123: Overcoming Grief through Yoga with Kino Macgregor

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest development. I am so excited for today's episode with Kino because her and I have teamed up to do an epic challenge that will coincide with the release of my new book, Eat Feel Fresh which is out on October 2nd. This challenge is called Eat Like a Yogi and it is a 14 day free challenge that will teach you how to focus on bridging the ancient science of Ayurveda with yoga. So every day I will be teaching you a new Ayurvedic recipe, self care, practice and even philosophy. And she'll be sharing with you yoga poses to balance the different doshas because remember, we all have all three doshas within us. So she'll teach us how to balance our vata pitta kapha with yoga and I'll be teaching you Ayurvedic recipes and rituals to go along with it. The most amazing part of all of it is that we will be raising money for One Prosper, which is an organization that supports families led by strong females in Rajasthan, which is where Eat Feel Fresh was shot. So in Rajasthan it is beautiful but desert like climate and a lot of people have to walk miles and miles a day just to collect clean water. A lot of girls are actually pulled out of school to be the person in their family that collects this water. So One Prosper goes and creates these clean water wells to support these villages so they no longer have to send their girls out to long long walks that can often be dangerous for them as well and also provides these girls with education. So our sponsor Bhakti chai will be donating $1 per challenge participant up to $5,000. And on top of that you are able to donate too. So all you got to do is sign up, go to the show Notes, you'll be able to sign up right there. It's ab free and by participating and you being healthier, you are actually helping the world get healthier too. And you can head over to my Instagram at I Am Sahara Rose and Kino's Instagram at Kinoyoga as well as the omstars official Instagram @ohmstarsofficial. Bhakti Chai and One Prosper are also part of it too. So follow all of us and you'll be able to do the daily yoga poses Ayurveda practices Tag three friends, you want to join you in the challenge and practice with us for the entire 14 days, you're going to learn so much. You're going to be be able to eat like a yogi. And more importantly, you'll be healing our brothers and sisters in Rajasthan who just like us, have dreams and aspirations and things that they want to do and allowing them to have a path towards their freedom, their education and their highest selves. So I'm so excited and honored to be co hosting this incredible Eat Like a Yogi challenge with Kino and so excited to introduce her today. So before we hop into this episode, I want to share with you two of my favorites sponsors. This episode is brought to you by uvaida. Uvaida is a modernized Ayurvedic supplement company that takes certain issues that we have such as mood, joints, immunity, digestion and creates these custom little packets exactly for us, infusing ancient Ayurvedic herbs with modern vitamins and minerals. I take the mood formula daily. It is great if you work a stressful job, had adrenal fatigue, ever suffer from anxiety or even depression, and it really heals you from a fundamental and holistic level. So if you want to try it out, head over to UVA. Y o u v d a.com use the code Sahara and you'll receive 35% off your first order. And they now ship to almost every country globally. So check it out. If you live internationally, they may be shipping to your country too. And they just added India, guys. This episode is also brought to you by four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is an incredible mushroom elixir company. I proudly drink their elixirs every single day. My favorite is their chai mix. It is insanely delicious. I quit chocolate cold turkey and what helped me was drinking this chai mix every day. And best of all, they use stevia to sweeten it. And there's no sugars like the chai lattes you'll find at Starbucks or wherever else. And the mushrooms are really good for balancing your hormones, helping heal adrenal fatigue fatigue healing your body on an adaptogenic level. So Adaptogens really kind of relate to what your body needs. So if you are high, stress will bring you down. If you need more energy, it will bring you up. And that's what's so amazing about Adaptogen is they adapt to your body. And mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, have a lot of adaptogenic properties. So you can head over to their website 4sigmatic.com F O U R S I G M A T-I C.com forward/sahara I have a little shop up there with my favorite Sigmatic products so you can try it out and you can also get 15% off any four sigmatic product using the code Sahara. Also, I'd like to make my book tour announcement. I will be coming to several different cities not just to share my book but to have a Bollywood dance party and hug each other and talk all about the doshas and relationships and business and self care and everything in between. My book launch events are so much more than me just talking about the book, but it's really a way to create community and to have a lot of fun. So come join me October 12th in LA, October 17th in New York, November 30th in Miami and I'm going to be going to San Diego sometime in between. Then head over to my website eatfieldfresh.com book. I'm going to be adding some more cities so head over there so you can stay tuned. And I'm so excited to meet you in person now. Keno McGregor I don't even know how to introduce this incredible woman because she's really had an impact on my life. About six years ago I was really into practicing yoga and I got into Ashtanga yoga and that was really the practice that deeply brought me into the Yogic sciences. And if you haven't tried Ashtanga before, I highly recommend diving into that practice. And I remember I was in India and I went online to look up like Ashtanga retreat or Ashtanga classes. I was living in Goa and I saw that this woman named Kino was hosting a retreat in in Goa all about Ashtanga with my source style practices every day, which is a three hour long free flow class where you're doing the Ashtanga sequences but at your own pace, at your own breath. Because Ashtanga is not like everyone goes with the only what the teacher says. It's all about really making the practice your own and that's what I really loved about it. So I saw that Kino is teaching this retreat and you know, I was so young but I tried and I tried to go. I ended up not making it but following her like everything that she did. I started following her on social media, I started to watch her videos and I was so inspired by her because not only is she an incredible Ashtangi but she brings so much truth in everything that she has to say. She is not one of those yoga teachers that will just tell you oh everything's great, think positively. Woohoo. Like she does not spiritual bypass over anything. She will go into the core of the issue. So she is an activist. Above all, she truly is an activist. She's an author. She has multiple, multiple best selling books. One of them, which is yogi assignment based off of her popular yogi assignments that she gives. And she's all about making yoga accessible. Not making it just for the white privileged people, but making it just something that everyone, with everybody and every color can practice, which is something that I really honor and cherish deeply myself as a woman of color. She literally just brings so much wisdom and you would never guess that she didn't even start practicing yoga until she was in her mid-20s. Like she did not grow up, up a gymnast. She did not grow up a dancer. Shares in this episode that she used to party a lot and she grew up in Miami and got really into the nightclub scene and the drugs and she dealt with depression, suicidal thoughts, multiple periods throughout her whole life. And the yoga is what brought her through. So in this episode we dive into a topic that is not a hot sexy topic, but one that we've all dealt with and that's grief. You know, with Kino, you never know where it's going to go. And we both were just like, let's just see what happens with this. So grief really came up and I think that this is, is a topic that we oftentimes over glide in our society because, you know, it feels too heavy and we don't know how to deal with it. And if you don't know how to maneuver your way through grief and you don't let yourself sit with those emotions, then it will continue to haunt you. You know, if you don't fully feel an emotion, you're going to subconsciously continue to feel it for the rest of your life. So we dive into the topic of grief. She shares with us her own pain, losing her father. And you know, grief is whether you've lost a parent or a loved one or even grief for the world and, and what's happening, the challenge that we're doing together, I mean, I feel so much sadness in my heart that so many girls are not able to get educated because their mere jobs are to collect water because their village doesn't have access to clean water. Where I shot eat feel fresh. You'll see in the pictures of this book. I'm sitting in cow dung huts with people who don't have electricity, running water. They're cooking in these ancient ways, which is beautiful and very sacred. The same time comes with a lot of difficulties. So we dive into the shadow work and what that means and we also dive into her journey as a yogi, how people can, you know, practice and separate themselves when they're practicing yoga advice that she has for people who are starting their yoga teacher trainings or they're becoming a yoga teacher for the first time today. And so many incredible insights from this, this glorious woman. So we are so honored to have her here on the Highest Self podcast. And both Kino and I are so excited to have you on our challenge. So remember to head over to my Instagram at I Am Sahara Rose Kino's Instagram at Kinoyoga. Participate in the challenge. It is absolutely free. It's hosted by her yoga TV network, Ohmstars, where I have a channel a 14 day full on Ayurveda e course with long videos about recipes, recipes from the book Self Care practices and more. So check it out, join us on the challenge and let's welcome Kino to the Highest Self podcast. Welcome Kino to the Highest Self Podcast. It's so great to have you.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

So the first question I would love to ask you is what makes you your highest self?

Gosh. Well, I think what makes me my, my highest self is really a gift of grace. You know, I genuinely believe that there is a definitive telos or purpose to every human being and really every sentient being. I, I don'. Believe that anything is random. I genuinely believe that each of us is here for a reason. And I feel that when I'm in sort of my highest potential, I'm connected in that sort of divine purpose. And I remember being lost and searching when I was much, much younger. And, you know, I remember saying, I just want to find the one thing that I was put here on this earth to do and then do it with all my heart. And now, near 20 years later, I feel like I found that one thing I've been put here on this earth to do. And I'm doing it with all my heart. And every time I connect back into that, I feel, I feel a sense of vitality, I feel a sense of purpose, I feel a sense of meaning and also a sense of peace.

And also the thing that you do has so many different shades and spectrums. You're not just a yoga teacher, you are an activist, you are a writer, you are a studio owner. You work, wear so many different hats, but they always come kind of down to the same thing.

Yeah, it's interesting because whenever I have to fill out the occupation form, occupation form, like what I really sit and Think for a moment, what shall I write? You know, so what do you write? Should I write author? Should I write yoga teacher? Should I write entrepreneur? You know, shall I write self employed? You know, I feel like self employed is probably the most true one, you know, but sometimes I write author, yoga teacher, entrepreneur, I write them all. Or sometimes I just write authors and just write yoga teacher. I think it depends on context. But I kind of feel like, how could I explain? You know, I see myself as kind of. This might sound strange, but as a radio receiver, I feel like here I am and I'm open and available to tune in to a grand sort of energy, the presence of God, you could say. And then I'm sort of available to tune into this presence of eternality. And in that presence, there's healing, there's light, there's peace, there's love, there's hope. And then if I'm able to tune into that and be that sort of radio receiver, well, then I can also be a transmitter. So then what are the forms that that transmission is going to take place? Well, sometimes it's teaching yoga, sometimes it's writing about spirituality, sometimes it's raising awareness about areas that are in darkness, whether in the yoga community or in sort of the world at large. And then in other times, in. It's. It's. It's taking the form of actually building a business based on yogic values, based on spiritual alignment, and sort of amplifying other voices in the community of spirituality and in the community of yoga in the world.

So. Very true. And that's really when you are tapped into your highest self, because it's not you, it's coming from something greater and. Exactly. The radio receiver, the channel, and you're like, universe, just guide me. Show me where I'm needed. And you show up there.

Absolutely. And you have to have a sense of trust. So I think that in order to operate in the space where life is happening through you, not to you, you know, you need to operate from a space where you truly believe that the universe is a benevolent space. Otherwise, you can read all of the same signs. You know, you can walk down the stairs or walk down the street and someone can bump into you, and then you can read that as, oh, that happened to me, or you can think that this is happening through me. There's some, you know, interaction that just happened, and maybe there was some piece of learning or maybe that bump was doing your favor, because maybe you were going to walk into an intersection and the car would have hit you if that person didn't bump into you, you know, so true. So if you. If you take the position, the universe is a benevolent place, the universe supports me, you know, and divine grace is available as you know what. And really, divinity is the highest teacher. And if you take that as a perspective and truly trust, then I think your life can change. You know, mine has, for sure. I wasn't a person that thought naturally like that. I had to really sort of retrain my mind from the original sort of its natural resting state into a place of faith and trust.

So true. And sometimes what makes it more difficult is when tough situations happen to you or people that you love. I recently interviewed someone on this podcast, and a few days later, he got into a really, really bad car accident that luckily he survived. But, you know, I'm like, this person's, like, so nice and kind, and why would this happen to them? It doesn't make sense. And I'm trying. I'm like, is he trying to. Did the universe want to teach him a lesson? I'm like, trying to make sense of it. I'm like, I will never know.

Yeah. And the humility of not knowing, I think, is. I think is okay. But. But the question of what you bring up is, I think, such an important question for everyone, every human being to answer, which is the question. And you could take the question of the classic example from the sort of Judeo Christian mindset is the book of Job. Why does Job suffer? And it's this question of, why do good people suffer? Why does someone like in the Book of Job, who is devout and religious and is a good person and has a good heart and does everything well, why is he allowed to have so much suffering thrown at him? And why do good people suffer? My father was sick for three years, and he suffered rounds and rounds of very serious illness. He had a debilitating stroke that went into both hemispheres of his brain, and he never really recovered from that. And in the period in the aftermath of that, he had multiple other strokes, which made his diabetes worsen. And then he had cancer and had to go through chemotherapy and radiation. He had aspiration pneumonia. And then he started to get diabetic ulcers and the bed sores and finally lost the ability to swallow and breathe because of the neuropathy and the neural damage related from the strokes. And I prayed for him every day. You know, I sat there and just, you know, prayed for him and prayed for a miracle and prayed for grace, and every day I just wanted him to get better, you know, and I would listen to these, you know, miracle stories about somebody that had had a stroke and had able. Had recovered to complete. Complete ableism again, where they were able to function. And I would hold that image of, you know, my father getting up from that stroke bed again, and he just never did. And he ultimately passed away. And I. It really rocked my world, you know, I really had to sit there and think, well, why? Like, why not? Why wasn't his miracle there? Like, why did he have to suffer through that? Because if I could say one thing, I know we all love our. You know, you have the grace of loving your parents. And I had, you know, my father was, to me, was a wonderful father. And if I could say one thing about him and his entire life, he never meant anybody any harm, you know, and he always was trying to do the right thing. And at least for me, he would have done anything for me. He would have. He. If there was nothing in the world, he wouldn't have done for me. And after he passed away, I just had to sit with it, you know, and it's hard to make sense of, you know. And in terms of conclusion, I think I draw a similar conclusion as you, is that there are lessons, spiritual lessons, life learning, things that are in sort of the cosmic balance that our limited viewpoint can't see. So when we see someone afflicted by an illness, whether a stroke or a car accident or some other unfortunate circumstance, whether losing your job or losing your best friend or something like that, when we see loss, we register it in terms of our limited viewpoint in the material plane. But there are so many other planes of existence in the energy realms and the spirit realms, on the soul realms that are happening concurrently with our view of reality. So if we take the view of trust, even if we don't see the purpose, we can ask for the grace to have peace about those things which we don't understand. And so I take faith, I take both peace, faith, and really kind of great comfort in the idea that during those last three years of my father's life that he had peace and he was able to come to resolution in terms of himself about some things in his life. He was able to learn some different lessons. And now that he is really on the other side. And I mean, I personally believe that our life doesn't end when we leave this body, that it continues. And in that sense, I very much feel my father's presence around me now without all of the restrictions and the pain that he suffered and over those last three years.

So beautifully said and I think a lot of people listening, everyone listening, has dealt with grief and loss, and it can be so all encompassing. And then you go into the, well, I'm a positive person. I'm a yogi, I'm this, I'm that. Bad things aren't supposed to happen to me. So I would love to know, what did the grieving process after the loss of your father look like for you? What practices did you do to build yourself back up?

First thing to understand about grief is the acceptance of sadness. I would say that mourning, the act of grieving, is the final act of love. So that if you have suffered a loss or if you're suffering a loss, whether the monumental loss of losing a parent or the absolutely heartbreaking loss of losing a child, or you're losing something, like you've been fired from a job or, you know, or from friendship, didn't work out, or, you know, you've lost, you know, some. Some part of yourself, you know, whatever type of situation where you face loss. I think the important thing is to acknowledge that grieving is a process, a process of mourning, and to really embrace it, to go into it, to not think just from day one to day two. I'm going to be a positive person about this because you. I feel like you have to grieve. You know, it's ungrieved losses that eat away at our sense of ident. So I feel like grief is an important part of wholeness and it's a way to express love and it's a way to honor and cherish that which we've lost so that you feel it. So I spent many hours of my life crying, and I feel like the process of grief is about crying every tear. And in addition to just feeling the emotions and letting them be very present and real and just letting them. Letting me feel what I need to feel. I also got help from my therapist, from the spiritual counsel and healers and other forms of healing, whether emotional support or physical support, energetic support, to help me process. And I really went into those sessions not with the idea of, okay, make me happy. I was like, my father's passed away and I need to process that. So help me process, help me understand what this means. And then the third, the third thing that I did was, was read. I read so many books about grief and so many books about loss, and I think, you know, the best ones that I read that I'd recommend to anyone who's facing the death of a loved one are the books by Elisabeth Kubler Ross on death and Dying on grief and grieving, these are perennial classics. And her life's work was to remove the taboo around death so we could talk about the process of those who are dying and talk about the process of our own grief so that we could find face death with dignity and we could be present for those who are on their are their way to the other side and be able to hold them in a space of love without being a virgin towards death and without being harsh on ourselves when we do grieve. When, you know, when we're faced with that staggering loss, I can say, and if anybody is listening and you're in a period where you're facing a devastating loss, there are sort of two things, things that I feel like I wish someone would have told me. Number one, it will be a life changing event in ways that you cannot imagine and that no one can explain to you. It will be a life changing event. Your worldview will change from one day to the next and it will change everything. It'll change the way you look at yourself, it'll change the way you look at life. It will change the way you look at other people, the way you look at love, the way you look at, at every single thing. It will change your world from one day to the next. Number two, you will make terrible decisions for a period of time. If you process things quickly, you will probably make bad decisions for a month or two. If you're like me and you process things quite slowly, give yourself a year, one full year from the moment that loved one passes away until you make any major decisions. If you're thinking about having a child, starting a new job, quitting your job, leaving your husband or your wife or your life partner, if you're thinking about shaving your head or getting a new tattoo or five new piercings, or you're thinking about cashing in your retirement and moving to Indonesia, wait one year, just wait one year after. Because for me, it's taken that long and I think it's important. I wish someone would have told me those two things because I've had to come to them myself and I've had to really forgive myself for a lot of, of really crappy choices I made over the last year and really realized, okay, I understand what I was doing. I get it, I was grieving, I get it.

So true. And really, no one talks about that. And wow, that quote that you said that grief is the final stage of love, that just like gave me chills. And, you know, it is a chilling thought because it implies that everyone you love, you will eventually grieve, unless you both leave at the exact same time together. But then there will be other people that you love. And not to let that be a lingering cloud over your head, but to just know that this is just normal and this is part of the process and part of the winter of love.

Absolutely.

And also the giving time, too. Because I think it's this expectation that, oh, something bad happens, you take the weekend off and you're back to work and everything is still the same, but you are so different. And there's so many layers to someone close passing away that happened after the fact of. I can only imagine dealing with different situations, financial situations, legal situations. And then these just keep on opening up new scars and new wounds. And we just don't have a time of grieving in society. That's not something that, you know, this capitalistic society even wants us to have time for.

Right. It's sort of like we don't. You know, there's no. There's no. No time period off for, you know, we don't even have a word for it. You know, there's at least parental leave. Right. If you have a child. But there's no.

There really should be something like that. That should be the new movement.

Like.

Yeah, if someone. If someone.

Yeah. Bereavement.

Yeah, for sure. I wonder if any country does have that. Maybe. Maybe in Denmark, because they're just so progressive where you are. Of course.

You know, I think I've heard, and I could be wrong about this, but there are some traditional cultures that go into a year. They actually do the year of mourning, whether it's wearing black for the year or something like that. I was just in Thailand and I think that they had told me that I think it was the king that had passed away. I'm not sure I could be wrong about that. But they told me that as a country, the whole country went into mourning for a year, and they were. And part of the way that they expressed that was not wearing any color phrase. The whole country was wearing black, white, or gray for a year. And so that public acknowledgement of grief I found to be just really astounding and really poignant. And perhaps it's because Thailand's a Buddhist country and there is talk about death and dying within the tradition of Buddhism, and it's not as taboo. You know, there's the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and there's a lot of. A lot of sort of end of life counseling that happens within the Buddhist faith.

So true. I'm that's interesting. I mean, that I feel like it's like, okay, a lot of people didn't know the king. Maybe they aren't actually grieving, but. But what it represents of the grieving. But then that brings up the other side of how much grieving is too much. And then when do you let go and when do you move on? Which is such a personal decision.

Mm. It's very interesting. There's a great book called My Year of Magical Thinking, and I really, really, really enjoyed this book. And this is. I forget the author's name, but she's a really wonderful author. And her husband died of a heart attack quite young, and it was sort of. You know, it was a freak occurrence. And she said that for a year, she wouldn't move any of his stuff, and she left everything exactly as it was on the day of his passing. And she realized after a year that the reason why was because when she came home, she could look at his shoes and she could look at his jacket, and she could think, well, maybe he's going to come back.

That is so heartbreaking.

Yeah. And she realized this is my magical thinking that she's imagining. She's living in this world of, hey, I'm not ready to accept that you're gone yet. You know? And it took her a year before she really was like, okay, I'll put all your things in the suitcases. And I'm ready to give them away now when that happens for each person. I really don't know. I feel like the year before you feel whole again. Like, I'm in support of that, you know, but, you know, my husband lost his father, and I keep looking at him, and, you know, he lost his father about six months before my father passed away. And, you know, I keep asking him, you know, are you not shattered? Like, I'm so shattered that my father's gone. Are you not shattered? And he's like, well, no, it hasn't affected me as much as it's affected you. And I was like, I want to shake him and then just say, are you sure? Are you okay? Do we need to, like, process something? He's like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I have a picture of my father. It's all good. But what he did tell me was that when he was much younger, he lost someone that he loved very, very deeply. So what he told me was, he said to me, this process that you're going through, I went through when I was 20. I know how you feel, because I lost someone that I loved and it changed my world. I get it. But it's different with my father. I've gone through this process that you're going through right now, you know, and so he understood. And I just thought, oh my goodness, like he's lived with that feel, this feeling that I felt he went through when he was in his 20s. And I just thought, oh my gosh, you know, the emotional maturity that it requires, I think, to face and process death, to answer those questions, what does it mean when someone crosses over? What does it mean they're not here anymore? And what does that mean in terms of my life and that I'm here and one day I won't be here and those things, you know, I mean, when I was in my early 20s, that was the last thing that I was thinking about. You know, it's like I was interested in, you know, partying and having a good time. So it really also just sort of showed me where he's been and the different trajectories our lives take, you know.

So. Very true. And I'd love to talk about how yoga helped you get through this time. Your yoga practice is extremely important to you. And you're a very just like devout yogi, like you are for sure, like a reincarnated, like ancient yogi. And the type of the yoga that you teach is you're not like blasting hip hop music and like everyone, do whatever you want. Like you're a true, like discipline yogi. So I'd love to know how coming back to the mat helped you go through not only this grief, but any turbulent time in your life.

Well, my yoga practice is sort of the benchmark. It's the thing that started my spiritual journey. And I would say that it is the longest relationship, really that I'll probably have in my whole life. I started my very first class when I was 19, and it was very much during that period where I was partying. When I was younger, I was really into partying. It was the most exciting thing that I could have ever done. And I almost tried to make a profession out of it. If you can professionally party, I would have done it. But at some moment I looked in the mirror and I realized, I'm miserable. I'm here, I'm trying to party and have a good time, and I'm miserable. And then it was to the yoga practice that I turned to live a more. A more peaceful life and a more, you know, to try to find myself and. And I can look back and I can actually see that not only during the period recently, but from the time I was nine years old, I've struggled with depression and it was undiagnosed for a period of time. And all those years of partying was really sort of self medication and desperation to try to find a way out of my own darkness. And it was through the yoga practice that I found that. And what I know definitively is that I'll meet myself on my mat. So I meditate every day for as little as five minutes, but sometimes much longer. But I believe that five minutes of meditation a day, you can do that every day for the rest of your life. Everybody can do five minutes a day. More is better for sure. But there are days that I just do five minutes and that's, and that's okay. That's. That I believe is the minimum amount of time that you need to set the root and the direction towards consciousness, towards peace and towards, you know, love, towards yourself and towards your world. So I do that every day. I do my, my asana practice six days a week. And I firmly believe in one full day of rest. The body needs a chance to recuperate. It honors the cycles of life to give yourself one full day of, of rest. When I do my asana practice, there are emotions that bubble up to the surface. Sometimes I, you know, if I, if I do my meditation practice, sometimes they're there in my meditation practice. But very often the way that asana works in the true kind of devotional sense of asana, is that you use the physical pose as a foundation for a depth of inner experience. Sleeping emotions, unprocessed emotions, bubble up to the surface, surface. And the instruction is always just feel, just feel, just be present to it. You don't need to solve it or figure out why it's there. So in periods of deep loss, in periods of grief, in periods of depression, when I've come to my mat, sometimes emotions bubble up to the surface and they're not always what you think they are. So anger is something that comes up after grief and loss. And that would often come up in my asana practice. I would realize I'm angry. And here's what anger feels like. You don't, you don't expect that to happen. I mean, the image of yoga is sort of this peace, love and happiness, spread love and light. To come to your mat and meet your anger is something that seems anathema to what, you know, what the sales image of yoga is. That's been very healing for me to come into the practice and meet all of those shadow sides. And to the depth of whatever suffering or whatever difficulty, difficult life situations, loss that I've faced. Coming to the mat gives me the ability to remain eternally honest with myself and to really bring the vulnerability of raw emotion up to the surface. So I really, really value awesome as a tool for that. And I think it requires bravery. I think it requires a steady mind and a yearning, a yearning for deep and lasting peace. And I think anybody that really yearns for lasting peace is ready to do the deep process work. Committed devotional yoga practice.

So true and amazing how just the series of movements can bring up so much psychosomatically in your mind. And, and really that's what they were put together for. We think it's just to, like, get deeper into the stretch. But no, you're doing much deeper internal mental stretching every time you, you hit the mat.

Oh, absolutely.

So some of my followers on Instagram, I said that I was interviewing you, and a lot of them wanted to know what interviews advice you had for someone who's just starting off as a yoga teacher today.

So if I look back and think about myself starting out, the number one thing that helped me was absolutely no pride in reaching out and absolutely no personalization of rejection. So I remember when I wanted to start teaching and I, you know, my teacher told me, you can start teaching. I went to every single yoga studio that was in town and just said, I've just come back from India and I've been there this many times. And if you're looking for a yoga teacher, I'm available. And they would say, no, thank you, we're fully staffed. And then someone say, we can put you on the sub list. And I would just say, oh, that's wonderful, thank you so much. And then I would say, okay, well, the yoga teachers, okay, so let me go to the gyms. And I went around with all the gyms. Hey, you're looking for a yoga teacher. Oh, we're talking totally full. We'll put you on the sub list. Oh, thank you so much. And then go, okay, what else can I do? I can go around to the spas and I mean, I started teaching before you could make a social media presence. So I eventually made a website and some cards and things like that. And I just remember talking to people and they said, oh, I don't like that studio. I would never teach there. And I thought, you know what you don't have as an option when you're starting off? No pride. If you want to get started, every single place that you think is possible Go for it because you need the experience. And I kind of feel like there's a little bit of dues that you have to pay of. Just every yoga teacher I think needs to go through this period where you teach everywhere and anyone and different types of people and people that are in the gym and people that are in a charity that you're volunteering and people that are advanced yogis that popped into your class. You need all of the experience you can get. So just everywhere, just, just, you know, hold nothing back. Don't be too proud to go to someplace and just offer your services. So there's that then. The second thing I would definitely advise you is continue your studies, keep being a student. Whether that is that you have a local teacher that you go to once a week or you have a remote teacher that you go see once a year. For me, I went to go see my teacher once a year and if I had just gone and you know, one or two times, then when I got the approval to teach, never gone back, I wouldn't be where I am today. So have a teacher. Continue your studies. Even if you're at like the 500 hour level of training or if you have just done the 200 hour level training, continue your studies. And then the last thing is there's a unique combination of believing in yourself and not feeling you have to fake it. So believe in yourself and at the same time don't fake it. So if someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer, answer, just say, I don't know. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I'm going to research that. Let me get back to you when I have the answer. Don't fake it. If there's a Sanskrit word that you don't know what it means, just say. I'm not familiar with that term. Do you mind if I write that down? Let me get back to you by tomorrow. Don't fake it. And at the same time believe in yourself. That doesn't make you any less worthy of a teacher. You know, that doesn't make, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be there. You're not qualified. Have enough faith in yourself to put in the work, to continue to educate yourself, to trust that you're there for a reason. And that reason isn't to show off you know how many Sanskrit words you know. The practice and the methodology of teaching is very much about sharing presence, sharing space, sharing what's in your heart, sharing the depth of your own personal experience. If there's ever something that, that you don't know. It's not a statement of negativity about your self worth or your value as a teacher. It's just some knowledge you don't have yet. So I don't know. Let me get back to you about that. So, you know, be authentic and at the same time, you know, don't fake it for sure.

And I think in life so many times we think we need to have the answer to everything. And there's a great level of courage that comes with saying that. You don't know.

Yeah. It opens up the possibility for us to learn something new.

Absolutely. And a large part of your mission is making yoga accessible for people. And you created ohmstars, which is a platform that I'm a part of as well. Guys, I have Ayurveda lesson channel there. And you want yoga to be something that everyone can do, regardless of income, size of your body color. So can you share with us part of that mission and what omstars is?

The dream of omstars is to make the tools of traditional yoga accessible for all. And when I was first starting out the practice, I felt like I was the wrong size and the wrong shape. And I was never a dancer and I was never a gymnast and I had these thick thighs that people would talk about. And you know, I felt like, hey, I'll never be able to do any of those lift ups. And I never had anyone I could look up to. There was no one who looked like me. Doing the practice. There were predominantly Caucasian men who were quite tall and quite thin. And when I looked at them, I felt like there's no hope for me. So I now believe in the necessity of representation for the pure fact that, that you need to look at someone who you identify with in terms of size, in terms of shape, in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic background. Age as well is very, very important. And you need to look at someone that you identify with and say, hey, if they can do it, so can I. If they can do it, so can I. And that's something that's really, really important about omstars is we value traditional teaching. And traditional teaching can sometimes end up feeling very exclusive. And we want to turn and say, hey, actually, traditional teaching is the most inclusive. The traditional teaching is about the essence of yoga, the essence of connecting to God, connecting into a higher power. And there are so many different means that we can do that. All of our teachers and everyone that's a part of Ohmstars represents the connection into authenticity, into the depth, power and presence of the yoga tradition. And at the same time we strive to have voices from as much diversity as possible. Again for that sheer and simple reason that you need to see someone that you look like in order to believe that you can do it too. Now another thing that we're doing both in terms of OMSAR and in terms of my teaching in classes is that we're developing scholarship spots, whether that's to the online channel based on true financial need or when we do an intensive one one month training. We believe in making scholarship spots available so that those who have genuine and sincere interest but no financial means are not blocked off from the yoga tradition. And I think that's extremely important.

So important. And I love that you're infusing Ayurveda pranayama and you have challenges of how to become more strong, how to become more yin. And it's like all the different, different spectrums of yoga outside of just asana. And I think that it is just where the world is going right now. You know, we've had a lot of entry points into yoga which were like the quick like kind of workout hit intensity things which are great too. But now we're craving something deeper and I love how omstars is making that accessible to people regardless of where they live. So many people live in places that there isn't a local yoga studio but they still want to be part of yoga community.

Absolutely. The I meet people all the time. It just happened last weekend when I was teaching that people come up to me and say thank you so much for creating ohmstars. I now have access to these traditional teachings, whether it's the teachings of Ayurveda or the teachings of the yoga Sutras or just deeper instruction in terms of anatomy or a deeper instruction in terms of asana. They've told me, you know, omstars is their studio because they live in a remote location with no access to teachers. Or another person told me that because they can't afford to go to a class or a monthly studio membership, but they can afford the online membership that that's their studio, that's their daily practice. So it gives me so much meaning to see the impact that we are making in the world. I've always believed that yoga has the possibility to change the world. We have to start with our own individual practice. And it makes me so happy whenever I meet someone that was either inspired to join the practice by something I've done or in some way something I've done, whether personally or through the platform Ohmstars gives people the inspiration to keep practicing because I feel like that changes the vibration of the planet and it makes the world a palpably more peaceful place. So it makes me feel like one step further along my mission has been completed.

So true. And what a beautiful mission. And I am so excited to be co hosting our yoga and Ayurveda challenge together on Ohmstar. So you're gonna be teaching us yoga poses that balance all of the doshas, right?

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Yes. So I'll be sharing different ayurvedic recipes and tips, plant based everything from my book and meditations. And Kino's gonna be sharing vata, pitta and kapha balancing doshas, which we all can do because we're all, all three doshas. And the last question I wanna ask you is, Kino, what is your dosha?

Well, actually you helped me find my dosha and we found out. Try dosha.

Yes, yes. So many people wanted to know, but she.

And what does that mean?

Yeah, so we're all really a combination of all three doshas, but in varying amounts. And in some people it's very, very obvious. They're highly vata, highly pitta, highly kapha. But when I was trying to get yours and I looked at your tongue and took your pulse and everything, you really had all three equal. And I truly believe it's because you're living this yogic lifestyle that the moment that one of these doshas fall out of balance, you become so aware of it, whether it's on your yoga practice or in your diet or something. So I think that you are doing a really good job at maintaining all three. The shape of your face is a rounder face, which is kapha. And you said you have to tend to have bigger thighs and you have a really small waist, which is more of a kapha body type. But you're also really muscular and athletic and strong. Strong, which is pitta. You're very, you're an activist, you're an entrepreneur, you're a CEO, you, you travel, you do all of these things. So that's very pitta of you. But then you're also an author and a creative and a philosopher, which is vata. So I would really just say like, you are probably the most tri doshic person I've ever met.

You know, I've taken all of these, you know, when you take the quizzes or, you know, what's your dosha or something like that, it always comes back, back, like we don't know Inconclusive, you know, so there's no, you know, there's no one that sort of popped up. So I would agree with you. I feel like there is no one that's really pronounced. Like, my husband is very vata, you know, and he has all of the classic vata things and everything from forgetfulness to sort of, you know, that spacey ness to his physique. And it's interesting, you know, because the other thing that's interesting about doshas is, you know, we hear kapha and we think, I don't want to be that because that means, you know, like, what body shape does that mean? Like, oh, I wish I should. I want to be vata. Because vata means thin and kapha means, you know, bigger bodied. And it's like, wait a minute, go into it a little bit deeper. Like kapha is that elements of grounding. It's that element of peace. It's, it's, it's the element of, you know, to a large degree, what we're trying to achieve in the spiritual path. You know, the Buddha is traditionally presented as having a kapha body, you know, for sure. Yeah, yeah. So that's interesting.

The Saint Deepak, like, a lot of these spiritual teachers are actually very kapha, and that's what allows them to hold so much energy.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I'm so excited for people to be able to experience it with us on omstars. And you have a special offer for everyone today.

Yes, I think that the offer that we always do is to get your first month for free. So this is something that you can do just with the. We can. You can use my code for that, which is kinoyoga, K, I, N, O Y, R G A when you check out. And that's, that's all capital letters. So please come and check it out. Join the free challenge. Because the free challenge is a great window into just checking out everything that we're about. But it also, I think we're also raising money for charity with the challenge. So please join and help us spread the word. The challenges are a great way to just dive in and get used to exploring the inner journey with the help of all of our awesome and teachers.

Oh, I'm so excited for it. And yes, we are raising money for charity because I just got the link to the charity and I'm so excited to share it with everyone and I'll do a little outro so people can dive into that and give them all the lessons to join. So thank you so much, Kino, for coming on the podcast sharing your wisdom with us. And we went really deep in this episode. I'm sure everyone had a few tears, but that's all part of the process practice. So thank you for showing all sides and all spectrums to yoga. Not just the perfect happy yoga poses, which are also beautiful part of the practice, but the shadow sides as well.

Yeah, you're welcome. It's been my pleasure to share this space with you and with everyone listening.

Namaste.

Namaste.

How incredible were those insights from Kino? She is so authentic and which is such a breath of, of refreshing air in this world where we try to pretend everything on social media and in our lives are perfect. But we're all dealing with this stuff. We're all sitting with these pains and it's time for us to gather together and talk about them and share our experiences and know that it is totally normal to deal with sadness and hurt and longing and suffering. And these are also spectrums of the human experience. And we have to observe it all and practice awareness. And this is why the yoga practice, the Ayurveda practice, Vedanta practice, why all of this work is so important, because it allows us a framework to come back to in these moments of grief and chaos and total sadness that we have something that anchors us back into our truth. And it's just such a reminder to, if you don't, don't have a practice that you do, whether it's a yoga, spiritual, meditation, health practice, to cultivate one, and if you do have one, but you're kind of on, on and off with it, cultivate it now. Don't wait until the moment that you have no choice, no tools in your toolkit, and you're looking for something, practice it now. Practice it before the big issue happens so you can set that foundation. So when, when disasters happen, and they do, we can't deny that you have something to go back back to. And on behalf of Kino and I, I would love to invite you to the Eat Like a Yogi challenge hosted on omstars. Again, you can follow along for free. Just sign up on the show notes. We will send you daily videos, daily yoga poses, daily recipes, self care, all of the things you need to eat and live like a yogi, bridging together these sister sciences of yoga and Ayurveda data for the first time in one challenge. And be sure to follow us along on Instagram at I am Sahara Rose. And at Kinoyoga, as well as at omstars Official, where we will be hosting the challenge and thank you to our sponsor Bhakti Chai who will be donating $1 per participant. So just by signing up for the challenge you are donating a dollar towards the women and children of Rajasthan making the world a better place. And on top of that you will be learning incredible incredible sacred knowledge along the way and how to apply it to your modern lifestyle. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'm so looking forward to sharing my book Eat feel fresh with you again. Remember that to submit your receipts on my website eatfeelfresh.com book where you will receive your bonuses such as 10 bonus recipes an ebook all about essential oils for the doshas. I even have have a special bonus for people who order 10 copies which is my eat right for your mind body type program free so head over there eat feelfresh.com forward/book you can see it in the show notes and I'm so honored to share this work with you. Have a beautiful day. Namaste.

That.