Master The Big 3 For Abundant Joy And A Body You Love

Stacy McCarthy

Thank you Jana, I’m excited to be here. I can’t wait to get into the conversation.

Jana Danielson

Let’s get into it. So everyone has a story and everyone has, you know, an evolutionary pathway, I believe that maybe you were going in one direction and then something, you know, there was that thing that occurred and you had a little bit of a pivot, so help our audience get to know you a little bit better. And really what brought you to be an expert in this area of fitness, health and wellness?

Stacy McCarthy

Yeah, everybody does have a story and I started off in the fitness industry, I started off in athletics in high school, I was a swimmer and then I went to college, I grew up in Florida, I went to college in Colorado in a swimming scholarship and I was actually in the major of forestry, I thought I loved nature and I thought it was gonna be this forest ranger. I have no idea what that meant by the way. I grew up in Florida on the beach and here I am in Colorado. And then one day I was coming out of the locker room, had my speedo on goggles and the coach said, pool pumps broke. So we’re going to do aerobics. Now, I’m probably a little older than some of you. This was in the very early eighties and we were all like what’s aerobics? And she put a cassette tape in an old yankee boom box and then she started like calling out this stuff like jumping jacks and knees up. And then she started getting fancy on us with like step touch grapevine and I was like a fish out of water. I had never taken a dance class, spent my whole life in the water and I was just, I was all over the place. But then at the very end of it, I loved it, I loved it so much. 

I wasn’t going to have green hair if I like did this, I wasn’t, you know, there was music, there was just something about it that really called to me. And so the next day I went in and I changed my major to exercise physiology. And when I graduated a few years later I heard from a friend of a friend, someone opening a health club in San Diego. So I packed my car, drove to San Diego with my new minted diploma, applied for the job as an aerobics instructor and I got it, I got it because I was pretty fit. And I had this diploma, they never asked me to audition or anything, they just gave me these classes, so I had no idea how to teach. I was making up stuff, I had no idea about music. Two weeks later, the manager who hired me calls me in his office and sits me down. He said, I’m really sorry, but we’re gonna have to let you go. I was like what? And he said, yeah, you know, you’re just not that good and I knew I wasn’t good, I was terrible, I had no idea what I was doing, I had no rhythm, I had no idea. 

So I was smart enough to ask him what do I need to do and thank you for the opportunity and he said you need more education. He said, you just you really, you don’t know what you’re doing. And he was right, so that’s what I did. I got a mentor, a big proponent of mentors and I learned more and I joined the Association of Fitness professionals, which is called idea. This was back in 1983, very long time ago. I joined the organization and I learned from it and you know, I worked my way up and then I was teaching like all the latest fads of fitness, you know, back when step was big and hip hop and I was teaching all of it. And then in 1991 I was walking down the street and I saw somebody coming out of a yoga class in our community and they just had this something about it, it was an energy. So I stopped and I sat there and I watched the next class and there was something about it that just called my name. And so I started studying with a teacher who happened to be a very renowned teacher. I didn’t know it at the time. And yoga really took over for me at that point, I knew my calling was yoga and I brought yoga into our health clubs at that time, I was running, we were running about six different health clubs and I brought them into our health clubs and this isn’t, this is like 1992 at this point and yoga wasn’t what it is in 2022 I mean this was 30 years ago and it was still all very new. So my trajectory was really this thing, this yoga thing that was transforming my life and was so different from kind of the hard grinding of athletics and fitness that I was teaching. And you know, I’ve never looked back and I’ve really been a yoga specialist ever since and that’s been my calling and I studied my teacher from India and brought a specific style over here and I was lucky to have very, very good teachers. And so that’s where I am today, still teaching yoga and very passionate about it.

Jana Danielson

So I love your story, your aerobic story. I knew we were kindred souls because that’s where I started to, I was doing my undergraduate degree in business and I was like, well I love to move and I was athletic as a kid too. So I did my certification and a similar story to yours. I taught my first step class at the university, it was called, it was a basic step and it was to faculty and staff Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunch. It was my first Tuesday, I must have spent, I don’t even know how many hours prepping for that class. So I taught the class. I thought I did really good. Like in my mind, I’m like good on you john so this professor walks up to me at the end of the class and she says, sweetie, that, that was that was this your first class and I was like, yes, you know, I just said, you know, you did so good. But on Thursday, can we do some of the lead movements on the left leg Stacy? I taught the class, right leg lead, I did everything. I did not realize I didn’t do any need repeat left, I did nothing like that. Right. So yes, most humble, really, you know, kind of what we need like there, let’s start improving from that so

Stacy McCarthy

Well, Jana for everybody out there and here’s the thing, you know, we’re gonna, we’re gonna flop at some things. But I think the real lesson out of it is still your calling, Is there something that’s still tugging at you that says, you know, this is what you’re meant to do and whether whether you’re good at it or not, we all have something in yoga, we call it our dharma are calling our purpose and I teach a lot from the ancient text and there’s a beautiful thing in the Bhagavad gita one of the most famous and most read books in the entire world and it says that it says, Krishna says to Arjuna is a warrior, better to do your own dharma imperfectly than someone else’s dharma perfectly. And so really the essence is that sometimes people follow this path in their life and they’re like, well my parents want me to be a lawyer, so I’m going to be a lawyer, I don’t really like being a lawyer, but that’s what I’m supposed to do and maybe you do it really, really well, but something else is calling you and maybe you’re not quite as good at that, whatever that is, maybe it’s making pottery or whatever it is, but that’s really your purpose and what you were meant to do. So for everybody out there with the humble beginnings of being fired, but knowing in your heart this is where you’re supposed to go stay with it because good things will happen, they really will

Jana Danielson

Well, and if you think, you know, had you not had that conversation with your boss, would you have like, you know, would you have ended up where you are or would have there been something something different and you know, we are talking about mindset in every single aspect of these conversations over this next week and you know, think back to that mindset like what what, you know, you went in there with all this confidence, your newly minted degree or right, probably thinking like I’m gonna own this studio, really give people an amazing experience and then you get this feedback. And so I know you have something in your realm of how you teach called the Big Three, can you talk to us about that?

Stacy McCarthy

I can and I will also address kind of that mindset when I was let go, you know, I thought, and unfortunately, you know, I came from a lot of great coaches and stuff, but you know, when something like that happens, we always have two options in life. One, we can either step back into safety or we can step forward into growth and we always have that two options no matter what’s happening in our life. And for me, I didn’t want to step back into safety. I didn’t want to go back to something that maybe, you know, I could grow with and make some money, but it wasn’t my passion. I wanted to step forward into growth. I wanted to get better at what it was that was really warming my heart and fueling my soul. So just to address that mindset, when something happens, that’s truly the way I think, is that I’m not going to grow from this because if I’m not growing, I’m dying, I’m always stepping back into safety, I’m gonna wilt. 

So yeah, and then the big three, Okay, yeah, the big three. So now I’ll get to that question, the big three is something that as a yoga teacher, I’m always looking at developing the whole person. So mastering the big Three are rituals that you can do to really master the three areas of your life that will make up primarily the whole person body, mind and soul. And then the first one is how we move, really being intelligent and mindful and the way we move the second one is how we eat when you’re consuming, knowing what you’re consuming, knowing. Is it fueling your body temple, or is it zapping your body temple? And then the third one, the most important is how we think. And this is again, a mind set mind. That’s a big word these days, but it’s so deep. And these three areas when we come to these three areas, when we come very mindfully in the way we move through the world and when we are very conscious and deliberate about what we consume, whether it’s our food or our thoughts, then we address the whole person body, mind and soul. And those are the areas I’m really, really passionate about.

Jana Danielson

So then you’ve mentioned a few times already the word ritual and for some people ritual might mean structure or schedule or inability to like, you know, be fluid. Can you frame that for us, first of all? What do you mean by a ritual and lets you know 11 of the, my visions for this week, as I was planning the summit was, can I bring people experts in their area onto this virtual stage that every single time someone comes to an episode, they can leave with something right now today, that they can start to pragmatically they can they can actually see themselves doing it. So again, a few things here to touch on, tell us what you mean by ritual, and for those people that make it feel rigid, can we maybe try and reframe it a little bit for them? And then can we build some, can we touch on those Big Three? And can we can you maybe share some examples of how you can build rituals into those three areas of our lives in a simple pragmatic way.

Stacy McCarthy

So a ritual, we all know what habits are and we all have habits whether good or bad that we have through our days. So habits typically are things that we’re unconscious of. You know, you get up in the morning and every morning you have your cup of coffee, you don’t even think about, boom, boom, that’s what you have, or you get up and you brush your teeth, it’s your unconscious about what you’re doing. A ritual is something that you’re coming to consciously more mindfully, you’re paying attention a little bit more on purpose in that present moment. And so with the ritual setting up rituals that are moving you in the right direction, you are conscious about what they are and you’re deliberate about what they are. So let’s say for example, in the morning instead of waking up, and the first thing that you put into your system is coffee, which is very dehydrating. It also can be very acidic and be hard on the stomach. 

There’s a lot of things about coffee that maybe shouldn’t be the first when you wake up in the morning and your body is already dehydrated, that you shouldn’t be doing. But your unconscious, that’s what I do. I have this warm cup of coffee, maybe you put saccharin or sugar or whatever it is in your coffee. So now you started your day off with some chemicals or with a little something else, sugar. That’s making it a little more hyper with the coffee. So you’re already setting your day unconsciously without even knowing. And these little things that you’re doing unconsciously over time, let’s just take you put saccharin in your coffee every morning over time, those chemicals are building up. So your unconscious about what you’re doing. But when you flip it and you go, I’m gonna make this a ritual every morning I’m going to get up and I’m gonna have either room temperature water or slightly warm water because I like that warm feel, feeling so now every when you get up the first thing you have and you’re conscious of it and you’re mindful of it, You have that warm water or you have the room temperature water just to hydrate, then have your coffee or whatever you like, or maybe even take it a step further. Maybe you put a little lemon in that water. That adds a little more alkalinity. I know people think cities are lemons or acid E but they’re actually out the line in your body when you digest them. And now you’re starting off your day almost like cleansing you cleanse your body a little bit from your deep sleep and then have your public. So now you’re very ritualistic. You’re mindful, you’re deliberate, your conscious about what you’re doing. You understand why and then go on with those unconscious habits and then what happens over time, That ritual that you’ve been very mindful of over time. That becomes a new habit and maybe what you start noticing over time, you know these things take time. They are not quick fixes. You don’t even realize that you need your coffee right away. You start having the warm water maybe with lemon and that’s what you have. And next thing you know, it’s 11 o’clock and you’re like, oh I forgot to drink my coffee and you just made something much more conscious and deliberate. That’s better for you without a lot of effort other than mindfulness. So that’s the difference between a ritual and a habit.

Jana Danielson

You know what I love about what you’ve just gifted us in that these last three minutes is that you’re really talking about. It reminded me what Dr. Joe Dispenser says is that we have the 60 to 70,000 thoughts a day and 80 90% of them are the same as they were yesterday and last week and last month and yet you know are you know the prefrontal cortex is like yeah, we’re going to change this, we’re going to do all these things, but yet it’s like we’re not creating the environment to do the change and what you’ve explained is exactly that that missing piece.

Stacy McCarthy

Yeah, I’ll tell you the other thing that’s really important in making these changes is and yes, you know the mind, the mind, the brain and I do a lot of work with the brain. So we have anywhere from 60 to 70,000 thoughts per day, but we also have about 430 emotions per day. Our emotions are going along with it. And a lot of the work that I do and the reason I love yoga is a transformational practice. I do a lot of work with the mind. And so when we come to this mindfully the things that we are doing and if you don’t, the word mindfulness is thrown all over the place, it is just like be mindful, Be mindful, but most people don’t even know what is mindful, what is that? Well, being mindful means, paying attention on purpose in the present moment right here right now without judgment. So now you’re starting to work with your emotions. You’re not judging yourself, you’re not beating yourself up because darn it. I’m trying to give up coffee and I drank it darn it, beat myself up, whack, whack whack, you’re coming to it without judgment, you’re coming to it free and unattached and you’re just leaning into it. This is the new ritual that I do. I’m starting to enjoy this. And so if you can set up this is what leads me into this systems. So look, if your coffee machine is right there, your pre made coffee is set up to when you wake up, that’s already made and sitting there waiting for you, that’s a system, it’s already there. So now you need a better system. So now you need your hot water dispenser, your hot water, pot, your cup with waiting for you, and maybe a lemon sitting next to it in front of the coffee already set up. You’ve got to have systems to help you implement this. Otherwise it’s very very difficult. I teach this a lot for people because so many people start yoga, they quit yoga. 

And then I’m like, oh my God, I felt so good when I did yoga, but I haven’t done it and then it’s hard to get back because the expectation is gosh, I was doing it and I was doing so well and I felt so good and then they come back to a class and they’re like, oh it felt it was so hard, I didn’t know I was so tight and it’s hard to get back to it. I would still don’t quit, don’t quit then. But if you don’t have your mat and your things ready to get on your mat to practice yoga, if you leave it wound up in the corner and say I’m going to do yoga today and it’s stuck in a corner, you probably won’t do it, set up your space, have it ready, have a system ready waiting for you so that there is no excuse do at the same time. And so these are all just systems, we have systems for everything else we have in our business. Let’s have systems for our own well being and it will go a lot further.

Jana Danielson

Let’s talk about these systems in terms of because you mentioned earlier in our conversation what we’re putting into our body, how are we fueling our body, give an example on how you would set up a system for, you know, dinner or lunch to make sure that we’re not just, you know, grabbing that X, y, Z as we go out the door. Could you do that for us?

Stacy McCarthy

Yeah, yeah, we’re all so busy. Look, I’m busy, you’re busy, Everyone is busy. So again, create those things that, you know, are going to make you feel great and that you will do. So one of the things that we do is, you know, everybody now can drink a green smoothie, you can make it so that you like it. So if you’re like, I don’t like green smoothies, I don’t want to put spinach or kale or whatever it is in my smoothie, you know, put a powder in it with, you know, that’s your protein powder can have some greens in it, you won’t even taste it, but everyone can have a green smoothie. So if you know that that’s going to be part of your day, you’re gonna have a green smoothie every single day chock full of vegetables and fruits and things, then make sure your vita mix is in a prominent place. Like I have it in midday, usually after I teach my vita mixes right there or your blender or whatever type of blender you use, I have all of my things right there in a prominent cabinet right next to my refrigerator, ready to go. So I don’t have it tucked away at the bottom of my pantry so I have to get it out each time everything’s ready to go. And then I batch, make what needs to go in my smoothie on a Sunday. So it’s already and I just, boom, boom boom, boom, I cut up, freeze my bananas or whatever is going in there, It’s very easy to make. So there’s a system if you want to make sure that you are adding more greens to your day and I’m a huge proponent of plant powered eating and having more greens in your day, I’m not saying you have to be a vegan, I’m not saying you have to be vegetarian, but I do believe everyone benefits for more greens in their diet. So have a giant salad, always prepped waiting in your refrigerator. Like if I go to my room refrigerator right now, there is always the lettuces cut up, there’s always a big salad waiting in there. So when you’re starving, you’re not like I’d like to eat a salad, but I don’t feel like chopping it. So instead I’m going to grab this frozen burrito and throw it in the microwave or whatever it is, you’ve got to prep it and be ready for it and you’ll make those good decisions. So these are systems that you have. 

And then I’m also a big believer of cleansing as long as you can throughout the day. And what I mean by cleansing is eating more water based foods. Look, we all know that we’re supposed to drink a lot of water. We’re supposed to hydrate. I know Jana you are big on hydration, so am I. But the reality is that most people are walking around like with their gallon of water and drinking it all day. So eat your water, have water based foods waiting for you and your smoothies, your juices, your salads and eat as much of that as you can, as long as you can throughout the day and then break that kind of cleanse at the end of the day whether with your dinner, if you’d like. But I’m not just a big, big fan of, again, more of those water based foods, as long as you can to give your digestion a break to boost your metabolism. And again, it’s just setting up those systems for it.

Jana Danielson

So when you like, you literally just said the sentence and I want to make sure everybody understands the importance of this, of what Stacy just said, because it’s easy to kind of just gloss over it. But did you hear how she said, when you give your digestion a break, you will give your metabolism a chance to be more have a little spike, whatever the words you use, can you, let’s, I just want to go back to that because I feel like one of the belief systems that we have as we age, right, another candle on a birthday cake, right, Another trip around the sun. Well, my metabolism is supposed to slow down, right? So how can the women and men watching understand that when we do give our body this chance to have a break from digestion metabolism gets a chance to shine.

Stacy McCarthy

It’s true. Look, I’m 61. My metabolism has slowed down. I have to be even more vigilant about what I put in my body. There is no doubt that when you hit my age versus when you’re 40 versus when you’re 30 things start shifting. So you have to be vigilant about what you’re putting in your in your body. So let’s just kind of take it through when you go to bed at night, it’s good to go to bed, not on a full stomach. So if you can stop eating at least several hours before bed, maybe stop drinking as well because you don’t want to get up constantly and go to the bathroom. So if you can throughout the day, if you’re fueled and you’re nourished, you won’t need it. But if you can stop eating, if you go to bed at 10 and and you stop eating at 6630, it gives your a little bit of time. Then during the night your body actually gets to sleep and it starts to do what it’s supposed to do. It’s not digesting food. So if you eat at nine p.m. 

And you’ve got all this food and then you go to sleep, guess what your body’s doing. It is not regenerating, it is like working on breaking down all the food you ate. So if you can stop a little early few hours early before bed. Now you get that nice sleep throughout the night. When you wake up in the morning, you just basically were cleansing during the night with your sleep. The first thing you want to do is not wake up and have something heavy, you’re a little dehydrated from sleeping, this is where you add in maybe that warm water and lemon and to help again get the digestive juices going very light and you eat light, as long as as you can before you add the heavier food. So the light foods are things that are water based foods, fruits, vegetables, all of this is more water based. So you’re just naturally cleansing. You’re not doing like hardcore. Hey, I’m gonna cleanse, I’m gonna do a seven day juice cleanse and I’m just, that’s all I’m gonna do. You know, you’re just naturally each day giving yourself a little break. 

And so when you do this, then your digestion, you’re not working so hard to constantly be breaking down things and digesting them. These fruits and vegetables and those type of things digest very easily gives your metabolism a chance to boost a little bit and then you can work into those heavier things, those heavier types of foods if you’d like. So each decade that goes by, you’re going to have to be. I mean, I just, I’m sorry to tell you, you’re going to have to be more vigilant About what you put in. And so the foods that you choose, make sure that they’re nourishing you, that they’re nourishing you because weight gain after a certain age. Everyone thinks it’s inevitable. Everybody gains weight after 40, it’s not inevitable. It’s not inevitable. But it does require some very conscious rituals to maintain, to maintain what, where you’re at.

Jana Danielson

So this week of the Summit where towards the end of the first week of the new year? And what happened a few weeks ago on January 1st? It was probably what millions and millions of people do every year is they set their New Year’s resolutions. And I think the stat is by February 2nd Groundhog Day. Like over 80% of those resolutions have gone by the wayside. And I always think to myself because I’ve seen it in the work that I’ve done almost for the past 20 years is The mindset of those people that are so excited with all these big changes they’re making at the beginning of the year by this week, so many of them have not kept up with it and we we feel guilty and we feel shameful. 

And so let’s talk to those because there could be people here on the summit with us that are like, Oh my gosh, that’s exactly what I did again this year in 2023. So speak to those men and women and maybe what would be a great maybe they’re thinking, I don’t even know what my next step is. I’ll just go back to the way I’ve been because that’s here again. You know, I fell off. Have you ever had people say I fell off the wagon, I’m off the wagon, I’m on the wagon. I’m like, there’s no down wagon. Okay, so Stacy, what would you say to those men and women watching that are like, how do I without you know, letting my brain feel super disappointed again. What is one thing that they can start doing? Maybe even today after this chat you and I have, they can start to make them feel like they can get those moments of, you know, success that will start to turn into a bit of momentum for them.

Stacy McCarthy

I would say the first thing and you know, we’ve all heard anybody in this business knows those stories. I mean for health clubs and stuff, you know, New Year’s is the biggest time. Everyone’s laying out their money, laying out their money trying to get back to it. So the most important thing is don’t quit. Don’t quit during the holidays, You’ve got to make the commitment, you’ve got to have some of that fire and discipline to stay with it. Now, maybe you can’t, you can’t move as long as you’d like to. Maybe it’s shorter. Like with yoga, with my students, I’m encouraging them, look, do not stop. You don’t quit during this time, when it hits things giving to the New year, you’re not quitting and maybe it’s 10 minutes, but you have your mat there and you get on your mat every single day. I don’t care if you stand there on your mat and just stand there and breathe. But every single day you get on your mat and you don’t stop and you work with your brain, you listen to your breath, you work with your brain listen to your breath and and you don’t stop through it because when you stop this is when it, you know, it’s a cascade of issues then you don’t feel your body because you’re not moving right? So when you move, especially intentionally and mindfully and again, I’m a huge proponent of yoga, then you’re feeling what you ate. Like I just had one of my students who was in Chicago and she said I totally abused my body temple. All I ate was Chicago, deep dish pizza. But she had the knowledge that yeah, I was like, I just had a heyday and she felt it. She felt it back on her mat. So now she’s back on her man. She’s like, oh I feel everything I ate. So if you stay on that mat you’re gonna feel everything. So you’ll go, you know what, last night it’s a great party. I feel it now, I’m not gonna do that tomorrow, I’m not going to abuse my body temple. I’m going to feel good and you’re gonna stay. So, so moving, mindful movement, intelligent movement goes a long way in how you eat because you feel it And it’s not the 30 minutes our 75 minutes, whatever you do on your mat, that’s making a difference because that’s your yoga poses. But it’s what’s happening the other 23 hours of your day. That’s yoga. So asana are the yoga poses. Those are the poses you’re doing. And they’re designed to help draw you in deeper into your own body. 

So you notice how you notice the thoughts you had was really angry and frustrated as upset. You feel it in your practice. I ate like too much, I feel it in my practice. It’s so during the practice, you feel this during those poses. But the yoga is what happens the other 23 hours of the day, because Yoga is a 24/7 practice of awareness, consciousness and unconditional love for yourself and for all beings. So through this movement, you’re strengthening your mind through these movements that will carry you through it. And so for me, I encourage everyone don’t quit during this time, stay on your mat, stay on your mat, do your practice and it’s going to go a long, long way because everything you’re doing on the mats gonna go off your mat into every action and thought you do that’s yoga. So the yoga postures there, it’s the physical body’s way to understand what’s going on internally. These yoga postures are designed to help you wake up what’s happening internally and at a spiritual level. And so it’s a super powerful transformative practice. And if you stick with it, it will transform your life.

Jana Danielson

And so we know this isn’t an opinion of yours, like, we know like there’s science and research that shows that this is this is how, you know, successful mindful movement turns into habits and patterns too, because we’re really, you know, in the movement, people still may see it as exercise, but there’s so much right down to a cellular level. We are impacting the entirety of who we are and so we can still know all of this, we can read all the literature, we can listen to some, it’s like this and all well intentioned people may still do that. Start, stop, start, stop. Why do you think this? Why do you think this happens if we know what’s good for us? You know what is happening up here that just gives us this, you know, like I said this the start and the stop.

Stacy McCarthy

Yeah. You know, we live in challenging times, the foods that we eat are addictive, so that’s not your fault. Most of the food. If it’s being sold on television, if it’s in a package, it’s addictive. So you’re up against that. Secondly, there’s a lot of things media and what we’re scrolling through and everything that is telling you you’re not good enough, you’ve got to do this. There’s a lot of bombardment towards us. So I mean for everyone struggling, it’s not your fault. There’s just too much information out there to decipher for through and and a lot of it is not in your best interest. And so when you start to address the whole person. And again, I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about yoga and in the Western civilization that we have now, where yoga has come over now to the Western world. It has, it has been marketed as yoga is about touching your toes. And so that’s what people think. Well, I don’t do yoga because I can’t touch my toes or I go to yoga and I can touch my toes and it’s very exercise. There’s a big exercise push towards it. And so the asana, the yoga poses that people are doing the true intent of yoga. The asana, the postures. So the postures are they are a body awareness technique aimed at liberating our consciousness from old ways of being doing and acting. 

That’s what those poses are for. But the real power of yoga is what you can’t see if you stay with it. The real power of yoga. The real power of this ancient technique is its ability to connect us to the deepest and most profound part of our inner self and find lasting peace. And when we connect to our true self, our authentic self, our soul self, which is the journey of yoga, then these things are much easier. You can bypass a lot of this bombardment because you’re connecting to a deeper layer of your inner self. And that’s what yoga is. So in the teaching yoga addresses five layers of your being. The first layer that most people stop at is the musculoskeletal system. That’s layer number one. So we do that through these yoga poses. Oh my body is getting stronger. I’m getting leaner, I’m getting more flexible, that’s the first layer. 

And so you know people are exploring with that. Okay yoga, you know yoga is doing something. The next layer of it is the energy body, the energy body where you start to feel how your breath is moving through your body. And the certain ways that you can lock in what we call prana or life force energy. Or in Eastern Studies key, this is your life force energy, your energy. And we start to do that through deliberate and conscious breath. Understanding how your breath and certain locks in the body can maintain, regulate direct and control your energy. That’s the second layer. So our body is feeling good. Now we’re starting to feel our energy. The next layer that yoga teaches through practice is the mind. So now we’re peeling away a new layer And it’s the mind. So how do we start to work with these 60-70,000 thoughts and these 430 emotions through the day. Now we start to address the mind through ancient yoga techniques to skin that work. And when we start to calm the mind, when we start to have a more peaceful mind, it wakes us up to our knowing body the next layer which is your intuition. So now, intuitively, you know how you should move, you know what, you should eat, you know that this thought is not really you, it’s a story you created in your own mind from external forces that stress the worry, the tension, the fear, the anxiety, the judgment, embarrassment, disappointment, all of that is not you, it’s a story created from the external and so now you start to have that awareness that you are not your story and you’re not under any obligation to be that same person of the stories that you can start to connect to a deeper part of your inner self. 

And that leads you to the deepest layer of a whole person which is what is called the bliss body in yoga, the bliss body is the self is your self realization of who you are at your soul level, your authentic self, your true self. So these five layers is what yoga addresses, that transforms you from the inside out. So you have the inner strength to bypass a lot of these things that are addictive and calling to us and make us quit. If you’re only on your mat to do some yoga poses, you probably will quit. But if you start to feel your energy shifting, if you start to feel like, oh my gosh, my mind is calmer, I’m a calmer person because what you’re doing on that mat is is so that you can go out and handle those stressful things out in the world and you can go out and handle all the bombardment that comes to you, You have strengthened yourself at all these levels and it’s transformative and I think there’s just so much misunderstanding about what yoga is, especially with media these days, that yoga is some bendy person that can put their foot behind the head if you practice long enough and and diligently enough and you have that kind of body and you don’t have any injuries. 

Yeah, maybe you can do that, but it’s really the journey that you’re on that’s going to transform you and help you stay on that path. You’ll want to get in and do this because you’re transforming yourself and transformation goes a lot longer than exercise. So I know that was a long answer but it’s to help people understand this practice and the research and I do a lot. I’m a professor of kinesiology, health and nutrition that I specialize in yoga studies, All the research, all of this great research that’s coming out and all these books being written about breath and about meditation and about yoga, you know, 5000 years later. Now the science is backing it up. The science of Yoga has always been there.

Jana Danielson

So it feels like you may have unknowingly answered my next question but let’s just see where this goes. So what I want to ask you is what do you think is not being talked about enough in your area of expertise and I feel you know, is there more? You’ve given us such a beautiful way to think about these five different layers and you know, I’m not saying the physical body is the superficial layer, but

Stacy McCarthy

It is though. Right, Exactly right. So if you look at those layers are musculoskeletal system is the most outer layer. Have you ever seen those? I think they’re called Russian dolls where you have them and you pull off the top layer and then there’s another little body inside it and you pull that out. If you can think of that as the five layers of the body. So the most superficial is muscular skeletal system and most people and the medium. The western world is really caught up on. I always I always joke like our rectus abdominals, which is this six pack area. I always joke that that has the best media pr firm out there because it’s on the cover of every magazine. Oh, I got the six pack, I got the six pack. I’m really buff. It’s just the musculoskeletal system and it stops there and people get stuck and it is the most superficial if we pull off that doll again, the next layer is the energy body where you start to feel what, what is giving you energy and what is taking your energy you start to connect at a deeper layer and then that you pull off that again, you start to connect again at a deeper layer. 

Now you’re noticing my mind wandered there, it went. It’s wandering and to strengthen the mind. You notice that your mind is wandering, that’s the nature of the mind and without any judgment, you just come back to the present moment. This is the strengthening of the mind. Most people go through life with no idea that they have these crazy thoughts all day long and they’re the same redundant, recycled, unnecessary thoughts they had yesterday, the week before and the year before. Some of them are carrying them for decades but they have no awareness that these are their thoughts and yoga is giving us hey, that’s just a thought, that’s not you, that’s the next layer. And when you can start to penetrate and you strengthen your mind of awareness of your thoughts. It opens you up to a deeper level of intuition that you probably ignored for a long time and your intuition, your knowing, your inner insight is powerful, powerful stuff, powerful stuff. 

And when you get to that place, you start to have the knowledge that hey, this is just some marketing to me, this is this food or whatever it is. And you start to wake up to your own inner knowing. And then when that inner knowing becomes you, you penetrate so deeply to the soul to your authentic self, your authentic, your soul self, your true self. People don’t understand what that is either. In many ways your soul self is a state of being, a state of being of abundant joy and unconditional love? This is who you are at your deepest level. All those other thoughts and emotions are your story that you created. And so when we return to this and this is what I think in my field with the explosion of yoga over the last few decades is missing is that everyone thinks it’s this form of exercise and maybe some breathing thrown in there. That makes me feel kind of good. But if you go a little deeper to the fact that you made it to a yoga class and you’re practicing, if you have a teacher that can take you a little bit deeper and help transform you, you will never stop. It will just be again a ritual you started that now is a habit like brushing your teeth that you’ve got to work with your mind every day. Yoga yoga the translation is the liberation of the mind. That you realize that these thoughts and emotions are not you at your deepest soul self. And so for me, helping people return to the deepest part of their inner self and find lasting peace. That’s my mission in life to help them do it in a way that doesn’t sound woo hoo, but is super practical. And it’s a practice every single day working on the mind and the body. The seductive byproduct is a lean, strong flexible body based on the style of practice that you do, but it’s the mind that will transform your life.

Jana Danielson

So on that note, can you share a couple of your own rituals that maybe you haven’t talked about through your ex, you know through our conversation today that you could leave us with. That someone could build into their if they connected with it could build into the repertoire starting today.

Stacy McCarthy

Yeah. So I know you’re a big proponent of this as well. So the first thing I would say is every day you should take a moment and refine your posture doesn’t take long, but you should align your posture every single day because otherwise the slumping and slouching is going to become your pattern in your body and it can get really stuck. So every single day can you realign your posture? What do I mean by that? I mean to set yourself up? So if you stand and I’ll just show you, so if you’re standing, your feet are hips width distance apart, parallel, they’re pointing straight ahead because some people stand like this, they don’t know it. Some people stand like this, they don’t know it. And now that is ricocheted up your body. 

So the feet are hips width distance, toes straight ahead, your knees are over the ankles and then your hips are over your knees. Some people stand like this, they don’t know it. Some people stand like this, they don’t know it. So you lift the lower belly, you release down the tailbone you find neutral in the pelvis and the frontal hip bones are straight ahead. Then you move up to the shoulders. Some people stand like this, they don’t know it where some people are puffers and they’re like yeah yeah and some people stand like this and they don’t realize it because they always carry their bag on this hand. And so now we stack the shoulders over the hips. Some people bring their arms forward and stand like this. The outer arms come in line with the sideways, the fingers turn open so your hands are alive and the chin is parallel to the ground. So we just take a moment and everyday align your posture that simply hey here here’s my posture, here’s proper posture. Let me just align my body. I mean super short, you get up out of bed and this quickly align your posture for the day and then remind yourself of it. Catch yourself slumping and slouching. So aligning your posture is something that every day I align my posture. Second thing I do is that I do breath work every single day can be short and sweet. So I do breath work every single day to bring clarity and vitality to my mind. I meditate. And so if you’re like I can’t meditate because you know I get too fidgety and itchy and whatever is going on then you need to meditate, okay so if you can’t sit still for five minutes then you definitely need to meditate. And it’s not easy. 

I don’t care what anyone tells you that meditation is easy. It’s not because you’re, the nature of the mind is to wander and go all over the place and it takes practice but with practice with practice again it can be transformative, transformative. So and then you know these are things that you can do very short period of time to carve out some time in the morning to do it. Very very short and sweet. So creating some things that are simple that you will do is really really important. Don’t make it that big thing. You know what I’m gonna do now I’m gonna go on a seven day cleanse and I’m gonna start doing yoga every single day for the rest of my life. Start easy step by step, breath by breath, stay with it. And I promise you good things will come, I promise you.

Jana Danielson

Stacy there’s been so much yumminess in this conversation. I know there’s gonna be people in our audience that are gonna want to know how to connect with you outside of the summit. Where’s the best place for them to do that.

Stacy McCarthy

The best places you can connect with me on social media on all the platforms. But probably the best places is at my website. It’s yoga namaste asi so if you’ve ever heard the word namaste, it’s my word is my name attached to it. So the word yoga Y O G A and the namaste is N as in Nancy A M is in mom A S T A C Y yoganamastacy.com and and if you go there and you want to join me on, I have a newsletter but you can also get an e book and a practice from me. If you click on the website we should have some, some gifts for you. So yeah, that’s the best best place to, to reach out and you know you can always email me or anything. My, all my information is there and I love working with people regardless of your age, regardless of where you started to help you really reach that point of transformation. I’m in the business of transformation. My vehicles are moving, eating and thinking but it’s truly transform information that I work on for others. So

Jana Danielson

I have loved every minute of our time together. I feel like the way you have presented your knowledge and expertise was in such a way that was so easy to receive and I am very confident that our audience is better because they were here at your session today. So thank you very much for being here at The Medicine of Mindset Summit.

Stacy McCarthy

Thank you Jana, thank you for all the beautiful work that you do in the world. I know we align really, really beautifully. So thank you for having me.

Jana Danielson

Your welcome. Alright gang. It’s time to go to the washroom, maybe get outside, get some fresh air a little bit of sunshine, replenish your water. And we will see you back here with another amazing guest at the Medicine of Mindset Summit.