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Mindfulness Through The Lens - A Conversation With @anasta_foto
117 Plays1 year ago
In this episode of Connected with Iva, I sit down with the wonderfully thoughtful @anasta_foto to explore the rich intersection of mindfulness, embodiment, and photography. Together, we dive into the quiet presence required to truly capture a moment, the link between inner stillness and visual storytelling, and how photography can become a moving form of meditation and self-connection.
Anasta opens up about her journey as a photographer and how she’s found grounding and inspiration through practices that invite slowness and presence—including ecstatic dance, contact improvisation, and 5Rhythms. We also touch on the importance of safe, supportive spaces like women’s circles, and dive into communication practices that deepen connection, such as Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Authentic Relating, and Circling.
Whether you're a creative, a seeker, or simply someone learning to find beauty in the everyday, this conversation is a gentle invitation to pause, notice, and reconnect—with yourself, with others, and with the world around you.
You can check out Anasta’s work here, Anastafo.com
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Transcript
Inspiration Behind the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
So I'm having first guest today first conversation, and I couldn't have thought of anyone more suitable than Anastafor, because you don't know this, but when we did the test shoot on the 14th of February was the day when I had the idea of the podcast.
00:00:18
Speaker
Oh, really? yes So wow I left you and I went to this members club in Queen's Park and i had this incredible conversation with women and they inspired me to start the podcast on the same day we shot together.
00:00:33
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's very beautiful. And I think our incredible tea ceremony we had, which is something I want to talk about today, i think it was something that opened up the creative spirit inside.
00:00:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Because I've been modeling and acting for a long time, but I've never worked with someone who turns photography into such a spiritual experience.
Spirituality and Photography
00:01:02
Speaker
We met that day and you did the celebrity ceremony, which we have now as well, and made me so relaxed and so calm and it felt like I was having a meditation.
00:01:13
Speaker
o And I wanted to speak to you about what inspired you to... to start to implement that kind of spirituality, even having the tea ceremony into photography, what does it mean for you and what what made you start it?
00:01:31
Speaker
ah That's a beautiful introduction. Thank you, Eva. um Yeah, I think it's worth mentioning that I'm a photographer because it could be a bit confusing.
00:01:41
Speaker
What kind of things are we talking about? um Yeah, so I decided to combine photography with ah different mindful practices, which love and which helped me a lot to feel more connected with my body and more in present moments.
00:01:58
Speaker
And um there are so many different beautiful practices you can you can create and you can combine with photography. And now I'm playing playing around which kind of things I want to try and which kind of practices I want to um combined with photography and um more.
00:02:16
Speaker
But for now, I feel like tea ceremony for me, it's a lot about building a connection. Yeah. Building a connection with my client, with the person who came to my studio, because London has very rushing around energy, very high speed, and you literally need...
00:02:37
Speaker
some time to calm down, to slow down your nervous system. So for me, tea ceremony is more about beautiful ritual, which helps you to ground yourself in the present moment.
00:02:49
Speaker
And the the tea itself has a a lot of magic elements into it. See, there's like this beautiful fishing site. Yeah. Yeah, beautiful cup.
00:03:03
Speaker
um Yeah, so I wouldn't say I'm um very experienced in like facilitating professional tea ceremony ah for like many people because that's not my um goal. My goal is to build a connection with the one person or like a few persons if I do that in the event. But um yeah, tea ceremony for me, it's it's a ritual to just come down before the photo shoot.
Movement Practices in Photography
00:03:31
Speaker
and um yeah And then there is another practice, which we didn't do with you. um Tell me. Tell me. But because we had like a test shoot and more like a creative um process. But yeah, second thing I'm doing is movement practice.
00:03:49
Speaker
So we are now in my in my small studio space. approach And it's it's hard to imagine because this space is changing a lot, but it has a really nice atmosphere when I prepare everything for a photo ceremony.
00:04:04
Speaker
And I conduct like 30 minutes movement practice. So it sounds very vague, right? What is movement practice? So it's a basically guided meditation when i evoke the person to move with their different parts of their body and put their attention to the different um parts of their body, like a shoulder, for example, or your elbow,
00:04:30
Speaker
How often are you thinking about your elbow? for oh ah How can you move with your elbow? How can you dance through your elbow? How can you breathe with your elbow? So this kind of exploration ah techniques and this kind of exploration prompts I'm giving to the person who is coming to my photo ceremony. yeah By the way, it's called photo ceremony.
00:04:53
Speaker
love that. We had never heard of that before. Yeah, because it's something I invented like from scratch. So, yeah, so the movement practice usually ends with a small meditation. um i tailor this process for each client and it could be really yeah um different.
00:05:09
Speaker
Like if I see that somebody and is not really willing to move and dance, we could do maybe a breath work. We could do um meditation a little bit different format. So I try to hear the person and then the tailor the process for them.
00:05:25
Speaker
So, yeah, and since we are talking about photography, this is the next step. So imagine after having a tea ceremony, after building this connection with your photographer, which could be quite important to feel seen, to feel um the yeah that, yeah, that somebody interested in you, because I'm generally interested in all people that come in here and... um Yeah, and then you feel that you have some kind of intention, for example, and then you you you have the opportunity to share about it. You have the opportunity to feel seen in this particular area, which could be vulnerable sometimes.
00:06:03
Speaker
um And after tea ceremony, movement practice, I start the photo shoot and the the person feels completely different. You know, imagine... In the London tube in the rush hour. And then, you know, one you it usually takes around one hour and a half just for the practices and for this connection um building exercises.
00:06:27
Speaker
And then when we start the photo shoot, they feel completely
Natural and Relaxed Photography
00:06:30
Speaker
different. i always I also ask them to not use their phone during the whole session, to not break the state we've been building for such a long time.
00:06:39
Speaker
Not very a long time, but still. um Yeah, and then we start taking pictures and you just feel completely different because you are more relaxed.
00:06:50
Speaker
Your nervous system is calming down after um the breathing and and all other things. And yeah, and pictures turn out different, you know.
00:07:01
Speaker
They are more relaxed and more authentic. They're not very posed. They're not like... Okay, you need to stand like this, put your hands there, then put your arms up and then stand in this uncomfortable pose for like 20 minutes.
00:07:16
Speaker
So it's more about we chat, ask them questions, we start taking pictures like really... and Slow sometimes. I just introduce a my camera in the beginning. It was the same as you did with microphone.
00:07:28
Speaker
When you just arrived and you put your microphone in the table, I had this idea that I'm doing the same with my camera sometimes. times Because for people, it could feel intimidating to have a camera in the space. And I'm trying to introduce the camera a little bit in advance because some people have fear of that of them being...
00:07:48
Speaker
photographed and um maybe it's the same with podcast somebody could have a fear to speak because I was also a little bit ah ah felt a little bit vulnerable about like speaking English because it's not my first language um and somebody recording that and then listen to this you're not looking at that yeah yeah So yeah, the photoshoot part is um usually very creative. And um I also give the person some different ideas of what they can do so they feel they're not like posed. But for example, shifting your weight from one leg to another and move around your, like around
00:08:27
Speaker
and the space, for example, it's it's a prompt. So you don't, you know how to do that. Because sometimes people like, I don't know how to pose, but well, do you know how to walk? That's what we're going to do. Do you know how to, I don't know, talk to me?
00:08:40
Speaker
That's what you're going to do. And then I will make you feel great. And then I will get this like shots of the smiles and um different emotions. Because I think emotions is what's important in um in photography for me.
00:08:53
Speaker
and People might not know this, but you're a model as well. who Did the modeling experience shift your idea on what photography should be like by working with photographers? I mean, when I work with photographers, photographers I find it...
00:09:12
Speaker
Sometimes very rigid, the whole experience, which is why I've always been looking for something else to do because it doesn't feel fulfilling or satisfying sometimes because for me, it has to be about human connection, about...
00:09:28
Speaker
um creating an experience and a lot of the time it just feels quite void of that yeah yeah yeah i totally understand you because um i don't actually i wouldn't say ah i'm a model now when you said that i felt this kind of like no But actually, I do work and I do have some like work from time to time, but it's hard for me to identify myself in this way. um Yeah. Also, because of the same reason you
From Modeling to Authentic Photography
00:09:59
Speaker
just said, it's business when people are selling clothes. So it's not about human connection at all. Yeah.
00:10:06
Speaker
ah It could be quite interesting experience. And I've been working as a model for, i don't know, seven years, but I stopped before pandemic. So since then, I haven't been putting much effort into this sphere of my life.
00:10:20
Speaker
I just had maybe like a few photoshoots per year just and as an extra income. But in terms of, yeah, this kind of photography, I would say...
00:10:32
Speaker
um it's so hard to, I like to say the overall, um the overall idea because it has, I'm now thinking about my path after modeling. I've done so many different things and I think some of them shaped my photography even more than modeling.
00:10:49
Speaker
So I've done posing workshops, ah which is not exactly about posing in a traditional way, but more about like also movement practice and then some different prompts, how you can,
00:11:02
Speaker
what you can do in front of the camera so your posing looks authentic and interesting. So I've done this workshop like, I don't know, many years also, like I think five or more years, and I've built um ah program.
00:11:15
Speaker
And first I started, it it was more like a modeling and posing thing and for models and for, not only for models actually, think most of my clients were everyday people who just wanted to to feel a little bit more comfortable in front of the camera.
00:11:28
Speaker
But, ah yeah, i was doing these workshops and I really liked it because it was a lot about like body liberation. We were dancing, we were shouting, we were like being crazy. I i just ah just love being crazy and wild sometimes because if you stretch your comfort zone,
00:11:45
Speaker
then it's much easier for you to feel natural and authentic when you just slow down and just, you know, sitting on the chair, walking. and that was one ah kind of big thing. And obviously, yeah after this experience, photography itself was felt very easy for me when I started. When I picked the camera, I was like,
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I know how to like get the composition and all that. And just the the beautiful part of it ah felt very easy for me. And in terms of um other experiences which led to them for the photo ceremony, yeah I think the biggest one is um my experience of facilitating different workshops, which weren't posing workshops. I see that you have two coming up now.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. have a women's circle in 10th of May in London and that's it. Just one. what What is that about?
00:12:39
Speaker
So um I started this journey from blindfolded experiences. Oh my God. Okay. Tell me more, please. So that was just such a great exploration, such a great discovery for me. When you close your eyes, the world is different.
00:12:59
Speaker
All the attention that just goes through your eyes... ah to checking the things around you, how somebody is doing something, whether you're better or you're worse. Like imagine the yoga yoga class, for example.
00:13:14
Speaker
You're looking around and you your brain is analyzing what's happening. And that it takes so much energy. So when you close your eyes, this energy goes inside. That's true.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So we closed our eyes.
00:13:34
Speaker
ah So now how can I speak? Because I'm just like feeling my body. I'm feeling the puerh tea. You just drank. You know, I actually tried to do that. I was, because I try to be very present these days. i was even walking down the street and I closed my eyes, which is not something anyone should do. Yeah.
00:13:51
Speaker
but I have a story about it. Okay. Oh, but it's because I'm feeling like I want to be present so much. And it's not when I'm crossing the road, just so you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm doing that a lot of time.
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah. Like this is ah this is a good practice I'm doing from time to time. Just though if if I feel that they're all the road is safe, I can close my eyes and i could blink like every few steps. Yeah. And just a few weeks ago, i did that.
00:14:18
Speaker
And the the guy ah who was like passing by, I think he thought that I'm passing out. He thought that something happening with me and he just like started, he grabbed me and he started shaking my shoulders.
00:14:31
Speaker
I mean, that's, I guess that's good because people still care. I just figure out that what I love in this life is close my eyes. Oh my God. And that was a big journey and I could speak about it for ages. But the
Sensory Experiences and Workshops
00:14:44
Speaker
idea is I created a workshop, ah which basically like three or four hours blindfolded experience, like a journey.
00:14:51
Speaker
So I had a group of like 15 to 30 people. They would um um have a blindfold on their face. And I would guide them through through a journey. And that would ah that would include so many different things from meditation, dancing, ah experiencing like kind of non-sexual touch with each other through different practices.
00:15:19
Speaker
ah It could be even food tasting. Sometimes I was like preparing, you know, a piece of banana, like try to eat a piece of banana for like with your eyes closed and for a longer time, you would feel like it's it's an interesting experience. Do you know in Bulgaria there's a restaurant that does a tasting menu? Yeah, I went there.
00:15:42
Speaker
In Bulgaria? No, in Russia because we also have them. It's blindfolded. And it's the whole tasting menu. And it's because you your senses are heightened when your eyes are closed. Yes, yes. So you can feel things more.
00:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, have you been there? um so I I could go with somebody. probably wouldn't go on my own. Yeah, because I love this. Yeah, my husband, he was organizing dates on this kind of places a few times soon in back in Russia. It's a good date idea. that That's for sure. It's a good date idea yeah in Bulgaria.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah. oh No, i'm sure I'm sure it's existing even in London or like everywhere. I think so. I don't know. But it's very, yeah, I think it's very good idea. And I've been everywhere with like blindfolds or like dark quests, yoga blindfolded, blindfolded contact improvisation, blindfolded ecstatic, like different practices I'm doing yeah regarding dance. But that's amazing because it's also learning to...
00:16:45
Speaker
Well, it's working on your senses. Yeah. So it I think it's really ah helpful for intuition as well.
Non-Verbal Communication in Circles
00:16:52
Speaker
How you move through the space when you're blindfolded. And um so basically, ah my practice was based on like so many different things I tried. And I just like picked a few which worked really well for me.
00:17:05
Speaker
um and they yeah And I explored them in workshops and I was doing them in festivals and I was living in different like countries before moving to the UK and I was offering this workshop as well.
00:17:17
Speaker
um i was thinking I was mostly doing it ah in Russian, but here in London I really want to to start doing it in English as well. But there were different ah workshops, for example, women's circles.
00:17:30
Speaker
It's something a bit more um popular because like people people know what it is. What is it for those who don't know? Do you know?
00:17:41
Speaker
I'm not sure. So I did a yoga retreat and we had a circle, but that was a circle. but so i'm not You were just sitting in the circle during asanas? We were dancing in a circle with music and the sunset.
00:17:53
Speaker
So the women's circle is um It's a very wide practice, which could be interpreted in very different ways because different facilitators would have their different ah views.
00:18:04
Speaker
um So because I love to explore topics of free-form dancing or um like touch with other people in non-sexual way, also like this topic, cuddles.
00:18:15
Speaker
um i Yeah, I've been exploring this kind of like in a woman's space when women can feel a little bit more um safe and they can do different exercise for like touch and um exploring even like a dance with your hands you know like two people can have a really profound dance with their hands you can try it now if you want yeah And then you close if you close your eyes and you feel... even close them before you said it. it's It's like an automatic feeling that you just want to do it.
00:18:47
Speaker
And then you can explore, like, what's the texture of your hand? What's the temperature of your hand? How, like, what's the pattern of your movement? How you can experience music through your hand and through the touch with the partner?
00:19:01
Speaker
For the people who are listening, Yes. We're dancing. We're dancing. It's amazing. It's actually amazing. Yeah. So, yeah, women's circles could be about ah speaking of different topics, I don't know, grieving about something. It could be very sad. It could be happy. It could be about...
00:19:19
Speaker
ah Anything, really. So it's about women coming together. Usually there is an opening circle when everybody shares maybe their intention, their names, how they feel, something like that. There is a few different practices with the theme of the women's circle.
00:19:35
Speaker
It could be dancing practices. It could be ah drawing. It could be anything else what facilitator wants to bring that day and what was the theme. Literally, when you came together with women, and it's different energy. Like even you, if you create a beautiful space, like you have a beautiful mandala, for example, like some flowers and um candles like in the middle.
00:19:58
Speaker
If everybody comes like in a dress and it's a beautiful space. So that's that's on itself creates a little bit of a moment of maybe relaxation, more like a present moment. And then you do different practices.
00:20:11
Speaker
I really love to do women's circles about dancing because not like dancing in a way that we are learning some different steps or choreography. I'm not really good at it at all. I'm really bad at it.
00:20:23
Speaker
I'm good ah with ah feeling how my body wants to move yeah and how my body wants to experience music and dance. Yeah, I like to offer different practices which are helping women or like men, if it's mixed group, to to explore some something around it.
00:20:42
Speaker
Like walking through the space and um greeting people with your hands, for example, without saying anything. You always have this urge to like, hello, how are you?
00:20:53
Speaker
um My name is, hello, this is like... but a little I like to to do my kind of workshop speechless. Not for me, but for my participants. So they can experience how is it to communicate with somebody without words.
00:21:07
Speaker
With your body. With your body. With your body language first, with your facial expressions, with um the way you move, with, ah yeah, if you close your eyes and...
00:21:19
Speaker
You walk through the space and you meet somebody, how would you relate to them? Would you just jump like that? Or would you, you know, be very soft and just like go through them? Or I don't know.
00:21:31
Speaker
There is a different ways how you can relate to different people when you don't speak to them. And that's very interesting area for me as well. So, yeah, different workshops like that. I've been doing ecstatic dances as well, which is dance practice. ah I'm not going to share a lot because it can go for another hour.
00:21:46
Speaker
But, ah yeah, I've been doing these different workshops and I'm doing it still um to like the present moment. And when I started to um take pictures like more professionally, I was like...
00:22:00
Speaker
Wait, um this kind of experience is fully applicable. ah just cannot not combine it together because it feels very logical and natural for me to build this connection with my client first and to make them feel comfortable first. I was trying it out with like different friends and I was gathering feedbacks and...
00:22:22
Speaker
I'm still like, I would say now I'm also reforming this offering a little bit because I'm thinking maybe I can also narrow it down to like different specific areas. For example, create a photo ceremony for ah professionals who wants to like a small business owners, for example, for whom it's really important to develop um and deliver the their business idea to their clients through photography.
00:22:50
Speaker
So they need like not just headshots, you know, like so less headshots, but they want somebody to listen to them and to get this idea and to get what actually they want to deliver and then do the pictures. love that.
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah. Because as a business, you always have a message, right? Yeah, be i'm especially for something around mindfulness, because I feel like this is kind of my area. And I don't know if they have like a yoga studio or ah coaches, healers or...
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah, so it's this this kind of idea could be like reformed in a very different ways, like the photo ceremony idea, but um for dating apps. oh it's Like recently, i had a photo ceremony um because I would i just redownloaded it.
00:23:40
Speaker
I don't know if my pictures are very spiritual. but Yeah, but there is actually a huge problem about it because people are getting pictures which are not look like them. Well, I can attest to that because I just had a little scroll and most of the time people don't even have their faces on. It's just sunglasses and hats. Yeah. Glory pictures.
00:24:04
Speaker
And it' ah for me, it's it's quite interesting because Why even create a profile if you're not going to represent yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a big thing as well. Because, yeah, so a few days ago I had a photo ceremony for for a guy and he he bought it because he wanted to do pictures for dating profile. And his pain was like...
00:24:28
Speaker
i I want to be myself. I don't want to lie. i want to have a serious relationship. I want to be there just like as I am. yeah and And therefore the ceremony is really helpful because you're not stiff as like if you would yeah have this headshot like in 35 minutes.
00:24:45
Speaker
um Yeah, and I came to his like place and we did the practices and tea and movement. And that was that was really beautiful. And after that, I got inspired maybe to yeah change it a little bit for this audience
Authentic Connections in Modern Life
00:25:00
Speaker
as well. like So this is a very creative process for me. I'm still trying to find like best ways to to express the idea that I have because it's all about like a website and all that, you know.
00:25:12
Speaker
Okay, so we decided to take a little U-turn, 180 degree, give some advice to people. This is following the ah talk about dating apps.
00:25:24
Speaker
It's fine by dating apps topic. I feel like people will be interested, potentially. It's about unveiling your authentic energy, how to be yourself, and some you could call it sexual energy, but it's more about being authentic.
00:25:39
Speaker
Mm-hmm. In a way that people can connect to you, feel the real you. Because I feel like we we walk around and we meet so many people and it's almost like and we have these robotic interactions with people in day-to-day life. Like you said at the beginning as well, London is just so, everything is just so um robotic in a way.
00:26:03
Speaker
yeah So we need to get in touch with ourselves more. Yeah. who It's very interesting topic because it speaks to me a lot since I'm from a very different culture. and think our cultures may a little bit similar, like Eastern Europe.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah. um I feel like when I just moved to you the UK, for me, it was really hard. The small talk, they're like, how are you, question, and all these kind of things. And I would say it's necessarily, obviously, it has its benefits, like this kind of communication. But then it was so vital for me to find ah places, to find people where I can deepen my connections and relationships with them.
00:26:43
Speaker
And for me personally, that was through different somatic practices and events, which I went to and I found those people there. So that was like my key because now I feel so happy and so fortunate because I have ah like amazing friends here.
00:26:59
Speaker
And every time I have the conversation with them, I feel the freedom to share my real emotions. If I feel that something triggered me in our like conversation or if I feel like um I don't know, they maybe invite me somewhere, but they don't want to. I wouldn't think of an excuse, but I would rather say them the real reason, like, I'm exhausted, you know, I don't, I i cannot do that. they don't i but I need to go home, for example. And...
00:27:25
Speaker
um So for me, that's important, but that's because I have them ah would already have this need and I already have this kind of knowing that this is my benchmark of any communication.
00:27:39
Speaker
ah But in terms of advices, I would say... There are so many different practices which you can explore and they would allow you to connect with what it is, your authentic self, because it's not it's not the same for everyone, obviously. Maybe somebody doesn't need this kind of ah hard topic, hard communication, hard topic. Maybe somebody needs them, but only in ah specific circumstances or with specific people.
00:28:09
Speaker
um For example, ah there is a practice called circling. Have you ever heard about it? No, tell me more. and It's very interesting. It's so hard to explain it in a few words because it is about um knowing how you feel.
00:28:29
Speaker
how you how you feel in your body, how you feel in your head. This is very big for me, body. Yeah, and then being able to communicate. For example, nonviolent communication.
00:28:41
Speaker
And there is a book about it. Maybe you've heard of that one because... So there are three practices which are a little bit similar. um They are about communicating with yourself and with others in a more authentic way.
00:28:54
Speaker
um First called circling, second called nonviolent communication, and third is authentic relating. You can just maybe Google them and find a place online or offline. And if you if you vibe with idea, that's really helpful because so basically you come there and there is a space. There is there are could be different practices.
00:29:15
Speaker
For example, um you sit in a pair with another person and you're just saying, what are you noticing happening in your body at the present moment? I'm I'm noticing that my back is ah quite warm now. Yeah.
00:29:30
Speaker
I'm noticing that there was a pulse after I said that. So everything. Everything. Everything that happens just now. So for me it's a lot for me, it's a practice that was mostly like circling or outditting, relating.
00:29:44
Speaker
um That's really about how... how to how to be in the present moment and how to feel what's what's happening in the body. So you train this muscle it's because it's a skill, right? yeah And for me, I think the best way to learn some skills and to go to the places and to learn, you know, you want to learn some language, you would go to the school or the like you would buy a course. This is the same thing.
00:30:10
Speaker
If you want to write to learn how to... um How to feel your body in a little bit different level, how to kind communicate with other people, how to communicate your emotions, how to understand your emotions.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yeah, you would go and learn. So psychotherapy is another way as well. So yeah, this is like more talking kind of practices. And there are also practices, something related to your body. and um That could be media meditation that everybody knows. That could be dance practices like ecstatic dance or gaga dance or contact improvisation is something I'm doing as well.
Body Awareness and Communication Practices
00:30:47
Speaker
It's um improvised dance with a physical contact with the other person, which also really helpful with ah understanding my relation to another person through my body.
00:30:58
Speaker
So I dance, but I also have this like physical connection with another human. And then I need to pay attention a lot into this point of connection. It could be everything. It could be shoulders to to the back. to Yeah, it's hard to explain. Whatever feels right. Yeah, yeah. I feel like it's nice to give names, you know, names of different practices. So if people, if you feel...
00:31:21
Speaker
like direct address now. If you feel like something speaks to you, just Google it. Just Google contact improvisation or ecstatic. I think ecstatic dance is like, is default a thing I recommend to everyone because it's amazing dance practice when everybody barefoot, no speaking, no substance, no alcohol, nothing, sober, um no shoes as well. That's big because we, am the shoes is big because No, but even when I grew up, I knew the importance of feet touching the ground, the skin touching the ground. Because then you're you literally grounding.
00:32:02
Speaker
Because yeah your body is on the ground, skin too. to to grow and that is quite eastern european as well when i was um spending my holidays in the country i would to run barefoot in the garden and that wasn't even called a practice or anything it was just being a natural yeah being in nature exactly it was the normal thing yeah yeah yeah I would say similar for me, i grew up next to the lake and next a lot of nature, some periods of my life, like and when I was really small.
00:32:36
Speaker
So yeah, just Google practices and go and and check it out and feel and try because it could feel intimidating when you read the Eventbrite page and there's like, Oh, there's a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot, but then you just need to try what works yeah for you. but and That's the thing. It has to be authentic to you because not every practice will but work for you. Yeah. So these are quite could be quite social practices, but there are also less social things like breathwork, for example.
00:33:07
Speaker
So when you're like breathing in a special technique, it's basically like deepening your breath and then you just have a lot of oxygen coming in your own brain. And then it's, yeah, there is some like interesting effects.
00:33:21
Speaker
ah You can also explore that, but. not Not my favorite one, but yeah, just try everything. I think last maybe five years, I've been like, you know, like a traveler who explored different countries. I was like Anasta who was exploring every practice I could find, like something new And I was like, wow, is this something that could help me to understand myself better, to understand how can I relate to others better?
The Impact of Authentic Connections
00:33:47
Speaker
I will try it. So um I feel like this the kind of like many years of exploration period. And then now I know that, okay, if I have...
00:33:55
Speaker
this kind of like maybe feel feel of disconnection, then I would go like for ecstatic dance. If I feel like I really need some clarity or I need like to be in the present moment, I would go to circling, for example. For me, it's very like present practice because you start you're noticing what's happening right now.
00:34:13
Speaker
Although you mostly speak about this experience, it's not as embodied, but you still, ah it's like I've been encircling for like two days, workshop.
00:34:24
Speaker
And on the second day, i don't know, I think I never felt as present in my mind whatsoever. Because I was only, you know, every single moment just like, what's happening here? What's happening in my body? What kind of thought came to my mind?
00:34:38
Speaker
so it's not only about body. it's also like, oh, I got this thought. And then I share about it because I'm with people who are like in this state. I speak to a person and then they say something that triggers me.
00:34:51
Speaker
And I was like, you know, when you said that, that triggers me. And you just say that straight away. This kind of like... communication, which is so different from everyday. So it's not about like showing up your confidence past self. It's about being vulnerable. yeah It's sometimes about saying to people face to face that you don't like them, that maybe they either look angry ugly or something. Can you imagine? I mean, you don't have to do that. But if these kind of feelings arise, you
00:35:25
Speaker
It's all about you. It's not about another of course. yeah And this is how you can teach yourself that that's about you. And then when you receive something like that, when you go on the street and somebody's shouting like, yeah you're like, okay, it's about them.
00:35:40
Speaker
We understand that, but sometimes we forget and we can get upset or but you are communicating with relatives or something like that. Oh, yes. And you're like, it this sometimes it's hard to distinguish like their problems and like, oh, maybe something wrong with me.
00:35:53
Speaker
ah So this practice helps. I love that. I mean, there's so many things for people to try. And if you live in London, maybe you can go to Astor's workshop in May.
00:36:05
Speaker
yeah or my photo ceremony. Exactly. yeah I think like photo session is, it could be a form of therapy as well. I told you on the 14th of February, Valentine's Day, I feel like the tea and our interaction unlocked something. And then when I went to the Women's Club in Queen's Park, again, the conversation with women hu continued the unlocking and then the podcast idea was born. Yeah. That's why I feel like connection and ah authentic connection is so important.
00:36:37
Speaker
Specifically authentic connection. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. you You're so inspiring. and Thank you, Eva. Please follow Anastya. Please follow Anastya.
00:36:50
Speaker
And you're with me, Eva, and you're listening to Connected with Eva, the podcast on human connection. Thank you. And until next time.
00:37:02
Speaker
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