Ep. 3 The Yoga Dome: Manifestation Pt. 1

Welcome to Episode 3 of Spiritual Woo Podcast!

Thank you for joining me today. And today we're going to get into a little bit of my own personal manifestation journey and talk about my biggest manifestation to date, which is The Yoga Dome, my home based Geodesic Dome yoga studio.
 
 So on this podcast, I'm going to talk about how The Yoga Dome was planted as a seed and manifested into reality and some of my tips and tricks on manifesting.

So if you're open to listen and receive, let's go.

Visit:
https://theyogadome.ca/
&
https://phoenixdomes.com/

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Transcript

Ep. 3 (The Yoga Dome) Manifestation Pt.1

 Okay, and welcome to episode three of Spiritual Woo podcast. And today, we are going to get into a little bit of my manifestation journey, and we're going to talk about my biggest manifestation to date, which is the yoga dome. So on this podcast, I'm going to talk about how the yoga dome was planted as a seed and manifested into reality and some of my tips and tricks on manifesting. So if you're open to listen and receive, let's go. Welcome to Spiritual Woo, a space where we talk about all the things that move you, the things that wake and shake you. No woo woo here, we believe and talk about real, divine spiritual connections, all while taking a light hearted and sometimes humorous approach. I'm your host. Ashley michelle. From bar owning, late night karaoke hosting raging alcoholic to yoga, meditation, teacher life and wellness coach Mindful Manifesto and sober as fuck badass Chick, this podcast is here to inspire you. We'll be exploring many different spiritual concepts, practices, and ideas, as well as chatting with some pretty and spiritually aligned guests. Plus, I'll be sharing and bearing about my own spiritual awakening. Our intention here is to encourage and offer support to you throughout this beautifully chaotic journey that we call life. Grab your tea, start your cleaning, or buckle up and settle in for this epic spiritual ride. 1s You. Okay. And welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining me today. And today we're going to get into a little bit of my own personal manifestation journey and talk about my biggest manifestation to date, which is the Yoga Dome, my home based Geodesic Dome yoga studio. So I've always been a manifester, if you will, and I never realized how powerful manifestation really truly is. And I don't think you realize it until it actually starts happening for you. And I had started with some smaller manifestations. I mean, smaller, in my perspective. Quitting smoking. I knew I wanted to be smoke free. I knew I wanted to be alcohol free. I knew I wanted to host retreats in Costa Rica. These were big manifestations. However, they didn't feel super, 1s I guess, super what's the word I'm looking for? They didn't feel super unachievable. They felt like achievable goals and dreams and manifestations. And I am the how does Walt Disney say it? If you dream it, you can do it. Yes. That is exactly when I read that and see that, that's exactly how I feel. That's exactly how I want other people to feel. Like, if you can dream this, you can do this. And it was actually I was at the Toronto Yoga Show years ago, and somebody gave me a card, or I pulled a card, I can't remember. And this was the first time I had ever seen the quote. She believed she could, so she did. Oh, my God. When I saw this quote several years ago, I was like, yes. Damn right. Damn right, I believe I can. So I am going to freaking do it. And this is kind of the vibe I've had with. 1s Manifestation as a whole. Just like really? Like, yes, girl, I am doing this. And you know, Manifestation is I'm sure we we hear, oh, there's this hot trend on TikTok right now, which is lucky girl syndrome and 2s believe as if you have it sort of thing. And these are all things that align with manifest station. But let me tell you, you can think it, of course, and you can dream it and you can do it and you can hope for it and you can wish for it, you can visualize for it, but let me tell you, manifestation is freaking hard work. This is not something that you just lay in bed at night and fantasize about and then sit on your couch and wait for the manifestation to come into reality. This is not manifestation. So let's get into a little bit of at least the yoga dome journey, which is, like I said, my biggest manifestation to date. And yeah, I'm going to just talk a little bit about it because having a home based yoga studio, let alone a geodesic dome, was not in my scope of. 2s Hopes and dreams and wishes. I actually never wanted to bring my business home because my home was my home and working and owning a restaurant, and I was teaching out and renting space at studios. When I got home, I just wanted to be home. I was giving energy everywhere, and when I came home was where I could rest and restore my energy. But of course, when COVID hit, we were all forced to stay home. We know that, right? We were forced to stay home. Our restaurant was open and closed several times, all these things, and we did not know what the future of the restaurant industry was going to hold for myself and my partner as a whole, we had no idea. And at this time, I was teaching yoga online. I was very committed to that. It was really the only choice. And then in 2020, in the summer, the government had allowed us to gather in groups of five and then groups of ten, and they kept upping the groups, and I started inviting students over. And we were running this Yoga in the Yard series, summer 2020. With social distancing out at my three acres, 1s I was 1s counting the numbers, like, only five people can be here. I was really kind of paranoid about teaching yoga. We didn't want to get caught. It was just so bizarre, right? Anyways, so we yoga in the Yard all summer 2020. 1s And come winter or come fall, we knew we had to stop doing yoga outside because it was obviously we can't do yoga in the snow. We could do snoga, but it's really not that it's not that relaxing when you're in shivasana and you're freezing on the frozen, cold earth. Yeah, no thanks. Unless that's your vibe, and that's totally cool. So near the end of 2020, my future husband, my FH, will call him my future husband, my FH says to me, we need to put these students somewhere. And I was like, okay. Where? At this point, we had oh, my gosh. When we bought the property, we had 13 outbuildings on our property, and we had slowly started taking down the ones that were decrepit and falling over and unsafe. But we were left with, I think, nine buildings, and one of them could have been a potential yoga studio, but it's too small. It was only 300. Think maybe less than that 250. So we started looking at yurts and loved this. I was like, yeah, yurt, I want a yurt. And we were looking, and they were quite pricey, and we just weren't sure about how it was going to work. And then we stumbled upon geodesic domes, which I didn't even know what that was. And at this point, I mean, now fast forward, we see a lot of geodesic domes all over in restaurants and wineries. There's many yoga studios now that are opening up with these geodomes. But back then, there was nothing like this around, at least in our region. There definitely was some over in Europe and overseas and stuff like that, but around where we were, there was nothing like this. So we shopped and shopped, and we found a company, a Canadian based company, phoenix domes Shout Out and at the end of 2020, December, we started working with them. 1s And we were like, can we do this? First of all, can we do this? It is the pandemic. We have no income coming in and if we build this thing it's going to cost us $30,000. It was really kind of a risking it all kind of venture, if you will. But again, it was COVID and we had no idea 1s what was going to happen been so we kind of leaned in and took this leap of faith, if you will, and let's bring in the manifestation part here. So again, I was not ever hoping and wishing and visualizing my own yoga studio. This was never something that I was trying to manifest for myself. I didn't want to be stationary. I wanted to move around. I wanted to go and host retreats around the world and do all these things. But of course the pandemic changed my perspective and the trajectory of the path and that's great because that's what the universe does, right? So I started going to bed at night visualizing this dome and we didn't have it. We didn't put the order in yet. We were just really kind of like crunching some numbers and looking at the space and where we could put it. And then I started laying my head on my pillow at night and I started to visualize myself sitting on my yoga mat at the top or at the front of this yoga dome in front of the bay window and I could clearly see myself teaching classes. This was before we struck ground at all. I could just see it, I could feel it. It was like I jumped into the future version of myself. I quantum jumped into the future version of myself. I seen it, it was there and I was like, holy shit, this is actually happening. And now I need to put all my time, energy and time, energy and effort into manifesting this into real life. And that's exactly what we did. Christmas weekend 2020. We struck ground on the yoga dome project. We had so much to do. We had to knock down buildings, we had to create driveways, we had to build a deck when wood prices were the highest they have ever been. We had to wait in line at Lowe's in our car through the COVID and the pandemic and everything was so time consuming and so costly because we. 1s Were doing this through these difficult and challenging times. However, we had the time because our restaurant was not fully operating 100%. So it was kind of like one of those things, time or money. We had the time and somehow we found the money. And we also started a little mini GoFundMe throughout the studio. Students that were continuously supporting and coming to the yard and coming online. 1s I kind of talked to them. I said, hey, we need a space. And if you guys are willing to donate and help us out financially, we can make this happen and we can give you guys this space. We can get this space going so that we can have events and yoga and all this stuff. It wasn't even about business. It was just about creating this space so the community had somewhere to go to practice yoga and meditation. And let me tell you, these yogis shout out to all the yogis that stepped up, stepped in and just helped in any and every way they could. I am so grateful and thankful for you. This is a little sidebar, but. You all know, you know who you are, 1s who was here since the beginning, who has donated and who really believed in this project. I just really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you. And 1s we carried on, we raised some funds, we got some financing, we got some support from our family and friends. And we took on this venture. We took on this year long venture. It took almost a full year to the day to strike ground and build this freaking dome. And if you hop over on Instagram and check out at the yoga dome, you can see a little bit of that journey we were sharing from the beginning. Anyway, so we're building this thing and it is coming into manifestation now. We are watching the deck being built. We are building the deck. I learned how to build a deck. Oh my gosh. I learned how to build a dome. Me and my FH literally built this thing on a weekend. And then we had a couple of friends and family member come over and help us with the COVID because it was the heaviest part of the project. But I would just remember laying in bed every night just thinking like, wow, this is actually happening. Like this manifestation is coming into life. I can see this, I can feel this, I am breathing this, I can't believe that this is happening. But then there was also a part of me that was like, yes, this is freaking happening. Because this is what the manifestation practice is. It is really truly believing in your goals and your dreams and taking the steps, taking the opportunities to make that happen. And this is what we were doing. And I'm not going to say that I did it all by myself, of course not. I just talked about the people that helped us. And my FH, honestly, I tell him all the time, I can't do half the things that I do without you. However, he always says back, you would do them anyways with or without me. And maybe that's true, I don't know. But yeah. So manifestation and learning how to really bring in your goals and your dreams is a lot of work, which I mentioned before. It's a lot of kind of one point focus. So when we think of meditation, we are finding one point of focus to connect the mind to so that we're not wandering here, there and everywhere. And it's almost the same way with the manifestation. You are coming into one point of focus to put all your energy and effort into this said manifestation. And that's what we were doing. That's what we were doing for all of the end of 2020. 2021, and then 2022, 2s we opened at the end of 2021. But. 1s 2022 was really like when things started exploding, we opened the doors and it did just that. It exploded. People were coming from all over the place, all over the region, hours away. And I knew it was going to be big because the dome itself is big, but I didn't know how big it was going going to be. And I often refer back and say, oh, it's because we opened in the pandemic, we opened mid pandemic and there wasn't a lot of things to do. And I say this, and I almost have to step back and almost take that mentality or that sentence back, because when I look at it, in hindsight, of course the people were coming. My energy was so invested in getting people out here, checking out the yoga dome, practicing with us, really providing not just an amazing space, like, wait till you see it, it's an amazing space. But we were offering, and still are to this day, we are offering high quality 1s yoga and meditation classes. So I just knew I had to get people here to experience the dome so that they could experience the yoga, the meditation, the sound healing, whatever it was, so that they could then experience themselves. And this is really what the true manifestation was. Yes, of course we wanted the dome, we wanted the yoga studio, we wanted the people to come. But really, when I look at it now, in hindsight, I wanted to create community so that people could find themselves, they could journey towards something much deeper, much bigger than themselves. And this is really what the practice of yoga and meditation is for me. So 1s thinking about manifestation and thinking about all the things you need to do to try to achieve these goals and dreams, it could be a big task. And it is a big task, right? So the idea is not to think of how you're going to get there, right? We're not thinking about the end destination. It is one of those. It's the journey. And my future husband would say, like, how are we going to do this? How are we going to do that? This is very much our life. How are we going to do this? Or how are we going to do this? And I say, I don't know. We're just going to do it. We're going to do it. And I wholeheartedly believe when I put my. 1s Time, energy and effort into something. I don't look at the steps in front of me. I don't look at the challenges that are going to come. I just take it step by step and look at every opportunity, even if it's a challenge, even if it's really shitty, especially when it comes to the financial aspects of it, right? Like we say, this dome $30,000. Well, let me tell you, we are way beyond that price that we initially thought. I don't know how we did it. I still don't know how we did it. But we did it because I believed that we would do it. And this is true manifestation. It is really moving out of your own way, believing that you can achieve your goals, your dreams, your desires, but not sitting there waiting for it to happen. You need to be open to the possibilities. You need to be open to the challenges, you need to be open to the struggles and really open to learning. So if something isn't going to work or if it's not coming into alignment, learn from it. Change it and try something new if you really want to bring into your life. Let's give an example here. Let's say you want to change your job. 1s You are unhappy in your job or your career and you're thinking that you want to do something else. Maybe it's in the wellness space, maybe it's in the nutrition space. Maybe it can be anything. Maybe it's in the art space, the automotive space. Whatever it is, you have to start laying your head down at night and dreaming, thinking and visualizing that are already doing this. You can already see yourself doing these said dreams and goals. You're not worrying about how you're going to get there. You're not going to spin out when you're like, well, I'm working 40 hours a week and I don't even have time to do this. Don't even go there, don't go there. Just think about visualize and really start to feel yourself in the role of where you want to be. I wanted to be in the role of a full time yoga teacher, meditation teacher, and it organically happened. I wanted to be in the role of studio owner, which, again, like I said, I didn't think I wanted that at all. But it very much organically happened that way. And then I really leaned into it because it was open to the opportunity. 1s And that's really what it is. When we're manifesting, we are almost I don't want to say searching, but we are open and we are watching for opportunities. We are really analyzing what's coming in and out every day and looking at like, hey, that person just called me and they offered me this. Okay. Yes, I'm going to take it. Okay. Yes, I'm going to. Do you know that Jim Carrey movie? Yes. Man oh, my gosh. If you haven't seen that, go watch that. It's such a cute movie, but it's almost like this yes man mentality. Like, yes, I'm going to do this. Yes, okay, I'm going to do this. Yes, I'm going to do this. And if there's something that is not in alignment no, of course you don't have to do it. But if you are trying to shift and change into your biggest dreams, your biggest goals and manifestations yes, do all the things that are presented to you that you have no idea where it's going to take you, just say yes and do it. Oh my gosh. It could change your freaking life and you don't even realize it until you're already a full time artist, full time yoga teacher, whatever the case may be. And if you can see me waving my hands around of how excited I am in sharing these sorts of things with you, I'm very excited about it. Manifestation excites me a lot because I feel like I have firsthand really seen that this shit is legit. This shit happens just like with Costa Rica. And I'm going to really kind of talk about hosting yoga retreats, and I would love to offer tips and tricks on that eventually on this podcast. But 1s I knew when I graduated yoga teacher training, before I even had a little community, I knew that I was going to host a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. This was like the top of my top. It wasn't about goal achieving. It was about experiencing. I need to experience this. I don't care what it takes. I don't know how I'm going to do it. I'm going to host a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. So what did I do? I started researching. I started looking. I started shopping for places. I started reading how to host a yoga retreat. I was opening up to limited potential possibilities and opportunities to come into. 2s My realm. And that's just what happened. And then 1s I got into a lot of the crazy side of it. Like, okay, I'm going to host yoga retreats, and then I'm going to become a travel agent, too, because I love traveling, and I'm going to do this too. And I'm going to be a travel agent. I'm going to sell travel, and I'm going to take people around the world, teach yoga, meditation, all these things. So guess what I became came a freaking travel agent. I don't even know how I did it. It was so costly. It was like, $5,000 to take the training and the certificates and all these things. And I'm telling you, it was one of the hardest trainings I had ever took because it was very dry and boring, and I don't really 2s like learning in this way, like, boring, old school kind of stuff. So it was very challenging for me. But I did it. And at the end of 2019, I became a certified travel agent. And then, of course, we all know what happened in 2020. So, no, I'm no longer a travel agent. It costs a lot of money to keep the fees and things like that going, but I did it. And I'm telling you, you can do these things too. So if you want to do something, if you want to take that course and you don't know how you're going to finance it, just start researching. Researching about the course. Put it in your calendar. This course starts on this day. And amp yourself up. Like, I am taking this course. I'm going to take this course. I'm going to graduate this course, and I'm going to do this course. I don't know how I'm going to pay for it, but I am going to do it. And I'm telling you that this will happen for you if you work towards. 2s These things wholeheartedly, work towards your dreams and your manifestations wholeheartedly. And then the other part of this is the doubt, the fear, the how am I going to right the questioning? And this is where up the practice portion comes in. And if you listened to episode two when we talked about compassion practices and telling yourself that you're okay, it's kind of the same sort of vibe where you really do when you start to spin out in the like, oh, my gosh, I can't do this, or I don't know how I'm going to do this or, this is impossible. To manifest this kind of thing, you got to change the dialogue, you got to change the language and you got to really just nip it in the bud right from the beginning and say, no, I'm not going to fall into that. I'm not going to fall into the ideas of fear and failure. Because once you fall into that and spin out, you've knocked yourself out of alignment for what you truly want. And this is the hard part of manifestation. This is the hard part is the practice. Manifestation is a practice. Again, just like everything else. Meditation is a practice. Yoga is a practice. Mindfulness is a practice. So is manifestation. It is a practice. And when you get into those self doubt feelings and like I said, fears and negative low vibe energy, we got to recognize it first. Be like, whoa, okay, no, I'm spinning out. Be okay 1s and get yourself back on track. Easier said than done, I know. But remember, I am so much of a practice pusher. It is a practice. 2s And this is a little tip too on the days that right now I am manifesting this podcast. I am manifesting trying to grow this online community so that we can take the teachings, the knowledge, and not just my part. I have a lot of people that I want to bring along for this ride. A lot of teachers and spiritually aligned people that I really want to connect with and share this platform together. And this is my manifestation right now. I want to create this podcast. I want to create this community. I want to share, I want to connect. 2s And every day I am reading and researching on how to do a podcast. I went out and spent money on the gear. Didn't have the money to do it, but I did it, I figured it out, I found it and I moved some things around and here we are. I have the microphone, I have the recorder. I am working towards creating something that is my next biggest goal. Dream and desire. And when I feel like, oh, this is so hard, or I am not just going to upload these podcasts and 1000 people are going to follow me or listen, or the real stuff is who wants to listen to what I have to say? Are you kidding? I don't have anything important to say. This is that negative sort of spin out, right? And this is where I step out and say no. 1s If people don't want to listen to what I have to say, they don't have to, right? And I am going to share and whoever's going to be there is going to be there. And I'm just changing the dialogue, right? I'm changing the dialogue from the fear base of oh, I don't know if I can do this or if people want this. I'm just changing the dialogue because really it's not up to me. It's not up to me. If people want to listen and if people want to care and if they want to engage, it's not it's out in the universe for whoever wants it, take it or leave it. That's how it's going to be. And I'm not going to attach to the outcome because again, yes, I can see the end. I don't even want to call it an end goal because it seems so challenging, if you will. Yes, I can see the, um. 1s Where it's going to go. I can, I can see where the podcast is going to go. I can feel where the podcast is going to go. And I am in alignment with making this podcast into something beautiful and something that people want to listen to and they want to engage in. And when I spin out in these negative self fears, change the dialogue or another practice is I put it aside. So if I'm not feeling aligned with making this podcast come into fruition, I take a break. I take a break. I am not going to do a recording today. I'm not going to think about it today. 2s I'm telling you, I invested 15 hours yesterday or 20 hours the day before on reading, researching and studying how to do this. I'm going to take a break today because that's what I need in alignment for or to make my manifestations come into fruition. And this is really important, creating balance, creating balance when we are working towards creating our goals and dreams. And I am very much, if you know me personally, I'm very much a go getter and a hard worker and an all or nothing kind of person. However, I am again on my own journey and learning how to implement the tools of balance and especially when it comes into manifestation. And when we do start to spin out in these things keeping the balance. Keeping the balance. Okay, I'm spinning out because I'm too focused into it. Even though I say all or nothing. Of course we are working towards this big manifestation and we are giving it our all or nothing. But I'm also taking a break and taking a rest so that I can just reset and realign and get back into that alignment with the goals and the dreams and the manifestations. So that's kind of a little bit of what I have to say about that. And we're going to dive into so much more manifesting. We're going to talk about so many more things that go into alignment with it and what kind of books and teachings that I have personally listened to and these sorts of things. And as far as the yoga dome goes and in its manifestation, it's here, it's operating, it's moving, it has community, it has almost energy of its own. Of course it does. It has an energy of its own. And when people come in and we do a lot of Manifestation workshops and I say like, you guys are sitting in my Manifestation, this is it, right? So we are going to get into, as I said, a lot more of these things. So. 2s With the manifestation. 1s We also have to remember to bring in grace. I love this word, this word I have been carrying with me for the last several months. We have to bring in grace. And the grace part comes when things aren't happening quick enough, things aren't happening fast enough. Things are. We already talked about how to change dialogue when self doubt comes in and fears and stuff like that. But we need to offer a little bit of grace. So if you are putting all your time, energy and effort into your manifestation, and if it's taking a lot longer than you ever imagined, give yourself grace. Keep giving yourself this little bit of love, this compassion, these pats on the back, because it takes a lot of work to bring these goals into fruition. It takes a lot to, a lot of energy, a lot of time. You can't just decide you're going to do something and wake up and then it's already there. Maybe that does happen for you. And if it does, please reach out to me. I would love to talk to you about how you have done that. We have to give ourselves grace in the way that really compassion, right? I'm such a big 1s compassion promoter and everything comes down to compassion. Even when you are working towards your goals and your dreams and your manifestations, you you have to have compassion towards yourself. Because if you don't. 1s You're going to beat yourself up along the way. And we don't need any of that. We don't need any of that when you are trying to work towards these things, right? So keep your dreams in alignment. Keep coming back to them. Keep focusing on them. Keep reading and researching everything that you can to bring this in. 1s Visualize. Yes. Visualization is a huge part of manifestation. Visualize yourself in that role. Visualize yourself as the yoga teacher, as the artist, as the mechanic, whatever it is, really see yourself there. And when you see yourself there, cultivate those feelings of warm, loving, compassion. You are already there. You can feel yourself there. You energetically. Feel yourself in your manifestation. This is where it's at. Because once you can feel yourself there, you're already there, right? You're already there. Now you just need to take the steps and grab the opportunities and enjoy the freaking journey. So. 2s With that. I want to thank you for joining and we are going to get into a lot more manifestation on this podcast. We're going to talk to some other people about their manifestation journeys. This is just a small little snippet, again, of mine, and I want to thank you for listening. Next week on the podcast, I have my very first guest and I'm so excited to bring in my very good friend, Sherry Dixon. She's going to join us on the podcast and we're going to talk to her about her psychic journey. We're going to talk to her about what it was like as a child 1s having these psychic abilities and how she dealt with it and what she's doing with it now and how she's sharing her gifts with the world and the community. And I can't wait to talk to her. She is so tuned into spirit. And I look very forward to talking to Sherry next week. So if you want to join us for that, we will see you next week. Until next time. And that's it for today's episode of Spiritual Woo podcast. We hope that you have found some inspiration as well as connection and perhaps take some of this with you and hold it near and dear to your heart today. Thank you so much for joining me. And if you've enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I loved creating it, well then, if you're open to subscribing and leaving a five star review, I'll love you forever. Just kidding. I already do. Your support means the world to me. Maybe you'd like to share this podcast with your friends or follow my personal Instagram account at Life of a Yoga Teacher. You can also find more spiritually aligned and inspired content by following at Spiritual Woo podcast on TikTok and YouTube, as well as at Spiritual Woo on Instagram. Thank you so much for all your love and support. I am deeply grateful and truly honored to be able to share with you all. I wish you an amazing day and I cannot wait to connect with you again next week. Much love to you all. Am.