Jayson Barniske ~ Revealing Secrets Of Ancient Healing For The Modern World

Jayson Barniske is a seasoned yoga instructor and entrepreneur based in Tulum, Mexico. With nearly two decades of yoga practice, he specializes in Ashtanga yoga and is known for his deep commitment to spiritual development and community building. Jayson is the co-owner of an upcoming yoga studio in Tulum, complete with a vegan restaurant and luxury spa amenities. He has also been involved in the shamanic practices teaching and applying plant medicine for healing and personal growth.

Visit Jayson on his website: https://ashtangayogatulum.mx/
Follow him on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ashtangayogatulum/
Visit sponsor: https://www.gina.health/ use code JAYSON15

Key Takeaways:

• Ashtanga yoga offers many benefits beyond physical fitness, helping cultivate mental strength and spiritual growth, suitable even for those with physical limitations.
• Building a community-oriented space in Tulum was a complex yet rewarding endeavor that involved sourcing local materials and talent.
• Plant medicine can provide profound spiritual insights when used responsibly and with clear intentions; Journaling and integration are essential for maximizing its benefits.

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Chapters

• 0:04 Jason Barniske's Two-Year Journey to Open a Yoga Studio
• 1:25 Building a Yoga Studio and Spa in Tulum's Unique Environment
• 7:08 Opening a Yoga Studio and Teacher Training in Tulum
• 18:08 Navigating Traffic and Safety on the Way to the Beach
• 19:57 Finding Balance in Yoga Practice for Physical and Spiritual Well-Being
• 27:21 The Transformative Power of Ashtanga Yoga on Mind and Body
• 37:30 Healing Trauma Through Compassion and Community Support
• 45:55 Responsible Use and Integration of Plant Medicines in Shamanism
• 48:57 Harnessing Dreams and Journaling for Healing and Integration
• 55:49 Tulum's Vegan Restaurant and Yoga Studio Oasis
• 58:51 Opening a Yoga Studio and Wellness Retreat in Tulum

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, body work and beyond. Follow us at @nativeyoga and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Welcome Native Yoga Toddcast. Today I have returned guest Jayson Barniske. I'm so excited to have Jayson back on the show. Jayson is the owner of Ashtanga Yoga Tulum down in Mexico. Go to his website, which is ashtangayogatulum.mx link in the description. Follow him on his two Instagram handles, at@Jayson.ashtangatulum and at@ashtangayogatulum. He has a vegan restaurant called Raw love. Check that out. You'll see that as well. He is opening his studio there. It's just opened by the time you're listening to this. He's like two weeks, opened up after a two year project. Maybe longer. I'm sure it's been longer, and definitely go listen to episode number 77 so you can hear Jayson in some of the backstory of this conversation. It's an amazing episode. I got so much wonderful feedback from that one. That's why I'm so excited to have Jayson back again, and just really happy to celebrate his achievement of following through and building Ashtanga Yoga Tulum in the downtown area or in the center of town. Also, I'm going to put a link to the Netflix documentary that we speak of during this conversation. Also see the link below for a product he mentions at their website, which is called gina.health and the code, all caps, JAYSON15 to get a discount. All right, I think that about covers it. I'm so excited. If you haven't met Jayson yet from my previous episode, you get a chance to meet Jayson and hearhow passionate he is about Ashtanga Yoga. During the conversation, we speak about all the above that I just talked to you about, but also about some of the nuances in teaching Ashtanga Yoga and Mysore and led class, and how he structures teaching and his practice. So get ready to hear an inspiration in the Ashtanga yoga community. And I'm just so pleased to have this opportunity. Thank you so much for supporting let's begin. I'm so excited to be here with Jayson Barniske, and I've had the opportunity to have Jayson on the show about two, little over two years ago, and he's back. Jayson, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well. I'm grateful to be on the show. Very much. Looking forward to having this conversation with you. Oh man, thank you so much, Jason. Because I really recommend those of you listening, please go back to episode number 77 and you can hear about Jason. He's been in Maya Tulum for quite a few years now, setting up a yoga studio. And episode 77 Jason, you told me about your life story and some of the challenges that you've been through and how you navigate living through some of that really crazy stuff. And so I really recommend go back and listen to that one after you hear this one so you can get some backstory. But today we get a chance to kind of catch up on what you've been up to over the last two years. When we when we talked last time you were about ready to open up your yoga studio into loom, and when I right before we hit record here, you told me that, no, actually, we're about ready to open up on November 1. So like, tell me, how did it take two years from thinking you're opening up to here now that, like, what took so long? What was challenging about that? Well, when we got into the project, it looked like it was going to be cut and clean and easy and on. The more work we did, like things are not the same. We don't the construction standards are not the same in southern Mexico as they are in the United States. And we're building the vegan restaurant has already it's been open for a while, but the yoga studio, we built the structure from scratch. So it wasn't like we were going in and renovating a building. We actually put the frame up, put the roof on, built the walls and hardwood, put in hardwood floor and and then now we also have built a full on luxury sauna that has a wet and a dry sauna and a cold plunge and a Jacuzzi. And these are extremely complicated projects and tasks to put them all together when you need special artesians to do the work. But something like really interesting in Mexico about the floors is, like in California and San Diego, I'm from, you would go and buy the floor that is cut at Lowe's. It has a notch. It's already painted, and that day you can go and just start popping in the floors and getting them ready. Well, here in the Yucatan, how we would do it is we drive in from the beach to the jungle to the guy who cuts down the trees and and then Mills them into shape. And then we brought all of this wood ourself into town, and had to let it cure for eight weeks. And then once it cured, then we had to, like, nail it in and pound it into place and actually sand the wood with three different levels of sanding, and then go over and paint it with a gloss and sand that again. And so it's just a really incredible project. And I guess the other reason why it took so long is my partner and I had done my business partner, we allowed ourselves to just dream and okay, like, let's just not make regular walls. Let's put up bamboo that's in sacred geometry. Or, let's just not put a regular door. Let's put the most fancy, overdone door we can do. Or for the sauna and the spa all this, it's made with onyx stone that's cut from one of our friends mine. So it's really been a lesson of slowing down, not being in a rush, but willing to do things out of seva and gratitude. And at the end of the day, it's not my yoga studio or his yoga studio. It belongs to the community. So having to wait two years allowed me to develop my yoga business, my brand here in Tulum, Ashtanga Yoga to loom, and I have a great group of students, and people are always visiting Tulum as a vacation place, so I've been able to meet a lot of people, and it's really going to be a sweet thing. When, when, when I teach the first class at the new yoga studio. Oh my gosh. What were I mean that does sound like an extremely involved process with laying down wood floor that does sound like a huge project. Tell me, like, in terms of putting in a sauna and a cold plunge, what type of challenges have you come across there? Because, like, personally, we have a yoga studio here in Juneau Beach, Florida, and somebody asked me, Are you gonna put showers in? And I remember managing a yoga studio in West Palm that someone had to kind of put this makeshift, makeshift shower in, and it was really hard to keep clean. It was like a challenge. And it was like just a cleaning challenge all the time, like, from a hygiene perspective, that when we opened here, I was like, Oh heck, no man, I do not want to have a shower, you know, like, I don't, so I'm just curious, like, I'm sure you came across a couple of challenges. But, you know, for anybody else that's thinking, Yeah, I want to open a yoga studio, and I want to, you know, have all these other amenities alongside the yoga what sort of advice and or challenges have you come across in putting that together? Well, there have been many because, like I said here, here in Mexico, you're not going to find like a licensed contractor to get the rock communicated with the guy from from the the mine in Guatemala who cut the stone, and then he brought the stone over here, these huge slabs of stone, and we had to cut them piece by piece and put them in. And I guess the thing is, is when you come up with something that you can either allow it to frustrate you, or you can allow it to inspire you to do something different and to do something incredible and to do something extraordinary, like I'm sure we're the only people who have a full on Onyx spa that can fit eight people, just because it's not a normal thing. And so people in Tulum, the architecture is different here, and like, it's kind of the cultures to allow yourself to dream really big. And I'm very excited about the synergy of this place, because a vegan, gluten free restaurant is called Raw love. It has just like the most loving, peaceful, healing vibes. And then we have this healing water, and then we have yoga studio, a spiritual development center that's going to have many different disciplines. And really just about raising the consciousness of everybody who comes in the place, don't we're all the hardest thing is having to work with other people. Because if it's one person has a vision, it's one thing, but multiple people have different visions, and to be able to work together and come to solutions. Being solution oriented always, like when things get difficult, instead of getting frustrated, let's just get a little more solution oriented. And if one thing is not working in one direction, this contractor we're using is not doing a good job. Well, maybe we cut our losses and find a new contract, or we do it ourselves. So we're just staying focused on the goal. And like I said, is going to be a really sweet thing when we're going to teach the first class. That's amazing. So we're recording right now. It's october 22 and and you're gonna be open November 1. So we're talking like, what? Nine days away. Yeah, nine days away. Nine days away. So what are you envisioning? You already made mention, like you're already pre planning how that first day is gonna go. What are you seeing in your mind's eye? Well, I already have a full on yoga program going at a really high end resort in Tulum right now. So I'm teaching pranayama at six. I'm teaching Mysore at seven every day, Monday through Friday, and then I'm teaching the guided class from nine to 11. And everybody in Tulum is kind of wanting to teach at this place. Because most of the time you go to Tulum, you have to go down somewhere on the beach, and this is a place that's right in the center of town, so it's really easy for everyone to get access to. It's the only Yoga Studio in the center of town like this. Oh, wow. So it's easy for everyone to get access to. Everybody knows this place. They already feel comfortable and familiar. We're going to have two Tango classes every week, and then like a salsa night every week, but so many amazing people come through Tulum of different spiritual disciplines. I'm excited to have several different teachers every week teaching class. We're definitely going to have an emphasis on Ashtanga in the mornings, and maybe some intro beginner stuff throughout the week, in the evening, but we're going to have huge array of different teachers in different styles, from Tai Chi to Kabbalah to mantras. And kirtan has been a huge part of me living in this community. We have some amazing kirtan artists, so kirtan is going to be a big part of what we do. But yeah, I'm just excited to see, because everybody in this community, I get five to 10 calls a day because everybody's so excited about this place opening, because it's a place for the community. And so, yeah, I'm just, I'm looking forward to being a for more service. That's awesome. Jason, how? How good is your Espanol? I'm not Espanol. Muy bien. Pareja is the Argentina? Yeah, so soon, Espanol different see in tienda. So how difficult would it have been to do what you're doing not knowing Spanish? Well, most of the laborers, yeah, I speak to them in Spanish, for sure, and the guys that are building a place, and, yeah. So most of those people, I speak to them in Spanish and but a lot of the business partners and the employee, the customers who come in to the restaurant, or the people who are going to be coming as tourists to the class, speak English. So it is possible to navigate to loom if you speak English. And so to loom is it's huge, like we opened our new airport, I think, less than a year ago, like six or eight months ago, and I read an article this morning that 1.4 million people are going to go through that airport this high season. Wow. As opposed to what was the typical, typical amount of people coming through, not nearly 1.4 million before to come into Tulum, you had to fly into Cancun and then drive two hours on a bus or get a taxi to get here. So I don't think it was anywhere near that much in the town. Is only 23,000 people. So is there mixed sentiment about such a influx of people coming in? Well, this is, like, a seasonal town, so people, it's, it's, like, really excited to be here when it's high season, because everybody can earn a living, but then to go to the beach, sometimes it could take one and a half to three hours to go down the beach road just to get to the beach. Whoa, so many people here, and prices go up during high season, and they go down during low season. So I guess what I do is I enjoy the good parts of low season, that there's less tourists at the beach, that I can go to, the cenote, that things are a little bit less expensive. It's easier to move around town. And I also, again, try to in. Enjoy the good parts of high season, that there's more people here, that there's more events, that all the locals get super busy, and we don't get to see each other, because we're all doing our own thing, but nice to have some time off and travel and do other things. Was there any red tape that you didn't think you'd be able to cut to get this project finished? Hmm? First. Well, there were several times when I was just really frustrated and I wanted to make things go faster. But then I remembered, it's like, my goal here, my purpose, my dharma, is to teach yoga. And so whether I'm in the fancy, brand new studio, or if I'm at the really fancy, beautiful place I'm at right now, I can just be present and focused. And when God wants to bless me with with these amazing like abundant opportunities, He'll bless me. And I'm excited because I live in in an apartment complex, and three business partners that are all on the project. We all live in the same complex, and so it's really cool. We have a strong community, and I'm so grateful that everybody supports each other. There's nobody that's really living in Tulum is from Tulum. We all came here from the States or Canada or South America got it. So there's an incredible conscious community. And everywhere I look, I feel supported by the community. Nice. Well, that's awesome, man, that's so good to hear. I'm curious. You made mention that you so obviously you're teaching Ashtanga Yoga. You're leading classes via my source, style and also leg classes. And I recommend everybody also. You know you can watch Jason. You post regularly Jason on Instagram, and there's two separate handles that we can follow you on. We have your personal one at Jason, and it's spelled j, A, y, s, O, N, just to make that easy for people, dot, Ashtanga dot Tulum. And then you also have the one for the yoga studio, which is at Jason, dot Ashtanga Tulum. Ah, thank you so much. I put a.in between Ashtanga and Tulum. I'm so glad you fixed that for me. Thank you. And also your your yoga studio, one which is a stronger yoga Tulum. So I recommend people follow you, because they can see like you're always posting really cool videos and showing what it looks like there, and what you're up to and what you're doing, as far as teaching and different workshops that you're holding, and when you're chanting Hanuman Chalisa, and, or if you're holding a sacred ceremony, and or you're always kind of giving us a glimpse as to what life is like in Tulum. I'm curious currently, though, in relation to your strong yoga teaching, can you speak a little bit about what is getting you excited about teaching and what your goal is in working with students? Well, I've been getting really excited lately. First of all, because the studio is opening and and I'm planning a teacher training. So this is the first teacher training that I've planned in my life to do, and I had to make a whole new teacher training manual, which is kind of similar of what our teacher taught us, and with a lot of new stuff and different things in it. But I've really been enjoying diving into all aspects of the practice, from pranayama, which is huge, and I have, like this day, a daily practice of pranayama and giving people adjustments, teaching people how to do adjustments. We talked a little bit about it before, but I love to help people find a rhythm in their practice where they don't get into a rut, where somebody's not showing up every day doing the exact same thing. How can we get a little bit more out of our practice? How can I activate my legs a little bit more to go a little deeper in this practice? How can I improve just the little things each day a little bit more. So I can have a constant flow of steady improvement. And I think that we can always learn to push ourselves a little bit more, even if we have an injury, and love ourselves through the injury, and back off and come back to our practice and use it as a thing to go deeper through. So the teacher training I'm really excited about is on january 25 to February 2, and I have a hotel that's right next door to this restaurant. It's like, amazing. Everything's perfect. Or people can get their own hotel or their own Airbnb. There's a lot of really cool accommodations in Tulum, and I said we're in the center of town, so it'll be pranayama in the morning, and you can go to either of the classes, and then in the afternoons, we're going to have a huge study session where we go over anatomy and physiology and history and mantras and. Sacred texts, like the Ramayana, the Bhagavad Gita, and then go through all the adjustments, and your time will be a huge part of it, too. So I'm really excited getting people pumped up for that, and the studio opening and the whole community. Yeah, very cool. Do you do you already have people signed up, or people that have expressed that they're going to come. I do have some people signed up, yeah, and I have a professional wedding videographer who's going to come and record it something I haven't announced this, and I was about to announce it, but the retreat, I think it. You can see the price online, but, and there's an optional food plan. So with the meal plan, you can get 24 meals. You get like a brunch and at dinner every day of the training. And for the next five people who sign up, I'm going to give them that for free. The meal plan, very cool. So, and I'll say, I won't mention that pricing here, but I'll just say that is, it's really reasonable to some of the other teacher trainings that I've seen in the loom and in other places, in Mexico and definitely in the States, nice. That's cool, making it accessible, you know, within reason. Oh, and spa access. So after like, you're really putting everything on yourself, working so hard every day you you have full access to use the sauna and the spa and the cold flange. Very cool. Dude, that sounds awesome. Jason, I'm surprised it takes. Well, if there's no traffic, how long does it take to get from town to beach? Okay, so, and here's the scoop behind that is, for many years, there was one road to the beach or from the town to the beach, and they just opened a second road, so depending on what hotel you're going to, but if there's no traffic, and a lot of people down here have scooters and mopeds and things like that, because you can drive around the cars, and you have to be careful with that as well, because it's, it's, you're in Mexico, and you're, it just, you have to be careful on a scooter. I have a motorcycle, so I can get down to the beach in 15 to 20 minutes. No traffic. Got it. But during high season, sometimes there's like day zero or a huge music festival, and there's an influx of hundreds of 1000s people in town, yeah, there's there's bumper to bumper traffic all the way to the beach, and even on the beach road, there's traffic. So it's very interesting, and it's always a fun adventure to get down. Oh, man, I bet that's cool. Are you wearing a helmet when you ride your motorbike? Definitely wearing a helmet when I'm on the motorbike. Good to hear. Thank you. I see people here in Florida just flying down 95 with no helmet on, on a crotch rocket, just going like 110 miles an hour. And I'm like, Oh, my God, that's so crazy. I think I can't wish Right, right? So then I'm curious. Um, all right, I'm coming in. I'm starting to get a little bit sore, I'm starting to get a little tired, and you're suggesting that I should be coming and practicing six days a week. And I'm like, Jason, my my knees, my shoulders, my back, and I just don't think I can show up in the morning, how are you going to respond to me? Well, I would say, listen to your body, and we don't do this practice like I really love the quote from Sharath that says it's not about having a great practice, it's about having a consistent one. And for me, over the years, there's been incredible physical benefit to the practice, but the mental and emotional and spiritual benefit greatly outweigh the physical benefit, even though there's a tremendous physical benefit. So how can I practice to keep my mind in the greatest space. And so what that may look like is not pushing yourself so hard on the other five days so that you can practice on the sixth day. Or what are the ways we can modify your practice to where it's still feels good, but it allows you to get to a place that has mental and spiritual benefit. I love to talk about one of my I shouldn't say one student's better than another, but I have a highly devoted student here in Tulum, and we just got done doing a private. We do a private every week, and she's in a walker, and she, I think she's 72 years old, and she's in a walker, and she does ashtanga yoga every day. And so this woman is, like just over a meter tall, but she's modified a way of doing Surya Namaskara using a table and two chairs. Sometimes I post videos of her. People are like, wow, what's happening? Yeah, but she does the practice every single day, because it keeps pulling her body back from scoliosis and straightening her spine and being healthy. So it's really fun to work with people like that, because then it changes your concept. Like this is maybe not about making the bind or putting my leg behind my head, yes and yes. When I do the daily practices like 21 day challenges, they're a really fun thing, because you start to see what habits we have in our daily life affect our practice. Like, Ah, maybe I had two or three beers the night before on day seven on a 21 day challenge, and you can really see how much it affects your body the next day in practice. Not saying that you can't do that, but yeah, for people that don't want to those, I love helping people push past that barrier, because it didn't. It's this is a breathing practice. Isn't practice for for spiritual well being. So just to try to make that the focus, make that the goal, over, over, physical exertion, when, when we're in moments like this, that's cool, man. Well, that seems very reasonable, yeah, what do you tell people? Oh, similar, similar. I, I mean, I'm I'm consistent. I'm constantly trying to get the point across that if you come and do a Surya Namaskar, one, just one, Surya Namaskar, that that could be enough, and that there's the you can make that be enough for you, and to try to build that sense of like you can come in at any time and just try to get one sun salutation done, and even if we do a cow and a cat. So instead of even up, dog, down dog, or whatever, the challenge is that let's, let's figure that out. And then usually one will lead to two and but the other day, I had a student who I kind of gave her the idea when she came in, because it was her first time coming to Mysore, and I let her know, I said, Look, what I'm going to do is, when we get started, is I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to keep checking in with you. And the cool thing about Mysore style is that the duration of our practice time can be as short or as long as you're feeling energy for. So as I keep checking in with you at any point, please feel free to let me know that you've had enough, and as soon as you let me know that that's enough, I'm going to bring you down to the final three breathing poses, and we'll would be done. And so we did, we did five A's and three B's, and we got through parang, gushtasana, parastasana, Trikonasana, and Parvati, Trikonasana. And I said, How are you feeling? And she said, I'm good. I think I'm done. I was so proud of her, because I feel like there's that drive when you get in the room and you see everybody else and you're thinking, Oh, I gotta do that. I want to do that. I want to try to do that. I got to get up to that speed. It was just so cool to have somebody be like, No, I think I'm actually am good. And it was just like, one of those refreshing moments where you're like, yes, she got it on the first day. Like, you don't have to kill yourself. You can, you can actually enjoy this. And you can get into the breathing so, but I really like that you brought up the attention to the details of the other parts of the day, like, what are things? What other things am I doing that might be contributing to my exhaustion or my soreness in my knees? Or am I whatever, and what am I putting my focus on? Am I here to practice, or am I here just to go to the beach every day so and I agree with you, Jason, I love that you're that you're taking that approach, and I think it's really valuable. Yeah, and I have a similar thought to you about Mysore versus guided, because most beginners think I couldn't do my store. Let me just go to guided. But the guided class has its own pace and its own rhythm, and you do usually, we usually do the full sequence, unless it's like a half primary or something like this. So I have, I have a very similar student who's gone to maybe four or five Mysore classes, and it's been the greatest joy to see him going from just a couple A's and then, yeah, if you don't come promising you'll do an A or two or a couple A's at home, yeah, and I'll get that. I actually did 10. I did five A's and five. Oh, nice, nice. So it's, it's a joy, and I love watching that in people. Yeah, our teacher, Tim, used to talk about, like Kundalini energy and this snake unfoiling And like unfolding in people. And he'd ask you to ask other teachers at the trainings, he'd be like, Do you guys know anything about this happens? And everybody was kind of quiet. But it's a very esoteric thing that teachers who watch lots and lots. That people practice, you start to see how the there is like a curled up, twisted snake inside of someone. And the more they practice, it starts to come out and unfurl. And somebody who has 10 or 12 years and 15 years, whoa, this snake is totally unraveled, and they're like reaching higher states of consciousness and freedom and bliss within their own body. So it's it's beautiful to see everyone's process exactly where they're at, and then to know that whether you came in and you can touch your head to your knees or you're in a walker and you can barely move through this method, you can improve where you're at, physically and mentally and spiritually, I had someone pose this question to me recently, so I want to ask you and see what your answer is. How do you feel? Ashtanga yoga helps you process trauma. Oh, that's a big one. That's a huge one, isn't it? So like the I've learned this recently, but the majority of of emotions that a person holds it, they last about 90 seconds to two minutes. And then deeper trauma, it can last months, week, years, a longer time. And for me, as soon as I started practicing and making this connection to my breath into my body, the practice took me away from my triggered states, or the states where I was experiencing this trauma. And because we're psychosomatic, it manifests in our physical body. So when I move my body and I connect my breath with it, my nervous system is naturally starting to heal itself and my brain, I can feel it rewiring. And then I give my nervous system the time away from getting encyclical thoughts to just get back to homeostasis. And I've gone through some heavy things in my life, some really challenging things, and after doing like a foolish Tonga practice, my mental state was never worse than when it started. And so i i the practice and working with our nervous system and working with our breath, allowing us just to get back to the state of homeostasis is that's how I think we rewire and reheat like we renew the system. Nice, good answer, if you take just the two terms of, say, primary series, which is sometimes called Yoga chikitsa, which we could loosely define as, like yoga therapy, or, I know sometimes even people go down the track of like gut cleansing. And then second series, Nadi Shodhana, nervous system cleansing. Can you speak a little bit about your experience of the process of the purification of the body? Slash, maybe, if we even stay out of the word of purification to say, like the transformation or the change that occurs in the body? And then what you've learned about your own nervous system and how these two work in a successional pattern. Yeah, well, it's kind of like you're building a house. And if you're building a three story house, you have, let's say you have the beginner, intermediate and advanced practice you're building, you have to put the first level first. You have to put the here we have a lot of pyramids. The first thing you have to lay the foundation for your pyramid. And yoga Chiquita, I like to think of it as yoga therapy. I like the idea of gut cleansing. In my experience, everybody comes to the practice and they're more tamasic, they're heavier, they're denser, they're tighter, whether it's physically or mentally. Everybody comes to this practice because they're seeking to improve themselves. They're seeking to improve their life, their physical health, their mental health, their spiritual health. So yoga, Chiquita all being about forward bends, twists and hip openers. If you look at a lot of those things like physically, forward bends help you to get a little bit leaner and lighter, and the twists also help to cleanse anything that could be in your in your intestines, and they also clean all of your organs, which are all linked psychosomatically to different emotions. So definitely like gut cleansing, like when we you. When we have this gut feeling and you go against it, it's usually a really bad situation you get into in life. And so a lot of times our emotions get stuck in the gut. So all these forward bendings and these twists, they're really amazing for our parasympathetic nervous system, like the really relaxed part of our nervous system. So our nervous system relaxes, we get lighter, we get more flexible, we get stronger, and we get greater endurance. And that's what happens on this first pyramid of the practice primary series. And most people get get to that point, and then that's where they're at for their entire life. And it's really fun to see people go from the first to the second, and batavi Joyce said, that's all you really need. There's no further benefit. You're going to get an Ashtanga from the first to the second tier, like out of first and second, the higher practices are amazing, but the main benefit are in the first two sequences. So again, first series is about getting cleaner, getting lighter, getting leaner, getting stronger, getting a little bit more endurance, getting a little bit more faith in yourself and in the system. Second Series, naughty show the hand. That's a big thing. Because the first series, we're doing a lot of bending forward and twisting. Second Series you're doing extreme bend, extreme back bending, extreme twisting, extreme leg behind the head, forward bending. And you need the first series to open up your body, your nervous system, your joints, your muscles, to access these deeper levels of our emotions, these deeper levels of who we truly are, and we talk about it on the first podcast. But in our second series teacher training, I went, and I knew maybe I was literally went to the training, and I knew, like the first three poses of second series. And in those two weeks, I learned pretty much all of the second series. So it was, like a profound thing, and I had, like, this emotional melt. You could call it a meltdown, but really it was an emotional breakthrough, and allowing our bodies to open up and go deeper and have to embrace the sense of trust and surrender we're able to access parts of our nervous system that really translate into true healing. And a lot of times I didn't say this before my I love teaching intro to second series. A lot of Ashtanga places they teach like intro to first and primary. One of my favorite things to do I was earlier today is intro to second series, because you teach people how to start going into these deeper places, but then also feeling safe. So there's this great balance. So first series gets us lighter and leaner and stronger. Second Series cracked open this egg, or like a shell we have around our heart, and it allows us to experience deeper emotions and get more joy out of life. And it's actually the the sympathetic nervous system, which is like the fight or flight, that's why sometimes you get into, like, really deep, intense back bends and poses that are highly stimulated. So after first series, you may feel a little tired afterwards. If you do second series at night, you're probably going to be up really late because it's really, really stimulate and so to say a little bit about stirabaga, which translates into divine strength. When I first saw people in my circle class doing sthirabaga, I asked myself, do I even really want to do this? This is incredible how deep they're going, but with the assistance of an experienced teacher, or if you have like a master teacher, hoping you go into adjustments and going a little deeper, is really incredible at at creating what Yogananda called an indomitable will. So for me, like after I've gone through a third series, or even four series, third and four series, something like this, I end up being so energized and having so much power and so much belief in myself that whatever is going on in life, I'm going to make the situation better. I'm going to be this lighthouse. And it's cool, because we often go to here in Tulum, there's a place called Adi, and it's like a it's a Starbucks, but just for cacao drinks. And when I walk in there, and several students are all there, everybody at the place, drinking, drinking cacao. They look at us and they're like, where did you guys come from? We're all alone. You're all like, we can feel the prana coming off. So I'm, I'm really grateful that the system exists, and even on like the sixth day of the week, when I don't want to. Do it. I'm really grateful I do because it's still stimulating and recharging. And after doing this practice for 19, almost 20 years, I still I'm grateful to most days feel inspired to get up and go deep in the sequence. That's so cool. Jason, I can feel your enthusiasm, man, it's amazing. Yeah, you're keeping it going. You're keeping that inspiration a lit, you know, on fire. You know, I'm I really want to direct everybody to listen to our last podcast and number 77 because after I spoke with you that time, and I'm going to give people even a little bit more homework now, after they listen to this one, and then they listen to their previous one, to then go to Netflix and watch a series or a documentary called the program, cons, cults and kidnapping. Because after we spoke, I was like, Oh my gosh, that's so heavy, Jason, that's so intense, man. And I really enjoyed hearing how you've been able to experience what you did. And then I watched this documentary on Netflix, and it just basically highlights these multiple institutions where children were put in and severe abuse occurred. And I saw that there was one in Mexico, and I remember you'd said you'd been in one in Mexico. And I went, Holy crap. What if this is this, this? If this show is about the place that Jason went to? And so right after I watched it, I texted you, and you were like, yes, that is where I was. And I just had this moment of like, it was a little emotional for me, because you're a good friend, and to hear the story from you, and just to feel like what you went through, for me, is challenging, because it's just hard to hear friends or loved ones be treated so poorly. I really appreciate the way that you're able to rise above and I that that documentary really then brought home, like, how freaking severe that truly was. And I guess without having you have to tell your whole story here now it's already on another episode and people can hear it. I guess maybe if we could go down the direction of what advice do you have for somebody else that potentially has experienced something really intense and heavy, and I feel like you've been doing a good job, because I did ask you the question about processing trauma, what sort of insights have you gained over the last two years since we spoke that is helping you to feel like you are healing. Slash, healed. Slashed, slash, like I'm good, I can move forward. Well, it's interesting, as you say, that I remember something that that our teacher, Tim told us one time, and I was like, I was feeling so good because we had to finish this Mount Shasta retreat, and then I had moved back to San Diego, and I'm living in the city, and it's the same rat race. I was like, how do we keep that amazing feeling inside myself that I experienced on the yoga retreat throughout the rest of my life, when I have to live in the regular world, and I have all my responsibilities. And he looked at me like it was a really simple question. He said, Be compassionate to yourself, so that you can be compassionate to others. And for me, like having to go through the school was like a behavior modification school, but it was kind of a sham, totally a sham, and they were really physically abusing kids there. And looking back in my whole life story, I can see that all of the major like suffering that I went through, they were actually a blessing in disguise. And so I was alluding to our second series teacher training, and I went through this huge healing. It was a healing related to all the trauma, and looking back, when I'm an old man, I'm going to be grateful for that experience, because without it, I would have never found yoga. I would have never found a stronger yoga. I would have never got another practice, and it would have never helped me to develop the character that I have today that gets me through some of the situations that I continue getting to grow through. So a lot of it has to do with how can we get into a good head space from whatever we're in, and how can we shift our thinking from this is the worst thing that ever happened to me to this is the best, and I know somebody that's experiencing the death of a loved one, or somebody that's experiencing even worse trauma than this, like horrible traumas, I've How can this actually be the thing that that guided me to a better situation in life? And if you look, I tell people to look back at their life and to see the whole history. Right? And you can often make connections in your own story about how the evil, like the bad things that happened to me, actually guided me in a different direction. So, and I'm really, like, big on talking with people about it and staying close to your community. Because every time I continue to go through things, and I look for help. I'm amazed by the help that I get, and the people are there for me. So if somebody is going through something, maybe let this be the catalyst to catapult you into a spiritual practice like meditation or a stronger yoga, or let it be the catalyst for you to restart an old friendship, or is there anybody there that can give you support? And I know that if anybody listening needs support, you or me are definitely going to be there for them. So it's like we have all the tools to change some of our negative karmas. And a lot of times we have to go through these karmas to alleviate negative past karmas. And if we can do that gracefully and with surrender, it usually works out having a long term benefit. Beautifully said, well done. That's cool, Jason, I'm really curious. I hope this isn't too personal. I don't I don't feel like you'll probably be afraid to answer this, but I respect if you prefer not to, but I know that you have found great benefit from use of plant medicine in the last two years since we spoke. Do you feel like you don't need to engage with it, that you need to engage or that you benefit from engaging with it more often. Or is it about similar to where you were before? Can you give me any insights and what type of developments have occurred in that whole realm of your life? Yeah, yeah. And I think last time I was on here. I was talking about a teacher that I had the honey Shaman. Yeah, this guy, Leopoldo, and he was teaching us a method of healing our eyes to put in belly pone and honey into our eyes. Yes, and it was a very interesting practice. And he was my teacher in shamanism, and I studied with him ever since I got down here for four years. Well, think it was about three to maybe four months ago I got a phone call that he had died in a motorcycle accident. So it was just a really sad thing to go through this whole process to have a beloved teacher to be taken into this mind community, and then to lose my teacher. So this is something to talk about, like, Oh, somebody's really going through something heavy. And when I lost, when, when the whole community lost Leopoldo, when he when, when he crossed over, it was a really difficult thing for his family of 13 that he was supporting, and it was a really difficult thing for me. And after that happened, I actually was thrust into, like, a deeper role of shamanism. And now I'm not just somebody who's studying this or learning it, I'm somebody people look to for answers in this, and my use of plant medicines has definitely evolved and become even more conscious. So now, and I don't say I work with these medicines. I see these medicines kind of work with me, but there's different stuff, like rapid there's other medicine called to pescovite, which is a smokeable form of DMT. And I have a lot of people come to Tulum and want me to work with them with these medicines. And so the way I teach it now is a medicine can be a medicine and a poison, depending on how it's used. And in the previous episode, I know that we talked a little bit about how the shamanic roots of yoga were based in plant medicine with drinks like Soma, which was an Ayahuasca like drink that we no longer have the recipe for, but it's something all the Indian yogis know about. So I think these medicines are great medicines to give us a glimpse of where we're going. And it's really important to be aware of the addictive nature of some of these medicines, or even more of some people individual like some people's individual uses. So some people may have a highly addictive personalities, and it's really important to regulate them and watch how and when they're using these medicines, as opposed to another person who can come and have this breakthrough. But for me, these medicines have to be used because. They're a sacred time honored tradition. They have to be used with a lot of respect and a lot of reverence, and there has to be a lot of time going in to these ceremonies, like doing a proper diet, doing a proper journaling, doing the proper meditations and spiritual work. And then after the sessions, there has to be a lot of time spent integrating. Like I see people come to Tulum and then do medicines and go out to the nightclub the same day they use the medicines. And I think that they're really irresponsible use. And so for me, again, I it's very interesting how I see the demand every month, like on full moon, there's a bunch of people who come to me for these things. And then on New Moon, there's, there's nobody looking for these things. And then on full moon, I have a bunch of people looking to do medicines. And on New Moon, and it happens like this every month, all year long. So but I have noticed incredible benefits when people come and they use these medicines with the correct intention. They come and they use these medicines looking for healing, to remember who they are and just to honor their true nature and and improve and improve their their their setting in life. And I really enjoy working with people with these medicines. And it just it needs to be the right set and the right setting, and the people need to come with the right intention. And journaling is super important. And, yeah, it's been a real privilege and a real joy to share, share these ancient traditions with people. That's amazing. Jason, can you talk a little bit about what rule journaling? I mean, I know I like the benefits of journaling, just on the basics of journaling, but can you tell a little bit about the way the journaling process helps the integration and or healing? Benefits that can come from from those practices? Yeah, absolutely. So some of these, the medicines that I'm using, they release chemical in your pineal gland called DMT, and this is the same chemical that's released when we dream, when we're born and when we die, and right when you come out of a dream, say, if you want to learn to start remembering your dreams better, keep a dream journal. And I've done this before. So if you dream journal, and as soon as you have a dream, you wake up and you write it down, after a month, you're going to remember your dream so much better. You're going to be able to start using this and psycho analysis and and using this information to transform certain aspects of your life. A lot of people come and they're looking to some people come and they're looking to use these medicines recreationally, which I'm not going to say it's right or wrong, but when you come into one of these experiences, for me, I always set an intention of spontaneous, miraculous healing. So when somebody comes into it and they experience this profound dream, like state that's 1000 times more vivid than a dream, as soon as they come back, I asked them what they saw. And I asked them what happened, to try to, like, keep the wheels going and to try to get them a little bit more conscious about the experience that they had. Are there any visions that they want more clarity on? Did you see any angels or ancestors, or was spirit family or any I've had people come in and then they describe Ganesha like a boy with an elephant, never having heard of Ganesha or known anything about Hinduism. So we're definitely accessing, like a deeper realm, like a devaloka or some, some realm where enlightened people get to walk around all the time. And journaling helps us to integrate some of the things we saw or the visions that we were lucky to have, and then make changes in our life, like I did a ceremony last week, and the big mess, we did a really deep ceremony. And normally, somebody's in these states for 15 minutes, well, I have a way to maintain the state for three hours using different MAO inhibitor teeth. So this client was in state for three hours, and he came back, and I was actually playing harmonium and guiding the journey with with sound. And when he came back, he said that everything is frequency, and that he went to a place of pure energy and pure frequency, and how the rhythm and the sound and the frequency help guide him deeper into states of truth, consciousness and bliss. So when he wrote about that, he was able to see and take home something really. Really tangible, and he did several journeys, and each one, he came back with a different intention and a different thing that he's going to integrate into his life, whether it was like wealth management or what it really takes to be happy, or he had his own process, and he had all these different things. And had he not journaled, it would have just been caught up in cyclical thoughts, and it would have been something that he was not able to integrate and take home. Good answer. That's cool, Jason, that makes perfect sense. I appreciate you elaborating on that. Yeah, definitely one. Even dream journaling is great for people if they haven't done that, yeah, that's a great way to start, right? And I like the fact that you brought up that you'll start remembering your dreams more, because I have met people that say I don't remember my dreams at all. If somebody doesn't remember their dreams at all, how would we start, just like, making up a dream and then by creating a dream that then maybe the dream mind would be we could recollect it when we wake up. Is there any tricks with that? I'm sure you probably said, Well, come to a plant medicine ceremony. Maybe your dream world will open up. But I'm curious, like, if somebody was just like at home right now going, Well, cool. I want to start remembering my dreams. What do you think would be a good trigger for that? Well, there's a lot of substances that and they can do more research online, but certain substances, for certain people, may block dreams, like if somebody drinks a lot of wine at night, or somebody smokes a lot of cannabis right before they go to sleep, these are things that are have been scientifically proven to prevent us from dreaming. Sometimes people even use these things subconsciously because they don't want to experience heavier dreams. So my first thing for people, if they want to start experiencing dreams is try like a week of extended sobriety on all ends, whether it's like pharmaceutical whatever it may be, whether it's drinking a lot of coffee or whatever vices like a person carries, try to cut those out for a complete week. Plant medicine ceremonies, you're always like doing to pesky with their Ayahuasca. These things are definitely going to stimulate your pineal gland, and you're going to be having the craziest dreams, something that the ancient Egyptians used was blue lotus, and you see a lot of different Blue Lotus elixirs. You can order Blue Lotus and make tea, but Blue Lotus is an amazing thing. It's an aphrodisiac, but it's an amazing ally to use to help your dreams. And if you don't have that, just setting the intention and just putting the dream journal right down next to your your nightstand, I guarantee you will wake up and you're gonna be like, oh, and you're gonna write something down, cuz a lot of times, you may wake up at two or three in the morning and then just go back to sleep and forget the dream. So in the morning, don't remember the dream. So just having the journal there from Blue Lotus is an amazing tool to help you dream. Very cool. Can you paint a verbal picture of what you've done a good job already, but can you paint a verbal picture of the studio and restaurant with a few colors and a few pieces of art, just so I can, like, create in my mind, like some sort of idea of what it looks like there without actually just looking at a picture? Yeah. So in in to know, we do a lot of really cool architectural features with bamboo, and the entrance to the restaurant is just beautiful arch with braided bamboo. So you walk through a long, narrow restaurant and you're greeted by like the happiest, healthiest, most vivid vegans you've ever seen, everybody in there's I love when you go to a vegan place. Everybody's super happy because they're all vibed up on the natural food. You never go to a vegan restaurant and somebody's feeling down or they're you always feel them like living living high off of the raw food and the nutrition. So you walk in and there's a ton of cool people, and then the restaurant is decorated with with art collected from different places in South America, and most of it is shamanic art that has all of these fractals and kind of undertones of medicine ceremonies, and it's really beautiful. The restaurant is also decorated with what's not decorated, but it's accented with bunch of palm trees, and the whole vibe is just tropical, like the Caribbean, and we must have 40 or 50 palm trees, like within the the restaurant seating area. So it's just a really cool vibe. And there's like, some really relaxed, tranquil medicine music going on as you walk through the restaurant. In the back of the restaurant, to the right is the sauna and the spa. And we do have two showers. We do have two, maybe three, I think three. Therapy rooms now that are used for massage or any type of therapy you can think of, we pretty much have access to therapists who practice it here in Tulum, so all kinds of stuff. At the very end, there's the two saunas, and which one is all wood, and it's a dry sauna, and the other is a huge wet sauna. The walls are totally lined with onyx stone. Each sauna fits about eight people, and then juxtaposed to that, back towards the restaurant, is the sauna, which is attached to the cold plunge. The yoga studio has a separate entrance from the street, and there's another little hidden entrance. You can go into the restaurant, but we wanted to make it to our yogis, wouldn't have to walk into the restaurant to go to the yoga studio. So there's a separate, very Tulum style, really long entrance, and you go upstairs, and then we're creating a little juice bar, and you go over a bridge and enter the studio, and the studio has these really beautiful collapsing doors with bamboo, and then the walls have a bunch of windows on the top, and it's a sacred geometry, like woven bamboo all around on each wall, except for a couple walls, which the entire wall is glass, and you're looking into the restaurant, and then the complete floor is this beautifully polished chicken wood that picked up ourselves and brought in from the jungle. Wow. So it's a massive structure. I think it's five by 18 meters. So like three feet per meter. So like 15 and feet, 15 by so how many mats can how many? How many mats do you think will fit in the yoga studio? If it's like squeezed 28 probably 28 to 30 mass. Have you already tried? Have you tried laying them all out already? Not yet, not yet, because we're putting, like, the final sanding on the polish of the floor. Wow. So pretty soon, we'll do it here, but there's also a stage, and in Tulum, there's all kinds of incredible performing artists here, so we'll be able to have shows. And the maximum capacity for like a musical show is 100 cool dude that sounds so we can also open the doors to the studio, so we can have more seating outside as well. Amazing. Well, what is the final ingredient for Opening Day on November 1? Um, it's just all the little glass touches, like putting a few more bamboo things, putting a few more lighting, and then installing some fans. We're just going to have fans when we get first get first started. Eventually you'll put, we'll put an air conditioner in there. But as the Ashtanga yogi, the air conditioner is not on the top. Dude, so cool. And so it doesn't sound to me like anything is going to stop you from opening on November 1. No, we're ready. Like, like, like, if you're like, Dude, my bamboo didn't come in and my fans aren't here, we're still opening. Yeah, we can still open. Absolutely amazing. Jason, absolutely but no, we have the BAM, we have all the stuff we need. So yeah, the employees building it every day. They're so excited when I go there to tell me, like, how much closer and how much they've done nice. So, yeah, it's been, it's been really cool. It's been a really fun thing. Yeah, so I can't wait for when people come down here. And something else is if people want to do retreats in Tulum, I'm really happy to work with you and schedule some time. You can do regular programming at our studio and access. We can set up like packages, where they use the spa, give food. I can help with lodging and stuff like that. But there's a lot of people who I know want to do things in Tulum, but they're very leery because they don't know people. So we're pretty excited about that. Other people, yeah, that's amazing. Jason, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know it, dude. I'm so happy for you. That's cool, I mean. And I'm kind of a little embarrassed that I didn't realize that it's still been two years since like that you've been going on on this project, because I keep seeing the pictures of you teaching, and so I just thought, oh, that's his room. And it just didn't really dawn on me that that it isn't so that is, that is amazing. I'm so excited for you, and kudos for like, following through. Because, you know, anything could happen in a two year stretch where we might say, Oh, dude, I'm done. I'm just done. This is crazy, so you know to not give up. Now, obviously, you know what I'll tell people is like, there were many times when I. That I was, you know, but then I just gave myself a few minutes, a few minutes, did my pranayama, couple breaths. I have proper nutrition. Something I wanted to mention real quickly is one of my students has a vitamin and mineral company, and I'm sponsored. I'm one of the spokesperson for their medicine. And the reason I would talk about it is because they have a product that's like a she legit. It's called, it's called Xena, and this is Richard, and it's like a fulvic acid, amino acid. And normally when you take Sheila G, it is really nasty tasting, and it's hard to taste. This one, you just give a few squirts, and it's really an incredible product. It wakes you up. We've done a lot of tests where we took it right before yoga, and then your yoga, like, 15 minutes in, everybody was super zoned in and super on point. And this is like a main Ayurvedic herb for yoga. Nice. So I wanted to share his company. People can find it on Gina dot health, and if they put in capital J, a, y, s, O, N, 15, they'll get a 25% discount. So it's been really, really incredible stuff that I have used with them. And they have six other products that are all kind of like groundbreaking, transformative. They have an amino acid blend so but people can check it out at Gina dot health, and this has been something that it's been helping me having not just proper nutrition, but having, like, extreme nutrition, having the absolute best has really, really helped me keep my mood high, my spirit high, also helps me do my practice every single day. So I just wanted to say thanks to to Gina and everybody at this company, because they really take good care of me no and keep me like a my tradition, new nutrition as high as possible. Cool, Jason, I'd be happy to put that link in the description so people can find it super easy. Wait, awesome. Yeah, man, dude, I'm so thankful. I really appreciate this opportunity to catch up again. I am shocked that it was two years ago that we spoke so but what a cool, you know, evolution of the project. And I know on our last podcast, I was like, Dude, I'm coming down. I'm coming down, but now I know I'm coming down. I gotta come see it and and organize a retreat. That sounds so incredible. Yeah, that'd be so much fun. Oh, man, well, Jason, class together. Oh, gestures of it would be amazing. That would be so cool. Sing some Hanuman Chalisa, practice holding our breath. Eat some good food. It sounds incredible. Yeah. And it's real easy for us to set up, like, for groups like that, to set up a trip to a cenote, or, like, some cave diving or some adventure in nature as well. Awesome. Jason, well, when is the if it's when it's summer, that's your slow season. So would it be amazing to come down in the slower season? That would be awesome, because just the real place is empty, just a little more quiet. Yeah, yeah, every place is empty, and it's a lot of fun. So usually, like late March or April, things really start to slow down and open up. And yeah, Tom is just a really fun place. With all the good, healthy food we have here, veganism is like, a really common, popular thing, and the fruits that we have here are just next level, like eight types of mangoes. Oh, man, yeah, we'll definitely plan something for the summer. That sounds great. Awesome. Jason, well, man, I'm so thankful, and I look forward to catching up again here. Wonderful. Thanks for having me. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon. Cool. Man, native yoga Todd cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you like 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 you for you know you.