In this episode, we discuss outdoor adventures, connection, yoga and health, and how they intersect. You can find Jacki online: Website, Facebook or here And Instagram.
Hello everyone, So I have Jackie Deering here with me this morning on the strong, healthy and Glowing podcast.
Jackie is from Turning Point yoga with Jackie down in the southeastern side of Victoria.
I think that’s correct isn’t it Jackie? Yeah, we’re not far from Wilson’s Promontory, which is like The Southern tip of the mainland, very nice, so Jackie runs a yoga business down there and I thought I would have her on the podcast today to have a chat a bit about strong, healthy and glowing obviously, but also about outdoor exercise and a few other things that Jackie’s passionate about though Jackie, would you like to tell us about yourself.
Hey Sarah, so I did my yoga teacher training in 2017 but prior to that I was, you know, practicing for a lot of years it had changed my life really like I was pretty much a couch potato and then I went to my first class and things just started unfolding a little differently.
I just felt better and more positive and started making better decisions and I soon became hooked and I thought yeah, this is where I want to go anyway, it took me quite a few years I was climbing the corporate ladder and then Yeah and eventually I did my teacher training and then a few use into work and COVID and all of that and I was just teaching some regular classes, but it was when I went on the retreat to Thailand with Amy so amy that we do our thing together with that, we did our retreat Amy Mcdonald and in that we had to look at our businesses about what our main main thing we wanted to be known as and I sort of made this decision that I wanted to be known for someone that took people on, you know, adventures that included yoga that included healthy living that included connection and yes, so I started and for the last couple of years I’ve been, you know, at least once a month we go either on a hike or a bike ride or a surf and yoga Day, Just all of these adventures and it’s been wonderful it’s opened up you know, new doors for me I’ve met so many people and there’s a lot of people that have connected with each other you know, so they meet each other on these adventure days and then they reach out to each other and yeah so that that’s kind of my main passion at the moment nice nice so yeah Amy Mcdonald is a yoga business Coast coach based here in Victoria, so Jackie I’ll start off with a question I asked all of my guests on the podcast, which is what DoEs strong, healthy and glowing mean to you.
Well I think it’s always a work in progress, I’d love to think that I feel strong, healthy and glowing all the time, but that’s not the truth, I think fitness and strength, like yoga, is great, but it’s not everything like I go to the gym as well I think strength is really important to do, you know, to make yourself strong, healthy, you know, connecting with the seasons Eating eating What’s in season? Doing activities that are aligned to the season, so you know, surfing in the summer, skiing in the winter, bike riding in the autumn and spring I love I think you feel healthiest when you’re part of nature cycles glowing I think if all of that is happening and you feel good you’ll glow because we, you know we have a certain vibration that we run at and when that vibration is raised from the inside out then we can glow you know, like obviously it’s important what you, what you use on your skin and everything like that, but I think mainly it comes from the inside out.
Yeah that’s so so true, I totally agree with that, that’s exactly, that’s exactly exactly my philosophy as well.
So I love that because you have skin care as well don’t you or you? Yeah.
And skin care, nutrition and I also obviously do yoga, teach yoga meditation and also personal training so strength work and that kind of thing as well, so that I absolutely love that, so tell US-A little bit about your business in your outdoor so obviously outdoor so why why outdoor adventures with them, I mean where I live, I’m in a small country town you know there’s there’s maybe a 1000 people that live here and it’s lovely, but we’ve got like the prompt National Park just down the road We’ve got some beautiful beaches, some nice rail trails, It kind of started because I wanted to do more stuff, get out and you know on the weekends go for hike or something and I found that I’d ask people to come with me and no one would commit but you know in the last minute people would drop-off and I just thought maybe I’ll take some of my yoga students and we’ll see how that goes and you know I did it a couple of times and I didn’t charge anything and then the next time you know, people wanted to pay me and I’m like, but I’m not doing anything, So then I started including a bit of a yoga stretch as part of it, but I found that as soon as I have said, you know, I put a price on it which is not a huge price then people would commit and then they would come and then I thought well this is a good way to make a living I get to do all these wonderful stuff and I always have people to come with me and they pay me for it so yeah it’s just kind of gone from there and like I said, people have connected with each other on these like at something and we did a bike ride, yoga in The Park and then we had lunch and we’re all introducing ourselves over lunch and someone said oh I’m so and so I’m one of Jackie’s griefing.
I just laughed and someone else popped out and said, oh I’m a groupie too, you know, so they kind of there’s people that follow to do these things, and I guess the underlying theme of all of it is connection like I mean there’s the strong healthy fitness type stuff, but it’s also giving people someone to hang out with and something to do in a group of like minded people, you know, like myself, I wanted to do these things but didn’t always have people to do it with and whereas you know, other people say to me all the time Oh I love that you do these adventures because I get to go to these beautiful places and I don’t have to worry about finding people to come with me and you find when you’re when you’re walking on the trails, you know, the conversations are endless, people are just, you know, sharing all this stuff about their lives with these random people and then they become friends or they don’t or it doesn’t matter you know they’ve had a great day and yeah that’s very so filling for me, so there’s always some yoga included, but it’s kind of it’s the thread that brings it all together, but it’s it’s not really the reason, the reason is probably more about connection.
Yeah.
So what do you think ISSO important about connection? I think I don’t know.
People are a little bit lonely, just connecting with like minds, you know, we all have our circle of people, our families and how our friends but as we get a little bit older.
Sometimes those connections that we have don’t resonate with US-As much as they used to.
You know, we grow apart and sometimes we need to find a new tribe and I think that’s where I come in a little bit, you know I’m bringing these people together to find their new tribe, you know, and fulfill them on that level that maybe their regular friends and family can’t Yeah nice, nice cause I do think it’s a little bit harder to make friends as we get older when we’re sort of sort of I guess fairly static sort of circles, but do you think that sort of plays into Do you think this side sort of plays into mental health as well.
Ah yeah, yeah definitely because or even just the exercise part of it and getting outside in nature that’s always going to, you know, flip your mindset if you’re feeling pretty down or anything you get outside in the fresh air Prana it’s Yeah, definitely good for mental health and of course, the connection having someone to talk to you know, because there might be you know, two people that are just walking on the trail together and there you know, having a conversation and they may not have shared that with anyone else, so just to offload you know, can be benefit for their mental health as well, I think, and I’m in yoga you know, yoga’s wonderful for everyone’s mental health.
So you know, we always have some kind of stretch or some kind of mindfulness or something going on, but I’ve got a hike in a couple of weeks we’re doing a sunrise hike and we’ve not really there’s probably not going to be a place to p out yoga mats and do all of that, but the plan is to hike to the top of this mountain with our head torture See the sun come up then we’ll go down another trail to this beautiful little gully where we’ll have you know a little bit of mindfulness, meditation and then we’ll sit there and eat our breakfast while the world wakes up Yeah So if you know you’re willing to get up at 03:00 A.M.
To drive down and catch the sunrise, that’s what we’re doing.
Yeah I’d love to put a link.
Do you have a link or something to that which we can put in the show notes for everyone yet definitely got everything nice.
When is it yet? When you set it’s on Saturday 2 February, so we’re hiking Mount Bishop and we made at 05:00 a.m.
At the, at the car park so I can put Yeah I can send you some notes and things and we can put them so if anyone locals listening and they might join definitely, I’m sure there’ll be people who might be around in that, in that neck of the Woods, so I would also love to sort of delve into you mention yoga and mental health, So what do you think some of the key elements are there or Lincoln? So a lot of people you know, they, they dwelling in their mind you know, and they’re overthinking and that can contribute to everything that’s going on so sometimes we need to kind of get out of The Head and into the body and move that energy through you know, releasing blockages and through the movement and letting the energy flow a little more freely because I find myself, you know, if I went to a yoga class not long ago, when the teachers like, you know how the body feeling and I’m like, I’m not actually here for my body I’m here from my mind, come here to get my head right, even though I was there to do yoga but I just knew that you know, always had all these thoughts going round in my head and I needed some kind of filing system in my head and I just knew that if I went to yoga I would come home and I would get my head sorted and I’d be able to get done when I needed to get done and that’s that’s how I feel that it works, it seems to, you know, it doesn’t fix everything, but it shifts energy so you can move on to whatever’s next.
Yeah Yep.
So good and totally agree
That’s what I love about it, it’s it’s one of those forms of exercise that really allows you to get out of your head and you know, get some energy moving and get things, get things flowing a bit better Beginner’s workshop last night.
So I just had four, four new people and you know I was just asking them the reasons that they came to yoga and for the two of them, you know, they were young fit and they ran and everything and they just simply thought they should stretch because you know they needed to but at the end of it they were so relaxed one of them fell asleep and they’re like, Oh I didn’t realize how busy my mind was, you know, and then the others were for them it was one, it was about, you know it was she came for the mental side of things and the other one it was about mobility you know, getting older, getting stiffer, you know, wanted to be you know, a bit healthier in old age Chase for grandchildren, things like that.
So I don’t know everyone comes for a different reason, but I think it can meet you where you’re at and I was saying to them, I said you know, we’re going to do all these movements, some of them, you’ll think, are weird and some of them will be easy, some of them will be hard, I said, but everything that we do has a reason, you know and you don’t even need to know all the INS and outs of why we do everything I said old drop you know, little comments every now and then said oh this is for this and this is for that, but at the end of it you’ll have that sense of union, which is what the word yoga means, you know, uniting our mind, body, spirit and feeling, that sense of wholeness within ourselves to take out into the world so good and you mentioned the other thing I picked up you mentioned Prana when we were talking about your outdoor hikes and that kind of thing.
So for those people who I guess a bit more scientific and that kind of thing, can you delve into prana a little bit and what it, I guess applications and or how it links into that outdoor sort of thing.
Yeah, well it’s you know, I’m probably not an expert in this, but as far as I know Prana is the life force within the breath, so it’s a bit like, you know it’s energy, it’s like we have oxygen, for example, math to mouth resuscitation that’s why you know that’s the extra that that gives rather than just doing CPR you know it’s life force to life force but outdoors there’s a higher percentage of prana that we can breathe in, you know, when we get away from the city when we get among the trees and it’s like it recharges our battery and for what I’ve learnt that they say it’s stored in the solar plexus.
So this is like our solar battery and when we refill this with prana we have more energy we have more life we have more magnetism we have a higher vibration but that doesn’t sound like another language.
No, no I think it’s I think you’re right, it’s that we’ve all got a guess, a life forced, a level of energy and that kind of thing about ourselves and that when we say someone might be, you know, someone’s personality is magnetic, right, they attract people to them and that’s what it’s that’s what it is I think they carry a lot of prana, a lot of life within themselves and it doesn’t have to be all woo woo and I think you’re right when we get out of the when we get out of the city we get out of all the skyscrapers and the kind of thing and we get more into into nature, you know, the air is fresher because let’s face it from a scientific level, be you know the, the leaves on the trees are what takes carbon dioxide and re oxygenates the air that we breathe so it’s science if there’s more trees, there’s better air Yep and that oxygen is what drives our body and creates energy in the body and so that’s you’re right, I think it is, it’s that getting us outdoors and into nature is really key and you know there’s that you know when you do a little bit of cardio you get those extra endorphins and that always makes you feel good and doing something new too, like a few weeks ago we had a surfing and yoga day so we met and we had a yoga session on the beach limbered everything up and then we had a surfing lesson and a lot of those people had never tried surfing before and yes, some loved it, some were like, oh it’s scary but it was kinda cool like everyone had a great time, everyone achieved something and sometimes Yeah you know I like to guess I’m proud that I’m part of something where people can try something new in a safe environment and then they can walk away with that sense of achievement wherever that takes them after that they don’t have to keep surfing, but you know they definitely walk away on high because they did something different and they, they’ve always wanted to try it and they did it you know so yeah more of those things that’s good, that’s good.
So do you think there’s an element of that that that trying something new can give you a return on as well or increase your energy levels? Yeah yea they say you know growth lies just outside the comfort zone and you know a lot of people are very scared to try new things or you know, we all sort of see it in our safe place, you know, I don’t know it’s been an interesting journey because there’s some events that people Yeah will come to that and then there’s a different crowd of people that’ll come to something else just because it’s in their comfort zone or it’s not but you know you usually get a few that sort of come along last minute and they say oh I was scared to do this but you know like for some people that might just be I don’t want to come by myself I you know and then I sort of say well there’s plenty of people that are coming on their own and that’s why I do these things for them, that’s a big step out of their comfort zone just to turn up somewhere and not know anyone enjoy a group and then yeah for others it’s something like surfing that they’re scared, the water, they’re scared of drowning, you know, so they can do that in a supportive environment with surf coaches and you know we won’t let them drown.
No that’s so that’s so good and I guess you know, I guess surfing’s an interesting one because I guess a lot of people say there’s there’s energy in the Waves almost yea yeah there’s all of that, Yeah all of that comes into it as well, you know there’s definitely if you get one there’s definitely some adrenaline going on there, but even just being in those fluffy Waves and getting thrashed about and feeling the ocean is wonderful, it’s almost like it’s refreshing in that kind of thing as well, I think as well so yeah you know no one ever said I wish I didn’t go in like sometimes if it’s a little bit cold and we’re like ooh don’t know if I can be bothered putting the wet suit on and all that stuff, but you never come out of the water and say I wish I didn’t do that.
You always go oh feeling so good now yep.
Are you one of those cold water swimmer people not swimming so much? We will go for I’ll go for a dip but not I wouldn’t say I go swimming.
Yeah, yeah I’m not one of those people like that’s out of my comfort zone, but you know, like this time of year I’ll go in the water without a wet suit, but I’d carry on about it splashing and all that, but then once I mean I’m like, oh why did I wait so long? This feels amazing No it’s so good, I mean there’s all these, these things, that cold water plunges and that kind of thing, a good for your stress responses and that kind of thing, good for building up resilience in the body and all the rest of it.
So there’s a whole lot of research around that now as well, which is I find fascinating, you know what everyone said for Aeons that you know, a dip in the cold ocean is refreshing and all the rest of it, and now all of a sudden there’s all these places popping up where you can go for a cold plunge in the city where you know there’s all this scientific research about it when it’s like people have known that anecdotally fur for decades, so it’s actually really interesting to see all the research popping up around these things now Yeah I was also going to ask yet connection to nature We were talking about connection to each other, but connection to nature so we’ve been talking about all the you know, going swimming in the ocean and getting outdoors and that kind of thing connection to nature What’s your take on that and the potential benefits.
Well I mean there’s all that prana stuff but going down the rabbit hole a little bit here, the Indigenous you know, they always feel that they’re part of the land.
It’s not just there on the land, they are the land you know what I mean and I did have you know, and yoga sort of helps us to think about us being connected to everything, you know that we are, we are part of everything and everything’s out of us and I have experience that you know when I’ve been to these places I’ve had, you know, there’s a difference sometimes you get Oh isn’t it beautiful? It’s so nice to be here like that’s that’s one level, but then I have had other levels where I’ve actually felt that I, I know this just sounds so silly, but driving through and looking at the big mountain and feeling that I was part of that mountain, that mountain was part of me like there was definite you know there’s there’s another level to that which maybe I’m chasing that I don’t know because I’ve experienced it a couple of times and yeah I think it’s just one of those things that Yeah I think that there’s another level of connection with nature.
Yeah, yeah, interesting and it just what’s your sort of take on the benefits of that, you think it just helps to improve health or mental health or makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger.
Yeah, maybe it’s that, it’s just kind of that feeling, being parting part of something bigger, but also it brings a bit of humility, you know, to know that in the grander scheme of things you’re just a little speck Yeah and I guess that kind of plays into into almost a mental health aspect that our issues are not, you know, the issues that might be loving large in our own heads and not the be all and end all of the whole entire universe, I guess.
yeah.
hmmm.
So I guess it’s quite similar to how that connection to nature in that sense can be quite similar to some, to some of the benefits that yoga has, you know, getting us out of our head and you know, refocusing I guess on what’s what might be more important than what’s going on in our head, right at that very precise moment.
Yeah, I mean there’s always going to be stuff in your head, there’s always going to be problems to solve, but it’s kind of that balance between you know, the two sides of our brain you know we have that logical side of our brain that likes to solve problems, likes to make lists, likes to get things done and then we have that more creative, intuitive side of the brain and it’s about getting those two sides to work together, so sometimes you know if we’ve got a problem in our head and we just keep ruminating over it and try and solve it intellectually.
It doesn’t always work.
Sometimes you just have to step away from that and do something different, you know, going into that right brain, parasympathetic nervous system, you know, to kind of like you said with your holidays you had, you had to switch your brain off and then you come back to that left brain and you’ve got new ideas to put in within that logic and things can fall into place definitely de but you know then there’s the opposite if you’re too much in your right brain then you’re not grounded, you know you’re wandering round like a space cadet so there’s you know we, we need to kind of tap into both and I think that yoga always brings you back into the center so you can use both sides of your brain.
No that’s so good, I love it, I love it.
So what else is there anything else you’d like to cover off today Jackie? I know you’ve got some retreats in various events instead of coming up and I Yeah, we’re off to Vietnam on 21st of FEB.
Till 3 March, so its bookings aren’t completely closed that there’s still options to come, but we are pretty set up and ready to go, but if you want to jump on board last minute.
Let me know it’s a it’s a wellness escape, so it’s not a traditional yoga retreat like We’re not going to be going to temples and chanting all day, we’re going to be going on Tours, boats, motorbikes pushbikes kayaks and all the stuff that all the touristy things but I’ll be teaching yoga along the way so there’s a travel agent, Renee Mclean, who is based in the next town from me Langaa so she often DoEs hiking holidays and things like that and she approached me about doing a wellness escape so yeah so at this stage there’s nine of us going and how the yoga fits in some places we’ll have like a venue for an hour or so and other places will just be outdoors, but I’ll be doing something every day and I’ll arrange a bit of a theme for the group and will kind of flow through that just to make the because I mean a holiday is great, but when you feel great on the inside too, it just makes for you know, a great experience, you know if you’ve got all of that I guess being fully present, you know, feeling good on the inside, being fully present, being able to enjoy every aspect of the holiday and take that relaxation to a new level.
Yeah very nice so well you mentioned it’s a wellness escape what DoEs it very well may not be quick, I don’t know what do the wellness mean to you? It means a lot of things, so connection with each other.
Seeing adventure is part of my wellness, so going to new places, saying new things, eating beautiful food and being part of their culture and their seasons and of course activity so yeah that’s kind of all all my wellness bundle yeah nice, nice and then so that’s yeah, that’s Vietnam and that’s coming up and then HM.
What else is on the next? The next retreat on the radar is a winter one, so it’s local, it’s at Warata Bay, It’s a big, beautiful lodge and it’s like it’s a winter solstice restore at every treat so that ones you know, we sure we’ll get out for a bit of a walk, but that one’s not so much about adventure that will be more about nurturing, you know there’ll be a bit more meditation, there’ll be some sound bath, some restorative yoga, lots of yummy food you know, say yeah that’s what we’ll do in the winter and between Vietnam and the winter I don’t have a full schedule of events yet, but it’s coming, so just getting my ducks in a row of all the other stuff like you know all the classes start this week, so it’s a busy time.
Yeah that was you mentioned a lot of restorative for your winter retreat I’m I’m a big fan of restorative, you know, getting some restorative time in the winter and that kind of thing.
So what are the benefits of that side of things because a lot of people when they think of yoga they think about, you know, Vinyasa, they think that kind of thing.
What are the benefits of switching it out is some restorative.
It’s a nice time of year to reflect in like the darkest days of the year, it’s a really good time to kind of go Okay, has my year been so far What, what’s next you know it’s sort of about resetting, resetting the goals, the visions and sometimes you just need to go slower for that to come come to fruition, so the yoga style you know we use more props, blocks and straps and bolsters and yet like longer yoganidra relaxation, things like that.
So I guess really allowing the body time to rest and reset and that kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah and it’s just it attracts different people to different things, you know like that, that people coming on the surfing adventure are probably not the same people that are coming on the wrist store at every treat.
YE, so I don’t know, I just I still like all of that too and what else will do in the middle of winter? Yeah, totally so I guess for me it’s about embracing the seasons, you know when at summer time we get out, we do stuff, we fill ourselves up with all that energetic things and then in the winter we slow down, we reflect, you know, then there’s the you know you’re coming out of it into spring and you might start doing a little bit more and then autumn you start to just like the leaves on the tree starting to shed, you start to kind of tuck in a little bit so yeah I guess wellness to me is also the seasonal things doing things in a line with the seasons doing the right activities, eating the right foods you know like I was talking to someone the other day who escapes every winter, can’t store the cold got to run away and they said you seem to cope with it Okay and I said ah yeah, I mean I don’t love the cold, but I don’t like I try and book a snow trip in the winter cause I love skiing and as soon as I’ve booked my snow trip I don’t feel cold anymore like it’s a bit psychological you know that that’s what gets me through, I try and do the things that are in a line with the season of them That just makes me embrace them a little bit more rather than going to get away from this Yep I think it’s a it’s a mindset as well and I guess our you know our ancestors from an evolutionary perspective, Our bodies are designed to deal with the seasons and from that evolutionary perspective, you know, is things that cold DoEs to our bodies and eating in line with the seasons as well IS-IS really beneficial as well because that eating in in season it’s more nutritious rather than a lot of the sort of cold dawd you know, eating nectarines or some of the more summary type of fruits in the middle of winter when they’ve been shipped across the country or you know they’ve been in cold-storage for six months or something like that.
It’s just not, they’re not at their peak nutrition, they don’t have that nutritional density.
It’s like I love asparagus, but when it’s out of season, I’m not going to buy asparagus from Mexico like it’s just wrong.
Yeah it’s just not I mean I, you know, I grew up in a big citrus growing area and you know, someone tries to give me an orange from California and I just don’t know what, what is this I’m not eating this.
Yeah a knob but I’m like, you know, I grew up going out and picking an orange from the tree in the backyard so you try and give me an orange that’s been shipped halfway across The Globe and I just go why and they just they just don’t taste as good either.
No, no not at all.
Yeah.
And and oranges you know they’re around in our winter season because that’s when we need that vitamin C and there’s different, there’s different species of different types of oranges, That’s why we have Naval and Valencia Oranges to look at what’s in season and there’s a lot of things you can get Yes you might not get your preferred variety of orange buttons to get oranges and yeah so yeah it’s it’s definitely it’s interesting so a nice Is there anything else you’d like before we wrap up.
Oh I don’t know, I think I’ve probably covered all the things that I’ve got going on
.Is there anything that you want to want to finish with or say that digging into what strong, healthy and glowing means to you and what wellness means to you, so thank you so much for joining me Jackie, where can everyone find you so if they just go to WWW Yoga with Jackie.com and that’ll take care to my website and yeah everything’s there and I’ve also got Facebook and Instagram, So Facebook is turning point yoga with Jackie, so is Instagram so I can send you those links if you wanted to I put those in the show notes as well and yeah, thank you so much for joining me today Jackie, thank you for having me.
