Yoga can enhance your connection with Spirit - Karen Boger

After studying with a nationally acclaimed yoga instructor, Karen Boger has taught and practiced yoga for over 30 years. 

In this episode she explains how the mind, body, spirit connection of yoga works.  She explains the flow of energy and what we can do to enhance it. 

Please enjoy this engaging and warm interview! 

Transcript

1:37

Today I am so happy to have Karen Boger here. I met Karen when I was doing a podcast and we talked about a different topic. And since we met we have talked off and on and I just find her to be such an engaging and warm and loving person and there's not enough of that in this world and so I'm very happy to get a chance to introduce you to Karen. Karen is a yoga instructor and today she's going to talk about yoga and She knows an awful lot about it, and so if you don't know about it, hopefully by the end of this you are going to know a lot more, welcome, Karen. Thank you. you didn't always know about yoga, though. I did not always know about yoga. You've always been involved with activities and aerobics and that sort of thing. That's something that you've done for a long time, right? I have. I've, I've, I danced. I love to teach aerobic dance and I was a personal trainer. But it all led me to yoga. And you still do some of that. I do. Now. Yes. We were talking a little bit before we got started and, and it's a very interesting story of how you happen to be introduced to yoga. I wonder if you could tell us, you were, at the time you were teaching some classes to a variety of people. Could you tell about that? What were you teaching before you got involved with yoga. I was a dance aerobic instructor and a personal trainer, and I started also teaching at senior centers seated exercise for seniors. Okay. And One day I was doing it through the community college and somebody called me from the community college and asked me to teach a yoga class at a retirement village. And I said I'm not a yoga instructor. And they said, that's okay. We know that you work well with the seniors and that you know how to make them stretch. So would you give it a try? And I went, okay. And so I did. Instant yoga instructor. Yeah. So I, just gathered up videos from the library. Cause you know, this is like back in the 90's when there wasn't a lot of internet stuff yet. So I get videos from the library and I had met a person who was doing Feldenkrais, which was very close to yoga movements. So I put together a class. With what I learned from the videos and what I learned from Found in Christ. Right. And I started teaching it at the retirement village. And I noticed that they liked it a lot and that they were actually getting stuff from it and they were feeling good about it. So I thought to myself, huh, I think I'll look into yoga a little bit more and so I decided to check out some other yoga instructors and there's a yoga ashram in Massachusetts called Kripalu. Mm hmm. And they were offering a weekend of I did four different instructors classes and I chose Eric Schiffman's class as the one that I liked the best because I was the most comfortable with his way of teaching. And then I found out that he was teaching a. instructor class. Okay. And I decided to do that as well. So I had to go to Sun Valley, Idaho. Oh, how nice. That's a beautiful, beautiful place. It is. It was a wonderful experience to go there. I was in the Sacred Cow Yoga Studio, which at the time I was told was Marielle Hemingway's studio. So, I learned from Eric Schiffman how to teach yoga and the most important thing that he taught me, I mean, he taught me how to put people into different poses, the asanas as they're called, but he also taught me to always ask for guidance, to ask the infinite mind for guidance, and for me, that was the most important. Part of yoga. let's just stop right there because I want to note a couple of things one is That the person that you were studying with Obviously is a very top level Teacher yes, and I think it's so Wonderful that you went to this Seminar in Massachusetts, and then you were able to and decided to follow up and Spend a lot of money and time and go out to Sun Valley and pursue this and that's one thing I want to know. And the second is that when you started getting that message from him about the spiritual part of things, was that something new to you or had, did that kind of ring a bell that felt good? Or that's really kind of interesting because I think it was something that. was inside me, but the way that he said it he called it the infinite mind at the time. And so the concept of thinking about infinite mind. I had this picture in my mind. I was, because the, the show Third Rock from the Sun was out. And they would talk to the big head. And so, I would picture Infinite Mind as the big head. To try to get, grasp the concept of what he was talking about. So the more I And he would always say, always ask for guidance. And so, he taught us that, If you always ask for guidance, you know that you're always connected to the infinite mind, the greater being. He said, so practice it when you go to the grocery store. He said, you know, you go to the grocery store and you always buy that red delicious apple, but what if you stand there and you look at all the apples and you say, Hmm, which apple should I buy today? And you look at all the apples. And you just wait for one of the apples to, I don't know, I, I still do it to this day when I go grocery shopping, and one of them will kind of like go, me. And so that's the apple that I will buy, and I do that with the onions, and I do it with everything. But it's the practice of always asking for the guidance so that you know that you're always connected. I mean, that's what the word yoga means. It means the connection of body, mind, and spirit. Okay, let me, let me just stop right there and, and explore that a little bit. So I always think of yoga as moving your body into positions that are very flexible and where there's a lot of like you're tied up in knots and you're, stretching in places you haven't stretched in a while or whatever. But that's really only a part of yoga, right? Yes. and that yoga as a concept has to do with spirituality connecting. So that's the spirit mind, body and spirit. Yes. Yes. I love that concept. And I think it's wonderful that you got that so strongly right off the bat from this teacher. Yeah. Had you been meditating or doing anything to connect up with that spirit? prior to going to this teaching? Only what I was doing on the videos. Okay. You know, and then I was introduced to other ways of meditating through a meditation group, a local meditation group. But we didn't do a lot of meditation. It was mostly just learning about different spiritual ways. I see. I see. So you didn't have a big. meditation practice every day, two hours of meditation or anything like that. No. Okay. So really this yoga and this instructor was your big initial connection with spirit. Definitely. Yes. That's, that's fantastic. Yeah. It's so interesting. We all come to this from a different direction and I'm just curious about when you, I mean, you, you obviously are in this kind of rarefied atmosphere, you're there with a teacher and everybody's there for the same reason, and then you have to leave there and go back to your regular old life, washing the dishes, you know, going grocery shopping, all that kind of stuff, but you were able to bring that teaching with you. Yes. Yeah, that connection has stayed with me the whole time. I always, always ask for guidance, no matter what. And you were saying that what your concept of yoga was, you know, like with the poses and all. Well, back in, like, I guess it was the 60s when the yogis were coming here. To the United States. They, they were sort of like not supposed to tell people all this stuff, it kind of got to be like taboo and it just turned, they, they took away all of that spiritualness of yoga and they just wanted people to know about the, the physical part of yoga. Yeah. So they stripped out a lot of the spiritual part of it. Yes. They disconnected, they disconnected the connection. And So, I mean, like, if you go to a health club, you're going to get the physical yoga, which is called Hatha yoga. And It's still a good thing. It is a good thing because you are still running the energy through your body and it's going to help to align you. It's sort of, doing yoga is sort of like doing chiropractics for yourself because you're supposed to be paying attention to how you're moving your body but there's all different kinds. There's fast yoga, there's slow yoga, there's hot yoga, there's all kinds. So, but everybody gets there in their own way. So you got back after your initial teaching there did you teach yoga after that when you got back? I did. I started teaching yoga at the at a place up in Westminster at the rec center. I found it really interesting to teach yoga, to see the. People moving and I was a little afraid of what to do at the end of class when you go into Shavasana, which is also known as corpse pose and you have everybody relaxing and then you do like a meditation of a sort at the end. And so I knew somebody who was a yoga instructor and I called her and asked her, what do you do? How do you do this at the end? And she said, Oh, just relax their body. Like tell them to relax their toes, their feet and all the body parts. And then, and then take them for a little stroll in the woods or to the beach or something like that. And so that's what I did. Okay, so take a mental, imaginary trip together as a group. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, after I have them all laying down and all, all relaxed. So I had them do that. And one of the first times that I ever taught the class, a man come up to me at the end of the class and he said, you were trying to hypnotize me and I will not come back again. And I didn't know, he said, I was doing all of the things that prepared you for for getting hypnotized. But it kind of made me think because it's like, well, I was like just telling people to be peaceful and calm. Evidently he doesn't want to be peaceful and calm. Well, he was scared of it. Evidently. Sounded to me. Yeah, but I remember, I loved watching the people doing the class, and then at the end when they're all getting up, it all reminded me of the the munchkins coming out of The Wizard of Oz, come out, come out, wherever you are, and they all wake up. And how did people respond to that imaginary trip in a garden or forest or whatever? Did they communicate with you? They wanted to do that more than any of the other parts. Okay. That really struck home with them then. Yes. So the spiritual was something that was welcomed. Yes. Yes. and it always had the message of creating peace in your body and, and compassion. This was back in the nineties, 1990s, the other century. Yes. Have you been teaching yoga since then? I have. Oh my goodness. Well, you must be getting the hang of it, I guess. Oh yes, and I, I practiced. No, I mean, you've, you've, obviously you've learned so much in your experience, I'm sure you continue to do some study, is that right? I do, and, well, actually, So, for me, and I think for anybody who would get into it, yoga is actually just a way of being in the world, because it is, it's incorporating your, like I said, your body, mind, and your spirit. And your spirit is actually your breath. You can think of it as your breath, what you breathe in, because without that you wouldn't be here at all. I, I had one of my listeners ask about a particular type of yoga called Kundalini Yoga and they, they asked about Kundalini Yoga and energy. What is it? What is Kundalini energy? and how do you activate it? I wonder if you could respond to that question. Sure. Kundalini yoga and there's different modalities of it. I've seen quite a few different ways of doing kundalini. Okay. I've been doing kundalini yoga for probably about eight years now. Okay. And what it does is, It gets you in touch with your core, your spine, where all of your chakras are. And it brings the energy of the lower chakras and moves it up through all the other chakras and up to the third eye. Okay. And it can bring it back down again as well. Okay. Let me ask you this. So there may be people listening that the word chakra is, is something that they're not familiar with. Right. Could just briefly, I know that's a big topic, but could you tell a little bit about what chakras are? And. And where they are in your body, the main ones. Yeah, chakras are energy centers in your body. They're energy, they're not like a physical thing. But they are aspects of who you are. So, like the first chakra has to do with your rootedness, your physical body. And the second chakra has to do with more of It's more watery and movement and it's about the energy and motion, the emotions. And then you have the third chakra, which is your solar plexus, which is the fiery place where you create your power, where your digestion is. And then you have your heart chakra, which is the place of love and compassion. The fifth chakra is in your throat, which has to do with your communication and how you express yourself with the words that you say. Sixth chakra is your third eye, your intuitiveness. Um, how you view things, it's around your eyes. And then the seven chakras atop of your head, the crown, where the energy of the infinite comes in and out. Okay. Mm hmm. So the kundalini energy is kind of centered along that line of these, these are kind of vertical from your base of your spine. Yes. Straight up through the top of your head. Yes. They say it's like a serpent. Oh, okay. Yeah. They say there's like a serpent at the bottom of your spine and it winds its way up your spine, which is just an analogy for the energy. The Kundalini yoga, how does that apply to? these chakras and this energy. So it helps you to become aware of maybe where you might have a block or places in you that you might want to focus more on, because whenever the energy flows, can flow up and down your spine easily, your body actually brings the energy of the earth up. into it, and then it comes out the top of your head. And it creates a, a toric field around you, like your aura. Okay. But it also comes in from above. Alright. Which is bringing in the higher vibrational energies of the planets in the universe. And then they come down and go down into the earth. And then come back up again, and it comes back up again. So you have these two ways of energy moving through your body, and it helps to create your, your aura. It's just the way our body works. Okay, this, Situation that you just described about the energy flowing, that's happening in every single person on earth, every single person, every single being. It, it is, it's, even, you can look it up on the internet, is what the energy of the Earth does from the South Pole to the North Pole, and it comes and creates that field around the earth. Okay. whether we know about it or feel it or or involved with it, it's there. Exactly. I've done a lot of work with people who seek out problems in energy flow, like a medical qigong practitioner, or an acupuncturist, or an energy healer. These are people that look to find problems within that upward and downward flow. Right. Because that is so crucial for us. Yes. If, if, if that's healthy, we're healthy. Exactly. Because you want to keep that energy flowing. Okay. I take it that this type of yoga helps with that. Well. Even the Hatha Yoga does because it helps you to direct the energy through your body. So it's actually, like I said, it's the body, mind, and spirit. You know, so the spirit is that energy flow that's going through your body. Your body is the physical body and how you move it. And then your mind, how does your mind help you to move your body? A lot of people. I've been talking about this in my yoga class recently about all the chatter in our mind. We all have it. Yes. And it's because we're human and we have the polarity brains, the right and left side of the brain. And so, We always have the, well, what if this, what if that, what if this, what if that going on where yoga helps to bring you into the center of it so that you can realize that there is a polarity on each side, but you can bring yourself to the center and be okay with each of the polarities. They both are going to exist regardless of what we do or think or whatever. Exactly. So accepting them and learning to live with them, that's our best spot. How can you not, I mean like if you start to judge one side of the polarity, then you're spending a lot of time in that polarity. I see. And the same with the other polarity, where And if you want to spend time there, it might, might be something that you need to work through. I see. But, realize if you take the time to come into the center, and the center is, you know, paying attention to that, that breath, paying attention to you, paying attention to just being instead of doing. and in your yoga is there a lot of just being? Yes. When you're doing your yoga, is there something that you do to help promote that acceptance and being centered? Yes, I believe my whole class does that for people. And I think it is because I, I guide them to do the different. poses and the movements that we do, and I, in my class, I incorporate hatha and kundalini and the breath because there are like so many different aspects of yoga and I try to get as much, like there's mantras, there's mudras, there's mantras are Words that you say. Okay. So, I tell my class, Okay, so here's, here's what we're doing right now. Say I'm doing the Kundalini part. And we're doing a movement. And so I tell them, Okay, so feel the movement that we're doing. Get a rhythm with that movement, and then add the breath to that movement, and if you still have some chatter in your mind, add a mantra, and a mantra is like a mind wave. It's just, it's just something that, another tool to help you to get into that center. And so you can use any or all of the tools that I'm offering you whenever I'm teaching the class. And I also bring across that you don't have to look a certain way. You don't have to do this a certain way. The most important thing is that your spine is in the best posture it can be in. That you are doing the best you can do. And, and don't judge yourself. Don't try to look like anybody else. Just be in the moment and do the best you can. I think that's hard for a lot of people because we go in today's society We look around what kind of car are they driving? What are they wearing? Are they Thinner or fatter, are they tall or what's their hair like? It's constant every day this comparison and chatter about things and appearances and that sort of thing And so what you're saying is that you're urging people to just put all of that aside and get down to either thinking about Nothing or just having a peaceful mind or what are they? Where are they going? Just being because we are human beings yes, so In Sanskrit, the word human means light. He was light. And man means mind. So we are light minded beings in the world. And the more we just be instead of do, and we just keep on being the best we can be. And we just convey that to everybody. What if everybody was just being the best they could be? Right. Right. What a peaceful, loving place it would be. Yeah. I love that description that you made of the mantras because for some reason I've always really enjoyed, I mean, I, sometimes I would think of it as like chanting or something like that where you're saying some words usually not in English, or your phrases that you're saying and you're saying them over and over and I get so much peace out of that and now I understand why because when I'm doing that my mind is occupied doing that. Yes. Which doesn't, isn't anything to do with how do I look, where am I going, what, who's next to me, anything like that. It's all about that moment. Yes. It gets me into that moment and now I understand that. That, that is a wonderful thing to be in that moment. So peaceful. Yeah. But we don't get very much of that. No, but it's the practice. Oh, I see. So the more you practice it, the more you can be there when you're driving your car, when you're going to the grocery store, when you're doing whatever you do. I see. So you just get, you get going on it, and then the more you do it, it extends beyond yoga class. Yes. Yes, that's what I try to get across to my yoga, my yoga class that I teach. You know, that, we are Because they always tell me how peaceful they are, and you can just tell whenever they're done with class that they are in a different space than they were whenever they came in. And I'm like, you can keep that. You don't have to let it go away. Feel the feeling of that and come back to it as much as possible. Okay. Okay. What a wonderful gift to people that I can see where you would enjoy teaching. Yes. Yes, and now, in addition to your teaching, do you also do yoga practice yourself? I do. Okay, and how frequently would you do that? I do a little bit of yoga every morning when I wake up because when you come out of sleep, you're still in this little like state that makes it easy to do yoga at that time, and if it's possible to do yoga at that time, and it's different for everybody, I just get up in the morning and I just do it and it feels good and then I know that I've done it and I put myself into that space and I can carry it on. How nice. It kind of gets you in the right slot there to just keep that up. Yes. How nice. How nice. Maybe that's what it is about, about you, about why I feel so calm and comfortable talking with you is because you are in that space. You, you live that in that space and isn't that a nice place to be? Yeah. I mean, it's not, I can't be there constantly. There's gonna be that chatter because I'm a human. Sure. But I think when you become aware that you've got that chatter going on, then you get more in control of it because I do not have as much chatter as I used to have. And I'm more aware of when I'm doing it. And then I look at what it is that I'm chattering about, and I'm like, Oh, well, that's kind of a waste of time. Yes. Let's come back and maybe you could do a mantra or listen to some music or something to put you more back into a different space. So it's really not black and white. I'm either all there or I'm all not there. Exactly. Basically, during the day, you just noticed I'm not in as much peace as I would like to be, and I'd like to get back there. Yeah, well, I like to think of it as being in the tween space. And the tween space was something I learned when I did Celtic shamanism. Okay. But it all goes together, all the different spiritual practices. All. Come together. So the tween space and you think about it as being in your center as well Okay, so I learned in a Celtic shaman class that when you're in the tween space Which is the space in between this and that you know Like say for instance, you're at the ocean and it's where the water meets the land and you stand right there where the waves are here in the tween space and Even science has proven that when you're at the beach, there is a something that happens that helps to lower your blood pressure and calm you. So, I looked at it as just proof that that is a tween space and in my mind a tween space is a magical place. So I like to be in the tween place. Okay. If I can spend as much time there, but still be out into the world and experience the different polarities as well, but know that I could always come back to that tween space, my magic place. Oh, that's really wonderful. In getting ready to talk to you today about yoga, I looked at different yoga practitioners and different things that are offered. And one person that, that you had mentioned briefly in our previous conversations is Dr. Sue Mortar. Could you tell me a little bit about what her yoga teachings are or what her program is? I was doing Kundalini on Life Force Academy, and the Simrit was doing a interview with Dr. Sue Mortar, and I was listening to them talk, and what I realized was happening was that I was doing Kundalini Yoga, but I didn't understand why I was being affected to the feelings that I was feeling, and Dr. Sue Mortar explained it in scientific terms as to what was happening. And so I started to learn from her as well, because she explained, and I sort of explained it earlier about how the energy rises up from the earth. And comes up into you and then comes out the top of your head and creates the aura, and then the energy comes down from above and comes down into the earth and then comes back up again. and how that energy field affects you and how you can get different things stuck in the different chakras that will cause a wobble in your energy field. Right. And. Then you're not operating on the best flow of energy. And it's the same thing that you were talking about to people with Qigong and stuff like that. And, and all of the, all of the ancient practices all come to the same space as far as that goes, because they're, they want people to be able to be the best they can be. When you were talking there, it made me think about that listener's question about How do you activate Kundalini energy? I think what you've said is that Kundalini energy is constantly in us. And that's the energy you just were talking about. Yes, yes. It's there. It's there. I think you don't have to activate it. Well, you just have to be aware of it. You can become aware of it. Yeah. And that's, so if you're not aware of it, then it's kind of like, it's not activated. You don't know about it. Yeah, it's still going to be there and it's still going to happen. But the main thing is to become aware of that existing energy that's in you and to foster it. Yes. Or to promote it. And as far as, like Like the mantras and mudras are little you put your different fingers together. Oh, okay. Okay, so. I didn't know what that meant, mudras, but I've seen, I've heard people say, put your palms up and your thumbs with your first finger or whatever. Yeah, if your palms are facing up, you're like activating more of the higher vibrational energy. Okay. If you sit with your palms down, you're more activating the lower energies, the more earthly kind of energies. If you put your thumb, which is like the ego, with the pointer finger, you're putting together, your fingers are the planets. So Jupiter is your pointer finger and you're putting it together with your ego. So the, vibration of Jupiter and you are getting connected. Oh that is, I have never heard of that. That is so interesting. Can we just take a little side trip there? Other fingers are other planets? They are. And, and how about the middle finger? The middle finger is Saturn. Right. The ring finger is the Sun. And the baby finger is Mercury. and that's the same on both hands? Both hands, yes. So when you put your hands together, like in prayer pose, you're putting together All of the planets, but you're also putting together the right and left hemispheres of your brain. Oh, okay. and that's why they use this for prayer. Because you're bringing together the two sides of your brain so that you are more activating your center coming from your space of, your magical tween place. Yeah. I had no idea of the significance of that having been raised in, Christian church, myself, often people would put their hands together in prayer, but in this context it makes so much sense that you are helping to promote peace by bringing these two sides together, the two energies. Yes. Okay. Yeah. We have such magical bodies, but we were never taught how to use them where, like yoga and Qigong and all that has been around for thousands of years and people were more in touch with their bodies back then. We just got out of it and we start looking for happiness outside of us instead of what we already have inside of us. If someone was listening to this podcast and thought, boy, this yoga sounds pretty darn cool. how do I get involved with that? What's the, what's the thing that I should do as a person never having been involved with it? What do I do next? Yeah, you probably need to find. a local yoga place and try out different instructors to find out which one is the one that's going to suit you. Like I said, I went to Kripalu and tried out four different instructors and picked one that I liked. And some of them are going to resonate and some are not. I mean, like if you want to do more of the physical yoga, You might, you might be able to find it at the health club, but there's a lot of yoga studios out there now that are doing all kinds of yogas and they're using different props and all kinds of stuff, but it's all good. So it's not anything to be afraid of when, when I hear that all different types, I get this kind of feeling of anxiety. Boy, what if I go to the wrong place or whatever? Is there a wrong place? Well, you might want to ask questions. Like what kind of yoga are you doing? Is it is it good for? People with like knee problems or stuff like that. How knowledgeable is the instructor? Can they help you to Do something that your body isn't able to do are they allowing you to do things to the ability that your body does it so that you don't feel that you have to do it so that you look like the instructor doing it because instructors can usually go places that other people can't go, right? if I wanted to get a more spiritual based. I could just ask about that, right? Yes, you can ask. It's probably getting to be more prevalent now that you will be able to find maybe a yoga practice that does kundalini or that has mantras or more mindful meditations. Lots of people like to do yoga nidra. Have you heard of yoga nidra? No. Yoga nidra is one where you are Totally, you get totally relaxed because it goes through like each of your fingers and each of your toes and Everybody part and then you do a little visualization of just little snippets of thinking about different aspects of life and how any, even the good parts and the bad parts and then you are like totally relaxed and it puts you into that space. You can find Yoga Nidra's on Google. So if I wanted to look up yoga, Nidra, that's yoga, Y O G A, N I D R A. A? Yes. Yoga knee drops. Yes. You can do a really deep relaxation that way. Some of them are like 20 minutes. Some of them are an hour but you might want to just check out different yoga classes online even. We have that ability now instead of having to go to a yoga studio and not know what you're getting yourself into. But yeah, I would, I would talk to the yoga instructors and see what they're teaching and. What their background is so that you can choose one that would be appropriate for you. For me, having participated in group meditations and group past life regressions and that sort of thing, I find that the energy of the group is so beneficial to me. So I can imagine that as opposed to Being in my living room doing yoga, which is still good, but I could probably get something in addition by going to a particular group. Yes, and I think that's, you know, a person's preference. Right. I like doing it myself. I like teaching it. Right. And I like the feeling they say that when a whole bunch of people get together their heart resonance, everybody's heartbeat will start beating the same when you're in a room like that. So it's really a preference. Yes. Even though you've been doing and teaching yoga for a long time. Yes. you prefer not to go to a group. I do. it's just me. I like to do my own yoga myself. And I like to put myself into that space all by myself. But Years ago, I probably wanted to go to a class as opposed to doing it myself. Because it's hard to get yourself to do it. You know, that's the hard part. Yes. there's a tremendous benefit from doing it on a regular basis, doing yoga for a lot of reasons. And some people think that, I mean, the people that come to my class are like come to my class and they know they're going to do yoga, you know, that way they know they're going to do their yoga. But I keep on telling them, you know, you can do yoga like the rest of the week too, not just on Tuesdays or Mondays. Well. I have learned so much and enjoyed this so much, and I look forward to our next time in talking about whatever we talk about. Okay. Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, James.