Susi Amendola ~ The Heart-Mind Connection: How Yoga Can Improve Mental and Emotional Well-being

Susi Amendola is a seasoned stress management specialist with over 30 years of experience, serving as a yoga therapist and passionate advocate for holistic wellness. Her extensive background includes the authorship of "The Centered Heart: Evidence-based Mind-Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health," where she merges the worlds of conventional health wisdom and yoga's healing methodologies.

Visit Susi on her website here: https://yourcenteredheart.com/joinnow
As a listener of this podcast use code TODDCAST and receive $100 off of the 30 days to Stress Less Challenge.
Purchase a copy of Susi's new book here: https://yourcenteredheart.com/

Key Takeaways:

• The impact of traditional yoga practices on reversing heart disease and improving overall wellness.
• The critical role of the relaxation response in managing stress and achieving restful sleep.
• Insights into the complex interplay between our thoughts, emotions, physical health, and the environment.
• Techniques such as visualization and meditation which empower individuals to tap into their inherent healing capabilities.

Thanks for listening to this episode. Check out: 👇
Free Grow Your Yoga Live Webinar - Every Thursday at 12pm EST
➡️ Click here to receive link

New Student FREE Livestream Yoga Special ~ Try 2 Weeks of Free Unlimited Livestream Yoga Classes  at Native Yoga Center. info.nativeyogacenter.com/livestream Sign into the classes you would like to take and you will receive an email 30 minutes prior to join on Zoom. The class is recorded and uploaded to nativeyogaonline.com  ➡️  Click Here to Join.

Practice to a New Yoga Class every day with our nativeyogaonline.com course called Today's Community Class with code FIRSTMONTHFREE.

Native Yoga Teacher Training 2024- In Studio and Livestream - for info delivered to your email click this link here: ➡️ https://info.nativeyogacenter.com/native-yoga-teacher-training-2023/

Subscribe to Native Yoga Center and view this podcast on Youtube.

Thank you Bryce Allyn for the show tunes. Check out Bryce's website: bryceallynband.comand sign up on his newsletter to stay in touch. Listen here to his original music from his bands Boxelder, B-Liminal and Bryce Allyn Band on Spotify.

Please email special requests and feedback to info@nativeyogacenter.com

Transcript

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. Hello, and welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to introduce you to Susi Amendola. Susi is a stress management specialist and a yoga therapist for over 30 years. She has a studio in Omaha, Nebraska. And she's the recent author of a book called The Centered Heart: Evidence Based Mind Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health. Look her up on her website, which is yourcenteredheart.com. And I'll put her Instagram link in the description below as well so that you can follow her and check her out. And what an amazing yoga teacher, author, human, She's incredible. I'm so thankful that I got a chance to meet her. And I'm truly inspired by the level of work and time and energy and even keeled vibes that she puts out so I can't wait for you to meet her and listen here. Definitely give her a follow definitely purchase a copy of her book, which again is

called The Centered Heart: 2:08

Evidence Based Mind Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health. And let's try to get everybody around us practicing yoga. Try to get your mom, your dad, your children, your uncles, your aunts, your grandparents, try to get your neighbor. You know why? Because let's improve our health together. Let's take stress off the the the health care system. Let's just consume a little bit less maybe let's just make this a happier, healthier planet. It's possible we can do it. We're doing it right now. All right, let's get started. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to bring Susi Amendola on to the podcast Susi, you are a stress management specialist and a yoga therapist for over the past 30 years. And you've recently authored a book called The

Centered Heart: 3:03

Evidence Based Mind Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to speak with you about this. But before we dive right into that, can you tell me how are you feeling today? How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. It was a big weekend I taught an Ayurvedic weekend for some teachers and training. And so I did some cooking and it was really nice. And today, we're getting ready to launch the book. So we've got a pre order launched starting today. So I feel great. Nice. Today I'm doing Oh, actually, thank you. I'm doing pretty good. I had a great morning taught a couple of yoga classes. And now I've been so excited to to meet with you because your book does look really amazing. And I love evidence based work, you know, where you can actually take somebody who might be a skeptic about yoga and, and and show science and or proof that you can heal and or improve your health through yoga. With that being said, what was the trajectory for you to initiate the writing of this book? Well, I wanted to just say something first to what you said about evidence base, which I think is really sort of an interesting way to start, which is that, you know, we when I started teaching yoga in this program, and I'll talk a little about that. There wasn't a lot of evidence for yoga, and you know, that has been created over time. And over the last 30 years. So it's was such a joy to write this book to actually find evidence based information to support what we've been doing, which we knew all along intuitively, but didn't quite have all the evidence for it. And having said that, there was a lot of research in India that was was happening. There was a lot of research there but Not a lot of research in the United States that was being used. So it was just really nice to have that. And so I'll just say that, you know, sort of the inspiration for the book really came from my 30 years of working in a lifestyle change program. So it was a lifestyle medicine program for reversing heart disease without drugs or surgery. And I, my role in that program was a stress management specialist and a yoga therapist. And I started to realize just how important stress management was like in the role of reversal of disease and in the role of reversing chronic illness. And what I got to see over the time that I worked in that program and have worked in that program, is that a lot of other conditions would improve when people were trying to reverse their heart disease. And when I say without drugs or surgery, I mean, this was a program that was clearly lifestyle based. And it was one of the first programs that Medicare covered. And it's the first time Medicare covered yoga as part of a prescription for wellness, which was quite an amazing feat. How did you pull that off? Well, you know, I remember speaking to someone from Medicare, and they, I don't know how much I can actually say, but I felt like they were pretty rough and tumble, they wanted a lot of evidence. And I know that that you know, it was hard because there wasn't anything to grab from the internet at that time. It wasn't even there wasn't even a lot of internet that was in 1993 was when he sort of started that I don't think I don't think that Medicare actually covered us until 2012 or 13. It was a while. Wow. Amazing. Where was this? Where are you starting this program? So well, the program started in San Francisco with a doctor called Dr. Dean Ornish, and it was it was a program a lifestyle program, he had been a student of Swami Satchidananda. And he was using a lot of what he learned, like really a lot of the program was kind of taken sort of ashram based, you know, living in an ashram and you walk outside, you eat really good food, vegetarian food, you talk about your feelings with people, you do a little yoga and meditation and wallah, you feel better. So he started the program with a small group of people in San Francisco, and he wanted to shop it to a bigger audience. And he had gotten in touch with Mutual of Omaha, and that's where I'm is in Omaha in about 1992, or 9093. And they wanted to do what was called a Lifestyle Heart trial, which was a lot of different, a lot of different states where they could offer it and see if it actually worked in a bigger scale, because they said, you know, you live in San Francisco, and you know, people will do anything there. It's a, you know, it's an altered state. And so he wanted to do it in a place like the Midwest. And so, you know, it was interesting, because I was, I had been living in a yoga ashram up until about 1980. I think it was like 1984 1983. And I moved to Omaha and started a yoga center in Omaha way back then. And they there was really not too many people for him to call and ask if they would teach in his program. So he got a hold of me. And my first answer was no, because I didn't know who he was. And I didn't really understand it. And I didn't have a lot of faith in hospitals. And I wasn't really interested in merging, I felt like that merging alternative medicine, and mainstream medicine was a train wreck, you know, and in some ways, it is because there are different modalities, and they have different ideas about healing and health. I could say like, in medicine, you know, it's, it's really revolves around an external locus of control, so that everything that heals you is outside of you. You know, so things like, the doctor heals you, the pills heal you, the surgery heals you, the nurse heals you, but there isn't any talk of you. And so yoga is really this kind of internal locus of control, where we, you know, we, we try to find healing inside of ourselves, we try to find our own inner wisdom and our own inner healer. And then we try to merge that with whatever modality is outside of us. So I really felt like it wasn't for me, but he had someone who I just loved. You may know her name is Miss Villa Devi. She was she's written several books on yoga. She's written really, I think one of the only female versions, a woman's version of the Sutras, the Yoga Sutras. And she's also written a few other books, but she called me and she said, you know, we really want you to do this program. And I said, Well, I, you know, I lived in a yoga ashram, I just don't think it's for me. She said, Well, I was a swami in a yoga ashram for 18 years. And I was like, oh, and I got really interested. Oh, that sounds really interesting. So with a little bit of coaxing, I said, Yes. And I felt in some ways, like it was my calling Because I had had, you know, my family and my own Italian family, heart disease was rampant. You know, people were my uncle's were all dying young. And so it really it sort of interested me. And the more I read about him, and the more I learned about his program, the more I wanted to be involved. Wow, amazing. So what was your background in your yoga practice in San Francisco before you move back to Omaha? So I wasn't in San Francisco, my I lived in a yoga ashram in Pennsylvania. Yeah. And, well, what really happened was when I was young, and I write this in the foreword in my book, I had a really severe kind of anxiety issue that came up after I smoked weed at a party just once. Wow. And I, it literally just unraveled me I was 15 years old. And I went into the deepest depression, and anxiety and I had never experienced that before then I was a really happy child and kind of fun loving and, you know, popular and I became so withdrawn and depressed and unable to function. And it was at a time when nobody talked about anxiety. It wasn't like now. But it was when you know, if you talked about anxiety, you ended up with electroshock treatment. I mean, it wasn't something you wanted to tell people about. And so I really, I kind of dissolved into this person that I didn't even know. And it was really interesting, because my mother, who had five children and six years was they were all just going off to high school. And she was like finding herself with a little bit of time. And so she was studying yoga at an ashram in outside of Chicago. And she said, Well, why don't you come with me to class? And I was like, No way. But I went, and the SWAMI was there. He just happened to meet me at the door, and sort of hugged me and I and my whole world opened up at home. Everything just changed. And I found myself going regularly. I went to a really well known doctor at the time, Dr. Rudolph Ballantine, who wrote radical healing. I don't know if you know as but heard of that. But yeah, he was a really well known homeopath. And I went to see him and then I went and studied yoga. And when that center moved to Pennsylvania, I moved and I ended up managing the vegetarian kitchen, and living there and having a baby and staying there. And, and then we left in about 1983 and went to Omakase. My husband at the time was from here, when I started. And I started the yoga center. Todd knew, I don't know if you guys did this, but I started the yoga center because I wanted people like me hanging out with and I wanted people that were interested in yoga, and there wasn't a lot happening. There were just a few centers. I can imagine. I mean, 19 You said this is 1983. And that's when you opened up in Omaha. I would imagine there was no other Yoga Studio in the entire state of Nebraska at that point. Well, there had been interest interestingly enough, there were a lot of Yogi's that came to this country in the 70s. And so they had a lot of followers around the country. So there were people that were following Swami Muktananda. And were swamped following Swami Satyananda. And even I anger there was a woman that was going to Indian studying with iron gar Tommy Joyce. Yeah. So they were around, but they weren't really offering. There wasn't a center understood. Yeah. So are you still managing that center? I am. Wow. Since 1983. Yeah, it's gone through a name change. 30 years, let 31 years later? 40 years. 40 years later? Oh, my gosh, my math is horrible. 40 years later you is that the oldest running single studio in the country? It might be in the Midwest. It might be I don't? I'm not sure. I know. There's a lot of studios that were around that. Like, you know, some of the bigger studios are still around like, that's, that's amazing. Susie were when I met my teacher, Tim Miller in California, he had been holding down the stronger yoga center for 30 plus years at that time, and I remember walking in and just being like, 30 years. You did this for, you know what I mean? Because I was in my I was in my 20s. And you just can't imagine you could do anything for 30 years straight. Like how is that even possible? And so 17 years? That's right, right. Yeah, yep. Yep. So I set that as a goal. I thought I want to try to make it for 30 years doing this. And so to meet somebody has been doing it for 40 No, don't tell me in the same location. Did you have to move? Did you have to move up? Since 93? We've been in the same location. That's incredible. Seems Yeah. That's a lot I'm building because I felt like I don't want to pay rent for a million years. Oh, wow. Yeah, we had different we had different location. Since like we were in the lower part of the building, and we had a big space with wood floor and then when COVID hit we moved upstairs because it was just, we just didn't have the people in person as you probably know you have this. Yes, in Florida were you able to practice outside during cold? Actually, we were allowed to practice inside as well. We're after here in Palm Beach County after nine weeks. So the businesses were closed here for nine weeks. And then it was okay, go ahead and do what you can do. But that didn't mean that people wanted to come in it was still very, very tough. But I know from a from a business perspective of what other people faced, I feel like we were oh, gosh, just goes on to a whole can of worms in a different direction. But I mean, Florida has had so many people move into it that it's like because of that, that now everything's so crazy expensive and the insurance rates and everything is just outrageous. But let's not go there. Let's let's stay on the heart. Let's talk about the heart. But that is amazing. Suze, I am so excited to meet somebody like you that have been doing what you've been doing that's that takes so much work and commitment and dedication. So what an honor Well, you haven't you have a lot of background. You're so your yoga therapist, what you obviously teaching yoga therapy classes, what other modalities do you integrate into your studio and your your own personal teaching? Well, our studio is, you know, What's lovely about having the building and owning the building is that I can choose what goes in there. So we have psychotherapists that work with somatic experiencing. My partner, my husband, Josh, is a psychotherapist that also is a yoga teacher, and also works with Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. So all of that, and then we have a Reiki specialist and we have a massage therapist. And you know, really this style of yoga is a little bit like I don't know, even what to call it, because people are always sort of hooked on what style of yoga do you teach, and I feel like it's a little bit of what, you know, an ashram style where we work with postures and breathing and relaxation and meditation and chanting and breathing, you know, all of the things in your Veda and so. So most of the classes kind of are in that sort of category, like we're not doing any Bikram classes. And we're not doing and I know that that's something that you've studied, and we have a Bikram center here, so I don't need to compete with them and never have tried to. And we've sort of done the same thing all along, which has been great. And it's been interesting to watch how in the beginning, you know, we were offering things like your Veda and chanting and that was not really even valued in the yoga world for a very long time. And then all of a sudden, all the studios that were doing Bikram now switch to offering all your data and now they're offering, you know, so that was kind of fun to watch. And maybe at times, humbling. Frustrating. I was gonna throw the frustrating word out there. Pretty word as part of it. Man, we've been trying to pull teeth here for years. And now everybody, you know, yeah, everyone's doing it. Well, that's great to hear you. Yeah, well, we have a really nice community here. And that Yoga people, yoga teachers here are all lovely and wonderful. You know, they really support each other. They're not really in competition with each other. It's a small, you know, even though Omaha's, not tiny, it's probably bigger than where you are. But I think we have 400,000 people at least. And, you know, there's a lot of yoga, there were a lot of yoga studios, they're kind of disappearing now. But there's a nice community of people that's interesting that you just your insight is that this yoga studios are disappearing. Are you noticing a little bit of a downturn in the popularity of yoga? Yeah, for sure. I think part of that was an I don't know, this is just me sort of talking off the cuff. But I think when it becomes a fad, and I think it was a movement fad, where, you know, it could be used as people's exercise. And so exercise is so popular here. And we'll talk about that when we talk about the book. But it's so popular in the US that, you know, those exercise trends come and go. And I think yoga was part kind of got thrown into exercise trend. And so it's kind of common gone. Yeah, I think there's always a place for meditation. There's always a place for movement. There's always a place for all of it. But I think that when it was really yoga was really big and popular was really with all the Bikram and the hot yoga kind of really brought it into the light. Yeah, good observation. Can you explain a little bit about how you've structured your book, how many? How many chapters does it have? Thank you for asking. So the book is I think it's about I think it's nine chapters and I fully structured them as like tools for managing stress, and they're all from yoga, everything's from yoga. But because of the way I've had to teach yoga for so many years, you know, I was teaching farmers, you know, people that thought that yoga was part of the devil's work, you know, people that had to ask their pastors if they could take the yoga in the Medicare program. So it was a very challenging experience. And, and so. So I have really, the way that I teach yoga doesn't always include Sanskrit. And, you know, but all of the techniques that are in this book are from the tradition of yoga and all the experiences that I've had. And so it's divided into parts. And the first, the first part is really just about my story. And living in the ashram and how I got there, and how I moved into how I left there, and all of that. And then, and then it just talks about kind of the some of the research around yoga. And there's a lot and so that's in the first chapter, but then it goes right into the different techniques and the different practices that you can use. So it's really a guidebook. So in the first chapter, it's called gentle movements, which is, of course, postures, asanas, but they're, they're really simple ones that can be done in a chair, they can be done in your bed, and they're done a little bit differently. So, you know, there's this, an Ayurvedic teacher once said, to me, disease knocks three times, and if you don't listen, it takes you. And I feel like the postures and the gentle movements are the practice of listening. So it's a very somatic approach, it's a, it's an approach to sort of being in your body. And so many people, when there's chronic illness, there's trauma, and we exit during trauma, we don't want to be in our bodies, because it's an uncomfortable place to be. So the practices are sort of a way of romancing yourself back in, like calling yourself back to your yourself. And, and really listening to what your body's saying, instead of sort of following your head. And all the pushy messages the head gives you. It's like really dropping into your physical body and, and trusting it and listening to it. That's the chapter. That's cool. That makes perfect sense. What what type of reaction have you had with someone recently that maybe was very hesitant for yoga, and you use this method? What type of feedback did you receive from them? You know, that's a really good question. You know, I work one on one at my studio, when I work with the program that I was working in, I work with training teachers to work with other people in hospitals. So when I work with people, I think most of the people really appreciate having the opportunity to come into their bodies. And when they come to my classes, and I teach a really slow style of yoga, and every class starts with this embodiment practice. So every class starts with people lying on the floor, which is really kind of counterintuitive for most people, they want to get moving. And they like feel like they're going to jump the heck out of their skin, and in time, in a very short time. And like, if I change it up, and they say, let's sit up today, they're like, no, no, no, no, no, we're lying down, you know, because there is this opportunity when you lie down, to sort of integrate what's happened in the day. And to then to tune from this sort of thinking and doing to feeling and being come into yourself, and it's much less likely to get hurt, you're much less likely to get hurt. I know that there was a time when yoga studios were being sued for injuries, and we've never had anyone get injured in 40 years. Because we do this process of having them be in themselves first, like find themselves inside of themselves first. Yes. So I usually have a really, there's some hesitancy to that kind of practice. But in time, people love it. And what I have a lot of marathon runners and athletes that come and you know, I just say to them Go run before you come, go do something really aerobic? Or if you want to take your Bikram class before and then come to this, because it's a different style with a different flow. And it's a more embodied practice. Yeah. Amazing. That's cool. Where, where, what have you found in relation to Well, where are we at currently with statistics in relation to heart disease in America, or globally, for that matter? Thank you for asking that. You know, for a while, I think when I started the program, it was maybe one in four people have heart disease, which sounds alarming to me. But I was just reading it's, it was one in three a few years ago. And now it's looking like one and two since COVID. 50% of the American population is has some heart disease. Things I didn't want to say this was a book for heart disease, because first of all, people don't ever want to admit that they have heart disease. They have high blood pressure. That's the beginnings of heart disease. Most of us have risk factors. But But I do think that it's important to kind of recognize that this not only helps with heart disease, but it helps For all sorts of chronic illness, so, you know, with one in two people kind of moving towards one or two people with heart disease, it's a really good preventative measure. And, and it's so important for people to think about managing their stress. And one of the main things this book is asking us to do is to start to down regulate the sympathetic nervous system, that fight or flight response, and up regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, that rest and digest phase. And we as humans, you know, we were were made for this sort of fast responding, like where we're, you know, we're still, our, our DNA still has us ready to pounce if, if they're, if we meet an animal in the woods, and we need to get out of the way. And yet, we treat everything like that now, because the world has gotten to be such a stressful place. In fact, three quarters of all adults are identifying that this year is even more stressful than last year. For them. Why had more stress in just this year? So you know, the truth is, is that, you know, I think that we all need some kind of a practice to help us down regulate that sympathetic nervous system, because it gets turned on when our boss gives us too much to do when our kids need something, and we can't get it for them, when we, you know, have something, you know, we have a fight with our spouse we have whatever it is, we're sort of living in this chronic, you know, sympathetic nervous system response. And really, it's not about stress, but it's about how we respond and react to stress. And these techniques are giving us an opportunity to respond differently. And they help us down regulate the excuse me, they help us up regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is that rest and digest and down regulate the sympathetic nervous system. So when I talk about the different chapters in the book, we were talking about the first chapter being about movement. The second chapter is about breathing, and it's about and the third about relaxation. So the second one is really about, you know, the breath being the link between the body and the mind and how we think and feel, affects how we breathe, and how we breathe affects how we think and feel. And if we shape our breath, we can really shape our thoughts, we can shape our, you know, our sort of energy patterns using breath. So, you know, we were using practices in the program for heart disease that we're calming the nervous system, down regulating that sympathetic nervous system, things like two to one breathing, maybe even alternate nostril breathing, which is so important for the nervous system. And even other practices like three part breathing because three part breathing with a complete yogic breath has kind of two effects. So it's calming, if you're over energized and overactive, you can use it and the nervous system calms down. And if you're sort of sitting and slumping all day, and your breath has kind of gotten away from you, and it's shallow, when you do three poor breathing, it brings you back up. So it kind of has this really beautiful, it's a beautiful practice. Can you explain the three part breathing that means like when you're inhaling you inhale, pause, inhale, pause, inhale fully. Exhale is actually that breathing is you can use three part breathing that's called the Loma, the Loma, breathing, the staggered breathing, but three part breathing is using all three parts of the lungs long, which is the abdomen expands when you inhale and contracts when you exhale. That's long breathing. And then why breathing, which is the ribcage expands when you inhale on contracts, and you exhale. That's why breathing, and then deep breathing where the chest expands and contracts. So you start by expanding the abdomen, then the ribs, and then the upper chest. And as you exhale, you release the chest, the ribs and the abdomen. Yes. And so wave like motion allows you to take in about seven times the amount of oxygen is within normal breath. Wow. Oh my gosh. So cool. So now in relation to evidence based science with proving that this actually works within say, That's Chapter two or three in relation to the breath, and then the calming of the nervous system. What type of research were you able to collect? Two, really, there's a really lovely friend of mine, who's an amazing teacher, his name is Dr. Ananda Bhagnani. He's from India, and he has a good Ananda ashram in India. So if you can go find him on. He's got he does a lot of classes on YouTube, and he's just lovely. But he's done a lot of research. He's an amazing researcher. And I used several, a couple of his research studies and one of them was just one yoga session of postures and breathing, was able to change people's heart rate and blood pressure and just one session. And we knew that from the program I worked in because we had nurses that would take people's blood pressure before and after they went out or a yoga session, and it would come down dramatically. But then what I said to the nurses was, you know, when people come in and their blood pressure's high, and you're taking their blood pressure, and they can't come to the yoga class, just do some two to one breathing with them. And sure enough, we taught the nurses how to teach this, sort of letting the exhale breath get twice as long as the inhale and they would do it with the participants. And sure enough, their blood pressure would come down. Nice. Yeah, so simple, right? Like, you don't even have to go and purchase a big old like elliptical machine, and you don't have to sign up for whatever, you can just start breathing, and then all of a sudden have this profound effect. It's almost too simple, right? It's like, maybe that's why people know, like, they think it won't work, because they're like, that's just too easy. Like, how could that work? It's too easy. Yeah. And, you know, there are people and I mean, I don't know if I want to go down this rabbit hole. But there are people that breathing actually isn't relaxing for them, because they have asthma, or they have COPD, which we had a lot in our program, there were a lot of people that came in with, you know, multiple comorbidities like that a lot of different conditions. And so in that case, we don't focus on breathing. That's why there's, I offer seven different techniques. And I'll talk about all of them if we have time. But, and the reason for that is because it's important, because some techniques don't work as well, for other people, for someone who has breathing issues, it's probably better for them not to focus so much right away on their breathing, but to focus on relaxing, and just let their body and their mind to relax, and let their breath, breathe them, let just let yourself be breathe to don't try to breathe, turn that responsibility over to your body. So sometimes, you know, as a yoga therapist, you have to be sort of flexible, and as a teacher yoga teacher, just flexible and finding ways that people can enjoy the practices. Because I don't like people to say I don't like that practice with them. I always say that the more than don't do that practice, do the ones you like and come back to that later. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, you mentioned that there's multiple ways you're going to interact. What was what's the fourth chapter and or you mentioned, I think you said chapter three is nerve nerve relaxation, is that the idea or the focusing on the nervous system? It's, yeah, it's for the nervous system. But what I found in what is you know, all there's been a lot of research on sleep, and that people can't heal unless they sleep. But what I realized and what you probably recognize is people who sleep don't often get rest. Like they'll, you know, a lot of times our sleep is fitful. So the relaxation practices in yoga are like a learned and conscious letting go. And they're really, you know, I remember going to see the Dalai Lama years ago in Los Angeles. And I sat through his 10 day course with amongst and, and the one big takeaway that I got was he said, practice dying every day. And I thought, oh, that's what relaxation teaches you. It's the practice of letting go and dying to the past into the future. So you can be really present right here in this moment. So I feel like the relaxation practice is something that's so needed more than anything else right now. You know, people call it yoga nidra, which is a different kind of practice and relaxed than systematic relaxation, but they're very similar. And just learning how to be awake, and alert, and relaxed, all at the same time is a real skill. And so it's something that we have to learn and so that that chapter is really talking about how you can learn and practice relaxation and how important it is. Even for our sleep to be able to get deeper sleep. There are so many people who have insomnia. Yeah, that's a great point. Like you think, Oh, I was asleep. I closed my eyes at 10 I woke up at six but that doesn't necessarily mean you've got you are able to get deep sleep deep sleep, what have you noticed in your own practice and or life? Things that that you do or that you can implement that can make you feel more rested after an evening or night of sleep? Yeah, I mean, you mean beyond? Yeah, beyond like doing conscious body relaxation and or like you said, the practice of dying, like, metaphorically speaking, you know, with relaxation, but is there anything else that you've come across? That helps with sleep? Yeah, better sleep? Yeah. Man III think so many things. Breathing for sure is helpful. You know, just doing two to one breathing helps to move you towards sleep, but, but also not spending. I have a whole chapter, though. One of the last chapters is about connecting with nature. And we're so connected to the elements and it's so important for us to be in the elements or to eat at least try to create them. I laugh all the time, because people instead of walking out in nature, they get on a treadmill and then they have videos of nature all around them. Instead of actually being an eight Sure. So I feel like being in nature is a really important way and being up in the morning and getting morning sun for melatonin reasons. And, you know, there's a lot of little cues, like how to connect with the different elements, how that how important that is, for our nervous systems and for our ability to sleep. That's cool. What other weather elements do you cover in the chapters moving forward? You know, I talk a lot about him. So there's gentle movements, breathing, relaxation, meditation, which, of course, you know, all about, and your listeners probably know a lot about. But you know, it's really quite simply put, it's just the ability to learn to concentrate. And meditation isn't the practice, but it's the experience. So I always feel like, you know, this practice of movement and breathing and relaxation delivers you right to the doorstep of meditation, like, you can just kind of sit up after that practice. And you're right there. Whereas I know when I was younger, I used to, there was a wonderful Roshi, category, Roshi, who used to come from Minneapolis and teach Zen retreats in Nebraska. And I would go, but there was no preparation, like in yoga, we have all these things that help us Yeah, you would just sit on the mat, and you're supposed to meditate. And I remember thinking, like, I might lose my mind, I might start screaming, it was, it was. And so what I love about these practices, as stress management practices, they just kind of deliver you like the things that used to bother you don't bother you anymore, when you do them, you know, it's just sort of like magic, you don't have to do anything fancy, you just do this little practice with all these little elements. And all of a sudden, it's like you feel like a different person. And so meditation helps to create that kind of space, so that we can make different choices, you know, you're meditating and thoughts are rising, and you're not interacting with them anymore. If you just stop interacting, and you just keep pulling your attention back away from that, they can't go anywhere, they just dissolve, and they kind of lose their power and their hold over you. So when that happens, it gives you like, more space and more room to kind of spread out and see and make different choices. And so I feel like meditation is such a powerful tool for managing stress and for calming the nervous system in the heart. And so that's one and then the one that maybe we wouldn't consider like in yoga, we use it all the time. But it's really something that I think yoga could explore even more like teachers can explore more, which is imagery. Like yoga, teachers use imagery all the time, they'll say things I say things like, imagine that your heart is breathing, you know, when you're in a pose, like just imagine that your hearts breathing in and your hearts breathing out, or your skin's breathing. Those are all incredible tools. And I know imagery is such a, it's, it's so vast, because the mind has so many ways it can go and help you. And so I talk about two different kinds of imagery in the book specific and nonspecific imagery. And specific imagery is like when you go in, and you actually, you know, you'd like maybe you have an artery that's blocked, and you go in and you imagine yourself vacuuming out the plaque, the plaque in your arteries, or you imagine sweeping it out, or, or if you have cancer, you might imagine a, you know, a beautiful magic wand that you can sort of touch and dissolve all the cancer cells. So it's, it's like it can have such a profound effect. I'm doing imagery on healing. And I'll just say when we were early in the program, we used to have our participants imagine that they were, they were going into their blocked arteries, and they were sending light and energy to like, dissolve whatever blockage was there. And this was the weirdest thing. About six months in, we looked at their PET scans, and several of the people had arteries that were opening that had been closed, and the other ones were starting to close. And I was thinking to myself, what like is that because they're just imagining that one artery opening that it's, it's doing that and everything else. So we started at that point saying like, you know, while you're in there, like he like opened all the other arteries and he'll whatever else was going on inside of you. Like if you've got anything else going on, he'll that too. Because the mind is amazing. It can do so many things in the in the realm of imagery that it may not be able to do otherwise. And even, you know, there's another than the nonspecific imagery is just imagining yourself in a place that you love, like a beautiful place. And that in and of itself kind of brings the whole system into balance. And that place of balance, you know that that we come to that's where healing occurs, healing can't occur, unless you're in that place which we calling yoga sattva you know that place where Everything is in balance. And, and so that's what we're really trying to create. With all these practices, this sort of cyclic way of being where we can heal ourselves, there's a, there's an opportunity there. So, the other thing about imagery is that you can use it, you know, I was like the most anxious flyer in the world. And I used to have to fly to San Francisco to work every month. And it was torture, because I didn't like to fly. And then I started imagining, like white light around the plane and all of the beings illuminated and everybody having these vibrant lives and that we were going to be carried, you know, safely and land safely. And whether or not it does anything to the plane, it does something to your consciousness, so you don't wear yourself to a frazzle. So I've used it just in simple things like that, or when I have to, you know, take a test or when I, you know, need to be more present with someone. So that imagery has so many applications in the world of healing. That is so cool. Suze, you know, I'm really glad that you bring that up. It makes me think two questions I have for you on the first one. Is there a moment that you can remember where you had this realization? Oh, my goodness, my thoughts are that powerful? That? Can you remember a time in your practice and or yoga experience and your work life? Or did you have an epiphany moment when that was I'm sure every sometimes I feel like every day, I have that epiphany moment, and I'm like, oh, boy, this is a big responsibility to carry. Because it's almost easier to to believe that like, Oh, come on, your thoughts have nothing to do with that, right? Because then you can just like not pay attention to your thoughts. But when you have that realization, like, Whoa, my thoughts are that powerful? Oh, my gosh, how am I going to wield this, like, I have to actually pay attention here. Do you have any advice regarding that? I mean, not advice. But wow. Isn't that the truth that every day you start to wake up to the fact that how you think shapes your life? Like how do we think shapes everything that happens to us and in so many ways. And that's really in some ways, kind of the takeaway of the book, that you have this amazing inner healer and intuition and inner wisdom and ability to heal yourself and to and to imagine healing. And so I don't have advice, except that it is a profound realization to wake up to the fact that we have such an important role in shaping our own lives. I remember, I don't know if you know about whole opponent opponent training. Have you ever heard of that? Yeah, I took one training, oh, why are you fighting with the teacher, I mean, he was a famous Hawaiian help on upon a teacher, I remember fighting with the teacher, like we couldn't possibly be responsible for everything that happens around us. It was years ago, like 3540 years ago, but I remember, oh, wait a minute, like we really can take, we really do have responsibility for shaping our lives. And, and so this kind of all of these practices that I'm sort of putting forth in the book are really, you know, practices that help us do that help us to be able to use our minds, you know, for our own health and well being our own healing, and to shape our lives in ways that are really impactful. It makes perfect sense. And I like the fact that you're taking into account each individual in relation to their capacity to start to implement some of these ideas, because it makes sense. I like the fact that you brought up if say, you have an asthmatic, and you say, Okay, let's just focus on breathing well, that might actually create more stress and pressure because of the intensity of the breathing. Whereas maybe using a visualization technique might get them calm enough. And then so person by person, you're picking that up. So if you're training a yoga teacher to become a yoga teacher, or yoga practitioner to one day teach, how do you teach that because that's like such a difficult thing. I feel like it's almost like intuition. You know, like, it's like, a certain intuition that you have when you meet somebody, like you just kind of pick up on something and you just run with it and go, and obviously, with practice, you'll get better at it. But when you're dealing with, say, I'm gathering, you do do teacher trainings, or you probably have trained people to teach because you did mention at the beginning of conversation that you incorporated our VEDA into maybe a training you did recently. Is that Is that true? Did I hear that? Right? So how do you what is your like strategy when you are training people to help cultivate this sort of intuition that we need when we first encounter someone and try to come up with a strategy for helping them? Yeah, that's a really wonderful question. And, you know, it sort of, it says kind of a lot about you taught and like your intuition and and your way of teaching, because it's, you know, that's it's a, it's, there's a truth to that, that, you know, teaching people to have intuition is not a simple thing. But one of the things that I think is the most important, and you probably have this experience, too, is that teachers need to do their own practice, and, and not practice with their students, but their own practice, and to really cultivate their own inner wisdom and their own intuition. And that does come it is a practice, and it does come with practice. And there are, you know, like, when you use systems like your VEDA, and yoga, there are sort of markers and, and things that you can use to help with all of that, you know, you've got to, when you have a framework to teach with, like you, you're a massage therapist and a teacher and and, and those give you a kind of framework to talk about healing. But you're right, the intuition part is that, you know, that's not something that's really part of those frameworks that has to come from your own experience in your own practice. Yeah. Good point. Well said, Oh, wow, what other so like, just in relation to heart disease? What other tidbits of information have you come about that has really made you go? Wow, I thought the fact that you brought this statistic that just within the last year, three quarters, whoever was pulled, or whatever the polling sample was the three quarters of the people answering the question, so I feel like stress has increased just in the last year, I would feel I say, I feel the same way. 100%, there's been a couple of different factors for sure. Yeah. Can you share what type of have? Have you felt that way? Have you been able to manage your? Have you been able to keep your yoga practice going to a point where you're just like, No, I'm just so in touch with myself all the time that I don't let stress even creep in? Are you at that level of mastery, or what type of events have occurred this year for you that always teach what we need to learn? I think that's been my big lesson is about stress. And, you know, I came in to yoga, like with a tremendous amount of anxiety that I found my way through, like I, I sort of found my way through using the techniques from yoga, and Ayurveda. And I think that, you know, you know, we always have an ongoing laugh, because my girls and my husband, you know, you know, I'll lose my keys, where my keys worrying, and then they'll say, nanny cam, like, your students are gonna laugh if they see this. Practice. It's like, you imagine what I would be without this, like, who would I be without these tools and these practices. And so, you know, there was a time as I was writing a book on stress, I mean, the book was actually going to be called stress less, but it ended up being called the sintered heart just because the way the content really is. But I was sort of laughing about, you know, and I've had this conversation with other people, but it was laughing like, I don't really need to die of a stress attack during writing a book about stress. Very stressful, like, things are more stressful than you would imagine. If it was all your life must be so like, calm and, and yes, yes, that too. And I also, just like everyone, you know, there's all sorts of stressors in life right now. And especially right now, like you said, you know, there's so many things outside of us that we have a choice about how we want to react to them. But there's a lot of intensity with the wars and the, you know, the polarization that's happening with people instead of, you know, I'm on this side, and you're on that side. And, you know, it's like, and one of the things I love about these practices, is they help to build compassion. And that's actually one of the chapters is on compassion, that being able to, you know, see the humanity in other people can really help to lower our stress levels, like, you know, when you're in the car, and somebody cuts you off, my friend always used to, I'd get mad years ago, and he'd say, Susie, like, you know, you don't know what that person is going through. Maybe their mother just died, and they're like, beside themselves. And those words just always ring in my head. I always think like, as soon as I'm about to react, I'm like, I wonder what they're going through. I wonder what's happening for them right now. Like, if we can't start to do that in our lives, there's no hope for us, you know, we can't start to look at others and go, Wow, I wonder what it must be like to be them. That I think sort of sets that you know, starts to sort of cascade of compassion. And when we have that, it it it helps our coping skills with the things that are happening around us. Great point. That's a really good one. Do you have dreams and aspirations of how this book will be received and what type of outcome can occur if people Where to take what you're writing about to heart? I mean, yeah, that's such a nice question. You know, I really hope that, that what people might get from this book is maybe the ability to quiet the mind and the nervous system. So they can start to listen to their own inner wisdom and their own inner healer. And as the book is called their own centered heart, so they can start to have a connection to their own hearts, and that that connection can start to lead them in their lives. I know that we're, you know, we're such a mind based country, you know, where everything is about thinking, you know, and if we could kind of shift a little bit more into that space of our own hearts and meet people in that place, I feel like things would really shift. And so maybe that's one of my sort of aspirations for the book is that people will have the tools that they need to start making those shifts in their own life. And when we make those shifts, people around us make the shift. I had a participant once in one of my programs, and he was this like, high powered lawyer. And he was, you know, he was so grumpy, oh, my gosh, you're just so grumpy. A lot of the participants would calm sort of growly, and then they'd leave sort of, you know, at peace and happy and but he said to me one day, he said, he said, There's something wrong with me. And I said, What are you talking about? Because I've been doing these practices. And people like me now. What? Their problem is what? They said, Yeah, I go out to get a drink of water. And people talk to me. And they used to run, they would scatter like cockroaches, when I used to come out of my office, and I said, is that really a problem? And he goes, Well, not really. Funny. That's, that's progress. Right? So that's, that's some evidence right there. That's some like, solid evidence. Right? He was changing something in himself. And everything around him started to change. You know, and I think that's really a message that, you know, if we can make these small changes, it has a big impact in the world and with the people around us as well. Yes, well said, great point. Last night, I was taking a meditation class with a man named Dr. Michael Shea, who lives locally and I've had him a couple times on the podcast, he's become a good friend and he teaches biodynamic cranial sacral therapy, but he also is a student of the Dalai Lama. And I guess one of his his website is called Shea heart.com. And I guess one of his vows to when he took the initiation under the Dalai Lama was to focus on the heart and to just just teach about the heart and just really focus on the heart. And it sounds like you've had a similar type of I want to introduce you to together because you I feel like you guys have such a similar level of academia and ability to write and focus and put years and years and years behind this. So I'm, I'm just fascinated to meet another person that's really fascinated by the heart. Was it difficult, you know, like, when we have to niche down on something? Is there another organ in the body you had to compete the heart against to, to? To get front and center? Like was there any other like, subject that you kind of went down there? Like Wait, maybe vagus nerve, maybe vagus nerve is number one or because the organs are so fascinating, the different emotions that potentially can be associated with Oregon's? Is there any insight that you've gained regarding these sort of different differentiations between Oregon's and an emotion? You know, that's such an interesting question. I've not really ever thought of that. And he sounds like such a fascinating person. I'll introduce you guys. Yeah, I will for sure. I hope you can. You know, I mean, I often feel like the mind kind of bullies the heart. So it's a little bit you know, there's always I can say all sorts of things. But the heart knows there's a sense, there's a felt sense that we have about things and there's a, we know when we're living in our hearts, and when we're coming from our hearts, we can feel that. And it's a different feeling than when you come from your head. Same with practice with when you practice from your head. It's really easy to get hurt and to kind of push yourself into things and talk to yourself in ways that aren't very nice. But when you're in your heart, that doesn't usually happen. Because when we're in our hearts, we have compassion, and we listen with that compassion and understanding. So, but I haven't ever felt that with other organs. I've been so in the world rolled of heart. And I think I came into the world, you know, I was I was a very feeling and heartfelt kind of person when I came in, so it was fitting for me to sort of move in that direction, I've had to sort of toughen up, you know, instead of get softer, I've had to kind of get tougher in my life, which is kind of a lot of people have to come the other way. You know, they come in kind of tough and guarded, and they have to get solid. That's a really good point. Yeah. What is an example of something you've had to toughen up with? Just a lot of things. I mean, I think when you have, when you come with a bit of an open heart, there's an innocence. And there's an openness that can get taken advantage of maybe by people, you can get pushed around if you don't have good healthy boundaries, to kind of support that open heartedness. And I think that's where I've had to really pay attention to that. There is something very loving about having good boundaries and taking care of yourself in those ways. Because it sends a very clear picture a message to others, and then they know where they stand and where they what they can, and can't, you know where they can and can't push. But But I always try to go back to my heart, like, I might have an initial kind of like head reaction to something. But I always try to come back and feel what it might be like for someone else, or to be in a different situation or to have, you know, to just feel for someone to have compassion. Yeah. Have you ever been around somebody that's been having a heart attack? Have you ever been present in a situation where someone has had cardiac distress where it was a life or death situation? Well, I think working in the program that I worked in, that was always a kind of a risk, because, you know, we were working with people that were quite ill, some of them had had seven or eight heart attacks by the time they came into our program. In fact, you know, one thing that I wanted to say that was really interesting is that early on, some of maybe I already said this, but some of the doctors in our hospital, heard about our program, and decided that they had some patients, they were cardiologists had patients that were on the heart transplant list, and they didn't know what to do with them while they were waiting. So they put them in our program, and six weeks to two threes, six to 12 weeks later, they came off the heart transplant list, doing our program. Wow. And I thought, Oh, God, see. I mean, I saw things all the time where people were coming off of their diabetes medication, they were coming off of their depression medicine, they were coming. And you start to go, Wait a minute, these practices are so powerful, and Dr. Ornish used to say, you know, if this program were a pill, it would be malpractice not to prescribe it. And and so I don't know how that relates to what you were just saying. Ya know, I often have not been around, someone had a heart attack. Luckily, in our yoga classes, I've never had that happen. I did have somebody I didn't. I've never been around somebody that had an asthma attack before. So I didn't realize how severe an asthma attack actually is. And so when we, when my wife and I had a Bikram yoga studio in San Diego, she had come in and she started, she hadn't had an asthma attack, and years and years and years and years. So she kind of thought that maybe she had moved beyond it. But something in the room triggered her and she had a major asthma attack. And, oh, that's scary stuff. That's some pretty hardcore stuff. And luckily, she had a cut. Whatever the emergency thing is that you need when you have an asthma attack, whether it was the inhaler, a special epi pen, or something of that nature. And in our car that someone ran out, God was able to administer and she was able to start to breathe again. We definitely dialed on one, one. So you know, it was a serious, serious attack. But I guess that's the sort of thing that when you do a yoga teacher training, you don't know you're going to encounter this type of things. And you don't know what you're going to do in the moment. I'm always training people. Yes, do dial 911 when there's an emergency, like, yes. What do you do you take the same similar protocol when you're in this situation. And, you know, I don't teach a lot of heart classes on my own. I teach people how to teach people with heart disease. And I and I have been, I have taught those classes for many, many years. And, you know, we always had a medical person close by, and we had several occasions had to call someone and, you know, bring in the defibrillator and, you know, that's happened, you know, that has happened to people, but not didn't usually happen in the yoga class. It usually happened in exercise. That makes sense. But I have had people you know, that have, you know, I've had people that have said that they were going to not turn their car off in the garage. And they call me instead of their therapist. And that's, you know, those kinds of situations are really challenging for us as yoga teachers. Oh, like, it's like a suicide situation. Yeah, oh, yeah, that's pretty heavy, isn't it, and you're, you then remove them or give them a recommendation go to a licensed professional in that field. But in that moment, you still have to converse with them to like, at least right talk, talk them to a place where they're not gonna go back out in the garage, and they're gonna take these steps forward, that's a great point. It's so challenging, because we don't our profession doesn't have a lot of, you know, we don't have a sort of a handbook for some of the things that come up. And people look at us as if we're doctors, you know, as if we're priests, as if we're, you know, spiritual teachers, as if we're all sorts of things their mother, their father. So there's a lot of, you know, people put a lot of hope in us as healers. And I think that, you know, those situations do come up, and they do require 911, or they do require intervention, but in the meantime, it does require our ability to be present and calm, and to be with them and to think on the spot. And that's another one where, you know, like you talked about before, you know, how do people, you know, how do they follow their intuition. And I think this is another reason for teachers to be really dedicated to their own practice, so that they can, you know, make the right choices at the right time. Oh, excellent, Susie. And I like your I like the way you dance the line, because, you know, like you first started saying mentioning, you know, how important it is for us to believe in ourselves. And that we can heal ourselves, you're also integrating with modern medicine and science, not turning your back on one or the other, saying one is better than the other, but integrating both, but also taking a pretty solid stand that you can play a big part in healing yourself as well. And to trust that, which is a really interesting line to kind of traverse. So I feel like it sounds like you're doing an amazing job of it. Thank you. You're a really amazing listener. As I said earlier, you have such you have curiosity. And I think you're such a great example of yoga. So thank you for just letting me have this conversation with you today. It's been really fun to Oh, man. And, and hear a little bit about you, too, oh, I really appreciate that. It's an honor to meet another teacher that's that, you know, you've been doing this longer and consistent, I get huge inspiration from that. That is so great to hear. I feel like, you know, every now and again, you might think it can things can be challenging, you think, Am I really gonna be able to pull this off? Can I keep doing this? So that is a huge encouragement. You're still going Thank you. So well, how, how much longer? How much more gas? Do you have in the tank? Like, do you do you? Do you envision a retirement? Or do you see yourself serving on this level up until your 80s? Or 90s? Or as long as you have? Yeah, that's such a great question. I, you know, I would love to be able to serve as long as I can serve. And my yoga center has really been a place of service. I've always worked at other jobs. I mean, as a yoga therapist, other places where I could make money so that I could have a yoga center, and it could be of service in a community. So I'd love to keep that going if I can, and I love to keep teaching if I can. You know, I have little grandkids that live in England and I love to go visit them. But I'm hoping that I can take this with me and keep teaching and you know, this was a big I think this was a big thing to do at this point in my life to think Yeah, I think I'll just write a book and and then start traveling and doing like it's a whole nother profession. Yeah, yeah. I really love it. And I think if I could go longer at it, I will as long as that there's a place for these teachings. I'm I'm there. Oh, man. Well, come down to Florida. When it's freezing in Omaha. We'd love to have you. I would love to visit Nebraska. I bend in Nebraska. I've driven across the country a bunch of times. I don't know if I've made Nebraska yet. Are you? I'm a huge Springsteen fan. Do you like Bruce Springsteen? He's got a beautiful album. Isn't Nebraska album is pretty, pretty amazing. Great. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. In fact, I'm coming down to Florida because my in laws live down there and I'm going to be down next week. Which part in Boca? Oh my gosh. Well, do you know where we are? Yeah, we're very close. We're in Juno Beach so Boca is about a 40 If there's no traffic 45 to 50 minute drive, so we're not far at all. Oh my gosh. Is he Oh, when is that when it when are you here? We're coming next week. for about four days, my husband's dad is having a surgery. And so we're going to just be he's going to do it after we leave. But we were coming down to just support him a little bit. So I'd love to get your info on. All right, awesome. That'd be great. Oh, man, CZ, this has been such a tree. The time went by so fast. And I love that when I look over, and I go, what it's been an hour holy cow, we got. Well, Estelle want to stay overnight person to the station. Were very interesting. And Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a real pleasure. I wish you incredible success with your book, people. I have the links in the description below. They can go to your website, preorder, when if I go and preorder now, when could I expect to actually have a book arrive? In my first April 1, April 1. And one of the things that I wanted to say about it is there's a there's a QR code, and it takes you to a website where you can get free practices, the same ones that are in the book, you know, if you don't want to read them to yourself, you can have them, you know, it's me taking you through audio was like an audio file, an audio file. Yeah. Cool audio file. I was wondering, are you a 30 day program that we're just rolling out tomorrow. And there's like a, it's just for this week, there's it's $99. It's normally 199. But it's the it's the companion to the book where it's 30 days of practice 30 minutes each day. And it's all of the techniques that I teach in the book. Very cool. Yeah. How does it work in your book on Audible? Do you have to can you narrate your own book, and then have it uploaded on Audible where it's available that way? Well, so that's something that the publisher, and they have rules about all of that. And so I think that's something that they'll talk with me about later. If the book does well, then they'll try to, and I think they like to have the authors do the audible piece. That'd be so cool. Yeah, but I thought that it would be nice if people bought the book if they could have free practices that you can hear. So I have those included. So people can, there's a few, like maybe seven or 817 or eight practices that you can download for free. Nice. So awesome. Well, I'm definitely gonna check it out. I can't wait to get a copy. I will, I'm gonna get your address I can send you into wonderful and I'll share one with my friend Michael Shear that I mentioned to you. And I'll introduce you guys. Thank you so much. Susie, I really enjoyed this and I'm excited to hear you're going to be in Florida and so close by I have a feeling we're gonna build. We're gonna build a meet in person. Thank you so much. I'll email you about all of that. All right, cool. Sounds good. Okay, thank you so much. Native yoga taught 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