S2-EP 11: Self Healing through Vipassana Meditation and Understanding the Chakra's with Coach Terran Smith
81m 10s
Coach Taren Smith shares her journey from severe mental health struggles, including complex PTSD and self-medicating with alcohol, to healing through holistic practices like chakra balancing and meditation. She explains that the seven main chakras—each tied to a color, emotion, and physical function—serve as energy centers that, when blocked or imbalanced, contribute to emotional and physical distress. Practices such as breath meditation, yoga postures, and mindful self-observation help restore harmony by encouraging awareness of what is truly within one’s control, like health and self-care. Central to her healing was recognizing that trying to control external events leads to negativity, while releasing attachment allows for inner peace. She emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries with toxic people, especially those who emotionally drain or manipulate, and highlights how self-healing is foundational to being able to support others. While scientific research on chakras remains limited, evidence supports meditation’s role in calming the nervous system and reducing stress through parasympathetic activation. Taren integrates practical tools—crystals, colors, food, and movement—into a daily routine that feels both grounded and accessible. Her experience shows that self-healing is not just physical but deeply emotional and spiritual, requiring patience, self-compassion, and consistent practice. Ultimately, she advocates for a balanced approach: start with simple breathwork, expand into chakra awareness, and build a sustainable, personalized wellness path rooted in acceptance and self-awareness.
branch out and kind of help you realize oh wait a minute like I can just let
that float by yes like a balloon right just like I don't have to grasp it I can
let it go or like a buoy on the water and just let it go yeah I don't have to
give it my attention and at first when we try to explore that we think maybe we're
being selfish yeah for sitting there not trying to solve the problems in our
lives or that maybe we're being selfish because we're not spending that extra
time that we have with other people or because we're taking more extra time
for ourselves but that just goes to show you how connected and attached we are
to all of these things that really we shouldn't have any control over and
when you try to have control over things suddenly you're manifesting
negativity yeah and when you start to manifest control or negativity that's
going to be the result yeah no it's it's it's I just I just excites me just
the fact that like you know it's just in the sense of understanding that what
is in your control because then you end up finding out very quickly or not
quickly for some people it's different it takes time you understand what is
within your domain yeah what can you control health yeah you could control what
you put in your body and healing and healing right helping the responsibility you
take over your own healing and itself right so to heal the self is to then
grasp the ability to heal other people exactly well that's all I've always
ever wanted to do I know that I'm here to help people I know that I have this
knack for this passion for it but that also
hey guys welcome to episode 11 this week we are speaking with Coach Taren
Smith from Lifetime Fitness LaNexa Taren is going to be talking to us about
chakras self-healing and vipassana meditation a little bit of the experiences
that she's had in her life as well as some advice for us on how to get
rebalanced when it comes to our chakras before we get started though we have
to go through our housekeeping being items real quick first and foremost is my
caveat which is I am not an expert that works in the health of fitness field I'm
an everyday athlete like the rest of you that has a whole lot of passion around
health fitness nutrition and helping others along the way I like many of you
have had my own struggles around health and fitness that mainly surround
around food and working out and it wasn't until I got the help of a very
patient professional coach that my eyes are really kind of opened up and things
changed for me personally number two would be our goal which is to speak with
industry professionals that work in the health fitness and nutrition fields as a
way of giving back to others and sharing information with other others and
helping educate around different topics out there when it comes to to health
fitness and nutrition because as simple as it seems like it can be I feel like
it can be really difficult to we do this on a weekly basis and it's a podcast
that's really meant for any type of athlete so you could be someone who's
just getting started in your journey and you might be a little overwhelmed with
all the information that's available everywhere or you could be someone who's
a little bit more well seasoned you've been doing it for a while and you just
like to hear what the smart and practical guys have to say lastly is guys we
love hearing from you please keep reaching out to us we have so many different
avenues of which that we can you can reach us we and I'll put that information
to show notes but you guys can step on Twitter Facebook Instagram send us a
question anything you guys got as well as we'll put the contact information for
the coaches and the show notes as well anyways let's get on to the good stuff
hey guys this is Audrey at the Oddsparming Athletic Podcast this week we are
speaking with coach Terran Smith about the chakras self healing and the
pasta meditation before we get started Terran tell me a little bit about
yourself your background how do you get to where you are today so like you said
my name is Karen Smith I'm 26 years old I was born and raised around the Lanexa
Kansas area other than the five and a half years that I lived in Lawrence
Kansas when I was attending the University of Kansas so I graduated from there in
2015 with my degree in news and information so from their William Allen White
School of Journalism and at that time when I graduated I had been dealing with
complex post-traumatic stress disorder for more than 10 years of my life I was
at a very unhappy place unhealthy place I was 70 pounds heavier than I am now I
was heavily medicated I was self-medicating with alcohol I was just at the
bottom low of my life and somehow I used health and fitness and holistic
living and all of those little positive things that people say to you every day
that will help you to be a happy healthy person I started applying those and
slowly but surely I got better and I actually am at a point now where I no
longer have that diagnosis at all and that's not something that I ever thought I
would be able to say so after that I I had quit my job in radio so I was a
radio DJ morning news anchor over at Grave Plains Media in Lawrence I quit my
job there and I did that to really focus on my mental and physical health and
after doing that I kind of fell in love with group fitness I got my first
Zumba certification and I thought maybe I could actually do this got my ACE
group fitness certification was like okay well maybe I could be a personal
trainer got my personal training certification my first one last May my second
one this past January and I also got my yoga teacher training certification this
past fall at lifetime OP so I just kind of fell into the health and fitness
industry and realized that I could use all the things that I learned to help
save myself to help others do the same so that's a little bit about me and kind
of how I got here today okay so we're talking about so we're the topic in
itself those the group of those three are pretty in depth yeah so when I
ask you to kind of give us a high level overview of what the different
things are so that we can help our listeners understand and then we'll get a
little deeper into some of the the other aspects of it so can you tell me a
little bit about what the chakras are just for those people that don't know yes
so the chakras or chakras are energy centers in your body so there are
actually 21 energy centers in your body however we will stick to the seven main
set that people usually talk about these days so chakras come from
Ayurvedic medicine which is an ancient form of Indian medicine and these
energy centers in your body are correlated with different feelings different
emotions different physical aspects of yourself they're also correlated with
different vibrational frequencies and different vibrational frequencies emit
different colors so they're also coordinated to colors so using all of these
different energy centers you can actually literally map out your physical your
energetic your emotional bodies and start to kind of biohack yourself and your
own makeup okay so how about the positive meditation can I talk to us from the
aspect of what that is and then help us tie it back to the chakra piece too okay
okay so the pasta meditation the word that pasta actually means insight it's
essentially self observation breath observation so there are many different
kinds of meditations there's guided meditations there's chakra meditation so
the pasta meditation specifically is almost to sit with yourself and try to be
like a mountain let the time pass by let the surroundings pass by let the
ego-driven idea of yourself that you have pass by and truly fall into every
single particle of yourself so see yourself with that ego-driven aspect all
stripped away and see yourself for what you really are and it was actually the
root of the Buddha's practice and so he was around 25 centuries ago so I really
really really long time ago and this was basically the root of his whole
practice so I'm a fan of meditation I actually meditate myself but I actually
use an application to help me I probably a couple years ago as no is last year
I stumbled on to the book 10% happier by trying to get the author as I think of it
in a minute but the premises of it for me was being able to separate that
inner critic in your head from everything else that's going on and be able to
use meditation to actually calm yourself or reducing anxiety reduce stress which
was what a lot of my problems were so I was really excited when you talked to me
about doing the meditation topic because I was like oh my gosh yes I'm a huge fan
of it understanding like you had mentioned there's different types of meditation
that that originate from different origins right yeah okay so how do these two
things help with self-healing oh man so I'll go into I'll go into the
chakras first so the chakras the set will go over seven of them today and
those are the main ones that if you understand so let me just start out with one
of them I'll just tell you what the root chakra is so the root chakra is located
at the base of your spine it is your primal center it vibrates with the
lowest vibrational frequency which is red and it represents primal
energy, grounding energy, stable energy. So if this chakra is bright, this vortex is whirling
around you. Your energy there is strong. You feel really rooted in your surroundings. You feel
very stable. So there are also, if you're feeling like there are certain aspects of your life that
are off, you don't feel very grounded. You feel like you're kind of lighting around. Then you can
come back to that chakra, say okay, I feel like maybe I need to do a meditation surrounding this
chakra, but also there are crystals that can help. So red crystals like jasper, tigers, I meditate
with that crystal, specifically red foods like strawberries, beets. So yeah, yeah, exactly.
So whatever is going on, you can start to go okay, this could be the energy center that's wrong.
This is I'm not feeling very grounded. Maybe I should go pick up some red foods. Maybe I should
get some red, like Lang Lang. I can't pronounce it very well, but it's okay. Yeah, it starts like
the Y. Yeah, Lang Lang. So there are different oils, crystals, colors, plants, different things that
can help each of these energy centers. So kind of like tools. Yeah, exactly. Just like biohacking
your actual anatomy. So that's one of the shoppers and one example of how you can use that to self-heal.
Then there is the possum meditation. So like you said, you used an app and things like that before,
which can be very helpful. I've done a lot of guided meditations, even just listening to certain
vibrational frequencies, which again, goes back to the shop, where all these things are connected.
With the possum meditation, sometimes we all, I mean as humans, we overthink things and we want to
just, especially if you have anxiety or depression, which I have suffered greatly with both of those
things for years at a time, you've got to figure out how to turn your brain off, which can be so
hard to do. You've got to figure out how to stop ruminating over things, beating things to death.
Yep. If you can just sit and try to focus on your breath. Take a 10 second inhale and a 10 second
exhale and try to count all the way to 10 with only focusing on your breath and those numbers.
Do that over and over again until you can actually do it. It's hard to make it through those 20
seconds without a different thought coming in. But the more you do it, at first you're going to
feel aggravated and like you're restless and just even more agitated and then the longer you do it,
that agitation falls away. And it's cool. It's just a really quick tool to use that can help
resolve so many things. So the book I was talking about 10% happier. There's also an app. It's
called 10% happier. And the methodology behind that is implementing something like this and what Dan
Harris is the author. He is a news anchor that had a panic attack on live TV, which is what
what his thing is. And his was actually derived from extracurricular drug use that had kind of
gotten him a little out of wank. He had spent some time in other countries on in the middle of war
capturing, you know, so he's like really like high, high, high, high, like anxiety-wise.
He's a hugely inspirational person to me. But what he kind of he talks about the breath meditation,
but they call it mindfulness meditation. And it is kind of the same sense. It's just focusing
on the basic sense of your breath, you know, breathing into your belly all the way down and then
all the way out. And then how just in the effort of doing that in itself and just focusing on that.
Not what needs to go in your grocery list, not what that guy at work said, not what, you know,
drama's going on somewhere else. It's focusing on that and how that in itself can help kind of clear
the cloud that can can can get a hold of you in a sense and it can create so many other issues.
In the breath in yoga, which I'm a yoga instructor, yoga is my big claim here is
the idea of prana. So prana prana is life force. So everything around us is breathing all the time.
And it's the universe really that's breathing into us and that we're breathing out. And so
my big thing is always coming back to universal consciousness, everything having this consciousness
and being able to clear that out, being able to access it, being able to tune into it. And if
you're constantly trying to mitigate things in your mind and create answers or questions to all
of these things that don't actually matter, nothing really matters. Then you can really come
back to it and connect to it through the positive meditation or through any type of meditation.
Yes, breath observation. I thought it was, you know, and I don't know if you struggle with this as
well. So we have some some commonalities here. I struggled with depression as well. One of the things
that I used to get my mind wrapped around anxiety wise is trying to control certain situations.
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Don't actually matter. Nothing really matters. I struggle with depression as well. One of the things that I used to get
my mind wrapped around anxiety-wise is trying to control certain situations. So I was going
personally through a situation at work that had a lot of drama. I'm going to say just a little
bit. I had a lot of drama around it and I was working around people with it with the head
very manipulative personalities and I found myself getting my brain wrapped up in this frenzy
of trying to anticipate what their next move was. Through this whole effort, I read both of
his books through that, through focusing on mindfulness and the breath and getting yourself rooted.
I came to this realization that that stuff is out of my control. It's completely out of my control.
What can I focus on? Just at a basic sense, I can focus on my breath. And just starting there,
how much that can branch out and kind of help you realize oh wait a minute like
I can just let that float by, like a balloon, right?
I don't have to grasp it, I can let it go.
Or like a buoy on the water, I just let it go.
I don't have to give it my attention.
- And at first when we try to explore that,
we think maybe we're being selfish for sitting there
and not trying to solve the problems in our lives,
or that maybe we're being selfish
'cause we're not spending that extra time
that we have with other people,
or because we're taking more extra time for ourselves.
But that just goes to show you how connected
and attached we are to all of these things
that really we shouldn't have any control over.
And when you try to have control over things,
suddenly you're manifesting negativity.
And when you start to manifest control or negativity,
that's going to be the result.
- Yeah.
Now it's, it's, I just,
I just excites me just the fact that like, you know,
it's just in the sense of understanding
that what is in your control.
'Cause then you end up finding out very quickly,
or not quickly, for some people it's different.
It takes time.
You understand what is within your domain?
- Yeah.
- What can you control, health?
- Yes.
- You can control what you put in your body.
- In healing.
- In healing, right?
- In helping.
- The responsibility you take over your own healing.
And itself, right?
So to heal the self is to then grasp the ability
to heal other people.
- Exactly.
- That's all I have always ever wanted to do.
I know that I'm here to help people.
I know that I have this knack for it, this passion for it.
But that also meant,
and this is getting into a different topic,
but I feel like it's very relevant.
The idea of being an empath,
so being a person who feels a lot,
being a person who's very intuitive to others,
knowing how other people feel in the room that you're around,
even if they haven't said anything,
about how they feel at all,
even if they haven't said any words.
That was a big gift of mine,
that I think a lot of people have.
I would even go so far as to say,
I feel like you probably have some of them too.
And it's so important to understand that,
yes, as a gift, but also as the cautions surrounding that gift,
because if you don't understand how it works,
everyone around you is going to suck you dry.
All these emotional vampires are going to come out
and know where they're at. - It's fun.
It's amazing.
Once I started to recognize toxic people,
and once I started to recognize my,
the ability that all these toxic people saw that I had,
they would just come out of the woodwork,
and I'm just like, how is this happening?
And it's because, again,
everybody's connected to that universal consciousness,
even if it's the negative depths of it.
Which leads you to what? You have a choice
and who you put in your circle, and who you spend time around.
You know, if you're around somebody that is a vampire,
an emotional vampire, right?
And let's say they're at work, right?
You have a choice.
You may not feel like it at the moment,
there's other jobs out there.
There's other things that you can do
that can help empower you and help you feel,
you're in the right environment.
You're not getting sucked dry, right?
And set boundaries, set boundaries if and when that you can.
I mean, always set boundaries.
If it's a work situation,
and you can't get away from that person,
like you said, you have choices,
so look to be getting out of that situation,
but definitely while you're in it,
do your best to set boundaries
because they're so needed.
- I remember when I was at the peak
of going through my frustration through this situation,
I started reading all these books about psychology,
and about meditation, about psychology,
and about how to deal with stove piping and--
- Gaslighting?
- Gaslighting.
- I have a first stove piping.
- It's just another way of kind of thinking of it, right?
- Yeah, manipulation.
- But essentially it's a sense of those personalities
that are very good at manipulation.
Sometimes what they will do is they essentially set up
a situation to where you think of it like a stove pipe, right?
Situation after situation ends up leading
to a blow up on your end.
We're emotionally--
- Oh, yeah.
- We have a reaction that goes and explodes, right?
- And then it's gonna explode all over your face
'cause it's always gonna be your fault.
- Narcissist, I read a lot of books about narcissism.
- Oh yeah, me too.
- Oh my gosh, we could probably share reading lists here.
- Yes, we should.
- But it was one of those things that like, you know,
in a sense when the meditation thing fell into my lap,
it was right at the right moment where I was like, okay,
so while some understanding some of this stuff
can help me understand this, a lot of the reading
that I came upon actually leads you
in the same direction of, look,
you have control over the situation ultimately.
Don't try to change the person that you're struggling with
or whatever, right?
Some of that's upset at your control.
- Yeah.
- Work on what you can control, right?
So--
- Which is the self and who you put, again,
who you put around you be like viciously choosy
with the people that are around you.
Most of us these days do not have a ton of free time.
And if, especially for people who don't understand
or accept that you have a normal schedule,
like you have normal work times,
and I actually still have some toxic,
I'm not gonna, well, yeah, toxic people that I do have
to have in my life or that I choose to have to have in my life.
My mom being one of them.
She's one of the big reasons why I had complex,
post-traumatic stress disorder, hugely psychologically
and in some ways physically abusive, growing up my whole life.
And yet, I'm one of the few people
still in my family who has relationship with her.
I figured out a way to set the right amount of boundaries
so that I can still have a crazy little relationship
with my mom, but it's not something that
affects me negatively in any way,
which is a pretty big feat.
- That is amazing considering that, you know,
the amount of emotional damage that can happen,
especially when it comes from the person that's raising you,
right, and how that that and itself can affect
so much else in your life and how you give and receive love,
how you give and receive anything else in your life.
- Yeah.
- I had very supportive parents.
My husband had a father that was not.
He was a lot like your mother, right, in a sense.
And it makes a difference understanding how using tools,
finding tools that helps you understand how to set those
boundaries, set those limits and knowing that,
hey, with this person, their limit stops here.
- Yeah, it doesn't look the same for every person.
- It doesn't look the same for every person, right.
So I want to go back to the topic of, you know,
how we're talking about chakras, self-healing and all that.
The two things that we've mentioned,
chakras and the past and the meditation,
is there anything else that you want to tie into
how this helps with the self-healing perspective?
- Yes, yes.
So I think it's important that we go over all seven
of the chakras.
- Yes.
- So like I said, there are actually 21,
but for time purposes and because normally,
at least in the Western world these days,
we usually work with the seven.
So, earlier I mentioned the Moolidhara chakra.
So that's the one that's the root chakra associated
with the color red, grounding energy,
primal energy, all of that stuff.
So we'll move up to the next one,
which is the sacral chakra.
So it's located in the sex organs
and it's associated with passion,
with your masculine and feminine,
your Shiva and Chakni energy,
your creativity center is housed there.
So it's associated with the color red,
the next lowest vibrational frequency.
And orange, again, orange oils, orange crystals, color orange.
So the third one is your money pura.
Let me make sure, sorry, the second one is spotty stanna.
So Moolidhara, spotty stanna, then money pura.
So that's your solar plexus chakra.
It's located just above your naval center.
That's where your will power is housed.
So when you're feeling like you've got that gut feeling
that you need to go do something,
that's a lot of the things that we have,
like when we feel something,
oh, I feel like there's a frog in my throat.
They're all connected to these energy centers.
So that one is yellow, your solar plexus chakra,
your will power.
And the fourth one, very important,
if you've had any trauma,
you're on a hot chakra, your heart chakra.
So it's associated with the color green
and also with speckles of pink.
So green stones, green oils, green foods.
And this chakra can be really closed
if people have experienced a lot of trauma.
It's your center for self-loves,
your center for self-healing.
And it's also associated with all of the other living creatures
and the compassion that you feel
for all the other living creatures here on earth.
So then there's the Vishuddha chakra,
which is your throat chakra.
It's associated with the color light blue.
So lighter blue foods, gems, oils.
And it has to do with your ability
to communicate your feelings, your expressions
with those around you, your confidence in your own voice.
And again, yeah, with abuse,
you also see the root chakra having a lot of problems.
So feeling really ungrounded, unstable in your life.
And also problems with the throat chakra,
not feeling confident in your communication
with yourself or with others.
And then the sixth chakra is the ajna chakra.
It's the third eye chakra located between the brows.
So when people talk about their third eye,
they are actually talking about that area
and it's associated with universal consciousness.
So it's more of an indico color.
So indigo foods, gems, crystals.
You're starting to see a pattern here.
And it's got to do with your intuition.
So whenever you feel like you're drawn towards something,
that is your third eye talking to you.
That is your communication with the universe.
Then the last chakra is located just above the crown of your head.
That is your Sahasraha chakra.
And it has to do with clairvoyance
and also basically with your communication
with the universal consciousness.
So your third eye taps into that universal consciousness,
but your crown is actually your ability
to communicate with that consciousness
and with heavenly figures, with spirit guides
and things like that.
So that color is white or purple
and again associated with those colored crystals,
oils, foods, and things like that.
- So when you talk about those,
is there like, is there an importance in lining those up?
Yes, okay, so people tend to have either overactive or underactive shock wear centers
And so when I take clients through
Shock wear meditations will typically start at each center sometimes. I'll have each of the
Stones that are correlated with it, but you don't necessarily need that to run an assessment
So you start out at the bottom and you picture that vortex that spinning vortex is the root shocker red is it
Murky does it not seem as bright as it should then you can clear out that shock wear with your breaths as you breathe in
You start to breathe in more of that bright vibrant energy
You start to breathe out any of that murkiness any of the speckles that you might see there and you do that with each of the
Shockers to try to open them up more we typically see more underactive
Shockers, but sometimes think of if you've ever been like
Way too gung-ho to do something
Like I'm gonna get this done. It doesn't matter what anybody says everybody watch out in my way
So that would probably be more like an overactive
Will power center so overactive solar plexus chakra
So there's too much of a good thing in anything. So yeah, it's all about alignment and balance
What are some tools that you use to help with alignment is meditations part of that? Meditation can be part of it
Certain shockers have certain like they all have some meditation
Aspects that are more beneficial for them than others like for example the heart chakra the self-love center at the center for green
It benefits from long walks in nature. So really connecting to that green element the element
They also have correlating elements and they also have correlating
Rom, lumb, yum different sounds that you can use with mantras
They also like obviously the crystals the oils the things like that
So you can meditate with these things
But there's all sorts of different meditations that you can do you can meditate with the crystal you can take a long walk
With a crystal and have it communicate with you
I've done that so many times and it's crazy the things that you'll see on a walk in nature
Especially when you have a crystal with you especially when you're attuned to the certain frequency of your third eye or whichever shock
It is that you're focusing on so baths are also another good way
Anyway that you can bond with the elements so air earth water fire
Anyways that you can incorporate those and the oils and the crystals and the foods all of the sudden you have these different little programs depending on how you're feeling and
It works. It's crazy
It lines it ends up helping you get everything kind of in sync to where it's all working together and to teach yourself
How to see if you're out of sync or in sync. I personally I have an app called the chakra app the person who created it
It's not all the English is completely correct
Mm-hmm, but basically find yourself a quiz for these chakras take a quiz and then have it show you like how open and how close
Your chakras are according to that quiz you'll start to understand the more you do these quizzes
Okay, this time I'm feeling really good about this. Oh, this is more open or this one is more closed
My heart chakra is more closed and I thought it would be you start to learn it on your own. That's not being said that
Professional healers aren't wonderful to work with. I've worked with them before
Lauren Gonzalez the badass be in Casey is her Instagram handle
She is very talented, but Ray Key is actually what they call this specific kind of healing Ray Key healing
Mm-hmm
And it is definitely something that people who are
Professionally attuned with it can speak to more than you'll be able to in the very beginning
But that is not to discourage people from starting to
Explore how to heal themselves because it's totally possible because all of my experience with chakras for the first few years
were completely on my own and
You just have to be be sure to be smart about where you get your research
But typically if people are going to be writing articles about chakras
I'm not going to say they know what they they're talking about always but they seem to usually be inclined in the right direction because otherwise
People who aren't really interested in the topic usually won't take the time to start talking about it
Right well, and it's it goes back to that whole thing if you really want to find it
You can right and it can be very real overwhelming
So a lot of what I think you're going to is make sure it's good. It's proven like do some research on the person that's right
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People who aren't really interested in the topic usually won't take the time to start talking about it
Right well, and it's it goes back to that whole thing if you really want to find it you can right and it can be very real
Overwhelming, so a lot of what I think you're going to is make sure it's good
It's proven like do some research on the person that's writing the article make sure that they have some background because
Yes, if there is a way to find that information out there especially when things are westernized. Yeah, and that is one
One thing that I will say is some people argue that maybe the seven chakra system is two westernized
Mm-hmm. I will say I certainly haven't
Joe is as deep as the thousands and thousands of year old
Studies and understandings and practices have but what I have dove into has really made a big difference for me
And I see the universal connection around me. I see all these universal signs
I see that everything is connected and that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and part of that is because of understanding
Chakras and chakra healing
And so if it works for me
Continue to do it. It works. It works for you try it and see if it does try for a while
Don't like I would say like it with anything and I'm sure you have this this conversation with some of your clients too is
Whether it's on the yoga mat or if it's out on the floor working with them through some movements as you know
You got it this this takes time. Mm-hmm. It takes practice. Yeah to get to where
You will start to see results and some of the stuff so don't give up on it just because it doesn't work the first time and some people will see
Some people will be more gifted at it than others for example
I was doing a private session the other day with my my friend Hannah Hooper
She actually works here. She's experienced a lot recently and she's had a few big breakthroughs and some of our sessions
Which has been really cool, but I'm just starting to kind of introduce her to the Chakras
And so this practice we were doing was focused on the Anahata chakra green colors speckles of pink
And after the practice she was like, you know, it was so interesting because you said green and pink and those with the colors
I was actually seeing but I also when we were doing the plank
Should I have to hold a plank for a long time? I saw these bright bursts of yellow
I said wow, that's crazy. That is your solar plexus. That's your willpower and the plank position actually
Helps to stimulate that chakra specifically. I also should mention that with each of these chakras
There are different yoga postures that will help you tap into that chakra as well
That's that's that's really I might have you touched a little bit more on that. Yeah, too
Do you want to help kind of tie in just real briefly the different moves as they relate to the different chakras?
yes, so
The root chakra there will be postures or asanas that you're feeling very grounded
So even just mountain post standing standing up tall with your hands by your sides
Rooting into the ground anything where you're rooted or where all
all four limbs are connected to the ground
are going to be more root chakra-based.
Then you have your creative center,
so your spot is Donna, your sacral chakra.
That could be something that is more of a hip opener,
so like frog pose or even a wide like forward fold
butterfly, things that are really stretching
at your hip area.
And your hip also, it just seems to store
a lot of our emotions.
So I always prepare students for that whenever we're in class,
like when we're going to do a hip opener during our Yin
portion where we hold passive poses for long periods of time
and like, you're going to feel some emotional release here.
For some reason, our hips, not for some reason,
for if you understand chakras, and obvious reason,
our hips hold tons of emotions.
That's because our emotion and creativity center
is located right there.
So then we have our solar plexus chakra.
So again, our will power.
So those plank poses, poses where you're really
squeezing your abs, boat pose, going to be great for that center.
Then the anahata, so things that are opening up your chest,
something like wheel or bridge pose or camel,
where you're opening up that rib cage.
And then your throat center.
Those are going to be a little bit different.
So things like shoulder stands, things where your neck
is kind of supporting a lot of the weight, fish pose.
Good for that communication center.
Then we have the third eye chakra.
So that's going to be a little bit different
because the third eye and the crown are more third eye-based.
So perhaps balance postures.
Things where your focus isn't as much on yourself
or on the posture itself, but where
you're getting more into the outer connectivity to it.
So also for the third eye and crown chakra meditative poses.
OK, so I want you to tell me a little bit
about your personal experiences a little bit more.
And then any proven studies that you've researched around
about how the application can help someone
when it comes to the implementation
of understanding the chakras and how you can get those
in balance and then the meditation perspective.
OK, so shoot.
So wait, which one first?
So start out with your personal experience.
So like my personal experience.
So with regards to meditation, I've
been doing that for a long time.
But I will say I really fell into the self-guided meditation
or not self-guided to the guided meditation at first.
So Andrew Johnson has a lot of really popular meditation apps.
I would highly recommend him.
They're just very, very good.
And I'll have to think of some other names along the way.
But I just-- I don't want to deter anybody.
I don't want to say you have to do the postinum meditation.
Try to do the postinum meditation,
that breath observation of a few minutes each day.
But if that doesn't get you to that meditative relaxation
state, that's OK.
You use the other time that you have to do that.
It's just a super-- just understand from the perspective,
it's like the most basic breath.
The breath meditation is the most basic.
Yeah, it's-- if you're stressed out, look at your breath.
If you are worried, look at your breath.
If you can't calm down, if you can't breathe,
if you're crying, look at your breath,
and try and calm it down.
Start there, branch off whenever
you feel like you're ready to grow some more.
So I'm going to add in a question here.
Is there a specific kind of like--
when you see some clients, is there
a specific kind of radiance that you get off of them
when it's like a--
There are a lot.
Yeah, like is it anxiety, is it stress?
What do you walk into most times?
When you walk into the-- whether it's a studio
and you're getting ready to start a session,
or you're trying to coach somebody around,
trying to get the chakras and balance or whatnot.
Scattered energy, scattered or heavy or flighty.
People's energy when they begin a yoga session, for example,
is usually frustrated.
It's actually one of the big ones
that I experienced throughout the whole class
when I'm doing a private session is sometimes
some people they cleanse their energy through frustration.
So you'll almost feel this frustration towards me
or towards the yoga practice.
And I'll start thinking like, man, I don't know
if they're liking this.
But by the end, they release it.
So it's like all of the frustration
that they felt and agitation that they felt,
they somehow kind of get cleansed of it.
It's usually like a-- it's really as a process.
Like you start, right?
And I know usually-- so I do Pilates,
but every now and then I'll do yoga.
And it's one of those ones where there is--
while you might be sitting there or laying on the mat
thinking, why is she or he making me do this,
there really is a process to how you guys
kind of organize and orchestrate this.
Oh, yeah, especially with life power yoga.
So that's how I'm certified through.
And I really believe in the seven doorways.
So usually with each practice, we'll
take people through these seven different doorways,
which is a whole other topic that I'd love to talk about.
What about have you back again to talk about that?
Yeah, of course.
Begins in sacred space.
And then we light the fire within the student.
We ignite the spirit, which helps them come back to the breath.
So they have this experience of meditation.
They have this experience of awakening their breath.
Then they have this experience of lighting their fires
or needing to get their body moving.
We stoke the fire.
So once they have already started this physical practice,
then we throw logs at it and help the fire grow even bigger.
Then we kind of put the fire out and do some yen
and let them stretch out and utilize the fire
that we've just created.
And then we come back to gratitude.
And eventually, at the end, we surrender.
So there is this whole process.
And each doorway has its own arc.
And yeah, it's a really beautiful process.
And it's a really intricate process.
And it helps people to come in with the energy that they have.
Be okay with how their breath is when they arrive.
Don't try to change their breath at all.
It's an acceptance, see that.
Accept it.
And then experience it and move with it and let it go.
It's almost like it probably sounds weird to say this,
but it's almost like a rebirth, right?
Like you go into the whole process.
And then it's like you come out.
You nailed it.
And at the end, before we sit up and have gratitude,
we roll over onto our sides in a fetal position.
That's how you're exactly where every class is a reaper.
And I think Brandon can probably agree with me on this.
You usually walk out and you're like, oh my gosh.
You'll walk in and you'll be like, man, like I guess.
I don't even need to go do this thing, right?
And then you walk out and you're like, gosh dang it.
I'm so glad I did that.
I feel so much better, right?
We call that the yoga buzz, at least I do.
I like it.
I sell my students enjoy your yoga buzz.
So any studies you want to talk about at all
and then application?
So I will say there is a good article
from Cooper Hewitt.org.
So it's basically on the Smithsonian
and they have these different ancient texts
and just kind of go over, again, the similar ideas
of what the shoppers are, what they've represented
to people for a long time.
And it's basically to be reminded
that all of this is not new information.
It's all quite archaic information,
but there's a reason why we still keep coming back to it.
I will say I've done a lot.
I actually wrote an article recently
for this new news media organization
starting up in LA called Scriber.
And in doing that, I did a ton of research for this.
I did not find a ton of studies on shoppers.
There are some, I mean, there's definitely proven benefit,
but it's hard to measure a metaphysical being.
And so there's also just not enough research on it.
There needs to be more research on it.
There needs to be more people scientifically measuring
the effects that it's having on people
'cause it's changing people's lives for the better.
- I know from the standpoint of studies,
there's a lot more a college level
and you've got some of these elite schools
and stuff like that, research agencies and organizations
that are doing more research,
definitely around the meditation perspective.
- Right, yes.
- And what it does, not, you know,
think about your brain as the center
or the computer of the entire system.
And what it can do to your brain.
- Yeah.
- And so I'm sitting here thinking about that
and how if you're thinking about it in a sense
of meditating even around the chakras
and getting those imbalance, understanding
what it does your brain center.
And there's studies that talk about how
like it actually improves different portions
of your brain by implementing something like that.
- Yes, specifically the central nervous system,
which mine was so screwed up for so long,
I never thought it would ever be normal again.
So you have, well, the miniature science lesson here,
your sympathetic nervous system
and your parasympathetic nervous system.
So your sympathetic nervous system is all about fight or flight.
And yeah, I need to fight for my life,
basically where all the anxiety comes from.
Then you have your parasympathetic nervous system,
which is what calms you down,
your biggest nerve, things like that.
So when you meditate, it stimulates
your parasympathetic nervous system,
which again calms you down
and helps you one year in those fight or flight moments
to be able to calm down more quickly.
And what's interesting, and again, everything is connected,
certain yogic postures stimulate the sympathetic nervous system,
certain yogic postures stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
So when we're walking around in extension, extended positions,
that is more of a sympathetic stressed out state.
We're walking around in more flexed flexion positions,
that's more of a parasympathetic state.
It's funny thing about that.
I just semi-recently made that entire connection and realized,
I have, so I have an anterior pelvic tilt,
which basically just means my booty fixed out a little bit,
it got a curve in my lower back.
- Girl, it's got a booty.
- Yeah, yeah.
Can't complain too much.
Got a strength in those glutes, got a strength in that core,
but it made me realize that people who have that tilt more often
or not have spent a lot of period of their life
in a stressed out state.
- Yeah, I did not know that.
- I know, isn't that trippy?
- So the cool thing, so we just had an episode come out last week
with Jonathan Pfizer, who talked about the science behind the breath,
right, so we talk about sympathetic and parasympathetic.
So breathing too is your. understand how your breath powers through that. The sympathetic breathing is
basically when you're talking about the stressed out state, you think about most
people most times when you're walking around, you're synthetically breathing.
Parasynthetic breathing means that you're breathing all the way down through
your core. Yes. Right. All the way down. And if you practice that a lot, you will do
it naturally forever. I personally always breathe through my drop diaphragm
without trying now. So I am one that I had been in a very highly stressed out
environment for a long period of time around work. And it's interesting when you
think about when you're always breathing in that state, how that can convert
into your your active lifestyle working out. Right. Also understand, we've
talked about this before, your body doesn't know the difference between the
different types of stress. Stress, stress, stress, stress. So whether it's
stress that you're putting yourself through physically on the gym floor, or
stress that you're experiencing at home, or psychologically at work, your
body does not know the difference. Right. And then how that breath focusing on the
power of that breath, the parasynthetic breathing all the way down through your
core, how that just at a basic level, guys, like we were talking about the
breathing meditation, use that as your breathing meditation at a basic level, just
focus on that. Yes. How that can make things calm down and relax. Yes, totally.
And that actually what the type of breath you're specifically describing is the
yogic breath. So it's the complete breath. It's a four to five-second inhale and a
four to five-second exhale, four to five seconds into the diaphragm, then the
lungs, then all the way up to the collar bones, then out the collar bones, up
lungs, out the diaphragm. Start there. That's a beautiful place to start. And for
those of you, those of you that are goal-oriented, goal-focused, get those
results, like the best way, understand unless you are an absolute anomaly in the
human society, the best, the way you'll get the best results is if you try to
implement something like this to help decompress all of that. Yes. Right? So if
you're always in that sympathetic breathing state that highly stress,
highly anxious, highly. Right? You're not going to live a very long life for
one, right? And it's not going to be very healthy life. But if you try to implement
just things like the breathing, and I know I keep going back there, just the
breathing perspective of it, it will change your life. Yes. It will change your
results. If you're not in all this chakra stuff, if it's like this is way too much,
I feel way overwhelmed to start with your breath. Start with your breath. I've
been for years at a time in that overexerted, overactive, can't calm, just calm down.
We're going to take a real quick break to talk about one of our sponsors of
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making. I've been for years at a
time in that overexerted, overactive, can't, can't calm, just calm down, couldn't
do it for years. And coming back to the breath, starting to focus on the breath,
starting to focus on again, don't there's no shame in guided meditation. Go
back and do a guided meditation because I guarantee in the first 20 seconds of
that guided meditation, they're going to tell you to what look at your breath.
Yeah, yeah, right. Okay, so next is the true false section of the the podcast. So
for those of you who don't know how this works, actually, I got two for
Tara in this week. The way this works is I'm going to ask a true false question
and Tara is going to tell us whether it's true or false and then she's going to
ask it, she's going to tell us why or why, why or why is not true or false. Then
she's going to flip it on me and she's going to ask me a question. No promises
I'll get it right. But I'll do my best. I always do. So our first question is
Tara true or false, the best way to heal your chakras is through a professional
healer, where or why not. No, no missing to any of the professional healers
that I know at all whatsoever, but I would say overall false. Okay, because it's
something that anyone can learn. It's something that anyone can become open to
inclined to learn about just like any other form of medicine. So yes, that's
like saying, I mean, yes, like you can definitely perhaps go to a professional
healer and experience someone who has done this longer, but at the same time, if
you're not connecting to your own energy centers, you're not going to heal
those energy centers. So perhaps a professional healer will be able to connect
to your energy centers and tell you these are the ones that are open and these
are the ones that are closed, but they can't do the work for you. They can't
heal yourself for you. They can't get you to become in tune with, okay, this is
my root chakra. This area isn't vibrant, isn't buoyant. It's not open. If you
don't start to take the time to learn what these energy centers are, how they
correlate with what you're feeling emotionally, physically, mentally, whatever it
is, then it doesn't really matter if the professional healer can tell you
anything you're not, because you have to really digest it. Yeah, well, it's down to you.
So you're saying like if you're hitting barriers and you have problems trying to
get yourself in tune or even understanding what your chakras are trying to tell
you, or even with the meditation perspective of things, it's absolutely okay to
get a teacher. Yes, it's okay to get a healer. In fact, I encourage it. Yeah, but
also like anything like I like to tell people, try it a little bit yourself so
that when you get in there, you can kind of, you can ask questions about stuff.
You can be. observe it like I appreciate more on the standpoint if I was trying to teach you
something Terry and if I if you did a little bit of I tried this and this and
they give you a cake so I tried it this is what I ran into is this normal yeah
no one individual knows the right answer and energy is complicated like it
would be complicated enough if we only had one energy center and we have 21
we're focusing on seven of them and the healer might also you know them
reading your energy is complicated you might be giving all sort of mixed
signals so they're there to provide you with what it is that they perceive
which is extremely helpful and valuable and even I actually just saw a
professional healer for the first time Lauren Gonzalez about a month and a
half ago she very kindly invited me to this awesome self-healing experience at
skin casey and her reading was very spot on it was very insightful I learned a
lot about myself and now I know where I need to go next but it also helped
affirm for me that I had been learning all these things in the right way on my
own and that I was headed in the right direction so use it as a way to confirm
the research that you've done for yourself just like a doctor like you would go
and see a doctor and you would trust their opinion potentially but they only
know a limited experience of you they don't they have all this background
knowledge it's very helpful and useful source but if you care about your
health and getting better you should also do that research yourself this is
not to say that this is the difference between a doctor and WebMD like WebMD is
not necessarily scary guys super yeah yeah get a second opinion exactly have a
have a team just like how we have trainers we have different kinds of group
training we have yoga we have all these different forms of being active and
active recovery to achieve what some people would look at as like a one
solution thing is oh I need to go and be fit it takes a team of people to get
yourself fit mentally physically emotionally even you guys you think about it
too like so what I hear you saying here first of all is a community is
important so finding a healthy community to also does some of those same
things and you can have more than one community you can have a community around
different things just making sure they don't clash in a sense that you're not
getting put negative energy from one spot and yeah and you know pause super
positive energy over here yeah a community pieces you're saying that that's
crucial right yeah find your community come up with a community yeah and that may
mean starting out with no community that may mean starting up from ground zero
and realizing that oh I don't have any community because all of my community was
negative yeah don't sacrifice like choose quality over quantity absolutely always
have a good community even if that means that you are your own community for a
short time period rather than having a any form of negative community at all
whatsoever I love it my community is suddenly branching out but for a while
there it's just like me my dad my dog yeah it was it's same for me it was it was
basically me my husband and my kids right and then it it's gradually grown and
because of that I have a much healthier circle around me and I've had to pick
people off that list I've had to say you're disinvited yeah no longer I will
say it's made me more cynical finding positive people yeah but I truly think
being a cynic is a virtue yeah you get to protect you got to protect yourself
you got to protect your time you got to protect your community yes so you
had mentioned this a little bit earlier so this could be a little bit of a
repeat on our part but so true or false every chakra responds to a various
chakra sound or healing frequency so yes so there's all sorts of different
forms of healing from plant healing to oil healing to crystal healing and all of
these different things have something in common which is vibrational frequency
including your energy centers they all vibrated at a different frequency just
like the colors that we see vibrated at a different frequency that's why
depending on what frequency they're vibrating at they are correlated with
these different colors crystals and like you said sounds so actually that's
one of the things I'm really looking to maybe get into because I have a
background voice over and singing and I have been started following this guy I
cannot remember his Instagram I'll have to get it to you yeah and he does a
lot of sound healing crystal bowls seeing of these different different ancient
primal sounds these universal sounds so yes there is not only a certain
sound frequency but there's also a certain like glom yum rom a certain mantra
that also is correlated with it you put those things together with some
crystals and some oils and all these things and all the sudden that vibration
opens up and you can tap into that energy so I don't I don't know if you guys
knew this there's there's different places that are soliciting places in the US
too that have this you can go to that have and some of them are very ancient we
can go to where they have a like a frequency sound bath yeah and there's
some really at a friend that went to one late last year and she was going
through a lot emotionally because of some health things that were gone and with
her family very very dear friend and she talked about going to this place and
how it was really it was kind of was cool because of you might walk in there
thinking this is gonna be what is this and then if you go like
interestingly enough she talked about how just kind of the feeling of what
it was like coming out yeah which is really I should probably bring her in here
and have her talk on the podcast some time about it but it's I thought that
sound perspective was really cool and interestingly because I mean a lot of
these things and just to just repeat what you had said earlier some of this
stuff is old it's very very very old right you talked about the boot is what
like 25 century yeah 25 centuries ago some of this stuff is it's really old
yes right doesn't mean it doesn't still apply and you can still use it
exactly and it's all I mean it's all very simple when it comes down to it
it's all the elements around you the natural substances around you the
natural whole foods around you the crystals that naturally grow in our
environment all of these things are connected and can help us and are within
our energy bodies within ourselves everything is connected everything is
part of this universal consciousness and you have to start to see and here
and feel how all of those things are tangible and present okay so your turn
okay you got true false questions so true or false each chakra is actually a
physical place in our body I think it's true I mean you talked about
how everything was rooted right you're talking about the belly and the
different you know the heart and the the the third eye right which is in a
sense except for the one that was up here that you talked about right right so
the more metaphysical one that's that this one kind of feeds into or
communicates into I got it right I would say yes yes so sorry I have to know
traditionally maybe no like some people would say no because they're like
what do you mean energy how is that physical yeah think about it think about
their vibrational frequencies that is actually a tangible thing just because
we can't see it doesn't mean it's not physically there and yes that crown
center it's metaphysical but really all of those energy centers are metaphysical
so really I guess it comes down to what is your idea of tangible but the idea
that energy has mass and matter and that means in my book yeah yeah true
sweet I got it right yeah all right okay so talk to us a little bit how our
listeners can apply some of these practices real quickly with us so that you
know just some some things that they can put in their tool well to help them so
I would highly recommend can I plug my my resources here go for it do it so
pleasure away journey to joyful by Dashima Gordon I actually almost did my
yoga teacher training through her end it up doing it through life power for
various reasons however I find this book by her to have a really good beginner
understanding of the chakras in it along with a bunch of other really helpful
stuff but she explains these chakras and the dosha's which are these three
different bodies we have I won't get into all that stuff but it's explained in
plane speak she is from Florida I believe and it's just explained really well
another book is The Art of Living by SN Guenka Art of Living Vipassana
Meditation so that really delves deeper into what does Vipassana mean especially
if someone here's about this and does become really interested in it because
traditionally Vipassana meditation is practiced for 10 days at a time and you
actually go over somewhere in India they will pay for your room and board and
feed you very small amounts during those 10 days it's like a retreat yes
exactly and it's it's like a surgery is actually how some like SN Guenka looks
at it you know if you were to go to a hospital you would be kept in a
sterilized space you wouldn't be meeting with all these other people you
would have your procedure and during that procedure you'd be in a protected
environment and it's the same way if you want to do this metaphysical surgery
with yourself wow that sounds cool yeah honestly I know some people could use
a metaphysical surgery my longest sit of meditation was this past fall and it
was probably like four to five hours so I can't speak to what it would be like
to do that for days at a time but and I can just imagine you would become a
mountain the retreat perspective has been something I've been
interested in for a while and and I've been told that there's different
levels that you can do and there's some retreats out there that you don't
have to pay for yeah there's a lot of them if you're interested in the
pasta meditation and doing a retreat they will make it happen for you
monetarily speaking but it's I almost kind of think that that surgery is
probably a lot like the retreat perspective where it's basically you're
isolated and some of these retreats like you can't you don't talk to anybody
there either no other than your your coach yes other than you can have very
quiet short concise
conversations with whoever is leading the meditation.
- But it's like 30 minutes to hour
and you don't talk for this time.
- Yeah, yeah.
And at the end, you break the silence
and you get immersed back into society
after the 10th day, everyone can come together
and they kind of quietly talk about their breakthroughs
and their experiences.
- So it's interesting, you think about it.
We're on here in a podcast,
we're talking about how great it retreats.
(laughs)
Like we're talking right now, right?
No, really, it sounds really cool.
- Yeah. - Okay, so any other tools
for the tool about for these guys?
- I, if you're looking to get into healing with chakras,
I would recommend they have these like starter crystal kits
or stone kits on Amazon, really cheap
and they come with a little shell and a little stand
and you just put them in there,
especially for people, there's a lot of people
are into the minimalistic thing these days,
which I can get into.
So they don't want to necessarily have their whole room
covered in crystals, start out with those,
form a relationship and a bond with those crystals,
with those colors, with those oils,
figure out which feelings are associated with each center.
Just start to do some research
'cause you're gonna find generally the same things
and you're gonna start to feel generally
the same things correlated in each of these energy centers.
So take the time to do some research
and look at it like a fun thing, like for me,
it started out, I was just kind of messing around,
like I've always been very kind of kind of clear buoyant
and just into energy and reading people and insight.
So I started out bonding with these crystals,
like I didn't start out avidly researching,
I just started physically tapping into
what does this energy center feel like?
How do I feel here, connect to stability
if it's the root chakra and go from there, play with it.
- Experiment, yeah, I like that.
Okay, so are there questions I should have asked
that I did not?
- What language are all of these weird words in?
- Oh, there you go.
- Sanskrit, so Sanskrit is an ancient language
that was mostly used for text in India
and my name is actually Hindi Sanskrit.
- You want to tell everybody what that is?
- Yes, it's kind of strange.
So my name is Taran, T-E-R-R-A-N.
So Tara means Earth, Taran means Earth person
and my mom just chose that spelling because she liked it.
And I didn't find out until a couple of years ago
that it was actually the Hindi spelling
and that it actually meant that.
And the funny thing is I actually practiced Hinduism.
I had been practicing it for about a year or two
when I found that out.
And so I was just like, wow,
everything really is cosmically connected.
Everything happens for a reason.
And I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
- No, I want to find out what my name means in Sanskrit.
- I don't know, I don't know if it,
like see, my name is actually like Hindi spelling,
which is strange.
T-A-R-Y-N doesn't mean anything in Sanskrit.
- Why no, my mom named me after,
my mom named me after an actress on Big Valley.
- Thank you.
(laughs)
- Like, well that's, okay, I'm cool with that.
Sorry, whatever.
Okay, so what are three to five things
you would like for a lesson as you remember
from this episode?
- First one is to, one thing that I haven't really touched
on a ton, the first one that I say is like,
the most important is that you don't have to live
with the trauma that you've experienced with,
that you've experienced.
You don't have to live with it the way it is right now.
You can process it.
You can rewire the neuro pathways of your brain.
You can fix yourself.
- Everything's temporary, guys.
- Yes.
- Just so you know.
(laughs)
- Yep.
- And you can work through it, reach out,
and the next thing, and this goes into the next one,
which is to stay consistently persistent
in wanting to be a happy person,
and wanting to achieve happiness and positivity.
So long as you're consistently striving for good,
you will find and achieve good.
The next one is to take some time to research
the chakras, take some time to look up
this seven chakra system, start to bond with it,
just like you bond with your yoga practice
or with crystals.
Maybe you have an understanding of crystals,
but you didn't even know anything about chakras.
So start to dive deeper.
Come back to the breath.
Focus on your breath.
What is your breath like right now?
As you're hearing me say this.
Think about it.
Start to get familiar with your breath.
Start to become friendly with your breath,
and start to really get in deeper
with those breathing muscles.
We breathe with so many more muscles
than we might realize.
And some of us are breathing with some muscles
that we shouldn't be using to breathe.
Some of us are breathing with our necks or our shoulders.
And it's because there's other deep seated issues
underneath there that you have to deal with.
But start with your breath.
If you focus on your breath,
all of those deep seated issues will resolve themselves.
And the last one is to always come back
to universal consciousness.
So we are all one consciousness,
whether that is negative or positive.
We can make it more positive.
So always be manifesting towards your higher self,
that higher vibrational frequency
that you feel like you're ultimately guided
towards follow your intuition.
- Love it.
Okay, so when should people get help?
- Anytime, always, all the time,
people should never stop getting help.
People should start by reaching out to the resources
that they know of.
Be sure that those resources are positive people.
If you have a gut feeling,
sometimes people will say they're there to help you
and they're not.
Sometimes people won't say that they're there to help you
and they are.
So you have to listen to your gut feeling
when it has to do with helping yourself,
even when you're reaching out to others.
So do not be afraid to reach out,
but also do not be afraid to walk away
from whoever you've reached out to.
If you feel like in your gut that's not helping you.
- Right.
- But people should always,
all the time, be getting help from themselves
and from each other.
- All right, so anything you wanna talk about
is getting ready to come up for you or here at lifetime.
- I'm starting full time.
- And like a week.
- Yeah. - So we're excited.
- I'm excited.
- So I've been doing an internship here
as a personal trainer and yoga instructor
for about eight weeks.
And I mean, this is truly a dream come true.
I knew I would be able to teach yoga and things like that,
but I didn't realize they would be so accepting
and encouraging of me,
emerging personal training in yoga right from the get-go.
So I'm just super excited to be able to continue
to help myself and help other people
with this holistic healing.
That is what it's all about.
It's a dream.
It was conversation with a couple, it was episode one.
It was with Josh Thomas and Elektra and Nixon
about breath.
It was the very first leading episode
that we did talking about,
essentially the power of breath
before we got to the science behind it.
And I honestly feel like from a standpoint
of a personal trainer,
you've set yourself up in a very good spot
because breath is really where it all starts,
understanding that how you breathe
is going to make a difference
and how you feel when you work out,
how you perform if you're worried about performance,
and then also just in strength.
And your body will get so much more out of it
when you think about that parasitic breathing.
You've got that, right?
'Cause you teach it in yoga.
- Yeah.
- Starting at a basis with a new client
that's never done anything before.
- Yeah.
- Helping them understand this.
Like you, your clients are going to be very lucky.
- Thank you.
- I mean that sincerely.
I think it's fantastic.
- Thank you.
- Okay, so how can people get a hold of you
if they want to reach out?
- People can reach out to my email.
Please Smith3LT.life.
They can give me a call.
913-449-5010.
If you're a pretty personable person,
they can also find me at my Instagram
@TarenRaeSmith.
- All right, well thank you, Taren.
I appreciate all your time and your energy
and all the love you have for this.
It's fantastic.
- Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate your passion.
And I'm just excited to keep on informing other people
about all these awesome topics that we understand.
- All right, we're gonna have you on again.
- All right.
- All right, 'til next time.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
- Hey guys, that's a wrap on episode 11.
Did you guys have any interesting takeaways this week?
I know I did.
I really appreciated how for one,
Taren went through the different chakras
and then what they all meant.
I also appreciate some of her history
and the things that she went through
and how she had talked about how meditation
can help with that healing perspective.
Because I think self healing is something
that we don't always take seriously
or don't consider as a tool for overall health wellness
and health and wellness.
So I think that it was really cool
to hear her talk about how these tools helped her
and how she also gave us a lot of the information behind
where the studies help support the results.
Anyways, I wanna let you guys know
that we are gonna be talking next week
with Coach Z, about the big 400, his adventure from last year
with the Ultramarathons and what he's got coming up
for him on the horizon as well.
So make sure you guys tune in next week to see that one.
And anyways, thank you for all the sport.
If you guys have any feedback for us,
please shoot us an email again, the information
or contact information in the show notes.
If you guys like what you hear
or if you don't like what you hear, you know,
give us a rating and also subscribe.
If you guys want to keep up to date with all the content as it rolls out and everybody
have
A great week!
[Music]
[Music]
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The chakras are seven primary energy centers in the body linked to emotions, physical health, and vibrational frequencies.
Rooted in ancient practices like Ayurveda, chakra healing involves using breath, crystals, colors, and foods to balance energy and promote self-healing.
Meditation—especially breath awareness or "pata meditation"—helps reduce anxiety, calm the mind, and foster connection with universal consciousness.
Overcontrolling situations often creates negativity; focusing on what’s within one’s control (like health and self-care) leads to greater stability and emotional balance.
Trauma and toxic relationships can block chakras, especially the heart and throat, but setting boundaries and practicing self-awareness can restore balance.
Specific yoga postures and daily routines (like planks, forward folds, or shoulder stands) align with each chakra to support healing and emotional release.
Scientific research supports meditation’s impact on the nervous system, particularly by activating the parasympathetic system to reduce stress.
While clinical studies on chakras are limited, their practical benefits in mental health and emotional regulation are widely experienced and validated through personal practice.
Summary:
Coach Taren Smith shares her journey from severe mental health struggles, including complex PTSD and self-medicating with alcohol, to healing through holistic practices like chakra balancing and meditation. She explains that the seven main chakras—each tied to a color, emotion, and physical function—serve as energy centers that, when blocked or imbalanced, contribute to emotional and physical distress. Practices such as breath meditation, yoga postures, and mindful self-observation help restore harmony by encouraging awareness of what is truly within one’s control, like health and self-care.
Central to her healing was recognizing that trying to control external events leads to negativity, while releasing attachment allows for inner peace. She emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries with toxic people, especially those who emotionally drain or manipulate, and highlights how self-healing is foundational to being able to support others. While scientific research on chakras remains limited, evidence supports meditation’s role in calming the nervous system and reducing stress through parasympathetic activation.
Taren integrates practical tools—crystals, colors, food, and movement—into a daily routine that feels both grounded and accessible. Her experience shows that self-healing is not just physical but deeply emotional and spiritual, requiring patience, self-compassion, and consistent practice. Ultimately, she advocates for a balanced approach: start with simple breathwork, expand into chakra awareness, and build a sustainable, personalized wellness path rooted in acceptance and self-awareness.
FAQs
Chakras are energy centers in the body, traditionally seven main ones, linked to emotions, physical aspects, and vibrational frequencies. Each chakra is associated with specific colors, emotions, and bodily functions, helping individuals understand and balance their energy for better emotional and physical well-being.
The 'pasta' meditation, meaning 'insight,' involves observing your breath and letting go of overthinking. It helps reduce anxiety, promotes mindfulness, and allows you to connect with your true self, fostering emotional balance and self-awareness that supports healing.
The seven main chakras are root (grounding, red), sacral (passion, orange), solar plexus (willpower, yellow), heart (love, green), throat (communication, light blue), third eye (intuition, indigo), and crown (universal consciousness, white/purple). Each represents a different aspect of emotional and physical health.
Yes, chakra balancing can help by identifying emotional blocks and promoting self-awareness. For instance, a blocked heart chakra may reflect unresolved grief, while breath and meditation practices can reduce stress and improve emotional regulation.
Tools include meditation, breathwork, specific yoga postures (like mountain pose for root or camel for heart), crystals (e.g., red jasper for root), colored foods, and oils. These practices help open and align chakras to restore energy balance.
While direct scientific evidence for chakras is limited due to their metaphysical nature, research shows meditation strengthens the parasympathetic nervous system, reduces stress, and improves brain function, supporting its benefits for mental and physical health.
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