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Yoga Teacher Talk (YTT) is authenic yoga conversation with your favorite yoga mentors, trend-setting yoga teachers, and wellness experts who are changing the paradym on traditional instruction. YTT invites you add to your 200 or 500-level yoga teacher training and elevate your presence as an instructor. Host Becca Schmidt, E-RYT5000/YACEP, has more than 20 years experience on the lead mat, having taught more than 10,000 classes, workshops and wellness retreats. This show, formerly, The Language of Yoga, offers a fun, engaging platform for yoga teachers of all branches of yoga to gain confidence and continue their YTT for years to come.
Language of Yoga Dr. Kelsey Interview
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Becca: [00:00:00] Welcome back to The Language of Yoga Podcast. This is Becca. Well, it is a new year, a new season, and there's so much to celebrate. One. We're finally in our new location. Yay. It's a gorgeous little studio space and I am back with my all time favorite producer, David. Hey, David. My guest today is also one of my all time favorite human beings, Dr.
Kelsey Evans Amou. Dr. K is a yoga teacher, a wellness educator, somatic practitioner, a workshop leader and meditation instructor. Woo Kelsey. This is a mouthful. her background is that she has a master's in education, a PhD in education. Plus all kinds of advanced certifications including yoga, meditation, , Reiki, life coaching.
She is the founder of the Mindful Prof. Dr. K Artfully weaves her years of teaching middle school. Research, [00:01:00] mindfulness, somatic awareness, yoga, holistic wellness, all of that to help her clients discover what is already deep within themselves so they can live a happier, more balanced life. .
She is a courageous, beautiful human being. She's fun loving, she's outgoing. She's very, very funny. I love her classes. She's a wife, she's a mom, and she is a positive force of nature. Whew. I'm exhausted. Kelsey,
Dr. Kelsey: I, I want you by my bedside when I wake up.
Becca: Just hit play. I'll be your, your motivational message for the morning.
So, um, Kelsey, you and I met, I I was trying to do the math I think maybe 10 years ago when we taught at the same studio.
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah. I would say it definitely has to be at minimum 10 years. Yeah. As you had the class right after me. Yes. Um, where I was the hot power sweaty class and then you were the relaxing nap class.
Becca: Yeah, I, I taught a [00:02:00] gentle yoga class there, so I'm like, let's get rid of all the sweaty stuff and bring me in.
It's
Dr. Kelsey: hard to air out
Becca: so you have. Really transitioned a lot since we worked together. Mm-hmm. So I wanted you to walk me through that journey, and I wanna know, has yoga been your through line for this whole journey since then?
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah. It's, it's a. Just like my bio, it's complicated. So yes, I would say that yoga has been the consistent throughline. So I was introduced to yoga, um, when I was 18 years old and a lot of, actually, I would even say prior to that 'cause I was doing some videos, uh, some old VHS uh, yoga instruction. But as far as really getting into it, , yoga.
Practice really became a norm for me when I went to my college for undergrad. And, um, leveraging it from the point of exercise predominantly. Uh, but then I really started to see the [00:03:00] benefits, , through my own healing journey. Um, in my undergrad I had a pretty severe eating disorder and I checked into rehab and then that's where a lot of the somatic practices were introduced to
Becca: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: And, um. When that, when that journey began, , yoga was used as a modality at my rehab facility, , to be a. Thing that could be something to slow down to be in my body. Where, uh, one thing about an eating disorder is that although it is so body oriented, , it's very body dissociative. 'cause I did not want to be in my body.
So. Having that introduced from more of a therapeutic understanding of what yoga is, especially when we apply, , everything with the yamas and yamas
And all
the eight limbs. , I felt like I, my journey in yoga really truly began. So then when we met, , I was doing a [00:04:00] lot of yoga teaching and the reason why I wanted to get my, , certification for my.
Initial 200, uh, was to learn more about why yoga was so impactful for me, um, specifically within, , my rehab journey and recovery journey. And by the time that I started teaching, um, I was also teaching high school. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I was starting to use a lot of the practices. To, for my students, not just movement practices, but using them for mindfulness, uh, meditation, breathing practices.
So integrating Pranayama into my classroom, and it was so beneficial to not only my teaching from a, . Social studies teacher standpoint. but it was beneficial for my classroom management 'cause it created community and co-regulation, uh, with my students. Okay. So it was pretty easy to track the results where, , I ended up getting the fourth, or excuse me, the, the third highest test scores in the state of Florida, which I mean, that can kind of [00:05:00] show you right there that.
There was something going on in my classroom.
Becca: Tell me more about what that mindfulness practice looked like in the
Dr. Kelsey: classroom.
Yeah, so it's, um, especially with high schoolers, it definitely looks a lot different than what you would teach in a yoga studio. 'cause a lot of them would have to be very miniature practices and introducing them in a way that was understood by a high school student.
And also not being too spiritual in nature. , but a lot of it was using breath as a strategy to anchor in presence. Um, where we would take a mindful minute, whether that be at the beginning of the day, within each period. Mm-hmm. , or whether we were doing it right before their test taking, Those practices were always infused.
, and then a lot of how I would teach was more from a social emotional learning standpoint. So trying to infuse as much, , empathy, compassion [00:06:00] that I could, um, when I was teaching history and, um. It really became kind of the glue that, , brought the classroom together, that it doesn't have to be a formal mindfulness practice, even though I was doing them, but living more the nature of yoga from the yamas and Yama standpoint, that that's how I was integrating yoga into my classroom automatically.
Yeah. So both the structure and the practices themselves.
Becca: Were the certifications that you have in kids yoga, trauma informed yoga, meditation, all of this. Was this done in tandem with teaching high school?
Dr. Kelsey: Some of them were and some of them weren't. Um, a lot of the certifications came after I left the high school classroom.
, the teachings. Or in the certifications that I was doing was the initial 200, and then I did some, , kids yoga instruction. But once I left the classroom, , that's where I started to get more certifications, purely for me [00:07:00] wanting to understand more. . Really, the reason I left high school teaching was I saw that these practices were so effective and, and impactful, not only on me, but also on the students that I really wanted to go and study it for my doctorate.
And, um, none of this, at the time, mindfulness was starting to. Become more popular. But as far as the research was concerned, there was really nothing. Um, it was very few and far between. , not to like what it is today. You would still be able to get some research articles, but nothing in terms of what it was doing within an educational setting.
'cause it was very new and it was very. Complicated, complex. Uh, people were a little nervous about integrating mindfulness into the classroom, especially from the idea of like a separation of a church and state type of a thing. Um, and how secular could we make it So.
Becca: So
Dr. Kelsey: I had to jump through a lot of hoops, um, when I was getting my doctorate and trying to [00:08:00] prove why these practices were important.
And there are so many times that I would have, , both researchers and professors kind of poo poo me, um, and dissuade me from researching this. Because they're like, you are not gonna be able to get a job after any institution or university. Like this is not reputable research. And I said, uh, well, to me it is, and I know that these practices are really important 'cause I can feel that in the lived experience of what I'm seeing in my life, but also what I already saw in my classroom.
Right. So I was able to continue on, which is
Becca: great.
And one of the things that you dove very deeply into is this concept of somatic.
Mm-hmm. Healing. Yep. Tell me a lot about that.
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah. Somatics, uh, is another one of those buzzwords. So kind of like how mindfulness became a movement, uh, within the 2010s to 2020s.
Uh, somatic definitely became a buzzword after 2020 where. Somatics and mindfulness go hand [00:09:00] in hand. But the difference between mindfulness and somatics is that mindfulness is often thought of like a top down approach, meaning approaching it from the cognitive space of observing our thoughts, um, and noticing our thought patterns.
But somatics is the bottom up processing of it where we're noticing the feelings and sensations in our body. Mm-hmm. So mindfulness is. Technically as somatic practice, but oftentimes how we were really viewing it, um, especially back in like when mindfulness was becoming more and more popular, we were viewing it from more of a cognitive space.
Can you
tell
Becca: our listeners who are mostly yoga teachers, that's our listener base, what somatics actually might look like in a yoga setting. Yeah. And then take it out in the field and, and talk to us about how it might look in, you know, a broader
setting.
Dr. Kelsey: So this is one of my favorite things to talk about, um, that somatics has different branches.[00:10:00]
So if we think of like somatics as the overall family tree that somatics would look like. Body work, it would look like psychotherapy, it would look like energy work. It would look like abolition practices, um, nervous system practices, , body orienting practices. So there's many ways to kind of enter in and leverage as somatic practice or tradition.
But if I'm wanting to. Have more of a somatic emphasis in a yoga class. One, it already is somatic.
Mm-hmm.
As it is a mindful movement class that is oriented around the body.
Mm-hmm.
But maybe I am offering it from the standpoint of, , for me, what I do when I'm instructing, I look at it for, through the lens of, , a what's known as polyvagal
Becca: theory Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: and, um, kind of giving just a very.
Brief background of what that is. Um, it's a framework of how to [00:11:00] look at someone's central nervous system. So I like to look at it through, , a traffic light pattern. 'cause that's sometimes the easiest way
Becca: to I love that.
Dr. Kelsey: it. That's
Becca: great.
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah. Metaphors and
colors work very
well, They do. where? We have our red light, which would be our free state, our shutdown, how the body responds when it doesn't perceive that safety is available.
Mm-hmm. Um, there's yellow where it's proceeded with caution and more of the fight flight state. Um, also more of that sympathetic engagement where we do need a little bit of sympathetic engagement to go and move and do. Do stuff, get work done. And then finally we have our green light state where we perceive the world as safe, that we can meet people where they're at.
We're more open to maybe learning new things. And, um, within that traffic light system, there is an overlap where there can be mixed hybrid states, but I'm not gonna get into that today.
Becca: Right. No, but that's good to know,
right? You're, yeah. If you're a yoga teacher and you're wanting to [00:12:00] integrate this somatic , teaching style. . I I love that. That's
Dr. Kelsey: That's good.
Yeah. It's, um, and you can think of it as you're building a class. I build it from the polyvagal framework. So at the beginning of the class, we ground, we move into some breath work, some breathing practices, maybe we're doing a breathing practices that emphasizes more of like sympathetic engagements since we're about to do some sun salutations.
, and we move kind of up the bell curve of engaging more, . Sympathetically, meaning our body's going moving, it's feeling more active, and then by the very end you're integrating more of kind of those calming, more relaxing practices. Mm-hmm. So from the polyvagal understanding of it, I am allowing my students to practice what it feels like to have an engaged nervous system without perceiving that.
It's going to shut down. So a lot of folks when, um, they feel that anxiety or [00:13:00] heart racing, there's um, a thing known as neuroception where it's your brain interpreting, is this a safe response? Am I okay? And a lot of the times with anxiety, you have that heart racing that then the brain's like, no, this is not an okay feeling.
If I'm allowing my yoga students to practice that and know that they're safe to see that their heart is starting to move a little bit faster, they're feeling the sweat on their skin, then they're getting practice with
Becca: How do you communicate during a class like that? Do you stop and pause and, and ask how are you feeling? What, what are you sort of your language cues and
Dr. Kelsey: questions? Yeah.
, a lot of it is. Allowing for curiosity. So asking some questions like, what are you noticing right now in your body? Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause a lot
Becca: of folks.
Dr. Kelsey: Are never offered that question. , I try to help them track different sensations, whether it be noticing the sweat on your [00:14:00] skin, um, noticing the temperature of your body, noticing the muscles contracting or even expanding, um, noticing your feet on the ground, lifting your arms.
Um, there's many different cues to have them, , observe their body in a way that can be more somatic.
Becca: So would you, for example, have somebody hold a warrior two maybe excessively long, I mean mm-hmm. Within, you know. Happy parameters, but then you may say, okay, how do you feel now? Do you ask that question or
is it something a little
Dr. Kelsey: different?
It can be. So there's many different ways to offer it. , I don't think of anything as it has to be offered in a particular box, so maybe we are working on. Holding a pose and noticing sensation for a prolonged period of time. And so oftentimes, um, this is a general thing, but people start to have their mind wander or, kind of catastrophize or even like create [00:15:00] what if
Becca: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: the longer that they hold oppose, right?
And uh. Then I'm redirecting them back to noticing their breath, their body, basically creating capacity to witness themselves in a way that they can maintain the posture for a little bit longer. Wow.
Becca: Wow.
Dr. Kelsey: So that would be one
Becca: way.
I love that. I just went skiing and I was thinking about how I feel on a chairlift.
Yeah. And I have to kind of have, , it's a self-talk, but I, I have to tell myself I'm safe up here. Yes. And I look at the, the apparatus and I know it's not gonna, you know, plunge down into
Dr. Kelsey: the,
well, it's pretty terrifying, especially for a Floridian.
Becca: Yes. But I love that being guided and, yeah.
And you giving permission. Sometimes as yoga teachers, we, we forget that there's fear
Dr. Kelsey: in the room.
Oh,
Becca: Oh, totally You know.
especially if we teach a lot of classes. Yeah. We sometimes I think are neglectful Maybe
reading the room, uh, very deeply. [00:16:00] Mm-hmm. We see, but we don't, we're not really deeply understanding Yeah.
The vibration and the energy in the room. And we, we all could do a better job of that. Yeah. So, , what would be maybe the first couple of steps if you say, I love what. Dr. K is saying, this is so fascinating. It's so interesting. What might be a first step mm-hmm. That a yoga teacher could, , dive into to, to start
Dr. Kelsey: this Yeah.
well I offer a training,
Becca: so well, well, shameless plug. Alright, that's, that is perfectly fine.
Dr. Kelsey: and a shameless plug here.
But one of
Becca: the
Dr. Kelsey: reasons why I started to offer this training was exactly that people didn't know where to go. And, um, one part of my company, it's one of the reasons why I call myself the mindful prof, is.
Becca: Is.
Dr. Kelsey: I'm a mindful professor. Yes, that's how my origin story. But we offer different trainings and education for folks really wanting to leverage these [00:17:00] practices, whether it be from a yoga instructor wanting to learn more, or a clinician wanting to learn more, or your average Joe Schmo.
Uh, they're, they're available. Uh, but the training that we do is a 20 hour training that's really going over the,
.
Basics of what these theories are, what these practices are, how they can be used in a yoga class, or whether you're doing a one-on-one with somebody. So we definitely offer it because there's, I would say that this is still a newer frontier.
, and how and what is available, even though this has been researched, , since the seventies. Yeah. . But it's still. People are kind of like, what is this stuff? I just see people shaking on social media and that's, that's what I understand somatics to be. But it's so much more
Becca: .
And I think it's important for yoga teachers of really every level, whether its your first year or your 25th year [00:18:00] to continue learning. Right. And to explore things that excite you. You know, one of the things I love are dharma
Dr. Kelsey: you know, Oh,
Becca: I'm, oh, great. I'm learning how to present Dharma talks better.
That's fun. So we have to continue learning, especially about things that excite us. Mm-hmm. Because it's going to enrich our classes. Totally. Take us off the mat with this, , somatic application. Mm-hmm. Where can it be applied?
Dr. Kelsey: Everywhere. Yeah.
Becca: Everywhere. Yeah. Kids, dogs.
Kids Dogs.
Not
Dr. Kelsey: I four.
Yeah. When you're driving, not, no, definitely with cats too.
Becca: Gimme, gimme some examples.
Dr. Kelsey: So I use somatic practices every day from.
The time that I wake up, even though I still want you by my bedside, Becca, that's my motivational speaker to even when I go to bed and, uh, they don't have to look grandiose. That's, that's the, I feel like that's the most important thing. Um, one of the research studies [00:19:00] that we did, uh, was pretty transformational in my end where we're looking at, .
The dosage of these practices, meaning how long do I actually have to practice this in order to see an impact on my mental health? And automatically you would think, uh, the longer I practice, the better it's gonna be, but. We, it, it showed the same exact benefit. So meaning a five minute practice compared to a 20 minute can show the same impact on mental health.
All that really matters is the frequency of it. Meaning are you doing it more than once, um, over the course of your week, where it's kind of becoming your lived experience, that you're just automatically integrating it in. So, for example, when I wake up. , I'm doing a lot of more ritualistic things personally, so like very, , Ayurvedic in nature.
, where I drink my lemon water, I do my coconut oil pulling. Um, and those are all great. They, they, they are somatic [00:20:00] practices, but, . I would say it would be more somatic. When I am in the, bathtub in the morning and I'm soaking, I'm relaxing, I'm kind of letting myself, , not just jump into the day where, um, in the past I would just like up and go rather than trying to have a slower start.
'cause for me. I already have my day packed, , especially with a, with a toddler. , and then going in straight into business mode that if I were to add something where I'm just going really quickly into the day that that wouldn't be good for my nervous system, that would automatically create more anxiety for me.
So I instill more ritualistic practices and, . Like a bath and dry brushing more to slow down my day and be with my body than to just jump the gun and hit start.
Becca: So. I'm thinking of some of the posts I see on your Instagram, and I see you kind of dancing around a lot of movement. Yeah. Yes. So is that part of your [00:21:00] somatic practice as well?
Yeah. How, how is that work with the, with the
Dr. Kelsey: movement? Yeah.
So it's, um,
Becca: it,
Dr. Kelsey: it, it looks a little weird,
which
I mean, like, I, I, I, like, I kinda, I, I am a weird person. I fully own up to that identity and I love and appreciate that about myself. ,
but.
Becca: I,
I'm not gonna call it weird. I'm gonna call
Dr. Kelsey: it
fun. Yeah. Fun and funky.
Becca: and
Dr. Kelsey: That, that should be a class name. , but why I am doing that is, uh, I'm giving my body opportunity to tell me what it wants, uh, rather than my mind leading the way and saying, no, Kelsey, you have to go into the next meeting. I'm creating space to let my body do what it wants in that moment, and I don't know what it wants.
Sometimes. So then I have to like sit a moment and literally ask my body like, Hey, what's gonna be helpful for you right now? And sometimes that is dancing, sometimes that is laying down, sometimes that [00:22:00] is breath work. And um, it took a long time to cultivate that relationship. 'cause now I can ask and be. I got it.
But a lot of the folks in where we are originally starting and introducing these practices, they don't know. So then we're introducing more of a menu of items and experimenting with what feels helpful for their body and um, maybe some of the stuff that I'm doing doesn't land and that's okay. But. It's more them trying it out and being a little more open-minded, which is scary in and of itself, that that's kind of where we begin.
Becca: It reminds me of when you teach a class or you know, go to a class and you get the benefit of the teacher saying, , let's spend a few moments in Yogi's Choice.
Mm-hmm.
How can we do that better in our classroom setting?
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah, a big fan of agency and, uh, offering more curiosity to a yoga practice. Um, [00:23:00] although I love funky sequences and I love, , a Baptist class where everything is so structured, , sometimes it doesn't offer what my body needs for the day.
Becca: , I'm trying to help the teachers who are listening, how we can better facilitate, listen to your body. I think, you know, we say it, I usually do it toward the end of class, those very final stretches, and try not to limit the cues to, well, you have to do a bridge now, or you have to do a.
Spinal twist now. Yep. Do what? You know, maybe you want a happy baby. Yeah. Maybe you want something else. Yes. How can we express that in, , you know, our show is called The Language of Yoga. Mm-hmm. So what sort of language might we take them a little bit
Dr. Kelsey: in that community? Yeah. , so rather than something purely open-ended, , open-endedness from a trauma-informed standpoint can create a lot of stress for a person, , where they might freeze.
Shut down as a result, and then they don't know what to do and then they're kind of flailing with it. [00:24:00] So usually in that, um, that timeframe of a class where I am offering more curiosity of what they want to explore, I give some options. And it doesn't mean that they're limited to those options, but it still allows them choice.
So giving them choice rather than
just
Becca: a.
Dr. Kelsey: Open offering can feel a little bit more secure for someone to explore what it is that they want. So basically you're doing like a little small dose of it rather than it being such a big, vast option that they don't even know where to pull
Becca: from.
Could you take it a little farther and ask them what, what body parts still need
Dr. Kelsey: attention?
Yeah. I love that question. Yeah.
Becca: I usually do give them two or three choices. Yeah. And then I find a lot of the students, depending on, you know, the, , maybe their personality or their history Yep. They might attach themselves to the first one I
mentioned.
Totally. I, and I see that a lot, and I, [00:25:00] I'm asking.
For myself, really. How can I do better? So I might say, do do your feet, do you need, you know, do your toes need wiggling? Do your ankles, or
any
other suggestions. Yeah, those are great suggestions.
Dr. Kelsey: I think also to, to your point of knowing the student's history or even the format of class that you're teaching, , I think a lot about in a.
Power yoga format, that there sometimes is this assumption that I have to push myself to the hardest pose or do something extreme, otherwise it doesn't count exactly. And so when I'm offering like a choice, um.
.
Sometimes students will be like, well, I need to do the hardest one where like, oh, I'm just gonna do handstands the entire time.
Right, right. Which I do love handstands, like it's so playful and fun, but it's more the intention behind it. So maybe when you're offering choice, you [00:26:00] also ask, well, what is your intention out of what you're exploring? Are you looking to do something that piques your curiosity? Are you doing something from like.
Anatomically, are you wanting to like move into your body or like work something out? Is it emotionally? , so offering maybe that cue as an option
Becca: or stillness.
What about stillness.
Yeah,
Dr. Kelsey: is great too. 'cause I mean, how often are we getting stillness? Right.
Becca: Right.
Right.
Thank you. That's really good information.
Mm-hmm. Thanks so much, Kelsey. So tell me about this couple's retreat you have coming up.
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah, a couple's retreat is gonna be in a month, so right now we're in January and it's February 21st. .
I also do a lot of work with couples,
and
sometimes, , coming in for a session, , is great, but folks often ask for something a little
Becca: longer. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: Mm-hmm. And it's a day where I'm gonna be partnering with [00:27:00] other clinicians, uh, where we're looking at how to move more into relationality, meaning how do we live together?
whether that's from a. Couple's standpoint of like a partnership or marriage, whether that's from friendship, whether you're wanting to learn more about just how to be in relationality with people or relationships with people. So we'll be doing a lot of different practices that can.
Becca: can
Dr. Kelsey: Move more into a co co-regulation
Becca: mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: type of thing.
,
meaning,
, how do I respond in my body when somebody says something that might feel triggering? Mm-hmm. Do I shut down and then disengage with the person? Um, do I want to. Call them a butthole. Like, like do I, do I like, how do I respond to that?
But yeah, it's, uh, different practices that allow you to be, , in relationality, whether it be learning how [00:28:00] to approach conflict, whether it be how to. Learn to approach pleasure. Um, there's many different ways to explore how to, um, work with couples.
Becca: . And what other, what other types of counseling are you
Dr. Kelsey: involved
with Mm-hmm.
So I do a lot of one-on-one coaching, and then I also bring this into the corporate setting so I can bring this into the boardroom and also work with.
Teams. Um, also through executive coaching where I work a lot with C-suite execs. 'cause I find, um, as a business owner myself, that , I have to practice what I preach and it really holds me accountable. 'cause that would be weird if I was, uh, not living this. But these practices are very helpful, , especially with working with stress and, uh, working with burnout.
Um, that was my dissertation. So everything, . That I'm pulling from. And a lot of the corporate work that I do actually comes from my dissertation where we're looking at, um, the impact of these practices on burnout.
Becca: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: And we found a lot and that they're effective. [00:29:00]
Yeah,
that's, that's the whole dissertation.
I'll save you the, uh, 200 page read.
Becca: We talked a little bit about what brought you to yoga in the first place, but I'd like to hear about your very first yoga class. How did you feel about it? Was it a good, bad? Was it red, green, or yellow? What was it for you?
Dr. Kelsey: so that's a complicated question because during. During my first yoga class, I don't actually remember. Um, at the time I was in my eating disorder and a lot of that time period I was so dissociated and malnourished that I don't remember a whole lot. So for me it's difficult to remember like specific classes, but what I can tell you
is that.
It was impactful, but it was impactful from a disordered sense where I was leveraging the practice more
Becca: from
Dr. Kelsey: using it to burn calories. And, um, it wasn't, it was [00:30:00] very, from a diet culture perspective that initially.
Becca: initially
Dr. Kelsey: Yoga was not beneficial for me. , but it did get me in the door to continue to do it, which I would say is the, the large benefit.
So I. To your point, , if a person has a bad experience or maybe they don't understand the purpose of yoga initially, um, what I think is the most important is that you're in the door regardless of the intention behind it. 'cause for me, I mean, I'm a great case study where I came into the door for an unhealthy reason, but my journey.
Was pretty consistent where I had people that held me accountable of, uh, examining what a true yoga practice looked like rather than from a diet culture sense [00:31:00] that it allowed me to really live a completely different life, , outside of like why I entered to the, into the doors in the first place. Hmm.
Becca: Wow. Whew.
Dr. Kelsey: Intense.
Becca: That was heavy.
Dr. Kelsey: So I would say from a yellow, green, red light, it was definitely more, uh, red light situation.
Becca: Wow. Wow.
Dr. Kelsey: Ooh.
Becca: So the other questions I ask are pretty light and
Dr. Kelsey: fluffy.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. We can do some somatic practice too if it, if we need to like release some of that 'cause it is
Becca: heavy. Yeah. And
Dr. Kelsey: I can own, I can own that story and it still feels heavy
Becca: for
me.
Hmm.
Dr. Kelsey: Hmm. So
Becca: what would you be doing right now?
Dr. Kelsey: I would come back to
Becca: breath.
Dr. Kelsey: Mm-hmm.
So I'm gonna actually, do you mind if I lead you in a practice? Please do. Please do. So, um, I'd like you to, um, just take a moment whether you wanna close your eyes or keep your eyes open. You always have that [00:32:00] choice. , but right now we are in connection together where I'm sure that you felt that in your body too, uh, which is the beauty of, , co-regulation and community, but.
Allow yourself some time to maybe notice, , how that felt. And maybe you're noticing a heaviness and kind of track that where you might notice the heaviness show up and maybe it's in your chest, maybe it's in your belly, and you can feel free to tell me if you feel like it, where you might notice
Becca: that.
I think I feel it across
Dr. Kelsey: my chest. Okay. And, um,
here I like to offer some self holding to, um, show that that feeling is not a bad feeling. 'cause um, heaviness is a part of our human experience. So we don't wanna diminish that, but maybe create some capacity with it. So if you wanna take your hand maybe towards your heart space [00:33:00] and breathe into
Becca: that.
Dr. Kelsey: I know it's hard with a mic,
Becca: but
Dr. Kelsey: so allow yourself maybe some exhales out through your mouth and maybe there's some, some feelings that might show up. , 'cause emotion. Can come up here. As you notice that sense of heaviness, we don't, we don't often take the time to notice that. Maybe you're noticing grief and sadness from my own experience.
'cause I feel that
Becca: too.
Dr. Kelsey: , and it's okay to cry on a podcast. It definitely shows. The humanity of what we're experiencing, which is the most important. So let's take a collective breath together to maybe, um, do a few si out to inhale in and exhale sigh. Yep. And, uh, inhale. Smell the flowers. Let my kids yoga training.
And exhale, blow out the candles last time. Inhale and exhale. Blow out the candles. [00:34:00] And allow yourself to open your eyes when you feel ready.
I'm
glad that we had that moment. It felt necessary, right? Mm-hmm. Like it's, um, it would feel weird to bypass it. Yeah. Um, 'cause
Becca: is part
of
Dr. Kelsey: humanity.
Becca: I wonder how that could happen for a teacher. Mm-hmm. Who has just come to a class and perhaps there is something, there's a trauma
Dr. Kelsey: going on,
Yeah.
Becca: These or her life, could we be that vulnerable with our students?
Dr. Kelsey: I,
I mean,
Becca: I need a moment.
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah. I, I do. Um, even when I'm in a coaching scenario, like, um, like there was something that happened, I think it was a week or two weeks ago, where.
Becca: um, my
Dr. Kelsey: husband had, he called me and he had some information to share that really activated me.
[00:35:00] And then I got off the phone and I immediately had to go into a coaching session. And this couldn't happen even in a yoga class where.
Becca: I, I,
Dr. Kelsey: I told the client, I was like, I just need to take a moment and like do something for myself so I can be present with
you. '
cause for me to try to bypass that, um, one, it's not showing what I'm encouraging the client.
To do so then I'm not living my truth. Right. Um, and holding accountability for myself. But then it also shows the client that I'm human too and I'm giving myself a moment to practice what I preach, but also demonstrate to the client like, Hey, this stuff is helpful and it
Becca: works. It
Dr. Kelsey: and I need to do it just as much
Becca: you.
Right. I absolutely love that.
I'm visualizing right now how I, you know, there's so much tension in the world right now. Yeah. And so much heaviness, um, from our students. And [00:36:00] sometimes it's hard for us to show
Dr. Kelsey: up. Yeah.
Becca: Bright and shiny when we're not feeling that way. Right. And I love to be. To have the permission to share that with my
students.
Yep,
Dr. Kelsey: yep. It makes you human. It makes you on the same level. Right? Like the power dynamics of a yoga class are often seen from this. I'm the teacher standpoint and you're the student. I'm the all knowing person. And you're down here. Mm-hmm. Where that's not very yogic. To provide vulnerability really shows up as a true leader to then level the playing field where you are doing life together rather than this weird power dynamic that can
Becca: happen.
That's really powerful for me, so I appreciate you
sharing that. Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause I, I tend to be a person with a lot of
Dr. Kelsey: emotion.
Yeah,
me too.
Becca: Yeah. And I don't show it outwardly.
I'm very quiet about it. Mm-hmm. But sometimes I just, I. You know, I just
Dr. Kelsey: [00:37:00] wanna
be human
Becca: I wanna, I wanna cue, you know, um, hug
Dr. Kelsey: pose
Yeah.
Becca: even just, you know, a, a mudra or a bind or something that feels like what we just did
Dr. Kelsey: that,
Yeah. Self soothing. Oh, self-soothing is so necessary. Like I guarantee you, if you offered self-soothing in a class, everybody would probably be really grateful. Yeah.
Becca: Yeah. , well, Is there anything that you'd like to add? Maybe where you go from here? Uh, what, what's your next big project?
Dr. Kelsey: Yeah, so I mean, I'm constantly researching. , right now we're looking at,
,
spirituality and contemplative practices, , and how that develops our political identity.
So that's a really, , total different segue in a totally different topic. Mm-hmm. But. , just throwing that out. There is a lot of folks, uh, might perceive somatics as something that is a calming and regulating practice, which it is, but similar to [00:38:00] yoga. Yoga has so much to offer. Same with somatics in that.
When I limit myself to thinking I need to be calm, , that that's not the point of the practice. That instead I'm creating adapt, adaptability, and capacity to be with things that, whether it's political tension, whether it's conflict with my family, or stuff that's showing up in the boardroom, that these are practices that.
Are really for everything and how to be more human. So as far as projects go, I'm consistently researching that, um, and presenting on that. But we're con, we're also building our business and scaling from both the corporate side and then the. Coaching side. So if you're looking to connect more, , whether it be from a business standpoint or coaching or personal development standpoint, um, you can find me at, uh, my website, the mindful prof.com or, um, connect with me on social [00:39:00] media.
But I'll be around, I'm a, I'm in multiple places at once. Usually
Becca: Yeah. We'll have that in the show notes too. Yeah. I love the final thing, I wanna just, uh,
Dr. Kelsey: add.
Becca: maybe ask a question on, so you mentioned capacity.
Mm-hmm. So you, you have a toddler? Yes. How old is your
Dr. Kelsey: little,
She will be three in May. So she, um, speaking of capacity building, it
is like the
thing that's the word that, oh yeah,
Becca: That's shine for
me.
Dr. Kelsey: me.
yes.
. I, if I could recommend Semans to any toddler, parent or parents in general. , learning how to be with my emotionally dysregulated toddler, uh, 'cause she does not have the capacity herself to emotionally regulate that, and that is just child development 1 0 1. Um, that if I am not. Regulating myself that is going to impact her.
So not only am I doing it for the benefit of me, but I'm doing it for the benefit of her. 'cause an emotionally regulated parent, [00:40:00] meaning an emotionally adaptive parent, is really important. And um, I think about many different times where I did wanna snap. That doesn't mean I don't, because I'm human too, but.
I try
Becca: to
Dr. Kelsey: be in the moment in a way that is self-soothing me, so that that also helps
Becca: her. Right,
right. Wow, that could be a whole new podcast. It's definitely, definitely be
Dr. Kelsey: a
workshop.
Becca: Yes,
oh, for sure. Put that in the notes
for sure.
All right. Kelsey, it's been great to have you. Here you are, a wealth of knowledge. You're fun, you're inspirational. So thank you so
Dr. Kelsey: much I
appreciate it, Becca. Like it's, I know that we were trying to get together and, , that the timing worked out
Becca: Perfect. So Perfect.
Absolutely. It's
Dr. Kelsey: a new
year.
Yeah.
Becca: Most
importantly. All right.
thank you.