Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to Deep in your yoga practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri.
Today I want to start a conversation with you that will continue over the next couple of weeks. But to kick it off, I have brought in a very special special guest today and we have some fun things to announce for True Love as well. So I have a wonderful conversation with someone who has made supporting people through the season of pregnancy and postpartum a major part of her work. So today I have with me Melody Butler, who is an Eryt 500, a YACEP and RPYT teacher trainer, functional movement educator and trauma aware yoga educator. She spent more than a decade teaching yoga and mentoring teachers including working pregnant and postpartum students. And she's also experienced pregnancy and motherhood herself. And she's the creator of Mom Body Yoga and in the lead facilitator of True Love Yoga's brand new 85 Hour Perinatal Yoga teacher training. Melody, I'm so excited that we get to tell everyone about this and talk about it because I've been watching this program grow from an idea and passion of yours into this incredibly comprehensive training. So I'm so happy you're here. Welcome again. This is your second time here.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Thank you.
I'm so happy to be back. I love any excuse to just spend some time chatting with you, even if we have to record it and publish it to do so.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Of course. So I asked you on the first episode how did you fall in love with yoga? But I want to ask you this time, how did you fall in love with perinatal yoga?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah, so I kind of, I guess not backdoored my way in, but I started after my 200 hour. I went and got my chocolate children's yoga certification. So I was teaching kids yoga classes quite a bit and by nature of that was around a lot of moms because they were bringing their kids to my kids yoga classes.
I was also teaching public adult classes and things like that. And I ended up having a lot of these moms whose kids were coming to yoga who were either maybe newly postpartum or newly pregnant again and things like that. And they started asking me for advice or for private lessons or to make them little videos or tips and tricks and things. And I'll say that my initial training in any kind of perinatal yoga landscape was very limited. So I ended up in a position where I was kind of learning on the fly and doing a lot of on the job learning with clients that were were coming to me without me necessarily seeking them out. So I started doing some more trainings. I started watching a ton of YouTube videos at the time and reading a bunch of books and things. But I was just really fortunate that I was in front of a population of mothers quite frequently. And so, yeah, I started having a lot of private clients and small group classes and that was really, really special and lovely. And it felt like a nice natural progression from kids yoga. And I got to step into this space of supporting the full family, which felt really, really nice. And then a few years later I got pregnant myself. And so I started having to learn how to adapt my own practice and care for my own energy and support myself through that journey. And that was really eye opening. Also, not to say that everyone who teaches perinatal yoga has to have been pregnant or have given birth, but I will say it does offer a level of empathy and understanding that's kind of hard to grasp if you haven't had the experience. But yeah, getting to, getting to continue my yoga practice through my own pregnancy and postpartum and now into motherhood pretty deeply and through a second pregnancy and postpartum made me fall in love with it as a specialty and made me acutely aware of how underserved this population is, specifically in the yoga world. There's very, very few specialized perinatal classes offered almost anywhere that I've lived and anywhere that I've looked. It's not a hugely popular class type that's on a lot of studio schedules. So unless you have a background and you kind of know what you're doing, it's hard to walk into a general population class and feel safe and feel confident and feel like the teacher has your back and like they can support you. And so I see a lot of that fear when I have clients and students come in. And it's just made me passionate and excited about sharing the knowledge I do have so that folks that are expecting, folks that are very, very busy growing babies in their bellies can release some of that mental clutter of the But I don't know how to modify this cobra and I can take that off their shoulders for them and give them a little support in that way. So, yeah, I think being able to serve mothers through pregnancy through postpartum and then being able to serve their children as well has been a really lovely progression of care for me with my clients and with my students, and then being able to turn that lens on myself when I need it has been really great too.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Thanks for sharing that. A Beautiful progression into specializing in this. And it's interesting. You talk about how the population is underserved, but at the same time everyone is recommending that pregnant folks do yoga, but then there's not really a lot of guidance around that. So they might show up in any yoga class. And yoga is very vast and there are so many different styles and variations that it's so nice to have a space for new practitioners to go and just to feel cared for. If you're somebody who has been practicing for a long time, would you mind quickly defining perinatal?
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. So perinatal is just the extension of the natal experience. So we all, we know the phrase prenatal and prenatal is going to be during our pregnancy. So from conception to delivery, perinatal extends beyond that. So we move into what we might call the fourth trimester or the 12 weeks after birth and then beyond, even throughout our postpartum experience. However long you like to define that.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for, for defining that and for including postpartum because we're in a culture that expects us to bounce back, that doesn't support time off. And it's nice having someone out there nurturing and caring for folks who are going through so much. For me, postpartum was a lot wilder experience than pregnancy in many ways.
And it's really when I needed even more support.
I think this perinatal period is such an interesting moment for a yoga practitioner because suddenly the body that you probably got to know really, really well through your practice starts changing incredibly quickly. And then again, postnatal, it's very different.
So what do you wish more people understood about what's actually happening in the body during this period?
[00:07:15] Speaker B: There's so much, I mean, you know, it's just like a complete and utter upheaval, or it feels like it is. I think a big thing to recognize and to think about is that nothing in our body operates in solidarity. And every aspect of ourselves, every anatomical system, it's all functioning collaboratively with our other anatomical system. So when one thing starts to change, we're going to see that change ripple effect across our whole being, our energetic selves as well as our physical selves.
So really approaching things from that mindset of this major change that's happening inside you isn't just anatomical and isn't just physiological, but is also having a huge impact on your nervous system, on your psyche, on your emotional health and well being, as well as hitting our energy bodies and things like that too. So there's. It really is a whole Being progression through the perinatal period as opposed to thinking of it just as, like, from a yoga teacher's lens. I feel like a lot of what I was taught early on was, well, you just need to accommodate the belly. The belly's growing, so if we can accommodate the space of that belly, then you're set. You have. You have helped that pregnant person out.
I just want folks to recognize that it's so much more than that. There's so much more going on.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Thank you so much for explaining all of that. Yeah, it's very. It's difficult to explain in a way that is comprehensive. I think having gone through it and then having a lot of knowledge about what anatomically is going on and emotionally, it's really nice to have the support. Let's talk a little bit about postpartum. I know on your website your tagline is, your body changed. That was the assignment. What does that mean to you?
[00:09:02] Speaker B: I mean, I think it's an invitation to embrace this new chapter of yourself. That. That's the point. We wouldn't. We wouldn't ask someone who competed in the Olympics to then get back to what their life was like pre Olympics. You know, they have really gone through something spectacular. They've pushed their bodies to the limits in ways that are beyond what the. What the average human is doing for themselves. And we would never look at them and be like, okay, great, now go back to your 9 to 5 and get your weight back to what it was pre Olympics, and you should be all set.
The end. So when we can embrace that, like, hey, we just spent 10 months asking our body to build a whole new body from scratch and then bring that body into the world and then keep it alive and care for it and love it for the rest of time. You're never gonna be the same again. And that's okay. That was the point. The point is that your life changed.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Sure did.
In so many ways. And it's interesting because there's really no rush to bounce back, right? Because you can't bounce back. You're bouncing forward, I suppose, or growing forward in some way or another. And also for me, like, motherhood has increased my capacity so so much. Because it's endurance training, right? Not just pregnancy and not just birth and not just postpartum, but parenting in general and caring for another being and really expanding myself in so many ways. Or it has expanded me or stretched me in so many ways. I would never want to go back to the person I was before that. And also, like, physically, I'm Actually stronger than I've ever been because I think I built that mental and emotional resilience that only motherhood could initiate me into.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: I'd love to talk more about postpartum. So I don't think it ends at six weeks. It gets treated like this tiny period. Or maybe you get six weeks off work, unpaid after work.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: At best, yeah. What do you wish that more people understood about postpartum recovery?
[00:11:16] Speaker B: I really, truly wish people offered themselves and offered others more care around it. To your point, I mean, most often you deliver this baby into the world and then you're sent home with it, and then the next time you see your doctor is six weeks later for them to. To give you the all clear, whatever that means. The all clear to exercise, the all clear. To be intimate, the all clear to. To do anything and everything you ever wanted to do, even though your body is still deeply healing and rearranging and your whole life is changing itself to support this new life that you brought into the world. And even, like I remember learning about the concept of the fourth trimester, which is meant to be the next 12 weeks after delivery. And I remember thinking that was radical at the time of being like, oh, my goodness, the medical system says six weeks, but here's this other idea that's. That's offering 12 weeks. Like, how incredible is that? And then having lived it and experienced it, I mean, 12 weeks is just a flash in the pan. You know what I mean?
So it truly is years and years of your life that you are in a continual state of adjustment and tuning into the frequency of what your life and your body is asking of you now and recalibrating in a way. And then if you add like, lactation and nursing on top of that, that extends the timeline out even further.
So the longer we lactate, the longer our hormones are going to maintain those, like, lactation levels, and then the longer it's going to take us to come back down to a neutral or a recalibration after we stop. And so each of those factors just kind of compounds to create this timeline that is considerably longer than six weeks or 12 weeks, but that we don't really give enough credit or enough grace, I feel like, to folks who are living it.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: And now these days, many of us are having our children later and then basically getting slammed right into perimenopause right afterwards.
So it's like, never the same. Never the same.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: What's the difference?
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I credit yoga, not just the physical practice. I'd say physical practice maybe like 5% of what I credit to basically being able to survive or thrive through pregnancy. And now I'm six years postpartum right now. Still consider my.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Still counts. You're still postpartum for the rest of your life. You will be post your partum period.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, like, you know, yoga really teaches us how to deal with change and how to approach it and how to accept it most of all. And you know, I don't, I don't know what I would have done without it during those moments in the middle of the night. Just being like, what has happened?
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: I mean that, that practice of surrender is, is really put to the test in your postpartum period and in parenthood in general.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, Melody, can you please tell us more about Mamba yoga and what did you feel was missing that made you want to create it?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: I wanted. So it's specifically an online space right now, mostly through Instagram, a little bit on YouTube. One I personally was kind of tired of seeing fitness advice or wellness advice targeted at mothers, but being offered by folks who were 23 and with six packs and you know what I mean? And it was just like I did not relate to that space at all. And it was hard for me to have any kind of buy in for that kind of education or that kind of offering. And so I really wanted there to be be a space online where we celebrated the way that motherhood changed our bodies and at the bare minimum where we could at least approach our bodies from a neutral perspective and not constantly be wishing that we looked like we did when we were 22. Because for me at least, that ship has sailed. And it's likely not something we're going to get back to. And to your point, not something I necessarily want to get back to, even if I could, to be totally honest, but really being able to have some differentiation in the bodies that were represented online and the bodies that were represented in motherhood specifically. And also showing that there is so much strength and so much power in motherhood and in your body postpartum. To your point of saying like, you're the strongest you've ever been in motherhood and part of that is mental and part of that is physical. But being able to have this awareness and accessibility to content that is like, it's primarily yoga, Pilates and sculpt content and accessibility is another big part of that. Like if you go and watch my videos, every single one of them has my baby crawling all over me. Every single one of them has toys all over the floor because that's my life. That's where I'm at right now.
You know, I do a whole series where I use a pack and play as a prop.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: I love that it is what it
[00:16:21] Speaker B: is, you know what I mean? And so there's that element to it as well, of just like, hey, man, you don't have to like get a babysitter and go take a 90 minute class in a studio. You can. And that will also be awesome. And it's not always accessible and it's not always realistic for the way our lives are laid out currently.
Sometimes it's 15 minutes on your living room floor while your kid makes a giant goldfish mess. And you just know that you're going to have to clean it up afterwards and that's okay.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Like, yeah, yeah, it's going to look different. And I think any need for perfection or for things to like, have to be the perfect, like a very certain way to exercise or to connect with yourself just has to go out the window, like immediately. If you are going to prioritize yourself and your health in any way at all during pregnancy and postpartum, you have to just make it happen and accept the chaos around you.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: 100%.
Yes. And that like, falls back into like the yogic philosophy as well, where it's just like, hey, okay, we're gonna surrender. We're gonna loosen our grip on what this has to look like. We're gonna do our best to be present right here in this moment as much as we can, you know.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: And besides creating that welcoming environment, you are specializing really in what that person is needing. So it could be various aspects of yoga. Functional strength, mobility.
A lot of it's like core and pelvic floor awareness, because that's going to be a lot more emphasized than it's going to be in a regular class. Even though we talk about like core and pelvic floor a lot, it's, you know, becomes something you have to pay very special attention to during pregnancy and postpartum, regulating your nervous system not only for yourself, but like for the other beings who are now dependent on you.
So it's definitely something that is so specialized and it's so needed, so, so needed. I know you've explained it a bit, but who is mom bod yoga for?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: 90% for me and then the other 10% for.
Yeah, for the mom who wants to feel like themselves, whatever that means to them. Maybe it's feeling like a new version of themselves, but who wants to just make sure that they are caring for themselves, that they are moving their body. I'm also a big believer that for most folks, specifically for me, my movement practice has a lot more to do with my mental health these days than it does to do with my physical health. I think, like, the reason I can prioritize it so fervently is because I understand what it does for my nervous system. I understand what it does for my ability to emotionally regulate and mentally regulate. So the goal is never the six pack. The goal is never the bikini bod. For me, it's a lot more about how can I just feel good from day to day, you know, whether that is in my brain or in my heart or in my body, and hopefully in all three. So it's for that. For that mother who's. Who's seeking that kind of space. It's also for the person who wants to see someone that looks like them online and sees that, yeah, I've got a C section shelf and I've got cellulite, and I'm nursing and probably leaking in my videos, and that's okay, too. And it's just part of the ride. But if we can normalize those visuals and normalize that experience, then hopefully that person watching will also feel empowered to love themselves a little more and to embrace their body as it is a little more. Because we're not really approaching movement from a space of wanting to change ourselves, but instead approaching movement from a space of wanting to nurture ourselves.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: I love that you have a first grader. I have a kindergartner now. So we've been a few years into this whole thing, and it pays dividends. Like, the time that you spend connecting with yourself on your mat is very important in the moment, but it also is this investment into the future of your family. Because when you first see your kid, like, use a technique that you've taught them or they've seen you do, it is one of the most amazing things they. They learn by example. And you're setting an example for your whole family of health and care. And they don't always like it in the moment because they want to be first priority all the time.
Yes, but it is. It is worth it. And it's worth it for them, too.
So let's talk a bit more about perinatal training. So, like you've said, prenatal or perinatal yoga isn't just regular yoga with modifications or like, working around a belly.
Why do you think so many otherwise excellent yoga teachers feel nervous when they teach pregnant students or when a pregnant student walks into class, I think there's
[00:21:08] Speaker B: a real inherent fear that you as the teacher are going to harm them in some way. And obviously no one wants to do that. Right? There's not, I would assume there's not a yoga teacher in the world that's like hoping someone walks out injured at the end of class. And pregnancy can be for some folks and is exceedingly portrayed in the media as a really delicate or a really fragile time in a person's life. And I think that's a bit of a misconception, I think that, that pregnant folks aren't necessarily fragile or delicate. Of course there's extenuating circumstances because there are for everyone. But overall it's not inherently, it's not a disability, it's not something that's gonna keep them from ever moving their body during these nine months or ever again.
But I think that's a lot of what we're kind of taught or shown. And when you are given even like the briefest amount of perinatal training, a lot of what you're told first is contraindications or is the like not to do list. And I think because that's the first introduction or the first taste of what a teacher gets about what a perinatal yoga class would look like, there just kind of develops this sense of fear, this sense of apprehension of like, oh, I can't do all of these things. I'm really limited.
I have to be really, really mindful or I have to tread really lightly around this student to make sure that they're safe the whole time. That fear just kind of, kind of gets to folks and makes them nervous.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: It's important to know too, like, obviously they're extenuating circumstances and medical conditions and things, but typically when you're pregnant, your body is pretty clear with you what feels right and what does not feel right. So we have to put more trust in our pregnant students as well as yoga teachers to do what's right for them and their bab. Because like, if a deep lunge doesn't feel good, you're not going to do it. Like, there's no reason to push past it.
Especially if you've, if you already as a yoga teacher, set up your class in such a way that students are encouraged to practice autonomy and listen to their own bodies, then a pregnant student's going to fit right in. That being said, specialized training can be very, very important. And I'm really excited to talk about our 85 hour perinatal yoga teacher training. That is launching now and we'll be doing the training next year, but we're opening for applications now. You're the lead teacher on it, which I'm so excited about.
I'd love to know everything about it. Okay, tell us about what you are creating and have created.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm so excited about this, I really am. And it has been such a fun opportunity for me. Like I mentioned, I'm many years deep, deep into lots of different perinatal trainings and education and background and things. And so this past year, these past six months, really specifically getting to kind of hone in and really collect everything I've learned over the last 10 years and distill that and funnel it into, into this 85 hour program has been such a joy and has been really, really cool.
I was laughing the other day that I it's best for me. I'm getting like whatever the opposite of imposter syndrome is where I'm like, oh,
[00:24:27] Speaker A: I know this stuff expert syndrome. I don't know, look at how stuff
[00:24:30] Speaker B: I know, it's really fun. It's like it's a swing from how often I think we feel when we're doing new things. So that's been fun. But yeah, so the program is, we've, we've modeled it after the 200 hour and the 300 hour at true Live Yoga from a formatting perspective.
So similarly to those programs, there is online content that you're given for the month and then every month we'll have one long live intensive day and you can attend that intensive day either in person or online or virtually. And then it's a five month course.
So we'll have five months of content, five modules that you work through, five times that we meet, in addition to some office hours and some other virtual live contact space there as well. So I think from a formatting perspective or from a logistical perspective, I love that it's going to be able to just fit right into the family of trainings that True Love Yoga already offers. And I love that we've really created these spaces with accessibility in mind.
So folks that are full time yoga teachers that maybe their schedule is a little all over the place can still participate, can still get everything they need to, can still have the time to, to be really diligent and really focused on this training. Folks who are in healthcare that are just wanting to add movement practices, who have these really long hours and these varying schedules also are still able to hop in, able to join, able to be a part of this and then of course, parents, mothers and fathers that are interested in doing this for themselves, for clients, for students, whatever it may be.
We know the demands that having children places on our schedules and on our availability.
So creating the program in this way, I think will be really lovely because we're going to open the door to a wide spectrum of folks to be able to join from an accessibility standpoint and then within that. I personally think the content is really juicy, is really fun. It's interesting. We're going to spend a fair amount of time talking about perinatal anatomy and physiology, which is super important. We have to understand what's happening in the body and how the body works so that we can then apply that to the way that bodies move, that bodies rest, that bodies need support, bodies breathe, those kinds of things. Something I love that I'm really proud that I'm including in the program. In addition to like muscular skeletal anatomy and hormonal anatomy and things like that, we're also going to dive into nervous system anatomy and learning how that adapts and changes throughout the perinatal period, as well as taking a peek at the energy body. So we're going to spend some time with the koshas and with the chakras and, and look at things from that perspective and how those things are affected and change throughout the perinatal period. We'll also be doing a lot of work, like you mentioned, around the core and the pelvic floor. So really honing in on the core cylinder and the pelvic floor and how we can use those spaces of the body to support, to heal, to recover for our clients and things like that.
We've got lessons on kind of understanding the perinatal experience. So if you're someone who hasn't had that experience personally before, you're going to walk away with a pretty intimate knowledge of what it looks like and feels like to be pregnant. From conception through postpartum, even a little bit of labor and delivery anatomy and things tossed in there.
We dive pretty deep into teaching methodology and the use of props, the use of support, trauma, informed and inclusive language practices.
Just making sure that we're setting up a class so that the folks walking in really feel like they're held from the moment they enter to the moment they leave. Because just that energy alone is so valuable when you're creating new life, you know, and then obviously there's lots of, lots of talk around. Asana. What I really appreciate about the way or the approach I'm using here is it's going to be Less a list of do these poses, don't do these poses. And instead we're really digging into thinking like a perinatal yoga teacher. So understanding the systems of the body, understanding what's changing in the body during this period, and then using that knowledge to create modifications and adaptions and customizations to shapes. Obviously there are some things that are just like pretty universal contraindications. But instead of saying like, hey, you can never do this, it's more about let's think this through and let's apply this in a way that's methodical and intelligent and makes sense and supports our student. So hopefully the goal is when students leave this program, they haven't just received a checklist that they could have looked up online or seen in a 60 second reel online. And instead they've really learned how to shift their thinking and shift their understanding so that they can make their own decisions and their own ideas in the moment with students in front of them. I also, we've incorporated a great deal of philosophy which I know you and I have chatted about, but that was such a beautiful gift to be able to reference and come back to during my pregnancy and during my postpartum period. So having those elements has been really special and really important to me. And then in addition to that, we've got lots of meditation and pranayama techniques that are really helpful specifically in pregnancy and postpartum. So yeah, hopefully folks leave with a, with a pretty hefty tool belt of things, things they can utilize either to create their own perinatal programming or just to serve students that are coming in their general public classes or to support themselves should they find themselves in that season.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Thank you for explaining, explaining all that. And I did want to reiterate as well the trauma informed aspect of it because as magical and wonderful as a time the perinatal period can be, it can also be quite traumatic for different people. And approaching it with that compassion is so important. And I think you do such a wonderful job of that. So I do want to say if anyone has like miscarriage trauma or birth trauma, pregnancy trauma, et cetera, that Melody does such a wonderful job of nurturing you through the training.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Thank you. I appreciate that it makes a big difference because, and I know you know this because you are also spend a great deal of time thinking about trauma informed practices and true love as a trauma informed studio. And that's the basis that or the lens that you do your trainings through as well. Yoga is a really or can be a really vulnerable space for people. And so we want to be mindful of that all the time. And pregnancy and postpartum can also be incredibly vulnerable seasons for folks. And so I think when, when we marry those two situations, a space that's inherently vulnerable with a season that's inherently vulnerable, we really do have to make sure that we are operating in a way where everyone in the room feels safe and everyone in the room can feel supported and held for that time that we're together.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: I'm very excited to take the training, not only as a yoga teacher, but as a fitness professional as well. So I did want to ask you, is this training specifically for yoga teachers? Is there, like a prerequisite for it? Can other career paths do this training? What does that look like?
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that's such a question. It's not specifically for yoga teachers by any means.
I do think if you've already got your 200 hour, you're going to come to it with a basis of knowledge that is only going to support what we're learning. You're already going to have some foundational anatomy. You're already going to know the postures that we're talking about, the props that we're talking about. You're going to have at least a little bit of knowledge around the philosophy that we're talking about. But that is not to say that folks of other professions or other industries aren't capable of joining in this program and really getting a lot out of it and feeling like they're on the same page with those folks who are yoga teachers. So we're definitely going to deep dive, like I said, into anatomy, into methodology, philosophy, into functional alignment and things like that. So I really think that specifically other fitness professionals, Pilates instructors, barre instructors, weightlifting coaches, personal trainers, things like that.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: What about, like, doulas or childbirth educators?
Definitely therapists, like anyone with an adjacent career.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: That for sure. For sure. And what I really love about specialty trainings like this in general, but specifically perinatal trainings, is that they do bring in folks from a lot of different backgrounds. So like you said, of course we're going to have yoga teachers there. We may have some other fitness professionals there.
But in trainings I've done and trainings I've led in the past, like you said, we've also had doulas, we've had midwives. I've had ICU nurses and labor and delivery nurses as a part of that. Lactation consultants. Folks within the healthcare system is really special.
I've even had like, librarians and people who work in public school systems, or who maybe work at homeless shelters or women's shelters, things like that, where they're just around a population of folks who may be experiencing this season of life, and they want to bring something really special, really unique, or really nurturing to the community that they work with. And I think that it's would be such a beautiful and excellent pairing for a doula, a midwife, a labor and delivery nurse, a counselor. We've seen lots of counselors and therapists come through things like that. Yeah, I think it would be a beautiful marriage. And they'll definitely walk away from the training feeling really prepared to work with those clients. From a movement perspective, that's really exciting.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: And it's. I mean, I almost wish like every one in the birth and perinatal community would do this training because what a nice thing to be able to offer even just like a couple minutes of breath or meditation. If we had significantly more yoga teachers who truly understood pregnancy and postpartum bodies, what would you hope would change in the yoga world?
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Man, I kind of twofold. I would be so happy to see us no longer approaching yoga as a disability or an illness and instead really recognizing the innate power that kind of emerges when you are pregnant and when you are busy building a whole new being. And not to say that power doesn't deserve rest, and not to say that power looks like increased heart rates and sweaty practices all the time, but just remembering that there is. There's a lot of strength involved with pregnancy and delivery and postpartum and that it's okay to encourage and celebrate that strength that's involved. I'd like to see more pregnant students or postpartum students feel really safe and really comfortable in yoga spaces so that they are more confident. They're more confident in the classes they're taking. They're more confident in creating a home practice for themselves.
They're more confident in their ability to birth this baby however they see fit. They're more confident in their ability to keep functioning on sleepless nights. All of that is going to kind of ripple outward if we can create sleep spaces where our students feel. Feel capable throughout the entire journey. And then almost the flip of that is, I'd love to see us treating the postpartum period with a little more grace and a little more nuance and just a little more tenderness and nurturing and really backing away from the idea of bouncing back in any way, shape or form and instead encouraging folks to see step really boldly into a new version of themselves, whatever that may look
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Like, I love that, Melody. How can our listeners deepen their yoga practices?
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Yay. I love this question.
A really fun way would be to try something new. So maybe seek out a teacher you haven't taken from yet, or a class time on the schedule you haven't been to, or a style or location is always a good way to kind of shake things up. And it's, I think when we do that, when we shake ourselves up in that way, we some of the patterns that we've maybe found ourselves creating unintentionally and you can kind of see yourself from a new perspective. You can see where maybe you're holding on to something or not looking at something fully. And even as little as, like finding a new spot in the room at your favorite studio with your favorite teacher, you know, we can get really attached to those little things.
So shaking up your practice in some way. And I think too really diving, if you haven't yet, diving into yoga philosophy and learning a little more about the sutras and the yamas and the niyamas and just seeing where that takes you because there will be seasons of your life where your practice will not be primarily physical because there's going to be limitations around that. But we can always access an emotional practice and we can always access a mental practice. So having those tools can be really, really beneficial.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Fully agree with that, Melody. Also, please let us know how we can stay connected with you.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Of course.
So you can always count me down on social media. I'm Melody Butler Yoga across all platforms. Instagram, Facebook, which I don't use very much. My website is also Melody Butler Yoga. And then in addition, we've got Mom Bad Yoga, which is also on Instagram and on YouTube. YouTube. And you can go hunt us down there and practice alongside me and my kiddos and my cat climbing all over me throughout.
Or yeah, hit me up on my website, melodybutleryoga.com you can shoot me an email, you can shoot me a dm. I'd say right now the very best way to get to spend a lot of time with me next year is to sign up for this training.
You'll be seeing so much of my face that you'll be very sick of
[00:39:03] Speaker A: it by August, but that can't be true.
Well, thank you, Melody. I loved listening to you today and learning so much from you and I'm really excited that you're going to be having this platform next year.
So thank you so much for being a guest again on the podcast. And I want to encourage our listeners to go check out our 85 hour perinatal yoga teacher training which will run from March to August 2027.
This can be hybrid or fully virtual and applications are now open and tuition is $2,000 with 300 off for early enrollment through January 15th and limited $500 BIPOC scholarship and payment plans. So we want to make this training as accessible as possible while maintaining a really high professional level. And I just totally recommend to dive in if this is something that excites you because there are so many folks who can be served so well by your knowledge, by your care and by this training and whether or not teaching perinatal yoga is part of your path. I hope today's conversation leaves you with a very different way of thinking about pregnancy and postpartum not as bodies that need to be fixed but as people moving through an extraordinary transition who deserve knowledgeable and compassionate support. Thank you so much Melody and thank you everyone for listening. Until next time. Om Shanti Om Peace Sam.
