Transcript
Speaker: We used to love people and use things.
Speaker: And now we use people because we love things.
Speaker: Hi everyone.
Speaker: Welcome to the Alchemy podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host, Dana Davis.
Speaker: The Alchemy podcast explores a happier and healthier future for all.
Speaker: Featuring conversations with thought leaders, scientists, and change makers, we'll explore topics at the intersection of individual wellness, social equity, and sustainability.
Speaker: Join us as we look to bridge the gap between personal, community, and planetary well-being.
Speaker: Let's dive in.
Speaker: Hi everybody, welcome to the Alchemy Podcast.
Speaker: We have here today my dear friend Alex Artimiak, who is a yoga teacher and meditation and breathwork teacher based in Santa Monica, California.
Speaker: Though he started his yoga journey seeking strength, balance and flexibility as a way to improve his surfing skills, he soon realized that these abilities reflect a deeper and more powerful shift taking place within.
Speaker: Since his first teacher training in 2021, Alex chose to dedicate his life to studying yoga and has since taught thousands of classes
Speaker: led retreats around the world and lectured on yogic philosophy and meditation in teacher trainings.
Speaker: He believes the essence of yoga resides within the heart and the heart of yoga guides us back to our essential nature, which is love.
Speaker: Alex, I'm so happy you're here.
Speaker: This is so fun.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: I say this every time, but I think it's also been really fun to hear my friends and people that I know so dearly describe themselves or share a little bit more about their journey
Speaker: Um, on the podcast, because there's some things in people's lives that we don't always get to hear over, you know, on the day to day.
Speaker: So I would love if you could introduce yourself to the community here, um, who you are and the journey that has led you to where you are today.
Speaker: You know, I actually, I grew up on the East coast.
Speaker: I think it's funny because people on the East coast always told me there's something strange about me.
Speaker: And I didn't understand what that meant until I was born on the West coast, grew up on the East coast in a small, like very Caucasian white suburbia town.
Speaker: uh, in Connecticut.
Speaker: And I think we had like 135 people in my graduating class.
Speaker: So we didn't have a lot of exposure.
Speaker: I didn't know what it was to be, um, Filipino.
Speaker: I'm actually from Filipino descent, but I think it was maybe fifth or sixth grade when I actually understood what that meant.
Speaker: Because when you're a kid, you know, everyone's just kind of growing up together.
Speaker: You just look at those are my friends and yeah, he's more tan and he's a, maybe a different shade, but we don't think much of it.
Speaker: And I remember my mom always telling me, she's like, one day we walked somewhere and she's like,
Speaker: mom, did you know that I'm Filipino?
Speaker: And she's like, yeah, your whole life.
Speaker: I think that speaks to the culture is I grew up in this culture.
Speaker: And the reason I bring that up is at this time in, you know, in the late nineties, early two thousands, there wasn't a huge yoga movement yet.
Speaker: There had been one in the eighties, but had like kind of come and gone.
Speaker: Now there was more maybe fitness classes.
Speaker: I think I remember doing a Billy blanks, like Tybo class, you know, from my, from my VCR, if anyone knows what that is anymore.
Speaker: Um, but I was introduced to yoga in 2000 and maybe two or one, it was just this like class happening at the local gym.
Speaker: Didn't know much about it.
Speaker: I didn't even think we had yoga mats.
Speaker: I was just like, I'm going to do my workout and I'm going to get my stretch on.
Speaker: This seems like a, you know, a nice coordinated stretching program.
Speaker: So let me just do it.
Speaker: Found out, oh, it's really interesting.
Speaker: Some of the, some of the strength moves are really difficult for me, but that was like my first taste of it.
Speaker: And I remember telling my teacher, Hey, I'm going to California.
Speaker: And she was like, you're going to see there's so much yoga out there.
Speaker: You're going to be so exposed.
Speaker: You got to try all these different things.
Speaker: Fast forward, you know, I came out here and just the nature of living life kind of pulled away from yoga.
Speaker: And then back in 2010, 2011, and I feel like this is a common thing from people that I've talked to in trainings, went through like a really tough time, had those dark nights of the soul or questioning career choices, questioning why did I move to California?
Speaker: Had a relationship that was falling apart, felt like it was kind of a darker time in life.
Speaker: And then I think I bought a Groupon or something to core power yoga and then went in and was like, I'm going to make the most out of it.
Speaker: I'll just try to go every day.
Speaker: And slowly but surely, I felt not only my physical body changing, but emotionally, I remember very vividly thinking.
Speaker: It's almost like there was these chains and shackles around my heart.
Speaker: And every time I practice, it's like, they're just falling apart.
Speaker: They're like rusting, breaking.
Speaker: And then I'm feeling this glow.
Speaker: I'm feeling this kind of shine, this vibrance of life.
Speaker: And I don't really quite know what to make it.
Speaker: I've been working out all my life, but this is different.
Speaker: So what is that?
Speaker: And that's kind of what led me to, to study more and try to understand, cause I was seeking answers for something that I didn't even know I had a question about.
Speaker: had no interest in spirituality as far as yoga was concerned, had no interest in meditation, didn't consider myself a meditator at all.
Speaker: And I think there's just something about yoga, whether you look for it or not, depending on how the class is led, if there are some fundamentals that hold true, it's just going to take you into that place.
Speaker: And that's kind of what led me into that exploration.
Speaker: Oh, love to hear that, Alex.
Speaker: There's so many similarities, I think, to your point earlier that a lot of people who go through teacher training and start this yoga journey, you know, have these dark moments, but then are able to heal and find clarity through the practice.
Speaker: But for those who don't know or have never taken Alex's class, he's an incredible instructor here in LA.
Speaker: And if you're not based in LA, you can
Speaker: practice with them digitally on GLOW, and those who are in LA can come to camp, which I'm sure you might be hearing more about that at a later date here on the Alchemy Podcast.
Speaker: But I know in your classes recently, you've been focusing a lot on this idea of a single pointed focus.
Speaker: I know we have some listeners here that may not be as familiar with what that means.
Speaker: So can you first break that down?
Speaker: Like, what does it mean to have a single pointed focus?
Speaker: And what combination of mindfulness techniques do you really use to help support your students in focusing?
Speaker: That's a great question.
Speaker: I think, you know, growing up, I heard someone, I think it was on a podcast, actually, that they said, in school, we're told to concentrate.
Speaker: We're never shown how to concentrate.
Speaker: We all know we have to study and like put our face in a book, but how many times have you read an entire page and then stopped and been like, I know that I read the words and I have no idea what any of it meant.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, and so there's a level of distraction and a level of concentration that are kind of always dancing with each other.
Speaker: And we can sit here and we can have this conversation.
Speaker: You can be out to lunch with somebody, but in the back of your mind, you're thinking about all the things that life brings you.
Speaker: You think about relationships, you're thinking about,
Speaker: what you're going to order for lunch, you're thinking about what the other person's doing and if they're being honest with you and all these things.
Speaker: And so one pointed focus is a way of just recognizing first, it's honoring the fact that we come from a place that is distracted.
Speaker: We come from a place that we're overly stimulated.
Speaker: You know, we're not allowed to look at our phones when we're driving down the freeway, but there's billboards everywhere.
Speaker: There's lights everywhere.
Speaker: And it's like, well, don't look at something inside your car, but look at all this stuff that's not on the road.
Speaker: And you're like, okay.
Speaker: And so
Speaker: when we try to sit down all of a sudden we're confronted with that we're feeling and we're seeing all of those thoughts all of those emotions and it because we give ourselves this moment we get onto the yoga mat it can feel the contrast can feel so severe so strong and so as we use that almost as a catalyst we can start to either focus a feeling in the physical body
Speaker: We can focus our eyes, we can focus on our breathing.
Speaker: And that's probably the biggest asset that we have in order to create that single point of focus is how we use our breath.
Speaker: In the Gita, it says that your body is like a chariot and it's being pulled by five wild horses.
Speaker: And those five wild horses are your senses.
Speaker: Well, your mind is the reins and your intellect is the driver and you yourself are the passenger.
Speaker: And if you don't control your senses, if you just kind of pay attention a little bit, you'll notice so much of our life's energy is spent trying to see the greatest sights, hear the greatest sounds, go to a concert, taste the greatest foods, experience the greatest pleasures, whatever it might be.
Speaker: We're not often choosing these things.
Speaker: The senses and maybe our society or the pressures we put on ourselves are kind of steering us in these directions to just gain sense gratification.
Speaker: Well, let's honor the fact that the senses can have that kind of hold on us and then use them.
Speaker: Actually use the sense of sight and stare, you know, soften the gaze at one point.
Speaker: Listen to the sound of your breath or use some mantras.
Speaker: You know, if you've taken my class, I'm really big into using mantra and breath together.
Speaker: Try to envision maybe a
Speaker: energy, a sphere or something in the body.
Speaker: Um, you can even bring in, if, if this is, this doesn't work for me, but it works for some is try to like taste a sweet taste like a, or smell of fragrance, like a rose or the taste of honey within your heart or something like that.
Speaker: We all operate differently with our senses.
Speaker: Some of us have that imagination towards some of the senses more so than the others.
Speaker: So it's all about recognizing your own
Speaker: relationship to your senses and then focusing how can you use those to arrive here into the present moment and to, you know, first notice the state of distraction and then harness it.
Speaker: The biggest thing I think is your breathing.
Speaker: I happen to think your mind and your breath are just reflections of each other.
Speaker: So if your breath is really sharp and fast, almost like a dog, right, that your mind's going to be racing.
Speaker: And if you can start to draw your breath out, right, because you start to feel the sensation of your breath and you pay attention to the sensation of your breath,
Speaker: and you elongate your breath, you'll find it's much easier to chant a mantra.
Speaker: It's much easier to hold a sound or an image in your mind because the length of the breath is almost helping you to focus your energy.
Speaker: It's helping you to focus your mind.
Speaker: Oh, so good, Alex.
Speaker: I think you said that so perfectly and it's so hard to describe, I think, without actually feeling it in your body.
Speaker: And you do such a beautiful job, especially when you teach to, um,
Speaker: walk people through that experience physically, right?
Speaker: So they're anchoring themselves to their physical body.
Speaker: I know you and I have chatted a lot about the heart space and that can feel super woo-woo and ambiguous for a lot of people who maybe never experienced it or have no idea what that means.
Speaker: So can you explain to us a little bit more about how this idea of focusing can really help ultimately lead us back to better listening to our heart?
Speaker: And what does that even mean?
Speaker: What does that even really mean for people?
Speaker: You know, first, I 100% agree with you.
Speaker: If, you know, 21-year-old me would talk to current 38-year-old me and 38-year-old me to explain like, no, you know, the power is in your heart and you need to connect to your heart.
Speaker: The 21-year-old me would be like, what are you talking about?
Speaker: What happened to us along this path?
Speaker: I think somewhere, even as children, we all know there's something, you know, the heart of gold where there's something really uplifting about the idea of connecting to the heart.
Speaker: But as I got older and as you start to accumulate experiences, it feels like there's dust and there's covering and there's just things that kind of create walls where you don't want to have your heart open.
Speaker: It's tough to come back to that childlike innocence or that childlike purity when we just embrace everybody as a friend and love everything and just so excited and vibrant with life.
Speaker: And it took me a while.
Speaker: I have a very critical mind.
Speaker: And so I'm the same.
Speaker: I would go to different events like kirtans, which for those who are unfamiliar is where we chant yoga.
Speaker: It's kind of like a rich and yogic mantras.
Speaker: It's kind of like singing, but it's call and response.
Speaker: And there's not a lot of different things you sing.
Speaker: You just sing a mantra and someone calls it out.
Speaker: The other person responds.
Speaker: You just go back and forth and becomes this kind of meditative state of just singing and opening your heart.
Speaker: And I would do it and it would work and I'd question how it was working and kind of what's going on in my critical logical mind that just wants to pick things apart.
Speaker: Wasn't satisfied with like, OK, well, then every Saturday night I'll just go to a kirtan and then I'll open my heart and then I'll go through a week of drudgery.
Speaker: And then, you know, I can't wait until Saturday night, though.
Speaker: So it was like, how can I figure out a way back into the heart on a much more consistent, regular basis?
Speaker: And if you look at the research from the HeartMath Institute, some of the interesting studies show that we have more neurotransmitters surrounding the heart that lead to the brain than we have from the brain that come back to the heart.
Speaker: That if we just took a moment and said, when you're thinking right now, I think we all subtly agree that when you're thinking, you're thinking from your brain, it's that you're thinking from this thing that's above the neck.
Speaker: But we don't know that that's actually true.
Speaker: That's how we perceive it.
Speaker: And I think it's we perceive it because our eyes are up there and our ears are up there and our nose is there and our mouth is there.
Speaker: It's like, well, if all the senses are deriving information from this place, then obviously my thoughts should come from around that area.
Speaker: But then we all also know it's like we were thinking about people and we're like, oh, that person thinks with their stomach.
Speaker: That person thinks with their hips.
Speaker: They think with their libido, that person, oh my gosh, they're so open.
Speaker: They think with their heart.
Speaker: Now we're actually looking at it and we're realizing there's neurons, there's intelligence, there's the amount of neurons
Speaker: in your stomach area and your intestines that are the same as the brain of a small animal.
Speaker: You literally have the intelligence of a small animal.
Speaker: And if that animal is sentient, so too, do you have at least the potentiality or the potential of your stomach being that sentient.
Speaker: And so that might mean that your stomach has a mind and that your heart has a mind and that different areas of your body are actually capable of thinking.
Speaker: in different spectrums and you're experiencing reality based on, on where your energy is.
Speaker: And so the question then becomes, all right, how do I drop out of my head?
Speaker: Because actually if the energy is up in the head, what we're realizing this is, this is what causes cognitive dissonance is that in your head, we have a negative negativity bias that you're constantly looking for, uh, you're looking for danger, right?
Speaker: This is a self-preservation mechanism.
Speaker: So if you're constantly looking for danger, everything that you perceive in the world is something that may be against you.
Speaker: And I think this is something that's existing too much in our society is we're all kind of either out to do the best for ourselves.
Speaker: We're out to protect ourselves from each other.
Speaker: We're out to take advantage of one another because we're in this place of fear and we're wrapped up in our mind.
Speaker: When we slow things down and we actually take the awareness back into the heart area, into the heart space, and I mean that
Speaker: Not just in that woo woo philosophical thing, but I mean, literally, if you close your eyes and you take your awareness to your heart and you feel the sensation around your heart and you get a little quiet, you'll start to notice that you can actually feel the beat of your heart.
Speaker: And then you might realize that that beat is always there, but you weren't conscious of it.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because it's not enough that you have all this energy going up and down your body.
Speaker: It's where you place your awareness.
Speaker: That becomes the, the, the point of perspective.
Speaker: So if you have your awareness, for example, like if you stub your toe for a second, you stub your toe and for a moment, all you feel is your toe.
Speaker: Like you don't feel your other limbs.
Speaker: You're just like pain in the toe.
Speaker: And then it takes a minute for you to relax.
Speaker: and you're like breathing it out and all of a sudden you remember your whole body and now the pain is there, but now it's like the small part of you rather than your entire experience.
Speaker: And I think the same thing is true for the heart.
Speaker: If you could figure out how to localize your awareness to actually put your full focus, to take that single pointed focus that we practice in yoga and place that on your heart, you're going to notice a pretty profound shift in the way that you think.
Speaker: They say that to a hammer, everything is a nail.
Speaker: And to a fearful mind, everything is danger.
Speaker: To an open heart, everything is something to love or something to be loved by.
Speaker: And so it really shifts the way we experience the world.
Speaker: Was there a certain experience that you had that almost was like a memorable experience that you felt the first time that you were able to clearly listen or feel or embody this experience?
Speaker: this idea of listening to the heart?
Speaker: You know, there's, there's definitely been a few, one of them that happened in yoga.
Speaker: I met this incredible human being.
Speaker: He is a, he was a monk from the Hare Krishna temple.
Speaker: That's a, you know, if, if you go to the airport or if you go around certain major cities are the ones that are like chanting and dancing and they look kind of crazy as they're running around and they're singing the Hare Krishna mantra, just
Speaker: over and over and over again.
Speaker: And you have these grown men and, and you know, what looks like a dress and they're just having it the time of their life.
Speaker: Um, and I think most of us, when we see that are like, oh, that's just too, that's really kind of weird.
Speaker: Well, I felt really lucky because at the yoga studio that I was at, we didn't, we had people that were from their association, the Hare Krishna's, but they were much more, um, modern.
Speaker: They were much more like Western eyes.
Speaker: So they were much more relatable.
Speaker: They came in with normal clothes and then they did a kirtan.
Speaker: Well, the person that I had met invited me to this kirtan.
Speaker: And I remember that I was open, I was doing yoga, I was practicing every day.
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, I don't know what a kirtan is, but I'll try it.
Speaker: And he was like, look, you just chant.
Speaker: First, it just starts with chanting.
Speaker: And so you're listening for what the mantra is and you're doing your best because you've never heard Sanskrit before.
Speaker: So you're trying to sing sounds, but they're somewhat similar.
Speaker: Okay, the next step is you got to dance.
Speaker: And I'm like, I don't dance.
Speaker: I'm from Connecticut.
Speaker: That's not going to happen.
Speaker: He's like, look, stand and just move your right foot.
Speaker: Now move your left foot.
Speaker: Now move your right foot.
Speaker: He's playing the drum.
Speaker: And he's, you know, slowly I get entranced in just this little bit of movement.
Speaker: And then he's like, okay, now you put it all together.
Speaker: So I'm chanting and I'm moving.
Speaker: And then he's like, now play this instrument.
Speaker: And it was like these little symbols or something, and I would kind of fuddle around with those.
Speaker: And he's like, you put those down, just clap, you know?
Speaker: And he said, there's something about chanting, dancing and playing an instrument or even just clapping.
Speaker: That's like when we get lost in the concert.
Speaker: And something happened to me that night where I'd been doing yoga for a while.
Speaker: I was pretty decent at it, but I wasn't amazing.
Speaker: I don't think it was anywhere close to the things that I can do now.
Speaker: I didn't have a handstand practice, for example.
Speaker: But that night, I got lost in the kirtan.
Speaker: And this is something that's talked about all the time by people who experience it.
Speaker: is I just felt so swept away.
Speaker: I wasn't in my head.
Speaker: I was just chanting from deep within my heart.
Speaker: I was just like super open.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden I start pressing into handstands.
Speaker: I'm doing crazy backbends.
Speaker: I'm doing all these things that when I woke up the next day, it was like someone gave me some sort of yogic alcohol because I had no way of doing it again.
Speaker: I had no idea.
Speaker: I couldn't, I was like, I know that I did it, but I can't do it.
Speaker: I can't do it right now if you ask me.
Speaker: It's because I'm back in my head.
Speaker: And so that became another catalyst where I was like, wow, I felt so open, so in my heart.
Speaker: And I realized when my head is doing the yoga practice, I'm so limited.
Speaker: And when my heart is open and my head is subservient, it's bowed to the heart, then, oh my God, the practice just explodes.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: There's so many things I want to dive into there because just theme wise, I think
Speaker: What you were saying about even your physical practice, jumping into a handstand.
Speaker: I don't know if you've experienced this even in public classes where sometimes, you know, if you're in a public class and you're in your head too much and you try to do anything too physical, it doesn't happen.
Speaker: But the moment you surrender from the mind and kind of just drop into what your body knows and what, you know, kind of we're talking about here at the heart space or just what the internal wisdom, that's when the pose comes.
Speaker: And I think that's just a beautiful symbolic way and experience that we have in the physical yoga practice that we can even transcend out into how we live day to day, right?
Speaker: This idea of getting out of the head into the heart space or into the intuition, intuitive wisdom that we have within ourselves to then move and make decisions based off of that place versus only making decisions off of the logical brain, which sometimes is clouded by fear or judgment or ego.
Speaker: So there was just so much there that
Speaker: that you touched on.
Speaker: I know you and I talked a bit about enoughness and you mentioned this earlier about how we're in this society of a lot of distractions, advertisement, social media, consumerism, we're constantly bombarded with comparison and this need and feeling of go, do, create, be better, try better, do better.
Speaker: How do you think that this
Speaker: culture that we are living in has affected our ability to connect back to this wisdom within, but also listen to ourselves, but then also listen to what people around us need and what the planet might need?
Speaker: Yeah, it's such a great question.
Speaker: There's a saying, one of the issues with modern society is that we used to love people and use things.
Speaker: And now we use people because we love things.
Speaker: And I think that that really speaks to a heart of it.
Speaker: If, if I tell you, first of all, if I, if I spend a lot of energy making you unhappy,
Speaker: And then I tell you that I'll take away some of that unhappiness that if you do this, if you go on this trip, if you do this thing, if you have these new, whatever, you'll be happy.
Speaker: Like, cause look at this commercial, look how happy everybody is.
Speaker: Look at this person driving this new car, wearing these new jeans, sporting these new shades.
Speaker: Of course, you're going to be happy.
Speaker: Look at them.
Speaker: If I can do that, I can keep you in a state of always reaching, of never really being happy just by yourself with what you have in this moment now.
Speaker: I create that conscious desire, right?
Speaker: And in that desire, I can make money.
Speaker: I can actually get more power.
Speaker: There's a lot of power to be had when people need something.
Speaker: But if everybody was just resting in their heart, there's a place of contentment.
Speaker: As a place of Santosha, as they say in yoga, there's a place where you're just satisfied.
Speaker: Because if we really think about it, for the most part, unless we are in a very acute moment of stress or danger, what is really going on right now?
Speaker: What's really bothering anybody?
Speaker: Yeah, if I ask you what you're stressed out, you're like, well, rent's due.
Speaker: I'm like, well, is it due right this second?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay, you have this happening, you have a date, you have to plan, you've got all these things, but I mean, right now, right in this moment, right now, what's going on?
Speaker: Like, well, not much is really going on right now, but look what's coming.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, but look what's right now.
Speaker: And so you spend all your energy thinking about how to deflect what's coming and you miss what's happening in this moment.
Speaker: And in this moment, that might be where all the opportunities lie.
Speaker: And if you could just get out of your head where all the fear is, because fear localizes it, it takes your awareness and it puts you in tunnel vision.
Speaker: It just looks at little things, right?
Speaker: And they say the mind divides and the heart is like a thread.
Speaker: They call it the heart sutras.
Speaker: The mind is like a knife.
Speaker: It cuts, it divides, it separates, it individualizes to understand it dissects.
Speaker: The heart stitches it all back together and gives us a feeling of connection.
Speaker: It gives us a feeling of wholeness.
Speaker: And so if you're in your head, you're easier to control.
Speaker: And if you're in your heart, you don't feel like you have as many attachments or desires.
Speaker: You also don't have as many aversions.
Speaker: Things aren't bothering you as much.
Speaker: And so because you're in a better place in your nervous system, because you're in a better place in your mind, because you're in a better place in your emotions, you're a lot less likely to be manipulated.
Speaker: And then you can actually start to choose.
Speaker: Well, if you have everything,
Speaker: Now, what do you want to do?
Speaker: What choices will you make?
Speaker: How is that?
Speaker: How will your choices be different than if you're always coming from a place of lack?
Speaker: You're seeking something, some answer to make you happy, some answer to get you out of struggle and get you out of suffering.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think for many of us, especially in this society that we live in and for those who are in bigger cities, it's you're constantly in this world of
Speaker: being around people and opportunities.
Speaker: And, you know, there's so many great, beautiful things that come with that.
Speaker: But also I think it's a constant practice to that point of balancing the logic and the head and the opportunity and the heart space of being here and present.
Speaker: And, um, I know that you and I also talked a little bit about this the other day when we were discussing it, but just that duality between that, you know, masculine energy of go, do, be, create,
Speaker: versus, you know, for lack of a better word, like feminine energy of the surrender and the surrender and listen side of things.
Speaker: And actually I'm jumping around a little bit, but there was a, there's a book that I've been reading for one of the sound meditation trainings that I'm about to do, but I feel like it's so aligned with kind of what we're talking about, but I'm just going to share with you all here that the quote goes, the shift from masculine to feminine values has often been associated with our cultural transformation.
Speaker: from analysis to synthesis, from rational knowledge to intuitive wisdom, from domination and aggression to nonviolence and peace.
Speaker: And I think that's so spectacular about this is it kind of talks about this duality that we're talking about here, the head and the heart.
Speaker: And we're even bringing in words and things that we're also talking about here at the Alchemy podcast around peace and community, et cetera.
Speaker: So, I mean, as we kind of wrap up our conversation here,
Speaker: How do you think that listening to the heart and or making heart-based decisions can really support a community of collective well-being?
Speaker: This is going to be interesting because this came up for me while you were talking.
Speaker: What you were saying about masculine and feminine, and I think this goes between the head and the heart, there's something about femininity and let's just talk about cycles.
Speaker: Masculine usually is about a journey.
Speaker: It's about a very linear process and the feminine understand cycles.
Speaker: We have the lunar cycle.
Speaker: We have the menstruating cycle.
Speaker: And so if you're conscious of the cyclical nature of the universe, right, of the world, you realize that everything that happens is going to come around and happen again.
Speaker: You start to plan for this inevitability, this eventuality.
Speaker: And if you don't, you think a linear way, you don't care what you do because the ends justify the means.
Speaker: Not realizing that, yeah, every time there's an end, it's going to come back again.
Speaker: And so I think if we have that place where we're sitting in a much more feminine part of ourselves, we're sitting in a place within our heart, we start to understand that, that the cause and effect is not just I do this thing and then I can escape the karmic effect of it, is everything's going to happen and it's going to repeat itself and it's going to come back.
Speaker: And so that's also going to alter the way that we kind of work with each other and the way that we connect to ourselves and the way we connect to the planet when we realize like,
Speaker: no matter what you do, you can't get that far away from anybody.
Speaker: We're all on this little spaceship for like flying through really almost infinite space.
Speaker: And you're like, well, if, you know, if someone does something bad to me, then I just never have to see them.
Speaker: And you're like, you're right.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: In another perspective, you're never really that far from anyone.
Speaker: And so might as well make the best of each moment that you can, not just because it'll make other people happy, but because it's really your own experience and it's you taking accountability.
Speaker: It's you making a choice to be responsible for how your energy is going to be expressed through your words, through your thoughts, and through your actions.
Speaker: And being in the head can sometimes be that place where you're just looking at everything in a linear fashion that no matter what I do, it doesn't matter.
Speaker: I just need to do what I need to do in order to achieve whatever I want, whatever my goals are versus the heart feeling that connection.
Speaker: You start to realize, OK, the choices I make, I can still head towards my goals.
Speaker: How can I do them and honor the fact that every choice, every action I make is going to have a ripple effect into the entire world?
Speaker: And I think if we just look at the world now, greed, pollution, there are so many things that show us what that masculine energy has done.
Speaker: We're taking advantage of each other.
Speaker: We're taking advantage of the planet.
Speaker: We're taking advantage of our natural resources because we don't have the scope to really understand what we're doing to ourselves until now we're seeing, you know, major shifts in global weather patterns.
Speaker: We're seeing an uprising because the gap between the powerful, the rich and the poor has become so wide that, that there's, it just has, we're hitting a tipping point where now it has to come out.
Speaker: It has to almost be pushed back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think perspective, right.
Speaker: You said you've been bringing up a lot about perspective and how if we are seated in one place, which is the mind and in our own self and using that as the focus point, like it's easy to be, to not see the other ripple effects that you have with your community or the planet.
Speaker: But, you know, if you zoom out to the 10,000 foot view, you know, to your point, like you aren't able to get away from that neighbor.
Speaker: You aren't able to get away from that, that,
Speaker: ecosystem that you were, you know, kind of maybe degradating at some point, but it's just all about perspective, right?
Speaker: And understanding that we are part of a global community and we have a responsibility as part of that community to show up and to heal ourselves so we can show up for each other in the
Speaker: Even if you could get away, it's like now you just have this thing in your head that like, I don't want to see this person.
Speaker: And it's just energy.
Speaker: There's no, you know, what's the what's the value for that?
Speaker: And so that's the wholeness.
Speaker: We give that up when we think we can get away.
Speaker: If we know we can't, if we really look at it from that place, we'll probably be more apt to healing the things within our own heart.
Speaker: whether that's for the relationships are outside, or at least in the way that we feel about others so that we can be fully present and we're not letting that energy kind of drain us in the background.
Speaker: That leads me to my final question for you, Alex.
Speaker: For all those who are listening, what is one thing that they can do on a daily basis, maybe as much as they possibly can to more actively engage with not only their logical brain, but understand and listen more deeply to the heart space?
Speaker: Do you have any tips and tricks that people can do?
Speaker: Yeah, the first is to give yourself some time.
Speaker: There's lots of research.
Speaker: If you look at meditations from the Heart Institute, look up heart coherence.
Speaker: That I think will really, I mean, that's a doorway to a whole new dimension if you've never been exposed to it.
Speaker: My personal practice right now has been to use the senses and everybody's a little bit different.
Speaker: So it's hard to say exactly what each person should use.
Speaker: But what I found really works for me is to find a tall seated position to relax as best as you can so that you can soften your breath and make your breath as gentle as possible.
Speaker: And as the breath gets gentle, you start to extend it for a longer period of time.
Speaker: Now, it's not about the timing.
Speaker: The timing is an expression of the softness.
Speaker: And as you are more relaxed, as your breath softens, you'll just naturally be able to draw the breath longer and longer without forcing it.
Speaker: As you do that, that's where that focus kicks in, right?
Speaker: And where you can pay attention to a slow and gentle and steady breath, the more you're going to realize, wow, I'm actually, I'm concentrating.
Speaker: I'm focusing.
Speaker: Your breath is actually an expression of focus in that moment.
Speaker: When that happens, have a mantra.
Speaker: It doesn't have to be this exact sound.
Speaker: It could be any sound.
Speaker: I've been using the sound raw on the inhalation.
Speaker: And when I, when I make the sound raw, I it's kind of like, I'm pulling it through the breath and it's like,
Speaker: through the inhale and then the sound ma on the exhale.
Speaker: Why I use those two sounds?
Speaker: Well, if you just make the sound raw and you put a little oomph to it and you go, it's, it engages the core.
Speaker: And so when you're doing, you're actually engaging core energy.
Speaker: And then the sound, ah, if you go,
Speaker: like amen, or so many other religions have some of them like, you know, like, like, you know, that sound is something that brings you right into the heart.
Speaker: It vibrates right into the chest.
Speaker: So takes the belly energy.
Speaker: It takes that navel energy.
Speaker: It takes that egoic energy, pulls it to the heart.
Speaker: And then when you make the sound, it vibrates the head.
Speaker: And so takes the energy from the head to the heart.
Speaker: And so what I do is I'll sit there.
Speaker: I'll give myself five to 10 minutes, depending.
Speaker: Sometimes it happens very quickly.
Speaker: And sometimes it takes a little extra time and I'm a little distracted, but I'll sit and I'll slow my breath down.
Speaker: And as I slowly drag the inhale, I'll either imagine, or I'll try to listen for the sound raw and I'll feel the energy.
Speaker: I can even picture energy going from the navel to the heart.
Speaker: And then through ma, energy from the head to the heart.
Speaker: And so there it is.
Speaker: I'm using the sense of sound or the sense of hearing.
Speaker: I'm using the sense of touch, the feeling of my breath.
Speaker: I'm using a visualization, picturing, you could picture a light or energy just going from the navel up and from the head down.
Speaker: And then I'm going back to touch again, where I'm actually putting my awareness around the heart space.
Speaker: I like to envision my heart like a swirling whirlpool, like the Milky Way or like a sun or a sphere, you know, whatever, whatever visualization helps you anchor in is I think what's best.
Speaker: At the end of the day, you're using all of these techniques to keep pointing at your heart.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's one thing if I'm just like, Hey, put your awareness on your heart.
Speaker: You do it for five seconds and then it's gone.
Speaker: But now I'm like, okay, imagine you're breathing into your heart really slow.
Speaker: Imagine that you're making this sound into your heart.
Speaker: Imagine that light is moving into your heart.
Speaker: I'm using all of these things.
Speaker: Feel the sensation around your heart.
Speaker: I'm using all these things to keep pointing you at the heart.
Speaker: And what will end up hopefully happening is...
Speaker: At some point, all of those things will drop away and there you'll just be sitting in your heart space.
Speaker: Heart is the, it's the drive, it's the motor of our existence, right?
Speaker: And so as you put more energy in the motor, you're going to feel an uplift in your energy.
Speaker: This has helped me.
Speaker: I used to feel a lot more fatigued and this is as of recent times, as I started to do these heart meditations, all of a sudden,
Speaker: I'm waking up a lot earlier.
Speaker: I'm sleeping a lot deeper.
Speaker: My sleep has gone down because it's much more restful.
Speaker: And I feel like I just have that vibrancy and I feel like I have a lot more energy to share and to do things.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Alex, for those who have never practiced with Alex, I highly recommend checking him out digitally or in person.
Speaker: His energy is palpable, as I'm sure you can already tell through listening to him here on the podcast with us on Alchemy.
Speaker: But thank you, Alex.
Speaker: Seriously means the world to have you join us.
Speaker: This has been such a fun conversation and I'm sure for many people, really insightful and just learning a little bit more about heart-based listening.
Speaker: Can I also just say one thing that struck me is, and we were actually supposed to have this meeting on Monday, right?
Speaker: And I had to reschedule because I had some things.
Speaker: And then I just realized, I realized that earlier today by some weird, probably not coincidence,
Speaker: we ended up having this discussion on Valentine's Day.
Speaker: But that's not how the conversation went.
Speaker: It was like, hey, Dana, I wanted to do this thing.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: Is there a way we can reschedule it?
Speaker: Yeah, no problem.
Speaker: Is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday better for you?
Speaker: And I was like, well, Tuesday, I have this.
Speaker: And you're like, well, Thursday, I have that.
Speaker: I'm like, well, it looks like Wednesday is going to be the best day.
Speaker: And it wasn't until somewhere after your class this morning where I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker: We're doing this.
Speaker: It's Valentine's Day, which is such a perfect theme for Valentine's Day.
Speaker: Although you all are probably listening to this like a month or so after, we know that this was recorded on Valentine's Day and it was with very much heart-centered, heartful intention behind it.
Speaker: So that's amazing.
Speaker: The universe said, we need to restructure it.
Speaker: It makes the most sense.
Speaker: There's going to be energy of the entire world or at least the US coming together.
Speaker: And so that's the day we do it because that's when you'll have the earth right behind you.
Speaker: Well, thank you, Alex, so much again.
Speaker: And we hope we can talk to you again soon.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Alchemy podcast.
Speaker: If you enjoyed our conversation today, you can find more about the speaker in our show notes below.
Speaker: In order to build a global community committed to well-being for all, we need your help.
Speaker: So please rate and subscribe to whoever you're listening from.
Speaker: Finally, we cannot do this without the help of our amazing team.
Speaker: A huge thank you and shout out to Lindsay Todd, producer.
Speaker: All right, y'all have a lovely, lovely day.
