The One You Feed - Taylor Hunt

Episode Date: September 21, 2016

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group   This week we talk to Taylor Hunt Taylor Hunt is a devoted student of Ashtanga, a system of yoga originally transmitted by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. The system is now transmitted by his teacher, Sharath Jois, in Mysore, India. Taylor was the first Ashtanga teacher in Ohio granted Level II Authorization to teach from the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI) in Mysore, India. He is dedicated to sharing the transformative and healing practice with others by teaching daily Mysore classes at Ashtanga Yoga Columbus and offering workshops around the country. He is also the author of the recently published book, A Way From Darkness, and director of the Trini Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing the life-changing practice of Ashtanga with those suffering from addiction.  In This Interview, Taylor Hunt and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable How the parable applies to a person with addiction Addiction = A disease of denial His book, A Way From Darkness The varying amounts of meeting attendance and other support mechanisms in the recovery process The importance of being connected to one's self in a healthy life The importance of state of mind and intention when it comes to the practice of yoga The ways emotions show up in our body Ashtanga Yoga How he helps his students connect to their yoga practice on a spiritual level The importance of not comparing your insides with someone else's outsides The surprising thing that his dad said to him when he asked for his blessing to go to India "Bring Your Ass to Class" How he built the self-discipline to cultivate a consistent yoga practice The danger of identifying ourselves with our thoughts     Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We don't have enough time in silence, like as a society, we don't have enough quiet time. 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. 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. Thanks for joining us.

Our guest on this episode is Taylor Hunt, a devoted student and teacher of Ashtanga Yoga. Hunt, a devoted student and teacher of Ashtanga Yoga. In 2012, Taylor founded the Morning Mysore program in Columbus, Ohio to provide a community where students can learn Ashtanga Yoga as it's traditionally taught. Taylor completes his practice during the early morning hours before teaching classes at Ashtanga Yoga Columbus or AYC. The community at AYC is built around a group of dedicated students who are improving their physical, mental, and spiritual health. His book is called Away From Darkness. Here's the interview. Hi, Taylor. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me, Eric. I'm excited to have you on a couple reasons. One is we're getting to talk in person, which I always love.

And secondly, your book is a little bit like looking into a mirror for me. You know, your book is about your recovery from addiction. You did that here in Columbus, Ohio. You know, we met each other in the recovery room. So reading your book, a lot of it, I'm like, well, that sounds like me, and that sounds like me, and that sounds like me. So I'm really excited to get into the book, and we'll talk more about that in a second. But let's start like we usually do with the parable. There's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson. He says, 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 grandson stops and he

thinks about it for a second. He looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins? So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. Wow. Well, first I'm honored to be on the show. So thanks for having me here. I'm grateful that this all came together. As the parable, for me, I feel like my life is that parable. You know, for the longest time, like I lived in a place of, I mean, you could call it the gutter. Literally, like sticking a needle in my arms nonstop. I didn't like myself. I mean, the bad wolf was winning.

Yeah, and he was a bad, bad wolf. He was a really bad wolf. Yeah. Yeah, and he was a bad, bad wolf. He was a really bad wolf, yeah. And, you know, a couple times as a result of feeding the bad wolf, I mean, it almost took my life a few times. And, you know, so I feel like the parable is kind of my life, you know. Like right now I'm currently feeding the good wolf and living in the principles of what the good wolf has. So, yeah, I've heard that parable before and, and it, it definitely speaks to me just,

especially where I'm at right now too. I couldn't tell you exactly when, but I'm sure I heard it in recovery and it's, I think it's one of those that, you know, in recovery is, I think everybody hears it and relates with it. But I think if you've battled addiction to the extent that you have, or I have, there's a, there's a particular poignancy to it about like, whoa, this is really very serious. Yeah, I mean, it just takes over the whole equation, takes over your whole life. And it's almost an impossible way to get out. I mean, that's why there's so much hopelessness when it comes to addiction and getting into recovery. It is very hard.

Your book is called Away From Darkness, My Story of Addiction, Recovery, and Yoga. So I don't want to spend a ton of time on the first part of that, the addiction part. You certainly in the book go into a great deal of detail. It's a really powerful story. For listeners, it would suffice to say you pretty much went about as low as you want to go, right? You don't, you don't want to go any lower. Yeah, no, I mean, there's not much left after that. I think certainly I can relate with that. Like I said, so much of that story, I was like, yep, yep, yep. You know, like I've been there, you know, if you're doing a drug like heroin in a city like Columbus, you're gonna come across the same sort of places, the same sort of things, the same sort of desperation, you know, the overdoses, just the whole mess of it. And so what I think is particularly interesting and what I want to focus

on is the second two parts of your subtitle, which is really the recovery and the yoga part. One of the things that you talk about in the book at one point, I thought this was a really interesting thing because it's something that I think about a lot. And I think everybody thinks about a lot, but we don't talk much about in 12-step recovery. And what you said was, I had to figure out how much involvement in the program is needed for you to stay sober. And I think that's a, I think we all need different amounts of the program. And I think we all need different amounts at different points in our recovery. I think it's interesting though, that we don't talk about that very much. It tends to be very much a, you should just go all the time and that should be everything.

All or nothing. And, and, uh, and clearly you've chosen a different route. And what I'm interested in, cause I've chosen a different route a little bit too, where the amount that I go to meetings varies. What I'm interested in is what do you think you're getting from those other parts of your life that allow you to maybe not have to go to meetings as often? Because I don, and honestly, like in a lie. I mean, because alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease of denial. Right. So, yeah, I mean,

I'm how I came up with the equation that I, I came up with is, you know, based on like really my yoga experience, you know, I got a true picture in the mirror every single day that I made it to my mat. And I started realizing that I was able to apply these, these steps and I was able to like show up and do my meditation every morning.

And it, and it kind of translated right into me taking care of myself the way that I needed to. Yeah. For me, I look at it, you know, the recovery literature talks about the importance of a spiritual connection, spiritual condition. And I think we all have different perceptions of what that looks like. You know, certainly for me, I'm probably more agnostic than anything else. So for me, though, I still think that the heart of it is that it's the spiritual connection. And I think you could almost go, the word spiritual is so nebulous that I think you could almost just go to connection. And so for me, the amount that I need to be in the program, I think has a lot to do with how connected I am to my life, to myself, to the people around me, to the spiritual practices I do. And

when I've got that connection, I feel all right. And I'm okay. A lot of meetings are not a lot of meetings. And if I don't have that, then meetings become imperative because I'm in really rocky, rocky ground. Sure. I mean, I feel the exact same way, actually. That connection, I mean, I find it in my yoga practice, you know, so showing up on a daily basis and, and finding that connection and really tuning into what's going on with me because I never really paid attention to anything that was going on. And then all of a sudden, like, you know, you come into the rooms and you start like working the steps or living the steps. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh yeah, like there's something going on with me. Like, why am I acting angry? Um, where, you know, all of a sudden, like, um, I, I was paying attention to it. Yeah. Um, and,

and understanding it too. So, yeah. And so your journey has been, you know, came into AA, got sober. And then I don't know if I was supposed to say AA there, but I did. Traditions, traditions. Anyway, you came into recovery, you got sober, and then yoga became a huge part of your life. So you are a yoga teacher at this point, a yoga teacher in a long lineage. You've been to India several times. You've got your own yoga studio. You've got a great community built here. And I'm interested in yoga is on one hand, a set of poses. It's a physical practice. Yet I know there's so much more to it. And I hear people like you say, you know, on my mat,

I discovered X, Y, and Z. Walk me through that a little bit. What does that, how does that happen? And what's that correlation? Because I'll say for me, you know, I've practiced it semi-regularly, but not probably in a lot of the right settings and different things. But for me, it feels very much like a physical pose thing. And so I'm kind of curious how you open to that next level of it, what that process is like. Yeah. I mean, the process always starts very physical. I mean, I think people show up as a result of like wanting like some sort of physical exercise. I mean, that is part of the equation. And the reason why we do like the postures is because of that tangible quality of like what that aspect of yoga gives you. You can kind of feel it in your body.

But I mean, deep down, I mean, it's a set of moral principles similar to like the recovery rooms, treating people nonviolent, being truthful and down the line cleanliness, those kind of things. and down the line cleanliness, those kind of things. And so, I mean, the transformation or how to get the other aspects out of yoga comes from a daily commitment, like showing up on your mat. And it's very physical. And then all of a sudden, you start understanding that your mat is a laboratory for a continuous experiment over and over and over. And you get true reflections of who you are. And so, you know, some days, because of my lack of awareness about myself,

some days I would show up and like not actually know that I was angry, like I was just talking about. But nowadays, like I can pinpoint what's actually happening in my body and I can pinpoint what's happening in my head. And now I have like a really good look at myself. And that's not to mention like all of the lessons that are actually learned on my mat too, from like certain times where you could say like, I didn't believe in myself, or I thought it was like a piece of crap or something like that because of my addiction. And what I realized is that through the practice, like doing the same thing over and over like a ritual, what I found is, is that as I get better at it, also self-esteem gets

better as a result of it. And so there's things like when I walk in, like you can't actually do, you know, like you really, even forward folding, it's like, yeah, you can't, yeah, I mean, you can't touch your toes. I couldn't touch my toes. Yeah. I mean, so if you read the book, I mean, I couldn't touch my toes on the first day. Yeah. But then you get to a point where you start to actually see like big strides, like you're taking big leaps, like continent to continent of these huge, like mind blowing, like, oh, yeah, wait a second.

It wasn't that I couldn't do it. It was just that I needed more time on it and that I didn't actually believe in myself that I could do it. Because mind – like state of mind or intention maybe too is super important when it comes to yoga. Right. So if I – nowadays, like if I think I can't do it, I can't, but you know, if I can go to a place of, um, I can, or I can go to a place

of like, this is instead of an, if it's a, it's a win. Yeah. And that all of a sudden translates into, um, you know, self-empowerment, knowing myself. That's that, you know, we talk on the show, we had Carol Dweck on who talked about the fixed versus the growth mindset, you know, self-empowerment, knowing myself. That's that, you know, we talk on the show, we had Carol Dweck on who talked about the fixed versus the growth mindset. You know, fixed mindset is I can't touch my toes. I'm not a flexible person. I'll never be able to touch my toes. The growth mindset is if I keep working at this, I know I can get better at it. You know, I want to read a section from your book that I thought talked about this very much. And you kind of, it hits this part and I thought it was well written. You say, yoga is the process of deconstructing all the bullshit that's in our heads. It pulled me out of the belief that I wasn't good enough and wasn't a

good person. The false stories are not the same for everyone. I'm too fat. I'm not smart enough. No one could possibly love me. They aren't all negative either. Sometimes they're grandiose. I'm so much better than these people. Everyone is jealous of me. My ideas't all negative either. Sometimes they're grandiose. I'm so much better than these people. Everyone is jealous of me. My ideas are the best. Yoga helps us to eliminate those thoughts and get in touch with our deeper selves. Yeah. It's simplification. I mean, it's like simplifying your life. Yeah. And so part of it, you say, sounds like you are pushing up against your limits. So you're out there on the mat, you're pushing up against your limits, you're pushing through things that are difficult, you're gaining confidence by doing that. And then it sounds like there is something deeper that also happens. You know, a lot of people talk

about emotions being stored in the body. Do you find that to be part of what the yoga practice brings and helps you with? Yeah, I mean, for sure. You know, every time that you experience happiness or depression or, you know, any range of emotions, it's a chemical reaction in the body. And so if it's not eliminated or if it's not dealt with and then discarded, it gets stored in our tissues. And so on the yoga mat, because we're kind of like twisting and heating the body and moving and all of this stuff, like, yeah, it has a tendency to bring latent emotions in our body that are stored up there. And it's a way to process them, too. I don't always know what they're about, but sometimes I do. Sometimes it's childhood stuff or sometimes it's deep down that I just don't like myself or I struggle with, you know, the concept of actual love for myself.

So, yeah, but that shows up on the map for sure. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No 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 really no really go to really no really.com and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign jason bobblehead it's called really no really and you can find it on the iheart radio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why don't you tell people about the style of yoga that you teach? Because it's very different than what most of us have been exposed to. Most people, when we think of yoga, we go to a class and an instructor leads us through a series of poses and we just go along with whatever that is and do that. What you do is very different. Yeah. I mean, this is how they teach in India. I mean, it was given to me by a guru. His name is Shrat Joyce. He's one of the foremost yoga people in the world. He's my teacher. He's more or less showed me the ropes. So the style that I teach is called Ashtanga Yoga. And the yoga is actually passed on from teacher to student, teacher to student. And how we teach, we more or less like prescribe it instead of just hurting people along in like a regular yoga class like you would experience at the gym or whatever.

the gym or whatever. And so, and what happens is, is like most people feel like yoga is a little bit unattainable, or at least the poses are a little bit unattainable when they go to the gym class because the teacher's not necessarily giving them one-on-one feedback. But in our classes, like the thing that we do is all of the feedback goes specifically to you. So, we're not telling everyone in the room, we're just telling you, which people can get really good at doing yoga practices really fast, just based on just getting that feedback. I mean, because I think everyone's kind of like looking to do it safe, looking to do it very deliberate. And then also like create independence, where our style is typically, we create independence because we're not actually guiding you along all the way. It's one-on-one teacher and student are trying to figure out like what your yoga practice is

supposed to look like. Yeah. So what's happening is you walk into your studio and there's 15 people practicing yoga and they're all working on the same series, but they're all doing it at their own pace. So what you see is this person's doing these poses and working through it, another person. So everybody's going at their own pace. What I found really most interesting about that to me was breath is such an important part. What I find hard in instructor-led classes is the breath piece, because I'm going at the pace they have, not necessarily the pace that my breath wants to go with or that I want to be with. And in what you do, I feel like it's a

lot easier for me to really connect with the breath and do the poses in the way they're supposed to be done because I can go at my own pace. That made a big difference for me in doing that. It was a big thing I noticed was that I was able to get much closer to that ideal in that case. I think it's the safer way to, um, you know, to go at your own pace. Um, I, I think that it, it becomes a really, you can get really sturdy at it. Um, instead of it being like, it's overwhelming you on a, on a daily basis, uh, because sometimes they feel like fitness classes, Right. Yoga. And really the yoga that I teach is actually more of like a spiritual connection with yourself

that we're teaching. And it just happens to be like, you know, how we're doing it on our yoga mat. So, yeah. And how do you work with students on, is there instruction you give them on discovering that deeper spiritual path or does it come by being attentive and being focused on the poses how do you teach that it first starts by observing what the person is dealing with um and and from a bird's eye view in the room you can pretty much get a handle on like what the person is actually going through um whether it's psychological or whether it's actual physical pain or whether it's like an emotional trauma.

Yeah. So getting them to that deeper aspect starts at observation. That's first. But then to get them to maybe find the deeper aspects of yoga, for example, if I'm going to teach them how to do a posture, if the first place that they go to is that they're going to beat themselves up over not doing it perfect, there's a certain strategy to teach that kind of person. And then there's also a certain strategy to teach like a perfectionist or someone who's lazy as well, where some people need almost like an olive branch when you're teaching them, almost like a peaceful method or encouraging

method where other people might need like the tip of a bayonet, you know, where you're kind of putting pressure. Yeah. And so from that bird's eye view of being the teacher in the room, you can kind of see what strategy might help them the most, because I truly believe at the end of the day, if we can get them focused on their mat for an hour or 30 minutes or however long they're in there, that connection with the breath and really taking a look inside can translate into their lives. I mean, it translates as empowerment. I mean, that's what it has done for me by having that connection on a

daily basis, because we don't have enough time in silence. Like as a society, we don't have enough time and, um, we don't have enough quiet time. Yep. That's the other thing that's really nice about the type of yoga that you teach is it's very quiet in there. There's not anybody barking out, like do this, do that. It's just a very quiet, you know, it's, it's peaceful in a way that other yoga classes, I'm not, and I'm not saying that other yoga, I'm not making, I'm just talking about my own experience of what it was like. My experience is it was more quiet. I was more able to be inwardly focused again, because I think it's

quiet in the room and I'm not following a particular fast sequence. And I kind of know what I'm doing. You teach a couple poses and you work on those and you learn a couple more, then you learn a couple more, and slowly your practice grows and grows and grows versus a wide variety of different poses. And I think everybody would, would like their own thing, but I really, I really find it to be, um, more meditative for sure. Yeah. There's definitely an internal quality to what is happening where like when they're barking orders or they're yelling at people or and there's times where i do that too but i never play music that is one thing but there is a

there's a certain quality that it's internal the whole practice and yeah and then you know because everything that happens external if they put music on or or you know they enjoy having music whether yoga it's an external, you know, it, there's word association that goes along with that. And then all of a sudden, like, you know, someone says something on the song and then all of a sudden, like you go on the last time you heard it and you know, you're down the rabbit hole. I think it's easier to not compare because not everybody in the room is doing the same pose at the same time. Sure. Right. Because when you're all doing the same pose, it's very easy to be looking around going, well, okay, I'm the worst here. You know, I clearly am the one that cannot, you know, whereas with what you're doing, everybody's kind of in their own place. I mean,

it's not that you don't notice some people and you're like, that person's really good, but it's just a less direct, you know, again, it helps to point towards the internal. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it. I mean, it's like almost a less competitive environment where it's really for you. But I mean, the one thing that I always point out too is that in our room, like we never give the cue, like look to your neighbor.

And I feel like in other yoga styles, one of the best things about our yoga styles, like we don't actually want you to look at your neighbors, Matt. We don't want you to judge your insides with their outsides. And I'm sure you've heard that before. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great phrase. There's a touching part in your book. So you, you go along, you get very interested in yoga and you get this desire that you want to go to India. And yet you've got a job, you've got a kid, you've got all these responsibilities, you know, your job is with your father.

So it's looking sort of, you know, it's the sort of thing that we all do. Like, yeah, I'd love to do that, but there's no way, right? And yet you kind of just kept working. And what I thought was, there were a couple things out of that lesson I thought was really important. One was when you went and asked the people in your life and told them what was important to you, they were a lot more willing to work with you than you thought. And so, A, I think that's an important lesson. And the touching part is when you go to your father.

Do you want to tell me what happened when you went to your father with this? Yeah. I mean, that's like one of the best stories in the book. I mean, it actually gives me chills. I just got chills. You know, so my dad is like kind of like a, you know, a little bit of an uptight businessman, you know, he's kind of shrewd in certain ways of a business. And, and I remember I got back from this trip to visiting Shrott Joyce, the guy who I told you about just a little

bit earlier. That's my teacher now. And I visited him and, and I came back and I was like, I, you know, I sit down with my dad and i was nervous right too like i mean i was sweating dad's not the kind of guy who's in for yoga trips to india right that's not in his world view i mean and especially because like i was almost doing a living amends yeah to him by working yeah um at you want to be you want to be good at what you do and hold your responsibilities. Exactly. And so I'm sitting down with him and I'm like sweating bullets and I'm like, hey, you know, this is like really nervous. You know, like I'm really nervous.

And I said, dad, you know, like I went and visited this guy in New York and I'm thinking about going to Mysore, India. And I, you know, kind of need your blessing. And I'm thinking for sure he's going to say no. Um, and, and at least the story in my head said that my dad wasn't supportive of this journey. Um, I mean, that was the bullshit story in my head, really. And so, um, he looked me dead in the eyes and he said, if you don't go, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. And I was like, who is this guy? I don't know. I mean, that's just not how my dad shows up. But then he went on to talk about like how he's kind of watched me get sober and he's watched me take interest in yoga. And it was the time where it was like the universe, if you want to call it that, conspired to really put an angel in front of me where it's like, yeah, you're doing

the right thing. You're doing the right thing and keep asking and you'll keep receiving. And that's what I did. Yeah. Like I said, I thought that there were the two parts of that. One was the, I think we all sell ourselves short with what we can do in life because we put limitations in place that aren't necessarily there. Or if they are there, there's ways around them if we're courageous and persistent. And so the story really showed that. And, you know, your dad saying that just is so tough, you know, it's like that moment of like, you just see parental love, like really come through in a genuine way. It's a beautiful story. Yeah. It was pivotal in my life because I was kind of unsure where my dad actually stood with everything that I was doing. And it felt like

he had my back and it kind of renewed our whole relationship as a result of, because he supported every trip since then. Yeah. He didn't think you were a wacko for wanting to go to India and do yoga. And I thought he was actually going to do all, say and do all of that stuff. Exactly. Yep. And it showed up much different. It showed up as love. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No 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. God 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 know, really. And you can find it on the I heart radio app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You have a saying that has gone with

your yoga community since you started as you know, in part of another studio, you, you built this, this community, and then you've gone out on your another studio, you, you built this, this community and then you've gone out on your own and, uh, it's bring your ass to class. Tell me why that's so important for what you guys do. Because it only works if you show up, you know, it started based on, um, I was in a class one time, Eric, and, and someone said to me, um, I hope you come back. and someone said to me, I hope you come back. And I was in like customer service and I was in sales and I literally thought in my head, as he said, I hope you come back.

I was like, it would have been better for you to tell me to come back than to hope that I was gonna come back. I mean, that was the line of thought that went through my head. And I was like, from now on, like, say what you mean. And so when I was teaching, I wanted these people to come back because, I mean, I was seeing all of this growth. I mean, I was seeing like huge amounts of growth in my personal and, you know, my business career and all of that stuff or yoga career.

And I was seeing all this growth and I wanted other people to have it too. And so, I mean, it only works and really the commitment to showing up on a daily basis or maybe it's every other day or whatever is the hardest part. It's like planning the plan and not the results. It's like the plan is that I'm going to bring my ass to class and show up at the top of my mat. But after that, it doesn't matter. Like it doesn't matter. I'm not trying to put on a performance.

I'm not here for someone else. I'm actually here for myself. And that kind of goes along with all of that saying. I mean, that's what we preach. Like how do you get committed to something? And how do you get disciplined? Because, I mean, as a whole, we're not disciplined. And today I'm very disciplined.

And you say in the book, and this is something when I'm talking with people about meditation, I say something very similar. You say, you know, it's not a good practice or a bad practice. If you did it, you succeeded. You succeeded. You know, and I think that's so important with some of this stuff is people can get really hung up on, you know, did I do good? Did I do bad? Was it a good day, a bad day? And I think that my experience is if you're going to do some sort of transformative practice, if you just keep doing it, transformation happens. happens. It's hard to watch day to day. You don't see it day to day. But if there's this constant, this was good, that was bad judgment, it makes it harder to keep doing it day to day. And thus, then you don't see the transformation because you don't keep doing it. And I just think that's such a big, like, you know, I always am like, if I sat there for the amount of time I said I was going to sit there, that's a good meditation. It doesn't matter if I'm thinking about cookies the whole time instead of thinking about meditation. I still was there.

Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I've learned from my studies of like the yoga sutras is that there's really two qualities to find yoga or two qualities of like a practitioner that you need. And the first one is a consistent practice over a long period of time. And then also non-attachment. And so it goes along with everything that I just said there. Practice, but practice without the attachment of like, it's good or it's bad or any of those things. Yeah. Let's go back to discipline. That's usually a word that is not a fan favorite, so to speak. A lot of us have a negative, you know, the word certainly has a sort of negative

connotation, at least for a lot of people. Talk about why it's been so important to you and how you built that discipline, because it's a long way from being a heroin addict who can't stop shoving needles in his arms to a guy who will get up at 3 a.m. every morning to get his yoga practice in before he has to go teach other people. That's pretty remarkable. So, I mean, obviously you're not going to be able to summarize in two minutes how you made that transformation, but let's talk about why discipline is important and some thoughts you have about the path to it. I was so undisciplined that it was hard to do anything as a result of being so undisciplined. And so what I started doing is setting goals for myself. And once I started achieving the goals, I actually started setting more goals.

And so it became almost achievement-based in the beginning. And what it's done for me is that it's given me like a framework where I can operate from. And I operate really well. I mean, I'm a habit person. You know, disease of alcoholism and drug addiction, I mean, sets you up for a habit person. But the only discipline that I had when I was using was I was disciplined at like call the drug dealer. Right. Or do whatever it takes. Or do whatever it takes. Or do whatever it takes. Yeah.

And so I certainly had that quality of like do whatever it takes in order to make it to yoga class or do a posture or any of that stuff. But the discipline specifically in my practice today is more like a spiritual framework. in my practice today is more like a spiritual framework. And so I'm able to show up at the top of my mat and dedicate my practice to really the students that are going to show up after I get done. And it's also, it holds me accountable to a certain thing, other people, which I think is important. And so as I'm practicing as I'm practicing, like I'm, I'm actually doing the whole practice for another set of set of people, which I think like deep down the spiritual discipline of like doing it for other people is, is important. You say in the book that you did a lot of searching into different spiritual traditions

as you came into recovery you know there's a spiritual aspect of recovery you start looking into a lot of things and in the book you say you learned that interacting with others in a loving way is a common thread through all spiritual traditions yeah and and i i found that through my yoga practice really you know on a daily basis when i was working hard in there um you know my heart was like encased in stone, you know? And so like, as I did this spiritual discipline every single day, like showing up and doing my morning prayers, which is what I like to call my yoga practice, actually, it's like doing my morning prayers. And I was able to uncase my heart and really start to treat people with respect and start to treat institutions with respect and gain some self-awareness about how I treat myself as well, too.

So I want to read another part from your book that I really liked. You say, I've learned not to listen to the stories in my head 99% of the time. I no longer believe that thoughts compromise my identity. percent of the time i no longer believe that thoughts compromise my identity that was a huge discovery for me and it may be the most important lesson i have to offer others about yoga there is danger in identifying ourselves with our thoughts because it limits us our thoughts are not our reality our actions form our reality and for me yoga helps separate the bullshit stories i tell myself from what i am really supposed to do in the world. It's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, that's, I'm going to have to mark the E on explicit for

this, for this episode now that we got our second bullshit in here, but we're good. That's maybe the cornerstone of my teaching right there is that, um, I no longer identify with the stories that I tell myself. They're still there. I mean, they're still there. And every once in a while, I mean, I'm not perfect. I'm not a saint. I get pulled back into that line of thinking from time to time, but it doesn't take long these days to step outside of it. It's a day instead of like months later where all of a sudden you got a bunch of resentments or whatever comes up. But for the most part, I mean, that's what I do have to offer people. It's like that there's no, the story, there's been a separation from the story

in my head or from like the condition pattern of living to what I'm actually capable of like actions wise. And those are really two totally different things. And also by doing certain actions over and over, I feel better about myself and the stories actually change. Yeah. It's that old, sometimes you can't think your way into right action. You got to act your way into right thinking. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that is another thing I feel like a place that I teach from for sure. That whole point in time when I was like writing that part of the book, it was all of these like kind of lessons like started coming up and,

and sharing. I'm like, like this is, has been pretty cool because you start realizing that 99% of us, even normal people have the same exact thing. Yes. We all have that internal, you know,

we talk about it on here all the time. We all have that internal narrator and know, we talk about it on here all the time. We all have that internal narrator. Yeah. And the amount of distance you can be put between that internal narrator and yourself is a pretty good guide to sanity and health and peace of mind. Right. If you can stop at least believing the stories, you know, because we're making it all up. Yeah. I'm not as bad as I say I am. And I'm also not as good as I say I am.

Exactly. Constantly. I'm like telling myself, um, and by practicing, you know, I've, there's been like a separation from the two where nowadays, like the stories in my head, I get to watch like movies that I don't actually get involved in my head, I get to watch like movies that I don't actually get involved in anymore. And I get to know what, whether it's bullshit or whether it's real or any of that stuff. So, yeah. One of the things that I find inspiring about what you've done is that you have gone from somebody who has a regular full-time job and has kids and has responsibilities to somebody who's been able to kind of pursue their dreams. What I think is really interesting though about it is the way

that you did it because you didn't do it by suddenly deciding it was time to follow your passion and throw everything else to the wind. It wasn't a, I've got to do my thing. You had responsibilities and you built this community and this practice while you kept your other job, while you paid the bills, while you took care of the kids. And I think that's such an important lesson because I think that it's very easy to get stuck in, well, if I can't do it full time, if I still have to do a job, then I can't do it. And so many people, we don't get started because we think that's in our way. And I just love to see people who make that transformation slowly over time. Yeah. That, um, I mean, it took a lot of time actually. I mean, it took six years of, you know, nonstop, um, working with my dad and, and then realizing that I, I found, found what my, my or my dharma or my path or whatever. And so then I kind of almost systematically laid the foundation in order for me to transfer my life over to it. I mean, I travel around the country.

I'm able to provide for my family now just based off of yoga, which is really cool. You know, I don't actually work anymore. I just live my passion. I get to travel to India. I get to spend time with my kids. I watch my son every afternoon and watch my daughter when she gets home from school. And I think that's what people actually want to be doing with their time. And I get that's what people actually want to be doing with their time. And I get to do

it. And so in the short term, I put in a huge amount of investment. We could call it human investment or time investment. I was working 60 hours at my dad's job and then doing 20 hours of yoga. And that's why I started practicing really early in the morning too, because it's the only time I could fit it in. And I was getting so much benefits from practicing that I was like, oh, I can't. I mean, I can't not practice. That would be crazy. So then I started practicing at 3 a.m.

And people thought I was crazy for that, too. But I couldn't back away from it. So I was doing and then I I, you know, was teaching, you know, 20 hours a week too. And so, um, for, for a short time there, I was, I was kind of going crazy because it was so much work. Yeah. I'm familiar. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm in the midst of that transition, you know, as we speak now. And so, yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of work to, to have a full time, you know, or a beyond full-time job depending or, you know, consulting work and then, you know, do something. But what I like about it is it takes the excuses away, right? It's not easy and it's really hard, but it at least allows us to take a real look at like, okay, if I want to do this, there's a path. The path is long. It's going to take a lot of work. I'm going to watch a lot less TV. I might spend less time with my friends. I'm going to give things up. I'm going to make sacrifices, but I can do it if that's what's important to me. And that's what of the things that helped me the most is, is really the community that, that started to surround me too. Um, so as, as the, I started attracting people that were like me, um, that I could identify. And we talked about connection and, um, I found that connection and,

and then all of a sudden, like the fire became even more, it was like, Oh yeah, there are people like me that are searching for a better way to live. And, you know, and they were all working hard and they were all working hard and they were all passionate about what they were doing. I mean, some of them were living their dreams too. And so being witness to that was pretty, pretty awesome too. It's really inspiring. And I'm really, you know, congratulate you on your success.

Thank you. I remember seeing you come into recovery, right? And, you know, again, it's the transformation is stunning to sit here and kind of look at you now and, and think about, you know, back then. So, congratulations. Yeah, thanks a lot. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a pleasure.

I'm really glad to have gotten to do this and best of luck. Thanks, Eric. Take care. Yeah. you can learn more about Taylor Hunt and this podcast at oneufeed.net slash Taylor