Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:11] Hello and welcome to Deep in your yoga Practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri and I am back after a month break from this podcast. I have been continuously recording and producing and marketing these podcasts since I think, September of 2024. So it felt fitting, especially after having so many episodes about the need for rest and viragia, to take a little break behind the scenes. I've definitely been working hard, but it was nice to take a little rest from the podcast and take something off my plate for just a few weeks. So this episode is 108, which some of you might know is a very special and auspicious number in yoga. And I thought I'd take the opportunity to just give a little life update. So this is the winds of Change, a life update and returning to practice. I'm so happy to be back. It was nice having a break and honestly it can be kind of hard for me when I am doing something on a regular basis to take a break. I'm always worried I'm not going to be able to get back to it. So just getting in front of the mic right now is welcoming and wonderful and I'm going to have a little bit of grace with myself as I ease back in. And the winds of change are definitely a blow in. It's fall, it's a new season, it feels like a new chapter for me in a lot of ways. And I also have a new haircut, so if you look at the little clip from this episode on Instagram, you'll see my chop. I realized that if you were opening a second business, graduating a class of yoga teachers, running another teacher, training, renovating a gym, and generally questioning all of your life choices, the appropriate response is a big chop. And honestly, it feels so good. But seriously, underneath all these external changes, I've been thinking a lot about what stays steady when life doesn't. So first things first. We celebrated 11 years of true Love yoga in September and that is absolutely wild to me. We celebrate took a lot of time celebrating 10 years last year, so this year was pretty low key and I didn't take a lot of time to reflect on it. But I am so grateful for the studio and this community and it's now been a part of my life for over a quarter of it and I couldn't be prouder or happier and I hope it sustains for a long, long time. I've learned so much in 11 years and the studio has evolved. My life has changed a lot in that time, I've seen many teachers and students who've come and gone, but there are also things that persist. There's a thread, a through line in this community and really at every iteration of it has been so beautiful. When I opened True Love, I couldn't possibly have imagined what it would become or what it would ask me to become. But man, I'm so, so grateful for it. And one of the things that has become increasingly important to me over those 11 years is not just teaching yoga, but teaching people how to teach yoga. As of the airing of this recording, we have just graduated our 9th class of yoga teacher trainees for our 200 hour program. While I'm recording this, we're actually in the last week and I am diving deep into watching everybody's practicums. So to graduate they record a class and I watch it thoroughly and give feedback and it's been so incredible working with these folks over the last six months and watching them grow.
[00:03:44] I've watched every teacher develop their own voice, they're developing their own style and it's such a cool thing seeing them as maybe the nervous person who enters YTT and then the actual person who's teaching that practicum months later.
[00:04:01] And it's always this emotional experience for me and I feel so proud and I, I know that they're going to go out there and connect with so many folks and that what they learned in the training and what they'll continue to practice through their lives will have lasting change, not just for them, but for their families and for their students who will be so lucky to be with them. And there are so many positive ripple effects of it. So, so proud of this group and I want to say again, just congratulations guys, you rocked it this year. I'm so happy for you and I can't wait to what you do. I'm also in the tail end now of our very first 300 hour yoga teacher training here at True Love. I have nine beautiful students in that who are in their third module, so third and final module and that has been amazing as well in this last part. They are doing most of the teaching in our live get togethers. So that has been such a joy to participate in and watch and give feedback to. And I've absolutely loved watching these eager, enthusiastic learners become mature leaders through this training. It has been probably the funnest thing that I've done career wise personally and I've loved having the chance to connect one on one with everyone and to develop and hone more confidence and Mastery and also seeing them really commit to themselves and their students through this deep, deep learning that we do. It has been so wonderful. A lot of times at 200 hour, people are thinking like, can I teach yoga? Am I able to do this in 300 hour? People are asking something like what kind of teacher am I?
[00:05:46] So being able to help hone their voice and a mentor, see them take this ownership of topics that they're passionate about, learning from them has been such a wonderful, fun, amazing thing this year. The longer I train teachers, the less I feel like the person that supports standing in front with all the answers because heaven knows I don't have all the answers. But I feel much more like the person that's creating the container where everybody gets to learn from each other, including me. I also wanted to do an update on Abiasa.
[00:06:19] I talked about it last year and I was really nervous to pivot my teaching so that I would have this weekly class that is a set sequence. I've always kind of thrived on this very intuitive and creative teaching style. So this has been a bit of an experiment, but it's been one of my favorite things of this year. So Abiyasa is a weekly 90 minute practice where we work with a consistent hatha and vinyasa sequence rather than constantly creating something new. So we're really working on foundations. But over the year it's also unfolded with a lot of variations.
[00:06:57] So I've watched students grow so much through this practice. I've seen them try new things, I've seen their processes, I've seen people master new things and it's been absolutely incredible to witness. It's quiet, we use no music. So that's been something that I've really treasured actually this year. And I've loved listening to everyone's breaths and it's been so focused and it's been a lovely ritual week to week. It's been fun for me to spend time on assists and details to watch students progress.
[00:07:28] And it really has embodied the name, which is Abiyasa, which is practice. It's repeated, sustained effort, it's returning again and again, not necessarily constantly chasing the next thing. And we've had such a great experience with this sequence that we're expanding it in the studio in October. Maggie's going to be teaching a 60 minute version on Saturdays and I'm actually training a bunch of the True Love teachers on this style as well. We're not flipping True Love to a complete Abiasa studio, don't worry about that.
[00:08:00] But it's something more of our teachers are going to be able to provide or can step in for me or Maggie when needed. So I'm excited to see how that grows. So Abiasa is something I keep going back to over and over again. This showing up, this rhythm, this pace and showing up when things are hard, showing up when I'm tired, and maybe showing up like today after a break when it's a little bit harder to get that momentum going. And it's kind of ironic because while I've been teaching this practice that's built around repetition and steadiness, another part of my life this year has been so wild and completely unpredictable. So I wanted to share that now. Months ago, I was never planning on opening a gym. I was pretty happy with one yoga studio, maybe with another branch someday again.
[00:08:52] But now I actually am the owner of Barbell Athletic Club.
[00:08:56] So that has been a wild and unpredictable journey for me this year. And I have learned and grown so much. So this all happened kind of suddenly. The gym that I had been attending for the last year and a half was closing due to various reasons. They weren't allowed to operate anymore.
[00:09:15] And it was this wonderful community. It's an all women's gym with childcare. That's the reason I started going there, is so that I could join not only a community just for me, but also for my daughter. Because I had been practicing and working out at home the last several years and I really needed to get out of the house.
[00:09:36] She really needed more exposure to other people caring for her. And it was very hard to get her used to it. But the community embraced her and it was something that ended up being such a positive thing for us. So we made a lot of friends and everyone was devastated when they found out that the gym was closing. And we were all making our plans, like, oh, where are we going to go next? And I was working out one day and just got hit with this sense of clarity that I could continue the community. So I went through this process of bidding on the assets of the community, eventually having that accepted, dealing with lawyers and banks. And I thought it would be kind of an easy transition. Funny enough, I thought we'd be able to, I was told we'd be able to say, stay in the same place. So for me, I'm like, okay, I can come in, buy the equipment, start a new business, transition, everyone pretty smoothly, rebrand, et cetera. And instead of that happening, we found out about a week before we needed to be out of there, that it was closing. So Before I even bought anything, I was helping close down the space and move all of the equipment out of the gym and into storage. So the asset sale happened shortly after that. And then the hunt for a location began. So this community is in the Northland, which is where I had been searching and searching for a place. It was an arduous and oftentimes disappointing process trying to find something. But we finally landed on a beautiful space on Green Hills Road in Kansas City's north land. And it's an old office space, so it needs completely built out. So basically, very quickly I bought the assets, we moved out of the building, we started outdoor workouts, which we're still doing right now. And now I'm in this process of bids and permitting and build outs and financing and all of these high level, high stress things and decisions. This is just like the surface story, it's the quick version. But there have been endless unexpected decisions to make, pivoting to do expenses that have cropped up. And I've had this deep sense of excitement mixed with genuine stress. When I started True Love, it was not the same situation, but it was similar in that I hadn't really planned to start it. It sort of happened. And it happened with this sense of like clarity and saying yes and figuring it out. So I knew I had done that before also. We had like a month of outdoor classes while we transitioned spaces in our very first year. And so I had known I had done that before. And it's been a decade and I've learned a whole lot since then. But this feels like that on steroids. It's higher stakes, more money, much bigger space, different modality. And there are moments where I am just so excited about what we're building. It's this sister business to True Love. It's a place where my daughter can grow up, where friends and this community of women can feel at home and nurtured and cared for. And then there are these moments every once in a while where I'm just like, oh my God, what have I done?
[00:12:55] Sometimes these moments happen about five minutes apart. So it has been this really interesting journey and I've had to like really dig down into my practice, into this inner belief in myself and in the community and in this vision. And I'm returning to my yoga practice, whether physically, but very much so philosophically, every single day of I'm going to show up, I'm going to do it enthusiastically, I'm going to do it regularly. And there are some things I'm going to surrender. I've decided to. I'm going to just believe in myself even if it's completely delusional and hopefully good things will come.
[00:13:37] So that's been going on during all this like beautiful mature steadiness at the studio, which has been a really interesting dichotomy.
[00:13:45] Also, this happened right as we were finishing a full home remodel. So we gutted the inside of our house over the last year and redid it top to bottom and it was awesome but extremely stressful as well. So basically as soon as that project was done, I was ready to take on something else huge.
[00:14:04] Also, I built the 300 hour training over the last year. So it has just been a lot, a lot, a lot of work.
[00:14:10] But I am envisioning this beautiful future and trying to have a lot of fun with the work in the presence as well. So yoga is really helping me through all of this growth and transition. It's helping me show up, make the next decision.
[00:14:28] It's helping me return again and again through this abiasa, through this practice. And I'm also trying to seek for ragia of doing the work and then releasing my grip on exactly how everything has to unfold because oftentimes it ends up being a surprise. I've made plans that change. Budgets have changed, timelines have changed, things have popped up that I wasn't expecting and I can just control my actions. I can't control every outcome and thank goodness I've had so much practice with that in yoga.
[00:15:01] I've also been embracing Sthira and Sukha. Sthira is the effort and Sukha is the ease. So I have to think about when do I push, when do I stop, when does persistence feel like forcing and I need to take a step back like I did with this podcast. And I'm so, so happy to be returning it back. I've also been embracing a pari graha. So letting go of the version of this year even that I imagined that I planned for, letting go of my initial vision of Barbell, of that business and realizing that the final outcome doesn't look like the first rendering, that timelines can change and that things might evolve. And a paragraha allows me to not grasp onto any one thing. But I can hold my vision and let go as needed so that I can roll with the changes, allow life to happen and stay strong throughout. It's important for me to remember that yoga doesn't remove uncertainty in any way. It never does, but it changes how I can meet it. And hopefully I'm meeting it with bravery and enthusiasm and a clear head and with a lot of hope. So, yes, the winds of change have been blowing. This is a new season again. I have a new chop that's really exciting. I have new yoga teachers entering this world and 300 hour students becoming leaders. I have a new business and this very crazy birth process right now. True Love yoga entering year 12. And I'm returning here to this podcast. There is definitely this version of me that's ready for everything to settle down now. I would like all of the construction to be finished and the gym open and the teacher trainings wrapped up and the schedule schedule figured out and every question answered. But yoga keeps reminding me that life doesn't really work that way. There isn't a point where everything finally stops changing. But the practice is learning how to remain steady and rooted and clear and surrendered while things change. So you might consider for yourself what is changing in your life right now and thinking about what helps me stay grounded or rooted in the midst of this change. Your practice doesn't have to make the wind stop. It can just teach you how to stand inside them. So that's where I'm at right now. It's messy and exciting and stressful and really beautiful. And there's so much more I haven't even mentioned, but I thought I would stick to my professional life here. I didn't Even mention teaching 50amazing children yoga every week. That's been a very fun thing. And homeschooling my daughter. But yeah, so much more and I'm trying to simply embrace it all. I'm excited for upcoming topics. We're going to talk about autumn here soon and talk about our upcoming perinatal training and our upcoming 200 and 300 hour trainings and continue to dive into anatomy and philosophy and all things yoga. So thank you so much for joining me today. Keep practicing.
[00:18:08] Om Shanti Om. Peace.
