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Welcome to "The Language of Yoga" podcast, hosted by Becca Schmidt, E-RYT500/YACEP, a 20-year veteran yoga instructor. Prepare to take your yoga teaching skills from average to extraordinary as Becca shares her wisdom, experiences, and practical tips for helping your students find a transformative journey of self-discovery.
In this podcast, we'll delve into the art of using language to cue and connect. Discover the power of vocal tone, volume, repetition, and even the beauty of silence and stillness. But that's not all – we'll also explore the impact of incorporating class themes such as the Chakras, the Yamas and Nyamas, the elements of fire, water, and air and many more.
By embracing these themes, both you and your students can tap into the magic of metaphor and visualization. Imagine guiding your students to embody the grounding energy of the root chakra or incorporating the principles of the Yamas and Nyamas for ethical decision-making on and off the mat. Themes add depth and richness to your classes, allowing your students to connect with the natural forces within themselves.
Throughout the podcast, Becca will share invaluable insights, personal experiences, and practical tips on seamlessly integrating words, vocal qualities and themes into your instruction. Whether you're an experienced teacher seeking to revitalize your classes or a curious beginner diving into the depth of yoga, "The Language of Yoga" is here to empower and inspire you.
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Language of Yoga. I'm your host, Becca Schmidt. This podcast is for yoga teachers who want to shine a little brighter and make a bigger impact on their students. Join me for tips, treasures, and conversations with inspirational people in our field. Let's get started. Hey, welcome back Yogis, and thanks for tuning in.
We are now in season three, episode one. Well, I hope you are in a sweet space like chilling on the back porch, whether you're a big, fluffy kitty cat and a pot of tea, or maybe something you know, more delicious, or maybe you are just taking some time for a nice long walk. Tune in into your favorite podcast.
Wherever you are. I'm really glad you're here with us today and I am so glad that Angela Schwoneck Yes, you got it right is here. [00:01:00] Angela has brought a plethora of instruments and we will be talking about a lot of those in just a couple minutes. Angela is a vocal. Courage coach. We'll explain what that means a little further into the podcast here.
She is a musician who specializes in the type of music that all of us yogis love using in our classes, including Bells, sound bowls. Drums, and she also brings in using her voice so we can feel the vibrations of all kinds of things. Just beginning with the Sound Ohm, and then much, much, much, much more than that.
Angela is also a certified and practicing Kundalini instructor. Let's get ready. Hey, Angela, welcome to the Language of Yoga. Hello, Becca. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. Yeah, I love, you know, I'm just enamored by all the instruments you just unfolded out of your Mary Poppins bag over [00:02:00] there. Yes. So, you know, I, I've had a couple of musicians in the past on this show, but.
None who brought in this element of the voice, so I'm real excited to talk to you about that. You have a long background of singing since you were a child. Tell us about your early days. Well, that began in the eighties. I'm an eighties baby, and I remember vividly. In the being in the car with my mom and we would drive from mall to mall looking for cassette tapes.
'cause in those days you had to go to the store to get a cassette tape, and it was a bonus if you found one with the lyrics in it. Yeah, and that's where I learned how to sing Harmony in the car with my mom. She would always take lead and then I would sing Harmony with Chiffon. Shire's like mama said.
There'll be days like this. There'll be days like this, my mama said, and I'd go, mama said, mama said That was my part. I loved. Yeah. Do you remember what kind of car you had way back then? What were [00:03:00] the acoustics like in your, in your, yeah. VW van or whatever you, y'all were driving. I wish, I think at one point it was a Buick and then we went, we graduated to a Honda Accord.
That was a big deal. Yeah. With a, sometimes Hondas have decent sound systems, so, um, you were also in a couple of choirs over the years. Mm-hmm. Walk me through maybe those a little bit. You know, more advanced school years. Yes. At school. So it, I've always been singing. Um, and when I got to high school, actually is when I found choir.
That was after I tried out for soccer and said, wait, you want me to run? How long? And they said, well, just keep running. We'll tell you when to stop. And I, I literally ran, walked home. 'cause we were like two streets away from the school. I'm like, I'm not doing this. And that semester I found choir. So it was like a concert choir, um, SATB, you know, soprano, alto, tenor, bass.
Mixed voices, both male and female, and then show choir. So that's where I gotta bring in my dance that I did. I did dance for like 10 years of my [00:04:00] life and it was just like, wow, I can be on stage and sing. And then I went to college. I studied music in college. I was part of Voices of Valencia, um, and Valencia College here in Orlando.
And then I found Central Florida Community Arts back in 2000, gosh, 15. They're just celebrating their 15 year anniversary this year. So I'll be part of that choir again. Oh, nostalgia sake to get back into it. And then I found Sweet Adelines in, in, in 2016, and that's when we started competing. And it was a lot, it was people judging your voice and it was, it was intense.
And we learned a lot of techniques. I became part of a quartet, so I was the baritone in the quartet. And a good way to think of a baritone is kind of like. Part of the music that makes it, makes it feel full. It puts weight to the music and it's like the salt in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I love it.
I love it. Yep. So you. [00:05:00] Now. Mm-hmm. Use your music and you combine it with healing, healing, uh, through yoga, all kinds of things, which we will talk about a lot in this podcast. I'm really excited to kind of pick your brain on, uh, what's happening when the music is going. But right now you have a business and you don't call yourself a vocal coach, but you call yourself a vocal courage coach.
Please explain that. Yeah, it, it ties into my astrology chart actually. Um, not to go too deep, but in my astro astrological chart, my north note is in Leo, and that's the lion. That's the courage, that's the leadership. And your north note is where you'll live out your greatest destiny. So as a leader, and I found after the.
Not really singing with my quartet a lot and competing and being more in this healing space. Wow. The bowls, the singing bowls really brought my voice [00:06:00] out and I started studying more vocal courage with some instructors online and learned the frame drum and that brought my voice out. Mm-hmm. So I really.
One of my first clients, I didn't, I didn't call myself a vocal courage coach. I was an vocal embodiment coach, but I didn't really emphasize the embodiment. Mm-hmm. And she had come to me wanting me to teach her a lot of intricate stuff, which I can do, but that's not what I wanted to do. And I'm like, whoa, I need to rebrand and really come from a different, A different way.
Right. A different perspective. So, yeah. What do you think of courage? It's not just singing, like you can use this. To also speak in public speaking, right? Like what is your biggest fear? Right? A lot of people are scared to speak publicly, so connecting to your voice in a courageous way will even help you do that.
I love that as perhaps a part of yoga teacher training. Mm-hmm. Because. I, I am terrified to sing and to chant and to use my voice in that way. But I'm not afraid to teach. I've, over the years, I've taught 10,000 classes and I'm not [00:07:00] even exaggerating 'cause I did the math one day. Wow. And that's amazing. I.
I know a lot of teachers and certainly me when I started 20 years ago, coming out to teach your first couple of classes, even the first year, you're sort of, uh, holding back on maybe your authentic voice because you're going through, uh, what are they gonna think about me or am I saying the right thing?
Can they hear me? There's so many elements in talking and. I think that if we just took some time and we gave in a yoga teacher training program maybe eight to 12 hours of time just to find courage in the voice, wouldn't that be wonderful? That would be wonderful. I think it would change. It would change everything, right?
And we, we may not think about that. We think about all the other elements of, you know, yoga philosophy and, you know, uh, anatomy and all the other things. But what about getting out on stage, right? We [00:08:00] sometimes have to remember that that can be really scary. So if you have a yoga teacher training program, uh, consider call me, call Angela here, we'll give you some yes, some, uh, advice in that area.
You also, you have a business called Be Kind, you are divine. Mm-hmm. How did you come up with that name and what is the vision for this brand? So it goes back to the day of VHS tapes and the little sticker on them that would say, be kind, please rewind. And uh, probably 2018, it was right about when I finished my teacher training, um, with Kundalini yoga and.
I got my spiritual name through that tradition, and it was about kindness and compassion and kindness came up a lot. So I was like, wait, be kind. Please rewind. No, be kind. You are divine. So, and and I'm really now, even now, six years later, seven years later, really starting to understand even what divine [00:09:00] means, right?
Yeah. So yeah, that's where, that's where the name came from. Be kind. Please rewind. Did it come to you during a Shavasana one time? No, I, I, I, it came to me, I was on my back patio and we were just relaxing, had these twinkle lights, like the string lights and always had music playing and you know, the incense going.
It's a very. It's a very like, ethereal kind of feeling on that back porch. And, and I, I'm always listening to like f frequency music, right? Mm-hmm. And it just, it, it came to me in that way, like just journaling really. Um, yeah. Maybe in a meditative state, just outside, right. In nature. And now, does this philosophy, uh, be kind, you are divine?
Is that for your students to, uh, discover that? Divine essence through music specifically,
I guess if you're hanging out with me, it is gonna be about music. Yeah, yeah. In some shape or form. Yeah. Even. Yeah. And, and to, to [00:10:00] understand like the connection with the divine, the connection with whatever you wanna call it, God's source, the universe, the tree outside. Mm-hmm. The river. Um, the springs that we have here in Florida.
Um. What is divinity? What is, what is that? You know, and God really flows through you that you, you are one with the creator, right. And and especially with your voice. Yeah. And I'm just thinking in general terms of vibrations. Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. Music is vibrations, so is love, so are so many other elements.
And discovering yourself, certainly through that. Maybe you just get chills one day and you're like, oh my gosh. I get it all. It's, I finally get it. That's my aha moment. So what are some of the programs you teach within this, uh, this business? So I do, uh, fearless voice. Uh, journeys, uh, one-on-one coaching, um, which entails going through a journey of somatic sounding.
[00:11:00] We touch on light language, which is really to me, the language of your soul. So, channeling kind of what wants to come through, learning to trust your voice, sound healing with the voice. Um, using your voice for maybe you have a headache, maybe something is happening. You wanna send more courage, you know, to your belly.
So you're gonna send that sound there. And then also like it. Works into singing through the chakras. Mm-hmm. And then also incorporating the voice with like, vocal blessings. Like when I do my sound healings, I always, I tend to grab a singing bowl and walk around and just sing whatever comes out to the people that are there.
Wow. So I teach that as part of a, like a holistic package. That's the, you know, the big package. Um, but I break it up, up into pieces for one-on-one sessions. Um, I'm also creating a bigger, I have like a 12 week course that I could do, um, that I would love to hold space. I've always been this Zoom student, the student on Zoom.
I've always been the student [00:12:00] and I, I feel this call now, when I sign onto these calls, it's like. I wanna be on that other side now, like I'm transitioning over, like kind of graduating to that graduate work. Like I wanna be the teacher. You should be fearless, Angela. I know. So it's a message I need.
Angela, something you said just piqued my interest about giving yourself a remedy for a headache with vibration sound, voice. Please expand on that. Mm, that's so interesting. I would love to, you know, so when we think of sound healing, a lot of people don't, haven't even really experienced it. And even with their voice, it's totally new and, and I would love to invite like the idea of.
Our bodies being like an orchestra. And when you think of an orchestra, it's made up of so many different instruments. And so you could have a crystal singing bowl, you could have a chime, you could have a bell, but those are outside of your, your own body. When you use your [00:13:00] voice, it's like, wow, that really resonates with, with who you are as this like energy imprint on this planet.
Yeah. Right. And, and your body. I think we look outside ourselves so much. Um. You know, the answer's within, like, your body can, we can really help heal ourselves. And that would be a totally different podcast episode. 100%. So, yeah. Yeah. To use your voice. It's, it's, it's an healing instrument, just like a singing bowl, just like a Shruti box.
Um, and when you, when you combine it with the intention of, okay, I, I really wanna relax or I wanna help calm my headache, um. It gives it that much more purpose and it, it, it really, it really does work. So since you have your instruments right there, would you give us an example of a voice? Yes. A method and then an instrument method of just calming or getting rid of a headache or whatever.
Just making yourself feel better. Mm-hmm. Okay. So I'll use it without the instrument first. I'll give you the [00:14:00] example since I, I always try to promote. Not looking outside yourself with all these instruments. Right. Although I do love my instruments. So when you're thinking of sound healing, you want, um, and using your voice, you want to first find the place where you'd like to feel some healing or feel better.
Mm-hmm. Like maybe I'll use the sound of my, my, the example of my headache. 'cause we all. A lot of us get headaches, right? Um, so this is where the trust starts to come in and where the courage starts to build. You just take a breath and you sound a note. Whatever note it could be. It could sound like a, a cow, it doesn't matter.
It could be, uh,
but that's really like. Chest area. So if you bring it up, and the note was more like I would go through the scale and I would just use your voice. You don't even need to know music and just move your voice up and down. So, um,
that actually feels good. You find the note that feels good. And then if it's a headache, the vowel sound associated with Crown and third Eye is [00:15:00] more of a. E like E sound, right? So doesn't change it like the hum, but change it to an E. So.
So I invite you if you're listening, well, you are listening now. If you're listening to the podcast, yes. Try that out. Just try it. Just sing any note that comes to you with the intention of feeling better. And maybe that's too high. You know, I always said I don'ts. Hi, let's do one with our listeners. So listeners, uh, Angela will lead you in just a, a short little yes.
Headache remedy. Perfect. So we're going to use the Shruti box, so this helps support. It's a drone.
Now, should our listeners be making that e sound as well with this? Yes. Choose the E. Perfect. And we're just going to use this note. We're gonna keep it simple. One note E. So you may be able to sing this note. If not, just pick any note. Maybe it's e.
Or maybe it's down here. Okay. You don't have to match me, just whatever note comes out. Okay. So we're gonna take a nice deep breath through the nose and breathe out through the mouth. Breathe in and sigh. And then let's breathe in and [00:16:00] hum.
Mmm.
Now let's do it again and picture that sound almost like little bubbles of like maybe hearts. Whatever shape you want going to your forehead, where that headache resides, and just sending love to your headache and say It's okay. You can go away now. Thank you. Okay. All right. Let's do that again. Breath in.
Beautiful. And one more option is to incorporate your hands and maybe put a hand on your forehead where it hurts, and then also send the love that way. Okay, so let's try that. Time again with your hand and your voice and sending the love to your headache. Breathe in.
Beautiful and then just take a breath in
and exhale.
Wow. That was incredible. And I'm proud of myself because I participated. I heard you and I usually hold back. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. Becca. I love that we can create our own therapy. Mm-hmm. And if you are a listener who's on a walk, maybe you. Sat down. Are you connected with [00:17:00] nature a little bit?
And allow yourself that few minutes just to center and just think about the concept of self-healing. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice if we all just cleared out our medicine cabinets and we said No, I don't need any of that. I'm just going to hum. I'm just gonna hum. Here we go. Mm-hmm. That was wonderful.
Thank you so much. You're welcome. And I can't wait to continue listening to some of these other instruments. Yeah. So, um, the singing bowl I this most gorgeous singing bowl. Mm-hmm. And it's something that I had not even heard of before and I've been around a lot of singing bowls, is, uh, the alchemy mm-hmm.
Crystal singing bowl. So, uh, give us the 1 0 1 on that and feel free to play. Okay. 1 0 1. So I'm going to play while I speak. There we go. So this bowl that I have in front of us right now is a crystal tones bowl. They're very well known for their alchemy singing bowls. [00:18:00] And um, this was my first introduction to singing bowls.
I did not know there was a frosted option, and I would definitely say your frosted bowls are a more affordable kind of intro level option. And, um, the alchemy ones are when it incorporates. Not only the sound, which fun fact, a singing bowl, you cannot tell it what sound it's gonna be. It's like people, they will be whatever they wanna be.
So if you find a true tone bowl, like this bowl that I have in front of us is C minus 50 hertz. It's not a true C. So if the musicians out there, if you play C on your guitar or your keyboard, it's gonna be. Ooh. C might sound a little bit more like, ooh.
Ooh, here. This is a little lower. It's a little flatter. Ah, right. Okay. So there's a little chunk for you for the musicians out there. Our producer, Jimmy, is a musician, so he's getting all this. I'm like, mm, indiscernible for me. But, so that was a little fun fact for the that out there. [00:19:00] But the alchemy piece is they start to incorporate, um, elements, gemstones and frankincense and all these different things.
Um. Alchemy. So alchemy is, is traditionally means to like process metals, like lead or copper into silver and gold. So this, these are also known as ascension bowls and, um, in alchemy tradition, they were, they were used for, to cure diseases and, and was looked at as a way of extending life. So the alchemy singing bowls for me have really connected me to like angelic frequencies.
And, and I, I. I feel it with my name. You know, Angela, I feel it like this. They're coming through very strong. And the singing bowl I, I have in front of me was one of the very first ones that I, I purchased and I adopted. I like to say she's white and she has a beautiful, like crystal rainbow aura around her.
Shiny. Yeah. And the sea. The note C is related to your root, so [00:20:00] foundation security home. Being at home in my body is one of the biggest lessons of my lifetime here. That's amazing. And I'm gonna do everybody a favor. We're going to shoot a picture of Angela with the bowl and I'll post it on my website. So that'll be in the show note.
So you'll be able to actually see this bowl. Maybe we'll get really creative and do a video post that in there too. So you use. These for, uh, like a one-on-one sound bowl. Would you do this in maybe a small group setting or private sessions? And what do, what would be, if you will, what would be your intention for your student?
Mm-hmm. The intention is definitely going to be based on the individual. So I, I tend to use the alchemy bowls more in private one-on-one sessions. Um. They, they do tend to break more easily. They're fragile. So I've had three out of my 10 collection go on their way at Pivotal points in my life, like the Himalayan salt [00:21:00] lamp, the salt Himalayan one that was pink.
It broke when I was in a moment of, of self-love learning. Oh, wow. So it really, they do. It's kinda like they were done. They served their purpose. Yes. So when a bowl breaks and if they're able to re, to remake it, to fix it, it will definitely be a different sound. Of course. And it's known as a morph. It's a morph bowl.
So, and they're more expensive too. Oh gosh. So if you ever see an alchemy bowl that's got a crack in it, and it looks like it was fixed. Yeah. That, that would be why, but. The intention on one-on-one sessions, definitely what my client would like to experience. Um, and then also in group settings, I love to ask for intentions.
Hmm. So whether I do a lot of full moon events, um, I actually have a full moon singing circle I do on Zoom, where it's a call and repeat style. And then I, um. I make up songs improv on that as well. Um, and just kind of help move the energy and, yeah. So, well, this is a question I have written down in my, you know, list of questions and we sort [00:22:00] of threaded in and out of this, but.
The name of this podcast is The Language of Yoga, and in the first few podcasts I would be giving themes like how to use the right language if your theme is water or full moon or fire, some of the elements. But in terms of what you do, Angela, how is. The, the voice, the singing voice, the instruments you use, how is that language for your students?
What, what is that, um, layer for you? Hmm. To me, music is. Is, is is there, it's feelings, like that's what the sound of feelings can be. That's how we express our feelings. And music transcends all different kinds of languages. Even if you don't know, even if you don't know the language that they're singing in, you can [00:23:00] understand the chord structure.
You can, even if you don't know what is a chord structure, don't worry about it. You feel it. You feel it. You feel the change in intensity, the dynamics, the building of the, the crescendo, the overflow of the sound, and then it kind of wanes off like. It just calms down and you can feel the emotions through this piece of music you're listening to.
So even with your own voice, you, you create that sound yourself. You don't have to have a title of songwriter or musician, or you give yourself, you are a musician in your heart. Music is our language. I feel as, as human beings. It, it transcends every, every written language. Yeah. Yeah, we had a really good conversation about this, uh, not too long ago, and that was using the word.
Okay. Lemme do that again. We had a good conversation about this a little while ago, how, when we as yoga instructors place our students [00:24:00] in Shavasana. Sometimes we like to give them a guided meditation or some kind of starting place or an ending place, and we talked about using. Sound to create an essence that somebody needs.
And, and we talk specifically about the word home. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And how it sounds like ohm, do you remember enough about that conversation? Yes. To expand on that? Yes, I do. I have found, um. In working even with the public, I did a little banking stint. Most of my life is in mortgage banking and corporate.
Corporate. And I went back into banking a few years ago and I wanted That's the headaches. Yes, that was the headaches, the money and the calculations. And it was like, oh, this like material 3D world, right? Like, can I sing? Like I was actually singing with clients at the, at my desk. Um, but I found in that space that.
I was being, my essence was with me. Like I wasn't losing [00:25:00] who I am. That was my biggest fear. And in order to kind of bridge that gap of like, you know, what is om, om like, I don't know, like, it, it, it doesn't connect. So I had a a, I have a teacher, um, that taught us to sing the word home. Chant the word home.
And I use this in my, my banking career because it really bridges the gap. Like people, I, I was, you know, mortgage underwriter for years, like I was all about people's homes, right? So it, um, it really helps bridge the gap in our minds as, as humans on this planet in 2025, right? We know what home. We have a home.
Um, even if, if we're in transition, it may be out of a home. Right now we have home in our bodies, right? Yes. And we equate that with a safe space. Safe space. For most of us, most of the time it is our safe space. Yes. So how, again, would you use that specifically when somebody's lying there in Shavasana? How do you evoke.
I would invite them [00:26:00] to think of home of being in this moment in your body, in this beautiful body that you're in, that you get to experience this life in and chant the word home, whatever note comes out, just like we did for the headaches. You know, you don't have to match the teacher's note either. Like if she, you know, she or he, they, they start on a note, try a different note.
Just whatever note comes out and sing. Home and really home.
Now, here's the difference. Here's Om. Oh,
same thing. Yeah. And it has the ha sound, which we all love. Right? I love that. It feels good for moon. Yes. Right. And I'm thinking maybe with a position of the body, this might be. Maybe after the lying down Shavasana, the very end, maybe you bring them into a seat and do this. Or can it be done lying down?
It can be done lying down. Um, I really, I really invite, you know, uh, encouraging a hand on the heart, hand on the belly. Because when you have a hand on your heart and you sing, you can feel the vibrations in your chest, [00:27:00] your lungs, that the breath of life, right. So to invite them to place a hand on their heart.
Um, even, even if I, I like to invite in my practice rolling over on your side, like a fetal position. Just if you want that extra yumminess of just like, wow, I'm here. Okay. Let's, let's, let's pause just before we go back into this world. Right? Um, so you can do it in any, any, any way. You can even do it in your car when you get home after practice and you're just home.
Absolutely. Oh, that's a driveway moment, right? Yeah, it's a driveway moment. Ah, lemme just sit in my driveway for about five minutes and because we do need that transition, especially after a really powerful shape shifting yoga class, we need that time just to continue soaking it in and then seeing what comes out of that.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, we need that transition. I love that. Definitely. Definitely. So you also brought a drum. I did. Can you bring that up? I can. And I wanted to also ask you about, uh, [00:28:00] your. Life as a Kundalini yoga teacher. Mm-hmm. So can that be incorporated with the drum here or is that too separate, uh, as thoughts or Not at all?
Not at all. Um, Kundalini yoga is all about a lot about music and mantras, chanting mantras and singing in the gong. Right? Um, that's how I connected with Kundalini yoga was I went to a full moon gong night and, um. Oh my gosh. I can sit here and sing and stretch and hold these poses not for too long, and then relax and they give you a blanket, like it was a different, like different experience of yoga and, and then to be gonged at the end, the Shavasana and Kundalini yogas is we use a gong to help, um, reset everything like on a cellular level.
It really. It really gets in there and just works its magic. So I, I went to a Kundalini class once during my teacher training sessions and we had to do so many and, and, um, she did like a five minute gong and I was, I [00:29:00] felt so like deprived, like gypped out of it. I was like, oh, and, and my boyfriend did, went with me at the time and he goes, why didn't she not play for longer?
I feel the same way. Yeah. A lot of those sound healing sessions. Yeah. Yes. So the, the gong, um. The gong is a really amazing instrument. Um, for, for that kind of reset and to transport you into like the cosmos energy and like the sound of creation. Um, the drum itself, uh, helped me become more courageous. Um, this frame drum that I have in front of me is, um, she's a big girl.
She's 22 inches, so she's very, um, she's very, um, resonant as well, meaning that she, um. Sound like the sound goes on for a long time. It carries right and um, I can, usually what I do, um, is in my sound healings, I'll open the space with the drum. I feel like it's like a good starter, like a good creation energy, okay.
To [00:30:00] help the. People become grounded, right? We're in this space. And then I'll ask for two or three words. So if we think, um, yoga, maybe relaxation. Can you gimme a word, Becca? Let's see. Put you on the spot. I always think of just earth elements. Moons on water, fire. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Moon, sun, water, fire. So you just kind of start feeling into your body.
Take a deep breath. And exhale, and then I'll just move into whatever comes and exhale.
We are here.
We are here to relax. Relax. Welcome to this space
your.
Balancing our energy. We are all on. No stress. No stress. Just breathe.
[00:31:00] Ha. I feel so relaxed. I'm just sort of melting here. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, this is awesome. Well, we only have a, a finite amount of time for this interview, so do you mind telling me how your name. Uh, what your name means, and you, well just share whatever you are comfortable with. Yeah. So, um, um, something that I didn't tell you about.
My first name, Angela. I, I was actually supposed to be Philip. Uh, it was supposed to be a boy. Um, and, uh, the, the, my mom kept calling me her little angel. Before we left the hospital, and I think it was the lady that came in to clean up the room and stuff, she's like, why don't you call her Angela? And then I also found out that my great-grandmother on my dad's side, her name was Angeline, so I have that, um, that connection.
And my last name, my maiden name, Dzvonek is [00:32:00] Nik in German Zon, D-Z-V-O-N-E-K. And it means bell ringer. We are connected with ringing bells. How is this possible? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Boo. Our destiny is right in front of us. Yes. All right. Well, thank you. I, I do want to just get a, a book recommendation, if you don't mind.
Mm-hmm. Uh, you gave them to me in advance so we can put 'em in the show notes, but I'm, I'm a book fanatic and I know you like to listen to a lot of audio books. Mm-hmm. And, um, but who are some of the. Uh, authors or books per se that you would recommend to some of our, uh, yoga teachers or just practitioners who are interested in what you do?
Yes. Um, thank you for that question. I definitely am more of an audiobook girl, so I listen to audiobooks on my walks and, um. Or Podcast. Podcast. Podcast. Language of Yoga. Podcast. Podcast. The podcast, too. Yes. Listen to all three seasons. Um, and I recently [00:33:00] finished the book, uh, breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza.
It was definitely more technical than I usually am. I'm more in my heart, you know, like, I just wanna feel, I don't really, I don't know much about the brain. Like, like technically, right? I learned so much from that book about habits and showing up for yourself. Um. And then the other book I recommend I, I pick and choose on this book, you can just open it and read.
They're very short segments, but it's um, it's called the Creative Act, A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Okay. So Rick Rubin is a big producer, worked with the Beastie Boys, like he goes way back. Right. And it's, um. It's also for people that don't consider themselves musicians. Please, we are all creative. Yes.
Don't think that if you're not a musician, this isn't for you. And it's just, um, inspirational messages, um, about being more, more creative, more free, more courageous. Maybe that's why connects with it. So he tells his journey in that book. I love it. [00:34:00] Mm-hmm. Ah, thank you. You're welcome. So as we say goodbye, I was wondering if you would pick up your magic wand or one of the other instruments, or even the drum again, and uh, just kind of, uh, take us home.
Yeah. But first I wanna say thank you. This was really wonderful to kind of look at this different language. Of how we can practice yoga, how we can teach yoga, and how we can be more courageous and bringing in some new elements. Yeah. It's a good way to make your class stand out. Yes. Right? Yes. Uh, so learn a new skill, learn a new way of communicating with your students.
Thank you, Angela. You're welcome, Becca. Thank you. I'm forever grateful. All right. Thank you so much. Take us home. We will go home. We're going to tone home on the way out. Use the Shruti. You can use the Shruti box at the close of class.
Take a breath in through your nose and exhale [00:35:00] and inhale to tone home.
One more time. Breathe in.