The Everyday Mystic

The Sacred Pause: A Leadership Protocol for Better Decision Making w/ Fiji McAlpine

• Corissa Saint Laurent • Episode 70

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In the high-stakes world of leadership, speed is often valued over clarity. We are taught to execute, to pivot, and to grind. But Fiji McAlpine, a founding instructor of Do Yoga With Me, argues that the most powerful move a leader can make is often to stop moving entirely.

In this episode, Fiji breaks down the concept of The Sacred Pause: a somatic technique for interrupting the stress cycle before it sabotages your judgment. Drawing from her journey of healing a life-threatening eating disorder and chronic pain, she explains how learning to "soften into resistance" on the yoga mat translates directly to managing conflict in the boardroom.

Corissa and Fiji explore the Millimeter Miracle approach to sustainable growth, why surrender is actually a strategic advantage, and how to use your body's signals to vet decisions before your brain even processes them.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The Sacred Pause: A step-by-step protocol for resetting your nervous system in under two minutes to regain executive function.
  • Millimeter Miracles: Why leaders fail when they try to make quantum leaps, and how micro-adjustments create sustainable high performance.
  • Somatic Decision Making: How to use your body as a "dress rehearsal" for high-pressure situations, testing decisions for alignment before execution.
  • The Hoop Jumping Trap: Why we often create unnecessary friction in our teams and relationships, and how to dissolve it by changing our own energetic state.
  • Redefining Surrender: Moving from the idea of giving up to opening up to new data and possibilities.

Notable Quotes:

  • "Just by observing their breath, the quality of their breath got better." — Fiji McAlpine
  • "Surrender doesn't mean to give up... the actual meaning of surrender is to open to." — Fiji McAlpine
  • "We can get so stagnant when we are trying to wait for the perfect time... Just start." — Fiji McAlpine

Resources & Links:

Connect with Corissa:

If this conversation awoke or inspired something in you, please consider leaving us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to help us reach more people. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Corissa Saint Laurent

Hey beautiful souls, welcome to the Everyday Mystic where we demystify the mystical and transform your everyday life into one of greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy. Today we're going deep with Fiji McAlpine. She is a longtime yoga instructor and one of the founding instructors for the online yoga platform Do Yoga With Me. Fiji is not just a yoga instructor, she is an enlightened being. Someone who has used the path of yoga, used the struggles that she had in order to get to the path of yoga to awaken to who she truly is, to be in a state of divinity through that path. And so when I have guests on and we talk about their stories and their histories, and then you know what they're doing now. All of those stories and those doings are in service to their being. I talk to people whose beings have arrived, meaning that they've realized who they really are. They see themselves, they experience themselves in this state of the divine connection. And that divine connection is found through so many different ways. And yoga is a beautiful and powerful way to find that connection. It's certainly not the only way, but such a powerful, beautiful way. You'll hear Fiji's story about how she found her way through yoga and also through her connections to nature and through the ways that she connects to herself and her inner listening. Through this discussion, you'll hear about her transformation. And you will also be talking a lot about just transformation in general, from those lower states where one is not seeing who they really are and not realizing that they're more than their stories, and therefore they're consumed by those stories, and into who we really are as these enlightened beings that get to experience this beautiful planet that we live on and all the amazing things that we actually get to be with here. I loved this conversation. It flowed so beautifully. And what was funny about it is that the conversation itself took a while to get done because we actually recorded on a different day another time. But because we had so many technical glitches, uh, it was just best to start over. And when we started over on this day, we still ran into some technological glitches and stalls. But once we actually got things rolling and going, I feel like everything had been cleared, like the pathway had been cleared for us to have this really open, beautiful and what was meant to be type of conversation. Before we drop into this conversation with Fiji today, and while we're on the topic of transformation, I would love for you all to go and check out my new company, my new venture with my partner, Sixia. This venture is a lifetime of preparation. It is one of those moments in time where there's a convergence. This convergence is all about all of these passions and purpose colliding in this beautiful now moment to birth this company called Take a Trip Change a Life. It's experiential servant leadership trips and programs to help you live into what it feels like to be of service, what it is to be of service and the impact of being of service in the world. You know, I feel like I've finally gotten to a point in my life where service means so much more to me. It's kind of like describing it in, you know, when I have served in the past, it was like I was plaguing service. I was pretending to be of service. I was playing this role of service provider, but I wasn't really feeling the true embodiment of it. I wasn't truly living that life of service. And now being, you know, at the age that I'm at, having gone through the experiences that I've been through, having healed in the ways that I have, and just having come to know my truth of who I really am. All of that's led to this moment in time, this culmination, this convergence of myself as a servant leader. And it feels so, so natural and a bigger, a wider expression of who I actually am. And it's kind of like, okay, finally I get to step into this role because uh a lot of what I'd been doing in the past, certainly not worthless. I mean, all of it worthwhile. Every step of the journey is worthwhile. Every bit of everything we do in life, even the most destructive, most despicable things that we might do are all useful, are all telling, are all pointing us in the right direction to go. It's whether or not we choose to listen in every one of those moments to say, which direction am I going to go from this moment where I'm experiencing this thing and being this way. This time in my life, in stepping into true servant leadership, burst this business with my partner Sixia, who has been living this way as well and coming into her own realizations as a spiritual being here on this planet to offer up not only help and service to others, support for others, guidance for others, but to actually be a beacon of service, to be a beacon of what that really means. Sign up for our email newsletter. You'll be able to hear more about, you know, what this really means in a working state, you know, what that means and what it looks like in life. And also what we're offering to you to come and join us on this path of servant leadership. Come and join us on these really beautiful, enriching and enlivening trips. And join us in bringing all of what transforms in you, all of what you learn back into your communities and organizations and families. And that's what Take a Trip Changea Life is all about. Having a transformational experience yourself and then bringing it back into your communities. And we help and support you and uh inspire you along the way to do that. So check out the website, it's takeatripchangealife.com. I'll put the link in the show notes. And now on to my conversation with Fiji McGaltham. Thanks so much for tuning in. Hi, Fiji. Oh my gosh. You know what? All of our technical difficulties has put me at least into this like bubbly state of like giddiness and joy. You'd think that technical difficulties would be like, like I'm gonna get all grumbly, but it's just it's making me laugh.

Fiji McAlpine

Well, it's all like sort of it, it's silly and it's the simplicity of like, if it doesn't work, turn it off and then turn it back on. And then maybe it will work. Exactly. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent

That's so true of life, right? That sometimes it's just a hard reboot, like really just like go and be still and sit. Yeah. Or go be, you know, do something so simple, like walk in nature, breathe deeply, right?

Fiji McAlpine

Or sleep on it, you know, like that's such a great thing, I find, as well, is like, you know, sort of turn yourself off. And then when you turn back on, sometimes we just see things completely different. That's true. Yeah. I don't have you looked much into human design. Uh not too much, but a lot of people have been encouraging me to look into this, and now you're like the third one. So I think I do need to look into it a little bit more.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, I'm, you know, it's something that I've had, you know, I've had my graph, my chart analyzed, and and so I only know so much of what, at least like what I've remembered from that. I have a book and I I delve into it a little bit, but I know that within my design, I am a sleep on it person, which which is best for my design. However, my personality is just like immediate, like, go, go, go, like, yes and go. But my design tells me that I should sleep on it. And it's it's it's interesting because even though I may get this like very hell yes in uh response to something, which is a gut response, it's like, yes, listen to that, but then also sleep on it and make sure that it's still a hell yes the next day. And that just knowing that it within my design has shifted some things positively for me. And that's something that I've learned from human design. And I don't know if if uh how common that is for people that they should sleep on it, but it's good advice, yeah, especially in those times when it's not working out, right? It's not feeling good.

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, no, that well, the sacred pause is almost always so powerful for all of us. And I think so many of us do act really impulsively, and just taking time to, like you said, be still or take a breath, take a beat, and to this might feel good in my gut, but also does it align with everything else I actually have going on in my life? Sometimes we're sometimes we're listening to those instincts, but we're not looking at all all the clarity around us as well.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It's so true. And when I have moments, you know, like what we've had with technical issues or just something, you know, let's say in your day-to-day like work, communication with somebody, maybe it's just ideas aren't flowing in the way that you want them to, whatever it might be within a life day. Taking that pause is always beneficial. I mean, every single time. And it might be just a okay, I'm just gonna shut this computer, or I'm just gonna go take a lap, or I'm gonna sit and breathe, whatever it is. It's like doing that is this like magical reset to where all of a sudden things can start to flow again. So it's like we are somehow in our energy fields preventing that flow. And it's like doing that reset, the sacred pause, as you said, allows us to get back into that flowing and circuitous space of where we're allowing the energy to actually move through so gorgeously. So it is a lesson for all of us that you know, in those times when you're starting to like feel stressed and feel like, oh, this isn't working. It's just like, okay, here's an invitation, right?

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, step out of it for a minute. Step out of the river for a minute is is such a huge thing to just yeah, take that time to reset and come back in. It's so interesting you say that because that actually happened yesterday to me, where I was really in it. I was really in um some pretty deep work, and it was kind of getting that feeling of of the rub. And I just got up and I went outside onto my deck, and I just let the sunlight hit my eyes for a minute, and I was about to turn around and come back inside, and then I'm like, no, no, no, that's not long enough. And I turned back around and I gave myself a full minute and I just soaked it up and I completely stopped what I was doing, and then I came back in and everything was different.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. And just in that a minute's time, right? Yeah. I used to be a massage therapist and would do usually for like a marketing and promotional standpoint, I would do chair massage, you know, at different events. And it would be sometimes three minutes, maybe up to five minutes of some work on somebody. And, you know, I was an energy worker, I still am, but did that too. So it wasn't just, you know, physical manipulation. It was also some energy work in there. But within three to five minutes, people would just stand up and be completely changed. They were like, oh my God. Wow, like stress dissipated, thoughts just like all of a sudden they're just smiling and in this blissful state. And you know, it's it's such a short amount of time that we can give to ourselves that can completely reset and change the course of our life or our day or our moment. Taking that time is just so important. And we think that, oh, making big, big changes, whether it's to a moment or to our day or to our lifetime, is going to be this huge interruption. Like, oh, we're gonna have to dedicate, you know, all of this energy and time to this sea change, but it isn't. It could be seconds of time.

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, my the thing that I say in my classes all the time is millimeter miracles. And if that's the whole thing, is like uh just the tiniest little shift can make a tremendous amount of change or can shift your perspective and your energy, like you said. It can make all the difference where one little thing changes and then everything else changes because of that. And the other thing with millimeter miracles is that they also do add up to a lot over time. So when you are thinking about those bigger changes that you want to grow into, they have they can happen one millimeter at a time and allow those to accumulate and eventually carry you there. So looking at that tiny little in the moment thing that you can do. That's the other thing, you know. So many people, like you said, believe that they have to pour their everything into some new way of being. It can be a two-minute practice that you introduce into your day every day. Most of us can make that two-minute pause, right? And and that can be the starting point.

Corissa Saint Laurent

You started out on this path, you know, of having this wisdom and being here to tell about it and to teach about it. Um, you started out from a different place, a place where you weren't so aligned and so, let's say, within your own flow, or didn't have these kinds of skills and resources to call upon. Tell us a little bit about that transition from the Fiji of old to the woman who sits here today with us.

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, well, the Fiji of Old wasn't very old, and that was, I think, a big part of it. We've just learned so much from experience. And I do work actually with some younger people as well, and I try to remind them of that of you know, give yourself some time to grow to grow into you. Yeah, before yoga came into my life, I was in my early 20s when I started practicing. I was was really had gotten myself into an unhealth healthy place. I was pretty crippled with anxiety, and I feel like that is more common now than it was when I was going through it. It seems like we can speak more freely about anxiety and people can relate to that. Whereas I don't even know that I would have had a word for my anxiety in my 20s. And that led into uh a fairly serious eating disorder, and that was on track to potentially take my life. And yoga sort of intervened and and sh and changed the course of that process. And I didn't know that that was going to happen. I didn't know I was coming to yoga for healing for that. I thought I was coming to yoga to heal a back injury that I had, and I was in chronic pain, and I thought that going to these classes was merely a physical thing, and it was going to alleviate that pain so I could get on with my life of all this doing of things and all of this achieving and all of this proving and busyness essentially. And it did take away the pain in my back, and it did way more than that as well, as yoga always does. So sometime in the course of that first year, I fell in love with the practice of yoga, and in falling in love with the practice of yoga, I began to actually start to love myself. And I I don't, it was such a again, it was a gradual thing. It was a millimeter by millimeter shift of learning how to care for my body and take care of my body. And that just slowly reframed the way that I approached my life. And then as I approached my life in this more compassionate way, the anxiety diminished because I wasn't pushing so hard. I wasn't forcing and trying to make things happen that weren't, you know, happening easily. And I was able to feel more again through yoga. I'd really blocked feeling. When you have an eating disorder, you have to block feelings in order to maintain the eating disorder. So you become numb. And we know that everything is connected. So you can't just come become numb in your physical body. You become numb everywhere. And so when I began to feel again in my physical body, I began to kind of become more intuitive as well and feel my way through situations and to realize that some of the things that I was doing weren't really aligned with who I truly was on the inside. So yeah, it just it's just this really cool thing that I love to see the play on and off the mat with yoga is that whatever you're working on on your mat shows up in your life. And whatever's happening in your life kind of ends up coming onto your mat. So it goes back and forth both ways.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Right, because you know, as you and I talked about before, and and as far as what I know of yoga, that the mat work, the asanas are just one aspect of yoga, right? That you're really it is a a lifestyle, it's a philosophy, it's a way of being that is so beyond just the postures. But that's a great way to bring people into the whole thing, isn't it?

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the pose is not the point at all. It's what's happening in the journey. And there's no, you know, getting your pose to look a certain way, really, there's not much relevance in that. And it's funny that we've focused so much on the physical aspect of yoga here in the West. But it really is what's happening in the journey, as and it's rewiring the way that we're meeting resistance. So as we're meeting resistance in a different way, we're learning how to soften instead of fight. And we're learning to, you know, release the friction instead of create more of the friction. I often say, you know, when you're when you're coming onto your mat, it's kind of like a dress rehearsal for life. You get to kind of play and practice with the things that you're working on within yourself, and then you take those out with you into the world. And and yoga, like you said, we we use the word yoga kind of incorrectly often in the West. When you say the word yoga, most people are thinking about the postures that you're doing on your mat. And that's one of the limbs. That's one of the tools that yoga gives us. Yoga is a lifestyle. Yoga essentially just means union and being more connected. And it's not that we're making things more connected, we're remembering that everything is connected. Whether we want to acknowledge it or believe it or not, it is. It just is the state, right? And so asana is one of the tools that we get to play with. Pranyama, breath work, is another one of the tools that we get to play with. So that we're learning how to dance and shift the energy that we have in a way that is of benefit, not just to ourselves, but because everything's connected, it's a benefit to ourselves and to the world.

Corissa Saint Laurent

How much of the other limbs of yoga do you live by or I guess teach and bring to your students? Is it does it all just become one at some point?

Fiji McAlpine

I love to use, well, like you pointed out, is that a lot of people come to this practice of yoga through the mat, you know, through the studio, through that asana practice. So I try to sneak in as much of the philosophy while I'm teaching as possible. And it's actually quite easy. So you're able to teach ahimsa, nonviolence, in how you teach a class by encouraging students to be compassionate with themselves, by encouraging students to listen to their bodies and be guided by sensation and not the rigid expectation they have in their head. So we're able to teach some of these other philosophies, satya truthfulness. You know, why are you taking that next step? Is it because of ego or is it because your body's actually asking you to go there? So we we have these concepts in yoga that help to guide us in other aspects, but they can show up in how we're moving. So I think there is something very powerful in embodied practices, especially right now in the state of humanity. So I think the West is drawn to yoga because we've been so pulled into the cerebral realm that we're just taking a breath of air when we get something that makes us feel again like a human. So coming back into that physical body and then demonstrating these principles with the way that we move our body so that we're learning it in our mind, but we're also learning it in our being. I think there's something very powerful in that.

Corissa Saint Laurent

I read this really interesting book. It's called Crazy Like Us. It's so fascinating because it is a study of and a really an expose on how the pathologizing of mental health disorders and issues can spread like a virus to other places just by the mere mention of them, that it is a diagnosis, that it is a something. And and you know, so putting things in the DSM will create the diseases, those conditions in countries and in cultures that have never ever experienced that before because they've learned about it. So it's fascinating to me how, you know, I think as as a human species, we we do pass along information, both through verbal, you know, knowledge sharing, but also I think through this this shared state of consciousness as well, that is, you know, that is an unseen and outside of the realm of just our five senses. So we pass along these disorders to some degree, um, at least, you know, through the uh work done in this book. And it was so just so interesting to read that. And I would say it it uh affirmed things that I had always felt, you know, that we are powerful as a species, that it's not just, we don't just live in these bubbles, we are so interconnected to and are one, as you were mentioning earlier, with all, but as a powerful force, we can really impact that uh allness, you know, through our singular thoughts and behaviors and actions. And so I guess it one speaks back to that web of oneness that we are all in, but also raises at least my consciousness to being responsible for what I do and think and and even feel, right? And having mastery over that, not just for myself, but for everybody else too.

Fiji McAlpine

And that's really that is such a powerful point because when you finally remember and reveal that everything is connected and that you are connected to everything else, that is a huge responsibility. Because now what I am doing does not stay insulated into me and my life. Now, what I'm doing and even what I'm thinking, and I do believe that as well, the power of our thoughts in a collective has an impact. And so now we take on that responsibility and that ownership and realize that what's happening within me will ripple out into the world. So if we believe that to be true and we become responsible, that's great. But if we take it one step further, which is if I have the ability to impact beyond me, how can I do that in a way that is beneficial? Right. How can I use this power to instead of spreading more anxiety, spread more peace, more awe, more joy, more acceptance, more empathy? So, how can I use use this as a superpower, right? Once we're aware of it, and also really points back to um Ernest Holmes and where awareness goes, energy flows. I've had that little card since I was probably in my 20s. It's one of my favorite quotes. And that works good and bad, as you pointed out. So where we shine a light and awareness, energy is going to move into manifesting that. So this is where we have to decide personally and then collectively where are we going to point our awareness? Because energy is going to go there. What are we going to focus on? Because that's where energy is going to go. So, what do we want to spread as a contagion? Exactly. A little more acceptance, um, a little more joy, a little more peace, you know, harmony. What is it we want to spread and have go viral, essentially?

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, right. We have so much influence more than we think we do. And the taking on that responsibility is the work of most of us, which is going to require some healing, because no matter what we've experienced in as individuals here on this earth plane, I will venture to say that it wasn't 100% positive. It wasn't 100% this life-affirming and personally affirming situation. You know, we are onslaughted by society systems, then our families and communities and, you know, maybe individuals to live in a certain state of fear or trauma or conditioned response, even if that's just the basic of what it is. It's like a conditioned response that comes from this is the way you should act, or this is how we want you to be. Um, and all of those things create blocks, right? They create this set of blockades to our truth, to that oneness that we all are. You know, and so the healing work, I'm using air quotes for those who aren't watching this, right? The healing work is really not so much about, oh, well, I had a condition that I need to heal, but it's like I'm remembering myself. Like that's really the healing work. I am remembering who I am, and I've I'm going through all of these shadows and gateways and dark corners to get there, which can be daunting, um, but at the same time so beautifully revealing once we do find you know the gifts along the way. And so the work of practicing something like yoga or taking on any type of other healing practice or self-awareness practice is that yes, it's hard to some degree, but it's so rewarding on the other side. So it's it's the same thing, like you were saying, about choosing where to put our energy. It's like, well, you can put it into the hardness of dealing and just like suffering in your anxiety, or you can put that difficult work into creating, you know, pulling yourself out of that. Either way, it's gonna be hard.

Fiji McAlpine

And I love that word too, the revealing. Revelation is one of my favorite words. And revelation is so powerful because it's showing what is already there. And the that is the beautiful thing about healing, is we're remembering our wholeness and we're returning to it. It's not that we need to create more within ourselves, it's all there. We're just revealing and remembering it and allowing ourselves to release whatever it was that was blocking us from seeing that. And the healing work that is so perfect with this that is tied to yoga is chakra work. And I know we've spoken a little bit about that before, but for me, that was, I think, the most powerful work through yoga that led to my own healing. It was moving energy and being aware of moving energy through the chakras and realizing where those blocks were. And it was quite obvious, actually, to me, where they were. And just once I was aware of it, things began to change, which is funny. It's really cool. I point this out to my students all the time. I ask them to start to notice their breathing before I instruct them on doing ujayi or whatever we're gonna be doing is the breathing pattern for that particular moment, just observe it. And then I ask them a moment later, now after you started becoming aware of your breath, did your breath change? Just by observing their breath, the quality of their breath got better. So just by observing and becoming aware of where our blockages are, they will begin to dissolve. More energy will start to flow through them. Things will begin to change. It's harder to stay in stuck patterns when you're fully aware of them and looking at them. By looking at them, it's going to start to change them. So there is something really powerful, like you said, about choosing. Okay, I'm going to choose to put my energy in this, even though it might be difficult, because I know that by looking at it and becoming aware of it, it's going to begin to shift it up and out.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. Yeah. And through that, you you really realize that we are energy, that everything is energy. Like the chakra system is so, it was also the same for me, what really pulled me deeper into yoga. You know, it wasn't the hot yoga class that like pulled me in. You know, for some people, um, you know, that it is the physical practice that really pulls them into it. It was, it was absolutely um, I would say a combination of the chakra system and Ayurveda and learning about Ayurveda. That to me was just like, oh, this is this is about wholeness. This is about ourselves as more than just this physical body and the flesh and bones that we feel we are, which then it's like, oh, okay, well, then we're more than our disorders and our diseases too, then, aren't we? Oh, and we're actually more than our stories, and oh, we're more than our thoughts and feelings. It's just like it just goes out, and it's just like, oh, we're we're actually everything.

unknown

Yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent

You know, is where it ends up, and then you're like, oh, wait a minute. Now I'm in this like soup of everythingness and oneness. And it's like, it's just a beautiful realization on the one hand, and also a beautiful practice because we really do constantly need to remind ourselves that that's the truth. Yeah. Right. And so the practices that you guide people through, or that you know, other guests of mine have talked about of like the practices are are so important because even once we realize that and once we have that revelation, as you said, that everything is revealed, we see it all for what it is, we still need to be in a state of constant reminder because the the 3D world just sucks us back in. Yeah. Right. And it's kind of like it's just like always trying to like chain us back up to that construct rather than the construct of the one, of all. So it's an interesting dance that we are in here on, you know, in this experience, isn't it?

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, well, it's funny, it's kind of like making your bed, also. You don't just do it once. You have to do it every day. And so staying open, staying expansive, which is what you describe so beautifully, is a practice as well. And we can't just do it once and then think that we're gonna stay open. We can't make our bed once and then expect that it's always gonna be like that. It is a practice. The bed's gonna get dirty and ruffled up, but uh ruffled up again, just like we're gonna get ruffled up by life and start to think, oh, I am just my body, or oh, I am just my disorder, oh, I am just these thoughts. So we we are gonna get sort of ruffled up, but we have to have the practice of opening again and again and again. What is it that keeps me expanding out and remembering that I am one with all, that I am connected with all? And so it is very much a practice that we are being reminded in any way that we can that we're not a drop in the ocean, that we're an ocean in a drop. And so to keep knowing that we're that big. We may feel small, but we are that big, and that we all then came from that same source and that same thing. And it very, yeah, it very much is a practice. And it's great when we have teachers in our lives who can help remind us of of those things and remind us of of who we are, remind us to go back to that place within ourselves where we discover who we are.

Corissa Saint Laurent

What is it that called you to the teaching? Because you were going through your own experience and you know, yeah, and realization and revelation. What shifted for you that you knew this was something you had to teach?

Fiji McAlpine

Well, it's kind of funny. Sometimes you're you feel called, and sometimes the universe just grabs in and yanks you and puts you there, and that's what happened to me. Um, I was not intending to teach, and I was actually at a yoga class to take a class, and the teacher didn't show up. And there was about 50 people waiting to take their yoga class, and everyone was really disappointed because the teacher wasn't there, and then the man sitting next to me, I remember John Gall, in my 20s, and he's like, Nope, we're not going home. Fiji, you get up there and you teach the class. He's like, You come every day, you'll you'll be fine, go on up there. So I just I didn't even have a moment to think about it, and I just was like, Okay. And so I just I walked up, I stood in front of the class, and I taught the class. And it was this strange out-of-body experience, and it still kind of happens to me a little bit where it just flows through me. It is almost like a channeling experience. I'm with everyone in the class, I am everyone in the class. That's how I teach. I'm teaching to myself, I'm teaching what I need, and then in doing so, somehow it is what the other people need as well. And I'm thinking about them and their needs, and then it's influencing what I'm doing on my mat. So it's it is this very circular type of a feeling. So I did that one one off, and afterwards, everyone really liked the class and said that they liked it better than the teacher. So I ended up getting a job there and um teaching, teaching yoga classes. So it kind of happened by accident, which was sort of funny, but then of course got me more interested in teaching. So I started to study teaching a little bit more and do some training. And it really became something I wanted to continue to do because of how much I had received from yoga and learned. And it was like I got a piece of magic and it did something magical to me, and I couldn't wait to see it happen for other people. And I think that's still one of my favorite things about teaching is getting to watch yoga work its magic on somebody brand new. Someone walks in and they're like, I'm just here for my back or for whatever reason that they're there for. And then over the course of the next year, everything changes. Changes. Their energy changes when they come in. They come up and they say, you know, I really am liking yoga and it's making my body feel better. But it's really funny. Since I started doing yoga, other things in my life are better as well. You know, like my relationship is better and my job is better, or I left my job that wasn't making me happy. So people begin to shift and change. And I think that's one of the things that I just I love about teaching.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It's transformative. Yeah. And that's the beautiful thing. You get to witness and experience. And I love how you reflected on the fact that through the teaching, you're teaching yourself that you are actually, because I believe, you know, we're all just reflections of our own experience. So it's like we we're here and we we interface with people that are reflections of us, of lessons that we need to learn, of things that we need to be aware of, like that that's what shows up for us. Like that gentleman showed up for you as the voice inside of you that was saying, Oh, this is something you can do. This is your and you absolutely can do it. There's no doubt. Like go. And you got to have that experience. And so everyone, everything I believe external to us are these invitations and these opportunities to look deeper within, to then realize that we're all, it's all connected and it's all one. It's such an amazing way to uh describe the teaching because I think oftentimes people feel like with anything that they're offering out in the world, that, you know, oh, I need to go and get all of the highest degrees and become the expert and then be seen in that's all the ego. And I'm not saying trainings, you know, not useful, absolutely training's useful, but it's really the inner knowing that is the most useful thing of us being a gift to the world and of service to others. It's like when we know inside this is what is meant to be, this is uh what I'm meant to do, this is what I have to give, then that's when it's like the magic actually happens. It's not when we've attained the the highest degree of something, right?

Fiji McAlpine

To begin, begin, right? And that really is, and I still hold myself to that when I'm learning something new or diving into something new, is we can get so stagnant when we are trying to wait for the perfect time when I have enough training, like you said, or when you know, something else in my external environment when it's right, or when my kids are older, or when I have this much money, or you know, when I, you know, have have achieved this one thing, then I'll do that. No, you can there's something you can do today. There's something towards it you can do. Just start. You don't have to be like the expert yet. There's some way that you can be doing the little thing. So it's again coming back to that millimeter. What can I do? What's the little step towards it that I can do, the tiny little thing that's gonna move me forward. And so I I love that idea of aligning yourself with the direction you want to go. So if you just point yourself in that direction fully, it allows the energy to then flow and carry you almost like a stream. So if you're just giving yourself sort of that that alignment of like, okay, this is the thing over here I really want. But if we're if we're saying it's over there and we're still pointing ourselves over here because I'm not ready for it yet, if you just point yourself fully at it, that's alignment. And it's it's not saying I'm over there yet, but I am in track with that because now I'm taking these tiny little incremental steps. So that's what there's so many ways to use that word alignment in a powerful way. We we use it in yoga all the time when people are thinking about where their arm should be in relationship to their shoulder. But alignment is also allowing you to put into work where awareness goes, energy flows. So am I looking at this thing that I'm moving towards and actually taking those incremental steps?

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, and the, I mean, the power of those, all those little moments that add up, which, you know, is the the other that beautiful aspect of life, you know, when in the spiritual practices, we talk about meditation and contemplation, and there's also reflection. It's like looking back on and actually seeing and recognizing, oh, I I was once dreaming about being in this position in my life. Why am I complaining about this? Why am I growing about this? Like I'm once dreamt of having whatever this or feeling and being clear of this skin issue or whatever it might be, right? It's like so reflection is a is a powerful tool too, right? To look back and see, not that we spend our time in the past, but we reflect on the past. And that's so different than being stuck in the past. Being stuck in the past means that we've never actually moved to a point of where we can reflect back. But when we can reflect on it, we know that we've we've progressed, that we've expanded, that we have done the work to remove the barriers to finally, you know, be downstream a little further.

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, it's so great. It really is. It's also a moment of acknowledgement. When you reflect on the past and you realize how far you've come, you're acknowledging your journey. Yeah, you're acknowledging that you have taken those movements towards this place. And to stand in that place as well and think about the future. So do the reflection both ways is powerful. So, what I have now and who I am now is something that I couldn't even have dreamed of 20 years ago. And what I am now and what I have now in 20 years from now, I'm gonna look back, I'm gonna wish that I was back here and had this again. So it allows you to be deeply grateful for what you have from both sides. From the the 20-year-old back then didn't ever think you were gonna get here. And, you know, the 60-year-old is gonna, you know, want to be in this place. So it's the present moment really is held in that moment of gratitude when you're able to reflect on both sides, which is which is pretty amazing. The other part too is that you're you're changing your self-perception a little bit, which is what I love about yoga, which is I've done the journey, and in doing the journey, I've shown that I'm strong, which you may not have believed about yourself back then. And thus the great thing that happens often too with people on the mat is that it's not changing their body. It might change their body to become more strong, the practice of yoga or more flexible. But what's more important is that it's changing their mind, it's allowing them to believe that they're strong because they had a self-limiting belief before that, which was I'm too weak to do that. I can't do that pose. I'm too weak, or I'm too inflexible. And then two months down the road, when they're doing that pose, well, I guess I'm strong, and I guess I'm flexible. So that shift in the mind is is so powerful. And it allows us to again have a moment of acknowledgement of what we're capable of.

Corissa Saint Laurent

And then to explore, like, oh, what other limiting beliefs do I have that are holding me back? Like, what else do I think I can't do or that I am not, that I that I actually aren't true, or that I can prove to myself aren't true by doing some work. So it may, yes, it may be true in that moment because the evidence says this is, you know, I can't touch my toes, but how can I make it not true, right? By taking positive action and steps forward. Exactly. Yeah.

Fiji McAlpine

That's that's like probably in a nutshell, that is really so much about what yoga is about. It shows that change is possible. Change and evolution are possible. We can evolve within a single lifetime, and we can actually be intentional in our own evolution.

Corissa Saint Laurent

And if we're not, then we just get, you know, you get to accept the current state, you know, that this is this is what it's gonna be. And also, you know, worse, you're sort of susceptible then to whatever forces might push you. It's kind of like, oh, if you're not intending your life, you then allow yourself to be intended by others, right? So then you become a whether slave or a pawn or a victim to all these other forces. Um, so somehow, somehow, a force is going to take you. And if you allow it to be your inner force, you allow it to be the force of God as well guiding you, you know, that oneness guiding, then it's like, well, yeah, anything could become untrue. Anything could become possible through that change, certainly from one state to another, is like, oh, that's easy. Let's see where this can go. Let's see what that, like how big I can make those changes, right? It becomes a really fun way of living once I think you get over maybe the the struggles. And it's not like you won't go through struggles again, right? I like to also remind people of that. It's just, oh, once you hit at this point of transcendence or revelation, you're likely going to also hit another point of where you need to heal something else or go deeper into something that's now revealed. So it's not that it's it's this never-ending cycle, but it does become more fun because you realize that that's what it is, rather than like being stuck in the mire of you know, those really initial early stages of healing, which can be hard and and they can be hurt, they can hurt again, right? But uh it does become more fun, doesn't it? You know, do you do you believe that's true for yourself?

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, you know, it's it's really interesting. Um I always say when I'm going through some type of struggle or learning experience, is I wonder what I'm gonna grow into from this. Like I'm gonna be pretty darn evolved after this one. Right? So, because in hindsight, when we're looking back, we realize how much we learn through these challenges, especially when we do take on the perspective of this is a challenging situation. How can I navigate this best that I will come out stronger and more myself? What is this going to teach me? And every time that we've gone through these things, there's been an up-leveling of ourselves, of our skills, of our abilities, of our capacities, of our self-perception, or maybe it's an in-leveling where we're coming more deeply connected with that. Yeah, it's very interesting. I'm going through a situation right now, actually, in my life where things are shifting for me. I'm I'm actually going to be changing where I'm living. And it's not what I wanted. And at first I was really fighting it. And then I had that, I had that moment where I said to my friend, I'm about to grow into something pretty amazing going through this. I am about to learn something I didn't even know I wanted to learn. And when I come out the other end, I'm going to be even more myself. I wonder what this is gonna do, what this is gonna be about. And you have a different mindset about it. So it's not that challenges aren't gonna come up. There is an X external world that we cannot control. Like it's out there and it's happening, and it's gonna, it's gonna bump into us sometimes. But it's when we have this mindset of, okay, I'm going through this patch right now. How can I navigate this with some grace? How can I navigate this in line with my values? How can I navigate this in a way where I'm gonna really come out the other end with some gifts?

Corissa Saint Laurent

And it, I mean, just that perspective alone, I hear in you that it's already teaching you, it's already gifting you, right? The challenging experience that you're you're having. It's it when you just own that mindset and that perspective, you you get to experience it from the very get-go. It's just like, okay, it hasn't gotten quite better yet, but it feels it's I I can tolerate it better or I can move through it with grace. And that feels better than succumbing to coping mechanisms and distraction and avoidance and and all the things that are also choices that we could easily grab, which which are oftentimes they seem easier, right? They they seem like, oh, it's easier for me to avoid this through any number of addictive things that we could get into, right? But you know, what's easier is actually letting go and surrendering, but it feels so much harder when you are first doing it, right? It's just like you got the death grip on trying to control the service, everything around you. And it's just yeah, so it's uh a beautiful thing to get that opportunity again to be like, oh, what is it that I'm gripping onto here that I can let go of? And what will this, where will this dream take me now? So I love that perspective. I love that you are in this beautiful place of surrender and that you're out there in the world teaching those things to other people because as you mentioned earlier, it's it's you know, we we seek teachers to remind us of everything that's possible for ourselves. And you are living it and you're teaching it. So I'm so happy that we met and that I got to be in the presence of you in this conversation. You taught me things and reminded me of beautiful things that I'll take uh through my day and into my life. And uh and I and I'm excited for other people to connect more deeply to your teachings through do yoga with me. So I'll put all of those links in the show notes so that people can connect to you, both to your site as well as to your work site. Is there anything that you'd like to leave with the audience today before we say goodbye?

Fiji McAlpine

Yeah, so the word that you use there, surrender. And I use it often in my teaching, and I explain that, you know, we've been educated that the word surrender means to give up or to forfeit. And the actual meaning of surrender is to open to. And so I very much that is the work of yoga is it's opening to the possibilities, it's opening ourselves. And in this situation that I'm navigating right now, which is it just is, I'll come out the other side and it's fine. But it's an opening too, it's an opening to the possibilities instead of contracting and holding on. So allowing ourselves to open up to the experience of oneness. Yeah. So thank you so much for having me.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Just enjoy the conversation. It was wonderful. Thank you so much, Vijay. And thank you for tuning in today. As a big thank you, there are gifts awaiting you on the Everyday Mystic website. Beautiful offerings like complimentary sessions, discounts on programs and products, and special events and experiences. Check it all out on theeverydaymystic.org and get in touch with me if you want to infuse more of these types of topics into your company culture, career, relationships, or your everyday life. I'm here to serve and can't wait to connect with you. Have an amazing, awestruck, wonderful rest of your day. Until next time, beautiful soul.