Alison Sinatra and Soeuraya Wilson

Jaycee and Soeuraya sit down with Alison Sinatra via Zoom from her home in upstate New York.

Alison is a yoga teacher who has been a beloved part of The Class' extended family for years. She has co-led some of the past Retreatments and is the thread of connection through which Jaycee and Taryn originally met one other.

In this conversation, Alison shares about her friendship with Jaycee, plant medicine, listening to intuition, and what spirituality means for her. 

You can follow her on Instagram @alisonsinatra or through her website, alisonsinatra.net.

To keep up with the hosts of the episode, you can follow Jaycee @jayceegossett and Soeuraya @rawbabysugar.

Transcript

Jaycee:

Hi, my name is Jaycee and welcome to The Class Podcast. We're here to engage in conversation that adds to our mental and emotional toolbox. Every week, I'm going to be joined by one of our teachers as a co-host as we chat with those that inspire us. Thanks for being here.

Jaycee:

Welcome back to The Class Podcast. Thank you so much for your kind words and support on our very first episode. I am so looking forward to continuing this journey in conversation with you. Also, looking forward to Ms. Soeuraya Wilson joining me today as my co-host.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Hello, hello.

Jaycee:

Hi Soeuraya. If you don't know Soeuraya, she is rawbabysugar on Instagram and as a teacher of the class, she's the manager of teacher training and is also one of the executive producers on The Class Podcast. Welcome to the other side.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I am. It feels good to be on the other side. We chatted with Alison Sinatra, who is a part of our extended family here at The Class. I love her so much. She's created and held space for so many of our teachers, and is also how you and Taryn met.

Jaycee:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). That is true. Alison and I have been dear friends for a long time now and have co-lead The Class Retreatment in Whistler and in Santa Fe. What she is for me is just a reminder, and I think for everyone that comes into her space, this reminder to stay true to who you are. One of her many gifts is just this ability to radically be herself and inspire others to do the same.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I agree, she is fun. She has a way of being surprisingly goofy. But also someone that you're able to talk to you about the most serious parts of your soul as well. We get to talk about the relationship that the two of you have, some of the history that's there, and we get to talk more with her about plant medicine, listening to intuition, spirituality, listening to the mothers, a whole bunch of things.

Jaycee:

At the end of this episode, she shares a beautiful reading with us. So, if you're in a space where you can close your eyes, put your hands on your body, I highly recommend taking it in.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Totally. I'm so happy I got to be a part of this conversation. Thanks Jaycee.

Jaycee:

Me too. Thank you.

Alison Sinatra:

Hi!

Jaycee:

Hi!

Soeuraya Wilson:

Hi!

Alison Sinatra:

Oh my God, Jaycee, you look so shiny and cute.

Jaycee:

I took a shower for you, especially. (laughs)

Alison Sinatra:

Are those real glasses?

Jaycee:

They're the light blockers. They're the-

Alison Sinatra:

That's very-

Jaycee:

What do they call them, the blue light.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Blu light, blue ray, blue light.

Alison Sinatra:

Hi, Soeuraya.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Hey, Al. Look at your cute short hair.

Alison Sinatra:

You know me, I was like, cut that thing off.

Jaycee:

This is the first time the three of us have been back together since the New Mexico Retreatment, which I'm so thankful we got to do right before the lockdown. I often think back to that moment and like how lucky we were to have that experience together.

Alison Sinatra:

Totally. We slipped under the finish line there.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Right under the finish line.

Alison Sinatra:

Right under the finish line, literally.

Jaycee:

Soeuraya got to meet you for the first time. She had heard many stories as everyone has shared about the legend of Alison Sinatra.

Soeuraya Wilson:

The legend that is Alison Sinatra. I will never forget, it was like 7:30 in the morning that flight was, and I rolled up in the airport and I don't think I was even fully awake and Alison just straight up was like, "Hey, who are you? Hey, I've heard so much about you."

Alison Sinatra:

Why are you eating french fries at 7:30 in the morning?

Soeuraya Wilson:

Which you totally ate french fries with me.

Alison Sinatra:

And suffered and promised not to do it again.

Jaycee:

But I do remember me being half asleep because I'm not an early person and the person that was most awake, which is generally how it is, is Alison.

Soeuraya Wilson:

It was Alison. I feel like I got to see you in a different light, Jaycee, just seeing you with someone that yes you work with but it's also your best friend. You and Alison have known each other for how long?

Jaycee:

I think I was in my mid to early 20s. When did Kula open?

Alison Sinatra:

It's probably been almost like 19, 20, maybe more, 25 years, because I've been up here for almost 18 years, I think, upstate.

Jaycee:

You were in the city for a bit before-

Alison Sinatra:

Yeah, I'm not very good with dates. I'm just like, I keep going straight.

Soeuraya Wilson:

How did you guys meet? How did that even happen?

Jaycee:

We're going to both probably tell different versions of the story. But I'm very curious to hear Alison's.

Alison Sinatra:

You know what they say about stories, there's three sides; your side, my side and the truth. We'll see what we can find. I was teaching and Jaycee was in my class. She's obviously very attractive.

Jaycee:

(laughs) You picked me up.

Alison Sinatra:

Basically, that's basically what it was. I think I remember... I don't know, I'm always scared when people say, "Do you remember the first thing you said to me?" Because I'm like, "Oh, God, please."

Jaycee:

(all laughing) What did I say?

Alison Sinatra:

I remember just being like, "I think we should be friends." It was like that. Was that true?

Jaycee:

That's my recount. My recount was taking your class and being blown away by your teaching, and being like, this is amazing. I definitely need this in my life, and then also afterwards... I like to have somewhat of a personal space bubble where I'm like, here's my space, here's your space. Alison, definitely I don't think has that. So, she came right up and was like, "I like your hair. Let's be friends."

Soeuraya Wilson:

I love it.

Alison Sinatra:

Then I was going to go to India. Somehow, Jaycee was like, I got to go.

Jaycee:

This is where our stories differ. Somehow... We only knew each other for two weeks, which consists of me taking her class, and chatting a little bit afterwards. Her saying, "I'm going to India, you should come."

Alison Sinatra:

Okay, maybe it was like that. I don't know. We were both in different places, not as evolved as we are right now-

Jaycee:

Well, I think the real story-

Alison Sinatra:

... we just barely evolved.

Jaycee:

I think the real story is you were evolved, I really was not evolved. India is a challenging land to navigate on many levels.

Soeuraya Wilson:

That was the beginning of your relationship. You guys went on this spiritual journey in India together, not knowing each other. Can I ask, one thing that sticks out, one thing that sticks out for the both of you in India? Because that just feels like the most wild.

Alison Sinatra:

I would say and I know Jaycee is feeling the same thing, and it's not because I'm telepathic, it is when you are in a small room together, where I don't think there's even a door to the bathroom and you don't know what end things are coming up out of because we both decided to go against the law of what everyone said to us and ate the salad.

Alison Sinatra:

After we ate the salad, which we were told by multiple sources, not to, let's just say it had a cleansing effect. There was one point I think we even high fived on the way to the bathroom. It was intimacy growing, I would say.

Jaycee:

We get cozy-

Alison Sinatra:

We got cozy fast.

Jaycee:

... we got cozy real quick. When the nausea started setting in at the same time, and then the hot sweats and the fever. One person standing next to the toilet and the other person just being like, can you please hurry? Can you please get it over with. That pretty much lasted for 24 hours or... No, I as we know, I'm a slow processor, Alison is like a lightning speed processor. So, she was done with it by the morning. I think I was sick for a week.

Jaycee:

Alison woke up the next morning, we were up all night just miserable, so miserable. She put on our pants was like, "I want to go hike this mountain." And left and hiked the mountain to the top of a temple where she got blessed by someone and got some holy water, which I don't think he drank, I think you were wiser at that point and just said, "I'm not going to drink it." Then that was it.

Alison Sinatra:

That was it. Yeah. Then we made our journey, we had to travel in a car for hours and hours and hours. Jaycee was literally mute for like three days. I was like, is she ever going to get over this sickness? I'm ready to go. Let's get some bangles and move on.

Soeuraya Wilson:

She's trying to decide if she still wants to be your friend. So begins your relationship. How did Taryn come into the picture? Because you guys also went to Peru together, no?

Alison Sinatra:

I was leading a retreat to Peru where Jaycee... You already knew Mama Kia then, right?

Jaycee:

I'm trying to remember if I met her... I think the first time I met her was in Peru.

Alison Sinatra:

Okay. We went to go see my dear sister, Mama Kia, who had Casa de Milagros, which was a home for children. An incredible saint on this planet when she was here. Adopted those children, had lost both parents. She had one child who showed up in a cardboard box on her doorway, who had worms coming out of her ears and her mouth. As Mama Kia would say, "How did you heal them?" She's like, "I just healed them through love. That's it." She taught them gardening.

Alison Sinatra:

She was just that kind of person, she never took any money for herself. Everything that she wore was given to her. That's just who she was. We were going to her retreat center that she created called Hanaq Pacha, which is called Where Heaven Meets Earth in Quechua, which is the native language in Peru, indigenous language. Jaycee came, and then we were going to do some plant medicine there, that was the beginning of that opening for me.

Alison Sinatra:

We took that trip together, which was really incredible. Was Taryn on that trip?

Jaycee:

No, I think it was the second one.

Alison Sinatra:

It was the second trip that she came on. Going to Peru is, or for any place where there's a strong spirit that's still coursing through there that still has their culture intact, and has all these sacred centers is going to just rock you. You're going to either create more intimacy with the people that you're with, or there'll be more of a divide. That's generally, on all my retreats, it's very inclusive. So, it created more intimacy.

Alison Sinatra:

That was where Jaycee and Mama Kia fell in love, and we stepped further in our relationship. It's an initiation, it's just another point of initiation.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Just to rewind it a little bit for our community that doesn't know, Jaycee, can you tell us about Mama Kia? Can you tell us who she was?

Jaycee:

When you think of all the dimensions, very similar to Alison, and I can see why they loved each other or still love each other in the way that they do. She had the greatest sense of humor, and such a laugh that you could... The laugh that you could hear anywhere, her kindness, her generosity, all these facets of her as a teacher, but even as... I feel like she was the ultimate mother for all of us. Such a beautiful, beautiful woman and yet, cool. I don't think that all those things, it's not like they can't go together, but she was always wearing these leather skirts or leather pants with the fringes and had locks of all of her children's hair that she adopted woven into her own hair.

Jaycee:

She just was this stunning, incredible beauty inside and out. But in this package with humor, kindness, her warmth and inclusivity and lightness just brought out, I feel like the best in people were when you're dealing with such a situation that was in Peru with what was happening for children there and the devastation that you see and to still remain with that sense of love and humor in your heart and ability just to lighten things up at times when we all could be going through such serious challenges or challenges are around you, I think was one of her major gifts.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Beautiful.

Alison Sinatra:

She was like a true service being. She really took nothing. She really held those attributes of a saintly person. It was not about material possessions at all, it was about the love, it was about the healing. She really was like a true saint in human form.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Jaycee said that she was truly a mother. It's so interesting, because Alison, in your teaching, so much of where you come from is about the woman and is about the mother. Do you feel like you learned a lot of that from those beginning stages with Mama Kia and just experimenting with plant medicine in the different places you traveled? How did that origin tie in for you?

Alison Sinatra:

For me, learning with her is like with the heart and she was a teacher for me. But it's been interesting, even with... Obviously I have teachers but in some way, because I really hold equality in such a deep place in myself, I never put anyone above me or below me. Even though I learned that from her, it was also she was just reflecting something that was inherently inside of my own self.

Alison Sinatra:

I guess also with the plant medicine, it was never experimental for me. I wouldn't even put that word, plant medicine is something that I never really willed into my life. It's part of me, it's like a call. Even from the moment, which was my first ceremony with Mamma Kia at a trip previous to that, with the wachuma, which is the sacred cactus plant that grows the San Pedro, which is like Mama Kia had it growing all around her house, it's very protective.

Alison Sinatra:

I had had that in Machu Picchu on a full moon outside, it was never experimental, it was more integrated from that, from the very beginning. It was like good food. Good food is an experimental, right?

Soeuraya Wilson:

I feel that so hard. The first time I met you, actually, that flight, I had just returned from Peru for the first time, I had sat in ceremony for 10 days. I think that's why you were so like, "Hey, hey, let's... " You just are who you are, and you felt into me while we were eating french fries? You asked me a question, and we just started talking about plant medicine and about San Pedro, and that idea of it being experimental. I feel like when I went beforehand, you prep, and you have to go on a certain diet, and there's just certain practices that you start to incorporate as you prepare.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I think a lot of people in the outside world, I like say that in quotations, but they do view it as experimental. It's like, "Oh, you're going to the jungle, you're going to the desert." Or whatever land or culture you choose to go and partake with. I agree, it is not experiential, as I got deeper into the experience, and definitely coming out of it, it's a call almost like you said, it's just wow, I've seen something that I can't unsee and I just want to see more of it.

Alison Sinatra:

Was one of the things with plant medicine is to even reframe it because people are, "Oh, it's a drug." And that sort of thing, and it's not. These are holy medicines from the Earth. We've come to think of pharmaceuticals as medicines, but these are from the planet. This is from the Mother Earth, she has provided us with these medicines for a reason. Even for some people to navigate that languaging shift is something that for me, it's in me. From the very beginning, I understood it. But you can't have that shift unless you understand it in a certain way inside yourself. For each person, that's a unique experience, right?

Soeuraya Wilson:

Totally.

Jaycee:

In my reflection of that time, I agree with you, Al, there's something there that and you always described it this way to me is there is this calling in you to open that conversation up. It is done especially just in the spaces that you create, Alison, which I think the word sacred and you just go together, that the spaces that you create, one of such sacredness and one of such respect and one of such depth that stepping into that conversation was always for me with you of a place of just a deep honoring and not effing around or I'll even go further fun, that opens, it's so deep and is so... Deep is... What is another word you can go... The potency of it, there's nothing recreational or fun, or like, hey, this is some type of party time.

Jaycee:

That I think, is something that is important, not just for me to share in my own experience for people to potentially know and look at it from this other lens. I'm sure there are lots of ceremonies and circles where the intention is a different one. But I appreciate that so much in you, always of the utmost importance to you of every environment you create, every class you teach, every circle you open with that, we are all here equal and it is also done with a sacredness and a deep respect, always honoring the traditions and the lineages that always come.

Alison Sinatra:

Thank you.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Always, yeah, definitely the first time I practiced with you, I felt that. You can tell that ritual and honoring these practices that you've learned so much from are incorporated into your teachings. I'm going to ask, how did that come to you? I ask because I want people to know. But I feel like innately part of that has always been in you, but just how do you honor that?

Alison Sinatra:

Well, I'll say like how my path really opened for me was when I was 31. It was the month before my 31st birthday. There you go, Soeuraya, it's all over-

Soeuraya Wilson:

My year-

Alison Sinatra:

It's you year, girl. I was teaching yoga already, and that was going really well, it was a very easy transition from fashion to yoga. After I had to take Valium from organizing a fashion show, I was like, "I think I need to change my profession." I literally got on my knees, and I was like, I need something else. I was in the city, I was living in Nolita, and that wasn't totally working for me either. Just the materialism was too much for me.

Alison Sinatra:

I fasted for one month off grains and dairy and all these things, and I literally got on my knees, and I said, I need help. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know that, that was making a prayer. I didn't know what, I just knew that I was not being fulfilled. I fasted, I did a water fast for a week, I had never done that before, I was just in this moment.

Alison Sinatra:

Then that month, I also signed up for a 10 day silent retreat. Anyway, fast forward, within that month, I end up going to my first ceremony around here, meeting a teacher that I dreamt about while I was in the 10 day silent retreat. It was all very synchronistic the whole way that it happened. From that moment, from that 31st year in April, I moved upstate within six months, I was out of the city. It was like my whole life changed.

Alison Sinatra:

It was Mother's Day of May, after that April that I met my husband, that I moved upstate shortly after that. Everything just transformed. It was from that prayer, literally, of this deep desire and sincerity of needing something to connect with, and it arrived for me. I think of that, quote, when the student's ready, the teacher will come.

Alison Sinatra:

You can hear all these quotes, and until you experience them, it doesn't resonate. That's how it all came to me. I still, even after that wouldn't have labeled it prayer, but then now after about 16 years of studying prayer really deeply, that's how it works. I tell people, it's not just point A to point B, don't just say, "Oh, I want to meet my life partner." And then bang, it's, yay. It's a much bigger crescendo. It's much more jagged, it brings you into parts of yourself that need healing, that can be painful. But at the end, there you are, and here I am with my family. It was brought by the medicine, my husband, which was brought by the medicine, my life, which was literally I owe my life to the medicine, and to my own inner trusting of myself, and all this. That's how it all arrived for me.

Jaycee:

With this inner trusting, I want to make sure we circle back to also the initiation of prayer and how you're sharing, you were a yoga teacher, but you did set this prayer, it wasn't like you had learned how to do it or studied something that said, this is how you do a prayer. I think that is helpful for many people. Because I think even for myself, there's this part of us that's like, oh, well, I don't maybe have all the right education yet or I don't have the abilities yet, or I don't have the things that potentially I may need to make the thing happen or put it out there or offer it up to a bigger prayer.

Jaycee:

But for as long as I've known you, that word, intuition and authenticity always keeps coming back and people describe you as an intuitive teacher, facilitator of all things healing. There is that thing in you that is just you do honor this inner knowingness in yourself. For as long as I've known you, you've never questioned it.

Jaycee:

In this phase where you're sharing, you left the city, you met your husband, I remember very vividly, you've been like, "I am leaving. There's nothing for me. My husband, my family, my whole life is going to be in this next chapter." But you had no idea that, that was actually going to happen, but you knew. There's these two aspects of you that I would love to just offer to the listeners, the owning that inner knowing in ourselves, to hear it, to listen to it, but then to also act on it, because I think those two things are separate. It's like to hear it, and then take the action. I just feel like you just do that in everything in your life. You can hear it, and then you act on it.

Alison Sinatra:

Thank you for that reflection. Part of that is, I've been thinking about this because me and my mother and my mother-in-love, we kicked out the law and put in the love because we get along really well. She hurt her knee. She's laying on my couch. She's been there for like nine days. So, we've been having a lot of discussions. She's a witchy woman. We were talking about this, like how do you know something's truth? Because this is the big discussion right now.

Alison Sinatra:

Because there's facts, there's alternative facts, there's... It's so polarizing, and we both said, it's like you feel it inside of yourself is your truth. It's definitely not going to make everyone happy, either. If you're really in that, it probably going to offend someone. But that's okay. This place, this inner knowing, I feel like partly why it's intact for me is A, I had parents who really protected my self-esteem. I had a really good family growing up that really honored my brother and myself and my sister in our unique ways. They'd never tried to make me valedictorian, they knew that that was a failing cause.

Alison Sinatra:

I'm like, "Mom, why didn't you ever ask me if I did my homework?" She was like, "I just felt like you were social, and you were right." I was like, "You could have asked once, maybe it would have helped me." She's like, "I don't think it would have." But anyway, I do feel like that's part of my heart is that I was cared for in a way that was really healthy. I don't have serious traumas from when I was younger. That's not that my life was imperfectly perfect, but if I complained about anything, it would be, you wouldn't be right.

Alison Sinatra:

I think that that's part of it is my inner knowing, like my dad used to always say, trust your gut. We were also a very solution-oriented family so there was never a problem. My dad, I remember him saying to me all the time, "We can always figure this out. That is not a real problem." I've always had this also very strong, invisible safety net, that I knew I could make these bold choices, and I would always be supported by my family, in the invisible, I had that kind of love behind me.

Alison Sinatra:

I'll say that the big teaching too, growing up, was trust your gut. Even though it was very practical, now that I'm in my more esoteric world, it's the same. I think that spirituality is very practical. It's not just... I'm looking for a crystal, which I have one right here. And there, I still believe in crystals, and I think burning. But it's like, I'm going to go into the vortex of the crystal. Yes, all these things are tools, but for me, the spirituality is listening to those voices that get stronger and stronger, the more you give them your ear, and the softer and softer you get, the more you trespass and bypass them.

Alison Sinatra:

Even something simple, like I'll say for myself, because, "Alison, don't drink the coffee today, because you know, it drains your adrenals, and then by four o'clock, you're hungry, and then you want to eat the cookie, and then you drop again.... Don't do it. You know it gives you dark circles, then you have to use more concealer. Just don't, it's a cycle. It's a vicious cycle." Then I drink the coffee.

Alison Sinatra:

Then I just don't like self-whip. I'm not a self-whisper. I'm not self-loathing. But I know I've gone against that voice that actually yes is my intuition, but it's also connected to my spiritual guides that is also connected to god, goddess creator, creatrix because the higher self is connected to that. It can be simple, like simple ways.

Alison Sinatra:

I do think what you're saying, also, Jaycee, is putting this prayer out or any kind of prayer, and then hearing what you have to do. That's the big step where people have to put the big girl, big boy pants on and have the courage to activate in what you're being told to do, because in general, it might not make everyone happy, what that's going to be.

Alison Sinatra:

My Jewish mom is like, "You're moving upstate, you're moving into a house. There's a wood burning stove. What are you going to do there? You're going to a meditation retreat. You're not even allowed to speak to anyone. You've been single for six years. Let me send you on a cruise to Cancun, I'll send you... " I said to her, "I know I'm not going to be alone, and I know this is where I have to go and you got to lay off." Luckily, then they got a grandchild, so their mind went somewhere else.

Alison Sinatra:

My brother had a kid, so I was off the shortlist. But having the courage, what you're saying, hearing it, but acting on it is really the challenging part, because I think most people here, but they are too frightened of really changing their lives, because that means, having that deep reflection of the patterns of suffering that they've been cycling in for centuries, and really having to move into a new place in themselves, perhaps not relating to their suffering the way that they have been forever. That is hard for people, because somehow they've adopted that suffering, that, that place is part of them. That's who they are, and it's actually not, it's just a pattern.

Alison Sinatra:

I think even like journaling, or, even a simple activity or... Activity, that's a funny word, but just sitting with yourself and asking, what does my heart need? And listening, and writing, show me the way, show me a very clear, definitive way, what steps I take.

Jaycee:

I've often heard you say, being in your space and your offerings, really allowing it all to break down, and that key piece, because you hear the information coming and then taking the steps to put it into action. There is that dismantling and breaking down that needs to occur, that you're talking about these patterns and these deeply ingrained things in us and these things that we adopt, that if we continue to hold on to them, or hang on to them, or validate them or whatever, we'll hear the voice but then nothing will shift.

Jaycee:

But that permission, you've always given in the spaces that you create, to let it break down. As a space holder and the space that you hold, there's a level of grief and mourning and a breaking down that as a student in your class or what I've witnessed, there is full permission always for that and that you actually even pull that out of people. I don't even know how to say it, it's a gift that you have to let the grief come, let the mourning come, let the breakdown come.

Alison Sinatra:

I think that we've gotten so far, and you know this, Jaycee, because we relate on this. We've gotten so far away really from natural life is what I really believe, where we've disconnected from the elements, we've disconnected from the waters, we've been taught the way that we process things, we've been taught that you either have to be buttoned up, or there's the deep indulgence where the person never stops.

Alison Sinatra:

It's like how to find that balance, but also knowing that the tears that come is the way that the mother water cleanses your being so you do not become sick. How is it just natural? Same with childbirth, it's natural, women know how to do it, we know how to do it, if we're given permission. From working with women for so many years, all you have to do is put women in a circle, literally the shape, I don't even have to do anything. I can light a candle, I can hold space inside myself and not be frightened of any sort of process that's going to conduct because I trust. But you put women in a circle, which is just a sacred shape where all are equal, magic is there. I should be paying the shape of the circle.

Jaycee:

About your women's circles and women's work. You've been a real pioneer in this movement, and began working with women at a time when women's circles and women's work wasn't necessarily something you heard about or was prevalent or was in potentially an everyday conversation where everyone would be like, oh, I'm part of women's group or women's circle. Did that just come to you at a point where you knew that was the direction you wanted to go, with, I'm just going to work with women?

Alison Sinatra:

As you know me, it was one of those things. I had great friends growing up and good friends; Marissa, Laura, Liz, we were like the colors of Benetton, a redheaded blonde, and a Korean. We're still super tight. When I need to center myself, I just called my best friend Marissa, and I was like, "I just need to hear your voice." I had this very healthy network of women growing up. It was always very natural for me to be with women. Then how it arrived was like, I think I'm going to do a women's retreat. It's like I'm conscious but not conscious. In some ways, spirit moves through me. In a way, I'm just like, okay, go to the right, okay, go to the left. Then I get there, I'm like, oh, so this is why.

Alison Sinatra:

I don't overthink things, which I think I could be a little more cerebral. I'm working on it, but it's just part of me. 25 women's showed up, and I didn't even know half of them. Amazing, amazing women. We made this little baby altar. It was like, now I think about it, it was just so funny. One woman just lost her mother from cancer, and then another woman had just had a car accident, and I was just opening into my spiritual path, and I was learning about myself, channeling certain energies and et cetera.

Alison Sinatra:

We started the first practice, and then the altar went up on fire. The woman's picture of her mother burnt to a crisp, and I was like, oh, oh. Then she starts really having an experience. Then this other woman who's in the car accident starts convulsing, and then this older woman started like [inaudible 00:36:04] I'm like, oh, my God. For one moment, I'm like, you're in over your head. But then I don't entertain those sort of things. I was like, everyone, get in a circle, bring in your higher self, bring in your spiritual guides, and we're going to do hands on healing, just put your hands on these women, just put your best foot forward. Everyone has the capacity here.

Alison Sinatra:

It was so profound, and we all had to go in the waterfall and bathe ourselves, and we had a big process session. I really had no idea, but I was like, this obviously works. Then the Goddess retreat started and Jaycee came, Taryn was on. I think she came to a couple of them. I remember my mom was like, "That girl is going to be a movie star."

Jaycee:

She's talking about Taryn, not me. Clearly.

Alison Sinatra:

Not Jaycee. You know my mom's obsessed with you. She's like, "If only I could be Jaycee." In her other life, she wants to be Jaycee.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I think we all want to be Jaycee.

Alison Sinatra:

It's obvious. But I remember my mom was like, "That woman, Taryn, she's just something." I'm like, "She is T.T." It just happened really organically and fast. Jaycee was a part of many of them and taught in many of them, and it was really organic, so profound. The rituals that we created on them were created co-collectively. I think you were there for this one, I'm not sure, but there was nine women who wanted to have babies and nine mothers. So, okay, meet me at dawn. I was like, "We're going to get everyone pregnant."

Alison Sinatra:

Then I go back to my room, and I'm like, "That's sort of ballsy, Alison. That's sort of ballsy." Then I'm in my room. I'm like, I have one stick of sage and a glass of water. Okay. But I have a lot of good intention. That's what I have, and we have the rising sun, and we have all these women who are incredible. This has got to work. So, we lined up the nine women and the nine mothers in front of them, and created this incredible thing. Needless to say, all nine people had babies. It was profound.

Jaycee:

Wild.

Alison Sinatra:

I know and it's been like that. It's organic. It depends on the women who are there and what's happening. That's how I came to, and it's super easy for me to be with women like that. It feels very natural.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Growing up, I was never encouraged to be friends with girls. It was never like, you got to find your crew. They're going to take care of you. It just didn't exist in my life. I also came from a performance background where it was, looking out for the girl that looks like you. It's always competition. Is she better? Is she not? Could I be more of this?

Soeuraya Wilson:

There is something so beautiful, even being in this community that being around you, Jay, and especially being around you, Alison, it felt immediately like I had a mother and a sister and a best friend, all in one being really since the minute that I met you, and since I've been part of this community, just the encouragement to surround yourself with your sisters, these beings that are so powerful, and that's why I love this method, and again, I love this community so much because it is, by recognizing yourself, we are recognizing each other, so much of a reflection.

Alison Sinatra:

Yeah, it's the way that we're going to change anything... The male, female, we all have it inside of us, those archetypes. You had asked me about, listen to the mothers, sometimes I say that and it's all of us have that inside of us. Every person, there is something with women that there's this intuition. I knew when my child needed to breastfeed, my breasts would wake me up 10 minutes before my baby cried, I couldn't deny that inside myself. No one could tell me about my own child like, "No, they're going to be good, they can hang out for five more minutes." I'm like, "In literally 15 seconds, my child's about to lose their mind." But for them, they can see that but I feel it in my body.

Alison Sinatra:

I just feel like the more women can be together and support each other without this division, without the competition, without all of this illusion that is so false, we can lift everyone up and help our men folk who really need that support too. Everyone, whether you relate to neither of those, if you have both... It's still we have the archetypes inside of us. It's the male and masculine, the wholeness. It's the waters, it's the earth, it has everything inside of it, that makes it the whole. So, yeah, sisters.

Jaycee:

Al, you shared a little bit about you brought in your mom a little bit and your dad and a little bit of your family and that they really contributed to honoring each of you as individuals and in stating such that self-knowingness in all of you. As a witness, and I think this is a conversation that will be helpful for a lot of people at this time, where there can be a lot of division of, we have different potential religious backgrounds, we have different potential use of politics, or just lifestyles.

Jaycee:

I find that always so amazing in your family, that there's no one else in your family, like you. Well, there's no one like you, period. But you are very specifically living a very different life than your parents, than your family, than how you were raised. They accepted and you accept there's and somehow there's a respect there, where there's room for disagreement and challenge, but you're able to come back to this place of love with each other.

Alison Sinatra:

Yeah, it's something that I've been... Obviously I think that many people are grappling with this in their families, in our communities, how to not be in the polarization, the division, because it really is the illusion, it's the separation, that we're all trying to heal inside of ourselves that we keep going cycling back.

Alison Sinatra:

One thing with my family, there's certain subjects in this moment that we just do not touch upon, respectfully. It's a respectful silence. It's not like the elephant's in the room, and we're not talking about it, although it could feel like that, but it's a respectful silence, because we're trusting each other that we're in the right point of view.

Alison Sinatra:

But I think what it comes down to is an unconditional love. I think it's up to each person to examine inside themselves, do they really have unconditional love? Do they really have that? It's been a big thing in my family. No matter what, there will never be a rift. It's very interesting to me, because like many, I've lost some friends in this pandemic because of different points of view, and that's okay, it's a recalibration, but I'm not someone who's ever... I don't cut people off. I don't have relationships that end in disaster, it's just never been my path.

Alison Sinatra:

But I would say for people who that happens, this eruption, this cutting off, I wonder if that's some sort of pattern that's replaying as well. In my family, it's not allowed, it would never be allowed for me not to speak to my mom. She didn't speak to me for two weeks before my wedding, but I had an outburst. But I hear that happens before wedding, and apparently, [Tango 00:44:12] who some of you know, she told me it had to happen. I'm just going to agree with Tango. That was the only time she didn't speak to me, because deservedly so, I was rude, but I knew it was just for a moment of time and I had to humble myself.

Alison Sinatra:

Anyway, that's how I feel, it's about unconditional love. Do you really have it and do certain relationships really have it?

Soeuraya Wilson:

I have a definition of unconditional love and I'm sure everyone has a version. For you, when you show up that way, when you say that, what is that? What is unconditional love for Alison Sinatra?

Alison Sinatra:

Well, I think it's when you have friends and still hold each other, still hold each other, still be in relationship and see things totally from a different viewpoint, and not just have to sever yourself. That, to me is unconditional love. It may vary... I think each relationship is different, it has a certain different karmic experience with each person, sometimes maybe your relationship needs to end, but does it have to end with negative feelings? Can you go your separate ways and still have deep respect and still have reverence for that person? That's what I would say.

Soeuraya Wilson:

It's so hard to disagree and still have reverence. It's funny, in my own body, in my own being, I feel that something happened to me when you were like, if you tend to end relationships, there's this need to maybe not interact with the other party again. But there is, if a person happens to disagree with you or not hold the same opinions or lens of life, it's too hard to interact. So, I'm just not going to, this idea of cancel culture, what does that actually do? Who does that benefit? No one, it just creates more hate, creates more of that negative energy that we are all trying and say that we are trying to emit and then receive at the same time, so it's hard work, for sure.

Alison Sinatra:

Council culture, just like those two things together is repulsive to me. I've never... What is it, if you're unpopular, irrelevant, is that something that's going around [inaudible 00:46:35]

Soeuraya Wilson:

Cancel culture, it's basically where like-

Alison Sinatra:

You're done.

Soeuraya Wilson:

... when Black Lives Matter happened, for example, yeah, you disagree, or there's something that you've done wrong, and instead of holding room for conversation, it's just you're out of here. I'm not going to talk to you, I'm not going to support you, I'm not going to be seen with you. Basically, it's just dead, you're dead.

Alison Sinatra:

It's pretty intense. If you think about it, like just the way you say like, you're dead, I rip my shirt, you no longer... It's very fundamentalist. If you really like I never really thought about it like that till this moment, but it's very fundamentalist, a lot of the traditions that a lot of us maybe be like, well, what do they do? They excommunicate people. I never thought about it like that, but it is like that, it's a fundamentalistic point of view, just to write someone off.

Alison Sinatra:

I can't imagine my daughter, she's not judgmental at all, she would never do that. I can't even imagine, she doesn't even know those words, she just did her first report on a computer, she doesn't even know how to type on a computer. It's just we've kept that, we don't need to deal with that yet. I think if she even heard that, it would hurt her somewhere in her heart to even hear that concept, really.

Jaycee:

How are your children? How are Violet and Joseph?

Alison Sinatra:

Violet right now is having her home school downstairs with my dear friend, as her grandma's on the couch, everyone's here, it's a big loving. Violet, she is awesome, she is a beautiful human being, she makes me know that the world is going to be okay. Joseph is super empathic, because we don't watch the news in our house, and I watch what I disseminate to my children, because they're young enough that they don't need to learn certain things, I'm just protecting their wholeness.

Jaycee:

How do you explain to them, or maybe they explain to you what's happening in the world.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I was just going to say, your children are very special in that way, for sure.

Alison Sinatra:

We try and be a conscious household, we fail all the time. The more I know, the less I know. But the way they think is amazing. The first transgender girl in their school, and I said, "Violet, what are your thoughts about someone who's born a boy and then wants to be..." This was her response, "It's really no one's business, first of all, what anyone does with their own body?" I was like, "Check, yes."

Alison Sinatra:

"Then two, if it makes someone happy, why is it anyone else's business? Not only that, they should be happy for them because it's creating more happiness." "Check. Good." I was like [inaudible 00:49:35] She's like, "End of story." In their matrix, the way that they're born already, and because we have elders from many different traditions, and even people would say about cultural appropriation, I'm like, I can't help that I have a native father. If you're going to tell my native dad, who adopted me that I... don't know what to tell you about that. You can bring it up with him, because this is just our relationship, and that's my children's grandpa, and that's their auntie, he named them. I don't know what to say. I'm trying to navigate in how that works.

Alison Sinatra:

But I definitely, my kids, they are surrounded by as much diversity as we have in our life, and really see the colors of the rainbow as equal, they just do. For me, it's not even like disseminating what's going on, it's more like protecting their wholeness, which is already innate in them. They're already walking with that equality as their lens. It's me who I have to watch imposing any of my stuff that needs to be unlearned. But I hear how they speak, and they teach me way more.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Do you have a prediction or just a hit of what do you think is going to happen in this next unfolding of life?

Jaycee:

She's grabbing a crystal.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Okay,

Alison Sinatra:

I just grabbed a gnome and a crystal, for those of you who can't see. These are my totem. She literally saved my life. Having children, I don't have the luxury of not being in hope, I'm not going to tell my children that there's not a place for them in this world. That's healthy, and happy. I just don't have that luxury. It's not in me.

Alison Sinatra:

I hear who they are, I see who their friends are. I see the way they look, and I'm just looking at the next generation of the kids I know, and they're profound. To me, that's a good sign. That's a good one. It's just if the adults would get out of the way, I think.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Well said.

Jaycee:

It's been so great being with you.

Soeuraya Wilson:

So good. It almost felt like we were in Santa Fe again.

Jaycee:

Back again.

Alison Sinatra:

I know. Except I ran out of my CBD oil that I got there. It's sort of the same-

Soeuraya Wilson:

Don't worry, I got you.

Alison Sinatra:

I'm just kidding.

Soeuraya Wilson:

We got you.

Alison Sinatra:

I ordered my own, I was so into it. By the way, when retreat starts to happen, everyone, you got to go, just even for the gift bag. Okay, you're going down there.

Jaycee:

She's talking about the retreatment, which when it happens again, we will get back together, and we get a class retreatment. Maybe back to New Mexico, maybe somewhere else. We'll see, but it'll happen.

Alison Sinatra:

I have a prayer I was going to read for... Are we at this moment?

Soeuraya Wilson:

We're there-

Jaycee:

There's never a wrong moment for a prayer.

Alison Sinatra:

Okay. This is something I read for my class this morning, and this is from a book called The Pearls of I Am. I'll just read who channeled this book, her name is Isabel Barsé, and she currently lives in the spiritual community of Céu do Mapiá in the Amazonas, Brazil where she helps run the Santa Casa, which is the House of Healing. It's a healing center that tends to the needs of the people of Mapiá and the surrounding areas.

Alison Sinatra:

They tend to people through prayer, through flower essences, and all sorts of... The word shaman is so abused, but it is shamanic. This is one of her prayers, and it's called The Invocation of Universal Harmony. I'll read this on the day of the inauguration, I thought this was a good prayer for today. Universal harmony, harmony that rules all worlds, harmony that commands all manifestations of god, goddess, come to earth and enfolds humanity with your powerful melody of sound and light that stimulates the perfect movement of the universe with all its worlds.

Alison Sinatra:

Sovereign harmony that emanates from the supreme being, as the force that builds, supplies and makes the universe dynamic. Actualize in our lives, and tune our being into the soft notes of your harp, which all nature and all creatures obey irresistibly. I am universal harmony, and I vibrate in everything that exists. I am the harmony of the primordial sound that commands the sacred dance of the cosmos. I am the sound of silence. I am the harmony of god, goddess, I am in you, I am in you, I am in you, and I act in your life and in your world, in your mind and in your heart. I pulse in your veins and am the rhythm of your breath. I vibrate in all beings. I am the universal harmony, and I bring love, truth and justice to all humanity. Amen.

Jaycee:

Thank you.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Amen.

Jaycee:

Amen, ame, hallelujah, aho, whatever, just, yes.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Thanks so much, Alison. You teach yoga over Zoom. What days do you do that?

Alison Sinatra:

I teach on Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30 to 10:30. It's the links in my bio on Instagram, or alisonsinatra.net. I have my schedule-

Soeuraya Wilson:

Amazing.

Alison Sinatra:

I also do breathwork sessions over Zoom is actually really amazing, I have to say. But for families, teenagers, groups, whoever needs it, which is everyone.

Soeuraya Wilson:

I just want to say thank you. Thank you for-

Jaycee:

Thank you, Alison. Thank you for just being you and everything that you do and being such an example of authenticity. Thank you.

Soeuraya Wilson:

Yeah. Inspire me every day to show up that way, for sure.

Alison Sinatra:

Love you so much.

Jaycee:

So good.

Alison Sinatra:

I love you. Thank you.

Jaycee:

No, you say bye.

Soeuraya Wilson:

No, you say bye.

Jaycee:

No, bye.

Soeuraya Wilson:

No, you hang up first.

Alison Sinatra:

I just can't stop looking at JJ. Okay, I'll go.

Soeuraya Wilson:

The Class at its core is a movement practice. If you're not already a digital student, try our 14 day free trial by downloading our app or going to digitalstudio.theclass.com. To view our shop, learn about our teachers and explore more, please visit theclass.com, or follow us on Instagram @theclass.

Jaycee:

This week in The Class Digital Studio, we have new on demand content from Brooke, Carla, Erin and [inaudible 00:56:56] Our next remote retreatment is February 6th, hosted by Ashley Rucker and Soeuraya Wilson. It will be available on demand and tickets they're on sale now.