Know Ya Flow
Women in flow, share what they know. Hear women's stories of how they've grown, what they know, and how they are living in flow.
Know Ya Flow
Embracing the Hidden Love Within Pain: Transcending Suffering Through Yoga and Spiritual Practice with Gaia Balbi
Discover the profound wisdom of Gaia Balbi as she unveils the hidden love within pain and suffering. With soulful conversations, Gaia guides us in understanding how yoga and spiritual practices can help release emotional blockages and invite healing. Tune in to learn about the power of breath work, mindful movement, and meditation as pathways to personal evolution.
Explore the journey from numbness to clarity, guided by Gaia's experiences of connecting with a larger energy. The episode delves into overcoming fears and the power of discernment, urging listeners to embrace challenges for growth. Live Intensely as Gaia encourages.
Gaia shares insights into navigating the complex web of fear and fearlessness, encouraging a balance between acknowledging real dangers and overcoming imagined fears. Her personal stories highlight the importance of trusting oneself and the transformative potential of surrender.
Join us to uncover how intentional action and heartfelt connections can lead to profound healing and transformation.
SIGN UP HERE https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yoga-workshop-transcending-suffering-with-gaia-balbi-tickets-1109334773169?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
For a Workshop with Gaia at Daydream Studios March 3
Transcending Suffering: Discover the Love Within Your Pain
Welcome to Know your Flow podcast, where women in flow share what they know. I'm your host, lauren Barton. Join me as we talk to women and hear their stories on what they know, how they've grown and living in flow. Hi, welcome to this week's episode. So glad that you're here listening Today.
Speaker 1:Our episode is with the beautiful Gaia. I absolutely love this conversation that we had together. I left this conversation feeling like, huh, okay, yeah, I feel like I understand pain, suffering and just life in general a little bit more from this, so I hope that you leave feeling the same way. Gaia has such a I want to say, beautiful, but it doesn't feel rich enough but such a beautiful, calming, wise, loving presence, and so I'm so happy that we had her on the podcast today. When she left our space, her and I had talked a little bit about doing maybe a workshop together, or her doing a workshop in our space in Daydream, and she messaged me, emailed me after and sent me that she had a moment of clarity and inspiration and a deep calling to share a workshop that she had shared in India. That feels aligned with the collective needs at the moment, and so it's a two-hour offering rooted in the powerful practices and rituals that she immersed herself in in her recent time in India.
Speaker 1:So this is going to be offered on March, the 3rd, from 6 to 8 at Daydream, and it's called Transcending Suffering Discover the Hidden Love Within your Pain Through the Power of Yoga. So her description here is step into a transformative experience that will guide you beyond suffering and into the heart of love. In this immersive two-hour workshop, you'll be introduced to the profound power of the yoga technology to help you transform pain into a source of deep healing and awakening so all the things that we talked about in today's episode. She's bringing a workshop to our space in March to kind of dive a little bit deeper. So if you feel that this resonated with you, I have a link below that you can sign up for the workshop with Gaia, but it'll be there and I'll remind you of it as well. But if you feel inspired to join us, I think that it will be really transformative. There's going to be breath work, mindful movement, ancient rituals, meditative practice, and you'll learn how to release emotional blockages, embrace challenges and uncover the love within your darkest moments. And I mean, who doesn't want that? So, yeah, so through wisdom, talk, ancient ritual, the profound practice of yoga, we'll explore how to uncover the hidden gifts within your pain. So I hope that you enjoy this episode and I hope that you'll join us.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to put that little offering out Also. This is coming out December 5. I know Gaia is also doing a cacao ceremony in Bluemont on December 7th, so that'll be this Saturday. So, again, if you would like to check out any of her offerings, that would be great. But more info about the workshop at Daydream to come and I'll remind you of it if you don't sign up now. But it is there if you feel inspired and you want to dive into more of kind of what she's talking about here and how to actually transcend your suffering, which is a huge thing that we talk about here. So I love that she came back with some practical hey, I want to offer a way to teach people and to be with them and to be able to actually put this into practice and not just talk about it. So love that. I know that you will love this episode, so enjoy. Welcome to the podcast today. Today we're here with Gaia Balby. Hi, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I don't know how I stumbled upon you. I think it was maybe Turi and Turia, is that how you say the studio?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I was like, oh, this chick seems, she seems connected, let's. Oh, we've got a newsletter, let's connect. And yeah, I just love the things that you write and I think that you're, I guess, very connected is the way you seem like the real deal. So it's, we're meeting for the first time today and I'm grateful to have you on and to share some of your wisdom with us. So again, yeah, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much. Thank you for reaching out. It touched me and then it allowed me to connect to your podcast and I love the intention in which you are holding the space and it felt right to be able to come and share, so thank you for reaching out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing, thank you for reading the letters. Isn't that funny. Yeah, we put things out into the ether and hope that it connects with someone somewhere somehow, you know? So, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually fairly new. I've been channeling and connecting to Divine Mother for a long time. It was always very intimate and sacred for me, but the teaching and wisdoms were coming and I lived guided and the guidance was, a year ago, to be able to begin to share them, create an intimate setting and wish to share wisdom, and so thank you for receiving it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. What does it mean to live guided?
Speaker 2:It leads to really invite myself to be in the flow with the universe. So first is that responsibility to come in contact with that essence of my soul and then allow that creative intelligence that comes through the essence of me to guide my life, to really be in the flow with life, instead of me trying to figure out life with my mind and be immersed in the pros and cons list and all the time being able to do life from what everybody else is doing or for what everybody else thinks is right, which I've done for many years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it got to a point that it didn't work and I wanted to be in flow with life. It's been 10 years and it's been a wild ride, because most of the time the guidance is very different from what most people would do or for what my mind says it is the right thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a lot of trust.
Speaker 2:Oh, radical trust and radical surrender, right Like in yoga, we call that Shraddha. I love that. It's a mantra for me that I tap into all the time and I said I am Shraddha, I am trust, I am surrender, and just really be in that space.
Speaker 1:How do you get yourself into that space, because the mind will try to take over, and how do you get yourself into a space where you can surrender and trust?
Speaker 2:Spiritual practice. It definitely began with my yoga asana practice, connecting to my body and then exploring it and going deeper into exploring meditation and then all different types of spiritual practices and seeing them as the way to connect, but especially the body. I feel like nowadays, here in the West especially, we see the difference and it's like something yeah, you need to connect to your body to make it healthy and to do that, but then let's transcend, let's just go beyond it, right, let's go beyond the mind, like there's something wrong with it, and in my experience, there's absolutely nothing wrong. And it is through the body that all of it happens. We have a body for that reason, and the wisdom is in the body and the connection happens through the body and the surrendering happens in, through and with the body. And so, yeah, it's for me, it's a lot to do with being here in my body, present, present in the moment, and so spiritual practice is the way for me.
Speaker 1:Spiritual practice. And then, yeah, connecting with the body is what you're saying, and sort of seeing how you're feeling into things and being able to be connected with your body. Is that kind of what you're saying?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Practices that always involve the body and then so then we can go beyond it, but it's the way through it.
Speaker 2:And I feel sometimes it's that separation of like, yeah, exercise the body because it needs to, but then when we go into spirituality or when we go into mindfulness, you know we want to like escape it or go beyond it, right, or when we go into tap, into our intuition or psychic abilities or channeling, like we want to escape it or go beyond it, like it's something that is taking us stuck here, like it is a here and somewhere else where there is actually just hearing now and the way through it is the body. And so, yeah, it is through my body and connecting to what is real here that allows me to have that real experience that we have a body where we aren't beyond it. But it is through the body that I get to be present and the guidance comes through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and feeling the sensations and the groundedness and the presence and the here and now. So you mentioned 10 years ago and 10 years of practice. So what's your journey been like?
Speaker 2:It actually started 20 years ago. 20 years ago, yeah, 20 years ago, but I will say 10 years ago that I started Living Guided. But 20 years ago I was in the worst space of my life. Yeah, I was in a relationship that was very abusive and I felt trapped and really every day I went to bed thinking maybe it was going to be my last day. Maybe. Let's rewind.
Speaker 2:I am from Peru. I grew up in a beautiful, tiny surfer's beach town in Peru and my next door neighbor, who is still one of my best friends parents are artists and have so many books, so many books, and I will go to her house and her mother will always ask her to organize her room. I am pretty organized, so at the beginning I will go and organize her room and then her mother said, like no, she has to do it herself. So I used to stay in the living room. Well, they have this kind of like a library. It was just like tons of books and I'll have to wait for her.
Speaker 2:And there was this book that I always go back to. I remember it was like blue, and now I understand it was like this human form with the chakras lighting up and I will just get lost in this book. It had so many imagery and then it was just very accessible and fun and I love that book. I've owned the story. They're still looking for the book. You're like it's blue and it was like this and that.
Speaker 2:So it was years and years and years that I connected with that book and the word yoga was in that book forever. I connected with that book and the word yoga was in that book forever. And so fast forward to 20 years ago, I used to work in lending, so I was working in a bank and which feels like five lifetimes ago, and somebody just said I have a Groupon for a yoga class. Somebody to said I have a Groupon for a yoga class and it was something in me that just pull, like it's just pulling my arm rise, and I didn't even really know this woman and I said me, I'll go with you.
Speaker 1:And you didn't even really know her, but you were like I'm down, yeah, I'm down.
Speaker 2:That's it. And I said, well, and I don't have a right, and I live farther away, and it is so challenging, and she's like great, let's thank you. And that's how it began. And so the first time I went to a yoga class, it was actually a Bikram class. Oh wow, very physical, very real.
Speaker 1:You had to get in the body, yes, in the body.
Speaker 2:But it was the first time that I felt, period I felt, and I realized how numb I was, and it was the first time that I had put my foot down and there was nothing that was going to get in the way. I just knew that that was the path out of a deep suffering that I was in. And so that was the beginning of it, and I never stopped putting foot on my mat. And then the exploration, then it was the cushion and then it was so many more things. But yeah and so. But 10 years ago I was already deep into my meditation and just like that exploration of it, and began to see the difference between following the guidance of that inner compass and following my mind and having many different experiences. So why not? And so it was a personal commitment to my own soul that I was going to live guided and, like I said, it's been a while, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Beautiful yeah. So how were you able to get out of that relationship?
Speaker 2:oh, it was actually six months after that. You were like woke out, I woke out, but there were definitely incredible people. You know that, when you it was, that was like a true experience.
Speaker 2:And the moment that you say yes to something different, the moment that you realize you had to be done with that suffering, to make a different choice, how the universe begins to support that. And so the right people showed up and the clarity came, in different conversations, in different ways, and it was very clear. It was one of the hardest things I had to do, because the fear was real.
Speaker 1:Because, would you say that that's what keeps people stuck and not able to say yes is the fear is just too encompassing that they can't get unstuck, because the opposite of that would have been you staying. But you had the courage and, for whatever reason, the intuition to be like okay, I need to say yes to a new change into a new life. But what do you think stops people from saying yes? Fear.
Speaker 2:Definitely fear, yeah, and I will say it's a combination of fear and ignorance and ignorance not being that we don't know, but ignorance. So in the yoga tradition it is described that that you think you know but you don't know, and it can be dangerous. And so I was very ignorant in the moment, not because I didn't know, because I convinced myself that I didn't have any other choice. I let myself be convinced of what the threats that were being put on me were real, and so wisdom started to come in different ways and I began to have more and more clarity and so, trusting in that and definitely that, reconnecting myself with something bigger than myself, I see that that always has a powerful role as humans, when we connect whatever you want to call it energy that is greater than us, we can surrender into that and trust into that, and we begin that journey of understanding what really trust is.
Speaker 2:That is not trust in anybody else because they have proven themselves to us they're trustworthy. But actually we begin to trust ourselves deeply and we understand people and we meet them where they are, see the capacity that they have, and that has nothing to do with our ability to trust or not, it's just an understanding of where they are. So I began that trusting in myself and in that was something bigger than me as things began to flow and society showed up and opportunities started to open and doors began to open and clarity showed up in my life.
Speaker 1:Also, what you're saying, too is, yeah, like the more that you connect with something bigger than yourself, the more you're able to connect with the essence of who you are, instead of like your personality and your mind and all that kind of stuff too, which then helps you trust and live more guided.
Speaker 2:Definitely yes. And, of course, the space for holding that fear and understanding the difference between the reality of what is happening because sometimes here in the west is a lot about like just feel the fear and like go over it, and you know fearlessness and when we start to tap into, really understanding what fearlessness means from the wisdom traditions um, they're within me, from the mountains of the andes, of course, my homeland, but also the Himalayas that I've been studying for a long time. They both have this really deep understanding that fearlessness really is our utter root, like you can say, our root chakra at our first right, because we're in lunar time. So number one is before the number four or three, and it seeds at our roots of what grounds us into the earth and that holds that energy of feeling safe, feeling connected to something bigger than ourselves, our tribe, our group, the collective. And when we don't feel safe, when there is a real threat, then fear arises and then we, we begin to discern that fear, you know, because if there is a lion chasing you, it's real.
Speaker 2:At that time I was in a very dangerous position and so, yeah, I have created a lot of stories around it, but the reality is I needed to be careful, I needed to navigate it in a wise way, and so, yeah, I have created a lot of stories around it, but the reality is I needed to be careful, I needed to navigate it in a wise way, and so I wanted to point it out, because a lot of times it's like, oh yeah, you got the courage and you got out of that.
Speaker 2:It took time to really understand, ok, what's going on and how am I going to do this in the reality of life? And how am I going to do this in the reality of life? And I think that is the beginning of being clear even on my purpose, because the purpose of my life is to support people in transcending, in suffering and transitions that are very difficult. And it began with me to really understanding what is real in this moment, what needs to be tend to, in which ways here on this earth plane, right here, right, like, if somebody comes and is like they're thirsty, let's not talk about the Bhakti Bhagita, let's not do that, let's get some water, because that's what's relevant in the moment. And so, in that discernment of like the fear is real, and the fear was real. I was being threatened and it was real.
Speaker 2:The danger was real and, at the same time, that fearlessness began to arise, when I began to understand that there was a different way. There was a different way and what steps I needed to take to be able to experience that different way. Not separate, but together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thank you for speaking on that, because I do think that there is this sort of don't be fearful, have courage, have the courage to move through. This Fear keeps us stuck, but it's like what does it actually look like to keep moving forward and to assess, like you said, the fear is real, but then some of it is our own perception and like how do we discern, how to move forward through what is real and then what is the stories that we've created around it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that word discernment. It really is a spiritual practice discernment to really understand and intend to ourselves and then see when we are hiding and when it's time to ask for the support.
Speaker 1:I couldn't do it alone. Yeah, that's a really good point too, yeah, absolutely. So did you have teachers at the time who helped you, who supported you?
Speaker 2:I've always had many teachers. I do understand that there are some people I love Randhas and Krishnadas they have one teacher and one guru and that work for them and that's beautiful. And then some of us have many different teachers, and I did and at the time was like a yoga teacher, and then I connected with an energy healer and then they just started to show up in my life so many different, you know, in different ways and then people that supported me my former partner came into my life and we're really good friends and coworkers and he was the very first person that didn't try to fix it and to save me, never wanted to save me, and I'm forever grateful to him for that.
Speaker 1:Because what does it look like to not save someone?
Speaker 2:Just ask questions to really be there and to ask does it look like to not save someone? Just ask questions To really be there and to ask the questions, not to try to fix it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not to try to get them to say the answer that you want them to say yes.
Speaker 2:Or to try to figure out the situation, because then we create what in yoga we call the drama triangle right, which is always a victim, always something that we call the drama triangle right, which is always a victim, always something that is creating the drama right the perpetrator and then the savior. And we tend to fall into that as human beings all the time. Then, when we acquire higher consciousness, state of like, what really is relevant, right, we begin to discern a spiritual practice. Then we can move away from that and we can just really tap into curiosity and just be curious because you care, not because you're trying to save or prove something or make it your own, like he didn't make it his problem, which was great, because when we make it our problem, then we try to solve it right. Then we try to solve it right, then we try to fix it.
Speaker 1:Why do we do that?
Speaker 2:That's our human nature. Yeah, yeah, it's just part of our survival mode. And then also because we, in our culture, we don't live intensely. So thank you for that question. We are meant to live intense lives because life is intense, but we have fall into chasing happiness and comfort and just being in that space, like you know, heaven, like we get to that place, but everything is great and I don't have any discomfort and there's no challenges and we're happy forever. And that's that's not where we here and life is intense.
Speaker 2:And so when we have intense experiences in life and intense doesn't mean bad or good, right, there's just an intensity you can love intensely, you know, you can kiss intensely, you can be in the cold river and feeling intensity of the coldness and the water, like intense experiences. So when we attune to that intensity, that is our own nature. We're not seeking for drama. When we don't live intensely, we create intensity in our lives and we ended up in this drama triangles because that's our nature. We are meant to live fully. When we don't, we try and tend to create it for ourselves, and drama is the easiest way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we don't live intensely, you're saying, because we want everything to be like cush and comfort and we only want the happy side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like we have this addiction in the Andes my shaman always teach me that like. But now we have this addiction to be happy and our whole lives revolve around like. That is a purpose of being human. To be happy, right, because it's like that day when I have everything, when everything works out, when it like and like we're chasing and chasing and chasing this happiness, when in reality we are not here to be happy, we're here to exist, to live fully. Right. And then, farther forward, we're here to evolve, right, because we are part of the universe, like we're not in the universe, but we are the universe, and the value of the universe is evolution, and so if the value of the greatest reality is evolutionary, that means, then that's where the value of our existence too, we're here to evolve. Yeah, I don't want to go so deep, but I want to make it real, yeah, no I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to evolve, yeah that means there's going to be friction and there's going to be challenges, because there's just potential for a revolution. So it's part of it. Yeah, it's part of it.
Speaker 1:But what do people do instead?
Speaker 2:We try to avoid it because we ignorance again, we're avoiding challenge and we're avoiding difficulty and friction, and also because we're humans. Our way to evolve is the way we relate, right? That's why we're always in our relationship. My teacher, nindya, always says I don't understand the people that says I'm not in a relationship. That's what we have been doing since the moment we came out of the womb, like we were relating with our mother. We're always relating and in their relationship our evolution happens, and so that's why there's friction in our relationships and some of them are more challenging than others, right, but it's all because it holds infinite potential of our evolution, of our growth, of our expansion.
Speaker 2:You know like we can use a different word. You know that's not a cup of tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just growth.
Speaker 1:So you're saying that our relationships are what help us to evolve?
Speaker 2:Yeah, our relationship with everything. Yeah, help us to evolve With nature.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with emotion, with everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they bring the lessons right. The way that we relate brings the lessons. Even if it is the way we relate to nature, it brings lessons to you right. The way we relate in this moment is bringing an opportunity for us to continue to grow, and so it's just part of the reason why we're here. So, yeah, I had that experience early on 20 years ago and to really seeing, oh my God, I have an incredible opportunity here to grow from what is happening and from what is here, and it actually took me back to be very, very clear about my purpose.
Speaker 2:Yes, many different challenges in my life, Like that relationship was very, very challenging. But because we're experiential beings meaning we need to experience something in order to be real, right, Like, if you have never experienced the color red, I can tell you all about the color red and doesn't do anything for you until you see it right. If you never put your hand in water, I can explain everything about water and be wet, but until you don't experience wetness, it is just a fantasy. So I needed to experience that in order for it to be real and in order for my deep understanding of what it is to be in that kind of challenge to experience trauma and then take the journey of transcending it, healing it, growing from it.
Speaker 1:Because up until that point was your life pretty chill no, no, okay no, so you've had a lot of different experiences that have sort of prepared you for the journey of transcending the things to be able to live your purpose yes, and I have also denied it for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because of course, it's way better to to me and I had an idea that it was better to have a purpose of I don't know expansion and like have this idea of I don't know the spiritual teacher and like all about I don't know abundance of growth or music or you know something that is more fun or appealing. You know when I tell people like, no, I am with, I am an end of life and grief doula meaning I support people in their dying and the transitions, biggest transitions of life.
Speaker 2:So that's part of my purpose of supporting people through the challenges of life. Yeah, people don't want to talk about grief, don't want to talk about death, and people don't want to talk about their challenges and their difficulties, but we're actually all longing for it, right, because that um is, it's heavy on us. So it has been challenging. Yes, I grew up in Peru in time of terrorism, so I grew up around bombs and you know, not having electricity because they were bombing the towers or you know, water or it. But at the same time, I was very privileged in my country because I live in a tiny beach town like 15 blocks, so I was not in the capital of Peru or in the Andes of Peru at the time. They were just a lot more dangerous and even though there was danger, we navigated with grace and life continued.
Speaker 2:So it was challenging and death has been part of my life since I was very little. So a lot of people die around me and without knowing I was by doula, my grandmother, you know. I just I held her hand in last days of her life and supported her and my grandfather, and it just just so many different ones. Like my first boyfriend died in a car accident. I blame myself for it and I was, you know, very young, so death has been part of it, but there was always this voice inside of me that said there must be a different way, there has to be a different way. There has to be a different way.
Speaker 1:Yeah and what's the what's the western way? To just push forward yeah, push forward.
Speaker 2:And I couldn't understand it. I had conversations with my dad and he was like, oh yes, yes, you are my weird child that you know. When I was like nine years old and there was death close to the family, I told them after a few weeks, like, why are we not talking about this? Like I could never understand, why are we not talking about this? I know there is a different way to do it. So throughout the grievances of my life, meaning the letting go and processing of what no longer is, that's what the definition of grief actually is. It's not only includes a human body not being in form anymore I understood. I began to understand like, oh yes, there is a process and we have known it forever. So when I started to connect to the different wisdom traditions, then that was obvious that as human beings, we have always had ways to process, to digest, to come in contact with the inevitable, which is grief, which is ending, and we have forgotten as a society.
Speaker 2:So that is a fire within me, sparks the passion of my purpose for us to go back to the ways in which we take time. We take time to process and digest and I have received, through channeling, like processes, like tangible processes, to be able to do that. As I tap into this, especially those two cultures, as I mentioned before the wisdom of the Andes and the wisdom of the Himalayas. We have always known that as part of who we are and so, yeah, it hasn't been easy.
Speaker 2:But then it was also great when I had my first Vedic astrology, reading so different astrologers in the world, but on this particular Vedic astrology, which is part of the yoga tradition, I realized that I was what rules my chart, meaning like just the the, the way in which my soul decided to incarnate in this lifetime is ruled by the planet Saturn and the energy of Shiva, meaning the endings, the big challenges and lessons in life. And I was like, okay, get it. Okay, I always knew it was weird, but like I needed to understand why and that's the reason why it is there is a deeper understanding, and not because I'm better than anybody else, it just feels like I've been doing it for a long time right, mastery comes with repetition. So, yeah, come to understand suffering, to be able to go beyond it. And so that's the great news, like, yeah, you can go beyond it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what does it all look like and what have you learned? I know that's a loaded question to go through years, and also your own, just what you know, because you know, because you're here to know if that makes sense. But what do you know? What have you learned about grief and death and dying and transforming in and moving through suffering and living intensely? Yeah, it is a loaded question. I'm like where do you want to start? I know.
Speaker 2:Do we have a couple of lifetimes, I think? I think, yeah, my own exploration of my own suffering and that voice inside there must be a different way. Uh is what has been guided me. So not to fix or solve anybody else, but I really wanted to understand it for myself and then going beyond it. So how it looks like that I actually went into this journey of exploration of many different wisdom traditions, many different spiritual practices, diving deep and the ones that were coming close and I've felt a connection with and then also trying to understand it at different ways and levels. So a very humble journey, right. So I spent time, a lot of time in india, a lot of times in the andes, and understanding the ways of the ancient self, you know, and understanding away, but then I also needed to understand our western mentality yeah, to translate it over in a way that you can, yeah yes, and so I studied in the university of vermont and became an end of life doula there yeah
Speaker 2:and I was very grateful because at the time, the woman that was kind of running the program had a Buddhist practice, and so they encouraged me not to let go of what I have already explored and embodied for so long, but actually to utilize absolutely everything that I acquired throughout my journey to be able to create a practice in which was aligned with me. But it served me greatly to really understand our ways, and so it's from different aspects, and I think the most important thing was that understanding of what really grief means and the importance of it. Right. Is that understanding of what really grief means and the importance of it right? The grief is the pain we experience when we are detaching from an identity. I know, I'll say it again, grief is the pain we experience when we are detaching from an identity, and we're doing that all the time, and so when I understood that that's what really grief is, it took me back into the teachings of our yoga tradition, specifically the buddha.
Speaker 2:The buddha taught that, you know, our biggest suffering is attachment because we tend to attach to everything, and so if we are detaching from something that we thought we were like, that's our biggest suffering right, but at the same time our biggest potential.
Speaker 1:And both can be true.
Speaker 2:I call it finding the love within the pain, really coming in contact to say like, oh yes, I have to detach from all of these identities to actually understand and know beyond belief who am I. And so it all have come together in creating a space and working with people one-on-one and also collective and teaching them how to do that, how to create time, how to tend to themselves and in the wholeness of who we are. We have this body, and grief brings the most amount of stress in the body, and so tending to the body and tending to the mind that we have and tending to the energy that we are, and connecting and tending to the soul, so at all, at all levels of of our and it's been profound.
Speaker 1:It was profound for myself, it still is, because if something would continue to experience forever and then to see it in other people, what do you see that people find out about who they are when they are able to let go of these attachments that they have of who they think they are and whatever it is what ends up a lot of times coming out a sense of ease, I would say, because it's a question that we're invited to ask ourselves all the time.
Speaker 2:Who am I? And then the mind has many different answers. But then, when we tap into really being in the space of asking our hearts, of asking the wisdom that is within many different whispers, comes right At different times in our lives, and I'm not here to tell anybody or to guide them. It's like this is the ultimate answer, but can we be in the journey of it?
Speaker 1:The evolution.
Speaker 2:Yes. And then allowing us to live with more ease as we begin just like I'm seeing outside your window and like this beautiful leaves in the fall to be able to have more ease as the leaves of the identities that we have put on begin to fall away. Right and we bare ourselves and we come to our own understanding of who we really are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would guess that takes time. Yeah, like peace within ourselves and not trying to rush ourselves to come to some sort of like an answer in that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we stop having a goal right and this reminds me of that what people ask me all the time, like for how long am I going to grieve?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:People ask me that all the time, like for how long am I going to?
Speaker 1:grieve yeah.
Speaker 2:People ask me that all the time. That makes sense. All of it became even more real, and the shift in my life came with the grieving of my own father. I had an incredible relationship with my papa. He had uncutable cancer for five years, so he was diagnosed 15 years ago and it's going to be 10 years since he's transitioned this December 6th. And people ask me, like you're done grieving him? And the answer is no, but it looks very different now. It looks very, very different and it's a beautiful thing. And so, yeah, there is no time and space, because then grief becomes a companion that can allow you to unleash lessons, be part of your evolution, and it supports you in the little grievances that we have. You know, gosh, I didn't bring my favorite cup to India this time Been traveling for two months. Somehow I convinced myself that that was too obnoxious for me to bring a cup with me to India.
Speaker 2:And the moment that I stepped foot away from here I was like gosh, I miss my cup. And we can say like that's dumb, but that's the reality. I needed time until I got a different cup. Yeah Right, and so it's all of it. It's all of it, but when we begin to understand it and implement ways to navigate the griefs of life, then we understand that rite of passages. For an example, you know that we have had, in all wisdom, traditions all around the world since the beginning of time. It was actually a way to learn how to grieve, right Like a rite of passage of just not being a child anymore. And like my niece just had her quinceanero she turned 15. In the Latino culture it's a big celebration and I share with her like this is explained to her. This is a rite of passage. This is this invitation to not become a woman the day after your birthday, but to begin to hold, with care and with love, the girl that you were.
Speaker 2:That is fading, that is no longer, to begin to embrace what nature and the universe is inviting you to become and, like that, so many different ones, and they were ways in which, without talking about grief, we were actually attuning to it and finding an easeful way and a celebration of it. So that's at the root of my teachings and what my offerings are To let's remember how it is that we go, and then there are times in which we really need one another. No other society ever did it alone. We are not meant to do it alone because we're tribal beings. That's why social media works so great. Right, we want to tell the whole world that we're on vacation and a lot of times we want to tell the whole world how angry we are. It works because that's that's our nature. We need to share, we need one another. But somehow we have created this society in which we just want to tell people what we're proud of, but we hide our suffering and it's creating a lot of depression in which we don't need to experience.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. What about, for instance, when you forgot your cup? I mean and this is a small example, but you could easily be like this is stupid, that I miss my cup, Like I shouldn't be feeling this way? A lot of times, you know, in grief or in suffering, people feel their feelings Like they're like oh, I feel sad or I feel whatever, and then they sort of tell themselves they shouldn't be feeling that way and then they don't feel it. Why do we do that?
Speaker 2:Because it's painful. And let's going back to their addiction to happiness and to chase happiness right, and so that equals there is something wrong. So if I'm supposed to be happy and I'm here to be happy and I'm sad, that means I'm doing it wrong. But when we realize, oh no, I'm here to grow and to live intensely, then I embrace all of it, all of life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and all of the rites of passages, because they come with uncomfortable feelings, but instead we push them away or don't grow, or we grow and we're upset about it, if that makes sense, whether that's aging or death or some of the uncomfortable things, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, it's like aging or death or you know some of the uncomfortable things, right, yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely. And when we have ways in which we can hold our feelings and not just feeling them for the sake of feeling them, which is also, I think, a huge point here. People come to me and this is like yeah, I mean until when I'm going to cry. Yeah, that's right, you need to go to the grocery store and celebrate your kid's birthday and you know we need to go to work, do different things. We want to be in life. So there are processes and there are ways in which we can relearn how to feel our feelings in order to see what the lesson is underneath. In order to see what the lesson is underneath, our emotions or our feelings are there because it's the way in which the body speaks through us. Right, and going back to how important it is to be in the body, when we don't, then we numb it and we disconnect from it, so we disconnect from everything. So, when we relearn how to actually tap into these feelings and these emotions, with a deep intention of not healing, meaning, because healing, I feel here in the West, means fixing myself, and healing is another way of evolving, of growing, of knowing myself, of relearning the language of the body, which is sensation when we come to that space and there is an openness, and then there is curiosity and a sense of wonder, of like what's underneath, because sadness is not just sadness, sadness or anger, or rage, they're not just emotions, but there arise and there is an infinity underneath.
Speaker 2:And so when people say like, oh, my God, you've gone through so much suffering, like, do you know suffering inside out? I know my suffering, right, but most importantly, I am in contact with pain. Suffering is something that we create, right, just like the Buddha said, pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. The details of our pain or the details of our suffering can be different, but I have been there. I've been there and because I've been there, compassion arises, and so it matters what you're going through. It also matters the fact that I'm never going to know, because I'm never going to be in your skin. That's why empathy only doesn't take us anywhere, because if I feel the way you're feeling, it means in your suffering now there's more suffering in the world.
Speaker 2:It's important to grow from empathy into, evolve into compassion, right? So like, oh, yes, I've been there and I love it. In the Andes of Peru, they say that we don't show up for one another because something needs to be fixed or changed. Or I feel pity or sympathy or empathy for you, it is because I am a hundred percent sure that I'm going to be in your shoes next. I love that, right, isn't that wonderful. Yeah, we show up for one another because we know you're in grief. I'm going to be in grief next.
Speaker 2:So, the way I show up for you, you show up for me. It's this cycle of life in which we do it together, and then, in that cycle, it allows us to understand one another even deeper, to really embody and embrace compassion without falling into victimhood.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:I know we take a breath, right, it is so profound, yeah, it is so profound, and that's why I have so much passion about these teachings and these ways To make them accessible yeah, exactly, and to make it an experience.
Speaker 1:Because what do you do with your clients or what do you teach them? Is it so one-on-one like, just like depends, or what are some of the ways that you help people?
Speaker 2:yeah, support comes in many different ways. I do a lot of work in groups because I I do events and workshops because we have to put names on it but, but just whatever way to bring people together and to share this wisdom in an experiential ways.
Speaker 2:So I do a lot of events wherever I am. I was just in India and I taught a workshop in a festival. The Salva Summit is a beautiful festival in which I was actually nervous to teach because there was music and kirtan and art and you know, just like all these beautiful modalities that people are like. Oh my god, yes, I want to explore that. The title of my worship was transcending suffering. I was like I don't think anybody's going to show it up but people want to be happy, so they want to transcend it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's been.
Speaker 2:So many people showed up and I usually welcome everyone, look at everybody in the eyes before to really see where they are and just be relevant and speak in the moment. And yeah, wisdom comes first. And in the Himalayas, in the yoga tradition, we know that wisdom comes first. Saraswati is the older sister of Lashmi, which is abundance and beauty and shri right, saraswati is the wisdom. So people need to know, we need to understand it with our minds. We really understand like, oh, what is grief? What is happening, what my mind is going to do? Like, oh, why am I angry? Why am I frustrated? What happens? What is the process? What's my tendency? So usually in what I share is wisdom comes first and then an experience. You know, in that case it was a very ancient ceremony that involved rocks and waters and we had a beautiful river close by. So involve that.
Speaker 2:But sometimes there is deeper practices of yoga, like Kriya practices. They're very intentional for processing and transcending emotions or connecting with or tapping into it. You know breath practices and soul journeys, inquiry, soul inquiries, tapping to the heart, and then one of my favorites, which is cacao, the medicine of the heart. Yes, I am a cacao priestess and I've been sitting with cacao is the medicine. Cacao it is from when we get our delicious chocolate, but it has been used in ceremony for thousands of years. And and all the Americas which always blows my mind when I say that loud but all the different cultures knew that cacao was the medicine of the heart. And it is a plant medicine, because a plant medicine just means that nature provides, and all plant medicines have different intentions, and cacao has the intention of connecting us and tapping in and remembering the wisdom of our hearts, and so this is a big part of my teachings too. So it's just weaving the wisdom traditions of the Andes in the Himalayas and allowing people to have the wisdom and to have a real experience and to like forever use ritual and ceremony.
Speaker 2:Because we are ritualistic beings. I mean, we brush our teeth the same hand, in the same way every day. Right, we're like kind of scared about that. We're like, oh, a ritual, because religion has done so much in our culture. Right and just for humanity, regardless of where you are. We can go beyond that and understand that we have always need ritual and ultimately we don't heal ourselves, happens to us and it and it happens through through the ritual, through the kriya we call in yoga the conscious evolutionary action. Right, when we take time to take an intentional action with the wisdom, with a deep understanding, then healing happens, just like the fall is happening here in the northern hemisphere and right spring is happening, and so it's just it happens like we don't have to do anything, we just show up, yeah like lao tzu thousand years ago, not doing anything.
Speaker 2:We're being done, we let ourselves be done and so, yeah it, it looks very different. Right, I am an energy healer and a doula and I got like so many different things and for so long so many people told me, like you're doing so many things. Right, because here, especially in America, you know, if you specialize in something, then you're the expert and you're better, and in the ancient ways it's an exploration, right, that's why it's Gaia, my name. I was just called to it to just explore the different ways of the wisdom of earth. Gaia just just means mother earth and that energy of holding, of supporting in different ways, and so there is an exploration of many different wisdom traditions, but the sole intention of transcending our suffering, because we don't have to.
Speaker 1:Because what is the opposite of suffering?
Speaker 2:There is no opposite. It's just the realization that we don't have to struggle through the pains that we go through as humans.
Speaker 1:But still feel the pains, Because the pain, like you said earlier what did you say earlier? The pain is inevitable, but the suffering is optional. But I think we confuse the pain with the suffering. We think we need to keep it going in order to feel it yeah, maybe, well, maybe, or just that's just what happens, because we don't know how to cope, maybe.
Speaker 2:It's because our ignorance, like we, really don't understand what suffering is yeah, exactly yeah. Let me put it like a very, very simple way. Yeah, totally Imagine, like right now, like out of the blue, I just punch you. Yeah, okay, so what?
Speaker 2:yeah they just punch me. Why did you punch me right? Like, oh my god, it hurts so much, it literally hurts. You're probably gonna bruise if I punch you. And so the pain is there in your body, you feel that you remember it and you go into all of your friends like you don't even know, like Gaia just punched me, like out of the blue. And then they ask you like yeah, maybe she's punching everybody and just doing that and like, and then a year later, like what happened? Like you don't know, gaia punched me and like, but then other people also punch me and and this happens to me all the time and there's something wrong. And like in 15 years you're still telling the story of how I punch you and so many people that is suffering Got it. Pain is the fact that I punch you and it hurt in the moment. My pain is always in the moment, in the present moment.
Speaker 2:And that's why it is real right, it's right. Here I feel the pain, my suffering are the stories that I collect and I create because I don't want to sit with my pain. You don't want to sit with the fact that you have a bruise and just feel it and make you feel. How does it feel? First my body in hurt, hurting because I have a bruise, but then also the pain of all that is coming up, with this person punching me. And so the moment that I can actually sit with what is arising for me and I can witness the stories that are coming up and understanding those feelings and emotions actually are telling me something deeper underneath. Right, because I don't want to do that, because we don't know how to. It's not like oh my God, we suck as humans. We have forgotten how to because of our addiction to happiness.
Speaker 2:And because there is no support in that space. Then we spiral into suffering and the stories happen because we're not conscious and aware. There are minds then to do that.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and so the wisdom that you have accumulated and like that, you have learned, then you get to teach other people how to transcend their suffering through all of those practices and things like that, and how to learn how to sit with the actual pain so that they can see what's underneath and get rid of the suffering that they're making themselves sit through. Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Beautifully put. Thank you so much. Way more elegant than I'll put it. No, yeah, yes, that's exactly what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really cool. I love that. That's really really cool. What a gift.
Speaker 2:I don't feel like it's a gift. It's my purpose. I really feel like this is what I am here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is what I'm here, but what a needed thing, this is why I'm here, but what a needed thing I feel it is incredibly needed and so many of us need to begin to do this work.
Speaker 2:A lot more of us, I know a lot of us are called to do that, and I feel that the miracle for me happened when I was able to discern my suffering through my pain and say, oh, there's something that can be done. And the ultimate Dharma right Like Dharma Sanskrit word that we translate it as purpose, but it kind of translates into something that I have to do, right, which is beyond that. You know, just Dharma is really the of service, of going beyond the me into the we. Yeah, now I am grateful for my suffering, right, like I am so grateful for that relationship that we spoke about at the beginning and how traumatic it was. It was like now I'm able to really be grateful, and not just because I told myself to be grateful, but because it has led me into my purpose. The potential was there, right, the lesson was there, and not even to learn it, but because it has led me into my purpose.
Speaker 2:The potential was there, the lesson was there, and not even to learn it, but how to digest it, process it in a way that can serve somebody else. And it's not just one more of my stories, so I'm grateful. I love it.
Speaker 1:I get to do this every day and help people with their pain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and sometimes it looks like a yoga class. I love teaching yoga.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Whatever brings you in to your evolution Right. For me it was a yoga practice and yoga was always even though the beginning, for a long time, was just asana base, it was the entry point. Yeah, something happens along the way. Yeah, it was wonderful. Time was just asana base. It was the entry point. Yeah, something happened along the way. Yeah, it was wonderful.
Speaker 2:It was allowed me to feel right and so, um, and I love it, I love being in my body and there is a space in which people begin to open up to, to feeling and to begin that curiosity. So I teach yoga on regular basis, whenever or wherever I am, but now I've been guided to be here in northern virginia, so I teach on a regular basis, and that's a beautiful entry point for people to begin to drop the ideas, yeah, of what really healing means it, the beliefs and regardless of where you are or what religion of beliefs you have, and to really tap into the longing of our hearts which really is to heal, which really is to evolve, which just really is to just be done with our suffering, and maybe they begin to hear the voice I have heard forever says there is another way yeah.
Speaker 1:So what has been like coming up for you? I mean that's all amazing. I mean wow, just to live your life with like that mission and purpose and to know and to be able to use different tools that you have to be able to help people through that I think is really cool. But with your pilgrimage in India and also just like where you are now, what is sort of like coming up for you, kind of like working with right now? If there's anything separate from that, or is it all kind of related?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's all together yeah, nothing nothing separate and um, yeah, I've been in many different pilgrimages and um, back in the himalayas, because this is part of it, I lead sacred pilgrimage to the andes, like around the world mountains, really, what call me a lot, because mountains, like in the andes, they're they're called the apus, apus. Apus, which is a Quechua word for the witnesses of humanity. So being in the mountains allows us to be witness and, yeah, allah invites people to step away from their busyness and to tap into nature, which you know is healing on its own. Everything in my life has the same intention. It looks very different, right, like I was just in this pilgrimage descending the mountains and now I'm back here and ready to teach thursday night my first class, like a cow ceremony that is coming up, yeah, number eight.
Speaker 1:You know it looks like very different, but the intention is always the same cool people to just know that there is a different way and we don't have to suffer how do you keep, keep yourself, I guess, your spiritual practices, because I was going to say, how do you keep yourself sort of open and able to hold the space for people?
Speaker 2:Definitely a spiritual practice, yeah, committed to it, and it's not like, oh, I have to do this because otherwise I cannot do this work. The moment that we realize there is a different way, right, and it is through the ritual and the practice that we begin to heal. At the beginning there's an effort, right, there is effort, and the word effortless, which I love that in English, we don't have that in Spanish, I love that word effortless. Right, the effort comes first, but the more that you dedicate time to your well-being really just you dedicate time to not suffer anymore.
Speaker 1:Like, you're like.
Speaker 2:I'm done with this and this is the way. Okay, I'm gonna do it. Then you move from right, like people say, like, oh, I am a meditator, and you know, like I meditate or a meditator, it's like, yeah, the difference is you stop meditating on something that you do and is your way of being. So spiritual practice for me is it's not what I do, is who I am in this moment, because I'm done suffering and I still suffer, yeah, yeah. But the difference is that I'm not trapped in suffering for long periods of time, and that is the best gift ever, that before it was years, and then it became months and then days, and sometimes now it can be a breath, you know because like okay, so what if something like annoys you and you're like oh, that really annoys me, like I hate that that just happened?
Speaker 1:do you get annoyed of?
Speaker 2:course I was annoyed because I didn't have my cub. I was so annoyed that I got in my way of my own pleasure and enjoyment, right, like, yeah, things are going to be challenging, you know it is, but that's that recovery time, like taking a breath and seeing a bigger picture.
Speaker 1:Because you have been committed to not suffering. It's easier, the recovery time is easier and is as long because of that. So, like if you get annoyed by something, you're like, okay, let me just. And then it sort of doesn't annoy you as much.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I will use the word easy, because sometimes it's challenging, right? Sometimes it's very difficult, but I think the recovery time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I feel like people see spiritual teachers like you or know people that have a yoga practice or just know somebody who's pretty chill and they're like do you ever get mad, you get annoyed about something, you know, whatever? So yeah, I just wanted to sort of ask like so what does that look like for you?
Speaker 2:yeah, intense intensity of life, right, like there is. And the yoga tradition, yeah, there is lashmi, you know, again, like just beautiful, sitting on the lotus flower and she is so chill and gorgeous and everything is flowing, right, right, but there's also Kali, and I love that, right, and Kali has a skirt made of human skulls and there is blood coming out of her mouth and tongue out and crazy hair, and so this is beyond a religion or something that you have to believe or not. It's just the energies of this creative intelligence expresses in infinite ways. Right, and sometimes it is relevant.
Speaker 2:When I was coming back from India, actually, I flew to Paris, and so it was Delhi to Paris, and when we got to Paris, the flight was pretty delayed and so people needed to catch their next flights, me included, and there was this Indian man that wanted to just go through it and just like his back on his head and he was just pushing people, and Kali Ma just came out of me and I was like I'm sorry, that's not acceptable. We're all going and we'll have flights to catch, and you know, he's like do you want a confrontation? I'm like I don't want a confrontation, right, and I had to take a breath and said but there is people in front of you and we have no place to go.
Speaker 2:And I felt that energy of kali, that energy of the intensity of saying no yeah because the river can be a part like, so beautiful and gentle, and sometimes the currents come and take you and it's very dangerous, right, and so it's all of it and we can embody all of it. The difference is that I mean I forgot about it and until right now, our conversation that I didn't go into my next flight saying like what an asshole.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my god, right, I hope he learns a lesson. I hope he didn't cut his flight like it was done in that moment. Right, love that it was necessary to say that and speak that he stay put. We all came out at the same time and it was order in that moment, because that's what is needed, because I could feel the fear and the right.
Speaker 2:A lot going on in airports and in it needed that and in other times it just needs gentleness yeah right, I was rushing and there was this woman that like her luggage like fell and all of her stuff were like all over the place, and I just took a deep breath and I turned back and I just helped her, put her stuff in her in her luggage. And just look into her eyes. They're like everything's gonna be okay and so it's all of it. Yeah, it's all of it. Um, the key here is like, are you suffering through it or not Totally?
Speaker 1:How can we this is probably my last question, if you will how can we love ourselves and others unconditionally?
Speaker 2:When we stop betraying ourselves. I have come to a deep understanding that really, at the rude inner hearts, like who we really are, is. You know, it can sound so cheesy, but love, but in many expressions of it, we are generous beings and that's why again, by going back to social media, it works because we want to share, and so when something is so profound that moves you to your core, we want to share it, and so the most important thing is to be able to have that experience for yourself, whatever it is in your path that allows you to tap into the core of your being and experience that love for yourself. That sometimes one expression of love is respect and another one is generosity and another one is kindness. It's like which expression of love are you calling to tap into in this moment? Because the moment that you tap into that frequency right, we are vibrational beings, had to get into that. Science already proved it, thank God. Once you tap into that, innately, you want to share it. You want others to experience the same, and so you don't need to worry about how to love others and how to love yourself.
Speaker 2:Can you just stop into the core of your being, can you just stop suffering, because at the end of suffering there is love. There is the love within the pain and when you stop suffering, you experience that deep love and deep grief, like the depth of my grief with my dad. It is because I love him so deeply, otherwise I would have not experienced the pain that I experienced. Right, my eyelashes hurt, for God's sake, so painful, because there is deep love. And when I tap into that, when I left myself being in that space, that love just emanates.
Speaker 2:And then you, there's nothing else that you want to do than to share it. And so we stop the goal and like trying really hard to love ourselves and to love others and instead live intensely, just really go beyond and realize when we are in that deep suffering and look for the support that we need to find the love within the pain. The love is going to be there and the love looks like loving yourself unconditionally and just flowing out of you unconditionally. So we reframe from that and, oh, we can just take a breath. So we reframe from that and oh, we can just take a breath, because we already have to do so many things. So like, put one more thing on it Love myself.
Speaker 2:Gosh, okay, you know like that's just one more thing to do. And love is not doing right. We take action once we actually embody it.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for all the chat. Yeah, I loved it. So, yeah, where can people find you, where are you doing the things and if people want to learn more, oh, I am so excited, I finally have a website Awesome. That is such so huge. There's so much love that goes into that.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was the labor of love and also following guidance.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It took long because I really wanted a soft landing for people, because I know that when people are connected to me or our frequencies align, it's because people have been looking all over and there's a lot of suffering, and so I wanted to a place where they can find resources and support, and so on my website you can find a whole like a free one hour workshop that I recorded when I taught and has to do about transcending suffering, and so it's there for free. Awesome. A whole training and there are meditations are for free too, so they can tap into that and so. But also on the website are my private sessions, which I do virtually all over the world and also in person, person wherever I am right now in Northern Virginia. And then my love letters. I love them, the way that we got connected. I send love letters the full moon and the new moon.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 2:And I tap into the wisdom of the divine which you know creative intelligence, universe, great universe, great spirit, whatever, whatever name you want to put it, and send them over.
Speaker 1:So you can just tap into it.
Speaker 2:So it's it's gaia balby, which is my full namecom, or in instagram and social media. That's where I post the most and share the wisdom wherever I am in the world, love it.
Speaker 1:Where are you teaching yoga? And then where are the cacao ceremonies?
Speaker 2:oh, I teach yoga in a beautiful studio called Easy Day Yoga. Oh, cool, and they have a space in Ashburn, virginia, and in Leesburg. And then the cacao ceremonies I offer them in Turia Yoga and Wellness, which is in Bluemont, and I have a cacao ceremony actually coming up on December 8th. Awesome, very excited to share a small group connecting to and tapping into the wisdom of the heart. Love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Outro Music