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Hi , welcome to the podcast

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between hard and brave . I'm Sarah

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, and I'm here to be with you in

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your personal growth and self-improvement

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journey , and I'm here to share

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my own life experiences

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with you . I'm a yoga teacher

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, a business intelligence manager

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with a master's degree in IT

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, and Nobel Queen International 2023

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with health and wellness advocacy

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. I'm so excited to start

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this journey with you , to uplift

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you with positivity , the power

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of mindfulness and yoga and

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the freedom of conscious living . So

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let's start together and

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take a moment for yourself and

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take a moment for yourself . Hi , buddies , it's been a while

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since my last episode , and I

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want to apologize for it that

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I haven't been able to record new episodes for

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you , but there is a reason for that . I've been really

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busy with something A big decision

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that I made , or at least big to me that I've been contemplating with , something a big decision that

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I made or at least big to me that I've been contemplating

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on for a while and then preparing

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for for a while . I'm

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in India taking my 300-hour

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teacher training course

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to finish 500

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hours , and

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I arrived here on

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Monday . Today is Saturday

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. Oh sorry , I actually arrived here earlier

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than Monday , on Saturday

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or Sunday . Yeah , it's been like going

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kind of so fast , and

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today is just a day that I can record

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something . I decided to do

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this just out of the blue

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, spontaneously , just

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to give you guys an update

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of what's been happening . It's

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not really about specific topics have I had coming here and how it has been for me so far for the

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past five days since our course started , and classes from morning till night

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. Maybe it can give you an idea if ever you

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want to come here , or if

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not , just to know about it . So

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, as you might know if you've listened

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to my other episodes , you

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know that I am a yoga teacher

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alongside other things that keep me busy

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, and yoga

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has been a part of my life since

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2018 , but , more profoundly

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, since 2022 , when

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I got my first teacher training 200

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hours in the Philippines

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. I've been actively teaching

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and I've met amazing

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people along my way

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fellow yoga teachers

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, yoga enthusiasts

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, people who have been completely

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new to it , my students , and now

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they enjoy

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, they love doing yoga and they can

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resonate with it . I've

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also made some friendships with my students

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and it's been great . I think it's been one of

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the best decisions that I've made in

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my life for myself , the

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first time I took my yoga class , I wanted

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to just do something for myself , spend

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an hour for myself , and that just

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happened to change the

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direction of my life significantly

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and in a very good way . I've

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been finding myself getting more and

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more curious about yoga and although

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I've been really happy with my training

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, by the way , I want to mention my

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school in the Philippines is called Bodhi Yoga

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Center , which is handled

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by my great teacher , ms

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Leona , since I

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have been teaching since then

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, at first privately , then studios and then both

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. So a lot of my time has been spent

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on that . But I found myself very much

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interested in knowing

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a lot more about yoga , and maybe

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even deeper than before . I

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started reading a lot more about it and

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I've been thinking if I want to

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go to India for it or not

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. So I've done some research and met some people

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who have done it from the Philippines Girls

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and boys a

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few of them , not so many who

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have come here for their training or

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not just training . I've

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met some of them that they just wanted to live here for a while , for whatever reason they

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had , maybe for peace of mind . So

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now I am here on Rishikesh . Rishikesh

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is a place

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or a city that's actually

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I would say it's being developed recently

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. You can see a lot of buildings being built

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, a lot of yoga schools here

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. It's very much

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about yoga . Everyone

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here is vegetarian . You cannot find meat

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. You cannot find eggs . You

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cannot find alcohol here . It's

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peaceful and calm . You cannot find alcohol

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here . It's peaceful and calm . I also made

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sure to be prepared because , like

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anywhere in the world , there are good people

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and bad people . So

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if ever you decide to come here , especially if you're alone , maybe you just want to

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be extra careful , or anywhere , actually not just here here , anywhere in the world . Rishikesh

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is basically on the foothills of himalayas , which is amazing

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. Every morning we get this beautiful

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, beautiful view of himalayas

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so green , the air

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is so fresh and the fogs are

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amazing . Sometimes they just look like they're

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pouring down the mountains

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. A lot of monkeys

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around here being

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naughty , like they're supposed

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to be , and cows . You

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might know this or not , but Indians

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, hindus , they respect cows a lot

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. They don't bother them , they don't disturb

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them . So you find dogs

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on the streets and cows and

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people actually feed them . They're very sweet

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. There was this cow that

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I wouldn't say it was like completely

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a mature adult . It was kind of smaller

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and then I just you know that

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baby voice that some of us make

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when talking to dogs , so

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I just made that like hello , and this

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cow actually reciprocated

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and came close to me . It kept on showing the side

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of his or her face

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for me to pet and I

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started petting it and it was adorable

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. It was just like a cat

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or a dog that just

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likes to be loved or

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I don't know . I don't know how to explain

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it . It's been amazing . And there was another

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one almost same size , but

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this one was maybe a little

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darker , not completely black , but

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a little darker . The other one was lighter

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but seemed like they were friends

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. The other one came along

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and then was like you know , me too , me too

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, I want some pets . That was so

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adorable , so adorable . I've seen

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in videos that cows are loving

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and they get along with humans

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if you just give them enough attention

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that we give to dogs and cats . But

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it was my first time to experience

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it firsthand

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. Yeah

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, so that was one of the highlights . But let's

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talk about the course . We

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have students who are just doing

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100 hours . Usually those who are

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doing 100 hours , it's more

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like escape for them or

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curiosity . They're not

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necessarily planning

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to be teachers , at least as of

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now , and they maybe

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are interested in yoga or they want to , you

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know , spend their time here . And

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we also have 200 students students like the course that

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I took before , and then 300 students

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. We have 14

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students all in all combined and

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the 300 students are only four , which

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I am one of them . The

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other three are Indians , which

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is great because I can ask my questions

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from them and you know they

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are really nice

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and super fun to be with

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. We were laughing

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a lot during

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before and after the class . Is

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this market that you can find their handicrafts or the things that are specifically

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for Rishikesh , nice stuff for yourself or souvenirs

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? It's been great . We went

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there , me and my friend

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, who

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actually was my student , still is , probably when we go back to the philippines , but now we're

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friends and I've talked about her , I think in

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the previous episode also . She gave me uh , an

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idea of uh talking about

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how to sort out your place and make it

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uh look and feel

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better for you . So I

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booked this training

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first and then I just thought

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that you , you know what I want to ask her

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. I want to ask her . Her

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name is Nika . Nika , if you're

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listening , I hope you're fine . I

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think you're fine . You've said it before , with me mentioning

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your name . So , yeah , I asked

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Nika hey , do you want to go here ? Because I know

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you love meditation . She's been actively

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talking about it and wants to

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do something about it . I hope that she gets the

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chance to do it . You

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know it takes time for everyone . It took my time

9:36

. I took my time also to do

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what I want to do , but basically we are on

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some path and

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it looks promising

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. So she , as

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I said , loves meditation and

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the concept of meditation and yoga . So

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I asked her and she was very much enthusiastic

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about it and she also

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flew to Rishikesh and

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we've been attending some of the classes together , and

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not all of them , because we have different courses

10:03

. Yeah , it's

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been great . So that's my update here

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. Just want to share

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my journey to here

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. Since I left

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, I had a lot of challenges

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sorting out my documents , challenges that

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were completely unnecessary , but

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you know , there are things that are

10:23

out of our hand and we just have to do the best

10:25

that we can , and we just have to do the best that

10:27

we can . But finally I was

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able to sort out those people , the

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clearance , the

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visas and stuff , and

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I was able to get myself to the airport

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. But then my luggage got

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misplaced and

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it arrived late . So

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because of that luggage , I missed my

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next flight to Rishikesh from Delhi

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. I had to stay there

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overnight . They did

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provide me a room and transportation

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taxi for that one , but

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still it was a very , very long

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journey to get here . And

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when I left home , I

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remember I went to the bathroom in the airplane

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and just started tearing up a little , because , you know

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, I miss my husband and , of course , our

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dog , and this

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is the longest I've been away from him

11:17

since we got married . But

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he's been nothing but supportive and

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we are , of course , in touch whenever

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we can , since my schedule

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is pretty full , and him also

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touch

11:32

whenever we can , since my schedule is pretty full , and him also . So , yeah , that

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was one feeling that I had to deal with , but then I reminded myself

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that love is different from attachment

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. Regardless here , there

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or anywhere , I love them the same

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and they're in my heart

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. So that made me feel better and

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that , thanks to technology

11:51

, we can stay in touch . Compared to when

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I was a kid , it was harder , much harder

11:55

. No constant Wi-Fi

11:57

or internet or Apps

12:00

that we can chat . And

12:04

aside from that , yeah

12:07

, about our schedule . We

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wake up 5 or 5.30 . We get

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ready for our class that starts 6

12:13

in the morning . We have

12:16

yoga practice , one and a half hour

12:18

in the morning , one and a half hour in the afternoon

12:21

, late afternoon , and other than that it's

12:23

either breakfast time , lunch time and

12:26

also lectures , hours of lectures

12:29

, philosophy , anatomy . Then

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our schedule ends daily

12:33

with an hour of meditation

12:36

, which can be pretty intense . I've

12:38

experienced , you know

12:40

, I would say , mind-blowing

12:42

things or thing

12:44

here in one of the meditation classes

12:47

, some of them I was unable

12:49

to grasp or resonate

12:52

with . But

12:54

all in all it's been great . And what's nice

12:56

is that you get to talk to everyone here

12:58

, hear their experiences . Everyone is

13:00

nice and from different parts

13:03

of the world , from English , france

13:06

, peru , of

13:08

course , india . We have people

13:10

from here , Philippines

13:13

, germany

13:16

, australia . So it's really

13:18

nice and diverse . It's

13:21

been great . The

13:24

schedule at first was a little bit tough

13:28

to get used to but , just

13:30

like anything else , we get used to things . So

13:32

it's better to get used to good things

13:34

and I believe waking up

13:36

early is one of those . Sleeping

13:38

early you have to . We don't have a choice because your body

13:40

is kind of tired and you have to wake up early

13:42

in the morning and it's nice . It's nice

13:45

. It's at first at first

13:47

like it was a little hard , but now I can feel

13:49

energetic . We also do some cleansing

13:52

practices . If

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ever you decided

13:56

to take a course , then you definitely will know

13:58

about it . If not , then it's

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just a google away . Yoga , cleansing

14:03

techniques Not all

14:05

of them . Some of them are kind of hard

14:07

or not probably

14:10

easy for everyone to open their minds

14:12

to , but the other ones

14:14

, yeah , we definitely do . We

14:17

are able to ask all our questions here

14:19

and the teachers are assisting

14:22

. They answer all the questions . And the teachers

14:25

are assisting . They answer all the questions . It was just two

14:27

nights ago that I was talking to my husband

14:29

and

14:38

I was telling him that , weirdly , I feel that I'm right where I'm supposed

14:40

to be . It's not often that

14:42

a person would experience this feeling , and

14:45

I'm not also sure if I've

14:47

experienced this before . I think

14:49

I have actually , yeah , I have , but

14:51

a very few times in my life

14:53

, probably the big decisions , and

14:55

this is one of those . I

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feel like I am right

14:59

where I'm supposed to be . It

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was just a feeling . Despite all

15:04

the challenges getting here

15:06

, despite

15:16

all the fatigue and , you know , missing my loved ones home is always more

15:18

comfortable , but it's

15:20

also pretty cozy here . It's nice

15:22

. Yeah , I'm glad I made this decision for

15:24

myself and this is

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the best time I

15:28

could do this . This

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is the time that I have

15:33

a lot of time for myself and

15:36

I am able to manage this , and

15:39

also the responsibility

15:42

of other responsibilities at home are

15:44

being managed by my

15:46

husband , like taking care of our dog . So

15:48

, yeah , it's been great

15:50

. It's been great . I

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guess that's all for now

15:56

. I just wanted to give you an update of how

15:58

things are here . Definitely

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, I will share more with you . I'll

16:04

probably record

16:06

more podcast episodes , if

16:08

I get the chance here

16:11

, about , probably

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, the journey or about different topics . By

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the way , the name of the school that I

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am studying at right now , the yoga school , is

16:24

Rishikesh Yoga Nirvana

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, in case you're curious

16:29

about it . And so far it's

16:31

been nice and it's been

16:33

great to be here and

16:36

learn as a student

16:38

. Thanks

16:40

for listening to me . I'm so happy

16:42

to connect with you once again and

16:45

talk to you again next time , feeling

17:07

life has only just begun . I'm here to support you every step

17:09

of the way , so keep coming back for more insights

17:11

and inspiration . And remember this podcast is proudly independent

17:13

, created with a passion for

17:15

making a positive impact . Your

17:18

support means the world to

17:20

me , so please consider subscribing

17:22

and sharing it with the people you know . Together

17:25

, we can inspire more individuals

17:28

on their journey to empowerment and

17:30

a better life . See you soon

17:32

for more life-changing discussions

17:35

. Until we meet again , stay

17:37

empowered .