(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) The easy answer, and I admit the one
that I have been guilty of from time
to time, is a kind of black and
white thinking that makes you think that taking
the spiritual out of practices like yoga, and
meditation and mindfulness is a Western thing to
do.
And to some extent, that is true.
However, that type of thinking also does not
fully grasp the work of Swami Vivekananda, as
well as BK Iyengar, and others who are
working very diligently to bring yoga to audiences
in Europe, in the Americas.
And I've sat with this, I've taken several
classes on yoga, on Buddhism, on histories, both
medieval and earlier histories and more modern histories.
I've read a lot of books, I have
a lot more books to read, just I've
really sat with this.
And the answer that I have kind of
come to is that, while my personal preference
is to incorporate the spiritual into my practice,
I also choose to look at it a
little differently than a lot of those who
are proposing the black and white thinking.
And that's what I wanted to talk to
you about today.
You're listening to Feathermane Soul Wisdom, a podcast
for those looking to rediscover their wild spirit
in spite of life's challenges.
If you're living with a chronic illness or
neurodivergent or consider yourself disabled, and you're looking
to connect with your own inner untamed essence,
then this show is for you.
Your host is Kit Kaelstoe, Wild Spirit Storyteller.
Thanks for listening.
And now on to the episode.
I'm Kit Kaelstoe, your host.
And I want to start today by going
over a topic that I know you've heard
me talk about before, but I feel like
it really sets the groundwork for what we're
about to discuss, which is regulating your nervous
system, using tools to regulate your nervous system
as a form of devotion and in conjunction
with your spirituality without necessarily falling into the
thinking that you may have about what spirituality
is, specifically religion.
So I always like to begin these conversations
by just reiterating that when I talk about
spirituality, I am not talking about organized religion
or religious faiths, or any sort of belief
in a deity or deities or spiritual deity
religious system.
That's not what I'm talking about.
When I talk about spirituality, I follow the
dictionary definition that is found in the Merriam
-Webster dictionary, m-w.com if you want
to look it up, that basically says spirituality
is a devotion to something larger than yourself.
Full stop.
Doesn't define what that is, doesn't state that
that has to be within a certain belief
system within a certain religious framework.
It's simply a devotion to something larger than
yourself.
That could be a concept.
So in today's conversation, we're talking about tools
like yoga and meditation that often had a
spiritual or religious component to them, but not
necessarily depending on who's teaching, what school and
lineage everything came from.
Or they may have been completely removed from
that, which is something that's happened a lot
as these tools have become studied more diligently
for their health benefits.
So we see this in Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction, MBSR, which is taught, I believe, at
Brown University.
I know I'm on their mailing list.
I really want to take some of their
classes eventually.
We could look at, there is a form
of Yoga Nidra that was specifically developed to
help veterans with PTSD.
And when we look at that, I know
there's also a hospital in Texas.
I've heard the gentleman speak that's doing a
lot of work with meditation and mindfulness in
cancer patients.
So when you think about the health benefits
that these have, meditation, mindfulness, being present, and
the ways that they're studied for pain relief,
for relaxation, for sleep, for mental health conditions,
then the spirituality is pretty much divorced from
them.
What I would like to talk to you
about today is to bring the spirituality back.
And the larger than yourself.
And again, I just want to say it
could be a concept.
And with that concept, we could think of
it as inner peace, relaxation, feeling good, whatever
good means to you, being calm and present.
That could be a concept that is part
of your devotion.
It could also be a devotion on a
larger level, for example, like the planet, or
compassion.
It could also be devotion, or thinking of
connecting with the universe, the broader universe, the
global community of humanity.
Whatever that concept or whatever they bring to
you, that would be part of spirituality.
And the reason why I mentioned this is
because there is a school of yoga called
bhakti yoga.
Bhakti is devotion.
And the devotion of bhakti takes many different
forms.
Bhakti comes from the Sanskrit root bhaj, which
means to divide, share, or partake.
And it implies a two-way sharing of
love and affection between the devotee and the
divine.
It is not just an emotion, it is
also considered to be an active, committed engagement.
So bhakti is something that you do, you
experience it, but you experience it through the
act of doing.
Bhakti yoga is considered one of the primary
methods or yogas to achieve that spiritual realization
of union with the divine.
And to do that, you're going to use
love and affection as an active bond that
unites your consciousness with divine consciousness.
And it is very accessible.
And it also emphasizes simple actions, like an
offering, like a flower, a cup of water,
over more expensive rituals, over more specific rigid
rituals.
And you can find this devotion expressed a
lot of times through singing or chanting or
reciting hymns, something that you may experience if
you ever watch videos like on YouTube of
like kirtan.
There are also seva, or performing acts of
service as an offering to the God.
And I'm talking about God here.
But I think it's important to note that
in Hindu philosophy, everything is an expression of
Brahma or the universal divine.
And so even though there may be different
deities, even though there may be different actions,
it is all the universal divine spark.
And your your bhakti or your devotion or
love also connects with the spark of divinity
inside of you.
So if we broaden our lens just a
little bit, you know, one of the things
that has really resonated with me is hearing
that the you know, we are all the
universe made flesh, we are the universe trying
to figure itself out.
And so it's doing that in human form.
So if our devotion is to the universe
or to the wall, the wider community of
humanity, then that bhakti or that devotion could
be to humanity in general, the spark of
the universe that is inside all humans, the
spark of the universe that unites all of
us.
And I think that's important to think about
because when we talk about neuro, when we
talk about our nervous system regulation, the things
that come along with that neuro nervous system
regulation is sometimes a lot of feelings that
we're not worthy.
We might feel that we're different from other
humans that we don't know how to human
correctly, that we don't quite feel like we're,
you know, we're right, we feel like we're
broken, we feel like we're wrong.
And a lot of that has to do
with the stories that we were told by
other people trying to get us to conform
to their ideas of what humanity should be
like, or what we should be like, as
far as somebody that's connected with their cultural
beliefs and ideas.
And so, for me, when we start thinking
about radical kindness or radical acceptance to of
ourselves, radical love to ourselves, to me Bhakti
falls right into that same line of thinking
that it is radical devotion to ourselves, not
in a way that places us above anybody
else, not in a way that says that
we're better than anybody else.
But a radical devotion to ourselves or radical
love to ourselves, because we are just as
worthy of devotion, or we are just as
worthy of love as anybody else on this
planet.
It's the kind of thought process where if
you start if you if you get into
that mindset where you feel like you're not
worthy, or you feel like you're not deserving
of something, then you start to think, well,
you know, if these other people are deserving
of it, what do they have that I
don't?
And there may be material things or physical
things that they have that you don't.
But at the end of the day, as
far as we know, you know, we're all
human.
You know, we're all human and those physical
things really have absolutely no bearing on our
humanness, or our worth and our deservingness of
things that every human is deserving of human
rights, housing, food, water, love, companionship, companionship,
understanding, self determination, I could go on the
list of things that we are all deserving
of, and that no one has a right
to take away from anybody else is very
long.
And it is very egalitarian, because we all
have the same rights to those.
And so to me, bhakti is a devotion
or a love of self.
Because through that I am connecting with the
part of me that is connected to the
larger world that's connected to the divine, the
ecosystem inside my body, that mirrors the ecosystem
of this planet.
And I actually have a podcast, probably in
a couple of weeks, I think I haven't
looked at my schedule recently, that will be
talking a bit about that.
The ways in that my wild nature, the
parts of my brain that maybe aren't considered
as civilized, like my amygdala, that that, you
know, that lizard brain, science and psychology calls
it the lizard, the amygdala, the lizard brain,
because it's very much fight, flight, free, flee,
freeze.
But it also has those very primal urges.
And no matter, you know, how fancy our
clothes, no matter how civilized we think of
ourselves, we all still have those primal urges.
And what sets us apart is our relationship
with our fellow beings on this planet, and
how we treat our fellow beings on this
planet.
So when we think about bhakti, and devotion
to nervous system regulation, I really think for
me, it's taking the scientific minded, the prescription
that I have spoken against, and I still
do, I feel like we can't just prescribe
yoga or prescribe meditation.
While I can certainly tell you that they
help.
And the way that I approach them is
different from just like writing a prescription for
a medicine.
I also think we are all different enough
that it's very much not one size fits
all.
And I think one of the keys to
finding a way of meditation that works for
you is to be able to find a
way to access or that makes that practice
accessible to you, a way to make that
practice work for you.
And bhakti or devotion is one way to
do that.
So how does that look when we're talking
about nervous system regulation?
First of all, what is nervous system regulation?
Well, there are probably as many different definitions
of that as there are practitioners, and then
you can probably double that number of definitions.
For me, when my nervous system is regulated,
it means that if I am triggered, so
let me back up a bit.
When I talk about nervous system regulation, I
am not talking about never, ever being triggered,
never ever being depressed, never ever having an
experience that is less than ideal.
When I'm talking about nervous system regulation, I'm
talking about being in tune with your body,
in tune with your thoughts, in tune with
what's going on with your mind.
And this may be difficult, especially for my
neurodivergent community, because one of the great stories,
and great is in air quotes there, that
we're told by the people around us when
we're younger, is that we can't trust what
our own body is telling us, what our
own mind and body and nervous system is
telling us that something is too much and
overwhelming.
We're told we need to ignore that because
of some random arbitrary reason.
So one of the first acts of bhakti
or devotion is simply listening to yourself and
honoring what your body is telling you.
Being curious.
For me, curiosity goes hand in hand with
devotion.
Because when I am curious about something, I
want to explore it.
I want to learn more about it.
I want to find out how it fits
in my world or in my worldview, and
how I can connect with it.
You know, it's like when you when you
see a cat, maybe it's a stray cat,
and you may crouch down and you'll hold
out your hand and make the noise.
You know, you're curious.
You're like, Who are you?
You know, are you friendly?
Would you like attention?
What do you need?
It's that sort of, I'd like to get
to know you better, but I'd like to
do that on your own terms, not rush
over, pick you up and squeeze you in
a big hug.
That might be fun for you.
Not so much fun for the stray cat.
Likewise, for your nervous system.
Your nervous system is going to freak out
if you do that.
It is much easier to take a slow,
cautious, curious, Hey, okay, I'm feeling something.
What am I feeling?
What is coming up for me?
Oh, I'm realizing I'm overwhelmed by this sensation
in my body.
I should probably quit ignoring that sensation, which
for me recently was my chronic pain, and
actually tried to do something to help it
and see if I can't bring my overwhelm
levels down.
And lo and behold, if I actually tried
to treat my pain, instead of ignoring it,
I can bring my overwhelm levels down.
That's bhakti, inaction, devotion to yourself to regulate
your nervous system.
So when I talk about regulating the nervous
system, I'm talking about being aware.
So if you are triggered, because it's going
to happen, it's not something we can avoid
no matter how much you try.
Especially if like me, you're a ADHD, because
the the quiet calmness that soothes the autism
kind of drives the ADHD part of your
brain up the wall.
So it's trying to find that happy medium.
And sometimes you go too far in either
direction.
So when you have that regulated nervous system,
you can recognize Oh, I just got triggered.
Okay.
What do I need right now?
And if you don't know what you need
right now, can I just sit with this
feeling and explore it?
Or can I just sit with this feeling
and be curious about it?
Okay, maybe I'll try some some breathing exercises.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Okay, I'm feeling calmer now.
That seems to work.
Let's do that a little bit more.
You know, I'm not I'm not talking about
a strenuous, you know, like hot yoga practice.
You know, oh, I've been sitting at the
computer hyper focusing for an hour working on
something.
Maybe I should move.
So I'm going to get up, I'm going
to stretch, I'm going to do a couple
yoga poses.
Okay, that felt good.
Do I need to do some more?
Am I ready to sit back down and
work for another stretch?
What do I need to do here?
You know, I start my morning with a
sun salutation with a small yoga practice.
Because that kind of that settles me after
the nightmares I have in the evenings when
I sleep.
You know, okay, now I'm settled.
Now I can face my day, that sort
of thing.
So when we start thinking about those practices,
not as prescriptions, not as medicinal practices, but
rather as care and devotion that we deserve,
and that we are entitled to, we can
begin to combine bhakti or love, or the
spiritual, you know, the spiritual connection with something
larger than ourselves, with being in tune with
our own body, with understanding that our body
is made of star stuff, the same elements
that are in the stars are in our
bodies are in our earth is in everything
around us.
And so we have that larger connection.
We have that connection with the wild earth
with with the earth that we try to
tame, you know, thunderstorms roll through.
Well, if you think about your system, you
know, storms roll through your body as well.
That's what tears are.
When you cry, that's a that's an emotional
release.
You know, the the emotions, the hormones, the
cortisol that all gets too much in the
body.
And it and for me, it comes out
my eyes.
And so I cry.
You know, when the grief gets to be
too heavy or too much, it builds up
like energy in the atmosphere.
So if you start to connect those two
things, you start to see that just like
there is gentle waves, as well as larger
waves when there are storms, but there's always
movement on this planet.
There's always cycles.
There's always times of rest, followed by times
of activity.
And when you think about all of that,
and you make that connection, then incorporating those
those cycles, those movements, the periods of rest,
the nervous system regulation into your own body.
When you start to combine all of that,
you really start to see that we are
connected to something larger than ourselves.
So I know I've been speaking very, very
abstract.
I've been speaking kind of in big sweeping
generalizations here for this podcast.
So I would I would like to just
invite you to think about maybe not even
something as strenuous as a full sun salutation
or a full session of yoga.
I'd like to invite you that when things
start feeling overwhelming, when things when you start
feeling like when you get that, you know,
that drumbeat of too much, too much, too
much in your brain, when I invite you
just to stop, take a deep breath, release
that breath, and just bring your focus back
to your body and back to your breath.
That for a moment, you can set aside
the too much, the to do list, the
everything you need to do the people, the
critters you need to take care of, the
chores, the finances, the job, everything that this
life throws at us.
Set that aside for 30 seconds to a
minute and just breathe and see how that
feels.
It might feel really good.
It might feel really weird if you're not
used to that kind of, okay, I need
to take 30 seconds for me devotion.
You might feel as if you're doing something
wrong.
You might feel as if you're going to
get in trouble if you take time for
yourself.
Because again, that's another one of those stories
that kind of gets, you know, pushed into
our psyches.
Whatever you're feeling after that 30 seconds is
perfectly normal and I don't want you to
give up on it.
If your brain tells you, oh, I took
30 seconds, I want to get in trouble.
I invite you to be curious.
Will I?
Does something come up in the next hour,
in the next 30 minutes, in the next
10 minutes that would make you think that
you're getting in trouble?
Now, if you're at a work environment and
you take 30 seconds to breathe and somebody
says something to you, I want to tell
you that, you know, that very clearly is
not a healthy, that that is a toxic
work environment.
Unfortunately, too many of our work environments are
toxic.
But I want to reassure you that if
that happens, that's not your fault.
If you need to take 30 seconds to
breathe and you're in an environment that doesn't
allow you 30 seconds to breathe, that's not
a good environment to be in.
That's an environment that thrives off of making
you feel bad.
And I would encourage you to think about
what you might need to do to change
that.
I understand that not everybody can.
I understand that there are, there are times
when you just have to, you know, be
where you are and make the best of
it.
And so what I might encourage you to
do is if you get home, take that
time to breathe when you get home when
you're alone.
Just check in with yourself periodically over the
next week.
What can I do to support myself?
What do I need right now?
How can I help myself feel more regulated?
That is bhakti.
That is a true act of devotion.
That is an act of love.
And that is an act of love that
has ripples across everything that you do.
And it has ripples even outside of yourself.
So I hope that you've enjoyed this conversation.
I hope that it has sparked food for
thought.
And I look forward to the next episode
of Feathermane Soul Wisdom Show.
Please take a moment to like and subscribe.
And if this resonated with you, leave a
comment.
I love to hear from my listeners.
Thank you.
You've been listening to the Feathermane Soul Wisdom
Podcast hosted by Kit Kelstoe.
Learn more about Feathermane Soul at feathermanesoul.com.
As a wild spirit storyteller, Kit is passionate
about helping those who are neurodivergent, disabled, or
living with chronic illness rediscover their own inner
wild spirit.
Visit feathermanesoul.com to receive free gifts or
book a free call with Kit to discuss
how wild spirit storytelling can help you.
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