Yoga For Trauma: The Inner Fire of Yoga

Neuroscience Meets Yoga With Rob Dorgan | Ep 14

• Liz Albanis - Senior Yoga Teacher • Season 1 • Episode 14

Share episode

Liz Albanis sits down with Rob Dorgan. Part 1 of their conversation. Rob's practice began in the 1980s and evolved from sweaty Ashtanga to alignment-driven asana.  Why meditation can be “the ultimate self-love'. How  tools (from handstands to quiet sitting) reshape our nervous system, relationships, and life choices.

Key Topics:

  • Rob's Yoga Journey: 
  • Tantra’s non-dual lens. moving beyond “right/wrong” to harvest meaning and growth from hard seasons.
  • Meditation as daily medicine: consistency over intensity. why sitting is a relationship with the inner Self (the “divine spark”).
  • Mindfulness vs. meditation: 
  • Yoga Sutras & the eight limbs: not a ladder you “finish,” but a living framework that keeps unfolding.
  • Neuroscience is catching up: how regular practice can remodel the brain and build resilience.
  • Real-life transformation: what Rob witnesses in year-long teacher trainings and retreats—identity shifts, new boundaries, and values-aligned choices.
  • The importance of self-care
  • Dharma in motion: when practice changes how we hold problems, not just the problems themselves..
  • Injury and hardship can be portals, not endpoints.

References:  Newberg, A. & Waldman, M.R. (2009). How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist. New York: Ballantine Books. Dawson, Sarasvati Sally. Yoga off the Mat: Freedom in Everyday Life. BookLocker, 2017.  Weintraub, A. (2012). Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management. New York: W.W. Norton & Company

Rob Dorgen is a professional astrologer, meditation teacher, certified yoga teacher/teacher trainer.Iinternational retreat facilitator. His new novel-memoir, Awakening the Mystique: A Novel of Cosmic Love and Healing, weaves personal journey with yogic psychology  to illuminate practical pathways toward inner peace.

 https://robandsteve.co/ https://awakeningthemystic.net/  Youtube Instagram

 https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/plan

The content shared in these conversations is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and it is not suitable for listeners under the age of 18. Please use discretion and consult a qualified professional before making changes to your health or wellness routines.

If you’re interested in being a guest or know someone who might be head to my website: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/podcast/yoga-for-trauma

For bonus content Join the 3R Program: Regulate, Rebuild, Restore. Start your journey with a 14-day free trial and learn how to create a sustainable, personalised yoga practice that supports your mental health and nervous system. https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/plan

Instagram:

Youtube

Join the Facebook community: www.facebook.com/groups/yogaformentalhealthyinyoganmyofascialrelease/
Visit website for more about what I offer: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/


[00:00:00] With Tantra, if we can move out of judging things, black and white, right and wrong, some of the worst things that have happened to us have actually been the gateway to our self-discovery.

Welcome to The Inner Fire of Yoga, a podcast about transformation, resilience, and the power of yoga beyond the mat. I'm Liz Albanis, senior yoga teacher and yoga therapist in training. This podcast was born in 2024 after I survived my second fire. Fire has been a recurring theme in my life, not just in the literal sense, but as a metaphor.

It has asked me to burn away what no longer serves me. To transform and to rise stronger each time. This podcast is about that fire, the one that challenges us, but also fuels [00:01:00] us to grow. The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host Liz Albanis, the content shared in these conversations.

Intended for informational and educational purposes only, and it is not suitable. For listeners under the age of 18, please use discretion and consult a qualified professional. Before making changes to your health or wellness routines, I had a great conversation with Rob Dorgen the other day. He is a professional astrologer meditation teacher and a certified yoga teacher and teacher trainer.

He's also an international retreat facilitator. Began studying yoga in the 1980s. He studied with many teachers, including SNA Sherman. John Friend and Sally Kempton in meditation. Yoga along with astrology changed his life and he's the author [00:02:00] of Awakening the Mystique, a novel of cosmic Love and Healing, and this book is part fiction and part memoir as it's based on his own personal journey to find in a piece.

The first line of the book is actually, ‘I want to find in a peace’. And this book encompasses yoga, especially through the ways we suffer as outlined by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It is full of real possibilities for the future of human species and Mother Earth.

Welcome, Rob to the show. It's so good to have you here today. Thanks for having me, Liz. This is great. Very excited to be here with you. Likewise. Could you just start by sharing how you discovered yoga? Uh, it was early on, and I know we're gonna [00:03:00] talk about, um, the book a little later, but, uh, I, one of the things with that is that it's part memoir and part fiction.

So, the main character is his journey to yoga is my journey. I, uh, was a very nervous child. Not really that it was really in my upbringing so much that it was in my inner nature to just be very nervous and high strong and kind of type a even as a kid. And I knew that, and I, I knew I was burning out really young by the time I got to graduate school.

It was like I needed something. And the funny part about it is that I went to an astrologer on a dare because, uh, one of my friends said that they had gotten a reading. And when this guy started reading my chart, he said, you know, you need something to relax, something to help your central nervous system.

He goes, something like yoga. Well, this was back in the eighties. So, yoga was very much like a cult back then, you know? Oh, [00:04:00] yeah, yeah, yeah. They went classes pretty much. Yeah, my first classes were in somebody's carriage house and there were like six or seven of us with this woman, and I'd carry my yoga mat across town and people were like, what is that? 

I'd be like a yoga mat yoga. But what happened was when he suggested it, I was, you know, living on campus, found a yoga class from a little flyer in a coffee shop. And I went and it was like, of course my mind, the first class was like, what are you doing? You know, why are you here? This is all that kind of stuff.

But when we got to Shavasana and I just showed out and my body relaxed after probably like a 70 minute class with her, I was like, what is going on? What is this? And I knew it helped me. That's how I got into it. And got really involved. It met and balanced your mood, [00:05:00] the nervousness and the anxiety in that moment, it really did.

So I just decided I gotta do more of this. I gotta find out more about it. So that's kind of how my journey got started with it. And then it didn't end. I started studying with different teachers and I mean, that's basically how I got into it. Stayed with it, it helped me. So it's been part of your life for a long time?

I, yeah. The years or more, how many years was that? 30. 30 years. Yeah. So your practice would've changed a lot since then? Oh, yeah. Can you elaborate on that? Well, sure. I mean, I, I've taken a lot of different types of yoga. And of course I was in my youth when I started, so I was [00:06:00] really attracted to Ashtanga Yoga.

Yeah, the Pattahbi Jois Ashtanga, but then physical, very physical, loved it. I wanted to sweat. Very pita, you know, and I, I craved. And, but it hurt my shoulder and oh, so actually the Ang teacher told me to go to somebody else in town who was teaching a form of yoga back then called an, it's still around. Oh, it's a Yenga based, isn't it?

It's, yeah, exactly. And, uh, so the alignment part of, you know, doing all those jump backs with hanah, the an really helped me with. Alignment. So it kind of fixed my shoulder and I was like, whoa, I want to know about this type of yoga as well. Because if people are injured and I'm gonna teach, I want be able to help them figure out how to keep doing the practice.

'cause once somebody gets injured and they think it's yoga [00:07:00] from their yoga practice, sometimes they quit. So anyway, that's how I got, that's how I got into the alignment part of it and studied then for many years in the Anusara line. With John Friend and especially with Cianna Sherman, who, uh, is an international yogi and she and I are friends and I still study with her.

So, I mean, that's kind of my progression as it goes on my own personal practice. I mean, I still do Asana, but I have slowed it down a bit, although I still like handstands. Oh really? Handstands. Oh, okay. So, you exhaust good. What's that? What's that? Your shoulders are still good then? Oh yeah. My shoulders are in great shape.

Once we got 'em all figured out, I knew how to do all the poses with proper alignment. I love, uh, doing handstands, so I try to do one every day. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Well, there's been some science I've learned in my yoga therapy training about weight [00:08:00] training, including weight bearing that can lift the mood as well.

And the first yogi I trained with. John Olgivie of Byron Yoga Centre up north here in Australia, who was a heroin addict and changed his life with yoga. He used to do handstand on the planes and stuff like that. When the air hosts went around, just lift the mood, and I'm like, wow. Okay. But yeah, I've been known to do yoga on a plane.

I've never done handstand. I've done handstands in the airport, but I've never done a handstand on an airplane. But I do yoga and a lot of times there, like I wait till everything calms down and I'll go into a small like galley part and just do some standing poses. It just changes the whole thing, especially if I'm on an international flight.

Oh yeah, the sitting, I've practiced yoga nidra and Kirtan Kriya and that sort of thing on the plane. Maybe some yin poses, but, yeah, [00:09:00] the sitting kills me on planes. Yeah. I'm standing now because too much sitting my back hates, so. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Standing poses, I'm assuming you delved deeper into self-inquiry as well as you continued your journey.

Yeah. Actually, meditation is my path right now. The meditation part of it, you know. When I first studied the Yoga Sutras years ago, I was in that early part where we got to Asana and I was like, I don't know if I get the rest of this. Well, now I've kind of, I do get it, I get that we do Asana so that we can sit longer in meditation, and meditation is something that I do every day.

I've done it for years, but now it's, it's definitely something I do not miss. It's definitely part of it. It's the major part of my practice, and I feel like that's really the [00:10:00] deeper part of yoga that takes us to that part where we really know ourselves. Yeah, and that comes through being quiet, self-reflecting, just being, not even having to have anything go on except just be with yourself.

That takes practice too. That's really the more advanced yoga practice that sitting with yourself. That makes me think of another question. If you could sum up what the word meditation means to you, what would you say? Would you say it's different? See, my opinion is it's different to mindfulness.

Mindfulness to me is a step towards meditation. What's your definition of it? I agree with you both are very helpful. Mindfulness, I think is a way of living where you, and I think that the deeper your meditation goes, the [00:11:00] more that you move into a state of being able to live in mindfulness. Yeah. Because just to say, here's how you can be mindful by looking, by being in the moment, that can be very difficult to just do.

But once we have a meditation practice and we take it. As deep as we need to. But again, with consistency, like doing it every day, even if it's not long, but setting aside that time. So, if I had to like describe or put a couple words around meditation, I would say it's the ultimate self-love because if we see it as it helping us to.

Really develop that relationship with our inner self, which is the divine spark, which is God, universe, love, whatever you wanna call it. That's the ultimate, because once we're comfortable there, everything on the [00:12:00] outside takes on a different look to us, and that's when I think we can more easily move into mindfulness if, does that make sense to you?

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Self -love and emptying the mind versus just focusing. Yeah, I think it. We need tools. The reason that the sutras talk about the different levels, the yamas, the niyamas, all of the like, and then even going into Asana, prra is the first step where we, you know, move back, closing ourselves so that we can go inside all the, what's so fascinating about that whole formula, if you wanna call it.

Of the eight limbs is that they really do build on themselves, but it's not a ladder. It's not like you just do. Okay. I've done the yamas and the niyamas. You continue to live the yamas and the niyamas. Yeah. While you move to [00:13:00] the other stages of it and it opens up. We're so impatient in our society, especially the modern world.

Oh. Where we Uber eats, uh, Netflix. We don't have to wait around. We want instant enlightenment. Yeah. And I'm not saying that doesn't happen for certain people, but for most of us, the average person on the planet, we have to work at it. And that also makes it more valuable to us when we have to do the work for it.

But you know, when we say words like discipline. Even consistency or work. I try to change the perspective of it for myself and for my students by say, saying, how can you look at it where it's more fun or where it's enjoyable? That doesn't seem like school, right? That your time that you're gonna take to sit quietly by yourself is actually [00:14:00] you giving yourself a gift.

Or eventually really, I mean, looking forward to it. You know, when you first start meditation, that can be hard to do. Yeah. 'cause the brain's going and you're like, oh, should I keep doing this? Should I keep doing this? Yes, yes, yes. One of my main meditation teachers was Sally Kempton, an incredible, incredible woman, and she used to say.

Everybody can meditate. 'cause the first thing people say to me, my meditation suits, well, what if I'm the just one of those people? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Hey, we're all making excuses for not doing our yoga during our practices. But she used to give the, uh, she would give this analogy. She's like, you can shake a, uh, uh, a soda up and shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, right?

Yeah. It can be like all fizzy. But if you set it down and it sits long enough, it chills out. Same thing with the mind. Yeah. Yeah. I guess people like me though, with 00:15:00] ADHD would have to what? Amy Weintraub, author of Yoga for Depression. One of my teachers would say first for some of us who are normal, you know, extra hyperactive or whatever.

Yeah. To meet our mood first with us and not as potentially describes then to sit still. So, some of us would struggle or maybe take longer to reach that. But see, the thing is it's knowing yourself. Yeah, knowing yourself. And so, for a long time, my Asana practice was my focus because even in my Asana, I could feel my mind relaxing.

Even on my mat, I can say, oh God, I'm not in triangle post. I'm down the street going to the grocery store. I mean, and you can talk. Yeah. You just bring yourself back to it. You're like, I'm in a yoga class. Get off to the list. Yeah, it, it starts right there. So, you know, like with what your teacher said, it's [00:16:00] like, meet yourself where you are.

Yeah, if you need more Asana, but also challenge yourself to sit quietly for four minutes and see how that goes. Yeah. And build it up from there. Yeah. So meet yourself where you are with kindness. Compassion. 'cause definitely compassion because what happens most of the time is that we are beating ourself up from this internal task master.

You can't do this. This is stupid. The inner critic. Yeah, the inner critic, man, it'll, it'll go. Yeah. Well, and I'm gonna come back to Amy here 'cause she's one of the most inspiring people I've met, but she quoted, uh, mark Twain or someone and said, we're often our own toughest critics. If we talked to our children the way we talk to ourselves, we'd be arrested for child abuse.

A lot of us, and [00:17:00] I guess. For me, yoga has helped make friends with that inner critic. That's what it's about. That's what yoga's about. Mm. More self-love. Yeah. We all make mistakes. We're going to continue to make mistakes. I don't care how high up someone is on the ladder of meditation, they'll still make mistakes.

They'll get their feelings hurt. They'll hurt other people's feelings. But it becomes that relationship with the self where we can observe it more from a distance Is the shark shin? Yeah. Yeah. From a distance or, you know, I know that's the way it's described a lot, but I think it's observing it from the, from the heart, from the, her idea, the spiritual heart center almost immediately will say, you know, or maybe you should rethink that.

And so it, it just shortens the span between. What we might see is a faux pa or a mistake and [00:18:00]bringing love into it more quickly. You know, understanding and having compassion as we said earlier. Yeah. And potentially an ancient psychologist as I would say, or an ancient psychiatrist. I like how potentially explains that we all suffer.

It's we will suffer. So, it's normal. And uh, it said, I can't remember the suture number. I had it out in front of me here. That's 2.3 or something. Was it? Anyway, I don't know the sutures off by heart, but there is a suture in here and there's an Australian teacher here who explains it well in her book Yoga Off the Mat, which I will add to my show notes as well, but that our thoughts can never be reality.

There are perception. There never can be exact reality. Yeah. Well, the mind [00:19:00] causes suffering. Yes. The that you're talking about is where it's discussing DKA and suka. Suka is with ease. DKA is where we have this struggle. Yeah. Now I love the yoga sutras, but I have to, I just wanna bring up something. Here they are.

Yes. Do dualistic approach where it's kind of a black and white. I am. What? The non-dualistic. I am very non-dualistic in Tantra, and that's what I have studied for. Right. Kashmir Shaivism specifically is the branch that I studied with Sally Kempton. Ah. There is suffering, but it's how we perceive it.

Because see, with tantra, if we can move out of judging things, black and white, right and wrong, mm, we can, some of the worst things that have happened to us have actually been the gateway to our self-discovery. You know, how many people like you, [00:20:00] you said that one of your teachers is a, I think you said a former addict, right?

Yeah. That, that part of their life. Is probably making them the best teacher that they are now. That's true. I totally agree with that. Yeah. And that's how we look at Tantra. It's like, is that addiction the worst thing or is it a gift? Because he's helping other people too, and he has authenticity because he's been through it.

Yes, let's have some guru that's like, oh, I grew up in a really, ah, you know, I didn't really have to do too much work, but I'm really attracted to this. I mean, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but the fact that when we get in with authentic people who say, here's my story and, and, and that's what I do in my teaching because I was a neurotic child and I knew that if I didn't find some way to relax, which is what I came to with [00:21:00] yoga.

I would have died. I would be, I wouldn't be around. I would've burned out. I would've had a heart attack. I would've died young because I was so stressed out by eight. I had ulcers by 12. I was in the hospital for total exhaustion. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with me because they had never seen.

So somebody so young have total physical exhaustion, and when they figured that out, they were like, yeah. And all stomach, yeah. Yeah. Because it affects your gut microbiome, this mind body connection. Yeah. Which we understand better than we did years ago, which is great. It is great. And then just what I think is fascinating is the yogis 2,500 years ago are putting together these sutras about things that now neuroscience is just now catching up with.

Exactly. I mean, I'm thinking go ahead. That's right. Exactly. They knew stuff that Amy writes about this in her books too. They knew [00:22:00] stuff years ago that scientists are just corroborating on. Yes. They're just getting to it. They're just getting to it. Neuroscience is catching up. There's a book called How God Changes the Brain written by a neuroscientist who says, if you meditate a certain way for seven minutes a day, it'll change your mind.

The yogis have been saying that forever. And what does he say? The neuroscientist says you need to be consistent. Yes. Make sure you do it every day. And then the interesting part is he's done studies on the brain and seen from before they meditated to after they meditated it changes the physical brain. Yes. That's, that's why we become more resilient.

We become more resilient. That's what helped me. I didn't know all that. But once I got to yoga, there's a chapter in my book called Mystical Transformation, and the first quote is, practice to the yogi is like blood to a vampire. And once the [00:23:00] yogi finds practice in what it does, why would they not do it?

Yeah. Because they've reaped the benefits. It's changing your life for the better. Going back to your comment about suffering. It helps us to look and deal with what normally we would consider suffering in a whole different light. We wouldn't even realize it a lot of the time. It changes the perspective from the inside out.

It's not gonna happen from the outside. We're being bombarded with fear all the time. Culturally. They want us to stay anxious. They want us to just be, you know, we have to take the reins of our own life. We have to. Increase the self-love from the inside, and actually we have to make ourself a priority because once we heal, once we make ourself better, and once we love, that's what I call from my book, the Inner [00:24:00] Mystic that's Awakening the mystic that you call the inner Mystic.

Yeah. It's the one who knows themselves. Because once we know ourselves, we can help other people know themselves. And it doesn't have to be through teaching them yoga. It can just be giving 'em a different perspective. Just like the conversation we had when somebody's like, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah happened to me.

And I'll be like, well, what might be the positive thing when we change ourself? We can then spread it out. Yes. That is what I am also calling the mystical revolution. And that's why self-care isn't selfish. It's essential. 'cause you can't pour from an empty cup. Yeah. But we've all been brought up that way.

Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Oh, you're so selfish. All you do is think about yourself. It's like, well, with yoga it's like, well, I'm gonna think about myself first. It's like the airplane. Take care of your mask first and then help somebody else. That's a good analogy. [00:25:00] Yeah. So we do that with yoga. Yeah, you're abs.

I love that. That's great. Yeah, because you know, a lot of mothers, a lot of parents guilt for looking after themselves, but if I didn't look after myself, I'd be a dreadful mother. I would lose it with my daughter all the time. I wouldn't have enough patience. And you need patience as a parent. You need patience and you need to ex Yeah.

So that they pick up on it. I mean at you, you were saying that your daughter's really young. I mean, at that age we all need it, but at that age, we just need to feel loved. We need to feel love. We need to see love like between you and your partner and and see it between. It's like that's what helps somebody to grow up in a healthy, a more healthy way, and then when they find yoga, which hopefully they will, that can also help as well.

Yes, yes. I'm [00:26:00] trying to teach her some B breath and things like that. 'cause she still thinks of yoga as most people do. Rolling out a mat downward dog. Yeah. It takes a lot of people a long time to figure that out. But as a yoga instructor, teaching teachers and doing this for so many years. I've seen people who've started out in a gym yoga class are now yoga teachers and teaching the sutras and all.

So you never know. When I'm teaching a yoga teacher class, I say, don't judge. Just get 'em on their mat no matter where they are, just get 'em doing some poses. If stretching is what they think it is, at first, you just never know where it's gonna go. That's true. It makes me think to talk about how you've helped others with yoga, especially helped their mental health.

What you've seen. I mean, you've changed yourself. [00:27:00] I'm not saying change, but you've transformed your life, as we've just said. We've been erotic child. Yeah. Because of yoga. What have you seen in other people? You've worked with, I've seen, uh, incredible changes. You know, just for your listeners, it's like, you know, I teach yoga, I teach yoga teachers.

I'm also an astrologer and I also teach meditation, which is becoming more and more my focus. Yes. But through yoga teacher trainings, which are a year or more, depending if it's a 200 hour or a 300 hour or a combined 500. Even on my retreats that are anywhere from like five days to a week or 10 days, the transformation we take time to step out from our normal life and allow ourself to really explore.

I, I mean, I've seen so much transition and people taking just a [00:28:00] 200 hour yoga course where they're like, afterwards they're like, I'm not the same person because. It gives us the tools to self-reflect we're, I mean, most of us are, were not brought up that way. Even if we grew up with some kind of a religion or spirituality, self-reflection and getting quiet is not necessarily part of that.

And I think that that's really what helps people to change. I mean, not to be funny, but in the 7, 8, 9 years that I've been teaching these courses, which are mostly women. At least here in the United States, it's still mostly women. Yeah. And because, you know, I believe women are gonna change the world, and that's one of the ways they're gonna do it is because they're working on themselves and then they take it home to whoever.

Not ling upset feelings. Yeah, yeah. They're letting it out. They're figuring out a way to express it. But what I was gonna say, not to be funny is more than once, twice, or three times. [00:29:00] After these teacher trainings, I see these women move on from their partners, really like, oh, it's happened a lot. Where they suddenly realize all of the things that open up to 'em is like, I'm not living fully, or I'm living with someone who's holding me back and they're not moving.

And especially as the person through a yoga teacher training starts to evolve. And if this person either is not evolving at all or really kind of like trying to hold 'em back. Yeah. And I'm not advocating that you should do a 200 hour so you can get divorced, but I'm just using that. I'm using that as a, an extreme maybe of what happens as people develop.

And by the sounds of it, when you say one to two years, your 200 hour teacher trainings aren't one of those jam packed. Get it done as quickly as you can. Course. No, they're at least a [00:30:00] year. That's great. I like that. If we, because Okay. Um, this is gonna sound judgy, but with the, I'm gonna get my 200 hour and 14 days.

Okay. Maybe it's just me. But I need time to absorb information. Yeah, just because I've heard you say it doesn't mean I understand it. So you can give it all to me in 14 days and then what am I supposed to do with it, you know? Anyway. That's my opinion. I'm in agreement with that. Even when I did my training, it wasn't that quick, but also they limited who they accepted.

People had to have been practicing yoga for a certain amount of time, whereas these days you'll get people that have maybe gone to a couple of yoga classes and go, oh yeah, I'm gonna do a 200 hour teacher training and I'm gonna do it online. And because there's so many cheap online courses, and my first guest, rebel Tucker, who I admire and respect so much as a yogi, said, you can't do [00:31:00] that.

Yoga is a lifelong dedication to the practice. That may not be the exact words, but because you'll also get people who have just done their 200 hour teacher training, just complete it, and then they'll start training other teachers, running teacher trainings. I think the motive behind that is money, because it's hard to make money.

It's a hard to own a yoga studio, especially post the pandemic and the cost of living crisis and make money. So running a teacher training helps with income, but it does. If I was gonna tell someone to do a teacher training or recommended it, I would say, do your research. You wanna learn from someone who's been practicing and teaching for a decent amount of time.

Yeah, yeah. Go to their classes, listen to what they're saying, look at their credentials. I mean, it's like anything, you know, you want somebody with experience who's gonna push you. It's not just about [00:32:00] getting through the program. So yes, and there is that, but also vet people as far as like, how long have you been doing this?

Why do you wanna do this? And you know, sometimes people take it and they don't even ever want to teach. It's just really a self-empowerment, uh, self-discovery. Maybe not. Oh, it's very nice for them. A lot of people don't end up teaching. There's people who don't complete it or they don't teach for a long time.

Yeah. I like to tell people that they don't have to do a 200 hour teacher training to learn more about yoga. Oh, absolutely. Right. You can do, but it's still a nice thing to do if you wanted to just deepen your practice. It gives a great foundation. Yeah. And for those listeners who are thinking about doing it, uh, just to, with the book, it all starts off in a 200 hour yoga teacher training.

The first four, the first, actually the [00:33:00] first six chapters all take place with the main character teaching 13 women. In the yoga teacher training. That was part one of my conversation with Rob. Next episode, I will share the rest of my conversation with him. That's why I do believe that things happen for a reason in our lives.

Sometimes at the time you think, what the heck? Why did this happen? Yeah, but they help pave out the rest and help you find your dharma. Sally Kempton used to say about meditation, but I can say it about yoga. It doesn't solve your problems. It changes the way. You think about them. When we stick with the consistency, it's multifaceted.

It helps to change us, but it also builds self integrity to ourself. And the interesting thing is, is when we look at nature, it's changing constantly. There is nothing in our world that doesn't change, but we hold on. And if we keep our [00:34:00] attachments to things and our versions and we keep pushing it back.

We think that we're gonna be able to keep it just like this. Thank you for joining me on podcast. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired and informed and empowered to take meaningful steps towards your wellbeing. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover, or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you.

Just fill in the form on the podcast page of my website. Your voice is an important part of this journey. I want this podcast to reflect the conversations that matter most to my listeners. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit from these conversations.

Don't forget to subscribe. It helps grow this incredible community of resilience and support. Until next time, take care of yourself and never forget. The power, the possibilities of irregular [00:35:00] yoga practice. See you soon.

Head Shot

Liz Albanis

Host
Head Shot

Rob Dorgan

Guest