In the latest episode of The Daily Meditation podcast, I discuss living with balance on and off the mat with Michelle Baldino from Bulldog Yoga Studio.
Michelle and I discussed aligning with your purpose and living with balance.
If youd like to learn more about Michelle Baldino you can visit her at Bulldog Yoga Studio.
Enjoy the episode.
Transcript
Paul Harrison
Today on The Daily Meditation, we will be discussing living with balance with our very special guest Michelle Baldino from Bulldog Yoga studios. Michelle, thank you for coming on the show today. I wonder if you could briefly introduce yourself to our listeners.
Michelle Baldino
Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. My name is Michelle Baldino. I am a full time yoga instructor and studio manager outside of the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania at Bulldog Yoga. I’m also a mom of two teenagers, which is very thrilling. And I’ve been teaching since 2012, so this is my 10th year of teaching yoga.
Paul Harrison
So I’d like to start with a personal question. What is your favorite quote and why?
Michelle Baldino
So I have this quote by Rumi that’s at the bottom of my e-mail that I I’ve honestly had for so many years. I can’t remember, but it is, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pool of what you really love”.
Paul Harrison
And what do you like about that Rumy quote?
Michelle Baldino
It means as long as you’re in tune with your heart and what your intention is, you are heading in the right direction. And you have to do whatever you can do to kind of quiet those internal external voices that are pulling you to go in a different direction and just keep on following your heart or your intuition.
Paul Harrison
Following your heart or tour intuition, certainly very important things that a lot of people struggle with, which I think is understandable in today’s society because, of course, we have all these pressures pulling at us from here and there.
Michelle Baldino
Right.
Paul Harrison
It can be a difficult to find the time to connect with to connect with your own passion and your own purpose.
Michelle Baldino
Yeah, yeah, I remember hearing it. I was probably maybe halfway through my first yoga teacher training. And I was really considering teaching full time. You know, I didn’t know going into yoga teacher training, if I would become a yoga teacher. It was just something that I really enjoyed doing and wanted to know more about. And when I really started talking to family members and friends about, you know, leaving the house for the first time because I had two very small children and and taking on yoga as a job, they were like, “It’s not a real job.”
Paul Harrison
Now you specialize in yin yoga and vinyasa. A lot of our listeners will be aware of Yin and Vinyasa, but some may not. Could you briefly kind of explain? What is different about those two specific styles about yin and about Vinyasa?
Michelle Baldino
Sure. So in very simple terms, Vinyasa yoga is a sort of faster paced yoga practice where you’re moving along with your breath. Basically, each movement has a breath match to it, so you can create a lot of heat internally to start, and then it goes outward from there. It’s pretty repetitive. You know, you’ll move through what we call like Warrior passes or some sun salutes to start warming up the body. And you don’t have a ton of time in a typical Vinyasa Class. Yin is like the polar opposite. It’s deep holds traditionally done either on your belly or your back, or in like a low lunge. You’re really low and grounded the entire practice and you’re holding poses anywhere from like 2 minutes to upwards of 10 minutes, and you can get a really nice yummy shavasana that’s I like to give like 20 minutes at the end of teaching. In class, so you really have all this extra time to go in and and notice the subtleties, the shifting that’s happening in the body and how to remain present with them. Right. Because we can do a lot of kind of. Numbing or faking if we’re moving really fast all the time, we don’t get to as much time to really focus and pay attention and go in. So that’s what I love about. The in practice, but I also like to flow so that’s why I teach and practice both.
Paul Harrison
Yeah, I know. Yan is becoming a lot more popular these days. In general integrated body mind training is becoming a lot more. A lot more popular Indian is certainly a. Big part of. That so do you advise doing both Vinyasa and Yin? Or is 1 correct for one type of person and the other correct for another? Type of person or.
Michelle Baldino
I think yen is. Available for everybody, and I know that’s hard for a lot of people to accept a lot of people want to live 190 miles a minute all the time, right? Particularly in the society that we’re a part of, even if they’re not even really getting anywhere, they just want. To go, go go so. Yan is a great way. Like I said, to slow down to pay more attention and and actively try to practice being present. I think both are available for everyone. The only thing that. Should be considered when you’re doing Vinyasa practice is you know if you have any injuries or there’s any limitations in their body that might not be great over time to be repeating, you know, on your joints or if you’re rehabbing. From a hip. Replacement or knee surgery? Low back stuff you just want to be really. Really careful. So I’m. Always constantly driving to students how important it is to do both really to what we’re talking about today to find balance. Both are super, super beneficial. And just because yin yoga. Involves some more holes and staying low. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. Right. You know, you can really start to notice your mind wandering. You want to leave? It’s harder to. Stay present. Good that where you can be feeling a whole lot more in the body that you don’t always get to pay attention to because you’re generally moving faster. So it can really be kind of a challenging practice, even if you’re kind of in these deeper stretchier.
Paul Harrison
So aside from practicing Yin and Vinyasa, getting back to finding balance both on the mat and off of it, whatever advice can you give to people to find that internal? Sense of balance.
Michelle Baldino
For me, I think I. Would tell people to start off really small. With just a few minutes a day to yourself, for me particularly, it’s first thing in the morning. I love to have a large chunk of. Time before the. Rest of the house wakes up, but that is a practice that I now have that lasts about 45 minutes to an hour, but it started off very small, maybe 5-10 minutes of sitting. Or doing some cat and cow stretches are coming into child’s pose. Just anything where you can get a little quiet and go in. If we kind of set up the expectation that we should be doing this for, you know, 1520 minutes every day. It might be harder to do over a long period of time, so start off really small 2-3 minutes in the morning or whenever you have a little bit of quiet time. Even if you’re just getting. In your car, before you turn it on or turn the radio on or your podcast and you’re listening to, just give yourself a couple deep breaths and see how you feel. Afterwards and those small little changes. You just want to kind of get. More of that feeling. That comes after it, so it builds from there.
Paul Harrison
So you’ve been teaching for a while, I think you said since 2012. Correct me if I’m wrong. So I’m imagining that you must have seen quite a lot of changes in the people. Well, both in yourself and in the people that you’ve worked with, are there any real standout moments of personal transformation that you’ve witnessed, whether it be? In yourself or in people that you’ve worked with?
Michelle Baldino
Yeah, I mean what? I think is so fascinating. 10 years into teaching is. How much has changed? But how much has remained the same? I’m thinking back on my days as a newer Yogi before I even became a yoga teacher and how it was such a physical practice for me. And that’s what I see in students all the time. You know, it kind of starts on toning or stretching or just wanting more flexibility or strength somewhere in the body. And the more they come back onto their maps. There is a shift that happens. So I remember for myself. Several years ago, I was actually on a yogurt retreat having this experience where I sort of realized how much I was trying to control in my life, control my yoga practice, achieve really for approval. All these like external things, right? And it was 5 days of a yoga mantra and movement. Retreat and I want to say this is maybe three or four day three or four and we’ve been really diving into these deeper practices, which was relatively new for me, chanting, opening up my throat chakra is so uncomfortable at 1st and we did this yoga practice and it was. Incredibly simple, it was, you know, relatively slow movement, nothing super challenging and my whole body was like shaking and I didn’t even really know why. But I kept on trying to work my way through this discomfort. And then I finally gave up. I was like, I I I mean, I can’t stop the shaking. Maybe I. Just need to. Like, have a seat for a minute. And as soon as I did this, very gorgeous song started playing. And I just like broke down and I was crying and. It took me a little while to figure out why it was just like. Unleashing all of this emotion and. After like a massive headache that came from all the tears, I realized it was because I was just always gripping and trying to achieve and something that I was really loving and enjoying became something for everybody else. And it’s this transformation that. Really shifted me as a yoga teacher and student. I, you know, I stopped practicing trying to look like the best yoga student in the room, and I stopped teaching trying to sound like some other teacher. It was like all of that was just getting in my own way of offering this practice from my true and authentic self. And I see that with students you know on a on different, maybe sometimes more subtle levels, but. You know, maybe it’s in a Vinyasa class and they’re not taking every. Vinyasa offered. They’re just holding it down, dog. And then they’re they’re feeling and looking calmer, leaving class as opposed to, you know, OK, that was so good. Now I’m going to run 5 miles and I’ll see you guys later, but but like still going so fast from 1. Thing to the. Other yeah, I I find those shifts happening. All the time. It’s really, really incredible to witness.
Paul Harrison
Yeah, I think we’re very fortunate to be in a position to be teaching these things that we’re very passionate about. Myself as a meditation teacher and of course, you as a as a yoga teacher. So one thing I do like to do in the in the each episode, I like to give our list. There’s a quick five minute exercise that they can do at home now, bearing in mind some of our listeners may not be master yogis, so they’re not going to. Want to do? A headstand for 5 minutes. Some of them might I.
Michelle Baldino
Neither do I.
Paul Harrison
I personally don’t, but anyway, what is? A quick kind of five minute. Exercise that people of all levels can do at home towards this aim of finding balance.
Michelle Baldino
I love this question so. I’m going to suggest that this can be done from a seated position like I’m just sitting here on a cushion, but you can also plant your feet to the floor and be seated in a chair, so hopefully somewhat of a chair that makes you feel like you’re connected with your sitting bones and your spine. So perhaps not. So and and so I’m actually going to bring my face for it. I like to just for a few breaths, just sweep my arms nice and high over head lower and back down. And then eventually, I’ll hold my arms up and take a spinal twist, bringing one hand to the outside of the opposite knee slowly work my way into the twist, kind of using more arms than torso to find a gentle opening through the spine. And really the rib cage and the heart. I’ll do the same thing. On the other side. And and then I’ll kind of do a few very gentle small neck rolls in each direction and I like to just because it makes me. Stay alert. Look over each shoulder. And then look up. And look down. Come back to centre, hold for maybe a full breath cycle and do the same thing a few times. It’s super simple, like super accessible. If I have a little bit. More time I’m. Probably going to come to all fours and do a few rounds of cat and cow and land in child’s pose. And that’s part of my morning practice before I really sit in meditation and it just feels really good.
Paul Harrison
Yeah, it’s funny that you should mention like doing. Simple exercises like. That you’re you really remind me. Of a a time in my life when I hadn’t been exercising for a long time. And I feel like I speak for a. Lot of people here. Where if you’re not in. OK, because of the society we live on with all all this social media and stuff and seeing people are constantly perfect, it can be difficult to just accept the fact that you kind of have to step start from step one. I remember when I when I. Started getting back into. Shape. When I actually finally started exercising from a point of being really unfair. I literally just just said to myself. I’m just going to go for a walk. I don’t care that it’s not a workout. I don’t care that I’m not like Dwayne Johnson or something, right? I’m just gonna go for a. Walk and that’ll do for today and then maybe tomorrow I can go for another walk. And then the day after that. Maybe I can start jogging or something sometimes these. Sometimes just doing a little. A really small exercise, even though, like it doesn’t make a huge difference to your body, but to your mind just the fact that you’ve started exercising and. Can be that real that? Real moment of transformation I feel.
Michelle Baldino
That’s so true. It’s like what we were saying earlier about finding balance, starting really small and building from there. And I think it’s a really important reminder I need it just as much as everybody else and I share it with my kids often. It’s like it’s never. Too late to start. Ever. No matter what you want to do, you want to start playing the piano tomorrow. You want to run a 5K, OK? All you have to do is start and that doesn’t mean you’re going to run the whole 5K or play a master Symphony day one, but you start. And you just let it build from there.
Paul Harrison
My cat is calling you. He doesn’t understand entities and things. So here it is. Hello. Alrighty, so UM, thank you for all this insight and information that you’ve provided us with. I am sure with all the tips and everything that you’ve that you’ve shared that our listeners are certainly going to want to to know more about you, to know more about your work and Bulldog yoga studio. How should they get in contact with you? By social media, via your website.
Michelle Baldino
Truth be told, I don’t love social media time. So the best way to. Really find me and to learn about my, you know, history as a yoga teacher and how to practice with me is by going to bulldogyoga.com. Gum or bulldog yoga? Online.com. That’s our online studio where no matter where you live in the world, you can find me on a library full of different types of classes. Everything from the yen to the more Vinyasa flow type of stuff. I mean, I am on social media. Just don’t go on it very regularly. So you can find me there at Michelle Baldino. On Instagram.
Paul Harrison
Awesome. Well, thank you very much Michelle, for for your insights today. I’m sorry, I’m a bit distracted because I’m cuddling my. Cat right now and he’s just so beautiful.
Michelle Baldino
I love it. That’s why yoga and meditate, right? Just to get that look on. Her face all. The time.
Paul Harrison
So thank you so much for coming on the show today. Everybody remember to practice the simple exercises that Michelle has given you. And again, I just want to. Reiterate, if you haven’t, like if you. Haven’t worked out for a while and you’re feeling. I don’t know. You’re kind of. Feeling down and felt bit self-conscious about it. Just stop. Just take just take 5 minutes and go for a walk or do the stretches that Michelle. Is giving you. Cause in my experience, as soon as you just take one step forward, even if it’s just a tiny step forwards, then you start getting momentum. Once you get momentum, then you’re heading in the right direction to get where you want to go. So about taking those first few steps just. To start getting momentum. Again, thank you to Michelle for her wonderful insight and until next time, remember to subscribe and stay sensational.
Paul Harrison is a passionate meditation teacher who believes in genuine, authentic meditation. He has more than 15 years experience in meditation and mindfulness. He studied meditation in beautiful Oxford, UK, and Hamilton Ontario Canada, and earned his degree at Staffordshire University.
“My goal is to provide the most authentic meditation sessions so you can harness the power of your own mind for personal transformation” – Paul Harrison