Federico Blardone - Mind Teaching the Body & Body Teaching the Mind

Join  this week's special guest, Federico Blardone. Federico is a talented and passionate yoga teacher from Italy. He combines his knowledge of yoga asana  with vedantic studies to facilitate meaningful yoga practices.

Check out Federico on his website: https://www.federicoyoga.com/
Follow him on Instagram @federico_yoga: https://www.instagram.com/federico_yoga/

During this conversation we covered topics like:

• What was your first introduction to yoga? 
• How did you become interested in embodied movement? 
• The utility of Virabhadrasana & backbending. 
• The definition of madness in yoga. 
• Learning and teaching embodied movement classes. 
• Using the mind to teach the body and the body to teach the mind.
• Yoga’s role in building character. 
• Being reasonable and living in the moment. 
• Knowledge of the body and meditation. 

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Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage bodywork and beyond. Follow us @nativeyoga and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Well, you're welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. Today Federico Blardone is my guest. And I always make these intros after I get a chance to speak. And so I just finished having this conversation with Federico. And I'm so like, just jazzed on yoga right now because Federico has this like, passion for yoga, that you can feel it, and you're gonna be able to hear it. And if you want to watch him, check us out on our YouTube channel,@nativeyoga and native yoga center. So I just wanted to mention that because oh, man, you know, Federico, like I..... Alright, so where can you find him? Go check him out on his website, federicoyoga.com. Also, definitely, for those you on Instagram, and if you're not on Instagram, I understand if you don't like social media, I totally get it. But if you're thinking about getting on a social media site, Instagram, you know, if you filter through and you find people that you appreciate, you gotta go follow him. He does an amazing job on there. That's how I found him. It's at @Federico_yoga. I also want to mention that he speaks a lot about his teacher, his guru. Parveen Nair, and his instagram handle is at @inbornmovement. And I'm going to put that in the link as well. And I went ahead and followed him to when I was searching for Federico. I found Federico and very inspirational, some amazing stuff, so check it out. But beyond that, you're gonna get a full taste of Federico's passion. He's in Italy. He was kind enough to join me late at night for him over there, after a full day of teaching. So I really appreciate it Federico. Thank you, man. It was a true pleasure. For you listening. Thank you for joining in. Your support means everything. I can't tell you how grateful I am to you for tuning in and listening to the episode. And if you get a chance to send me a message via on our email info@nativeyogacenter.com, or on one of the social media channels or wherever, you know, reach out to us and let me know what you think I really appreciate having so many incredible messages lately, which is just pushing me to keep going and keep going. And so I really, am thankful. All right, let's start. I'm so happy to have this opportunity to speak with Federico Blardone. Federico.... You're in Italy. Is that correct?

Federico Blardone: 3:51

That's correct. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me,man.

Todd McLaughlin: 3:55

Well, this is a great opportunity. I found you via Instagram. And I was like, wow, you know, you do such a great job with your posts and the way that you teach on the social media. And then I got a chance to watch you on YouTube. And then I was even further impressed with your way to communicate your passion for yoga. So for me, this is a really great opportunity. And I just want to I'm very thankful that you're that you're taking some time for me. I know it's late in the evening, and it sounds like maybe you had a big day. Can you walk me through a little bit like what your day has been like?

Federico Blardone: 4:31

Well, they like a usual day in my life A Day in the Life. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It would be waking up in the morning and the first thing I like to do if I don't have classes on I, I would start with meditation and then pranayama and then I love listening to at least one hour ofVedanta philosophy every day. And this is something for everyone if you want to get rooted into Vedanta philosophy To fit I would suggest this study with Swami Satyananda from the Vedantic Society of New York. So I listen to his talks every day, at least one year, at least one a day because, wow. The practice of Yana yoga, which is a fundamental part of my journey requires you to do shravana mana and I needed the asana and shravana is the listening part and Mera naam is the pondering on it, and then they needed the asanas. Vedantic meditation. So this is something I tried to do every day from a practices. And then I like to take care of my body. So today, I went to do acupuncture. So a very good doctor here in Italy. And then I go teaching and then rest for the afternoon.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:41

Wonderful, amazing did, how did you first find the Vedantic school that you listen to the lectures and from New York?

Federico Blardone: 5:51

See, it was during COVID. My teacher told me, since you have a lot of spare time right now, try to find at least one hour every day to listen to philosophy. And after I did it for the first few weeks, it just became a must. And I've been doing that since the beginning of COVID. Now it's around three full years that I sent every single day to Swami Satyananda. And it has become such a grounding practice because it really gives depth to everything that I write in my posts. It used to come from me studying the shastras so the books like The Gita and the Yoga Sutras and the Upanishads. But then I managed to give that to that knowledge through his teachings, because you can read the Gita 100 times and never really truly understand it when you get the the explanations from a master then you can a whole new world unfolds. So my teachers, the one that introduced me to it,

Todd McLaughlin: 6:49

that sounds amazing. Is this something that we can subscribe to and or have access to is there like a like you

Federico Blardone: 6:57

definitely he has a there's a YouTube channel, if you just type down Swami Satyananda, or Vedanta Society of New York, cool, it will it will just come up he used to teach first in in LA. And then from LA he was promoted to New York to the New York within the society, which is the biggest center in the world. Actually, it was founded by Vijay Cananda. Swami Vivekananda. Yes, so he's basically one of the the one who took the place from Swami Vivekananda sweets, they're important in the in the matter of Vedanta philosophy.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:31

Wonderful. Can you share something that you might have heard recently that you feel like you can apply to your life that that really helps you out?

Federico Blardone: 7:41

So the whatever we study, he has so many different sections there. So you can learn the basic obey Danta, which has been done fissara Or a production of booty? Or you can you can learn something that it's more tailored to you like if you really like Adwaita Vedanta, the non dualistic school on with Alberta, you can study man, Luquillo Pany shots, he is a master of the Manduka. And that's a wonderful thing. Yeah. And then if you want to be more practical in your life, then you study the Gita with him. And the second chapter of the Gita is one that I actually wrote down in my notebook. And every few days, one of my practices is to repeat the whole 72 Because it's 72 shlokas, the second chapter of the Gita. They're called schlock cow and when we talk about the Gita, and it's made of 72 like verses, and I like to repeat them every few days, all of them so it's something that I don't carry one thing in particular, but there's so many different concepts. It's becoming spiritual practice, to memorize the these sacred texts

Todd McLaughlin: 8:42

are you memorizing them in Sanskrit,

Federico Blardone: 8:46

I wish I could say in Sanskrit in the Gita, not in Sanskrit, the Yoga Sutras in Sanskrit and definitely in English, but the Gita is a little bit harder to learn because the chakras are a little bit longer. While the Yoga Sutras are on European more concise because they are aphorism I think it's cold in English, I'm not sure but they're like, the sutras are much shorter, and they condense a lot of knowledge into that small portion. So what while the kita is a little bit better explained in that sense?

Todd McLaughlin: 9:16

And then I'm guessing since you're learning from this teacher in New York, that it'd be an English not Italian, all is in English. I was an English your English, your English

Federico Blardone: 9:25

in Australia, so I all my knowledge come from an English background in terms of yoga.

Todd McLaughlin: 9:30

Yeah, cool. Were you born and raised in Italy?

Federico Blardone: 9:35

Yes, I was born and I was raised here and at the age of 20, I left Italy and I went to Australia I had this strong calling towards Australia. My sister was there and she told me this is an amazing place calm and I traveled a lot also in the states in the United States. And when I I can say that Australia, the United States for so many points of views are similar and Australia is a much younger country and still has a lot to explore and a lot cleaner in a sense of not so many people, you know, and, like a lot of spaces and yeah, so wonderful country that's living there.

Todd McLaughlin: 10:14

That's so cool Federico, you know, I'm so happy to hear that when I was 20. I did the same thing. I emigrated to Australia and spent five years over there. And then came back where we're in Australia, where are you? So I

Federico Blardone: 10:27

landed in Sydney, but it's a really expensive Colin and after three months, I finished all my money. I couldn't speak English at the time. So I had to do farm work and I went to peak. Yes, I was really lucky because I got the work in a passion fruit farm. So it was speaking passion fruits, which is a it's a really cool job. And for a few months, I did that to earn some money to learn English and to get my second Working Holiday Visa, all these little things. And then I leave the Melbourne then I lived in the Gold Coast and then I went back to Sydney and I just stayed there for five years in total. I standard six and a half years

Todd McLaughlin: 11:01

now here. That's amazing Federico, very cool. And they

Federico Blardone: 11:06

have a very big love for yoga there. That's why I got very close to this discipline there

Todd McLaughlin: 11:11

is that our first of all, let me back up a little bit. Were in Italy, are you

Federico Blardone: 11:17

very close to Milan in the north. There's a second biggest lake there's Garda Lake, which is the first one and then there is Lago majority, which is the second biggest one, and I'm here very close to the border with Switzerland.

Todd McLaughlin: 11:29

Nice. What was your first introduction to yoga?

Federico Blardone: 11:35

My sister, look, I started practicing yoga. Because I was feeling philosophically challenged in life, I felt I had no purpose. So that's why I feel that philosophy part of yoga is such an integral part of my journey. The Asana part came after the philosophy Park. And I was 21. And I was feeling really depressed. And I had this really, I was really struggling to find my place in the world. And then when I started reading, it's a very simple book is from Paramahansa Yogananda. Everyone knows that book is Autobiography of a Yogi. And my sister, she, she just told me say, read this paragraph, and it was the one where he was comparing the Hindu texts with the Christian texts with the Muslim texts. And I was thinking, Well, it's, it's such a beautiful point of view to find so many connecting links from different religions. And it gave me a different perspective of life. And then I started doing Asana, and then I was thinking, the first yoga practice I did, I thought to myself, this is this is what I want to do in my life. Right after I did my first Asana class, I was thinking, this is what I'm gonna do. Yeah, it was very clear.

Todd McLaughlin: 12:45

Amazing. That's so cool. Man. I love hearing that. In terms of the asana world, what was your first introduction in relation to a specific style or nonspecific style?

Federico Blardone: 12:57

I wish I started with a nonspecific style.

Todd McLaughlin: 13:01

Dog ah I'm not really ready to answer Great answer. Why? Why would you say I wish I started nonspecific, that's I can't wait to hear

Federico Blardone: 13:13

I realized that all my students, they start with nonspecific gets such stronger than rather than basis, rather than just doing every single day the same sequence until your body is ready to get the next pose. There are so many poses in the second series of Ashtanga Yoga, like a simple savasana or Trasar. They are the ground of so many our poses, but then you're struggling, you don't get to do it until your third year until you get to, you know, until you get to second series.

Todd McLaughlin: 13:44

Great point. Great point. Did you practice also, please.

Federico Blardone: 13:48

Okay. I wanted to add something about Ashtanga because I had the I had the strong experience. I practice for six years on your standard every morning up at five. And when three hours every day of practice, it was actually up to three hours. I really took it seriously for a long time. Yeah. And I realized that in in the specific styles like iyengar yoga and Ashtanga Yoga, if you look at the energy of the type of practices, they are very male oriented practices. So if you look at them, they come from a younger they come from Pattabhi Jois family, and they have these chest powered and straight spine. It's a very hardening structure, you know, and that's a very male energy. While I'm thinking that sometimes you can find much more female energy and softer energy and other mixed styles of yoga. Yes, and that's what I'm going towards right now with embodied movements, something that is more soothing and healing rather than than hardening you know, and that's what I'm trying to move my teaching towards. So I'm going to be different.

Todd McLaughlin: 14:48

That's so cool Federico, because I saw on your one of the descriptions in your YouTube you you gave a lot of credit to your guru para. Hopefully I say name properly, but I know you'll help me out but Parveen a year. Perfectly safe. And his instagram handle is in Born movement. Inboard movements correct. And so when I was watching him, yeah, I was watching him on his Instagram today and, and very cool like everybody listening, please go check out I'll have all these Instagram links in the description as you know, click it and go check them out the way he kind of makes Yoga very dance but but not like, I don't know I guess if I was thinking like it doesn't look like he's trying to make it like dance it almost looks like it's just more very natural obviously from the name of his handle, you will get that idea. But can you tell me a little bit about your connection to his so

Federico Blardone: 15:42

much work and there's so much work behind these. So he has started the embodied movement in the last few years. He has a 15 years of a younger yoga teaching. So he used to be if you if you go to Rishikesh in India, that's where I met him. He used to be alongside another lady from Switzerland that now lives there. They used to be the first to teacher that people would go for to practice a younger yoga and Rishikesh is a very big hub. So he used to be really, really famous in terms of a younger yoga teaching in Rishikesh, he actually is from Malaysia, but he moved to Rishikesh to teach. And he realized, and I spent a lot of time with him. And I got really close to him. He is my not only my teacher is also my guru, he's teaching me everything that there is to know in terms of yoga he is, is my teacher. So he, after doing 15 years of that practice, he realized that there was something missing. And he started realizing that many injuries that he developed by doing the practice that it's super imposed to you because most of these practices are superimposed in terms of alignment in terms of someone else's body fits this so your body has to fit it as well. And then he started studying Vanda scaravelli work. And the work the book from undiscovered valleys called awakening the spine. So this is why I was saying this before, because many yoga styles tend to become very rigid in the spine to make it really stiff, you know, grow tall and harden the body, while under scaravelli introduced this concept of awakening the spine, which is the fountain of youth. And then Bonnie Coyne, she is in the states in the United States who used to be a dancer. And she also does a lot of embodied movement for dancers. And she treats and heals injuries through her practices. So if you want to look up Bonnie Cullen everyone did. She is amazing. If you have any injuries, she's the one to go to

Todd McLaughlin: 17:49

your man. Great advice. I'm so excited to check these to check these guys out these people out. Did I also practice Ashtanga and studied in Mysore and, and I'm really having to have to change the way I do things due to a back injury. And it's been a really incredible process to be honest. I mean, I know it sounds weird to say I'm thankful that I'm having challenged, but I feel like the challenge is pushing me into a better place. But can you share a little bit about your own personal experience in relation to that type of awareness.

Federico Blardone: 18:26

But I completely agree with you, whenever you start having an injury, that's where the practice really starts, in terms of spiritual practice in terms of accepting your limitation, and you stop using your body as as a performance tool, because the body is not supposed to be performing the body is a tool to keep fit enough. I mean, we keep saying these, everyone knows these. But then we all make the same mistake when we go on the mat and try to perform and become better at something. Well, we we go on the mat actually, to express ourselves not to super impose something on ourselves. And that's the that's the big problem. When I used to practice Ashtanga, I used to receive very strong adjustment. And I broke, I broke in a half I tore in a half one of my meniscus the medial meniscus on the right knee. I had to get a surgery that didn't fix it. And now everything I do, I have to be very careful how I move the knee. So I had to relearn how to use the heartflow two techniques and the Malasana techniques because I realized it was giving me pain every time that I was doing it out of alignment. So now with my students, I am really proud of these but I've had them for many years and they have never had any injury. Because after me is feeling this pain for so many years. I learned how to prevent it. So I'm very strict and very severe on certain alignments, but because I have realized that certain alignments, they are biomechanical alignments and not paths and alignment. There's there's a little different in these, you know, because sometimes we get so stuck with the back foot has to be 3035 40 degree, it's not about that it's about how the hip is moving in relation to the food, how the bellybutton is moving in relation to the hip, and now the rest of the spine can follow. So once you have those ideas, clear the alignment, it's not about the 30, the 40, it's about everybody has to move a certain way. Someone more someone less. Yeah, so I have changed my understanding of Asana in this way.

Todd McLaughlin: 20:32

Excellent. Very cool. Can you say that again? Can you can you say that little sequence that you just said again, in relation to belly button foot, thinking about

Federico Blardone: 20:42

a particular trick on Asana, because, okay, but every Patrick on Asana, very simple. In Ashtanga Yoga, that you have 90 degrees from the front foot, and the back foot usually is heel to heel, how it's traditionally taught, if you look at the old books, but actually, if I know it's so many people are gonna get triggered by these. But I

Todd McLaughlin: 21:02

started, like, I like this kind of conversation,

Federico Blardone: 21:05

I started teaching in a biomechanical way, in terms of what is the body designed to do, not what the Asana is supposed to look like. So if I look at how the sacrum works, so the the base of support and the center of gravity equal to balance, so if your base of support is very narrow, you will lose balance in that for all the standing Asana. So if I'm looking at a party, Victor Equinox, and I try to keep my feet hip width distance. So because if I keep the heel to heel, many students, especially beginner, they will lose their balance. If you're an advanced practitioner, you can keep the heels however you want, because you have the inner balance. But beginners need to be taught a little bit differently. And they need to find their own way into the pose, and the back foot if the back foot is stuck 90 degrees. So if I'm pointing the back foot out, and then I'm rotating the hip in to create a rotation in the chest, the rotation is going in the knee 100%. And then you create problems in the back knee. And I'm thinking, Why do I have to teach something or practice something only? Because it's written in a book from 80 years ago? Why do I have to do it today? I mean, I we know better. And it's not the energetically I'm I'm activating a chakra, whatever, if I keep my foot 90 degrees or 30 degrees, some, you know, I started thinking on on the alignments, the base of support, where the rotation can come from, if you take a simple pose, like a bar, every three konasana simple is always you know, it's a very, you can't use simple for us. And because simple for me is not the same for someone and vice versa. Yes. But if I'm thinking of posts like that rotation can come from two places in the body, the hips and the shoulders. So how do I set my body in an a possible alignment where I can optimize the movement of the hips and the shoulders to create a full organic rotation. And I would say one more thing. But if Rita Parrish back konasana is opposed that it's really it's, it's, it's really overly done, you know, that you take the back leg heel down. But actually, if you keep the back leg heel up, it's so much more, it's so much better for your hips and for your knee and for your lower back. Because when you take the heel down, you're creating a counter spiral in the body. And not everyone can do that.

Todd McLaughlin: 23:26

Yeah, that's a great point. That is a really, that is a brutal rotation, isn't it to be

Federico Blardone: 23:34

rotating in the direction of the front leg, rotating the direction, the front leg, but then you take the back leg heel down and your counter spiraling in the opposite way. Yeah, yeah. So you create an opposite energy in the body in terms of spirals, and somewhere they have to meet. So the ether meeting the SI J, or they meet in the spine, somewhere they have or in the knee, summer they have to meet.

Todd McLaughlin: 23:56

What are your thoughts on the Virabhadrasana? One in relation to the back heel down?

Federico Blardone: 24:01

Same idea, same idea,

Todd McLaughlin: 24:03

you're lifting the heels so you can actually get your hips and pelvis square and not have that pressure on your inside meniscus on your knee?

Federico Blardone: 24:11

That's exactly so you understood everything I say. And I'm very happy because that's exactly another thing that happens is it's not easy to understand poking the mechanics of the body, I found out that it's not for a very simple thing, but I agree. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 24:26

we'll take into account that our listeners might be brand new yoga practitioners, and we want to encourage them to be excited about yoga. So maybe every time we say a Sanskrit word, we'll try to say the English and because I know you said poverty, chicken asanas, twisting triangle, and then you said triangle power of Rita partial Konasana, the twisting side Extended Side extended trailer, so hopefully that will we'll try to make it as as common language as possible. I'm curious. What are your thoughts about backbending And then in relation to that, because it has somebody like that's where my issue is I have like a ruptured disc l five s one with a L for Spondylus. Thesis slide forward, so backbending brutal. And then somebody like a physical therapist person said, well think about how many times you actually have to pick something up off the ground going backward. You don't like our bodies aren't designed to really like when in natural functional movement, do we have to go backward? We really don't. And so I'm curious what your understanding realizations have been with what you're talking about in relation to like your back bending practices.

Federico Blardone: 25:34

Taught me I ask you what pose pose the first because did you feel it in any particular Asana?

Todd McLaughlin: 25:40

Well, again, I mean, I sympathize with what you were saying earlier. I realize I'm gonna push buttons here, but I've gotten pulled into grabbing my ankles, postwar Dhanurasana, dropping back slash COPPA, Toscana.

Federico Blardone: 25:54

I knew it was gonna I knew you were gonna say that I was

Todd McLaughlin: 25:58

enough times that. And I mean, I did I did it. Like, I agree 100% with what you said, we know better. And, and I do it to myself. So I don't blame anybody but myself. But you know, I can't help like I saw a lot of people practicing when Shabbat was in Miami recently. And they're like, and he's sick back bends, grabbing their knees, and that's not high enough, go up on your thigh. That's not high enough, go up on your hip, and then letting go and sling shot flinging out of it. And the whole time we go, oh, like, I'm just like, and I'm thinking, when is

Federico Blardone: 26:31

it going to start being yoga? Like how far do you have to go for you to feel I am practice yoga?

Todd McLaughlin: 26:38

Yes, it's a great question. Like extensions,

Federico Blardone: 26:41

to me, are a big, a very big topic. I struggled very much with my body. My body is not designed for back extension. And I managed to do most of the poses in back extension in terms of couple 1000. I'm talking about that, because that was my nemesis. Of course. I'm not joking. It took me seven years to do it. Seven years, I was in ashtanga yoga. I believe they kept me for seven years without giving me the poses after that. And then every day, I was practicing full primary up to Capitol center. And I got frustrated a lot.

Todd McLaughlin: 27:16

I believe it. I believe it because you're putting so much emphasis on one. Movement. Yeah, exactly.

Federico Blardone: 27:22

You feel that your practice is only as good as the day you're gonna achieve couple of hours. And then I started doing other practices. I started doing embodied movement, I looked into a younger yoga, I looked into hatha yoga, and then coupled Asana came without even trying anymore, because when you start let's call it cross training, as they would call it in fitness. But when you start doing different things, different muscle group different types of movement every day, the body adjust and improve so much quicker than just by doing the same thing every day. You know, the definition of madness is doing the same thing every day expecting a different result. Yes. Definitely mad.

Todd McLaughlin: 28:04

Yeah, I guess I guess we should just, we should just acknowledge that we maybe we do have some madness and in our, in our, in our psyche? Well, well, what um, so then when you kind of use the terminology that I that you that you may not struggle with, but like, you know, you have a lot of questions, or like, you have to grapple a little bit with about, like, how much maybe back money should I do not do? What other questions do you ask yourself from like the Vedanta perspective to help you to gain clarity when you have these sort of challenges to do you have something that like a certain line of inquiry that can can help you get into that core?

Federico Blardone: 28:45

The first thing that comes to mind is a line that I think comes from the Brahma sutras. And it says meditation is possible while sitting. So to imply that the first types of meditators would probably be considered wallkill, like workers. And then I think Asana, if you look at the Yoga Sutras, they give it only three, three verses in the yoga sutra. 46 to 46, to 47, and 248. And then we spend 98%. So there's 196 verses in the yoga sutras. And only three are about the physical practice, which the Yoga Sutras are written 2500 years ago. So we're talking about potentially 2500 years ago, so 500 before Christ, so we're talking about a time in which Asana probably didn't even exist. Asana simply meant a seated posture. Because when you tried to meditate, which is really the main practice of yoga is to find yourself into meditation. So when you meditate, you need to make your body as fit enough in before you enter it so that it doesn't disturb you. That's that's all we need for practice for physical practice. Because what's the point in grabbing you Are these in an older than Rossana, but then you're not able to sit every day for at least 30 Minutes for Meditation, and 30 minutes is a really little. That's, that's just the very beginning. But then I would rather just do it a very simple bridge so that my back extension becomes strong enough to sustain me to a seated position for at least an hour. And then I'm using debt to support my meditation and my pranayama. That's as far as great as I think the shastras would never talk about physical practice, because it's such a very secular topic, you know? Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 30:34

great answer. That's so cool Federico, I'm so this is an awesome conversation. Thank you. What did you practice with Lena Millay. In Italy,

Federico Blardone: 30:48

I went to his school in Milan. I know of him. He used to be a little bit of a hero because when I was in Australia, I used to live with my sister and her boyfriend. And he's from Rome. And he brought this book from Rome from linum yellow school. And we used to look at his posters. And they were amazing, like, stunning. And so we wanted to look like lino. So we're thinking I want to look like him. Then you realize that his body size, many different things. That also comes into account, you know, when you want to practice Asana, your your body weight, your body size, your background, what you've been doing, growing up, everything influences the outcome of your practice. And you arrive at a point in which you just need to embrace who you are. And I'm not a bad commander. But I still practice it. But not to prove it anymore to other people. I'm just need to practice it to keep my to stay healthy. And I think that the schools have linum unit Italy, they give justice to the Ashtanga Yoga, they do give justice to it. But I think in myself, I don't resonate anymore that much with that strict Yes, sequencing and strict alignment.

Todd McLaughlin: 31:56

Understand. Very cool. When can you give a little bit of understanding for us? What type of strategy do you employ when you start to teach a class when you teach a class and where you live? Do you teach it for one hour? Do you spend 90 minutes, what type of what's the classic duration you usually work with in terms of the class schedules with studios where you are.

Federico Blardone: 32:22

So all classes last one and a half hour, I like to keep a 90 minutes. Yeah. And because it gives me more time to do a centering part in which you can get the students to enter. So it's a very important thing to me, when a student comes from the day into the class, they usually don't just like drop your your workloads and take your shoes off and then start straightaway into yoga. Actually, you need to have a small time in which you breathe into yourself, you come back, it's a centering means arriving. So you're like, Okay, now I'm here, instead of just being everywhere over all over the place, because of the news, so many things during the day, you do so much. And then you get to yoga, and it's another thing to do. Actually, yoga is not a negative thing to do. You know, it's yeah, it's that centering time of the day in which actually you you take time for yourself. So I like to get a little bit more time for that. And I'm teaching three classes of Ashtanga and two classes of embodied movement a week, I see lead classes, I'm teaching a standard lead classes, and I teach them with the alignment that I have personally developed. Nice. So I teach full primary, but with a different alignment. I don't follow I don't follow that. Because I find a struggle is really good practice. But if you teach it in a way that it's sustainable for the body, so I'm teaching it on a Monday on a Thursday morning and on a Friday night, so people have enough time to rest in between each practice. And then I do choose them Thursday, Thursday of embodied movement, because embodied movement requires me so much time to prepare the sequences because I write them, I practice them, I rewrite them, I re practice them. So there's so much work behind every class I teach in terms of understanding and scheduling. So a lot of it

Todd McLaughlin: 34:09

awesome. Can you if you had to like write a short description for what an embodied movement classes, how would you craft that? The language around that?

Federico Blardone: 34:24

Okay, that's a very good question. Embodied movement, it's still embodied movement yoga is originally I'm not gonna like to use the word invented. Because then you talk about a style. The body doesn't have a style the body expresses its own intelligence. In that sense, embodied movement is about you listening to what the body is communicating, instead of super imposing ideas from the mind onto the body. Because most of the yoga we live today is the mind teaching the body how Can we recognize that the body has its own intuitive intelligence, intelligence it can give you it can guide you into movements. So for instance, when you look at the body movement, you have all the waving patterns that start from the sacrum, the sacrum keeps informing the spine. So when you move the hips, the spine is reacting constantly. So when the hips move in an alternate way that creates Pyro into the spine. So the body already is doing that from the hips, how can I connect and the mind? How can the mind stand under in terms of understanding how can we learn from the hips, how can the body then begin to move fluidly from the hips? That's one concept of embodied movement. You see, so many practices on the mat often are too much sagittal movement oriented. So sometimes you just go back and forth, back and forth. And that reminds me of you understand the yoga practice. And, and then you find twists that come very, very late, but actually the spine to remain soft. It responds better by studying through embodied movement through the body of many people, the spine responds better when it goes from sagittal to a transverse or coronal plane, and then again, back to sagittal. And then after a few sagittal, you go back again into coronal or transverse plane. So we try to use these concepts to create softness in the spine. So this is what embodied movement is looking for. And one more concept would be loops, looping movement. So a movement a movement that can be you can create a flow that gives you a loop in that sense. So like a cow, that becomes more of a waiting pattern where you can go back and down and up. I mean, on my YouTube channel, there's so many

Todd McLaughlin: 36:48

Yeah, I was watching. So yeah,

Federico Blardone: 36:51

there's, there's a lot, but then I do something different from my teacher, I also like to still use the mind to teach the body. So I do the first portion of my classes in the body's teaching. And then the second portion, the mind is giving directions to the body to create posture on steel at that stage of practice, my teacher is way more advanced than I am. Yes, I still need to use both perspectives to create a meaningful practice for me. Yes,

Todd McLaughlin: 37:16

I love how you said, the relationship of the mind teaching the body but then within the embodied movement, that that challenge of having the body teach the mind, that's a really cool, that's a good, it's a great idea.

Federico Blardone: 37:30

There's a lot with actually, if you start exploring, exploring these thoughts, the body and the breath is a teacher, I'm actually creating a few sequences, because it was called to do a big job for a big company, you're in Italy. And we'd like to put a few classes that I'm developing onto their platform. And, and they asked me to develop a sequence of series. And I started thinking to myself, actually, if I have to make a series in which each class is connected, then I want to use those that are the teachers for the practice, and where do we learn from, so we learn from the body, when we practice, definitely the body is teaching us, as we just mentioned, the mind is teaching, the breath is the teacher in terms that the breath can lead you deeper, the breath can guide the length of the movements, there's so much to the breath in terms of a teacher in the practice, then the tradition is a teacher, because tradition is also important. We start from tradition, and then we move into more of a freestyle. And then the last feature is gravity. So how the body's responding to gravity. And in gravity, there is the concept of relaxation. Because we use in class a lot the word relax, relax, but what does you know, relax mean, really. When you explore the force of gravity, it unfolds, the meaning just unfolds in itself. When you stop fighting the force of gravity, you know, shavasana is a great teacher of relaxation, because you stop fighting that gravity, and you can feel your body sinking. And how can you collaborate with gravity through movement in order to feel that there's certain movements that do that?

Todd McLaughlin: 39:08

Very cool, good point. How do you now relate to concepts like Mula Bandha, and Uliana Bandha. So like the root lock and or the flying upward lock? How are you now connecting with those concepts that you probably originally with the Ashtanga world were like, you just do it, you know, you just kind of squeeze. And I mean, I think the idea of Odeon unbundled like and what you were just saying in terms of gravity, and there's always this downward motion, so the thought that if I could draw in and pull up and find some, like stabilization in between the down in the up, what are your current sort of feelings about bunda in relation to say the embodied movement school?

Federico Blardone: 39:51

So I personally use the idea of abanda to protect the lower back and that's as far as I go with the bond does now because the The IANA Bandha, literally in our asana practice, have the meaning of creating stability in the belt that we have the muscle of belt that we have inside, of course, it creates the inner lift that you feel in the jumping back motion. So I still use that when I practice my Ashtanga. And I do feel that inner leaf that comes from that with Jana Bandha. But I overly did it and it created many energetic issues. That's why I'm doing acupuncture right now. Because I'm still recovering from many things that I did wrong by using the bandages so stay

Todd McLaughlin: 40:33

on actually like, like physical or you actually said energetic, but what can you explain like what type of energetic reaction you've had over been to use?

Federico Blardone: 40:42

So whenever you use too much of the Mula Bandha, that, and you're not doing it energetic practice, so you don't understand the energy in the body. And you just squeezed the Mula Bandha, you're creating problems in the muscles of the perineum, which are fundamental muscles in your body. And then you start creating, when muscles are tight, the blood flow is constricted, and then you start creating all sorts of, you're calling for problems. Yeah, so and that's one physical thing that can happen. I went to see this doctor, which is an acupuncturist. And she told me Look, your energy is she was telling me when I was breathing, when she's a medical doctor, and she started back a puncture, she studied Chinese medicine. And she and it's really hard in the West to find doctors that are tuned to this concept. But when she said that, I was thinking that's exactly what I used to do. In my band, the practice, she said, Your energy is not going over the center of the stomach. Because I used to do the Mula Bandha, to Deanna Bandha, and then the javelin, that abanda. And just keep the energy going down, and up and meet it and make it meet in the stomach. Because that's what you're trying to do. Get the downward the apana to go up the Parana to go down and meet in the stomach to in the semana area. And then that's where you mix the energy to create to, I don't know, in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it is explained in certain ways. Yeah. But then if those might I talk about it with my teacher and you say those, you need to learn from masters in the Himalayas or in the plains of like, there's, there's people that practice all over India, but you need to go because he's in Rishikesh, so it was, it was pointing towards the sea, you have to go to my actual masters. Because if you do it yourself, you're gonna cause many sorts of problems. So that's what I did to myself.

Todd McLaughlin: 42:30

Yeah. Okay, thank you for sharing. That's fascinating. So,

Federico Blardone: 42:37

yeah, we try and then whatever happens sometimes. Game.

Todd McLaughlin: 42:42

I had somebody said to me, like, you know, I wish I didn't do this. And I wish I didn't do that. And my thought was just looking at my own life. Like, of course, we all wish that we hadn't, you know, hurt ourselves, pushed you hard. But that also gave us a ton of character, don't you think? Like it gave us It does make us like kind of interesting in some way. Now, it's like this undoing of all of that, like, character building. That's quite the process are

Federico Blardone: 43:09

100% I agree with you thought if I never did all these practices, I could never warn someone about doing not doing them eventually. So whenever I teach my students, it's something that I have experienced. If you do not experience on your body, you cannot be a teacher. That's our point with one teacher doesn't mean you know, only teacher of yoga. Sometimes you learn from the practice of yoga. There's, I see my students, their lives are improving to the practice of yoga, they're not want to become yoga teachers, but they're just learning to be more patient with themselves. And that's also something I'm taking with me.

Todd McLaughlin: 43:47

That's great planet Federico, I love that. I had an opportunity to go to Italy for three months, and I had a wonderful experience. And everybody told me before I went, I said, Oh my gosh, the food's gonna be so good. And they were right. And so I'm curious like being you being Italian? Do you? How do you approach your like, first of all, do Italians think Italian food is as good as everyone else that travels to Italy? And are you do you enjoy all of the amazing cuisine of your culture? Or have you had been restrictive with all that because of the yoga disciplines?

Federico Blardone: 44:26

I understand the question, very subtle question. And this is another big topic. And I don't think I have the skills to talk about this because you need to be definitely a trained, like trained doctor to speak about nutrition. I have certain ideas. I've heard many people in yoga talking about it as if they knew what they're talking about and it becomes very dangerous. For myself, I can only make a choice that it's in regard to my Self, I have realized that a vegan diet hurt my body a lot. I realized that a vegetarian diet is more balanced. I then learned that milk for me is really bad. And I had to stop having milk, I still have eggs. And my diet has changed so much in the last 12 years and I've been fully vegetarian for more than eight years. And since I started going to this doctor, acupuncturist doctor, she told me to reintroduce a small, small fish, she said, Be careful because your energy is very depleted, and your organism needs some meat. And I told her, I say, I can never go back to eating meat, there's no chance I can have chickens, or I'm not saying that the life of a fish is less important. But I'm saying I could never, I don't feel like consuming it. And even when I had a bit of fish she was feeling it wasn't feeling great. And I struggled digesting it. But it's important. I mean, for my body is important. I have to respect what is I mean, I was raised in Italian culture, food here is amazing. My grandma used to cook for me meat since I was a child. And then suddenly I went cold turkey with meat. And, you know, everyone has a different type of upbringing. And you kind of have to respect where your upbringing is, you can't just go cold turkey for something because I just want to make a point. I was listening to a podcast about these. And was this expert that was saying that to produce. I know that there's so many people with different ideas, but he had a good point. They say for someone to have a vegan diet. There's there's so many pesticides used to kill, and even mammals and snakes and rabbits and birds, they get involved in these massive use of pesticides. And so many animals are dying to produce vegan food. And then you think the hypocrisy that is behind this concept of being vegan. And I'm not justifying someone that's not that's not a justification. It's just the reality of facts. Because I definitely support being vegan because my teacher is fully vegan, and he has never had meat in his life. I support that. But I also think that if someone needs for health purposes to consume meat, it's important. I'm just going to finish by saying one thing. I was teaching in Switzerland, I do teacher training in Zurich. And there was a girl that came to me and say, you know, what do you think about being vegetarian or vegan because I've been vegan for many years, but now I have a leaky gut, naturally say if being vegan caused your leaky gut, that's, that's it's not healthy. Why are you doing that to yourself? You know, and but you feel peer pressure. Because if you're in yoga and you're a teacher, you have to be something. I think we have to get rid of that as well. It's still being part of a fake alignment. You know, there's

Todd McLaughlin: 48:01

beauty beautiful answer. That's a good answer, Federico. Yeah, I like that. That's a balanced answer. That's coming from experience. And

Federico Blardone: 48:11

it's not nice to see you with me. I totally understand that being reasonable is what it is.

Todd McLaughlin: 48:16

Yes. Yeah, that's a great point. Isn't it amazing, though, like when you start to look at, like what you were just talking about, like these sort of superimposed idealisms, that we thought yoga was going to bring enlightenment that would that it would bring us enlightenment, if we adhere to adhere to the strict things, and then what you're like, I love what you're talking about in the way that you're evolving your practice with the embodied movement, it sounds like you're, you know, finding, like, let me find some balance that's not necessarily coming from an outside idea, and more just from like, like, just living and feeling and reacting to the moment and being ready for anything. No, no.

Federico Blardone: 49:00

I couldn't, as you said it better than I did. This gives justice to what we're trying to do with embodied movement. It's about being a human. You know, sometimes we try to transcend in the yoga practice, we try to transcend the ego transcend the mind minutia, destruction of the mind. But then you're like you, you cannot be separated from this body, this mind. And this is a tool for you just treat it well and be respectful to your desires to and respectful to others in regards of your desires. You still are a human being with needs. There is no need to you know, some people say Oh, since I started doing yoga, I stopped drinking alcohol. I stopped smoking. I say that's great. But was it your choice? You know, was it really your choice? Or was someone else's choice? Because I used to smoke a lot when I started practicing yoga, and then I stopped doing it by itself. It just it just got rid of it because that's spiritual practice. It gives it to you, but then people just want to be there. After two years, after three years, I stopped doing it after 1011 years of practice, because it just came natural to me to stop doing it. But I know people that still do it, and they still have a much better practice than I do. Spiritually speaking, they're much more evolved than smoking, it's not going to make you more or less spiritual. Like, you know, that's the point.

Todd McLaughlin: 50:20

That's a good one. I like that. Yeah, I like that you brought that up. That's a good point. When

Federico Blardone: 50:26

that makes a glass of wine every now and then it doesn't matter. It's not going to change you. It's how you do it. Are you attached to it? You know, are you attached to that? Are you gonna not do it for a weekend? Think about it, and that's, that's not good. But if you can have it and they just let go of it, then you can do it. No problems.

Todd McLaughlin: 50:44

Where are you at Federico with I'm guessing you with the amount of dedication you put into this younger practice, I'm guessing then you are also taught and learned in the Ashtanga pranayama.

Federico Blardone: 51:00

I practice pranayama that, look, I went to Rishi cash. And I learned all the classical techniques of pranayama. We were talking about the Capalaba T which is also one of the short Korea's the purification techniques, but kapalabhati is usually totaled and then you have your Malama Veillon. Then you have Nadi Shodhana. You have the Ojai pranayama. Practice, which is not the one that you get in Ashtanga it's a bit of a different one. Then you have the Maastricht pranayama Chandra VEDA, Surya like yeah, so many different varieties of techniques that I have learned. And then I thought, My pranayama practice revolves around kapalabhati, and Milan, Milan, Nadi Shodhana. And then doing a few Khumba cars here and there without without forcing the bandages, because that also brings emotional instability when you do it too much. Yeah, and half an hour every day. And that's more than enough, half an hour of pranayama. I used to do one hour and it was it's just, it's, it's crazy to think about it, and I would have probably Yama, you don't need to breathe forcefully that much. It's just crazy. You know?

Todd McLaughlin: 52:14

What do you think the purpose upon Yama is then in relation to your own experience.

Federico Blardone: 52:19

So pranayama definitely steals the mind. So whenever I practice pranayama, you feel a calmness you just cooled, like the mind is heating up constantly looking for something, but the mind is cooling, you know, it goes comes back to a much grounded, you know territory where you can start exploring. So I do something though, although I noticed these every day. But I still do meditation first and then pranayama second, because as soon as I wake up, that's when the mind is the stillness is completely still. And then I can completely be silent in meditation. And then I start doing pranayama afterwards. And I know it should be the opposite. But for me, it's really working like this. So it doesn't really matter.

Todd McLaughlin: 53:05

Yeah, I agree. I liked that you brought

Federico Blardone: 53:07

up every worker can do different. You know, if you look at the ladder of Ashtanga Yoga, you have Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Leanna, Samadhi. So you should start first with Asana. And then you should start your day in prayer, Yama, and then you do practice Ohara. And then you do Tarana. And you're thinking, no, why don't have to do it like that. I wake up in the morning, and I do. And the funny thing is that if you do it every day, the practices just mixed with each other. There's not for there's not before or after, because I'm doing meditation everyday pranayama everyday Asana every day, and they just, they just mixed. There's not one day, another day, another day, just one long, continuous

Todd McLaughlin: 53:41

practice. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. And I again, going back to like your opening statement about, you know, I would be happy if I started off in a non specific world and then got more specified. And I'm curious, like, it seems like going back to the embodied movement element. Like if you're listening to what your body and you're like, you'd like to meditate first. And then finally, honestly, just because the order is over there. And there's like this strict adherence of like, you know, this is how you're supposed to do it, and you do it, but if you if you just do, okay, so let me back up a little bit. I sometimes think of it like if I was on a deserted island, I'm all by myself. And I know there's a language say called Italian and I have nobody to speak Italian with, could I start to learn and speak Italian in my mind? I don't think I could, I do think I would need to either come up with an Italian book, I'd have to have some source of the imp of the information coming in. And then there's this idea I know within relation to yoga and say Buddha that like maybe or Hinduism and Buddhism or Buddha and Hindu that You know, anybody from Buddha, anybody can become enlightened even if they don't have a teacher because if you sit quietly, the inspiration will come from within. And realization can come to anybody, regardless of an outside source bringing in. So it almost seems like self realization. You know, self realization could only is almost like the only thing that could potentially come without having an external source. But every other thing else out there that we would need to learn, we'd have to have somebody teach it to us. Does that? Does that line of reasoning make any sense to you? Or does that have you thought about

Federico Blardone: 55:36

I totally understand what you're saying. But also, I would like to point out is in regards of what you're saying, that the Vedas they are the knowledge of the universe that came to the Rishis in meditation and the Yoga Sutras say in the booty pod in the third chapter, they say knobby check raid, do you have kya view from Ghana, it means that focusing on the naval, you get knowledge of the body. So, when you do some Yama on the naval, So, integration on the table gives you knowledge of the body. So, there are certain practices that are even recognizing those old books that can give you intuitive knowledge on the body something what this really means to me is that the knowledge is already there. So as you say, I know that there is a knowledge called Italian there is something called Italian but I would have someone to teach it to me, it is true in in that which we call name, form and attribute which is Maya, of course, we need in in nama rupa, Mahara in Maya, we need guidance, but also the knowledge to transcend Maya is already there, as you say, the knowledge of the Buddha. But that's the goal. That's what we try to do. And then if you think about it, someone came up with that. Anyway, yeah. So where did it come from? It is already intrinsic, you know, acknowledge is already there. There's the seed in the universe, which contains all the knowledge and in the yoga sutra, it says that God is the unexcelled seed of all knowledge. So that knowledge is already there.

Todd McLaughlin: 57:13

And not just doing this just to boost your ego Federico. But that's pretty amazing that you're just out of your memory, pulling out yoga sutures in Sanskrit and bringing them into English for us right now, that takes a lot of study and practice. So again, not just to, you know, boost you, but at the same time, I want to give you a little props for taking the time to be at that point where you can just say, boom, right off the top of your head go there. That's, it's pretty awesome, man, you know,

Federico Blardone: 57:42

I am actually not that good. I've met people that know so much more. And, I mean, what else do we have to do if we try to live a spiritual life anyway, I try to think, as the compilers of the shastras used to think if I don't think that way, then there's no real reason to think at all like I'm trying to re rewire my way of thinking into that of the of the yoga or the to yoga, in terms of what what is written into the Mahabharata, what is written in the in the Gita and the Upanishads. That's why listening to philosophy is so important. Because when you listen to something your body, your mind is feeding, you know, a heart eyes, food, and whatever, you you expose yourself to your feed into yourself, and you're rewiring yourself. So if I'm thinking, if I'm listening to violence the whole day, then violence is going to be my main thought. And if I listen to something holy, then something holy is going to be my main for the whole day. So that's why I try to keep that in my mind constantly because I need them for spiritual development. It's that's all that matters right? Now,

Todd McLaughlin: 58:55

the point? Well, man, this has been an incredible opportunity. I'm so glad you accepted my invitation to join. I really, I really liked talking with you. I feel like I could go for a few more hours, but I want to be respectful of your time. I want to be respectful of your girlfriend's time. She said she was, you know, taking some quiet time reading and giving you a space to do this. And I know it's late at night over there. So thank you so much. It was really thank you. Thank you Federico, and I hope I get a chance to come back to Italy. And it's common practice,

Federico Blardone: 59:30

practice together. I'm, I ensure I have so much to learn from you to like, I see how well versed you are in all of these. And I know you have a lot of experience. And I would love to practice with you too. Thank you so much.

Todd McLaughlin: 59:43

That means a lot to me. All right, man. Well, I'll be in touch with you and have a sweet dreams. Have a good night and I look forward to further conversations. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye A native yoga Todd cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you liked this show, let me know if there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve and if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us at Native yoga center.com And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it and review and join us next time.

Federico Blardone: 1:00:56

Well, yeah,