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Changing Our Relationship with Rest with Chelsea Jackson Roberts

Hey everybody, what's up? It's Chase Welcome to another episode of the Chase Jarvis live show here on Creative Live. This just show where I sit down with incredible humans and I do everything I can to share their vision with you to help you unlock your dreams and career hobby in life. And my guest today is dr Chelsea Jackson roberts. You may be familiar with her work in the event that you're not. This episode is a treat schoolteacher turned yoga instructor and now one of the most popular instructors on peloton, you probably know that platform, but the fact that she is a yoga instructor and that she has come for from teaching, it may not be a surprise to you, but her story, the details of her story, how she listened to the things that were true for her made changes in her life and now seeks to connect with others, to build community around the things that she loved. Now if that sounds like something that you might be interested in transitioning out of your current universe to something ...

new or if you can if you desire to light a new fire in your life. Dr Chelsea is here for you, you do not want to miss this episode. She's had a very non traditional path. We talk a lot about showing up in the world about you can't be what you can't see. So how do you present and what can you do to make your dreams come true and then inspire others. If any of this sounds interesting if you're on a career customer transition or you want to be inspired by someone who's chased their dreams. This episode is for you, I'm going to get out of the way and again, please enjoy this conversation with dr Chelsea Jackson roberts. Mhm. Mhm. We love you so happy to have dr Chelsea Jackson roberts with today. Chelsea. Thank you so much for being on the show. Welcome. Thank you Chase. I'm so happy to be here and talk with you today. Well, I am a huge fan of your, the way you operate in the world, the actions that you take on a regular basis. I follow you. Um I'm familiar with you from the peloton community from yoga. I know you've got a long history and education which maps to my um my heart and soul of my personal background as well. My wife's background, she was a teacher for a long time, but for the handful of people who might be watching or listening and aren't familiar with with you. Your journey, in your own words, I was hoping you would start today off by orienting us to a little bit about yourself. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Again, thank you. Chase for having me. I am dr Chelsea Jackson roberts. You can call me Chelsea and um I am a former elementary school teacher. I always love to lead with that because it's kind of an unconventional way of arriving to being a skeleton teacher. Now, politan instructor and so you know my my journey has definitely been integrated with a lot of education. My mom taught School, she taught public school back in Ohio for 35 years. My father was a probation officer and then ended up going back to my old high school to work in the alternative school. And so I knew from an early age how important education was for me. And so I graduated from Spelman College, a historically black college in Atlanta for all women and that is where I studied child development. And after that I went out to new york, I did my masters program at teachers College, Columbia University and international Education. I had these dreams that I was going to travel the world and teach in some way, shape or form and I went back to Atlanta and actually became an elementary school teacher where I taught for eight years and that was amazing. A lot of lessons learned there and that's where I started practicing yoga because it was quite demanding. Um, I always say it wasn't the Children, it was the demands of being a schoolteacher in a title one school where the majority of the community live below the poverty line where we had a lot of challenges and I found myself quite stressed. I would have moments where I would go during lunch and just cry in my car sometimes because I was just so overwhelmed with the day and I started practicing yoga. I started practicing yoga because I would see people who I knew practice yoga and I was just like, wow, they looked like they just got it like it wasn't like they were necessarily happy all the time, but they just had this sense of self, the sense of, of understanding life and I was just, I was just intrigued. And I picked up my first Rodney yee yoga book and I started to like going through the pages and wanted to teach myself and then I walked into my first yoga class and that was a hot yoga class and I fainted in that yoga class and I was just like, so this is what it's about. So just knocks you out onto the floor and then you figure it out later. But it really did, that is my entree into yoga. It was at a time where I truly needed to put myself back together and here we are. What a journey. And I have a little bit of a confession when I familiarized myself with your work. Uh it was like four or five, you know how these things happen in life like four or five times you entered into my world. You were recommended on instagram to friends of mine were talking about taking your classes on peloton and then I saw a meditation with yourself and uh someone who is very famous in the world and that's jennifer Garner and I just, all of these things happen within like a two week period and then I started really of course stalking you on the internet as one does and to know just a little bit about your story and it it parallels so much the story of my wife, she was a schoolteacher, a middle school teacher, burnt out, found hot yoga, she went and studied under beat room for a long time and that was, that was a decade and change ago and then pursued a career in educating herself around meditation and mindfulness. And I'm looking at your story and her story and being so inspired by the work that you have done. I just wanted to have you on the show hoping that you could talk about the journey specifically from being burned out to to where you are today, because there are so many people who are listening and watching right now that for any number of reasons they could even doing something that they love, but they're at a position in their either their career arc or their life arc that that's presenting some challenges. We've all just, you know, we're working our way through a pandemic. So there's been more stress than normal and your, the way that you navigated from burnt out to now, you know what, what appears to be just thriving and I'm wondering if you can sort of walk us through what were some of the key milestones, the key mindset changes along your journey because people, people want to know your you've navigated some treacherous, hard, hard stuff and love for you to tell me a little bit of a story if you can about your journey. Oh absolutely. So I told you my entree to yoga um in the way that was purely physical. And later in my life, after graduating from Spelman, I had a a pretty large tragedy happened in my life and that was losing my best friend misty and she was murdered and that was something that I had never experienced ever in life, especially as a young woman in her early twenties, I, my life came to a complete halt and that was when I started to think about how I felt in my yoga classes because I wasn't making this connection to my mental, my emotional, it was just like yoga feels good. I just wanted to let go of all the stress in some way. But I remember the feeling that I would get every time and I was in a big from yoga class, every time I would look in the mirror and every time I would see my eyes and I would see myself staring back and there was just something different of how I saw myself in that moment. It was just raw. It was like the layers were being peeled back and I was really seeing who Chelsea was at her core and how life in general. This took me further away from it. And yoga meditation got me closer to that. I want to say that for my entire life. I've been an overachiever. I think that many of your listeners probably can identify with that as well if they're even tuning in there. We spend a lot of time, we try and talk them down off overachieving, they come here because they think they're going to get the secrets and then we try and help them manage all the rest of the stuff that comes with that. You're correct. Yeah. And so, you know, I didn't even mention in my journey that I just casually earned a ph d from Emory University over the course of five years and it was just like I kept going, going going and my relationship to rest was not the best because I even used yoga as a way to, you know, um cultivate, you know, strength in my body in the physical sense and to like keep my body in check in terms of like my weight and all of these physical very surface things. But it was once I started to scratch that surface and I was like Chelsea, it is so much more than this. And I started to learn how practices like yoga nedra, like deep relaxation, like these things that really restorative yoga that got me to really slow down and listen. That was the challenging part. I had the, the venue casa the ashtanga moving fast going to the hot yoga. It was the moment where I was in those long Chivas china's where all the tears started to pour out and that just made me curious. I was just like, what is it about the stillness? About this quiet that is getting me so emotional. That's making me not even want to come back to yoga because it's terrifying to see myself in that way. And so I believe chase that this practice was placed in my life for the purpose of slowing me down so that I could truly understand my why as to why I was trying to overachieve why I was trying to accomplish these things and it's deeply connected to my community. I'm a black american african american, my family. I've been a obsessed with ancestry. So to trace my family back to the plantations where they were like those are my wives. And so when you get that fire in you of like wanting to figure out where am I from? Like who am I? It can cause me to go nonstop stay up all night and then I try to show up and try to leave people in yoga and I'm exhausted and I'm just like, well this isn't making any sense. And so it is in that stillness in that slowness and you've practiced with me on pellet in, you'll see that I have a lot of deep relaxation and a lot of, you know those moments so that we can be still and know and that has certainly been essential in my journey in the hardest part. It's fascinating to me the connection you mean you mentioned on your journey and the fact that we're all doing everything we can to emerge from a global pandemic where we've had to reassess priorities, What are the things that make your heart sing or look at that job that was burning you out? And it is not uncommon, as I mentioned, my wife was a middle school teacher, just like you taught so hardcore, did everything for the kids did before school stuff, after school stuff, lead the students stored and overachievers. That system has a way of burning you out. And the same could be said for all of the different people listening and watching in a pandemic, trying to raise your kids, go to go to school or work on a computer, You know, so many people in our community living at one or two bedroom apartment and have a couple of kids and just all of these pressures have made so many people re evaluate their priorities. So the question is, as someone who has done such an amazing job building community around what it is that you love when you tried to shift out of becoming a teacher and into the next chapter, where did you look, where did you even decide to start because most people, they have forgotten at some point what it is that they love, what, you know, so how did you start to make that transition for somebody who might be stuck right now? What would you say to them? Yeah, I thought being a teacher, I actually started Spellman as a bio premed and I took my first, like, one of the math classes, I was like, oh, this isn't for me, I'm gonna go ahead and change this major. Then I changed my major to music, I've played classical piano since I was five years old and competed throughout even my early adulthood and I was just like, I'm gonna be a music major and I was just like, no, and the one thread that was connecting it all was my love for learning, my love of being a student, my love of learning new things of identifying who my teachers are and I think that that is key with yoga, that is a key part of the process of having your teacher being a part of a lineage. I'm a part of a lineage of teachers to always remind me that I'm always a student because the moment that I'm like, okay, I got it, everything I'm done. I'm like, what is the purpose of life anymore? If I've, I've arrived? So it's my love for learning new things. It's my love for education. It's my love, my love for connecting communities in a way to learn from each other, who may have never connected, ever. Like you and I having this connection right now, talking about yoga, it lights my my fire to be able to talk to someone in another country, another part of the world that we can connect on this moment of saying, yeah, I know what that feels like because by definition yoga means union to unite to yoke and for me this life is all about learning as much as I can for the purpose of connection for the purpose of me to use my experiences to understand the experiences of others. I often quote James baldwin and knowing that there is suffering in the world and the best thing that we can do with that is understand and unpack our own suffering so that we can understand and empathize with the suffering of others so that we can now take that suffering and move deeper into understanding and into love. And it's just, it's what life is to me, I can't and I haven't met one person who hasn't experienced suffering on some level, especially as we live longer on this earth. And so yeah, that was what it was. I knew that I wanted to always be committed to learning and Yoga every time I step onto my mat or every time I sit on my cushion I'm learning something more about myself or I'm taking an experience in life and I'm unpacking it there in my practice. And so that's the that's the undergirding like theme here for me is learning lifetime student and connection Well, it's not an accident that I myself started a lifelong learning company because like you became obsessed with this idea of always growing always changing. Nothing is static and anything that looks static as soon as you look one layer, you know, beneath the surface, you realize that that is, you know, you've heard it said many times as I have, the only constant is change and so so to be able to learn to pursue the things that interest you I think is one of the gifts of the modern era, the fact that we can, you know, be on this show together right now and has access to being able to hear you and your journey. You mentioned the word empathy, I think in connection um in relation to uh, to your journey. And it's a good departure point for I was able to tune into your meditation recently with jennifer Garner around specifically around empathy and there's a balance, we joked about the people in our community are here for the shortcuts and then we end up telling them how to, you know, giving them tools for helping to unlearn so many of the tools that culture has taught so many of the habits and things that culture has taught us. But I was intrigued uh in this meditation that you did with jennifer Garner to fight about finding the balance between ease and effort. Yes, we're all, you know, no one who's listening here is going to be putting their feet on the couch, there are a lot of overachievers and it has always been difficult for me to uh reconcile. My wife practices a handful of different things and, and just, you know, just being able to be okay with any outcome and I'm like, yeah, but how does that reconcile with pushing harder and winning and achieving a and so I'm wondering if you can for, for the benefits of those listening just do a little bit of a recap. Again. I would encourage people on, on jennifer dot garner her instagram where you guys shared and I think was on yours as well. Um, to be able to and yours as Chelsea loves yoga in case people are missing. It's a great channel. So recap for us and help us remedy this. What seems to be a conflict between effort and ease. Yeah, absolutely. So I received that teaching from my teacher Sammy gee Davey in Atlanta and it was always, I heard her say at one time and I was just like, oh my gosh, like we were in warrior two and she was like, find the effort and ease in this costume, like what does that mean? And I'm just like, oh, that's what it means, where it's like, okay, I'm working here, but it's through the breath that I'm able to find that ease and to me that's what life is, is that Evan flow that, you know, every day is not going to be the best day in the world I wanted to be, but it won't be. And honestly why why should it? Because if we're going to have this full human experience that allows us to open our hearts to those who may not have the best days, as we know, there are whole communities that are having really tough days right now, tragic days right now. And just because I'm not necessarily they're located in this space or experiencing what an individual may go through. It doesn't mean that I can't open my heart to the compassion, to the just the invitation to understand what they're going through and each time I do that it allows space for me to do that for myself. I am often times and I think a lot of people out here can relate my biggest critic to the place to the point where I can have these internal conversations with myself, like if I didn't do my over achieving the way that I thought that I was and I'm like Chelsea, why did you make that commitment? Why did you overextend yourself? Like all these things, beating myself up. I have to pause and remind myself in that empathy in that that effort in this moment of ease of saying, you know what you are human, you need to rest, you need to use your practice as a form of rest as opposed to the dynamic practice, which is great as well. But it's through that empathy to me that we become more human and that we embrace our own experience even more because again, we cannot. I said this to jennifer, it was just like if I see something and someone else, I do this meditation where I send love to a person who may be seen as an enemy to a person who may be seen as an opponent in life or doesn't have my best interests or I don't agree with and I can still send that person love, why wouldn't I? That is my hope, my hope is that we connect and love just like James baldwin. My hope is that my suffering, you're suffering can get us deeper into that love. And so what I was saying to jennifer was just like when I see something and it bothers me about somebody, all I'm doing is recognizing that part of me that I identify with that thing that's getting underneath my skin. So how dare I say, you know, throw this person away because of their opinion because of what they're doing. And there are people in the world that are doing awful things don't get me wrong. But I have also experienced having those moments that have not been my finer moments. And if I can't embrace myself in those moments, if I can't empathize with the suffering that leads people to do the things that they do, then I'm not gonna be able to recognize and acknowledge it in myself and you cannot compartmentalize your love. You cannot, you know, pick and choose the parts of you that you want to love and the parts of you that you want to pretend, aren't there? There's no way that I can love myself fully. If I don't acknowledge all of those parts and that goes the same for humanity, for this world. And so that's how I I see empathy playing in this practice of meditation. Mm So I'm wondering if school teacher you x number of years ago thought thought that by pursuing the thing that let you up, you said you took a yoga class and you realize I see myself in the mirror. This is I want more of this, more of this unless a detachment that you had from yourself or the burned out part of your experience as a teacher, what did you think that through shifting gears in your career that you would possibly go to having hundreds of thousands of people around the world? You know, tune into you? Not just on peloton but on instagram and all the other channels that you've got with. Did that, did that play a role or was that a surprise? Has that been something you've cultivated? This is a big shift. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about it. I had no idea. Chase, I had no idea that little Chelsea from Dayton Ohio one day, be just, you know, leading jennifer Garner in a meditation right? Or that I would have the reach that I have in this moment and I do. It's never lost on me on how impactful that is, everything that I say every single thing which is quite stressful when you're like, wow, a lot of people are listening, you know? And so I am quite an introvert believe it or not. Um you may believe it, but I'm quite an introverted person. It's actually my husband Shane who really encouraged me to pursue this full time because he saw something in me that I was afraid of in many ways and everyone who knows me knows Shane and they know that I don't give him all the credit, but I give him a significant amount. Because there was this conversation, I remember one day and I was mortified because he told someone, he was like my wife, she's the Lebron James of yoga and I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe he just said that yoga is supposed to be humility. Like relax her. Like do not tell anyone that ever again. And it was just like, no, he was just like, I see something in you, your ability to be able to cut across generations cut across racist communities and to deliver this message of yoga and meditation and essentially it's about love, it's about connections. So I knew that that was powerful. I knew that I had a gift in the sense of school teaching. Like not everybody can do that and those who can, they don't always do it in a way where they wake up and they're like, oh my gosh, I can't wait to go in and learn something new now. I didn't have every wonderful day with third graders with that. Um, but it was this part of me that I knew something was different. I always knew that there was something different about how things sat with me and that goes on the other end to I'm a huge impact, like I absorb a lot. And so when it comes to emotions, yoga and meditation helped me navigate that, it keeps me humble, it keeps me in this place of anchored grounded nous, that reminds me that I'm still a student, it reminds me to always acknowledge my teachers, it reminds me that this is way bigger than me and that I'm just planting the seeds to hopefully have a more livable world for everyone. I want everyone to be happy, healthy and free. I want everyone to be able to tap into their purpose and why they are here so that we can, you know, I feel like I'm really getting in there doubt like getting, they say the wu the area where I'm like spread love, that's really what I want to do and the day that it happened the day that jennifer Garner, you know, um invited me onto her platform the day that peloton sent that email, I had finally gotten to that place where it was just like how dare I not, how dare I not step into this? How dare I not for everything that my ancestors have sacrificed for me to be here and speak freely right now, how dare I not? And so now it's getting easier for me to step into these moments, but I'll tell you it has certainly been a journey for this introvert here. Well let's talk about that for a second because there are a lot of introverts out there listening right this minute, and I think historically the world has been uh dominated by extroverts and we're in a new chapter. It's very, very clear in whether that's the internet or information just moving more quickly these days or it what exactly it is, it doesn't matter. But I wanted to take a second and speak specifically if you would to the introverts and just to clarify before we go into it, I'm going to define that. Being introverted expert, that's how you derive your energy like being, being an introvert as you get energy from being quiet and then you can go out and spend that energy in the world. Um and and extroverts by example would get juiced up by being at a party or being in a very social situation. So now that we have that working definition will call that uh it's a clumsy one, but it's a working definition. So you use you as an introvert speak to the other introverts who are listening right now. And did you always know that about yourself? And what are some of the things that you do now that you're aware of? Your introverted nous to take care of yourself? And what are some things that people might be missing those interferes out there there, they're still feeling a little bit beat up. I'm wondering if you can talk to them for me. Yeah, I think I was I was born in introvert by design. I'm an only child for one. So that was a big part of it. I think that um you know, having my dolls all lined up and teaching them again. I always knew I was going to be a teacher. I found joy in that, like, I did not need a bunch of people to um to tell me that I was doing a good job, although I was over achieving that. That intrinsic desire for me to learn was definitely fed by me just saying I'm bored, I want to learn more. And then people started to notice, like school teachers, when I was in elementary school, they would see how much I was reading. And then I started to write books because I I even said to a teacher one time that I'm not in this book, so I'm gonna write myself in this book, because I didn't see myself my identity in a book and so I think the introvert we have a superpower, I think that that super power is something that people actually worked their entire lives to tap into and I think it's an opportunity for us to embrace what it is that we learn in those quiet moments, those like I was saying those moments of stillness, but then also understanding that balance that again, effort and is I had to also acknowledge that I didn't want to keep this in, I didn't want to keep this to myself and so I actually tried it out on my third graders, that's that's who I felt comfortable trying yoga out on, you know, and meditation out on and then their parents started to have questions and then I'm just like ok, you can come on in and we can do this together, and it was a very organic way that my introverted way started to open up and I had to walk with that, as scary as it was. I was I was really afraid of public speaking so much that and I'm going to just go ahead and take it there every time I would have an opportunity to publicly speak Chase, I would throw up right before I would go on stage and I was like what does this mean? Like why am I so nervous to share my heart, my love with the world and it's because I spent so much time keeping it in and it was the moment of that unlock that I shared the story of misty at makers um a conference that was here and you know, it was in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and I remember it was that moment that I shared that that really traumatic experience that from that day forward, I was able to move forward in sharing my story in a way that other people could hear, listen and learn and so that that is somewhat for me, that shit, that transformative moment, that the one thing that broke my heart the moment that I was able to let it go and not just keep it inside to myself and share it, that was the unlock for me. And so I just encourage introverts out there to continue to listen to continue to allow yourself to be guided by that those internal conversations and then just see those opportunities where all that we've been turning and reflecting on inside could possibly connect with someone out in the world. And so I still have an introvert, like it's funny to be a platonic structure and you know, some of us are existing in there, but for the most part, like I am very like it takes a lot for me to engage um especially in in conversations and small groups or even in large groups, so I kind of think I went all around the world there with my introverted reflections, but I think that's part of what I'm trying to as lifelong extrovert and I'm married married to an introvert and I've learned so much about um the differences between them and even, you know, the fact that we can have have different tendencies. I'm at, you know, an amber vert or whatever if you will, and just how the world's shifting and how the recognition of, you know, this age old piece of wisdom, know thy self, right, identify how you get your energy and you know what you decided to do and how to choose to spend that energy. I think there's just um we're on the cusp of an awakening, I feel like it's starting to, we're starting to acknowledge it, but you have seemed to manage it and navigate it uh so elegantly that I just, I appreciate you sharing um different topic. Peloton is a global phenomenon. It went from being an exercise bike to now um arguably is you know, maybe not by the numbers, but conceptually as popular as netflix, right? This is the concept of having a set of instructors on speed dial. And I'm wondering if you could just talk about how it looks from your side from the side of the teachers, what do you think of what role this community play in your life? You've mentioned that word a couple times, but specifically around peloton, you mentioned a couple of things about it, I'm wondering if you could just go a little deeper. Yeah, so I, so my husband Shane and I moved to new york From Atlanta on March 14, to begin this job for me to begin this job. And if everyone can kind of remind themselves what was going on March the middle of March of 2020 it was a time that was quite tumultuous with the pandemic just starting and us not really knowing what was gonna happen, thinking all this will be over in a couple of weeks, oh, maybe over, maybe a month now. And then it just kept going and for me to land at poll a time where we were one of the platforms that actually had the reach during the pandemic. It was, I don't see it anything but alignment, I don't see it anything but that I could have postponed it. I could have said no, this isn't for me, but instead I stepped into it and I was very familiar with gelatin and a yogi could look an introverted yogi could look and say, oh no, that's not for me. That's nice that they recognize me. But there was something, it was just like let's go for it and Shane and I picked up moved our entire lives from Atlanta to new york and I'm gonna tell you chase this has been one of the wildest rides that has fed my soul in a way that I didn't even realize I needed the reach. The amount of folks who are practicing yoga for the first time because it is I'm pill often because they may have just said, well let me check out this person named Chelsea. She has a Beyonce yoga clouds. Like what is that about? Like all of these things? And it's just like that was my mission to begin. My whole purpose to be a yoga teacher was to open it up to folks who didn't think that this practice was for them because I didn't think that this practice was for me, the first time that I stepped into a yoga space, whether it was my body type or my community that I came from or my ethnicity, like all of these different things, I told myself I did not belong, but to be on a platform as large as politan and to teach yoga and to be me in this body and to share with people around the world at this point as we grow, it has definitely been um one of the wildest rides I've ever experienced, and right now we don't have members in the studio of course, and we haven't, my entire time I've been here, however, I don't know if I've ever had to reach or been able to cast a net as wide as I have been, being that single person in that room, being able to broadcast yoga and meditation around the world. And so it's wild, it is amazing every time I open up my D. M. S. Or my emails are getting invitation to share my story like this one. It's just like wow, like this was what it was all for like that that elementary school teaching that being a little girl in Dayton Ohio, not seeing myself knowing what it feels like to not feel like I belong to be able to empathize and acknowledge other people's suffering no matter what their identity is. That's what it's all been for for me to be able to have this opportunity now. Yeah, that's incredible. And thank you for being so wrong, liberal and sharing. I'm wondering if you could give some advice because right now there are people listening who you know, have either at one point decided not to do as you did to move to new york and when you get the invitation to jump at it because they identify as X, Y or Z. Your they. And I'm wondering, it sounds like, you know, this experience and sort of facing your fears and taking a chance, whether it's because you mentioned earlier ancestry, whatever the motivation was, I'm wondering if you can give some advice or just maybe some heartfelt candor to the folks who either haven't done that. I've had the chance and haven't done it or are on the cusp of have, you know, having the universe present them with the thing and what would you tell those folks if they are on the fence as to whether or not to pursue to pursue that thing. Yeah. I always go back to my wife. I always identify, especially when things get challenging. Like always coming back to my wife. Um also just that part of how dare I not. I love that. I love that phrase. I love that phrase. Yeah. It's just like, why wouldn't I? Because I know that if I say no cancers are, I'm grounded in reality, someone else will be asked and if I know that I can provide exactly what it is that I've been working my entire life for. I will not allow fear to disrespect that moment. So how dare I not? And I was afraid, I was terrified. I was terrified to go in my first audition for bulletin, I shared this on our bulletin blog about, you know, the process of becoming a bulletin instructor and it was like, I was nervous, I was used to going into a yoga studio with my t shirt and sweatpants on and you know, maybe I do my hair, maybe I don't like kind of thing and I'm just like, they're so glamorous and like is this for me? But I had to remind myself Chelsea this is what you've been working for to be able to have this region. So to get back to your question chase of like for those people who are, are kind of considering maybe a shift in their profession or you know, shift in their family structure, It's just like this is the only life that we have, my grandmother is 96 years old. I often refer to her granny and I think about her life and what she shares is a little girl growing in Nashville Tennessee. And I think about the joy that this woman embodies and exudes in every moment. But I know how hard her life has been. I know the things that she's been through yet. She still has this joy in her and it's because she always, I know goes back to her why her wife with her mom who died when she was 10 years old. Her y or my mom and my uncle, my uncle Jolie who just passed in 2019 her. Why is me for her to see me talking with jennifer Garner about meditation and seeing Jennifer Garner looking to me for guidance and meditation like these are those moments of life that we have to hold onto because they're sacred. And so again, how dare we not? This is what we've been working for. And as long as we're aligned in Ry and my yoga and meditation practice always keeps me anchored in that, then we have to take that chance because it would be disrespectful to our life if we didn't. Yeah, you've also mentioned a couple times in our conversation and the research that I've done prior to today with a handful of different articles, I have a phrase that um that conjures up these thoughts and feelings and you can't be what you can't see. And so often in our culture and it's one of the reasons were speaking. I'm I asked you to be on the show is the mhm acknowledgement that you know, seeing yourself as a pellet on teacher, seeing yourself. You talked again about your ancestry. And I'm wondering to me this has been a desire to share the platform that we've created here to learn about others, journey of sharing themselves so that they can be seen and hopefully inspire others. What role has that played in? It's sort of an extension of the same question. Is that been something that you've actively pursued because right now there are people who have a different background that are maybe hiding or haven't been willing to take a chance. And was that a part of your decision process to take this roll this lot in life or is that just ancillary help me understand? Yeah. So I didn't mention our camp yoga literature and art camp for teen girls at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and that is the camp That was a product of my dissertation and my dissertation was about, you know, how can we use yoga meditation to understand process and navigate this world and especially between the ages of 13 through 17 and especially for humans who identify as girls. And it's especially for young girls and especially for young girls of color because that's who I was. And it's what I wish that I would have had. I wish that I could have seen someone who and I did. I had examples I had, you know, examples of, of different yoga instructors who were on the cover of Yoga journal. Let me tell you when Faith Hunter was on the cover of yoga journal, I remember trying to buy like all the yoga journal is like, oh my gosh, I see myself here. And it was essential for me to create a space that I knew that I needed when I was at age. And to me, the more that we, the way that you even invited me chase to be on this podcast. It creates a diversity of experiences of perspective. I believe the more diverse things are the smarter we become, how boring it would be if we were all the same and all, you know, like I I just, I don't want that. Like to me that is where intelligence comes from from diversity of thought and we get that diversity of thought through our experiences. And so it was essential through my journey to provide a different perspective that I had not seen yet when it came to interpreting or understanding yoga and how we could apply yoga and meditation and practical terms, how we can apply it when it comes to been a big part of our peloton. Um, you know tuned a and I uh instructor, a cycle instructor, we do breathe and speak up and it's an opportunity for us to use the platform to use this embodied experience so that people can understand and have those hard conversations about race, about injustices, about historical context that people may not have known existed. And so again it goes back to how there are not if I know this and then I have access to these platforms and I have access and the tools to share that have been working for me, then yeah, I want to share with the world because that is my biggest dream that it becomes so diverse and thought that we get to the place where we can empathize just like it's just like the first time I stepped onto my yoga mat, it wasn't easy, it didn't just come naturally, it felt good, but I had to learn it. And that's the same with life, that's the same with having tough conversations, it's a practice and for me to be a black woman who is, you know from Dayton Ohio, who spent a big part of my life in the south who is now in new york city, that's a perspective that people may or may not identify with. But it opens them to saying, hey I have a story to and I want to share it. And so that's my hope that my showing up gives people the encouragement opportunity and permission. Even sometimes we needed to share their own story. Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story and for being such an inspiration. And again, um I want to take just a second and remind people to, to check you out. Instagram is uh is obviously um a huge piece of your puzzle. If I if I'm not speaking for you because I see so much you there the um and you're just Chelsea loves yoga. Yes. Chelsea loves yoga. Where else besides there? And Peloton, which we've talked a lot about, would would you hear somebody else? Are those the two places that you want people? Yeah. And if people are interested in the work that we do with yoga literature and art camp, um we have a fight red clay yoga dot org and that's our non profit and we make yoga accessible to communities that may not otherwise have access. So if you want to learn more, that's red clay yoga dot org. Amazing. I also used your site. Chelsea loves yoga dot com as a place of inspiration has helped me decide where to learn a little bit more about you. So I would offer that up to folks who want to learn more. And again, thank you so much for showing up in the world for being such an inspiration to help people see what's possible with this one precious life. And it's just been an honor and a treat to have you on the show. Grateful for your time today. Thank you. Thank you so much. Chases, maybe one of my most favorite podcast ever. So, thank you for this opportunity and beautiful conversation. Thank you so much. My wife Kate has been listening in the background. You can on your after conversation, so I can't wait to share it with her. You've been an inspiration to her as well. So thank you so much and we'll have you on the show again at the next milestone, um and the not too distant future, I'm sure at the rate, you're going, you're changing lives all over. And I want to say, thank you. Thank you. Chase. Alright, signing off to everybody out there in universe. Thanks for tuning in. And until next time we bid you adieu. Mhm. Yeah.