Hey, welcome back to what I learned in therapy with me. Jamie Lang. So I want to start off today by saying the obligatory happy new year. And Merry Christmas and happy Kwanzaa. And happy Hanukkah and all the things that you've celebrated. Up until this moment. And if you didn't celebrate anything in particular, I hope you celebrated the hell out of yourself last year was. It was a big year and this year, maybe even bigger. So I hope you're rested.
I hope your bellies are full and I hope your cheeks are sore from laughing so much over the holidays with your family and your friends. Just to reminder. What I learned in therapy is about the intersectionality of healing. In my practice, this means blending, storytelling, mindful wisdom, psychotherapy, yoga philosophy, and deep listening to the body. And of course I love to sprinkle in some Buddhism, but as a reminder, I'm not a Buddhist. I am not holy in any stretch.
But I love what Buddhism has to teach us.
And for those of you who don't know me,
I'm a licensed clinical professional counselor. I'm a 500 hour registered yoga teacher. And I have. Healing center called the vault. It's a special place where I. Have an intersectionality of psychotherapy. Yoga therapy. Somatic therapy, music therapy, movement therapy. And all the things that help us heal. It's a pretty special place.
One of the things I've done at the vault is practice a 10-year in the making curriculum for healing. And it turns out it's really effective. Every person that has finished my curriculum has reported transformative change, profoundly transformative change and deep healing. And even more spectacular. Less suffering. And that is the aim of all of the work at the vault. Is to help you understand who you are, where you've come from. And how to have compassion and loving kindness with yourself.
Because of the success of the curriculum. That I've been practicing at the vault. I am now taking that into a digital course, which is going to launch January 20th, 2025. I am so excited. This has been my life's work. It's been my dream. When I first started yoga teacher training, many years ago, I told myself and my mentor that one day I would put together yoga psychotherapy. And mindfulness. And I've done just that. And unironically, that's close to the name of the course.
The course is called. Integrative healing, the synergy of psychotherapy, yoga therapy and mindful wisdom. Pretty great. Huh? This course is for anyone looking to deepen their healing experience, whether you're brand new to therapy. Whether you've been in therapy for 10 years, 20 years. It doesn't matter. This course is designed for humans to heal. Much of the wisdom within this course comes from our ancient philosophers, our ancient yogis. It is timeless wisdom.
It is for every human that has ever walked this earth. This course is for healing. It is true. It is pure. And it is real. The course is 10 weeks. In that 10 weeks you'll have five live classes with me via zoom. And those will be recorded for you to keep for a lifetime. You're also going to get five prerecorded classes with me so that you can have flexibility with your schedule. 10 weeks is a long time.
And I want to make sure that everybody has flexibility and fluidity to ensure that they finish this course in its entirety. In addition to the course modules, you're going to get 10 prerecorded yoga classes with me. They're all levels. Yoga classes. And even if you don't like yoga, I encourage you. To watch them. To invite your body to participate. One day. Those prerecorded yoga classes will be yours for a lifetime. And they will be based on the curriculum. We are studying that week.
And then you're going to get 10 meditations recorded for you to keep forever. And these will be based on the curriculum we are studying as well. And what's amazing about this digital course is that we are feeding the mind. With the modules. We are feeding the body. With yoga. And we are feeding our spirit. In meditation. Mind body spirit connection. This is the synergy. Of healing. I can't wait to get started.
So if you're interested in joining my course, or if you have any questions, send me an email. At the vault dot Y dot L dot C as in cat@gmail.com. Or just cruise over to the website. To read more about it. The link is in the show notes. Maybe you're a yoga teacher and you'd like to add more mental health therapy into your practice. Join the course. Maybe you're a therapist and you'd like to learn more about yoga therapy and Eastern philosophy when working with your clients.
And for your own personal development. During the course. If you and your partner want to grow together. Both of you joined the course. If you're in a leadership team. At your job. And cohesion is being disrupted. Have everyone joined the course and work through it together. If you're an individual who's in therapy and would like to take it a little deeper. I joined the course. It doesn't matter who you are. If you are a human. You have pain? Joined the course.
It's all there right at your fingertips. So today I want to talk about one thing that is in my course, in fact, it is the foundational philosophy of my course. It's a Sanskrit word. It's called a Hamza. I'll spell it for you. H I S M a. Uh, Hamza translates to nonviolence. But it's actually a little bit more than that. It's not just the equivalent of peace. Uh, himsa is the practice. Of being aware. Of the violence inside of you. And the violence around you.
We all have this kind of violence inside of us that came from our childhoods. Traumas that we've had. No one is exempt. From pain. But few people take the time to be curious about how those things have shaped them. And hymns then is knowing the violence inside of you and being aware of how it gets outside of you. It is creating nonviolence. Instead of you with your thoughts, your words, your breath. How you move your body, how you touch your body. It is walking back, zooming out.
And identifying where your triggers live. And realizing that the past. No longer exists for you to correct. It has all been done. The trauma in your body is a signal. For you to heal. I think. The hardest. Nonviolence to practice. Is the surrender. That you cannot do anything to correct the past. You can only walk. Right in the present. And know yourself so well that when your pain comes up, You will buoy it. With kindness. We are walking into a brand new year. And all of us are aware.
Of the division in our country. All of us are aware. That there is violence in this country. I invite you. To walk into 2025 creating, cultivating, and participating in nonviolence. So how do we use a Hamza in our daily lives? Well, for instance, I was working with a woman today. And she was fired. Up. About men. She was angry. She was righteously angry because she is wounded by men. I asked her to zoom out and take a deep breath with me. And see that the men about whom she is speaking.
Are also victims of violence and it's a different kind of violence that many women experience. It's the violence of not being able to express their primal emotional experiences because of the cultural conditions around them. This client of mine was very upset because men are not expressing themselves in a way that she knows in a way with which she is comfortable in a way. In which she feels safe. And I get it. I totally understand. But blaming men. Is not the answer. That is a simple.
And small minded. Answer. As I helped her zoom out. We identified that the men about whom she was speaking are very. Deeply wounded. She named their wounds. These men do not know how to share their feelings in a way that makes sense to her. After we worked through zooming out and seeing that we're all messy little humans running around here, not knowing what the hell we're doing. She was able to buoy herself with the wisdom that is in her body, that we have all been wounded.
And the real violence comes when we ignore our wounds. When we ignore pain, violence will almost always ensue. A few days ago, I did an intensive. EMDR meditation session. That's what I call them. At the vault. Uh, with a woman who has been raped. This rape occurred many years ago when she was in her early adulthood. And it has affected every choice she has made since. We have been working for two years, creating nonviolence inside of her, creating a space for her to believe.
And no, she did nothing wrong. And that she does not need to doubt herself anymore because. She is removing the violence of blaming herself. After the meditation and listening, it was about 45 minutes. Of deep meditation. She said. I think I've been very violent to myself. Because of the violence I experienced. And I don't want to do that anymore. I want to offer the antidote to that violence inside of me and practice more compassion. For how far. I have come.
And the holidays are a perfect example of when and how to use the practice of a himsa. Families coming together. All the past and all of the present colliding in one small short period of time. To make a new happy, jolly experience. I can trigger old wounds. Practicing a HIMS, uh, over the holidays is again to zoom out and say, We're all messy human beings doing the best. We know how to do. If your dad has hurt, you remember? He's been hurt somewhere in his life.
And he's exactly as he should be. He doesn't know what to do differently, or he would. If your mom hurts, you remember. She is also a human who has been harmed. And she would do something differently if she knew how to do it, I'm almost certain of that. And given where she has been, she is exactly as she should be. And this does not mean that you have to spend time with people who are violent. It just means. You don't need to blame them. Because blame creates violence in you.
Uh, himsa always begins with you. So when you feel the words about to pop out of your mouth, take a very big, deep breath and look down at your hands. And remember who you are. And zoom out. And zoom out again. If the words must come out, grab your journal and write them furiously on the page. And if the journal isn't enough, get your shoes on and go outside and take a walk. And if the walk doesn't work, go on a run. And if the run doesn't work, put your face and your pillow and scream.
We need to get the violence out of our bodies. But in a way that does not create more violence. We need to get the violence outside of our bodies. Keeping it locked up, creates violence inside of you. Hamza is creating nonviolence inside of you. So that you can participate nonviolently. Out side of you. These are just a few tips of how we can practice a himsa the creation cultivation. And participation of nonviolence. And we're going to need it. 2020 and we're going to need it in 2025 of this.
I am very certain. We are only three days in. And there was a violent attack on innocent people in new Orleans. A cyber truck. Blew up outside of Trump tower in Las Vegas. With someone inside. We're going to need the wisdom of a Hamza. The practice of creating non-violence is not passive. It is active, and I invite you to notice your thoughts. Notice your words, notice your actions, notice your breath. Notice how you're feeding yourself, notice how you're touching another human.
And notice when you look in the mirror. Are you creating violence? Nonviolence begins with you. It will always begin with you. I'd like to leave with a quote. It's one of my favorite quotes reportedly from the Buddha, but who knows how these things work. But I love it. It goes like this quote. In the end. Only three things matter. How gently you lived. How fiercely you loved. And how gracefully you let go of the things not meant for you.
So walk with me into 2025 practicing non-violence so that you can gracefully let go of the violence that was never meant for your body to carry. So that you can gracefully let go of the violence that was given to you without your consent. And like, I always say it is an honor to meet your pain so that you can set it free. What an honor indeed. Thank you for listening. No go spray paint that big old world out there, nonviolently with all of your love and all of your integrity.