Ep 40: Pain Science & Nervous System Regulation w/ Diana May

Today I have a special episode for you. It's an interview with my friend and colleague Diana May! We've known each other for most of my yoga teaching career, and we've collaborated to bring you the Yoga for Injury Management: 8-week Mentorship! I'm so excited to invite her on a podcast this week.

She is a self-proclaimed in it for life Yogi. Her goal is to help you build a more loving relationship with your body, even if you have chronic pain. She uses a holistic approach to wellness through yoga, somatic experiencing and applied neurology.

As a full-time yoga teacher, since 2009, she has worked with thousands of students, all with unique bodies and experiences.

So she really understands that there is no protocol or prescription for life, but is willing to co-create that with you and find a path forward together. Outside of yoga, Diana loves to sleep in, enjoy slow leisurely mornings, ride her bike, being in nature and hanging out with her two cats.

Enjoy meeting Diana!

Yoga for Injury Management: 8-week Mentorship
https://www.enhanced-body.com/yoga-for-injury-management

Transcript

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 0:00

Welcome to the podcast today. I have a special episode for you. It's an interview with my friend and colleague Diana May Diana and I have known each other for most of my yoga teaching career, which is over about 12 years now. And we've collaborated to bring something together for you as teachers. And I'm so excited to invite her. On the podcast this week. And let me give you a little bit of background. Info about Diana. She is a self-proclaimed in it for life Yogi. Her goal is to help you build a more loving relationship with your body. Even if you have chronic pain, she uses a holistic approach to wellness through yoga, somatic, experiencing and applied neurology. As a full-time yoga teacher, since 2009, she has worked with thousands of students, all with unique bodies and experiences. So she really understands that there is no protocol Or prescription for life, But as willing to co-create that with you and find a path forward together. Outside of yoga. Diana loves to sleep in, enjoy slow leisurely mornings, ride her bike, being in nature and hanging out with her two cats.

1:23

Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright, and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you if you're a yoga teacher, you're looking for support, you love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business, and helpful ideas, tools, strategies, and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you want to dive deep and set yourself up for success. I'm so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now, let's do this together.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 2:31

I am so excited to introduce you to my friend, Diana May, and welcome her to the podcast. So hi, Diana.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 2:42

Hi, Monica. I'm so glad to be here. I've been listening to your podcast. It's awesome. I've known you for so long and I've gotten to see you evolve as a teacher and you are so inspiring. So I'm, it's an honor to be here.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 2:57

Well, when I was thinking about producing a podcast, we were talking back and forth, and I was so excited to welcome you to an episode in the future. Mainly I do solo episodes. but every once in a while I invite a special guest and I'm so glad that we've gotten to this day and you're here and I admire you as well. I started teaching in 2012 and I believe you started in 2009. Um, and I think that I was introduced to you when I took. What was it called? It was like yogi training or something like that. And you were leading it.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 3:45

Yeah. I remember that. I remember you. I think you had braces. Is that true?

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 3:49

Yes, I did. And in my interview, one of the pieces of feedback was we can tell when you smile, because you can hear it in your voice. But when we look at you, you don't smile. And I said, because when you're looking at me, I know I have braces in my mouth and I don't want you to see my braces. I'm glad I got those braces removed. I just love the wonders of social media and the internet because it kind of brought us back together because I'm in Chicago and you've been to California and now back in Michigan.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 4:28

Yeah. So I, became a yoga teacher in 2009 because I loved yoga and I always wanted to keep it for myself. So I was very resistant to teaching and I was at a studio, I was practicing at a studio that was really pushing me to take their yoga training. And I had so much resistance, I was like, no, no, no, because yoga was so important for my mental health, my joy. I really wanted to keep it for myself. But I had so much resistance, whenever I resist something a lot, I tend to look closer at that. And I was like, you know, I'm just going to take this training, figure out why I'm so resistant to teaching it. And when I took the teacher training, I turned my whole life around and became a full time yoga teacher because I actually loved it. So much. So I got my master's degree in urban planning and community development. And I have a huge passion for food justice and environmental justice. And that's really what I wanted to dedicate my life to. But as soon as I took that yoga training, I was like, Oh, this actually resonates so deeply with me. I have to dedicate my life to this. So I did a one 80 and became a full time yoga teacher.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 5:52

Could you pinpoint when you made that change or when you decided you wanted to teach yoga? What was it in the training?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 6:02

Well, I think it was just I learning about it a bit more deeply and being in a position where I was spending, it was a two month immersion and it was 200 hours in two months, so I was eating and sleeping yoga and I freaking loved it. So I was like, Oh, this actually makes me happy. The end. When I graduated the training, a job naturally fell into my lap to start teaching. I guess it wasn't one clear moment. It did happen quite organically. I just knew I liked being in the yoga world that much. Like it didn't get boring to me. It actually sparked a lot of curiosity in me and sparked a lot of energy and joy in me. so I just kept doing it and then, you know, for about five years, I kept getting questions like, when are you going to use your degree? And so people got the hint that I'm not using my degree. I'm teaching yoga. This is a serious lifelong journey for me. And it truly is such an honor to teach it and to witness people shifting their life and making their life better. One of the things I love to say about teaching yoga is that I get to see people in their best light. People who are actively trying to do something good for themselves. That's my lens of life. And I don't think a lot of people get to see people actively trying to make positive changes. So it's really been informative for how I view human beings. Thanks.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 7:47

I have actually never heard anybody say that before. But when you think about it, it's so true. Right. We're all going to yoga practice to kind of work on ourselves or to be the best that we can be to make changes, whether it's on the mat or off. and so we are showing up as our best selves. but I have never heard that. And I love that perspective. I think the question That I'm really curious about is when you first started teaching, what was your focus? I think a lot of yoga teachers want to teach because of the way that they felt on the mat. And it's like, I want other people to feel this way. And I'd like to facilitate an environment that helps people feel this way. So Sometimes we go through different variations of ourselves as yoga teachers before we land on what we want to teach what we love.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 8:53

Yeah. Well, as you know, I taught at a power vinyasa studio and I taught fast paced athletic power vinyasa yoga. And I was in my early twenties. Okay. And to me at that time, it felt very powerful to move like that because I did not grow up an athlete. I was not involved in sports or Anything like that. So doing vigorous yoga made me feel strong in a way that I had never felt strong before and I loved it and I started to teach it and I was trained to say everybody's welcomed in the classroom and so I did enjoy teaching power vinyasa, but I had a very pivotal moment early on in my yoga career. You have heard this story. I'm going to share it. I've been teaching for two or three months, I was teaching a beginner class, the beginner class is a challenging class, but it's the same sequence every time, and I had two elderly women come into the door to take their first yoga class ever, and as soon as they walked through the door, I, knew that the class was not the right fit for them, just based on their posture and how they were moving. I was like, I don't think they're going to be able to do this class, but I was young and I did what I was trained to do, which is to say you're welcome here. go at your own pace, listen to your body. And I let them into the room, even though my intuition was firing at me from the inside. And I was like, I don't think they should take this class. They took the class and within the first 10 minutes, one of them fell and fell hard and had a bloody nose and popped out her knee replacement. So she got seriously injured in my class. And all she was trying to do is take a beginner yoga class and feel better. So luckily she was okay. And I had, It's the support of a manager there to help get her out of the classroom. Um, but that was a moment for me where I realized that if I truly want to offer yoga to anyone who walks into the room, I need more skills. I need more ways I can teach. And that ultimately led me down the path of studying a lot of different techniques, a lot of different. Modalities, and ultimately I don't teach at any studio anymore because, teaching on my own platform gives me the greatest way to truly serve whoever walks into the room. Because, as you know, at studios, a lot of times they ask you to teach a certain way or not turn people away or there's all sorts of rules and pressure at studios that I don't have to. Listen to since I'm teaching on my own.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 11:48

I completely agree with that. So, When did you start becoming interested in studying more about the nervous system somatics and that area?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 11:59

Yeah, so I always sense I think yoga inherently is a very somatic practice because we are using our bodies and Yogic philosophy is very somatic and internal So I think in a way I've always taught somatically and with the nervous system lens But it wasn't until 2020 when the pandemic happened and I had a little more time on my hands that I heard about this training called somatic experiencing. One of my best friends, Veronica was, had just started that training and it was really interesting to me. And I realized I had been saying something that I didn't really know what it meant, which is yoga is so good for your nervous system. It was something that made intuitive sense. But the more I heard myself say it, the more I realized, I don't know what I'm saying. So I decided to study it in depth and I'm in a three year program now to study the nervous system. And it really opened my eyes to, one, how yoga is good for your nervous system, but how nuanced that can be, because every nervous system is an emergence of people's lived experiences, and we all need different things, and there are certainly yoga practices where it's aggravated my nervous system. I've seen restorative yoga, Make people go completely berserk and agitated and have panic attacks in restorative, which is touted as Calming for your nervous system. So I think having the knowledge of how the nervous system actually works has truly Transformed how I approach teaching yoga,

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 13:51

Yeah, I can appreciate that because there've been instances where I have stressed out new students who are just getting cleared from physical therapy. And they're like, my doctor told me to come to yoga and immediately I'm like, okay, but why. And it's tough to talk to students before class, because we only have a few minutes and those five minutes are they enough time for us to assess both the teacher and the students to assess whether this class that they've showed up for is appropriate for them. And whereas power yoga can be aggravating. Some people's nervous system restorative in a more quiet practice and slower practices can also be aggravating for people who don't know how to slow down. Or they struggle to slow down. And so I feel as though we have to be really honest with students. And that's hard in the corporate model of studios, right. Because we're trying to fill classes and we're not trying to get students in the appropriate. Classes. And so that's my biggest challenge with corporate run studios or even local studios. How can we be a little bit more responsible with students is always my question, but I appreciate that you were using that language. Yoga is good for your nervous system and you realized that you weren't quite sure. What you were saying or what you were thinking and you wanted to understand it on a deeper level.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 15:26

And that's The heart of so many, you know, I such a good teacher will always have those moments of realizing, Oh, I'm saying something and we can always evolve and change knowledge should expand, especially over time. I think now we know more, like pain used to mean one thing, or we thought we knew something about pain. And in the last five years, there's been so much more cutting edge research on what pain is. So our knowledge about what pain and injury is has evolved. And I think a good teacher, we can look at what we're doing and refine our knowledge and expand our knowledge and always be growing as a teacher because we're also just human and we only know what we know and if I'm not also a student, I don't think I'd be a great teacher.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 16:20

Right. So, with your studies, do you think that, you could be able to, Look at a student or in your conversations with a student be able to recognize some signs That they have a dysregulated nervous system.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 16:38

I think yes and no. I'll go back to the example I shared about those two elderly women who came in. I don't know the state of their nervous system, but I knew based on how they walked in that the class I was going to teach was not an appropriate class. There are some things you can tell just by looking at somebody. whether or not this class is going to be a good fit or not. And I think we need as teachers to build our capacity to have those uncomfortable conversations with students around like, Hey, this isn't a good class for you, but here are some classes that would be good for you. as far as if people's nervous systems are dysregulated, it's hard to tell because, you know, People show it and express it in all sorts of ways, and people are so good at masking their symptoms. There's a term called functional freeze, where, on the outside, I can look really calm, but on the inside, my heart's racing, my thoughts are racing. So it can be hard to see visually, and there are things you can train your eyes to see more subtly. So I often look for people's breath patterns. And if somebody's coming in with really restricted breathing, that could be a sign that they're experiencing some dysregulation. I look at people's quality of their eyes. So if people come in with sort of a glazed over look on their face or in their eyes, that could mean a sign of dysregulation. body language is a huge indicator of nervous system regulation as well. And these are, they're not a prescription, it's just experience I've gained over time. Like, oh, somebody's posture looks a little rigid. Or maybe they're really, like their chest is really puffed up. But I'm also noticing their eyes darting around a lot. I don't know if it's nervous system dysregulation, but these are things I notice where I'm like, Hmm, what's going on there?

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 18:50

Yeah, I agree. I think that coupling watching students and their behavior and Listening to them. if you just ask a simple question, like, how was your day? there's so much information that can be revealed in their answer to you. So I think it's a combination of a whole bunch of things. And so I'm curious because I love when, students like this enter my class because. It gets me thinking and I can go into my little toolkit of how am I going to help this student and not necessarily announce it to class or say, we're going to do something different, but. end the class, in a different kind of way, right? Or swap some poses out of my sequence and put some other poses in just because in my mind, I feel like this might be more supportive for the people that are in front of me. So how do you go about making a change to your class when you realize I need to do something a little bit more supportive. I

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 22:36

Yeah, what a great question. And I feel like when I teach group classes, I try to teach more like a, I call it a rolling meadow, often we'll sequence a class in a bell curve where you warm up, You build heat, you peak, you cool down, and then you have your shavasanas. It's like a bell curve. I often think about sequencing my group classes like a rolling meadow, you work a little bit, and you take a break, and you pause. You work a little bit, and you take a break, and you pause. So there's a lot more up and down energetically in my classes, and I have found that that can mimic a healthy nervous system, too. Pattern, which is upregulation and downregulation. We need both agency and we need to rest. So I, I try to sequence my classes like that rolling meadow and I'll couple that with giving people agency, as much agency as possible in the class. So I always have an outline of what I'm teaching. This is generally what we're doing. But I try to remind students a lot, like, you can do something different, or you can do it this way, or that way. I like to give a lot of options so people know they have choice in whatever I'm doing, or whatever the sequence happens to be. And I, I feel like those two things combined are really supportive for most people's nervous systems, regardless of where they are on the spectrum. Because one person might need support in one way and another person might need support in another way. And I'm only one person and we're in a group setting, so how can I create an experience that's the most supportive for the most people? And the final point I'll say on that is, you know, accepting that I can't help everybody all the time. that is something I've had to build up in my system. where I don't take on the weight of all their issues. I'm just here teaching a class, I'm gonna do my best, I want to support you, here's how I think I can support, but ultimately, there might be a few moments where you're dysregulated in my class, and I have to be okay with that.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 24:48

think that's an excellent point because we can try to do the best that we can and serve as many as we can, realizing that that might not be everybody. Diana, I know that now you teach exclusively online as opposed to before COVID so group classes and private clients, how do you feel like You're teaching and understanding the nervous system has changed since that, migration online. when we're in the presence of students physically, it's different than when we're online. So how do you handle that online?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 25:39

Yeah, I actually find that A lot of people feel more, how can I say this, it's easier for them to be honest with themselves when they're practicing online in their own home. I think people when they practice in a studio can get caught up in the keeping up with other students and you can more easily bypass signals your body's giving you about what feels good, the pace you want to go to go. When you're in person at studios, it's, it's easier to bypass your own body's communication. So, I actually have found that teaching online is an amazing way to build up people's relationship with their own bodies because you are at your own home, you can be in your pajamas, other people might be doing something different, you probably don't even notice because they're a little box on the screen, you might not even see them. So, there's less getting caught up with what other people are doing. And it's a lot more focused on how you're feeling and going at your own pace. And I remember when I would teach in person, a lot of students would come up to me and ask about home practice and that they want to practice at home, but they don't get the workout that they get when they're in an in person class. and they don't feel motivated like they do in the in person class. And you know, it's, for a lot of people, that's true because you are sort of depending on external energy to give you energy. And a home practice is a lot more, Oh, what am I feeling? How much effort do I want to put in? You create such a more honest relationship with your energy that way and I have found that the people who are consistent with that Really learn a lot more about what they need in the class and their practice really becomes More supportive for their nervous system because when they are tired, they can rest When they do have that more energy like I've seen people in their own home practice do five push ups You on their own. I'm like, I would not do that right now. So I just think it's like, you get more opportunity to build that relationship with your body and your own nervous system, and the practice can truly support you based on where you're at. And it's wonderful if you have injuries or recovering from an injury, because when you're recovering from an injury, you do have to change how you practice. And You have so much more space and grace when you're practicing at home.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 28:21

Yeah, I agree. So we've talked a lot about the nervous system, and I kind of want to pivot a little bit into pain and injuries and working with students who are experiencing both. But the first question is, That I'm very curious about is how do you teach students about body awareness, whether they're in pain or not, but just tuning into themselves. what strategies do you use? What kinds of cues do you use?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 29:00

Yeah. I always come back to what is coined as the felt sense by Dr. Eugene Genlund. And he coined that phrase, the felt sense, as your ability to be in tune with your own body, essentially. And he noticed that his clients who were able to be like, oh, I, I feel angry, no, actually, that's not quite the right word, it's like fuzzy, like a tense fuzziness, or, that's one example, where it's like, you, you say angry, but is that really what I'm feeling? So it's this felt sense around like, distinguishing the nuance and sensations that's happening in your body. And so I, I always try to channel felt sense type activities in yoga, especially at the beginning of class, or laying down or in a starting posture, notice what feels pleasant and try to be with those sensations. Can you describe it? Is there a visual associated with it? Is there an emotion, associated with it? I try to go through sensory type exercises just to build people's language on, sensory vocabulary, which is often quite limited because we are in a cognitive based society, not a body based society. So we have lots of words to describe our thoughts, and we have very few words to describe. what we feel inside our bodies.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 30:35

my mom used to try to get me to explain exactly what I was feeling, physical pain, and I would always respond and be like, I don't know, it just hurts. And she's like, no, I need different language. is it sharp shooting pain or is it dull and achy? And so I think that was my first. introduction to my body and getting connected with it. Then did a training with Jill Miller and that was her level one, the role model method training where we were learning, self massage. And in that training, a lot of it was. us helping students to be able to describe what they feel because you're rolling on balls. and for a lot of students, this is their first experience, right? And so when you have a first experience with sensation, a lot of people say that hurts, And it's like, Does it really hurt or does it feel different? And does that different feeling not hurt, but maybe just feel uncomfortable, but it's not hurting. when we help students develop their own language to describe what it is. That they're feeling that we are doing them a service beyond what we were trained how to do to teach yoga

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 32:18

Yes, a hundred percent. And teaching people the difference or their own comfort level of, you know, this is uncomfortable versus this hurts. Oftentimes when I'm working with students, especially one on one, I like to use pain scales or sensation scales. So, you 10 being This is really hard, like the hardest thing you've ever done. Zero being I, this is the easiest thing I've ever done. Like we'll do a pose and you, try to stop at a level three. can you discern between a level two and a level four? You know, you have to get creative with some people with it, but just discerning different levels of sensation can be a huge. support for everything in their life. Because if you're only noticing sensation when it's a level 10, that's going to cause some issues for you.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 33:16

You and I talked about the differences in pain tolerance between people, I know my pain tolerance is very low. And I think the first time I really realized that was in my first pregnancy and I was like I gotta get this baby out. That's gonna be so painful. How am I gonna do that? But other people's pain tolerance is different. Even one of my daughters, her pain tolerance is so high, so we could have the same injury. and experience it very differently. how do you manage students in a group class who are there with, let's just say, level five pain, And how would you maybe change your language during class? Or how would you teach the class differently, if any?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 34:16

this actually happened to me just before I came on. I have an ongoing small group private, so it's a group of five people. And I have a plan for them each week. And today, one of the students reported that she fell. yesterday and really, hurt her elbow and can't put any pressure at all on her elbow right now, but you know, don't worry about me. Just go do whatever you want. don't change the class for me. I'll just do what I can. Which is so nice of her to say that, but I'm like, no, if you can't put any weight on your arm. I wound up changing the sequence, and we did a lot of neurosomatic tools to help calm the nervous system or clear some of the cranial nerve pathways, which is helpful for everybody. And then, we did a lot of standing poses, and we worked with a chair where she, you know, we did squats on a chair and did some standing poses, and I just changed the sequence where I'm like, you know, If you can't put any weight on your arm yet, we can still get a great practice, everybody can still get a great practice without putting weight on your arm. And so that's what I did and I changed on the fly and we all had a great practice together.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 35:37

I think that yoga teachers learn so much by having private clients. that's where you really learn how to learn. Not only teach, but also how you learn to change things on the fly, in private sessions. We're asking for feedback constantly, we're going to try something with your foot. Your foot hurts today. Tell me how that feels. Right? And so there's so much beauty in having the private, sessions.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 36:16

One thing I've noticed too, as I've worked, I love teaching private clients and as I built relationship with clients over time, their honesty level gets greater with me. Bye. And I think that's so amazing because I think there is this social pressure, internalized social pressure that you want to do good and you want to progress and even if you have an injury and even if you're working one on one, you might downplay your pain or be like, no, it kind of hurts but it's fine, like I want to keep going. There's something psychological or emotional happening there and I think in time when you build relationship with. Your client or if you're a student with your teacher, you can be more honest and I have now Seen I'm like, oh this person's shoulder hurts And now that we've sort of gauged the felt sense and they have more relationship with their body They can discern the sensations more they really know Like oh even just a little bit is too much today And so they can really take agency in that. And sometimes the practice is like, you know, just lightly touching where you're injured. And not even moving it, but just offering it touch. Like very gentle touch Whereas when I was in my 20s teaching athletic yoga, thinking people can just, work through their injuries. I have so much reverence for the healing process and building those relationships and really, truly having a loving, honest relationship with your body and your movement practice. Absolutely will change your life and change how you walk through this world when you can honor your body and where it's at.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 38:06

We think about. Recovery strategies being something that you do as opposed to something that you don't do. And a recovery could be just lying down and being still a soft touch on the shoulder and just breathing, right? And not trying to increase the range in the shoulder joint or, assess it and, and, and try to do something different to work on. the condition or the injury, but just let it be and help to soothe the nervous system in the process. what do you find the biggest misconceptions of pain to be?

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 39:04

That it will last forever, or that it's not all so emotional, or that it shouldn't interfere with your life. Like pain, pain is not just a physical experience. Pain is emotional, pain is thoughts and beliefs about pain, pain is social, um, I think the more we can understand the enormity of what pain is, we can have more reverence for it, build a relationship with it, and see what it is here to teach us in a way, because pain is your systems. is trying to protect you from something, whether if it's real or perceived. And, you know, they've done the functional MRIs with the brain. Every time you have pain, three different parts of your brain light up at the same time, where, like, the sensory, where you actually feel the pain, the limbic system, where you have the emotion about the pain, and then the cerebral cortex where you have your thoughts and beliefs about the pain. So it's, it's really pervasive. And if we didn't have pain, signals, we would not get far in life. Like we actually need pain signals. They're extremely helpful because if there is something wrong, pain is our system's primary way of getting us to stop doing the thing that's hurting us. So I just read a example in a book where it's like, if you are on a run and you roll your ankle, if your ankle didn't hurt, you would keep running. and cause way more damage to your ankle. Um, really honoring and respecting pain is something I try to, talk about with all my clients because often when we have pain, it's like, we're just trying to get over it or we don't want it there or we want to get rid of it. And that makes so much sense cause it hurts. But if we can create the relationship with pain where we can understand it and work on a nervous system level where we can see what's going on and see what we can do to calm our nervous system we can understand pain a lot better.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 41:23

So what would be your advice for yoga teachers who are interested in learning more about pain and injuries? Or who are currently teaching students who they recognize are in pain, but they don't know what to do.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 41:40

Well, they should take our mentorship, Monica. Yeah, me and you have created this absolutely incredible eight week mentorship, eight week plus, because there's a case, a final call case study afterwards, but this is the mentorship that I wish I had when I was a newer yoga teacher, even a seasoned yoga teacher, to be quite honest. we are going over pain science, which my understanding of pain science allows me to not be scared of pain. And when I'm not scared of pain and working with pain and relating to pain, I'm not putting that fear onto my clients. who are probably already scared because they're the ones who is hurting. We learn about pain science. We learn about the nervous system. We are doing anatomy refreshers and going over some common injuries and recovery strategies and talking more in depth about the difference between group classes and private classes. I'm so jazzed on this mentorship because It will make you a better teacher and a more confident teacher and it will give people who are doing yoga faith in yoga because there's nothing worse than being in pain, thinking yoga helps, going to a class and feeling more injured or worse afterwards. yoga can be an extremely healing practice and we want to help you fulfill that goal.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 43:15

Yes. It's part of the reason that I invited her on to interview her because she's so smart and I admire her so much and I'm so glad to be in collaboration with her to bring this mentorship, to the yoga world. I believe that Diana and I, have the same experience of getting our knowledge from different sources. And learning about pain and injuries and the nervous system and recovery strategies and how to deal with students in front of you, who are hurting, and how to teach a class that is that will support them and not alienate them. And sometimes students feel alienated when we say, we'll just do what's best for you. But the knowledge that Diana and I have collected over the years from different sources, we've put together in this mentorship. And that's what I believe that she and I both were missing a package to put all of this knowledge together, and tied up in a nice boat. so that you can learn all of this information without having to go to this training and that training and all over the place. So that's what, you know, I'm really excited about is that we get to bring everything that we know and, put it together for teachers. I'm going to link in the show notes, where you can find out more about the mentorship. It's yoga for injury management. So check it out. There's some frequently asked questions, also included there and we will open registration at the end of September with a few bonuses for people who are already on our website. mailing lists. So hop on it if you're not already. Diana, thank you so much tell listeners where they can find out more about you and where's the best place to connect with you.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 45:41

Yeah, so you can go to, I have Instagram, dianamayoga, and my website, which is dianamay. com. And if you are a student and you do have injury, I mean, you're in great hands with Monica. If you're interested in me, I'm now charging for consultations, but you can get a consultation with me, ask any questions, email me, find me on social media. I could easily talk about this for hours and want to, so help me fulfill my goal of talking about this forever and please contact me and ask me your questions.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 46:18

It's so great. Thank you, Diana.

diana-may--she-her-_4_09-17-2024_132437: 46:21

Thank you.

monica_4_09-17-2024_122441: 46:21

I hope this conversation with my friend, Diana May has given you more insight into understanding pain. Injuries and regulating the nervous system. I hope you've heard some strategies that you can take away and either implement yourself or with your yoga students. I truly enjoy talking about pain injuries, the nervous system and recovery strategies. And I want all teachers of movement to understand how a work acknowledge of it. I can enhance your teaching. We don't talk about these topics enough in the yoga world yet we're teachers of movement. And we teach students with pain and injuries all the time. I hope that this episode sparks some deeper thought around why understanding pain relief strategies are so important as movement educators. I've added a link in the show notes for you to send me a quick message about your thoughts on this episode or any other, I won't know your phone number. It's just a neat addition to the platform I use. That allows for this new and super easy way for you to communicate with me. Once you click on it, it will take you to your messages. Don't delete the code. That's how your message will get to me. And I would love to know your thoughts on this topic. I love diving into these conversations because there are so many discussions to be had in the teaching world. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life and allow it to be fulfilling and rewarding. And sometimes it takes some work and a few conversations to get there. If you love this episode, let me know, subscribe to the podcast. So you're always in the know when a new episode drops and share it with another and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. Thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. If you've been taking notes in your journal, as you listen to these episodes, I'm so glad you are. And I love to hear about it. Finally, don't forget to join my newsletter. That's just for yoga teachers. I've got some exciting teachings coming soon. So I want to tell you all about them. The link is in the show notes below, and I would love for you to join so we can always stay connected. All right, that's it for now? Bye.

48:45

Mhm.