Episode 86: Empowering Your Energetic Qualities through Yoga Therapy with Anna Pigotti

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Anna Pigotti:

So when we bring inquiry, for example, I’m going to go back to the gunas. When you’re doing a yoga pose, you can begin to notice where are the energetic qualities in the pose. This this pose makes you feel like you want to fall asleep and rest and slow down, or they’re suppose I really gets activated. And then the self-inquiry is like, Okay, how is this both making me feel in my body? How is this pose making me feel in my mind and my emotions? And what is this pose representing? For me? What is? Why is it tied to something in my world? In these art, I think these self-inquiry questions can really also bring you to the present moment, instead of thinking like, what am I going to do tomorrow and the day after, and then and I and then we just go off, and we’re holding this pose, and our mind is somewhere else. Somewhere else, mind and body are totally disconnected. So self-inquiry really keeps you in that moment. And I feel like when you begin to really listen to your body and understand the cues, for example, you’re in a meeting, and there’s a certain topic and this top a big and you begin to feel like your chest muscles or your back muscles, being able to kind of like tense up and lift up, then what can you do in the meeting, you can just take a deep breath and be like, there’s no danger, we can just be here, we can just relax this part of our body and then we can continue being present in in the meeting, you can do yoga without anybody knowing that you’re doing it.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Welcome to the capital, integrative health podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Andrew Huang. And today we have a very special guest with us, Anna Pakodi. Anna is a certified yoga therapist who recently joined her practice working with their clients to improve their physical, emotional and spiritual health by offering a safe environment and yoga therapy. She aspires to help others reduce the symptoms of many health conditions and improve function and quality of life by building the inner strength and resilience needed to face the complexities of life today, and it will be discussing the energetic qualities or Gunas, and how we can use yoga therapy to create more awareness in our lives. The Gunas are the three fundamental qualities of nature. And they’re believed to influence everything from our emotions to our physical health. So sit back, relax, maybe do an Asana pose, and enjoy this episode, and how to get the most out of our yoga, and bring the lessons of your energetic qualities into our lives for more vibrant, resilient life. Welcome to our podcast. Thanks so much for coming on today.

Anna Pigotti:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So Anna, as a yoga therapist, we’re really excited to talk to you today about yoga with the difference is between yoga yoga therapy, and then how you use these energetic qualities called Gunas to help your clients navigate their health, both on and off the yoga mat. Great. So to start, can you tell our listeners a bit about what drew you to become a yoga therapist?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, so my yoga therapy and my yoga, life started a little bit late in my 30s, I was never into a lot of physical activity. But there were things shifting in my life. And I decided to try yoga class and one after the other one. And they talked about yoga teacher training. So I was very curious about it. And I remember in one of my few first classes, the teacher said, your mind is a representation of your body and your bodies are a presentation of your mind. And I was so frustrated in this class is because I am built on the strong side. So I couldn’t do all these bendy beautiful poses. And when I heard that I was like, Oh my gosh, that was the first moment of awareness that I felt like, there’s something that I can do for this and my mind is stiff as my body. Let’s keep going on this path. So then did my 200 hour teacher training, then the 300 start teaching classes, the pandemia happen? I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do now? And it’s like one of those things that the universe keeps some bringing pictures or information and then yoga therapy came to my sphere, and I was like, Okay, let’s, let’s back up. idemia studying. So that’s, that’s how I became a yoga therapist.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

That’s so great. Well, we’re so glad you’re here at CH and offering yoga therapy to patients and clients. Let’s talk about sort of the difference between yoga which I think a lot of people understand or have some popular mainstream media a representation of what yoga is and being a yoga teacher. Let’s talk about the difference between that those two and then how do you and what do you do to help your clients you know, with as a yoga therapist?

Anna Pigotti:

yeah, so yoga and you know, there’s so many yoga studios, and they’re lovely. And I really support them. And I think it’s a great way of getting started in this wellness or self inquiry path. But the difference is that in yoga therapy, we focus on the person. So we start exactly where they are, instead of here are the poses this do them and breathing is more of a breakdown and really getting the foundation. And starting from there. So in yoga therapy, we look at the physical body, what is short in muscles, what is tight, what’s weak, what’s strong, and then we build a personalized practice. From there. We also take a look at what is the energetic level? Is the person having good night’s of sleep and resting? Do they feel okay, at the end of the day? And then what practices can we do to kind of regulate during the day, the energy and then we also invite this aspect of emotions? Where are the person feeling? And how are they navigating? There are difficulties or challenges? And then we also look at the observation of this a person have this ability to really observe from, from this place of detachment, what’s going on? And what are the practices that they can do to regulate back to a place of homeostasis or balance. And we also take a look at to see what is the person connecting with in their day to day, is there a sense of joy or a sense of there’s something greater than ourselves and, and then it’s kind of like this fan of beautiful practices that can begin to awaken new parts of the individual and, and go from there?

Dr. Andrew Wong:

That’s great answer. Thank you so much, Anna, you know, when you were talking, a lot of things kind of were swirling, swirling around my mind, almost like a little chocolate frosted cupcake, some vanilla, that kind of thing. One of the things that I was thinking about as you were speaking, as I was listening to you, is that really doing yoga therapy or, you know, basically trying to figure out, like you said, you know, how the body is working, how the mind is working with the foundations are, it’s almost like the foundation to the house, you know, building a house, you want to have the foundation set in place and be more solid before building the bricks before building the windows, you know, and the roof and all this stuff and all the fancy decorations inside. I think a lot of times we think about yoga, especially in the popular mainstream media, and even even some of the fancy, you know, places, it’s kind of like, the, you know, what do we look like, externally? Or what are the poses are the asanas? You know? Who are the other people around in there? You know, instead of looking inward at, you know, how is the body feeling? How’s the body reacting, you know, to these poses? How’s the mind feeling with all this? It sounds like a really, I would say a potentially a better way to start off that way. Certainly, it seems more solid to me.

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, you create also this level of confidence to then later begin to step into yoga classes, because yoga therapy is more of building that self awareness. So that then people, what I love to do is build in that so that they can go to a yoga class. And they know exactly what warrior one or two feels like in their body, instead of trying to copy an image of the student in front are feeling like oh, I can do that movement, or I can’t. So it’s more like, this is what I can do. This is where I am. Continue going to these yoga classes are available at every time in many places. And then it’s like working from there and building.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So let’s talk about different levels of maybe say yoga practitioners. So it sounds like it would be really good yoga therapy really good for someone that’s a beginner that has never done yoga before or has done it not too much. And it’s kind of wondering how to build those foundations. What about more intermediate, or advanced level? Students of yoga? How could they utilize yoga therapy?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah. So there is there’s this thing in the yoga world that I have heard many times in which I asked when people find out that I’m a yoga therapist is that oh my gosh, I went to a yoga class and I got injured. So even if they’re intermediate or advanced or certain poses and things that people might choose to go into, and what I can help is understand their body and the type of the body they have, so that they can really get the benefits of the posts. So somebody might look beautiful as say a person that is really flexible and they go in they can do all these beautiful poses, but it turns out Add one pose might be better for them to do it from a strengthening aspect. So then I can help working with that what those strength strengthening looks like, what does it feel like? And where are the adjustments that they can do. So injuries are really helpful too, when people have that kind of disconnection to their body, and they just go for the pose, and then Ouch, something happens, then let’s work on that. So that next time they go into the pose, they know exactly what to work.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So I think this is a bit personal, but I’ve recently injured my Achilles, and, you know, got torn, I had to have surgery on it. For someone like that, what kind of things can yoga therapy offer?

Anna Pigotti:

So we will look at what can we strengthen around your Achilles to support the Achilles? And then we can also look at what’s the range of the stretch that you can do before he goes into pain or being overstretch and then just focus on those things like really bringing support to that area of the body, and then working from there.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

How does that overlap with physical therapy for someone that’s a recovering from an injury, or maybe they have some chronic tendinitis or arthritis, or you know these things, and then might be working with physical therapy also.

Anna Pigotti:

So with yoga, we invite the breath all the time. So there are other qualities that we can use. So breathing, imagination is really helpful. And then just noticing where are the emotional patterns that are coming up with some of the movements. Like you said, at the beginning, it’s like building this foundation, but we might get a leaky roof. So we have, so the leaky roof, we have to fix it, but there might be something underneath as also providing or interacting with that. And then how it’s almost like seeing how our mind and our emotions are at play with some of the disconnection in our body. How can we integrate them?

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, I agree that breathwork is really, really helpful, too, I think probably make poses a bit more gradual and safer. In a way, you know, to be more mindful, the body is likely to be safer to what about PT? You know, like, we’re, there’s some time people work with pt. And, you know, is it possible to work with both PT and yoga therapy?

Anna Pigotti:

Yes, of course. So PT, they’re excellent. I really honing on specific movements and exercises that people can go and do at home. And if they want to some of the yoga therapy into that, then we can work with the exercises they’re already bringing, and how to incorporate the mind, body, emotion, all the other aspects are healing.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, I think a lot of times to in PT, there’s the exercises, but at least I know, in our practice, we have holistic pts. I think in a lot of PT practices, you know, I don’t know how much the breath is, you know, focused on but certainly, that’s a good part of, you know, movement, because the breath allows for, you know, good circulation and good, you know, I think flow in a way of all the muscles, tendons and organs that that you’re moving when you’re when you’re doing a therapeutic movement. So, let’s talk about some of the specialties of you know, what makes yoga therapy unique. So yoga is part of ancient science, originally from India called Iron VEDA, you know, yoga therapy, the way we practice it here is considered a wellness modalities not considered like a medical treatment, or diagnosis or something like that. But we know that yoga therapy really uses and you use in your individual practice Anna, these Gunas, energetic qualities. So let’s talk about what the three gunas are, and how to use these with clients.

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, so the philosophy of yoga therapy tells us that the whole universe is divided into qualities or elements. So we have the quality of that everything is changing, and is not infinite. And that’s what they call the illusionary or the illusion. And then we have the other element, which is reality, never changes that has to do has to do more with our self and in our soul. So the Gunas play this role in the illusionary world, so everything is changing, and nothing is static. So these Gunas help us bring into our awareness what’s happening inside and outside of us of ourselves. So the three gunas are sattva, which has to do with consciousness or what we call balance and peace and equanimity. When we’re feeling out our optimal health and everything is going well. Then we have Have Rogers which is activity. I like to think of it like activation, nervousness and anxiety. But it can also be a good source of passion and creativity and problem solving. So it’s like, very active. And then we have Thomas, which is kind of like downward moving type of energy has to do with feeling grounded and still thinks that we need for like, sleep and rest and meditation. But he can also go into depression and sluggish and feeling really angry, anger and irritated about the world. So so. So I love to integrate these qualities when I’m doing yoga therapy with my clients, there’s a portion of edge education. And talking about the Gunas is a great wet way to help them with awareness. So I often encourage them to go out and be in an observe, how is my child coming back home from school? Is he agitated? Is there a lot of things happening that feels like it’s going to explode? Or is he feeling really creative? And then how myself as the parent can interact with it with that energy? The other one also with Thomas is, for example, your husband or wife coming back home? And are they feeling really low and sad? And how can I intervene and be with it instead of clashing? Because these energetic qualities are often changing is just a moment, it doesn’t really represent reality,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

like a passing cloud or something. Right? Yeah, he saw the sky there. That kind of thing? Yes. And how do we use this information with with clients? How do we use this information to help people in yoga therapy?

Anna Pigotti:

Yes. So when my clients come to yoga, the one of one of the beautiful things about yoga, some people can really experience that moment of sattva, that moment of calmness, when they come and they begin to connect with their body and understand and begin to shift their language around what they feel and how they look and their responses. And they get to experience a little moment of meditation and connectedness is almost like showing them that that’s available, and that their experience. And no matter where these other Rogers Tamas energetic qualities are happening around, we can always come back to this place of calm or peace. So in yoga therapy, that’s kind of kind of like the offer is, here’s, here’s this moment and how you feel, and we can get back to it no matter what’s happening outside.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So someone’s listening out there. And maybe they’ve been to some yoga classes, and they’re interested in this. Can you talk about some case cases or you know, people that you’ve worked with that you have done benefit from yoga therapy.

Anna Pigotti:

So specific to the Gunas, for example, people have had a client who will come and have this language about her interactions and be very critical and negative. So using those words, Thomas Raja Sabha kind of diminishes the power of, of what the person is saying. And they can begin to be a little bit more objective and more outside instead of identifying with what’s happening

Dr. Andrew Wong:

is a part of their language, native language, that kind of thing.

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, And it’s not part of the reality either, because it’s a moment. It’s a moment that’s coming and going. So that’s why the identification, or the understanding of this is what lets us navigate this illusion that we live on. So in yoga, you know, in yoga therapy, or in yoga, in general, the idea is for the person to go beyond the illusion. So once we go beyond the illusions, when we find enlightenment, that’s a big word. But we can have this little moments of enlightenment, it’s not like all the time enlightened, but we can have little glimpses into it. And then I like to bring this to our nervous system. So Rogers, the activation has to do that with a fight or flight. And then Thomas has to do with a free state. And by bringing this also type of education to my clients, then they can really begin to learn what regulation looks like for them, and they can come back to a moment of calmness instead of being taken by situations emotions, what’s happening. around them.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

It sounds like just to go back to that, that the breath is really a key part of that union of mind and body. And when doing yoga poses I know I remember when I was doing a lot more yoga classes they were, the teacher would always say, you know, the breath is the most important part of the pose. How do you feel about that? Statement?

Anna Pigotti:

Yes, yeah, every every wise person says the same thing. And I think once you really experience what that means, you get it like your whole physical body and mind and soul gets it. And I do agree is the one thing that can really begins to shift a reality. He brings us to a place of clarity. And then from there, we can make really good choices on what the next step can be. And in yoga poses really allows us to connect with our body. And it creates a sense of stability, and it’s kind of like the chatter can go away when can just really be present.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, speaking of being present, I know that we’ve chatted offline in the past about how anxiety, depression, chronic stress had really been amplified a lot, especially during the pandemic these last couple of years. curious what your thoughts are, and your feelings are about yoga therapy and how it can help those conditions. You know, mental health, how can it uplift people?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, so anxiety is this, I like to see it as this upward moving energy. So yoga therapy with yoga therapy, we can really begin to pick some of the tools that can really down regulate this energy. So for example, breathing, I love one of my first breath that I like to teach is the three part breath. And we live in a society in which we barely know how to breathe. And we think that, you know, it’s very interesting when you see somebody and you tell them take a deep breath, the first thing they do is they go like this. And this is all accessory breathing muscles, the chest. The first thing when we take a breath that we should do is expand the belly. So when you say take a deep breath, it’s more like and feel this fullness that can really bring all the oxygen into your lungs. And then there’s this like melting action that begins to happen.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Can we do that now? The wood? Yes, yeah.

Anna Pigotti:

Yes. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. So we’re just going to take a deep breath all the way down to the belly. And then you’re gonna exhale. So we’re gonna do it again, breathe into your belly and allow your belly to relax and round like a big balloon. And then really XL and let it all go. We’re gonna do one more. Inhale, big round belly and release. The second part, we’re gonna inhale into the belly. And then bring a little bit of air into your ribcage and let them expand to the sides into the back. And then let it go one more big, round belly, breathing the air into your ribcage and release. And the third part, we’re gonna breathe into the belly. Breathe into your ribcage and lift her collarbones and let it all go we’ll do one more inhale belly ribs lift collarbones up. And release so notice how you feel and what qualities of this Gunas Are you sensing within your body your mind thoughts?

Dr. Andrew Wong:

You know, I noticed especially after even on the first round, but increasingly on the second and third rounds, I noticed that the the upper trapezius you know those upper back muscles and neck muscles got looser you know some it’s like there’s more flow coming in and then I did notice just more energy from you know, we know that a lot of you know the oxygen that is stored in the lungs it could get picked up with those deep breaths the way that it can’t with shallow breathing so I think it’s almost like having a gas tank and you don’t know that you’re you haven’t reached reached the entire full tank of your energy. But I was noticing that and you know physically feeling that just more energy and then and then mind was I felt lighter. You know, I felt like you know, I almost felt like my mind was Turning to the sky as opposed to like, down here with all the trees and soil and stuff, although that’s nice, too. But it was kind of simultaneously grounding and uplifting.

Anna Pigotti:

I would say yes, yeah. Wonderful. Thank you.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Thank you for sharing that. And hopefully listeners out there and got some benefit. If you want to follow along, if you didn’t get that or you want to just kind of experience that, again, you can press replay and go back for that last minute here. That’s great. Thank you so much. So that’s, that’s one breathing technique you’d like the three, three part breath. You said? Let’s, let’s say with someone has a yoga mat. And, and is listening to this. And is, is doing a yoga class, you know, how can people get the most out of yoga in general? Because, you know, I think there’s, there’s a lot of teachers out there, there’s a lot of different types of yoga. How can people maximize their time? Both on an automatic thing doing yoga?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah. So on the mat. I like to always tell my clients, there’s always an edge don’t go over the edge. Me the edge, what’s the edge in the pose in the movement, what you’re feeling and then just hang in there? When we go past the age, that’s when injuries

Dr. Andrew Wong:

do you mean? Well, other than that, well,

Anna Pigotti:

no. sensation it Yeah, in a sensation, right when we’re like overstretching ourselves and there’s, there’s a little moment of awareness in which our body really sends a message and says, if you go a little bit more, I’m gonna probably overdo it.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

I’ve thought that before but so it’s not really no pain, no gain, is that

Anna Pigotti:

no, no that no pain, no gain, we’re gonna race it. Yeah, we’re gonna raise it from more vocabulary, there’s always gain.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. So what’s more like? Yes to mindfulness more than more than like, just hey, no pain, no gain base?

Anna Pigotti:

Yes, yes, I have a teacher who says celebrate the small success. And I love that. We don’t need this big, flashy success to be able to celebrate. So the small movement, notice what happens in the first class, and then the second and then the third and see how much your body begins to really adapt and follow the movement and celebrate that little movement, not not the whole handstand.

Anna Pigotti: Dr. Andrew Wong:

And it is Completion. Right? That’s good. That’s good. Don’t worry, I won’t push it too hard on that. You know, I think it’s also important to point out that when when yoga teachers are modeling a pose, or when you’re looking on YouTube that opposed I mean, these are professional yoga teachers and people have been practicing likely for years or decades often. And so you know, we don’t even that’s not our goal as a as a beginning yoga student, or someone that’s even intermediate or advanced, someone that’s really looking at really listening to internally, how your body how your mind is feeling. And you know, is what variation is correct for you and is helpful for you and not harmful for you.

Anna Pigotti:

Exactly. In a lot of yoga classes. When you go to the studio, the teacher does give a lot of alternative movement, people who are not advanced. So follow those Yeah, like, there’s no thing, there’s nothing right or wrong about being at the beginning, if you’re learning embrace it. So that’s part of the yoga therapy that comes in is like, let’s celebrate where you are. And let’s just work from there rather than what’s the negative talk that sometimes we experience when we go to these places. And then maybe that’s another great opportunity to bring that awareness, oh my gosh, I’m talking to myself in this way. Wow, I have this expectation, oh, my gosh, I’m competing with the person next to me, oh, and then just leaving a bad escalate, creating all this observation, ability, without having to fix or change is more like getting to really know, herself and her mind and what’s going on as we’re moving and breathing.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So this is a rabbit hole slash semi random question. But do you feel like it’s better to have a yoga class to, to, you know, do your practice in the back of the room or the front of the room, just mentioning that because sometimes the back, we’re just like, looking at everyone else. And in the front, you can maybe focus a bit more.

Anna Pigotti:

So I think it really depends. If you by nature, tend to be a competitive person, then maybe go to the front so you don’t have a lot of people in front of you and you can really, maybe focus on you because there’s not much distraction in front. And if you are a person that is introverted, and has some fear of performance, then maybe go to the back of the room, nobody’s watching and then you can do your own thing.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

What if you’re introverted and competitive? I don’t. I don’t know. Maybe Maybe go in the middle then. Okay. All right, well, that’s three choices right there. That’s more than enough. And then, you know, yoga is really a catapult to create more awareness in the mind, body and spirit. How? How can we create more awareness? Through yoga? You know, to uplift our mind body spirit?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah. So one of the practices is self inquiry. Okay, I feel like I’ve been talking about self self inquiry a lot. But I feel like self inquiry is a best place to begin with that awareness, and bring curiosity with you. Curiosity will allow us to soften the edges of judgment that we have around ourself and our experiences in our life story. So so when we bring inquiry, for example, I’m going to go back to the gunas. When you’re doing a yoga pose, you can begin to notice where are the energetic qualities in the pose? This this pose makes you feel like you want to fall asleep and rest and slow down, or they’re suppose I really gets activated. And then the self inquiry is like, Okay, how is this pose making me feel in my body? How is this pose making me feel in my mind and my emotions? And what is this pose representing? For me? What what is? Why is it time to something and in my world, in these these are, I think these self inquiry questions can really also bring you to the present moment, instead of thinking like, what am I going to do tomorrow and the day after, and then and I and then we just go off, and we’re holding this pose, and our mind is somewhere else. Somewhere else, mind and body are totally disconnected. So self inquiry really keeps you in that moment. And I feel like when you begin to really listen to your body and understand the cues, for example, you’re in a meeting, and there’s a certain topic and this topic begins, you begin to feel like your chest muscles, or your back muscles, being able to kind of like tense up and lift up, then what can you do in the meeting, you can just take a deep breath and be like, there’s no danger, we can just be here, we can just relax this part of our body and then we can continue being present in in the meeting. Basically, it’s time for yoga. Instead, you can do yoga without anybody knowing that you’re doing it.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Okay. Okay, yeah, so I here at CH We do sometimes take yoga breaks so that that’s also something we could do in our meetings. I’m just curious Anna so you’ve you’ve worked with a lot of clients for yoga therapy? What’s your kind of go to you know, what kind of clients you’d like to work with? Kind of people do you like to see what kind of conditions would be really helpful for you know, yoga therapy?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah. So anybody that is really interested about embodiment, and what those embodiment mean, and how can they slow down their mind to really be present with their body and these this is the foundation for people with chronic pain or any other injuries because sometimes when we have these injuries is because our mind is going so fast and into like an end goal that we forget what the body’s feeling like

Dr. Andrew Wong:

The chronic pain and other chronic illnesses are really invitations from the invitations from our body to pay more attention. Yes, our lives

Anna Pigotti:

Yes, that too. So having this moment of sattva in a yoga therapy can remind the person in chronic pain that although the pain is happening, we can also experience states of contentment and peace. So the chronic pain for example, doesn’t really define the life and the quality of life a person can have.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So there’s different levels of of consciousness and it sounds like that chronic pain ideally would be something where you know it’s here but then ideally, it passes at some point or there might be at least some intermittent aspects of it where it’s not always there. And we know that from research that even doing Mind Body practices can reduce chronic pain by up to 30% which is pretty amazing.

Anna Pigotti:

Yes, yes. I like to think that when we get into this moments of stillness or body can really get to parts of healing that probably it’s busy when we’re constantly stressed and thinking about what’s not going okay in our life. So when we create this pockets of stillness and meditation and breathing is almost like the body can really get into working and I don’t know fixing but like healing here beats and there are hormone cascade of the presser in our society is no can be like intermittently, intermittently interrupted, and that could be healing for the body.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So chronic pain and any other conditions that you think would be helpful there for you about therapy.

Anna Pigotti:

Inside you It’s really good. It’s an epidemic. Now, everyone has stagnates, yeah, anxiety, depression. Those are the people that I tend to work the most with. But there are some specific conditions that we can also work with.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. And in functional medicine to one of the root causes of illness and imbalance is stress. And we know that a lot of stress happens from either thinking about the past or anticipating the future, rather than being in that present moment. The present moment is something that sounds like yoga therapy really helps with getting people back to that. I don’t know if anyone wouldn’t want to live their life paying attention to life. And that seems like a great way to live. Yes, yes. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Anna, for coming on today to talk about yoga therapy, just for the listeners, and everyone listening. Thank you so much for listening today. What is one thing you wish everyone knew about yoga therapy,

that it doesn’t look the same for everybody is very specific to everybody to the person to the condition to what’s going on with the whole life. And that is not all about handstands, some pretzel twisting body, like there’s a space for everybody. And I’ll now include myself, for example, like I was saying, at the beginning, I have this kind of like strong body.

Anna Pigotti:

So for me yoga is an opportunity to really begin to relax and allow and create flow and stretch, and create more softness in my tissue. But for somebody that is like, very stretchy, and they can do these amazing poses, then they can really hone in into the strength. So yoga therapy, it’s it just looks different.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. So you can be a buff, Krauth CrossFit athlete, and do you have therapy, you could be a Netflix athlete, and you get therapy. Great. And thank you so much. And part of our mission at ch as you know, is making integrative health care more accessible and focusing on the small steps that we can do to personally improve our health. So Anna, we’d love to hear from you. This is a question we ask all of our guests, this round of things. What is one thing under $20 That you feel has transformed your health personally?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah. So I bought a book. Yeah, I think education education is it’s it’s the foundation of our change in patterns and behavior. And this one is called radiant rest is yoga nidra for deep relaxation. And what I love about this book is that it has all different kinds of practices. But then he really includes this self inquiry portion. And the questions in there just fascinating and very provoking, to really dive into what are what is our reality? And why do we think about it?

Dr. Andrew Wong:

I think it was Socrates. It said from the West that think of Socrates but a life unexamined is not a life worth living, or something that I’m sure there’s something similar parallel or beta, where it’s all about self inquiry and the realization that happens from really going inside and going deeply inside and truly understanding what the meaning of of you know, life is and the meaning of, you know, how you relate to the universe and everything like that. Yeah. And yoga helps us do that. You’ll get therapy and yoga. And so that book is under $20. It sounds like Yes. 1617 6099 Okay, great. So it’s called radiant rest yoga.

Anna Pigotti:

By Tracy, Stan. Okay.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So radiant rest, yoga, Nidra, for deep relaxation, that awakened clarity by Tracy Stanley. And I’m supposing you can buy that on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and things like that. Thank you for bringing that book. Definitely check that out. And thanks so much for coming on today. And how can listeners learn more about you and work with you and yoga therapy?

Anna Pigotti:

Yeah, so I’m here at ci e to on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so they can book a session with me in person and if online might be a better choice, then people can reach me on my email. Okay, it is yoga with Anna. Two ends. P as in Peter okay@gmail.com.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

You go with Anna p@gmail.com. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you. See you later. See you later. Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of capital Integrative Health podcast. A quick reminder that the information we share on this podcast is meant for educational and informational purposes only. It’s not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. We highly recommend that you speak to a qualified health care provider before making any medical or healthcare decisions. If you enjoy this episode, please take a few moments to subscribe and leave us a review. Your reviews help us reach more people and continue to offer innovative insights and information to better optimize your health and wellness.