And then another thing I talk about in the book, but I definitely have a Pandora station perfectly tuned for my mantra practice because kirtan isn't like my cup of tea. That music isn't what I like my cup of tea like that music isn't what i feel um yeah hip-hop is what i was born and raised with so it was like i can't

do it with the words because it'll just throw me off and i started paying attention to the artists and their words but like i have a pandora channel that i've perfectly curated with hip-hop instrumentals that go along with my mantra practice so again having fun with your practice if you do like kirtan cool use that music that music. If you like classical music, if you like jazz, if you like K-pop, whatever it is, whatever type of music feeds your soul, that's what you can do your mantra practice to. And you can do it anytime. It's something that you can use no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing. If you want to charge it up a little bit, you can grab a mala and do the practice with your mala, like the prayer beads, whatever people have.

And then it's kind of cool because the mala or the prayer beads absorb the energy of that mantra. So you still get that energy when you're wearing the mala or wearing those prayer beads around. Like it's still vibrating at that level. So yeah, mantra yoga is probably Uncle Will's favorite form of yoga, I dare to say, because he was a singer and we could just practice and he could just kind of set the vibration of the room just through sound. It's a beautiful one to practice and to have. And he taught us so many mantras that it's cool. I have friends, when they're suffering with someone, something's bothering them, I'll send them a mantra. I'm like, damn, you got a mantra for everything. I'm like, yeah, Uncle Will taught us a ton of these. Why wouldn't I pay attention to them and memorize them and

learn them and practice them so I know the vibration of them? Because like Atmo's saying, my oldest son Asma, he would always say, like, if life was a video game, mantras are the cheat code. So why not use the cheat code? Yeah. And like I said earlier, like, there's a mantra for any and everything. There's mantras to send, you know, healing energy and loving energy to all the suffering souls in the universe. There's mantras to put a protective shield over you, mantras to remove your obstacles, mantras to improve your luck, mantras that I even do that he taught us that kind of increase

the healing factor in your food, tea, and medicine that you create. You know what I mean? So anything in life, there is a mantra to be able to tap you into your energy inside of you and the energy surrounding you that will bring about your desired results. And he was really into the Bible also. He grew up in the church and all that stuff, but then he transitioned into yoga. And one thing he used to say, he's like, man, they talked about mantras in the Bible. He was like, I don't remember exactly where it is in the Bible, but he would say, thus't remember exactly where it is in the Bible,

but he would say, thus saith the Amen, the true and faithful witness of the beginning of creation. And there's a delineation of that Amen or Om or Shalom or Amen in every single religion. I mean, you know what I mean? So one thing that was always taught to us is truth is one. People call it by various names. It's just packaged a little different. But that's how important mantras truly are. It's a delineation of that in every single language. And they say that they brought the yogis kind of preserved and learned these mantras was when they were in that highest stage of meditation. They would hear these certain vibrations on that side when they

are connected to the universal consciousness and bring them back to the physical realm. So that's how they were learned and they were preserved by passing them down, whether it be in singing it, writing it down, whatever, just passing it down through lineage. Excellent. And then let's just talk about meditation for a second. You know, meditation, I was saying to you guys before the show, most of the meditation teachers we have had on are talking about meditation from primarily a Buddhist perspective. And there's some variety in there, but there's very common, you know, you're paying attention to the breath or you're paying attention to an object, or you might be doing open awareness where you're just noticing whatever comes into consciousness. I was wondering if you guys could

give us a meditation technique that is different than that, that you guys have found to be valuable in your own lives. Ali, do you want to teach the Hong Sa? Yeah. Okay. So this is one that we learned in Sunday school at the Divine Life Church. It's a lot of the meditations that we learned there were for your third eye. They were third eye meditations. They were called subjective meditation. But this one also has a mantra in it. Do you want me to actually lead the meditation for a couple of minutes? Well, we're going to do one in the post-show conversation. So let's

describe it real quick because we're just about to the post-show conversation. So I think most meditations in yoga are about experiencing your true self. It's not like an awareness practice. It's more of an experiential practice. It's not about thinking about anything because the vibration of meditation is higher than the vibration of thought. So it's about really experiencing those higher vibrations of yourself, whether it's a chakra, whether it's your universal light, whether it's when we're expanding your consciousness it's like um all these different ways to experience different aspects of your true self uncle will and we talk about this in the book too like it's like the kind of the opposite of prayer when you're praying you're asking god or the universe whoever you're talking to you're asking for

something and when you're meditating you're stilling yourself and what that god or the universe inside of you is saying back so it it's more of a, um, you experiencing that, that universal omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent self and kind of, and then that's the whole, um, the title of our book, let your light shine. It's like, uh, tapping into your light and then letting it shine when you're not meditating throughout the rest of your day. Excellent. Well, I think that's a great place to wrap up by using the title of your book, let your Light Shine, right? And you guys are absolutely fantastic examples of that, of taking a practice that is often done individually. And I think sometimes in our spiritual practice, we can get lost in ourselves, how I feel, how is this helping me, how is this doing that?

And I feel like a genuine spiritual practice has to flow outwards. Also let your light shine. And guys are just a absolutely beautiful example of that. You were talking about, you were interested in finding out about how to do the five rights of the five Tibetans. Uh, if you, you, you or your listeners go to involution.love. Um, there is a spiritual strategic plan on there where it has that practice of sunrise and a whole bunch of other deeper dives into spiritual practices. So if you are interested, check it out and download it. We'll put links in the show notes to that. We're going to continue in the post-show conversation where we are going to be led

in a mantra meditation. So listeners, if you'd like access to the post-show conversation, a special episode I do each week called Teaching Song and a Poem, ad-free episodes, and the joy of supporting something that gives you real value, go to oneufeed.net slash join. I loved reading the book. I love talking with each of you guys. And yeah, Ali, Andy, Atman. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for having us.

If what you just heard was helpful to you, please consider making a monthly donation to support the One You Feed podcast. When you join our membership community with this monthly pledge, you get lots of exclusive members-only benefits. It's our way of saying thank you for your support. Now, we are so grateful for the members of our community. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without their support, and we don't take a single dollar for granted. To learn more, make a donation at any level, and become a member of the One You Feed community, go to oneyoufeed.net slash join. The One You Feed podcast would like to sincerely thank our sponsors for supporting the show. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission

on the Really No Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer.

Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The Really No Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.