EP #119: Cultivating Eudaimonia: Lessons from Greek Wisdom and Philosophy with Kristina Headrick, Founder of Yia Mas

[music] Welcome back to another episode of Everyday Endorphins, a mental health podcast focused on the importance of finding joy and happiness and daily living. I'm your host Stella Stuff-Nobles, and if you can't tell by my last name, which is likely a dead giveaway, I'm Greek, the secrets out, and for those who know me pretty well, you will most definitely know that I'm Greek, and have actually had the really beautiful opportunity in the past year to become super connected to the Greek community here in New York City, and I'm so fortunate for that developing a lot of new relationships and friendships in the Greek community has been honestly such a big moment for me in the past year, and just getting to reconnect with a part of my identity that I never really had a strong connection to, despite growing up, going to church, having a family living in Greece, vacationing there over the summer to visit family and having both parents who are Greek, I never really was that connected to a Greek community, and I never really did have close friends that were Greek growing up, which I got into in this episode, but all this goes to say that in the past year it's been so incredible to get to be welcomed into this new community and to develop my own interest and desire to want to be involved, and the reason this week I wanted to release this episode with my friend Christina Hedrick is because it's kind of full circle, so Christina is a multi-hyphenate, she is a yoga instructor, a wellness enthusiast, she's an entrepreneur, but she also is the teacher for my Greek dance class that I started a few months ago in September, and it's very full circle because when we recorded this interview, we were just about to start the dance lessons, and now it is the end of January and the dance classes are wrapping up, so it's personally very entertaining for me to go back and listen and see how much has changed in the past few months and how much my perspective has also deepened to around building a Greek identity and being really involved with the community, so that's a tangent, but Christina is truly incredible, and she is the founder of Yamas, which is a lifestyle brand and workshop series that's inspired by the traditions of wellness and self-inquiry embedded in Hellenic culture. Yamas creates herbal teas, wellness events, yoga retreats, and conscious objects that are inspired by Greece's land and ancient wisdom, so I was super excited to have her on the podcast to tap into her knowledge and have her share where she sees the intersection between wellness and health and the Greek culture and tradition, and even dating back to the Greek philosophers, like Socrates and Aristotle, and how their teachings really lay the foundation for the teachings of positive psychology and the science of well-being, the pursuit of living a fulfilling and flourishing life. There's so many parallels between what these philosophers were preaching way back in the day and what modern researchers are sharing now around how we can cultivate joy in our lives, and that's exactly what we talk about today as well as get into Christina's takes on mental health and wellness, so I'm really excited to dive into this interview. I hope that you all enjoy, and I really believe that anyone who's listening can take something away whether or not you happen to be Greek. Before we dive into the episode, reminder to like, rate, and review this podcast on which ever listening platform you prefer, and follow along everyday endorphins on Instagram, TikTok, all social media to stay up to date with episodes that are being dropped, partnerships, clabs, and events happening in New York City. Hi, Christina. Thank you so much for coming on to Everyday Endorphins. I'm so happy to have you here. Hi, Stella. Thank you. Stoked to be here. I feel like, as I've gotten to know you over the past, I don't know, a year and a half, I guess at this point, or about a year and a half, we have so many similarities. Like, there's so many parallels between our interests and our passions and the ways in which that manifests professionally and personally, so I feel like it's such a privilege to get to sit with you. And for those of you who are listening out there and who don't know how Christina and I got introduced, we actually sat on a panel together at a Greek conference talking about the intersection between the Greek culture and holistic health and wellness. And that's exactly what I want to dive in deeper here today with you. So, Christina, you have an incredible community and company called Yamas. Can you talk a little bit more about the inspiration for starting Yamas? And really what the vision is with everything that you do, building community and bringing people together to celebrate Greek culture. Thank you Stella for that intro and I'm also so glad we ended up on that panel at a church conference together talking about yoga. I know it feels kind of like counterintuitive talking about yoga and spirituality at a Greek Orthodox church conference. I know. That's a conversation, that's like a whole side conversation, but to stay on point. So Yamas is, Yamas just for anyone who's listening. It's how we say cheers in Greek. It's a shortened version of Steenie Yamas, which means to our health. So like most ways of saying cheers, you're cheers into health. It started for me back in 2018 in my head years prior with the first official Yamas event was in 2018 in Manhattan and Soho and I called it like discover Yamas, discover Greece's holistic side. And I felt like I had been working in wellness since 20, in wellness in some capacity since 2015 and I kept finding as I studied Eastern philosophies and meditated or went to the Alchemist kitchen and people are selling me like Ashwaganda and I'm over here like well wait we have all this stuff in our culture too. Okay not the same not to say it's the same but like we have a lot there and I kept finding all these parallels between East and West and feeling like okay how come so many people know what Ashwaganda is but they've never heard of Mountain T. So that was sort of the aha moment to say well why don't we look at this overarching view of not just Greek culture but the Greek land, the gifts of the land what it has to offer and so it was born in this beautiful event and then that was really well received and I kept doing them because I kept having different ideas for different ones right so then there was one more focused on like goddess archetypes and self-love and journaling and then I started doing the Greek dance because I was like well why is Greek dance also not looked at as this form of healing movement which some people in scholars do look at it that way but you know in the general diaspora community it's not perceived that way and I was like I get I feel we can talk about this later but I feel just as good after Greek dancing as I do after taking like a really good yoga class for example so and then just to like summarize it our offerings are essentially workshops retreats in Greece and we have a line of products we have merch and I hope to just really keep expanding all of that I'm not 100% sure how it's all going to look and say two to ten years you know but have some ideas I love everything that you just shared and I feel very inspired by what you're doing because I think there's so much to be said about how our identity shapes our sense of well-being and it's interesting because for me personally both of my parents are Greek I grew up going to church my dad's father was a priest my mom was born in Greece like we are a very Greek family but I never really felt super connected to my culture ironically enough growing up I mean maybe that has to do with growing up in New York City granted there is a pretty strong Greek community here but like most of my friends growing up were Jewish and I went to 40 bot mitzvahs in seventh grade like that was just what my like reality looked like and I didn't really have a group of Greek friends growing up or participate in any quote-unquote Greek activities besides really going to church or celebrating those you know Easter and the other holidays and I'm just curious to hear from you do you feel like your childhood and the way in which you were raised really instilled this strong Greek identity that's been consistent throughout the course of your life and has that been something that's played a role in the inspiration for starting Yamas in 2018 and years prior like what was that connection I like this question I also just love hearing everyone's background so fascinating to me so I am half Greek my father's not Greek I grew up in Virginia and one thing I'll say I think about the Greek communities outside of bigger cities and metropolitan areas is I do think there's a little more strength than I did into tea because like in New York City it's just you can go to a Greek restaurant and there's other sea logi which are like the clubs for people from different regions and areas and it's kind of really in your face so I grew up in a church you port news Virginia that is very into Greek dance like deep deep deep Greek dance so Greek dance was always a big part of it for me that was really woven into my life I also grew up dancing ballet show choir these things so I just I loved dance I loved Greek dance I was obsessed with the costumes I was obsessed with the history actually majored in history at UVA like I just always had this sort of nerdy inclination towards it. Now, speaking of UVA, when I went to college, it was suddenly not very cool to be ethnic in a very waspy environment. So I feel like when I was at UVA, I kind of lost touch with my Greek identity a little bit, right? So, fast forward post-college, I go back to Greece for the first time in four or five years. And I have this moment where I'm like, what the heck, this is the best place on earth I've been missing out on this. Like, and also just coming out of the pressures of like college conformity, I was feeling ready more to just be myself. And so I started reconnecting with it again, not that I lost it, but in college I was not going to church really. I was not Greek dancing because I couldn't. I was trying to conform in like a slightly toxic environment. So I lost a lot of it. And then I think there was like a big force behind that desire to reconnect. And so this coincided with me starting a blog called Delphi Reclaims, like Ancient Delphi, which is considered the center of the ancient world, Temple of Apollo, or a goblah blah blah. And I felt like after the crisis, in Greece, there's this huge resurgence of creativity. So I started this blog. And funny enough, the blog is how Yamas got out in the first place. Also, my career was much more like editorial marketing media at the time, pre-getting really into wellness. So there was definitely like a desire to like show people the culture and show people that there was more degrees. I always joke like now Instagram's huge, right? There's a bajillion Greek bloggers this, that archive accounts, Greek dance accounts. I was sharing a lot of that type of content in like 2016. And I joke that like the internet wasn't ready. Like people just wanted like pictures of Santrini, the evil eye, and like Musaka and stuff. So you know, but I wanted to show this like alternative side that now you see kind of everywhere. And now like for non-Greek listeners who are like, why should I care? I mean, so many non-Greek's go to Greece has been one of the top touristic destinations in Europe the last few years. So there's just definitely been this like resurgence of us around Greece. And I wanted to share sort of my perspective on it, which was like, let's dive deeper than these sort of tropes of like smashing. I've never smashed a plate in my life, by the way, tropes of like smashing plates and waving a flag and all that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. And I also noticed that I think you mentioned this on your website or maybe on your Instagram somewhere. Like I love the colors of Yamas and they're these like earthy tones. And I know that that was really intentional again to not paint this picture around Greece that's just Santrini and Mekanos. And it's the blues and the whites, which of course are like very integral to the Greek culture and land. But there's these beautiful earthy undertones, the greens and the olives and browns that you know that really symbolize the land that is most of Greece. And I always joke with my non-Greek friends that when I go to Greece, it's not always the glamorous island vacation that people think of because a lot of Greeks that are from Greece are family there like are on the mainland or like in the village is like it's not like I'm jetting off to Santrini every summer. Of course, like no, I agree. And even with the islands, I'm like and trust me, I love the geekla this is Cyclads. I'm a Cyclads girl, but also like those are the islands with the blue and white. Even other islands don't have everything blue and white. And then I could go on a tangent of how like the blue and white was adopted from the Bavarian flag. And there's a whole like history around that, you know, that's nationalistic, but that's like a history lesson. So there's more to it. I love the blue and white, but I was like, guys, there's so much more. And to your point, like when you go to Greece, like my region of Greece, I see like all of trees as I'm driving through and terracotta roofs. And yeah, it's very earthy. It's really, really earthy actually. There's so many ways I can take this next question. So I'm trying to think about how exactly I want to phrase it, but for the listeners out there who have gone to Greece, maybe they they might have a better understanding of what I'm trying to get across. But I think that the Greek culture and identity and really just the Greek people like it's so infused in our history as well. There's so many ties to health and wellness that extend far beyond maybe like physical practices, all stemming back from the philosophy, the land, even this phrase, Yamas like community, in good health, like cheers, family. So that being said, where do you see the Greek culture really intersect with health and wellness more broadly speaking? Because something that comes right off the top of my mind is even thinking about the Greek philosophers and their perspective on health and leading a purposeful life and happiness. Absolutely. So so much I could say because it's funny the first thing that kind of comes to my mind is like food. Let's start there. Let's start with food. And the Mediterranean diet is catalogued as like, you know, one of the healthiest diets in the world. Greece has a very its own blue zone on the island of Ikariah known for having a very healthy heavily plant-based diet. I also love to and by the way, not vegan, not vegetarian. I pretty much eat everything other than I try not to eat processed foods. And for most of history, Greece didn't eat a lot of meat. Most people couldn't afford meat. You know, it was pretty plant-based. It's not because they were trying to be vegetarian. It was just like if you're a village family, you probably wouldn't eat meat. A lot of like the lenten fast, for example, coincides with like when people's resources from the harvest were running out, you know, and that's why at the end when you have the lamb on Easter, it's such a big deal because it's really celebratory and like it's a big deal to have the lamb. So one thing I would say is sort of the food and also connections to more like cyclical eating and living. Now my caveat to all this is modern Greece has definitely modernized European eyes. They're eating more processed foods. Things are changing over there. Greece is not a perfect picture of health. It has a lot of problems. I just, I have to say that because I'm sure if a Greek from Greece was listening, they might take issue with all my points. But there really is that like and then speaking of eating, there's also dining as a family. When I was there on my last trip, I wanted to meet up with some family and it wasn't like let's go out to eat. They're like no, come, I don't know if I'm just just speedy. Like Sunday, every Sunday, we have a family meal, we eat together, we gather, and that's another thing from like the blue zone statistics that are off-site it is this like emphasis on connection with family. So that's sort of that. But I'd say the other thing to bring it back to your point of the ancient philosophy, I love that you brought this up. I literally just did a workshop on this on Sunday called Ancient Philosophy Modern Wellness, which is like an older workshop I'd done during COVID and now finally was able to do in person. And I also have to say caveat, I don't know how much modern Greeks are connecting with ancient philosophies. I think sometimes those of us who are either diaspora or just people who aren't from Greece were more excited about them. But I find so much in them, so much richness and to hark into two points. One, as I mentioned earlier, when I did yoga teacher training and then when I read the towel and I was really entrenched in sort of these eastern philosophies, then I read the fragments of Heraklitos and I was like wait, this in the towel are saying the same thing. They were written on different parts of the planet, these people, as far as we know, had zero connection with each other and they were making the same arguments about impermanence. The same arguments about like, you know, there being some sort of life force energy, the same arguments about things being cyclical. And so I find there to be a lot of wisdom there. Of course, Greek philosophy also has so, so much. And like I not to turn this into a workshop, but I talked about this on Sunday where like we think of, you know, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, which they were lineage, truly a philosopher's one taught the other. But then we have all these pre-secratic philosophers, like Heraklitos, for example, his work is so ancient, we only have these fragments of what he wrote. Thales. And then we have the stoic philosophers who did not identify as a crew, by the way, that's like a modern identity. We've bestowed upon them to call them, they weren't like, I'm a stoic. Marcus really didn't like, call himself a stoic, but like Epictetus, he speaks so much about things that I find. I'm like, this is just mindfulness. He's like, oh, it's not what happens to that matters. It's how you react to it. Okay, like mindfulness 101, you know, so I really love to just bridge those connections. And also I think it's important to because it shows that in this age of Instagram where I think we have a problem where everyone acts like they've like discovered everything. I'm like, y'all, we're all like, it's not about me discovering it. It's not about anyone's like quote template. It's like this stuff is ancient and it's been around and humans have been discovering it and rediscovering it and just finding different ways of expressing, I think, what are like very universal truths. Absolutely. It's funny that you mentioned that in comparison to how these ideas are portrayed on social media now because I swear my TikTok for you page. Every single video is like something about a manifestation practice or how to get the success that you want in life. Like, okay, guilty is charged. Like I'm being very honest here. Yes, that is what my free page is sending me. And I'm sure my phone listens to me. So that's probably like what I'm talking about most of the time. And it's funny because a lot of these manifestation practices really about how to get the things that you want in life, how to let things come to you instead of working so hard for them. Boiled down to this concept of embodying that of what you desire. And it's really funny because my mom sent me this real on Instagram of this priest talk like he was sharing a story. And I was like, I'm not like, I don't know what she's sending me. So I click on the video and it's of this priest talking about how he told his father how he like wanted his dream partner. And what should I do? What should I do? And the father basically said write a list of all the qualities that you're looking for in this dream partner. And so the priest goes on to write the list and explains, you know, what he wrote down. And then the father says, now live that like now, embody it. And that's exactly the same manifestation practice that I've seen come across my TikTok for you page. You want your dream partner, like write down the list and the qualities and then act as if you already have it. And it's the same idea. And if you like abstract it away from romance, I mean, it's anything in life and to go back to your point on like stoicism as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe that the stoic philosophers and those who really embody that practice are really seeking more so tranquility than the pursuit of happiness, like being content, being unbothered by things and being very common. It really ties into again, mindfulness. And then these practices that were developed more in Eastern philosophy. So I personally feel like I've now been seeing how these two different philosophies also intersect. And it's I think a really beautiful thing to see and also to know that a lot of this wisdom comes from like our ancient culture. Well, there's so much there. And it's like I one note to on stoicism is like Marcus Aurelius is probably the most famous, right? And has the biggest catalog of writing. Of course, he was an ability. So his things were really well cataloged and his work was really saved. But he was really influenced by Epic Titus. So Marcus Aurelius like oh so much to Epic Titus. Epic Titus is a slave who was freed. And as far as I know is a literate. So he actually had someone write down his words. But those really influenced Marcus Aurelius. So yeah, I don't think they had any sort of I don't think it was any sort of pursuit of happiness. But it was more of just living to borrow from the socratic quote that actually it's taken out of context and used pretty poorly like to live an examined life to be aware of how you're living. Which, of course, is also a luxury when you're in the throes of survival or when you're just having a really bad day, it's easier said than done to embodies and philosophies. You know, if you're a single mom, you have a lot going on. How you don't have time to sit around and contemplate reality most likely. So I always have to say that like there's an error of like privilege to all of this, right? Of being able to even have the time to think about it and talk about it. And that's not lost on me. But it's funny what you said about manifestation. Cause there's this thing attributed to Epic Titus that says don't explain your philosophy and body it. Kind of goes like you're saying with the very popular, what's now very popular manifestation lingo, which is like feel the way you want to be and then you'll get there. I hope you got to manifestation stuff though. It's a lot. Well, I want to hear more of that. What are your thoughts number one on manifestation? And secondly, I can imagine that since you're so educated in the Greek philosophy, Greek culture, you're also yoga certified. You know, we share very similar backgrounds. How has that impacted or influenced rather your own philosophy on leading a healthy and happy and purposeful life? Do you draw from the knowledge that you've gained over the course of your life through Yamas to create how you want to lead a meaningful life? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And so I'm a big believer in personal integrity, which essentially means is this BS coming out of my mouth and my actual actions are they aligning? Because it is really easy to post all sorts of things on Instagram and also like guilty as charged. But I remember having this realization a few years ago where I'd be like, well, that person has a really what I'm saying is going to sound really judgmental. I apologize. But like this person has an amazing Instagram. And if I just saw their Instagram, I'd think, whoa, they're this way. And then you see them in person. And there's like such an energetic disparity between the two. And in my personal experience, some of the teachers, mentors I've had that have been the most effective aren't even that big on social media. Or they were and they stopped. Or they just, it's not their whole thing. So we can get lost in, I call it like, I made up this word, the contentization of it all versus the reality. Sorry to the English language. But I find that so for me to actually answer your question, yeah, I try to check myself and be like, okay, if I posted something on Instagram and I actually living that. So for example, I recently took a break from Instagram. I think I was a full eight days off, which for someone who both has a business and does so I still do copywriting for people in wellness is like part of my vocation. It was a lot and it may be not want to be on it to be completely honest with you, which then puts me at odds with how to market and get myself out there. And the fact that so much of my community exists on and become Instagram. But what is life if you're also not willing to like embrace change and pivot? Like why do I have to always have like the way I was so on Instagram during COVID? Okay, I was sitting at home. I had a lot of energy to like research and write and create this content. Now I'm like, I kind of want to be out in the world. I don't want to be looking at my phone. I feel a lot better when I'm not on it as much. I can feel that in my nervous system. I'm just calmer. I'm way less judgmental. I'm not thinking about other people so much. I'm more focused on just what I need to be doing. I have more questions than answers. It's a long one to say I don't know the answer. I don't know how you create a healthy relationship with something designed to be addictive literally, but it's definitely influenced my life. And I'd say both my meditation and yoga teacher trainings because my meditation teacher training specifically was very steeped in Buddhism and psychology that affected me so much into this day. Continues to really affect me in a very positive way. First, sir. I completely resonate with what you were talking about just how getting off social media makes you happier. I mean, I think most people can resonate that, but I haven't personally taken an Instagram hiatus, and I think this is a sign that I should, but I also share in that feeling of stress where it's like this dilemma because for the podcast, for example, I have to promote it on social media. I have to use Instagram to spread the message. And the irony here is that it's not very enjoyable to me, honestly. I mean, there's parts of it that are enjoyable. And I think I also used to enjoy consuming content a lot more, or lack of a better way of putting that. And now it's like, this is maybe just meme. And it's also been years. Now we've been on Instagram for 10 years. The novelty of that is even worn off. And I feel almost guilty because I'm like, I don't enjoy reading anyone's stuff. So then why don't I want to post if I'm not really, you know, it's straight. And that's just where I am maybe personally. It could also just be getting older or truly like I'm trying to embody some of these philosophies. It's like they start to really land and you're like, okay, I don't need to like consume so much information every day. It's just making things really noisy for me. Right, exactly. And going back to this concept about embodying the principles that we speak about, that we advocate for that are really the value pillars to, I think, both of our brands. I think it's really important to take a step back so that you can reflect on the knowledge that you've accumulated and figure out how do I actually integrate this into my life. And that was something that was so important to me through taking a break with my podcast and then getting back into it. I was so stuck in the execution phase that I wasn't thinking about what I was learning consciously and subconsciously and how I could actually embody that. And it took time away to figure out how to live those principles and find more joint contentment within myself. And I think that's a really difficult thing to do when you're in the more entrepreneurial space, especially when what you're building is so tied to your identity. And I think that's where we have a lot of similarities because we have, first of all, kind of similar backgrounds studying more of the like humanities, liberal arts, you with history, me with this integrative philosophy, neuroscience and psychology major, also being Greek. And then having an interest in wellness, doing your yoga teacher training, and then building these two separate brands that have their own unique identity, but also without our own interests and our own makeup and personality, like these brands wouldn't exist and vice versa. But there are many extensions of the part, the human. Right, do you have extensions of the human? It's not like you're like, oh, I heard that I don't know writing ebooks about how to care for your dog on Amazon is really like a thing that you can make a lot of money off of true story from my digital nomad days hearing someone do this. And so, you know, people who are just like, I'm a serial entrepreneur, I'm going to launch this. And there's no like personal attachment to it. They're just like, I heard I can make money off this. I'm going to do it. These brands that we have are projects, whatever you want to call them. They are deeply personal. And I find that like when I really resonate with the thing I write, nine out of 10 times, unless I'm in one of those like algorithm punishing stages, which I'm in, by the way, if you take time off Instagram, which I just did, now all my stuff is tanking, which is hilarious. They literally punish you when you take time off. And when I was posting more frequently, it was like, oh, wow, my real is like going semi viral. And now I'm like, oh, crickets because time off, I guess. But if I really resonate with whatever it is, like I could plan content all day, but I'll have like an intuitive hit to write something. And maybe it's like a snippet video I took earlier that day wasn't planned, isn't part of a content pillar per se, it wasn't strategy, and that'll be the thing that goes semi viral. So again, it really is sometimes I wish it was less personal to be honest with you. Yeah, that's a good perspective because it can also be kind of draining as well. Yeah, I'm feeling drained which happens or if I'm going through a week where because like hormonally I'm lower energy like big believer in our cycles over here especially as women and I don't really like I want to write anything this week. It's like okay well it's a business you have to but yeah it's hard when it's so personal and I've thought about like oh I could get some help from someone but the voice on Instagram is so much and I'm sure you resonate with this it's like so much my voice. There are a lot of things that I could get help with and have gotten help with in the past with the business like hired people for but the writing is just like it's a destiny. Now I totally get that and I personally I feel like I can hear your voice shine very clearly through what you write and it's really the ethos and messaging. So some of those things that we think we could maybe outsource take a load off of our plate actually might cause more to be put on our plate because it's not really an alignment with maybe the message that we're trying to share. So it's difficult I resonate with that. I want to get back to talking a little bit more about the offerings that you provide with Yamas. I know we touched on this earlier in the interview but you just hosted what looked to be like a fabulous yoga retreat in Greece and not only did it look to be that way but I know that for a fact because a close friend of both of ours went on their retreat and she only had incredible things to say. So can you talk a little bit about how you bring yoga into Yamas and how movement plays a big role in what you're providing? Sure. So about our retreats I'd say a thing that makes a Yamas retreat different from just going and doing yoga in Greece is that we do infuse our retreats with an element of sort of cultural immersion which is cool and it's like now I'm seeing a lot more people do that and I'm like great you know whether it's doing a workshop on herbs or going to like traditional tavernas and having live music or some other you know tricks we have of our sleeves. So I think because also when you go somewhere and there's an actual connection to the people in the culture it's very different than just showing up with sort of this colonialist like I'm going to get what I want from this pretty place and kind of being more like extractive versus being a little more like woven into the community if that makes sense. Not that it has to be by the way that's just like if I'm going to Greece that's going to be my style. The yoga and so also for anyone listening not everything I do is Greek sometimes I'm like oh no I've made my whole life so Greek because of what I teach yoga and often it's just a yoga class that could have absolutely nothing to do with being Greek. Same with meditation, breath work etc etc but I find that because I teach yoga and also Greek dance there's this fun sort of synthesis of the two you know the yoga can kind of ground you and it's a physical practice and has of course so much and then I also teach Greek dancing which is more of an ecstatic experience and communal experience so I like to marry those two not like at the same time but in the programming of a retreat and the Greek dancing was introduced as like part of Yamas fairly early on in like 2019 because I just felt like every Greek dance class I'd take in was so serious or felt a little clicky and I wanted to create I can't believe about Tuesday's words but I want to create like a safe space truly where you know the first Yamas dance class like had a lot of non Greek people. Wow, I probably should have said from the beginning like I really my goal is to share this is not just a community for diaspora Greeks and Greek Americans half the people on our retreat at least half were not Greek including my co-leader that was intentional. I really want to share it with a broader audience this is not like another Greek American brand click club if that makes sense. It often feels like one I think just by virtue of like Greek people are going to be much more interested in what I'm doing. Yeah, no it can't feel that way and going back to Greek dance so for those who are listening by the time this will be released I will have completed the Greek dance classes that you are hosting with the church. I've never done a Greek dance lessons before so I'm excited but it's funny because as I've gotten to be more connected with our culture really being immersed in the Greek community and having really close Greek friends it just so happens that when we're out let's say at a Greek bar or at some Greek event we all get in our little circle and Greek dancing just happens and I've learned to honestly embrace it because I do think that there has been that safe space for lack of a better word and you know I bring this up because something I've noticed is that it feels so communal and tribal in a way but also there's a sense of rhythm to Greek dancing and it's the same sense of rhythm that you feel in yoga honestly when you're in that flow and I used to row crew in high school which is an incredibly rhythmic sport. So what do all these things have in common? It's synchronicity it's being you know it's connecting with your breath and your movement and your body and your mind and I think with Greek dancing in particular I'm very much inavised so please add on to my thoughts but we're with other people and so you're doing it like in a collective experience and I think that's what's really special about it. And I think that's like one of the biggest things the first time I did the workshop I spent the first 20 at least minutes just talking kind of about very much this because Greek dance but let's just say any dance right if you grew up dancing there can be dance cultures changed a lot but it can be kind of tough. I wanted to emphasize the communal aspect. I wanted to I will cue sometimes in a class I'll remind people I'll notice when people get nervous because it's a harder dance I'll say hey guys don't forget to breathe don't look down at your feet you know drop your awareness down into your body so infusing it with this sort of yogic mindfulness lens as I think what makes my class different. There are a lot of very like esteemed Greek dance teachers who are so much more knowledgeable than I will ever be they've done field from not ever but field research you know people with 40 years of research and seminars behind them and sometimes I take their classes and I'm like they're not like offering you know they're showing I know they're a wealth of knowledge I have a lot of respect but there's no talking about like our body or the physicality or the breathing or like even context I'm sort of obsessed with context it's probably why I do this and why I made written history but I'm like if I know I liked also share a little more about the dance or the music not always but things like this sorry if I'm stringing from your question I like just got on a total tangent but I say at the beginning of every class it's hard to be doing anything other than Greek dancing when you're Greek dancing can't really be on your phone you're there so talk about being mindful and present yeah it's like literally a recipe for presents and community and joy absolutely and even in yoga like you can't be on your phone I visited a friend in California recently and we would hike a lot and you can't really be on your phone while you're hiking I mean I guess you can but for your ankle though exactly so unless you want to do that like don't look at your phone but just creating space to remove distraction I think is very important and it's a very hard thing to do in a place like New York and just in general I mean even in Greece this summer people say like oh Greece is different I can't tell you how many times I walked by like a little group of boys in a town square all huddled over phones it's changed everywhere the device thing is really a thing and so if you can create spaces where people can't be on them that's why even in a yoga class when I see an apple watch on someone I get kind of annoyed I'm like you're violating it like just text your text message and pigeon pose no it's like sneaky ways of bringing technology into the space it's so sneaky and I've had a few other friend teachers say they're like people have stopped to text on apple watches in class and I've like told them not to because they're supposed to be phone free environments yeah and look Greek dance is to me the one of the coolest ways to learn about Hellenic culture and people over time the modern Greek country is a very recent creation relatively speaking so if you want to learn about Hellenic people the people who have inhabited these spaces over history I think the dance and music are one of the best ways to do that and it really tells the story and also reminds you that Greek culture, Hellenic culture, Balkan culture it's all much more diverse and then again I think it gets painted and like the again the diaspora, blue white zorba, seotalkini, cheesy whole thing and yeah I love that it really paints a picture of like the cultural nuances too and look this stuff is alive and well if you go to Greece in the summer I went to like six banyhidia and for those listening a banyhiddi is like a summer not just a summer but it's really just a festival around a saint's day a lot of them do have ancient pre-Christian roots by the way but they're typically now they're centered around a specific saint's day the whole town comes together you can go you typically eat and drink for free or you pay a little bit and then there's dancing and music all night I was looking for a book I'm reading right now but it's in the other room called Dancing in the Streets it's written by an anthropologist and it's It's literally like an exploration from like Dionysus to the Great Full Dead or something is the subheading for the stressor that. And people have been doing this forever. It's one of the oldest ways to connect and communicate. And I think after like a good night of sweaty dancing, you never really like feel better than that. It's a great way to flirt. You know, there's so much to it. It's a thing. It's how people used to flirt. You know, there used to be all these rules. Like you couldn't really just approach a woman, but if you're dancing a ballos, it's your people dance, you know, that's how people court at each other. The same way you go up, like all the scene from Shakespeare and love. It's like that, but Greek dance. I'm like, yes. (laughing) I love that. - The Bridgerton, Bridgerton, but Greek dance version. - Exactly. Bridgerton, but Greek dance. - That's how you talk about it. - That's great. - You should say that during the Greek class. (laughing) As we all come together, this is Bridgerton, but Greek dance edition. I think that'll resonate with a lot of people. But no, I mean, I love that. And I really do love the mission behind Yama's and how you so beautifully celebrate Greek culture and Greek heritage. And you also kind of resurface the foundation of Greek philosophy and bring it into modern day living, which is something that I think anyone can connect to, which is incredible. And I would love to hear also as we wrap with the interview today, how you see ancient Greek wisdom impact your own philosophy on happiness, given that everyday endorphins is a show about happiness primarily and how that pertains to our wellbeing. How do you find happiness in life and how do you define happiness first and foremost? - There's like two threads for which I could approach this right off the bat. So I'll start with the ancient Greek one, which is literally talked about this on Sunday's workshop. There's the word Yudhimonia, Yudhimonia, which you see a lot. It's very popular on psychology today and this idea of cultivating it often gets distilled down to a well-lived life that of course removes all the nuance the context how Socrates saw it versus Aristotle because Socrates and Plato saw it a different way than Aristotle, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is not an academic lecture. So we'll just say this idea of cultivating Yudhimonia. And what I like about it is it emphasizes more of like the actions you take and pursue to a well-lived life versus just like the end state. So I actually have this written down. It's a combination of the prefix U, which means good or well and theymon, which means spirit. So it's like a good spirit. Aristotle talked about it a lot in the ethics, you know, it's kind of like the science of a life well-lived and what you do to cultivate it. And then people have all these different formulas of like how to get there, different philosophers have formulas of how to get there. But look, for all of the problems of modern degrees, for all of the mental health issues that even exist there, there's something to be said for this like Jwadavi that people in Greece seem to have the way they can just like sit down for a meal and really enjoy it and they'll talk about how good the food is. And again, there's more, I think I'm making a terrible generalization here, but there's an emphasis on presence and I think cultivating presence, finding gratitude for small moments for me is how I would cultivate Yudhimonia. The side note of this is I've done a lot of studying of Katona Yoga, I'm a big Katona Yoga head. And Naveen Mishan, the founder or the creator of this, talks a lot about more cultivating joy. Because happiness can be tricky, right? So we'll put a lot of pressure on ourselves to feel happy, sometimes not everyone, but like I've had this and then if you're not happy, you think something's wrong. When really like yesterday was a super rainy day, right? I was low energy, it was kind of weird. I was annoyed because I had a lot to do and I just wanted to chill because of the rain. Now today that the sun's out, I feel something, it's like the contrast of life, give it meaning. The fact that I personally have dealt with depression means that now that I feel much better most of the time, it makes it that much sweeter for me, if that makes sense. So I like to think of these sort of, and this is a very Katona Yoga phrase, so I have to give credit there like recipes for joy or ways to cultivate joy, which when you read these ancient philosophies of cultivating you theymonia, I'm like again, same thing, different words, just different ways to get there. So finding your little recipes for joy and living intentionally around that, that's how I do it. So for that me, that means I move every day. I've removed a lot of things from my life. I like to read books, I like to annotate when I read and I just kind of ruthlessly pursue those things as much as I can because I know especially one day, if I like become a mother, I'm not gonna be able to have so much time focused on my personal joy and state of being, so trying to soak it up now. - I feel like we're kindred spirits. Like I saw so much of myself reflected in your answer and really honestly your approach to everything that you're doing and I think that brings me a lot of joy, but to your point around like sitting in uncomfortable feelings and how it makes the more joyous moments sweeter, that's a very profound thing to share because I do think that people generally speaking, this is again, a broad generalization, have happiness wrong. We think that we need to find happiness elsewhere. We think that we need to be happy, but that's really not what it's about. And Arthur Brooks says this incredibly well. He writes for the Atlantic, he has a column called How to Build a Life. He also just came out the book with Oprah, which I'm currently in the middle of. His saying is that happiness is not a destination, it's a direction and you can always be happier. So first of all, you have to experience the negative emotions to find even more joy in the positive ones. Again, experiencing the broad range of emotions and secondly, learning to not be so tied to that outcome of happiness because again, that's not what's going to make you feel happy. And that's not very Buddhist or stoic to be attached. Exactly, you want to go back to this principle of non-attachment? You mean, sir. Right, exactly. Then I feel like that's so much of life is you're like, I'm eating the cookie, I don't want the cookie to be over. It's like because the cookie is going to be over, that's why it's good. Exactly. And there's the bitter sweetness in it all. I do love your answer, Christina. And you might have already kind of shared this and in my answering my previous question, but the final question that I have for you, which is something that I ask every guest that comes onto the podcast, is what is something that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? My answer is going to shock the world. Scrolling on my phone. I love Instagram. No, honestly, it's movement and dance. And then I have to say, Greek dance being a huge part of that. I was such a heavy person. I've done all a lot of therapy and inclination towards thinking. And at the end of the day, every time I get into my body, that's where I get those endorphins. And Greek dancing is my favorite way to do it. Because you also get the craziest workout without realizing it. It's like the best sneaky cardio of your life. Movement should be fun. And that was something I needed to reconcile with and figure out how to make movement enjoyable when I was no longer an athlete, which was a whole other topic and conversation for another time. But I do believe that movement should be fun. And that's what is kind of filling up your cup. Not I need to go to the gym and burn anx amount of calories and to look a certain way. It's cultivating that energy within yourself. And I especially love that response, because now I'm excited to see you in your element with all those endorphins, Greek dancing, and teaching me the way. So I'm really looking forward to it. Where can other people access these endorphin highs, Christina? Where can people follow along with Yamas and get connected to your workshops and retreats and join your community? The best two ways would be our Instagram and our newsletter. The Instagram is just YA, period, M-A-S. So yah.mas. And the website is YA-M-A-S.com. And you can sign up for our newsletter there. I always tell people, I'm like, sign up for the newsletter in case I quit Instagram one day, but I don't think that's happening. I'm so-- Well, thank you so much. I will link both of those in the show notes as well. It was such a pleasure having you as a guest. It was so much fun. I'm like, let's do it again. We should do it again. I feel even more connected to my Greek identity. So thank you for being so pivotal on this journey. And I'm excited to share this episode with the world. So thank you again, Christina. Thank you, Stella. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks for listening to this episode of Everyday Endorphins. If you liked what you heard, make sure to like, rate, and review this podcast on whichever platform you prefer. You can also follow along the Everyday Endorphins Instagram account to stay up to date with episodes, future events, and all things related to mental health, well-being, and happiness. Don't forget to keep spreading endorphins and find things in life that bring you joy every day. Until next time. [MUSIC PLAYING]