#6 - Imad Khaddaj - Why your nervous system needs energetic surgery

Calm is not something we earn after we get our life together. It is something we practice, especially when life feels messy, fast, or heavy. I sit down with Imad Kadaj, founder of Grounded Movement, to talk about what it really means to anchor yourself before you try to change everything else. His path runs from growing up with asthma and ADHD in Lebanon to walking away from a high-paying job in Canada, training Muay Thai in Thailand, and eventually teaching yoga with a deep focus on healing and nervous system regulation, including performing what he calls 'energetic surgery'.

We get practical about why stillness can feel threatening and why “just meditate” is not always the right first step. Imad breaks down a trauma-informed view of the nervous system, including the difference between top-down mindfulness and bottom-up somatic work. From there, we explore why yin yoga is so powerful: long holds, clear sensation, and supported discomfort that build capacity for inner peace over time, not just a temporary mood shift.

We also dig into traditional Chinese medicine, qi, meridian lines, and the way organs and emotions are linked in that model. Imad shares how Tui Na massage, acupressure, acupuncture, and Reiki-style energy work can support release and regulation, especially when the body is holding survival stress. Then we tie it all together with breath, including breath cultivation versus more intense breathwork, plus a simple “safety breath” you can use at your desk during a stressful day. We even go to the edge of the mystery with the question he once journaled: is breath a form of God, or at least a doorway to higher consciousness?

If you care about yin yoga, mindfulness, somatic healing, trauma release, traditional Chinese medicine, and grounded living that actually feels like yours, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadier breath, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Peter Kolakovic 0:02

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of My Best Life, the podcast where we explore the intersection of physical vitality and spiritual alignment to help you live with more purpose and presence. My name is Peter and I am your host, and today we are joined by a guest who bridges the gap between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern movement science. Imad Kadaj is the founder of Grounded Movement, and his approach to healing is truly holistic. While many know him for physical conditioning, his work is deeply rooted in the subtle energies of the body. He is a dedicated practitioner and teacher of yin yoga, focusing on the deep connective tissues and the meditative stillness required to balance our fast-paced lives. But Imad doesn't stop there at the surface level of stretching. He integrates the profound principles of traditional Chinese medicine into his practice, understanding how meridians and energy flow dictate our overall well-being. As a Reiki healer and a practitioner of Tui Na, a traditional Chinese therapeutic massage, Imad works to move stagnant qi and restore harmony to the nervous system. He views the body not as a machine to be fixed, but as an ecosystem to be nurtured. Whether he's using manual therapy to release physical blockages or using energy work to soothe the spirit, his goal is always the same to help you find a state of groundedness that persists long after you leave the mat. So in this particular episode, we look at the question of what if the calm you keep chasing is not something you earn, but something you practice. I talk with Imad about what it really means to anchor yourself before you try to change your life. His path runs from growing up with asthma and ADHD in Lebanon to walking away from a high paying job in Canada, training Muay Thai in Thailand, and eventually teaching yoga with a focus on nervous system regulation and real-world healing. We get into why stillness can feel threatening, and why just meditate is not always the right first step. Imad breaks down a trauma-informed view of the nervous system, the difference between top-down mindfulness and bottom-up somatic work, and how yin yoga can meet you in the middle by using sensation, long holds, and supported discomfort to build capacity for inner peace. We also explore traditional Chinese medicine concepts like qi, meridian lines, organs, and emotions, plus how practices like tweena massage, acupressure, acupuncture, and energy work can support release and regulation. Breath is the thread that ties it all together. We talk breath cultivation versus intense breath work, a simple safety breath, as he calls it, you can use at a desk during a stressful workday. And a surprisingly deep question Imad once wrote in his journal. Is breath a form of God or at least a doorway to higher consciousness? Interesting question. If you care about yin yoga, meditation, breath work, mindfulness, trauma release, and building a grounded life that actually feels like yours, this conversation will give you both perspective and tools. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs steadier breath, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. As always, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Thanks for having me, David.

Peter Kolakovic 4:51

Thank you for for joining me.

Why Grounded Movement Comes First

Peter Kolakovic 4:55

So I noticed in doing some research on your bio for this for this episode that you chose the name Grounded Movement for your practice. So tell me, why did you choose that name and what do you think it represents for the average person?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

So grounded movement, the original name for my company when I started my journey, my name is Imad Kadaj, like you mentioned. So I wanted to have a not-for-profit company to help kids that struggle with special needs. Uh, because I grew up myself with asthma and I was diagnosed with ADHD, and there's some challenges comes with that. So I wanted to have a space for the kids where I can share my journey, my growth, and guide them through it. And the name was IK Change, which is Imagada as my initial and then change. And I had the logo as a triangle, triangle in math delta, delta represents change, and it was open from the side to represent that you are open for change. But then after when I started, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna start first doing something on the health and wellness level for myself and the community, and eventually I'll go back and I do the not-for-profit instead of starting with the not-for-profit. And this is where the name grounded movement came in place. I still use the triangle, the delta for change. Grounded is to the idea of it is before we start moving, before we get into doing anything or moving forward, we need to ground. That comes from place of being present, being mindful and aware of where are you moving, bringing the awareness to the motive behind the action itself. That's the grounded. And the movement is to be open to move, move forward, learn, grow, experience, not to be still in your place and have that limitations of not being able to move forward. So we anchor first, no matter what it is that we're doing in our life, that we're trying to learn, grow, and do, we anchor first with a foundation of groundness that can be looked at from a physical level, emotional, mental, spiritual level, we need a base. Because any practice and anything we do, what tends to happen most of the time, we get lost in it. And most of the time we even lose track of why we are doing it. Why did we start even doing this? So many disruptions, so many confusions. But if you have a good, strong base, foundations that would ground you back to the root of why any of it started or why you're doing it, you still have that clarity. You will be centered as you move forward. So this is where they're grounded with anything.

From Lebanon To Thailand Training

Peter Kolakovic 8:02

Wonderful. So on that same theme, you're someone that's moved around a lot yourself. Speaking of movement, I under I I understand that you're originally from Lebanon, but at s at some point you you moved to Thailand where you were involved with mixed martial arts before eventually coming to Canada. So so tell me a bit about that journey, that movement, and how did your experience with mixed martial arts in Thailand lead you eventually to the slower, more contemplative world of of yoga and yin yoga in particular?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Well, before Peter, I'll mention that I came to Canada before I went to Thailand. So I moved to Canada long time ago. My family was here in Canada in like the 1990s, and we didn't stay here for too long, myself and my mom and my brother back to Lebanon a few years after. And then I came back on my own in 2006 for the hopes of going to university here and studying electrical engineering. Completely different path to what I do right now. But short long story, when I got to a point in my life where I found myself in Toronto working a job as a finance manager in a car dealership, making the most money I've made in a way in my careers at that time. But the same time, there was something that is not right, that didn't feel aligned with my deep knowing of something that I'm destined to do something, I'm destined to walk a certain path that is not that path. And most of the path that we take is coming from a place of fear. Fear plays a big role in our decisions in life. The fear of the unknown in the future, the security. So we try to go after jobs or careers, or we study certain things that not all the time they are something passionate to us. It's just something that is proven in general that will get you a steady income, that will get you by, and you can have something to support yourself and your family if that's something you like. So at that time, uh it was 2015. I looked at my life and I noticed that yes, I am making the most money at that point, but it's not aligned with my core values. So I took a while. So I like to imagine, um, do a lot of visualization and take scenarios in my life where what would I do if this situation happened? So I was sitting and meditating. Um, since I was a kid, I always try to sit with quietness, try to meditate without even knowing what meditation was at that time, doing stretches that eventually I knew that it's part of yoga, connecting with the breath. So I was sitting in Toronto in my fancy apartment, and I kind of visualized myself on an island where there's no one around me, and I have to wake up every day and do something with no external motive. Where there's no one to cheer me up and tell me, hey, you're doing a good job. Yes, that's good, this is gonna be nice for you, you're doing the right thing. If you're alone, you have to wake up every day, you have to do something that the inner motive is driving you, not the external motive. And that was the times that I used to go to train at the gym, the time that I used to take care of my body into understanding the inner world of my being from a physical perspective, not much about the spiritual element of it. At that time, I only did a few months Thai boxing at a space here in Ottawa. Then I told myself, you've done so many jobs, you succeeded in all of them in a way. You went to school, you when you put your time in it, you succeeded, but you never actually took a risk on what you truly love within you, deep, deep down within you. And now it's the time. All the jobs that I took, all the studying in school gave me that strength to become my own leader and follow my dreams, even if I cannot see the future or what's gonna hold. So I took that decision, I quit my job, I took all my savings, bought one-way ticket to Thailand because I wanted to learn Thai boxing at that time, and I'm like, okay, where Thai boxing comes from? Thailand. So I started literally went to Google and I started looking places in Thailand, and I booked one-way ticket and I went there with the hopes that I can learn mixed martial arts and come back to Canada and open that not-for-profit company, IK Change, to teach kids the same thing. It didn't go as planned when I came back, but that was the journey. Went to Thailand for two years. I studied at American Kickboxing Academy in Phuket in Thailand, trained with the high-level athletes. From Monday to Friday, it was training, Saturday sparring, and Sunday we go to the kind of caspal. We do sauna ice bath, sauna ice bath, eat healthy food, relax, recover, get back at it Monday. From there, I learned a lot of discipline. It worked with the mind, with challenges, with the body, and it was the best decision I made in my life to take a risk on your beliefs, on yourself.

Peter Kolakovic 14:04

Interesting. And and it's it's interesting that you just mentioned that word risk, because uh as you were speaking, that was the word that I I wrote down. Because it sounds like, you know, you at at least a couple of points in your life you took some big risks. One was coming back to Canada on your own, the other then leaving everything behind, selling everything and and going off to Thailand. So how how how does it feel to take on that kind of risk when you know you were obviously experiencing some kind of internal shift that encouraged you to follow your dreams? But, you know, as you said, that comes with significant risk. So yeah, talk to me about your your feelings, making those decisions, and then actually going through with them.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

The way

Choosing Freedom Over Security

SPEAKER_02 14:56

I see it, Peter, uh in life, yes, security is important, but in a way you cannot have both at the same time. Freedom and security. A lot of people pick security where they get a government job, a steady job. They do have some freedom to a certain point, but in my career and on my path, I met a lot of people that have government jobs, have that good paycheck in the end of the month. But for the most of it, I don't want to speak of all of them, but for the most of it, from my experience, that joyful life is not there. That peace within their life, within themselves, and the way they're living is missing, it's missing that freedom. So for me, I picked freedom over safety. But I had this deep knowing, which is these are the things that the logical mind cannot comprehend or find a proper explanation for it. But you have that deep feeling, that deep knowing that I'm doing the right thing. I know it's risky, I know things might not go the right way, I might know that I might be making less money or I might struggle in certain things, but first I took a risk on myself. So if anything happened, there's no one to blame. I'm not gonna blame this manager or this job or this thing. It's me with me. I took that decision. It helps with self-growth, with discipline, with with your connection with yourself, and it gives you the freedom to just show up every day to something that you truly love, that you're truly compassionate about. And if you show up this way, what's destined for you will unfold, will happen. And then you play a big part of like being okay with it.

Peter Kolakovic 16:51

That's the happening being okay with it. Right, yes, of course, of course.

Yoga As A Personal Support System

Peter Kolakovic 16:56

So at some point in your journey, you start to focus on yoga as your your central or at least one of your central practices, because I know that you're involved in in a lot of a lot of different disciplines. And I've I've seen that you have mentioned yoga as a personalized support system. So, what what does that mean exactly, and how can listeners start building their own personalized support system today?

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Yoga as a personalized support system, it's it's a way to show up for for your inner world. It's a way to this is where the grounded part comes in place before we start the movement. The yoga would become the grounding part in your life, the relationship you have between yourself and your mat becomes really special. Because in life, every journey is gonna be unique to the individual. Because we all have such unique minds, and things that I say will might be something for you different than someone else, different than someone else. So the journey itself is always gonna be unique to the individual. And yoga is one way, a profound way, that if it resonates with you, it will bring that grounding element into your life. It will kind of like you're putting your cards on the table into the light. You approach that practice with kindness, with no judgment, especially self-judgment, with an open mind and without expectations to attain anything from the practice. It's not a practice of we are desiring to attain something from it. It's quite the opposite. Yoga is a place where we get rid of things, we let go of things. So that practice has different elements in it. When we say yoga, the word yoga is looked at in so many ways in our health and wellness industry, in the societies, and could be misrepresented easily, especially with social media, especially with everybody's trying to use the word yoga for gain in some way or another. It was a business, it was for someone to praise them, to to feel like they belong. Like there's always that element of desiring something. That's why I always go back to the motive behind what you're doing is more important than the doing itself. So with yoga, it brings things to the light. Certain elements in your life into the light. How you're feeling on a mental level, on a physical level, on an emotional level. And then you have to sit with it and practice to be okay, accept it. And no matter what it is that's happening at that period in your life, to find peace with it, and then you can start unfolding things within you, within your psychic, within your being, within your mind, a little bit by little bit. And the beautiful thing about it, as much as a personal practice is so important, the beautiful thing about yoga is the community aspect of it. When you decide in your heart, deep down in your heart, that you wanted to be a student, then eventually a teacher will show up, a space will show up for you, and then that relationship with the student, a teacher is so important. And we're not talking about the teacher as the human personality of that teacher, that is separate. The teacher represents the teachings, and then there's the practice. So now you have these three elements: you have a student that they want to be a student in their heart, then you have the teacher that represents the teachings, and then you have the practice, right? And you bring everyone together and you share that beautiful supportive space. A space that you might not be able to find in your own home within your own family, in your work. Then whatever things that resonate with you in that space, you can take with you to your math on your personal practice, on your personal journey. So it's a supportive system, it's a beautiful, profound way to move this life and navigate it because there's the external things that happen, and these are important. We want to live it. Word, family, all of it. But without that foundation, without that grounding practice, most of the time we got lost in the bigger body. That's why you're the front.

Peter Kolakovic 22:00

That's that's a beautiful answer. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, Imad. Uh there was so much in what you said. I was I was taking notes as you were speaking, because you know, there were so many different themes that really, really resonated. You know, talking about, for example, uh and I think that this is a I think it was Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, who said, When the student is ready, the master appears, which is effectively what you were saying. But there was another thing that that you said that really stood out for me, and I'd like to explore that a little bit, was you know, just sitting with whatever is present and and accepting it.

Stillness And Trauma In The Nervous System

Peter Kolakovic 22:39

And this this kind of taps into well, it taps into meditation, but it also taps into yin yoga, which I know is another particular style or genre of yoga that you've been heavily involved in in this modern world, a lot of people find you know stillness to be uncomfortable. So how can, whether it's meditation or yin yoga, uh, and and finding that stillness, how do you think those disciplines serve as a bridge to inner peace for people who find sitting still very uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah, Pierre, and thanks for asking this question. This is something, it's the the core of how I teach and how I represent uh myself in the community. And before I start uh kind of giving a little bit brief about yin yoga, I just wanted to mention that the difference between chasing happiness and finding peace. Peace is such a profound practice to be able to find within your heart, within yourself, from that place of peace, eventually a sense of joy will rise, no matter what it is that is happening in your life. It might not be pleasant. So the idea of chasing happiness, this all happiness for me is an opinion, is a perception towards something happening in someone's life. And chasing that feeling of happiness would never be enough for someone. And comparing it with other people's happiness, what happiness to you means something different to me, something different to someone else. So I always tell my students take a path to inner peace is more important than finding happiness.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Because from that peace, what comes out at that point it does not matter because you already found peace with it. If it's meant for you to be happiness at that point, take it. If it's not, that's okay. Peace is what gets you through it, not the happiness thought.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Because nothing nothing is gonna last for that. Everything is destined to go now. I go back to your question about meditation and stillness. Yes, definitely it's hard to sit down and meditate in stillness because there's a few elements to why it's hard. The first obvious one is who wants to look at that painful part in their life? Who wants to sit down and look at the suffering part in their life? Now, if someone tells you I don't have pain and suffering in my life, I gotta smile. Because this is the truth. We all do have pain and suffering. It's part of our being, our psychic, our experience on this planet. It's gonna always involve somehow pain or suffering. But how we show up for it makes a difference. Now, sit down and meditate, look at what's going on in your life, seeing the painful parts, seeing certain patterns, certain sufferings. It's really difficult. It's easier for me to go have a glass of wine and forget about it, smoke a joint and forget about it, and sometimes it goes into even heavier, doing heavy drugs and forget about it. But then the people that wanted to do it in a healthier way, which is still in a way running away from the problem. Let's go to a Pilates class, let's go into a dance party, let's go into a concert. Nothing wrong with these things. And I always go back, Peter, to the motive behind it. That's the key. So if I'm doing all these things to run away, travel, I'm gonna go for a month travel because I want to get out of my life, I'm gonna run away. Like everybody's trying to look for a quick fix or trying to escape the reality of what is it that's happening within that instead of trying to sit down and work with. But on another level, that could be sometimes unhealthy to sit down and meditate. Why? Because we have to look at the nervous system, and now we're switching from the logical mind, from the perception, from the opinionated mind, into an actual nervous system, physical emotions, sensations, things that are already stored in your body. And you heard this phrase before the body keeps the score. And since we are born, it's just piling up things after things, and life is getting harder and harder in so many ways. Yes, we have more from the past. I remember when I was a child and when I grew up, we had less, but we were more in peace with it. Now, on a bigger scale, especially in Ghana, we do have more things, but are we happier? There's more challenges, there's more pressure. So the nervous system is the key of approaching your practice. Where should you go? If the nervous system is more in a shutdown state, which is called dorsi vagal nervous system, where you've you were fighting, fighting for a while. You're trying to show up, you're struggling, and you start getting tired, and you're more in a shutdown state. You maybe you're on the edge of collapsing. If I come tell you, Peter, meditate at that stage, it's like I'm saying, I want to punish you. Your system already is in a shutdown, you're already tired, fatigue. Come and let you sit and work with your mind, you're not fully aware there. That the cognitive awareness to work with the complex behavior of the mind is not there.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

So it's not gonna cause improvement, it's gonna cause more harm.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

And this is when we're talking about this is meditation, talk therapy, mindfulness practice. You're still strictly working with the nature of the mind.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

It's good for someone that has enough cognitive awareness and have that energy to work with. Well, what if you don't?

SPEAKER_02 29:14

It becomes really challenging. This is where my approach to my practice is a method that I learned through my on my path, my my courses that I studied, my teachers. It's called top-down and bottom-up approach. Okay, top-down, top-down approach is an approach to working with our psychic, our mind, our health, and mindfulness weight, meditation, awareness practices. It shows up as mindfulness, meditation, again, talk therapy, and things that you're strictly working with the nature of the map. It only works when your nervous system is open to work with that. If your nervous system is not there, we have to meet the nervous system where it is. Then the bottom-up approach comes in place. The bottom-up approach is using the sensations in the body to bring the mind into a more clear state, where the mind now is aware of the body, and from these sensations in the body, we start moving up into nervous system, emotions. Then we build, we build, and we start shifting from a shutdown state into more ventrovagal nervous system state where you're more social, you're more aware. I can look at you and I can see, are you happy? Are you sad? I can read your energy, I can be present with you. Then at that stage, we can start approaching it back to mind. And this is where yin yoga is really profound for me, because yin yoga needs you in a way in the middle. We start from the bottom where we're using the poses in yin yoga, the sensations that we're applying, because yin yoga is a strength practice, it's not a relaxing practice. The yin yoga on a physiological level, we're applying stress on the connective tissue through tension or compression, but not to a point that that stress isn't gonna cause pain on the body, but it's uncomfortable. Then we try to find stillness in the body first and then in the mind. This is the work, this is the magic. Now the nervous system is sitting in a place that is not fully comfortable. You have a teacher that's holding space with you, you have a community that's practicing with you, and then you have space. Every pose is about five minutes, you move, five minutes, you move, and you have a little bit to meditate and hold stillness on whatever it is that's going on in your body with your emotions in your mind. And as the teacher guides you through a little bit of tips about mindfulness, about the nature of the mind, talks a little bit about emotions, helps you move the energy. And this is where energy work helps too. So sometimes with my students, I go and I do the tweena massage in the yinpawas where I guide them through the meridian lines, through the energy lines in the body, move the energy through the connective tissue and work with them. They feel that healing touch, that support through the practice. And the stories that I hear period of feedback, it just sometimes makes me cry, it opens my heart, it it shows how profound this practice is. That it meets you in the middle. You work with both. So, this is my approach to it. I always encourage if someone is struggling with meditation, sitting down and meditating for five, ten, whatever amount of minutes, start with yin yoga and get the nervous system into a place more that you know parasympathetic, you're more social, you're more aware, and then you can start approaching meditation. There's other ways to do it too, like breath work is becoming something popular in the health and loneliness community where we do different types of breathing exercises. And I'm pretty sure you learned some of it in the kundalini training, in uh Hatha training, they offer it pranayama, but it's more in-depth. And this breath work is to work with the nervous system as well, to bring the mind into places that the mind does not want to be, and then try to offer, in a way, an opportunity for some stress in the body to release. So these are two approaches. I can dive more depth talking about them more, but this is

Tui Na And Traditional Chinese Medicine

SPEAKER_02 33:57

well.

Peter Kolakovic 33:57

Thank you for that, Imad. Again, there was so much in your answer that that resonated, and that you know, there there's so many different paths we can take in this conversation. We'll definitely come back to the breathwork, but before we get there, you you mentioned energetic healing twina massage, I think is what you called it. Twina. And I know that you have also been involved with uh traditional Chinese medicine. I believe you have some training in that discipline as well. So and and that's obviously related to yin yoga because this whole concept of yin and yang comes from Taoism, which is uh originally coming from China. So can you talk a little bit about your journey with traditional Chinese medicine? Help us, you know, on a very at least basic introductory level, help us understand some of the principles behind it and why you believe it's effective in helping us understand certain physical ailments.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

To keep it short with the explanation about how I studied and how I see traditional Chinese medicine and how it integrates into yin yoga. It's just it's such a profound practice that for me it it keeps opening my mind to certain things, and I'm never gonna stop studying about it. But Peter, in a way, we look they look at the life force energy. Life force energy is something that is constantly moving and changing. Life force energy is not something that we can see, but we can see the impact of it. The best example is the seasons. You see the seasons, winter, spring, summer, fall. Constantly the life force energy is moving. In a way, when you look at a hill in the winter covered in snow, you cannot see flowers, you cannot see grass. But do they actually not exist? Or just the conditions for them to manifest are not there yet. And as the life force energy moves and their time comes and the conditions are right, they manifest. And it's always moving. In traditional Chinese medicine, they start working with the external life force energy and the internal life force energy. How is my body the same in the summer, like the winter? How the organs function, how it moves through the cycle through the seasons, how organs are connected with emotions, how we're connected with the body. So they start mapping the body in energetic lines called meridian lines. And this is where the acupressure, acupuncture comes in place, where they map the body, and now, even like Western medicine, they're starting to come around and study it more, and they're starting to see connection between the energetic lines in traditional Chinese medicine and the fascia, the connective tissue, and how it maps through certain parts of the body. So they mapped it. Some of the meridian lines start like from the feet and they go up through the body, some through the hands, and it's always a yin yin and yang. So if the organ, let's say the heart would be a meridian line that goes through the arms, that's the yin, the small intestine, is the sister organ that works with the heart, it's the yang, and the meridian lines always travel opposite to each other. Then you start targeting these energy lines during the yin practice. You theme your class in a way, and these meridian lines are connected with emotions too. So they tell you that, say we're talking about the heart, the heart has the ability to hold sadness, the lung's grief. They're beside each other, but at the same time, they have the ability to hold joy, the zest for life, the capacity to enjoy this physical reality. So we start working instead of analyzing why do I feel the way I feel, instead, let's look into how traditional Chinese medicine mapped it, let's target it in a yin pose, give some wisdom through the practice about this emotion or about this philosophy, as I help students move the energy through Twin A massage, through acute pressure, and energy work, which is I integrate with some time. But this is the best way to describe it is how can we work with the life force energy internally and externally and use the knowledge that they presented to us through the seasons, through the meridian lines to help. All that we're trying to do, Peter, is to create an opportunity for survival stress. Survival stress is another word for trauma that is used. Opportunities for survival stress that is held in the body to release through the energetic lines, through the maradilla.

How To Feel Qi In Practice

Peter Kolakovic 39:18

Okay, so you've touched upon this concept of life force energy. Now, as I understand it, in traditional Chinese medicine, that's that's generally referred to as qi, also in you know various martial arts practices. In India, that's prana in the yogic system. And you mentioned that it's something that we can't see. But my question for you is can we feel it? And if so, how do we feel it? And how does understanding that, you know, the flow of that energy in our bodies, how does that change the way a person perceives their own energy levels throughout the day?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

So this is where we step a little bit away from the logical mind. Definitely there's a sense of logic in some of the energy work. Uh, and like you mentioned, Peter, it's represented in different philosophies like prana is qi in reiki, the ki is is the universal force, life force energy. So as I offer my yin teacher training, I go through the philosophies from each uh ancient wisdom, how they looked at it, chakras, nadis, meridians, they all looked into it. And before even yoga became a physical asana practice, it was most of the time energetic work, meditating, working with the nature of the mind and energy. So this is where a big part of my uh practice and my teachings is to bring it to every person to see that profound practice because for the logical mind, most of the time is resisted. What do you mean if I move my hands, I can move energies in my body? What do you mean if I concentrate on a certain part of my body, I can make it feel better? So these are challenging topics to explain to someone that is in their logical mind. So the way you like try to approach it, we look at the mind, we go back to the mind. Every thought that rises in your mind is energy, it again is an energy, it's a mind moment. Now, what you do with that thought creates energy. And usually what we do is we are so ready to take action towards that thought by creating a perception towards the thought.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

So you make something out of it, you make a perception out of it. That perception is an emotion.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

When you think about something, it could be pleasant, could be not pleasant, but regardless how you look at it, your perception is an emotion that is manifested in the body on a frequency, on a physical set, it has actual physical sensation. We say excitement, we say grief, we say anger. These are words for emotions, but they are feelings in the body somewhere. Where is it? Is it in my right arm? Is it in my heart? Is it in my stomach? You can find it. How can you find it? We simplify it. I simplify it to my students. We use the concentration of the mind with the energy of the breath. The breath is a special chi, it's the moving life force energy within you. And the special thing about the breath it can just happen without you paying attention to it. But at the same time, if you do pay attention to it, you can influence its movement and its behavior. So that's the link. The breath is so important. So once you bring the breath with the concentration of the mind towards a place in your body that you're not is let's say you call it angle, then I ask my clients, okay, where do you feel? I feel it in my heart, let's say. How does it feel? Does it feel like a rock? Is it creating heat? Is it cold? How does it actually feel? Connect with it deeper. Now try to move it. Can you move it? Then you notice that you can connect with it, you can influence its movement, and you can try to flow it with your breath, with your mind, out of the body. With the yin pose, I'm already stimulating heat, I'm already stimulating energy from the pose, from the Stress that I'm applying, so the mind is already motivated to go there. Add your concentration into it with your breath. Now we're doing what I call, in a way, energetic surgery. Removing that energy in your body. There's a lot of other things like the way you eat, the way you sleep. Of course, yeah. So much into it, but this is I'm just strictly talking in the yinning perspective, how we can yin perspective, how we do it.

Breath Cultivation Versus Breathwork

Peter Kolakovic 44:32

Okay. Well, you you've mentioned now the importance of the breath on on a couple of occasions, and I said we would come back to that theme. So let's so let's dive into that a little bit. You often speak about breath cultivation. So what is the difference between, you know, just regular breathing, unconscious breathing, and actually cultivating breath?

SPEAKER_02 44:58

So breath cul the breath in general is the key for every sensational things we do in the body. The breath is so profound. Like even in my journaling one time, I wrote down, is the breath God? Could the breath be God? That's how profound the breath is. Because the breath connects you to your ultimate reality, to your spiritual realm. The breath connects you directly with your nervous system and influence how your whole energetic being is behaving at a certain point in time in the present moment. So breath cultivation is once we start working with the breath to cultivate a healthy internal system, where we are promoting the best way to flow the blood and the oxygen into the brain, into the body, so the brain can function in its highest level. Anything can tip off the vertebrates in the spine closer to your neck that will reduce the blood flow into the brain and reduce the level of oxygen. So when I start working with breath cultivation, it's different than breath work. When I start working with breath cultivation, is by doing certain exercises that will get me to breathe in a healthy way, in a way that I'm promoting that blood flow, that oxygen flow into the body, especially into the brain. And then you have a breath work, which is a little bit different because breath work, we're using more intense breathing exercises to access the nervous system. Right. To go to that places that is you don't want to go to that sticky places that you don't want to go to.

The Simple Safety Breath At Work

Peter Kolakovic 47:01

Okay. You just mentioned you know breathing in a healthier, healthier way. Many people breathe very unconsciously or not at all conscious of how they breathe throughout the day. And uh, you know, going back to your earlier comment about you know people working in offices, maybe in jobs that they don't necessarily love, and and maybe with you know a high amount of stress throughout their work day. So, how can people in those situations who you know may not necessarily be ready to attend a yoga or breath work workshop, but want to take some small steps towards improving their health? How can they use simple breath techniques to stay grounded during a high pressure work day?

SPEAKER_02 47:49

This is a beautiful question, Peter. Thank you for asking it. Because you you're right, like we can dive in so many technical ways to explain it. But for someone that has no experience in it, and someone like you said, they're going to a nine to five job, sitting in the office, how can we simplify something like that for them to benefit from? So the first thing I will explain is what is called, in a way, the safety breath. The name is not, I'm not a big fan of the name itself. The word safety, I'm really careful how I use it, but it's called the safety breath. I'll I'll explain the three pillars of that concept of the safety breath. The first one, you place your tongue behind the top teeth on your palate gently. You're not pressuring hard, but you place your tongue behind the top teeth gently. Because the tongue is connected through the whole body to the bottom of the feet. So once we place the tongue behind the top teeth, you close your lips if possible. Breathing from the nose, you close your lips. The second pillar is to breathe through the nose. So now we're trying to breathe from the nose. The third pillar is to try to relax your muscles completely as you breathe, especially the ones in the pelvic flow region. So now I'm not inviting that yang energy from the outside, that responding to hundred emails, that manager on my head, that rushing to work, that high-paced life from the outside. I'm not bringing it inside. I'm trying to manage yin internal.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Inhaling, exhaling through the nose, relaxing the muscles, turn behind the topic.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

And the second part, can I bring the awareness, the concentration of the mind to watch that process happen? Then you're present. Because most of the times we wake up, you make your coffee, you make your breakfast, you eat it, you get ready to work, you jump in your car. But you did all these things and your mind was somewhere else. Completely. Even while you're driving, we think we are driving. It's the program that is driving, but you are somewhere else. You're thinking about something else. You're it's barely present in your life. To simplify it, go to the safety brack and try to generate awareness by shifting the concentration of the mind from wherever the mind is to that process of the Buddha. I inhale, I know I'm inhaling. I exhale, I know I'm exhale. Why? Because I'm here. I'm with it. And just by doing this, Peter, we're shifting your nervous system. The nature of the thoughts that are rising in your mind will start to change, and your whole energetic field will shift.

Is Breath A Doorway To God

Peter Kolakovic 51:01

Again, that's a really ri really profound answer. Thank you. Thank you again for sharing that. You know, I'm I'm coming back to what you just expressed a bit earlier, speaking about the breath, and and I think you said you wrote it in your journal. Is is breath is breath God? Is that what you wrote?

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah.

Peter Kolakovic 51:26

Which is a really fascinating perspective. It's not a thought that I've previously had, but as you were speaking, I started, you know, mentally diving into that more and more. Can you maybe elaborate a bit upon that, upon that particular insight? Because I'm still kind of wrapping my head around it. I mean in what way? And I think it's a it's a wonderfully fascinating idea. In what way do you think the breath is is either, you know, whatever you want to call it? You know, some people, unfortunately, in in our world are not comfortable with the word God because it comes with a lot of cultural baggage in the West. You know, people prefer other words, the source, the universe, whatever you want to call it, some sense of the divine divinity. But in what way do you think breath is that thing or connects us to that thing?

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Just to touch a little bit on the word God, like that. Sure, yeah. The word itself is is not something, it's again, it's like a perception, it's an opinion. And it's whatever we look at, it's gonna be an opinion over an opinion, and in the end of the day, it's all opinions. But it's the way when I say God or I say that higher energy, it's a level of consciousness, it's a it's a higher level of consciousness. Okay, it could be could be one, two, hundred, all of it. It's it's it's just in this conscious universe, it's the level of consciousness, is what I'm referring to as the creator, the god. I don't think there's like one god that created everything, it's just a level of consciousness. But I believe that we all have godly qualities. Sure, we all have that goodness in us that it's built within that's the purity in the heart when we are born, before we ate the apple of good and evil. That's that's right. You know, that's how I look at it. Sure. In terms of the breath, so many things, Peter. I didn't just write this lightly in my in my journaling. First of all, when we're born, the first thing we do, and they say, You're alive, you take an inhale, and they say, He's alive, she's alive, they're born. So thing that starts with you from day one and stays with you to the last day. And for me, I grew up with asthma. I struggled when I was uh young with uh breathing a lot. It was challenging, especially for a child of not being able to breathe. It was really, really hard, and I had to learn so much about how to cope with that. And uh I noticed that when I had a hard time breathing, I panic and my whole body changes and I feel stiffness, my my fingers kind of get locked, my hands get locked. When my parents used to take me to the hospital, the nurses look at me, they're like, okay, there's something going on more than just asthma here. Right. But then when they give me air, when I start breathing, my whole body relaxes, my whole body started to open, and I feel safe. Even these days, like when they wanted to study your cardiovascular activity, they start studying your breath, breathing patterns to understand more about your heart. So, and then that you would talk about the nervous system. My breathing can influence so much, it's the direct access to my nervous system. So, on a physiological level, without the breath, none of it can happen. It it's the link where like I cannot tell my heart beat, stop beating, beat less, beat faster, but I can tell my breath what to do. I cannot tell my kidneys to do something, but I can tell my breath to do. So it's a different, yes, I can order my mind to lift my arm. These are things that we can do, but on an internal level, in your inner world, your breath is the link, where it happens without you and happens with you paying attention to it. Then the third element is the spiritual element, where the breath is the link between the ultimate reality, the ultimate reality is beyond this physical reality and this physical reality.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

Where when I take my mind into my breath, I can go into a different world, I can escape the thoughts, I can shift my reality just by finding the breath. Inhaling, exhale. How profound is that? Could breath be that conscious energy that we're not fully aware of it?

Peter Kolakovic 56:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

There's wisdom in it. We're not changing anything in it, we're just working with it.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

But the wisdom is already in it.

Peter Kolakovic 56:48

Well, thank thank you again. It's again, it's a wonderfully original and fascinating idea. And uh, you know, I I also work quite a bit with with the breath, and I find it I mean, since I started this practice, it's just been so profound for me, so healing, and it just feels like something that is so natural when I just sit and and work with my breath. And it's been such a helpful practice for me. And and when you mention that, it just it really got me thinking. So thank you for sharing that perspective.

What Students Reveal About Healing

Peter Kolakovic 57:27

So I I did want to shift gears a little bit because you know we're already running out of time, and I feel like this conversation could go on for several hours. But I wanted to talk a little bit about something that you mentioned earlier about, you know, when you were talking about yoga and how it helps to build community. And, you know, there are different ways that people can go about doing that. For me, you know, doing this podcast is is is one way of doing exactly that. For yourself, you know, you've been a teacher for a number of years now, and that involves both teaching, but teachers also learn, right? As you go through, as you go through your journey, you know, I constantly hear teachers saying this, that, you know, what when you are a student, you are learning, and when you are a teacher, you are still learning. So I guess my my first question for you on that theme is what have your students taught you over the years about you know the human capacity for healing during your years as a teacher?

SPEAKER_02 58:41

Well, uh, thank you again for this question. Uh I always uh say it in my classes in the end of the class, I thank everybody for showing up and I tell them, you hold space for me as much as I hold space for you. Because uh it's always a two-way street when it comes to spirituality and yoga and and holding that space. It's it's a special thing, and I always capitalize on it. A lot of things I learned from my students, they told me so many things. First, I learned that never assume that you actually know what's happening in someone's life. You never are able to see what's happening internally. You can have an idea, you can be really clever to just sense something, but you're never gonna be able to fully know what's going on in someone's life and within themselves. So always approach it with gentleness, with awareness, with acceptance, no judgment, never, never judgment. Hold that space, and another thing that I learned too from my students is that and that's that for like an ordinary mind looking at it might not sound that kind or nice, but it's the reality of the matter that it does not matter the persona, it does not matter the melodrama that someone's going through, there's no one pain more important than other. There's no one story is more important than other, or this pain is more valuable than other pain. In the end of the day, it is a persona, and that attachment to that persona is what is causing what is causing, and all you can do is try not to pretend that you can heal their problems, you can figure out their persona, they have to do it themselves. You hold the space, you share the tools, but at the same time, they have to do it themselves, they have to see it themselves to do that. And the last one is from a person that is a holistic healer and an energetic worker that I offer energy work and I explain about it. Sometimes I hear stories from some of my students that buzzes my mind that how they naturally did something that helped them in their life. I would I would like to share a story that from a student I would not say names, but this story is is worth worth mentioning because that student is like my teacher in a lot of ways. Okay. That student just by seeing their strength and being seeing the hearing their story became my teacher, and one way or another they keep coming up in my mind and during some of my classes. And that student went through hard time, husband passed away, two kids, and was diagnosed with cancer in the brain. And the doctor said there's no hope, you only have a certain amount of time, it's gonna eventually happen. Just to show you clear, like how the logical mind cannot understand certain things, but it's so strong, and you cannot deny that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:41

That student started to visualize a pink elephant eating the tumor out of her brain. And in a short period of time, that student healed from the tumor.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:56

And she went to the doctor and they said there's no tracks of it anymore. And I look back at this story and it just never like I get goosebumps just talking about it. I'm like, is is that the power of love of a mother to her children? Like, this is the life force energy that now we're talking about, Peter. There's no logic behind it, but that life force energy is so stubborn, does not want to give up. Find a way. You cannot explain it to fight that thing, to go through it and still show up and still thrive through it all. That story by itself just tells me keep going, I would keep doing this work. And that person did not study Rikki, that person did not study in yoga, that person did not study any of that.

Peter Kolakovic 1:03:56

Right, right. Well, that is indeed a very beautiful and touching story. Uh yeah, the the power of of the mind, the power of the will, of intentionality, yeah, all of that. And and as you said, a mother's love for her children. Yeah, some of these forces, they're they're much more powerful, I think, than most people recognize.

Defining Your Best Life Now

Peter Kolakovic 1:04:25

Imad, I I have so many more questions I would love to ask you. But you know, we've already come to the end of our time, so I'm I'm just going to ask you one final question, and it's the same question that I ask all of my guests. Since the the theme of this podcast is my best life, what does it mean to you to live your best life?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

My best life. I I recall when you were in my class, and I touched a little bit on this. I'm gonna say it in your podcast again now. What is your best life? And I mentioned in class is before I look into what is my best life, I wanted to ask the question, where is my best life? Because this is really important too. Because instead of going thinking about what is my best life, where is my best life? Because the mind and most people like wanted to live either in the past or the future. But right here, right now, as we talk to each other, Peter, this is my life. This present moment, I might not have the second one. So before I start thinking about my best life, let me find it. It's here. I go back to the safety breath, I bring the concentration of the mind to the breath, and I find myself right here, right now. And then just by looking around, I have my coffee, I'm talking to Peter, the sun is going through the window, I'm healthy. I'm here. That is my best life right now. Right here, right now. Could it be worse? Yes. Could be better? Yes. But what I did in this situation, I found peace with it. Peace is the key. From that peace within you of whatever it is that you're happy you're having externally is your best life. It's not the cars, it's not the fancy houses, it's not the trips that you go on, it's not the delicious food. These are all good things. What if you don't have them? Would I allow them to steal away my best life from me? What if today I don't have enough money to eat? There's people around the world, they are they wake up, they don't know if they're gonna survive at the end of the day. They don't know if they're gonna have a meal to put in their tummy today. Don't these people deserve to have a best life? So if I represent a best life from a perspective of attainment, what do you desire? What you can gain more? How much do you have? How much comfort you have? Are you sleeping on a $2,000 mattress or are you sleeping on the floor? If these things are gonna indicate my best life, then I'm never gonna have a best life. Because there's always gonna be a house bar in my house, there's always gonna be a meal more tasty than the meal that I have.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:43

So what isn't my best life? First, find it in the present moment, find peace with it through the practice of gratitude for what you already have.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

And I learned this in my journey, Peter. What's destined for you, it will happen. What is meant for you, my friend, it will happen. No need to chase it. Just show up. Just show up. That's your best life.

Peter Kolakovic 1:08:12

My best life is right here, right now. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that perspective, Imad. I again I have so many more questions I would love to ask you, but I guess that means you'll have to come back for another episode at some point in the future. I'll have to. Thank you again, Imad. This it's been uh it's been a pleasure to speak with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

Thank you so much, Peter. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.