Yin Yoga is Uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi, Jenny’s and welcome

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re new around here. Welcome to a yana yoga, podcast. Wear yourself a cup of tea, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: get your headphones ready for a walk, or whatever it is that you do a drive, maybe for your your listening and for those of you that are familiars welcome back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So today I wanted to talk about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the concept of being uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a yin practice for our own practice, but also as a teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And how that’s actually a key

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to growth.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also not something to be avoided.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we’ll get into that in just a few moments. But before I do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wanted to read a little.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not really a podcast. Review, more of a comment from a Facebook group.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is by Brittany. Laura. Thank you. Brittany.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In the Facebook group. Somebody had asked about yin Yoga books. And she says.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I found a Yin Yoga podcast with Nick Danu, incredibly informative. I learned more from listening to her podcast than I learned in my 1st Yin Yoga training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is awesome. Thank you, Brittany, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that makes my heart happy because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the primary reason for putting this podcast out was to be of service to teachers. I’m sure there are some of you that are not teachers. Listening. Well, you are also welcome here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But yeah, I wanted really this to be a resource

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for either new teachers that are considering yin training or teachers that are new and have yin training or even experienced teachers. There’s probably been. I know there’s been because I’ve heard

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Nyk Danu Yoga: lots of food for thought, even from experienced teachers about Yin when they listen to certain episodes. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: thank you for that feedback.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are not new around here, if you’ve been here for a little while I would be super grateful. 1st of all, if you haven’t followed or subscribed to the pod.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What you waiting for.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: take a moment to do that whether you’re on apple or spotify, or wherever you listen.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This really helps the show.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The more you know, sort of followers and subscribes. We have, the more that apple or spotify, or whoever is gonna like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: push this out in the search.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’ve already followed and subscribed. Thank you very much. If you would be willing to leave us a 5 star rating.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or a written review, or both, on apple that would be great on the spotify.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can only do stars, but on apple you can do stars, or you can do a written review.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would be super grateful for that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you’re thinking right now, Nick, I’ve already done all the things I have already offered a review I have already subscribed.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and there’s 2 other little things that you could do that would be helpful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One is to take a screenshot of this and share it in the socials.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you could tag me at Nick, Danuyoga, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yoga podcast at Yin Yoga Podcast so I could share the love. So, taking a screenshot of the episode, sharing that in your Instagram stories

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that would be awesome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or just share it with the teacher. Friend, you know, if you’ve got a colleague or a friend

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you think would resonate, send them an episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The more the podcast grows, the better able I am to keep going with the podcast and to serve you, the listener.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the other thing to mention is that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: did you know, dear listener.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I take requests?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I do just like a Dj

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so if you have a yin yoga question or a yin Yoga topic idea

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you would love me to cover. Please reach out to me in the Dms on Instagram and let me know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or if you are watching this on Youtube, you can leave it in the comments, if you’re on spotify. There’s comments now, too, so you can leave me show ideas in the comments.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re an apple, just find me on Instagram and send me a DM. With what is your question or topic idea that you would like me to cover.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now to be clear, I’m not asking for guest recommendations. This is an invitation only podcast at this point.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I am asking for subject matter, and if the subject matter that you

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Nyk Danu Yoga: offer is not something that I can speak to, if it’s beyond my scope of experience, understanding education, I will find a guest, and I will bring them on.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The final thing to remind you about before we dive in

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I have the soul of a mermaid and the mouth of a sailor. So if you have small people around

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Nyk Danu Yoga: grab, some headphones. Now, these podcasts are adult language and adult subject matter.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: let’s talk about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First, st I want to split some hairs here, so you’ll often hear in yin circles that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin yoga that there is discomfort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m going to just say the reason that I don’t use the word discomfort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and this may sound like nitpicky, but words are really important to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The reason I don’t use the word discomfort is because I feel like most of my students.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: don’t actually know the difference between discomfort and pain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re really unclear on where that boundary is between discomfort and pain. So I don’t want to tell my students that experiencing discomfort in their yin practice is normal.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If they think that discomfort and pain same same z right then that’s not skillful, because no, they shouldn’t be in pain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is why I tend to use the word

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Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: instead of discomfort. Because most people

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Nyk Danu Yoga: aren’t going to confuse being uncomfortable with pain. Right? So that’s that’s why I do that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So just to split some hairs. The reason that I prefer uncomfortable is just because it’s less likely to be confused with pain than the word discomfort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But we could just say that one is a slightly less formal way of expressing the same thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you do not know this already.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yoga can be pretty freaking, uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Why is it so uncomfortable? Let’s go for the why first, st

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we can talk a little bit about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the rest.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in our very busy culture, right? And a culture that most of you listening live in, probably some version of a capitalist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: society, even if you’re in Europe, you’re in some sort of a hybrid situation there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where productivity is valued. And yes, I get that in Europe you actually have your priorities straight

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Canada. Here we’re not as go go go as they are in the States, either, like we. We know how to take a little more of a chill pill, too, even more so in the Europe. But still

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we are to some extent busy. Right? We’re working. We’re doing all the things you know those of you that maybe have families. You may even have aging parents. You may have both at the same time, and you have careers, and then you have

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hobbies and all this stuff. Right? So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a in a world where we are always in our young element.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: go, go, go, go, push, push, push, busy, busy, busy, busy. Don’t rest until you get sick.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m sure this sounds familiar.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then when we do take some time, maybe we go to a yoga class, or we hop on our mat at home

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to do a yin yoga practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we’re not go go going.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we’re not rushing, and we’re not busying ourselves

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when we’re just still

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and quiet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then that can be pretty uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: anytime. We have a new experience or an unfamiliar experience.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s going to be uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? Let’s just say I go to a restaurant, and I try a kind of food

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I’ve never tried before.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, I’ll probably try it for sure, but I also will have a little bit of being uncomfortable like not in ordering, knowing what to order from the menu. And will. I like this, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, Will, I consider this a waste of money afterwards. You know there’s going to be some sort of uncomfortableness with trying out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a brand new restaurant and a brand new kind of food

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Nyk Danu Yoga: any time in our career

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where we’re kind of going to take things to another level.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s always that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that bridge of uncomfortable from where we are now, to where we want to go.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In our relationships especially, I’ll speak of romantic relationships. There’s that point in dating where you’re like, okay, we’re just kind of hanging out spending quality time. But now we want to get over here to commitment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, guess what’s in between those 2

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so we cannot avoid being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Being uncomfortable leads to growth. It leads to experience, and it leads to us sort of evolving and growing as a human being.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so it’s impossible to not be uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is just life right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sometimes the Buddha is quoted as saying, life is suffering, but actually suffering is probably not the best word

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Nyk Danu Yoga: softening that to in life there is suffering, or I’ve heard a lot of scholars say that in life there is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? There’s discomfort. Of course there’s pain as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And suffering, but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable is a part of life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, because most of us are not very comfortable with being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we tend to use kind of coping mechanisms

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not have to sit in being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: coping mechanisms like addictions. Right? Whether that’s.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, drug addiction, alcohol, shopping, workaholism, sex addiction.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: etc. Etc. Right? Using a TV, social media, anything can become an addiction.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you know, we sit, we sit still and quiet, we get uncomfortable, so we immediately try to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: soothe ourselves

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with something

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Nyk Danu Yoga: else, so that we don’t have to be uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: could be as simple as staying busy all the time, never having quiet in your house cell phones.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s a big one. Most of us have some sort of an addiction now to our cell phones, and they’re actually designed that way. They’re designed to give you those little dopamine hits, so that you keep coming back for more. By the way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this was not accidental.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So even our cell phone, you know, checking social media or checking our email one more time, or just kind of noodling around on our phone and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and scrolling right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: These are just some of the many things that we use in our culture to avoid

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Nyk Danu Yoga: still and quiet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because what can come up with still and quiet

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we are not comfortable, being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes this discomfort or uncomfortableness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is just boredom.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? It’s just. I’m not used to being still in quiet. I’m used to always having something going noise, talking, you know, doing things unless I’m sleeping

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Nyk Danu Yoga: even then. Sometimes people are listening to things, or, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: got stuff going on in their sleep. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we’re not used to it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when it happens sometimes the uncomfortableness is just boredom right? And I see this a lot in class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I see it a lot, especially with a certain kind of student that really loves like the fancy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sequence. Vinyasa classes like they’re really like the like, moving quite quickly. They like to have like a different sequence each time, and, like, you know, almost more like a choreographed dance for that kind of student that really loves that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Ian’s gonna be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pretty boring.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of course it’s not actually boring. Talk more about that in a moment. It’s just a perspective shift.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if you’re used to your yoga class being entertaining, then laying around on the floor for minutes at a time, might feel kind of boring.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re used to moving fast. It might be kind of boring.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re used to, the sequence being different each time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you might find Ian kind of boring.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that’s just boredom that can come up for sure. That’s 1 of the things under the umbrella of uncomfortable that can happen in a yin class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Other things can be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: people not being comfortable, noticing sensations in their body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We’re very sort of head-driven culture. We’re not very embodied.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes for students to even start to begin to drop into their body

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is uncomfortable because they’re like I but I don’t feel my breath in my belly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Am I doing something wrong? Do I not breathe

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Nyk Danu Yoga: way everybody else does when the teacher’s talking about diaphragmatic breathing and noticing the rise in the fall of the belly? I can’t really notice that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so sometimes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, not being not having an awareness of what is happening inside of you when you’re being sort of cued or led that way that could be really uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes, just especially for those real, a type kind of recovering perfectionist folks sometimes actually just taking time out of your day and giving yourself permission to rest, is really uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then there’s, of course, the mental and emotional realm right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We don’t often think about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how often we think

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some people we don’t realize that. Oh, my gosh! There is constantly a circus or a soap opera going on in my head.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I don’t realize it, because in my day to day life

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m just, you know, busy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I don’t hear or witness that chatter that’s constantly happening in my noggin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, when I come to a yin class where it’s kind of still and quiet, I’m like, oh, my God!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Is my brain always this noisy and that can be uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially if you think that the point of the practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is to not think

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right if you fall under this misconception.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it is a misconception, by the way, that a meditation practice is designed to make you stop thinking.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then, of course, you’re going to be super uncomfortable when you go to a class, and you’re trying to focus your mind, and you can’t focus your mind. And it’s all over the place.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it’s zipping all over, and it’s like a circus or a soap opera in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Of course, that’s going to be uncomfortable. It’s going to be uncomfortable, even if you know

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Nyk Danu Yoga: more about meditation. But if you think that meditation practice and Yoga practice is designed to create a mind that is like empty and void of thoughts. Well, then, yeah, that’s pretty uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not, by the way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: instead, what we’re doing is we’re just redirecting our thoughts to something.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: either an anchor. If you’re doing a concentration technique, or if you’re doing mindfulness, then you’re redirecting your thoughts back to the present moment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But it’s we’re not trying to like vacate the mind. In fact, the best way to think is to try, not to think, have fun with that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that can be uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Just the fact that we’re sitting quietly and suddenly, keenly aware

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of what the heck is going on in our brain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and how much is going on in our brain, and how noisy our brain is, and how it’s talking all the time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We may not have even been aware of that until we take still and quiet time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know I I have a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: an acquaintance that I know and she wrote a blog post a long time ago, which I cannot link because it’s long deleted. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she was a regular meditator, like years of meditation. Practice multiple, you know, kind of 7, 1014 day retreats so like seasoned meditator.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she knew already

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that her mind is busy. That stuff is always going on in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what she wasn’t prepared for was when she did her 1st yin practice because she had typically done other styles of yoga that were more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: quick moving. And you know, Flowy, and you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or she wouldn’t be kind of still and quiet for as long.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so the 1st time she did a yin practice, I remember her saying to me like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: holy fuck, is my mind always this busy?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So even somebody who was a seasoned meditator who’d been meditating for years and knew on some level her mind is busy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was not prepared for how busy it was when she was doing her yin practice, and how challenging that was, even though she had a good meditation practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sometimes it’s just that like we didn’t realize before we show up for that class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that the mind is so crazy all the time. There’s so much going on in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Very little of it useful, too.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I can’t remember what the statistic is, but there’s something some statistic out there that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know your mind is is going over the same, you know, handful of thoughts over and over and over. It’s not like our mind is that busy and we’ve suddenly solved world hunger. Or you know, we’ve finally realized how we can get everybody to know that. Actually, we’re all one, and war is unnecessary. It’s not like. That’s what our mind is doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If that’s what your mind is doing. You have permission to think in my in class. If you come up with those solutions.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then just let your mind go run amok. Don’t think about it, don’t you know?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Don’t try to rein it in. Don’t use any techniques if it’s solving big world problems. Please feel free. But that’s not what most of us got going on in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s the thinking and planning and list writing and remembering and worrying and future tripping and obsessing and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: all that right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sometimes the uncomfortableness is boredom.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes the uncomfortableness is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: oh, my gosh! I gotta sit here, for, you know 60, 75 90 min whatever, and deal with this brain of mine that I didn’t realize was actually completely rebellious and out of control.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Sometimes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s also physical

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Nyk Danu Yoga: physically being uncomfortable, like feeling a sensation of stretch

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or compression.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, for like minutes at a time. If that’s new to you that can be pretty uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now, it shouldn’t be painful, but it can be uncomfortable. Be like, oh.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: here I am. There’s my hamstring again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and sometimes this being uncomfortable can be something that’s, you know, a bit bigger and a bit deeper and a little bit not so easy to deal with or talk about. It might be trauma.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? So sometimes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: our students or ourselves. Maybe when we get into a still, quiet practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that can kind of activate some.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know. Ptsd, for some folks.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that can happen.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s a a certain percentage of the population, I know, because I work a lot with people with anxiety, who

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at least think that they need to be really, really active physically, when they’re feeling very anxious. There’s this sort of phonetic energy, and so settling and being still is like they can’t even do it right. And there are ways to do it. We just gotta we gotta burn some of that out first.st And I don’t mean like we have to do a big vinyasa flow. There’s some simple simple.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, kind of tapping, shaking, you know, humming. There’s lots of way better ways

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to move and groove, and and, you know, kind of get that movement in before you settle into stillness. Then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: cranking out a heavy duty, flow class right before yin. So there’s all kinds of other ways.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But sometimes, if people don’t know that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or if they don’t know that actually, anxiety is kind of a normal part of the practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just because you’re in a yoga room, doesn’t mean you’re suddenly not going to be anxious. If you were anxious before you came. If you tend to struggle with anxiety, then you’re also going to be anxious when you’re in the class. Now, luckily and hopefully, there’s a skilled teacher that can kind of help create a container of brave space for you to either

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Nyk Danu Yoga: let some of that go get into your parasympathetic, nervous system, or observe it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and understand that. You know it is just part of what is right now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sometimes anxiety can be a big one. Trauma can be a big one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So these are all of the many, many, and I’m sure I’m missing some ways that we can be uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a yin class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ve already talked a little bit about just being uncomfortable in our lives right like anytime. We’re

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Nyk Danu Yoga: about to do something new right before growth

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is that ledge of uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If we back away from the uncomfortable, we never grow.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we never change, we never expand our minds and our thoughts and our ideas and our life. We get stuck, we get stagnant.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We don’t want our our lives or our body, or our Chi to be stagnant. We want it to have that free, smooth flow

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which might mean we have to be a little uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is just, you know, kind of if you’re a student listening, or if you’re a teacher. Maybe in your own practice you’ve experienced some of this sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: discomfort, or in your life, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, I

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Nyk Danu Yoga: experience lots of uncomfortableness in my daily life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Starting this podcast initially, was uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because not only did it mean there was a learning curve like, how the hell do I make this microphone work with my computer? How do I edit this? Where do I put it online? How do I make it? So it just shows up in people’s players like none of this was something I knew

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Nyk Danu Yoga: none of it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know the the worry about, you know. Maybe eventually running out of topic ideas like all of this was there when I wanted to start this. Podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and yet I knew that on the other side of that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was the growth.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? I’ve gotten a chance to connect with so many more of you, and to share so much more knowledge and information

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that never would have happened

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if I didn’t allow myself to feel that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: moment. Moment, days, weeks, whatever it was, of being uncomfortable and sit with it and go. Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m feeling some fear come up. I’m feeling some being uncomfortable. There’s a little late, maybe nervousness, not quite anxiety, but like nervousness about this, and all of that feels uncomfortable if I would have stopped there and been like, Oh, it’s uncomfortable. Okay, forget it. No, no, podcast.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we wouldn’t be here right now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if I hadn’t.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When teachers way back in the day, about 10 years into me teaching. So at the time of this recording, just over 10 years ago.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if I hadn’t been willing to step up when teachers came to me and said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You seem to really kind of have your shit figured out with this yen Yoga business. You know. Do you have a training?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If I hadn’t been like, huh!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s an interesting new challenge for me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When did I go from, you know, being a brand new teacher to teachers wanting to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: train under me. When did that happen?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If I had just gone with my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortableness of like? Can I do that? How could I do that? What would I put in? What would I leave out? You know I wasn’t willing to do all of that uncomfortableness.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t have my yin training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t have trained.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know how many teachers now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Yen.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t be doing mentorship with teachers if I wasn’t willing to 1st receive that information, feel that feel being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and notice it and observe it and go.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay. I’m feeling uncomfortable. Feeling nervous about this. This is unfamiliar. This is something that hadn’t occurred to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’m going to sit with it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m just going to let it be uncomfortable until it’s not anymore. And until I decide what I’m going to do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so one of the best gifts that my meditation practice has given me more so than movement forms of Yoga I would include Yin in this category of meditation as well

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is the ability to witness my mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Before I started meditating, I had no idea what my mind was doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: My mind was just running amok.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I’m not saying my mind doesn’t run amok. It still does. But the difference is now I can step back, and I can observe it, and I can go.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Look at that little circus going on in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Look at that circus. Look at that, you know, soap opera going on in my head. Here I am writing lists, worrying, analyzing, thinking, planning, obsessing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the biggest gift of my practice has been

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Nyk Danu Yoga: giving myself the ability to pause and to witness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: those uncomfortable moments, instead of jumping over them, shrinking back to get away from them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or distracting myself from them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when we distract ourselves all the time from our discomfort, then that’s, of course, going to show up in our Yoga practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If we’re every time we’re uncomfortable, we’re on our phone. We’re, you know, watching Netflix. We’re eating

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Nyk Danu Yoga: food where whatever it is, whatever you use to kind of like, you know whether it’s scrolling or feeding, or drugs, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: alcohol, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sex, or you know who knows what it is. We’ve all got our thing. That is our kind of like. If we’re not conscious of it. That could be our go to that could become an addiction.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If we do that every time we feel uncomfortable then. We never get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, when I say, being comfortable with being uncomfortable, I don’t mean that I enjoy being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I’m able to be curious about it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m able to observe it. And I’m able to analyze it. And I’m able to feel it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is where growth happens.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I wanted to set the stage for all of that before we even talk about like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, the role of the teacher and witnessing other people’s being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I do want to just highlight. And I’ll drop them in the show notes that there are kind of 3. I think, podcast, episodes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: prior to this one, that kind of expand on different elements of what I’m talking about in a much deeper way. So there’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the mind in yin yoga emotions in yin yoga. And then the episode that I did with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the lovely

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Irish lass of Grace Tempany. We did an episode. We did a chat on how to hold brave space.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just know that those are there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then the other one. So there’s 4, the other one that might be helpful to your listener if you’ve not listened to it, I believe, is called dear.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear Yin Yoga, teacher, please shut up something like that, I will link those

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the episode notes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re on your podcast app.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s always a link to my my website, and that’s where the full episode notes are including a video and transcripts and timestamps and all the things. And so these will be here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if you’re just in your podcast app, there’s always a link. Now, at least from now on, also to a Google doc that I made that has all of my prior episodes in chronological order. And that’s just you could just

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Nyk Danu Yoga: click on that, and you could search some of these out and then find them that way, too.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you know, we’ve already done some deeper dives into the role of emotions in yin and the mind in yin. I’m sure we’ll do more over the course of the podcast, we’ve done like, how do we, as a teacher, hold brave space?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so those are there for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but for the rest of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: our time together for this episode. I want to talk to the teachers

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Nyk Danu Yoga: who are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortable with your student being uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? So you’re at the front of the room, and people are settling in, and you can visibly see or feel if you’re more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: intuitive and empathic, or both

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your students, discomfort or uncomfortableness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if we’re not careful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there can be an urge or a desire to make that sense, that feeling, that sensation go away for them right

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if we’re uncomfortable with other people’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortableness.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a lot of comfort happening in this. So if I look out at my students and see that somebody’s uncomfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m uncomfortable with other people being uncomfortable.

351
00:30:59.220 –> 00:31:05.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we have a problem, because then I’m going to think that it’s my job to fix that situation.

352
00:31:06.010 –> 00:31:14.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to read the right poem. I need to talk more because they’re uncomfortable with the silence. So I should just fill the silence with words.

353
00:31:14.690 –> 00:31:24.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know they’re uncomfortable feeling sensation in their body. So I should, you know, share a story or quote, or something, so that they have something else to focus on other than their own body.

354
00:31:25.580 –> 00:31:37.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m not saying there’s not a time and a place for, you know, sharing a quote or a story, or whatever. But if you’re feeling like every time you would end up, your your students are in a pose. You feel like you want to offer another quote.

355
00:31:37.280 –> 00:31:43.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: another poem, another. You’re just like flooding the whole thing within every single pose

356
00:31:43.480 –> 00:31:44.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s too much.

357
00:31:45.970 –> 00:31:52.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so what’s happening oftentimes is. And I’ve actually heard colleagues of mine who studied with Paul Grilly.

358
00:31:52.733 –> 00:31:58.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: Say this, that one of the reasons they share so many readings is because

359
00:31:58.960 –> 00:32:02.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: students are uncomfortable with the quiet

360
00:32:04.350 –> 00:32:06.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: and not to be harsh here.

361
00:32:06.240 –> 00:32:08.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: but so fucking. What?

362
00:32:09.570 –> 00:32:13.410
Nyk Danu Yoga: Of course they’re uncomfortable with quiet, because they’re never quiet.

363
00:32:14.280 –> 00:32:17.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: Of course, if I never take time to be quiet and just sit still.

364
00:32:18.010 –> 00:32:26.249
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s going to be uncomfortable. But how am I ever going to be comfortable with it if I don’t go through that initial phase of being uncomfortable.

365
00:32:26.500 –> 00:32:33.519
Nyk Danu Yoga: So by you as a teacher constantly trying to pull them out of being uncomfortable as soon as you notice it.

366
00:32:34.170 –> 00:32:37.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: There, you’re actually stunting their growth.

367
00:32:37.690 –> 00:32:46.540
Nyk Danu Yoga: You are not allowing them the time and the space and the tools needed to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

368
00:32:47.180 –> 00:32:49.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re stunting their growth.

369
00:32:51.520 –> 00:32:52.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: a child.

370
00:32:52.860 –> 00:32:56.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m not comparing our students to a child, but here’s an analogy. A child

371
00:32:56.940 –> 00:33:03.429
Nyk Danu Yoga: might want to eat sugar all day every day, no vegetables, no protein, just sugar, sugar, sugar, right?

372
00:33:03.700 –> 00:33:07.229
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can relate, dear child, I have struggled with this myself.

373
00:33:07.780 –> 00:33:09.269
Nyk Danu Yoga: They may want that.

374
00:33:10.690 –> 00:33:17.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: and they might make your life and their life pretty freaking, uncomfortable when you say no to that.

375
00:33:17.260 –> 00:33:29.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: Does that mean you just give in to them? And you say, Okay, fine. You’re uncomfortable. Here. Have another piece of candy. Oh, who cares if you didn’t eat your vegetables here have another piece of dessert?

376
00:33:31.230 –> 00:33:34.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: No, most of us would be like. No, that’s ludicrous.

377
00:33:34.420 –> 00:33:52.119
Nyk Danu Yoga: And yet with our students, as soon as they’re uncomfortable, we’re trying to rush in there and save the day I am here. I will rescue you from your sensations, I will rescue you from your mind. I will rescue you from the memories that might be coming up, and the emotions and all the things.

378
00:33:53.820 –> 00:33:57.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: No, don’t do that. You’re stunting their growth.

379
00:33:58.150 –> 00:34:02.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: because on the other side of that uncomfortableness

380
00:34:02.690 –> 00:34:08.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: is learning and growing and knowledge and expanding as a human and healing.

381
00:34:09.050 –> 00:34:14.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: for example, within the role of emotion. Sometimes when you see someone crying in a in a Yoga class

382
00:34:15.150 –> 00:34:19.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: that might be the only place where they actually feel

383
00:34:20.300 –> 00:34:23.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: safe enough, or relaxed enough

384
00:34:23.340 –> 00:34:24.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: to let that out.

385
00:34:25.440 –> 00:34:35.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: So you kind of rushing in to to help with that, and to make that go away because they’re uncomfortable. Oh, my, gosh, they’re emotional! And again we talk. I talked a lot about this

386
00:34:35.199 –> 00:34:42.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: in the episode on emotions. I’m not going to go into it a ton. As far as, like actual practical tips you can use as a teacher.

387
00:34:42.750 –> 00:34:46.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: But if you’re going to rush in there and try to save the day.

388
00:34:46.530 –> 00:34:49.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re never going to have that time to grieve.

389
00:34:50.139 –> 00:34:54.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: Or if they are like a really a type personality.

390
00:34:54.810 –> 00:34:56.589
Nyk Danu Yoga: and they’re a little high strung.

391
00:34:57.650 –> 00:34:59.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: This gotta be affecting their life.

392
00:35:00.530 –> 00:35:05.760
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, if you never allow them in your Yoga class that opportunity to notice.

393
00:35:05.840 –> 00:35:14.769
Nyk Danu Yoga: Wow! My mind is always going, and I got a lot of judgments about rest and about being still and being quiet.

394
00:35:16.240 –> 00:35:19.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: I got some stories about that that maybe aren’t so healthy.

395
00:35:21.400 –> 00:35:24.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then how are they going to ever take that lesson out into their life?

396
00:35:25.590 –> 00:35:37.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so the Yoga Mat and the Yoga classroom can be such a transformative time, for not just our body physically, but for also having these little Aha!

397
00:35:37.160 –> 00:35:45.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: About our life, our process, our mind, our body, the way we’re living our life, that then they can take out into the real world when they’re off of their yoga mat.

398
00:35:46.410 –> 00:35:52.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you, as a teacher, are stopping that process every time somebody gets uncomfortable.

399
00:35:53.770 –> 00:35:55.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s a problem.

400
00:35:55.620 –> 00:35:56.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: So.

401
00:35:57.050 –> 00:36:02.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: dear teacher, if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, Oh, okay, got me. You got me.

402
00:36:02.630 –> 00:36:06.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s what I would like to say, and I say this with so much love.

403
00:36:06.870 –> 00:36:10.309
Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are uncomfortable with other people’s

404
00:36:10.880 –> 00:36:12.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable.

405
00:36:12.590 –> 00:36:13.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: sit with that.

406
00:36:14.370 –> 00:36:15.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

407
00:36:15.500 –> 00:36:27.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: because part of what you’re trying to do. You may think you’re doing it for them. But by you rushing in to save your student from them being uncomfortable, actually, what you’re doing is, you’re just trying to fix your own

408
00:36:27.710 –> 00:36:29.429
Nyk Danu Yoga: state of being uncomfortable.

409
00:36:29.450 –> 00:36:40.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re uncomfortable with their state, so you’re going to fix their state so you don’t have to be uncomfortable. Guess what, dear teacher, on the other side of your discomfort, also growth.

410
00:36:40.450 –> 00:36:43.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I speak from personal experience here.

411
00:36:45.180 –> 00:36:50.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: due to my family of origin and all kinds of things that probably don’t need to talk about on this podcast

412
00:36:50.580 –> 00:36:54.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: I was totally codependent for so many years.

413
00:36:54.460 –> 00:36:57.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so that for sure would have been my nature.

414
00:36:57.850 –> 00:36:59.749
Nyk Danu Yoga: Russian saved the day.

415
00:36:59.870 –> 00:37:02.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: Fix things, make it better

416
00:37:02.250 –> 00:37:03.080
Nyk Danu Yoga: right?

417
00:37:03.750 –> 00:37:10.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because that was a role I had to take on as a child. As a child I had to be the caregiver or the parent to some extent.

418
00:37:12.640 –> 00:37:16.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I had to notice that as I became an adult

419
00:37:16.900 –> 00:37:18.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: and deal with that.

420
00:37:19.820 –> 00:37:25.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so through my journey as a teacher, I no longer feel

421
00:37:26.850 –> 00:37:33.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortable when other people are uncomfortable in the class. I just don’t feel it anymore.

422
00:37:33.270 –> 00:37:36.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: But the reason I don’t is because I sat with it when it came up.

423
00:37:37.140 –> 00:37:53.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: I sat with it, being uncomfortable, and I observed it, and I analyzed it, and I gave myself space for it without having to do anything about it. I just noticed, wow! I am really uncomfortable with this other person’s mental, emotional. Whatever state is going on here.

424
00:37:54.490 –> 00:37:57.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: I had to just witness that to admit it, to sit with it.

425
00:37:58.220 –> 00:38:00.699
Nyk Danu Yoga: and to not do anything about it.

426
00:38:01.210 –> 00:38:02.970
Nyk Danu Yoga: So now, when these

427
00:38:03.540 –> 00:38:09.190
Nyk Danu Yoga: uncomfortable situations come up in my classroom, I feel an immense amount of compassion

428
00:38:11.200 –> 00:38:12.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: for

429
00:38:12.330 –> 00:38:13.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: the student.

430
00:38:16.490 –> 00:38:17.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’m not

431
00:38:18.830 –> 00:38:20.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: going to baby them.

432
00:38:22.870 –> 00:38:30.410
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, if somebody is dealing with some serious emotional stuff and some trauma, and they they do reflect that with me after class, they let me know about that.

433
00:38:30.670 –> 00:38:36.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: I might think. I think it’s wise to have some cards for therapists in your back pocket that you can

434
00:38:37.210 –> 00:38:49.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: hand out to people you can. You know, if they share that information with you, you can say, you know, do you have support with that? And here’s a recommendation. Again, in the episode on emotions. I go into this in much detail, so I’m not going to do that now.

435
00:38:50.890 –> 00:38:51.740
Nyk Danu Yoga: But

436
00:38:54.420 –> 00:38:56.599
Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s not your job, dear teacher.

437
00:38:57.220 –> 00:38:58.890
Nyk Danu Yoga: to make your students

438
00:38:59.340 –> 00:39:00.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: comfortable.

439
00:39:01.570 –> 00:39:27.449
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, I’m not saying the Asana here. Okay, just to be clear if someone’s leg is hanging up in the air and they can’t get into the pose because they’re just so like uncomfortable. Yeah, I’m going to go give them a prop so that they can physically settle into the shape. So that’s not the kind of uncomfortable I’m talking about. Just to be very clear. I’m all about. Let’s use the props. Let’s get people as comfortable as you can be physically in that shape.

440
00:39:27.670 –> 00:39:31.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: But what I’m talking about is the other kind of uncomfortable that comes up

441
00:39:32.380 –> 00:39:37.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: the boredom, the fidget, the fidgety, the thoughts, the emotions. The

442
00:39:37.490 –> 00:39:43.539
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, traumas, the all of that stuff, right? That is part of the practice

443
00:39:45.020 –> 00:39:50.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable with still and quiet. And what may arise in the students

444
00:39:50.930 –> 00:39:57.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: because of that still and quiet again, the Yin Yoga practice isn’t causing any of this. This is already there.

445
00:39:57.780 –> 00:40:00.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re already uncomfortable.

446
00:40:00.740 –> 00:40:06.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: What’s happening is, we’re just removing all of the fluff and the excess stuff of life.

447
00:40:06.580 –> 00:40:13.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: And we’re simplifying. And we’re allowing them to be still and quiet. And that’s why, suddenly, they’re like, Oh.

448
00:40:14.140 –> 00:40:15.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: this is here. Oh.

449
00:40:16.240 –> 00:40:20.629
Nyk Danu Yoga: I hadn’t known this was here, because I’m always so busy distracting myself and being busy, and

450
00:40:20.670 –> 00:40:25.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, using all my unhealthy coping mechanisms that I’ve never actually sat and

451
00:40:25.610 –> 00:40:27.799
Nyk Danu Yoga: observed, all this stuff is coming up

452
00:40:27.910 –> 00:40:30.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: right? So that’s part of the practice

453
00:40:32.980 –> 00:40:34.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: interoception.

454
00:40:34.760 –> 00:40:38.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: An awareness of what is happening on the inside of you

455
00:40:40.370 –> 00:40:42.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: is not always comfortable.

456
00:40:43.620 –> 00:40:58.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: and you know, for those I was talking earlier about those kind of Vinyasa bunnies, you know, the ones that are just like always want to go to a Vinyasa class, and they always want it to be different each time. And that’s like their primary style, and nothing wrong with that, you know we are where we are in our journey. Do your thing.

457
00:40:58.810 –> 00:41:01.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: But for that particular kind of student

458
00:41:01.580 –> 00:41:07.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: that still, quiet kind of huh? Didn’t we do this pose last week? Thing can be uncomfortable.

459
00:41:08.010 –> 00:41:09.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then it’s your job

460
00:41:10.230 –> 00:41:13.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a teacher with your skill level

461
00:41:13.380 –> 00:41:20.609
Nyk Danu Yoga: to guide people, to introduce people to the myriad of things that are happening in that moment.

462
00:41:21.540 –> 00:41:29.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re truly being aware, you can’t be bored in any moment, because there’s so much going on.

463
00:41:29.540 –> 00:41:33.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: You just have to learn to tune your mind to what is going on.

464
00:41:34.870 –> 00:41:35.960
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

465
00:41:36.270 –> 00:41:41.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe they’re not moving quickly from pose to pose. And so they find like that they’re getting bored.

466
00:41:41.500 –> 00:41:51.849
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, then, it’s my job as a teacher to give them other guideposts that they could observe with their mind other than the fancy flowy practice, and getting hot and sweaty.

467
00:41:52.140 –> 00:41:52.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right?

468
00:41:53.020 –> 00:41:57.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to talk about the sensations in their body. I need to guide them about that.

469
00:41:57.310 –> 00:42:03.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to guide them about mindfulness of the present moment. What’s happening in the room, etc, etc.

470
00:42:04.060 –> 00:42:05.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to guide them, that

471
00:42:06.030 –> 00:42:11.390
Nyk Danu Yoga: about their mind, and the fact that actually boredom is just a thought in your mind.

472
00:42:12.430 –> 00:42:18.749
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to to give them some cues as to ways that they could cultivate interoception.

473
00:42:18.930 –> 00:42:28.439
Nyk Danu Yoga: an awareness of what is happening inside of them rather than a sort of a more external, flashy fun, you know, kind of vibe that they’re used to

474
00:42:28.470 –> 00:42:29.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: in their class.

475
00:42:30.030 –> 00:42:36.229
Nyk Danu Yoga: that it’s my guide, my job as a guide and a teacher to introduce them to

476
00:42:36.340 –> 00:42:40.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: all that is present, and the richness of that

477
00:42:40.890 –> 00:42:44.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: practice in that moment, and all of the things that their mind

478
00:42:44.750 –> 00:42:46.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: could go to.

479
00:42:46.770 –> 00:42:50.630
Nyk Danu Yoga: all of the sensing and noticing that they could be doing

480
00:42:50.910 –> 00:42:53.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: if they were just more aware that that was happening.

481
00:42:53.940 –> 00:42:59.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: That is my job as a teacher. So it is not my job to rush over and take away their discomfort.

482
00:42:59.790 –> 00:43:00.959
Nyk Danu Yoga: Not my job.

483
00:43:02.130 –> 00:43:15.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now. I’m not talking physical discomfort here, just to be very clear. I don’t want somebody coming back at me, saying, well, you said people should just suck it up and be uncomfortable, not talking about the physical poses here, talking about the mental, emotional, uncomfortable.

484
00:43:16.100 –> 00:43:21.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: Of course, if somebody’s physically uncomfortable, I’m actually gonna go make them comfortable because I don’t want

485
00:43:22.027 –> 00:43:36.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: that pose in that way to be such a distraction that they don’t get any of the deeper benefits of yin, which, in my opinion, are the mental and emotional realm, right? The physical part’s great, but like it’s kind of only 1 3rd of the whole equation.

486
00:43:36.340 –> 00:43:44.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m going to get them comfortable enough there so that they can do this interoception, awareness of their mind, etc, etc.

487
00:43:45.510 –> 00:43:46.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

488
00:43:46.800 –> 00:43:59.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m not gonna rush over anytime. Somebody is emotional. I’m not gonna try to fix somebody’s boredom by talking and blithering on incessantly, and telling stories and sharing way too many quotes.

489
00:44:01.060 –> 00:44:09.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: Those are a natural part of the practice, silence and discomfort, or uncomfortableness with the quiet and the still

490
00:44:09.540 –> 00:44:11.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: is part of the practice.

491
00:44:11.880 –> 00:44:15.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s part a big part of what yin is.

492
00:44:15.460 –> 00:44:19.629
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yoga is a quietly unearthing practice.

493
00:44:20.100 –> 00:44:22.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m not going to take that away from people.

494
00:44:22.620 –> 00:44:30.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: I might explain some things if I see that I might be like Hey, just, you know, not to an individual, but to the class in general

495
00:44:30.410 –> 00:44:41.279
Nyk Danu Yoga: boredom kind of part of this practice, because we don’t spend much time being still and quiet. So I’m I’m going to normalize these things as I see them arise. Right?

496
00:44:41.660 –> 00:44:51.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know. Sometimes emotions come up in a yin practice because we haven’t allowed ourselves any time to be still in quiet and process them. And so when we are still in quiet, it’s like, Oh.

497
00:44:51.110 –> 00:44:57.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s that grief that’s been hiding there. Oh, hello! Frustration! Right. So I’m going to normalize and speak to

498
00:44:58.240 –> 00:45:03.099
Nyk Danu Yoga: these elements as part of our practice because they are.

499
00:45:03.430 –> 00:45:06.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’m not going to try to take them away.

500
00:45:06.810 –> 00:45:13.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m just gonna say, Hey, dear friend, if this is happening to you, guess what part of the practice normal

501
00:45:14.500 –> 00:45:17.889
Nyk Danu Yoga: it happens, you know, so they know that they’re not, you know.

502
00:45:17.930 –> 00:45:23.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: the only one in the room with a busy brain. I’m going to normalize all of it. But I’m also not going to take it away

503
00:45:24.540 –> 00:45:26.979
Nyk Danu Yoga: because it’s what they need to go through

504
00:45:27.040 –> 00:45:28.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: in order to grow.

505
00:45:29.500 –> 00:45:31.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: I remember one time

506
00:45:32.720 –> 00:45:36.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: a student coming, and I do a little check in at the start of class, and

507
00:45:37.580 –> 00:45:41.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: and and her saying that she was really really anxious

508
00:45:42.050 –> 00:45:45.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so anxious she didn’t know if she’d be able to stay.

509
00:45:46.750 –> 00:45:50.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I said to her, Well, now that you’ve said that you will be able to.

510
00:45:52.430 –> 00:46:02.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: because you’ve acknowledged your discomfort, you’ve acknowledged your urge to want to run to leave. You know I didn’t say all this, but I just said now that you’ve claimed that, or now that you’ve said that.

511
00:46:02.760 –> 00:46:04.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: you will be able to.

512
00:46:05.180 –> 00:46:14.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I also pointed out that, you know, like the goal of Yoga isn’t to like push a magic easy button and have our anxiety fly out. The window doesn’t work that way.

513
00:46:15.100 –> 00:46:19.659
Nyk Danu Yoga: If we came into the room anxious, anxious will be there when we practice.

514
00:46:19.680 –> 00:46:26.319
Nyk Danu Yoga: it might only be at the start. Maybe they feel much better after. Maybe not. We don’t know everybody’s on their own journey.

515
00:46:27.020 –> 00:46:27.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

516
00:46:28.240 –> 00:46:33.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, just saying, I’m so anxious that I feel like I need to leave

517
00:46:34.340 –> 00:46:38.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: was already half of it for her, because she was like, huh!

518
00:46:38.930 –> 00:46:41.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m feeling a lot of discomfort.

519
00:46:41.610 –> 00:46:48.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m acknowledging that this discomfort is here. I’m seeing it. I’m witnessing it. I’m verbalizing it. I’m claiming it.

520
00:46:48.950 –> 00:46:53.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m feeling anxious. I’m feeling uncomfortable because I’m feeling anxious.

521
00:46:53.620 –> 00:46:56.210
Nyk Danu Yoga: And sure enough. That is why she was able to stay.

522
00:46:56.780 –> 00:47:09.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: because she now knew that this state of anxious came in the door with her would be with her in the practice, maybe for all of it, maybe for part of it, and that all she needed to do

523
00:47:09.990 –> 00:47:17.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: was take a step back from that and witness that state and be present to it without feeling the need to flee.

524
00:47:18.670 –> 00:47:21.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: And after class she did come up and say

525
00:47:21.610 –> 00:47:30.589
Nyk Danu Yoga: she felt so much better, she was able to kind of work through that, and feel much calmer and more relaxed afterwards. That doesn’t always happen, though we can’t get attached to that idea.

526
00:47:30.690 –> 00:47:32.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know Yoga’s not a magic pill.

527
00:47:32.930 –> 00:47:37.609
Nyk Danu Yoga: My! Sometimes it could take months of classes before somebody, you know, is able to

528
00:47:38.140 –> 00:47:40.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: not feel anxious after class.

529
00:47:41.410 –> 00:47:50.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: But again. The reason that she was able to is because she was observant enough to see that she was anxious to claim it, to talk about it.

530
00:47:50.520 –> 00:47:54.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: to shed the light on it so that then she could just observe it.

531
00:47:56.220 –> 00:48:01.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you don’t give your students an opportunity, please normalize things for them absolutely.

532
00:48:01.540 –> 00:48:05.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know if you see things happening in the room, it’s it’s fine to say to the group, you know.

533
00:48:05.880 –> 00:48:14.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: Sometimes emotions come up in this, or if you find that your mind is really busy, like welcome to the human family, like it’s good to normalize these things

534
00:48:14.290 –> 00:48:23.599
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then take a step back and allow them to have their process and their experience, and any uncomfortableness that will arise from that.

535
00:48:23.720 –> 00:48:29.009
Nyk Danu Yoga: without feeling the need to fix it, or take it away with your words and your chatter.

536
00:48:29.030 –> 00:48:32.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: and all the other things that you may feel hold to do

537
00:48:34.030 –> 00:48:37.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: so if you’re a teacher who

538
00:48:37.490 –> 00:48:42.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: notices. Maybe you didn’t notice it until you listen to this episode. And now you get.

539
00:48:42.260 –> 00:48:45.519
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know, a chance to notice

540
00:48:45.660 –> 00:48:53.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: if you got a chance to notice here. Huh! I am actually really uncomfortable with other students. When the students are uncomfortable.

541
00:48:53.870 –> 00:49:05.049
Nyk Danu Yoga: I do feel that pull to fix it and make it go away. And you might think it’s because you’re a healer, and you’re a good person. And la, la! I’m sure that’s true. But also you’re trying to get rid of your own discomfort.

542
00:49:05.420 –> 00:49:11.789
Nyk Danu Yoga: because when you make someone else more comfortable, you don’t have to witness and observe them being uncomfortable.

543
00:49:11.860 –> 00:49:15.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: So this might be an Aha for you as a teacher. You might be like

544
00:49:15.090 –> 00:49:16.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: holy shit.

545
00:49:16.880 –> 00:49:19.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: I am uncomfortable with other people’s discomfort.

546
00:49:20.280 –> 00:49:24.219
Nyk Danu Yoga: I do want to rush in and fix it. And that’s actually because I’m uncomfortable.

547
00:49:24.560 –> 00:49:26.329
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now you have an opportunity

548
00:49:27.140 –> 00:49:31.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: to observe your students. And you know, being uncomfortable.

549
00:49:31.760 –> 00:49:41.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m not talking physically again here, just to be clear. Gonna bang on that drum a few times talking about the mental and emotional stuff, whether it’s boredom or trauma, and everything in between

550
00:49:42.720 –> 00:49:45.339
Nyk Danu Yoga: you could witness. Your student being uncomfortable.

551
00:49:45.380 –> 00:49:46.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: can normalize it.

552
00:49:46.950 –> 00:49:49.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: Let them know. This, too, is part of the practice.

553
00:49:50.120 –> 00:49:52.849
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you can sit with your own discomfort

554
00:49:53.600 –> 00:49:55.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: and not want to rush in and fix it.

555
00:49:56.210 –> 00:49:59.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: and gradually you won’t be uncomfortable

556
00:49:59.580 –> 00:50:01.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: anymore with other people’s uncomfortable.

557
00:50:02.580 –> 00:50:07.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: So as a teacher now, I’m no longer uncomfortable with other people’s

558
00:50:08.610 –> 00:50:09.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: being uncomfortable.

559
00:50:10.900 –> 00:50:22.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: I notice it. I speak to it. If it’s, you know, in a general way, I don’t call anybody out in a general way. If I see things coming up, I’ll I’ll mention them, and how this is part of the practice, and you know.

560
00:50:22.230 –> 00:50:24.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: can we observe it? Etc.

561
00:50:24.770 –> 00:50:28.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: And then I let them have their experience, and I just

562
00:50:28.870 –> 00:50:34.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: hold compassion for them without feeling the need to fix it.

563
00:50:35.510 –> 00:50:36.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

564
00:50:37.860 –> 00:50:39.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yoga

565
00:50:39.160 –> 00:50:40.540
Nyk Danu Yoga: is uncomfortable

566
00:50:40.860 –> 00:50:46.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: practicing it can be uncomfortable for the practitioner teaching it can be uncomfortable.

567
00:50:46.380 –> 00:50:51.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: Witnessing other people in their uncomfortable can be uncomfortable.

568
00:50:51.330 –> 00:50:53.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: All of this is uncomfortable.

569
00:50:54.370 –> 00:51:03.739
Nyk Danu Yoga: but on the other side of being uncomfortable is growth is transformation is knowledge is wisdom is healing.

570
00:51:04.690 –> 00:51:05.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: But 1st

571
00:51:06.720 –> 00:51:08.939
Nyk Danu Yoga: you gotta get in the uncomfortable

572
00:51:10.190 –> 00:51:11.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: all right.

573
00:51:13.300 –> 00:51:14.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: Somebody

574
00:51:14.540 –> 00:51:21.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: should have a sip of tea, for every time that I said the word uncomfortable in this, and let me know how many times it was.

575
00:51:21.420 –> 00:51:40.759
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I think that’s enough of that again. If you want more on this vein, the mind in yin emotions in yin how to hold brave space. Those are all good ones to listen to. I will put some links in the blog post on my website to those other episodes, but also

576
00:51:40.810 –> 00:51:50.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: in your actual podcast notes, you have a link to the Google Doc, that I have, which has all of the episodes chronologically thus far. So you can also search them out that way.

577
00:51:51.820 –> 00:51:55.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, dear teacher, if you’re feeling a little uncomfortable.

578
00:51:55.810 –> 00:51:57.039
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well done, then.

579
00:51:57.510 –> 00:51:58.819
Nyk Danu Yoga: this is where we

580
00:51:58.860 –> 00:52:00.169
Nyk Danu Yoga: begin to grow.

581
00:52:00.460 –> 00:52:03.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: And of course, if you need support

582
00:52:04.217 –> 00:52:05.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a teacher.

583
00:52:05.930 –> 00:52:15.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, either get a mentor, or maybe even your own therapist. This is a good place to talk to your own therapist about this. This feeling of being uncomfortable with other people’s uncomfortable

584
00:52:15.661 –> 00:52:25.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: or if you just feel like you don’t have the skills to deal with other people when they’re uncomfortable. These are things that you can get from mentorship, and you know, from therapists and

585
00:52:25.910 –> 00:52:27.059
Nyk Danu Yoga: things like that.

586
00:52:27.480 –> 00:52:29.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: I hope that this was helpful.

587
00:52:30.440 –> 00:52:33.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: Please let me know if you are watching on Youtube

588
00:52:33.200 –> 00:52:35.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: some comments below. Let me know how this landed.

589
00:52:36.441 –> 00:52:41.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: Or if you’re on spotify, if you’re on Apple, feel free to just message me on Instagram.

590
00:52:42.430 –> 00:52:44.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: and until we meet again.

591
00:52:44.860 –> 00:52:45.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye, for now.