Yin Yoga For Sobriety – with Daphne Luke

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Welcome to a Yin Yoga, podcast.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are new around here, welcome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are a familiar welcome back thanks for coming back

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we dive into me reading the bio of today’s guest and our topic today, I just wanted to share a little bit of podcast love that I have received

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Nyk Danu Yoga: on the apple app.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m just going to read the handle because I don’t know exactly how it’s pronounced. But 1st letter J,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then GUEV. S. So that’s the apple handle, whoever you are.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you. I have a feeling I might know who you are, but maybe not.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear Nick, many, many thanks for creating this podcast. On all things. Yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have practiced yin for several years, and love it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love it so much that to deepen my practice, I completed my yin training here in your hometown. That’d be my hometown

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of Calgary. That is my hometown.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: My teacher pointed me in your direction to expand my knowledge and understanding as a Newbie baby teacher myself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Your many episodes are inspiring and knowledge based. I look forward to sharing all of these amazing nuggets in the classes that I lead. Thank you so much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you so much. Oh, and there’s the little hug, Emoji. I’m doing it on Youtube. For those of you who can’t see me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with the hands up

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at the end. Little Hug, Emoji.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So thank you so much for that podcast feedback. And if you have been here before, if you’ve been enjoying these episodes, if they’ve been helpful for you for leading your classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you wouldn’t take a mind to offer a review yourself. I would be endlessly, endlessly grateful for that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You could do that on Apple in your app. You just get on the actual podcast. Page. So you have to search out your new podcast click. The page scroll down and there’s an opportunity on apple to leave me 5 stars

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and or a written review, or both, if you would prefer.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so either stars or written review on spotify. They don’t have the written review component. But they do have stars. And it’d be the same thing. You’d wanna

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Nyk Danu Yoga: go into your app

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: find the actual podcast page to search out in Yoga podcast and you can offer me some stars there, I would be super grateful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’ve been loving the podcast and you won’t take a minute to drop me a 5 star review. I would be super grateful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re brand new here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you can wait and see.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, let’s get into today’s episode. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the guest that I have today I actually know we actually studied together at land of the Medicine Buddha with our teacher, Paul Griley, and I can’t remember what

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of my, which of my hundreds of hours we were together for? But it doesn’t matter.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s how we connected we connected there, and she’s also a fellow Canadian, no longer living in Canada.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But she we always had a great, a great connection while we were in training. And of course, as one does

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you finish your T-shirt training, you find each other on the Facebooks, and you connect, and that’s how you can stay in touch. And so we have done that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let me just introduce my guest.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ll talk a little bit more in the actual episode about how this episode came to be and why I was excited to have Daphne on the show. When she’s here. We’ll chat about that a bit more.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All right, Daphne. Luke

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Daphne has been practicing Yoga since the 90 S. And teaching Yoga for 2 decades.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: initially developing a love of Yoga through Ashtanga and Vinyasa, and then discovering a passion for it within Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Daphne grew up in Canada, and now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where she teaches Yoga part-time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: trains, new Yin Yoga teachers and manages a private alcohol rehab center.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: She teaches Yin Yoga to recovering alcoholics as well as regular weekly community classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: She lives with her 16 year old son and pug named Leo.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s a bit more about Daphne.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and when you hear from me next I’ll be here with Daphne.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Welcome, Daphne to a yin Yoga podcast. I’m so stoked that you’re here.

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Daphne Luke: Hi, thanks, Nick. Thanks for inviting me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am very excited to have this conversation for a few reasons

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one. The subject matter obviously, which we’ll get to in a moment, but also because you and I actually know each other. We’ve studied together with Paul at land of the medicine Buddha and some of my fond memories of you at that time of other than just your General Smiley presence was I remember you and myself and Janice doing a little photo shoot by the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the big prayer wheel, and, like, you know, assisting each other. And like, Yeah, it was. It was fun.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, of course, we did. What you do when you go away on these trainings is you find you connect on Facebook, and you kind of stay in touch that way and which we’ve done over the years. And you’re also fellow Canadian, which I didn’t know actually, until after we got back. And then it was like, oh, who knew

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how this episode came to my mind, and why I reached out to you was I don’t remember what I had posted, but I had posted something on Facebook about the damages of addiction.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you reached out in my dms and said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you a friend of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of Bill, and I was like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: no, I do. I do know that that vernacular because I have been in those circles many times and said, No, I’m not. I’ve actually usually fall on the other side of that equation, meaning I always fall in love with the people that are the addicts.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so you reached out then, and that was the 1st time that I and then you said that you were, and that was the 1st time that I knew that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little inkling into your story.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so when I was thinking about, you know, I really wanna have an episode on how

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Nyk Danu Yoga: useful Yen Yoga is for people that are going through recovery.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I just was like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: who do I bring on for this? And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you. I thought of you fairly quickly, and I was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Daphne. But then I was like, well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: would she want to? And then, when we connected and you told me about the work you’re doing now I was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this is this, is it? This is the perfect person to have to come on to talk about this. So we’ll get into all of that recovery journey and all of your things.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: As we go. But just for the listeners to kind of know the the behind the scenes of how these things sometimes happen is, you know, you make a connection. You learn something about somebody, and then it’s like, Oh, that’s the perfect guest

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to have on

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe we can start with.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as I usually do with these guest interviews. How did you find Yoga.

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Daphne Luke: yeah, it’s really good to be here. Thanks for inviting me, Nick. How did I find Yoga?

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Daphne Luke: it was a long time ago. Now it was in the late nineties. Working. I don’t want to get too much into my boring old story, but working on super yacht working overseas, very stressed, hadn’t had a day off for 5

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Daphne Luke: months and went for a massage, hoping that would help the stress levels. And she ended up saying, Oh, why don’t you come to my yoga class? I went okay. I’ve never tried that before fell in love with Yoga. And it

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Daphne Luke: instantly.

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Daphne Luke: Deeply and profoundly affected me and helped me and changed me.

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Daphne Luke: And that was the beginning, you know, and then A regular practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: From your 1st class.

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Daphne Luke: My first, st ever class and.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The same way.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah, right? It was like, Okay, I’ve come home. I found what I’ve been looking for forever. And

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Daphne Luke: you know, yoga, as we know, is a full mind, body, spirit, experience. And that was really what I was looking for. I wasn’t in active addiction then.

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Daphne Luke: and I practiced pretty seriously for a few years, and then I said to myself, You know I’d really love to become a Yoga teacher if I could help. Just one person like Yoga has helped and changed me, then my whole teaching and learning journey would be worth it. Little did I know. In 25 years of teaching. Then I would be touching thousands of people, which is amazing. But so that was that. And then

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Daphne Luke: so really in a nutshell, I started off with Ashtanga, and then with Vinyasa, and I loved Yoga, I mean, I was pretty passionate about. I became a teacher, and then in 2,009 I discovered Yin Yoga with Bernie Clark in Vancouver, because I’m originally from Vancouver, and I went from really really loving Yoga to absolutely falling passionately head over heels in love with Yoga. I thought this

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Daphne Luke: this is it right? The full experience, all inclusive. No longer was it about trying to get your foot in the right position and alignment, and looking good, and getting better at this pose, and standing on your head and putting your foot behind your head and all that stuff. It was just about energetics, and being in the moment being present and again affecting the full mind, body, spirit, you know

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Daphne Luke: And coming back to me when I still love Vinasa. Don’t get me wrong. But I find I’m my my mind is occupied by the next move, and the flow music and all that sort of stuff when I’m with yin, I’m I’m with me and I’m looking. I’m looking inward. I’m turning inward, and that’s

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Daphne Luke: what most of us need in our busy young lifestyles. Where we go go we need that balance of the yin in our lives. I mean, of course, I’m this is a yin Yoga, podcast. I’m preaching to the converted, of course. But that was that was it for me in 2,009. And I started. I I’d already, you know, I was already a teacher, and I said, No, I want to start. This is what I want to be doing. I want to be bringing this to people.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you were living in Vancouver still at the time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you just kind.

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Daphne Luke: And the.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Bernie’s class.

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Daphne Luke: Or were you just visiting?

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Daphne Luke: So I life. Circumstances ended up living in New Zealand. That’s where I’m living now, and

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Daphne Luke: I would travel home at least once a year to Vancouver to visit family, and then, of course, it’s as we know, Yoga, Mecca and Vancouver, so I’d go to classes at Sempiva and various places, taking as many classes as it could, and different teachers and stuff. And then I was like, Whoa, what’s this? Yin like what you know. So then I thought, No, I wanna bring this back to New Zealand, and I did so. Started teaching in New Zealand.

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Daphne Luke: New Zealand’s always been a little bit behind with trends. Was probably 8 to 10 years behind Vancouver or North America, for Yoga. Nobody had heard of yin, but I was like, I’m gonna teach it. I had to convince the the studio owner that this is what it’s gonna be. This is this is this, is it. And they were like, Yeah, I don’t know. Nobody wants to sit around for 5 min at a time in the dark, you know. I’m like

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Daphne Luke: good news, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know.

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Daphne Luke: I I had, they said, Okay, we’ll give you a chance. Saturday morning. You can do one class, and I started off for the 1st 6 months or so. That I get about 8 people on a Saturday morning, and then a couple of months later, it would be 15, and then it grew and grew and grew, and then they we were turning people away on Saturday mornings, and then started sort of mushrooming from there and becoming more popular. So

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Daphne Luke: yeah. And now the classes are packed.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Was Bernie’s training. The 1st Yin training that did you take Bernie’s training? Was that the 1st one.

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Daphne Luke: I did. So I started teaching. Yeah, actually, that’s funny. I started teaching yin in a young way, we could do a pose go right into the next pose, right into the next pose. And then I did Bernie’s training in 2,010 and learn, oh, rebound. Okay, slow it all down. Learned a lot more about it, and he was obviously like you. You know, you and I do talking, Paul Griley, Paul girly, Paul Grizzly.

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Daphne Luke: So I got it in my head. I can want to go and train with Paul Grilly, so subsequently I’ve traveled from New Zealand to California 5 separate times to train with Paul and have my 500 h with Paul Grizzly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it. And that is no small feat.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think when those that are Americans are listening to this, and they think, yeah, okay. So whatever you went, 5 different summers to California to study with Paul, they really don’t realize, like for those of us that are not Americans, what a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: big procedure. That is like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 1st of all, you gotta. I’m in way more so for you as far as airtime like for me. It was a pretty quick flight, but you know you have to book the time off. You gotta fly out there. Then there’s the Dollar Exchange, which never works in my favor, and don’t know about Australian.

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Daphne Luke: Me, neither.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Zealand. No, it never works in our favor to pay in us funds.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you know that, adds another layer. And then, of course, there’s the whole

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pausing your life and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and and newer Yoga teachers that are listening to this that maybe kind of didn’t start teaching much before covid times.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think really, have a very different attitude towards training. I’ve noticed that everything they either want to go away on vacation and have this sort of spa, like experience, where they pick up a teacher training at the same time, or they want it to be like on demand online, or like a super intensive online. And I think they really don’t

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Nyk Danu Yoga: realized, like, you know, how our generation of teacher work it was to go study with somebody and how much money and how much time which meet, which in this, in one sense, is really good, because only the serious are gonna do it right, or the or the serious, and the people who could save up enough. Because I’m sure there’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like a lot of people that would have loved to study with Paul, or just didn’t have the privilege of the the finances, or you know.

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Daphne Luke: It’s.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Small children, or whatever the case may be, so the privilege of it, but also the dedication that it takes to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: carve out that time. Save up the money, you know. Fly there, and do all of that. So yeah, 500, you know. 5 separate trips is no small feat. That’s for sure.

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Daphne Luke: And I was fully committed like a yin yoga was was absolutely my path when I discovered it and teaching it. And you know the feedback I’ve gotten through the years

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Daphne Luke: from students. I mean, it’s changed their lives.

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Daphne Luke: so you know, people come to the mat for so many different reasons whether it’s grieving or health issues or addiction. Insomnia, I mean, who knows? Right.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Mental health. Yeah.

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Daphne Luke: But in

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Daphne Luke: mental health. So many, I mean with the list is long

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Daphne Luke: but it’s, you know, even more so than any other style of Yoga. It’s

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Daphne Luke: you can help so many people, and that’s really rewarding. But I was but to to back that story up. I was fully committed to the journey of learning and being and wanting to share it. And you know,

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Daphne Luke: I didn’t go there for my own Spa experience. I went there to learn. So I could share this with everyone.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And it’s not land of the medicine, but it is a phenomenal

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Nyk Danu Yoga: place, probably one of my favorite places in the whole wide world.

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Daphne Luke: Place in the world.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When I went the moment I went there the 1st time, instead, on the land of the Medicine Buddha land, I was like, I’m at home like this is home.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but it’s not spot like it’s more like summer camp, you know. Like, if you can’t deal with spiders.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re not going to begin not going to go there. So it’s not like going to Bali. It’s some like fancy Spa, like hotel and taking a teacher training. It’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it attracts

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Nyk Danu Yoga: both because of the time, the dedication, the expense.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also the fact that it isn’t, you know. Fancy, Spa retreat kind of place. I think it attracted serious practitioners. For the most part, I think there was. There’s always a couple of a couple of folks always at every training where you’re like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: why are you here? You know? But for the most part it really attracted

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Nyk Danu Yoga: from my experience people that were mature and serious about yin, and like they weren’t fucking around, you know. It was like they were all in with the yin, so to speak.

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Daphne Luke: Most of our colleagues over the years who have studied with Paul are very serious traveling. The world have podcasts, videos, Youtube, we’re really dedicated to to spreading the message

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Daphne Luke: of yin yoga and skeletal variation and as it was intended, you know, there’s a lot of classes out there, as we know, that are calling themselves in yoga like pushing them deeper into poses, trying to incorporate alignment and all of that. But no, as as we know it, pure in Yoga. Yeah, they’re all, you know, dedicated to that worldwide. And we have this incredible worldwide network of colleagues that have trained under Paul.

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Daphne Luke: and you know I’ve I stay in touch with a lot of our colleagues.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, do you do? Mostly through Facebook or like via email and stuff, too.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah, just by messenger and stuff. And it’s also really interesting for me, because I am training teachers. Now, like you are to stay in touch, and you know, if I have any questions or.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And for me.

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Daphne Luke: Support or encouragement. My, you know we’re always there for each other. I know I’ve done that for you, and you’ve done that for me, and it’s been. It’s been incredible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I also think when you know, when you have this sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: global community,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, when someone reaches out and maybe they aren’t a fit for your training, because they can’t get to you, or you know, whatever it’s like, you know, I love that I can be in a group, and somebody can say I’m looking for a yin training here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they’ll name a place, and I’ll be like Oh, I know who to. I know who to hook you with.

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Daphne Luke: And also, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s like, I know who to tag in this post. I know I know someone I have a colleague that you know I studied with that teaches yin near you, you know. So that’s yeah. That’s really helpful. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, because it is quite different. And I know what you mean about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, Yen getting so watered down now?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and just so many things that I hear in mostly in Facebook groups and stuff about yin or or with the teachers that I train like things that they’ll come in saying that they’ve heard, or that another teacher has said, where I’m like, say, what? What like.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Where are you all getting this from? I do not understand, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Daphne Luke: I’ve had similar experiences with people who cover my classes so for a long time in New Zealand or the area in Auckland that I live. I was really the only one I still.

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Daphne Luke: there’s only a couple of other colleagues, Paul griely colleagues from New Zealand, and they’re actually they’ve left there now in Europe. So I I’m the only one I know of in New Zealand who has trained with Paul. There might be others now that I don’t know of, but I I don’t know. So when I go away on these trainings, or when I’m away right now. There was. It was hard to find some someone to cover. So you know, the day I get back all my my regular students would come running and.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No.

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Daphne Luke: Believe what happened. They they were trying to do alignment, and they didn’t have any music, and they didn’t even know what a meridian was, and they tried to push us deeper. And they, you know, I was like, Oh, no, cause there just wasn’t anyone to cover. So you know, I.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Experience that a lot, too, with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: here, even though there’s a lot of teachers that have taken a yin training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, they’ve taken like a 20 h that was taught by somebody who was never actually taught

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Nyk Danu Yoga: by, you know Paul, or even Sarah or Bernie. It’s like, you know, it’s it’s it’s getting so diluted now. And it’s the same thing. I find that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, like there there is. There is somebody here teaching a hundred hour yin training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: who has never studied

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Nyk Danu Yoga: ever

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with the founder of Yin, or a direct descendant of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Which.

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Daphne Luke: Yup!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, like that. That’s where these things get get so watered down, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yes, not everybody can go study with Paul, because Paul’s actually not doing those those kinds of trainings anymore. He’s.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, I think it was. Our year was kind of the La. I think there was maybe one after that where it was like this is kind of the last year of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: him participating in the Yoga Alliance

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Nyk Danu Yoga: silliness. He was like letting that go. He just became more and more interested in having deeper trainings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophically.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: spiritually, for those of us that he has already trained, like for him to be able to lead, continue to lead us where we are now that we’ve done 500 with him. That became, I think, more interesting from what I, from what he said to me, and appealing to him than just to continue to run these kind of like. Here’s level 100. Here’s level 2, 100 plus. I remember him saying, Even live to us when we were there, like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have all of you now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that can can go out and run these 50 h or 100 h level like. I don’t. I don’t need to be the one that trains everybody. I He was more interested in.

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Daphne Luke: And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Continuing our education, which I really appreciated. Not that I’ve been.

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Daphne Luke: I remember.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: On that, but.

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Daphne Luke: I remember him saying that because I remember now you and I did level 4 together.

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Daphne Luke: And he was really remember. He was giving us those extra hours, and he was really grooming us or talking to us to like how to carry this on, and how to present this and take it out into the world. And of course he makes all of his bone photos available. He’s given us permission to use all of his lectures, all of his material. He just wants us to go out there. Yeah, I think he’s.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Daphne Luke: He’s

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Daphne Luke: yeah ready. He’s handing on the baton.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And he’s very generous.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: He, you know just the fact that he’s refused to ever trademark this, or, like, you know, kind of brand it in in himself in that way. So he’s very generous with everything he gives us. And the other thing I love about Paul. We’re getting a little sidetracked here. But hey, little talk about Paul’s never a bad thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other thing I really love about him is that he’s also not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dogmatic doesn’t expect us to be dogmatically attached to the way he did it. You know.

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Daphne Luke: Yes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Like he doesn’t care

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like I cause the last training that I did with him.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I was just partway through my Yoga therapy training, and it became really aware I became really aware of my after I took my trauma module of my languaging

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Indian. And so I was like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, yin is incredibly therapeutic. And yet some of these words.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: oh, I don’t! I don’t! I don’t know how these are sitting with me, and I remember sitting down with him, and like just asking him if I could have 5 min, and just saying to him, like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, I’m I’m this is what I’m struggling with that. You know nothing about the physical yen practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is you know, is up in opposition to my Yoga therapy training. Nothing at all. If anything. They’re very complimentary.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but the languaging I’m having a little bit of trouble with, and you know, and he’s he looked at me so matter of a faculty and just said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: well, I mean, you should just use whatever words work for you and your people.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, like, just, you know, like, we’re just.

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Daphne Luke: What is it? Then? Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Just doesn’t, doesn’t care if I use the word edge or discomfort, or rebounded, or, if I use my own words, he’s like that’s what you should do then like. He’s just.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: He’s so generous with preparing us, but also at the same time totally unattached to us all, becoming little clones of him. You know.

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Daphne Luke: Yes, yeah. He says that over and over. I mean, what was the last? The part? His parting words to us are always go forth with courage and confidence.

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Daphne Luke: Is it? Have I got it right? Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, yeah, yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

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Daphne Luke: It. It’s written in his manual as well, and it and all of my students know who Paul really is. I talk about him, you know, endlessly, of course.

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Daphne Luke: yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Trying to as well.

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Daphne Luke: Forever grateful, forever grateful, that I have been able to learn directly from him.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, i i i think back all the time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to the fact that I was able to go

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not once, not twice, not 3 times, not 4 times, but 5 times to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to Lmb. And to study with him in that way

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at that place is just, I think anyone who’s been there knows it’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s magic, right there. There’s something about that. That’s just yeah.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah, I I feel exactly the same. I feel like I go home when I go there. It’s 1 of my favorite places on earth, and some of the the greatest pivotal points and pitiful mo pivotal moments in my life have been transformative moments.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Been there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s fast forward a little bit. So you’re you know you’ve you’ve

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’ve taken your yoga. You’ve become a teacher initially, Vinyasa Ishanga E, and then you kind of discover a Bernie class, and you’re like Whoa! What? What was that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: happening? And you took his training. And then you start going. Did you do your years with Paul like back to back to back? Because it’s it’s a lot.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or did you come.

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Daphne Luke: No.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Take one, take a year off, go again. Yeah, that’s what I had to do, too.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah, 2012 to 2017 was my 5 trainings with Paul.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That was. Your years are very close to mine. I’d have to look at my own web.

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Daphne Luke: Website to know. But.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think mine was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 2,011 to 2,017. And there was definitely a gap in there somewhere. But yeah, yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So planned to keep going. And then this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: ugly, worldwide ugliness happened. You know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of affected things like ability to travel, and you know all the things. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so how soon did you start

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Nyk Danu Yoga: feeling the Pole to train teachers? Then.

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Daphne Luke: I didn’t right away.

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Daphne Luke: I started having students. So I I taught a lot of classes. I was up to 14 classes a week at 1 point several years. Well, about 5 years ago.

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Daphne Luke: classes were growing. I still. Now I’m kind of backing off on the amount of classes I’m teaching because I’m teach. I’m working at an alcohol rehab. I teach in classes there as well as part of the rehab but my classes. I I have now. Some of my students have been with me for

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Daphne Luke: 16 years. They started off. Yeah, started off in Vinyasa, and they transformed with me into yin so I’ve got about. I’m down to about 5 classes a week public classes, and they’re about 50 people a class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No, but.

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Daphne Luke: I’ve over the years I’ve had students come to me and say, Look, you’re the only Paul Griley trained person I know a teacher I know. Would you ever be interested in doing a course? And

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Daphne Luke: I was interested. But the hurdle for me was coming up with the content. The manual I really wanted to produce a visual manual with photos of the poses and some variations and props and options, and just the fact, sitting down and working at a laptop was like just would be.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So much work.

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Daphne Luke: I’m like, oh, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, a teacher training manual for those of you who have never had to do it.

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Daphne Luke: Oh!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, my God!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s.

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Daphne Luke: Honestly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s so much work. I I can’t count the number of.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Swear words and tears that happened while I was doing that. Yeah.

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Daphne Luke: I know. Actually, I just made me remember, I was listening to a podcast of yours. And you said, I’ve got the soul of a mermaid in the mouth

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Daphne Luke: of a sailor.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: True.

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Daphne Luke: Really resonated with me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, that’s why there’s a language warning on all of these episodes. I’m just like me. I’m not going to stifle myself or my guests. If.

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Daphne Luke: If the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If the F word happens to be the correct word in the circumstance, we’re going to use it, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah. And so.

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Daphne Luke: So versatile word in the English language. So if I drop one, I hope you don’t mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No, there’s already been a language warning in the introduction. So if people didn’t pick up their headphones and their kids hear it, that’s on them at this point.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: plus I you know I have opinions about whether or not it’s I think it’s kind of silly that we shield children from swear words until a certain age, and then all of a sudden they get to hear them and use them. It’s like, what what is that? They’re just words.

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Daphne Luke: Another, podcast, right, yes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s a that’s a branch for another time. And so I know for me. I started training in teachers only when people started asking me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like it. It never

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Nyk Danu Yoga: occurred to me, even though I, at the time when I had done, I think, had done the 1st

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 3, maybe, of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Paul, but I hadn’t done the last 2. It! It never occurred to me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to run a teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It just was not even on my radar. I was like you. I was teaching a boatload of classes, and I was just so happy that I had this yin tool, and that my yin classes were growing. But it wasn’t until

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Nyk Danu Yoga: teachers started coming to me and saying, Hey.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you seem to kind of have your shit figured out with this whole yin business like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: can you do you have a training, or can I? You know, work with you? And so my initial trainings were actually an apprenticeship mentorship model. It was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yoga old school style, like where it’s like you.

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Daphne Luke: Yes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Come and come to the classes, and you. Then you sit at the front. You do that first, st and then you sit at the front of the room with me, and then we, you know, I give you things to read, and I answer your questions. And I, you know. And then eventually, after a lot of that, you know, you might teach a pose in my class, and then maybe 2 poses, and then, you know, from there, when I need a sub. You’re gonna take the class. And so it was. It was very much that old method of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: mentorship and apprenticeship which I still think is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: absolutely the best, most solid way to do it. And it’s also not going to be cheap. Because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re paying for an established teachers, one on one attention that’s going to cost way more than being able to join a group training. And so yeah, eventually, I started, you know, I started that way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then it was through a local yoga therapy college, the one that I took my training with, and I’m not teaching with them anymore. But where?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I didn’t sort of throw my shoe in the mix with them, but they’re they’re yen trainer.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I was just because I was in their program, you know, as a student getting my Yoga therapy certification. And I I used applied credit to skip their Yin module, because, yeah, the 400 I already had with Paul at that time definitely trumped the 20 h yin that they were offering. You know it was like, I think I could use some applied credit here, and while that module was on is when it actually I ran away into my last 100 with Paul.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what would happen is because my fellow students in the program knew that I had this Yin expertise. And all this Yin study is they would take the training they were offering, and they would come to me, and they’d be like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when we took the in training, she was saying this, and like she was saying, or I would just hear things like in the room, and I’d be like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: eyes pop out of my head like what like. And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: finally I had to reach out to the directors and just say.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know if you’re aware that there’s a problem here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But here’s the questions that my colleagues, my fellow students, are emailing me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And here are the things that they’re saying.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Somebody had gotten injured. How you could be injured in a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yoga therapy program. 1st of all in a yin training. I mean, something’s going off the rails there, you know. And so I reached out to them and just said you should probably be aware of some of these things, and I don’t know if this I won’t name names of students, I’ll keep their privacy. But like, here’s here’s what people are emailing me. And here’s what people are saying. I just thought that you should know, because they’re probably not saying it to you. And I’m also kind of getting

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like a lot of emails. So if you could figure this out, that’d be great, you know. And so then they eventually just were like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you should run it like, okay. So I did. And that was the 1st time that I taught in a group and had to create a manual. And like all of that thing, and I’m no longer teaching with them late. Yeah, because I prefer I just I just have learned in the long run that, and I’m not saying it would never teach in teach for someone else again. But it would be very much a here’s what I teach.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s how long it is if you don’t like it. Too bad kind of thing, because I just found that, you know, for me, keeping the middle man

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Nyk Danu Yoga: out, so to speak, is is is better. Because then I can just adapt the program to what I see. The needs are of the people that are in front of me, you know.

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Daphne Luke: I’m really lucky in New Zealand with my in Yoga teaching, because I’ve had pretty much total autonomy to do what I want, because yin was something that I really broke through and opened up in New Zealand. So nobody’s ever said on really what you know really want it to be this way or that way. I’m just they’ve just given me, and and yin is grown so I mean, you know, it’s even fill classes every day of the week.

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Daphne Luke: yeah. And yeah, it’ll happen organically for me as well with the the teacher training. But I going back to that manual boy, I. I am not someone to sit in front of a computer, but but now that I have it and I’ve got the course, and I I enjoy it. I love. I’ve always loved sharing what I love.

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Daphne Luke: and in Yoga is like my number one passion, of course, so I love seeing my my

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Daphne Luke: trainees go on and teach, and their faces light up, and they’ve got their own communities now. And it’s it’s really exciting. Passing that baton like I kind of feel. I saw Paul pass the baton on to us, and so I’m 55, and I’ve been teaching a long time like you, Nick, and I’m I’m at the point now where I’m reducing the amount of classes I have. I do one teacher training a year. I feel like I’m getting a lot of joy passing that baton on to new teachers. The next generation of teachers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I feel

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so much resonance with what you just said. And and I think one thing that is so missing in

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the way that teachers are trained now is an access to mentorship

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like There, there just isn’t a lot

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a lot of fairly young, fairly inexperienced, fairly new teachers, training teachers

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and.

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Daphne Luke: Yes, and.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So.

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Daphne Luke: Give me start!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. So for for folks like us that are like, I’ve been doing this for 2 decades already to like like teaching, you know. Not including my practice before that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, and I still feel like 2 decades as a baby on the path, even though you know that’s kind of a long time in nowadays standards, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I just feel which is part of the reason, that I created this podcast actually was that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I could just see so many

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Nyk Danu Yoga: teachers out there floundering

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and struggle.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I don’t know if this is gonna come across on the recording y’all, but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ll cut it out this part out. If it does. There we go, car alarm going off. I’m never sure how much my noise cancellation actually cancels. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But yeah, for me, I find

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that there was just so many teachers that were really struggling

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: all of this stuff with Yin. And so that’s kind of, why, I made the podcast I was like, I, I see so many questions in like Facebook groups or in the trainings that I run and I just like, okay, I I need to create this as a resource for people to.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, to be able to get some support because it’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s difficult and and yes, and I agree. Nothing makes me more excited.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love teaching my game training and seeing that little like kind of spark, you know.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it. Just and and.

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Daphne Luke: Passion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, and then seeing people that came in because well, I need some continuing ad credits. And you know I’ve had people sign up, oddly enough, for my training that are like, I’m not so sure about yin, but I am sold on you like they’re sold on me, but they’re like still not sure about yin, and then they take the Yin training and to see them go from like. I don’t know about this. To like madly, deeply in love is just yeah. It’s it’s such a joy.

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Daphne Luke: Well, just taking from something you just said people might come for the credits. I am not Yoga Alliance certified, and that is, and that land. Nor is Paul grilly and that is a conscious decision, because we are. Well, I find that. They’re very limiting. We are skeletal variation. I have

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Daphne Luke: nothing to do with alignment. Yoga, I teach my Vinyasa non-alignment. I offer options instead. A lot of free movement.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Functional.

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Daphne Luke: But yeah. And so someone who’s going to train with me wants to learn pure yin as a direct descendant. I’m from Paul Gurley’s training, and not because they want some Yoga alliance thing because the studio wants it, or because they need more credits.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you know I I made that decision as well. I’m not registered with Yoga Alliance. And I did 2 whole episodes on that, so y’all can go back and listen to that. If you really want, you want to listen to me and 3 other colleagues talk about why we didn’t do this.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so yeah, I’m the same. People have to want the knowledge and the information like, that’s why they’re there. They’re not there to get some sort of, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: rubber stamp that says

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m in. I’m in the Cool Kids club, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I would love to talk. Start to talk a bit more about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your journey as far as like Yoga, and then recovery.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I’m assuming somewhere in this Yoga exploration from your 1st class till now is when you either became an you know, an active addiction, and then, when you got clean, and I would love to hear

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a bit more about that that journey.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah, let’s start right away with the alcohol addiction. So to be clear. I’m an alcoholic in recovery. I alcohol was my thing. I never got into drugs. I never got into anything else. It was always purely alcohol, so I don’t know really much about drug addiction. I do work for an alcohol rehab. And it’s we just take alcoholics. So alcoholism

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Daphne Luke: there’s very little actually known about the ins and outs of it. It is a physical disease. It’s a mental obsession, it is a disease. It’s been classified as a disease by the American Health Association and the World Health Association since the 19 fifties

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Daphne Luke: and about 10% of the population. They they estimate about 10% population in the world. Has the DNA that is conducive to alcoholism, but it’s a 2 part disease. So

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Daphne Luke: if you’re born with the and I’ll go into more about that, it’s a physical allergy to the actual alcohol molecule. But if you are born with that DNA it’s kind of like

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Daphne Luke: your DNA loads the gun, and then life’s circumstances pull the trigger.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That is.

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Daphne Luke: To, a.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Good analogy. Yeah, yeah.

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Daphne Luke: So not everyone with this DNA that I have is going to become an alcoholic. You need that 2 part mental obsession and the physical side of it, and also not all heavy drinkers are alcoholic, but all all alcoholics are heavy drinkers, so the physical side of it in a nutshell.

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Daphne Luke: When

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Daphne Luke: when I ingest alcohol, a physic in in immediately within, with the 1st drink.

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Daphne Luke: a chemical chain, a chemical change occurs in my body and in my brain. So I lack the enzymes that break down the alcohol molecule. Instantly I start producing a chemical called acetaldehyde, which in which is chemically very

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Daphne Luke: similar to acetone, and this has been proven. This has been studied. So you know, you could take a a sample of of the my blood, and it’s got this, whereas someone else who hasn’t got this gene does not produce this when this acetoaldehyde is in my body, it

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Daphne Luke: causes a chemical reaction in my brain to crave more. So basically, when I, I’m gonna use the term. Normally, 90% of the the population ingest alcohol. Apparently their body gives them signals like, Oh, we’re feeling a bit dizzy. We’re feeling a bit queasy. We should probably slow down on this.

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Daphne Luke: I’ve never had that the chemical reaction in my brain says, Oh, you need more of this, and you need more of it now, and as much as you can take. So this is why you’ll see someone an alcohol, true alcoholic with the allergy who is completely off their face, and they’re still pouring it down their throat as fast as they can, because it’s a chemical reaction in the brain, and we can’t stop. So there’s a saying, one drink is too many 100 is not enough.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for question about that. So couple of questions actually.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I liked your kind of gun bullet analogy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so whether if somebody has this, you know. What was it called again

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in their blood

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for the.

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Daphne Luke: Oh, I said to how to hide. So basically.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m I’m not gonna try to say that word. But if somebody has that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you like you said, that doesn’t necessarily mean someone will be an alcoholic if they maybe

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe they’re raised somewhere where they never ingest alcohol, or who knows? Right? But that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s also I always think there’s the nature versus nurture equation to this right? Like cause I know of.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know several addicts who

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Nyk Danu Yoga: probably don’t have that, but also ended up with alcohol problems as a response to trauma.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: As a yeah. You know, it’s like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, horrific things happen to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I I don’t know how to block it out so. But when I’m loaded I don’t feel that, you know.

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Daphne Luke: And numbing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s the numbing. It’s the. This is how I

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this is how I’m gonna not deal with this, not process. It not have to look at it, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so this is probably why I would imagine, within

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Nyk Danu Yoga: addictive communities there’s like a fair bit of diversity, even

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, of course, we have to think about things like intergenerational trauma. So there’s.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, like your inherent, you know, blood type that is going to make this a problem for you. And then there’s people also that if like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know the you know, and I know I’ve got plenty of it just based on what I know about my family. You know the traumas that have been handed down that you don’t even know, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little trauma things, because you’re because to you they’re so normal.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re so.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, what do you mean? This is just the way it was in my house. Kind of thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. So do you see both sides of that with with in recovery meetings and stuff.

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Daphne Luke: Yeah. Well, there’s a couple of things that that I want to address. So 1st of all, I grew. I I’m what you would call a pedigree alcoholic. It’s rife in my family. My mother siblings uncles, cousins. They’re all alcoholics, so it’s

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Daphne Luke: sometimes I’m somebody will an alcoholic and they’re like there’s no history of it in my family. Well, I don’t know. There’s history of red hair. It just comes back as a gene who knows. But typically it is a family problem. So I grew up in an alcoholic home. I’m not going to go into all the details of the trauma being a generation X. You know all the trauma I’ve experienced.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, I can relate to the generation X. Part is a trauma already. Yes.

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Daphne Luke: Exactly but I so I grew up in an alcoholic home with alcoholic behavior, alcoholic thinking, alcoholic sayings, alcoholic

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Daphne Luke: behavioral patterns. And that was my normal like you just touched on. So it wasn’t until I was a teenager and started spending time at other people’s houses and other friends’ houses and thinking, Oh, they don’t do it like that. And it wasn’t really until I got into recovery that I realized all of those behavioral patterns thought patterns. That kind of verbal abuse, etc, was typical alcoholic behavior.

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Daphne Luke: borderline narcissism. All that kind of stuff.

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Daphne Luke: So I also wanted to address that. Alcoholism is a progressive disease. So you know, I didn’t become alcoholic from the 1st drink I took when I was 16

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Daphne Luke: it. It typically will get worse and worse and worse in people’s lives, and it gets worse. Everyone’s alcoholic journey is different, so somebody might start drinking. Let’s say we all started drinking at age 20. Somebody might be fully blown alcoholic by the time they’re 25 or 29. Mine manifested really slowly. I didn’t enter recovery until I was 48. I’m 55 now.

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Daphne Luke: And alcoholism. It’s a progressive disease, but it’s not a linear progression like that, like it starts off slow, gets a little bit worse, a little bit worse, a little bit worse, a lot worse lot worse. And then just really takes off.

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Daphne Luke: And until we’ve hit a point where we hit a rock bottom, or we’re just literally sick and tired of being sick and tired.

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Daphne Luke: You know not everyone that and and that rock bottom is a gift. We call it the gift of desperation, where you just surrender completely, and will do anything.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. The.

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Daphne Luke: Get this monkey off your back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had a similar experience, not with addiction, but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, with my anxiety journey, like I never actually took a look at the fact that I didn’t even know I had anxiety actually, until I was on my knees crippled like, not functional. Didn’t know how to help myself. Couldn’t figure it out. That was when I was like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think maybe I’m

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe I have anxiety. It’s like, you know, it’s like, but it I mean been my whole life. But, like you said similar with with with my anxiety, it was kinda like, you know, it was in childhood, and it just it. Kinda

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but then, when I gave up my whole life and moved to the Magical island here, and all safety and security was gone.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s when it was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: holy shit, you know. And and it was a gift.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It was absolutely a gift for me to hit that that bottom. Yeah, for sure.

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Daphne Luke: Absolutely.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But fun.

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Daphne Luke: Surrender. No, it’s not a lot of fun. It’s not a lot of fun. But we, you know, alcoholism and I I can really only speak for alcoholism, because that’s my journey, but it is the disease. It’s the one disease that I can think of where the sufferer is better off afterwards in treatment than they would if they’d never had the disease. To begin with. Like, now, I I work my program. The 12 steps I have

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Daphne Luke: community. I help others. I’m in service. My life. My life is pretty good today. But you know, 7 years ago when I hit a rock bottom. It was so bad I wanted to die. A. And I literally, I describe rock bottom and everyone’s rock bottom is different levels and different views and stuff. But I describe it.

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Daphne Luke: Nick, as being in a a really deep pit with steep sides. There’s no ladder. There’s no one else there. I can’t get out. All I can see is a little bit of sky way up high in the top, and it’s it’s hopeless and.

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Daphne Luke: All, you know, I was faced with a decision. Because my life was completely unmanageable, and I was powerless, absolutely powerless over alcohol.

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Daphne Luke: and I describe it as what I wanted to die. I did. I really did, but something

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Daphne Luke: like I never had any family say, Hey, I think you got a problem or never had any friends come to me and say, Look, maybe you can try going to a A or try this or I was completely on my own. It’s a very isolating disease.

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Daphne Luke: it this disease wants to get us on our own so that can control our head. And and it ultimately is a phase it, is it? This disease is out to kill me, so that when I was faced with the decision, do you wanna die? I did wanna die. But I it was like something took me by the hand, led me out of this pit

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Daphne Luke: and took me to reach out for help with the alcoholic community or more, the sober community. And I’m so glad I did. I didn’t look back, you know, but it’s a very.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Did you? Almost

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sorry. I just wanted to to touch Base a little bit

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Nyk Danu Yoga: earlier on in the story, did you?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Because I know that there are, from my experience with with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with it, with alcoholics, is that there are. There are alcoholics that get

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Nyk Danu Yoga: loaded all the time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that’s usually a little bit more clear to the outside world, right where it’s like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: oh, they’re stumbling home every night. That’s a little more clear. But then there’s also the alcoholics who

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Nyk Danu Yoga: tend to camouflage it better. And the there’s the hidden drinking

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but they’re not.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re rarely inebriated, or if they are, it’s like in a in a situation where society would justify it, as no big deal like, you know the weekend barbecue and all they had, you know, but like the day to day.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, like that functional. So air quotes here for those of you who can’t see me functional alcoholism, you know. Where it’s like holding down a job, paying their taxes, raising the kids, doing the things, and yet completely dependent

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Nyk Danu Yoga: on alcohol.

443
00:51:29.920 –> 00:51:55.719
Daphne Luke: Yeah, that’s where I was. So I was riddled with fear fear that I would be found out that cause I knew I had a problem, but also at the same time, it’s a mental illness, and that my my disease was telling me that it’s okay. It’s normal, and that’s the insanity of it. I look back to the things I did and the way I thought back then, and I think that’s it was complete insanity and be, and because of the progressive nature it started off.

444
00:51:55.780 –> 00:52:09.429
Daphne Luke: 2 wines a night, 3 wines, a night, a bottle, a bottle and a half, 2 bottles, and then. We have. We call them yet, so I haven’t done that yet. Oh, there it goes! I’ve done that. So I start drinking at noon, and then I start taking a stainless steel cap.

445
00:52:09.692 –> 00:52:33.050
Daphne Luke: With a lid on it, and to work, or and then there’s the the milestones. Okay, I feel really shitty this morning. I’m just gonna have what’s left over in that bottle before I go to work, or before, you know, you know. And then you know, I when I bought my car I made sure that it had really good drink holders, so that I could put my my drinks in it when I was driving, you know. Just the insanity of it is.

446
00:52:33.050 –> 00:52:33.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

447
00:52:33.920 –> 00:52:36.040
Daphne Luke: I can’t even imagine it now.

448
00:52:36.640 –> 00:52:47.949
Daphne Luke: But yeah, no, it it becomes to. It comes to the point where I I keep thinking. I’ll stop next week. I’ll stop next month. I’ll try July. I’ll try sober October and all of those sort of things.

449
00:52:48.225 –> 00:53:04.690
Daphne Luke: And I actually scared myself cause I would I’d have a big Ben June 30th I’d be a big Bender. I’m gonna go dry. July. This is gonna be a month. I’d get to the second, and I’d be like, I can’t do this. I would last till the 3rd of July, and then I thought I scared myself ahead of. I thought, I really can’t stop.

450
00:53:04.930 –> 00:53:07.060
Daphne Luke: And that’s when I started things progress

451
00:53:07.570 –> 00:53:13.229
Daphne Luke: getting worse. I got a little scared thinking, maybe I do have a problem. Maybe I need to reach out.

452
00:53:14.020 –> 00:53:31.779
Daphne Luke: But then, you know, I dismissed that. I’ve already pretty much isolated myself from my friends, my coworkers, my family, and I’m on my own, and I think, no, I’ll just keep going. I’ll keep going. This is no, this is fine. I I need this to function. I’m okay. I’m okay, I’m function. I got a house. I got a car. I’ve got a job. I’m I’m I’m good. I’m good, you know.

453
00:53:32.160 –> 00:53:34.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. And I think that that’s actually

454
00:53:34.470 –> 00:53:35.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: in some ways

455
00:53:35.990 –> 00:53:37.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: harder

456
00:53:37.540 –> 00:53:39.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: to kind of hit your bottom

457
00:53:39.690 –> 00:53:57.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: and get the help when you do have the house, the car, the job when you’re functional, because we as a society, we always think of alcoholics. Well, maybe not always. I think it’s changing now, finally, thankfully. But we always think of alcoholics as that guy on the corner with the shopping cart who’s like drank.

458
00:53:57.970 –> 00:54:00.710
Daphne Luke: The person under the bridge with the paper bag. Yeah, yeah, totally.

459
00:54:00.710 –> 00:54:11.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: Like, we don’t realize that, like, there’s a whole group of alcoholics that are somehow holding it together until they can’t anymore, that you would. You might not ever know.

460
00:54:11.880 –> 00:54:13.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know the things.

461
00:54:13.120 –> 00:54:29.180
Daphne Luke: This disease is not discriminating, you know, right? From all all areas of society, all classes of society. All levels of education, all races. It doesn’t discriminate. It’s absolutely everywhere. And now that I work in an alcohol rehab, I see

462
00:54:29.220 –> 00:54:38.919
Daphne Luke: how much suffering I I mean, we have an O. 800 number. It rings continuously, and there’s so much suffering out there in in all areas of society.

463
00:54:38.920 –> 00:54:39.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

464
00:54:40.360 –> 00:54:41.025
Nyk Danu Yoga: it.

465
00:54:42.370 –> 00:54:46.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: And and I think that that for me, from what I’ve witnessed from from

466
00:54:47.210 –> 00:54:50.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: beloveds that I have, that were alcoholics, but also

467
00:54:50.904 –> 00:54:55.674
Nyk Danu Yoga: I won’t get into my stuff too much, because it’s not the point of the the episode, but

468
00:54:56.130 –> 00:55:05.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: I remember when you reached out to me in the Dms and said, You know, are you a friend of? And I said, No, I’m always been on the other side of that equation. So.

469
00:55:05.600 –> 00:55:09.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: My mother, you know, seriously, mentally complex.

470
00:55:09.380 –> 00:55:13.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: Ptsd addicted to to painkillers so like it started

471
00:55:14.280 –> 00:55:16.739
Nyk Danu Yoga: then. Every

472
00:55:16.960 –> 00:55:20.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: boyfriend that I’ve had other than one over my life

473
00:55:21.090 –> 00:55:25.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: has had an addiction problem, whether it be alcohol or drugs.

474
00:55:25.310 –> 00:55:35.151
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’ve I’ve witnessed it from the other side, and I’ve been to I’ve been to more than my share of meetings the ones that were that are open meetings, where you’re allowed to bring friends and.

475
00:55:35.410 –> 00:55:35.950
Daphne Luke: Cool.

476
00:55:35.950 –> 00:55:38.575
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, yeah, I’ve been to tons tons

477
00:55:39.240 –> 00:55:51.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I’ve definitely seen, you know, kind of a little peak behind the curtain. I mean. I always wonder sometimes with those open meetings, how open they are when they know that there’s so called Normies there. But who knows?

478
00:55:51.650 –> 00:55:55.089
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I’ve witnessed all of that, and been on the other side of it.

479
00:55:55.130 –> 00:55:56.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: And

480
00:55:56.490 –> 00:56:01.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think that part of the reason why all, 1st of all, all, addiction is awful.

481
00:56:01.700 –> 00:56:04.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: and all addiction is suffering. But one of the reasons.

482
00:56:04.680 –> 00:56:06.220
Daphne Luke: And it’s not a choice. It’s.

483
00:56:06.220 –> 00:56:06.570
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

484
00:56:06.570 –> 00:56:08.229
Daphne Luke: Like, we just use that.

485
00:56:08.230 –> 00:56:14.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: Who would choose that right like. Oh, you know what I think I’ll do. Hmm! That sounds like a good idea. Nobody would choose that.

486
00:56:15.260 –> 00:56:17.739
Daphne Luke: We’ll think that we’ll think that, though they think.

487
00:56:17.740 –> 00:56:19.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: Harder about

488
00:56:19.410 –> 00:56:20.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: alcohol

489
00:56:21.030 –> 00:56:25.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: is that it is so socially normalized

490
00:56:25.400 –> 00:56:28.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so easily accessible.

491
00:56:28.250 –> 00:56:28.940
Daphne Luke: Correct, like.

492
00:56:28.940 –> 00:56:40.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, until recently. And now Canada’s kind of gone a little crazy with hand and out the drugs here. But until recently, if you were going to be a drug addict and injecting drugs, I mean, you’d have to really

493
00:56:40.850 –> 00:56:44.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: work hard to get that. And it would be, you know.

494
00:56:44.550 –> 00:56:47.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: it would be criminal, and you would have to be, you know, kind of.

495
00:56:48.600 –> 00:56:53.449
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, find the people in alleys, and like it was, you know, whereas with alcohol.

496
00:56:53.730 –> 00:56:59.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean God, I I was. I drank alcohol before I was even of age, you know, because.

497
00:56:59.400 –> 00:57:00.170
Daphne Luke: Oh, yeah.

498
00:57:00.480 –> 00:57:10.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: So back when I was a teenager, I actually looked more mature for my age. Now I get the opposite always, but when I was a teenager, you know. And I moved out early.

499
00:57:10.290 –> 00:57:13.799
Nyk Danu Yoga: I was I mean I was in bars by 14 now. I never

500
00:57:14.500 –> 00:57:23.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know I would have a drink or 2, but I never developed any kind of a love for alcohol past that, simply because

501
00:57:23.870 –> 00:57:28.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: my stomach couldn’t usually take it, and I used to have a phobia of vomiting

502
00:57:28.900 –> 00:57:46.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: so like that. Would that would have just fixed it right there. It was like anytime, you know, that I would get sick from alcohol. I would just be like, I don’t. I don’t know how people do this, and and and it wouldn’t take much for me to get sick, because again, like I said, delicate belly. So I never. I never went

503
00:57:46.890 –> 00:57:52.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: too far into the drinking, but I definitely had all kinds of times in my life off and on where it was like.

504
00:57:53.250 –> 00:58:03.419
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I’m going out to see my partner play. He’s in a band, and I’m intending to get tipsy like it was like for me. It was conscious it was never oops.

505
00:58:03.590 –> 00:58:24.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, there was maybe one time where I oops, and that was just because somebody was putting a fresh drink down in front of me that I thought was the 1st one. But other than that I was always like intentional about my level of tipsiness, and you know, and of course I learned things like most people do like don’t mix with this with that that makes puking.

506
00:58:25.110 –> 00:58:26.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I think that

507
00:58:26.470 –> 00:58:29.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: just knowing how socially

508
00:58:29.250 –> 00:58:31.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to do air quotes here. Acceptable

509
00:58:31.880 –> 00:58:32.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: it is

510
00:58:33.130 –> 00:58:47.999
Nyk Danu Yoga: and how it’s. I mean, it’s essentially pushed on you. It’s it’s everywhere. It’s in the media. It’s like, you know, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this. I’ve experienced this as somebody who’s not an alcoholic, but doesn’t drink. I quit drinking

511
00:58:48.040 –> 00:59:13.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: several years ago, because my liver was dealing with some other toxicity not to do with alcohol like we had some mold and some stuff going on, and so my poor liver in Tcm. Was just so challenged that I just hold out the minor amount of alcohol I was consuming because I was like, and same with anything else I was like. I’m going as toxin free as I can, so that my poor liver can work through this mold business that I’ve been dealing with.

512
00:59:13.440 –> 00:59:25.569
Nyk Danu Yoga: and and so that’s why I I quit drinking. And I remember saying to my Tcm. Doctor, do you think I’ll ever be able to have like an organic glass of Pinot Grigio again? And she said, I don’t know.

513
00:59:25.670 –> 00:59:28.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: And for me the answer, then was, Well, then, no

514
00:59:29.240 –> 00:59:32.089
Nyk Danu Yoga: like. If there’s a question as to like.

515
00:59:32.440 –> 00:59:37.129
Nyk Danu Yoga: will my liver be able to deal with that? Then the answer is, no, but I had already been

516
00:59:37.610 –> 00:59:48.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: many times in my life where I had gone years without a drop of booze, because I was competitively bodybuilding, and it was like, you just can’t deal with the calories. And so like I’d never had.

517
00:59:48.460 –> 01:00:01.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, these big episodes of drinking. I’ve definitely been too drunk before. I’ve definitely vomited, due to mixing of alcohol or too much alcohol or not enough food or all the things.

518
01:00:02.310 –> 01:00:14.339
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I just know, even from on my level. How socially normalized it was, you know, if you’re going out to a gig or a concert, it’s like it’s so easy to

519
01:00:14.810 –> 01:00:22.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: have one too many, because oh, somebody’s just bought you another drink, you know, even though you were like no, we’re good, you know.

520
01:00:23.040 –> 01:00:25.189
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I can’t imagine.

521
01:00:25.310 –> 01:00:31.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know with how easy it is as somebody who’s not an alcoholic to over drink.

522
01:00:31.500 –> 01:00:34.080
Nyk Danu Yoga: How hard it must be.

523
01:00:34.350 –> 01:00:48.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: in my opinion, of all of the addictions with it to clean up from alcohol, simply because I’m sure you’ve experienced this many times. You know you’re at a social event, and someone offers you in your drink, and you’re like, No, thanks. I’m good, and they’re like.

524
01:00:49.090 –> 01:00:54.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: why, why don’t you wanna drink? Are you sure you don’t wanna drink? Come on, just have a drink like it’s so.

525
01:00:54.450 –> 01:01:00.649
Daphne Luke: Nick, but in my, in my days before. So, Brian, I don’t think I ever turned down a drink.

526
01:01:00.960 –> 01:01:01.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: Totally. Yeah.

527
01:01:01.900 –> 01:01:02.380
Daphne Luke: Hey! But.

528
01:01:02.380 –> 01:01:03.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean when you’re so.

529
01:01:03.620 –> 01:01:04.560
Daphne Luke: We just.

530
01:01:05.030 –> 01:01:06.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re sober people still.

531
01:01:06.380 –> 01:01:07.090
Daphne Luke: Yeah.

532
01:01:07.730 –> 01:01:12.629
Nyk Danu Yoga: People offer me drinks all the time, and I’m like, No, thanks, I’m good. And it it always seems like

533
01:01:12.860 –> 01:01:14.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: for some reason.

534
01:01:16.250 –> 01:01:23.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: if someone were to offer me a shot of heroin, and I said, No, no, I’m good. Nobody would be surprised by that.

535
01:01:23.370 –> 01:01:24.080
Daphne Luke: Exactly.

536
01:01:24.080 –> 01:01:28.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right. But if they’re like, do you want a glass of wine? And I’m like, no, I’m good. People are like.

537
01:01:29.790 –> 01:01:30.403
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know.

538
01:01:31.430 –> 01:01:54.459
Daphne Luke: It’s becoming more and more socially acceptable not to drink, thank goodness, but I I have experienced that in certain circles, and you know honestly, nowadays I don’t even go out, or I don’t even put myself in situations where there is alcohol anymore, because I’m just not interested. But I have situations like that have come up. Most of my inner circle know exactly. You know my situation, but I have had people say.

539
01:01:54.460 –> 01:02:03.590
Daphne Luke: Oh, you don’t drink. Did. Have you ever drunk? Why did you stop? And why don’t you drink? And I’m like, Oh, I do have to go. It’s actually no one’s business.

540
01:02:05.290 –> 01:02:16.560
Daphne Luke: And and realistically, I I have that that allergy. So you know, when when I ingest a drink, I just I just start craving more and more, and I can’t stop. So

541
01:02:16.660 –> 01:02:25.510
Daphne Luke: in social situations back before recovery. I stopped drinking socially because I didn’t drink like anyone else. I drink.

542
01:02:25.510 –> 01:02:26.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: Like.

543
01:02:26.220 –> 01:02:36.225
Daphne Luke: And and there was, you know, people also go. She’s drinking a lot. I could drink any grown man under the table, you know, and I’m I’m only like 59. Kg, right?

544
01:02:36.620 –> 01:03:05.059
Daphne Luke: So it it. My drinking changed. And and as it got worse on that progressive scale, I started isolating more and more and more, and drinking alone. I used to call myself a drawbridge drinker. I would get home. Close the door, pull up the drawbridge, so to speak, you know, and just do my thing alone, because nobody else drank like me, or and then it as it progressed. Nobody else thought. Like me, nobody else behaved like me, and I it.

545
01:03:05.060 –> 01:03:08.697
Daphne Luke: You know. Now I know that this disease wants to get me on my own.

546
01:03:09.060 –> 01:03:28.069
Daphne Luke: So one of the 1st things that I got when I went into alcoholics. Anonymous was community fellowship, and so I got power because I was powerless over this substance, and I gained power from the group and power from connection. And that’s extremely important.

547
01:03:28.410 –> 01:03:54.659
Daphne Luke: I already had a sanger, of course, in my my Yoga community, but nobody. I don’t know any other teachers who have or had an alcohol problem or on recovery. So I was really, and you know, being a yoga teacher. As you know, you’re a pillar in the community, and people look up to you and people pigeonhole you. I remember being in a cafe once with a friend, and they some of my yogis

548
01:03:55.350 –> 01:04:20.340
Daphne Luke: saw us there, and they go. Oh, you drink alcohol! You’re eating. Kick. You eat meat like they already had this idea of what I was already like, and they’d ask me questions like, Do you meditate every day, and do you and this that? And so I’m like, you know, I’m just normal man. I’ve got a mouth of a sailor, too. And yeah, I drink alcohol. And yeah, you know, I’m just one of you. But they back to the you know you’re we become

549
01:04:21.010 –> 01:04:26.910
Daphne Luke: community role models whether we want to or not. And

550
01:04:27.220 –> 01:04:28.690
Daphne Luke: and nowadays it’s.

551
01:04:28.870 –> 01:04:33.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: It. It’s it’s oh, I was just gonna say on on that note, it’s tricky

552
01:04:33.920 –> 01:04:43.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: for us to and I think the teachers before us didn’t necessarily do it so well, which is why we had so many teachers. Air quotes falling from grace.

553
01:04:43.530 –> 01:04:52.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because I think this I call it pedestalizing, you know, like when it’s when a student puts you on a pedestal

554
01:04:52.760 –> 01:05:10.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s 50, their responsibility and also 50. Yours to promptly step down and be like no, no, no! Like real flawed human being over here like, yes, I have this practice. That is a huge gift to me. And yes, I’ve been doing it, and can’t imagine what life would have been like without it.

555
01:05:10.990 –> 01:05:20.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I’m a human being who has traumas and flaws and bad habits and weak moments. And you know all of the things, too.

556
01:05:21.340 –> 01:05:22.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

557
01:05:23.580 –> 01:05:53.249
Daphne Luke: Yeah. And and nowadays, I’m like, I said, I don’t go out there and advertise it. You’ll never see on social media anything about my recovery. Not much, anyway. Not not not that. It is sort of glaring out there. But I don’t hide it either, because I know it can help people, and you know, lots of my students know, and they come to me. And they said, My brother’s got a problem, or my husband and I’ve had a lot of that, and I’ve been able to help them through that or offer them avenues to get help.

558
01:05:53.250 –> 01:05:54.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: Sources was, yeah.

559
01:05:54.200 –> 01:05:58.569
Daphne Luke: Resources. Yeah, yeah, which is pretty cool. I think that

560
01:05:58.940 –> 01:06:08.559
Daphne Luke: being in recovery has helped me become a better teacher, much more empathetic, compassionate in touch with my own.

561
01:06:08.650 –> 01:06:10.119
Daphne Luke: Well, I mean

562
01:06:10.524 –> 01:06:16.839
Daphne Luke: to be successful in recovery. Really, we have to find that ego deflation and humility.

563
01:06:17.160 –> 01:06:17.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

564
01:06:17.750 –> 01:06:20.280
Daphne Luke: And that crosses over

565
01:06:20.430 –> 01:06:31.549
Daphne Luke: to being able to be of better service to my Yogis and to women I sponsor and and people. I help in the alcoholic rehab.

566
01:06:32.540 –> 01:06:34.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: How would you say that

567
01:06:34.560 –> 01:06:38.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: your Yin practice, maybe more specifically than kind of

568
01:06:38.940 –> 01:06:52.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: General Yoga? And 1st of all, I just want to say for the all Daphne and I are in Yoga lovers. And this is a Yin podcast so of course, we’re preaching the Yen Bible here. But I’m not saying that somebody couldn’t recover using other forms of yoga.

569
01:06:52.740 –> 01:06:56.740
Nyk Danu Yoga: But what I’m the most interested in is how, of course.

570
01:06:57.110 –> 01:06:58.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: your yin

571
01:06:58.520 –> 01:07:00.903
Nyk Danu Yoga: helped you with your recovery.

572
01:07:01.750 –> 01:07:03.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, anything you want to share about that.

573
01:07:04.460 –> 01:07:10.870
Daphne Luke: Absolutely so. The early days and recovery are hard, so there’s more to stopping, drinking than stopping, drinking.

574
01:07:11.100 –> 01:07:14.119
Daphne Luke: It’s a thinking disease, not a drinking disease really?

575
01:07:14.751 –> 01:07:17.659
Daphne Luke: So what it feels like.

576
01:07:17.680 –> 01:07:38.580
Daphne Luke: And I always, you know, trying to 1st of all, trying to explain addiction to a normie air quotes is like trying to explain the color purple to a blind person. You can explain it compassionately and articulately, and you know, from an educated background. But they’re still never going to exactly know what purple is, so

577
01:07:39.140 –> 01:07:52.119
Daphne Luke: what it feels like. Well, I described the pit. Yes, but I it feels like you’re on this giant pendulum hanging on for dear life, and it’s swinging way up high, and you’re going Hi!

578
01:07:52.760 –> 01:08:05.100
Daphne Luke: And then it kind of stop, and it starts going back down again, and it swings violently the other way. And so, you know, and you can’t get off because you’re holding onto this thing that’s swinging violently. And it’s just.

579
01:08:05.110 –> 01:08:30.240
Daphne Luke: And then once you get into recovery, the pendulum, you know, your life’s life’s ups and downs kinda go like that. But it’s definitely a lot quieter. So when I went to a yin class, or when I practiced in Yoga on my own for an hour, I felt like for once I could jump off that giant swinging pendulum and find some peace, some solace, some comfort.

580
01:08:30.319 –> 01:08:32.250
Daphne Luke: some grounding.

581
01:08:32.680 –> 01:08:33.810
Daphne Luke: And

582
01:08:33.930 –> 01:08:43.646
Daphne Luke: and then, yeah, I mean active alcoholism. You just get right back on that pendulum and stuff. So it takes a long time for that. That life swinging pendulum to slow down

583
01:08:44.332 –> 01:09:08.229
Daphne Luke: and the more. And I really turn to my yin practice for that, as you know, Yin Yoga is a gateway drug to meditation. It’s that still. And that’s what a lot of people are very uncomfortable with, but that’s what I craved, because my life in life in active addiction is crazy. Your head is crazy, your life is crazy. There’s drama all the time. You’re full of fear you’re trying to

584
01:09:08.279 –> 01:09:21.949
Daphne Luke: keep this big secret, and you’re trying to function, and life is getting harder and harder and harder. So for myself in Yoga was the only thing that probably kept me

585
01:09:22.500 –> 01:09:28.639
Daphne Luke: from wanting to really die in that pit when I reached a rock bottom, or when I was approaching that rock bottom.

586
01:09:28.649 –> 01:09:29.449
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm!

587
01:09:30.079 –> 01:09:32.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: I like what you said about

588
01:09:33.019 –> 01:09:37.819
Nyk Danu Yoga: how you would acknowledge that that’s sometimes what makes people so uncomfortable

589
01:09:38.399 –> 01:09:42.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: is about yeah. Is that still and quiet, and

590
01:09:42.709 –> 01:09:46.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: and one thing I often will say to people is like, well.

591
01:09:46.909 –> 01:09:48.909
Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable

592
01:09:49.459 –> 01:09:53.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: is the catalyst to getting to the other side of growth.

593
01:09:53.679 –> 01:09:54.419
Nyk Danu Yoga: like.

594
01:09:54.730 –> 01:09:55.480
Daphne Luke: Absolutely.

595
01:09:55.480 –> 01:09:59.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you never, ever get to sit with your discomfort.

596
01:10:00.350 –> 01:10:03.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: then you never deal with it. And so you know.

597
01:10:03.880 –> 01:10:05.349
Daphne Luke: But we do in alcoholism.

598
01:10:05.350 –> 01:10:05.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

599
01:10:05.800 –> 01:10:09.550
Daphne Luke: We just numb it the whole time. I don’t wanna feel this. I don’t feel this.

600
01:10:09.780 –> 01:10:15.639
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I would imagine. I mean, I noticed I noticed this with anxiety, both with myself and with students, that.

601
01:10:16.228 –> 01:10:18.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: being able to sit with

602
01:10:19.150 –> 01:10:22.370
Nyk Danu Yoga: those feelings and thoughts and emotions rising

603
01:10:22.550 –> 01:10:24.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: and witness them

604
01:10:24.230 –> 01:10:34.289
Nyk Danu Yoga: because you’ve already practiced that in Yen. So you’ve been sitting for minutes at a time witnessing the sensation in your hamstring and learning to be okay with it.

605
01:10:34.740 –> 01:10:48.189
Nyk Danu Yoga: and knowing that you know this 2 shall pass, and then I will have a better moment where I’m not noticing the sensation in my hamstring for me really sets the stage. For then, being able to do that with your mental, emotional realm

606
01:10:48.400 –> 01:10:51.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: like. If I can sit and be with my body

607
01:10:52.170 –> 01:10:58.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: for minutes at a time, and be observant and drop inward instead of being sort of distracted.

608
01:10:58.170 –> 01:10:59.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: then

609
01:10:59.470 –> 01:11:04.669
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can also be more likely to then do that with my emotional state, with my thoughts.

610
01:11:04.800 –> 01:11:13.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: That witnessing consciousness that gets cultivated in this practice, I think is just so brilliant, and something that people don’t talk about a lot actually.

611
01:11:14.250 –> 01:11:15.020
Daphne Luke: Hmm.

612
01:11:16.660 –> 01:11:18.860
Daphne Luke: alcoholism is

613
01:11:20.220 –> 01:11:45.850
Daphne Luke: It’s an illness of mind, body, and spirit. So obviously, we have a mental illness. We’re physically very sick. By the time we reach out for help, and we’re also spiritually ill. And I didn’t know that spiritual illness was even a thing until I started doing the twelve-step program and connecting with the sober community, and alcoholism, wants to isolate me from my community, from my higher power.

614
01:11:45.850 –> 01:12:02.990
Daphne Luke: and really from my truth of who I am, and I rediscovered that through the 12 step program, through sobriety, through working the program of, you know, self-discovery and yin, yin was. Really.

615
01:12:03.370 –> 01:12:08.750
Daphne Luke: I don’t want to say pivotal catalyst. What’s the word I’m looking for? Was the the most integral part.

616
01:12:08.750 –> 01:12:09.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: Essential.

617
01:12:09.240 –> 01:12:12.710
Daphne Luke: Recovery. Essential, yeah, absolutely.

618
01:12:13.220 –> 01:12:13.833
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah,

619
01:12:15.310 –> 01:12:20.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m curious, because you, I mean, and you know, definitely don’t share more than you want to. But

620
01:12:22.840 –> 01:12:26.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: was you talked about which you talked about the bottom.

621
01:12:26.180 –> 01:12:28.960
Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is one thing that I I have witnessed

622
01:12:29.040 –> 01:12:32.649
Nyk Danu Yoga: with all of the people that in my life that have been addicts is that

623
01:12:32.750 –> 01:12:34.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: definitely

624
01:12:34.110 –> 01:12:43.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: sobriety or getting clean does not tend to happen or stick, even if you put someone in rehab until they’ve hit that bottom themselves and been like.

625
01:12:43.900 –> 01:12:44.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

626
01:12:44.970 –> 01:12:46.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: this can’t continue

627
01:12:48.940 –> 01:12:57.390
Nyk Danu Yoga: And you, you know you’re you were going through this while you were like living your life and teaching your yoga, and like doing your things. And so how did life

628
01:12:57.850 –> 01:13:02.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: shift? Sort of in the more immediate moment of like? Did you like?

629
01:13:02.950 –> 01:13:08.890
Nyk Danu Yoga: Have the Aha? And then immediately find out about a meeting, or like how would. What was that transition for you?

630
01:13:10.170 –> 01:13:23.320
Daphne Luke: Well, I’m like, I said. I’m a pedigree alcoholic. So I’ve got a sibling who’s also in recovery. And I went years and years ago went to some meetings with her. So I knew about alcoholics anonymous. I knew there’s a community out there that could help

631
01:13:24.294 –> 01:13:45.350
Daphne Luke: the catalyst was really, I mean, who knows what the decider is? Everyone’s different. I just reached a point where I realized I couldn’t stop on my own. My life was, I was powerless over this thing, completely powerless. My life was getting to the point where it’s completely unmanageable, and I couldn’t do it on my own. So I had

632
01:13:45.400 –> 01:13:46.620
Daphne Luke: planned

633
01:13:46.810 –> 01:14:01.320
Daphne Luke: to go to meetings, and then I wouldn’t. And then so that went on for about a month or 2, and then finally went to a meeting. And I what I heard, what I actually what I was given at my very 1st meeting was Hope. I heard people

634
01:14:01.610 –> 01:14:28.679
Daphne Luke: sharing that thought like me, that had done things like me, that were so similar. I mean, there were different different people, different walks of life. But we had that similarity and sharing that similarity was the 1st time in my life where I realized, wow! There’s other people out there like me. And it was a very supportive environment, and that they didn’t want anything from me except just to see me get well.

635
01:14:28.680 –> 01:14:36.370
Daphne Luke: and they honestly in in that kind of a fellowship, environment, community environment. They just loved me back to health

636
01:14:36.640 –> 01:14:37.740
Daphne Luke: and

637
01:14:38.448 –> 01:14:47.059
Daphne Luke: very quickly. I got a sponsor who’s my person and I I now sponsor other women as well. Who? My! Go to person that

638
01:14:47.740 –> 01:15:14.610
Daphne Luke: you know. If I’m struggling with anything in life. I call her, and it’s no longer now. So july this year marks 6 years of continuous sobriety for me. And it’s no longer thank you. It’s no longer about the alcohol. I don’t crave it. I don’t want it. It’s not part of my life. It doesn’t pop up into my brain. But what I’m it’s it’s now the thinking. And and

639
01:15:14.700 –> 01:15:25.209
Daphne Luke: there’s sort of 3, there’s 3 facets to recovery, and that’s trust a higher power, clean house and help others. And when life.

640
01:15:25.220 –> 01:15:40.896
Daphne Luke: you know the growth happens when we’re uncomfortable. God makes us uncomfortable. So we move for us. And when life’s glitches and things happen you know, that’s my person to go to, to remind me of the program and to to keep me

641
01:15:41.670 –> 01:15:56.269
Daphne Luke: working my program. So I have to do something for my disease every single day, the the biggest saboteur to sobriety, even if you’re long term sobriety. 2030 years. The biggest saboteur is complacency.

642
01:15:57.010 –> 01:16:10.650
Daphne Luke: So every every morning I wake up, and I I remind myself that I’m powerless over this thing, and that I have to do something, whether it’s going to a meeting reaching out to another alcoholic messaging my sponsor or helping others.

643
01:16:11.284 –> 01:16:37.279
Daphne Luke: You know something to do with the community or my step program. Or you know, if an altercation comes up with a co-worker or a family member or something, I I work it through with the steps and let it go. I’ve got to keep my house clean, because it’s things like fears and resentments and anger, and that’s a stuff that keeps me sick, and will slowly draw me back into a place of illness again.

644
01:16:37.600 –> 01:16:38.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right.

645
01:16:38.400 –> 01:16:40.090
Nyk Danu Yoga: The difference between

646
01:16:40.100 –> 01:16:41.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: having the tools

647
01:16:42.880 –> 01:16:52.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: to work with this in an ongoing way for your whole life versus kind of white, knuckling it and hoping you don’t relapse. Kind of thing like having those tools that you can be like. Okay.

648
01:16:52.760 –> 01:16:57.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that this is what I need to do in order to stay sober.

649
01:16:58.330 –> 01:17:10.210
Daphne Luke: Yeah, and we have to give it away. We have to help others. The the step 12 is all about helping others, and if it wasn’t for Step 12. I wouldn’t be here, you know, other people who’ve gone before me helping me

650
01:17:10.420 –> 01:17:28.040
Daphne Luke: get sober, and it’s an incurable disease, but it’s definitely manageable. But you do have to work at it. And it’s I’m going to have this the rest of my life, you know, and that. And that’s okay. You know, I’m living today with the tools of recovery and with my Yoga practice I have a pretty cool life.

651
01:17:29.070 –> 01:17:34.659
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love to hear. I’d love to transition into hearing a bit more about how you went from

652
01:17:35.250 –> 01:17:38.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: fledgling, sober person to

653
01:17:39.160 –> 01:17:42.649
Nyk Danu Yoga: now I work in an alcohol rehab center.

654
01:17:42.740 –> 01:17:46.129
Nyk Danu Yoga: because that’s that in itself. That’s that’s a big journey

655
01:17:46.220 –> 01:17:46.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: and

656
01:17:47.990 –> 01:17:52.779
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I can imagine, like an incredibly rewarding place to work.

657
01:17:53.530 –> 01:17:54.410
Daphne Luke: Incredibly.

658
01:17:54.410 –> 01:18:08.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hard, stressful and and and rewarding, I’m sure. So I’d love to hear a little bit about how you went from. Okay, I’m sober. I’m going to meetings, and I’m just kind of trying to clean up my life to.

659
01:18:08.600 –> 01:18:13.600
Nyk Danu Yoga: I, wanna you know, beyond being a sponsor. I wanna step into

660
01:18:13.610 –> 01:18:19.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: this recovery process in a kind of a bigger way, as part of my livelihood.

661
01:18:20.810 –> 01:18:44.620
Daphne Luke: Yeah, I mean, it happened very organically, kinda like, you know, starting to do teacher trainings and stuff. The early days in recovery are hard. They are hard work. And you know, you have to put a lot. It has to be basically your number. One thing, you have to put your sobriety and the efforts you put into that ahead of everything, anything you put above your sobriety you’re gonna lose.

662
01:18:44.810 –> 01:18:59.700
Daphne Luke: So you know, if I’m not sober. I will lose my job. I will lose my son, I will lose my license, I will lose my dignity, I will lose my money, I’ll probably lose my house. So that’s the number one thing in my life, and for a normally from the outside, looking in that might look self centered or selfish.

663
01:18:59.800 –> 01:19:10.636
Daphne Luke: but that’s what I have to do. So if I’m in a situation somewhere where it’s uncomfortable or threatening or, you know, potentially

664
01:19:11.280 –> 01:19:12.510
Daphne Luke: I might

665
01:19:12.620 –> 01:19:20.599
Daphne Luke: struggle or drink over. I got to get myself out of that. But anyway, that’s neither there. So the journey those those early days are all about

666
01:19:21.400 –> 01:19:37.709
Daphne Luke: working the program connecting with a higher power and taking it one day at a time. That’s the most important thing just take today. I don’t know. I mean even today, right now, I’m just going to stay sober today. I can do that. So what they said to me when I 1st came into my very 1st meeting is.

667
01:19:37.750 –> 01:19:48.480
Daphne Luke: you know. Had they said to me, Daphne, you’re never gonna drink again, and I I would have failed. But they said, Just don’t drink today. And I said, Well, I can do that. I can do that.

668
01:19:48.500 –> 01:20:14.663
Daphne Luke: And then I woke up the next day. Just don’t drink today. Okay, I can do one day. But I even now, if I think I’m never gonna have a drink again 1st of my life that’s like overwhelming. And I I can’t face that. But I can do today and get my head on that pillow sober tonight. And I’m gonna face tomorrow. Tomorrow. Who knows what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Right? So yeah, it’s those early days are all about working the program, going to work, putting food in the table and keeping things going. I never went to a rehab.

669
01:20:14.920 –> 01:20:19.740
Daphne Luke: I I just did my meetings and got my sponsor and just stayed, you know.

670
01:20:19.820 –> 01:20:35.410
Daphne Luke: just really ended my practice, and just lived quietly one day at a time. It does get easier, so alcoholism is a progressive disease, but recovery is also progressive. It gets easier, and it gets better as we go along.

671
01:20:35.420 –> 01:21:02.066
Daphne Luke: So you know, a couple of years into my sobriety I started I was asked by another woman who was a new recovery if I’d sponsor her. And I was like, Oh, sponsoring. Okay, I I guess I’m at that stage. I and someone once said to me, Daphne, if you have 2 days sobriety. You can help someone with one day sobriety. So I put ran it past my sponsor and she said, Yeah, you know, go and sponsor, and that really helps our own sobriety as well. So I’ve sponsored many women over the years.

672
01:21:03.650 –> 01:21:20.199
Daphne Luke: and I have a lot of people in recovery coming to my classes. My in Yoga classes. It’s a big tool for recovery, as we’ve already talked about, which is, really makes me brings me a lot of joy seeing the Aa. Members and the sober community coming to my my public classes.

673
01:21:20.857 –> 01:21:38.972
Daphne Luke: And then a good friend of mine a little over a year ago. Opened a rehab. It’s been a dream of his for a long time, and he got in touch with me and said, Would you be willing to teach yin yoga at the rehab? And I said, Heck, yeah, of course you know, of course.

674
01:21:39.721 –> 01:22:04.430
Daphne Luke: And I loved it so much, and they were short staffed, and he asked me to do some shifts because I’m in recovery. All the staff are in recovery, of course, and I loved it and then, of course, started doing more and more and more, and then I was offered a management position, and I said, well, wasn’t really looking for a part time, Job, but cause I’m still teaching all these so many classes and stuff. But I said, No, this is, this is a great transition.

675
01:22:04.430 –> 01:22:10.839
Daphne Luke: I’m still teaching Yoga. There I’m managing. I’m the operations manager of the

676
01:22:10.840 –> 01:22:17.579
Daphne Luke: alcohol rehab. It’s a small private rehab. We have a maximum of 8 people, and I absolutely love it.

677
01:22:19.160 –> 01:22:25.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: so I imagine you cut a couple of your public classes to allow for some space for this. Yeah, yeah.

678
01:22:25.340 –> 01:22:26.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

679
01:22:26.310 –> 01:22:42.799
Daphne Luke: Yeah, I I’m sort of at that stage in my career where, if I don’t absolutely love the classes I’m teaching, then I should be passing the baton on to someone else. So some of my classes I was some of my classes I was travelling up to 35 K. To get to. They were, you know, getting home late at night.

680
01:22:42.800 –> 01:22:43.514
Nyk Danu Yoga: Thanks.

681
01:22:44.510 –> 01:23:11.360
Daphne Luke: And so I said to myself, If I ever get to the point where I’m like, Oh, I don’t want to go and teach this class tonight, then I shouldn’t be so. I’ve been happy to pass those on. And so the classes. I have, the few that I still have the public classes I absolutely love. They’re long term Yogis that I know really well, and they’re close to home. So I’m still doing that. I can work my schedule around my full time job, and then, of course, teaching at the Rehab, teaching Yoga in Yoga at the Rehab.

682
01:23:11.360 –> 01:23:12.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I feel like

683
01:23:13.680 –> 01:23:17.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: as yoga professionals. It’s so rare

684
01:23:17.780 –> 01:23:23.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: that and and wise, really, because let’s let’s face it. I mean, most people don’t get rich teaching yoga

685
01:23:24.550 –> 01:23:24.880
Daphne Luke: No.

686
01:23:25.210 –> 01:23:27.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: But it’s so rare and so

687
01:23:27.758 –> 01:23:30.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: that you get an opportunity to have

688
01:23:31.515 –> 01:23:37.370
Nyk Danu Yoga: a livelihood that you could do with your yoga, that you feel also really passionate about.

689
01:23:37.460 –> 01:23:41.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: because most of the Yoga teachers I know that have a side job

690
01:23:42.230 –> 01:23:46.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: or a full-time job, whether it’s full or part-time, and they’re they’re teaching.

691
01:23:46.850 –> 01:23:50.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, part time are at a job that they hate.

692
01:23:51.390 –> 01:23:56.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: And they don’t feel like they’re making an impact. And you know, and so

693
01:23:57.410 –> 01:24:00.015
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know that it becomes this

694
01:24:01.000 –> 01:24:04.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: this kind of really like, you know, kind of

695
01:24:04.320 –> 01:24:13.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: challenge from one hand to the other. It’s like I have this yoga thing that I love doing, and I’d love to do that. But I like have this other job which pays my bills. And so for you to have something.

696
01:24:13.350 –> 01:24:14.100
Daphne Luke: Yeah, for now.

697
01:24:14.310 –> 01:24:15.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: That you

698
01:24:15.690 –> 01:24:33.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: can do that is so complimentary, and that you are so passionate about is what a what a gift you know to be able to do the 2 things that you’re so passionate about, and that you love so much. Instead of having to choose like I could do this, or I could do that, you know.

699
01:24:34.950 –> 01:24:40.099
Daphne Luke: I’m really, really grateful. Yeah, I it is. It is so fulfilling. I mean, I’ve

700
01:24:40.250 –> 01:24:48.719
Daphne Luke: yeah, I’ve the 2 most, you know. And then when you ask me to come on this podcast and talk about these, my 2 favorite things, I’m like, yeah.

701
01:24:48.770 –> 01:24:49.970
Daphne Luke: So guys.

702
01:24:49.970 –> 01:24:50.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

703
01:24:50.440 –> 01:24:50.880
Daphne Luke: You know.

704
01:24:50.880 –> 01:24:55.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: And and you know, and when I did reach out I wasn’t sure, because I did again like you said you’re not.

705
01:24:56.010 –> 01:25:14.459
Nyk Danu Yoga: You don’t hide your sobriety, but you also out there waving the big sober flag on your Instagram or anything. And so, you know, you had reached out via DM. Not even in a comment under my post. And so I really wasn’t sure like where you were in your comfort level with talking about it. So thank you for for doing this, and I

706
01:25:14.900 –> 01:25:18.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think it might have been pre-recording that I said that

707
01:25:18.860 –> 01:25:24.599
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know for me, and I get this question all the time from Yoga teachers that I mentor. It’s like, when is it time

708
01:25:24.890 –> 01:25:28.039
Nyk Danu Yoga: to share my journey with my students?

709
01:25:28.260 –> 01:25:31.740
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I always say when it’s a scar, not a fresh wound.

710
01:25:32.430 –> 01:25:32.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: because, yeah.

711
01:25:32.950 –> 01:25:33.880
Daphne Luke: Yeah, I love that.

712
01:25:33.880 –> 01:25:47.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: When it’s a fresh wound you’re in it like you’re you’re not able to hold space for other people. And if you start sharing stuff like that with your students. Now they’re holding space for you, and you know you’re not sitting in the role of the teacher.

713
01:25:47.270 –> 01:25:56.739
Nyk Danu Yoga: But when you’ve been through it for a while, and you’re, you know you’ve kind of come to the other side of and like you said I mean, your your sobriety is going to be a lifelong journey.

714
01:25:56.870 –> 01:26:08.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: But you’ve you’ve come through it to the degree that you’re like, okay, I can sponsor people and like, I have my tools, and I have some clarity, and I, you know, can see what a gift this has all been.

715
01:26:09.920 –> 01:26:16.370
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. I think if when PE when you’re at that point, and and and only when you’re at that point, in my opinion.

716
01:26:16.895 –> 01:26:19.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: with anything you’ve gone through.

717
01:26:19.490 –> 01:26:23.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: then, if you share it, it’s nothing but a gift for people.

718
01:26:23.930 –> 01:26:26.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: because other people that are where you were

719
01:26:27.070 –> 01:26:28.630
Nyk Danu Yoga: can go. Oh.

720
01:26:29.270 –> 01:26:30.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s a thing

721
01:26:30.880 –> 01:26:32.609
Nyk Danu Yoga: you mean. I could do that.

722
01:26:32.980 –> 01:26:33.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

723
01:26:33.880 –> 01:26:41.179
Daphne Luke: Yeah, absolutely. To be able to take such an insidious disease and situation

724
01:26:41.180 –> 01:27:06.909
Daphne Luke: like I was in and to be able to turn around and help people is really rewarding. And you know we we don’t promote. We attract in sobriety and people. Someone has to say, Hey, look like she. That’s her journey, and she overcame it. Maybe I can do that, too, because it’s a very hopeless place to be in that pit where there’s big high walls, no ladder, no one else. That’s an awful place, and honestly.

725
01:27:06.910 –> 01:27:12.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: And your mind telling you that you’re alone, and nobody would understand. And all of that stuff. Yeah.

726
01:27:12.700 –> 01:27:13.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

727
01:27:13.290 –> 01:27:17.909
Daphne Luke: And few people do, and to find that community who do get it and

728
01:27:17.960 –> 01:27:21.280
Daphne Luke: do have the tools to pass on to you

729
01:27:21.380 –> 01:27:28.969
Daphne Luke: to overcome. It is, I mean, I mean, we just we can’t do this on our own. We absolutely can’t. You know, they

730
01:27:29.480 –> 01:27:54.449
Daphne Luke: one of the most important things for me in Yoga is my community, my Sana. And the most important thing in sobriety is the community where there’s power in numbers. It’s kind of like that snowflake theory, you know, one snowflake on its own is powerless. But you put millions of snowflakes together, and they’re really powerful. They can shut down roads shut down a whole city, you know there’s a lot of power.

731
01:27:54.770 –> 01:27:56.947
Daphne Luke: and and I know if I

732
01:27:57.340 –> 01:28:11.049
Daphne Luke: and if I am feeling, you know the complacency, like I said, is the number one saboteur for sobriety, and if times I feel I got this, so I don’t need to go to a meeting this week. And I I that’s when I really need to go. I’m starting to

733
01:28:12.390 –> 01:28:15.019
Daphne Luke: to. How would I? How would I?

734
01:28:15.070 –> 01:28:42.939
Daphne Luke: Yeah, I just know that the you know, the further I stay away from community. I know my disease is actually creeping in. My disease will always be there. I kind of describe it to people like I’m in my house, and I’ve got all the windows shut and the doors locked, and my disease is always wandering around the perimeter of the house just just trying the door, just seeing if there’s a window unlocked. It’s always trying to get in somehow, and I’m just got to be very vigilant about it every single day. One day at a time.

735
01:28:43.330 –> 01:28:43.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

736
01:28:44.140 –> 01:28:49.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve mentioned to you that I’ve been, you know. I’ve been in several open meetings and

737
01:28:51.470 –> 01:28:56.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: as an anxious personality type. I used to hear this one day at a time thing and think.

738
01:28:56.630 –> 01:28:59.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: how is that even possible, like.

739
01:28:59.860 –> 01:29:00.490
Daphne Luke: I’m.

740
01:29:00.490 –> 01:29:08.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: Constantly future tripping like how? How is that? Even possible? And it’s I would say, probably only been.

741
01:29:10.060 –> 01:29:20.349
Nyk Danu Yoga: since you know, moving here and and having my bottom with anxiety is when that that finally started to hit home that it was like, Oh, right? Okay.

742
01:29:20.440 –> 01:29:22.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: How am I? Today?

743
01:29:22.240 –> 01:29:23.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: Today

744
01:29:23.600 –> 01:29:31.229
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m feeling anxious. Or today I’m feeling grounded. But knowing that like tomorrow might be different. And and

745
01:29:32.710 –> 01:29:36.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, that that one day at a time thing has been.

746
01:29:36.720 –> 01:29:44.959
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s been such an interesting thing, because we talk about it all the time in Yoga, too, right like come back to the present moment. But it’s it’s not an easy thing to do.

747
01:29:45.910 –> 01:29:50.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not easy to just be like, okay, I’m not gonna think about tomorrow. I’m just gonna be like

748
01:29:51.210 –> 01:29:56.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: today in this moment. This is what’s happening. And that’s what I’m going to be present to.

749
01:29:56.510 –> 01:29:58.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: And we’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

750
01:29:58.630 –> 01:30:07.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: And it makes it actually to be honest kind of hard to function in society. Also with that, because, you know, we do have to do some planning. We have to like, you know.

751
01:30:07.600 –> 01:30:09.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: plan our work and our

752
01:30:09.450 –> 01:30:13.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: vacations. And like. So it, you know, it’s finding that balance of like.

753
01:30:14.120 –> 01:30:14.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: okay.

754
01:30:15.210 –> 01:30:17.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: just today, just this moment. And

755
01:30:17.960 –> 01:30:20.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: here’s what I hope for the future, you know.

756
01:30:20.650 –> 01:30:24.470
Daphne Luke: Yeah, future trooping can be like going down rabbit holes. I mean.

757
01:30:24.470 –> 01:30:24.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: Totally.

758
01:30:24.930 –> 01:30:52.403
Daphne Luke: 90% of what you future trip on is not gonna happen. Yeah, we do have to plan ahead, too. But we also have to remain flexible and open to changes. You know what it’s like when you’re traveling or planning a vacation, that flight is cancelled or the road is closed, or somebody will break a leg and can’t go away. You know that kind of stuff. So and not being necessarily

759
01:30:53.380 –> 01:31:16.179
Daphne Luke: tied to that outcome and and letting it flow. But of course, just yeah, always bring it back to the day, because future tripping for an alcoholic will lead us to drink. I mean, I can have conversations, future conversations in our minds that will never happen, or we we tend to be catastrophizers as well, and that can be toxic.

760
01:31:17.080 –> 01:31:21.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: 90% of what we future trip about actually never comes about.

761
01:31:21.230 –> 01:31:24.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: Sure, not more, if not more. You know, it’s like.

762
01:31:24.420 –> 01:31:24.830
Daphne Luke: Long.

763
01:31:25.250 –> 01:31:29.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: And one thing I finally realized

764
01:31:29.920 –> 01:31:31.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: was

765
01:31:32.010 –> 01:31:33.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: that you know.

766
01:31:34.170 –> 01:31:47.525
Nyk Danu Yoga: at least with anxiety. One of the reasons that we future trip is because we think that that makes us safer because we’ve now figured out this could happen. I have a solution. This could happen. I ha! Here’s the solution. This could happen. Here’s the solution.

767
01:31:48.030 –> 01:31:51.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I would say, oddly enough.

768
01:31:52.080 –> 01:31:55.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: going through what we’ve all gone through with. The pandemic

769
01:31:55.210 –> 01:32:00.560
Nyk Danu Yoga: was a bit of a catalyst for me in in that. It just proved to me

770
01:32:01.250 –> 01:32:03.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: that there are things that will come up.

771
01:32:03.430 –> 01:32:05.769
Nyk Danu Yoga: You’ve never future tripped about.

772
01:32:06.300 –> 01:32:06.680
Daphne Luke: Yeah.

773
01:32:06.680 –> 01:32:11.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: You will have to adapt and figure out, and

774
01:32:11.490 –> 01:32:13.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, and that, like

775
01:32:13.200 –> 01:32:18.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: you truly can’t be prepared for everything that happens other than to stay grounded

776
01:32:18.740 –> 01:32:21.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: and calm, and to take care of yourself.

777
01:32:21.830 –> 01:32:30.059
Nyk Danu Yoga: because if you can’t take care of yourself, then when that stuff comes at you, you’ve got nothing, you know, no resources. Yeah.

778
01:32:30.080 –> 01:32:31.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: I loved what you said.

779
01:32:31.220 –> 01:32:31.990
Daphne Luke: So you’re.

780
01:32:31.990 –> 01:32:43.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: About with your recovery, but you mentioned that some people would say that putting your recovery 1st every day would be selfish and self centered. I’d like to think that actually, those 2 things do not mean the same thing.

781
01:32:43.670 –> 01:32:48.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think that you can be self centered and not be selfish.

782
01:32:49.210 –> 01:32:54.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: so self-centered to me is I’m taking care of this self

783
01:32:54.350 –> 01:32:58.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: because I know, and I have the wisdom to know, that if I don’t.

784
01:32:58.240 –> 01:33:00.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: there is nothing for others.

785
01:33:00.560 –> 01:33:01.819
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? That’s I don’t.

786
01:33:01.820 –> 01:33:03.380
Daphne Luke: Number one sorry.

787
01:33:03.380 –> 01:33:08.329
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, if I don’t focus on my own mental, emotional, or physical health.

788
01:33:09.300 –> 01:33:16.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: then you know there is nothing. And and to to think otherwise is, is delusional. Frankly, in my opinion.

789
01:33:16.260 –> 01:33:24.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: to think that you can constantly put everyone else before you without ever filling your own cup without ever taking care of your own mental emotional state.

790
01:33:24.130 –> 01:33:26.039
Nyk Danu Yoga: To me. That’s just delusional.

791
01:33:27.440 –> 01:33:31.630
Daphne Luke: Yeah, that’s probably the number. One advice I tell sponsors is.

792
01:33:31.780 –> 01:33:39.320
Daphne Luke: you know, don’t put anything above your sobriety. Your sobriety is the number one thing, and then everything else will fall into place.

793
01:33:39.877 –> 01:34:05.252
Daphne Luke: You know. With that we have. We have nothing. But I think, as women, we have been. I mean, okay, I’m spoken. Speaking from a place of Gen. X. Gen. X. Woman. And we’re taught to put everyone else in front of ourselves, so that you know everything has to change in recovery. For me. If nothing changes, nothing changes, I’m my lifestyle had to change my thinking, my behavior

794
01:34:05.820 –> 01:34:08.399
Daphne Luke: everything absolutely and

795
01:34:09.700 –> 01:34:28.940
Daphne Luke: always thinking of my sobriety. Number one. And you know the also, when an alcoholic heals a family heals and a community heals, and the greatest gift. My son is now 16, so he really only remembers me so much now in recovery. But the greatest gift we can ever give our children is sobriety.

796
01:34:28.940 –> 01:34:29.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

797
01:34:29.690 –> 01:34:30.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

798
01:34:31.210 –> 01:34:32.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s actually all.

799
01:34:32.240 –> 01:34:33.110
Daphne Luke: Often.

800
01:34:33.290 –> 01:34:40.739
Nyk Danu Yoga: Why I say that I I well, that is why I teach Yoga like the whole reason that I decided to become a Yoga teacher

801
01:34:41.060 –> 01:34:42.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: was because

802
01:34:43.080 –> 01:34:45.329
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know what it’s like to be

803
01:34:45.890 –> 01:34:47.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: on your last nerve

804
01:34:47.430 –> 01:35:03.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: in chronic pain, struggling, suffering, and there is no way that a person who’s existing in that state like a like a scared, frightened, alone animal essentially, is going to be able to be patient, loving, kind, and compassionate. It’s just not possible.

805
01:35:03.610 –> 01:35:06.609
Nyk Danu Yoga: You cannot give to others what you don’t have.

806
01:35:06.660 –> 01:35:10.779
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so my whole reason for teaching Yoga was.

807
01:35:10.830 –> 01:35:14.639
Nyk Danu Yoga: if I can help students find that inner resource

808
01:35:15.220 –> 01:35:18.439
Nyk Danu Yoga: in the Yoga class, and if and and if

809
01:35:18.490 –> 01:35:25.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: and it’s so happy when it does, and if these teachings then start to infiltrate their lives when they’re not in Yoga class.

810
01:35:25.140 –> 01:35:32.387
Nyk Danu Yoga: and they start remembering these lessons that they’ve learned on the map when they’re in the kitchen dealing with a screaming child. You know.

811
01:35:32.690 –> 01:35:33.280
Daphne Luke: Yeah.

812
01:35:33.280 –> 01:35:35.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then that’s how I make the world better

813
01:35:35.840 –> 01:35:38.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: is one student at a time.

814
01:35:39.260 –> 01:35:48.433
Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, of course, when you train teachers, you get to ripple effect that even more because there was a point where, you know, when teachers were coming to me and saying,

815
01:35:49.050 –> 01:36:02.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, can you teach me, and I was kind of like. I don’t think I’ve been teaching Yoga, I mean, even though it had been well over a decade. I was like, I don’t know if I’ve been teaching Yoga long enough to teach teachers, you know, but what I realized is that I can only teach so many students.

816
01:36:03.020 –> 01:36:09.429
Nyk Danu Yoga: But if I can help other teachers, you know, really stand in their own ground and become the true teachers

817
01:36:09.550 –> 01:36:28.599
Nyk Danu Yoga: that they’re meant to be, then they can teach more people. And then the ripple effect just gets like even more exaggerated. Or like you, said the passing of the baton, because it’s like like, I can only do this part. But there’s all these people over here still. So if I could pass that baton to you, and now you can teach in your community

818
01:36:28.720 –> 01:36:37.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: and in your community you can create people who are, you know, more compassionate and loving and kind, and know how to take care of themselves so that they can be present.

819
01:36:38.070 –> 01:36:40.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: That to me is how the world changes.

820
01:36:40.860 –> 01:36:52.690
Daphne Luke: I get so much joy of seeing my trainees go out and create their own classes and their own community, and you know they come to my class and we catch up, or I see on social media that what they’re what they’re doing.

821
01:36:52.690 –> 01:36:53.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, so great.

822
01:36:53.980 –> 01:36:55.900
Daphne Luke: So rewarding and.

823
01:36:55.900 –> 01:37:01.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know every time I see on social media one of my former students advertising their yin class, I’m like.

824
01:37:02.200 –> 01:37:02.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: See? Yeah.

825
01:37:02.700 –> 01:37:07.999
Daphne Luke: I know, and I put a little comment down there, go like so and so is the best, or you know.

826
01:37:08.000 –> 01:37:11.820
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah, big fist pumps and hearts. Yeah.

827
01:37:11.820 –> 01:37:28.720
Daphne Luke: We and we create our own community like, I’ve got my own community that I created from 0. There was no yin yoga where I lived, you know, and now they’re creating their own. And it’s just it’s it’s beautiful. And I’ve always considered myself as a yoga teacher. Part of the chain

828
01:37:29.377 –> 01:37:38.680
Daphne Luke: in the lineage, you know. I’m just another I’m this generation, and I’m passing it on. And and that’s you know. Our our work is

829
01:37:38.940 –> 01:38:02.169
Daphne Luke: so fulfilling like you just said, you know, I’m so grateful that I have a job that I wake up. I get excited to go and do both my jobs, teaching Yoga and working at the rehab, working with alcoholics and watching them get well, really quickly, and watching them, the light bulb go on, and their lives improve in the lives of their kids and their families. And it’s it’s hugely rewarding.

830
01:38:04.640 –> 01:38:07.080
Nyk Danu Yoga: and and what a gift to have

831
01:38:07.470 –> 01:38:09.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: places like that rehab center

832
01:38:10.170 –> 01:38:18.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: where people can go because, one of the things that I always used to say, was so transformative, too, about studying with Paul Grilly at Lmb. Is that

833
01:38:18.710 –> 01:38:24.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: when you went there your the whole rest of your life was not there.

834
01:38:24.630 –> 01:38:29.839
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? You didn’t have to buy groceries. You didn’t have to cook. You didn’t have to clean. You didn’t have to do your laundry.

835
01:38:29.960 –> 01:38:42.759
Nyk Danu Yoga: You didn’t have to take care of the kids if you had kids. And so you were able to 100 focus on what you were doing. And it’s I would imagine, the same thing in a rehab center where it’s like you go. And you, your job is just

836
01:38:42.940 –> 01:38:49.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: let’s get you clean and sober like this is. This is what you’re doing while you’re here.

837
01:38:49.290 –> 01:38:54.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. I’m sure that there’s other things that they have to do while they’re there as well, but you know that that

838
01:38:54.270 –> 01:38:57.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: that ability to really focus in

839
01:38:57.795 –> 01:39:05.279
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, must be such a gift. I’m thinking about folks like you and friends that I have, that that are alcoholics that

840
01:39:06.210 –> 01:39:19.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know had to had to get sober and go to meetings while they were still lifting like, while all of the trauma of life was was still happening, and and how much harder that must be!

841
01:39:20.367 –> 01:39:31.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: Although I would imagine there’s that opposite effect to like when when we leave a a training at Lnb. And you then go back to even just the airport. It’s like, Oh, Oh, God!

842
01:39:31.497 –> 01:39:32.539
Daphne Luke: Here’s member, yeah.

843
01:39:32.540 –> 01:39:46.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s real life again. Holy crap! I haven’t been! I haven’t been dealing with like noise and people and all the things, and so I would imagine it’s similar when people leave rehab that it, you know. Now they go back into their life. But luckily there are meetings and sponsors and

844
01:39:46.640 –> 01:39:47.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: therapy.

845
01:39:47.170 –> 01:39:47.870
Daphne Luke: Yeah, so.

846
01:39:47.870 –> 01:39:48.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: Ongoing.

847
01:39:48.340 –> 01:39:49.439
Daphne Luke: So Lynn

848
01:39:49.590 –> 01:40:14.569
Daphne Luke: coming in with us. So it’s typically a 30 day program. And we’re like a big safety net. We catch them and we nurture them? Initially. It’s it’s all about, you know, just getting well physically the 1st week, and then start working on. You know, the spiritual and the mental side of it, and then, towards the end of their stay, we are prepared. Well, actually, the whole time they’re with us. We’re preparing them to get back out into

849
01:40:14.570 –> 01:40:29.189
Daphne Luke: society. But I mean, just like you said when we go away and train with Paul. How good is it just not to have to worry about driving the kids to school and homework and laundry and the the bills, and we can really jump out of our lives. And that’s a gift. And that’s

850
01:40:29.432 –> 01:40:41.067
Daphne Luke: you know, that’s that’s not easy for a lot of people to do like we touched on a lot of people can’t make trainings like that cause. How do you stop your life for 3 weeks, or a month, or even a week, like it’s? It’s really hard.

851
01:40:41.330 –> 01:40:55.499
Daphne Luke: But you know, at the end of the day. This is a fatal disease. It’s a serious, serious disease. It’s an incurable disease. But there are a lot of tools out there, but we can’t do it on our own. We need community, and the yoga was

852
01:40:55.760 –> 01:40:58.969
Daphne Luke: my my in Yoga practice. I’m

853
01:40:59.080 –> 01:41:16.699
Daphne Luke: I’m not even sure if I would have been able to get sober without the yin. And you know I also tell my my classes that as well. I really keep it in the moment I tell them to follow the breath I tell them to, even just listening to the sounds around them. I just wanna keep them present, because when you’re in that stillness. It can be like, you know.

854
01:41:16.700 –> 01:41:17.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: And it’s not the monkey.

855
01:41:17.670 –> 01:41:18.750
Daphne Luke: Mind

856
01:41:19.070 –> 01:41:32.879
Daphne Luke: that. That’s what a lot of people struggle with who 1st come to Yin, or when they 1st get sober, they no longer have that comfort of the numbing of the alcohol and their heads just going, you know, and I I can coach them through that with the in Yoga.

857
01:41:33.060 –> 01:41:34.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it is the.

858
01:41:35.120 –> 01:41:40.539
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. It is the opportunity to learn and begin to practice that skill of

859
01:41:40.630 –> 01:41:41.960
Nyk Danu Yoga: of witnessing

860
01:41:42.340 –> 01:41:46.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: and and knowing that this, this, this, too shall pass, this thought.

861
01:41:47.154 –> 01:41:51.289
Nyk Danu Yoga: this this sensation, this this will pass, that we can just like.

862
01:41:51.766 –> 01:41:58.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: stay with it, witness it, and you know and and be present to it. Yeah, such a gift? Yeah.

863
01:41:59.100 –> 01:42:02.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I think the reason that for for me that I I think

864
01:42:03.110 –> 01:42:07.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin is uniquely suited for that is because we’re not moving quickly.

865
01:42:07.990 –> 01:42:14.615
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I I don’t mind a good flow practice. I I kind of prefer half a flow to Vinyasa or Shanga, like a little slower, but

866
01:42:15.580 –> 01:42:27.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: I like to move my body or to do Qigong. You know I find those practices invigorating and energizing, but I’m not going to be diving deep into my inner landscape and witnessing my thoughts and my feelings while I’m practicing.

867
01:42:27.610 –> 01:42:28.000
Daphne Luke: Nice.

868
01:42:28.000 –> 01:42:35.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because I gotta think about like oh, right foot here, left arm there, but the you know, like there’s there’s so much proprioception.

869
01:42:35.680 –> 01:42:40.759
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know an awareness of where’s my body and space? And what is my body doing that it doesn’t

870
01:42:41.090 –> 01:42:56.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: allow you to do interception as well as yin where there’s relatively little adjustments, I mean, you come out of your rebound. You find your working position, you grab any props you need, and then you just settle in for time. And so it’s so much

871
01:42:57.100 –> 01:43:03.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: easier in a yin practice to really observe what is happening in your head and your heart and in your body

872
01:43:03.640 –> 01:43:06.539
Nyk Danu Yoga: when you have that time to just be there.

873
01:43:07.280 –> 01:43:17.837
Daphne Luke: And in Yoga is a full mind, body and spirit experience, and, like I said in recovery, we are sick mind, body, and spirit, and

874
01:43:18.380 –> 01:43:29.490
Daphne Luke: But you know Paul Grilli also says that yin yoga is not a complete form of exercise. It’s yin yoga, it’s not Yang and yin, it’s not. It’s not, you know. We need the to find the Tao, the balance. And

875
01:43:29.490 –> 01:43:53.210
Daphne Luke: yeah, you need to go out and do the the gym stuff when you need to walk, or do the Chigong, or do the Vinyasa, or whatever it is. But Yin is definitely an integral tool for all of us. I mean. You know, I’ve always. I always say things like, if if everyone did yin yoga, we probably wouldn’t need so many hospitals. We the jails wouldn’t be so busy, you know. It’s such a full.

876
01:43:53.595 –> 01:43:58.629
Daphne Luke: you know. It’s it’s such a full experience. It it cures so many things which.

877
01:43:58.740 –> 01:44:12.420
Daphne Luke: if you’re doing, you know any kind of other exercise. It doesn’t get that that introspection. We also need to dive in recovery, I mean, that’s all I can really speak from, and we need to look inwards. We need to find

878
01:44:12.420 –> 01:44:33.910
Daphne Luke: what’s tripping us up in our lives. What’s what? Are we scared of? Fear literally guides our every action, reaction and inaction. And that’s mostly subconscious, like, you say, why do I keep reacting like that all my life? Because usually there’s a there’s a fear subconscious in there somewhere, driving that. So you know, we need to look inwards. We need.

879
01:44:33.910 –> 01:44:39.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s unearthing, unearthing the subconscious into the conscious to be able to be like.

880
01:44:39.580 –> 01:44:41.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, I.

881
01:44:41.010 –> 01:44:41.719
Daphne Luke: See what I’m doing.

882
01:44:41.720 –> 01:44:43.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: And here. Yes, yeah.

883
01:44:43.410 –> 01:44:47.949
Daphne Luke: I remember Paul Grilliga. Do you remember the iceberg analogy?

884
01:44:48.190 –> 01:45:13.169
Daphne Luke: So if you have, imagine an ice, yeah, imagine you have an iceberg, and you’ve got the surface of the water here, and all we see is just the tip of the iceberg, and below the surface is this huge mass of of the same iceberg, and the surface of the water is our consciousness. So all we’re really aware of on a day to day basis is what we see up here the tip of the iceberg. But all of this below the surface of the water is our subconscious, which is

885
01:45:13.350 –> 01:45:29.231
Daphne Luke: guiding our every action reaction in action, and it’s everything we’ve ever done, said, seen, experienced in our lives is all there, and that’s still very much a part of our you know it interchanges with our consciousness all the time.

886
01:45:29.947 –> 01:45:49.190
Daphne Luke: We need to dive deep into that with a meditation practice or a yin practice or a you know, a deep 12 step therapy practice, or something like that, to understand truly understand ourselves. And that’s where, for a lot of people who that’s foreign to, or don’t understand that kind of a process.

887
01:45:49.190 –> 01:45:51.580
Daphne Luke: Yin Yoga is a gateway to that.

888
01:45:51.580 –> 01:45:52.210
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

889
01:45:52.420 –> 01:46:01.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I I it’s funny that you said that yin’s a gateway to meditation, because I I always say the same. It’s like people don’t think they can meditate.

890
01:46:01.230 –> 01:46:10.006
Nyk Danu Yoga: but then they just spent 5 min doing it in that pose, you know, and I think that’s because people have such a gross misunderstanding of like what meditation is so.

891
01:46:10.290 –> 01:46:10.870
Daphne Luke: Well, that’s like.

892
01:46:10.870 –> 01:46:11.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: Harder.

893
01:46:12.170 –> 01:46:12.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

894
01:46:12.620 –> 01:46:13.000
Daphne Luke: Yes.

895
01:46:13.000 –> 01:46:21.948
Nyk Danu Yoga: Or they think they’re gonna sit down and do some ancient mudra. And suddenly they’re gonna their mind will be clear and they will stop thinking, and it’s like, no, that’s not really what we’re working with here.

896
01:46:22.420 –> 01:46:29.615
Daphne Luke: People say to me, I can’t meditate because I clear, can’t. I can’t clear my mind, I said, well, I’m not. I can’t do that, either. But that’s not what meditation is.

897
01:46:29.840 –> 01:46:39.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s like, this is the biggest misconception is that you’re supposed to sit in some, you know fancy position. And suddenly your mind will be clear, and you will achieve bliss. And it’s like.

898
01:46:39.620 –> 01:46:44.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: No, actually, what most of us are dealing with is oh, there’s a thought again.

899
01:46:44.960 –> 01:46:48.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, there we go again, you know. Yeah. And then coming back.

900
01:46:49.130 –> 01:46:53.700
Daphne Luke: I kind of just I I kind of describe it as the puffy clouds on a summer day, so.

901
01:46:53.700 –> 01:46:54.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, the.

902
01:46:54.160 –> 01:47:09.520
Daphne Luke: In my classes as well, I’ll say, imagine so, I said. Just imagine, you’re looking at puffy clouds. The thoughts are like clouds, you know you look at the clouds on the summer day. Yeah, they let them pass. Let them go welcoming the next ones have a look. Let them.

903
01:47:09.520 –> 01:47:11.279
Nyk Danu Yoga: I use the exact same analogy.

904
01:47:11.280 –> 01:47:13.070
Daphne Luke: Yeah. Oh, do you? Okay.

905
01:47:13.070 –> 01:47:14.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I call it big sky aware.

906
01:47:14.410 –> 01:47:15.439
Daphne Luke: Mobile Zoom.

907
01:47:15.440 –> 01:47:15.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

908
01:47:15.950 –> 01:47:16.700
Daphne Luke: So I like that.

909
01:47:16.700 –> 01:47:17.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

910
01:47:17.160 –> 01:47:17.740
Daphne Luke: That.

911
01:47:17.740 –> 01:47:31.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because because I find that there is a point not always for every student and not in every class where they don’t need to use a more concentrated technique anymore to bring their mind back, because they have created that kind of what I call big sky awareness, where I’ve always say, you know

912
01:47:31.220 –> 01:47:33.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re laying in the summer field.

913
01:47:33.610 –> 01:47:46.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: You see the clouds. You’re aware of the clouds as they move by, but you’re not making animal shapes and telling stories about each cloud. You know, you’re just like the cloud is there, and it’s gone. And oh, there’s another cloud, and it’s now floating by.

914
01:47:46.830 –> 01:47:47.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

915
01:47:47.460 –> 01:48:16.430
Daphne Luke: And I tell them they’re not to react or process what thoughts come up. In fact, I have. I have an acronym sore SOAR, and I’ll often start my yin yoga classes with that. So I’ll say S is for surrender to surrender to the breath. Just follow the inhale and the exhale, and that starts to get them grounded. And then, I’ll say, observe the physical body. It might be anything like the pressure with your body against the floor, the clothes around you, or a breeze on the skin.

916
01:48:16.430 –> 01:48:30.750
Daphne Luke: and then I’ll say allow thoughts and feelings to come and go, or emotions without judgment or process, and then I’ll say the R’s for release. Just let go of all efforts. Surrender to gravity. Arriving on your mat in the present moment.

917
01:48:30.750 –> 01:48:31.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: A of.

918
01:48:31.260 –> 01:48:31.820
Daphne Luke: And that.

919
01:48:32.080 –> 01:48:32.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: I love it.

920
01:48:33.280 –> 01:48:40.490
Daphne Luke: Soar. So yeah, I’ve I’ve got that on my social media, actually. But I I start most of my classes like that with soar.

921
01:48:40.700 –> 01:48:44.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: I start mine with guided mindfulness while they’re in constructive rest.

922
01:48:44.820 –> 01:48:45.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

923
01:48:45.350 –> 01:48:45.980
Daphne Luke: Cool.

924
01:48:45.980 –> 01:48:48.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah, I I really

925
01:48:49.012 –> 01:48:51.277
Nyk Danu Yoga: if there’s new teachers listening.

926
01:48:52.920 –> 01:49:03.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think it takes time. But crafting a unique what I call bookends for your classes, like your signature thing that you open class with, and then.

927
01:49:03.490 –> 01:49:26.092
Nyk Danu Yoga: What you do at the end. Any teacher I know that’s been teaching for a long time will will say that you know it took them some time, and they, you know, over the years of teaching that they came up with this this bookend at the beginning of of what they do, and and why they do it, and how conscious and methodical that is, and then, of course, how they finish as well. And

928
01:49:27.050 –> 01:49:34.259
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would encourage any teacher who doesn’t have that like. If you just putting people in child’s pose for 3 breaths and then starting practice to really

929
01:49:34.480 –> 01:49:41.279
Nyk Danu Yoga: create something, cultivate something that, you know, sets the stage, and I’m actually much more

930
01:49:42.306 –> 01:50:07.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: focused on that than like theming my classes like, I would much rather have that solid nervous system. Here’s how we’re dealing with the mind. Sort of bookend, and then for at the end, for me is always is always gratitude and acknowledging that our practice doesn’t just affect us. So, having those bookends to me far more important than some sort of fancy theme that might fit with

931
01:50:07.890 –> 01:50:10.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: current events, or the day of the week, or whatever.

932
01:50:10.740 –> 01:50:11.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

933
01:50:11.700 –> 01:50:20.426
Daphne Luke: I’ll always end with gratitude. That’s a really big part of recovery, too, is focusing on what we have instead of. Because if you’re not focus. If you know, if you’re focusing on what you don’t have you?

934
01:50:20.810 –> 01:50:40.750
Daphne Luke: Then you know, all sorts of desires come into it and stuff. But yeah, I was focusing every day on on the gratitude of even even small things like there’s some weeds outside my door, but they’re producing flowers, and they’re beautiful you know it can be can be anything. What’s I gonna say? Oh, yeah. And the the biggest piece of advice I give to new teachers as well is just be yourself.

935
01:50:40.840 –> 01:50:41.866
Daphne Luke: you know.

936
01:50:42.380 –> 01:50:42.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: On being.

937
01:50:42.730 –> 01:50:43.139
Daphne Luke: I tell.

938
01:50:43.140 –> 01:50:44.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: Be you.

939
01:50:44.640 –> 01:51:09.169
Daphne Luke: Yeah, everyone else is taken. Just be you. I tell terrible jokes in my class. I have this hideous cackle, and they all love it, and you know, and I’ll I’m really silly. And and you know, if if you want someone who’s gonna be really super serious and has a really quiet voice, cause I get this like really loud cackle and loud voice in my class, if you want someone who’s soft. But there’s other classes out there. But I’m just gonna be me.

940
01:51:09.410 –> 01:51:10.380
Daphne Luke: you know.

941
01:51:10.500 –> 01:51:26.629
Daphne Luke: that’s all you can be. So I you know, I remember I went to someone else’s class. Lovely teacher lots of training. And soon as she stepped up to teach, she said, Okay, and now, coming to Triponasana, and I’m like what the.

942
01:51:27.320 –> 01:51:27.919
Nyk Danu Yoga: Who are you?

943
01:51:27.920 –> 01:51:29.989
Daphne Luke: Yeah, yeah, where it’s like, they said.

944
01:51:29.990 –> 01:51:43.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: Definitely are so disconnected from who they are as a person. Once they step on the mat, it’s it’s a big mistake. Yeah. The Yoga, teacher. Voice comes in, and all of their like really woo woo analogies, and it’s like, Oh, just

945
01:51:43.710 –> 01:51:49.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: speak about your own life, your own path, your own Ahas, your own. Yeah.

946
01:51:49.620 –> 01:51:50.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think.

947
01:51:51.630 –> 01:51:54.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe we’ll start to to wrap it up a little bit.

948
01:51:55.360 –> 01:52:02.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I like to do this with some kind of rapid fire questions. Some are fun, some are soulful.

949
01:52:02.440 –> 01:52:03.090
Daphne Luke: Okay, and.

950
01:52:03.090 –> 01:52:09.039
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, and then we’ll do. We’ll you’ll have an opportunity. We’ll talk a little bit about where people can find you and work with you and all that stuff.

951
01:52:09.577 –> 01:52:12.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: So the 1st one is coffee or tea.

952
01:52:13.240 –> 01:52:15.030
Daphne Luke: Yeah, coffee.

953
01:52:15.030 –> 01:52:15.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: Awesome.

954
01:52:17.260 –> 01:52:17.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: your favorite.

955
01:52:17.910 –> 01:52:19.090
Daphne Luke: Ice cream, probably.

956
01:52:19.280 –> 01:52:21.470
Daphne Luke: Oh, coffee!

957
01:52:21.470 –> 01:52:24.334
Nyk Danu Yoga: Coffee, ice cream, too awesome.

958
01:52:25.760 –> 01:52:28.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: one thing. People often get wrong about me.

959
01:52:29.530 –> 01:52:30.350
Daphne Luke: Oh.

960
01:52:32.104 –> 01:52:34.160
Daphne Luke: that’s a good question.

961
01:52:34.470 –> 01:52:38.109
Daphne Luke: I think there’s a lot of things people don’t know about me like

962
01:52:39.440 –> 01:52:50.756
Daphne Luke: I have my motorcycle license, and I used to own a Harley to drive a Harley. So I think that they get wrong, that I’m this like typical and I’m an alcoholic, you know. I mean they get. They think I’m this

963
01:52:51.280 –> 01:53:03.686
Daphne Luke: demure vegetarian soft spoken yoga teacher. But actually I ride motorcycles, and I’ve got a hideous laugh and I’m a recovered alcoholic. So there you go.

964
01:53:04.540 –> 01:53:05.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: Awesome.

965
01:53:05.922 –> 01:53:12.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: Do you have a pop culture vice like a show? You binge, or a movie series, or something that you’re obsessed with.

966
01:53:14.040 –> 01:53:15.440
Daphne Luke: Oh!

967
01:53:16.250 –> 01:53:18.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: Or a book series, for that matter.

968
01:53:21.468 –> 01:53:24.340
Daphne Luke: My favorite book ever is of Avalon. Marion’s.

969
01:53:24.340 –> 01:53:24.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh!

970
01:53:24.810 –> 01:53:25.670
Daphne Luke: They needed.

971
01:53:26.010 –> 01:53:27.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: Good fuck.

972
01:53:28.609 –> 01:53:35.090
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think I might know part of the answer to this question, but we’ll do it anyways. When I’m not practicing yoga, I am.

973
01:53:36.400 –> 01:53:38.696
Daphne Luke: Working, working, and working.

974
01:53:39.270 –> 01:53:40.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, or you’re like.

975
01:53:40.370 –> 01:53:41.440
Daphne Luke: A meeting.

976
01:53:41.440 –> 01:53:44.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: Working on my sobriety and working. Yes, exactly.

977
01:53:44.020 –> 01:53:54.109
Daphne Luke: Helping others walking. My dog! I’m spending time with my 16 year old son, and doing Diy a little bit of gardening. But who really has time for much more than working, really.

978
01:53:58.460 –> 01:54:00.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: one weird fact about you

979
01:54:01.780 –> 01:54:03.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: other than the Harley.

980
01:54:04.663 –> 01:54:07.999
Nyk Danu Yoga: laugh, thing, it’s gotta be something where you’re just like

981
01:54:08.100 –> 01:54:10.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: people are always, really think. This is weird.

982
01:54:12.180 –> 01:54:14.170
Daphne Luke: I,

983
01:54:14.190 –> 01:54:16.906
Daphne Luke: what is that weird thing?

984
01:54:18.300 –> 01:54:23.099
Daphne Luke: I don’t know. I I sleep with my pug under the covers. I don’t know.

985
01:54:23.100 –> 01:54:23.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: If that works.

986
01:54:23.800 –> 01:54:24.632
Daphne Luke: I don’t know.

987
01:54:24.910 –> 01:54:27.799
Nyk Danu Yoga: Mine was. I ate a ridiculous amount of pickles.

988
01:54:28.930 –> 01:54:29.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, I know.

989
01:54:29.710 –> 01:54:30.500
Daphne Luke: So one.

990
01:54:30.500 –> 01:54:31.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

991
01:54:31.760 –> 01:54:33.850
Daphne Luke: I have a v 8 car

992
01:54:34.220 –> 01:54:36.470
Daphne Luke: again. I’m not the pigeon hole.

993
01:54:36.860 –> 01:54:37.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: Nice

994
01:54:41.310 –> 01:54:43.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: What the world needs now is.

995
01:54:45.580 –> 01:54:50.599
Daphne Luke: Compassion, empathy, community.

996
01:54:51.350 –> 01:54:51.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Nice.

997
01:54:51.870 –> 01:54:53.340
Daphne Luke: And presence.

998
01:54:53.850 –> 01:54:54.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: Beautiful.

999
01:54:55.290 –> 01:54:58.189
Nyk Danu Yoga: One thing I wish people knew about yin yoga.

1000
01:55:01.620 –> 01:55:02.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know.

1001
01:55:02.000 –> 01:55:03.940
Daphne Luke: Just just think of one!

1002
01:55:03.940 –> 01:55:05.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: No, it’s hard to pick one.

1003
01:55:06.260 –> 01:55:13.240
Daphne Luke: How life changing it is and how it’s not just Yoga. It’s a full mind, body, spirit, experience.

1004
01:55:13.840 –> 01:55:19.201
Daphne Luke: And it’s for everyone. You know I I have a class I teach every Sunday, and I’ve got

1005
01:55:19.690 –> 01:55:24.871
Daphne Luke: sometimes kids as young as sort of 9, 8 can come. I’ve got

1006
01:55:25.460 –> 01:55:49.279
Daphne Luke: one person over 90 who comes. I’ve got people who come who can, you know, with a with a walking a Zimmer frame thing frame. They can barely lower themselves down on the ground. I’ve got athletes that come. I’ve got mothers people with fuse, spine, hip replacements, and new knees, all that, and they can all practice together in the same class. How amazing is that.

1007
01:55:49.470 –> 01:55:50.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s amazing. Yes.

1008
01:55:50.980 –> 01:55:59.510
Daphne Luke: And it’s so inclusive. And people people say to me, I’m not flexible. I can’t do yoga, I can’t do yoga, for this reason is that everyone can do in Yoga.

1009
01:55:59.510 –> 01:56:00.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

1010
01:56:03.220 –> 01:56:08.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: is there anything that else that I forgot to ask you about, that you would like to add.

1011
01:56:10.462 –> 01:56:20.090
Daphne Luke: I can’t really think of anything. I do live in New Zealand, and I work at Keystone Lodge, and if anyone you know if anyone listening is

1012
01:56:20.830 –> 01:56:49.609
Daphne Luke: potentially having problems with alcohol or know someone reach out to me. DM, me, my socials are yin yoga and zed on Instagram and Facebook. I’d love to hear from you. You know I’m always my. My phone is always on for those suffering. And I I light a candle often for those still suffering alcoholics. Yeah. And my classes are in North Auckland. If you want to ever come and see me in person. But send me a message anytime.

1013
01:56:50.230 –> 01:56:57.820
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, you mentioned that you don’t. You don’t have a website? And but you do still offer a Yin training. You said once a year. Is that right?

1014
01:56:58.260 –> 01:57:18.040
Daphne Luke: Yes, so that is in North Auckland, New Zealand, and that’s I hold it every march. So again I put. I usually start advertising about 6 months ahead of time on my social media. Or again, you can personal message me through yin Yoga and Z. And yeah, come on the waiting list, or go on the the mailing list and.

1015
01:57:18.040 –> 01:57:24.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah. So they can just find you on Instagram and reach out and give you their email and say, let me know when the training is live.

1016
01:57:25.040 –> 01:57:29.550
Daphne Luke: And people often ask if it’s online. I don’t do online trainings in person.

1017
01:57:29.860 –> 01:57:31.162
Nyk Danu Yoga: Good to know, good to know.

1018
01:57:31.460 –> 01:57:41.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I would imagine that people travel in for it as well like, even if they don’t live right right where the training is that people can, you know, if they live in New Zealand they can commute in and

1019
01:57:41.690 –> 01:57:44.899
Nyk Danu Yoga: get an get an Airbnb or something, and and do it that way.