EP#27- Psychedelics & Yoga Nidra with Caley Alyssa, Astroflow Yoga Teacher & Alo Moves Instructor

(gentle music) - The first time I did mushrooms, it was basically like Lisa Frank bombarded all over the world and there were gritted rainbowed flower of lives everywhere connecting everything. - Welcome back to another episode of Everyday in Dorfens. You just heard from Kaylee Alyssa. I am so excited to have Kaylee as a guest on the podcast. She's an internationally renowned yoga teacher and entrepreneur. Kaylee is also sponsored by Allo Yoga, which is one of my favorite fitness brands, lifestyle brands. I'm obsessed with all the Allo Yoga apparel and I also am a subscriber to the Allo Moves platform, which is a series of workout videos, meditation videos, sound baths, everything you can think of. And Kaylee is also an instructor on Allo Moves, so I love taking her classes. You guys should all check it out. This episode gets into some controversial topics, like psychedelics, for example. I just wanna put it out there that I am not in any way encouraging the use of psychedelics or trying to get my listeners to explore, taking psychedelics. The purpose of our conversation was really to have a discussion that explores Kaylee's own personal use with psychedelics and talk about how psychedelics can physically alter the mind. And there's a lot of emerging research within the psychedelic community around the benefits of microdosing, especially for those who experience severe and chronic depression or traumas such as PTSD. So there is a lot of interesting work going on right now around the use of psychedelics. But that aside, if you are interested in experiencing what it's like to be on psychedelics, Kaylee shares some tips for how to be in the right set in setting. We also talked about Kaylee's experience making pretty big life choices and how she decided to make a pivot in her career and how she had to rely on her gut to do so. And lastly, we talked about Kaylee's own yoga practice, how she teaches astrophlo yoga and writes her own cosmic yoga nidras. I personally did not know a lot about cosmic yoga nidra before we recorded, so it was really interesting to learn about what the yoga nidra practice is and how it differs from a traditional meditation. Before we get into the interview, I have a brief message from my sponsor, Inker. Hi, Kaylee. Thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Back, you know, I guess five or six years ago, we practiced at this rooftop yoga class in New York. And this was, I think, before you were involved with aloe yoga potentially, it was a while ago, almost six years ago. And I mean, I remember taking your class, it was so great. So it's really fun to be back with you today. I think that was an Earth Day event, right, from my buddy, Green. Yes, I must-- I found out about it probably through that website or through some event, bright. It's funny, because that was six years ago, but this morning, I was able to take an aloe moves class that you have on the platform. It was the circular flow. It was a good time. Yeah, yeah. I've been with aloe for like eight years now, so it's been a long time. But yeah, I remember that class. I remember going out there, and it was really always day to the one hotel, I believe. Yeah, it was really fun. And I think it was sunset yoga. So it was just so beautiful. And we have a picture together. I don't know the pose, but you're lying on your back. And your legs are kind of like hoisting me up. And I'm like-- You're saying a word. Yeah. Yeah. I'm nervous to try that. Yeah, I was, because I was afraid it was going to fall. But hopefully one day in a post-COVID world, I can take one of your classes in person again, if you're still teaching by then. I would love that. Today, we have so much to cover. You right now are an entrepreneur, a yoga instructor, a business woman. But prior to all of this, you are working in finance. So can you talk a little bit about what that shift looked like in your career? Yeah, I love talking about this, because I feel like there's women everywhere and people everywhere for considering making shifts in their life. And so for me, it was something that-- I always say this, but you can either get pushed in a certain direction, or you can jump, and you can actually make the leap yourself. And I got pushed in the direction of yoga and everything that I'm into now, which I feel very lucky, because I didn't necessarily have to make this massive leap and leave one career and jump into another. I was working at Wells Fargo Private Bank, as a trust associate. And we had this big merger with Wacovia back in the day. And at the time, a bunch of people from the private bank got let go. And I ended up getting, I don't know, three months of reference or something like that. And so it was kind of the best of both worlds. I hated my job. I did not like working in finance. And I was a science major. I met her in business, but I never thought I would be in finance. It just kind of happened after college. And it was good money. And I had a 401k and all the things. So when this happened, it was a blessing in disguise. And I was already teaching yoga on the side, just as something to do. I had opened a yoga studio with a friend of mine. We were co-leasing from a space on San Fran. And it was an eternity boutique that we were partnered with. And they ended up going bankrupt, spell you up. So we lost as sublessors. You don't have any rights, really. Once the master of the sorbiz bankrupt. So we learned a lot in that process. And so here I am, the yoga studio has gone bankrupt. I have severance from this big job in finance. And I'm teaching just privately. And at the time, my ex-husband told me, hey, I want to move to L.A. I want to go to graduate school at UCLA. And so I never wanted to live in L.A. I was so upset about it. I was throwing tantrums and all of it. And we ended up moving. And I got to L.A. and I was still in this mindset where I had to figure out what my job was going to be. And you did to figure out what I was doing. I had a college degree. I had no clue what I wanted to be doing. And I still just was continuing my practice. It was going to yoga classes in L.A. And I thought, I might as well just teach here or something to do until I figure it out. And so I started teaching. I started teaching at a small little studio in Venice called Sterea Yoga. And then I started getting jobs at other places. Power Yoga East, which is a donation-based studio by Brian Kess and Yoga Works and Allo Yoga. And all the other things. And there was just one point when I stopped and I looked and I was looking at my life and looking around. And I was like, I'm a yoga teacher. Like, I'm a full-time yoga teacher now. And it just kind of happened. I just got pushed in that direction. And all the pieces fell into place really. It was at the right place at the right time and with the right people. And it felt really good to be doing that. I say this all the time as well, but I say follow the good feels. And that's exactly what I did. I just kept following what felt good as opposed to what didn't feel good, like finance. Now I'm here. Oh, really, following that got into a shen. And focused. So how can we identify those feelings? Because I feel like it's so much easier when you look back on an experience to say, oh, I just have to follow my gut feeling. I have to follow this intuition. But it's so hard to identify that in the present to know that's the right decision that you're making. And especially right now, I'm graduating college. A lot of my listeners are young adults who are in college and not knowing exactly what they want to do when they graduate. And there's all these big life decisions that need to be made at what's, you know, we're at such a young age. So what was that gut intuition like? It's a great question. And I would also say, yes, you are young and you're making big life decisions. But I'm still making big life decisions and I'm 36, you know. And I don't think that ever stops. And you can always shift. You can always pivot. You're not stuck. If you make a decision and it's the wrong one, that's OK. You can go another direction. So just know that. I think that was the biggest thing for me too, about I was feeling so much stress and pressure to get it right and get it right the first time. And to not waste my time and, you know, to start on my career, my journey. And it really doesn't matter. And I think we're constantly-- I mean, I'm a Scorpio. So I'm constantly, like, you know, first-life, debris, birth, looking for the next thing. But I think that's in us. And, you know, none of us are going to pick one job and stick with it the rest of our life forever and always. Maybe a few, but realistically, these days, that doesn't happen much anymore. We're all multi-faceted and multi-talented. And we all want to pursue multiple endeavors. And, you know, this is important. And I think it's fulfilling for us. And so I would just say that first piece. And then in regards to your intuition and your gut, your instinct, you know, it was tough for me. For a while, I was kind of lost. I was going through a divorce. My high school sweetheart and I were together for 15 years. We were divorcing. I was brand new to LA. I had never dated a non-emant in my life. You know, I was 14 when I started digging my ex. So I was in Los Angeles, newly single, yoga teacher. And I didn't really know what my intuition was. I was in a place where I'm like, I just needed to go crazy a little bit. I lost it. I actually lost it a little bit. And that was OK. You know, I needed to be wild. And I needed to experience things that had experienced before and just allow myself a time to like have that. I didn't go crazy in college. I never did. or did anything like that before, you know? What does that look like in LA? What were you doing that just, you know, you felt like you were letting loose a little bit and really taking the time to explore things you were interested in or do things for yourself for fun? - Yeah, well I think because of that, I lost my intuition a little. Like I was just doing anything because it was presented to me really and because I hadn't had the experience and so I might as well have the experience, you know? Like going to Burning Man and, I'm not like a three day awesome vendor at Burning Man, you know? Or crazy stuff like that that I just, I really had never thought I would do in my entire life. And so, I dated an actor, I, you know, I did the quintessential LA experience and had an open relationship. It turned into a five year relationship and we eventually closed it, but I think that, I needed to experience losing myself because I never had found myself before. I, you know, was 14 when I started dating ads. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what my intuition was. And so I had to lose it in order to then start to crawl my way back to finding it slowly but surely. And that was a process for me. It took many years and many times learning the same lesson over and over again. But the constant throughout all of it was my yoga practice and the development of the meditational component of my yoga practice. The meditation aspect didn't come until later on. So first for me, I went to yoga for the physicality and for the workout. And there was this subtle work in happening the whole time. And, you know, that was my one consistent piece throughout all of the years of crazy in LA and all the things that I did was the yoga and the meditations started to get deeper and deeper and deeper. You know, and then I did other things like I sat for the past enough or 10 days time at retreat and I did, you know, different meditation trainings which Johnny Polard and my yoga ninja training with Janne Romer and I just started really to dive in and transcendental meditation training as well. And I think that helped me to get quiet enough to just hear my intuition, to even be able to like hear it, you know. And I also did Hoffman process, which was a pretty profound experience for me. Can you talk a little bit more about what that is? Yeah. So Hoffman is, I highly recommend it. There are some things that are really wild and strange and then there's some things that are awesome too. But basically it's a weak long, introspective dive into your patterning, your conditioning. So the habitual patterns that you've acquired from your primary caretakers, whether it be your parents or if you were adopted or your grandparents, whoever. But what they expose within you is patterns that you either just completely adopted identically. So say, you know, my dad sort of like cut and run when things got hard and spanced. Maybe I do that too identically. Maybe I'm just like, "Oh, but I'm out. It's too hard." Or maybe I do the opposite and I over commit and I stay too long than is good for me, too long than is healthy for me. I do the complete opposite of what he did. Or I call someone else into my life like my romantic partner typically or friends who will just reenact the pattern for me so that I don't have to. And so you look at these things and you look, you walk yourselves through your parents' life from when they were born until now. As much detail as you can recall, as much as you can remember. And imagine, and it's just so enlightening. I recommend, before having a family or doing anything I thought, you do half-time process. It's really a powerful experience. Really interesting you bring this up because actually the other night I was talking to a friend of mine about how our parents grew up and how they, their background kind of subconsciously shaped the way in which I engage with the world. Like the way that you're raised, your environment very much impacts who you are and how you, the perspectives that you have and how you see the world. So I think that's super important. And it was really fun last night talking to my friend because you start to realize as you get older that your parents are human as well. Or let's say whoever your caretakers are, like they're just human. Now, having that shift in understanding about how I've maybe viewed my parents as people rather than parents, it makes any sense. It's very eye-opening and allows you to kind of have a better understanding of yourself, like why you behaved a certain way or the certain qualities that you adopt from your parents or the people that you're around with all the time. So that message has been such a really incredible experience for you to have that opportunity. It's really mind-blowing to put yourself in that space and to see, "Oh, I did do that just like my mom and I do that." Or, "I'm doing the complete opposite." It wasn't necessarily good either. So it's finding, it's just looking at everything and then saying, "Okay, I'm here or I'm here or I want to be here." So yeah, I highly recommend the Hoffman process. I think the St. Helena location burnt down in the fires this last year. But they do have an alternate location that they established. I want to get a little bit back to talking about how you were going through this really introspective process while you were kind of letting loose an LA, but also developing your yoga and meditation practice simultaneously. So it seems like there is this symbiotic relationship between the work that you were doing for yourself without maybe even realizing it in the moment while also continuing your yoga practice at being that constant. I'd love to hear a bit more about how your meditation practice became more integrated with your yoga practice because I was very similar as well where I came into yoga as kind of the physicality behind it, seeing it more as a workout. And yoga has been really nice for me to just have a space to quiet my mind a bit, but I think I'm still on that journey of understanding how to better integrate the meditative qualities of the practice into my own yoga. Yeah, well, it's different. Physical Asuna prepares you for the meditation component. And if you look into the history of actual Asuna, it was used for like young army boys in training to get all their like frenetic energy out so that then they could sit and meditate. That especially the vinyasa, all of the chatter on the push ups. It's wild what we've turned it into here, but that's a whole other tangent. I think that for me at least I began to experience it a little bit like taste of it through my Asuna. Just more like euphoria and contentments really. And then as I started to train and get deeper into these meditations, then I created space for that type of a practice in my life. So it wasn't necessarily combining the two, but it was that one led to the other. And then now with my meditative, I have a room in my home that's specifically dedicated to meditation. It's very important to me to have and my yoga and address that I create every month on a monthly basis. So now it's something that if I don't do, I notice. If I don't keep my practice up, I feel it. I get anxious. I get stressed out. I get temperamental and sensitive. And so for me, it's just like brushing my teeth. It's something that keeps me healthy mentally and something that I need to do regularly. And on top of that, I've also had incredible out-of-body astral, projective experiences through meditation that are more profound to me than any sort of psychedelic or any other thing that I've tried in my life. And so it's just been a portal for me to access other realms and dimensions. And to heal and it's become a really powerful piece of my life and my partner's life, which is really awesome to have a partner who is into that and can practice that and be on the same path. This is a great transition also into talking about your experience with psychedelics. Because psychedelics now, there's a lot of emerging research on the benefits of microdosing to help individuals with severe clinical depression or trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder. There's a lot out there about psychedelics and how it alters your brain chemistry and your mind, but really expanding consciousness. And so I'd love for you to talk a little bit about the sense of prayer. Yeah, you have the bug. So yeah, no, I mean, I'd love for you to talk about your personal experiences on psychedelics and what that brought you essentially in the change of consciousness or a change in perspective. I love that. I didn't dabble with psychedelics until I was in my, I think I was 28, was the first time that I did acid burning down. That was my first experience. And then after that subsequently, I started to have journeys with psilocybin. And journeys not in a social context, journeys in a very much so like spiritual context where intentions were set. And you know, the space was energetically cleared and everything was meant to be more intentional and not just like a party experience. Yeah, and I've also experienced microdosing as well. In fact, my partner is microdosing now and making his own capsules. But basically for me, the first time I did mushrooms, it was basically like Lisa Frank bombeted all over the world and there were gritted rainbowed flower of lives everywhere connecting everything. And I didn't really understand at the time what that was, but once I came out of it and once I started to study my meditation more, I realized that I like it. left the third dimensional reality of matter and physicality and I went into something else. I went into the fourth dimension through my heart and to the fifth dimension and so where we can create from energy, you know, everything was energy. And so I literally, I was just crying the whole time and every time I do mushroom secry because it's so beautiful. It's like a veil is lifted and I can see. So it's joyful tears. It's not. Oh, yeah. And I wouldn't call it a bad trip. Just as in life, there are challenging things that come up. It doesn't mean it's bad or good. It means that we're faced with something and we get to see how we react to that thing, how we respond to that thing and how we move through that thing. I'm facing this with pregnancy right now. I'm thinking about labor and delivery and it's an impending thing for me. It's coming. And you know, and and I get to decide do I want my labor to be something that's scary and painful and challenging heart or can it be euphoric and blissed out and can I or pass them or can I, you know, have these crazy experiences that I'm hearing about that actually might not be so crazy. And so it's how we contextualize the experience first, set and setting or everything, mindset and physical setting. And so if you go into it thinking, I'm I got the bad trip, you're going to create that experience for yourself. So I have had a very challenging trip where I did a hero's dose of mushrooms and this was actually at SLM with my partner. And you know, I think the things that came out of that trip for me once I came out of that trip was knowing that I could do it. And I think that I went through something like that with my partner and that we went through it together and we got out of it together and seeing what came up in that dark space. And you know, the veil is thin and when you do psychedelics, you are you are inviting in energy that's out there that normally we can't see, feel, touch, you know, or any of that stuff. And so when you lift this veil, there are entities and there are spirits that are right there like waiting to bounce, right? And so you in creating your setting, you have to clear the space, you have to make sure it's good energy, you have to make sure you're going into it experience with a positive mindset because what you're bringing into it and what is around you affects your experience. I would say with the challenging trips, it's not that it's a bad trip. It's that when something confronting does come up for you, you're able to actually witness it as the observer on psilocybin rather than like being in it, you're observant. Oh wow, there's this thing coming in or there's this experience coming up, you know, and you work through it and you just come out the other side and I, for me at least, I felt so powerful and so strong coming out of that experience and knowing that my darkest of dark came up for me and that I was able to still go through it. I recently watched this documentary on Netflix about going on trips and just the use of psychedelics and it was basically a bunch of like celebrities talking about their experience and I think it was staying who said that like no bad trip is actually a bad trip because he needed it every time. Like that was what he needed in the moment and something I also found interesting is that across all the people who spoke, they all seem to think that after taking a psychedelic drug, they found the meaning to life. Like they just, they had this revelation and they knew what the meaning was of life. And how is that possible? Like through one experience taking a psychedelic, like how can someone feel like, okay, I know why I've been brought to this earth, I know why I'm here. I don't know if I knew my purpose of meeting, my first mushroom trip, but I knew the meaning of the universe of our existence. I knew that energetically we are all one and there is no boundary between my body and your body and anything else. We're not separate, we're actually, we're fucking intertwined. Like we are so connected, we're enmeshed. And that was for me what I realized. And my purpose has been revealed to me many times through mushrooms, but I also, I set an intention each time I go in with what it is that I want to see, what it is that I want to learn in every single time I am shown without fail. And so again, I think it's a very personal thing. If that's what you want to get from your mushroom trip, that's what you'll get from your mushroom trip. If you want to know your personal purpose and what you're meant to do, you will figure it out. The mushrooms will tell you and you will see it and you will experience it and touch it and you will know. It's just, they're just so beautiful. You know, and I know people that don't like mushrooms and they've tried them and they get ill on them or I have a friend with the Bezo Vega reaction who almost died on mushrooms. He had a grandma seizure and it was very scary. And so I've been through every experience of mushroom and what can potentially happen on a trip and I think it is very important that you don't just go out there and try them. I'm not recommending anyone to just go out and have a mushroom trip on their own right now. And really set control the setting. I mean, in the documentary, they also said to not look in a mirror. I don't know if you'd have the same advice. Set and setting. Yes, there's also other things like what's in your belly have you been hydrated? A bunch of other things to go through. But yeah, so I actually had a beautiful experience with a mirror on a mushroom trip. What can happen though is you can get stuff like looking the mirror and seeing your face and sometimes it will turn old or you'll see things morph and you know, being intimate with another human on mushrooms is the same thing. Like, my partner and I have died and it's just too weird looking at a face. It's very strange on mushrooms. I had an experience where I was in Israel actually and I was in bear sheet which is this beautiful canyon and I was staying in this amazing hotel room and I was staring at myself in the mirror and my eyes were the same and I was just staring at my eyes and my face was just changing, changing, changing, changing, changing to every single embodiment of human life that I had ever been on planet earth. Just shift, shift, shift. And it went on forever and I couldn't blink. I couldn't look away from the mirror because it was a very profoundly beautiful experience for me. Like lifetime after lifetime just all in one. So you can get lost in a mirror but it also can be beautiful. It seems like if you're going into it with the right intention and the right mindset and you're doing it in a safe and controlled environment, it can be this very incredible out of body experience. But also now there's a lot of research around psychedelics and helping with mental health issues. And so how can the use of psychedelics help people overcome their clinical or severe depression or even past traumas? Yeah. Well, my partner had PTSD. He was in the special forces in the British military and he was in Afghanistan for many years and and Silasaybin is what cured his PTSD. And so I I directly experienced that with him and it's it's absolutely amazing and beautiful. But also Silasaybin is used for people who are terminally ill and they are they are given Silasaybin so that they can come to terms with death and they do and the you know, statistic show that those people who are terminally ill and taking Silasaybin and have that experience come out of it every time with less fear about death with an understanding about where they're going and about energetically they're not they're not dead. You know, it's a transition. It's a different it's a different phase. And so yeah, depression anxiety around death and other things and traumas past traumas. It can be huge. I think oftentimes things are released when we have these experiences and I think the most important thing I've learned is that when things are released, whether it's a memory of feeling and emotion is to not to not analyze it. Like don't don't dig through your trash in other words. When something comes up, just let it come up and go. You don't have to think, why did that come up and what is it and where is it coming from? What's the like? It doesn't matter. It's the same with yoga nidra. Like your body is releasing something. Let it. Don't don't tear it apart. You know, don't put your it. Just let it go. Right. I mean that reminds me of the whole concept around mindfulness, you know, experiencing these passing thoughts that go through your mind, but without any judgment and just letting it go kind of like a wave coming in to the shore and crashing and then going back out into the water, like seeing it, experiencing it, but just letting it go. And again, I mean, obviously that's so much easier said than done. But I think there's all these parallels it seems like between the use of psychedelics and also deepening your own yoga practice and you know, developing your own yoga nidra. And I'd love for you to talk more about what yoga nidra is because it seems like it's becoming more popular within the wellness community and within the yoga community. And I personally don't know a lot about yoga nidra. So I'd love to hear more about your experience with it. Yeah. It came to me randomly. I had done a class of two with Jenna Romer and Venice and she was having a training and one of my girlfriends was taking the training. So I just kind of jumped into it. And I had loved my experience with Nidra, but I had fallen asleep the first few times I did it. It was like, welcome to yoga nidra and then please roll over and sit up and the practice is complete. And I was like, did I just pay 20 bucks for that? Because I just like, nothing happens. And anyways, in the training, I was like, I'm going to do a little bit of yoga. I was, my head was blown open and I, you know, there was a lot of information and it was a lot of the people that were there too. It was challenging for me because they had been practicing for a long time and they had this like ownership to the practice and this aversion to people new being there who didn't understand what it was and so there was a weird energy in my training. And while I loved my teacher and my girlfriend that I was there with, I felt like I didn't necessarily absorb all that I wanted to absorb because I had my guard up. But after I got out of the training and I really, I loved Nidra. I dove in head first. I started riding on my own Nidra as I did a script writing course for Nidra and I was like, this is definitely something I want and I need in my life and so I continued with it and I have continued with it ever since that day and I did an additional training with Joe D'Spenza after the Nidra training that really shaped my Nidra much more. Joe is all about, he all about the quantum and all about accessing other dimensions to heal and this is what Yobin Nidra is and his teachings are so synonymous with Kundalini and Nidra that, you know, and I did a Kundalini training as well and so everything he said I could just relate back to these ancient practices and weave them all together and so it's these quantum technologies with this ancient practice of yogic sleep and the wisdom of, you know, the stars and astrology that's all infused into these cosmic Nidras that I create and all inspired by Janav who was the first teacher I ever practiced with and Joe D'Spenza and so for me Nidra basically walks you through the different layers of your body and Yobin we have koshas and so these koshas are like invisible layers and so we go deeper and deeper and deeper into the deepest layer of beingness and we were able to in that space allow the physical body to rest and to rest in such a way such a deep way that the subconscious mind is still awake and alert and taking in information that the physical body is so so relaxed that anything can be triggered and it doesn't matter it can just move right through it. And so this is also extremely helpful for PTSD and depression and trauma and other things like this. What's really cool with Yoganidra and what Joe D'Spenza has come out with in the last year or so is that when we can access the pineal gland which is that little pine cone shaped gland between the two ventricles of the brain, the large ventricles in the center of the back, when you can access your pineal gland and actually pressurize it so Joe teaches pulling energy up the spine, completely energy rising right and in Nidra we also we reference the pineal gland all the time accessing the pineal and so if you can get that to a point where it stimulated there are these little crystals on your pineal gland and stimulation could be because of the pressure of this cerebral spinal fluid filling the ventricles which swell up and kind of you know touch on the pineal gland and when that happens the little crystals on the pineal gland are flipped from one side to the other and they have a charge negative and positive end on them. So when they're flipped it creates an electromagnetic charge within your own brain, your own like field of energy basically and this basically takes melatonin and converts it into a bunch of different derivatives. Melatonin is the sleep chemical that our body releases when it starts to get dark outside and so one of the derivatives that is converted from melatonin is DMT and DMT is the God chemical it's the chemical that when we're born and when we die our bodies excrete and so we can produce our own DMT through these transcendental meditative healing experiences and significantly alter the genetic makeup of our body. We can heal cancer, we can do and we can really do anything. I mean it's instant healing because your brain is so far beyond the normal like standard deviation bell curve of energy and of activity. You're so far out there, you're like leagues and bounds beyond it that you're in what we call harmony right. You're in this state of complete synchronicity where every single energy center is pulsing and moving exact same moments together and so there's no disharmony in the body and no dis-ease can exist in that state and so it just sort of sluffs off and disappears and Nidra is also rooted in Sanculpa which is it's like an intention but it's a little bit more pointed because a Sanculpa is something that really comes from deep within it's something that you are wanting to embody or wanting to heal within yourself or just be and so we take that Sanculpa and we infuse it into the Nidra as if it's already happened for you. And so that's another really powerful piece of the practice that differentiates it from any other type of meditation experience. So our bodies have the power to do our own healing, so I'm trying to do this practice. So how does one practice yoga Nidra? I think you mentioned that it's like yogi sleep essentially but how does that like obviously you're not sleeping during it. You're in this altered state of consciousness and sort of like deep meditative state. How do you actually practice yoga Nidra? So it's something that you should practice with someone who's trained in doing it's not something I would just say like go do a knee drive by yourself you know. So there are lots of pre-recorded Nidra's. I record a different one every month based on astrologically what's happening and you know infusing those quantum technologies into it. So you can download them on my website and all you have to do is just lay down make sure that you're comfortable and listen and that's it. And also let's see, Insight Timer has a bunch of really good Nidra's on there. Jan Rammer has a bunch of good Nidra's. I think she's doing them attuned to the moon as her new website that she's got them on. There's a bunch of awesome people out there teaching so you can find them on different platforms. And mine are normally 30 to 40 minutes. So there are a little longer experience than you know a 5 to 10 minute meditation that you might start with. And you know that's nothing to be scared about because again you're just lying down and listening. So there's no barrier to entry. It's very easy. And yeah it's just wonderful. It's creative. And you get into this creative space and imaginative and it's really it's a treat. It's a delight to have them. And I know on your website and on your Instagram you talk a lot about like cosmic Yogan Nidra. And so there's like this tie between astrology and the Yogan Nidra's that you have on your platform. So what does that connection? What does that look like? Yeah well so when I was practicing first when I was doing Yogan Nidra and studying with Janna she that's which that's how she taught us. She infused astrology in Dury Nidra's. And so then when I came out of the training and I experienced other Nidra's I didn't like them as much. I felt like they weren't as potent and I didn't connect with them as much. So I wanted to I wanted to infuse astrology and I wanted to keep that feeling of being more connected to the rhythms and the cycles of what's happening in life and with with in the stars. And so I started to learn. I started to get all these crazy astrology books and I purchased a few trainings with Dmitra George who was an amazing astrologer. She's been doing it for years and she actually is based in Oregon as well. She's incredible. So I've done a couple trainings with her. And then yeah and then just learning on my own and downloaded a software called Astro Gold which is it was very challenging to learn it first but really helped me quite a lot to be able to forecast and see what's coming astrologically. And then Joe dispenses training. Everything he teaches about the quantum fields and alternate dimensions and how to access those dimensions. And so infusing those technologies within Nidra's as well. I think just it really makes them much more potent. When I think of like energy or like quantum physics or topics that are just so beyond my understanding, I think about it as something being very external. But here it seems like these ideas or these energies exist within yourself. It's your inner knowing, your inner genius. You know, when you do or doing these practices, you're uncovering that. You're letting it like we talked about your intuition. Now these practices help you access your inner knowing and we know everything. Like we really, we are knowing beings but we get more like a light bulb that gets grime all over the top and the light doesn't shine through. We have to dust that shit off in order to like really get down to the pureness of our essence and our genius that we're born and we know these things. And so maybe we don't know the the verbiage but we feel them and we experience them and we know them to be true. And so it's giving yourself space to just dip into that, dip into your inner knowing and then cover that inner knowing and listen to it. And that's where these practices are so profound and useful. And it takes work too. I mean, I'm sure you can't just do one yoga nidra and then you have that experience. So you have to really put in the effort and the time to do it consistently. And obviously I mean not making it like a chore but because then I think it takes away the excitement of doing it. When you when you have something as a chore to do rather than you know incorporating into your routine and getting excited about it. I think when you're doing something like this consistently, then you can kind of achieve that understanding. - Yeah, these are like delicious little treats. I mean, as opposed to my morning meditation practice, sometimes that can be challenging. And I know I have to do it. And I sent my butt down on my cushion and I do it because for me, that's almost like brushing my teeth. And sometimes I have a really gratifying experience and sometimes I don't. But with Nitra, these are like delicious treats for me. Very special, sacred times. I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna do Nitra today, you know? - I think I actually, I know Aloe, like the Aloeoga community has some sort of, you know, virtual zoom classes few times a month. And I did a terror reading and I also did a yoga Nitra and I really loved it. It was great. It was, I mean, I was, I was home. I had my parents home and I didn't really have like that quiet environment where I could like really settle into it. I did love the experience and I can kind of tell through our conversation and through the one time that I did it. Like I can see how the consistent practice of it can be very beneficial and very eye opening and free, you know, meditative. That's something I look forward to doing more. And I think I guess Aloe now is offering more types of classes like that. - Yeah, yeah, I have a couple of Nitras on their platform. They're old now, but I think they're recorded like three or four that are up there. So yeah, they've branched into the meditative route. I know there are a few other meditation programs on there. And then like yoga for sleep and stuff like that, they're starting to kind of, you know, fill out more of the breath and the width of their, their offering. So. - Right. And I mean, I, I've been trying to do more meditation. I used to have more of a meditation practice, but it's one of those things where you feel like you never have enough time, but you actually have time to sit down for at least five minutes a day and do it. So I've been trying to get back into my meditation practice and I've been doing Jackie Stewart's meditation. And I've really been loving that. - Okay, good. Yeah. - It's quick like a 10 minute one. It's just, it feels very refreshing. And I think also, you know, even after this morning when I did your circular flow class, I felt like I got the energy out and I was, I was ready to feel a bit more calm. Like I could sit and focus on doing a meditation. - Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, that's awesome. - Do you start the morning doing a meditation and then probably get into your practice later in the afternoon or what does like your yoga practice look like now, especially with everything being virtual? - We have a meditation room basically right outside of our bedroom. So I try to like roll out about a roll ride in there most mornings and then sometimes I'm in meditation the evenings as well and day two a day. Right now I'm on a one a day kick. My practice has been really interesting because I'm pregnant as well. And so I'm not doing as much yoga as I was and I'm not doing as big of yoga as I was. I've been doing more like really lightweight low and pop stuff and a lot of, we have a, we have a soul bike in the garage. So I've been doing a lot of soul biking and walking and nature. So my body's needs are a little different than they used to be right now. But I'm teaching twice a week classes live. Actually my next yoga knitwear event, the animal-winter event is next weekend on Saturday. So if you want to come to that. It's through live kick and we have a lag musician her name's Radha and she is a chief daybreakers. She has a daybreaker but she runs an own spot to yoga Shala, her and her husband govindas. Oh okay. And they are the most amazing Kirtan singers and she's just her voices and Jellek and I'm so excited to have her. So she's going to be singing for the animal-winter event which is 30 minutes of flow and the flow is astero flow. So it's also whatever body systems are relevant for this airy season which airy is all about the head. The head, you know, everything is associated with this and we have a lot of Gemini energy as well this season. So it's a lot about like thinking, communication, changing your mind and all of this stuff. But is that how astrology is connected to yoga needra? Like you're thinking about the different astrological profiles and what they symbolize and how you can really incorporate that into the practice? There's so many ways to incorporate it. You can think about it elementally. Like airies is fire and Mars. It's ruled by Mars and so these are both very firey action oriented energies and so you can infuse that into the nidra or you can think about it in terms of the body systems that are ruled by the specific sign of the zodiac. So airy season is the head or you know, sometimes it's like the endocrine system or different things like that. And so you can work with that energy or also looking at the whole season of airies and seeing astrologically what's actually happening this season. And you know, for this, for our airy season, we're entering on Saturday along with the spring equinox. There's a lot of Gemini energy and there's also a lot of Piscy and energy. And so Gemini is the twin, it's the two-faced, you know? And so what comes with that with airies is like, airies wants to make a decision. They want to do it now. They want to be decisive and they want to go like, you know, make things happen. And Gemini is like, well, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm going to do this. Maybe they can't decide. My brother's a Gemini. My baby might get a Gemini. I know them very well. And so, you know, it's confusing. You can infuse that into the practice. There are lots of different ways that you can access the astrology and the potency of those teachings and those energies that we're experiencing and bring them into the Nidra. So that's why I love riding them because they're so creative. They take me days, sometimes weeks to write. There's so many different directions that you can go with them and, yeah, lessons that you can weave into them. It's very exciting. That's very fascinating. Where can my followers check out your Yoganidra offerings and your classes and everything that you, you know, you built with your brand? So I teach live classes and my Annamamoojee events for Yoganidra are once a month for each new astrological season. So the next one is on the 27th, next Saturday at 1111 p.m. and not specific standard time. This is on live kicks platform. And live kick is where I'll be teaching my live classes and these Annamamoojee events. And then for my Nidra's, I record just the verbal component of the Nidra and I put that recording on my website for you to download. So we actually just put the whole Zodiac calendar from 2020 to 2021 up to download out of discounted price so you can get all 12 recordings from last year's Zodiac up until Pisces. And now we're heading into Aries, which is the first house, the, you know, the Cardinal sign, the beginning of the Zodiac. So we're starting over again. But yeah, so all those recordings are on my website. I will soon be launching my own app, which I'm really excited about. And-- - Congratulations. - That's really, really exciting. - Yeah, so I'll have all my own content on that app. I'll have all my meditations on the app. I'm creating a prenatal program right now that I'm gonna launch with that app as well. And there will be also a postnatal program when I get to that phase. Who? So lots of stuff coming along with the Nidra's for the full experience. I'm actually releasing an Orespray in collaboration with a company called Calix Collective. And it's all wild crafted, sustainably harvested, essential oil ingredients for the Orespray. And I'm also working on an aerubatically dyed eye pillow and shell. So the shell would be raw silk, something that you can wear, but also uses a blanket for the Nidra. And then the eye pillow as well. So those will be coming out probably within the next two months. I'm guessing. - So many exciting things on the horizon for you. That is incredible. I'm very excited to see everything come to fruition and to see your app, you know, be developed and be launched. I'm very excited for all this to happen for you. And my followers, they can find you at Cali Alyssa on Instagram. And our website is www.calilisa.com. - It's all just Cali Alyssa. - I'm very easy. - And they should all take your yoga class and practices on the Alyo Moves platform. I love all of what you have to offer and everything that Alyo Moves has. So definitely check that out. Cali, it was so wonderful having you come on to the podcast. One final question that I have for you that I ask every guest is, what is something that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? - Gosh, right now my dog. He brings me such joy. He's going through heart failure. And so every day I wake up that he's still with me. I crawl over to him and I bet. And I just get all the kisses and I give him all the kisses and I look at him and I say, we get another day together. And it's just like, right now that's my high. That's like what's keeping me going. Is this little guy sticking around for a little bit longer? So that's so beautiful. I'm sorry to hear your dog is heart failure. I hope you enjoy the last few moments that you do have with him. But animals do bring a lot of joy. So that's a wonderful answer. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you so much, Kaylee. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening. If you liked what you heard, please follow rate review every day endorphins on whichever listening platform that you use to stream my episodes. Thanks again and I'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)