Taylor Hunt

We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf m Thanks for joining us. Our guest on this episode is Taylor Hunt, a devoted student and teacher

of Oshtanga yoga. In two thousand twelve, Taylor founded the Morning My Sore Program in Columbus, Ohio to provide a community where students can learn Oshtanga yoga as it's traditionally taught. Taylor completes his practice during the early morning hours before teaching classes at Oshtanga Yoga Columbus or a y C. The community at a YC has built around a group of dedicated students who are improving their physical, mental, and spiritual health. His book is called Away from Darkness. Here's

the interview. Hi Taylor, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having Eric. I'm excited to have you on a couple of reasons. One is we're getting to talk in person, which I always love. UM. And secondly, your book is a little bit like looking into a mirror for me. You know, your book is about your recovery from addiction. You did that here in Columbus, Ohio. Um. You know, we met each other in in the you know, in

the recovery room. So reading your book a lot of it, I'm like, well, that sounds like me, and that sounds like me, and that sounds like me. So I'm really excited to get into the book. And we'll, uh, we'll talk more about that in a second. But let's start like we usually do with the parable. There's a grandfather's talking to his grandson. He says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle.

One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second. He looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins. So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. Wow. Um. Well, first, I'm honored to be on the show, So thanks for

having me here. Um, I'm I'm grateful that this all came together as the parable. Um. For me, I feel like my life is that parable. Um. You know, for the longest time, like I lived in a place of I mean you could call it the gutter. Um literally like sticking anito in my arms NonStop. Um. I didn't like myself. I mean, the bad wolf was winning and he was a bad bad was a really bad wolf. Yeah. Um. And you know a couple of times, um as as a result of feeding the bad wolf. I mean, um,

it almost took my life a few times. And um, you know, so I feel like the parable is kind of my life, you know, Like right now, I'm currently feeding the good wolf um and living, you know, living in the principles of what the good wolf has so um. So yeah, I've heard that parable before and and it it definitely speaks to me, just especially where I'm at

right now too. I couldn't tell you exactly when, but I'm sure I heard it in recovery, and it's I think it's one of those that you know in recovery is I think everybody hears it and relates with it. But I think if you've battled addiction to the extent that that you have or I have, there's a there's a particular poignancy to it about like whoa, this is

really very serious. Also, like and you know this obviously, but like at a certain point, you're feeding the bad wolf so much that you don't even know that there's another wolf's right, Yeah, I mean it just takes over the whole takes over the whole equation, takes over your whole life. Um, and there it's almost an impossible way to get out. I mean, that's why there's so much hopelessness when that comes to addiction and getting into recovery.

It is very hard. Your book is called Away from Darkness, My story of addiction, recovery, and yoga. So I don't want to spend a ton of time on the first part of that. The addiction part you certainly in the book go into a great deal of detail. It's a really powerful story for listeners. It would suffice to say you pretty much went about as low as you want to go, right, You don't, you don't, I mean, there's not much left after that. I think certainly I can

relate with that. Like I said, so much of that story I was like, yep, yep, yep. You know, like I've been there. You know, if you're doing a drug like heroine in a city like Columbus, you're gonna come across the same sort of places, the same sort of things, um, the same sort of desperation, you know, the overdoses, this

the whole mess of it. Um. And So what I think is particularly interested in what I want to focus on is the second two parts of your subtitle, which is really the recovery and the yoga part, one of the things that you talk about in the book. At one point I thought this was a really interesting thing because it's something that, um, I think about a lot, and I think everybody thinks about a lot, but we

don't talk much about in twelve step recovery. And what what you said was, I had to figure out how much involvement in the program is needed for you to stay sober. And I think that's a I think we all need different amounts of the program, and I think we all need different amounts at different points in our recovery. I think it's interesting, though, that we don't talk about

that very much. It tends to be very much you should just go all the time, and that should be everything, right, and and uh, and clearly you've chosen a different route. And what I'm interesting because I've chosen a different route a little bit too, where the amount that I go

to meetings varies. What I'm interested in is what do you think you're getting from those other parts of your life that allow you to maybe not have to go to meetings as often, Because I don't think recovery only happens in a meeting, right, It definitely just doesn't happen in meetings, I mean, and honestly, like in the in

the meetings or the rooms. Um, there's this saying that meeting makers make it, and I like, I know that's not always true, um, you know, like living the program, living the steps UM and honestly taking like a true inventory of of who you are on a consistent basis, and like not telling ourselves a lie. I mean, because alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease of denial. So yeah, I mean, I'm how I came up with the equation that I came up with is you know, based on

like really my yoga experience. You know, I got a true picture in the mirror every single day that I made it to my mat and I started realizing that I was able to apply these these steps and I was able to like show up and do my medain ation UM every morning, and it and it kind of translated right into um, me taking care of myself the way that I needed to ye. For me, I look

at it. You know, the recovery literature talks about the importance of a spiritual connection spiritual condition UM, and I think we all have different perceptions of what that looks like. You know, certainly for me, I'm probably more agnostic than anything else. So for me, though, I still think that the heart of it is that it's the spiritual connection. And I think you could almost go the word spiritual is so nebulous that I think you could almost just

go to connection. And so for me, the amount that I need to be in the program, I think has a lot to do with how connected I am to my life, to myself, to the people around me, to the spiritual practices I do. And when I've got that connection, I feel all right and I'm I'm okay. A lot of meetings are not a lot of means, And if I don't have that, then meetings become imperative because I'm in really rocky, rocky ground. Owned sure. I mean I

feel the exact same way. Actually, um that connection, I mean, I find it in my yoga practice, you know, so showing up on a daily basis and and finding that connection and really tuning into what's going on with me because I never really paid attention to anything that was going on. And then all of a sudden, like you know, you come into the rooms and you start like working the steps or living the steps, and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh yeah, like there's something going

on with me, Like why am I acting angry? Um where you know, all of a sudden, like I was paying attention to it um and and understanding it too. So yea. And so your journey has been you know, came into a A got sober and then one of my if I was supposed to say a there, but I did traditions, traditions anyway, you came into recovery, you got sober, and then yoga became a huge part of your life. So you are a yoga teacher at this point,

a a yoga teacher in a long lineage. You've been to India several times, You've got your own yoga studio, You've got a great community built here. And I'm interested in Yoga is on one hand, a set of poses. It's a physical practice. Yet I know there's so much more to it. And I hear people like you say, you know, on my mat, I discovered X, Y and Z. Walk me through that a little bit. What does that,

how does that happen and and what's that correlation? Because I'll say, for me, you know, I've practiced it semi regularly but not probably in in a lot of the right settings and different things. But for me, it feels very much like a physical pose thing. And so I'm kind of curious how you open to that next level of it what that process is like, Yeah, I mean the process always starts very physical. I mean I think people show up as a result of like wanting like

some sort of physical exercise. I mean that that that is part of the equation and the reason why we do like the posters is because of that tangible quality

of like what the aspect of yoga gives you. Um, you can you can kind of feel it in your body, but I mean deep down, I mean it's a set of moral principles um, similar to like you know the recovery rooms, you know, treating people nonviolent, being truthful, and you know down the line of cleanliness, those kind of things, and so um, I mean the transformation or or how to get the other aspects out of yoga UM comes from a daily commitment like showing up on your mat

and you know, it's very physical, and then all of a sudden, like you start understanding that your mat is a laboratory for a continuous experiment over and over and over and you get true reflections of who you are. And so you know, some days, because of my lack of awareness about myself, some days I would show up and like not actually know that I was angry like I was just talking about. But nowadays, like I can pinpoint what's actually happening in in my body, and um,

I can pinpoint what's happening in my head. And now I have like a really good look at myself. And that's not to mention like all of the less that are actually learned on my mat too, from like certain times where you could say, like I didn't believe in myself or I thought it was like a you know, a piece of crap or something like that because of my addiction. And what I realized is that through the practice like doing the same thing over and over like

a ritual. Um, what I've found is is that as I get better at it, um also self esteem gets better as a result of it. And so there's things like when I walk in like you you can't actually do you know, like you really even forward folding. It's like you can't. Yeah, I mean I couldn't touch my toes. Yeah, I mean so if you read the book, I mean

I couldn't touch my toes on the first day. But then you get to a point where you you start to actually see like big strides, like you're taking big leaps, like continent to continent um of these huge like mind blowing like oh yeah, wait a second. It wasn't that I couldn't do it. It was just that I needed more time on it, and that I didn't actually believe in myself that I could do it. Because mind like state of mind or or intention maybe too, UM is

super important when it comes to yoga, like UM. So if I nowadays, like if I think I can't do it, I can. But you know, if I can go to a place of UM, I can, or I can go to a place of like this is instead of an if it's a it's a win. Yeah, and that all a sudden translates into UM, you know, self empowerment, knowing myself. That's that. You know. We talked on the show. We had Carol dweck On who talked about the fixed versus the growth mindset. You know, fixed mindset is I can't

touch my toes. I'm not a flexible person. I'll never be able to touch my toes. The growth mindset is if I keep working at this, I know I can get better at it. You know, I want to read a section from your book that I thought talked about this very much and you kind of it hits this partner that was well written. You say, yoga is the process of deconstructing all the bullshit that's in our heads. It pulled me out of the belief that I wasn't good enough and wasn't a good person. The false stories

are not the same for everyone. I'm too fat, I'm not smart enough, no one could possibly love me. They aren't all negative either. Sometimes they're grandiose. I'm so much better than these people. Everyone is jealous of me, my ideas of the best. Yoga helps us to eliminate those thoughts and get in touch with our deeper cells. That's simplification. I mean, it's like simplifying your life. Yeah, And so part of it, you say, sounds like you are pushing

up against your limits. So you're out there on the mat, You're pushing up against your limits, You're pushing through things that are difficult, You're you're gaining confidence by doing that. And then it sounds like there is something deeper that also happens. I'm you know a lot of people talk about emotions being stored in the body. Do you find that to be part of what the yoga practice brings

and helps you with. Yeah. I mean, for sure, you know, every time that you experience, UM, happiness or depression or you know, any range of emotions. UM, it's a chemical reaction in the body. And so if it's not eliminated or if it's not dealt with and then discarded, we get stored in our tissues and so on the yoga mat because we're kind of like twisting and heating the

body and moving and all of this stuff. Like, Yeah, it has a tendency to bring latent emotions in our in our body that are that are stored up there, and it's a way to process them too. I don't know, I always know what they're about, UM, sometimes I do, Like sometimes it's childhood stuff, or sometimes it's UM, you know, it's just sometimes it's deep down that I just don't like myself UM, or I struggle with um, you know, the concept of of actual love UM for myself. Yeah,

but that shows up on the map for sure. Yeah. Why don't you tell people about the style of yoga that you teach, because it's very different than what most of us have been exposed to. Most people, when we think of yoga, we go to a class and an instructor leads us through a series of poses and we just go along with whatever that is and and and do that. What you do is very different. Yeah, I mean this is how they teach in India. Yeah. Um that I mean it was. It was given to me

by a guru. His name is Shrot Joyce. Um he's one of the foremost yoga people in the world. Um he's my teacher. Um he's um, he's more or less showed me the ropes. So the style that I teach is called a stronger yoga. And the yoga is actually

passed on from teacher to student, teacher to student. And um, how we teach we more or less like prescribe it instead of just hurting people along and in like a regular yoga class like you would experience that you know, the gym or whatever and so um, and what happens is is like most people feel like, um, yoga is a little bit unattainable or at least the poses are a little bit unattainable when they go to the gym class because the teachers not necessarily giving them one on

one feedback. But in our classes, like the thing that we do is is all of the feedback goes specifically to you. UM, so we're not telling everyone in the room.

We're just telling you which people can get really good at at doing yoga practice is really fast, um, just based on just getting that feedback, I mean, because I think everyone's kind of like looking to do it safe, looking to do it very deliberate, and and then also like create independence where our style is typically um, we create independence because we're not actually guiding you along all the way. It's one on one UM teacher and student are trying to figure out like what your yoga practice

is supposed to look like. So what's happening is walk into your studio and there's fifteen people practicing yoga and they're all working on the same series, but they're all doing it at their own pace. So what you see is this person's do you know, doing these poses and working through it in another person. So everybody's going at their own pace. But I found really most interesting about that to me was breath is such an important part.

What I find hard in instructor led classes is the breath piece because I'm going at the pace they have not necessarily the pace that my breath wants to go with or that I want to be with and and what you do. I feel like it's a lot easier for me to really connect with the breath and do the poses in the way they're supposed to be done because I can go at my own pace. That made

a big difference for me in doing that. It was a big thing I noticed was that I was able to get much closer to that ideal in that case. I think it's the safer way too. Yeah, you know,

to go at your own pace. Um, I think that it becomes a really you can get really sturdy at it, um instead of it being like it's overwhelming you on a on a daily basis, because sometimes they feel like fitness classes, yoga and and really the yoga that I teach is actually more of like a spiritual connection with yourself that we're teaching and and it just happens to be like, um, you know how we're doing it on our yoga mat So, and how do you work with

students on is their instruction you give them on discovering that deeper spiritual path or does it come by being attentive and being focused on the poses? How how do you teach that? It first starts by observing what the person is dealing with, um, And and from a bird's eye view in the room, you can pretty much get a handle on like what the person is actually going through, um, whether it's psychological or whether it's actual physical pain, or

whether it's like an emotional trauma. Um. Yeah. So so getting them to that deeper aspect starts at observation, that's first, um. But then to to get them to maybe find the deeper aspects of yoga. For example, if I'm going to teach them how to do a posture, if the first place that they go to is that they're going to beat themselves up over not doing it perfect, um, there's a certain strategy to teach that kind of person. And then there's also a certain strategy to teach like a

perfectionist or someone who's lazy as well. UM, where some people need almost like olive branch when you're teaching them almost like a peaceful method or encouraging method, where other other people might need, um, like the tip of a band at you know how, where you're kind of putting

putting pressure. Yeah. And so from that bird's eye view of being the teacher in the room, you can kind of see what strategy might help them the most, because I truly believe at the end of the day, if we can get them focused on their map for an hour or thirty minutes or however long they're they're in there, that connection with the breath and and really taking a look inside can translated into their lives. I mean, it

translates as empowerment. I mean that's what it has done for me, um by having that connection on a daily basis, because we don't have enough time in silence, like as a society, we don't have enough time and um, we don't have enough quiet time. Yep. That's the other thing that's really nice about the type of yoga that you teach is it's very quiet and there's not anybody barking out like do this, do that. It's just a very

quiet you know. It's it's peaceful in a way that other yoga classes I'm and I'm not saying that other yoga I'm not making I'm just talking about my own experience of what it was like my experiences, it was more quiet. I was more able to be inwardly focused again because I think it's quiet in the room and I'm not following a particular fast sequence, and I kind

of know what I'm doing. You teach a couple of poses, and you work on those, and you learn a couple more than you learn a couple more, and slowly your practice grows and grows and grows versus a wide variety of different poses. And I think everybody would would like their own thing, but I really I really find it be UM more meditative for sure. Yeah, there's definitely an internal quality to what is happening, where like when they're

barking orders or they're yelling at people or um. And there's times where I do that too, but I never play music. That is one thing, UM, but there is uh, there's a certain quality that um it's internal the whole practice. And and then you know, because everything that happens external if they put music on or or you know, they enjoy having music, whether yoga, it's an external you know it.

There's word association that goes along with that. And then all of a sudden, like you know, someone says something on the song and then all of a sudden, like you go on the last time you heard it, and

you know you're down the rabbit hole. I think it's easier to not compare because not everybody in the room is doing the same pose at the same time, right, Because when you're all doing the same pose, it's very easy to be looking around going well, okay, I'm the worst here, you know, I clearly am the one that cannot you know, whereas it with what you're doing, everybody's

kind of in their own place. I mean, it's not that you don't notice some people and you're like, that person is really good, but it's just a less direct you know. Again, it helps to point towards the internal Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean it is, uh, it's like almost a less competitive environment, um, where it's really for for you. But I mean the one thing that I always point out too is that UM, in our room, like we

never give the queue, like look to your neighbor. And I feel like in other yoga styles, UM, one of the best things about our yoga styles, like we don't actually want to want you to look at your neighbors, Matt, we don't want you to judge your insides with their outsides. And I'm sure you've heard that before. Yeah, that's a

great phrase. There's a touching part in your book. So you go along and you get very interested in yoga, and you get this desire that you want to go to India, and yet you've got a job, You've got a kid, you've got all these responsibilities, and your your job is with your your father. So it's looking sort of you know, it's the sort of thing that we all do, like, yeah, I'd love to do that, but there's no way, right And yet you kind of just

you kind of just happed working. And what I thought was there were a couple of things out of that lesson I thought was really important. One was when you went and asked the people in your life and told him what was important to you. They were a lot more willing to work with you than you thought, and so hey, I think that's an important lesson. And the touching part is when you go to your father. Do you wanna tell me what happened when you went to

your father with this? Yeah? I mean that's like one of the best stories in the book. I mean, actually gives me chills. I just got chills. Um. You know, so my dad is like kind of like, uh, you know, a little bit of an uptype business man. You know, he's kind of um shrewd in certain ways of business. And and I remember I got back from this trip um to visiting um Shrod Joyce, the guy who I told you about just a little bit earlier. That's my

teacher now. And I visited him and and I came back and I was like, you know, I sit down with my dad and I was nervous, right too, Like I mean, I was sweating ballads and not the kind of guy who's in for yoga trips to India, right, that's not in his worldview, I mean, and especially because like I was almost doing a living amend's to him by working, might be good at what you do and

hold responsibilities and exactly. Um. And so I'm sitting down with him, and I'm like sweating bullets and I'm like, hey, you know, this is like really nervous, you know, like I'm really nervous. And and I said, Dad, you know, like I went and visited this guy in in New York, and I'm thinking about going to my Surendia and I you know, kind of need your blessing. And I'm thinking, for sure he's going to say no. Um. And and at least the story in my head said that my

dad wasn't supportive of this journey. Um, I mean that was the bullshit story in my head really, and so um, he looked me dead in the eyes and he said, if you don't go, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. And I was like, who is this guy? I don't know. I mean, that's just not how my

dad shows up. But then he went on to you know, talk about like how he's kind of watched me get sober and he's watched me take interest in yoga and and um, it was the time where it was like the universe, if you want to call it that UM conspired to really you know, put an angel in front of me where it's like, yeah, you're doing the right thing. If you're doing the right thing, and keep asking um,

and you'll keep receiving. Yeah, And that's what. Yeah, Like I said, I thought that there were the two parts of that. One was the I think we all sell ourselves short with what we can do in life because we put limitations in place that aren't necessarily there, or if they are there, there's ways around them if we're courageous and persistent. And so the story really showed that. And you know, your dad's saying that just is so tough.

You know, it's like that moment of like you just see parental love like really come through in a genuine way. It's a beautiful story. Yeah, it was pivotal in my life because um I was kind of unsure where my dad actually stood with everything that I was doing and and it felt like he had my back and and it it kind of renewed our whole relationship as a

result of he supported every trip since then. Yeah, he didn't think you were a whacko for a week ago to Indian New York, and I thought he was actually gonna do I say and do all of that stuff exactly, And it showed up much different. It showed up his love. You have a saying that has gone with your yoga community since you started, as you know, in part of another studio. You built this this community and then you've gone out on your own and uh, it's bring your

ass to class. Tell me why that's so important for what you guys do, because it only works if you show up. You know. It started based on UM I was in a class one time, Eric and and someone said to me, um I hope you come back, And um I was in like customer service, and I was in sales and and I literally thought in my head as he said, I hope you come back, I was like, it would have been better for you to tell me to come back than to hope that I was going to come back. I mean that that was the line

of thought that went through my head. And I was like, from now on, like say what you mean. And so when I was teaching, I wanted these people to come back because I mean, I was seeing all of this growth. I mean I was seeing like huge amounts of growth in my personal and um, you know, my business career and all all of that stuff or yoga career, and um, I was seeing all this growth and I wanted other people to have it too. And so I mean it

only works. And and really the commitment to showing up on a daily basis or maybe it's every other day or whatever, UM is the hardest part. It's like plan in the plan and not the results. It's like the plan is is that I'm going to bring my ass to class and show up at the top of my map. UM. But after that it doesn't matter, Like it doesn't matter. I'm not trying to put on a performance. I'm not

here for someone else. I'm actually here for myself and that and that like kind of goes along with all of that saying, I mean that's what we that's what we preach, Like how do you get committed to something? Um? And how do you get disciplined? Because I mean as a whole, we're not disciplined and today I'm very disciplined. And you say in the book, and this is something when I'm talking with people about meditation, I say something very similar. You say, you know, it's not a good

practice or a bad practice. If you did it, you succeed, you know. And I think that's so important with some of this stuff is people get can get really hung up on you know, did I do good? Did I do bad? Was it a good day a bad day? And I think that my experience is if you're gonna do some sort of transformative practice, if you just keep doing it, transformation it happens. It's hard to watch day

to day. You don't see it day to day. UM. But if there's this constant this was good, that was bad judgment, it makes it harder to keep doing it

day to day. And thus then you don't see the transformation because you don't keep doing it right, you know, And I just think that's such a big like, you know, I always am like if I sat there for the amount of time I said I was going to sit there, that's a good meditation doesn't matter if if I'm thinking about cookies the whole time instead of thinking about meditation,

I still was there. Yeah. I mean one of the things that um I've learned from my studies of like the yoga sutras is that there's really two qualities to to find yoga um or two qualities of like a practitioner that you need. And the first one is a consistent practice over a long period of time. And then also um non attachment. And so it goes along with everything that I just said, their practice, but practice without the attachment of like it's good or it's bad or

or any of those things. Yeah, let's go back to discipline. That's usually a word that is not a fan favorite, so to speak. A lot of us have a negative you know, the word certainly has a sort of negative connotation,

at least for a lot of people. Talk about why it's been so important to you and how you built that discipline because it's a long way from being a heroin addict who can't stop shoving needles in his arms to a guy who will get up at three am every morning to get his yoga practice in before he

has to go teach other people. That's pretty remarkable. So I mean, obviously you're not gonna be able to summarize in two minutes how you made that transformation, but let's talk about why discipline is important and some thoughts you have about the path to it. I was so undisciplined that it was it was hard to it was hard to do anything as a result of being so undisciplined.

And so what I started doing is like, um, you know, setting setting goals for myself and I and I started like um, once I started achieving the goals, I actually started like um, setting more goals and so UM. It became like almost achievement based in the beginning. And what it's done for me is is that it's given me like a framework, UM, where I can operate from. And I operate really well. I mean I'm a habit person. Um, you know, disease of alcoholism and drug addiction. I mean,

set you up for a habit person. But the only discipline that I had when I was using was I was disciplined like called the drug dealer or do whatever it takes. Yeah, And so UM, I certainly had that quality of like do whatever it takes in order to make it to yoga class or or do a posture or any of that stuff. But the discipline specifically UM in in my practice today is more like a spiritual framework.

And so I'm able to show up at the top of my mat and dedicate my practice to really the students that are going to show up after I get done. And UM, and it's also UM it holds me accountable to to a certain thing UM other people, which I think is important. And so as I'm as I'm practicing like I'm I'm actually doing the whole practice UM for another set of set of people, which I think, like deep down the spiritual discipline of like UM doing it

for other people as is important. You say in the book that you did a lot of searching into different spiritual traditions as you came into recovery. You know there's a spiritual aspect of recovery. You started looking into a lot of things, and in the book you say you learned that interacting with others in a loving way is a common thread through all spiritual traditions. Yeah, and I found that through my yoga practice really, you know, on

a daily basis. When I was working hard in there, um, you know, my heart was like encased in stone, you know. And so like, as I did this spiritual discipline every single day, like showing up and and um doing my morning prayers, which is what I like to call my my yoga practice. Actually it's like doing my morning prayers. Yeah, I was able to uncase my heart and and really like start to treat people, um with respect, and start to treat institutions with respect, and gained some self awareness

about how I treat myself as well too. So I want to read another part from your book that I really liked. You say, I've learned not to listen to the stories in my head of the time. I no longer believe that thoughts compromise my identity. That was a huge discovery for me, and it may be the most important lesson I have to offer others about yoga. There is danger and identifying ourselves with our thoughts because it limits us. Our thoughts are not our reality. Our actions

form our reality. And for me, yoga helps separate the bullshit stories I tell myself from what I am really supposed to do in the world. It's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, that's gonna have to mark the e on explicit for this for this episode. Now that we not our second bullshit in here, but we're good. That's maybe the cornerstone of my teaching right there, is that, Um, I no longer identify with the stories that I tell myself.

They're still there. I mean, they're still there, and um, every once in a while, I mean I'm not perfect. I'm not a saying. I get pulled back into UM, you know that line of thinking from time to time, But it doesn't take long these days to to step outside of it. Um, it's a day instead of like months later where all of a sudden you got a bunch of resentments or you know, whatever comes up. But um, for the most part, I mean, that's what I do have to offer people. It's like that there's no the

story there. There's been a separation from the story in my head or from like the condition pattern of living to what I'm actually capable of, like actions wise, UM, and that those are really two totally different things. And also by doing um certain actions over and over, UM, I feel better about myself and the stories actually change. It's that old Sometimes you can't think your way into

right action. You gotta active thinking, exactly. I mean, that's that That is another thing I feel, um a place that I teach from for sure. That whole point in time when I was like writing that part of the book, it was all of these like kind of lessons like started coming up and and Sharon, I'm like, like, this has has been pretty cool because you start realizing that of us, Um, even normal people have the same exact things. We all have that internal you know, we talked about

it on here all the time. We all have that internal narrator. And the amount of distance you can be put between that internal narrator and yourself is a pretty good guide to sanity and court health and peace of mind. Right if you can stop at least believing the stories, you know, because you're we're making it all up. Yeah, I'm not as bad as I say I am, and I'm also not as good as I say I am.

Exactly Constantly I'm like telling myself and by practicing, you know, I've there's been like a separation and from the two where nowadays, like the stories in my head, I get to watch like movies that I don't actually get involved in anymore, and I get to know what whether it's bullshit or whether it's real or any of that stuff.

So one of the things that I find inspiring about what you've done is that you have gone from somebody who has a regular, full time job and has kids and has responsibilities to somebody who's been able to kind of pursue their dreams. What I think is really interesting though about it is the way that you did it, because you didn't do it by suddenly deciding it was time to follow your passion and throw everything else to the wind. It wasn't a I've got to do my thing.

You had responsibilities, and you built this community in this practice while you kept your other job, while you paid the bills, while you took care of the kids. And I think that's such an important lesson because I think that it's very easy to get stuck in well, if I can't do it full time, if I still have to do a job, then I can't do it, And so many people we don't get started because we think

that's in our way. And I just love to see people who would make that transformation slowly over time that UM. I mean it took a lot of time. Actually, I mean it took six years of you know, NonStop working with my dad and and then realizing that I found found what my calling or my darma or my path or whatever. And so then I kind of almost systematically, UM laid the found foundation in order for me to UM to transfer my life over to it. I mean,

I travel around the country. I'm able to provide for my family now just based off of yoga, which is um which is really cool. You know. I I don't actually work anymore. I just live. I just live my passion. UM. I gets traveled, and yeah, I get spend time with my kids. I watch my son every every afternoon and watch my daughter when she gets home from school. And and I think that's what people wanna actually want to be doing with their time, and I get to do it.

And so like in the in the short term, like I put in a huge amount of investment, like like

human investment, you know, like or time investment. I I was working sixty hours at my dad's job and then doing twenty hours of yoga, and and then I That's why I started practicing really early in the morning too, because its the only time I could fit it in, and and I was getting so much benefits from from practicing that I was like, oh, I can't, I mean, I can't not practice, and that would that would be crazy.

So then I started practice at three am, and people thought it was crazy for that too, but um, I couldn't. I couldn't back away from it. So I was doing and then I you know, I was teaching you know, twenty hours a week too, and so um, for for a short time there, I was I was kind of

going crazy because it was so much work. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm in the midst of that transition, you know as we speak now, and so yeah, it's it's it's a lot of work to to have a full time you know or beyond full time job depending or you know, consulting work and then you know, do something. But what I like about it is it takes the excuses away. Right. It's not easy, and it's really hard, but at least allows us to take a real look at like, Okay, if I want to do this, there's

a path. You know. The path is long, it's going to take a lot of work. I'm gonna watch a lot less TV. I might spend less time with my friends. I'm I'm gonna give things up. I'm gonna make sacrifices, but I can do it if that's what's important to me, and that's what I find inspiring about it. I literally looked at my life and I was like, I want something different. I'm gonna systematically, like work towards a specific goal.

And and one of the things to help me the most is is really the community that that started to surround me too. Um So as as I started attracting people that were like me, um that I could identify and we talked about connection, and um I found that connection and and then all of a sudden, like the

fire became even more. It's like, oh, yeah, there are people like me that are searching for a better way to live, and you know, and they were all working hard, and they were all passionate about what they were doing. I mean some of them were living their dreams too, and so being witnessed to that was pretty pretty awesome too. It's really inspiring. And I'm really you know, congratulate you

on your success. I think I remember seeing you come into recovery right and you know again, it's the transformation is stunning to sit here and kind of look at you now and and think about you know, back then. So thank congratulations, Yeah, well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a pleasure. Um, I'm really glad we have gotten to do this and uh, best of luck, Thanks Eric, take care. You can learn more about Taylor Hunt and this podcast at one new feed dot ned slash Taylor