Podcast S2:E4 - Lunar Cycles & Embodiment with Carla McGreevy
You can connect with the Fantastic Carla McGreevy over on Instagram, Youtube or her website!
Show notes:
(Please note that these are computer generated and therefore imperfect).
Ellie: Welcome to the capable collective podcast, a place for women who want to ditch the overwhelm and learn to run their business with ease. I'm your host, Ellie McBride. And I firmly believe that as women and non-binary folks, we are best as a collective. So together with my expert guests. We are sharing the tools, systems and ethos behind a simple yet thriving business.
This season, we are talking all about working with your natural rhythms and the episodes will be coming out every other Wednesday. I'm so excited to dive into topics like working with your menstrual cycle, living with lunar cycles, living seasonally, working from a place of rest and creating boundaries and so much more.
Ready to dive in. Let's go
born and raised in Belfast. Carla McGreevey is a yoga teacher who specializes in healing trauma through breath and movement. Carla is a former exercise addict who worked as an account manager for Bacardi who had a deep aversion to the idea of yoga, who then quit her full-time job with the mission to make the power of this ancient practice, widely known, accessible, and relatable to modern day people.
Yoga connects you to the deep intelligence of your breath and body whose depths of intelligence science is yet to fully understand by connecting to ourselves. We can live authentically with deep connection. And remember we belong, which empowers us to live happier, more fulfilled lives. When Carla started yoga at 28, she didn't know anything about herself or what made her happiest.
She didn't know about her passions. She hated her body. And couldn't feel any sensations in our body. She felt so disconnected from herself and second-guessed herself constantly. The yoga and meditation helped her with how she felt. And she learned to love and take care of herself. Most of us were never taught these skills of self-care.
As our parents didn't really have access to them. It is our birthright to enjoy this full human experience and everything it has to offer by teaching yoga, Carla hopes to empower people, to connect to their own innate intelligence. Connect to the deep breasts of pleasure and learn to trust their own body breath and intuition.
Carla is a yoga teacher with grit, big heart and quick wit, and a sense of playfulness through teaching yoga. Carla wants to empower people to take care of themselves physically and psychologically through breath and movement for optimum health and their body and mind to help people be happier, healthier, and have more connections in their lives.
Very excited to have Carla here today. She's going to be talking to us about some stuff that like is so outside my space and sort of even outside my comfort zone, but I'm so ready to have conversations around things that I don't necessarily get, or that are really helpful for lots and lots of people that, you know, I don't necessarily practice.
So I'm really looking forward to this conversation with Carla. Hello, Carla. Thanks for being here today.
Carla: Hi Ellie, How are you!
Ellie: I am doing all right, like. It's a pandemic. So of course I've been better, but my little world and my little house here, things are okay.
Carla: Yeah. You have a gorgeous, sweet bubble.
Ellie: I have a husband that somehow ever I've had very few times in being locked in with him for a year where we work together all day.
We lived together all day. I have not wanted to kill him really. So that's been good.
Carla: That's a marriage for life
Ellie: How are you?
Carla: I'm good. There's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I can see, and I not going to be like, when am I out of the tunnel, but that we've been late. Helping, you know, days get a bit longer. I can see my energy, go up a wee bit. Like I'm not, I'm just better than what I was probably in the depths of January.
Ellie: Yeah, no, I totally get that. Like the slightly longer days we've had even a few warmer days this week, the birds are starting to chirp. Like it's all it's happening. I saw my first Crocus's in the park yesterday, which for me and my, I don't know if it's a thing in my family. Um, but like that is the flower that symbolizes spring as those little, usually orange or white or purple flowers that come up quite early in spring. Yeah. All right. So are you ready for the rapid fire round?
Carla: Let's go.
Ellie: All right. So where are you from?
Carla: Belfast? Born and bred.
Ellie: Very, very cool. And what are your preferred pronouns?
Carla: She, her.
Ellie: Alrighty. And when did you start your business?
Carla: I started my business in February, 2017, part-time wise working for it would have been Bacardi at the time I worked for Bacardi.
Ellie: We'd have to talk about that. And sort of, that kind of brings us into our next question a little bit. Like how did you start your business?
Carla: Hi, or I don't even know. I started, um, teaching. Part-time basically. I did my yoga teacher channel not to become a yoga teacher. When I came home, I will always been modern into fitness. So I had a lot of friends in the fitness world.
Nobody Cogley. You have to take us for yoga and God bless him. But by 40 or 50, it was 40 people and something key him. Yeah. Like it's all good. I probably didn't have a clue what it was, Dan. And then as her degree from there, just like a small group within the community who wanted yoga and someone who they can relate to.
Right. Or he understood the road of fitness. And then it just started growing from there. And then I just realized that I didn't really love, I wasn't passionate about what I was doing. And then for my 30th, I just decided, you know, it, isn't going to pursue this full time. You know, I, I feel like I can make a difference this way.
And it's what I really care about by that was obviously very scary to go from security, to not security, to be in lik doctor, then I'll feel like that after and all those things. But yeah, for some, when I leave back, I'm like, that's crazy, but for some crazy reason, I decided to do it.
Ellie: And so tell me a little bit more of that journey. So you were working like, tell me what you did at Procardia and, and kind of your previous job.
Carla: I was monitoring Bacardi and me and another colleague looked after Northern Ireland. So working for brands, like patroned Bombay, great grace, and how to activate those brands. And in a kind, since working with leading, what kinds of the Northern Ireland and you know, who did a lot of travel.
They were good to me. I got to go to Tennessee and Barcelona and lot of fun parties and it was great. It was, um, yeah, it was a really fun job, really great team, you know, great energy and creative and the ad was picked. I did love it. Um, but I remember, you know, they do these, you know, six months reviews where you see your future.
And I just then see, I can see where it was going in that, you know? Yeah. And then once I got into the yoga and, you know, similar to yourself fairly in terms of different things happen in your life, you see people suffering with different addictions on different mental illnesses. And I was really affected by that.
And then you get helped me so much. I can, I was facing a go, but yoga. I was like, I don't want to be a happy white. I want to do yoga. I'm not interested in that. That's not for me. I seen it as uncool and we bet cringe and all those things. And my therapist prescribed me F because I was still disembodied, despite plan, a lot of sport, or, you know, going to the gym a lot.
And yeah, and slowly I got and began to learn how to feel my body and listen to it. And I didn't even think that would ever be possible because my mind was always going right here. And then it just changed everything for me. And then I learned so much in my yoga teacher training that I was like, everybody should know the part that we hold inside of us and our bodies and our breath.
And. Yeah, this has been a big awakening. Hasn't there across the fade where people are realizing the power of the body and slow in dying. And especially to the pandemic. You know, there's a quote that says, you know, the body can offer refuge during these difficult times and you read it three different, really difficult times.
There's history, you know, how people survive, things like the Holocaust and really horrific times in their lives. And it's that ability to resource themselves and themselves and the breath and the body. Can I get some space?
Ellie: Yeah, I think that, so for those of you don't know, Carla runs these amazing, so not, not only does she do like yoga and she does these amazing, um, like 30 day self-care courses and all of this really amazing stuff.
But so I'm not really a yoga person in general. I do some Yoga and I would be also somebody who's a little bit stuck in my head. And so Carla's classes, she puts you in these like sort of poses that you're like just very slightly uncomfortable, or sometimes a little more than slightly, but never enough, you know, to be hurting yourself, but always enough to that.
You like can't be anywhere, but your body. Um, and she ran for quite a long time. I went mostly only in the summer cause I'm a big chicken. But she ran these amazing, like sunrise swim sessions. So she called them darkness and delights. You'd go and do yoga before it even was light outside. And here in Northern Ireland, like in July, that was like 4:00 AM.
Carla: It's like midnight Yoga!.
Ellie: Yeah. And then the sun rises in your, in the, in the ocean. And I think that for me as somebody who's not as like mindful practices and all that stuff still feel really hard for me. And I mean, to be fair, I don't try really hard. Like that was something that really saved me, I think, in the early stages of the pandemic, not in therapy.
Carla: Yeah. And I think that's because I come from the place of finding it so difficult to be present. It's too difficult to relax the mind. That's why I teach practices, which maybe are like a bit faster so that you don't have time to run away and start shopping and, and breeds whatever the mind may day. And it does create sensations in your body.
So you do learn to feel your body, the likes of the sunrise and having beautiful scenery can really help bring us into the present moment.
Ellie: Yeah. That was the only time I'd ever done yoga, like outside and it's just magic. Like it is magic.
Carla: Yeah. It definitely helps bring into the present moment. Yeah. I think when you start a new, you need everything helping.
Now you need the right environment, the right teacher to see change. Cause it is so difficult.
Ellie: So tell me a bit about what you love about your business.
Carla: What I love about my business is that I love watching people connect to the body and everything start to make sense in terms of, you know, finally been able to get out of their heads and have experiences in their body.
You know, that's, what I love about yoga is that it's an experience on a, has an aftermath. You know, it's like drinking alcohol only. It's not drinking, but you know, the holly drinking, drugs or whatever, maybe your token, you know, that it can help shift your mind steps. These different sequences have different energetic effects on you and watching people connect back to that magic within themselves and get to know themselves again it's just incredible to watch.
Um, do you know when women have that moment where everything clicked? Because it just seems like a myth. It seems too much to be real right there. It's not like, I definitely felt like got read, reading the break, different people's meditative experiences and yoga practices and have a needs, you know, come in these blissful, peaceful States and stuff, and it all seems bit very fairy and tangible.
But yeah, it takes a long time for most of us, but when it happened, it's like, wow, that's, it can be a real wild moment.
Ellie: And so you do a lot more than yoga. You do yoga and you do a lot of breath work stuff, and you teach these, um, self care classes and you talk about pleasure and you're just like, or this, you know, you do so much in your practice and in your teaching.
Carla: Thank you. I like to talk about the topic stuff like I did my 300 hour advanced yoga teacher training in Bali, and it was a, Varone looking at the subjects of sex death, the wealth through the lens of yoga and meditation. So it's like the really hard topics that, you know, most of us have some sort of level of shame or difficulty around speaking.
And I think it's so important because there are three very important pieces of our life that we don't talk about..
Ellie: Absolutely. Yeah. All three of those areas are things that people would struggle with. And depending on your culture and environment that you were raised, especially,
Carla: Especially in the Western world. Yeah. And how it restricts us without even realizing, you know, and that was a big journey for me. And it still is like how much to my unconscious conditioning, in, my life. And it's like you a cargo. Famously said until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life..
We don't even realize we think we're making this decision for us, but really it's the culture, maybe systems in place dictating that. And it really takes us to slow dying to get that space, betraying what we want. I want his condition, I suppose.
Ellie: Yeah. And I think like, in regards to like, just for a quick example, like money, you know, it's not until you start thinking about where your assumptions about money or your learnings about money came from until you start going, Oh God, I was listening to a podcast today with radar and they were talking about like, Remembering when our parents went to go, like, sit down to balance the checkbook at the end of the month with receipts.
And I still have like, like this, this feeling of knowing like, okay, if dad's balancing the checkbook, I have to be like really quiet because money is stressful. Numbers are hard. I'd like all of that. And I was raised with that, you know, swearing and all of that at the time that money was managed. And so it takes a lot of like, You know, you might not remember that when you're going to manage your own money or, you know, your own relationships later down, the things that were, have been ingrained in you since being very young.
Carla: Yeah. And it's what we were taught at such a young age and our parents weren't even aware what they were teaching us.
Ellie: Okay. So one of the things I want to talk about is what help do you have, or have you had in building your business?
Carla: I had the wonderful, yeah, I've had the wonderful yay. Three, I suppose the fir I first maybe males course I did Mel Wiggans accelerator course.
Maybe that's the first bit of real help I got, if I'm being honest, if had help and like, I have a good friend, uh, Dale Daugherty. He helps me too, but she's a friend, you know, whereas male was the first time I went and paid someone to help me. I don't think my business would justify Colbert with Ida and it really transformed my business or meeting you Ellie.
And you built my website, you introduced me to Flodesk and you made me think you really need to strategize and plan instead of running around like a headless chicken, all those things. Like it just, I just realized that I was just winging I a thousand percent. It was . Yeah. I'm so grateful for meeting you. Now, I haven't a website up and running. You introduced me to Acuity T everything.
Ellie: So essentially meeting me through Mel. So doing Mel's course, uh, which had a lot of really good because I did it to so much really useful like mindset and strategy stuff that we did in that six months. But then on top of that, yeah.
Having some, some help in place to help you get systems and strategy around your automation and some of your admin to making that a lot easier for you so that you could focus on what you do best, which is teaching.
Carla: Yeah. And I think it's so important that you don't even realize how much eternity, everything and how to resource things properly within your business made a huge difference.
You know, I want to continue to. Have other people helped me because like, for example, I need to employ someone to help me with graphics. I need, you'd be a virtual assistant, you know, other things that I'm thinking about bringing in. So, so that it's, it's just makes such a difference. Doesn't it see a business.
Ellie: Yeah. And I mean that, like, you can start small with things like that. I know virtual assistants, when I was a virtual assistant, I had, my, my starter package was five hours a month. You know, that'd be enough to send a few email, like, um, you know, email newsletters, and maybe create some graphics and. Those types of things, but all of that makes a huge difference.
And then things that I talk about a lot are like starting to put in, like what I call SLPs. And that's like technical jargon for geeks like me, but that means essentially a standard operating procedures start documenting what you do so that you can have other people do it for you.
Carla: Yeah. It's so important. And like, she's really integrated some of the things I learned working for big companies, you know, But it's just making a space, isn't it.
Ellie: It is. And I think running a business, you're wearing so many hats and you're trying to like create some sort of balance is the wrong word. Some sort of comfortable place where you're having a life outside it too.
And so it is challenging to like, cause you can't do everything. Like I was talking today with somebody about my SEO for my website and they were like, Have you thought about Pinterest optimization and doing some Pinterest stuff? And I was like, yes, I have. Do I have the time for that to be like a thing in my business right now?
No, like, I'll have to hire somebody if I want that to be a there. Right.
Carla: It's picking your battles. Right?
Ellie: Definitely. We can't do it all.
Carla: No.
Ellie: So we talked a little bit about this, but some of the simple systems you're using to do business with you. So you said Acuity and you have a Squarespace website.
Carla: Flodesk i'm loving more than MailChimp Flodesk. So I just love how easy it is you add in segments. It's just, it just fades a lot easier. I don't know what it is.
Ellie: Yeah, it is. It is. So the user experience for Flodesk is so much better than say MailChimp or something. And then on top of all of that, then you get emails that are like a million times per year.
Carla: Yeah, yeah. On a rate, which is the big thing, right?
Ellie: Yeah. Definitely. It's something that people look forward to opening. Cause it's sort of like opening an Instagram post. Like it's very visually appealing the, with the right information as well. Yeah. Yeah.
Carla: So Acuity, Squarespace and Flodesk. It'd be my bread and butter day to day!.
Ellie: So you have, we've set up some integrations with things like zoom, so that your classes and stuff. And so you do online.
Carla: And not on purpose and they don't mention it.
Ellie: I've built websites for a few different, uh, yoga practices. And every time I make sure they're set up with Acuity, because it's just. The best place for when you're doing group classes and packages and subscriptions maybe, and all this other stuff, it is just so, so handy, especially for using Squarespace because it integrates really well.
Anyhow enough about the techie stuff that I'm obsessed with. Let's talk about your like expertise. So today we're talking about living within the moon cycles. Tell me a bit about that.
Carla: Okay. So I first was introduced to this and my yoga teacher training in Bali back in 2017, where my teacher, Emily Krisha would talk about the moon cycles.
I had never even heard of this ever in my life. And I was like, what? 20, 29 at the time. And it was all about how historically women have always, you know, worked and honored the moon and. It's interesting because the moon cycle is similar to menstrual cycle, right? Like the monthly cycle that it goes through.
And so for anyone who doesn't know the new moon is when there's no light in the sky and you can see it. And then the light slowly builds up until you come the halfway point of the cycle, which is the full moon when the latest, the bravest. And then it makes its way back until the new moon. And what that represents is like, so the new moon represent a woman's bleeding time.
And then the burn moon roughly would be around the time of ablation, roughly. Yeah. And so it's a powerful way to, especially in our culture where we don't really talk about menstrual cycles, a lot of women have lived their life, not acknowledging that cycle of hormones with an Nan that's fluctuating with the way.
And how that affects our brands and our bodies and how we operate. And the moon is a way that we can become, remind us, where am I in my cycle? You know, and it's an honor and our ancestors and something that was said to me when I was in Bali, some of the heaters, a few of the heaters actually said this to me.
They were like, all you Westerners come here, you know, to hate and learn our practices. But really your own Hayden will come from your ancestors and your lands and whatever that is. And especially in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, the South always did that. The women gathered around the moon.
So it's restless in our history, it's across the world as well. And also when you look at it takes really interest in that then. It was around the time of, and the burning of the women as witches, but this cells right. Gathering of women. Yeah. So I thought like, you know, then it wasn't talked about the par of menstrual cycle, something in the game that became shameful not to be spoken to by like, it's almost like women need to pretend not to have one in the workplace.
Ellie: Or in most situations. Yeah. We just have to pretend like we're hormonally balanced a hundred percent of the time and that's, and then if you don't, then you, then you kind of get the, the other dang, like that's always the, like one of the arguments for women and power, like, Oh, they're just too all over the place hormonally. And you're like, okay.
Like, just because I have like a bit of a hormonal cycle, it doesn't mean that I can't competently do a job.
Carla: Yeah. And the whole teaching actually behind it. And a lot of like, um, corporate companies are getting bored of this night because the research shows that if a woman works on her cycle, because it's different for each woman, right.
Someone might make me do rest week before they bleed, some women. When they bleed that when they work with that cycle, they become the most powerful, they're the most creative, the most innovative, which obviously corporate companies want. So neither starting to listen to this. The bottom line is the women are burned tonight, left right.
And center and what the current systems are in place aren't working.
Ellie: Yeah. And it's interesting to kind of think that, like, I haven't done so much reading into this or anything. Like I'm not a historian of any kind, but to me from this very brief conversation, it really reminds me that probably one of the biggest parts of the trials was just silencing women in general.
Which is, there's been so much throughout history that has been done to silence and minimize women and our, you know, our power, our voices, our wisdom, um,
Carla: And separate us to cause really powerful women coming together.
Ellie: Yeah. And women are great at the collective. That's what the point of this podcast is like, women are so good at doing things on mass, raising children, feeding communities like our, as a collective, we can do anything. I very firmly believe that.
Carla: Yeah. And we, we connect much more than the males for some reason, you know,
Ellie: I, yeah. I firmly believe that that's sort of how our brains are wired. So are, I don't know if anybody knows this, but my degree is actually in biology and community health. And so. I have a lot of weird background knowledge.
If I can remember it at things I haven't just like totally forgotten. But, um, in any case, in this part, one of the things is that women's brains, actually the hemispheres, the like kind of mesh for lack of better phrasing, um, without going too technical between the two hemispheres is thicker and better communicates, essentially, it means that women's brains go back and forth between the different sides and different parts of the brain so much better than men's do, which is why we can hold more at our brains and we can hold.
We're not like one track and we have all this stuff happening and also why we're so much more intuitive because our brains tend like we'll pass information back and forth. And we're not just focusing on the one thing, which I've always found really, really interesting.
Carla: Yes. And so it is a woman definitely have that date. Like, you know, I talk about this in my women's self care courses and just indifferent gallons or a women on, even if a woman. You know, it doesn't really practice yoga. It does definitely feel connected to their body. Most women know that they've had that gut intuitive feeling about something. They can explain why there's no logic, no rational thoughts, but having an earth can't move them from what they know, whatever it is. They know.
Ellie: Yeah. I can totally see that. Like I can totally see a rigging mat out. Like there's just some things we have some. Intuition combined with an eight knowledge. Like there's just some stuff that we just know.
Carla: Yeah, totally. And so I had a female body knows how to create lights. There's new cognitive soda, not all the sales know exactly what to do.
Ellie: Yeah. The way that the biology works around reproduction in all species to me is absolutely mind boggling. Like it's just it. Yeah. It is. It is really like an intense process. So one of the things I've always sort of been curious about is the way that Yogis not all yogis, I think, but I think in seeing your social media and stuff is the way that when you follow moon cycles and you might have a new moon practice or for your yoga class or a full moon practice.
Um, but then on top of that, sometimes they will be kind of linked into astrology. So you will have a new moon practice that's specific to whatever's happening around like astrologically, I guess at the time.
Carla: Well, you see the moons would come in two different star signs. Okay. And I don't know that much about histology.
Okay. Like I listened to follow Chani Nicholas, who is an amazing histology,. And she provides with the horoscopes, which will freaky. I know my boyfriend, he is so practical and he did an engineering degree and he likes everything to be proven before you leave and discuss it. I'll read him his and he'll be like, Oh my God, it connects with him.
And it's always like something just to help you connect with what's going on with you. You know, it's not like you're going to fall down a hole tomorrow, whatever emotionally may be going on in your life to give you a bit of direction. So it is quite ops tractive degree too. And she's amazing. And then what would happen that when I am deciding in a yoga class, I say I was wearing the new moon.
The new moon is linked to new beginnings. So historically, and people who work with nature and the land, um, indigenous people would plant seeds and began their harvest at that time. Okay. It would take a powerful time for creation or to plant seeds for whatever he wants to be created in this next cycle.
And so with this, uh, new moon practice, I would make it very slow. Okay. You have to slow down then or where you want to go. What's going on with you, what you want through be spaces of stillness to represent the darkness of the moon for toxi. And then when it's indifferent signs, I would lead from astrologers in which what that means.
For example, if the new moon was in Libra, maybe Libra is the saying of communication and balance. So maybe bringing those, asking some questions around that for the practitioners of the class. For the meditation or maybe thinking about what's bringing them out of balance. And then on the full moon, the full moon can be and sharing some of these, no lists can be quite volatile because it sort of highlights everything.
So we think can be very intense. I know quite a few taxi man and doorman who refused to work in the full moon. They don't really leave in yoga, but they know that the full moon makes us all crazy in a way. And the full moon can eliminate greath things and can eliminate really difficult things for us.
So on a practice on a full moon, I would tend to teach a more fairy practice to help cleanse the body from inside. You know, as a tank for release, letting go, the fullness of the moon can burn away whatever you need to. I think again, it depends on what star saying that falls in what different energies may be around at that time.
But again, I don't know that I just take the lead from their astrology and I share whatever, you know, I read from them and their guidance. Cause that's something I don't know by.
Ellie: I think that that's actually a really good thing is that we can't all be experts at everything. Right. So you're looking to other experts and bringing that their wisdom into your practice as well and into, as a resource for some of your audience as well.
Carla: Yeah. And then I designed a practice which can use body language to bring to life with his, whatever his desire, cause a big thing, uh, by desire and Hayden is a bite fin and your body, as opposed to thinking, thinking is always in the past and the future.
But, uh, create that connection of feeling what it is you want are what it is you want to feel like, right. That can really shift things. You know, we can't think your way and to believe that you're worthy.
Ellie: Yeah. So thanks again. It's kind of tapping into your deeper desires and your deeper needs, not just what your brain's telling you, but like what is true to yourself?
Carla: Well, because now we know, and that's only been recent discovery that the mind and. Directly impacts the body and the body directly impacts the mind. So the leading scientists, like a guy called Peter, that's famous a breast specialist for like, I don't know, he must be. I don't know, in his seventies. And he's one of the leader and he's been studying on his whole life.
He's like, we've been studying it wrong. It shouldn't be two separate schools, psychology woman, and physiology and the other. They're both. So integrate it.
Ellie: Oh yeah. I mean, that's how the nervous system works.
Carla: No, that I, you know, bring in the body and just certain shapes can help us bring to life, whatever it would. So we can use body language to create feelings of worthiness to connect us to what the body would look like when we feel those waves.
Ellie: So it's sort of that similar psychology to the fact of like, If you're sort of bummed out smiling, actually somehow wires your brain into feeling a little bit better. Cause you're, you're giving that physical stimulus of like what your brain, what you feel like when you're in a better state.
Carla: Yeah. And hands on the bodies and the other really parcel on pursues in the nervous system hand, and the heart are wherever instinctively feels give to you. It's fascinating. Isn't it like when newborn babies are sick, they want skin skin context, the best medicine for them. So.
Ellie: That's just a lot to think about for me as somebody who's so far outside of any of this. So if a listener was wanting to hear about a few tips or tools, if they wanted to start living more intentionally with lunar cycles, what would you say?
Carla: Okay. Say, look at the sky. Kind of looking at the sky. It's so simple. And for me, I never, I don't think I did look at this guy. I didn't love, I used to say. But just to become more aware of yeah. The sunset or just to Lincoln with that natural cycle of the day, the, not just cycles of the moon, because we're all trying to go with this Navy. My prior speed is right. That's making those all fades exhausted. I just really simply looking at the sky and noticing the light on the moon.
Ellie: So, if you were going to say you weren't coming to one of your, like, I like I wasn't coming to one of your yoga classes or anything. And I wanted to know if there was something that I should be doing, say at a new moon, that's going to be things like intention setting.
Um, that's going to be things like looking at the fresh and kind of blank page at the thing and setting myself up for success. So that might be. Spending some time journaling, it might be some yoga. It might be. Whereas on the flip side, when we're on a full moon, what are you doing in reverse for that?
Carla: And the full moon, could we be digging in and dealing with the issue and what's stopping you from your goal beliefs, maybe there's things that you need to let that go and you can use the fire of the full moon, declare your path.
Ellie: So in a way I'm sort of hearing that like, New moon is really about building things up where almost in a way the full moon is about tearing the bad down or clearing it out or getting it. It's almost like, so this is I come from a place where wildfires are not uncommon, so it's almost like. The new moon, you're letting the little things grow. Whereas at the full moon, you're letting the wildfire Clair all the rubbish and brush out.
Carla: Yeah. And it's trust in nature. You know, I love that. Like nature knows exactly what to do. The nature of our bodies North the day. It's our mind. It's a call from John Donahue and our ice port it's um, our mains that make us feel so homeless.
We've lost that trust. And that goes in the flow within us, that everything's going to be okay. You know, the sales of our body, remember that all these awful things have happened before continue to happen and we'll Hayne and we'll be happy again. And then other awful things will happen and cycle,
Ellie: like that's a whole discussion. Like there's been a lot of research about generational trauma, especially in communities of color and those types of things and like how much our bodies remember that. Even if it didn't happen to us. Um, and that's a really interesting topic for another time, I think, but so much infer, like interesting information around that.
Carla: Yeah. Like science has shown that up to three generations. It's stored in our body and generational trauma, but like ancient haters and other like yoga philosophy would talk about that. It's right. Their ancestors that we carry everything, you know,
Ellie: So kind of bringing things back to more specifically into your business. Um, so tell me what your biggest win in business has been so far.
Carla: Ah, I think definitely the women's self cart courses have been my biggest win because that's where I make the biggest impact.
Ellie: Cause we haven't actually talked much about what those are. Tell us what those are.
Carla: Um, so basically they're all online night. I've led for over lockdown and a group of women come together. And six days a week, we meet and we speak fine art . We do some practical work. I'm really, it's just an education of both the science behind yoga, female psychology. Why things are the way they are. And I think when you get that understanding, it starts to make sense.
And then you're more motivated, right. To do the practice of self care of breath, work of movement and how important it is for each of us. Yeah. And then I share into practices that I learned in my, in my courses that were hugely life changing for me. And they work, you know, these tools, work of women's circles of daily rituals.
Just things that have got really lost. I think we've become really individualistic, um, in our society and we still hungry for connection and community and that's for people who nothing's in isolation.
Ellie: Yeah. That's something Mel and I talked to she's she's on this podcast as well. Um, in this season and she talked quite a lot about the healing power of women when they come together as a community, like it's, there's science behind it, that our cells regenerate.
Like it's, it's a real freaking thing. Right. And there's so much, it's so interesting. I think that that's something my husband and I discussed all the time is that he would be quite similar to your boyfriend and he's such a skeptic and everything has to be scientifically proven and stuff. And I mean, I would be a little on that side or pretty on that side, but not as much as him.
Because I would say that there's a lot that science hasn't had the chance to understand yet in that doesn't mean it's not scientifically provable. It just means it hasn't been yet.
Carla: Yeah. And that's it. I think that's where it rates. This is where I sort of sort of like what comes up for me in that is that sometimes, you know, w when does live experience, because some people read all the books and all the information, but you have to do it for it to be real.
You know what I mean? And some people maybe don't know all the science, but they've lived it and their lived experience kinds as well. Yeah. I think that's important as well.
Ellie: Absolutely. So what, on the flip side of that, what has been your biggest mistake or learning experience?
Carla: I think I, yeah, I burned out my first year. I was teaching self car and stopped taking a period for about six months to a year. So I think that's not great. Um, talk about pop cattle block. I was working crazy, crazy RS, like six in the morning to nine o'clock at night. And. Yeah, I was just so when I'm the it's funny money comes into this too. When I changed from, you know, quite a well-paid job to teaching yoga people like people I didn't know, would stop me and go, Oh, you make money without yoga?.
Like, why did she give up that salary? I need to start actually making it all about money. And I definitely got so fearful that I wasn't having enough money to eat or this and that. And, you know, I had to prove that this was the right choice. I couldn't dare not make as much money and they just soaked so much stuff up me on fuse to all that.
And then I just said yes to everything going on. Cause I was just so full of fear and people's judgment. I really fear people's judgments. You know, that I wouldn't do well or I wouldn't be able to support myself and all those things. Yeah. I think that was a big learning curve for me.
Ellie: Combination of like boundaries and scarcity mindset and caring, what other people think. Yeah. And that's all that all comes into. Like, I've definitely been there.
Carla: Yeah. I think he, everybody goes through, I don't know. I don't know if there's a way , but like,
Ellie: No, I think you kinda have to go through it to get over it. Like, if that makes sense. All right. So what are you working on right now?
Carla: I am doing my breath work facilitator course with Alchemy of Breath. So I started that a week before Christmas. So by the end of this, I'll be fully affiliated with Alchemy of Breath and be able to teach school at breath, her goal across the world. And yeah, really dive deeper into that. I'm so passionate about breath work, because like we were talking about, um, Ellie meditation is so difficult.
Put the breath when we connect to the breath and see the breath, it's really magical. It's so powerful. And yeah. And like get a hundred years to look back and think it was crazy that we all didn't do breath work daily.
Ellie: There's so much goodness behind it. Um, And so, and then I think you, you also mentioned to me recently separately that you are kind of in a more restful place at the moment, because you've just wrapped up one of your self care courses.
Carla: Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. Like, I honestly it's been, so I feel so grateful that I've been able to connect with strangers online. You know, women who've never worked with me before. Again, this weird, intuitive magic connects women together at a certain time. And at the end so amazing to watch. And I learned so much from each woman and yeah.
And how they meet the work and experiences they have. And it's really healthy.
Ellie: That's really, really cool. Very cool. Yeah. All right. And so for. We wrap up, tell everybody where they can find you.
Carla: You can find me at www.connectyoga.co.uk, a beautiful website designed by Ellie and on Instagram, probably I'm most active on Instagram on my handle connect.yoga.belfast and I sent it beautiful emails. Thanks to Ellie's help. And you can say enough, but probably the easiest way to stay in contact with me is sent up to the email. Cause then obviously with regulation shifting and changing, when we can get back to the sunrises and the water. That will be coming back.
Ellie: Oh, I can't wait. Like I've been too. I have, I've been too scared to get it in this winter. Anyway. It's not getting into the water. That scares me that much. I mean, while that would be definitely a little bit of its own mental challenge, it's getting back out. I think getting out into the cold air, like that stresses me out.
Carla: It's actually warmer when it's not too that cold, but I think the trick is not to stay in too long. Cause, like I stay like five minutes, it's a minute. If Ethan, you know, I just stay in until my breath regulated, but I get it before it starts to hurt. And you see these women who are going in and they can spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes in though.
But they, they probably been doing it for years every day. Like they're well, too. I think it's just the respect where you are in whatever you are in your cold water journey, too hard. Cause. You know, there's been times when I've stayed in the water and the pain in my hands, it would definitely put you off getting back in. If you do, you know, overstay your welcome in the water.
Ellie: I have friends that, you know, that do proper, like not just go into the water, but like swim, like it's exercise for them.
Carla: Yeah. They do like 30 minutes crazy.
Ellie: But it's, it is, it is like, it is such a rush and I've never felt. But very rarely felt quite at grounded and centered. Like it has just some really special thing.
Carla: You feel so relaxed, but we are, for me, I'm just chill the rest of the day and I slept,like a baby my digestion really improves, make you really regular with going to the bathroom, maybe permission. But if anybody has issues with sleep or digestion, it helps so much.
Ellie: For me, it was really getting into the water and then I'd come home and, you know, summer, it was really quite early. So I'd come home. And I would take a bath first thing in the morning. So it'd be kind of like have cold then warm and then, and then I can either have like a really chill morning reading or whatever, and then go start bothering Paul and wake him up or make like a lovely breakfast.
And it was just a really nice way to like be, I don't know. And it was so I found when I was doing with you and I wrote a whole blog post on it or something or a newsletter on it back in the summer, but I just found it. And I was thinking this the other day, actually in both with the being in the ocean and also the other day, like we had quite a storm here.
And I think sometimes when things feel so chaotic on the inside, it's really nice to be able to be in nature when nature is also a little bit chaotic. And then just watch that turn to calm. It's just, there's something magic about that too. Like I just think it's so cool. I can talk to you all day, but I have to keep my podcast episode short.
Carla: No, it certainly amazing Ellie, thank you so much for having me!
Ellie: Thank you so much for coming on and talking about moon cycles and like menstrual cycles. We have another guest coming on about that soon. I'm really excited about it. And. And just talking about your business and your journey. It's been really cool to hear a bit more and kind of to recap what some of what I already knew.
Carla: Thank you. And hopefully it will be in the water soon!.
Ellie: Thank you for listening to the capable collective podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode and if gotten value from it, if you did, please subscribe on your chosen listening platform. And if you happen to be listening over on Apple podcasts, please take a moment to leave a review. It helps other people to find and trust this podcast.
And it would mean the world to me, this episode was edited by Emily Crosby media. She's amazing to work with. And if you are looking to start a podcast or for some practical media solutions, definitely check her out. Thank you so much. Again, have a great day.
