(0:50) This is changing the face of yoga and this is episode 105 and I have a really exciting guest today. This is our first yoga student on changing the face of yoga. Her name is Diane Randall and Diane is energized, committed, and passionate about leading wellness conversations around life balance, self-care, plant based nutrition and whole life wellness. Her joy is seeing individuals adapt health and wellness methods that reduce stress and bring harmonious balance to their lives. She excels at equipping business professionals with workable wellness advice and strategies that meet their demanding lifestyle. And she's been a yoga student for 12 years. Welcome Diane. And I'm really glad to have you on the podcast. I think the way you're going to look at it as very different from most of my guests and I'm really excited to talk to you about it. So can you just tell us how you started in Yoga? (02:00 ) I started in yoga many years ago. Probably 15 years ago. I went to a class, I won't say I started, I'll say I went to a class maybe 15 years ago and I went with my brother and, and just to make the story go faster. I did not like the yoga because my mind was running 50 miles a minute. And then here I am in this yoga class trying to relax and be still and it just wasn't happening. So I decided that yoga wasn't for me. It wasn't for me because I'm laying down in Shavasana thinking about all the calls I need to make, all the things I needed to do. So I, I left the class and I didn't go back until about 12 and a half, 13 years ago when what I realized was I wasn't ready, ready for Yoga because my life at that time was so hectic, so stressed. I literally had a monkey mind just going 50 miles a minute. I wasn't sleeping.

And what I realized was when I went back that I was really rattled, ready to settle into the classes just to see what it was all about. Because at that time I had, I had very high blood pressure and a lot of stress. So I was just looking for something to help me to just calm myself down. But what ended up happening, I settled into, I surrendered really into the practice because I didn't know what I did know. But what has happened over the years is I found so much peace, so much a enjoyment in just having a calm mind. It really helped me to settle down over time.

And I didn't even see that coming. Not only did it helped me settle, it has really enriched my life in a way over time that I have developed more patience. My heart has opened up a lot more, you know, just settling into the calmness of the meditation and the Yoga. So what I'd say is it's really, really helped me to change my life over the years. And I've taken some of the practices that I've learned to help, not only to center my clients, my students, whoever I'm with initially, but I help people to just clear any noise or chatter that is in their heads. Before I started class or I started coaching session or start of just consulting. So it's really allowed me to just be present with people in my life as far as my work, in my home life. (05:25 ) As teachers and therapists, we all know this, but it's so exciting to hear that it really worked well for a student. But that you had to be ready to accept it first. (05:41) Yes. I had to be ready and I was like, this is too slow for me. I don't want to do this anymore. And I'm like, you know, I don't know what that's about, but I recognize that I wasn't ready. I really wasn't ready at that time. (05:57) That's a good thing for teachers to know for somebody that comes to class and never comes back. No, not to put it on ourselves all the time. They're saying, hey, maybe they just weren't ready to do yoga yet. Exactly. Yeah. So you did yoga and how long do you think it took you through learning these tools and stuff to really see that significant emotional and physical difference? (06:25 ) What I can share with you is that I've seen it over time. I've noticed and observed myself over time because you know, it's not like you know that all these different things are going to happen to enrich your life. I would say after a few years I started noticing how much more peaceful I was, how I was engaging and sharing what I learned at my practices. Just not even thinking about it. It just became part of what I do to help to settle and integrate myself into my life as well as sharing with others. And I know how good I feel using some of my yoga techniques that I just shared that with everyone around me. (07:24) Those yoga techniques are like grounding and breathing or what ? (07:28) It's mainly grounding, it's breathing and sometimes it's just closing our eyes and sometimes I'll say a mantra and have my people close their eyes and, and I'll say a little mantra just to get everybody centered. (07:50) So your role is mainly working with people that are really stressed out, is that correct? (07:58) Stressed out. And you know when you're running, running, running, and then you meet up, whether it's at a coaching session or a class, most of the time your mind is not in the room yet. So what I do to bring everybody together and just to clear a release, whatever chatter is going on in that moment, just to get everybody in the room and ready for what I'm about to say or do. (08:29) Do you give them, what we would call yoga tools but tools of any kind that help them when they're not in the room with you? (08:41) No, no, no, I don't do that. It's mainly a tool to get everybody present to what we're about to do as well as get me present and grounded for what I'm about to do with my audience. (08:59) I see. Now you actually have expanded this out so that you're looking at wellness on several different levels. , I think you were talking about life balance, self-care, plant based nutrition. Were you doing that before, before you started taking the yoga or ? (09:20) I'll say it's been evolving. The more peaceful and the more quiet my mind became, the better I felt because I feel that yoga helped too with the stress. So at that time I just evolved into looking at life balance, helping people with demanding schedules like mine was at the time to just settle into their life and take care of themselves. Not only, mentally, physically, and spiritually, but just to look at the whole, and I feel that the yoga help to settle me down enough so that I could share everything that I was learning, which allows me to show up and just be present in the moment and grounded. That is such an awesome feeling and experience to just be grounded in the moment. And when you're running around all the time, you notice that difference. You notice it is not something you experience all the time. (10:45) when you say that you were really stressed in, in your job, have you changed your position? Have you just changed yourself? (10:58) Oh my goodness. As I've changed myself over the years, everything changed. Everything changed. I definitely don't have a stressful life anymore. Two things. My kids grew up for one thing. But I evolved so much into this person who loves the quiet when I was younger and stressed out, just be still and quiet. You know, it just didn't feel right at the time. But that's, that's my life. That's who I am. And in my work, a lot of it is helping people to come into balance, whether it's with their food, whether it's with their mindset. It's just been awesome because I feel that all that is in alignment with my life in the work I do. And I still go into corporations to do consulting work. But what I notice is over the years, I've just evolved it into this practice where I go in and I can just share. It's not that stressful energy that I used to just carry everywhere with me. (12:33) You really have taken yoga off the mat and, and use it in your life, not just in the class. Is that a fair statement? (12:48) That is a correct statement because I use all the tools that I've learned to help me to change from the inside out and be able to quiet your mind just for a second. That is huge. I've wanted people that I encountered that I come into contact with to experience the same thing, just to slow that mind. To the point where for the last five years I go to silent retreats. Well part of the retreat is yoga. I love yoga because it's such a calming. Not only do I get to stretch my bodyand to all the different positions, but when I want to check out and just go somewhere and calm down, yoga is usually involved even on the silent retreats that I've gone to for the past five years. (13:53) You say that you help people with self-care and there is a certain level of, shall we say, a burnout among yoga teachers. What would you say to someone to help them with their self-care? What would you give them, some tools or some help or ? (14:17) The first thing I would say in, the main thing I would say is I always tell people to check inside. So really close your eyes and explore to really feel what's going on? What is the truth of what I'm experiencing? Because you know when you're burnt out, it's a combination of things that have happened over time and it's being honest and authentic about what may be going on inside. It's really taking an honest look at your life and what's going on to get an indication of where your energy and attention is in the moment around the time that you're feeling burnt out. It's exploring that burnout. What does that mean? What has transpired? Why am I in this? The current situation? It's exploring that, not just looking at it as burnout. How did I arrive here? It's really digging in and exploring that. (15:48) As you experienced, you would have to be ready to do that. I'm sure it could be a little off putting, perhaps is the word, that you know to really dig into yourself and see what's happening. Sometimes you just kind of ignore it. (16:00) You've really said it because if you're not ready then you're not going to figure it out, but you have to be ready. And if it's off putting, then it's like, okay, what is that off putting about? Why am I feeling that way about it and everything I do, I tell everyone it's about being authentic, being honest about what is really going on here. Just be honest with yourself about it. And you know what? Once you figure it out, you may not be ready to deal with that. And that's okay too. But the changes happen when we're ready to explore. To dig inside and make what I call a mindful change is to dig in, to really figure out what's going on and try to change that from the inside out. (17:13) And do you have any tips or tools if somebody is at that point to help them make that change from the inside out? (17:22) Well, let me tell you what works for me. And I've had so many years for this. What I do now is I don't start trying to figure things out. I sit, I sit with myself, I sit and I'm still, and I'm quiet and I sit, I'm quiet. And then a lot of times if you quiet your mind down, the answers start coming forward, you know? So if I'm stressed out, maybe if I could just sit down and be quiet for five minutes, you know, maybe even close my eyes. Maybe some truth about what's going on will come forward because you've quieted your mind down enough and you're still enough for something to come in to give you some ideas. At least that is what I do now. I'll say, oh my goodness, I need to do something and I don't know what to do in this moment. So now I say, you know what, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna sit with this, see what comes up. (18:34) I love this aspect of yoga that we've never explored before. To see it from the student's point of view and I think you've just done a great job of explaining how you've embraced yoga and taking it into all parts of your life. But I would like to know if there's anything that either you think we haven't covered in enough depth or that you would like the listeners to know that we haven't covered at all since we're coming to the end of the podcast. But I'd like you to have that opportunity if there's something that you want to say. (19:18) No, I would just like to leave the listeners with just taking a minute to just be quiet and be still and see if something comes up. See if something comes forward in terms of something little that you can use to just make your life a little bit better. If you're looking at maybe self-care or making your life more balanced. It's just sitting quiet and seeing what you need in that moment. (19:56) Thank you. I do want to mention that Diane has written a book. Diane, the title is (20:05) Jumpstart Your Life. Find your motivation and change your life one step at a time. (20:11) Yes, I downloaded the book today. I was impressed with all of the really practical tools that you had in there about going through negative self-talk and self care and getting balanced. It was all very well done. I thought. (20:45) Thank you very much. It was a workshop that I taught for 10 years that I decided to put into a book because I used those exercises to really help people, not only free their lives up but learning how to focus on the part of your life that needs your attention and energy. And, you know, we have to give ourselves permission because there's so much negative self talk about, why are you doing this? You know, it's just giving ourselves permission to dive into our lives and see what's going on. (21:24) For people that are experiencing stress or burnout, um, I thought it was a very usable resource. (21:42) I appreciate that. (21:56) Well, thank you, Diane. And so glad that you came on. Like I said, I'm so excited we have a yoga student and I think that you really show what Yoga can be to people who do not want to teach it or be a therapist, but just live with it like you do. Thank you so much.

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