Yoga and Meditation for Healing

Have you ever wondered how yoga and meditation can help with healing from trauma? 

I'm so grateful to have my wife, Agatha, join me for this episode. 

Agatha spent six years studying yoga and meditation in India.  She is a certified yoga and meditation instructor with thousands of hours of training and teaching. 

In this episode, we discuss:

- How yoga and meditation were such important parts of Agatha's healing from childhood trauma and other painful life experiences. 
- How can yoga help calm our nervous systems?  
- How can our breath help us reconnect with ourselves?   
- How to live "off the mat"
- A guided meditation led by Agatha.

We both hope this episode can be helpful in your healing journey,
Jerry

Contact Information for Agatha:

Email:

namaste@akshayoga.com

Website:

https://www.akshayoga.com

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/aagathaah
Podcast:
Mindful Souls 101

Resources:

For yoga and meditation:

https://www.akshayoga.com

https://yogananda.org

https://www.headspace.com

https://insighttimer.com

https://theyogainstitute.org

Agatha's Recommended Reading List:

• The Yoga Sutras of Maharishi Patanjali
• The Bhagavad Gita
• AutoBiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda
• Yoga for Better Living - Agatha Figueiroa Henderson
• Beyond Codependency - Melody Beattie
• Codependent No More - Melody Beattie

If you have a loved one who struggles with alcoholism:

https://al-anon.org

I am grateful you are here,
Jerry

1:1 Transformational Coaching:
Learn More Here!

Pick up your copy of my book:
Returning: Meditations and Reflections on Self-Love and Healing

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Website:
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Transcript

Jerry Henderson: 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Permission to Love podcast. I'm your host, jerry Henderson, and I'm grateful that you're here. Before we get into today's episode, I've got a couple of announcements that I want to share with you. Number one is that I started to offer group coaching. We're going to launch that on the 19th of February. It's not too late to get signed up, so if you haven't done so, you can simply go to jerryhenderson. org/ coaching and find out more information there.

Jerry Henderson: 0:30

Now, as a result of some requests that I've received, I've done two things. One I'm offering two scholarships that will last for three months worth of coaching. That usually costs $95 a month, so it's a savings of almost $300, but I wanted to offer that for people who couldn't afford that price point at this time. The second thing I've done is I've also added a sliding scale price point, and that's at $47. 50 a month. So you can just simply go to the sign up page and enter the code SS2024. You'll find that code on the website as well. Just want to be able to help as many people as possible and remove any barriers to people learning how to love themselves.

Jerry Henderson: 1:13

Now, finally, the last announcement I have is about my book. I'm so excited about my book called Returning, which will also be released in the month of February. It's a collection of thoughts and poems about healing and self-love. Now, if you want to be notified when it comes out the day that it comes out, you can sign up for my newsletter at GerryHindersonorg, or you can simply go to the show notes in this episode and get signed up there and, without any other delays, let's get into today's episode, which I am super excited about. Today we have a very special guest. We have with us today Agatha Francini-Gomez Figueiroa, who just recently added a new name to her set of names, and that last name now is Henderson, and so I just simply call her Meu Amor, my love. So grateful for you, so thankful for you to say yes, to come on this show and share your story, share a part of your journey. So thank you.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 2:13

Thank you so much. Hello everyone, I'm so grateful and honored to be here because I know the devotion and dedication you bring to your work and I've seen I see the behind the scenes, so I'm very honored to be here. Thank you so much.

Jerry Henderson: 2:31

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, mayo Amor. Now I have a favor to ask of you. Could you greet our listeners who speak Portuguese, spanish as well?

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 2:43

as.

Jerry Henderson: 2:43

Hindi, is this one right here four languages that she's fluent in. Now she'll play it down and act like she's not fluent in those languages, but I've heard her speak those languages and I've heard her have conversations with people in those languages. So would you greet the guests in any and every language that you know to greet them to the show today?

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 3:01

Hello, hello, how are my dear friends? I wish you a lot of happiness and happiness.

Jerry Henderson: 3:35

Thank, you so much.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 3:37

But I'm Brazilian, so I speak Brazilian. Portuguese. Guys, you guys from US, sometimes you don't understand that Beyond Mexico there is also Brazil and there's a country that doesn't speak only Spanish, so we basically speak Portuguese with all the nuances of each state and the signs and stuff. So I'm from São Paulo, Brazil.

Jerry Henderson: 4:02

Thank you Absolutely Well. I know two phrases in Portuguese really well. One is Mayo Amor, which is my love, and the second is Eo Sertudo, which means I'm lucky, lucky me.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 4:17

Oh, my goodness, I am lucky. The girls out there. They have to say like, oh, she's the lucky one. Look at this man.

Jerry Henderson: 4:25

Now I'm going to brag on her for just a second. She is a yoga teacher who spent six years in India studying for thousands of hours under some of the best instructors. She's also an actress, a fashion model. She has a bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing. She studied acting at the Celia Elena Conservatory in São Paulo, a very prestigious acting school. Now, one of the things that has always fascinated me about you is your spiritual journey, and I've just that's part of what I really fell in love with you about. I remember when we first met, we spent hours talking about that and your heart and your depth, and a part of that story was your journey to India, where you dove into the practices of meditation, learning yoga, and so I want the listeners to hear a little bit of your story. Here's this young girl who grew up outside of São Paulo, in Embugasso, and I've been in Embugasso wonderful, a little town. That's where mom lives and grandma and Uncle, jirson and everybody who's there.

Jerry Henderson: 5:29

It's just a beautiful community and, jirson, you know, your best friend and he always, every time I see him, he always goes like my friend, hello, my friend.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 5:38

So, Jirson.

Jerry Henderson: 5:38

Hello, my friend, say hello to Jirson, so we'll get him to come by and see this as well. So here you are, growing up in this little town and then you become a model because your mom sees this talent in you and she starts exposing you to that industry and I'm sure some of that as a mother wanting to give her daughter opportunities. And so talk to us a little bit about your kind of your origin story. And then, as a result of the environment that you grew up in, the messages that that gave you, and then you came to this place in your life where there was enough suffering, there was enough challenges that you knew that something needed to change. And you've often told me how yoga saved your life. So if you could do that for us, I know that's a lot to the story of growing up, kind of what was happening, how that led you down to a path where you said something has to change.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 6:39

Yeah, thank you for the intro. And well, growing up was a blessing in a small town and then my mom saw right from the beginning that I was like extremely tall and then constantly bullied in school. And then I think from a very young age I had this like I don't know from where I got, that I still have to work there in therapy. But yeah, comparing myself, because as I was a very shy child when I was around people and then I went to a few auditions, like commercial auditions and take hours for you to go in front of the camera to give an audition, and then I did not like I like I always like to be with my books and reading.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 7:39

And then my mom said like okay, let's wait for you until you're older you know, because that there was the scene A lot of kids. That director told everyone, after waiting for four hours to go in front and audition for this TV commercial I was actually seven or eight or something like that and the director. They were like, oh, go and make a mess, jump on the sofa. And then I was so shy I couldn't do it. I froze right there.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 8:06

Yeah, so fast forward. 13 years old. My mom saw that I grew up a lot, so like I have a considerable good height for modeling. And then she took me to she's like okay, I waited, like let's go to the best agency at the time.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 8:25

So elite modeling I think you guys are familiar with Joan Casablanca's elite modeling so then she's like, okay, I'm going to bring her there. And then there were those particular days and they see a lot of girls. I remember it's to be like Tuesday and Thursdays and they used to interview new faces and my mom took me there from in Boguasso and, as my, I start learning English in very young age and I was like I've been so in love with the language and the school I went to and I think the owner of that school, she did this incredible thing because every time I went there I used to forget about my parents fighting and I entered this land. Of magic For me was like entering that and see her and teaching and I was like, wow, and I fell in love with that language.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 9:17

So, for me would be escape to be like okay, learning, getting and sync, or backstreet boys, you guys are going to guess my age.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 9:25

And I got the little CDs and practice and I learned English and I always wanted to go to travel, Even though from a small town. I always had that inside me. I was like, okay, I'm going to do what it takes. So we got things done. When you're later came back and got things started and mom, yeah, back and forward with the van or by bus from in Boguasso to the big city for auditions, wow, okay, beautiful.

Jerry Henderson: 9:55

So you said that this event or this person that you would go see who would be doing English, and it felt like this beautiful escape from home. Talk to folks about that escape and what was the part of that you were escaping from? What was the feeling or the need that was there to try to escape from?

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 10:14

I think my growing up the thing with an alcoholic father and I had to be the therapist for my parents from a very young age, so I learned like there was not very often that we had fun. I felt like I used to be constantly judged by my father. It used to be very harsh and like, say, military kind of a thing, like army guy. He was not an army guy, actually, he tried to go, but then he did something to escape and then I think he swallowed a pen, something that you close the pen, and then they took him to the hospital so he got kicked out of the army. He was very happy about it and yeah, coming from an alcoholic background, and my father he's like oh, swallow your tears, what are you doing? And then, from the first expression of I don't like this but and I had to speak for myself, he was like shut up, who are you to say anything? So it used to be very hard and then slowly, slowly, I think those years, I was losing the sparkle of me and then I couldn't be myself. I had to swallow my feelings, even though I was cut inside, and then I had to fake the face of.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 11:40

Everything is okay, because I know it's Friday night and my dad is going to arrive drunk and or I don't know how it's gonna like he's going to try to hit my mom or not. He's going to get the revolver and try to do something to us and this thing's already, unfortunately, happened. So everything that you do when you're close to someone is under an addiction. You know it's not us, but we think we are the problem. And then that person gets angry and then you're like, why did I walk the certain way? Because anything can put that off, but for a child or for a teenager you don't figure out, is their problem, right? Yeah, I think it too. That's one of the challenges, right? Is that we start to?

Jerry Henderson: 12:26

absorb their brokenness right.

Jerry Henderson: 12:29

And so that's one of the challenges in trauma or growing up in those environments. As a child, you don't understand that. That's their brokenness, that's their story, and so that's manifesting in the home and it gets manifested towards you, and then all of a sudden you think, well, there must be something wrong with me. And then that message gets adopted, and so we start to absorb other people's pain, and then it becomes our identity. Their pain becomes our identity in so many ways. And so talk to us a little bit about how that impacted you growing up in that and what you just said, how all of a sudden it became the message that you began to believe about yourself.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 13:09

Because it's not only their pain but the way they express their pain, because sometimes that can come in a way of violence or even violence through words. So I couldn't wait. I was hoping for the next day that I would probably have my father normal again, and it's like a person took his body while he was drinking and next morning, oh, my father is back. But the things that he said when he was drunk or the things that he did, maybe he pretend he doesn't remember, or but the person they say like who hates doesn't remember, but the person who got the pain remembers.

Jerry Henderson: 13:57

For a lifetime. Yeah, and it gets trapped in a nervous system and it becomes a part of our entire story.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 14:03

Then later on, cut and fast forward. That was a child. Cut and fast forward at the age of like 18 or 17, 18 and 19. And then I figure like wow, I heard that on. Or 20, and then you start copying and then you start listening to that in a relationship.

Jerry Henderson: 14:19

Sometimes, yeah, and then you just don't leave or you yeah, the voice of the abuser becomes our voice, inside of our head.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 14:27

And then you think like you're guilty and then it's like you're a subconscious guide you to do something wrong, so like if that person thinks that I'm perfect or maybe I know I'm not perfect because you have that ingrained in your system. So that's why, on spirituality, I was like I found a place to call home and I really I say that saved my life because I was going through so many issues with my health anxiety. I think yoga was very, very. When I say yoga, when you see the eight fold path of Patanjali, mauritius Patanjali yoga, which is Satya, one of those paths on yoga, because yoga is not just posture, there are those, the things that you do off the mat, and for me it's beautiful because one of the couple of first classes that I attended in Brazil, for instance, and I was like, wow, those girls, they really know how to do, and then suddenly they're on, like on their head on the floor.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 15:33

I was like, oh my goodness, when I'm gonna be? And I did not know anything about it. Then I used to compare myself again, but then, towards the end of this first session, my first yoga session that I did in my life, I remember the teacher guiding us a lot to a loving towards ourselves and suddenly I forgot the world around me. Suddenly I did not have the noise from drunk dad yelling or mom yelling, or even the cameras or bookers saying like I'm not good enough, and then I was just like trying to find me and I remember that was so beautiful when I I think this teacher, yoga teacher she was studying psychology at that time and then she guide us on a journey to heal our inner child and he was the beauty like wow.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 16:34

I had that, I really saw my inner child and how hurt she was and I had to do something about it and I had to figure out. Well, it's time for me to stop blaming everyone else but, most importantly, it's time for me to stop blaming this little girl that is inside me and start to do what I can, because it started still for me seeing myself as a third person. So, seeing that little girl like because I do whatever I can and go beyond when for those I love and when they're around me, I'm like really like wow, you got me, I got your back and I really hurt myself in order to keep someone safe. So I was like, okay, let me try to do the best that I can to keep me safe and try to look at that. And that's how it started and got me really emotional.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 17:38

So when I went to India, I dived into Hinduism a lot and Buddhism a lot. So that took me to the Dalai Lama and teachings and in Dharamshala, my college, gone to the mountains and it was such a beautiful weekend. I remember when I was there and in the middle of the night I was like I made sure I got a cottage really really high, high in the mountain. That was really silent and that cottage really remind me of my childhood grandparents farm. You smell like the cow dung and I know that for a farm girl and I was like, oh nice, really cool, and well, by the middle of the night I woke up panicking and I was like, but hey, but I'm practicing yoga and you realize the healing journey is not. It truly is a journey.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 18:39

It doesn't matter how many spiritual retreats you have been in. You have been to yoga classes. You have been to thousands of books you read, when those things that challenge you the most they're still gonna come to you and they're gonna challenge you. And then that's when you're put to proof. So I'm a friend of mine, josun, actually, like those years seeing me in India and I stopped shaving and all that and I so, and modeling at the time was the thing that was paying for my courses, is my yoga courses and everything. And then sitting and I'm like, wow, modeling again. But then, but I'm more into the spiritual side. But then I got like, well, I don't wanna be longer this world, I wanna go inside the mountain and I don't.

Jerry Henderson: 19:29

I don't need to shave.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 19:30

Yeah. And then in order to find spirituality, but I think it's a journey for all of us. So not shaving is not gonna make you more spiritual. Yeah, which a lot of times, yeah.

Jerry Henderson: 19:42

I think, a lot of times the healing journey is the desire, and sometimes necessary to, you know, withdraw ourselves, to somewhat isolate. You know my story about being a nomad, you know, and trying to find times of silence and solitude, and so I think that's a very, you know, important part of the journey, and it often is a part of the heart, I think, that calls us to learn to be with ourselves and yeah.

Jerry Henderson: 20:08

Yeah, and so you said something earlier that I thought was really interesting about the inner child and wanting to not be was it angry at that little girl or so upset or frustrated with that little girl, the little Agatha you know, which is a common thing among trauma survivors.

Jerry Henderson: 20:27

You know, I know, for me my five year old was the one that I would have had so much shame around. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, that practice of the inner child and how you were feeling about little Agatha before that. Work that you did with the inner child, practice through that yoga session and continued work that I'm sure you're doing in that space.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 20:49

Sure. So I think what yoga gave to me was always used to love manuals. So I grew up like, okay, how, what a girl needs to know before her first period? Yeah, right.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 21:07

And then I bought a book on that. What a girl needs to know, like I always like kind of I love reading, so and then. But after you leave school and you go to university and you're exposed to all of that and the changes in your life and suddenly becoming a young adult and I felt really exposed to a lot of things out there and the whole power of that teenager was unhealed still.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 21:37

And I think yoga gave me like a life. Okay, if that's what it takes to be peaceful and peace with myself, that's what it's like a guide, a book guide, like if you buy a new TV you have like the manual guide and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna dive into that. And then that gave me sense of peace. Before that yoga session, the transformative yoga path, that inner child left Like I've not, I've not seen her so often. It's incredible that. But I could not be angry at her.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 22:13

But I remember like before coming across her, I used to think of my young cousin, that I love her so much. When I was like in Korea, like Stephanie was, she was a little girl I was like, wow, I should do my best because I cannot let her down, something like that. But when I came across my inner child, I cannot be angry at her. I was actually were. I was angry not at the inner child, that went at the time that I begin to see the little me. That's when I began to start forgiving myself for what? Maybe I didn't even know. But then I was just so angry of adult me or the, the young adult, or like yeah, I was just really, really angry with myself. That's why I think yoga caught me like, wow, it can be really healing when you you show up for yourself at definitely feel my best towards me and also towards the people that I love when.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 23:23

I respect those boundaries of like. Okay, I need some silence, I need some practice. That's why my system has gone way haywire. Because I'm not sleeping properly, I am eating back in that time, back in that time.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 23:38

I was not sleeping properly, I was not eating healthy food. I was just feeling bad about myself, crazy negative talk on my mind because everything would be an excuse and it was just. I used to be like a melting pot of self judgment and feeling not the best and the with yoga and with spirituality that comes along with us. Through the spirituality I found me again, I guess.

Jerry Henderson: 24:06

Yeah, found you again. Wow, that's beautiful. And so, for those folks who are really kind of interested in understanding or exploring yoga as a healing modality, what would you encourage them? I help them maybe understand how yoga could be a part of healing from trauma, from those voices, from the stories that we've built about ourselves, of our unworthiness. Because I love one of the things you talk about is that it allows you to go within and you find you again.

Jerry Henderson: 24:41

And so talk to us about how yoga could be a healing practice for people, and what that would look like and what the experience might be like.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 24:52

Yeah, I think so, with the discipline that yoga brings you the results on the nervous system, but the parasympathetic of nervous system which takes care of, like rest, good sleep, weight control and all that and so feel safe and after you know you have a good session when you leave the session feeling energized.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 25:24

That's the difference from a practice like yoga and Tai Chi and a different, another exercise Because we access different parts of our body. So, as we were talking earlier at lunch, so when you feel exhausted and like maybe you cross the boundary on some exercise. But when it comes to yoga, for those people who are willing to start and I think the beauty of it is because you need to find a place where it's safe, so you can start online with a couple of videos and not the whole like noisy thing or show off thing, but more on the, it gets you back on yourself because you respect the rhythm of your breath, so you follow you the whole idea, because yoga comes from the root word is a Sanskrit word, which is you huge, which is union, the whole practice.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 26:36

So it's for a person to go back to themselves, for you to get united to your own soul, but also united to your own source your spiritual source, your the highest being your soul and then through that practice. Of course, there's always an intention when we start with with my students or with like, okay, and you always start with an intention. What I want with that practice, oh, I want to be more compassionate, I want to be forgiving, I want to love others, I want to love myself, or I want to be able to touch my toes.

Jerry Henderson: 27:24

Yeah right.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 27:26

And then you set your intention and you go for your practice and there's a lot on the session that can happen Like I've cried my eyes out on a yoga session. I felt there some days I felt like really laughing. There was some. Some days I was like I feel irritated or I was not feeling like I was supposed to be there and you really have to honor yourself and sometimes push yourself when you have to, but also understand like gosh, no, that's not like I don't want to be here, I want to leave, or I just want to lie in Shavasana.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 27:59

And Shavasana, for those who are not familiar with that, is the, the, the corpse pose, is the last posture when you actually really absorbs all the benefits, that of all that really breathing. That the posture is not just the posture, but the posture I say like soaked and with all the breathing that is inside you. And it's like when you start breathing again, you realize like, wow, where have I been? I don't know how I'm surviving because do I know like? And then you know through the practice how to breathe better, how to be more mindful. But there are days you can cut your thumb while trying to chop the garlic when you're talking to your husband in the kitchen.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 28:46

But that day I did not meditate.

Jerry Henderson: 28:47

Maybe that's why.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 28:48

So those, there's a beautiful thing and we just have to be careful not to bring the self judgment with a different sugarcoating Sure. And then you're like, okay, but now I'm self judgmental on my spiritual practices. Now I'm like, or I feel like you just change your mindset. No, like really go there and try to separate a healing space. But it's not about looking good, it's about like feeling good. Yeah.

Jerry Henderson: 29:19

And so part of the challenge you know we talk about with trauma, one of the things that it does is it separates you from yourself, right, and one of the challenges in healing from trauma is that when you're separated from yourself, you're separated from your source of healing and you know, no matter how much we listen to others or we go to therapy or we do work, that work always points us back to ourselves, that we're going to have to be the one who executes on what the therapist said. We're the one who's going to have to apply the book that we've read. You're the one who's going to have to take the principles from a podcast that you listen to and actually do them. And so yoga can be that place of reconnection with self. Like a person will ask me like, how do I reconnect with myself?

Jerry Henderson: 30:05

And a lot of the challenges with trauma is not feeling safe. Your nervous system just doesn't feel safe, let alone safe enough to sit with yourself. I know for me, for decades I had that underlying buzz or that harm that would then spike as panic attacks, and so the idea of me sitting with myself long enough to connect with myself was terrifying. I mean, I avoided myself. That was a lot of what my drinking was to avoid me, to disconnect me even more from myself. And so, for those who are listening who are saying I really struggle with the feeling of being safe, you know a nervous system from the trauma I've experienced, like you, the trauma that you experienced you know wires are a nervous system and so, no matter where we're at or what we're doing, we just don't have a sense of safety.

Jerry Henderson: 30:54

And so I wanted to provide the listeners with some practical tools around how yoga can do two things One, help that nervous system calm down and then, two, allow for reconnection, because we have to be in that place of being a little bit calm in order to connect with ourselves in some way. And then what does that connection with self do? Once you're able to connect with yourself because it sounds like to me it's that place of returning to loving yourself, and so does that make sense? Can you talk to us a little bit, like as a practical tool? How would it help our nervous systems calm? How would you be able to reconnect with yourself, returning to yourself? And then, yeah, just to come to the benefits of what that does for you.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 31:42

Yeah, there's the. They say the culmination of yoga is Samadhi. So that's what Maharishi Patanjali, who wrote the book of yoga and all the scriptures on it, right and in spread yoga, because actually yoga is a science and it was heard by the Rishis back in the day of like from spirituality and they heard those message and thank goodness we had all these beautiful sages out there and what Maharishi Patanjali became, became the most famous one and actually wrote the shlokas, the book, and shared with the world. But I think the beauty of, or like, at least for me, because it was because I was going to, I had a psychosomatic disease due to, like, something wrong with my nervous system.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 32:54

So, like with the practice, I saw the like, the condition got better in my body because it, like yoga, comes with the breathing and I think that it's like a tremendous, really deep, focused work on our nervous system because you have to practice the breathing and the postures. It's not just the posture on itself, but how is the breathing and the breathing that you learn right and something which really really helped, because when you're tense we sometimes don't even breathe enough and then, yeah, would you point out to me at times, yeah, where I'm like I'm sitting there and I'm kind of tightened up and a little stressed about doing a podcast or producing something and remind me to breathe like go ahead.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 33:53

You know that there is the place of the breath. So there's something, and in yoga, yoga science, and on the Vedas right, where also are you Veda? The science of life came from? Okay, so there are the koshas, the layers of some, a person's body, and pranamayakosh, when you think of a person, and all have seen those drawings like all this, like the diagrams.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 34:23

Yeah, the aura popular known as aura, so in Sanskrit. So when you, the body itself itself, like the physical body, has a sickness, it has, what happens usually happens out of the body first. So that's those layers that we work on when you work on a spiritual practice like, like yoga, that the culmination of yoga, as I was talking, is the samadhi, which is the, from the Buddhist point of view, nirvana, or reaching a really higher consciousness, that getting enlightened, and we're lucky if that ever happens with us. But I think everybody can really walk that path and become free of pain. The beauty of these practices are, like you know, shredding and taking away like parts of ourselves that we think we really defined us. Or like what car do you have? How much?

Jerry Henderson: 35:37

money Shedding, shedding all that stuff.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 35:39

Yeah, yeah, shedding. And then you realize, hey, we're all we go, we came here for such a short period of time and we better like watch the sunrise and watch the sunset. And what this practice beautifully does is really like bringing one to in alignment with their breathing, and when the breath is aligned, you're aligned with one of those layers that.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 36:08

I explained before, the prana maya kosh, which is the breathing, and the prana maya kosh helps you with the mana maya kosh, and mana maya kosh is your mind. So when we're like we we have this fluctuations of the mind that Bhagavad Gita beautifully teach us about, and like how to overcome those fluctuations of and how yoga can help us, in that it's not just the practices, not the postures, but the postures alongside with the right breathing, that there's a whole science behind it. Be on the layers that you're going to tap into, that, this outer layer that's going to help in the inner layer, which is your head. That's why, when you do a right breathing, a breathwork, pranayama and exercise with your breath, doing in the right way, you the side product of doing it the right way you're supposed to have peace of mind. So you, you remove those fluctuations.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 37:25

And there are other things that also will help you do it. If, like, well, you won't meditate, if your body, you, you won't feel so good, if you have not stretched before or you're not feeling well, or you over eight, like, and then sometimes you know we put ourselves for failure on so many things. And there is a practice yeah, self judgment, or even like, oh yeah, I'm going to eat this and then I'm going to try to meditate, and then you do it wrong because you're going to self judge yourself, and then you put yourself to failure, sabotage yourself. Just make sure you're safe for you, in the right hands and and you could have a beautiful healing journey.

Jerry Henderson: 38:07

Yeah, so one of the things that you mentioned is how that breath, connecting with the breath, will allow us to calm the nervous system and then calm our mind so that we can be able to sit with ourselves long enough to connect with ourselves right, Because we're such great self avoiders as trauma survivors or people who are, you know, dealt with very painful life experiences that we're trying to avoid. I really loved when I heard about how children in India one of the first things that they learn how to do is to connect with their breath and the theory of, like, you come into this world with your breath and you leave this world with your breath, and so all through our lives, our breath is that source of life, but we get so disconnected from it. I know how powerful breath and taking a mindful breath whenever I begin to feel that anxiety or begin to feel that temptation to really disconnect from myself and how can, how can that breath bring us back to ourselves in those moments.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 39:11

I guess, by the repetition, the consistency and, yeah, by really bringing the intention. Why are you sitting there to do that? To search for answers, to listen to your breath and stop and remove the judgment layer and tap into your own voice. And it's not always easy, but, believe me, the more you do it and you're like, wow, how freeing, how beautiful that is, because you really become. There are days you don't know what you're feeling. If somebody asked you you want chocolate cake or you want a spaghetti, or even you're like I don't know.

Jerry Henderson: 40:02

Yeah.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 40:02

Or there are days you're like maybe because you're disconnected from yourself. And what those beautiful, what that practice does is like bring you to your voice. Perhaps you don't know, and then you're going to be able to access that inside of you Like you know what I don't know? Maybe I just need some time.

Jerry Henderson: 40:21

Yeah right.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 40:22

And maybe I just need to lie down on the floor, maybe I just need to go for a walk in nature and that practice also. There's a beautiful thing about it that it also helps you connect with, with the, the nature, like connect to nature. Yeah better and also align our. You correct me in the English if it's not correct, but circadian love.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 40:46

Circadian rhythm and how important that is for you. Because you see, if a person is eating only food, they harm them, their system inflame themselves and they're not sleeping well. If they're drinking thing, that is not good for them or doing things. And so with those healing practice, you, you begin to learn, okay, this works for me, that doesn't work for me, and but it really. It really works when you devote time, attention and for those people that think, yeah, it goes, not for me, or meditation is not for me, because the the whole idea. Why do we do all those postures? It's because for a person to remain longer on the position, on the, in the posture of the meditation, and sadhasana.

Jerry Henderson: 41:40

So yeah, which is such a lot to suppose, because it can be very uncomfortable. Oh, my lower back.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 41:47

Yeah, what I mean my lower back is this oh, there's like some mosquito came like, oh, my knee and all that and someone doesn't have to push because our people sometimes it became they were like retreats or courses or in India, like they're not, like there's no sugar coat. Again I'm gonna say like sweet, soothing music you know some teachers, it can be really in India. Yeah, it can be really harsh at you. And then you don't have AC.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 42:14

Actually, for me, yoga with AC, like now, like guys you should avoid that, because the better like, the more you sweat, the best, because you take all that, those toxins away from your system and sometimes the person just has a lot of thinking and overthinking can elicit themselves because maybe their whole system, their whole body has a lot of system, or the gut. And then we get into more into the nutrition thing and then like, okay, my gut is in, like I have high inflammation in my body, the diet not enough liquid. So you start working and I also tell, like, when you're in this journey I had like thousands of books and notebooks and diaries, like today I feel better and I'm happy, but why? Oh, yeah, I drink like this much Like, and then I start taking care of that little girl, as if I would take care of a child of mine or someone that I love so much. Okay, have you like? Have you eaten? Are you feeling good? Like, how are you feeling about this? It's not feeling nice, I'm not feeling good.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 43:17

And then you start being in peace and slowly, I think the thing that takes people away some sometimes, from a practice that's going to help them so much, it is the like. I want to take the best or the fastest result out of this as possible, but there are things that need to be done, perhaps, and if you're willing to change. Sometimes you're not willing to change or not willing to face things, but when you want to change and we're like yeah, so it's like, well, there's no rock bottom that I can go like anymore, or like I need to do something about my life, and then I realized, well, let me try. And then you really feel good, like, oh, this works. And then you start knowing better and better.

Jerry Henderson: 44:07

Yeah, it's interesting A few of the things that you said of one, the, the practices, the postures, which is a huge aha moment for me, right, because I always I mean I'd done some yoga before I met you and I mean I dove right into it. I decided I was going to do hot yoga and do like an hour and a half hot yoga session is one of my first yoga sessions ever and I don't advise starting there. But, you know, unless you're kind of like you know, just want to torture yourself, but there's a warm up process that I didn't really know about. So the challenge, right, is that I didn't know that the postures are there to help with the discipline and the body so that you can stay in presence more in meditation. Talk to us about the meditation connection with yoga and that whole yeah, just that whole connection between meditation, yoga and the postures being a key part of that.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 45:01

Yes, the goal of yoga is to stop the fluctuations of the mind. This is part of the Bhagavad Gita and chitta vritti niroda. So by reducing the fluctuations of the mind, you reach niroda, samadhi, you reach blissfulness, peace, and so the beauty of the postures is it helps you with the discipline, it helps you to stretch your body because you realize you learn, because we have. We received this opportunity to be here in this life. Your responsibility and first duty is to take care of what you have right now. If you are at your best, you'll be able to serve others.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 45:57

It's like, yeah, you're really in that state. I can count all school because you're done your work, you've done your prayer, your mantra, your concentration, you've done the whole thing that you had to do, and then you figure it out there for yourself, and then it's like you are alert, you're conscious, so you're less likely than commit something that on Buddhism, it says like something that's going to bring you pain, because I'm sure we're all of us that we are here, we have done things that have brought not only other people but ourselves pain and we don't know the source. And then that's why we go for a therapy and all that, and it's a practice of self study, so you keep more track on yourself. When you see you're like, wow, this food is suddenly not, I'm totally out of myself. And then you see, you start evaluating and you, you know where to work to get better with unity, and yoga is meditation.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 47:08

So all of this is a combination of practices and that, when you go deep, it gives a sense of hope and also a sense of purpose. Because, for those who have seen the study with meditation and vibration and how one person can help entire block or a core, like a neighborhood, and improve the energy or a part, when the person is doing the work and the work is hard core work is not all bliss, loves, hearts, light and love and peace, as people think it is. There are dark moments and you have to be brave Because, like and there's one thing that trauma survivors are we're damn brave and was stubborn at times and but it can be very stubborn, but we can use this on our behalf, because others have used this on us so much.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 48:05

So it's like you getting the power of your own self back. Because when you like wow, wow, I remember once I was after this really hard moment in my life and I was like wow. And this person told me once I think the person you're most scared of, the person I'm more afraid of, is you. For you is you, yeah, right. So true, because it was like different people inside of me.

Jerry Henderson: 48:36

Yeah, the person you're most afraid of is yourself, is yourself, and.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 48:39

I could not see that I was, I was the one harming myself the most. I was the one at before yoga, before spiritual connection and before devoting time for my, my, my faith and all that. I was like, wow, it was a coping mechanism. Maybe. I was like, how do I create the situations and I fall again the same hole? And I was like, and you take time because sometimes you attract your life what you still believe, yeah, and then you want to hurt yourself because you want to feel bad about yourself again.

Jerry Henderson: 49:13

Right, absolutely. It's interesting, right, because our nervous system doesn't just remember how other people treated us. Our nervous system doesn't just think about well, this person caused me pain, it also remembers how we've treated ourselves and it connects to that point where we get afraid of how we're going to treat ourselves as a result of somebody else's rejection and as a result of our failures. And so that that practice of returning to loving ourselves and giving ourselves permission to love ourselves is so important, because we're retraining our nervous system and our relationship with ourselves, because it's not only healing what happened to us from others, but what we then have done to ourselves as a result of what others did to us the narrative, the story, the voices that we adopted and how we became our own abusers in many cases, because that was the environment that we were comfortable with, and so we continued that narrative and that energy in our life.

Jerry Henderson: 50:11

And so I love this beautiful connection between yoga as a practice, spiritual practice of connecting the body, stilling that mind or bringing peace to the mind so that we can connect with ourselves again, and the beautiful practice of meditation, because meditation has been something that for me, at first was a really scary practice because of my Christian background and then later really understanding even the connection around Christianity and mindfulness and meditation and stillness, where God even says be still and know that I am God.

Jerry Henderson: 50:55

And so there was just this beautiful space for me to finally connect with meditation in a way where it allowed me to be still with myself and connect with my breath. Not understanding that connecting with my breath it was taking my attention off of the chatter in my mind. It was taking my attention off of all the reasons why I wasn't safe or the challenges I needed to deal with and all of that chatter. What ultimately it was doing was keeping me separate from myself, my authentic self, and that meditation and focusing on the breath could bring me back to my authentic self. So I could hear from my authentic self. Talk just a little bit about your experience in that space, of how meditation following the breath has allowed you to connect with yourself.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 51:50

Actually, after spiritual retreat that I did, I had in Brazil, I felt like I had this really beautiful connection and it was through meditation and it was actually not a very yoga, not the posture side of the spiritual practice, but more towards the meditation and healing and healing side. And after that I just became high in life. I eat an arugula and I'm like suddenly, I'm like jumping and I just had like a shot of something and then you realize like, wow, it feels so good. So, after you do this, certain practices, and after you meditate, and there are some moments, there are some days that I feel that my body needs that time to be still and stretch and get the body ready. And those practices that what they do, they help you to clean your body and the goal is to make you as healthy as possible. So you are ready. You're ready to do your duty, to take care of yourself, take care of others and to do your duty towards your purpose here. So devote time and awareness for your spiritual journey and they helped so much on the spiritual journey and I really personally I like to use their days, that I use mantras and there are days that I use also prayers, even in Portuguese, for instance like things that wow, and then you're not in that moment anymore and you don't need anything exogenous.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 53:50

So those things that prepare you, all these things that you do in your life, the experience you acquire with those practices, and my opinion, when it's, you don't need anything outside of your body, it's just you, your body, your breath, and the way, the techniques you need to guide yourself. You are more prepared, you are protected, you rely on yourself more and then you feel empowered. You know how, like yeah, I got this. That's what is beautiful about me and the healing child with yoga and meditation, because it helped me to be like wow, I can find that sense, that moment of bliss without one should not seek for it, like I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna have a spiritual moment.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 54:48

But, like the meditation, you're just like it is a powerful and I think people that, oh yeah, I'm too, I think too much, I'm an entrepreneur and my mind is I'm not for this.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 55:05

And there are people that can benefit the most. Because when you know a language we started this podcast talking about languages when you go to a country and you're out there work or taking a walk, and you know how to ask for your food, for your coffee, and you need to discuss something on the business, those moments that I told you on the stage, on a presentation, or when that person that really drives you nuts on your job, or your classmate, or somebody that really takes you out of your and there's something that person, everybody, comes in your life to teach you. Sure, so that situation is bringing us the opportunity to learn something about ourselves. Oh yeah, and that's how I go like gladiator, he goes to the arena. Real life is the arena, the householder, the Renaissance yoga that I studied in the Centenarian Yoga Institute in India Renaissance yoga, household yoga, why you have to be a yogi and then suddenly you need to be away from the normal life, because the normal life is the arena.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 56:16

Yeah it's like the competition, the judgment, but when you're back and you have that practice in developing that practice within because it's easy, when you are in a retreat, in a beautiful landscape, in a beautiful beach and everybody's spiritual and gets, we get better nature and we heal. There's a beautiful documentary on this, called heal, as well, and so many books like we heal in nature. Everybody knows that, but yet why sometimes we boycott ourselves? We just have to be loving to ourselves, like, yes, I need some nature time and try not to go to the intellect too much and just like it feels good, because it feels good, it's not harming me, it's not harming others.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 57:00

No, oh yeah, it feels good. Let me put my feet on the grass, let me breathe, let me see the sunrise. Those things bring us back to the rhythm of nature and really it empowers someone to grow. So I was like, okay, for those people who are new to spirituality, this practice says it helps you to thrive, to get the best for you, to be on your creative self and give the best for that project. And it should be that way. Yeah, sure absolutely yeah.

Jerry Henderson: 57:33

It's been so true for me that meditation has been so healing because it's like I said before has allowed me to sit with myself long enough to investigate the discomfort of why I don't want to sit with myself and once I get to that place of being able to be okay, whatever the modalities or practices that you use in meditation whether it's mantras, following the breath, guided meditations or whatever allows you to get to that place where you can be with you and discover that you are your healer you're going to have those moments where your soul speaks to yourself and you get to those places where you begin to understand why you have certain patterns and behaviors in your life and areas that you can heal.

Jerry Henderson: 58:21

They're inviting you to heal.

Jerry Henderson: 58:23

The challenge is sitting long enough to hear the invitation from yourself, because we'll yell at ourselves, it seems like for the negative things, and our voice gets really loud when it becomes a voice of shame and judgment. But it often seems like we whisper to ourselves when we're inviting ourselves into healing, and so I encourage you, as a practice of learning to be safe and calming the nervous system and being able to return to yourself, to really get curious about a yoga practice, a holistic yoga practice and practices of meditation. So, agatha, I want to ask you, I want to invite you, to walk our viewers and our listeners through a meditation practice, to just take a few moments and to give them something that they might be able to use or to practice in those moments when maybe they're not feeling safe, or in those moments when those stories are building and that anxiety is happening and they're not feeling comfortable sitting with themselves. So could you give the audience that gift of just a practical meditation or mindfulness activity that they could do to help them return to themselves?

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 59:37

I'll invite all of you to close your eyes, make sure you're safe. Take a deep breath in, exhale, inhale, exhale. Make sure your spine is erect. Chain water out to the ground so that that breath can, like water, bring a flow of energy through all the corners of your body. That needs attention right now. Begin releasing those thoughts that, by any chance, are troubling you.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 1:00:45

Right now, just try to acknowledge that moment, to embrace you, to be present and thank yourself and congratulate yourself, to show up for yourself one more day. Start bringing your attention to your breath and how it flows naturally in your lungs and out of your lungs. Just take some time to acknowledge that little you, which is the most incredible, amazing, gifted and unique soul, because when you are yourself and when you honor what is holy to you and true and your honest, you're just the most beautiful expression of nature and with every breath bringing that much of love and loving and embracing who we are in our story, and with every acceleration and realize how perfect and unique you are. And you just breathe. Take a few moments for your body, hug yourself, and I like to do this self love practice. I love myself. Yet with your eyes closed, if you can repeat that.

Jerry Henderson: 1:02:43

I love myself.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 1:02:46

Really love yourself and perhaps say I love you and say your own name and last name and everything I love you and then grab your palms, bring your palms to your eyes, feel the heat of your palms, of your eyes, take a deep breath, open your eyes inside the palm After a long day and your eyes are tired, it's really helpful and then release your hands and open your eyes for the beautiful space you created with your own practice. Thank you.

Jerry Henderson: 1:03:28

Well, thank you for that gift of meditation and if you'd like to do more meditations with Agathish, she is launching a podcast. Tell us a little bit about your podcast, as well as how people can get a hold of you, because you also do yoga instructions and mentoring around health and mindfulness, and so people know how they can get in touch with you. And then also, you'll be able to find the links in the show notes of this episode.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 1:03:54

Yeah, sure, I pretty much think they could connect and find me on Instagram. We can share the details here and our school email namaste at akshayogacom. Mindful Souls101 is the podcast, as soon as we'll be out there in the best platforms. I'm very happy to be able to share a little bit of daily practices that have been helping me to make peace of myself and embrace myself.

Jerry Henderson: 1:04:28

Yeah, absolutely Well, thank you for the gift you are to others and the teaching and just beautiful work that you do. But thank you.

Agatha Figueiroa Henderson: 1:04:37

Thank you.

Jerry Henderson: 1:04:39

Wow, what a beautiful episode that was. What a gift it was for me to record an episode with my wife and, as always, I want to remind you that you are worthy of your own love.