EP#3- Ari's Yoga Journey: A Self Discovery of Practicing Yoga in College

(gentle music) Welcome back and happy Thursday. Before we get into the conversation I had with Ari about her practice of yoga in college, I wanna mention that this episode is sponsored by Anchor. I also have some more exciting news and it involves something many of us love, caffeine. I know that my morning routine is really important to me because it helps to calibrate my mood and set the tone for how I want the day to go. And usually every morning I can't start the day without a hot cup of coffee to get me going. Because drinking coffee is so important in my daily routine, I've decided to partner with Strive Coffee, which is an online coffee store specializing in single origin coffees. Single origin coffee is not only higher quality taste, but is also sustainably and ethically sourced. So you're basically killing two birds with one stone. You're getting your daily dose of endorphins while also helping to produce a better impact on the environment all while enjoying a cup of coffee. Grown on smallest states all over the world, the beans from Strive's local roasters consume less water and resources than farms that larger coffee retailers use. You can use the code in Dorfins for 10% off of your next order and my referral link is posted in my bio on the Instagram account. Now let's get into the episode. As you'll see in here, we talked a lot about Ari's yoga journey and Ari essentially created an Instagram account during quarantine to document her yoga practice. Naturally, I was intrigued because I love accounts that post yoga videos. I think yoga is really beautiful to practice and to also watch. And it was just so cool to see a friend of mine start posting videos of her practicing yoga. So I inquired, I was like, Ari, what's up? And basically, we just sat down to talk about what yoga means to her and how it's helped to benefit her physical and mental health in college. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, Ari. Thanks so much for coming on to the podcast this afternoon. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. It's kind of funny because we're physically located like three blocks away. Yeah, we can't really record in person. So I feel like we're so close yet so far. I know. But I've got my setup here. I have my windows open. I have natural light in. So it kind of feels like I'm by you because usually when we hang we're outside and you have a very shy-- I don't know how to describe it. You're very light, bright energy. So it kind of feels like I have you by my side. I have your head to tea by me. Well, thank you and life was. So I'm really excited to have you on today because, first of all, I love talking about anything yoga related and so do you. So I'm really excited for this conversation. But especially just as a college student and as a student at WashU, yoga has been, like for me, something that's really helped keep me mentally sane throughout college. And I'm really interested in learning more about your yoga journey, Ari's yoga journey. So I would love to talk a little bit about how you got interested in practicing yoga. And when did that occur? Sure. So I've always had the thought in my mind, yoga would be so beneficial for me, not only mentally, but physically, that's always been in my head. And I actually practice yoga on and off, probably since freshman year of college. I always love doing a sporadic class here and there or doing my own flow in my dorm room. I just thought it was a really easy way to do something really nice for your body and kind of take a break from the mayhem of college life. I would say that I didn't really get into yoga, learning about its benefits, consistently practicing until we were removed from WashU, so until spring break time. That's when I started consistently practicing every day or at least five times a week trying to deepen my practice. So that's right around when quarantine had started back in March when spring break was happening with WashU. And I guess with quarantine, there's a lot of time, obviously, because nothing is really happening to do really whatever you want. So what may do choose yoga as that practice to start to implement on a more daily basis and really commit yourself to deepening your own practice? Sure. I think one of the most beautiful parts of yoga is that it's so focused on the breath and so focused on, not only a calm body, but a really calm mind. And something that I found in the early days of quarantine was a lot of uneasiness, not really sure what's going to happen in the future. A lot of thoughts running through my head all the time, anxiety about friends, anxiety about what my classes are going to look like now that they're online. And I kind of felt this natural draw towards yoga because yoga's unlike any other workout in the sense where it's slower, you can breathe. You're not focused on going really fast, getting as many reps in as you can. It's a lot more mind connected to the body. And I thought it would be super beneficial for my mental health to have something that's both physical and almost an meditation. So I think quarantine I had all this time, and I could finally do longer yoga flows without feeling rushed for time. And I kind of got hooked from the first flow that I did. I felt so amazing afterwards that it was kind of that realization, like, why haven't I been doing this? I have this resource that is very accessible to me. You just need a mat and that's really it. I don't need a gym for it or anything. So I just started spreading the mat on our top floor attic and started doing some flows. And I really found a difference in that first yoga flow that I did. I love that. And you brought up so many great points how it's a pretty accessible practice. You don't really need anything except a mat and yourself and your presence. And also that entrins a connection between the physical part of the practice, the movement and the flow, but also enhancing your own mental state. And I'm curious, like during quarantine, so many emotions are going through our minds. We're experiencing everything is new, everything is challenging, and quite upsetting the current state of the world. So I'm wondering how yoga allowed you to kind of calm the anxiety, the racing thoughts that might have been running through your head. How did that practice really help just calm you and settle you? Yeah. I think the biggest thing that helped with the settling and the calming was honestly challenging myself to go deeper in poses and to breathe through any feelings of un-comfort that I had, because when our brains, we can't multitask. So when I'm doing a pose that's really challenging for my body and something that I'm really working on, I can't sit there and also think, oh, what's going to happen with my psychology class? What is my professor going to pose for homework? I'm in that moment. I'm in that moment. OK, I need to straighten my leg here. I need to make sure my heel is alive with my toes. I need to work on my forms. I don't get injured. So there's a beauty in yoga where it brings us back to the basics. It really-- your mind could be going everywhere, going crazy. But when you step on the mat, everything is back to the breath. Everything is making sure your form is good. And that's very meditative, like focusing on one thing that comes so naturally and making sure you're not thinking about random things all the time. That's where the meditation comes in. And that really helps slow my mind when I'm able to distract and then also focus on one or two things that are very natural to me and very easy for me to keep up. Do you feel like that daily practice of yoga and meditation, allowing you to have clarity with your thoughts and just bring a greater focus to your practice? Do you feel like that has helped you beyond the mat as a student and just as a young adult in general? Totally. I totally think so. I think for one thing, seeing-- I wrote about this a little bit in my account. But I haven't able to do yoga poses that I never thought I'd be able to do. I have never been flexible. I never thought of myself as a dancer or someone who is good at art or can move in a beautiful way. And when I started getting better at these poses, and I felt like, oh, I'm moving in a really beautiful way. And I know what I'm doing. I felt like I could achieve anything. I mean, you feel like you go from thinking one way about yourself. I always thought, I'm an athlete. I don't do all the dancing, ballet, yoga stuff. Like I have to do the hardcore, soccer, hit workouts. So that's how I am. And then I shift that mindset to, no, I can totally do both. And I can totally achieve anything that I put my mind to because I'm doing that right now. I'm consistently keeping up a practice. So thinking one way, it's helped my mindset as a student understand that we're not bad at anything. You just need to start somewhere and continue. And I found that with math in myself, when I was younger, my teachers always told me that I wasn't good at math. And having this fed to me, I believe that. Obviously, so I performed worse in my math tests and everything. But I stuck with it and I decided that I wanted to at least finish Calc 1 in college. And I'm good at math. I love math. It's not something that I don't like. So that's something that I'm continuing to learn, like finding a balance between what you want to do and the various setbacks that are confronting you, but also knowing that you can do it. You can achieve your goals if you really want to. And yoga has really helped me understand that and realize that more. You bring up so many great points first about like being an athlete and kind of feeling like yoga is not something you are necessarily interested in doing because the nature of practicing yoga is very different than let's say doing a hit workout or playing soccer or whatever sport it is. And it's interesting because I feel like there are so many misconceptions around what the practice of yoga is. I found when trying to encourage some of my friends to practice yoga, they've come to me with that same thought. Like, oh, it's too slow for me or it's just stretching and I'd rather get in a different type of workout. And I love how you have had that mindset shift where you realize, well, I can do both. And I'm also curious like in your experience, would you say that all yoga flows are just stretching and slow and leisurely? Like, how have you found yoga to be an actually pretty challenging workout? Yeah. I don't think that all flows are just stretching and relaxing and meditative. I think that there definitely are some. And then I think that there are vinyasa flows that I've really enjoyed that have been very hard and very strength focused and there have been cardio bursts in those. So I think that there's a misconception that yoga is one type of workout and that is the stretching lying down in Savasana and just not doing anything. But that's not true. And I quickly found that. I was looking on YouTube for all these free yoga videos and pages. There are pages and pages of them. Just 30 minute strength, 30 minute cardio focused. And it was a really beautiful door to open and to a bunch of new opportunities for me. Yeah. And I'd love to also get back to, you know, in quarantine where you decided, okay, I'm going to start the daily practice. You have an Instagram titled Ariz yoga journey or Ari yoga journey. And you document your flows. I'd love to hear more about what that exact moment was when you realized I want to start this Instagram for fun, document my practices, see where it goes. Yeah. So I have come across accounts like this on my yoga, I'm, I'm sorry, on my normal Instagram account. And I thought they were so cool because they were mostly women, but these women had pictures of them doing a pose in 2016. And then they were able to compare that picture to 2020. And I kind of loved it because I've always wanted to get into some kind of journaling, some kind of documentation of progress because I think it's really easy to stop doing it when you don't immediately see results. But by recording it and seeing, oh, look, I was able to get my foot up higher here or even if it's just by an inch, you know, I'm able to go longer and down dog. And you notice that when you're documenting it day by day. So I came to the realization one of the first three nights of quarantine. You know, I was just thinking, I want to start a project. This is going to be good for me because it combines my love of working out with my love of, you know, I've always really been into meditation and learning about the mind and learning how to quiet the mind. And I'll also be able to practice my, I think it's a form of journaling. I think it's, it's a form of documenting your experience, document exploring what your body can do. So I think it's also practicing my ability to stick to a toss, my consistency ability to sit down and write a post for my friends that I think we're all struggling with but nobody really wants to talk about. So I don't know, it kind of became this thing that was for me at first to focus on myself. And it grew into this platform that I could use to talk about. So if that's troubling me, and then I would get DMs from friends that were just like, I would get 10 to 20 DMs in a day about how they related to what I was saying so much. Yeah, using social media in that type of way can be very vulnerable. And I love that you were so open and are so open to sharing some of those struggles or challenges that you've faced. And maybe you're currently facing and also sharing how yoga has helped you, you know, specifically to quiet the mind, which I think is probably like one of the most important aspects of it, especially because when you're quieting your mind alongside practicing movement, it's just this very beautiful synergy. It's not like yoga exists solely with the poses that you do, if you're just being mindless about it, like you want to be really intentional about it. And through like the breath, that's, I think that's one way you can achieve that. And I also love to hear a little bit more about, you know, what are some of those struggles you were talking about on your Instagram? How are people relating? Yeah, so I think one of the posts that most people related to was I made a little story, a series of posts, a little series of stories about feeling lonely and feeling lonely during quarantine and feeling lonely in general and life, not finding a partner, not finding, not feeling like you're not fitting in almost. And feeling, therefore, almost like you're failing, almost like there's something wrong with you for the inability to connect with people on a deeper level or to find a partner that you want to spend time with. That was a feeling that I had and I was, it was really, it was really all-mented in the quarantine for some reason, maybe because I felt alone. So a lot of my friends swiped up to that story and expressed how they were also feeling lonely, expressing how in college it's extremely hard to not only find out who you want to be but also who you want to surround yourself with. And I think that that's something that we have to keep on exploring in our minds, but at least I was able to get that conversation going in the thoughts, sparks, and a lot of my friends' minds. Yeah, loneliness, especially during quarantine, I feel like it's something many of us can relate to. And I think especially as a college student, when you're either, let's say, like you're studying abroad or you're just at school with your friends, like a normal school year, and then quarantine happens. Coronavirus is, you know, very present in our society right now and you're removed from your campus, you're removed from your abroad experience and you're sent home with your family or wherever you live. It can very much feel like this immediate isolation from being surrounded by all of your friends all the time. And that is a really hard experience to go through in such an abrupt way. Yeah, extremely. I totally agree. And I know that because everything has been online these days, can't really get into a yoga studio, but I'm wondering like, I know you've practiced yoga in classes before, like in person. How has your experience shifted from doing in-person classes to keeping up a daily practice, but at home and doing it all remotely, looking at a computer screen? How do you feel like it's changed the way you move through that flow? That's a really interesting question. I think that, I mean, it fits well with the conversation of lonelyless. If you're doing your flow in your bedroom alone, it's a completely different experience than how I would feel at a studio. And that's why I've always played team sports and I've also always loved workout classes because you feel like you're going through something difficult with everyone else in the team or in the class. And so when you're doing flows alone, you're forced to find that purpose in yourself. No longer can I rely on the energy of the person next to me or the energy of the instructor to get through a difficult pose because Now I. I have every right to just hit pause on my YouTube video and go down and watch TV. So in a way, you lose a lot by being online and by yourself. But I think you also gain a lot of discipline because all of a sudden, it's up to you to complete the flow. Normally, when you go to a class, you just have to show up and the instructor helps you with the rest. But all of a sudden, I'm forced to correct my own form. I'm forced to fix it if it's not hard enough. Find one that's actually challenging enough for my skill level. And also make sure I'm focusing and make sure I'm, like you said, moving within 10, moving and breathing and connecting my breath to my movement. And I found that extremely challenging for the first few times that I did it. I had a very little, very low attention span. And then I started to get the hang of it. I started to realize that when I finished the flow, I feel 10 times better. And when I'm able to focus throughout the entire flow and when I really enjoy what I'm doing, I feel so great. Yeah. And I think also a huge part of yoga is like that community aspect. So when you're in the class environment, you're with so many different kinds of people. You're with the instructor, which I'd also love to talk a little bit about more later. But you're in this environment and there's so much energy and you're all flowing together. And that's just such a strong community building aspect. And I think there are ways to try to build that when you're doing yoga on your own or virtually. But there's also ways, as you mentioned, that it's been lost. But as you know, we've practiced a few times during quarantine, like face timing or screen sharing over Zoom, doing a flow together. And I mean, for me, I look forward to those days because I didn't feel so alone. And it was really refreshing to kind of see you on the computer screen knowing you were doing the same practice together. Totally. And I think what was so beautiful about the practice that we had together was the fact that you were leading it. In a way, there was an educational side of it of you're learning more about how to be an amazing instructor. And I'm there, you know, learning from you. And I think like that's something that's really important to in yoga. It's like, we're always learning. The instructors are still learning. The people taking the class are still learning. And that's accepted. And that's encouraged, even. So I really love when we would face time and do yoga flow together. And I was so inspired when you were able to leave these amazing flows that were better than the ones that I was finding on YouTube. And they were better, not just because I knew you and I was so proud of you, but also because you were amazing. Like, your energy and the way that you knew everything. So that was really great to see for me too, coming from, you know, I hadn't seen you in so long. We're able to finally Zoom call or FaceTime. And now you're leading me in this really intense practice. So that was really awesome to see too. And being with you and experiencing that was a huge highlight of my quarantine. Well, now you can successfully stay up in a headstand, which is amazing. I'm so jealous because I'm not there yet. But now, next time you have to lead me in a yoga flow. And you're right, there is such an educational component when you're practicing yoga with another person, especially when you're with that instructor. And I know it's been so long since we've been in an actual yoga studio, but I'm wondering to, you know, I'm curious to hear if you've ever had like a close relationship with a yoga teacher that you've practiced under or on how like your experience in a yoga class has been shaped by who's teaching it. Yeah. I have had a close experience with the yoga instructor. My freshman year after college this summer, I was at home for that summer. And I joined a gym, a gym very close to my house. And there was one yoga instructor there. I religiously went to her class, her classes. And I just really love the way that she taught yoga. She, it was all about how we're on our own journeys. And there was absolutely no rush. With my personality, I know that like I want to be the best at something and I want to get there fast. So when I first started freshman year, I was getting really frustrated that I wasn't flexible. I couldn't make it through a yoga. I couldn't make it through these 40 minute yoga classes because it was a movement I wasn't used to. And I was so confused because in my mind, I thought, what like I can, I can lift weights, I can run. Why can't I do this? This should be so easy for me. So I grew really frustrated and I also compared myself to everyone in the room. Like we would be in a pose and you would see my head stick up to see how other people were looking in their pose and compare it to mine. And I remember my instructor, obviously she didn't call me out, but she said in the whole class, like yoga is your own personal journey. And there's absolutely no rush. And there's no need to rush your body because you will get there. And she preached a lot about loving yourself and treating your body as a home that we're in. And it's the one home that we have. We might have parts of it that we want to change and parts of it that we want to hide. But you, I mean, learning to love yourself is super important. And she was saying, this is your one home. You can't move. You're there. And so why rush it? Why pick on parts that you don't like when you can develop and modify parts so that you like them? And that really stuck with me because I know freshman year, like you go to a new environment and you're comparing yourself to every other person there. I think especially as young women, it's really easy to do that with your peers. So I started on my journey of self love and body, body love, body diversity with this instructor who just told me it's okay. I told me it's okay to love the parts that society tells me not to love. And that really changed the focus of yoga to me. No longer was it like just a stretching, just something to do when I'm not working out. But it turned into this self care. I'm giving my body love. I'm taking time out of the day to spend one on one time with my own body. And that made the practice so special to me. That's amazing. Especially that part where you mentioned, you really started to learn how to take care of yourself and how to really love yourself. It's so important because as college kids, we're like many adults kind of forced into a semi-real world but also like still having our hands held. And you're like almost into the real world but not quite so you can still kind of make a ton of mistakes and it can be okay. But it's so easy to spiral down into really bad habits. And you know the way you view yourself, the way you take care of yourself affects your self-esteem, your self-confidence, the energy that you exude. And I love how something as simple as yoga, just needing a mat, just needing yourself and just needing that commitment can really drastically change your self image and your confidence. And as you mentioned, like young women, it's even more, you know, it's especially harder for young women to not do the whole comparison game. It's really challenging and I love how you brought up that point. And another thing that you mentioned also, just having this instructor give you these different lessons through the yoga practice. I remember one instructor said to me, you know, when you're doing like the eagle pose and your arms are bound in front of you, usually like when you're doing eagle, your hands are kind of like right in front of your face. So it's covering your line of sight. And the instructor said basically like if you actually like focus on your hands, you'll notice that your eyes can kind of see right through them. And you just focus on the goal for this out. You don't really let that like your hands block your vision. It belonged to long term goal or the sight far away. And I loved that point because the guy's a young kid when I heard that, I didn't really think much of it, but it's something that's stuck with me now because it's another way of saying like you don't want to let small or large or whatever kind of obstacles they are presented to you really get in the way of you sticking to your vision and your goals. And you know, we're all very driven students at WashU and I think WashU is a really great environment, but there's so many high achieving people. It's really easy as you said, like to compare yourself against others. So I just love that point about always staying focused and not and knowing that small obstacles or large obstacles, even if they seem like they're getting in the way, like you have the power to push forward. Right. I think it's so interesting too to think about yoga and the movements that we do in yoga and how we can apply those lessons to our lives. So the Eagle example that you just gave. And then I'm also thinking in so many inversion poses such as crow and when you're doing wheel or bridge, they tell you to expand your heart and to, I know for crow at least, a trick that allowed me to do it is to look up, to look up, to not look down. I remember the I watched a YouTube video and suddenly I was able to do it. And the instructor in the YouTube video was like, "China, chin up, like look up, everybody look up." And I thought that was such an amazing metaphor for life. Why are we looking down and expand your heart and make sure you're looking up and out and never limiting yourself? So that's another connection that I found through the movement and how you can apply that to your life. Why are we limiting myself? Why am I looking down? Why am I negative telling myself I can't do this? When all it takes is one simple adjustment and I'm there, I'm up. I love that. I love that so much. And I think it's so important for people, especially, our age to hear because it can really-- when you're in a moment of distress or anxiety or something's not going the way you want it to, it's very easy to be very narrow-focused on that one moment. And it's hard to see-- to adopt a wider perspective. But now, obviously, we're back in school now. We're back in St. Louis. How has your yoga journey shifted? How has it changed now since quarantine to things starting to pick up a little bit more? Such a good question. So I feel as though I'm really applying the principles that I learn all through quarantine to my life right now, because it is picking up now that I'm here and now that there's school going on and events that are socially distance, of course, but events to attend. And I have to learn to slow down. I mean, while I'm so happy to be back and I'm so happy to be with people who I love and bring me so much happiness, I also really need to value my alone time. And I really need to make sure that I'm taking care of myself and taking care of my mental health and learning how to slow down. We're seniors. It's amazing how time flew. And I really want to learn how to slow down and take my time with life and not just go through-- oh, I have lunch plans now. Oh, I have this now. I have this now. But to learn how to-- with intent, go to these events, go see your friends, but save for every moment with them. Don't just go through the motion of, now I'm driving to the grocery store because in two hours I have a dinner plan, and I need to do this now. But more, I'm driving to the grocery store. I love Trader Joe's. I love exploring new food. I'm going to pick out something fun for me to bring back, a new dessert for me to try. And then I'm going to see my friend. And then I'm going to go to this restaurant and sit outside with my friends. So I think that it's really important to learn how to save for every moment. And yoga has really helped me with that. Learning how to slow down my mind and just be focused on the present. Yeah, it's all about being in the present moment. And I think also one way to help with trying to slow down and be focused in the moment is to eliminate technology, eliminate distractions. I found that I'm trying to spend less time on my phone because if I check my phone for a thing in the morning, scrolling through social media, it's not like a great start to my day. And it's too habitual for me to do that. So that's something I'm working on. It's just like to put it away, maybe even get in the alarm clock, honestly, and just have my phone separate from working. And I think it's even harder now that most classes are online. My text messages are connected to my computer. So it's even more of a challenge to focus and be in the present moment when there's all these different distractions now, even in my academic environment, which is in my bedroom, when I can see cameras in my window. So I think we're all in this very strange time right now. But I agree with you. I think it's so important to really apply those yoga, the principles and the philosophy towards our everyday life now more than ever. Yeah. I think your point about the phone is something I'm also really trying to do. I have bought a clock. I have a clock. So now I'm going to leave my phone. Not only is it on airplane mode, but I'm leaving it far away from my bed. So I have absolutely no temptation when I wake up to check it. And I think that social media and our phones have completely altered how we think. And I think while in some ways it is positive, I see a lot of the negative sides of that too. I mean, for me personally, I was talking about my mind moving so fast. I think that's a result of text messages and always being bombarded with alerts, notifications. I can take my class and text at the same time. I can text and watch TV at the same time. So we're always doing something. And for me personally, I don't want to speak for you. But for me, I can't sit in silence. I can't sit and just not do anything. I always need to be stimulated by something. And that was something I learned in one of my meditations that we are so overstimulated. And it's gone and so bad. It's gone to the point that we can't say with our own thoughts. We're uncomfortable when there's silence. When you're in a conversation with friends, people scramble to fill the silence because we're so insecure about that. But there's nothing wrong with silence. There's nothing wrong with nothing going on. And that's also what I'm trying to learn. I'm trying to put away my phone, put on Do Not Disturb. I have a lot of friends who unadded their phones to their laptops. So now they don't get messages on their laptops. And they're really just trying to limit the notifications and the alerts so that either we can be focused on one thing and that might be class or we could be focused on nothing. And just sitting and reading a book or sitting and cleaning your room, but with no other stimulants, not even music, just to listen to your own noise, listen to the sound of the wind. So that's a really interesting thing that I learn through meditation yoga as well. Yeah. And I also really do love that point about not really listening to anything like letting silence take up the room. I think that also really ties into just practicing mindfulness, which is very much incorporated into yoga. But there's a whole body of research and a whole separate philosophy on what mindfulness really is. And again, with the whole text message scenario, I always feel the need that I have to respond immediately. One, because I just hate having an abundance of notifications and I want them all gone. And two, I just feel like, oh, because they messaged me or because they emailed me, I have to respond right away. But oftentimes, it's not very thoughtful response. And maybe I'm mispoke at that one point. And I'm not really communicating the right way or the way that I want to. So I do agree. It's so important to really slow down. And I think in a strange way, quarantine did allow for that. Even though there were feelings of loneliness that definitely came up, I think every day, for many months, there was nothing to do. So I would just sit at home and I honestly can't even remember how I passed the time now. But I think it was also a great learning experience to just kind of sit with yourself. And experience how time moves differently at different points in your life. And again, yoga, as we've been talking about this entire episode, really influences your perspective on all of these things. So I'm really happy that you've came to these realizations because it just seems like it's brought you a lot of wisdom and happiness by practicing yoga and having these kinds of conversations. Yeah. I think that I'm really grateful that I was able to discover this. And I'm even more so grateful that I have such amazing friends, for example, you. And I feel like I've made this joke with some of my friends all the time. But you do-- friend, you do favors for your friends. So for example, maybe Stella, you asked me, all right, I'm practicing to be an instructor. Will you please take my class? That's an amazing favor. I am surrounded by such amazing people that the favors that my friends ask of me are incredible, they're incredible opportunities. And I feel like I've been put in a situation where I have no choice but to grow for the better. And I'm so grateful for that. All my friends challenge me in ways that I think make me so much better. And I think if I compared myself where I am now to where I was freshman year, I can't-- I have no words. I think there's no way to describe how much I've grown. And of course, I can attribute some of it to classes and work. And that really helped-- my ability to speak and what I can comprehend. But so much my personality and so much of my values and belief have been completely altered by the people that I've met here at University and my friends. And I feel so grateful that I was able to find people who've made me so much better and who have brought me up and who have taught me so many more things. And I feel like I'm lucky. I feel like I was put in a situation where I could grow from all the people that I was with. Yeah, I love that. And I feel the same way. And I think it's also important to acknowledge it doesn't come easy. It really doesn't come easy. You have to put in the work to really allow for that to happen. You have to sometimes make a choice. that might feel really uncomfortable to allow yourself to surround yourself with people that are going to uplift you and people who are going to inspire you. And I think, you know, through the practice of yoga and through coming to these realizations, there's just an amend it, a trinormous amount of gratitude that's generated. And I think that's such a key point in addition to everything we've talked about with the quieting of the mind and that mind body connection through the practice. But really like this compassion and gratitude is so important. And kind of on that note, as we're beginning to wrap up the podcast, there is one question that I ask every single guest and it ties into the theme of health while being in happiness every day in Dorfins. What is one thing that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? Oh, whoa. It's a great question. There are so many things that bring me endorphins every day. I think that the first one that comes to mind is being able to wake up and make myself a bowl of oatmeal in the morning and feeling really lucky that I have the food in the in their refrigerator to make. And oatmeal is one of my favorite foods and breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. So starting my day with a warm bowl of oats with some fruit on the side is something that makes me really happy and it is something really simple, but definitely brings me endorphins and I'm able to start my day. You know, I feel so good like I ate well today and I'm ready to start. I can really on so many levels. Breakfast is also my favorite meal of the day. I love oatmeal. Anything, anything breakfast. I can eat breakfast like three times a day. But yeah, I love it. And a lot of like endorphins revolve not only around obviously like physical activity, but like food. Food is so social and so personal. And it definitely brings me happiness. I definitely get hangry when I'm like starving or really hungry and eat something in that moment. And I love that response.