Crimes Against Wisdom: The Technology of Yoga

0:00 Builder of Builders

Ernest Chapman0:16 I think of you as a builder and as a builder of builders, and I've seen some of the transformation work you've done in the community and just throughout your life. And so I really just want to dig in and like, right away, one of the first things that strikes me is that you've had a number of different lifetimes in this life. Oh boy, yes, I have, yeah. And you know, you've got, you've got this corporate, badass thing under the hood that I'm like, when I first met you, I didn't know it was there, but I was like, There's something different about her. Like, we're surrounded by all these yoga teachers and all these spiritual people, and in this community situation, I'm like, but she's organized. Like, yeah, tell me about that, you know. Like, where did it all start for you? How did, how did you kind of enter this scene that you're in now? Yeah, from where you came from.

Christy Lynn Hicks1:07 So I started just in typical Southern, conservative, South upbringing, and really didn't know what I wanted to do or but I just wanted to do whatever I did. Well, like, that was it? I was like, that was it? I was like, Well, if this is what I'm doing, I'll do it well. And so I was just a really overachieving. Wanted to get straight A's, people pleasing tendencies, work hard, do the thing and but I had this thing in me that wanted to help people. And I thought that was going to be because I just excelled in school. And I really did well. I thought I was going to be a doctor. So my first semester in college was just all pre med, and then I was like, I don't think I want to do that. I think I want to do psychology because I love learning about the mind and my own mind too, and watching just my own struggles throughout life. I was like, maybe psychology, I'm so interested. So I dove into psychology. And I was like, Well, maybe it's not that sociology. I love people, I love groups. I love how they interact and all the work. So I was like, maybe I'll do social work. So it was kind of this medical, psychological, social work lens. And then all of a sudden, I just took a hard right and went into mass communications, radio, television, photography, and so that's what my degree is in. All those

2:20 Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Ernest Chapman2:20 things, for some reason that makes a lot of sense, right?

Christy Lynn Hicks2:23 Exactly like looking back at the time, I was like, What is this, you know? And so I went right into an internship at a television station in Nashville when I was still in college, and then they offered me a job, and I just being in my 20s and being a go getter and just wanting to figure it out, and really personable, and just asking questions. And I wasn't afraid to walk up to anyone like to me. I just wanted to know. And so I would just found myself moving up the corporate ladder because they're like, well, she stays late, she asked all the questions. You know, she can figure it out. I know how to elicit help, or, you know, like, what's going on. And so I just kept climbing up this corporate ladder. And I was miserable, absolutely miserable,

Ernest Chapman3:09 like you were successful, oh yeah, but you weren't happy.

Christy Lynn Hicks3:12 No, not even a little bit. And now, and so, because I didn't feel like it was my passion, I felt like I was just going through the motions, waking up, doing the job to get a paycheck and learn and climb, and I didn't really have a lot of examples growing up in the 70s in the south, like of people stepping outside of the box of anything, rather than just, you know, status quo. So I followed that and ended up working my way up through and I was I was young, but I was also very driven and hungry for knowledge. So I just kept climbing and climbing, and I ended up moving to a different company that had a whole network operations. It was here in Nashville, and it was way ahead of its time. It was in the early 90s, and right at that same time that I moved to that company, I started yoga. And so I was moving up, you know, into this industry. That was just, I mean, robotic cameras. They had a C band and KU up, Link, down, Link, 90s in the 90s here and on, Dickerson, off Dickerson, Pike, wow. And they had four sound stages. We did jumbotrons for the Titans. We did. I mean, all kinds of technical that we had storage silos with terabyte storage. We were digitizing old formats into digital when it was all very new. So we were ahead of our time, and it was really hard to even convey to people what we did, but I was there in that learning with people like so I just kept moving up, up, up, and all of a sudden I'm in charge of like, seven networks. I'm a network operator, wow.

Ernest Chapman4:47 And then I love how you're laughing about it,

Christy Lynn Hicks4:50 you're looking at it. It's just so strange because I did it, and I did it well, and I managed all these people, and I ended up like the person who hired me. I ended up working my way. Up and becoming her boss, like it was just, I don't even know.

Ernest Chapman5:03 How does she feel about that? She got over. I mean, she saw you're a good boss. I mean, you seem like

Christy Lynn Hicks5:08 I was that that was the thing that I did love about it is that I loved people, and I love training people, and I loved empowering people, and I gave a lot of opportunities to people that maybe not necessarily, because what my pitch was like, it's great to bring in someone with all this experience. However, this is new technology. I'd rather train someone brand new and green, because then I can train them the way I want. So I got to really launch a lot of people into their careers and things like that. Because, you know, moving up, you can imagine a woman in her early 20s, and then people that had been in television for 20, 3040,

Ernest Chapman5:43 years, not how we've always done it, is it? No,

Christy Lynn Hicks5:47 that's why it was so difficult for me. Because, you know, I mean, in a company of, let's say, 200 people, it was maybe an eighth were women. And so just for me to be kind of moving up that ladder, and people are like, what is happening, you know? And of course, the stigma that would go with that, and the judgments and the perceptions of a woman moving up, she must be sleeping her way to the top, right? It couldn't be that she works hard and works overtime and ask questions, comes in on the weekends, stays after like, couldn't be that. There's no way it has to be that, right? So I had to deal with that kind of objectification in corporate and but I don't really care. I just wanted to learn and grow and do the thing, and that's how I became a satellite.

6:20 Dad's Rule: No One Wants to Hear You Complain

Ernest Chapman6:30 You've never been a complainer as long as I've known you. Yeah, I don't complain. And that's really interesting to get your dad wouldn't let you. Okay, I want to dig into that, because there's something really cool there, yeah, but the idea that you're you just described a landscape that would have stopped a lot of other people, and it didn't stop you. So what is the difference?

Christy Lynn Hicks6:52 I mean, I think just my, my mom and dad were very stable. They were providers. They we had Sunday dinner. We went to church. Sunday morning, we had Sunday dinner. My dad bought the lawn like, I mean, it was like this day we did this. This day we had tacos. This day we had spaghetti. I mean, it was just very like, we went on vacation, and we had very ritualistic, very routine and very dependable. And my dad's, I mean, his number one rule, no one wants to hear you complain. Do something about it or zip it. That's it. There's no negotiation. And you just didn't mess with my dad. You just didn't like okay. And so I just saw how much complaining would drain me and my life force the people around me, and I wanted to be a positive like influence for people, even if I didn't love what I did, I wanted to bring joy to the situation and really show how I was responsible for that, which is funny, that I'm now yoga of responsibility is sort of my thing, but I didn't even I couldn't articulate it that way, but I just knew that well, like they showed up and did their thing, and they didn't love their work, but they Did it and they I never heard my dad complain. About it. You just do what you need. To do two jobs and you build your own house, like you

7:40 Watching Him Build the House

Ernest Chapman8:06 just you watched him build your house. My six years old. When you were six years old, what did that do to you?

Christy Lynn Hicks8:13 To me, he was the most amazing man in the universe. Like taking me, he was for me, it's really not that people aren't inspiring, and then I don't respect people, and then I don't see the magnificence or magnificence of what people create in the world. Absolutely, people do astonishing things, but it's really hard for me to be impressed because of the way I saw my dad like show up and just simple, nothing heroic about it, nothing grandiose about it. He was very humble and very just, kind of quiet and conservative, but he did what needed to be done, and there was just no bullshit about it, like just handle it, be a good person. Do right by your family. Build them a house, show up and do your work, pay the bills, support the local community, simple. We've gotten so lost in big ideas and grandiosity that we are now fighting about things that, like, what about the simple things? And that's what he really showed me and to when anybody says, who's your hero, my dad, you know, like, always will be. Always has been, because he showed me something that it took me a long time to get to the other side and see just the perfection of it. Like, yeah, he wasn't perfect, but the perfection of the way that he lived his life, in a way that was just simple and uncomplicated and not filled with conflict and drama. It was just you do what needs to be

9:20 Five Layers in One Man

Ernest Chapman9:40 done, the pursuit of perfection, yeah, which we're all on, right, right? I would hope, yeah, you just described five layers of reality that I'm very interested in. In one man, your father, yeah, the god layer, the civilization, community layer, the work layer, which should have purpose driven into it? If your work doesn't have purpose, it's. Kind of just a day job, right? That's right, which I want to dig into that, because I think you got the story there. I got a few the family layer, which is really the foundation for everything, and the identity layer, the individual self. And I've seen you operate on all five of those layers. There's a time in your life when you were in the work layer. You just described kicking ass in the corporate job, but you didn't really love it, not at all. And then you found yoga, or should we say, yoga found you?

10:20 The First Yoga Class, 1995

Christy Lynn Hicks10:28 Yeah, I remember. I'll never forget Davis to Hexen, bless him. I was just in my living room, and I had back dealt with back pain a lot, a whole nother

Ernest Chapman10:38 story. How many hours

Christy Lynn Hicks10:40 should we spend? Oh, my God, we've got hours. But just basically, I dealt with back pain, physical stuff. And he just said, Have you ever tried yoga? And it was like my brain broke. So I looked it up in the Yellow Pages.

Ernest Chapman10:52 Oh, I remember the Yellow Pages, right? Remember I used to use that for kindling my backyard fire pits.

Christy Lynn Hicks10:58 The closest one was 30 minutes away, and the first yoga class. So I was now in the corporate you know, is working my way up the ladder. Yeah, I was also drinking way too much in a toxic relationship, addicted to cigarettes, like miserable life. And I did that first yoga class. And I remember thinking, I don't know how, because my life looks so far from this, but one day, I'm gonna open my own yoga studio. I'm gonna teach this full time, and I'm gonna figure out a way to get paid to educate myself as much as I possibly can on this path first class. And I mean, I was a hot mess Ernest, and somehow, like, just eye on the prize, but I knew I had a lot of work to do before. First, I opened a business, because I was working my way up. But second before, I started teaching people yoga, like I needed to get right with me before I ever had the audacity to open a business and teach people how to get right with themselves.

Ernest Chapman11:56 I wish more people would do that first, right? I feel like there's a lot of people that don't do that step. Yeah, but

Christy Lynn Hicks12:03 it was important to me because I wanted the yoga to be the primary I wanted the business to be just because I could, but the yoga to be the primary driving force. I wanted that, and I always said, if the business ever overrules the yoga aspect of it, I'm out like I will not sacrifice the what I'm learning, the principles and the technology of yoga and the lifestyle piece, and the, you know, ethics of it, and things like that, like I will not sacrifice that for money or business or bottom line or anything like that. And if I do, I'll get out and go get another job and let somebody else do that.

Ernest Chapman12:38 My early exposure to yoga, and I would not call myself a practitioner, although I admire it, and maybe you could teach me, because I would need a teacher.

Christy Lynn Hicks12:50 Yeah, I always say I teach yoga to people who don't like yoga or think they don't Okay,

Ernest Chapman12:54 then I'm your client. Oh, great, perfect. Because, well, I won't get down that rabbit hole, but I'll say that my early exposure to yoga? Well, there's a few different things where it kind of felt like a fitness class, or like something that, some add on at a gym. And then at one point, I was at a Deepak Chopra conference meditation thing, and there was, like a hot yoga experience, and the teacher thought I was cute. And, like, she literally just gave me, well, thank you, but she just gave me all the attention. And the whole class was just all these and I was like, 16 or 17, and it was like, and she was like, that's fine, whatever. I mean, I just, you know, not, but she, like, physically twisted my body into all these shapes that I wasn't flexible enough to be in and she was, at one time, at one point, literally jumping on top of me to force me into some pose. But there's the moral of the story, though, is that my my stepdad, Bob Sherman, who I don't know if you ever met him, he was a psychiatrist. He was a Jewish guy from Brooklyn who became a Hindu in the 1970s and went to India and found a guru and did it. Did it like every year live in India, and he taught me what yoga was, from his perspective, that it was way more than Asana. Yes, you mentioned the technology of yoga. I want to hear your take. What is yoga?

14:00 What Is Yoga

Christy Lynn Hicks14:20 Yeah, I would love to share on that. And this is what's interesting, too, at the time when I was in corporate and I ended up in satellite engineering by chance, just because they were like, wow, she's a go getter. She'll carry a pager, she'll go in at three in the morning. And I did, and so then I learned how to do that. But the technology piece is, why I would bring that up is that we are like these little tiny satellites. And if, for example, if you put a satellite button in the sky, and you don't get to the right frequency, and you modulate and send out a signal, you're going to blow everyone off air. Oh, oopsie. And now here we are with all. This different noise and static and information coming at us, and ideas and words and thoughts and frequencies and to and but we're jammed up. Our internal system is jammed up. And why I say it's a technology because it is for cleansing out the inner system, tuning our satellite, our inner world, to the right signal before we express because we are transmitters and receptors. But if we're on a channel that everyone else is on, then we're going to hear a lot of static and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of bouncing off and and there's not a clear path for the signal to get through. And so the technology of yoga is, how do we use this tool of the mind, this most powerful simulator in the world. How do we use this to focus, hold our attention on something, let all the other static or noise fall away so that we can transmit a signal that's clear, and we can also receive a signal that's meant for us as well, and it's not it, and it's not filtered through all the static and noise. And so then we went, something triggers, and then we bounce off to this idea and this, and someone says this, and it reminds us of that. And now, with all the whole thing static, and now we're just like, and you remember when the internet, you saw the Ethernet? Yeah, so the ethereal, which is beautiful, it's where spirituality lives.

14:20 Tuning the Inner Satellite

Ernest Chapman16:18 Is that an accident that the name was Ethernet. Oh, I don't

Christy Lynn Hicks16:21 think so. It's we're trapped in the ethers, the net of the ethers, which is all ideas and concepts and thoughts and words, and you can't see it. It's not tangible. And so now there's all this, like, just this noise, and everyone's confused. And it's like 1000s of years ago when we had this big, huge body of knowledge called the Vedas. It was the same thing that was all the information. We needed to reduce suffering. It was, you know, whatever we needed, architecture and Ayurveda and children's hymns and mantras and rituals and yoga and all these different and yoga as a meditation, as a technology, not as the asana that we talked about, but like but people were still suffering back then. And so it's the same thing. Now we have all the information, we have all the technology, but people are still suffering because it can't it's not organized, it's just a bunch of ethereal knowledge, and it's not lived wisdom. And then on the other side, there's materialism, which is, if we go too far into materialism, we see greed and people focused on the past and people fighting and war and pollution, and it's we're so far down into materialism that we're digging up fossil fuels from the past to fuel the present at the expense of our future, like it's that dark and heavy the gravity of it. So the balance of the ethereal and the material is where we need to start looking is like, how do we get those to level out so that we can be inspired with information and connection and ideas, but not get caught in the grind of the material, the gravity and the war and the violence and the greed and things like that? It's like, we got to find a place. And so that's what the technology is for, is to get us clear on what's in alignment with my values, and how am I acting in accordance with those? And if not, the signals are going to be cross firing everywhere, and we're not going to get what we want because we're not clear. It's too much. It's like being in the middle. You always think of a if we went four wheeling, you know, we used to do that. We were little and four wheeling, and all the mud landed on our windshield, and we never cleaned it. It's going to be hard to get around town. Around town. Yeah, right, but we've got to clean that filter of the mind, and that's what the yoga technology does. How do we clear the filter of the mind and so that it can direct itself towards what we value, give all our attention to it, and then be able to see through all the chaos and the noise, and then move forward in that direction.

18:20 The Kingdom of God Within

Ernest Chapman18:42 So Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. That's right. As a yogi who grew up going to Sunday school living in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, what's the relationship between those worlds in your heart and in your experience?

Christy Lynn Hicks19:00 Oh, such a good question. I love it. For me, I will say and I'll just say it because it's the truth. I spent so many years running from God because of the way it was portrayed to me, and it felt very I felt afraid of life. I felt afraid of doing something wrong. I felt afraid of being punished. I felt afraid of my thoughts and questions. I felt afraid of anything. And so I ran from God. And then when I started doing yoga, and started practicing yoga and clearing all that noise, I turned right back towards God and started

Ernest Chapman19:40 coming back turning. That's an interesting word. There's ancient Greek and Hebrew words for turning and aligned with the idea of repentance and menoia. It sounds like you're describing something similar.

Christy Lynn Hicks19:51 So, yeah, because the technology of yoga, it says that we cannot look out the mind is a tool of perception, and we think it's all. This other you know, but it's a tool, and we cannot look out and in at the same time, because it's a perceptive tool. It's like a camera. It can't take a picture of you and take a picture of me at the same time, if I'm sitting here and you're over there, so the mind cannot, it can't look out and in, wow.

Ernest Chapman20:16 So I'm with you. I'm taking this in, yeah, and I'm taking a picture of you right now, right?

Christy Lynn Hicks20:22 Perfect, right? And so the mind, it's when it's looking out it is getting information from the external. So that's where the turning, we turn towards the internal, and that's what starts to wipe the slate clean and the internal. So we think about the most everlasting thing in our life is ourself, regardless of what we think about religion or spiritual beliefs. Who's the one that's been there the whole time, like nobody, and I don't know what you've been through. You and I could sit and talk for six years about every single thing you've ever experienced, I still wouldn't know what it's like to be you, no matter what. I could empathize, I could have an idea, but you're the only one that knows what it felt like, what you overcame, what challenges you faced, all the difficulties, the pain, the joy, the celebration, you're the one. So why wouldn't we tune into that one that's been there the whole time and give us access to whatever? And that was a big thing for me, is that I'm not here to tell people what to believe or their spirituality, and because it different cultures and upbringings. And what I want people to do is have a better experience of their life period and whatever that is, but turning into the thing that is the most everlasting in this life is ourself. If we're just talking this physical life, the only one that's actually been there the whole time is ourself. So I

21:40 Is Yoga a False Religion

Ernest Chapman21:41 was an altar boy when I was in the fifth was in the fifth grade, and you said you wanted to be a doctor when you're a kid. I at one point thought I would be a priest. And in some ways, maybe you have become kind of a doctor in a different way. Some ways maybe I become a priest, but just not, not the way I thought I had married. But, just the idea of, you know, the danger that people perceive in breaking the rules of a transactional faith and the fear that they live in. What would you say to someone who thinks that yoga is a false religion?

Christy Lynn Hicks22:18 Yeah, that's a great question so and it's come up many years, and when I first started yoga, I didn't know how to answer it, until I studied deeper and started really diving in, is that yoga is a separate philosophy from Vedanta, which Hinduism and Buddhism and tantra all fall under Vedanta. Yoga is its own philosophy, and it basically the underlying philosophy says, it doesn't even mention God. It just says there's two things, there's essence and there's form, and then we're all a form is subject to change. All of form, that's the only constant we have, is all of matter is subject to change. Then our essence is the thing that never changes. This is just the philosophy of it. Doesn't say anything about God, doesn't say what you should believe. Then yoga comes along and says, Okay, so if that's the philosophy of yoga, the Sankhya philosophy, then yoga comes along and said, Here's what you can do about it, the psychology of it. And it actually has tools. It gives short term tools. It gives long term tools. It gives like, the special powers that can come from it, the freedom that comes from, you know, the practice, but in the short term, you know, tools like in the moment, right? It offers a lot of different things for different types of people, because we need different things at different times. You know, like a hammer is not always the right tool, right? So that's what I love about yoga. It's tool based, and it doesn't and what it does talk about when it talks about God is that that is a super tool. If you have an inherent belief in God, give your attention to that, because it's a super it's like a mega tool on bringing yourself back to wholeness. Because yoga is just a practice of aligning mind, body, breath, spirit, everything. And it says that's a super tool. And it gives several sutras about it, saying, you know, chant something you know, not rotely, or, you know, like just with out of habit. Do it with meaning. Do it with absolute, deep reverence. And it's going to help you deepen that relationship to God. And so whatever your idea of God is but it's not religious based. It just says, use that. Or if you struggle with that, instead of having faith in God or something outside of you have faith in yourself. You've overcome everything that's ever come your way, which means you'll overcome everything that's ever gonna come your way.

Ernest Chapman24:35 So trust in that. So in other words, it doesn't take a position.

Christy Lynn Hicks24:40 Nope, it does not. And a lot of people don't know that.

Ernest Chapman24:43 Well, I think that's an interesting philosophical question. For some people, they require a philosophy to take a position. Other people bring their position to the philosophy, right?

Christy Lynn Hicks24:53 That's right, that's right. Technology, it's a technology that's right.

Ernest Chapman24:57 So that is fantastic. Okay? Right? Now, I would imagine if you walked into your corporate job in 1996 and started talking like this, people would be like, what would have

25:00 The Ten-Year Runway to Burbank

Christy Lynn Hicks25:07 happened? No, they'd be like, That's Christy Lynn, yeah.

Ernest Chapman25:11 Well, you know, there's a certain amount of internal personal branding within any community or group of people, which I could imagine you probably quickly became that person who became known for going deep, right? Yeah, but at a certain point, you made a jump, yes, and you moved, I did, and you built an entirely new business and a community. What was that like?

Christy Lynn Hicks25:32 Oh my gosh. It was the scariest, most rewarding thing ever. I knew that I wanted to so that from the time I took that first yoga class in 1995 until actually opening my physical yoga studio. I taught part time for many, many, many years. I had a I did it old school style. Four years with a teacher as an apprentice, right? Started assisting old school before teacher trainings were even,

Ernest Chapman25:53 you learn by teaching. It's like that in martial arts. It's like that in any old traditional Yeah.

Christy Lynn Hicks25:58 I studied with a mentor, and then so I was doing it, and I was, you know, trying to not be a drinking, smoking hot mess in a toxic relationship, while climbing the corporate

Ernest Chapman26:10 ladder while being enlightened, yeah, trying whenever a day, at six in the morning or whatever, yeah,

Christy Lynn Hicks26:17 I was far from enlightened, and I knew it, or like, run from anybody says they're lying. But so I was. It took me 10 years from the time I knew I wanted to do it until I opened my doors. But the whole time what I had to reframe, because I really, I was so unhappy in the work I was doing, even though, on the outside, it would look like I had the ultimate success, you know, the nice car and the nice house and the nice paycheck, and then, you know, whatever. And it just wasn't traveling and doing all the things, but it was so toxic and so filled with like, so I was getting sicker, I was starting to feel like, physically, physically, all kinds of problems were starting to occur and and I knew that I needed, wanted to open the studio, so I had to make peace with being there. And so I just flipped my perspective. And I was like, Okay, I need to see this as I'm getting paid to learn as much about my craft for the future as I can. And once I switched that, I was like, Oh, I have money to go to a retreat, I have money to take a training. I have money to do workshops. I have money to do, you know, whatever. And I started slowly building out my, you know, how I'd want to do it. And then I started teaching part time, and I was doing corporate gigs, and I was going to people's houses, and I was having private lessons and renting space, and just slowly starting to do that. And I was like, Oh, this job affords me the opportunity to rent space, and I don't really care who shows up, because I've got a job. So I really framed my perspective, and just got good at yoga and really, and I was getting good at business, because that's what I was doing full time for my work and learning all about business, and I will say, more than anything, I learned what not to do in from my corporate experience.

Ernest Chapman28:02 Now, what not to do from your corporate experience?

Christy Lynn Hicks28:04 What? Yes, exactly. So in my corporate experience, I was learning what not to do when I went into my own business, yeah, you know, yeah. And so I just was taking, you just being a researcher and and finally I took, I was like, All right, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna teach full time. And then I panicked two months later and took another corporate job. You know, I went through many corporate jobs. I worked for all kinds of different things, but the last one was a little more alignment. Was the National Academy of Sports Medicine. It was more in line with what I wanted to be doing, but it still just wasn't my heart. And so finally, my partner at this time, he's like, do it? Just take the leap like, you've got this like, and we live together. He's like, I'll support you while you get on your feet like I got you. And I was so grateful because he believed in me, and he saw the difference I was making for people, and he encouraged me to make the leap, and gave an investment to do that. And I was just like, here we go. And it was, it was, you know, balling on a budget. I was like, All right, here we go, and open the doors in Burbank, California, and just best, scariest thing I've ever done in my life.

Ernest Chapman29:06 So during that period, what, what did it feel like, I mean, so I'm just thinking back, like, there's this really interesting there's these key points of like, you're six years old, and you're watching your dad build the house with his hands, with his hands, and then you're in the corporate job, and you're winning, but you don't feel good, that's right. And then you discover yoga, and then you have this vision, and now all of a sudden, you're in Burbank, California,

Christy Lynn Hicks29:30 that's right. Hey, y'all, Hey, y'all, hey, I from around here. No, yeah, it's pretty much. But you know what, I will say this Ernest, they freaking loved it. They loved the just the southern hospitality, the sort of rowdy. Because a lot of people that I draw to yoga, like I said, are the people that don't

Ernest Chapman29:51 like yoga. I just saw a sign that said biscuits and body alignment, 7am Tuesday morning,

Christy Lynn Hicks29:57 all were welcome, but you gotta have right? You know? Like, they loved that, because a lot of people that came to my studio, I was not your typical yoga studio, and that's what people love. They came in and they were like, I didn't think I could do yoga, you know, because I'm not fit, or I'm, you know, too old, or I don't have the right outfits, or, you know, there was none of that sort of whatever, that outer focus, we were really focused on the inner work and community. And people loved it. They loved and I got shushed at my yoga studio as the owner all the time because I'm just rowdy loud. You know, people wearing shavasana, you like, come out into the lobby. But people love that because they felt really at home, and they felt they didn't have to do this false sense of spirituality, or this sort of I am holier than thou, and I am so, yeah, exactly.

Ernest Chapman30:47 I have a mantra we're going to all say, Me, yeah, and it

Christy Lynn Hicks31:01 just was, just wasn't that. And a lot of people were like, I didn't think I could do yoga, you know, until I came here and this. And then they would, you know, go to other studios. They're like, I just, I feel so at home here. And they so, they really loved it, you know. And la can be so superficial in a lot of ways.

Ernest Chapman31:18 Really, Los Angeles, Hollywood, I know, I know.

Christy Lynn Hicks31:21 I'm probably saying something that should be edited out.

Ernest Chapman31:24 Know this, yeah, I know this is an uncensored podcast. Okay, great, perfect.

Christy Lynn Hicks31:29 I'm just kidding. But, you know, I was very fortunate in LA, but what they really loved, that sort of welcoming, anybody can do it. You know, we had a very high therapeutic, like gentle population of yoga. So it wasn't all about the fitness and workouts, about moving and breathing and being able to get up and down off the floor and, you know, help with kinks and, you know, things in the body that are starting to change. And then it was just great, you know, like, I got to introduce a lot of people to yoga, like I did a free intro to yoga almost every month for 15 years, or every other month for 15 years, just to educate people that, no, you don't it does. It doesn't have to look like this. And here's options for you. And if a teacher says this, here's another way you can do it. If it's hurting, you know, just try to let people know that, like, it's not about this form based practice where everyone's so completely focused and chill and perfect bodies and no, it's we're being humans, and it's a technology that helps us to human better and to feel better on the journey, a

32:00 Yoga Helps Us Human Better

Ernest Chapman32:30 technology that helps us to human better. That's right, that's great. Did you just come up with that?

Christy Lynn Hicks32:40 Well, I mean, it's kind of, I mean, that's what I teach it

Ernest Chapman32:43 as, can I hire you to do some marketing work that's GPT. Can't come up with stuff that. Great.

Christy Lynn Hicks32:47 I'm sorry you got to be raising this out for that one. Wow.

Ernest Chapman32:51 Well, so you're describing this amazing light that you've brought into the world. I've had moments in my life where everything clicked, and it lasted for a little while, and it maybe even was earned through sacrifices, through upgrades, through taking out the trash that happened in earlier periods. But like the Temple of Jerusalem, one day, an army shows up and tears it down, and then with a sword in one hand and a shovel. In the other hand, you're rebuilding it. Yeah. Tell me about that. Yeah.

Christy Lynn Hicks33:28 So I built this dream. It was everything I ever wanted. I got to travel the world and teach, certify hundreds of people, teach 1000s of people. I got to educate myself, study with some of the greatest people I it funded. It did what I wanted to do. It funded my entire education. I was just, I want to learn more and more and more, and my business supported that. It happened. Everything about it was perfect. Your vision happened. It literally better than I could have imagined. It was beyond like. And so 15 years we celebrated. 15 years. We had a big old anniversary party, and that was March of 2020. March 4,

33:40 March 2020 and the Collapse

Ernest Chapman34:07 15 years. I remember what I was doing in March of 2020. Yeah, and I wasn't doing it for very much longer.

Christy Lynn Hicks34:13 Yeah, no, yep, that's it. And so days after we celebrated our big, huge anniversary of 15 years. We this whole community. I mean, I had people that had been working with me. I had at least over 10 people that had been with me over a decade,

Ernest Chapman34:31 a decade of their lives. Yes, working with you.

Christy Lynn Hicks34:35 And some of them had been there 15 years, the whole time, and their families, everything for the journey everybody, babies were born there, you know, baby, mommy and me and people, I mean, everything, we grew up together. So when that, when it closed down, it shattered me. It shattered me, I and the whole community and the world was falling apart. So like our little pocket was, you know, small compared to what was happening overall in the world. But I had like that was one of the biggest ego death, identity crisis, losing, just crawling or falling down into this deep, dark hole of confusion for the world, for my own life. Who am I without? And I didn't realize. So one of the reasons in the yoga, you know, there's the Yoga Sutras, like the handbook for yoga, but one of the reasons we suffer is over identification with form. And boy, did I have to look at so here's the

Ernest Chapman35:34 thing that thing you talked about earlier. That changes, yeah, exactly,

Christy Lynn Hicks35:39 yep, yep. And here I was, I know all this stuff, I have all this wisdom, and I am drowning in sorrow and grief and like, it was terrible and it was even worse. And I was like, I actually did not think that I could go back, Revert emotionally to a place before I discovered yoga.

Ernest Chapman36:03 Oh, like now I got to go back and get a job somewhere, just

Christy Lynn Hicks36:06 even who I was and just the confusion of the world. I didn't think I could go back to my 20s before I started yoga, and I did for years. I just was in this I felt like the myth of Sisyphus. I would get some inner energy and, Oh, I see motivation to rise again, and then I would crash and burn, and I was just looped into this cycle of grief and depression and anxiety and addiction for a couple of years after covid, it was hard, and what I knew so elevation Central, place in Mount Juliet. I started. I got the name for it. I was dissolving yoga blend. I was like, just trying to get it all done, all the people and all the paperwork and everything I had to do to dissolve 15 years of a business while starting to slowly grind towards another one. Because I was like, I'm not stable enough to teach in the way that I've been teaching and training, but what I know I can do, more than anything, is I can build a house, and that was elevation Central. I can build a community, because that's part of my genetics. That's part of what I witnessed my dad and my mom do like. That was part of like. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna take a break from teaching. Because I honestly, and I was annoyed at everything everybody was saying. I didn't want to listen to anybody in 2020 I thought everybody, it was such a mess. I was

36:20 Building Elevation Central While Broken

Ernest Chapman37:32 like, everybody, I don't care what fake side of whatever you were on for that doesn't matter. It's doesn't matter in all directions. I was

Christy Lynn Hicks37:40 just like, hug the midline, do not get caught in the extremes. Just like, and it just watching that and going, what am I going to do? I can't go back to a job like I've been in business for myself for 15 years. There's no way. I'm not ready to teach on that level, because I need to take care of me. I'm broken right now, like I felt broken like, and I've got to teach me like I've got to lead myself. That's like, I'm that's a big part of my work is self responsibility and personal leadership and all of that. I got to fix me, but what I can do is build a community, and I can do that, and I can do that, and it will heal me in the process, because I know surrounding myself with people and doing something that's so natural to me that it literally is like brushing my teeth is to hold space for community. So that's where elevation Central. And I slowly just started doing events and building community. And then I knew eventually I'd start wanting to teach again in a bigger way.

Ernest Chapman38:34 But you're you're talking about being in Burbank, and things are shut down, oh yeah. And then you got back here, oh right, yeah, yep. And then read, rebuilt in the, in the, in the home your father built with his hands. Yep, full circle. Full Circle. Was he able to witness any

Christy Lynn Hicks38:52 of that? No, no, none of it. Not even my son being born. So that was like devastating to my heart. Yeah, yeah,

Ernest Chapman39:03 but you're living something he started that's right, in a beautiful way. Yeah, we met there first. We met at vibe lounge. Yeah, I think

Christy Lynn Hicks39:15 was that way. I feel like I've known you for longer than that, but probably, maybe, maybe I'm

Ernest Chapman39:19 from Nashville, yeah, so when you were going through your early experiences, I was a teenager, and I was, you know, going to all the healers and hanging out at magical journey and, you know, cafe Coco, oh yeah, run into each other.

Christy Lynn Hicks39:33 I just been at all of those places.

Ernest Chapman39:37 One thing that really hits me with all of this, I've got similar stories of everything falling apart, coming back together, overcoming addictions, compulsive behaviors, taking out my emotional, mental and physical trash so that I can open up a clear channel to spiritual truth that comes through, you know, without getting falling into. Deception and confusion, just like what the way you describe yoga sounds a lot like things I've been doing, maybe I've been doing yoga and I just call it something else. That's right. I don't sit in a sauna, but, you know, I can probably, I could probably add that in. But I see a tsunami coming right now with specifically with AI that I feel like a lot of people are going to need a model of survival and fulfillment and purpose when the rug gets pulled out from under them, and it's starting to happen. You've lived through the rug getting pulled out from under you in a major way, and you have the ability to stop yourself and go, hold on. I actually can't work on the splinters in other people's eyes. Now, I got a I got a wooden beam that just hit me, and I got to pull that out. Yeah, after 15 years of being the splinter remover, that's right, which is incredibly humbling, yeah. And also it makes me think like no matter how much anyone attains a vision that they have or something could happen that's right to all of us. That's right. You know, run away from someone who says they're enlightened. That's what I say. Yeah. What would you say to somebody who is like 1995 Christy, who's coming in, fresh off the boat into what we just talked about, and it hadn't happened to them yet. What can you tell them from what you've gone through?

Christy Lynn Hicks41:32 Wow, that's such a good because I think we're going to get a lot of those. Yeah, yeah. And it a big part of it, unfortunately, and this is just the sad truth of it. A lot of people do not have good examples, role models, or they people love to talk about what they know. My dad didn't talk much. He showed he didn't engage in, you know? And there's so many people that talk about what they know, and they talk about their thing, and they talk about their trauma, and they talk about their pain, and they talk about other people, and they talk about their looping, looping, looping, looping, I could see that, right? And so it's me, me, me, yeah, I know I

Ernest Chapman42:16 totally see that, yeah.

Christy Lynn Hicks42:21 And and people just want to be heard. I understand that, and there is a way to do it, but the thing that we have to do more than anything, and this why the my book I was telling you about is, bless your heart. Bless all our dang hearts. Bless every heart that's ever been hurt and beaten and abused and lied to and sick and injured and lost something, and what bless all our hearts. And we have to do the work. We cannot continue to look outside and blame and point the finger and who did it, and who done it, and you did it, and that did it. And I know this, and you know that. Well, this is what I think, and this is what I think. Well, okay, show me. Show me what that looks like. It's confusing. There's a lot of words running around out there. Show me. Show me. And even with children, you know, like, there was a mom recently, and this goes along with, what were you asking that came to me, she's like, I don't understand why my daughter is something. I don't understand why she's such a terror. And I got a terrible child. What do I do? What do I do? And I'm like, do and I'm like, do you really want to hear what I have to say? She's like, Yes, please.

Ernest Chapman43:24 I'm asking you, yeah, do I have your consent? You what I actually see

Christy Lynn Hicks43:29 here, and I try to wait for people to ask for advice, because I've got a lot to say, and I just keep my mouth shut because my daddy, you know, like people aren't asking, I'm not gonna give my advice. But she asked, and I said, Well, here's the thing I see is you tell her everything to do, but I don't see you doing any of it. Oh, ouch. I know. Oh, that hurts. Yeah, she cried. I mean, in a good way, she cried. And like, I was, like, you've got to, you can't just tell her it doesn't. You got to walk it out with her, be with her, show her, model it. And so the thing with that person back in the 90s, that if they're in that position, is nobody's coming to do the work for you, and the work is to take care of yourself, to exercise, to move, to breathe, to look at your, you know, own imbalances and obstacles and shadows. And if you need a coach, get a coach. If you need a therapist, get a therapist. Like make choices. How are you responding in the moment? Are you working towards your dreams? Are you just yapping on and on about them? Like, are you actually taking steps? And we have to take steps every day if we actually want to make a dent in matter, if we want to make an impact and expand our reach, we have to actually get in there and grind it out and do the work and take up more space, like, literally gravity, matter, like tangible, like, push it into the earth. And a lot of people want to talk about everything they want to do, or they want to blame everything, or what they're going to do one day, or wish they could do. Or, I know this, but they have all the excuses and reasons not. It's like, no. Get up and grind it out. Get up and move your body. Get. Up and, you know, go for that walk. Get up and make that, you know, healthy choice with food. Get up and talk to yourself in a nice way. Talk to other people in a nice way. What are you talking about? Where are you spending your time? So it's like, what yoga, for me, is more than anything. It's best at prevention. Prevention, it's not it's great at healing and helping, but where it shines and where it thrives as a technology is prevention. What are we preventing? Well, you look at, okay, here's what I did in my past, here's the result it led to. If I want a different result, I probably should do a different action.

Ernest Chapman45:36 That sounds like cognitive behavioral therapy. It is. It's very much

Christy Lynn Hicks45:40 like that, and yoga is really about you got to make different choices if you want different results, and the way that you do that is look at what has happened as a consequence of your actions, and make that choice clear the mind so you don't get confused on what's yours and what's not and then walk towards that choice that is different. And so it's and or make that choice that's going to help your digestion, go to bed earlier, so that you feel excited to get up and move your body.

Ernest Chapman46:06 My parents told me when I was 10, yeah, exactly.

Christy Lynn Hicks46:09 That's why. I mean, it's so simple, actually, right? Yeah, yeah.

Ernest Chapman46:13 Well, during that, that darkest time, you know, you went through this dissolution. It's like an alchemical process, separate, purify and recombine. And I've seen you go, I met you when you were on the up after that, right? But there's this period where I'm curious, like, how did you pick it back up? You know? You say, do the work. I see you training and teaching people. Now, I would imagine there's probably specific examples. You could change the names to protect the guilty, but of of you know, get out of your head. Stop talking about it and do it. Yep, but you did that to yourself. I did so now you have the authority of someone who is an author of your story, which is what your authority is. You've authored your way into a position of of actually influencing and helping others. What did you have to do to survive that and to get back on the horse?

47:00 Honest About Your Own Bullshit

Christy Lynn Hicks47:11 Yeah, yeah. So good. So the one thing I had to do is get real honest about my own bullshit. You have that too. Oh, my God, yes. Okay, but I had to get real honest on the things that I was out of integrity with. And integrity is just integration. Is it integrated in the words we speak, the actions we take, the movements we make, the thoughts we think, like, is that all integrated? And if not, we're not in integrity? I like that definition. Yeah. That's what it means. And a lot of people think it's a moral thing. Yeah, sounds

Ernest Chapman47:44 more achievable than like you have some moral failing and you're screwed.

Christy Lynn Hicks47:48 That's right, right? No, it's like, integrate what you say with what you do and how you act. And so I was lost in I knew that I wasn't doing so the thing that allows us to let go and surrender a control, more than anything, is knowing that we've done every single thing that we know to do with the resources we have and the tools we have available to us. If we've done that, it's much easier to surrender and let go, but if we know one of the reasons we suffer is crimes against wisdom, crimes against wisdom knowing better and not doing better, wow, and I was knowing better and not doing better, wow,

48:00 Crimes Against Wisdom

Ernest Chapman48:31 yeah, crimes against wisdom. I know tell me about wisdom. What is wisdom?

Christy Lynn Hicks48:36 Lived experience? You decide based on your experience of something a full merging with it, your focus, if that's something you desire to continue to link with, and you only know until you link with it you know like. And as we get wiser, I put in quotes along the path. We might not have to link with something for 10 years, five years, or whatever we're like, no, that's wisdom. It's like, I linked with this. It brought me this result. It brought me these kind of things. That's not what I keep choosing to link with or engage with, but it takes lived experience. We got to try things out. We got to try contrast. We try, you know, maybe some hobby or art or, you know, whatever. We try all kinds of different things, and then we start to discern what are the things that actually make me feel more integrated, more aligned, more attuned to, you know, what I'm feeling and what I'm saying and what I'm doing, and all of them are lining up like, what are those things? But we don't know until we experiment we try. So that's when we're kids. We don't have a lot of wisdom, because we're just trying it all like we, you know, like figuring it out and talking this way and trying to get away with this thing and trying to do this thing. But as we mature and grow along our path, there comes a point when we're like that. People can do that, but that's just not for me. It doesn't fill me up and. Doesn't make me feel good, it doesn't give me energy, it actually drains me. That's wisdom. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do this instead.

Ernest Chapman50:07 I like reading from the Bible to my kids at night, and we often focus on proverbs and the Book of Wisdom. Oh yes, yes, and Psalms and those kinds of things. And it strikes me that King Solomon just wanted one thing from God. He asked for wisdom, and he also committed crimes against wisdom that sounds like its own, that sounds like a book, right?

Christy Lynn Hicks50:35 Crime like that might be, maybe that should be the title of my book.

Ernest Chapman50:38 What is the penalty for committing a crime against wisdom,

Christy Lynn Hicks50:41 yeah, suffering. I mean, that's what yoga is, a technology to reduce suffering. So it gives all these little signs that may show up, obstacles, warnings, like, I always see it as, like, warning you're leaving the State of Union. Please back up. Yeah, and it's, it's really, it gives us this kind of road map for like this. It's not to punish you, but your patterns and behaviors, and, you know, all those things won't go away, but they go dormant. So they're not causing you suffering. They're not causing you disturbance. But if you drift off the path, they'll pop back up. You know, it's like it's so it's a handbook to keep us from prolonged suffering. Does it mean we're never going to have pain? No, of course not. Does it mean we're never going to make a mistake? Of course not. But what it means is that we can reduce the long term effects and actually be more present in the and we're not drifting off into some scenario that's causing anxiety and making us feel a certain way, and we're not drowning in the sorrows and regrets of the past. We're really present, and we're able to make choices that are in alignment with our values. And we know what our values are, because we clear the mind and we pick, you know, things that actually mean something to us, rather than just somebody told us to we're actually have sovereignty in our own choices, and we're actively participating in this experience of life by being very clear and focused and discerning and mindful about the choices we're making, because we know that if we make that certain choice in the past, it led to suffering. I'm not going to do that. That's empowering. And so then we start to feel more like an active participant in our life, rather than just a victim of circumstance. And that's what it's for, is to help us to reduce suffering, get clear and experience wholeness in the present moment with everything we're doing. And it's a practice because, and that's why I call myself a living artist, because I don't know what's going to happen till I show like someone shows up, our situation shows up. But fortunately, I have the technology and the, you know, the information and the learning behind me to bring to that situation. But we can't know what we know until we know differently, right? Like, I mean, we only know what we know until we know something different, and we can only do something different if we know something different. So we better get clear, so we can make better choices, so that we're not prolonging our suffering.

Ernest Chapman53:06 I am very attracted to that. I want that for everybody. I want to live in a world full of people that where that clicks me too. I love, I love your life's work. I love what you're doing amazing, what's next. I want to, I want to kind of get what's there. You know, give me a dispatch from the edge of like, what's coming for you, what's coming for the community you're building. I know you have a book that's coming out. You've read some amazing poetry at these events that your place is that part of the book, what's tell me about what's next.

Christy Lynn Hicks53:41 Okay, great. No, thank you. So one of the things that people have generously said to me is the way that I teach yoga is unlike anything they've ever heard, and that they want access to that like and so that's where the book is really coming from. Is like to make it practical, to make it in very modern, simple, Howdy Doody, Southern like, bless your heart, terms. I'm not trying to say you're bad. I'm just saying, if you want something better, do something different. Let's go, you know, let's go. I'll hug you and give you a few more babies, and then, like, pick up you big boy, big girl panties, and let's go. Like, we got shit to do, you know? And I, I want to bring in that playful aspect of it, and so that yoga is not this serious, like I'm above everything, and I'm so enlightened, like that is boring to me, like, and fine, if people are doing it, they're happy and they're satisfied and fulfilled and wonderful. But for me, I'm rowdy, and I like to play, and I like that wild side of, you know, what life? You know, it's fun, and so I want to share in that way. And that's what the bless your heart and do. The work book is about. It has poetry, it has exercises, it has anecdotes, stories, experiences. It's part biography, like, part, you know, exercise, teachings, like, it's a little bit of all of it, just to kind of introduce the. Work, because I have several books in me. I want to do, like, a yoga sutras Oracle deck, because I'm not interested in anybody's opinion about how they think Sanskrit should be interpreted. So if I do it as an Oracle deck, it's a game. And I'm like, it's a game.

Ernest Chapman55:13 Get over it. That's funny.

Christy Lynn Hicks55:16 Well, this is what that word means to who, like

Ernest Chapman55:19 somebody came up with this at some point, I'm just as much of a human as they are, exactly.

Christy Lynn Hicks55:24 And if I'm living it and it makes sense this way, don't tell me how to do it scholarly. I want to do it playful, so the Oracle deck

Ernest Chapman55:31 can comment on it 1000 years from now, exactly, on your deck, exactly.

Christy Lynn Hicks55:36 And I want it to be that playful. Sort of you draw a card and you learn something cool. That's like the practical technology. So that's something I want to do, and then with community, I'll always that's always that, like I said, that's just part of my just DNA is community, but really hosting very and lots of different events, curated, ceremonial, celebratory. Educational things like that. And that's always been the dream of elevation Central is to be this hub of integrative experiences, where it's not just ideas and concepts. We're living it out in the conversation we're having right now, in the person we're watching on stage right now, like, not someday. And so that's what I really love about that. And then with the Living Arts Yoga Institute. So I've trained teachers for 20 years, certified teachers, but the a lot of people want to do my training that are like, I don't want to be yoga teacher and I don't want to do 300 hours, because they don't want to be yoga teacher, but they want the technology for their own life. And so,

Ernest Chapman56:42 okay, that's really interesting. Yeah, hold on. Let me just mark that, because that's making me think about when I did music lessons, 40 hours, 40 students a week, professionally. And then also, you know, as I've studied martial arts, like I had students that came to me for music lessons that were not trying to be a professional musician, that that was their career. Yes, they still had access to learn because it improved their life. I don't study martial arts because I ever want to get in a fight, I'd love to avoid that, right? I'm not, like, going for, like, a military thing, right? That's not the objective that I have, but I but it improves my life, the way I live, in my body, the way I move. There's confidence, there's all these benefits, and it benefits your family or community. So it sounds like you're saying that you're opening up a level of high caliber training. Yes, that would normally not necessarily be, don't let me put words in your mouth. I mean, you won't, but, like, I just want to, I'm not trying to. No, I want to hear you high caliber training for that would normally be something like instructor level training. That's, that's something that can actually go to someone who's not trying to be a professional yoga instructor, person who runs a studio in a career.

Christy Lynn Hicks57:49 That's right. That's right. How does that work? So basically, what I'm doing is separating into a program for practitioners. They want to do it for personal development. People that want to do it for their own home life, their own relationships. Maybe they want a promotion at work, and they can, you know, say, I've done this professional development course, right? And because it's, it's very integrative. And then the second will be for leaders who just want to increase their understanding of their own responsibility in leadership, in their jobs, in their careers, in their work, in their entrepreneurship, whatever it is, but they are in charge of a group of people in some way, shape or form. And then the third would be for people who want to teach yoga as a living art, like as a yoga teacher. Yeah. And then, you know, the studio teacher, that's fine. There's just, there's a lot of those out there that just how to teach poses and shapes in a class. And so I'm just stepping away from that, like, a little bit and focusing more on the advanced training of, like, how do you do it more therapeutically? How do you do it more, you know, relationship based for the person in front of you, and not some sort of, like, standardized this is how you do this. No, you do this? No, you don't know until that person shows up and tells you what's going on, and then you can so I want to do it, so it'll be like a personal development, a leadership development, and then a yoga teacher.

Ernest Chapman59:11 But that is that is a challenge as a teacher to have a dynamic curriculum, right? Because, on the one hand, it's got to be dynamic, because it's personalized to the student and it's real for them, right? But on the other hand, how do you scale something that's different every time you do it right?

Christy Lynn Hicks59:24 And that's the biggest thing, is that what I want to do is more immersive style, like people come and learn the integration piece and then traveling and speaking and educating people. Like that's a big part of my passion. But the the studio model, and I did that, I did that. I did a 200 hour and a 300 which the 200 is more standard. How do you teach in a yoga studio? How do you teach groups? How do you sequence a class? How do you cue a pose? How do you what are the nuances of the pose? What's the basic underlying philosophy? Like all of that, like I've done, and I will still incorporate some of that, but my passion is with those people who are really wanting to do. More of a small group, more therapeutic approach. And that's just a passion of mine, personally. And then the scaling would come from more of my teaching, speaking on stage, the book, you know, speaking like, about the book, things like that, traveling, doing more corporate trainings, things like that, like, that's where I want to but the small that's, there's nothing to replace the relation, because I actually want to see their life get better. Yeah. I want to see it.

1:00:20 The World Where Everybody Wins

Ernest Chapman1:00:29 That's the vision. Yeah. So I have two more questions I want to throw out that could, could be rabbit holes, but, you know, we got time one of them, if you could vision a world into existence, that really is your vision for the world. What does that world look like?

Christy Lynn Hicks1:00:53 Oh my gosh. I love this question. It is a world where every single person feels safe and valued, and they're free to be themselves, and they're surrounded by love and support, and everyone has clean food and clean water, and everyone gets to do the work of their soul. That means something to them, that lights them up, that makes them feel alive, and that they get to do it and help all the people meant to help, and they are able to go through the difficult times of life knowing that they're okay, that they're and they have surrounded by people that love them, that help see them through. You know, I always say I'm not living in some sort of delusional world where everything's perfect and it's all like spiritual bypassing, no, but my philosophy of everybody went into no bullshit and everybody wins. That's sort of my personal philosophy, is that the everybody wins piece isn't that everything's going to be perfect, but it's that when things do fall apart, that we have people that can hold us through the storm, that can show up and maybe cook a meal, that can maybe help us, you know, get up the stair, whatever it is that we need support in and that's still winning. Where we don't feel abandoned, we don't feel alone, that we can have difficult conversations and still respect one another and maybe choose not to hang out, but we don't need to hurt each other with our words and our thoughts and our ideas and and all those things, where people are so settled and regulated in their nervous system that there is no need to talk about anyone else unless you're talking about them in an uplifting and positive way. There's no need to fight because there's nothing to fight for. We're all here, and we all have a right to be here, and we all feel taken care of and supported, and every single person is valued for the unique, beautiful miracle that they are and small dream, but

Ernest Chapman1:02:46 Well, that leads right into the next question, which is the biggest question I'm probably going to ask. How do we achieve that?

Christy Lynn Hicks1:02:56 Bless our hearts, one step at a time, you know, and I think that the big, what I'm most passionate about, and more than anything, it's the No bullshit piece. It's taking personal responsibility, because we could sit and blame, whose fault is it? Is it the government? Is it the preacher? Is it the mom? It's the aliens. Is it? Ai? What settled that part? Whose fault is it? Or we could say, You know what, regardless of the outside world, I'm going to get right with me. That's the only thing I can control. That's it. And if I stop giving all my energy and thoughts and attention and ideas to what everybody else is doing wrong, and turn it towards what am I doing that is not in alignment with what I say I want in the world. And if I'm thinking shitty thoughts, I need to get right with that. If I'm eating shitty food, I need to get right with that. If I am, you know, like talking mean, I need to get right with that. You know, like yoga is a neutral technology. It will make you good at whatever you focus on, because it's union with something. It's it's linking. It is complete absorption with our object of concentration. So if we're concentrating on really negative thoughts and gossiping and all that. So we're gonna get great at it. We're gonna yoga with it. We're gonna unite with it. We gotta be very selective. And that's where the discernment and clearing the mind so that what are you focusing on? And so that the start for anybody out there is start focusing on what you want. And you got to do practices and things that turn your attention away from what you don't, because it's the neural pathways in our brain. The more we feed it, the bigger they get, the deeper the groove we have to start feeding a new neural pathway of what it is we want and how we want to feel. And eventually, over time, it starts getting momentum, it starts widening. And then this. And starts to get a little more narrow, and we keep pushing the energy, and all of a sudden things are flowing in the direction of our desire. And then we deal with the things as they come up, and they're not so overwhelming, because we have such a big ravine of like, what it is we want that is pulling the weight forward, the energy, forward, the ideas, that movements, the thoughts, the people that we're meeting. I mean, it's like a but it takes someone, I think, that we all need, somebody that we trust, that can give us guidance, to say, Hey, you're leaning to the left. Yeah, you're leaning to the right.

1:05:00 Empower the Treasure, Not the Trash

Ernest Chapman1:05:30 Because I'm not gonna see my trash the way you would, exactly. But if I don't have someone help me take that trash out, I might not take it out. And now I'm empowering my trash Exactly, exactly, which is like, Okay, well, I think I've done that before. I'd like to do it differently. Maybe we could take the trash out and empower the treasure Exactly.

Christy Lynn Hicks1:05:49 Yes, because with if we're left, you know, unchecked, we'll always lean towards our imbalance. Because it's habit, it's routine, it's we can't see it. We can't see ourselves like we need someone outside of us that we trust and and I think that's where the mentor model, or the coach model, or someone that we really that they aren't just talking about what we need to do, we see them as a living example, and go to that person and go, show me how you did it, you know, show me how you did that. And I think that a lot of people don't get good quality feedback. It's more the shame, blame, guilt, what? Feel bad, you know, whatever. So, but I think there's a lot of people rising into that role of being a really clear mirror for people, and that's why I'm so passionate about lead yourself first and the rest will fall into place. You know, don't go out there and try to lead everybody else. Tell everybody else what to do if your life has got some gaps, fix that first, because then you're going to inspire people and magnetize them to you. Because you're actually it. You're taking up space. You have more matter, which is more impact, and it's not this ethereal idea of who you need to be. No, let me watch it. That's how children learn. That's how I learned from my father. He didn't talk about it, he just did it.

Ernest Chapman1:07:02 Those are your earliest memories.

Christy Lynn Hicks1:07:03 Earliest memories. Wow, yep.

Ernest Chapman1:07:08 Well, on that note, I proposed a tote.

Christy Lynn Hicks1:07:10 Yes, let's have a second toast. Oh my gosh. I love talking full circle, and I would love to do this again. Me too. It's so good. I feel like we could talk for days, and we will. You're so good at it to transformation, to transformation. It's so good. I love shooting it like, so good, great. I'm like, I gotta get someone really

Ernest Chapman1:07:32 gonna make these guys, like, give me a bunch of free bottles.

Christy Lynn Hicks1:07:35 Yes, absolutely. All right. Cheers, cheers. Thank you. Transcribed by https://otter.ai