EP 57 Tiffany of Yoga Medicine

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Hey friends, thank you for listening to the all things good4u podcast. Join us as we explore ancient traditions, modern tools and practices in the world of health, wellness and personal development. I'm Amy Christianson, your host and your curated mind coach.

And I'm your co host Brian Bowen, founder of Integrative Health Inc. And Better Human Company High Performance Coaching. Are you ready to take control of your life and start feeling enthusiastic, empowered and limitless? Each and every, every day for a life well lived. Let your curiosity flow with all things good for you. Good morning Amy.

Good morning Brian. How are you?

I am wonderful and very excited about today's podcast.

I know I always love these days.

So today's extra special. We don't do this often enough but it's always fun when we do and we have a special guest on today so I'm pumped that she's joining us. I'm very have a lot of gratitude for her and and we'll jump into it in a minute but just for those of you who are just jumping on the podcast for all things good for you, we are always trying to encourage people to take personal agency of their health and wellness by getting curious educating on different topics around health and wellness. And so today we are bringing in a yoga expert to share some insights with us on on yoga.

I'm so much more. She's I might be girl crushing just a little bit. She's pretty amazing.

Wait till you hear her intro. It's 20 pages long.

Well, I'll let you get started with that.

She is that amazing. Now let's jump into it because we, we do have her for a limited time and I do just want to start before I even get intro that that Tiffany is not only somebody who I inspire like inspires me because she lives her life and leads with purpose and passion but but she's a true servant at the highest level in her community of yoga. And so I've been blessed to have an introduction with her and she's has been gracious enough to share a lot of information with me and her wisdom. So I totally appreciate her. And so just to jump into her intro, Tiffany is the founder of Yoga Medicine and you can find her@yogamedicine.com where it's a community of yoga teachers focused on fusing science and research with traditional yoga practices. She has taught for over 28 years and has trained over 15,000 teachers worldwide. I'm going to add in here a little bit. Definitely work. Not just yoga instructors, but medical professionals and athletes and so a very diverse group of people. She's written two books, she runs Yoga Medicine podcast and posts new practices weekly on her Yoga Medicine online website. And she has been graced beyond the COVID of 15 magazines, is regularly featured as an expert in predominant publications such as Prevention, WebMD, Forbes, Huffington Post, New York Times, Yoga Journal, Women's Health, Self, Marie Claire Fitness, Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest, Health, Cosmopolitan, Shape, reebok, Men's Health, LA Times, and many others. That's a nice, amazing list that she's been on. And if that's not enough, she is also an acupuncturist with over 20 years of practice under her belt. Specializing in sports medicine, she created the acupuncture and Chinese medicine program at Nike World Health Headquarters and Wellness Center. I can't say enough. So with no further ado, please meet Tiffany Krushank.

Wow, that was a nice introduction.

Thank you.

I could go on and on.

I think we both really, like we met and of hit it off right away too. I think the personal agency was such a, a big connector for both of us and something that we both feel really passionate about. So I'm excited to be here and thank you.

Thank you. I wouldn't mind, Tiffany. I mean, I. Obviously you have an amazing list of accomplishments here, but I'm really curious about some of your journey. If you could just share with everybody a little bit about your journey and how you fused your, you know, your background with acupuncture and got into yoga and how you ended up where you are.

Yeah, the short version. I mean, it really all started for me when I was pretty young. I was a troublemaker in my early teens and my parents sent me away on a, a wilderness program and there was an herbalist. I think I was the only of the teenagers who was at all interested in what he had to offer. But, you know, being out there and learning how to survive was very empowering. I was 14 years old and really empowering and intriguing to me. Being out there and being physically active and, and also then this herbalist would take me out on plant walks was just, it kind of blew my mind and changed everything for me. I came back and I kind of got sick of high school and finished up really quickly and started college at 16. And when I was in college, I apprenticed with an acupuncturist because I was looking at all these different modalities. I, you know, back when I was at home, before I went off to college, I got really into herbal medicine and, and collecting herbs and, and healing through our environment. And then I went off to college and was looking at all these different ways that I could apply that and Ayurveda, naturopathic and Chinese medicine and, and western medicine. And I apprenticed with this actress who worked at a, at the time I, I, well I'm, I'm leaving out the yoga part. Now I'm heading to the acupuncture part. I got really into yoga when I got back from the wilderness program and that really intrigued me. And then when I went off to college, I met this acupuncturist and I was, I was teaching yoga at this yoga studio and he was doing acupuncture there. So I started apprenticing with him. It kind of turned into this thing and he was also a Zen monk. And it just so intrigued me that Chinese medicine, and at the same time like I was in love with yoga and this idea of being able to, you know, have self agency like you talked about, being able to look at ways to embody my life, my health and have these tools through yoga practice and, and then finding acupuncture. It was just like to me it just made sense of so many things. Chinese medicine, you know, we think of medicine as the science that's like black or white, like you have this thing and then you do that. It really is such an art. And Chinese medicine to me just really so brilliantly supports that. And so anyways, I started seeing patients. A lot of my patients were yoga students. And I really quickly saw that my yoga student patients got better a lot quicker. So I started using what I called these yoga prescriptions with my non yoga patients and found that it was really helpful to kind of speed up the results and giving them things, you know, like we've, we've talked about like the importance of having these tools for our patients to use. Over the past 15, 20 years, I've just kind of been refining our teacher training programs to be able to use that with Help other teachers use that with their students as well. And then also as the healthcare provider, provide resources. Because I, at the time, was in Portland when I started seeing patients, and, you know, just found that a lot of healthcare providers wanted to refer to yoga, which is surprising back then because it was a long time ago, but being able to provide a resource of teachers to network to, to. Because, you know, we know as a healthcare provider, it can be kind of negligent to just refer someone to yoga because they could be doing Ashtanga, they could be jumping around doing extreme things. They could be doing yin or laying on bolsters or chanting or, you know, like, there's so much. So my whole thing with yoga medicine was. Was fusing that east and west so that our teachers had a deeper understanding of the body and could work with their healthcare providers, but also really hone in on the therapeutic aspect of the tradition and technique. So that's. In a nutshell.

That's beautiful. I commend you. First of all, just going back, first of all, it's. I think for your parents to be open to doing something like that's amazing for them, and for you to listen to that inner voice and insights that you gained through that, Jo, is. Is amazing. And then to fuse and understand that we, you know, the. The passive and active therapies together play such a vital role. So, you know, good job.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think they really wanted to. They were at their end, and I mean, I. Up until just Maybe the past five or 10 years, it was always, like, Tiffany and her. I think my parents always thought I was in a cult or something. Now they get it.

They.

They get it now.

So.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I'm gonna. I just, you know, want to jump in with something that really is amazing that, you know, going over your website and looking at what you've done over the years is. Is really profound. I didn't even mention some of the other things that you, you know, some of your nonprofits and stuff that I think you're gonna share later. But I'm really excited about the research that you're doing. And so, you know, yoga's been around for a long time, and you're really putting a lot of energy into a lot of the research behind it and some of the benefits that we get that maybe we're not aware of. But yet, you honor, you know, the traditions of it, too, and the ancient wisdom. So I'm really curious from the research side, you know, what's really exciting that you've kind of discovered and maybe educating our listeners not just on the ancient practices of what they know, but the some of the other benefits they might not know about. Through your research?

Yeah, I mean, our research nonprofit has been on hold since COVID unfortunately, so we haven't really done any research of our own. But we do a lot of conducting. Like on our podcast we have research roundups where we, you know, really look at available, which unfortunately with yoga is pretty limited and what's available is not always good quality. But I think we still learn something from that. I mean, it's not too. There's definitely a lot more research in acupuncture, but it still has limited, you know, variable quality and context. So, you know, it's helping people be able to understand the research and what it means. And you know, we still live in a day and time and I think this will probably be for, for a while where, you know, we are the reach. But you know, if we wait until we have and understand everything, we'll be waiting for a long time. Yeah, but there's a lot of science and research, especially like in the fashion world, you know, that we can look at and then the applications are really up to us. Like the clinical applications, as I'm sure maybe many people are aware of too, are kind of up to us to interpret what that means. Which is a lot of times the case with research, you know, unless you have a very specific protocol you're using, evidence based is. Is kind of limited to the app in the application. So yeah, we, we like being able to fuse the two. But I think also, you know, looking at the research that's available, but also remembering that research is limited and equally valuing the importance of our experience are both firsthand as a student as well as secondhand as a practitioner or teacher, I think are equally valuable.

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Absolutely. Yeah. I think Brian and I coming from similar backgrounds in the world of health and fitness, I taught, I led yoga years and years ago. I would never say I taught yoga, I just led classes, but of course, and then massage therapy, acupuncture. Just being in that slightly alternative world. We're enjoying the amount of research that's coming out and, but all know that really the proof was in the experience and what we were seeing happen with people right in front of us. So yeah, appreciate that the world is shifting a little bit.

I love that you said that too because I feel like back in the day, like back in the 90s, that's what we did, we led yoga. And I think things are coming a little bit full circle now from these over architected classes, which I think is great and brilliant to really understand, especially if you're going to work one on one therapeutically the what, why and how behind things and why with them. But you know, in a group class, I think it is just that you're leading people to discover what's best for them. And there's something really potent in a group class too where, you know, as a teacher, you're just holding space for people to listen because, you know, that's really. No one knows your body like you. And it's one of, I think the best. When we think, when we speak about yoga benefits, it's one of the things that comes to mind first is for me, yoga creates awareness and a mindfulness that is really the foundation of all of our healthcare. Because if I can't know myself and my body, I can't be able to even talk to my healthcare provider, my doctor about what's working and what's not. And you know, when in life or death, an emergency room, it's not as important. But when we talk about health and wellness, you know, it's, it's crucial. You can't do anything without having some mindfulness and awareness. And so, you know, I really think that some of these pillar things, you know, just the interoception and the introspection that it creates is such a great tool for health and wellness and kind of that foundation of our healthcare in a lot of different ways.

Right? Yeah.

Brian talked before about like, you know, with, with this podcast. It's trying to also get people to, to hear their little warning signals going off and you know, when to listen to their body and how to listen to their body. But you know, to think about yoga as a tool to help develop awareness is a great perspective on it because typically, you know, for, for me, I'm like, hey, motion is lotion and we've got to keep things moving and keep that, you know, tension length relationship and. But now, you know, even listening to your podcast around hyaluronic acid and you know, the fashion stuff is really amazing. But I like the perspective of utilizing yoga as also a training tool to, to bring in awareness and really develop a keen sense of awareness of, of what your own body is telling you.

Yeah. And I think, you know, there's obviously a place, there's an important place for the healthcare provider too because we can start looking at these things and then we are over ruminating and we do need an outsider's perspective sometimes. It's not that yoga is a, is a cure all, but I like too that there's also this non judgmental attitude, this idea of listening and sensing without creating or running into the story, you know, running away with the story of what it might mean. And I think that non judgmental mindfulness, that yoga, you know, the filter, that non judgmental mindfulness allows us to be a little more discerning. And obviously again, that's not a replacement for a healthcare provider or an outside opinion, which is so crucial at times, but a big part of it. And then of course, you know, there's all the physical components of yoga that I find really intriguing, you know, like what you're saying too, just movement is so important, we know obviously for circulation when we look at connective tissue, which is now finally getting a spotlight, especially in athletes, but pain and really everyone, you know, we know too that even just like a slow flow, like if, you know, people are familiar with yoga, there's oftentimes, you know, group classes that are just a real gentle flow. It's not anything extreme, it's not intense. You're not pushing mobility or strength too much. But it's just an easy flow, which can be great for stress too. But we know that there's a thixotropic quality to the connective tissue, which basically means that as we become sedentary, it becomes more kind of sludge, like more viscous. And as we move, it's kind of like shaking up the system. It becomes more fluid and it allows us to be more mobile and it allows the connective tissue, which is our largest sensory organ. We now know the more current updated numbers now tell us that the fascia is the, the most, the largest sensory organ of the body. And so it's collecting all the sensory information to inform how we move, the more sensory information we have, the better control we have. And so even just kind of like mindless. I guess it's not mindless, but like simple flowing and movement can be. Which I think is just the base of what yoga can do. But you know, then we talk about mobility and you know, I think one thing that yoga does really well too is training some of the deeper, smaller, more stabilizing muscles, which is kind of what presets the joint for more for better movement of the larger muscles, which is usually what we train. I'm speaking very generally but in sport and in the gym. So it's kind of, it gives such a great balance. And a lot of what I've done is working with athletes too. So it's to me, yoga is such a great cross training as we know for so many, so many things. But that's the tip of the iceberg, I guess.

I love it. I was going to mention that. Yeah. You on your website, you offer many different courses and classes and education pieces and I was intrigued with several offers for more athletic driven. You even have one for triathletes. I loved all of that because I think it's so important. I remember the, the big wow when the NFL players started taking ballet dance many years ago. And you know that it is that cross training aspect, it's the understanding and yoga, it reminds me, I grew up in, in a dance world that in my early, early, you know, high school year. That's kind of what yoga reminds me of. In the space of that awareness of what you're. It's a proprioceptive attachment to like what, what are my fingers actually doing? Where are my toes? How often are people actually paying attention to the small spaces of their body and that we are disconnected from in everyday work. And I think that's something that's really pulled yoga into the western world is the ability to have people to slow down and pay attention to their entire self and bring their mind to the connection of what's happening in their body. And regardless of what your approach is with yoga, I mean I remember really the hardest pose was the corpse pose. You know, everybody lie down and be still and don't move and think about just breath. You know, that was literally the art like. And I could hear the people in the class like, yeah, how many times do you have as teachers? I mean if you're working with people and you're like don't leave the last five minutes of class. Like this isn't time to just walk out and leave like Getting people to quiet their bodies and their minds to really just be with themselves for a full five minutes was one of the hardest processes.

So that's literally the only one I excel at. The rest of the rest of them, I'm a disaster.

I love that you mentioned that too. I've worked with a bunch of NFL players and, you know, like, it's really cool, fun to work at that level. And there's so many things that yoga can do for athletes and even sports specific, but even for seniors, you know, like that proprioception, like, I think every phase of our life, there's such a beautiful act. Usually several aspects of this practice that are supportive. And, you know, it's one thing that's always kept me intrigued over the decades is, you know, there's so many layers of nuance and. And nuance, but also layers of support. You know, depending on. Just like an acupuncturist might choose, you know, different points for yin deficiency or heat or stagnation. You know, the same is kind of similar with yoga. You know, there's times when we need more recovery and restorative and maybe nervous system regulation or stress regulation and others where we need more strength and stability or mobility and more movement kind of training. And for me, what makes yoga medicine really unique is that, you know, there's kind of the stigma in yoga that restore that therapeutic means more restorative lying and stress regulation, which is often needed. But, you know, for me, therapeutic is what meets the individual. So sometimes that is vigorous, especially with, you know, sedentary being the new smoking. Now, you know, we know that mobility practices are very important for a lot of different reasons. And for me, it's bringing in the range of that. Not just the static stretching, which is still very important. It can get a bad rap sometimes, but still very important in the right scenarios. The active range of motion, the dynamic motion, the different angles of range of motion. We know that, you know, you were talking about hyaluronic acid, but there's the specialized cell called the fascicytes that live in these kind of these gliding zones between the muscles that, you know, if a muscle is moving past another tissue, there's what we call these. These gliding zones that have to move, move past each other. And there's these little fascicytes that live in there that are designed to lubricate excrete hyaluronic acid. And so just the movement between the layers and is what helps stimulate them to secrete more hyaluronic acid. So move it or lose it, obviously with mobility, but also with hyaluronic acid. And you know, we can do that with yoga. We could do that with just generalized movement. You get some of that. You can be more specific. I really love one of the things we use a lot of is myofascial release with kind of tools, balls, foam rollers and things to, you know, get a little bit more specific, which is great for preventative recovery injury care, but is a little bit more specific to the fascia, which is such a big part, I think, of physical health.

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I love the pointing out of the hyaluronic acid in physical therapy. You know, we had a fun term which I don't think was designated towards physical therapy, but we always told our, you know, clients, like, motion is lotion. Like, yeah, get in and move it. But at the same time, the nice thing about the yoga positions is also that that solid isometric hold and the strengthening that we're learning more and more about how important isometric strengthening is for the health of the joint. Then you combine it with a safe motion, a fluid mot. So you're getting kind of hitting all these safe opening and fluid movements without all the inflammatory impact that we're typically doing. And I think when we are using yoga as a practice on overall health, yeah, you can combine it with a more intense exercise for just a deeper balance and health process for the body.

Yeah. And there's so much too, I think that's going on and you know, like, there's so many different ways to train the tissues. One of the things I really love doing is eccentric train of the practice too. And you know, we know with a lot of the new fascia research and Eccentric work, you know, research as well, that basically eccentrics if you're not familiar. I mean, I know you guys are, but for those listening, it's just training muscles, engaging a muscle while it's actively lengthening. So it actually stimulates the, the muscles to lay down new sarcomeres in length. So it can actually make for longer, stronger fiber muscle, which I think is a really interesting thing when you have a sarcomere deposition within the muscle length. And you know, so there's, there's just so many ways you can apply it. And I know as a massage therapist, you know, you're really familiar with this. But I think what's interesting about the MFR too is that for me, it's actually one of the easiest ways to regulate the nervous system. Like you were saying before, you know, when someone lays down in Shavasana, it's really difficult for pretty much everyone to lie still. Partly because they don't. Sometimes they're supposed to just be relaxing. They're like, what am I? How do I please you? What should I be doing? But you know, it's hard for everyone just to relax. And whether that's a yin yoga practice or restorative yoga practice or Shavasana. But what's really great about the MFR and you know, I think anyone who's had a massage has probably experienced this to some extent, is that the nervous system regulation effect. And we know there's the Ruffini endings and the connective tissue that respond to that slow melting. And I don't think most people who do MFRM themselves know that. I mean, I think everyone who's had a massage experiences that. But it's such a great access point for people who have trouble regulating their nervous system at first to be able to use balls as a self tool, to be able to relax and drop in and regulate intensity on yourself too. Which is a little different when someone else is giving you a massage. Sometimes, depending on how intense it is. I think people tend to love the. Which now maybe I'm sure you're familiar with isn't always more is better.

So I always love it with the nervous system regulation, whether you're getting a massage or doing yoga or something, when you feel that sympathetic shift into parasympathetic. So parasympathetic, if you're not aware, is that rest and digest and restore. You know, you're getting a session done, you're getting some myofascial or whatever, and you start getting a little barygamous gurgly stomach or Whatever. And it's like a little hallelujah shifted into that parasympathetic state. And so it's great because you, you got, you're just like chilling and all of a sudden you got. Your stomach starts talking to you and stuff. And it's just so, you know, it's a sign that you shifted from sympathetic to parasympathetic, which is pretty cool, right?

I love that. I love that description.

I love the fascist sites too. And I'm curious in the future, you know, with, in regards to the interstitium, what we find out more about the function of stitch and then how that also is affected, you know, in yoga practices and movement and stuff like that. It'll, it'll be interesting research in that area. I don't know if you know of anybody who's currently studying or looking into that.

What specifically? Just the interstitium in general or.

Yeah, as far as movement and, and stuff like that, how, you know, it affects interstitium and how that Interstitium, you know, the, the roles that it plays. Because there's still. Last time I was looking into it, they're still trying to figure out what all the interstitium does and some people, you know, have different ideas or philosophies about that, but we can chat about that.

Yeah, well, I mean the interstitium is the fascia. And so it was always, it was really interesting when, you know, there's the huge breaking news of like the interstitium and all. Everyone who studies fascia was like, oh well, we've been talking about this for decades. We're really glad we have a label and I'm so glad that it's coming to people's awareness and, and yeah, hopefully it is driving more. So like along your point. Yes, I mean I do think it will drive more research and more support for this field that's getting more and more attention.

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Yeah, I was that too. There was. And I would love to continue this discussion. I could geek out on this. But as far as like. So there was these things called the dongbang ducks that were discovered in South Korea that that's what they're labeling kind of the interstitium. But they had microtubulers and I definitely understand that that's a form of connective tissue or fascia. But I did think that there was a small variation in the fact that there's these microtubulars. And some people believe that that's how some diseases, you know, specifically cancer, actually spreads more as in these dongbang pathways or that more stem cells can proliferate from these areas. So I'm talking a little bit out of my lane as far as some of that. But. But yeah, to dive into that and kind of separate some of that stuff that would be. I'm curious about in the future.

I love that. I mean, I think there's just a lot more. I don't know that we have any. I, I mean I love the ideas. I don't know that we have any heart infection. I mean like anything, you know, who funds the research. And I mean it's hard enough to get fascia research. At least fascia research has a lot of implications for surgery and potential maybe pharmaceuticals and interventions. So there's. There are ways to get funding there, I think even harder when you get into acupuncture and yoga. Yoga even harder. So unfortunately.

So there's so yoga the cool that yoga's obviously been around for, you know, a very long time and we've seen the evolution of it and going back even to your guys talking about like the cross training and stuff. I remember, you know, when I used to go to first start doing yoga, I started with like bikram yoga and I was literally like the only guy in class. And so it's cool to see like now you go to a class and it's you know, 15, 20% male. So there's been some taboo, you know, that's, that's changed with the dynamics of thinking about who's yoga good for and you know, all this stuff and you know, with the research and then it just getting more popular. So we're really seeing a cool evolution. I'm curious to see what you've seen and then where you see it going.

Well, I love that you say that because the funny part is that yoga was really a men's only thing way back, way back when, you know, in the history. And at some point women were allowed slowly to come and join. And it's, I think, you know, where a lot of the, you know, a lot of times it was practiced in a temple. Women also weren't allowed to come when they were on their period. So which is kind of where a lot of that ritual comes from of, you know, women not doing yoga on their period. There was a lot of the taboos around that which were more around, you know, being in the temple. I mean, I think obviously there's a longer conversation to female health and things you should and can do to help support that and things to avoid in yoga and in other way. In other ways, of course. But yeah, I mean it was a male, male centric modality and it was opened up to females and then, you know, as it came over to the west, it became a female dominant. I mean even in the early 2000s, I mean most of the teachers were still men in the 90s and in the early 2000s and then somewhere not a history person, but in my experience, in my memory now, I feel like it was like somewhere in the mid, like 2005, 2010ish, where yoga just really started taking and you know, social media came around that, you know, the Internet was obviously more pervasive and, and so, you know, you saw this explosion of yoga for the masses which, you know, for me, I, I've always enjoyed. I remember living in Portland and you know, working at the Nike headquarters and you know, teaching yoga a lot. And there was like a, a chain, a yoga chain that moved in and everyone was so worried and upset all the yoga studios. But for me I was like, hey, it's, it's bringing people in and it's getting them hooked and then when they want more, they're going to come to us. And it did it. Sure it did. You know, people who hang around, there's going to be some people who engage and disengage and others who find it a really helpful resource. And dig deeper. And so I, you know, for all the like the negativity around the way that yoga has evolved, I think there's a lot of positivity as well that you know, people are going to find what they need. For me, liking yoga is, you know, it's a tool of personal agency, you know, like you mentioned. And as an acupuncturist and a healthcare provider, it was always so important to me to be able to give people something to do on their own, to not be dependent on me. And we share this, we kind of connected over this over oversee when we met. And you know, like I didn't want to train people to be hooked on me but I wanted to, you know, I wanted them to have a resource to come to when they need it. If they have an injury, they have an ailment come to me. I can help or guide you to the right person who can helpful. But I also want to give people tools to, to help themselves because that's really the magic the things we do every day. Like if you go to the acupuncturist once a week, even if you went once a week, what does that compare to just like eating good food every day or regulating your stress, you know, like doing, you know, a breathing technique, you know, something that you can do every day. We know is, is going to be very impactful. It's not a cure. You know, we still need the healthcare providers but you know, having that is such, such a big thing I think.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. And just taking it kind of further out like okay, we're not just going to keep it on yoga, but yoga is more than just stretching and it's more than just strength or flexibility. It can definitely go deeper. But maybe there are some things like touch on with the, a lot of your research and just obviously your in depth education around it and experience. What are maybe a couple of things that are happening. We talked about, you know, motion is lotion and all these things. But what else might somebody not realize that is a side effect and a beneficial way from yoga that is helping their body that they may not really get, may not be familiar with?

Yeah, it's a great question. So I think we've talked a lot about the physical stuff and you know, I think what I love about yoga is that it can really different layers and sometimes we might be more focused on mobility or physical or more energetic or more spiritual or you know, there's different layers and you know, we haven't even talked about all the importance of the more kind of yin, I think of them as more yin modalities or nervous system regulation modalities like restorative yoga, yin meditation, which actually has a lot of great research on it, and pranayama which is starting to get search on it. These more introspective, often still practices that are really aimed more at regulating, you know, I mean a lot of things, the nervous system is one of them, is the one thing we can kind of pinpoint with science and research. But you know, I think there's also these applications for mental health, obviously just the stress regulation. But I think like I mentioned before, that being able to notice without being attached to the story, being able to watch the patience come and go, being able to watch the emotions come and go and you know, these are things that can be done really in any practice or being able to come back to the breath. I know. You know, I just got back into tennis and I love it. I remember my dad used to give me a hard time because he'd be like, your biggest weakness is your head, which you get in my head. But being able to like in those, whether it's in, you know, competitive sports or interestful moments, being able to just simply come back to our breath, you know, and notice, you know, I'm breathing, here's my inhale, here's my exhale, here's my inhale, here's my exhale. I mean not even necessarily manipulating the breath, which is another technique, but you know, and all of these things we know are affecting the emotional body, the nervous system, the energetic body, which we haven't talked about either. You know, I think there's a lot of ways to apply this. And even when you're, I think, just approaching the physical body, I really believe that, you know, they're all connected. So it's impacting. I can be, if I'm trying to be therapeutic, I could be more focused on maybe one of those layers or one part of one of those layers. But you know, early as a beautiful, intelligent, wise, interactive system that's constantly trying to self regulate, that just sometimes needs some inputs and you know, in any of those areas can be helpful. But you know, I think as a, as a practitioner it's finding those things that are most helpful for what's going on with you today. And if you have an illness or something, an ailment sometimes that requires, you know, one on one instruction. But it is all being mediated by my subjective experience too and being able to listen and, and enhance that body awareness to refine my ability to kind of fine tune my sense of health through that awareness as well. So. And all of these are just great modalities. You know, the physical practices, the myofascial release, the nervous system and introspective practices. The effects on all of the different layers that are interacting are I think important.

You guys had a really interesting. Sorry Brian, I didn't mean to cut you up but just to wrap up my kind of where I was thinking I. You guys had a really great podcast on the effects of of nitric oxide which I, I love the way that you branch out. So for me I'm always like, I like the balance of science and woo woo. I like when those two all blend together and you start seeing it in real life. You guys do such a fantastic job of kind of seeing the way that it's both a mix of the science and the, the more modern science and the traditional modalities and, and the spiritual side, but also like this is really what's physically showing up for us as well as the mindfulness. And so I appreciate your depth of knowledge and sharing all of that on your, on your podcast and your. Thank you.

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Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Thank you. Yeah, I mean I really think, you know, to kind of tie all that thing. For me, yoga is about learning the owner's manual to your body, mind and spirit, you know, and it's such a great adjunct to any health care modality, massage, acupuncture, Western medicine, you know, I just think it's such an important part of our healthcare system. We're not doctors, as yoga teachers, we're not healthcare providers, but we serve a very important role of really bridging that gap between everyday experiences in this Journey toward wellness and, you know, the shorter interactions, we get a lot of our healthcare providers to be more pointed and specific. And I think it's just such an important part of our everyday health and wellness for people. So finding, and I'll just leave the people listening too, is like finding something you like too is important. You know, yoga can be many different things to many different people. And so I do think finding a facet of yoga that you enjoy is important because that's obviously a stress regulator, the enjoyment too. And so just not only are there a lot of different types of yoga and styles of yoga, but there's a lot of different teachers and approaches. So, you know, if you found one you don't really jive with, you know, look around and there's something for everyone.

Absolutely, yeah.

I love that you just said, you know, earlier you said input and again, the owner's manual to the body. And it's just a great reminder, I use that a lot with my clients about how we're constantly having input. Sometimes it's good input, sometimes it's bad input. So really being able to become aware of the type of input that you're receiving and that you're. You're getting. Again, the different types of yoga, it's different types of input, the different type of connection with those, you know, the yoga instructors. And then how do we remove input that isn't serving us or, you know, that isn't supporting us in a healthy way? So it's kind of like removing. Removing some of the things, adding some yummy things back in. I love that is really cool.

I love that. And even, like, social input of, like, being in a yoga community in person versus accessibility of having yoga online. And, you know, like, there's so much. Many different ways. Yeah.

So with our. So with our listeners, I mean, some people have been doing yoga, maybe some people are just starting. And some people are really jazzed to start after hearing this podcast because they're super pumped to hear Tiffany Cruikshank speak and you've inspired them. And so there's a lot of different types of yoga. Is there a certain style that you feel like is a better starting place? And then also I would like, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about your website and how so they can access some of your online classes.

Yeah, I mean, I think having beginners classes is great, you know, where you can break it down or, you know, a lot of studios or places will have like a, A level one or, you know, a more introductory. It doesn't always have to be beginners only, but you know, something that's more aimed at beginners. It, I think the style is really up to the person. For me, like yoga medicine isn't a style of yoga. It really is training people, our teachers, to understand the body, able to apply all these wonderful tools from all the styles that are relevant, you know, to the person that they' with. And so I think there's a place for every style. And in some parts of our life we need more vigorous movement and in others we need more nourishment and restorative practices. And so, you know, it kind of is up to you to sense and find what feels best to you. You know, are you really busy? You need like something to slow down, like a yin or restorative or are you really sedentary and you physically active and you want a physical outlet as well. You know, a movement based practice. Hatha or vinyasa would be more of the styles for you. We, we have obviously classes on our website and so on the Yoga Medicine online platform we have a foundation section which is meant to just teach people who are new to yoga, like some of the really important concepts to get the most out of their practice. So that then really the rest of our classes are all, all levels because they're really on specific topics. So you know, that might be just a, a moving practice to shed stress or that could be something focused on shoulder mobility or the rotator cuff or you know, like a million other things. The lower back. I have a whole series on low back pain and, and sometimes that's just supporting mental health or you know, there's so many different ways to go. So all the rest of our practices are all levels. So it kind of equip the new people with what they need to get up. And then you know, obviously there's something to practicing in person. So finding local studios if that's what you're more interested in. But again, to me the thera is meeting the person where they're at. So you know, what do they need. And on our website, yogamedicine.com, we've got all of that. So we've got the classes, the practices, we have teacher trainings and I would say probably a quarter of our teachers in our trainings are healthcare providers of some sort. So we draw a lot of the healthcare providers. If you're a student who's working with an injury or an illness of some sort or an ailment of some sort and wanting more individualized care, we have Our Find a teacher page on our website. So at the top of the, the yoga medicine page, you can hit find a teacher and type in your zip code and see who's near you and even find someone's great now too. There's not someone near you can do a virtual session with people, which is great. Sometimes it's just even getting a couple of lessons to give you what you need to. Then go apply that in a group class and really magnify the effects of what you're doing on whatever ailment or injury you're working with. So. So yeah, we've got all those resources, whether you're a student wanting to practice or find a teacher to support you in your therapeutic goals. Our podcast has a lot of info like you mentioned, and then we also have teacher trainings and, and a lot of support and articles and things for teachers too. So yeah, great.

And while you're talking about all the wonderful things that you guys do outside the classes, you, you know, the trainings that you offer and the education piece, I wanted to mention your foundation that you're involved with that I think is fantastic. The Seva Foundation.

Thank you. I'm so glad you asked about it too, because it, this is something that's really close to my heart. It's something that actually when I was at Nike, I got exposed to. They had a non profit called the Girl Effect and this little like video that they would play about the importance of breaking the cycle of human trafficking through education because you know, these girls would get trafficked and then get pregnant and then have to support their families or not get pregnant and have support their families. And so even if they were rescued from trafficking, they'd end up going back out there because they didn't have a way to support themselves. And so, you know, like, not only keeping the children in school to prevent the trafficking is a big part of it, but then also educating them, you know, once they've been rescued. And so as, as a female myself, it was, you know, once I started learning about human trafficking, it was something I couldn't turn away. Like I can't imagine any greater harm or, or worse thing you could do to a person. And, and so, you know, as someone who's received so much from Indian culture and Indian history, you know, just wanting to give back, knowing that it's one of the largest. I think it's 18 million, maybe I'm butchering. I think it's 18 million of the 45 million world worldwide who are trafficked are in India 18 to 45 million. So it's huge. It's the largest human trafficking center. And you know, the more you learn about it the more you're just like you're just overwhel. But you know, really the whole point is to give back to a community that's given us this gift of yoga. And to me yoga is empowering people. And you know our non profit isn't necessarily about teaching them yoga that we, we obviously do but really about equipping them with vocational skills to support themselves for life, to be confident and, and, and have the potential to be happy and to see the looks on these women, the women who have been through our program. We do such a, we work with a lot of partners. I'll try not to go on too far but we work with a lot of partners there and we work really hard because we, we want to go above and beyond just rescuing someone but really giving them meaningful vocational skills. So what's great about our program is we, we really work with them to find a meaning facial skill. Some people, we've got one woman in law school, some want to go to college, some become goldsmiths which is like one of the most revered jobs in India and is a male dominant profession and take several years of training. We have a jewelry line that we do with them too. And so like really finding a meaningful vocational skill that, that also, and this is the key brings them above the poverty line because so much of these programs are just teaching them spicing and things that just don't bring them over the poverty line. And so we also follow them up for you know, years after making sure they're not being re trafficked making sure they have a good, you know, community support. And so it's a really, it's a really sweet, cool and important part of our work I think. And there's always need for more as you can imagine. You know we, there's always more to be done with those numbers in mind.

Well it's so that's such a wonderful process and just the understanding of not just that we're trying to create mindfulness and in being in touch with ourselves and then just the community space of all of it like this is just something that regardless of you are going to be passionate about yoga or your body. You can go to yogamedicineseva.com and seva as s v a.com we'll put the link in the show notes as well. I know that you guys are doing a big pull. You hit a certain goal for raising funds for some things. So I encourage everybody. I myself have contributed. So thank you. Get a little emotional, but thank you for. Thank you being a part of that. That's wonderful.

Thank you so much. And I think, you know, as females and then you know, like we have a daughter, you know, you think about your own kids and it all just like it becomes even more like such a priority, especially for like, I think people, you know, any, anyone, you know, children around them, children of their own themselves. You think of yourself as a child and yeah, there's just, there's so much to be done. And what I will say just is that like every little bit counts, like even $5 goes so far in India. And you know, a lot of our donations are small and we have some much larger donors, but you know, all the small stuff adds up. You know, if you want to just donate your time and be a volunteer, you can email website as well save@yogamedicine.com There's a lot of ways to get involved. So we appreciate the support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh my God, Tiffany, thank you so much for taking the time today. It was amazing having you on. I know you're, you're busy and we really appreciate your wisdom and sharing all your amazing information with us. So thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. It was great to chat again. Nice to see you guys.

Thank you.

You have a wonderful day.

Awesome.

All you listen is check out her website, go do some yoga, get curious about your health and wellness. Take personal agency. What kind of input are you putting into your body? Pay attention. We love it. Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you again, Tiffany.

Thank you guys. Sorry I have to run, but that was great. I really appreciate it. We'll talk soon.

Bye bye. Hey friends, thank you for tuning in to the All Things Good for you podcast. Please note any information, experiences, ideas or opinions discussed today are for educational and thought provoking purposes only and not intended as medical advice. If anything piqued your curiosity, please consult with your doctor or personal medical professional. And if you're enjoying all things good for your podcast, hop on over and leave us a five star review so we can continue delving in and providing great content. Thanks again and we hope you're inspired to stay informed and responsible along your health and wellness journey.

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