Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation where you feel like you’ve hit a dead end and don’t know how to move forward? Maybe something isn’t going as planned or you’re struggling to make progress. It can be confusing and overwhelming to navigate this kind of uncertainty.
Join me as I sit down with Anjali Konojia, an expert in spiritual growth and personal development. In this episode, we explore the benefits of immersive spiritual experiences and how they can help us to reevaluate our lives and make positive changes. Anjali shares her unique approach, which combines travel, yoga, and spiritual practices, to guide individuals on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.
Whether you’re seeking new perspectives or looking to break out of patterns of stagnation, this episode is sure to provide valuable insights and inspiration.
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Unlocking Your Potential: Guide to Immersive Spiritual Transformation with Anjali Konojia
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I want to talk to you about connection because it’s ironic that, in the modern world, we have the most devices, the most means in which to connect, yet we’ve created a system where it is harder to connect with people, connect with others as well as connect with ourselves than it seems like it’s ever been before. My guest today, Ashton August, her business, YouAligned, helps you connect with yourself so you can better connect with others and it incorporates so many aspects of what we all need to do in this particular period of time to have a better image of ourselves and a better connection with who we are and become better aligned with what we want our lives to be.
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Anjali, welcome to the program.
Namaste. Thank you for having me.
For anyone that’s not familiar with everything about yoga, what does namaste, which I think is the first word anyone thinks about when they think about yoga, actually mean?
Really good question. Namaste has taken a life of its own but namaste literally means “I bow down to the goodness or the divine in you” so just recognizing that we all have that same potential within us, recognizing that potential in the other person. So just a little bit of humbleness to show the life that is in front of us when we bow down and say namaste.
When you say namaste, so that’s what anyone that’s heard this now can start thinking about whenever they hear or see the phrase namaste.
Absolutely.
Anjali, your program is called Travel to Transform. It’s in June 2023, 2023 is this year because it’s now January at this recording, and it’s like a two-and-a-half-week immersive experience.
Well, when I was part of the university, the higher education system, I’ve taken trips with alumni, I’ve taken trips with students, graduate students, people doing research, and not just to India but actually one of the most fantastic in terms of fulfilling trips I’ve taken is to Greece, I took a group of premed students and we worked in the refugee camps, offering some of these yoga services. Yoga entails meditation and breathing exercises as well as well as physical postures. So a lot of these folks, of course, unfortunately, have ended up on the Greek Isles from many different places being displaced. Many, if not most, are experiencing a lot of mental health issues so that has been one of the most dependent highlights in terms of taking such an immersive trip, going to help people, contributing something positive towards their life. So what is Travel to Transform? So this time around, I want to take people to India, to the Himalayas. Why? And I think you and I have a little bit of this in common, we’re interested in health, right? Mental health, physical health. This becomes extremely important in this time when some kind of consider the pandemic to be kind of sort of over, or at least the way we try to kind of deal with it, we have a little more grasp on what we can do to kind of change a little bit, change our approach in thinking about life, thinking about possibly unemployment that we’ve experienced, thinking about all the other losses that we’ve experienced in terms of life also, someone or another that we know who has passed on because of the pandemic, because of the virus. So how do we deal with these kinds of things and how do we kind of get back to this new normal?
so, therefore, this particular Travel to Transform, the Himalayan trip, June 2023.
And so on this trip, some travel between different locations as well as some yoga, what else is involved in his trip? Is there any of the traditional sightseeing type of travel? Are there other culturally immersive experiences?
Yes. So all of the above, yes, absolutely, and this is a great time to actually be in the foothills of the Himalayas. So this trip does not entail climbing any mountains or doing anything strenuous like that, I want to point that out. We’ll be in the valleys, of course. Yes, and so we’ll be able to see the snow melting, things like that. So, when we land in Delhi, it’s going to be a little hot. But I’m from Texas, I’m used to that kind of thing. But then, immediately, we’re just kind of setting off to the northern state, which is Punjab, and then kind of going along the Himalayan Mountains. So we’ll go from place to place experiencing some of the sacred spaces, some of the temples, many of the places where some gurus have been. I mean, for example, we’ll be visiting some sites where, Zuckerberg and Julia Roberts and the Beatles have experienced their divinity, so to speak.
So I want people to go visit, take this faith in, take this energy in, and just rejuvenate in some ways, focusing inward... Click To Tweetso, yes, sightseeing involved. We’ll be visiting farms, doing that type of touristy stuff but then, again, visiting people’s homes to see how the locals live. Well, I want to go take people to a tea estate. Want to see where your tea comes from? Like go sink your feet into that soil and experience how things are growing, just be grounded in nature. So nature will be all around us and one of the things that I put in the description is like nature is going to be our classroom, so to speak.
How does a trip up in the Himalayas, in the north, compare to something, say, in the south in a place where you’re at lower altitudes? I know you said you weren’t climbing hills but you’re still going to be at a higher altitude then anyone that, say, lives near sea level like you do normally or at. How does that contribute to the spiritual experience?
Well, I mean, some of these parts that we’re going to, even they’re not too populated, not densely packed. So, of course, we’ll land in Delhi, which is one of the larger cities so, yes, you get to experience all of the sights, the sounds, even, unfortunately, a little bit of the pollution, but then, as soon as we leave, none of that will exist. So that’s the difference between typical like a tourist circuit, many people do the Delhi, Agra, Jaipur tour, large cities, but this is going to be a little different in terms of the pace, the calmness, and what I’m hoping to do is for whoever wants, of course, this is not mandatory at all, if people want to do a little bit of yoga practice in the morning and like I said, yoga entails postures, meditation as well as breathing exercises. Anyone wanting to do this can do this with me in the mornings or in the evenings in a space. Usually I’ll kind of make sure that we pick hotels or homestays where this type of thing is available so that is my hope. So, again, different parts of India. India is like the EU, as you and I, I think we’ve kind of talked about this. So, geographically, such diversity, but we’re going to experience the calm and we know that lots of yogis go to the Himalayas to meditate so even though we may not exactly do that, we still want to kind of touch it a little bit as best as we can.
And so do you believe that people who live in the middle of big, dense urban areas or big cities have a bigger challenge as far as finding calm in life?
I truly believe so. I mean, I think such folks, including myself, but I do live in the suburbs now, in the city, I mean, it’s very tough, especially if you’re living in a high rise or like the second or the third or the fourth floor. When do you connect with the soil? And I want to talk about soil here because soil is what nurtures us. I mean, we’re born this big, and I’m just showing a little bitty sign as a baby, and what we accumulate is food from the earth and we’re so disconnected when we’re in the cities, we just don’t even think about it. When do we give our feet any kind of rest? When do we sink that into Mother Earth, to recognize that, “Hey, this is where I’m getting the sustenance from”? So, yes, absolutely.
So you talk a lot about this connection to nature and it also sounds like you’re talking about this connection to the source of your food and so, obviously, you mentioned the soil because that’s where the plants grow, whether it be the plants we directly eat or whether it be the plants that the meat we eat originally directly eats. What about the sun? Because, obviously, none of this would happen if it weren’t for the solar energy as well as things like clouds and the water cycle.
Absolutely. I mean, so recognizing the sun, I mean, many yoga practitioners, the first thing they do is Surya Namaskars in the morning which are sun salutations. So the first thing is a salutation to the sun that gives all of this energy, us as well as the plant life, absolutely, and in terms of the trees too, I mean, kind of recognizing that a big part of our breathing mechanism is hanging out in the trees given what they do with carbon dioxide and oxygen. So recognizing all of that, of course, conjunction with the sun, becomes extremely important. So not just the sun and the trees and the soil but just the five elements. I mean, everything in yoga is based on the big five elements: ether, air, water, soil, and fire.
So that connection is what I’m hoping to bring with a trip like this.
Now, I live pretty close to downtown Denver so I would consider the area urban even though it’s not nearly as urban as my original home of New York. Of course, it’s way more spread out city. But across the street from where I live is a Denver urban garden so it’s a little community garden where people can register for a space and grow plants and then go in and cultivate them for people who don’t necessarily have space or a means for which to grow plants, say, within their own home. And my question is that right in the middle of the city, let’s say, I have, for some reason, two weeks where I can’t really leave the city for one reason or another, there’s too much going on, I have to be here, I have to be there, is it possible to get some form of that grounding, say, in my situation by walking across the street to this urban garden on a day where the sun’s out and just being in it for, say, 20 or 30 minutes?
Absolutely, I think this is what is needed, especially when these times when we’ve just kind of quarantined ourselves away from people and from nature, I think it’s time to come out a little bit of our shells or whatever we’ve been used to. The other thing too, just kind of the pandemic has brought on such changes with this work from home where we’re just constantly staring at our screens. So what you mentioned absolutely needs to happen.
That kind of disconnect from technology, going and just kind of being in nature is an absolute must. Click To TweetSo just finding those pockets of spaces which allow us to do that, Steven, absolutely, I think that is necessary. And, again, doing that as a family or taking kids out and doing that together with them, I think makes a huge difference in everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.
And one of the reasons why a lot of people stay glued to their technology, for similar reasons that people are, say, just constantly filling their schedule with a thing every 10, 15 minutes is that there are a lot of people who are avoiding whatever discomfort the idea of just being alone with your thoughts or reconnecting with your thoughts could possibly mean. Do you have any messages or thoughts about people who may want to do something like this but they’re always concerned so they’re going to play the next YouTube video or they’re going to pull up their phone and look at who responded to their Twitter tweet? Yeah, that’s what it’s called.
Right. I think time management here is a must and, I mean, I’m used to kind of talking to students about this. Give yourself that time but then when the time is over, get off of YouTube, like enough of the TikToking, right? I know, it’s really hard. It’s difficult. I mean, I’ve had a student who had a hard time putting the phone away in her backpack because she’s like, “This is a part of me and you’re making me put away a part of me and not recognizing that it’s right here.” I’m like, wow, never really thought about that but this is how much we’re just so addicted.
Yeah, for sure.
So, yes, time management, I think is key, allowing yourself a little bit and then be like, “Hey, 20 minutes, times up, maybe I move away from this for a bit.”
Do you think that there’s an awareness of the level of fear that may be embedded into this idea that I don’t want to be disconnected from this piece of technology that’s just constantly feeding me some form of information?
Yes, I think so, and, again, there are pros and cons associated with this as well. Technology, while it’s amazing and it’s great, we look things up, but studies show that it’s not necessarily making us dumb but technology is making us lazy. So, for example, I’m like, “Oh, I don’t need to remember your last name, I could always go and look it up,” right? So that, yeah, so that kind of access, I think, of course has its good and the bad, but at the same time, I think what’s missing out or what the tradeoff is is this human-to-human connection. We think that we have these online 700 friends, are we really in touch with them? And what kind of relationship do we have with those folks? So those are the questions I think if we kind of introspect and start asking ourselves, yes, might not be real, the 700 friends versus whatever we’re missing out on in person, that kind of tradeoff, I think, we definitely need to think about.
Now, is that consciousness of that tradeoff or valuation of that part of this Travel to Transform spiritual experience? Is that something that there’s discussions around or that people are meant to think about?
I think so, and then the good part, there will be places where there’s no cell towers so, by default, you’ll get disconnected. Yeah, and I’m not doing that on purpose, of course, and people can buy a local SIM card and constantly be connected but, yes, this is part of that, like just kind of leave things behind a little bit, let things go, just kind of go with the flow a little bit. So, absolutely, this is part of the trip also, and the trip will bring its adventures like any country. This has happened to me in Mexico, like you miss one bus or a train or something, you just have to let go and wait for the next one. So, of course, we’re really well planned and this hopefully will not happen. But if it does, you just have to kind of go with that flow and be like, “All right, this is happening and I’m just gonna keep an open mind and not get stressed and I’ll get to where I need to go.”
I remember reading a story about someone that was on a bus trip and the bus randomly kind of just ran into one of those gigantic weddings that you have in India and everyone on the bus just like got out of the bus and joined in on this hour-long dance ceremony as part of the town’s wedding they were having and it totally blew up whatever expectations someone might have about what time they were going to arrive at their destination but the cultural difference, saying that people just need to be more okay with it and not try to grab every single minute to be like max productivity or something like that.
Yes, absolutely. One of the examples I’ll give is a few years ago, when I had taken students, this was a December time, there was a wedding going on downstairs, we were in a hotel, and a few of my students were like, “Can we go watch?” Well, I said, yes, dress well, go downstairs, go watch, and then the wedding folks, whoever was involved, kind of pulled them in and were like, “Please eat with us,” and whatnot so that immersive thing and that learning, that cultural exchange that happens when someone is in a situation and just accepting of it. Again, so much learning can take place right then and there versus just like being in a bus taking pictures of something or someone else, seeing it as the other. I mean, here, you’re in it, you’re experiencing it, and it makes a whole lot of difference.
Now, I got to ask this cultural question, because I’m American through and through, born in New York, now in Colorado, what do you think prevents us in the US and other similar countries from being able to let go and even just join in on a complete stranger’s experience the way these wedding experiences and some other stuff in India happen?
I think I’m going to pull up my political science hat. I think just like the individualist culture here versus that community and family oriented culture elsewhere. I say elsewhere because many parts of the world are like that, not just India. Same in Mexico. I mean, I remember I was at a homestay and the whole family came out and then everyone else was like, “Oh, here’s a professor, we wanna come meet her.” What prevents us? I think we tend to kind of draw boundaries a little bit more. We, I’m included, as an American, I do this too, but then I’m like, oh, kind of switch back and forth. Keep in mind that people might be open to these things.
Spending more time in a different culture cultivates that habit of letting go a bit and erasing those boundaries, kind of bringing about a little more inclusion. Click To TweetThe other piece of it, honestly, just in my experience, being genuine. Being genuine goes a long way. Not that Americans are not but we’re very proper sometimes, perhaps not so much as the British, yeah, but I think that kind of prevents us from showing off our genuineness, which is there but we just don’t embrace it like other people might.
I know you said you live in the suburbs and I grew up, I spent a lot of time in the suburbs growing up and everything like that and I always think of these like cul-de-sac areas where people are kind of just like cutting themselves off even within their own homes and kind of not exactly being, I don’t know, communal, I don’t know if that design, the way anything’s designed about our towns has anything to do with what’s making us a little bit more standoffish and a little bit more isolated from each other. If you look at all those studies about how many people that say they have no friends that they can confide in and how the number has gone from like 4 to 32, I think, from the 1990 study to the more recent one.
I agree. This nuclear family system I think contributes a little bit to this. In other cultures, if you have grandparents or uncles or aunts all living under one roof, that child or whoever is raised grows up slightly different. I guess they have that support system that a child here might not have. So those are the differences too. And then the general fear, I think, also sometimes that we might have of just engaging and/or offending someone by like, “Oh, let me not ask this question, that person might be offended.” So many times, like one person, some people get to know me, they’re like, “Okay, I have a question about the dot,” so it takes a while to bring the trust out, the dot meaning the forehead, like why do Indians wear like —
Yeah.
— vermilion or whatnot on the forehead. So it takes a while to build that trust before we embrace. I don’t know if I touched on any of what you’re trying to ask but, yeah.
That’s tough because one of the things is that, it feels to me like sometimes, especially in our more recent past, there’s been like a real fear of saying the wrong thing that might upset or offend someone. What do you think is the best way to kind of understand that, for example, with the Hindu culture, the dot means something and for most Americans who haven’t really either been to India or been immersed in an Indian community, it’s something different, it’s something new, and so is it inherently offensive just to ask about it or is there a way that people phrase it that make it seem like it’s more demeaning? What’s the context around all that?
So, no, this is a very good question and I’ll actually put this in my little orientation blurb or syllabi or whatever you want to call it. Hindus, Indians are very open about it. They prefer that you ask questions. Sometimes, what we see as cultural appropriation doesn’t even exist in the terms of if you were to be in India and wear some Indian clothing, Indians would welcome you. Why? Because they would think that you’re embracing their culture and then you’re accepting of whatever they have to offer. So questions are totally encouraged and it’s okay to ask, but I think we here are just kind of trained, “Don’t offend other people by asking such questions,” so I think that’s where that disconnect comes in. And, again, I’ll go back to that genuine friendship, genuine relationship. I mean, if we really try to get to know the other person, we can ask them any question we want and they will not be offended.
Yeah, okay. I mean, it makes sense. It seems like there might still be like a mean-spirited way to ask some of these questions but I’m guessing you could kind of sniff that out and you can tell if someone’s being genuinely curious, like, for example, one of the things about Hinduism that sparked my curiosity is that I know there are a lot of different gods and that the adherence to the religion can almost like choose which ones resonate with them more than the others, you know what I mean? With all the statues, right? But there’s a difference between saying, “Oh, you have this statue, which God is that and why did you pick that one?” versus like, “What the fuck is up with all those nine arms?” or something like that. I mean, there’s a different —
Absolutely, there’s a difference in the way the question is framed and people would be happy to answer that and they’ll tell you even in one household, people can have different affinities for different types of deities and that’s all okay. Or, in Hinduism, since this question did come up, I mean, you can believe in absolutely nothing and still be a Hindu.
You don’t have to believe in a higher power as long as you do what you’re supposed to do in life, “the right thing.” Click To Tweet
It doesn’t matter whether you believe in one or many or zero or 33 million or any of it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, that’s amazing because one of the things that I’m trying to embrace and trying to hear more just around me is leaving space for people to be kind of where they are in their journey. We all have a process, I’m really, really hoping that, culturally, we’re coming to, speaking of this like hyper concern about being offended, that we’re coming to a place where we’re a little bit more mature and we can kind of even leave space to say, “Okay, this person may have said something, a word that I find inappropriate or I find offensive, but maybe they didn’t mean it that way, maybe they have the best of intentions,” kind of this like more mature way to look at it, in the same way you’re saying it could be more mature to say, okay, your journey means you like this deity and you put a statue up. Your journey means you like those five deities but you decide to draw a picture of them and make it into a t-shirt or something and that any of those different ways is fine as long as you’re not being a complete jerk or something like that.
Absolutely. I agree.
You add a little bit into your experience working with students. I know you had some experience working with students across some international boundaries. What really inspired you to put together Travel to Transform? Is it this moment we’re having right now at the end of the pandemic or at the end of the fear of the pandemic, really a more accurate way to put it, is it this moment, giving people the opportunity to step back and say, “Hey, wait, I’m gonna have this,” or is there some other cultural stuff?
Of course, the pandemic and I sincerely think that we’re staring at a mental health pandemic next.
Oh, yeah. We’re already in it, I’m sure.
Already in it, exactly. Some people will just come to a point where they just really need to get away. That is one. The other thing actually is when I was in the university system, that is the type of folks I was kind of taking to India and people always kept telling me, “I wanna travel with you. You’ve been to so many places, you’ve done so many trips, I wanna go,” so that also was another reason to start something like this. I’m like, okay, I think we can do this, even with a mask, without a mask, I think it’s time. Third thing is I had a book come out end of last year which is, you know, this is January so in November and so —
Yeah, it’s a weird time to say this year, next year, for sure, but, yes.
Exactly. So a couple of months ago. And many people are like, “Okay, so what are you doing next about this?” Like, hey, I want to take you also through this journey. Whatever that I’ve seen, whatever I’ve experienced, I want to take people there because it’s been amazing for me so I’m ready to do this on an airplane, sit there for hours. Why? Because I think we would be going to someplace amazing and beautiful and I want to open that up to other people. Travel to Transform.
And it seems like these are all places, all the places on your itinerary that you’ve personally been to.
Not every single place but I have, so even during this past summer, I was in Nepal on the other side of the Himalayas trying to, first of all, say thank you to whatever yoga deities, including Buddha’s birthplace, which is Lumbini, so I went and did all of that, like just kind of paid my humble, whatever, so I just kind of bowed down to see all of these places. But this time around, I haven’t been to every single one but I also have someone who will be traveling with us as a guest speaker, he’s made documentaries about many of these places so I’m trying to kind of tag team that also so wherever I lack, he will come in, and vice versa.
Oh, nice. And in any of your previous travels to these places or similar places, the other side of the border in Nepal, have you personally had a transformational experience that brings that word transform?
And I’ll be very honest, I have had a very cathartic experience at the Cathedral in Mexico City.
Oh, wow.
I could feel the feminine, tears just start flowing, I had no idea that this would hit me the way it did, and it hits me every time. So, Mexico is near and dear to my heart. I miss those Southwest flights when in two and a half hours from Houston, I’m in Mexico City. I mean, they no longer do that. Now it’s United and it’s like $600.
You said you felt like the divine feminine. What does that feel like? Because I think there’s a lot of people out there who don’t really understand the difference between a divine spiritual experience and like something that’s just in their head?
Good question. And I mean, this kind of brings us to what religion is and what spirituality is also. Spirituality, I think, is seeking and just kind of having an open mind. I mean, that’s like the short version. Religion rather kind of tells you one, two, three, four, do’s and don’ts. Some of the Eastern religions, I think, do a fantastic job of that duality. When I say the feminine, I keep talking about nature. Nature is the feminine, right? The sustenance, the compassion, the ability for us to grow, not just physically, yes, also physically, right? So that kind of nurture, I think, is what I mean by the divine feminine.
So there’s a divine feminine and there’s a divine masculine as well?
Masculine, I think, yes, and both of them work together, of course, and I think, again, Eastern religions, I think, do a better job of providing that duality and that harmony, and even the meaning of yoga, right?
We want both of these, the masculine and the feminine, even within you to be in harmony. It can’t be fighting. One cannot suppress the other, it’s just not going to work.
And it sounds like what you’re saying, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that whether you’re male or female, no matter how you identify as gender, you should seek to have a balance between these forces within yourself.
Yes, but then I don’t mean biological gender to be the same thing as the masculine and the feminine. I have the masculine in me as well, you have a lot of feminine in you as well. I mean, I’m just saying, like you as an — because you’re a male. So I don’t necessarily mean the biological gender, I just mean that harmony that we would have. Even in yoga, you might have seen the sun channel and the moon channel, the left side and the right side. Eastern belief systems, right? I mean, the black and the white, I’m going to butcher this, the yin and the yang. So that duality —
Yeah, that symbol.
Right, I know, I can never pronounce it right. But that that duality existing but then in harmony, I think is the key. So that’s what I mean by that having that experience where tears just flow because you’re just getting into something very compassionate.
Yeah. So you talked about the difference between Western religions and Eastern religions or Eastern spiritual practices. Now, you’re probably aware that in the US, there seems to be an upswing in interest in like a kind of spiritual like New Age-type movement, people talking about their signs and their horoscopes and tarot cards and all that type of stuff. Do you think that particular practice incorporates the same things that some of these eastern religions that you’re talking about do or do you think it’s a completely different thing?
No, I don’t think it’s completely different. It might not be all encompassing but I do think it’s a start to look at how our ancestors used to live, what their belief systems were. I mean, I’m not saying all ancestors were looking at tarot cards, not —
Yeah, for sure.
Not at all. But what did we use to do before these codified religions that gave us one, two, three came along? People were worshipping nature. People were worshipping the sun. People were very bowing down to the moon. We even personified these deities, even in Greek mythologies, what the Romans took from that too. All of this was personified as deities, kind of going back to that roots, I think it’s a good thing. Again, it might not be just exactly right on or how the East does it, but I think these are good movements.
I know there are deities in the Greek, the Roman system, even the Norse and the Celtic —
Absolutely.
— all those and I don’t remember what the one that was in Germany was called, just butchering the name of it, sorry, I don’t know 3000-year-old history as well as I probably should.
That’s okay. I mean, I’ve butchered things today too so that’s okay, but at least our intention is in the right place. That’s why you mentioned it.
Yeah. And so it seems like also on Travel to Transform, there’s a few options, like people can do the yoga in the morning, the yoga in the evening. Sounds like there’s some meditation practices around as well as places where you said you can buy that SIM card but you can also choose to go without having any kind of Wi-Fi or internet connection, so does this mean that you imagine different people could possibly have wildly different experiences on this trip?
I think so and I’m hoping so as well. I mean, I know a person who’s interested and she just wants to go on hikes whenever we’re done for the day and she’s like, “Is this possible?” Yes, it’s possible. So people will be looking for different things, whatever they’re looking for, and that’s okay and since this is not going to be a crazy, fast-paced trip, people can kind of figure out what they want and what they need from this. So that is exactly what I’m hoping for.
And are there going to be any kind of like daily or weekly, whatever, wrap-up type of journal retrospective discussions where people talk about, “I felt this,” or, “I came to this realization about my life,” “I came to this realization about my community,” or, “I’m now inspired to take on this initiative,” type of thing?
Yes, and, I mean, of course, this kind of thing I usually leave for like debrief during dinnertime. Sometimes, I’ll bring another guest speaker, like a local professor or someone like that, who can help facilitate some of these things as well other than people just listening to me talk. So, yes, I hope that this does happen and people get a chance to either verbally express or do a little bit of gratitude journaling or just kind of sit in silence and experience it the way they wish to, no pressure to anyone, but, yes, that’s, that’s what I’m hoping for and I’m pretty sure that some creativity will come out, like some writer’s block or whatever people are experiencing, I think this is going to kind of dislodge some of the static that they’ve been feeling in these times. So that is my hope.
And writer’s block is a perfect example of a situation, like the one I was describing when I introduced this podcast of a time when you’re just kind of in a rut and you just need to find a different perspective, get your footing, just something is not working.
Yes, exactly. So we hope that this Travel to Transform brings exactly that to people.
Yeah. And so now I also want to touch base a little bit because you mentioned the book that you came out with last year, way back in 2022.
Okay, so the title is The Politics and Promise of Yoga. I mean, being a political scientist, of course, that is my view, but I myself am a yoga practitioner. I received my yoga teacher training I think in 2011, 2012. And ever since, I’ve been kind of interested in behavioral research that is associated with yoga as well. Used to work with a few people at the university system to do this, I’ve worked with cancer patients, I’ve worked with stroke patients, and I’ve worked with little children so those are the different populations that I personally have worked with. How did this book come about? I felt like I just had something to say about yoga, what it is and especially what it isn’t, because there are a lot of misconceptions about yoga. Most people kind of see it as a physical exercise. Well, the physicality in yoga doesn’t even come to like the third or the fourth point. Breathing and postures are not the first two steps. So kind of putting things in perspective from an academic point of view and also from a little bit of the behavior research, the evidence-based research that is out on yoga, I felt like that needed to be told as well. And the last point is all the politics that is associated with it. Many people want to take yoga in many different directions. It’s been coopted in many different ways. I mean, some of these things like cat yoga, dog yoga, beer yoga, wine yoga, naked yoga, reindeer yoga.
Reindeer yoga? Wow, okay. I’m guessing this is more in the northern states or —
Yes. So, of course, we know that there’s no such thing but people are doing it, perhaps to be close to nature or be in touch with themselves, all of the above. So that is not exactly the politics that I’m addressing but there are other things as well where people are like, “Okay, this is not spiritual,” or, “This is not Hindu or is it?” and then kind of the contentions that arise from seeing it from a different light or seeing it in a way that is not supposed to be. So all of this is in the book. I felt like this needed to be said so, therefore, the book.
So what are the most common misconceptions about yoga?
I think the number one misconception is that it’s a physical practice. Click To Tweet
Yeah, so it’s an exercise.
Overemphasis on the asanas. There are yogis who just practice one asana or one posture and they’re just grounded in it. So this physical aspect, I think, has just, for whatever reason, so even in India, people are kind of practicing what has gone from here around the globe so there’s been a globalization movement with yoga as well. So, back in the day, earlier in the century, many yogis came to the West, especially California. Whatever people learned there kind of changed a bit, I’m not saying for the better or worse, but it’s changed. That change has gone out into the world again so that is the yoga that most places, studios, and people are experiencing.
So, yeah, so the number one kind of misrepresentation it sounds like of yoga is that this is a version of exercise, like you can either do a ride on a stationary bike, some weightlifting, or do some yoga, part of this like menu of workouts that people can choose from to get in their daily steps or calories or whatever people want to get from their exercise.
I believe so. I think that is the biggest misconception that it is purely a physical practice.
And so I guess what I’m wondering is that if someone starts practicing yoga or start doing it in the manner in which it’s been misconceived, does that actually have a net negative effect or does it just have not nearly the net positive effect that full yoga would have?
I think the latter. I mean, I personally think any kind of physical exercise is good. Sometimes even bad yoga leads to good yoga when a person’s like, “Hey, I wanna go find a better class,” or, “Hey, I’m gonna look into this more,” “Hey, I’m gonna go read a book,” and from that book perhaps comes inspiration to go find a better teacher or something more authentic, learn from a live guru. So I think all of those are just baby steps, just like what we talked about these kinds of New Age things that come up, it’s the start that probably leads to the ultimate. So it’s a start.
That makes sense. And because this episode will air probably end of January some point, something like that, and then it’ll still be published for a long time, even beyond June 2023 unless someone cancels my podcast or the internet goes out or some unforeseen thing happens so beyond this Travel to Transform in June 2023, what’s next for you? What do you have like thoughts out on the horizon?
What’s next? I think I want to take such trips to different places, not just India. Of course, India being my people and my place. I want to continue to do this and kind of put people in touch with indigenous roots because I think there are more commonalities than not, as you mentioned a few minutes ago. I want people to know about comparative medicine and I know this is a whole entire podcast in its own right —
For sure, yeah.
— but what we think of as alternative medicine or healing in the US is very different from other cultures. For example, for a cold, flu-like thing, indigenous folks or any other culture might have their own remedy before they even go see a doctor as we know it. So that is near and dear to my heart. So what’s next? I think I just kind of, you know, taking people on their own individual journeys and doing a little more work towards comparative medicine might be next. In what form? I’m not sure but I’m looking at Greece again because that problem has not gone away so I might do a Greece, Italy, Turkey thing. Again, I mean, I’m looking at Mexico too, very close to us, so it would be lovely to just kind of take people on these types of immersive journeys that is meditative in nature, allowing people to reconnect, de-stress, bring people back to a little more of conscious living, conscious eating, a little more awareness.
So pretty much the exact opposite of working through lunch that you went to a vending machine to buy.
Yes, exactly. I mean, if it comes out of a plastic wrapper, don’t eat it. You know who’s most receptive to this? Little kids. When you tell them shop in the periphery of the grocery store, don’t go in the aisles, they will tell their parents like, “The teacher said not to do this.” So little kids, they do listen, like, “Hey, you wanna eat the fresh stuff versus like the packets that we open.” So, yeah, just little things like that.
Yeah. And so it seems like on one end of the spectrum, of course, you have this immersive experience you’re talking about and I realize that this type of experience is not really feasible for everyone, some people might have paycheck to paycheck type of job where they can’t afford to just be away for a couple of weeks, but even in some of those situations, there are little things you can do to be a little bit more connected to your food, even if it’s just going to this community garden in your respective city and just kind of marveling at the plants that are eventually going to become the food you eat, growing, coming from the soil, getting their energy from the sun, getting the water from the clouds, and getting other spiritual light, I guess.
And finding a free yoga class. I mean, yes, I understand yoga classes are expensive. That’s another thing. I mean, was yoga always meant to make money? No, it wasn’t designed to do that. I mean, not that I’m putting any yoga teachers on a blacklist, not at all. Because, I mean, that is also a form of employment. But, yes, there are plenty of free classes. I myself, Sunday mornings at some temple, do that. We did that for the longest over Zoom during the pandemic. So finding little instances of, I guess, sources of joy.
Anjali, thank you so much for providing that insight as well as the information about the Travel to Transform, immersive spiritual experience, and giving us all some little pointers about some things that we could be thinking about whenever we just kind of go astray a little bit, whether it be writer’s block or just being stuck in a routine where usually that nagging feeling in your head of feeling stuck is an indication that some sort of need is not being met, something is not exactly right and we need to go back to the drawing board and consider something. So thanks for providing some ideas about what we can do in those situations.
Thank you. And, again, thank you for your time. I hope that people will travel not just with me but just kind of get away from the norm and go introspect, reflect, get back on track,
For sure. And I like to thank everyone out there listening and everyone out there that’s been listening to some of my other episodes, or if it’s your first time, encouraging you to tune back into Action’s Antidotes for just more ideas from people who are following their true passions in life.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Important Link:
- The Politics and Promise of Yoga by Anjali Kanojia
- Travel to Transform
About Anjali Kanojia
Anjali Kanojia is a Political Scientist, Author, and Yoga Practitioner. Her graduate training is in public policy and her research areas are health policy and comparative medicine. Her first, solo book is titled “The Politics and Promise of Yoga” and her co-authored work is titled “She Is.” Kanojia is the Founding Director of the Indology Academy.