Busting The Myth Of Joint Health And Aging – Let’s Get Flexible!

Welcome to the D ship podcast, where we provide inspiration, motivation and education to help you transition from the challenges of divorce to discover the freedom and ability to live life on your own terms. Are you ready? Let's get the shift started. Hi, and welcome to the D Shift Podcast. Today I really excited to talk to Kathy White. See, she is a yoga instructor and a life coach. And she is here to talk to us about the three C's of joint renewal. And I am excited about that because I am a person that has joint pain every now and then in the morning just from adding on the years, I guess. So Kathy, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Mardi. lovely to be here. Thank you for the invitation to join and speak to about my joint renewal system.

Kathy, tell us a little bit about yourself. And you are more than welcome, by the way and tell please tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into yoga, what led you into life coaching? Whatever you think would be helpful for us to know about you.

Oh, goodness, I could I could go back many years for my journey with yoga. I was in my 20s traveling and actually it was in Victoria BC where I did my first yoga class. And funnily enough, I even after going to Spain and then living in Scotland meeting my husband having two kids. I ended up back on Vancouver Island right and opening my yoga studio here. Just an hour away from where I had my first yoga class all those years ago. Amazing.

Thank you, Brian. I gotta throw that out there. I got Coombs, my favorite place goats on the roof. Don't

tell anyone. It's like people who think Vancouver I say Vancouver Island and they go oh, yeah, that's a great city, isn't it? They missed the island bit. And, and it's like, yeah, don't tell anyone about Vancouver Island gets it.

I love it to fino my one of my I actually lived in this is funny. I'm in Texas now. But I taught school in in Surrey BC for 10 years. Went to UBC as a matter of fact, I'll be teaching okay, no good. Anyhow, sorry, got got off track here. But I love where you're living. I gotta throw that.

I love it too. I feel very blessed to have moved here. We moved here about four or five years ago, I opened a yoga studio in my basement, which was a lifelong dream. I've always been teaching yoga since that first yoga class, I went on and did a training. And having a studio was not something I actually really ever planned. What happened was, I did a thread retraining when I hit 50. I was going through perimenopause, and my joints were really aching. I was noticing that all those menopausal symptoms were raging through my body the hot flushes the not sleeping at night that this that and the other. And although I was practicing yoga as I always had been, and been teaching, always as a side hustle kind of thing. It wasn't it just wasn't doing it. For me. My practice was kind of stale, dry, wasn't working for me. And I just kept stretching more and doing more out and then asked to get fed up. And then I stopped and then I stopped teaching. And then I came across this amazing practice of yoga developed in Brazil, the main guy who developed us to go cool Francisco Coyote, I came across this yoga practice developed by Francisco coyotes in Brazil. And my first class was with one of his teachers, and it was online. And after the hour of doing it online, I was oh my god, what? What was that? And this was after nearly 20 years of practicing yoga. I was just astonished. And I did very little, but I did an enormous amount at the same time. It was slow, it was mindful. It was mind blowing. And I researched I found out that there was a training happening in Toronto in about six weeks time I booked myself into it I told my husband I'm off and and this was a training that happened over 18 months I went back three times to Toronto for two weeks modules each time and and developed this whole new awareness, which I then over the next five years, cultivated and brought into what I call my joint renewal system. So it was through my own body really muddy that this, this happened. And I think, coming to that place where realizing, you know, I was getting older, and I was looking for something different I had, I had made all sorts of assumptions that getting older means, and I'm sure your listeners, you know, whatever age they're at, can kind of go yeah, getting older means fill in the blanks, and there's a whole bunch of stuff that you assume. And one of them is my joints will start to get stiff and achy. Well, I tell you, I move my joints in such a different way today at age 58. Then, I did 10 years ago at 48. I mean, I just have a degree and that was after 20 years of yoga. I mean, just just really quite remarkable shifts that this practice this practice does.

Is there a specific like it like is there a specific name for the practice, you know, like, is it you know, like hot yoga or is it

yoga is is kind of the foundation on which I based it. And then my system Kathy white yoga.com is the joint renewal system. Okay? That that was the aspect of it that I really found captured my attention and awareness and my students as well. They come to me because they're going, Kathy I've got a really stiff neck or my shoulder my my orthopedic surgeon saying I need surgery. And that's not to say you don't go ahead with the surgery, but like let's prepare the joint for that surgery. That's going to happen. elbows, wrists, knees, hips, ankles, whatever joint it is, then that's it as

an end I've got to because I we were talking before before we started recording here, but I have got to say I am a late comer to yoga, but it has it has become a passion for me. So I was really, I was into a lot of competitive sports. I played women's hockey, I played women's rugby for years and years and years. And I gotta tell you, I, I did a number on my back, my neck, my joints doing that kind of thing. I grew up on a farm, rode horses all my life like you just name and I was doing something that was probably not helpful for my body. But I got into yoga. When I was 55. And I was having plantar fasciitis. I was having tight back back of my legs, I would get up in the morning I was like and I was like 110 year old woman like I was walking all hunched over and everything. And I'm serious within about maybe six months of doing yoga. It was like I was completely reborn again, like, you know, I felt my joints didn't hurt. I didn't have back pain. I didn't have neck pain. So I believe in this like I there's a lot of there's a lot of research and information. What do you what do you think is the power of yoga? Like why is it so much more effective than just because you can stretch on your own, but it's not the same as a yoga practice. So what is it what is the magic in yoga?

For me, the magic is that it calms the nervous system. And I think especially for your listeners, Marty, they're going through a really stressful time in their life. You know, they're facing divorce and their separation and they're trying to manage if they if there are children involved or properties or finances or whatever that whole puzzle and re orientating the whole landscape of their lives. It's a major, major upheaval. And that creates stress. Yeah, it might also be a move of house, there might be a move of job there might be you know, all those things. And yoga offers an opportunity instead of hitting the gym and going for a run and getting in the spin bike and going out and power power through. I can power through this. And I'm sure your listeners have the capacity to power through and that's why they're so successful and doing so well in their lives. And it's time to pause and really come back to yourself. Just get on your mat. Do some breathing. Just calm everything down. and get back into your body. Because in stress, we tend to leave our body behind. Yeah, there's a there's a lovely quote from James Joyce, which I like to sort of share every once in a while. And it's from his one of his novels that the Dubliners, I think I haven't actually read the book, I just love the quote, I come across as some literary person, I'm not. But anyway, so James Joyce quote, and it goes along, like this, Mr. Duffy lived a short distance away from his body. And I think that's what we all do, we live a short distance away from our body and why yoga is so rejuvenating, why it restores why it helps with your shoulders, your hips, your your joints, is because you're bringing yourself home, you're bringing yourself back into your physical self, you're not trying to power ahead and get your heart rate to such and such a beat, you're not trying to get 1000 steps in. And all of that is fine, but it has a different place. Right? Right. And and many of us miss this place entirely, and often miss this place entirely, especially when we're stressed. So if we're trying to have placed it like to meditate, to come home to oneself to take that time for oneself, that's where we restore. And often when we're going through stressful points. That's the last thing that we can even think of, because we're in our fight or flight, our nervous system is very activated, when we're trying to figure out what comes next, we're in this place of unknown, it's very disturbing. And that's exactly when yoga can help.

Because I can't, yeah, and I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a yoga class, and been really stressed about something and just let it go. Like literally leave it at the studio door. Or even if you're doing it at home, just you know, turn your mind onto focusing on your practice stretching, holding the poses, doing the breathing. And all of a sudden, at the end of the class, you know, you always end with that corpse pose position and just the breathing. And I'll get up off the mat and I'll walk to the door and I'll be like, holy crap, I know the answer to my problem. It's just right there in my mind, right. So it is that power of letting go and stop trying to control and just focus on your body and experiencing the physical activity, the connection to your, to your body. And it's like, it's it's this wonderful synergy that gets going. So

I'm really taking stock of where you're at, you know, just just to have that hour on your mat to go, Oh, my God, you know, I didn't realize how stressed I was until I actually stopped and calm down and took this time that's conscious, you know, because we can just fall asleep and just collapse and disappear that way. But this is a conscious way to recalibrate. And it doesn't involve alcohol and it doesn't involve you know, those other go to things eating sugar or whatever addictive patterns that can sometimes creep in in stressful situations. For sure, this is such an antidote. And the other thing to say is that not all the Ogres are created equal. sure that you know some because in the yoga field, unfortunately a lot of it has tipped towards. It's shown up in gyms and so people expect a kind of gym style yoga, which is the you know, the hot fast power, Ashtanga, Bikram all those styles of yoga. They're lovely. And they, you know, they, they don't all have their place in the world, of course, but in terms of the route of yoga in terms of what it's actually there to achieve, which is a consciousness and a mindfulness and the calming of the nervous system, then for me, it has to be restorative, and it has to be a lot more slow. And what I love about the style I teach, and my joint renewal system is that you really work very, very hard in your joints and you have no idea how many people come in, they're all beefed up and they run 10k Every other week and they do They train and they do this and I have them lie legs up the wall. Okay, everyone likes up the wall, Lie with your head on a pillow bolster behind you. And then just flex your right ankle. So your legs on the wall, your heels are on the wall, yours flexed your right ankle. And just stay there. Just breathe, keep flexing more flexing of the foot, bring the toes down towards the shin, base of the toes down towards the shin flex that ankle. And people go red in the face from flexing their ankle and getting into their ankle, and they've no idea how much stiffness is in the ankle until they actually take the time to explore. And that ankle might be causing the hip pain that they're actually experiencing that ankle might be why the knee is starting to be really tense and tight. So you we've no idea as we circulate through all the different joints, what the knock on effect of opening one joint helps another joint helps the other joint it all realigns together.

And it's it's so what you just said is so powerful, because I have I gotta admit, I'm a fan of the power yoga, the hot power yoga, I love that because I'm I really I like to challenge myself to do better, do more, do faster, do harder. But I also like the really the really a slow more. Here they call it yin and yang yoga or whatever they you know, whatever the term is for the restorative. But one of the things that that amazed me was one of our instructors had us just go like into a warrior to pose which is the one that for people that aren't into yoga, it's kind of that one where you're like this, and that's sort of the one wherever, when everybody sees a yoga pose, that's what they think of a lot of time. It is amazing how hard it is just to maintain a pose for more than a minute. You know, like and, and when you see somebody that can do like a like a really a proper plank. And they can do it for more than three or four minutes that is incredibly physically demanding. And it's like, Yeah, but you're not doing push ups. I don't care, just try it.

And the thing is most Maori too, is that most people actually are trying to build strength or muscle before they have the mobility in their joint. That's a good great point. And, and that just exacerbates any joint stiffness or pain that the that is locked in there. So you know putting your pressure because you mentioned before we were we started recording about doing the crow pose, it's like yeah, okay. What I would really invite you to do is lots of handwork before that to get your wrists and make sure that you have the mobility and the strength in your wrists in in just doing handwork. And if you can hold a strap and really squeezed the strap and hold the strap on your leg and see that you can hold your leg before you actually put the pressure on your hands to do it. That's, that's an incredibly advanced pose. And that was lovely for me as well to come back to when I started this practice. I went back to the foundations and realize that I'd actually got the foundations a little bit wrong. And I'd been in that kind of bigger, better, faster, more, what more complicated pose can I do you know, how fancy will this look or doing back bends and all this kind of stuff is like, wow, I missed I skipped ahead. I didn't get the foundations right. And now I'm coming back to the foundations. And actually, the foundations are all I practice. Now. I don't bother with fancy poses, because I'm so so absorbed by watching the subtleties of each joint as they open. And I sit in su cas9 cross leg position now in my head goes straight to the floor. For five years ago when I started this practice, that was like, I'm never gonna get there. Right? And it's not about getting there. It's that that's a consequence of having open hips. So I've never been trying to strive to get to the floor. I've just noticed that oh my god, that happens now.

Kathy, what what are the three C's of your system? Because I you and I can talk yoga all day I have what is the what are the three C's that you recommend? And I know you have a much. So I want to say this because I know your program actually involves a lot more. So you've just picked out three components that you're going to talk about today. Yeah,

Ah, yeah, I have, what are they? Yeah, so where I'll go with this is just to say I have the seven C joint renewal. And it's a free challenge that I run every four to six weeks. So depending on when you're listening to this podcast, you'll be able to log on and join the waitlist or join the challenge that's coming up next Wonderful. So what I want to give you is three of those seven seas just as a as a kind of tip bit for and bit of food for thought or for your yoga practice. So if you aren't doing a yoga practice, brilliant, if you're not, the first C is all about commitment. It's all about you have I wish I could do the yoga practice for my students, I'd be happy to, but I can't. All I can do is offer them the space to practice. And you have to be committed. And the thing about commitment is often, especially for your listeners, you know, commitment gets a bad rap, you know, it's like, oh, I made a commitment to my my partner, and look where it ended me. commitment. Commitment is not, not always roses. And no, it's not. So we have to be really sure about what we're committing to. So making sure that the commitment you're making is about your well being. That's the commitment, and finding a practice finding a teacher, that you find it easy to commit to, you know, when we when we say, Let's get married, that commitment that we made, it felt easy at the time, yes, you know, time goes on, and things change, and people change. And now you're on committing if you're getting a divorce. However, the yes, the signing up the yes for this is because it feels good. And you've got to keep that with your commitment. The second one is courage. Because the way I teach, and this is this is different from other yoga practices is that I really encourage people to look for their restrictions. And that's why we do it, we go really slowly. And it's different from restorative and yin yoga as well, we go really slowly. We're very subtle, but we're very particular about, you have to find the restrictions in your knees, you have to find that low back pain and touch on it. You have to have courage that what you're doing in your practice, because it's very mindful and you're guided with a good teacher to explore what that restriction is. When does it get triggered? At what point is of a forward flexion? Do you start to feel that sensation? What exactly is that sensation? And all of that is courage. Because most of us are fear phobic ly afraid of pain. And we live in a culture a society that doesn't want pain will medicate it away will stop it will go no, no. And you know, the yoga field itself for good reason says if it feels bad, you know, don't do it. Don't go there, though. Yoga teachers all the time. That's how I was taught to teach yoga. Now I'm taught to say No Have courage, we're going to go very slowly. But we're going to explore that sensation that's holding you back. Because that's the only way you're actually going to dissolve it.

Alright, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

And then the third one is care. And care is self care, taking care. Being in that kind, generative. Look after yourself, put your own mask on first, that idea of care has to be in your practice. And again, you know, those of you know that kind of forcing or not forcing but pushing harder, faster, better, more that you are describing yourself as one of those kinds of people is lovely. And it's fun. And there's an adrenaline rush. And it's co competitive sometimes if it's in sports and that whole arena. And we don't often then take stock and say, Okay, how can I do this in a caring way? Right? Yeah. And it becomes a quiet, alpha male dominated in Outlook, which is great. It's fun. It's out there. It's but yeah, let's go for it. However, yoga gives us this opportunity to really care for ourselves. So you have encouraged you know, commitment, you're showing up courage. You're looking at where the restrictions are, and you're willing to look into it. And you're taking care as you look into those restrictions in the body, and then they dissolve

and that is a Fanta and that actually that's not But different than what we encourage people to do during their divorce and then rebuilding their life afterwards, you know, those three, those three, commitment caring and compassion towards yourself is really, that's what we should be living our life doing. And that's why I think yoga has so much power because it sets a framework for how we can look at our life. And, you know, it's really interesting because that I am still a really competitive person, like, seriously, if I'm, if I'm walking with somebody, if they're walking faster than me, I'm gonna start walking a little faster. It's the way I roll. But I've got to say, I'm not competitive, believe it or not, I am not competitive. When I go to yoga. Like, I look around and I say, Wow, that person is really doing an excellent job at doing something I can't do. And I'd like to aspire to that. But I don't feel like I've got to do that. Like, it's, it's a completely different mindset. It's so fascinating for me that, yeah, so you can you can be in yoga, and you can do those kinds of caring, compassionate, exploring, looking for your restrictions, kinds of things, and you can still be competitive in other areas of your life.

Absolutely, I mean, a lot of my students, right, yeah, a lot of my students want to carry on with, you know, playing tennis competitively, or they're doing that on the golf course, or they want to keep up with their rugby, or whatever it is, they're, they're doing, and they're coming to yoga, because they're hammered sometimes, yeah, in certain joints, and they really need something that's going to restore and rejuvenate. And the thing about the way I teach also is that I don't demonstrate, I don't show you what my body can do, because it doesn't help, especially if someone's new to the practice, and they've never done a forward flexion before, it's like, looking at me doing my forward flexion isn't gonna help. You could just barely get your hips barreling down on the ground, you know, I walk around the room and I with my voice will give the instruction. Or if people are taking classes on Zoom, I'm looking at them, they're not looking at me, they're hearing my voice. And that's it. And that's the guidance. So then the opportunity comes to close your eyes. And from that you can build this incredible interior ception, which is, you know, the ability to have perception inside of yourself. And with the interior perception comes the ability to heal. Yeah.

Wonderful,

though. That's yeah.

of all. So we you have shared a fantastic wealth of information. I love your perspective. Kathy, I really, really do. Can you tell us what is the one thing from this conversation that you want people to walk away from and keep at the top of their mind.

I would say the most important thing muddy is to realize how short your nervous system can be, especially when you're going through a big life change. And to really take stock of because if you're in your fight flight or freeze mode, the body doesn't heal. But that's just the way of it. And you've got to let healing happen. And how that happens is by de stressing and giving yourself breaks and time to really let the body rejuvenate itself because it will and when we all know that we cut our finger and we put a bandaid on and few days later the skin has healed. So giving ourselves the opportunity to really calm the nervous system is key.

Great, very important words of advice. Kathy, I'm sure that people number one would like to be able to participate in your challenge. And if people want to reach out to you find out more about what you do or perhaps participate in your in your yoga training or your life coaching services. How can they reach you? What's the best

way? Well, they can email me Kathy at Kathy white yoga.com Happy to any questions that you might have that you've heard me speak on today. And go to my website, www Cassie white yoga.com and that's Kathy with a K and white with an eye. Kathy white yoga.com. And if you do, just go to the front page homepage, you can get a free joint renewal guide but if you put forward slash seven C that's forward slash seven C on top of the Kathy white yoga.com Then you'll get the sign up for the joint renewal of the the seven day challenge. The seven C's for joint renewal. And depending on when the podcast is coming out, there'll be one coming up sure Only or you can join the waitlist. And you'll hear about the next challenge. And it's completely free a bit of yoga every day for seven days just to give you an experience of the practice.

I'm going to do that. That sounds like a lot of fun. And what a wonderful gift to give people. So thank you. Thank you so much. And all the notes will all the information for Kathy will be in the show notes below in the notes on the podcast. So don't worry about trying to write things down. And Kathy, just thank you for your time and wisdom. It has been fantastic speaking with you today.

No, thank you, Marty. lovely to be here.