Episode 1

Hey, this is Nikki and this is Kristen and this is In The Midst podcast where we talk about middle-aged woes and midlife crisis and being in the midst of it all. Join us for the conversation that you didn't know that you needed. Welcome! So find a comfy seat and join my friend Nikki and myself as we go through all the things about being middle-aged friends, both of us working in the fitness and yoga industry, having daily laughs about the trials and tribulations of being moms, being yoga teachers, being sound healers, and being overall cynics. We're going to leave this hour, as we share weekly, maybe feeling a little more connected to this podcast duo and maybe feeling a little more grounded from the conversation that you didn't know you needed. So join us, buckle in, put your helmet on, and get ready. So welcome. How are you doing today? I'm doing okay. Yeah, we're very excited here to share our, you know, our inaugural podcast. Lots to say, lots to talk about. Anybody listening in, hope you're middle-aged and ready to, you know, ready to take off. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We've been talking about doing this for a while now and I am very excited to be here. I don't even know where to begin, but we will take it from here. Okay. That sounds good. Well, we have, you know, we're a little nervous, but we're not. You know, let's start by talking about what our podcast is about. So we titled it In The Midst. And what does that mean? In the midst, in the mid, in the mid, or mid, as the millennials say, or mid, as my daughter says, you know, mid can mean a lot of different things. Mid, middle-aged, midlife, mid meaning, you know, not great, not awesome, somewhere in the mid. And that's kind of just where we feel most connected. So I don't know, what are you feeling when you hear the word mid or midst? Is it rhetorical? No, that's not rhetorical. That's not rhetorical. For me, it's not rhetorical. Middle child. Let's see. Middle child. Middle tire. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it could be. Middle of the road. Yeah, it could be. And I don't want to say mid in a negative way, because sometimes we're all just in the middle of the thick of everything. Yeah. Fine. Exactly. See, this is my good friend, Nikki, who always sees the bright side in everything. And I never do. So I'm like, you know, in the mid, in the midst of the muck, in the midst of the BS. It's just like in the mid, like with the sun shining. Or you could say in the middle of the lotus. Come on. Oh, that's so nice. Is that a thing? Well, the jewel is in the middle of the lotus, right? So you got to be in the muck. But it's still in the mud. Yeah. You're in the mud and you're in the muck. The lotus is still in the mud, but the lotus, there's something in the middle of it. Yeah. What is it? It's the jewel. What is the jewel? The jewel is what we are. Our heart, our internal. It's kind of like, you shine it a little and... But is it like an actual thing that's in the lotus or is this just like some sort of... I think it's an expression, but I could be making that up. I was like, there's a jewel inside of a lotus flower. See, this is the difference between Nikki and I. I'm like, I want to know that there's a tangible object that's inside this motherfucking lotus flower. And Nikki has got all this like, very... You're going to go woo-woo? Don't say woo-woo. She's got all this woo-woo stuff about the lotus flower, but it's true. It is. It is. Yeah. I could be making it up though, too. Everything's blending. Well, expand. Tell us more. Tell us more about this jewel in the lotus flower. Well, I actually have a screenshot of it. Let's see if I can pull it up. Are we going to be able to have our viewers actually see the screenshot or is this something that I just get to see? So it's... Oh, I see. Okay. So I was doing a meditation last night. I do a meditation once a week. Can I interject and just say that Nikki and I are both healers. I teach yoga. Nikki teaches sound healing and meditation. So for anybody listening, we are wellness providers, quote-unquote. Yes. Absolutely. But there's lots to say about that world. We're going to reverse back to the beginning where we met, but maybe we could either introduce ourselves or maybe say how we met, but your call. I don't know. Let's go back to the jewel. Oh, yeah. So let's just close the loop there. So I was doing Om Mare Padme Om, which is a mantra, and it is praise to the jewel and the lotus. So that's where that came from. So we could get into that or... What is the jewel and the lotus? Well, I imagine it as being in the muck and the mire and dealing with all the nonsense, but you maybe are the jewel and the lotus. That's where your heart is, and then you start glowing once you start doing what you love. So maybe like working your way out of the muck and the mire and trying to like shine up that true nature, that internal whatever, and then rise out of the mud and like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Could you imagine? I can visualize actually us rising through the phoenix from the ashes, rising above all the baloney in life. Oh my goodness. That sounds pretty great. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds pretty great. So we're going to dive back because this is our first episode, and we're super pumped. We have super lots of really fun things to talk about, but we're going to dive back because Nikki and I need to really talk about how we met and why the two of us connect and why we feel that our podcast together is necessary for the world at large. So how did we meet? How did we meet? Well, I think the universe had a great hand in that. I believe that too. So we met during our 200-hour TT training at a local studio. Okay. So for those that don't know what we're talking about, TT is a 200-hour yoga teacher training where people that like yoga and love yoga decide they want to become yoga teachers, and then they go and do a 200-hour teacher training course. And so Nikki and I met during that class, and I just want to say that there was about 17 or 18 of us in that class, and for some reason, I always loved Nikki, but she always came in late and frantic and freaking out, and I was like, is this chick a yogi? What the hell? And she was telling me all about how she was, like, literally we had to be there at 11 in the morning, and she had already run like 17,000 miles and done like 12 spin classes. I'm going to just reverse something a little bit here, and I'm going to just go back and Okay. We're just going to start by saying, sometimes, you may not even want to be a yoga teacher, and you could want to better your practice by saying, hey, let me learn what I can, because I am a lifelong learner, and I just have to delve into everything and try it. And at the time, at the time of that yoga training, the universe brought that into my life. And the same with me. Yeah. And I needed to de-stress because I was having some sort of stress reaction. So I was dealing with exercise. So I was a cycle instructor previously, and I was like, I need to shift gears without realizing it, and shifted gears right into the yoga studio. So it was the beginning of the journey that was supporting me and helping me relax and be less squirrel-like. In Ayurveda, we call that vata-deranged. Yes. You know what? It creeps up all the time. Yeah. But until I implement what we learned. Yeah. And I will say this. I was probably in the same boat, and we did our teacher training the year before COVID, and we like literally graduated our teacher training like a week before the official start date of COVID. So we were catapulted into teaching into an online classroom. And I was like, oh, my God. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. But yeah, it's definitely led me to find relaxation a little more, but humor changes everything. You know what I mean? You need humor. You need to make light of everything, but there could be so many things we could talk about that teacher training. I won't get stuck in that rabbit hole. I think humor is, I think it's a tool of yogic lifestyle. I really do. I think it's a release. I think, you know, if you can let go of things, I think humor is a manifestation of letting go of stuff. I really do. Yeah, and I think so. And I think that was just the beginning, and then so maybe just quickly say where you are now as far as just what your background is as far as like, hey, I live in New Jersey, and this is what I'm trying to do. I'm going to turn it back on Nikki because Nikki loves to turn things on other people. Nikki never likes to talk about herself, so I'm going to make Nikki actually say that first. Yeah, let's talk about you. Okay. Well, you know, where are you now? You know, you did your teacher training. You know, we graduated together, and you did that sound training, and now what's happening? Okay, so we did the meditation where we learned mantras and got to work with Denise, and then I proceeded to, while I was doing my TT training, I proceeded to study at Atma Buddha in Colorado during COVID. And what is Atma Buddha? Atma Buddha is a school in Colorado. For what? For sound healing. Okay. And I actually did some of my levels here in New Jersey, one with Denise, and one was with Julia, and then I got to study in Colorado with Soren, and then I got to practice all the hours and hours and hours. And this is an extreme privilege. I want everybody that's listening to this to understand that this is an extreme privilege. So in order to go to the Atma Buddha vibrational school, you know, sound and vibrational school, it's kind of no joke. And Nikki loves to dumb things down, and I love to dumb things up. So she, you know, she's legit. She's legit when it comes to being a true healer and a true sound healer, and that's a lot of the things we're going to talk about in this podcast is healing modalities in the wellness industry and stuff like that, and how many frauds there are out there, and how many people are out there that are really doing it for all the right reasons. And that's something I will constantly talk about. That's a whole other episode. Well, that's a whole other episode for sure. And we'll get to that. But, you know, part of this podcast is really, for as much as I just want it to be fun and funny, Nikki, you know, this is why I love this girl, and this is why we're doing this podcast, is we want to help as many people as we can out there that are going through the same kinds of woes that we're going through. And, you know, the podcast is called In the Midst, and we talk about being in the middle of it all, being in the middle of parenting, being in the middle of middle age, being in the middle of having to lose weight, and that's another episode that we're going to conquer, and that's a separate topic altogether, and just being in the midst of all the shit that we're all dealt with when we're in our, you know, 40s, 50s, early 60s, and, you know, how to really navigate through all of that. And I navigate it through with a lot of humor, a lot of cynicism. My bestie here, Nikki, loves to navigate it through with a lot of, to me, a lot of heart and a lot of soul and a lot of kindness. And you're going to get the best of both worlds with us. It is. It's a good mix. It is a good mix. And it's a good mix, and I, you know, I'm just very thankful to have found you. I'm thankful to have found you, too. We complement each other, and we keep each other sane, I think. We keep each other sane. I mean, God, you know, anybody listening, be grateful if you've got that best friend that you can text at 7 in the morning about how pissed off you are about X, Y, or Z, because that's my friend Nikki. You know, I wake up in the morning, and I get my daughter ready for school. I feed the dogs. I let them out, this and that, and I'm like, oh, my God, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, text away, and then I feel bad, of course. I'm the kind of person that's like, oh, my God, I haven't heard back in like 10 minutes. I'm like, she hates me. She's mad. She's this. She's that. Like, little did I know that she was actually just waking up. But, you know, you know what I'm talking about. I do. Yeah. I do. Sometimes I sleep in a little later. Now, Kristen's a morning person. I am. Kristen will change the world by 6 a.m. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. I do my whole life by 9 a.m. I'm a night gal, and I thrive at night, so I could, yeah. I'm still not like that. It's funny. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah. It's okay. It's because you're an empty nester. I'm an empty nester, but my children live at home. You're an empty nester with kids that live at home but can drive. Yes. That's the thing. I get up because I've got to get Sophie up for school. You're in the midst. I'm in the midst. You're in the midst of the teenage years. See, this is the thing. I am in the midst. This is what we're talking about, being in the midst. I want to have a career. I want to be able to travel, but I'm in the midst of being a mom that has a kid that can't drive. Yeah. Yeah. That sucks. Once she does drive, that'll just bring a whole new thing of worries because then the driver's out there. I know, but I'm going to be sad about that, too. Oh, yeah. Hold on. I said don't blink. No. Then she's going to be driving. See, this is what we're talking about, being in the midst, because you think you want it, but then you're like, oh, my God, I don't want it. Yeah. Right. Right. I mean, everybody wants that button to say, okay, I should have appreciated it a little more while I was in it, but I was busy rushing to get to the next stage for them. Yeah. I say that all the time. I'm not in a rush for them to leave because, yeah, you'll see them less when they're functioning adults and out in the real world. But you want that. It's just you're going to miss it, and you know you're going to miss it. It makes me think that, like, you want to, like, linger in the midst. You want to linger there, you know? So in the midst, what does that even mean? It means so many things in the midst, in the midst of your life, in the midst of, I don't even know, weight loss journey, whatever. That's, like, a topic that we definitely will circle back to. But in the midst of parenting, in the midst of, you know, my daughter, she's going to have her permit in, like, six months, you know? But I don't want her to drive. But I do want her to drive. I want her to drive. I don't want her to drive. I don't know what I want. I'm in the midst, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's a lot. It sucks. It's a lot, yeah. She'll be ready. I'm very, very sure she's going to be. Yeah, Sophie's ready. She was going to show up this morning. Yeah. This morning I'm driving to school, and she's telling me how her cousin, Jake, who lives in North Carolina, apparently they get their driver's license or they get their permits earlier. Oh, apparently Jake can drive himself to school now. I'm like, and I got so mad because I barely slept last night because of other things that had going on yesterday. I was like, Sophie, I pulled over on the side of the road. She knows if I pull over on the side of the road, I mean business. And I was like, okay, I am so tired of you challenging me. If you drive this car before you're 16 in the state of New Jersey and you get pulled over, we're going to be in a world of problems, and it's going to really suck. You know, and she gets all mad and sullen like I've just taken away her, I don't even know, her blue blue lemon. And I was just so pissed off. I was just like, dude, you cannot get in the car and drive in central Jersey to school at 15 and act like, oh, my God, my mother's not letting me drive to school at 15. And, you know, it was extremely annoying. And, you know, that side of the family down in North Carolina, you know, they live to a different beat of a drum where, you know, they do whatever they want, you know. And this is a high role topic for another podcast dealing with the ex-husband's family that lives down south. We're going to call it that. We're going to call it ex-husband's family that lives down south. That is an episode. That's probably a miniseries. I'm going to leave it at that. Our listeners are picking up on things. They're hearing some background on things. It's good. And we hope that you're super pumped. But Sophia is doing something pretty cool, which you can just mention what she's applied for. She's a cool kid. You know, Nikki and I both have great kids. She has a son and a daughter, and they're older, and my daughter's only 15. But my daughter just got accepted to be in the Miss Teen New Jersey pageants, which is, like, fabulous. But at the same time, if you knew me, you'd be like, how did that happen? I'm like the person that's in, like, sweats and T-shirts and Uggs, flip flops, never make up, hair in a bun. My daughter's obsessed with, like, hair and makeup and being done and this and that. So now, like, I am now a pageant mom, which is really funny. So maybe pageant mom will be another episode. But anyhow, super exciting. I can't wait to hear that process. Yeah. So Nikki has grown children. So let's talk about your grown children. Oh, my grown children? They won't let me talk about them. I'm already, you know, the cringe mom. Oh, cringe mom. Another episode of cringe mom. Yeah. She's cringe, right? That's their favorite thing. She's so not cringe. She's like this. Okay. First of all, Nikki is not the cringe mom. But I can't imagine for a kid she's a cringe mom. But she's an amazing mom. But my kids are, one's finished college and is in the real world working. And that's my son. He's my first born. And then you have my second born. She's in college right now. But she's good. She definitely, she's like we are. We are. Like you hit the ground running. She's working. She's going to school. So it's great to see. She's a force of nature. I actually know her. That girl is a force of nature. Yeah. Yeah. And they're both just amazing. Like the fact that they went through school and, you know, head down and just did very well. And that's the thing. You know, imagine, like, okay, so we're both sitting here talking about how we both like love our kids and think our kids are great. Like, okay, so I run a service-based business. I've had clients over the years that actually can't stand their kids. And imagine, like, you can't even say these things. I don't know. I think I'm taking this podcast into a different direction. But imagine you can't even say that, you know. Some of my clients in the past have been like, oh, my God, I can't stand my kid. He's like this, he's that, he's whatever. You know, and I just, we're super pumped. And I think that a lot of, you know, a lot of things we'll talk about in these podcasts are just, like, how to navigate when you're unhappy with your kid. And, you know, do you like your kid? Do you not like your kid? Are you happy with the decisions that they make? And, you know, whatever. I mean, I could really go to the max with that. Like, are my parents, and, again, both of my parents are deceased, but, like, you know, would they be proud of me as a mother to my kids? Are they proud of me? You know, whatever. Blah, blah, blah. I'm totally going off until we get there. No, it's okay. It's okay. I feel like you take over. Okay, I can take over. Take over. Let's see, where do we want to lead this? Well, okay, how are we doing on time here? Oh, we're good. Are we good on time? We're so good on time. Okay. I'm looking at the clock there. So, okay, let me jump back into where I am with my certifications, I guess. So I can say I finished the sound healing certification. That took about two years. And then I've gotten other certifications, and I'm working on my 500-level certification right now, which. . . What that means is for a 500-hour level teacher training to be a 500-hour yoga instructor. So I try to qualify that. Yeah, because sometimes maybe people don't know. People don't know. Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually a big deal, you know. If somebody's going for their 500-hour, that means they're not just screwing around. You know, there's a lot of people that just screw around to get their 200-hour. . . Again, that should be another podcast, talking about 200-hour versus 500-hour teacher trainings. But, you know, there's a lot of people that just get their 200-hour yoga teacher training to, quote, unquote, deepen their practice, you know. That's the saleable point of spending $3,000 to do a teacher training. And I say that as someone who has owned a yoga studio. This woman here has also owned a fitness studio and still continues to do. Yes. Own her own business. It's true. Amazing. It's true. It's true. There's lots to say about that. But I will say, you know, to become a 500-hour yoga teacher trainer is a commitment. That means that you're fully integrated into the practice. And all the branches. And all the branches. That come along with it. Yeah. All the leaves, all the branches. Yeah. So I'm going to try to wrap that up. And I'll talk, of course, a few trainings in between. And I'm a Reiki master, and I've done all the way with that. So with the Utsui lineage. So that's pretty cool to be able to integrate Reiki and sound and yoga. And we just finished aerial training. So lots of fun stuff. Just to. . . I think it's like a tool belt. And we're just tucking all these things into the tool belt to make us better people on the daily basis. I think. To make us better people and to give us more tools to help other people. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's true. We're helping other people, too. But first, I think you're learning all this stuff to help yourself. Well, I think that's fundamentally the mainstay of it. Yeah. So then you can offer these healings to other people. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, you can actually. . . Yeah. See, again, people. There's, like, so many things we could talk about. Can you help other people if you can't help yourself? That's a pretty heavy one, you know? I think it has to start with you helping yourself first. It has to start with you helping yourself first. And, you know, when you go into yoga and the wellness industry, it's very sexy right now. Very sexy. Oh, I want to be a yoga teacher. Oh, I want to have my picture on Instagram. Oh, I'm going to wear my Lululemon and show my ripped abs in, you know, whatever. Whatever pose. I can't even think of a pose. But, yes, a lot of it. . . A sexy pose. No, no, let's think of a sexy pose. No, no, I want to think of a sexy pose. Anyone knows a sexy pose. Oh, like legs up the lamppost and stuff like that. Right. Things I will never do. I'm going to do a split in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York City in the middle of winter in my Lululemon and I'm going to look hot and sexy. You know, that's so crazy. Well, so, right. So, I believe, like, you brought me into the integral yoga world and where everyone is, they're wearing maybe orange, like all the Swamis. Well, the Swamis are orange and everybody else is white. Right, and it's beautiful and they're covered up. And it's not like white tight, like Lululemon. No. It's like white and loose and comfortable. And they're modest. Yeah. It's an air of modesty. Absolutely. And that's what it should be about. Being humble. I want more of humble in the world, but that's another story. Yeah. I mean, okay, this is like, you know, the dichotomy of the yoga world. You know, there's yoga, sexy yoga, I'll call it. There's sexy yoga and then there's yoga yoga. And me and Nick are about yoga yoga. And then there's sexy yoga. And it's not like a jealousy yoga. It's like, you know, yoga, we can talk about the definition of yoga. I mean, yoga is about basically setting your ego aside, getting in touch with your true nature. And it's really not about being able to move your body in crazy positions. It's about being able to be still long enough to meditate, get in touch with your inner self, to get in touch with your true nature, to release yourself of ego, release yourself of judgment against you, so on and so forth. And it's beautiful. And it makes me sad yet happy that it has taken on such a tremendous whirlwind across the United States and, you know, the Western world. In a good way, I think it's beautiful, because I think everybody really can benefit from the practice of yoga. But on the sad end, it's upsetting that I don't really think that people understand what yoga is. You know, people go to hot yoga studios and they sweat and then they post their little selfies after with their teeny tiny outfits. And that's all great. And, like, yes, you look great. Yes, your cleavage is great. Yes, your abs are great. But that's really not what yoga is about. In fact, when you really delve into the, oh, my God, the dogs are going nuts. So we're going to talk about the dogs for a second. Me and Nikki both love dogs. We'll actually dedicate an entire podcast to just dogs. But when you're actually, when you really look into, when you actually really study the philosophy of yoga, you realize that yoga, that the whole point of the movement practice of it, is so your body is agile and elongated and stretched out and fit enough to actually sit in meditation for long periods of time. Because once you are in meditation and you're able to sit in meditation for a long time, you ultimately reach enlightenment. And, you know, the yoga sutras only have three sutras that actually talk about asana, which is the movement part of it. And all I ever say is, you know, you sit in all these postures so you can meditate without your body hurting. That's really, like, the fundamental reason. Like, we stretch our bodies so our bodies don't hurt. You know, that's it. Like, literally, that's it. So when you went to integral yoga and you were doing the meditating all day long, which was that for? That was for integrations for my yoga therapy program. And we had to meditate for two hours a day. I couldn't even imagine that would be it. It was fantastic. It was not fantastic at the start. But by the end, I missed it, you know. I really missed it. And, you know, you meditate in order to, like, be still and start to train your mind to create space to be still and calm and to be able to actually figure out the bullshit in your life, you know. If you're constantly in a state of crazy, you never give your mind space to figure things out. And when you meditate, you give your mind space. And you train your mind to be able to do so. Anyway, I mean, I know this is probably boring for some people.