Spiritual Woo and How We Got Here

Welcome to episode one of Spiritual Woo Podcast!
Might I say, I am so pumped to finally move out of my own damn way, shift away from my limiting beliefs and judgments and self doubt, grab this microphone, plug it in, and start this podcast for you all.
On today's episode I will share the journey of how the Podcast came into manifestation!
As well as share just a little snippet of my own Spiritual Awakening!
Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in today's Episode:

https://theyogadome.ca/

https://meditation.willpowerinstitute.com/

https://onedivinelight.ca/

and

https://www.greyshavenfarmsanctuary.com/

Follow us over at

https://www.instagram.com/spiritualwoo/

https://www.instagram.com/lifeofayogateacher/

https://www.instagram.com/theyogadome/

https://www.tiktok.com/@spiritualwoopodcast

Transcript

Welcome to episode one of Spiritual Woo podcast. Might I say, I am so pumped to finally move out of my own damn way, shift away from my limiting beliefs and judgments and self doubt, grab this microphone, plug it in, and start this podcast for you all. So my name is Ashley Michelle. My good friends call me Am. And first and foremost, I am a yoga and meditation teacher. And I am super blessed, super lucky to be able to own and operate and run a yoga studio on a full time basis called the Yoga Dome. This podcast is here in well, it's my hope. This podcast is here to inspire you and perhaps guide you through your own spiritual journey, your own spiritual awakening. And on this episode today, I'm going to share just a little snippet of how I got here. And if you're open to listening, then 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 inspiring, 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. 4s Okay, so what is spiritual woo? At first, I had no idea, but this kind of name or this calling was really nagging at me, if you will. Spiritual woo. Spiritual woo. And I opened up the Canva app, which I really love. I love playing around on Canva, opened up the Canva app, and I started just design this name, spiritual woo. And it manifested as spiritual woo podcast. Okay, thank you, universe. This is what I'm working on now. So if not owning a yoga studio, teaching full time, 1s my husband or future husband, I'm getting married this year. Future husband also owns a restaurant, so we are doing that as well. I'm going to add podcast into the roster. So when we think of, or I'm sure we've all heard of the term spiritual woo woo, and things that come along with that are a little bit of mysticism, supernatural, maybe unscientific. And of course, there's that doubtful and skepticism that comes with that spiritual woo woo, right? But this is spiritual woo or spiritual woo, however you want to take it or say it. And I'm sorry if that's annoying, but this is what it is, spiritual freaking woo. And this is the stuff that moves you. This is the stuff that shakes you. It's the stuff that wakes you. 1s My own spiritual awakening, I'm sure like most of you all, if you've had a spiritual awakening, can be pretty intense, for lack of a better word. 1s It's like woo. That's all I'm going to say about that. So the spiritual awakening, the spiritual journey is definitely not an easy path to take. It's definitely a fun and interesting path to step onto. And I'm sure you might already be there. Actually, I'm not sure I'll take that back. I'm thinking you might already be on the spiritual path, hence why you've landed on this podcast. Or perhaps you're kind of just starting out on your journey. And my hope and thought with this pot podcast is to really shed a little bit of light on the nitty gritty of the spiritual journey. So I speak from a really kind of honest place and perspective. 1s I have a really. 2s I've had a really challenging time 2s with the alcoholism and stepping into the spiritual path. And I'm not going to get too much into my alcoholic journey or now my sober journey. We'll save that for another day. But trying to find the balance between the alcohol life and then the spiritual life was definitely for another day that we will get into. But what I'm trying to sort of get at here is the fact that the spiritual journey is definitely not for the light or the faint of heart. I guess that's what the term is that I'm looking for. And I want to just share a little bit about my own places and spaces that I've been and where I've come from, how I got there, practices that have really helped me to kind of up level my spiritual evolution, if you will. So in the intro, I go into a little bit about bar owning and karaoke hosting and alcoholic life. And this was my life for many, many years. I thought that this was what life was about, hustling at the bar and making tons of money and then punching out. And if you're in the industry, you know, one 2314 shots later. So throughout this podcast, I will be sharing all the tools, tips, tricks, practices, all the things that have helped and guided me on my path, which I guess kind of started back in my late 20s. So I'm 38 now and. 2s I was born and raised in a very 1s Christian background, and again, this will be for another day to really kind of get into, and I have a lot of or I did have a lot of negative feelings towards the Christian church and I guess just religion as a whole. So in my twenty s, I was drowning in alcohol and the bar scene, and I was in a pretty alcohol, marijuana infused, really chaotic relationship. A really fun 1s chaotic relationship is how I'm going to say it. And it ended pretty badly. It ended with me going into an extremely dark, deep depression, and I needed to do something to get out of it. And I wasn't sure what it was, and I wasn't actively looking for change. I was really just in my own shit, and I was loving it. I was just drowning in the bottle and being depressed, and that was my life, that's what I thought my life was going to be. But I guess there was something deep down that really craved a change and. 2s I picked up and I found Eckhart Tolley's power of now. And I read this book, but when I picked up this book and started reading it, there were all these concepts and ideas about the ego and living in the pain body, which was exactly what I was doing 1s and just trying to shift that perspective. And basically that 1s living in the now, which was such, like, a crazy concept for me to wrap my head around. But when I read this, it made sense. I was like, holy shit. It was like a light had been turned on, the blinders had been taken off, all those fun analogies. And I read this book all the way through. I didn't understand half of it. I was like, what? 2s But it changed. It changed something in me. Or at least it sparked something in me. I wasn't doing yoga at this time. I wasn't meditating. 1s I wasn't doing any of that. But I did like to read, so that was a bonus. After I read this book and I was living on my own, for the first time ever, I was single, living on my own, and I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to be with but my own damn self. And it was when I was living on my own that the real shift started to happen. The real growth started to happen, the real wake the fuck up started to happen. And I remember finding this yoga DVD. So I had no Internet, no cable. I basically was just working at the bar, making tons of money, coming home and drinking and having parties. And let me tell you, I was throwing amazing parties. Always have, always will. Even now that I'm sober. Anyways, yeah. So I found this DVD, this yoga DVD, and it was tucked away in oh, my gosh, one of my boxes from my previous marriage, 1s and I put it in. I put in this yoga DVD and I got on the floor. I didn't even know what yoga was, but I knew the word. I knew the word yoga. And it always sparked something inside of me. I think the time that I saw the word yoga, I might have been, I don't know, 1617. And I think when I was 18 years old, I went to my public library and I checked out this yoga DVD. So this DVD I'm popping into my player at the time was. 1s From the library, and it was, oh, my God, almost ten years overdue. I actually think I went into collections because of this damn DVD, I swear to you. Anyways, I popped this thing in, roll out my, you know, $14 yoga mat from Walmart, and I got on this mat, and it was awesome. It was like a 35 minutes DVD. These people in Jamaica or something doing this really kind of simple, seated practice. And I put it on every day. I put it on every single day. And I followed the same sequence every single day. And I really loved the way that it made me feel. It wasn't cardio, and I'm sorry to all my cardio babes out there, but cardio is not my jam at all. Am running away from cardio. Actually, no, I'm slowly walking away from cardio. Just not my thing. So the fact that I could kind of get on this mat and feel like I was, one, getting some exercise, and two, almost felt like, wow, my thoughts are a little bit settling. I'm just focusing on these movements and this breath and. 1s It was really great. Mind you, I was still, you know, smoking a joint and rolling out my yoga mat. And that's fine if you do that, that's totally your choice. But for me, I was, you know, getting high for for different reasons. So anyways, doing this thing for, I would say, a year. I did this this practice for a year. And then I thought to myself, you know, I need to get out. I need to get out and get into a real studio and meet some teachers. And I started to become obsessed with googling and searching yoga in my area. And back then, there really wasn't a lot to be offered, and just where I live, it just wasn't the vibe. So I found two local teachers that I connected with, and I was going to every class, every class I could, every class that I could make time for. And I was just practicing, practicing, practicing, practicing, and I loved it. So I cultivated this kind of once a week, twice a week in studio practice. And I was advancing my practice and feeling amazing. After doing yoga consistently for about a year, year and a half, I'm walking down the street and I stumble across this Buddhist meditation center. And I kid you not, it is legit one block away from where I was living. Walk by this place every damn day on my way to work, to the bar, and I never noticed it. And there was a banner hanging out front that said, free meditation course. And at this point in my journey, I was really craving change. I was doing yoga for a little while, and things were slowly starting to root in, if you will, and I was starting to really water this seed. And meditation was another word that kind of kept popping up as like, OOH. Meditation. Meditation. And of course, yoga and meditation do go hand in hand. You if you were practicing, you do know this, and if you're not practicing, they do. So I see this meditation course and I say, I'm going to sign up. I'm going to sign up. It's totally free. It's Monday to Friday. 1s Noon to two. This works perfect for me because I'm working the late shift. I'm working four or 05:00. Starts till 02:00 in the morning. Noon at this time is quite early for me. Okay. My my late 20s, this is early. Okay, anyways, I sign up for this course. People can't believe I sign up for this course and I enter. And you need to you can take the course freely. You pay for the books really cheaply. And if you complete the course, write the exam and you don't miss X amount of days, you have the opportunity to graduate in Thailand with all the other Thai people that are taking this course at the same time as you. So this was like my goal. This was me. Like, I am going to Thailand. I always knew I wanted to travel. I had this bug. And then, yay, okay, I'll take this meditation course, but I am going to freaking Thailand. That's what's happening. So I enroll in this course and it is a half hour of seated meditation and a half hour of walking meditation. And then there's a little bit of theory in there. And, yeah, this is where things really started to shift and change for me. And let me tell you, when you are drinking and you are trying to sit in meditation for long amounts of time, even 1015 minutes, 1s and you're hungover, yeah, these things, they don't mix well. It is almost like a form of torture. So I will say, don't mix meditation and alcohol or being hungover from alcohol. This is just a recipe for complete suffering and disaster, really. And this is what I was doing. I was going to this course every single day for six months, hungover as shit and sitting with my own thoughts, my own feelings. And let me tell you what. Oh, my gosh. Let me say. 1s This was one of the most treacherous experiences of my life. But I had an end goal in mind. I had Thailand in mind, and then I started, you know, as the months went on and the theory went on and the learning, I was fascinated. I was fascinated that the humans had this monkey mind and couldn't turn it off. And there might actually be a way that you can turn this off with a practice and was a little bit rooted in Buddhism, and it was just fascinating. It was fascinating, the teachers talking about their experiences that we were actually working with in house monks from Thailand right on site. And it was just a vibe. There was also a I don't want to say this wrong, but there was a 15,000 ton piece of jade in the center. And this is what we would walk around as. We were meditating. And I know nothing or I didn't know anything about crystals and energy and vibes and all that back then, but when I look back, there was definitely this crazy energy going through this meditation center. Anyways. 1s Here we are. I graduate the course, I go to Thailand. We can talk about that another time. And in Thailand, I decide, okay, I'm gonna take a 30 day sobriety, and I'm gonna really immerse myself into this journey. And that's what I did. I went onto the course, graduated in Thailand, and then I came home. When I came home, I knew that some thing had changed. I couldn't quite pinpoint it. I couldn't figure it out. But I knew that I needed to dive deeper into my yoga practice, and that I did. I started researching yoga teacher trainings, and I have to become a yoga teacher. And again, like I said, there really wasn't too many yoga teachers around 1s my town at that time. And it wasn't like I'm doing this for a business or that kind of thing. It was just like, I need to dive deeper. I need to get into this. And it took me a good oh, my gosh, two years, three years, maybe we'll say two and a half, two and a half years to find the right yoga teacher training. And of course, it's expensive, or back then, it was really expensive. I know you can take some pretty reasonably priced trainings online now, but it was really expensive, and I wanted to make sure that the training was right for the money I was spending. And I was looking at all those 30 day Costa Rica things and that sort of vibe, but it was literally at 05:00 in the morning, nursing a hangover that I was online. And I ended up finding this home based yoga studio called Shine On Yoga, and with this woman, Diane, aka Manjeet, shout out to Manjeet. And I filled out the forms at 05:00 in the morning that night, submitted them over, and I met her the next week or something like that. And I enrolled in one of first of many yoga teacher trainings. And 2s this training was I know that people say yoga teacher trainings is life changing. It was. I can't even say it any other way. It totally was. And I'm going to say to you, I really suggest, when you are shopping, I'm Sidebarring here. When you are shopping and looking for a yoga teacher training, you really need to take the time, the energy and effort to find a teacher that you align with. And. 2s It's really important that you go and find somebody that you resonate with and you connect to because it makes the experience all the difference. And also I'll say to that finding like a smaller teacher training, 1s maybe under ten people, ten people or less is a dream because you get a little bit more hands on help and guidance. But anyways, that's that. So that was little bit of my journey. 1s Yoga, meditation, and here we are with all those sorts of things. Now, what I'm going to say is my story is really freaking long. Just like I'm sure everybody else is. I mean, we've all been through our shit, right? But the idea is I'm just sharing this with you to kind of like show you where I've come from and where I'm at now. So after about two years of immersing myself in these trainings, when I graduated my YTT, I hit the ground running and I mean, I was ready to teach yoga. I had to share how life changing this practice was and I honestly didn't even know it was as transformative as it actually is. But I was so excited. I was so excited and I became kind of like a yoga pusher. You know, that meme where the little cartoon character is looking out the window or knocking on someone's window saying, are you going to yoga? If you haven't seen it, it's so cute. But that's how I was. Are you going to yoga? Are you coming to yoga? I didn't even care about making money and things like that and I just wanted people to experience what I was experiencing. I was so excited to share with them. And I kind of had a knack for bringing people or drawing people towards me. I was hosting karaoke and fronting lead vocals in bands for many, many years. And I was always, come join me. Let's get wasted and sing karaoke and belt out Taylor Swift all night long. And people would come. They would come and they would party and we'd have an amazing time. So I was thinking with this yoga thing, they were going to do the same thing. It was a little bit harder. But nonetheless, I had this little following starting to come out and come to classes every single week. Some people were coming to two classes. I had to start implementing class passes, all these things. So it was amazing. It was so exciting when you first get out the door and start teaching yoga. So we'll fast forward a little bit into the pandemic. Here we go. Right, so like most of you that had to move your job online or take classes online, I was right there with you. Of course, I was very resistant, kicking and screaming. I have country WiFi. I just didn't want to do this. There was no way. Um, I wanted to be in person with people. We all did, right? But you know what? I got. On my laptop. I bought all the equipment and things that we needed to do, and we started gathering. We started gathering on Zoom, and we did classes by donation based and attached it to one of my favorite animal sanctuaries. Shout out to Gray's Haven Farm Sanctuary. Love them all over there. And we started gathering and coming and doing yoga and yoga with purpose, right? People were sending in money, and we were sending money to the animal sanctuary because they were hurting as well. And it was beautiful. It was beautiful. We were doing silly things. We were doing yoga and Bed series, yoga and kitchen series, all these things. And what happened was, where we're from, Ontario, Canada, the government had put in restrictions. I'm sure it was sort of similar where you might be actually, I don't know, because I don't know where you are in the world listening. But the government put in these restrictions, and come summer 2020, they started to allow us together in groups of five people. So I invited five yoga students out. I was like, Do I count as 05:00 a.m. I the 6th, or what is what's happening? We are all sneaky yoga on the down low. And then they said, you can gather in groups of ten. So I started inviting all these people out to my yard, out to my home, which was a little scary because my fiancee and I own a restaurant and a bar, very busy. We bought a place in the country to sort of treat from that when we don't have to be there. But of course, this was COVID, and we were living and not working. Our restaurant was closed down, open and closed, open and closed. It was crazy. But yeah, we were inviting all these yogis out to the yard to practice yoga. And it was crazy because I didn't even know that there was this community of beautiful people that were willing to practice. And at that time, we all needed these practices, and I believe we need them all day, every day. But that's besides the point. And 2s I think it was come winter 2020, we started talking about, where are we going to put these people in the winter? Rather, where are we going to put all these people when winter comes? Southern Ontario. Winter is not kind to outdoor yoga. So my fiance had said, why don't we look into erecting or building a yurt? And I said, okay, that's cool. And we were looking at yurts, and it just wasn't aligning. And he had suggested a geodesic dome. And I said, what is a dome? What's a geodesic dome? And I saw this thing and it was. 1s Love at first sight. That's what I can say about that. It was love at first sight. And December 2020, I believe it was Christmas weekend, my stepson was with his mom, and we struck ground on the Yoga Dome project. That's what we were calling it, what we were dubbing it. And you can go pop on over to Instagram at the Yoga Dome if you want to see a little bit more about that at. And I'm not going to go too much more into detail because we can definitely talk about that at a later time. But the Yoga Dome came to life, and it took a year to build. And when we opened our doors, it exploded. People were coming from everywhere. They were coming from out of town, three, 4 hours away, just to practice in the Yoga Dome. And it exploded. And it was huge. And it was a true form of manifestation. And it wasn't the first time that I had dug into manifestation previously. My biggest goal was to host yoga retreats in Costa Rica, which I did. I manifested. I did it in 2020. We got in and out just before they closed the world down. And that's what I thought my path was. I was going to be hosting yoga retreats all over the world. And then through COVID, it had changed. The direction had changed. So I'm sitting in my Yoga Dome in a tangible manifestation, which I tell people all the time. I'm like, you guys are literally sitting in my manifestation. So another topic for another time manifesting is huge in my life. This podcast is the same thing. It's like, okay, I guess I'm doing a podcast now. It feels natural. It feels organic. It feels like. 3s Every fiber of my being is invested in learning and researching and trying to bring you the best quality and content and inspiration. And that's kind of where I'm at right now, is manifesting this podcast for you all. I listen to a lot of these other podcasters and they talk about sixfigure businesses. I manifested a sixfigure business. Well, you know what am on MOT damn way. I'm not there quite yet, but it's all coming to me. So yeah, let's talk about manifestation. Just one of the things we're going to talk about on this podcast. We're going to talk about so many things. I have so many friends and colleagues and spiritually aligned people that are going to come right into the yoga dome space and we're going to chat about many things, 2s of course, manifestations, one of them, and chakras and energy and yoga, death and dying. Oh, I love that topic. We're going to be talking about so many things and if you want to hear something specific, reach out to me via my personal instagram which is going to play in the outro. Reach out to me and send me a DM if there's something that you want to hear. If there's a question you have for me personally, yeah, hit me up over there. So for now, I'm going to close off after sharing just a little snippet of my journey. Oh my gosh, it's so much but I mean it's all we all have so much to share and I am very grateful that you have opened your ears and your heart to listening. Heart opening is where it's at for me. And one of the biggest things that I really can't wait to talk about is the compassion practice. When you step onto this spiritual path, if you do not implement compassion practices, it's going to be that much more difficult. So that is definitely something I cannot wait to get into with you as well. So my hope is to turn this into a weekly podcast. And once again, I thank you for joining and until next time, friends. 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.