W/ SHANTI KELLY

BIO 

Anne Marie is a Nutritional Health Coach passionate in showing you how to make detoxing your body, home, and diet simple and successful. After being diagnosed with Celiac disease, she found healing by focusing on her health holistically; Not just cleaning up her diet, but also by reducing the toxins she put on/in her body, home, and relationships.

"So what it is to be a yoga therapist is really to hold a larger lens, so that there may be components that are body centric. They're like protocols, techniques and tools to do functional structural work. There are techniques that are more spiritually oriented, philosophically oriented. But it's really not limited to either of those."

"We're seeing that what it is to have a human experience really exists on many levels: on the physical level, on the energetic level, and on the emotional, spiritual level. And even beyond."

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Allison 0:16
Hey there, welcome back to the How do you Health? Podcast. I'm Allison and we are coming to you not live. I was gonna say live. We're not live. This is a podcast. We recorded the podcast live though on Facebook and Instagram we are Mendoza sports and wellness on Facebook and MSW underscore lounge on Instagram. Whenever we record these podcasts, we have like three or more phones going at any given time to get the audio for this and as well as a film on both of those platforms. So today our guest is Sean D. Kelly. Sean D is super cool. We had a really interesting conversation with her had a lot of fun learning about being more intuitive with yourself and I don't know things just get really deep and her and Jonathan really took it away here so I think I'll let them go at it. In this actual podcast, a couple of things first. This show is brought to you by slender Ella the fat burning liver detox, vitamin blend shot and IV liquid, I guess liquid and yeah, yeah, it's minerals and vitamins and amino acids. It's all good stuff all natural. We are completely picky when it comes to our supplements and Cinderella is one that all three of us at MSW lounge use daily or weekly, depending on what form we're getting it in. It's also brought to you by flops to fitness, an online fitness and nutrition coaching store specializing in 20 minute workouts you can do anywhere. We also are brought to you by hemp 360 H e mp 360. And if you use the code flabs to fitness to five at checkout, you will get 25% off of your purchase on hemp 360 dot com. That code again is FL ABS to fit an E SS two, five, use that code at checkout you get 25% off of your purchase if you use it by midnight tonight, which is October 15. So get in there and get some good body care stuff. skincare stuff. I love their face masks. I just reviewed them on flops to fitness. But yeah, so those are our people today. One more thing, guys. Just I hate having to ask for stats and stuff. But if you could take a quick minute and just rate our podcasts on the iTunes podcast app if that's where you're you're listening to us that would help us reach more people will be ranked higher on the the health category and more people can find out about all this stuff. So we'd really appreciate if you could just give us a five star review. I'm actually going to begin reading those. So our first review today comes from Terry means. And this user says nurses are the backbone of our health care. I encourage everyone to visit MSW lounge such a passionate educated team and vitamin shots that take your health and well being to the next level. So Terry means thank you so much for that awesome review. We really appreciate it. And guys just share the podcast. If there's someone that you think would be interested in what we're talking about, please send it send it this their way. You can send it on iTunes. We're on Soundcloud too. We're working on getting on several other platforms as well. So just thanks so much for your support. Hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to Episode Five of the How do you help podcast we have shaunti here with us today. And of course Dr. Jonathan Mendoza. How's it going? Guys?

Jon Mendoza 3:59
Good. How are you? Oh,

Allison 4:00
yeah, good. shaunti did you find this? Okay. I did. Yeah. Awesome. Okay, well, these guys are putting on a really good show right now. And they were just having a really awesome conversation. So I think we should just dive into it. Yeah, um, john, what do you want to talk to Shanti about today?

Jon Mendoza 4:15
So I was asking Shanti, about her being a certified yoga therapist, which is very unique, because you don't have a lot of certified therapists. I mean, how many of you are there in the country or in the world? Do you know?

Shanti Kelly 4:30
No, I don't know. I'm sure it's over 100 at this point.

Jon Mendoza 4:33
That's still a small number though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. compared to how many yoga teachers are just in Austin alone, right. So So tell us what is accredited by them? It's a credit. Of course. So tell us a little bit about what it is to be a yoga therapist.

Shanti Kelly 4:46
That's interesting. I've been thinking a lot about this.

Sort of what it is to be a yoga therapist has in a way, the same sort of magic of what it is to be a yogi because the minute you start pointing to yourself, therapists, do you actually see that? It's actually whatever you think it is? It's actually not that either. Yeah. So what it is to be a yoga therapist is really to hold to hold a larger lens, so that there may be components that are body centric. They're like protocols, techniques and tools to do functional structural work. There are techniques that are more spiritually oriented, philosophically oriented. But it's really not limited to either, either of those. And what I mean to say is that the perspective of the yoga therapist is that, in fact, we are already hold. And that what it is to heal is to awaken the healing process within the client. And so as a yoga therapist, what we have our tools and techniques, philosophies, insights, research, which is amazing. There's so much research in their therapy now that we are able to then create the environment for healing to occur. Okay. I mean, it's spectacular.

Jon Mendoza 6:12
So, so go back, I heard you mentioned the functional aspects. So that sounds to me, like, a like maybe rehabilitation exercises,

Shanti Kelly 6:19
right? Is that mean? Yeah, yeah, there's structural, there's components that might look like or have a similar feel to like physical therapy. Okay, not physical therapists. Right. So there are certain things that are in our scope that are out of our scope to get very clear on what those are, of course. But yeah, absolutely. exercises that aren't palpating oriented, are, are some of the things that you would see in a yoga therapy session. Awesome.

Jon Mendoza 6:49
Yeah. So so if I understand this correctly, like, let's say, for example, that we share a mutual client, you know, and I say like, hey, they have knee problems. Yeah. Like you would say, I know what type of rehabilitation exercises to incorporate from a yoga perspective, in order to help them with knee pain.

Shanti Kelly 7:06
Yes, we could do that. But we'd also as a yoga therapist would be this is what differentiates us from it from a physical therapist, is we'd also be looking at, well, what were the systemic issues that may have caused this relationship to me to arise? Okay, do you see what I'm saying? So we're seeing that what it is to have a human experience really exists on many levels on the physical level, on the energetic level on the emotional, spiritual level. And even, you know, beyond. So we're looking at that, at that sort of paradigm and seeing are there other ways maybe lifestyle, maybe pranayama? Or there are other things also that can come in and support the healing of the knee? Gotcha. That's what makes it yoga. Okay, and not physical therapy. So then we say even ever using are addressing the, what they call the annamaya, which is the physical level, not on a Maya kosha. We might add some breathing. So now we're addressing the energetic the prana, Maya kosha. Okay. Do you know it just goes

Jon Mendoza 8:13
so so let's say that a person has a knee injury, but they also have mental health behind it. Like maybe it's not necessarily psychosomatic, they actually have like a trigger, mentally that causes them to have that exacerbation of knee pain again, right? So you're saying, not only you're going to touch the physical aspect, but there's a mental and mental, emotional health aspect that you come that comes with yoga therapy, right?

Shanti Kelly 8:37
Yes. Yeah. And again, there's scope to that. Right, right. So we're not just like, we're not physical therapists. We're not psychotherapists. Yeah. But we're looking at the whole person, the Constitution, right? And how is that playing out in a way that's either bringing to balance or keeping from balance?

Jon Mendoza 8:57
Okay, that's cool. So yeah, so one of the one of the things that their father had mentioned, that that you also really big in is anatomy? Yes. So you have like anatomy seminars and workshops and things that you emphasize in your teachings? Right? Yeah. So take us through like a typical example, we'll focus on knee pain. So obviously, you know, the anatomy of the knee. Most people understand a little bit about it right there. But, I mean, how would you go about working and trying to implement the yoga therapy into like knee pain? What would what would be like a look at?

Shanti Kelly 9:31
Yeah, I mean, the knee is interesting, because, you know, there are so many things that can go on. I mean, I suppose this is true for any part of the body, but we're really looking either up the chain or down the chain. So if you're watching and you're new to anatomy, or you know that there's a kinetic chain that's happening, and it basically it's saying what you do below is affecting either up the body or down the body. The knee is a perfect example of this because the knees can go out of balance because of some educational stuff or some maladjustment here in the pelvis, it can go out because the IT band is tight because the inner thighs are weak it can go out because the ankles out of balance. Do you know so? Right? Yeah. So as an anatomist, or, you know, someone has a strong interest in this, as a yoga therapist, that's what I'm looking at that love on looking at that first. And currently, I'm really interested in this strength versus stability versus flexibility model, and what is firing and what is not like turning off? Because this is what we know is happening. So like, that's going to be what I'm looking at.

Jon Mendoza 10:43
So like an inhibited muscle? Yes. And you're gonna activate that muscle to

Shanti Kelly 10:47
yoga is so good at right? Because we're not differentiating so much. I mean, it can be useful to understand to differentiate, but after a while, we have to actually put these things back together and see how are they working with each other? And if they're not working with each other, why, right? Because this because the body is meant to be symmetrical is meant to be balanced. And when it is balanced, it is functional. optimally functional. So this is what we're looking towards.

Jon Mendoza 11:16
I love it. Cuz I mean, you know, this, too, I always tell people have knee problems. Don't start in the knee, right? No, never. Yeah. And you can, you can actually strengthen the knee itself, but you can strengthen things around. Right? That's really cool. So so then you get that. So like, let's say that it takes a little bit further than that. Right. Like, you talked about the functional aspects incorporated anatomy. You reawaken muscles. So is there energy work involved with this as well?

Shanti Kelly 11:43
Well, you know, what they say is where prana goes, energy flows. So yeah, and again, this is what makes yoga yoga. I mean, we've, we've one of the things that yoga therapy has done is it spent a lot of time really defining things, which is, like I said, a little bit strange, because it's yoga. Right? You know, you sort of point that yoga say, That's yoga therapy, and you're like, no, it's, but in general, what we're saying is, is breath and movement yoga therapy is breath and movement, because not only are we working on that physical plane, but we know when we add prana there at from yoga cleanse, what we are doing are we are adding the healing components, we're actually shifting the energy pattern.

Jon Mendoza 12:27
Okay. Yeah. So you're allowing when you do that you allow the body to take over and say, we get what you're trying to do. And that allows self healing.

Unknown Speaker 12:38
Does that too? Is that too far ahead?

Shanti Kelly 12:40
Well, no, I mean, it's just I'm sort of getting hung up on the word body, because again, I'm thinking this whole larger

Jon Mendoza 12:45
the holistic view of it,

Shanti Kelly 12:47
yeah. So it's like, actually, what you want to do is you want to add the product. And it'll change the body. Okay. Yeah, so simply, so prana is like the energetic body. So the problem is, if you think of the body as layers, which is what like a kosher is, it's saying that really what it what it is to be human has these five different layers. And the product, the product layer is the animating layer, it's the one where the energy is moving through the system, you have what would be almost like a UVs. Consider, it's been known to be called like a clay, like just just the physical, gross body, the animating forces, the chronic body. The thing that regulates the chronic body is the breath. If you look physiologically, is the breath that is related to the nervous system. Okay, so if you regulate, you see what I'm saying? If you regulate the breath, you can actually start to switch the autonomic nervous and you can switch from parasympathetic to sympathetic, the same thing. So it's the same. So that's the western view,

Jon Mendoza 14:06
right? That is, yeah,

Shanti Kelly 14:08
but it actually matches, the, the yogic view.

Jon Mendoza 14:13
I I totally get that. I mean, that's why that's why bother and I decided, well, we talked about medical yoga, and I know that he talked with you about that. And I said, there has to be a blend between energy and physical energy because like you have chakras and meridians. Yes. Okay. And udai breath, which I absolutely love, and I'm still trying to practice it. But when you talk about the central nervous system like you did, and so if

Shanti Kelly 14:37
you go further with this, okay, then we go deeper with it. So now what you have is you have in yoga saying the the prana, which is the animating force, is regulating the movement of energy through the body and the western lens. We're saying the breath is also the regulating force of the nervous system. And what is the thing that moves the muscles The neuro the neuro muscular response, right? So if you keep going, the more you start adding the breath work to the muscle, you start changing the relationship of the nervous nervous system to the to the muscle action you're trying to achieve. So when

Jon Mendoza 15:16
the yoga teachers tell us breathe into that muscle, you're saying, This is why you need to breathe. And this is what you're explaining.

Shanti Kelly 15:23
I mean, probably yoga teachers have different reasons for why they say that, but this is your reason. Yes.

Jon Mendoza 15:34
What makes sense because it's like,

Shanti Kelly 15:35
right, let's say further when the two come together. Yeah,

Jon Mendoza 15:38
that's doing lands on the eastern will like, let's say, for example, Baldo came home after his teaching. One day, he started talking about the thyroid. And he was saying, like, there's a certain movement that you do with the thyroid, and I think it was neck flexion, something like that. Right. Okay. And so I was like, Okay, well, why do you do that? And he was explaining in yoga terms. And I said, Well, let me explain in chiropractic terms why you would do that, because the nerves that comes out of the neck goes directly into the thyroid right there. So you're almost awakening that nerve. The nervous is like a highway.

Shanti Kelly 16:10
This is where I'm at right now. Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah, exactly. This

Jon Mendoza 16:16
Yeah. So if your nerves control everything they control, your blinking, you're breathing, you're thinking you're firing? And if it's not working like it should you're saying a simple breath can almost reawaken and shift the movement from parasympathetic or sympathetic into parasympathetic.

Shanti Kelly 16:30
And yes, and it can also start to create that neuromuscular response in different ways. So where we are originally talking about is how certain muscles either get hypertrophic, you know, they were chronically firing, or they do they just said, screw this on how, yeah, and then. And so then you start bringing breath and awareness to that place and asking and asking and asking it to come online and you start to develop a different type of relationship

Jon Mendoza 16:59
come online. I like that. It's true, because you're awakening the fibers and the sensors, they're basically going into that muscle, like

Shanti Kelly 17:06
doing it from a place of parasympathetic response. I'm safe. It's okay for me to work together.

Jon Mendoza 17:15
Now. No, I love that quote. But going back to the parasympathetic, can you explain in your mind what parasympathetic is versus sympathetic? Because we hear about this all the time, right? So what is a parasympathetic mode that you would see a person experienced? Like, what does it mean to be

Shanti Kelly 17:34
like rest and digest? This is the relaxed state of being okay. Right? At ease, right? Okay. So and then, and this is all just under the umbrella of the autonomic nervous system, there's two branches of the nervous system, the autonomic is the one we're speaking of. And then the sympathetic is like arousal state. And the sort of the coined terms are fight flight freeze. Okay, so the freeze has been added, but they've decided

Jon Mendoza 18:03
that there's an arrow.

Shanti Kelly 18:04
I like that. Yeah, no, that's been added, but it's, it's definitely in the

Jon Mendoza 18:07
book. So how would you recognize if, let's say, a normal human being is in sympathetic mode versus parasympathetic mode?

Shanti Kelly 18:15
Well, there would be, there's a couple different things usually. Actually, it's funny because it's almost like who isn't in sympathetic mode, right? To the point where we, we don't even recognize it within ourselves or even with, with the people that we're looking at? Okay, so you might have things like digestive issues, you might have things like anxiety or and or depression, you might have, you know, over reactiveness, sleeplessness, sleeping too much, you're gonna be skincare. I mean, it's really related, sympathetic, sympathetic nervous system is related to, I'm gonna say, I mean, can I say, yes? Almost there is a permit

Jon Mendoza 18:57
with personal belief. No, I agree. I agree completely. I'll give you an example. So what people don't understand is that every day we're gonna be in sympathetic mode, we'll be in parasympathetic and one of the two, right and so you hit it on the nail by saying, it's almost harder to find someone who's not in sympathetic mode, because it's this all the time, right? That's the American lifestyle. We're always stressed out. But if you think about the profound effect the nervous system has, and I know this is a touchy subject for certain people, but erectile dysfunction for men. Now, the funny thing about it is the parasympathetic and the sympathetic effect erectile dysfunction, because if a guy is so stressed out and sympathetic mode, they cannot achieve an erection which is incredible. Think about they have to be in parasympathetic mode in order to do that. And you see these people because you know, they're so stressed out, and it's amazing, cuz you're almost like, if you just learn how to breathe correctly.

Shanti Kelly 19:52
Like, this is exactly what's coming in my mind because like, here's the thing, this is it. We've been landed squarely at what yoga therapy S, which is essentially someone's coming in with a wreck, you know, Ed, yeah. And the yoga therapist is going to look at the stress. Yeah. Versus the symptom. Yeah. Because we're considering that as a symptom. Not a, you know, a pathology, yeah. But we're looking at the stress, we're looking at this greater pitcher, that's going to bring them into a state where everything is coming online.

Jon Mendoza 20:24
Right? And it's amazing, because if you're going about it with your method, then essentially you're switching the nervous system to go to parasympathetic mode, which is something that a pill will do.

Shanti Kelly 20:35
You be headed, right.

Jon Mendoza 20:37
So you can give them a Viagra every day. And then they're gonna say, but I'm still stressed what's going to get rid of the stress? Why don't have to take this pill. And they're gonna look at you like, What do you mean, I have to breathe all day? And you're gonna say, I bet you know how to breathe correctly. Oh, yes. Right. Right. I mean, ballers, show me, he goes, You breathe with your chest, you don't even breathe with your stomach. And I was like, what's the difference? a huge difference. Right? Exactly. So I mean, a plus, here's the thing is like, this is Eastern meeting with Western and I don't like, basically blending the two because I think they should go hand in hand, right? They should be part of it. The idea of when you and I see these pictures all the time of a hospital in China, where they go, and they pray before major surgery. And then afterwards, part of the recovery is acupuncture, for pain relief, instead of just handing opioids, it's acupuncture. And it's amazing, because when you unlock the energy that's being blocked throughout the body, you allow the systems to function better on their own. You see,

Shanti Kelly 21:39
this is like, we can even go further with this, because there's this really this amazing. It's just this teaching that basically says what we know is that the only time the body actually heals is when we sleep. And when we sleep when we get that healing, rest is when we drop in to that parison sympathetic state. So we've just come we just tap straight into like that main root of what we're doing is bringing the body into place into that parathion Sivan state, because we know that that is where the body heals. And in fact, you know, I mean, if we could all understand that we all have exactly all the resources that we need, you know, to live in our deepest wellness to really be in our fullness, then, you know, what would be something? You know, maybe we have to just peel a few things off.

Jon Mendoza 22:44
Well, I think you brought up a great point. And I agree completely with you. Think about all that people have sleep issues, you just said right now that sleeping is our chance to heal. How many people even have trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, they never get a good night's rest, they wake up and they're not fully healed. They, they their batteries aren't recharged, and then they're starting that day off like that

Shanti Kelly 23:04
sympathetic state, and it just keeps adding. Yes, it just.

Jon Mendoza 23:08
Yeah, exactly. And so I mean, to say, to get rid of stress is is like, you know, in a utopian lifestyle, right, where you're like, I'm gonna go wander around the woods forever, you know, like, but that's not gonna happen for most of us, right? So they're like, Well, how do I relieve stress? And you're saying, It's simple, right? You start with the basics, right? And so like, what would you say as far as like, if someone was so stressed out, they say, shaunti, I need, I need help. I don't know what to do. My blood pressure's getting higher, like I

Shanti Kelly 23:38
can't sleep. I think it's like even this. You know, Patanjali says, this beautiful thing he really is. So the main book in yoga is the yoga sutras. And he says this, he says, what it is to have a human experience is that there will be suffering. And so I'm going to insert stress and in place of suffering, that in fact that we are born into this experience, that part of the experience will be this sense of stress or suffering. And that is exactly these things that are are awakening us to our divine ourselves. Okay. So what I would say then, is it's not necessarily the stress that's wrong, but it's how we are relating to ourselves during those experiences.

Jon Mendoza 24:30
Correct. Do you say I agree completely?

Shanti Kelly 24:33
Yeah. So I mean, life is stressful. Do you do now? I mean, we do the best we can. And yet, how are we practicing our self care practices? How we are we nurturing ourselves that our lives and the people that we love honoring them, and how do we have ritual life that is really taking care of all those things. And then we can just meet the stresses that are a part of daily life in a way That where that nervous system, right that capitulating nervous system is just about as equanimous as it could be. And when it's not, we can continue to apply self love and self caring, to the point that we can just

keep going.

Jon Mendoza 25:18
Right? So we can handle whatever is done our way.

Shanti Kelly 25:21
That's right in wellness.

Jon Mendoza 25:22
Yeah, that's true. That's true. I love that philosophy. Because that's exactly my philosophy. I tell people, stress is gonna come from physical, mental chemical, it's always going to be there. It's how we process and how we handle that stress. That's how our bodies start to show the symptoms. This is my hair turning gray, this is me not having good sleep, this is my blood pressure going higher, I can't go to the bathroom. You know, like, there's so many things that you say, Well, if stress is always going to be there, I just have to deal with it better, to a certain extent. But like, for example, if you're the teacher, what do you do in your typical routine to kind of like say, Alright, I know that even though I preach this, I have to practice it myself. So like, what is it that you do a little bit on a daily basis to handle stress? Yeah, how do you have?

Shanti Kelly 26:08
Yeah, that's, that's really great. I think the very foremost thing, and I really came to this, you know, through my own, you know, healing and health, learning, is that we must learn to listen to ourselves. We must learn to listen to ourselves. And here's the and then the other part is that, so in the Bhagavad Gita, they really give a clear direction on this, they they say, you, you know, when you are out of balance, right? You know, there's, he said, it's a story, right? And he's reflecting to this person, you're, you're shaky, you're, you're sweating, you can barely stand, you're confused, like, all of these things, is you out of balance. And he says, you know, the antidote is tune in. Listen, and take action. So for me, my very foremost key step in wellness, is it when I feel because I do, I'm a mom, and a teacher and wife, and many, many things. When I start to feel overwhelmed, it's time to take something off the plate, it's time to give myself space where I can give myself space, it's time to say no, and be okay with that. And to really just allow myself to rest. I mean, this is absolutely number one. Do you know Am I added? Am I out of balance? Oh, yes, I can feel that. What are the tools I need to do? Maybe warm, nurturing food, you know, let myself off the hook. And stay home. Do nothing, practice the art of what I say in class wellness. You know, just It doesn't mean sit on the cushion. It means sit on the couch, and watch the weather. go by and just let the system heal enough for that you can go up and back out in a whole way. Yeah,

Jon Mendoza 28:23
that it sounds so simple and profound at the same time. But we don't do that anymore.

Shanti Kelly 28:30
We've convinced ourselves that that

if we don't get whatever it is done, then like the world will come to an end just more of that fight flight freeze, then the world will come to an end. Oh my god, well, you know what, don't do it and see what happens. The world will not come to an end. Yeah. Do you know, you'll get a little more rest and when you come back to it, it'll be a fuller whole or more complete expression of. So I think for me what, you know, in a yoga therapy session, it would be different, you'd be really working in a different way. But I might just say give it a try. You know, if we could delink ourselves from the doing put the phone down the email will wait. No, you know, and we know that the screens do affect the working of the mind in a or betta you would ask it's about equality, meaning it's sort of this anxiety quality, and it's deepening in the nervous system. It's deepening in the field. And I think we see that more and more we see an adrenal fatigue.

Jon Mendoza 29:47
Take a take a phone away from a 18 year old or a 20 year old and see how long they want to do. Yeah, we're a two year old, Jr. My son can open up my phone and go to YouTube. Like I was programmed in his head and I'm thinking like he's gonna grow up. been relying on this like I am all of a sudden now,

Shanti Kelly 30:03
right? So sleep is the thing that heals, we know that screens actually keep the part of the brain when we think we're sort of, you know, zoning out. But if you were to scan the brain, it's the same part of the brain that's engaged in like caspary in a project. Oh, yeah, it's not resting as a matter of fact, and then we're like, we can't figure out why we're so tired. So yeah, I mean, I this is I'm not really I'm not I could care less about screens watching. Don't watch him do any of that. But, you know, really, let's just, just just last a little bit.

Jon Mendoza 30:43
I tell certain people who are stressed out, I say, Go outside barefoot, and walk around in the grass. Yeah. And, and people look at me, like, what is that going to do? And I said, Well, when was the last time your feet even touched? The Earth? Yes. And it. I mean, we were at ACM this past week and walk around barefoot people thought we were crazy. I'm like, this is like, this has been part of nature. We sat under a tree. And we watched the world go by and just laid it like completely laid there. Which that's like a vacation for me. I don't know the last time that even happened. Right? Yes. And

Shanti Kelly 31:17
that I mean, your whole system was probably like, thank

Jon Mendoza 31:20
you. It was great. Yes. Like it was like, we don't have to be anywhere right now. This is where you have to be what

Shanti Kelly 31:25
I'm talking about where you don't have, you can just be just be just

so here's the thing about just be

I get I'm really into research, especially in yoga therapy. They did all this brain scanning on meditators, and meditators that really had this just be place. And what they found was that the part of the brain that fired when you were made at meditating was the same part of the brain that was responsible for joy. I mean, really get to the deepest part of that. It's like responsible for joy. Because what if at what are we doing here? If it's not to really tap into that part of us that can open up and just be joyful? Yeah. I mean, we're doing all these things in the service to that, and really, the thing that takes you this would just be

Jon Mendoza 32:20
like, what, what's the whole point of existence? If you can't be happy? Like, I mean,

Shanti Kelly 32:24
it's actually your true nature. Yeah, it's only the buisiness like that facilitate for forgetting

Jon Mendoza 32:31
to share, I forgot that I'm depressed, I forgot that I'm not happy. I forgot that. That there's more important things to life. I mean, I, I look at how much I work. And I say, I'm only working so I can provide for the family. But if I don't spend time with my family, then what's the point? You know, I mean, here, am I gonna work 6070 hour weeks. And then next thing, you know, like, I'm 50 years old. Where did the time go? What am I experiencing? That could be more meaning to my life? And you're saying just be just being right there in the moment?

Shanti Kelly 33:01
It Yes. I mean, there are definitely times when we have to, you know, fought you know, where we are also here to follow our Dharma right to be to really give the gift that we have been put here to do. But that Dharma is enhanced by our ability to just be truly present. Right? Because

what's starving without joy anyway? Yeah.

Allison 33:31
That's so cool. So how are we doing on time? I mean, you guys can keep talking. Talking about being present. Like we tried to keep this podcast to half an hour, but like, yeah, how often do people just sit here and talk like this?

Jon Mendoza 33:46
This is, this is a very much, it's almost like a relaxing conversation. But I feel within myself to say, like, someone's telling me, it's okay, just be there and enjoy the moment because this is gonna pass you by and I, I mean, I keep referring back to ACL, that's my mini vacation because I get to run into friends. The weather's wonderful, you hear great music, but it's like this. It's my little selfish time to be like, this is for me, I'm in the present. I'm going to enjoy this. I mean, I cried during some of my favorite songs, because to me, it taps into something emotionally that we don't get to bring out all the time and even a lady that came in today one of our wonderful clients. Um, you know, she was kind of getting upset when she was talking about something so I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry. You have to let that out. You have to be that you can't walk around stone faced all the time high on your emotions because it will eat up you inside. In other ways it will come out but if we can be happy one day, and sad the same day and laugh and you know, maybe be worried for someone else, and at the same time, everything wraps up nicely to where you can go to sleep at night sound fully. I mean, that's a full day. That's called living man. It's called them and yeah,

that's that's part of it.

That's what's gonna happen when you walk around and not feel those emotions to say there's no higher low. I don't think that's living.

Shanti Kelly 35:08
You're gonna have high No, no, that's what this association,

Jon Mendoza 35:11
right? Yeah, sure that's, I mean, this is incredible. I've never. And I love all my Yogi's that have been on here and all the ones I've met and practice with. But I've never heard him put it the way that you've put it like that. That's the difference I can see. So that's that's very intuitive. It's so profound. I absolutely love it. And I think that's incredible. Your approach your the way and that obviously, this didn't happen overnight, but it's taken is taking some time to get to this point, right. Yeah, that's really cool. That's awesome. All right. Well, um, I'm guessing this is probably it for us today. Sure. We'll get back to you. Yeah, we'll do a party that has shawnzy on again, we definitely need to have her on again, because I have so many more questions that I think we probably need to get to touch on so many other things. But where can we find you? How can we get a hold of you as if people are wanting your your help? Well, how do they find you?

Shanti Kelly 36:03
Oh, great. So you can find me at my website, Shanti yoga, practice calm. I'm actually doing a workshop on the 21st cold lines of energy. And it's really about, you know, the body's telling you a story. How are you holding it? So you can find that on my website as well. And actually, I would say that's the best place

Jon Mendoza 36:22
now if you're in Austin. Yeah, where we find you in Austin.

Shanti Kelly 36:26
And then a couple different studios. I'm at practice yoga, Austin and wanderlust Austin. And, yeah, I gave you my website. I'm also on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. So. So

Jon Mendoza 36:39
there's a workshop that, yes, we'll definitely have to do that and to teach us how to be in the moment. That would be something everyone could use. So Chauncey, I can't thank you enough for coming on. I've enjoyed it. This is Jonathan signing off from MSW lounge. Thanks, Alison and baller for being here. We'll catch y'all soon.

"We're not physical therapists. We're not psychotherapists. But we're looking at the whole person, the constitution, right? And how is that playing out in a way that's either bringing to balance or keeping from balance?"

"Life is stressful. I mean, we do the best we can. And yet, how are we practicing our self care practices? How we are we nurturing ourselves, our lives, and the people that we love, honoring them, and how do we have ritual in our life that is really taking care of all those things?"

You can find the How do you Health? Podcast on Twitter @HDYHPodcast, and use #HDYHPod to submit speaker ideas, health questions, or topics you want discussed!

You can follow Shanti on Instagram @shantiyogapractice or visit her website: www.shantiyogapractice.com

SPONSORS:
MSW Lounge
Slenderella® Gut
Flabs to Fitness, Inc.

CREDITS:
Hosts - Jonathan Mendoza, MSW Lounge; Allison Wojtowecz, Flabs to Fitness, Inc
Guest - Shanti Kelly
Podcast production - Allison Wojtowecz (Flabs to Fitness, Inc. - www.flabstofitness.com)
Guest coordinator - Baldo Garza
Intro song - Benjamin Banger